Priscilla Sum

Part 31--Power From The Gods

The wind around us pressed in closer as Auraea's agitation grew. I could feel it lifting my hair, blowing up over my clothes. Any stronger, and she could probably generate enough force to blow me off of the cliff. It would be exactly what I deserved, the miserable voice in my head declared.

"I didn't mean to! I didn't know anything about a demon, I swear!" I yelped. The agitation only worsened in light of the fact that I was already crying. "I just... Tony was dying, remember? And when I saw that the amulet was supposed to be some kind of healing crystal--"

"So you took it from the display? When was this?"

"The night before you disappeared. I was going to tell you when I got home... but by then you'd already been taken." The sobs came in earnest, my whole body trembled at the enormity of my thoughtless actions. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for any of this to happen! It's all my fault! I'm the reason Egamad got control of you, and now we can't stop him before he destroys everything!"

Right on cue, the demon's roar echoed over the chaos, and I heard explosions coming from over at the village dig site. All those people--

"Priscilla, listen to me!" Auraea tugged on my hand, and I turned to face her. She tilted my chin up. "You are right. You acted out of grief and devotion to your friend, and you could not have known what was really going on. Therefore, I forgive you."

The relief washed over me as the high, biting wind faded, and I sank against her shoulder, now crying out of relief. I looked up at her. "Here's what I don't understand: why did you even adopt me in the first place? Two immortal beings like you and Dad could live undiscovered for centuries if you'd just kept things between the two of you. Then I wouldn't have been there to mess everything up and expose you to danger--"

"No, Priscilla, no!" Auraea stroked my hair and shushed me. "I don't think that at all! For a long time after we came to live among mortals, we did think that it would just be the two of us for as long as it took to defeat Egamad. We had each other, we didn't give a second thought to any mortal." She smiled. "Until the day we toured an adoption agency after a big donation by the Daeva-Staite Foundation. 

"As the most prominent donors, we were invited on a tour of the main facility in Chicago--more of a formality than anything else. To them, it was just a way of showing the donors where their money was going. They wrapped up the tour by showing us how they conduct their client meet-and-greet with the prospective adoptee--and you happened to be waiting for a couple who didn't show up that day." Her caresses were warm and soothing, drawing my mind away from the shame of my past actions. "They let us go in and pretend to be clients--and the moment we laid eyes on you, both Trikymios and I knew that our days of avoiding a mortal connection were over. From the day we met you, we needed to be a family, and we wanted you to be in it." She looked down and lifted the one that wore the bracelet. "And this just proves it."

I furrowed my brow in confusion. "How? The inscription said The eyes do not know you--and the statue made the floor collapse all around us! I thought--"

Auraea's face held a self-assured smile, as if she was reminiscing about her own cleverness in designing such a cunning trap. "Yes? What did you think, Priscilla?"

I wagged my head. "Didn't that mean that none of us were... you know..." I couldn't think of the word. "Accepted?"

Auraea pursed her lips. "Did anyone else find the place where this bracelet was hidden?"
I shook my head. "No, just me."

She nodded. "And you figured out that the locket we gave you happens to be the other part of this device."

I looked at it, glowing brightly with the wind-mark. "Yeah, I guess so."

The goddess smiled and stepped back so we could face one another. "There is one more part to the power of this amulet--and if it works, you will know that you are, indeed, our family."

I glanced at the beautiful designs carved in relief on the surface, and the second depression for the other side of my locket. "What is it?"

Auraea held my wrist and smiled. "Watch." She reached out and pressed her thumb securely over the protruding spikes. I averted my eyes as they punctured her skin, and blood bubbled out from the wound. Auraea smeared her thumb over the surface of the amulet, filling in the lines and cracks with it.