Born Immortal

Born Immortal Chapter 25

The next few weeks passed in much the same routine with no real progress on teaching Astyr to perform like an Alfar or on teaching Glin to treat people with respect. The only exception to the latter was Jenny of all people. She had kept up her campaign to win him over and he had begun to be friendly with her although it wasn't clear whether that was because he genuinely liked her or because she had simply worn him down. Whichever it was, he greeted her pleasantly whenever he saw her and was often found sitting with her at lunch and in class. They weren't exactly a couple but that was pretty much how everyone else viewed the situation.

Astyr on the other hand was feeling frustrated with her inability to do what Laure was asking of her. She was standing out on the balcony enjoying what little sunlight there was on the first day of the Christmas holidays thinking about her failure. What made it even worse was that she knew she could do it because she already had once on the night that her grandmother had tried to kill her. If it wasn't for that Astyr was sure that Laure would have given up by now.

Astyr let her mind wander back to the night of Gunnar's birthday when the attack had happened. She had felt the pulse of power coming from Gunnar as his body started the regeneration process and while everyone else had been absorbed with Gunnar she had felt another pulse coming from the house that she had mistaken for an echo. When Grima fell to the ground in pain, Astyr looked back to the house to see the queen and her royal guard coming through the walls of the house out onto the patio.

Astyr closed her eyes in concentration now to think carefully about everything that had happened after that.

She clearly saw in her perfect memory how Queen Elianna had her hand raised towards Grima. As soon as Astyr realized that that was the reason for Grima's pain she let her instincts take over. She had stepped in front of Grima with the sole thought of protecting her. Astyr put her hands out in front of her in a gesture of defense and she could feel the power trying to get through. Astyr thought very hard about the next moments when her shield of sorts had failed and the power had started to overtake her starting with her hands. There had been a tingly, numb feeling that crept up her arms and she could see clearly now in hindsight that what she had felt had been the energy that her grandmother was using in the attack seeping into her through her hands.

Astyr kept her eyes closed and put her hands out in front of her again reaching towards the weak rays of sunlight streaming onto the balcony. She cleared her mind of everything but the feeling she had felt that night and she began to feel a small tingle again in her fingers. She forced herself to stay focused on that feeling and to not let her mind think about the sunlight in terms of energy or heat; to feel only that tingling sensation and to let it move further up her hands.

It was getting easier for her now and the feeling was almost to her shoulders when she started to hear someone saying her name. It sounded like they were very far away so she just ignored it and continued her experiment. She was feeling slightly euphoric now because she knew that she was doing what had seemed so impossible these past few weeks and she opened her eyes because she knew with certainty that she would have no problem keeping it up now.

The sight that met her eyes nearly broke that resolve, however. Her arms were crawling with blue sparks and she could feel her hair floating around her and see the ends of the long strands waving gently in front of her face.

Glin for some reason was running along the roof of the loggia as if he had climbed out his window to get across to her balcony quickly. He was shouting her name but it still sounded far away and dreamy to Astyr. She turned his way to look at him just as he was about to jump over the wrought iron railing of the balcony, but all of a sudden he was slammed back onto the shingles behind him.

There was shouting from the patio below and Astyr looked down to see Tyr and Grima. Astyr's father had his arm out towards Glin and he appeared to be holding the Alfar prince with some force. Grima meanwhile took a running leap up to the other end of the balcony. She sailed over the railing gracefully and landed lightly on her feet. Grima said something to Astyr about not worrying but Astyr couldn't make it out clearly. She tried to ask her to repeat it but Grima had already gone inside through the doors to the game room, calling out for Laure.