17-year-old Avera Ibori is a girl who has always longed for a life of adventure, but when her father mysteriously vanishes, she gets more of it than she can stand. Thrown into a hidden world of magic, intrigue, corruption, and kings, Avera must choo...
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''Oh, Timothy...'
She strolled thoughtfully along, several steps behind them, pondering his state and hers.
'Funny how our lives change. Funny how time marches onwards. Funny how...' she looked over to Eliezer and smiled, 'life isn't always as simple as we might anticipate, but... there is this longing in our hearts, a longing for more: more of your likeness, more of your purpose, and the revealing of that purpose brings us closer; closer to the people we were meant to be, closer to that for which we were made... closer to you. That's why, he has to understand, it's more than just discipline in believing; it's what we hold to in our hearts and that which we will never let go.'
She put her thoughts aside, turning her attention to the conversation going on ahead of her as they traveled down the broad dirt road to the Council Building.
"Still," Jordan was saying, "you didn't tell me he was your brother-in-law."
"That's because he isn't," Eliezer said, embarrassed.
Dorcus laughed at them quietly. 'Poor Eliezer. I know how Jordan likes to tease him, but I'm not sure how much of it he can withstand.'
"Well, he thinks he is. That's why he punched you," Jordan confidently conjectured.
"Oh, did he now?" Eliezer said, unconvinced.
"Yes!" Jordan said, laughing. "Don't you get it? Timothy Garner has such concern for his own reputation that he could never stomach a real man of character. He can't believe that anyone could possibly be any more sincere than he is, or... isn't. You see, Eliezer, the trouble is that he knows you well enough to know that youare, and his conscience won't have it... that or his ego. That's why he's always trying so hard to upset you; he has set out to prove that you're just as much of a sham as he is. Any success of yours, he views as a personal failure, a robbery of his eminence."
"Well," Eliezer said, considering, "when you frame it that way, I suppose..."
Dorcus smiled, impressed by Jordan's concise assessment of Timothy and his motives.
'That does sound an awful lot like my brother.'
She walked up between them, purposely bumping into Eliezer gently as she moved in beside the two men, interrupting their ongoing discussion.
Eliezer grinned, looking her way with laughing amusement. "Miss Garner," he said, considering her with playful mirth, "it's lovely bumping into you, but awfully unexpected."
"Hm... do you really think so?" she asked, toying with him.
Eliezer was going to say something, his eyes intently locked on hers, but she was quickly shoved into him with a firm push from Jordan, and he never had the chance to speak a word. Instead, she fell suddenly on top of him, the two being thrown off balance and toppling to the ground in an inglorious heap of laughter.
