Sven whispered to Karn, "if I ask for moon goddess blessing to get together with your sister, do you think we'll become mates?"
"I don't think that's how it works." Karn said. Sven was quick to follow up, "didn't Rosemary say that it was more of a combined decision between the goddess and us?"
Karn smiled a little, "she said the goddess known better than us. She had never met someone who was unhappy with their mates."
"but I need to be with Karlene."
"should have thought about it when you were making her suffer."
Sven choked on air before he reasoned, "that wasn't me. That was a hypnotised me."
"And we learned this week that hypnosis cannot make you do things you don;t already want to do."
"Why have you been studying mates and hypnosis in first year werewolf lessons?" Vance asked, curiously. The conversation had pulled his interest.
Sven said, "the professor lets us decide sometimes what we want to learn about except a few important subjects."
"And someone chose mates." Karn pointed at Sven. Sven smiled awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. Vance said casually, "I heard two people can hear each other's thoughts. Fascinating stuff."
"A whole lot of other stuff too. We did reports on them and found out all sorts of things. And guess what. Ash didn't do her assignment. And if that was it, it would have been alright but a note from high priestess came in, excusing her of everything. The professor was pretty disgruntled when she did not even turn up for the class. She came later and said she didn't do it. The professor was even more pissed."
"The next day she turned in all the assignment, for the missed class and the previous one."
That got Vance curious. Sven fanned the flames. "The high priestess excused her of classes today as well but this time she submitted her assignments in time, even though she did not miss class."
Vance had seen her with the high priestess as well. Then she had pulled that stunt about knowing where everyone was in the tunnel. He didn't ask her about it or the lack of hypnosis from the fairy. But a person could only have an ability or two. She also had that crawling darkness he had seen coming from under the high priestess' door.
Karn's phone rang and Sven looked at it wistfully. "Time to go."
Vance gave him a wave, "see you at the meeting."
That evening Vance found himself in the library, too, looking up a few things he dare not share with others.
Ash was eager for this class as she entered the large arena. The circle was already drawn but the priestess wasn't anywhere close. She was sitting on the side benches. "I heard what happened."
It made things easier to discuss for her. She asked, "is that why you wanted me to take the day off?"
The priestess did not answer immediately. "I could sense that you were too overwhelmed and anxious and something was about to happen. You being you, would definitely try to contribute."
Ash smiled slightly. "I did contribute and learned a few things that have been confusing me a lot."
The priestess patted the spot beside her and Ash took a seat. "Since you already know about the fairy, I will only say that I impared everyone's vision in the tunnels until the fairy was caught. The darkness and its control wasn't a problem. The problem is something else."
"I happened and in the tunnel?"
"Yes and no."
The priestees nodded encouragingly.
"Two things. I always knew I had a greater resistance than others to sickness, infection and even supernatural attacks. I only thought I was resiliant. I have been soaked multiple times to know this. However, when I came here, the nixies put a raincloud on top of my head, and I saw the resitance in a physical form. It's like a thin layer of skin wrapped all over my body. the rain still soaked my clothes and my shoes but my body was dry. Once the cloud was gone, the clothes began to soak into my skin and made me wet. But not the raincloud."
If she thought the priestess would say somthing, she was wrong. The woman only asked, "you said two thins?"
"Yes," Ash continued, "as you told me, I might be able to manipulate other energies or other's energies, so I tried to pull this thin layer over the person next to me because we were both exposed to unknown kind of dust and fairy scream."
The priestess looked at her finally and Ash punched out the next words before she could stop herself, "not only was I able to save him, I heard his thoughts."
The high priestess, "why do you think that is?"
Ash looked out at the circle, mind running elsewhere, "I hoped you could tell me why."
"I could tell you but then you would not tell me your own ideas."
Ash had ideas but not her own. They were all wasted thoughts carried over from her assignments. "We could be mates but that's just impossible. If I was supposed to get a sense of someone's feelings, it would happen naturally, considering the fact you said I am powerful. It also has to be the other person reading into my feelings too."
If Vance was her mate, it explained the intensity of their attraction but it did not explain why he couldn't read her feelings.
"Why do you think he can't?"
Ash stopped breathing for a moment. Could he? Did he read into her feelings? If he did, he was very good at not showing it. Or did he? For no reason at all, he was too curt with her since the first meeting. Did he known then? She had been in the university for two weeks. If Vance had been able to sense her feelings, shouldn't she have seen a sign of it until now? Ash closed her eyes. She had been avoiding him too purposefully to find out anything about it. She will have to keep an eye now.
"There is another thing. If I should be able to read into his feelings, why did it only happen when I extended my ability to him?"
