Ode to the Queen (20 page)

Rubbing my palms on my knees as if the friction would help with my power. I focused on Aidan and tried to recall how the power had felt as it surged through me from him. It had to be there even without his boost, I just had to channel it.

My fingers curled into my knees as I fell into concentration, my forehead screwing up in wrinkles as I frowned and gnawed down on my lip.

Aidan suddenly laughed and shook his head at me, “I can’t focus on the ball when you look like that.”

Surprise washed over my features as I blinked at him, “what?”

“You look so concentrated, or constipated, I can’t tell the difference really.” He chuckled to my horror.

“I’m not constipated.” I said indignantly as I leaned away from him, pressing my palms to the cool mat. “Fine, if you don’t need my help, do it yourself.”

Aidan just smirked knowingly at me before nodding and going back to thinking about moving the ball. I watched him with curiosity, wondering if he would be able to do it without my help when I suddenly felt that warmth creeping through me once again. But this time it wasn’t coming from me, but going.

I could feel it in my veins, moving outwards and flooding toward him. I wasn’t even trying all that hard, I was merely thinking about how he probably would need my help.

Turned out I was much faster at exerting power to someone else than I was gathering it. In no time, it seemed, Aidan had managed to roll the ball at me.

“Good. Good.” Atlas clapped slightly like we were schoolchildren learning to write our names, before grabbing the ball and putting it away.

“Okay, so you both know what you’re looking for? What you need to tune into?”

“Yeah, the coolness.”

“No, it’s warm.” I looked up at Aidan.

“Nah, it was definitely cold. I felt myself get chilled and goose bumps rose up on my skin.”

I looked at Atlas for an answer but as usual he was barely helpful, “it’s different for everyone.”

I wondered though why mine would be warm but Aidan’s was cold. Did he think I was a cold individual? Was the reflection of power, a reflection of personality? My mind swum with thoughts even after Aidan wrapped his arms around my shoulder and kissed the top of his head.

“C’mon Blondie, ye old sky-holder has something else for us to do.” Atlas had already crossed the room and opened another door for us, leading out into a beautiful garden laden with blooming flowers and a fountain in the middle of the reserve. The beauty of it awed me as I moved through the door tentatively to allow my eyes the chance to devour the sight before it.

“So, being the King and Queen of the Heavens there are certain powers underlying your abilities that aren’t exactly prescribed as clearly as say ‘God of War’ or ‘Goddess of Wisdom.’ Aidan, you’re Zeus so you’re the God of Thunder but what the Greeks meant by thunder when they used that term was that you control the weather. It’s based on your emotions and if you’re unhappy then so is the sky.”

“I’ve noticed that.” I pointed out, glancing at Aidan as I recalled our conversation in my bedroom and how once he’d started drinking the skies had changed so quickly.

“And Savannah, as Hera the Goddess of marriage and childbirth, there is the underlying tone of creation, life, and birth in general. Where Aidan controls the skies, you control the earth.”

I nodded my head, smiling at the idea. It made sense of course, all those songs about spring and birth, greenery and new life. Birth wasn’t just about humans.

“So, now that you know how to channel and draw from each other the power you need to do magic, I want you to do the same but focusing this time on something personal to you. Like a plant would be for you, Savannah and the sky for you, Aidan. Why don’t you go first?”

Atlas nodded at Aidan as he made his way in behind me, his eyes taking in the sight of the garden. It was like Eden, or as I would have imagined Eden from the scripture I’d read as a child.

There was no pollution or human corruption so often fraught in places like this back home. It was utterly pure.

As Aidan began to focus more I could feel him drawing the warmth from me, slowly at first but then more quickly as he became more assured of what he was doing. The sky above us rumbled and from nowhere clouds began to roll in and darken the perfect world around me.

“Good, good. Open your eyes and look up to the skies… Now focus on the rain, draw it in and let it release.” As if on command the skies opened up and from them the tears of the heavens poured out. A shriek, half of delight and half of horror for the state of my hair after this, escaped my lips as I rushed to cover my hair. The more Aidan concentrated the harder it fell.

