Book 3 Chapter 46

Maria felt her chest burn with anger, “What…” She started, ready to tell the older woman off, but as she looked at Henna, she noticed her eyes... They were serious, caring, and almost sad… There was no hint of ridicule or malintent while facing Maria’s anger, more than anything they seemed filled with understanding.

The expression stopped Maria cold… She swallowed her words, yet felt her frustration growing. “I don’t even know what that means!” She said finally, not understanding the uncomfortable feeling that was growing in her chest. She started pacing back and forth, her arms crossed as she kept her eyes on the ground.

Henna just watched her for a moment, not at all bothered by the young woman’s anger. “When Tirr told you about the Blessings. He mentioned how your imagination plays a large part in their use…”

“So?” Maria muttered, still pacing…

“As long as a follower as the faith, each Blessing is limited only in what the user can imagine within its sphere of influence.” Henna lifted a finger and a familiar light formed at the tip… It spread, forming out into a small and round, disc-like barrier.

“You use this commonly with miracles like barriers. Light, which is associated with Life, is pictured as solid. Once applied with faith, it creates the barriers that you’ve been using.” Henna smiled letting the light fade away, “You’ve also seen this with other Blessings… Water being formed into ice… Fire concentrated until it can explode… And in a more extreme case, Little Ian, with the ability to manipulate not just time, but space…”

“What does any of this have to do with what you were asking me?” Maria asked, exasperated. “Like you said, I’ve already been doing that! I can cast barriers and I even managed to learn partial aspect summoning…”

“Yes…” Henna said soothingly, “You’ve learned unbelievably quick… But another major part of casting miracles is conviction… A miracle's strength can be determined by the strength of your conviction, your belief in said miracle… Your determination to make it come true… The stronger your conviction the stronger the miracle will become.”

“So, because I don’t have parents somehow that means I don’t have any conviction?” Maria asked angrily.

“No dear…” Henna sighed, “So far you’ve simply cast the miracles Tirr has taught you… And that’s fine for simple things, healing and barriers aren’t complicated, neither are some of the other low-end miracles you’ll learn. But the further you go the more important that conviction will be. You summoned your partial aspect, in under a year… Even the best students of my time couldn’t do that… But in doing so, you copied Tirr’s aspect instead of creating your own…”

Maria had stopped pacing, nodding reluctantly as she started to understand.

“An aspect is supposed to be a representation of yourself… Of what you believe in… Of what you admire… or even what you desire… But they're a reflection of you… Not someone else… You’ve summoned your partial aspect and in time you may even summon Tirr’s full aspect. But when push comes to shove, it’s Tirr’s aspect, not your own... Your connection to it will be missing the feeling and determination that drove Tirr to create it… And it will fail you eventually…”

Maria was silent now as she thought over Henna’s words… She raised her head, her anger gone, yet the uncomfortable feeling remained… “So, then what do I do? Just come up with something else?”

“Something that means something to you… Something important to you… Something that to you, represents Life…”

Maria sighed, Henna motioned her to sit down again and Maria did so, though her chest twinged as she looked at the older woman, “That’s why you were asking me all that stuff…”

“I didn’t want to be so direct,” Henna said her hand reaching out to brush a stray strand of hair from Maria’s face… “But in time, Tirr will need all of your strength… And I think this is the last time I’ll be able to chat with you like this…”

“You…” Maria started, confused…

“After this… whatever bit of me that was left… Will probably be gone… You don’t have to worry, my time is gone… I just wanted to help you, and Tirr if I could… I’ve enjoyed watching you two together…”

Henna took Maria’s hand, and the younger woman felt the comfortable warmth spread through her body… “Come now, tell me… Who are you?”

Maria took a deep breath, feeling the warmth that spread from Henna fight the dark feeling in her chest. She started to speak, first about her birth, what her Grandmother had told her of her mother. How she had gone traveling, coming back only to give birth before dying from some illness even Nora couldn’t stop.

From there she went over her childhood, how her grandmother had taken care of her, how she had forced her grandmother to let her help as she watched her prepare the offerings. Henna sat quietly, still smiling softly as she held onto Maria’s hands and listened.

“It was lonely… I played occasionally with the other children from the village... But it hurt when I’d see them go home, watching their parents hug them… Granny tried twice as hard to make up for it, but she had her duties as priestess too, I guess that’s why I started playing less and helping her more…”

“The more I helped at the temple the harder it became to stay friendly with the other kids. I became a priestess, and a priestess was to be respected... You weren’t friends with a priestess…”

“But Tirr became your friend?” Henna asked hesitantly…

“Yeah, but more than that too… I didn’t know what I expected when I first went to the grove for help, but he saved my life, and then the village... And when I started traveling with him, I started to realize how small my world had been, going back and forth from the temple to the grove, only occasionally having quick chat with the villagers. With Tirr though I met and made so many friends… Claire, who is really sweet even though she can be a little rowdy… Nerida, who may be more loyal to Tirr than I am, despite being a little creepy sometimes… And even Torvus, as much of a sarcastic jerk he can be…”

Maria smiled now, the dark feeling in her chest gone as she spoke, “I’ve been to places I never dreamed of going and have done things I couldn’t have imagined… And it’s all because of Tirr… I’ve been with him through all of it, both good and bad… I know he’s my god but… He’s like family too you know? I can’t imagine leaving him and going back to the small world I once knew…”

“I’m glad…” Henna said, pulling back as she stretched… She started to get up, “It seems like you know yourself pretty well…”

Maria blushed, “But… I mean, how does that all help me create an aspect?”

“It will, I’m confident now that you’ll find it. Just remember what you said here, and what “Life” means to you…”

“Wait…” Maria said, moving to stand as well. As she looked down though she realized her entire body was softly glowing… “What…”

“Tirr’s been pouring faith in for a while now,” Henna said, a regretful smile on her face, “I guess it’s finally time for you to go…”

“Wait! But I still have so much to ask you! I still don’t know what my aspect is… And what’s going to happen to Tirr? Why did you do all this?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you… I know you’ll do fine though... “

Maria’s body started to glow brighter and brighter even as the grove around her started to darken and fade… She reached out to the fading Henna, trying to grab her… But her hand caught nothing as the woman dispersed into mist…

All that was left was her soft voice, once more whispering in Maria’s mind as the grove continued to fade, “Take care of Tirr… I know you can succeed where we failed…”

Maria didn’t have a chance to ponder those last words as the world went black…