"That I cannot answer for sure. My best guess is that you have a stronger resistance to others influence on you. When that resistance turned into a solid ability, it must have become strong, securing you from even greater influences. Being mates and sensing each others feelings is also part of that influence you resistance keeps you away from."
"Can I control it?" Ash asked and immediatly repremided herself. Why did she need to control it? Opening her up would mean opening her heart to sensing Vance at all times.
"We can try that now." the high priestess suggested.
The two of them stood at the edge of the circle and the high priestess said, "how does the resistance look and feel?"
"Like its wrapped around my body."
"How do you extend it?"
"By stretching it."
The high prietess extended her hand, "extend it to me first and fill the room with darkness."
Ash did as asked. Surely, she could not sense the priestess' feelings but another question formed in her mind. As she collected darkness and the high priestess focused on the flame, it flickered bright and heavy. The high priestess said, "you don't focus on the flame. I will do it. Only focus on the resistance and darkness."
"I am not."
And so, they continued for a few more moments before returning the room back to its usual way. The high priestess clapped her hands in the middle and said, "this resistance of yours is very useful."
"I never had it in such a physical form. I am not sure, when this happened."
"Did you have any moon blessing ceremony between the moment you did not see it and the moment you saw it?"
"Only on my last birthday," before my mother died. The high priestess pointed at her and light engulfed her whole. The two of them watched carefully as a thin layer of resistance kept the light from crawling around on her skin. The resistance was like her second skin.
The high priestess asked, "did you feel it?"
"I felt its warmth but nothing else."
"Not even how bright it was?"
Ash shook her head. "But I felt it must have been hot. I felt it like a physical form moving across my arms."
"You resistance is strong, stronger for offensive skin but for skill not general things like tracking, elemental magic, or even mate bond. If you do have feelings for this person and the feelings get stronger, they will probably forgo your resistance and you will start sensing those feelings too. The resistance of your has its limitations. Be careful in the future how and who you extend it to. The extension of it makes you weak."
The overwhelming feeling of a big ability finally didn't feel that huge. She, too, was human, was a creature with limitations.
"Can a knife cut through it?"
"It will save you from knicks and cuts but it can't cave you from stabbing. No wonder the golem couldn't do anything to you but if had sharp teeth made of elemental magic, you would be in trouble."
Ash said, "I will be careful."
"Be careful and learn to move with it faster. If you can extend it, you can collect it in one spot and move it around your body too. The faster you learn to wield it, the better you will get at using it. It doesn't have to be a defensive skill alone. It could be offensive too. Be careful of elemental magic and blood magic from now on. Knowing the limitations and strengths of our abilities is very important.
And so they went on practising with her resitance. The high priestess used incantation and spells but nothing worked on her. However, she could be moved around with other elements. "you own magic is a part of nature, light and darkness both fall under elemental magic, so your resistance o them will be naturally low."
"But I was resistance to nixies magic."
The high priestess smiled. "As you will be to kelpies and selkies nature magic. Their nature magic does not come from the moon goddess. though are each nature magic, they belong to a different god's domain. To us, wind is wind and water is water but to the gods, even winds and water have their own signatures and imprints of the gods you control or grant them."
Ash did not understand it fully and the high priestess told her a little more. "people who can wield hypnosis as an ability, are also usually resistant to it. But the hypnosis from fairies comes from light magic, our resistance and hypnotic abilities comes from moon goddess, your resistance come from night goddess. Each of them have different affects on each other."
"I am even more confused now."
the high priestess did not answer her immediatly. She said, "I will show you the next time around. What do you say?"
"I will be training with someone?"
The high priestess clapped her hand, "one of the students, a vampire, was given the blessing of light when he entered the university last year. Most people only get one or two abilities, sometimes three and rarely four. The moon goodess granted him light. Now it wasn't like his eyes would shoot light, it was more about clarity. He is resistant to hypnosis like you should be but it is not the same. His abilities reside in his eyes. He can see through illusion, people's shapes and any kind of shapeshifting, even golems and other things. I am guessing, he should be able to see though the darkness that you conjure as if the room was no different than a normal dark room."
"Sounds powerful." Ash said. The high priestess smiled amused, "then there is the gift of light granted by the night goddess to two shapeshifter twins. I do not know these people personally, but I have met them. Their iris is shaped like the stars. They, too, see everything clearly, but unlike the light blessing by the moon goddess, the light blessing by the night goddess cannot handle the bright light of the sun at all. They too, can see very well in the dark, no matter how deep the darkness but cannot resist hypnosis."
"Same ability, two very different affects."
Ash nodded slowly. "This is far too complex."
The high priestess nodded. "Complex and interesting. There is whole section in the library about abilities. There are comparisons and everything you need to learn about them. Go look it up if you don't have plans for the weekend."
When Ash left the training, she went straight to the library.