“Okay stop.” Atlas commanded, and just like that the skies cleared and returned to their beautiful blueness. Awe struck me as I turned to Aidan, praise reflected in my eyes. He was grinning in a way I’d never seen him do before and I returned the expression as I moved over to him, hugging him.

“Well done, what was it like?” I leaned away to see his face and he just shook his head.

“Hard.” He admitted for a moment, “I had to channel my anger but control it before it controlled me. It was easier to release it on command then it was to just do it.” I nodded, still smiling as I quickly pecked him and then turned to Atlas expectantly.

I didn’t really know what to expect for my turn but he seemed ready to go.

“Life, like childbirth, comes from creation. So being that you’re the Goddess of childbirth you can also command life to come and go.”

“Like a grim reaper or something?”

“Similar, you can command things into being and take away that life force but you don’t kill them. Death is not within your power; the seed of life remains planted. If you were to drain someone of their life force you would inevitably force them into a state of awareness but without any sort of energy left to give to life.”

“So they would feel death physically but not be mentally dead?” Aidan tried clarifying for me.

“Yes, exactly. They wouldn’t be able to do anything but they would be stuck in their own form without any power of their own to live.”

My expression shifted to one of horror, “that’s awful” I exclaimed, eyes still wide.

“It is, which is why you must always be in control of yourself and never reach a point where you could use such power on someone else.”

I thought back to Charlotte and how angry I had been with her at the first training session. Had that been angry enough to hurt her in that way? I couldn’t imagine myself damning someone to an eternal vegetative state but I had been pretty angry.

“You’re lucky that hasn’t happened yet without your awareness of what you’re doing.” Atlas seemed to read my mind and I nodded quickly in agreement.

“Show me how to control it.” I said firmly, resolution threading my voice. Atlas nodded briefly and his eyes shifted to a flowerbed in front of me. Unlike the others in the garden, this one was purposely empty but I could feel the warmth from before emulating from it. There was life within its soil waiting to be released.

“I want you to focus on that energy and draw it out of the ground. Use your power to push into it and encourage it into life.”

Licking my lips I nodded and stared hard at the bed with every intention of growing whatever lived beneath the surface.

The warmth I was growing familiar with resonated through me and flowed toward the soil attracting the dormant bulb but nothing happened. I could feel my features shifting into a frown as I tried harder, pushing with all my mental strength toward the flower but my frustration only grew.

“Savvy, don’t enforce your will on the bulb like you’re a dictator. Embrace it.” Aidan’s voice whispered from behind me. “Focus more on its energy and not your own, use that energy to bind yourself to it.”

I bit my lip in concentration as I focused on the bulb so desperately. The warmth radiating from the soil grew stronger as I took what Aidan said into account and did as I was told. Sure enough the warmth got hotter and that’s when I could feel it. My own energies were naturally transferring between us without me trying at all. I just had to will myself to do it.

Before our eyes the flower blossomed. It was bright red and in full bloom, springing from it’s shelter.

I grinned proudly, turning away to look at the two men for appraisal. Atlas only nodded, pleased I’d picked up on it and no doubt happy that Aidan had been able to help me when it had seemed like I was ready to give up.

“Well done babe.” Aidan said, looping one arm around my shoulders and giving me a tight squeeze.

“Alright Savannah, now I want you to do the opposite. Take the life away.” I frowned once more, turning again to face Atlas.

“But…”

“You need to know what it feels like so you know if you ever do it accidentally. It’s an addictive feeling but focus on how you felt knowing you can command life and not concentrate on the absolute power you feel over life when you take it away.”

Swallowing slowly I turned back to the flower and took a deep breath, holding it in my lungs before letting it out. This time I sought the energies of the flower. Instead of trying to push my own power onto it I did what I had done with Aidan and withdrew it, feeding my own power. The warmth within me turned cold instantly and I was shocked, physically reacting to it.

But as cold as it was, despite feeling like I’d been tossed into a bathtub of ice cubes, there was something there, tingling in my navel. It was a power unlike anything else I had sensed. It was luring me into this dark place that felt dangerous but powerful.

