She’d never seen him so animated.
“Now you have me curious,” she wryly admitted. “What’s happened?”
Calder tossed the information onto a nearby stack of books, allowing him to rub his hands together. The unconscious gesture sent tiny sparks of magic into the air, emphasizing the male’s excitement.
“It started with the child you recently brought to Valhalla.”
Her brief amusement was forgotten. “Molly?”
“Yes.”
She stiffened, a band of fear clenching around her heart. “Is there anything wrong with her?”
“No, she’s fine,” Calder hastily reassured her. “In fact, she’s more than fine.”
“What does that mean?”
Turning, the male began to pace from one end of the office to the other, amazingly not disturbing so much as a piece of paper.
Magic?
More likely years of practice.
“As you know it’s common practice for one of my staff to test any new residents,” he said.
Lana resisted the urge to roll her eyes. It’d actually been her command that all high-bloods be tested. Some possessed gifts that were unstable, or downright perilous.
Valhalla needed to be prepared for any potential threat.
“Is Molly a high-blood?” she asked in confusion. She hadn’t detected any spark of talent in the little girl, but she didn’t have Calder’s refined senses.
Calder paced back in her direction, his brow furrowed as if considering his words.
“She had a resonance,” he said slowly. “But no discernable talent. At first we dismissed it. There are a number of humans who carry an echo of power without ever being able to use it.”
“So she has a spark.” Lana shrugged. She assumed her old friend had a point, but as usual he was taking the scenic route to get to it. “Does it matter?”
“It wouldn’t have, but early this evening I decided to see the child for myself.” Calder stopped directly in front of her. “I entered the nursery to discover two of the older children had spontaneously acquired new gifts.”
Lana studied the thin face with an increasing confusion. “What gifts?”
“A young healer developed a talent for kinetic energy,” he said, referring to the ability of a person to move objects with his or her mind. “And a healer accidentally crushed a toy truck he was playing with. I assume the young boy has the potential to become a Sentinel.”
“Spontaneous manifestation has happened before,” Lana pointed out, even as she was grappling with the information that two of her children had acquired new gifts.
“Yes, but they’re extremely rare,” Calder retorted. “To have two happen at the same time”—Calder lifted his hands—“the odds are astronomical.”
He was right. Lana had heard of fewer than twenty in the past three hundred years.
“What are you suggesting?”
Calder was back to rubbing his hands together, the air vibrating with the force of his enthusiasm.
“We tried for years to discover how spontaneous manifestation occurs. Unfortunately, all our information has come from secondhand stories. None of us have actually witnessed a manifestation firsthand.”
“And?”
“And I think Molly was the catalyst,” the older man announced, oblivious to Lana’s dark frown. “I think that’s her gift.”
Lana clenched her hands, feeling oddly protective of the little girl.
It wasn’t because Molly was Bas’s daughter. Lana didn’t have any emotion toward her one-time lover. At least nothing beyond a fond irritation and the knowledge that he should probably be locked in her dungeons.
Instead it was because Molly had managed to touch some maternal instinct deep inside her. A knowledge that was frankly terrifying.
Annoyed with herself, Lana slammed the door on her ridiculous broodings and concentrated on what Calder’s hypothesis might mean for her people.
“You believe she can stir latent powers?” she asked.
He gave a vigorous nod. “It makes perfect sense.”
“Maybe to you,” she said, her tone dry.
“Okay.” No doubt accustomed to having to explain his convoluted ramblings, Calder sucked in a deep breath and visibly organized his thoughts. “Let’s say there are these catalysts. They seemingly have no obvious skills, but when they are put into contact with someone with dormant powers, they are capable of creating a chemical reaction that transforms them into high-bloods. Or if they’ve already manifested a talent, the catalyst will ignite any secondary powers they might possess.”
Lana stilled, trying to visualize what he was claiming.
There were some high-bloods who had mutations that were obvious from birth. Necromancers, or diviners, as they preferred to be called, had faceted eyes that were unmistakable. Other high-bloods didn’t develop their talents until puberty, although it was usually a slow, steady process.
Then there were the humans who had the potential within them, but their talents remained dormant.
And, of course, the very, very rare occasions when a talent