“You need to focus on what you want. You think about what you are, and then you use that, draw that power, and you shift it, allowing it to be something more.”
Jason smiled. “None of that really makes any sense to me.”
“You will have to find a way for that to make sense for you.”
He watched Thomas, but the other man simply stared at him, smiling. Every so often, the illusion he created shifted, and it made it so that Jason still didn’t know which one was the real man and which was the illusion.
If the illusion was the older man, then he was maintaining it for a long time. If the illusion was this other that flickered in place, then even that was impressive.
As he watched, he couldn’t help but wonder if there was something more he needed to try to determine. He wanted to do what the other man suggested, and wanted to find some way to reach for the power Thomas told him he needed, to find a way to understand himself, to use the power Thomas suggested he had, but he wasn’t sure he knew how.
“We will keep working. In time, you will understand.”
Jason watched him. “What happens if we don’t have time?”
“You can’t rush this.”
Jason sighed. He didn’t know that he would be able to take the time that the other man suggested, and if he couldn’t, if he had to push through this, then what would happen to the people of his village?
6
Jason sat in the room by himself, nothing but the hearth for his company. A flame crackled softly near him, putting off warmth that still felt foreign. The firewood smoked pleasantly, and he found himself looking at it, eyeing up the hearth, trying to watch as the wood was consumed by the flames.
The illusion continued to elude him.
Thomas made it seem as if the illusion should be simple, and for him it was, at least seemingly. For Jason, it was something else. He struggled to craft an illusion that would mask his hand, let alone his eye. If he couldn’t do both, if he couldn’t find some way of hiding who he was when he went into the city, he wasn’t going to be effective. His mother and the rest of the villagers would remain captured by Therin.
Focusing again, he tried to think about what maintaining control over the illusion would involve. His hand should be the easiest, mostly because it was the one he could actually see, but his hand was what he struggled with the most. As much as he tried to get an understanding of how to shift into an illusion, he couldn’t find any method that would grant him that ability.
He held on to the power within him, focusing on what he wanted.
That seemed to be the most important, though even as he did that, Jason wasn’t entirely sure if what he was doing was working.
He had to grasp some way to call upon the power that would allow him to shift the appearance of his hand.
Thomas had made it clear that doing something like that should be straightforward. The other man had changed his entire appearance, so Jason’s attempt to find some way to change only a small part of himself shouldn’t be that much of a challenge. Only, the more he focused on his hand, the more hopeless everything felt.
He simply didn’t know what would be involved in trying to create the necessary illusion.
If he couldn’t, then his plan of going to the city, freeing the villagers, even freeing the dragons, was for nothing. There was no point in risking himself like that. It would be better to simply go in and be open with who he was, expose himself to Therin, and battle him openly.
That was if he could even get close to the city.
Jason had no misconceptions about whether or not he would be able to get near Lorach. He suspected they would be prepared for the possibility of any members of the rebellion coming, and once they did, then he thought it likely that they would press an attack, probably enough of one that he and the others would be thrown back quickly.
It meant that he would have to consider an alternative.
The alternative was leaving his mother behind.
He had a sense from Henry that the other man wanted Jason to simply abandon her. And unfortunately, some part of him knew that going after her was likely a suicide mission, but he didn’t think he could leave his mother behind. She had suffered enough, losing her husband, losing so much to what she believed to be the dragons, that he couldn’t let her suffer more because of someone who served the dragons.
He turned his attention back to the illusion.
He could do this. He was determined to find a way to hold on to it, and once he did, he believed that he would be able to master the skill.
If Thomas were like him, then Jason could use the same techniques. He would have to be able to use those same tactics.
All it would take would be for him to find the method in order to do so.
He stared, thinking about what the other man had instructed, knowing that the lesson was there and that he could do it.
It involved focusing on some buried part of himself.
He held on to that sense and stared at his hand.
For a moment, it flickered. The iron glove that surrounded his hand began to shift, taking on something of a fleshier appearance, and Jason thought he was going to be able to hold it, but then that faded and the iron glove returned.
He let out a frustrated groan.
That wasn’t what he needed. He needed to keep trying. He needed to see if there was anything more he would be able to push into that connection, and if he could uncover something about the illusion.
What he wanted was to use the lessons that Thomas had taught him. Focus on the image he wanted to convey and believe that it was real.
That was what he needed.
It was a state of mind, nothing more than that. If he could hold on to that, he thought he might be able to use that energy, and he might be able to understand just what it would take to succeed with this.
He knew what he wanted. That part was easy. He wanted to use the iron dragon glove to grant power to hold the illusion. He had to hold it.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, he started to lean back when a knock came at the door.
He looked up as the door opened and Kayla entered. She looked over at him, frowning. “What are you doing here?”
“I am trying to work on a plan for getting Mother back.”
He wasn’t sure that telling her anything about the illusion would benefit either of them. The only thing it would do would be to create worry for her. If she learned that was what would be involved, he suspected she would be troubled by his ability to maintain it. Jason shared the concern about that, and he even didn’t know if he would be able to hold on to that illusion well enough to solidify it, so it was too early to share that concern with her.
“You really think you can get her?”
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, looking up at his sister and meeting her gaze. Worry flashed in her eyes.
Given everything that she had gone through, all of the work she had been forced to endure on their mother’s behalf, she still wanted her back. There was some part of Jason that had wondered whether or not his sister had given up on their mother. He certainly wouldn’t begrudge her that if it were the case. She had been the one responsible for providing care to her, ensuring that she was fed, clothed, changed. His sister had dealt with nursing her when their mother had wanted nothing more than to give up on herself.
“I think that I can. I don’t know, though. The person who is responsible for this is powerful, and I don’t know what he has done.”
His sister leaned against the door. “How did you anger someone so powerful?”
He smiled up at her. “It’s a long story.”