need, right inside you. And yet you are afraid of it.”
Thor looked down, reddening, realizing Argon was right.
“I am,” Thor admitted.
“Why?”
“I feel that to use my powers would not be fighting fairly,” Thor said. “I feel that I need to prove myself, on the same terms as everyone else. I guess I still feel that my powers are…something to be ashamed of.”
Argon shook his head.
“That is where you are wrong. What is different about you is precisely what you should be most proud of.”
Argon closed his eyes, breathed deeply, raised both arms, and waited. Thor heard a trickling noise, then felt a raindrop, and looked up to the sky and watched it begin to pour.
He looked back at Argon, amazed.
“Can you feel it, Thorgrin? Can you feel the water pouring down on us? Permeating everything? Feel it in your skin and hair and eyes. Breathe it in.”
Thor closed his eyes and held out his palms, and felt the drops hitting them. He tried to focus, tried to become one with the rain.
“Now stop it,” Argon commanded. “Stop all of it. Stop this rain.”
Thor gasped, unsure of himself.
“I can’t do that,” Thor said.
“You can,” Argon said. “Rain is just water, and water is simply the universe. It is us. Now do it. Raise your hands and stop it.”
Thor closed his eyes tighter, concentrating, and raised his arms. As he did, he felt his palms tingling, and he began to feel the energy of the rain in the air. It was intense. Heavy. Limitless.
Thor slowly pushed his palms higher and higher, taking on the energy, and as he did, the rain began to slow. Then it stopped, the water hovering in the air. Then, Thor reversed it, shooting it back up to the sky.
The sound of the rain stopped, and Thor opened his eyes, amazed, to see the land dry all around him.
“I did that?” he asked, surprised.
“Yes,” Argon replied. “You and you alone.”
Argon turned his back, and held his arms up to the sky.
“There is more you can do, Thorgrin,” he said. “Do you see the night? Do you see the darkness? It is but a veil. Lift that veil. Allow it to be day.”
Thor stood there, flabbergasted.
“Me?” he asked. “Turn night into day?”
“Night is but the absence of light. Let there be light. You are advanced enough now.”
Thor gulped and closed his eyes. It was hard for him to imagine himself with that sort of power, but nonetheless, he held out his arms and raised his palms to the sky.
“Feel the fibers of night,” Argon said. “Feel the threads of blackness. They are but illusion. The whole world is but illusion. This, the sky we live under, the sky we breathe every day, it is not a sky of man—it is a sky of magic, a sky of wonder. It is a sky of spells.”
Thor tried to follow the instruction, tried to feel the blackness. He felt a tremendous heaviness weighing on the tips of his fingers.
“Now, Thorgrin,” Argon added, “transcend the illusion.”
Thor felt his fingertips burning, nearly on fire, and he closed his hands and bunched his fists. He squeezed his fists as hard as he could, and felt a heat searing his entire body. He leaned back his head and screamed.
When he opened his eyes, Thor was awestruck. There, before him, it was daylight. Night was gone.
“All of nature is under your control,” Argon said, turning to him, as Thor stared out in wonder. “The fox and the mouse, the eagle and the owl. There, up high, on that branch. Do you see that owl? It, too, is under your control. Command it. Leave your limited world behind, and see the world through its eyes.”
Thor looked up at the huge, black owl, a magnificent creature, and he closed his eyes and focused, concentrating. Thor opened the owl’s eyes, and its eyes were his own. He saw the world through its eyes. It was incredible.
Thor turned the owl’s neck, and it looked out in every direction, at the limitless landscape. He saw beyond the forest, above the tips of the trees. In the distance, he saw a road.
“Excellent,” Argon said, beside him. “Now see where that road takes you.”
Thor kept his eyes closed, seeing the world through the eyes of the owl, and silently commanded the owl to lift off. He could feel the great owl flapping its wings above him, and soon it soared through the air, flying along the tops of the trees. Thor watched the landscape through its eyes, looking down through the trees, following the road that led through the forest.
The road twisted and turned, and soon it led him to a familiar place. Thor was surprised to see his hometown below.
Standing there, alone in its center, was a woman he was shocked to recognize.
His mother.
She stood there and looked up the sky, as if looking for him, and held up her arms.
“Thorgrin!” she called.
“Mother!” he called back.
Thor opened his eyes with a start, jolted out of the vision, and looked over to Argon.
“My mother,” he said, breathing hard. “Is she there? In my village? How can it be?”
“She waits for you,” Argon said. “It is time to meet her. Your very life depends on it. The final clue you need lies there. In your home town.”
Thor turned and looked out at the road before him, wondering.
“But how can it—” he began to ask Argon.
But as Thor turned, he saw no one. Argon was gone.
“ARGON!” he screamed out.
There came no reply save for the sound of a lone owl, screeching high up in the air.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Selese walked slowly down the aisle on her wedding day, and she knew something was not quite right. All the chairs were empty on either side of the aisle; she looked over and saw, instead, rows of thorn bushes, black and ominous. She looked down and saw that mice scurried beneath her feet, and that the aisle, instead of being lined with flowers, was lined with mud. She was terrified.
As she reached the end of the aisle, Selese looked up and saw Reece standing there, at the altar, waiting for her. But as she approached, desperate to get close to him, she noticed a huge spider web between them, and she found herself walking face-first into it, it wrapping all over her face and body, sticking to her. She flailed, hysterical, trying to peel it away. She finally managed to tear it off, but as she did, she noticed she was tearing off her wedding dress instead, leaving her in rags.
Selese stepped onto the altar, shaking from fear, and looked across at Reece.
He stood there, staring back blankly, expressionless.
“I wish we could marry,” he said. “But I love someone else.”
Selese gaped, not understanding—then suddenly, there appeared a woman next to Reece, a beautiful girl, Reece’s age, who reached up and wrapped one arm around his, turned him and led him away.
The two of them walked back down the aisle, and Selese just stood there, horrified, and watched them go.
Selese felt the ground tremble beneath her, and she looked down and watched in disbelief as a hole opened in the earth. The hole grew greater and greater, and before she could get out of the way, she found herself falling, into the blackness.
She shrieked, flailing, raising her hands for someone, anyone, to save her. But no one did.
