Hierarchy (Book Four of the Torrent Skies Saga)

Chapter Twenty-Two: Barbarism, Pt 2

The next afternoon, Katerin strolled along Rastridge's streets, gripping the book of Ralore with firm determination. This was a test of her own design. She wanted to find the limit of the book's capabilities. Every soul she passed looked different, all entwined with a thousand emotions, legacies, and histories. Some contained tragedy, others joy. Some harnessed anger, others immense pain and sadness. She had only made it partway toward her original destination, when she could no longer discern one person from the energy they radiated, or another. Despite how different each aura was, they had all bled together into one blurry image of energy and magic that was sickening and confusing to behold. The morning was busy and so she slipped down an alley to calm her racing heart.

There was too much. And seeing it almost felt wrong. As if she were prying too far into the people she saw and knew too much. But after she closed her eyes and opened them again, the vision had not faded. She saw all the people who crossed before the alley, and their energies only left her gasping. She put the book in her pocket, but it did nothing to dissuade the book's power over her. Everything produced magic and life, and she could not escape it. There was so much pain in the people who passed, she felt it herself. The book hummed in her pocket, as if it was a thing alive.

She needed to get away.

Vaguely, she remembered that Sahn-Raidar's keep was close to another exit of the city. She dashed from the alley, and made as much haste as she could, across the slick streets, towards it. She needed somewhere away from them. By the time she reached the gates, she could not hear the guards' greetings, and rushed through with only one purpose. But there were still so many people present. Everywhere she looked, emotion became overwhelming. There were too many colors. Too many answers for things she had no reason to ask. Her thoughts were so befuddled, that more than once she forgot to breathe.

Squinting, she rushed passed the hillside farmsteads, covered in white. She whisked down the road, passed the soldiers and the people who lived and worked on the outskirts of the city. She did not know how long it was that she ran, but eventually, her lungs and heart demanded she stop. The strain of it was ever growing and was too immense.

Looking around, she was in a small copse of trees. At least the patterns of the tree's energy were similar, pale colors in intricate twisting patterns that gave a sense of immense age.

She sank to her knees in the snow and tossed the book down. Beneath the trees the snow was sparse, though the cold was bitter. She fought for many moments to return to her normal sense of vision. But nothing happened.

"Please," she said aloud. "It's too much."

But the book did not respond, and now it had melted the surrounding snow.

Huffing, Katerin gripped the book, her nails digging furrows into the leather of it. "Enough!" she commanded.

You don't want to know more? Lodyne's whisper caused her to jump, as it sounded like it had come from over her shoulder.

I need it for a purpose, but not this, Katerin panted. Still, her vision had not changed. If anger would not command it, then maybe peace would. She shut her eyes and began trying to clear her mind. Over and over again, Lodyne made her presence clear, making it a challenge to clear her thoughts.

No matter what Katerin did, she could not find a semblance of calm. It was always just out of reach, and now the colors the book showed her, pulsed behind her eyelids.

She could see grass beneath it, bent, and long dead, slumbering for the winter. In her frustration, she lashed a hand out, slamming the book into the earth.

The book ceased humming. And with a chill not created by the cold, Katerin watched as the amber stalks of grass beneath the book shriveled, turned gray, and then dissolved, leaving behind a stained patch of dry, unhealthy looking earth.