She believes to fall in love sight unseen would be unfair to either of us. It is hard to love a stranger. She chose both sets of brothers to come because all four of them somehow will affect my future. Before you ask, she won’t say how, but I will need all four of them someday. The bright side of this is I gain new friends in the process, and hopefully you all will to,” she answered optimistically.
Liam laughed at the last part. He was certainly not making friends with the trio across the table.
Marcus gave him a stern look and then turned to Sawyer. “May I ask what your powers are, and how long will you live? Our lives are indefinite, will you live as long as your soul mate, or will you have to be changed?”
“Excellent question, I was waiting for one of you to ask. My powers are often mistaken for a witch, and we pull from the same energy. I just have more access to it than everyone else. If you will allow me, I will lift the veil from your sight and I can better explain the power of the fae, but you must all agree,” she asked and then waited for everyone to nod in agreement. When they had all nodded their heads, she waved her hand and waited.
Instantly they noticed everything was surrounded in silver light almost like a shimmer. The light was constantly flowing in and out of itself and around everything and everyone. Sawyer was absolutely soaked in it, and the light around all of them was very weak. Sawyer stood up and asked them to follow her outside.
They stepped out and were mesmerized. The sun had set, and the moon absolutely glowed in silver light. It shined down rays of silver light, and they touched the earth. They could see silver strings connecting everything. They saw a bee attached to a flower with a silver string, and the tree was attached to the soil with silver strings. It seemed Sawyer was attached to everything with silver strings flowing from her body to the moon, trees, flowers, and soil.
She let them walk around wordlessly for a while and explore the silver light. They tried touching it, and their hands went through it like it was a mist. They were all amazed. Everything was alive with this energy, and it flowed all around them. They couldn’t feel it or see it, but it had always been there.
When they all turned to look at her, she finally spoke. “This is the ethereal energy, and it connects everything. This is the power of the fae. We can see it, and we can harness it.” She opened her hand, and in the palm, a small ball of silver light formed. It seemed to come flowing from everywhere into her hand.
A few of them opened their own hands to see if it flowed to them. It did not. Julius bent over to study the bee and the flower and reached out a finger to see if he could touch the string. Marcus had bent over to the rocks and was turning them over. Liam was running his hand in the water of the fountain, and Lucas was touching a tree. She knew it must be incredible to see for the first time and let them take their time with it. Finally she said, “Come join me by the flowers and I will show you how my powers work.”
When they had gathered around, she continued, “This silver string you see is connected to absolutely every living thing on the earth. Everything on the earth is alive, even things you don’t think about, like rocks or metal. Most people don’t think of them as alive because they never see them die. A flower can be plucked, and you can see it wither and lose its connection, but rocks are harder. We the fae call this the life force. Only fae can see it, and only a few humans can feel it. We call these humans witches, and the power of the life force has to be concentrated for them to feel it and use it in their spells. On rare occasions like an eclipse, for example, it becomes so concentrated they can cast a powerful spell. It is usually women who are witches, and the fae believe something in the female energy is more attuned to it than in males. The fae are female, and no male has ever been born to us.”
She then opened her hand again and let the energy ball up again. She then let it overflow, and the silver light began to wrap around her hand. She waved her hand at the fountain, and the silver strings began to immerse in the water. She then moved her hand, and the water moved with the direction her hand was pulling the silver string. She did it slowly, like she had been taught as a child when learning to use it. The water went up and then began to fold in on itself in swirls, and soon all the water from the fountain was above it and swirling around.
She returned the water and pointed her hand at a tree whose leaves had turned brown with fall. She waved her hand, and the string of silver spread down the leaves and began to become green again. In the wave of a hand, the whole tree was brought back to full green.
She pointed to empty space in the drive, and suddenly a shimmering silver door appeared. Lucas was standing the closest, and she told him to open it. When he did, they could hear waves crashing and the smell of saltwater. She motioned for them to follow her through the door.
They stepped onto the sand and saw the moon shining over a beach. The silver light of the water was amazing as it pulled at the moon for more. A school of dolphins jumped high in the air, and they could see they were all connected to one another by the silver strings. A crab scuttled by, and its own silver string connected it to the water and the sand.
She turned to them all and spoke. “The power of the life force flows through me. My power is limitless and infinite. I will remain alive as long as the earth remains alive and the life force flows. No fae has ever known death. We remain unmatched in our powers, and we are the most powerful creatures on this planet. Our bodies grow until the age of twenty-two, and then we age one year for every ten thousand that pass here.
“You saw Astrid as a powerful witch, but the truth is, she is a very old fae. Mother is the most powerful fae created as she is fully formed from the life force, and she is the oldest among us. It was she that chose one of you, and only she has the power to take half a soul. I know you all are skeptical, but when you observe the life force, I hope you can start to believe. Now come, let’s go back because I’m sure you have even more questions now, and we won’t get them answered with everyone distracted like this.”
They stepped back through the door, and the silver light was gone. They all returned to the dining room, looking around as they walked, trying to catch a glimpse of the light. It was gone from their vision though; she had replaced the veil.
Brexley looked at her in awe and asked, “Are you magic?”
Hunter slapped her arm and said, “Shut up, Brexley! Stop asking stupid questions.”
Sawyer looked at her and said, “There are no stupid questions tonight, Hunter.” Then she turned to Brexley. “To answer your question, I believe magic is the word humans made up to describe our power. Fae once walked among humans for a very long time, and all fae have human fathers, except Mother and I. The fae tried for a very long time to teach humans how to use the life force for useful purposes. It was only when Mother saw they used it against one another that she stopped teaching them.”
“How do you not have a father?” asked Cassia curiously.
“Mother and I are the only two fae ever created by the life force. When Mother took half the boys’ soul, she planted it in the earth. Like Mother, I was formed by the earth itself. I only call her Mother because that is her name, like mine is Sawyer, but I have no parents,” she answered.
“Does it bother you that your only purpose is to love some man you have never met?” Hunter asked almost snidely.
Sawyer met her gaze and mentally reminded herself to be patient with her. “No, because in return he was created to love me. Everyone always focuses on my creation, but I sometimes wonder if fate didn’t plan this before he was born. I think he was born to be my soul’s mate because he was created long before me. Love has become so common to everyone. It is used to describe emotions that are not even love. People will say, ‘I love coffee’ or ‘I loved that movie!’
