10. Morelle

10

MORELLE

T hroughout lunch, Morelle studied Cassandra with fascination. The immortal was strikingly beautiful, her features enhanced by the same kind of facial paint that Amanda wore. On Anumati only warriors painted their faces, and that was in order to appear more fearsome in battle, not to enhance their beauty. Yet the effect was undeniable.

When Cassandra caught her staring, she smiled. "Is there anything you want to ask me?"

"I'm curious about the Earth custom of females painting their faces to enhance their appearance," she admitted. "My sister doesn't do that, and neither does Alena. Is there a reason some females do it and others don't?"

Casandra chuckled. "I work for a cosmetics company, and my job is to convince every woman that she must use these paints, as you call them, to enhance her natural beauty, but the truth is that it is completely up to the individual. Some females don't leave the house without applying the paint first, others do it only for special occasions, and many never do."

Morelle frowned. "How do you convince females to use your company's products?"

"Advertising. We put pictures of gorgeous women in magazines next to a photo of our products, and the message is that if you use them, you will look just as beautiful as the model."

Morelle remembered seeing that in the magazine that Annani had given her. "Brandon says that the photos have been manipulated and that the women don't really look as lovely in reality as they look in the pictures."

"That's true," Cassandra admitted.

Morelle hesitated for a moment, but she couldn't help what needed to be said. "That's cheating, isn't it?"

"Not really," Cassandra said. "Everyone knows that the pictures are altered. We are selling dreams and fantasies, and we don't even charge much for it. A woman can spend a little money on a new eyeliner and feel fantastic for at least a little while thinking that it will make her look beautiful."

That was such an interesting concept. The cosmetic company was cheating in how it presented its products, but the customers knew about the cheat and bought the product anyway because they were actually buying hope.

Then, a thought occurred to her. "Do you use your special ability in your work?" She still didn't know what Cassandra's talent was, but surely there must be some connection.

Cassandra laughed. "My talent isn't really suited for advertising. Though it might make for some interesting commercials." Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "Would you like to see what I can do? But we should probably step outside for this."

As lunch was mostly over, everyone got up and followed them to Annani's backyard, and Cassandra carried an empty drinking glass with her for some reason.

She walked up to a garden chair, put the glass on top, and they returned to the covered patio where everyone was assembled.

"Try to nullify my power," she said.

Morelle frowned. "I don't know what power I'm trying to stop." She still wasn't entirely sure how her nullification worked. "I will just think about stopping whatever it might be."

She concentrated, and the familiar energy humming under her skin sizzled pleasantly as if it had just woken up from slumber.

Morelle shook her head. You're imagining it. It's not happening .

She disregarded the feeling, letting it fizzle, and leaned against Brandon, who was standing behind her.

Cassandra turned to look at the glass she'd left on the green garden chair. "Here it goes."

For a moment nothing happened, but then, with a sharp crack, the glass exploded into countless glittering shards.

Startled, Morelle jumped, throwing her arms out to shield Brandon.

"Relax," Cassandra said. "My explosions are contained. The toughest part of learning to control my talent was aiming at a specific object so I wouldn't accidentally blow things up when I got angry or excited, and to moderate the power of the explosion so the pieces wouldn't fly too far away."

Morelle was still trying to convince her heart to stop racing, but she'd calmed down enough to realize that Cassandra's power was somewhat similar to Ell-rom's. It was also destructive, but the female had learned to control it. If Cassandra could be trusted, perhaps she could help Ell-rom master his death-ray ability.

"Let's try again," Amanda suggested. "Now that you know what to expect, see if you can block it."

One of Annani's Odus appeared with a broom and a new glass. He swept the broken shards into a bin and put a fresh glass on the green chair.

When he returned to the house, Cassandra looked at Morelle. "Ready?"

"Yes."

This time Morelle focused on the glass, imagining Cassandra blowing it up, just as she had done with Syssi's coin tossing.

Cassandra concentrated, but the glass remained intact.

"It worked!" Amanda clapped excitedly. "Let's test the range. Morelle, go inside while Cassandra tries again. Stay by the window and watch her. After that, we will try it without a line of sight."

"I'll go inside with you," Brandon offered.

Morelle nodded.

She could see Cassandra clearly through the glass door and maintained her focus, picturing that glass exploding.

When Cassandra attempted to use her power, nothing happened.

"Remarkable," Amanda said as she joined Morelle and Brandon inside. "Now, let's move away from the glass doors, and I'll tell you about how I met Dalhu. It's quite a story. He actually kidnapped me, and I fell in love with him anyway."

"He did what?"

Morelle suddenly remembered what Anandur had told her about Amanda mating the leader of the Doomer team, who had come to harm the clan. She'd been so preoccupied thinking about her newfound ability on the way home that she'd forgotten to ask how it had happened.

"Oh yes," Amanda launched into the tale, gesturing animatedly. "My Dalhu used to be a Doomer?—"

A sharp crack from outside made Morelle jump.

While she'd been distracted by Amanda's story, Cassandra had successfully shattered another glass.

"Perfect!" Amanda beamed. "So, the nullification requires conscious attention. When you're distracted, it doesn't work."

Morelle frowned. "I don't understand how it works. I wasn't trying to stop Cassandra. I was just watching the glass and expecting it to shatter. Maybe my effect is on the object and not on the power affecting it?"

Amanda tapped a finger on her red-colored lips. "That's an interesting theory. I wonder how we can test it."

"Easy," Brandon said. "Arwel's talent does not work with objects. If Morelle can nullify it, then her power works on the talent, not the object."

"True, true." Amanda walked out the glass doors and called everyone inside. "Okay, everyone. You know what to do to activate Arwel's talent." She turned to Morelle. "Do your thing. Try to stop Arwel from doing what he's doing."

The Guardian looked pained, and she wondered what was causing it. Maybe she could stop his pain?

Morelle concentrated, clearing her mind of Amanda's fascinating story of how she had fallen in love with the enemy of her clan, and she imagined Arwel smiling.

Then it happened, and he smiled. "Unbelievable. It went quiet up here." He tapped his temple.

"What's your talent?" Morelle asked.

"I'm an empath, and I can't block people's feelings. It's not as bad with immortals because they project much less than humans, but they bombarded me just now, and then it suddenly stopped. How did you know what to do?"

"You looked in pain, and I wanted you to feel better."

"Fascinating," Amanda said. "I need to do some thinking. This nullifying talent is not what I expected."

"Should we try mine?" Toven asked.

Morelle was exhausted after blocking Arwel's pain, and she really didn't want to try again with Toven.

Amanda looked at her. "You look tired, but since we've dragged Toven over here, can you summon a little more energy and try again?"

"Of course. But can we do that sitting down?"

"Naturally." Amanda led the procession to the living room, where everyone found a place to sit.

"I'll make it simple," Toven said. "Look at me and try to stop whatever I'm about to do."

Morelle nodded.

Toven turned to Brandon. "Tell Morelle that she is ugly and that you hate her."

"No," Brandon said with a smile.

Morelle was confused. "Why did you tell Brandon to say such hurtful things, and why are you two smiling about it?"

"My talent is compulsion," Toven said. "You just blocked me from forcing Brandon to say those nasty things to you."

"Ha." She looked at Brandon. "How did I do it without knowing what he was doing?"

"Good question," Amanda said. "Your nullifying ability behaves differently with each talent. I will need to study it some more. But not today."

Morelle let out a breath. "Thank you. I feel like I need to lie down and sleep for a few hours."