Chapter 20: Awakening

  Julien

  Julien awoke to the bright Sunlight filtering through the cracks in his eyelids. He pushed himself upright with a groan. While everyone else had slept in the old Palace he had returned upstairs to talk with his mother about things. They had talked far into the morning and he ended up taking a spare room in her apartments.

  His yawn was long and loud as he stretched. Then he opened his eyes, and froze. Panic crept into his throat like cold ice. Something was very very wrong. Because all around him on everything and floating in the air around him were threads.

  They were of all different colors some a mixture of two but they were undeniably there. Attached to the furniture, the floor, the metal, the stone, even to his skin. That last one was what freaked him out the most. A pressure built beneath his skin as he felt his awareness expand. That was the best way he could describe it.

  It was far more complicated than that of course. He just lacked the ability to describe it. Suddenly he could feel everything around him like he could feel his own arms. So when one of thick green and silver threads swung towards him, it faintly felt like his own arms were flying towards his face. Instinctually he raised his actual arms and pushed out with his hands as if to push away an attack. For that is what it felt like.

  Every one of his senses were on fire, all at once and a pressure built behind his eyes as the energy he had thought of as pressure left his body in a rush. a flash of blinding white light assaulted him alas something like a ballista firing went off near his ear and he suddenly he saw nothing.

  Guard duty wasn’t what Houser imagined when he joined the royal guards. He’d worked hard to get accepted and fought his way to the top of the other testing men. Most of which were from the town guards or a noble of some kind.

  He put in hours of study and worked himself to the bone to study his sword forms and shield work. Only to be put on guard duty at the palace. So, that’s where he was now on his patrol, with his thick spear in hand, walking along the pathway in front of him.

  The sun was almost up as he worked an early morning shift. A fact for which he was thankful. It was getting colder all the time as the summer had fully given way to fall now. And from the feel of the chilly wind on his exposed neck winter wasn’t far away.

  But there was never much to worry about at his post near the queens gardens. He was more than tired as he trudged through the neatly manicured lawns following the stone pathways of white river stones. The sun had just begun to rise in the east so light was just filtering over the walls to blind him every other turn.

  Maybe the lack of threats, or maybe the relaxed nature of the post made what happened next so jarring. Houser suddenly heard a sharp intake of when as an explosion rocked the side of the palace several feel above him. His eyes snapped upward a quickly registered falling stone. He leaped to the side closer to the palace walls as a thick pane of stone masonry crashed into the gardens cracking stone and ripping apart flowering bushes.

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  After he came up his spear was out but he didn’t know where to point it. He looked up towards the new hole that was in the side of the palace. Exposing what he guessed was one of the Queens guest rooms. Did that mean the queen was under attack. But before that thought could cause him panic he slowly got to his feet and began to run towards the front entrance. The captain would want him to report.

  When Julien opened his eyes for the second time he could immediately tell it was much later in the day as the light came from the opposite side of his awareness. He was only half covered and a warm breeze flitted across his cheek.

  His awareness. The thought struck him like thunder and he nearly shot upright his eyes opening once again. And all he saw was threads. Ethereal strings that covered everything blocking his sight. Panic crept in again threatening to overwhelm him once more but a voice to his left shouted over his thoughts.

  “Close your eyes!” It was Carlouse, he immediately reckonized the voice. He trusted his squad mate so he listened and shut his eyes tight. He could still feel everything around him like a second limb but without the visual overload that was the threads he found it somewhat more manageable.

  “Keep your eyes closed and picture the treads going away in your mind.”

  “Carlouse!” He exclaimed still very much on the edge of panic. “What is happening to me!!” He hated the note of fear in his own voice but there was little he could do about it. He was afraid. When Carlouse answered he was surprised to hear a soft tone in the nobleman’s words.

  “I’ll explain what we’ve figured out in a minute but for now I need to you listen to what I’m telling you.” A thousand thoughts seemed to swap into the forefront of his mind before someone shifted close by and he could actually feel the movement. Not see for his eyes are closed, and not hear because they whoever they were were too far away. But he felt it with that weird expanded sense.

  “Nobody move!” Carlouse hissed. “He is hyper sensitive right now, he can literally feel any movement around him!”

  “Focus Julien. Force your mind where you want it to go. Then imagine the head gone.” Julien followed the instruction like he would any instructor or tutor he’d had since he was a boy. He pictured the room but absent the threads that touched everything.

  “What now?” He asked desperately.

  “Open your eyes,” Carlouse answered. His tone was weary like he was approaching a rabid animal. Julien hesitated but then did as requested. This time when he opened his eyes he saw the room free of glowing threads. Or at least what was left of it. There was now a joke about the size of a cart blasted through the masonry. The window was gone. Wood and stone littered the room and the other furniture had been over turned.

  Around him stood his squad mates all in a different state of distress. In the doorway he saw his mother hovering with a couple of guards and the palace physician and elderly man with a long beard and calculating brown eyes.

  His eye drifted back to Carlouse as the young boy released a breath his body relaxing. Julien took in the fresh black tunic and jacket along with the black leather pants Carlouse was wearing. Actually all of them were wearing fresh clothes. Most looked freshly washed. Carlouse cleared his throat to draw his attention back to him.

  “It seems we have a new development to talk about.”