Apollo's Apprentice
POV: Alexandra
I leaned in closer as if leaning in would help me to hear better. I had already been close enough to him. Apollo took a seat on the ground and pointed to it,”You need to be in a sitting position and touching the earth. Obviously, we cannot do that here since there are some wooden planks on the floor. We will pick up the actual practice when you can leave the room.” He looked at Whisperia, “Since you can leave the room, I will show you exactly what to do. After showing her the first time, I will rely on you to keep her correct since I cannot be down with her daily to make sure it is done properly.” Whisperia nodded, “Yes, my lord.” He took the bottle of valerian pills and shook them, “Take one of these before you start the practice. These help calm the mind which is very important. He crossed his legs, closed his eyes, and placed his hands on his knees, “You don’t need to say anything out loud but you will need to visualize your idea of serenity. For some, it is as simple as eating your favorite dish. Whatever it is that brings you peace.” He opened one eye and looked up at me, “You want to sit down and practice?” I sat down and mimicked what he and Whisperia were doing and muttered, “Sorry. I thought you were just teaching her.” He opened both eyes and sighed at me, “I need you to take this more seriously, this is important that you carry this out properly or it will be very painful for the General there. You wouldn’t want to be the very reason that pain is inflicted on him.” I heard Ronan behind me say, “I know what I’m getting into. That being said, he is right, Your Grace, you need to put your all into this task if it is yours to do by order of His Majesty.” I didn’t look back but I simply nodded, “I had a momentary lapse in judgment but I will take this task seriously as I should. Who knows if this remedy will help with this disease so I must focus.”
I closed my eyes and breathed in but I opened my eyes again. Before I fully focused on my task, I asked, “How do we know if what we are doing is working? I know this part is important so how will we know when we are at our most effective mentality?” He smiled at me, “Well, you will definitely know. You will feel a sort of warmth flow through your veins. Like the sun is flowing through you.” He reached across to me and held out his hand, “Here I will show you what it should feel like.” I placed my hand in his and he smiled, “You have lovely hands, my child.” Aphrodite cleared her throat, “Get on with it Apollo, we only have so much more time down here. We cannot stay longer than permissible.” He looked up at her and sighed, “I know.” He looked back at me, “So it should feel like this…” His hand glowed yellow and I felt a warmth flow through my body. It was like sitting on a beach and a light summer breeze danced across my skin. I imagined it was the contrast of the cool autumn weather outside to the warm sun-like glow flowing through me. I inhaled deeply feeling really relaxed, “That feels so nice. I feel like I’ve had a day at a spa.” Apollo chuckled, “That is the feeling you will get when you focus on your power. Sadly, I cannot show you more today. I have to go, there’s a meeting of the angels where Almighty will discuss Loki. He only does this when he believes there will be a war.” I widened my eyes, “Do you really think it will come to that?” He sighed, “Yes, Loki has struck a deal with Satan and is gathering demons. We have a feeling he will strike soon. He still wants the power within you.” He stood up and offered to pull me to my feet as well. I grunted as he pulled me up and while he was offering to pull Whisperia I asked, “Is there any idea what power exactly he wants within me? I know I was told that I had the power to give and take powers from Gods but what is that ability?” Aphrodite shrugged, “We aren’t entirely sure how that works. We aren’t even sure how he even thought you had this ability.” Apollo sighed, “We do know that no one has seen Lytir in a while, perhaps he is on Loki’s side and told him about it. If I was to go against the most powerful of the powerful, one of the divination deities would do. Lytir is one of those types who has not answered to father’s summons consistently. I doubt he will be there today as well.” Aphrodite nodded, “That is very possible. Well, we need to go now. Hang in there, my child.” She cupped my face in her hand and kissed my forehead. The two Gods disappeared together and the two orbs floated up out of the tent.
