Here is an excerpt from Blood Divided. It might feel a little out of context, but trust me it's an important part. This excerpt ties some aspects of Soul Born to Blood Divided and then also ties it to book three. Some small teasers here, no spoilers.
Note: Blood Divided takes place 20 years after Soul Born. So when in the excerpt in mentions 16 year ago, we are actually taking about 4 years after the end of the events of Soul Born.
I hope you like this peek into what Opal has been doing.
***(please note, if you purchased or were gifted an early copy ((before Dec. 6th)) of Blood Divided on Kindle this flashback will be new to you. It was one of the late additions/corrections to the book, and is being updated into a new Kindle file soon. I kept the lead in to this part so you would know where it goes in the story.)
Page 70 of BLOOD DIVIDED - Book two of the Soul Born Saga
Khaos forcefully sheathed his sword before running after Cynthia through the brush. As he disappeared into the forest, Opal stood stunned her mind on one thing; power.
“I-I was powerful… I was powerful… I was powerful…”
Sixteen summers ago, Opal made a decision that would forever change her life and reshape the lives of all those she knew.
***
Standing on the shore of the small island of Velencia, Opal addressed her two oldest friends: Lorek, a former student of the High Council, trained by the archmage Dusk, and Willa, one of the first Illyian mages she had rescued way back when she still pregnant and called that dreaded land home.
Opal asked both of them to meet her on the coast of their new homeland so she could reveal her latest plan and show them the first step she was taking to see it to fruition.
Having saved seven adults and twelve children from persecution due to their magical powers over the past five years, Opal first explained they had finally reached a point in time when they needed to officially form a group. This New Guild, as she called it, would offer not only safe haven to its members, but also training for those who needed it or wished to develop their powers to protect themselves.
Both Lorek and Willa had been studying with Opal for a while, each overcoming the unfortunate circumstance of lacking absolute control over their powers when they were younger. When Opal became reacquainted with Lorek, months after the Mustaffa War, he had burns over sixty percent of his body, a result of trying to summon a fire spell of such magnitude it would cleanse Spire Anguish of its elven mage hunters. He had been in both physical and mental anguish. Such turmoil would have undone a weaker man, but Lorek’s determination was strong.
Willa could barely hold her shape. Her magic, which was tied to nature tighter than any other magic user Opal had met, had transformed the woman into some sort of monster, a walking-talking tree, her skin forever changed to a dark green tone, covered in hard patches like a lizard man’s scales. Able to elongate her limbs like ever-growing snakes, Willa often found herself trapped, “rooted,” to the ground by her feet. Opal taught her how to relax with a breathing exercise while concentrating on a child’s rhyme. It was something she used long ago to balance her mind and emotions. Panic, Opal taught both of them, was a mage’s worst enemy.
Gazing over her shoulder back at the two, Opal spotted Willa’s fingers wrapped around Megan’s and Nathan’s wrists, the thin green things wiggling like earthworms. The two scamps had a penchant for running off when not attended to, and Willa, with her abilities, made a great guardian.
Although Opal could not see Willa’s face through the shadows of her hood, she knew the woman was most likely practicing her breathing exercises; she was much better at holding her shape now—a great change from a summer ago, when she would have probably looked like a big, green octopus writhing on the beach.
“All this time… all those trips back and forth from that hateful continent of Illyia…” Opal paused. “I’ve often thought this one thing: What made the High Council so appealing to young mages? What did those old bastards truly have to offer?”
Lorek and Willa remained silent, like a pair of motionless statues, each covered from head to toe in thick, heavy, mage’s robes, hoods up, even now, when no one was around to see their deformities.
“What did they offer you, Lorek? You joined them when you were young?” she asked, facing away from them again, her eyes locked on the waves on the horizon.
“I had been disowned by my father after accidentally burning his farms; the High Council offered me a new home.”
“As I offer a home to those I rescue now.”
They could not see it, but Opal’s eyes where flashing blue and green; the magical energy she stored within her body was about to be released.
“Not that I’m complaining, Mistress Opal, but their home was more than a cabin in the woods… it was a huge fortress.”
“Exactly,” Opal answered.
