House Of Gods 9 - Samantha Snow Page 0,2
instantly straightened his little body and opened his eyes wide.
“Okay, he’s ready,” Tara said. “He’ll share his power with one of you.”
“Who should it be?” Leif asked.
“Me,” Brandt said as he stepped in front of the baby and lowered his face to meet the infant’s eyes. “I have an idea.”
Lopt nodded, and no one else seemed to disagree with Brandt’s wanting to be on the receiving end of the child. Brandt held out his hand to the baby, and Tannin curled his little fingers around Brandt’s thumb. Instantly Brandt felt something spark inside of him. The baby smiled as Brandt stood back up.
“Did it work?” Brenna asked.
“Yeah,” he answered. “I can feel it. My power is back.”
“Okay, so someone enlighten me here. How is the power over memory supposed to help us out of this mess?” Colby asked. He wasn’t sure why no one had questioned Brandt as being the wisest choice before they went through with it, but then again, he hadn’t thought to question it himself until just now.
“I’m going to erase the mortal’s memory of magic,” Brandt answered.
“Can you do that?” Helia asked. “It’s so many memories in the minds of so many people. Do you have enough power for something of such magnitude?”
“We’re about to find out,” he said.
Brandt closed his eyes right where he stood and focused on the power that was now flowing through him again. He had never tried to manipulate the memories of this many people before. In fact, the most he had ever done at one time was two. This would be thousands of minds, each with likely hundreds of memories of magic. He started by focusing on the memories of the humans nearest to them, the ones just outside the bedroom door. It was an overwhelming feeling, sifting through thoughts as if they were shells on the beach, trying to find which ones to take out without rendering someone unable to remember their own names or where they grew up. He imagined it as a ripple effect in the water, starting at the center and slowly moving outward with each ring of increasing distance and each wave of additional mortals to affect.
He had to stay focused until he had reached them all, or he would lose them and have to start all over again. It was an immense undertaking. He was mostly in his own head, but after a bit, he started to feel his legs become unsteady as his mind started to swim. He was worried for a moment that he would fall and that it would break his concentration and he would need to begin again, which he didn’t know if he could do considering how exhausting it was. But then he felt two arms grab him and steady his weight. Someone was helping to hold him balanced, maybe Brenna, perhaps Lopt. It didn’t matter who, all that was important was for him to keep going.
As he looked into the minds of so many humans, searched through their memories and pulled all of the ones pertaining to magic, he was troubled by what he saw. So many people held onto memories of fear and jealousy, of pain and injustice; he tried not to let himself linger or look too long, but it was impossible not to feel something. The more he pressed on, the more he felt weighed down. Until, as he neared the end of his reach and looked into the minds of the last few mortals, he couldn’t go on any further. He felt all of his weight collapse beneath him and became aware that whoever was holding him up, was now completely supporting his body as he did the work in his mind. He had gathered all the memories of magic from the mortals, not just in New York City, but in the entire realm of Earth, and he felt himself drowning beneath them. It took every last bit of power and strength within him to erase the memories as if he were deleting a file from a computer, and when he did, he expected to feel a relief as if the heavy burden had been lifted. Instead, he felt confused.
There’s a feeling of similar confusion when one is underwater. Up and down get blurred, and then if it takes too long to re-orient yourself, panic sets in, which just serves to make matters even worse. That was the feeling Brandt had now. He wasn’t sure whether his eyes were open or closed, couldn’t tell