Tales of the Citadel # 32 - Core Charge Read Online Free PDF

again.

    Her touch was lighter as it skated over the surface. She put a light charge into her hand and smiled when it attracted like for like. Once she had located the feeling, she reversed the charge and began to draw it inward, filling her body with the energy it had spun away.

    Once she had the flow coming inward, she pulled on it and drained the orb, unravelling the power into her. That was the point, her energy coiled into a ball for use. Strands of power needed to be unravelled in the opposite direction from their holding pattern.

    When she had pulled all the carefully extruded power back, she stumbled away from the orb, stretched out her arms and vented the energy into the towers.

    As the last bit of power drained from her, she staggered.

    Stop was at her side in a moment. “Are you all right?”

    “Sure. Just a little drained. Heh. Get it? Drained?”

    She swayed alarmingly and he caught her, lifting her and carrying her to the bench set against the wall.

    “I apologize for asking you to over-do it.” He left and brought a glass of water back for her. “Here you go.”

    She drank greedily and sighed when the water was gone.

    He was looking at her with a serious gaze. “Do you think you could try again and hold it for more than a few seconds?”

    Gwiette gave him a serious gaze in return. “Why?”

    “If you take back your energy, you might not want to put it back in the system again.” He grinned and pointed to the orb that was glowing brightly once again.

    “Well, hell.” She sighed. “Where can I put it?”

    “That is for you to find. If I were you, I would use small bits of power to find the exit spot.”

    “Thanks for the hint.” She groaned, got to her feet and stretched.

    Stop stood next to her and frowned. “I didn’t mean right away.”

    “It’s all right. I had a good breakfast.” She patted his shoulder, and he jumped in surprise.

    His robes flared out and then settled.

    “How do they do that?”

    He chuckled. “I can wear Masuo, but it is affected by my talent, so it moves more slowly than it would otherwise.”

    “So, your clothing is alive?”

    “Yes, and temporally out of sync.” He smiled. “Now, would you care to try again?”

    She laughed. “I believe I would.”

    She straightened her posture and walked to the obelisk once again. She flexed her fingers and tried again. She jerked back when she grabbed the energy from the wrong end and sighed. It was going to be a very long day.

    It took her three hours to find the exit point for the energy. It was the bench where Stop sat her down after every wobbling episode.

    Once she was able to leech the power off through the ground, she knelt and yelled in triumph.

    Stop came up to her and offered her his hand. “Well done. Time for food.”

    She grinned and got to her feet with his help. “You could have told me.”

    “I will not always be there to guide you. You need to work it out for yourself. I have faith in your ability to find the outlet with greater speed or to hold in the power until you can find a safe place to release it.”

    She shivered. Holding the power was not her favourite part. “When do we work on that?”

    “That can wait for the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow, you will work on self-defence. We have volunteers from the Citadel coming over to sacrifice their bodies for your practice.”

    She walked with him to the exit. “I beg your pardon?”

    “You are going to work at stunning them or knocking them out with a sharp charge. Healer students and masters will be standing by.”

    “Great. I can’t wait.”

    “Well, Relay is expecting a visit from you today to discuss your message to your family.”

    She laughed, “Now I really can’t wait. Can we go now?”

    “We can.” He grinned and offered her his hand.

    She wove her fingers with his and walked through Fixer’s workshop, waving to the woman who was wearing her hair in a braid today, the dark rainbow maintained its