Mordred poked his head in the tent, “Oh good, you all are here. I noticed there were two powerful presences in this room just now. I guess I missed the Gods?” I nodded at him, “Yes, you did just miss them.” He smiled with relief and stepped into the room with Dorothea following behind him. He smiled at Whisperia and Vanessa, “I will need you both to help out here. You likely know what you need to do but if you want my direction, let me know.” Vanessa shook her head, “I don’t think I need direction. I made a few assumptions based on what we know about the situation.” He nodded, “I am sending two of the House of Dark servants through here to set up the room for those of you who need to be quarantined. My initial thought was just to have the powerful witches doing the small tasks as well but I am seeing now that we cannot handle that if this thing should get larger. I have activated my household staff.” Dorothea rolled her eyes, “Oh you mean the staff you haven’t used since you were banished?” He clenched his jaw, “You know for a FACT, Dorothea, that I COULDN’T use my staff in my time away.” She crossed her arms across her chest, “Mmhm. And what about since you’ve been back.” He shrugged, “I was traveling so I didn’t think it was necessary. I am going to bring my family back together soon so maybe I will use them soon for the House of Dark. I would like to think my niece can come to visit when the house opens back up.” I nodded, “Sure but where the hell is the House of Dark?” He smiled, “The Floating Islands of Lasparia.” I furrowed my brow, “I have seen every map of Vellum and I have never heard of The Floating Islands of Lasparia.” Lucien cleared his throat, “If I may intercede?” Mordred nodded at him, “Sure. Go ahead.” Lucien rose from his seat and walked over then smiled at me, “The Floating Islands of Lasparia is actually off the coast of Mesha. Of course, it won’t be on the map because we don’t map the ocean. The only way to get there is via a portal and only royal witches can open a portal to the Islands so a witch like Vanessa wouldn’t likely be able to open the portal.” I looked up at Mordred and he winked at me then mouthed, “Later.”
Whisperia stepped forward and tugged on my shirt and I leaned into her so she could whisper. It had dawned on me that perhaps she was named that way because her parents knew just how introverted and shy she would be. She said to me, “What does he mean later?” I looked over at Vanessa and said quietly, “Do you know about her?” She nodded, “Yes, I have always known. It is mostly why I chose to live in Blackwood instead of following my brother to Terre.” I leaned in further and whispered at her, “I convinced him to tell her.” She looked at me with wide eyes, “You are a miracle worker, niece.” I giggled and said a little louder, “Nah, he just likes me.” She nodded, “Can you tell him I am going to do a walk around and seal up a few things?” I nodded, “Sure. Go ahead.” I looked at Mordred, “Whisperia is going to do a walk around the camp doing some sealing magic as needed.” He watched her leave the room, “She’s still very shy around so many. I’m glad she had you here to relay that for her or she would have just left and I would have been left to figure out where she went off to.” Dorothea laughed, “Nope, you’re lucky she has Alexandra.” Mordred rolled his eyes and Vanessa spoke, “She didn’t have a problem speaking out loud when Apollo was here. Wonder why that is.” Dorothea smirked, “Oh that’s easy. She worships him so she would be okay speaking in front of everyone if it was in service of her deity. As soon as he left, she would go back to speaking through a proxy which appears to be Alexandra. It means that she really trusts you which is a hard thing to do with her. Even if you are family, I imagine that would be hard to do.” Mordred nodded, “She didn’t speak to our father for years except through proxy. The only time she ever spoke to him directly was on his deathbed.” It shocked me to hear that she didn’t even talk to her father, I could not imagine ever not talking to my father. Mordred shook his head, “Our father was nowhere near anything like your father. He was stern and malcontent so he wasn’t kind and approachable like your father. He scared Whisperia so she spoke through our mother which angered our father greatly.” I asked, “Is there any idea why she is like that? Was it your father who made her that way?” He shook his head, “No, I think it is just her personality. She only speaks directly to those she is most comfortable with. Being in the presence of Apollo must’ve overwhelmed her and she felt compelled to speak.”
The very topic of our conversation came into the room very quickly and stood behind me. I turned to her and asked, “Is something wrong Whisperia?” She nodded and whispered to me, “I was going to seal the room with the little girl but I found a weird energy coming from it so I put my head inside and saw a tall man inside. His aura scared me and he saw me and followed me. I am hiding from him here since my brother can help me.” I thought about what she said so that Mordred could understand what was going on. He nodded, “Did she see his face?” She sighed, “Tell him, I only saw when he turned his face. I don’t know what anyone would want with that poor child but I don’t think it was anything good.” It dawned on me that I might have known who it was, “Did he have long green hair?” She shook her head, “No but he did have short green hair.” I had wondered if the one I was thinking of had cut his hair to keep people from knowing it was him. I thought perhaps he would be cunning enough to color his hair so he could be further incognito. Mordred shrugged, “I can’t imagine what he would want with that child.” Lucien asked, “Do you all mind cluing those of us in that don’t have a psychic connection?” Mordred turned to Lucien, “It appears that Loki has yet again shown himself in this camp.” I sighed, “The question now remains…what was he doing to or with Tilly.”
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
