I cupped my elbows, suddenly feeling vulnerable. “I’m not sure about this. How do I know you’re not setting me up?”
“You know where the door is if you have second thoughts, but I’ll need to scrub your memory of us before you go.” He shook his finger at me. “We are as trustworthy as the Mageri, if not more so. What talents and weakness you choose to reveal to the public is your business, but under no circumstance will my men speak of them to anyone. The same goes for you. Do you understand?”
I nodded. “I have your word?”
“Da,” he said, replying in Russian. Then he turned and placed his hand on Niko’s shoulder. “Come see me afterward, Niko. Spasibo.”
As he ascended the stairs, Niko moved like a panther, circling around me. The way he watched me was strange.
“Do you have a last name?” I asked.
“No,” he replied, still moving. “In my time, we didn’t have surnames. We were known by our clan.”
My God, that meant this guy was one of the ancients. It didn’t matter that he only looked to be in his twenties or thirties. In fact, I couldn’t even place his age since there was something timeless and mysterious about his appearance.
“Is Raven Black your given name?”
“If you mean given to me by my Creator, then yes. Black is, anyhow. He let me keep my first name.”
Learners traditionally take the surname of their Creator since that’s how the Mageri tracks lineage. Creators are rare, and most of them are assigned their progeny from what I’d heard. Learner was one of those titles I’d always hated and never went by on the account it applied to a newly made Mage still living with their Creator and going through training. My education came from the school of hard knocks.
“You didn’t have a good relationship with your Creator,” he remarked, moving out of sight.
I spun around. “How do you know that?”
He smiled knowingly. “Your energy. It tells me all I need to know.”
“I’m concealing.”
“True, I can see that. But you have emotional and spiritual energy that you cannot conceal or control. I can tell when you’re angry, when you are lying, when you’re nervous… as you are now.”
I backed up against the wall so he’d quit circling me like a predator. “How can you see that? I’ve never heard of a Mage being able to do that.”
His eyes remained on me in an absent way. “I’m blind, but I’m not so blind that I can’t see the truth.”
Chills danced up my spine. We didn’t retain injuries once immortal—not unless liquid fire was involved to seal the injury. Someone had chosen a blind human as their Learner. But why?
“This is a big house. How do you find the doors and get around?” I asked, noticing he didn’t have a cane.
Niko kept his hands at his sides, his tone clear and pleasant. “Most blind people count steps and keep things in the same place. There’s not much to trip on around here, and people don’t move furniture without letting me know. I do rely on that at times, but my unique gift allows me to live in your world. Almost everything gives off energy. Plants, animals, rocks, light, stars, even fire. Even things that you touch retain an imprint, like there,” he said, pointing to the floor. “I can still see your residual energy from where you’ve been. Enough about me. I want to learn more about you. Share your gifts with me.”
Gifts? That was a laugh.
“My Creator didn’t teach me anything.” I pushed off the wall and walked around him. “I can’t flash like a Mage, but I can sense energy. I haven’t tried healing since the time I knocked myself out for two days after pulling in sunlight.”
Niko rocked with laughter and then waved his hand. “Sorry, that was amusing. What about healing with another Mage’s light?”
“I’ve never gotten close enough to a Mage I haven’t killed.”
“Well, that’s reassuring. We’ll test that later. What about rare gifts? We can all heal, sense time, move quickly… but every Mage receives at least one rare gift in their light that not many can do.”
I flattened my back against the wall and reached overhead, gripping a pull-up bar just above me.
Niko tilted his head to the side. “Your energy is shifting colors. What are you hiding?”
“This is worse than getting naked.”
His expression softened. “We’re not here to expose your secrets to the world and make you vulnerable. How would that benefit us? The more we know about each other, the better we can help protect one another and improve our strengths.”
“Is this required?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Then what’s yours?”
Niko shook his head, strands of black hair floating in front of his face. “You already know one of my gifts, and I don’t want to get sidetracked on conversations about me. Viktor has tasked me to learn what you can offer us.”
He leaned against the wall to my left and remained quiet.
“I can pull energy from a Mage,” I finally said.
“So can we all. That’s called juicing.”