With that Opal’s body began to glow brown, shimmering from head to toe. While raising her hands from her hips, a purple cloud of magical energy formed in the sky over distant waves.
“Wha-what is it?” Lorek asked, recalling the last time he saw Opal cast a spell over the ocean. “What do you see? Is it more slavers?”
“No, nothing on top of the water; something well beneath it.”
The island of Velencia began to shake. First, a small tremor crept across the top crust that few would have noticed, but for Willa, rooted into the ground as she was, it felt like being shoved. Taking several steps back, Willa led Opal’s children away from the beach to the tree line. She sensed a great change coming, in nature if in nothing else.
Opal magically lifted herself several feet from the ground as she performed her spell. Lorek could see Opal straining, the veins in her neck bulging all the way down to her shoulders. Lorek had witnessed her cast many spells, all effortlessly. Whatever she was doing, it must have been massive and that thought terrified him.
“Willa, perhaps we should move,” Lorek said, looking to his side, expecting to find her there, but she had already retreated back.
A more noticeable tremor shook the beach hard, knocking Lorek off his feet—now he understood why Opal was floating.
“Prepare yourselves,” Opal yelled.
The shaking grew stronger and stronger, filling their ears with a loud rumble that sounded as if the gods themselves were growling. Opal rose up further, the glow around her body intensifying until Lorek and Willa could no longer look at her without squinting.
Having to take his eyes off her, Lorek returned his gaze to the ocean, finally noticing something strange. A far distance off the coast, he thought he saw bubbling, like that of the hot springs that were hidden in the forests of the smallest island in the chain where they lived. Yet these bubbles did not look like they soothed; they were large and violently bursting on the surface of the ocean.
Casting a spell that would allow him to see further, Lorek could see fish by the dozens floating to the surface, seemingly dead.
“She’s killing fish?” Lorek said to Willa.
“No, she moving—”
Willa’s words were cut short as the rumbling of the land grew so loud that screams could not penetrate the sound. Drawing Opal’s children in tight, she tried to cover their eyes, with her tentacle-like fingers, but both Megan and Nathan wanted to see what was happening. They had been raised to never fear magic, especially that which was cast by their mother.
“Behold!” Opal screamed, the word lost in the thunderous noise.
Slowly, something dark pierced the water as it rose up from the depths of the ocean. Opal’s power intensified the spell and the purple clouds that hung over the ocean seemed to stretch and then sink into the water a moment, as the thing that was rising began to take shape. Flat on top, yet with jagged points outlining its shape, the land mass grew larger and larger, inch by inch, until a monolith was exposed.
“She moves the very world. Willa, she’s as powerful as the gods!” Lorek screamed.
Willa could fully sense it now; she knew what Opal was doing, yet wrapping her mind around it was difficult. Although she hardly heard her Lorek’s shouting, she felt the same way he did; for Opal to do what Willa assumed she was doing, she could not be human. The task would be impossible for humans.
Suddenly, the entire island of Velencia lurched, like a boat on rough seas. There was no doubting it now: everyone—man, woman, and child—would know something spectacular happened this day.
Fighting to stay balanced on their feet, Opal’s children eventually tipped over, one after the other. If Willa had not allowed her root-like toes to dig deep into the ground, she would have fallen over too.
“Just… a… little more,” Opal said between grunt-like exhales.
It was now apparent to all who witnessed it, by the height and shape of the giant rock formation, Opal had raised a small volcano from the ocean. Located off the shore of the island, too far to swim to, the thing was massive—tall enough that, during the dawn, it could cast a shadow long enough to reach the beach. As Opal dropped back down to her feet, the mountain of rock stopped moving and the quaking ceased. The glow that outlined her body decreased in brightness and begun to retract back into her; he spell was completed.
Standing up, Lorek shouted, not realizing his voice would be so loud now that the noise had died down. “You raised a damned volcano?”
Opal did not turn to answer him; she was having enough trouble just staying upright with the level of exhausting she was feeling.
“No longer a volcano… this is our new home, the headquarters of the New Guild.”
