Chapter 4 THE KINDLING

"I'm so sorry" Calypso fumbled to fly across the field to reach Lysander who she had shot across the sky. "I'm okay!" Lysander stumbled up and was clearly not fine. He had blood dribbling down the back of his neck and his arm was most of all bent out of place contorted to be facing him, yet he was smiling as if he just tripped.

What was wrong with him? Was he not actually human? That's not possible she can sense all non-humans…

"I can't feel pain," Lysander said to answer her worries. He walked over to her and stuck out his disfigured arm. He turned it back into place with a sicking crunch.

"Wait so that's why you didn't say anything about your cut earlier? Can you die?"

Staring at him in disbelief about what he was saying he grinned, after knowing his thoughts she knew why.

"You don't want to try to hurt me to see if I can feel it? That's usually people's first reaction. Also, I can die. I am very much still human."

"What do you think I am?" She hadn't talked this much to a human being since she had traded her life, for now, she enjoyed standing on the cusp of her false illusions of a friend.

" I think you're a friend," He said this while smiling a bright smile, one that made her want to it have painted so she could see it forever. No one ever smiled at her. At least not genuinely. Some did as a false attempt to seduce such great conquest, others for a sliver of pity but most cried, so many tears just by the look of her face.

"Do you always see the same thing? When you use your abilities?"

"No. It changes depending on what I do in this case food." She admitted while pointing at the food

"Which memories are real, the good or bad ones?"

She took a deep breath as she prepared to tell a human for the first time how her powers worked

"The bad ones. That is my punishment, I don't have powers as a gift they are a constant reminder of my decision. It acts as a splinter costly digging into my skin to prevent me from using them for my own personal ways. It is fueled by my painful memories."

" So we both have powers we don't like then!" Lysander joked slowly becoming aware of her somber eyes and solemn look

"Why did your eyes turn to gold?" He mumbled clearly trying to change the awkward atmosphere

" It's a reflection of power. A tiny piece of the one who gave me this power. The eyes are just an aftereffect of my power usage."

"Who gave you the powers?"

" Life and Death did." As soon as she said that Calypso had never been more disappointed. For some reason she wanted this human to like her to think that she was nice. Now instead she heard his thoughts flash before her mind. Things like "If she isn't Death who is she?" "I should run… if she has death behind her what can she do? What power does she hold?" As she and he sat down and begin to eat she let her mind run free but it always came back to the gutter of words that still, as they ate silently swirled inside her head in a whirlwind of distaste that made her slowly begin to close off into a hole she had been down so many times before.

Lysander was so surprised when he tried the food and it turned out to be the best thing he had ever tasted. Even the watery-looking soup, lit up his mouth with flavor and pleasure. But as he glanced over at Calypso silently drinking from a beer glass he saw for the first time emotion in her eyes. Up until now, he had seen her warm eyes only express ice coldness and no emotion. Dead. But now he saw what seemed like gold tears filling her eyes but never leaving her them. During this trip he had discovered more about mind-reading, it only worked for clear definite thoughts, and if you were trying to listen. So he strained to hear the echoes of her thoughts. He then caught faint whispers, soon he was hearing a thousand voices overlapping each asking a different question. As he concentrated on a single voice at a time he heard his own voice, the questions he had asked in his mind before. But they were different they now had a backtrack an echo behind it a second voice, malicious whispering into Calypso's sadness. Soon he realized that he was being sucked into the drawing voices, drowning in the sorrow he tried to open his eyes, to remove himself from her mind but he was trapped, and sinking into Calypso's deep dark mind.

Calypso hadn't even noticed that Lysander was spasming on the ground with his eyes closed shaking broken out in cold sweat until one leg hit the table and bumped her beer into her splashing all over her clothes ready to lash out she got up to jump on him but discovered his current state. She rushed to his side panicking, wondering if it was all her fault for zoning out not protecting him. Rubbing her hands together to read him she pressed her index finger against the middle of his head and shut her eyes. She sorted through his body to try to find the source of the pain and saw his mind. Oh no. He tried to read her mind, the depth of her mind. When she became inhuman it installed a protection feature in case she ever needed to save herself. She could enter her mind as if it was a physical space and recover. It was also an excellent way to collect thoughts but it was for emergencies only because it left her physical body unreal and if she was hurt externally she couldn't return. But she had no experience of what would happen if a human enters her mind, or if he could stay alive just as she was readying to try her best to draw him out she got a call for another person to get rid of. If she refused the request she could end up losing her abilities until she headed in the directions she was told to but she had to save Lysander. So as she shook in pain attempting to grasp an idea that would save both of them, then she had got it.