“I think that'll be cool.”
“Just remember, I was there for a lot of it, and I've remembered most of those incarnations. Don't think that anything you remember will trouble or surprise me in any way.”
I had no idea what he was talking about, but I just smiled anyway. “Okay, no problem!”
He smiled back, and I felt the stirring inside that told me that my body was hydrated enough.
Chapter Two
From the diaries of Angelique Dupre
07/22/1588
Roanoke Island
I saw Ali off last night. It will be a long time before he sees the sun again, so we dined on war scouts from a neighboring territory in one last night of fellowship. His crew has been persuaded to make one last voyage with their old captain before searching out new positions on other ships. Those who disagreed will help Ali make the voyage.
My old friend has proven himself to be a prodigious hunter, even helping me locate the settlement that will be the focus of my visit here. They have been here for a little over a year, and their lack of fortifications told me that theirs had been an uneventful life to that point. There was a small garrison there, but they seemed to be more concerned with threats coming by sea than land.
It is well and good that they get along as well as they do with the local native inhabitants because their perimeter patrols are almost laughably inefficient. I have been able to study them in sunlight as well as I can at night, which is fortunate as that few of the residents venture out after dark.
Finding this 'Sarah' person is going to be more difficult than I thought. There are no less than five women of the appropriate age I've discovered thus far, and I have yet to catalog everyone.
Petronia, I hope that you're right!
* * *
“Breathe deep, child of Earth...”
I could already feel the heartbeat of the ground beneath me. Connecting with the earth had been easy. Now, it seemed, we were moving on to air.
Angelique walked around me as I sat on the lawn, gently guiding me along. Her voice was lilting and melodic, and quickly brought me to a deeper awareness of my breath inside of my body.
“Feel the cool as you inhale. It's refreshing, washing you clean like a shower from a mountain stream.” she said. My eyes were closed, but I could almost see her hand moving in lazy waves through the air. “When you exhale, see all of your stress and worries flowing out of you.”
I saw my concerns like a cloud of black smoke, streaming out of my body through my mouth like a hit from one of Jack's giant bongs. My body felt clean, but empty when I finished.
“Now,” she continued, “see cool, white light appear in the air around you. This is energy... the pure, untainted energy of the air itself.”
I saw it! Swirling around me like sand stirred up by water, tiny particles of light that swirled and flowed around me.
“Breathe it in... feel it fill your body with it's pure, unmatched power...”
I felt it flow in through my nose and mouth, hitting my lungs and exploding throughout every cell in my body like a million little big bangs. I felt...
Power.
“You have taken in the energy well.” Angelique continued, smiling so widely I could hear it. “Now, what do you think you can do with it?”
“I...” My voice sounded strange to my ears. It was deeper, and resonated in my head like I was standing in a cave. “I can raise the winds.”
“Then do it.”
I relaxed and reached out with my right hand. That didn't feel right, so I lowered it and reached out with my left.
“That's good,” she said, “your instincts are true. With your right hand being dominant, your left is the receptive. Now... draw them to you.”
I sent a silent call and willed my left hand to pull. The wind started to blow, and the leaves rustled as it did.”
“Call them stronger.”
I willed my hand to draw the wind closer, and the breeze picked up. I could feel strands of my hair blowing against my cheeks.
“Stronger. Make them obey you!”
Spirits of the wind, heed my will! I thought firmly, and things suddenly changed. I opened my eyes and saw a world transformed.
The breeze became a gale, and the branches in the trees bent and swayed with the gusts. I could see the winds whipping around me in a circular motion, almost as if I were in the center of a mighty storm. All around me, streams of light surged and flowed through the winds as they swirled, at times looking like a tornado of wind and light. Nearby, Angelique watched, beaming.
“What do I do with it?” I cried over the sound of the air rushing around us.
“Whatever you want.”
I thought, and then saw the image of a tree that had been slowly falling down all week. It was long dead, and I was worried that it would fall the rest of the way suddenly and hurt some animal treading nearby. I reached out with my inner vision and saw that there were no animals near it at the time.
So here we go!
I closed my eyes and saw the rotting tree. I reached out, with my right hand this time, and got ready to send the wind forward. I pushed, and suddenly the wind howling around me left in the direction of where I was pointing.
It shot
