mind spoke to hers.
“Look, if I concentrate on an area my eyes will zoom closer to it, like a seeing glass.”
As he spoke he focused on the goats and her view rushed forward until she was viewing them as if like they were no more than a few feet away. Before, his field of vision had been much like hers, albeit more clear and detailed. Now she understood the true depth of his sight. He could focus on something and bring it closer. Perhaps this was something that she could do as well. She asked him to do it a few more times, paying close attention to what he was doing. He was using his mind to magnify the image, so in theory she could do the same.
She realized that she had done it before, as had all of them. Whenever you worked on something small, you got tunnel vision and the object took up your entire field of view. But could she do it consciously? She tried returning to her body. She focused on an area just ahead of them where the hill rose and the single path began. She focused her mind on it like Legon did, but it was natural for him. Her vision became a blur and he tried to help her. He took control and after a moment her sight narrowed but was still unfocused. He tried something closer and it worked.
“I wonder why it didn’t work as well in my head.” Sasha said
Legon replied, “I don’t know. Let’s see if Arkin knows anything about it.”
They broadened their connection to the rest of the group and told them of their attempts.
“Wow, you can do that?” Keither said aloud.
“I knew Iumenta and Elves could see well, but this is amazing,” Sara said after seeing the view from Legon’s eyes.
None of the rest of them could connect as deeply as Legon and Sasha could to each other, so they were not able to take control of his body, but they could still view the world through him.
“Arkin, you have incredible aim with the bow. Do you do anything?” Keither asked.
“Yes, I do, but I am using magic most of the time to make my eyes better. However, I do know what you are talking about. When you focus on something that’s close to you, your eyes are already taking in all of the detail that you see through Legon’s eyes. Your mind just discards stuff as it takes in the information.”
“So we see the same as Elves,” Sara said, looking unconvinced.
“No, not at all. Their eyes are much, much stronger than ours and are able to take the extra detail. It’s not that they are smarter than us, but that their sensory centers are far more advanced. Now, Legon can see far away because he is getting more of the image. When you do it Sasha, your eyes can’t see as much, so the image is blurry.”
That made sense to her but she still had questions. “Arkin, can you augment this with magic to get a better result?”
“I don’t know. I suppose so, but I’m not an Elf.”
She laughed. “Come on, you know everything.”
Now it was his turn to laugh. “Ok, I know that up to this point I have been a teacher and mentor to you all and I hope to always be that. But please understand that I have taught the basics. All of Legon and Sasha’s training up to this point was in fact directed by the Elves and I had to constantly contact them for help.”
Legon interrupted. “Wait a moment. You have been able to talk to the Elves from Salmont? That’s too far.”
“For one man, yes, but I checked in at the same time every week, and when I did I would connect to someone who was in range and then they with another and so on. In this fashion you can span any distance and talk in someone’s mind like we do.”
The implications were astounding to Sasha. Up to this point she was amazed by their apparently limited abilities. But to communicate across that much space was unimaginable.
Arkin went on. “I had to be precise about my time, but you get the idea. Anyway, they told me everything that I needed to do with you, and as time went on I needed less and less help. But still, the core of my training is in combat and concealment. Magic is a vast subject, but I’m sure you can ask another Venefica that specializes in this topic.”
Sasha made a mental note to do so and continued to experiment in her mind. She knew that Arkin was limited, as were all people, and in a way it was a comfort to have finally found some of those limits. In another way she was saddened. Arkin had always been a hero to her. Nothing could stop or stump him, but this was unfair to expect of anyone. She began to admire him more for his ability to recognize when he was lacking and go to another for help. That was the true mark of a wise man, and a hero.
Arkin sat forward in the saddle as Phaedra started up the steep goat path. They rode in a line with him in the lead and then alternating pack mules and riders, with Sasha brining up the tail. She was by far the best with the horses and if there were problems he wanted an experienced rider at the back to help the others along.
Soon the rocky hill to their left gave way to a space in the rock. A deep fissure that not even a goat could jump ran next to the path. They wound along, climbing all the time. It was slower than Arkin remembered and there was moisture in the normally parched air.
After three hours they could no longer see the great rolling hills of the Empire. They were deep in the mountains, which were unforgiving. There was a certain amount of fear coming from all but Legon, whose superior senses would be a comfort in these lands. For Arkin, he felt no fear. He had grown up in Manton, which was surrounded by these peaks. He had played in them as a boy and hunted rams with his father here. No, these mountains were not his enemies, but his friends. He felt a drop of rain on his brow and contemplated stopping for the night. The rocks became slick in the rain and mudslides were commonplace.
After a while the rain came harder. Arkin searched his memory for a resting place; one was close if he wasn’t mistaken. The path was leveling onto a rock ledge, and against the wall of the mountain was an opening. To the untrained eye it looked to be a small alcove, but he saw the sanctuary within.
“We will rest here tonight,” Arkin said over his shoulder to the others.
“Why? The rain isn’t that bad,” Sara protested.
“Not yet, but I promise it will be, and the lightning will be as well. Come. This may not look it, but it’s a large cave.”
There were caves all throughout the Cornis Mountains. These were once the only true strongholds of humanity. He dismounted and walked Phaedra through the low entrance. As he was shrouded with darkness he produced a light showing the high ceiling and long cavern that he’d known was here. He heard the intake of air as each entered.
“How big is this?” Keither asked.
“It’s large. There will be chambers where the horses can stay and others where we can.”
He looked to the entrance. The rock was shaped in a way that didn’t allow the rain to enter the cave but that allowed the smoke to float out. This refuge of man dawned back to the time when dragons came to be. This particular cave had thousands of years of history.
Humans had been the first to separate themselves from the other races. He didn’t know for what reason their ancestors had done this, but he knew they had. Man lived in the desolate lands long before the Iumenta. When the Elves and Iumenta had split they were already much more advanced than man, but still they didn’t attempt to inhabit this land. After the Great War men still lived here and as they adopted Iumenta and Elven technology, these caves had changed in form and function.
He walked to the wall and ran his fingers along it, feeling the history. If they went deep into the cave there would be paintings on the walls from primitive man. Up here at the opening there were signs of more modern times, when these caves had been communities and guard posts. He became aware of the others’ silence. They were listening to his thoughts, at first waiting for instruction and now taking in their heritage.
“Even you have a place here, Legon. You are the only Elf alive that can claim these mountains as home,” Arkin explained
The rain was roaring outside. A great curtain of water covered the entrance as sheets of lightning ran across the sky. If one listened they could hear the rocks shifting as dirt turned to slippery mud. Arkin exhaled, relaxing. The rain would cover their tracks and no one would enter this area. They were safe, perhaps safer than they would be in the Elven capital.
The rain was making things cold, and Arkin could soon see his own breath. Farther into the cave was a world in itself; it refused the control of the outside, and while it was cool here, the inner chambers would be warmer than
