am confident that everyone is safe for the time being. I do agree that something must be done, but we will move slowly and cautiously, at least until we know exactly what we are dealing with.” He shifted his weight back toward the center of the group. “Which brings me to our last order of business. It is apparent that the information we have regarding the Iris is not as accurate as we have always believed it to be, and therefore we must entertain the possibility that there could be more aspects to this that we are unaware of. That is why I propose that we awaken Ryland.”
“Wait,” I cut in over the collective murmur of agreement. “You want to what?”
“Awaken him,” Min said, then to Jocelyn added, “I had the same thought, actually.” Turning to me, she continued. “A Holder has an Awakening naturally when they reach young adulthood. Ryland is still a few years away from that, so what we will do is bring on his Awakening artificially. Force it to happen early.”
“Force it,” I stressed, not at all happy with that term. “That doesn’t exactly sound pleasant.”
“It has been done before with no problem at all. It only takes an hour or so, and then it is over.”
“And why are you doing this?” I asked.
“To make sure there is nothing overlooked,” Jocelyn said. “Considering that none of this has gone as planned, the safest thing for us to do is cover all our bases. The Iris had no effect on Ryland, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he will not still be instrumental to us in some way, and if that is the case, it will be best for us, and safest for him, if we find out now. That way, if any extra precautions are needed, we are ready.”
He might have just been playing me, what with the whole “Ryland will be safer this way” thing, but I had to admit, I was buying it. It did make sense to want to check and make sure Ryland wasn’t harboring any secret abilities or random tricks, especially considering some ancient prophecy had been telling people for hundreds of years that he was. Moreover, if he was still in any danger from this Darragh guy, I wanted to know about it.
“All right,” I agreed, “but I want to be there.”
“That won’t be possible,” Jocelyn said.
“What do you mean it won’t be possible?”
“I’m afraid he’s right, dear,” Min said with an apologetic smile. “The Awakening process is simple enough, but it involves an incredible amount of power, and as fragile as you still are your presence wouldn’t be safe for either of you.” Much as I hated being called fragile by anyone, the fact that it came from short little grandma-faced Min, made it slightly easier to bear.
Mustering as much composure as I could, I addressed Jocelyn directly, “What are you going to tell him?”
“Everything,” he answered. “Or at least everything within reason. There is no need to scare him with details he doesn’t need, but after what he witnessed yesterday, there isn’t much of a way around it.”
“And you really think it’s a good idea to have a ten year-old running around reading minds?” I asked, glancing back at Min.
“Oh no,” she said, “certainly not. Once he is awakened he will have a Sciath, which I will put a Block on just as yours has now. He will not have access to his ability until he is of an age and maturity to handle it.”
Well that was a relief.
“How soon can you be ready?” Jocelyn asked Min, as he walked around the desk and retrieved a coat that was folded over the arm of his desk chair.
“It’s Sunday,” she thought out loud, “so if I begin today, I could have everything ready by Tuesday morning.”
“Let’s make it Tuesday afternoon then, just to be safe,” he said, looking around at everyone as he pulled his coat on. “Say, one o’clock? We will see what happens, and hold off on any more decision-making until then.”
Everyone nodded, then began quietly talking amongst themselves while they stood and made their way toward the door. I got up, glancing quickly at Alex, planning to take this opportunity to walk with him and ask him what was wrong. However, before I could take my first step I was stopped by Jocelyn’s voice as he came up beside me.
“Becca?”
I looked at him, trying not to appear annoyed that he was keeping me from my objective. “Yes?”