Slowly we made our way around the castle of the elders. We walked through the guard room where all the soldiers sat eating their meals; everything went silent as we passed. I could sense the men’s thoughts of fear and awe as we walked along the room. One shouted out to Rowan in disgust “How can you let that thing touch you?”

I picked him out from the crowd of thirty men with ease; standing perfectly still I stared at him with cold eyes. He shivered as I walked slowly towards him, floating across the floor. Stopping at the head of his table i spoke, “Pardon?” I said in a low, clear voice.

He said nothing as he looked into my eyes with fear. I could tell that he was one of the big boisterous types which always had something to say and that everyone was intimidated by – he was the playground bully, but on a much larger scale.

He had stopped eating and had gravy around his mouth, I focused on the edge of the table cloth and made it wipe him clean – he sat still as a statue as I did it. “I thought you would be old enough to be able to keep yourself clean,” I said, starting off with a small smile and then changing it, so that there was hardly any expression on my face at all, “Maybe you should go and wash.”

I turned around and walked back to Rowan, who had a small smile on his face. “I would wipe that smirk off your face if I hadn’t been ordered not to hurt you.” He shouted at my back. The table cloth that had wiped his mouth slowly wound its way around his neck and I heard him gasp as he noticed.

“Threatening me isn’t a good idea Frasier, take a look at you commander’s hand if you don’t believe me.” I didn’t look at him as I spoke, but just before we left the room I turned and met his eyes in a steely glare before I let the table cloth drop.

“How did you know?” Rowan asked me.

“I sensed what he had done to you in your mind.” I had seen how Rowan had tensed when he recognised Frasier’s voice and then a buzz of electricity had flown through his hand into my body, followed by a strange show of images that were slightly blurred around the edge. I saw how Frasier had picked on Rowan, how he had beaten him, punished him when he had done nothing wrong, Frasier was Rowan’s commanding officer and made his life a living hell. I knew that my actions would influence him away from maliciously hurting Rowan again. For some reason I felt oddly protective of this strange boy, his mind was a totally different place to what I was used to – it made me think.

“Thank you, I will never forget this.” Rowan said to me as we walked further into the heart of the castle.

  I watched as the rough quarters of the guard turned into the rich quarters of the Elders. The walls changed from whites and creams to soft leaf greens and browns, I saw elegantly furnished chairs, delicately embroidered with leaves and flowers. As we walked deeper and deeper into the heart of the castle the way that it was furnished improved dramatically; there were more windows that looked out over gardens and the forest, open doors that led to massive rooms with exquisitely painted ceilings and light, polished wooden flooring, there were flowers everywhere, on window sills, in pots on floors, tables, draws, chests, anywhere that there was space, it was hard to believe that the people who lived here were also the people that were my capturers.

We finally got to a room with seating all around the walls, long wooden benches that were filled with people, all men, all waiting for me. I walked into the room still holding Rowans shoulder, I heard a gasp run through the crowd as they saw my contact with him; word had already spread of the feather man’s hand. We both walked into the centre of the room and I held out my hand to Rowan, he knew exactly what I meant and handed me the necklace which I tied around my neck slowly, as if there were no other people in the room except for him and I.

When I had done up the necklace I thanked him and turned to the man sitting in the centre of the crowd, he was clearly in charge and I spoke to him alone. “Why am I here?” I asked him in a calm, clear voice.

“You are not what we expected at all.” One man to the left side of him stood up and said to me.

I remained motionless, looking only at the man in charge. “I see you are very stubborn” he said to me.

“Only when I need to be.”

“Touché.” He said. I stood there, as still as possible, holding his gaze until he had to look away.

“What do you want from me?” I asked, annoyed that he was the only person in the whole room whose thoughts escaped me.

“It is simple really, we want your protection.”

“My protection?” I asked surprised.

“Yes, your protection elf.” The man in the centre said

I took a deep breath, and thought for a moment, “You say that as if you were not one yourself.” I said

 “Ah, yes, well some people in this room prefer to think of me as human.”

“What a shame. You’re not.” I said with mock concern.

“You play a dangerous game young lady!” A man shouted at me with malice, it was the same man that had spoken before. I glared at him, unleashing the full force of my eyes. Clutching his chest he fell back in his chair, gasping for breath and unable to take his eyes off me. I blinked and let him go. “Sir, I think it is you that is playing the dangerous game here.” I said with a small smile on my face as I looked at the floor, then, slowly at the people sitting around the room. They had all turned silent.

