Constance E2

Terrance woke early and exited his sleeping tent, they had been here for several months now and life had started taking on a familiar routine. Wake, eat, work, sleep. Life would not always be like this but for now, they had no choice but to work hard. They worked to build houses, cultivate fields, and send out patrols to wait for the return of the emperor’s soldiers.
They were making headway, but the list of things to do never only grew longer. Their meat supply had dwindled down to almost nothing and they needed to send out hunting parties to the North where an expansive forest provided most of their game. They also needed to dig cisterns for the dry season. Not to mention keeping the peace between his people and Constance.

For all of his positive qualities, he did have a few faults. For one Constance had been working this mountain for years and did not find stepping back to let the empowered do their work easy.
He always wanted to direct and manage the work, but they resensted being directed on their own land. Not that they owned the valley but after working so hard night and day the land started to feel like they should be granted more freedom on some of the work they needed to do.

Terrance saw Constance walk by scowling and decided to join him.

“Good morning friend Constance, do you mind if I walk with you?”

Constance slowed and glanced back to see who hailed him. Seeing Terrance he gave an awkward smile and nodded.

“Are you ready to tell me what magic you contain”, asked Constance “you have lived here a few months now, you can trust me. Others would say you are magicless, but you are not. You are one of those few souls who are able to influence people. You hold this ragtag group together as if they were family even though they are all from different places and different customs.”

Terrance laughed, “Nothing like that, I do understand people and they do seem to fit together better after I work with them but the emperor tested me and I am one of the magicless”

Constance scoffed but didn’t say anything more on the subject.

Terrance watchedConstance as he walked. Something was unusual about him, energy and passion that eclipsed anything he had ever seen in another man. Hidden within though a despondency and a grimness lived that contradicted his energy and passion. People are never simple, s different temperaments and desires always battle each other within each person he met. This man is different, however; he was far more and much less than any man he knew.

The way he used his magic was different. Some people fed their bodies to make them stronger or faster or make their skin impervious to harm or resilient enough to survive extreme falls. Some people manipulated the elements, they could cause a wind to blow harder or softer for instance.
He once met a man who changed one liquid into another or cause a fireball to appear from nowhere. But someone who both fed his body and manipulated the elements, this was something new and different. Terrance did not understand how Constance did these things; the implications were troubling, especially in someone who was so at war within himself.
His sudden bouts of anger were also alarming. True he had never once used his power against anyone in his valley, but Terrance was always waiting for that slip.

“Where do you come from, sir.” He asked as they walked hoping to tease out more of his story, “did you grow up in these mountains, or are you a stranger here like us.”

Terrance was amazed as something more than annoyance but less than anger rose up in Constance. What had he done to anger him? As fast as the temperament rose, however, the mood was replaced with a kind of ironic mirth.

“I came from far away at a time when I was not fit company to be around others. Finding these empty places, I decided to stay, thinking I deserved nothing more. I sat in misery for a long time allowing my self-deprecation to gnaw away at myself. I found food when hungry, drew water from the ground when thirsty. In time this place soothed my spirit and challenged me with its hostility. I took the challenge, not only surviving but changing my valley into an oasis of life. Unfortunately for the valley, but fortunately for me, I am unable to permanently change the environment. Each day I work to keep life in a place of death. Once I die the valley will revert to what it was before I arrived. This place is my life’s work, bringing forth life where only death dwelt before.”

Terrance was getting used to Constance’s long diatribes which said a lot without saying anything.

“Where did you come from then, a man who will rush to help people who he never met and do so to such effect must be a formidable person where he comes from. Do your people not miss you?”

Terrance waited as Constance considered his words for a moment, indecision and reluctance marking him as clearly as had the anger and mirth a moment before.

“My past is mine. Though I have accepted my past I am not ready to relate my story to others yet. Forgive me, I do not mean to be rude but some things in my past are not ready to see the light of day.”

Terrance was shocked as shame and despair rose up in Constance, he had never seen anyone with so much shame before. But none of this showed on his face. To anyone passing by he appeared to be considering the field to their right, neither happy nor unhappy. But within he was a maelstrom of emotions fighting against each other.

As suddenly as the emotions arose, they vanished replaced with chagrin.

“For now let’s say I come from a place far from here and I trained for war using both of my powers. While working for my king I did things I am not proud of and in the end, I failed my king and fled in shame. I know you worry about me, that I will lose control and hurt one of your people but in time you will come to see I would not hurt anyone if possible and the only reason I use my powers offensively is to help and protect those who are weaker than their opponents.”

Terrance looked startled at Constance, “what do you mean both of your powers. People only have one and not everyone has any magic. How were you born with two? Or did they give you this second power somehow?”

He stopped and faced Constance, “Could one like me be given magic?”

Constance laughed good-naturedly, “Magic flows through your veins Terrance, I have seen your magic working the whole time you have been here. You smooth fights and unify your people. Every time I get a good head of steam to teach one of these Empowered to not just cut a ditch straight down my mountain instead of having the drainage follow the natural flow of nature you come along and calm me down and that is not an easy task.”

“Besides everyone has magic, indeed everyone has two kinds of magic. But what most people don’t know is every type of magic has a variety of different sources that can be drawn upon to power it. Take Kemuel for instance, when he empowers, he looks at the problem and thinks about what he has done or seen done before, and then he is able to empower. Cory however grabs on to the power and forces the magic to work through pure stubbornness. They may be doing the exact same thing but they each draw their magic from a different power source.”

Turning towards him Constance smiled broadly and said, “I’ll show you.

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