I felt unstoppable, indestructible, supernatural… I finally felt like the Goddess I was.

This had to be what Atlas had been referring to.

As I embraced these feelings the flower wilted before my eye. But just as Atlas had explained I didn’t revert the life that I had created, the flower didn’t return to its bulbous state. All I did was cause the flower to wilt; it’s petals hanging pathetically with the last grip of life to the stigma.

Something about this perturbed me and I stood there, willing the petals to give up and release themselves but they refused. They hung there as a reminder of the beauty I had destroyed.

The longed I stared at it the angrier I felt myself growing and centuries seem to pass by before someone reached out and drew me back into reality.

“Savannah… Savannah… Savannah…” They were repeating my name over and over again, growing increasingly more anxious with each syllable.

“I was worried this would happen.”

“Savannah…”

Blinking the haze from my eyes, I looked around thoroughly disoriented until it all came back to me and I quickly glanced at the flower before looking at Aidan for a dose of truth.

“What happened?” I asked cautiously, something in my gut telling me I might not like the answer.

“That kind of power is consuming, it’s hard to pull yourself away from it once you embrace it as exhilarating. It can take you into dark places, and that’s the trouble with having a powerful Goddess like Hera. Or a God like Zeus…” His eyes lingered on Aidan for a moment, smiling sadly.

I turned to look up at Aidan, “you know what this feels like?”

He nodded solemnly, “every time I used my powers I have to struggle to not be consumed by it.” So that was the coldness, it was a dark power; warmth was the good one.

“Wait,” I said suddenly, looking at Atlas. “Does that mean then that when Aidan and I exchange power he’s doing that drawing thing from me?”

Atlas looked conflicted, like he didn’t know if he ought to answer, but Aidan was intrigued by this question too. With us both staring at him he was hard-pressed to answer.

“Yes, but not in the way you’re thinking. He’s not stealing your life from you, shortening it or making you older. He’s also not killing you in any sense… But he is, literally, stealing your power. That’s why he must monitor himself in order to be sure he doesn’t take it all. Aidan, Zeus, has the ability to withdraw all of your power should he choose to, and it would, in effect, strengthen him to a level which other Gods could only achieve by stealing the powers of other Gods.”

“So that’s why there was always drastic measures enforced if someone attempting to steal the power of a God?”

“Generally, yes. Like Prometheus took the fire from the Gods and gave it to man…”

“So Zeus punished him by having his liver pecked out every day and it would grow back during the night.” I said, completing his sentence.

Atlas nodded, “yes exactly. It’s a very dangerous thing to meddle with power. The Gods who knew that were very protective of their own and volatile toward those who did try to steal.”

Processing all this I turned back to Aidan, staring at him for a long time before declaring, “you must be very strong. Emotionally I mean.” He shrugged, not saying anything so I turned back to Atlas.

“So, what do I do then to resist that draw? How can I stop myself from doing… that-” I pointed to the flower, “to another God? Or to a human?”

“We’ll work on that Savannah. But not today. I think we’ve done enough.” He spoke carefully, like a parent caring for an eager child. “You’re not just susceptible to Aidan draining you, or someone else, but your own exertion of your powers. They need to be recharged; you can’t just keep using and not pay a price. Besides, we’ve been here for almost 6 hours. I think you should go sleep, it’s probably been a long day.” He smirked knowingly, but the insinuation was lost on me, startled by the fact it had been almost 6 hours.

Had time really gone by that fast? It had only felt like we’d just gotten there but as though on cue, I felt exhausted.

“When’s the next training session then?”

“I’ll let you know, but for now – practice what we’ve learned.”

I nodded, turning back to Aidan who seemed lost in his own thoughts.

“Ready then?”

“Hm, yeah…” He was unconvincing and before long corrected himself, “actually you go ahead. I’ll meet you after, I just have a few questions for Atlas.”

“You sure? I can wait.”

Aidan shook his head, “no, he’s right. You look really tired. That last bit took a lot out of you. Go get in bed, I’ll meet you there.” He smirked at me and I felt myself blush slightly before nodding.