“I will not be spoken to as a small child, I am not an adult, nor a man, but I do want equality in this room because of what I am.”

“Yes, our general has told us as much.” The leader said. “You are rather obnoxious – issuing out punishments.”

“Only two and they were deserved.”

“Tell me, what happened the first time?”

“He treated me as if I was filth on the floor because I am, different, he was ignorant to my power and rather than tread carefully, he immediately tried to control me and make me scared of him. He saw me as near to worthless because I am an..." I paused and swallowed, "an elf and a woman. I cannot control whether people are prejudiced, but I will not have people take action prejudicially against me for no reason.” I said in a calm voice, explaining myself clearly.

“How did you punish him?” he asked me.

“I put a silver feather into the skin on the palm of his hand where he had grabbed me, to teach him the wisdom of how prejudice causes anger and kindness is like a silver lining in a cloud. I also put it there to remind him of the occasion, in the hope that it might change what he does in the future.” I saw a few of the people sitting on the benches turn to each other and talk, I could hear them with my now amazingly acute audible range and was amazed that they actually thought the punishment that I had given him was just.

“Then what happened, why did he get a second punishment?” the leader asked me.

I recited what had happened in my room; giving an involuntary shiver as I remembered the thoughts that had been crossing the feather man’s mind.

 “He hated me for embarrassing him. First of all he wanted to kill me. Then he looked at my body as I lay on the bed and realised that he wanted me, he found my figure appealing so he moved his hand onto my thigh. It was only at this point that I realised what he wanted to do. It had all been blurry in his thoughts; just urges about something that he desired, then it all became clear as he pictured giving me a drug to make me sleep and then saw himself climb on top of me as I lay on the bed, he was trying to imagine what my skin would feel like against his, what it would be like to feel himself...” I looked to the floor and squeezed my eyes shut. Hearing the thoughts of the others in the room let me know I had told them enough to understand. Taking a deep breath I continued.

“I opened my eyes and started at him, much in the same way that I just did to that other man sitting amongst you. My eyes made him motionless and I spoke to him, telling him that I could hear his thoughts and that he hadn’t learnt what respect was.” I sighed and then continued once more, “I channelled all my anger out onto his hand, I was furious and had difficulty controlling the power. It went further than I meant it too, but I am not sorry, he deserved it.” People round the room started to discuss the matter amongst themselves and I had to raise my voice to be heard.

“I thought this was a fair punishment; I gave him pain, a lasting memory and a visible mark of the indecency he tried to commit, now the feather of wisdom stands out even more strongly against the blackness of his hand.”

I looked around the room at the men; all of them avoided my gaze, not because they were afraid of what my look could do, but because they were ashamed of what had happened.

“My dear I am so sorry.” Said an elderly man in the front row of the seats, I turned to him with a sad smile. Moving to him so fast that if anyone in the room had blinked then they would have missed it, I put my hand onto his cheek “It is ok.” I told him.

“Ilea,” The man in charge called to me.

“Yes?” I said, looking at him

“Please refrain from touching people.”

 “Why?” I asked him

“Because you affect people without even meaning to.”

“What do you mean?”

“Anyone that you touch is affected by you, the way that they look changes to resemble you, the way that their bodies work change to mirror yours, their hair colour, and the colour of their eyes. It’s not something you mean to do; it’s just something that happens. It is the same when I touch a human.” He explained.

So now I knew why Jacob and Johanna were so alike to me - because they had always been near to me. They had always been the ones that I went to, they were the ones I spoke to, was in physical contact with the most, that’s why they were nearly as fast as me, nearly as strong as me, nearly as good at reading my emotions as I was at reading there’s.

“Where are they?” I asked him, knowing the direction that he was heading.

“They are safe.”

“I didn’t ask that; I know that they are safe and alive. I asked where they are.” I looked at him, feeling determination colour my expression, I wasn’t going to just let it go, and he knew it.

“I’m not sure if it would…” I cut him off

“Tell me, or I will go out and find them.”

“I’m not sure if threats are…” I cut him off again.

“Oh, I’m not threatening, I’m promising and I never break my promises.” I told him.

“Well that makes things slightly difficult doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know, does it?” I remained aloof and light, even though the meaning behind my words was strong.

“Yes it does.”

“That’s a shame.” I knew he wanted me to ask him why but I was through playing his game.

“The thing is, they aren’t in the city anymore.”

“What?” I choked out.

“Neither of them are in the city, they are both on their ways to other places.”

 “Why?” my voice was on the verge of shouting.

