UPSILON
"Don't despair," Maggie said, helping me up. She touched my cheek and looked into my eyes.
"Our parents live inside of us," She said, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder. She pulled a strand of hair out of my head.
"Ouch!" I said, rubbing the place where she took it. She rolled her eyes.
"It's just a hair! Modern women are such wussies!"
She then proceeded to touch her pendant, and the peacock opened its eye again. This time, she placed it in the palm of her left hand. The light beamed upward like a reflector. She started to say some words that I couldn't make out. The eye started to boil like a cauldron. Emitting fumes and thick bubbles that looked brown like chocolate. It actually did smell rather nice,
"Like hot chocolate milk with cinnamon."
"Smells really good," I commented.
"It's imbued with one of William's potions," She said. "One of the many things he set himself to improve was how to make potions more... user-friendly. Why should it have to smell awful, like death and shadow?"
"He's brilliant, isn't he?"
"Too much, I think, sometimes. It's hard for anyone to understand how his mind works.Until you came along."
I blushed. She waved her right hand around above the pendant. The light coming out of it looked solid until she placed her hand in it. "You really think I'm good for him?" I asked. I had to admit that
I was flattered. What could I possibly offer to such an ancient wise man with so many accomplishments?
"Totally." Maggie smiled. "I'm only two hundred years old, but I do know that Will really needed someone who could crack that nonsensical code in his head. You did in weeks what.No one could in decades."
I heard her voice trailing off at the words no one. Once more, I wondered....
She cleared her throat and added my strand of hair to the strange light. It started to change colors and shapes. She said more magic words. I looked at the light with curiosity and wonder.
"Are you a potion master too?" I asked.
"Nope, Shaman. I can contact the.it's hard to explain." She thought for a moment. "There are two parts of the soul for both humans and wizards. One is the memories and personality, the other is the soul, the part that crosses The Threshold. I can contact someh parts directly from the carrier and from the DNA of a living descendant. The other pure part embodies something beyond memories, the part that goes on beyond life. I can also contact the body, although that isn't easy.Are you following?"
"More or less," I could only say.
"Like the dead scientists we contacted for William to learn?" "Yes.that was odd."
"Well, that's because the part that we contacted was the Sheut, just the personality and memories. Their immortal souls are on other planes, and only the Divinity of History knows what they're up to there." A small sphere of light like an egg was growing.
"I can usually do it with hair or a blood sample," Maggie continued. "So whether your dad is alive or dead, we will be able to connect with him so you can set the wrong he did to you."
I could feel my heart bleeding. The old wound opening again. I had never gotten over his absence. We were a team, completely inseparable until he met that woman and cheated on my mom, the reason he left. The pain of his betrayal drove her to drinking and destroyed my faith in love and men.
I didn't want to hate him. It was too painful to live with so much venom. So I buried him deep, forgot about his love. But that pain never went away, and now William's well-being depended on me talking to him.
"How can I do that?" I asked. I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
"You will know when you see him," Maggie