“Wha—”
“Opal, where is the water going?” Willa pointed, as the waves seemed to move in reverse, not crashing on the shore, but fleeing from it.
Opal had never seen such an occurrence, but Lorek had as a child, visiting his uncle’s home in one of Illyia’s many southern fishing villages. While staring at the sight, Lorek unearthed a long-forgotten memory, the details of the day a massive wave crashed down and flooded the entire fishing village rolling over him. He was only seven when it happened, and by some luck, one of the only survivors.
“Opal!” he screamed, finally getting her to look at him. “There’s going to be a huge wave coming.”
“Is this true, Willa?” Opal asked. This was one of the reasons she had Willa there: to interpret the reactions of nature.
Willa was already concentrating on the subtle vibrations the ocean made as the seawater churned. She could normally sense the waves, like a brushing motion caressing her rooted flesh. Now, that brushing was building up to a slapping sensation that warned her something was drastically wrong.
“The ocean has become violent.”
“Please, I’m warning you,” Lorek said backing up. “I’ve seen this before… the water goes away only to come back stronger… in a giant destructive wave. We must run now.”
It was already too late. When Opal faced the ocean again, the spray of incoming water was striking her face. A wave the size of the trees that once kept her father’s cabin secluded outside of Weiden’s Rise towered over her with a menacing roar. Although feeling like she had already pushed herself to her limits, Opal drew upon her magical power once more. She had to do something; her children were present.
Thrusting her hands out palms first, she erected a magical shield that was tall and long. The thick green force that emitted from her hands stretched out several feet to either side of her at first, but Lorek screams, of “More!” made her keep casting. Soon, the wall was reaching out at least twenty feet to each side.
Before the wave could impact the shield, Lorek used his magic to further stretch and reinforce it. Learned in few defensive spells, Lorek was proud to at least know this one. A shield spell was an important part of any battle mage’s skill book.
“Let me help you!”
When Lorek’s hand touched Opal’s bare shoulder he recoiled in pain, but his grip on her grew tighter. In all the excitement Opal had not lowered her normal defenses, still coated in a spell that sapped the power of any other mage who would make skin-on-skin contact with her. Lorek felt instantly ill, time slowing down, sounds growing silent, until all he heard was Opal’s voice in his head.
Feeling as if he had been punched in the gut, Lorek’s knees buckled and he dropped to the ground. Opal was siphoning his life force to make herself more powerful, but not enough that he would suffer any permanent damage.
Within the blink of his eye, the shield spell Opal was casting spread out with lighting speed, defending the island as far as the eye could see. When the wave landed, it struck the shield with enough force to shatter a stone wall, but Opal’s spell held. Her magic was mightier than mere stone.
“Opal you’re hurting him!” Willa screamed as one of her tentacles grew up from the ground beneath Lorek, wrapped itself around his leg, and pulled him free of the skin-on-skin contact with Opal.
The ocean drummed against the magical shield wall a moment, reaffirming to Opal that she had made a terrible oversight. Had Lorek not been there, had he not offered a warning, there would have been a disaster.
“Willa, I need you to help me. Can you merge into the ground and drill some holes out in the surf, so this extra water will funnel off?”
“I can.”
“Good, I don’t want to hold this shield all day.” Opal smirked.
“What of the damage to the rest of the island?” Willa asked full of concern.
“What damage?”
“The wave, it must have reached the harbor by now.”
“No, it didn’t. I wrapped the shield around the entire island,” Opal assured her.
“You couldn’t have…” Willa’s voice faded off.
“If you doubt me, please, follow it around; tell me your answer when your reach this very spot again.”
Opal stepped away from the shield; on this day she had accomplished two large goals. After some modifications inside the volcano, the New Guild would have a home, a fortress. That and looking at the massive stone peak, looming in the distance, Opal knew that all who witnessed its arrival today would soon learn it was the result of magic. Powerful magic.
Her magic.
***
“I was powerful.”
Slowly Opal faded away.
-------------------------------------------
Who is Khaos? Opal has been doing what? She has kids? Exciting, right?
Learn all the answers when you read Blood Divided. The print copy of the book should be released within a month. Sorry about the delays.
Kevin James Breaux
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