“We didn’t want you to have any distractions,”

“Distractions from what?” I asked sharply

“Your training.”

“My what?”

“If you are to protect the city, you must be trained properly.”

“What if I don’t want to protect the city?”

“Dear child it is your duty.”

“What?”

“It is your duty to the city,”

“I have no other choice?”

“No.”

“What if I don’t care about duty?”

“Then you are not a profitable citizen and must be disposed of.” It took me about a millisecond to realise that he meant that they would kill me. I stared at him with a cold look in my eyes, “Couldn’t I just go somewhere else?”

“No, because then you might end up profiting that, somewhere else, which would simply not do.” He looked at me and smiled, as if it were as simple as that, as if it was as obvious.

“I have no choice.” I said, my voice still arrogant but I knew I was fighting a loosing battle.

“No, you don’t really.” He said laughing lightly, as if I had told some sort of funny joke.

“What if I was to go anyway, how would you dispose of me?”

“I am an elf as well.”

“Your comrades thoughts betray you I know of the fact that you are no match for me, you are old, even by our standards and have waning powers which grow less by each passing day. You know that if you were to confine me and I tried to escape that there would be no contest, therefore you must have another plan that you’ll use if I don’t want to play to the rules of your little game.” I said, showing the knowledge I had gathered from the minds of the people sitting around me.

“Ah, I see you are more intelligent than I first thought,” He paused thinking, “Very clever.” I bowed to him shallowly, keeping eye contact and smiling.

“My brothers I find that we have betrayed ourselves, we now fall onto a more drastic plan, were she to try and escape, we will send the army after you. Three thousand men strong will be too many for you to take on at one time I think. And that’s only after we kill your friends” He smiled triumphantly; he knew that he had beaten me. I nodded my head to him listening to the thoughts of the men as they exclaimed in protest about the army being used, it gave me hope that if a situation were ever to arise then it would be a very last resort.

I looked at him, “Very well, Orion.” A whisper went around the crowed as I spoke his name.

“How did you know that?” he asked me sharply.

“The human’s minds are easy, too easy to be honest; it takes more effort to keep their disgusting psyche disconnected than it does to connect to them. Admittedly yours however was a lot more testing, a lot more challenging and much more of an achievement in the end.” I gave him a sly smile and turned my back to him as I walked out of the room, “Don’t worry I will be back at noon tomorrow, yes please food would be welcomed and yes, I would like Rowan to remain my guard, make sure he is well fed and has slept. I will need new travelling clothes if I am to journey that far.”

“Stop!” he shouted at me, I turned around and smiled at him from the door.

“Don’t worry as soon as I have left this room the connection will break and I will no longer be able to hear your thoughts. I will not be able to hear them straight away when I see you next time either, but it will take less effort for me when we meet again. Oh, that’s interesting.” I looked him in the eye, “So I have a rare gift, even amongst elves, it’s not usual to have this much power into seeing others thoughts?” I laughed at his outraged expression while his thoughts confirmed my answer; I had it even before he spoke. “Thank you, but you don’t need to bother answering me out loud.” He stood there for a moment, watching me dumbfounded.

Then the strangest thing happened, I saw myself looking through his eyes. I had been wondering what I looked like to him and it just happened; I saw myself standing in the doorway, with the long ethereal panels of my open skirt flowing in the wind; the way it wrapped around my legs revealing the smaller skirt that I wore underneath. I noticed how my legs stood out against the flowing transparent material and sculpted themselves smoothly into the top of my brown, calf length, flat boots. I saw how the way my body position intimidated him and every man in the room, it was so confident, so controlled and deliberate, they didn’t know what to make of it because it was coming from such an obviously feminine body. I saw how the shortness of my hair both repulsed and compelled them, how its tufts ruffled in the wind and how its colour enhanced the brightness of my electric blue eyes, I had never realised before how bright they really were. I noted all the things that affected the men to memory, knowing that I would be able to use them in the future if I needed to.

I closed my eyes and opened them again, I was back. A strange look crossed over Orion’s face and I think he knew what I had done. “You shouldn’t be able to do that.” He said in surprise, his voice acid.

“Do what?” I asked innocently, I knew that he would not answer me out loud in the room full of humans; he did not want them to know the extent of my powers. He tried to tell me in his head, to think the thoughts to me, but I shut him out and broke the connection, not wanting to know what I had done.

“Goodbye Orion, until tomorrow.” I laughed, then turned again and left the room completely, walking down the corridor and back to my room.