Kissed by Darkness(72)
He nodded. “Yes, OK, that makes sense. Though all Atlanteans had at least some abilities far beyond that of humans, at least from what I’ve seen in my dreams.”
“Exactly. With time and intermarrying with humans, the descendents of those few of Atlantean blood who survived the massacres lost their abilities.” I started strapping on weapons. Lots and lots of weapons. “Or at least they stopped being able to access their abilities, which eventually became dormant. The amulet was created by the last High Priest of Atlantis not only to store all the knowledge the Atlantean people had gained over the millennia, but to make contact with those of Atlantean blood until it found a member of the Royal Bloodline.”
He gave me an aggrieved look. “Yes, I know this. I am the Guardian for a reason.”
“What you don’t know is that when the amulet comes into contact with a member of the Royal Bloodline of Atlantis, it will reawaken all the power and abilities of the people of Atlantis within that person.”
“Of course, that’s the whole point.” He was starting to sound annoyed. “But Darroch isn’t a member of the Bloodline or he’d have accessed the amulet a long time ago.”
“Exactly.”
“So, we’re fine,” he insisted. “No need to rush around like a headless chicken.”
I smirked at him as I slid my sword into its sheath. “That’s where you’re wrong.”
I did a quick mental weapons check. “The power of the amulet can be accessed by anyone with Atlantean blood. Warrior, Priest, Royal or Commoner, doesn’t matter. It’s simply the level of power and type of ability that changes. The amulet will only allow a descendent of the Bloodline to fully tap into the knowledge and power contained within.”
My favorite stiletto knife needed sharpening so I yanked out a drawer and grabbed a whetstone before continuing. “That’s why you have become as strong as you have, Jack. The amulet allowed you to tap into your latent abilities and gave you the information you needed to understand your mission and survive the centuries, not to mention make you freaking immortal. The problem is that even a Commoner can access at least some of the power of the amulet, and with that power and knowledge combined … “
Jack looked a little pale. “With the Church losing power day by day and the economy in a mess, he could become infinitely more powerful than the Templars ever were. He could take over the world.”
“Or destroy it,” I agreed. “He doesn’t even need to find the Bloodline.”
“But that doesn’t make sense.” He shook his head. “I know he can destroy the world if he accesses the amulet, but he can only access it if he finds a descendent of the Bloodline. If he could access the amulet himself, he would have done so already. You’ve got to be wrong about that.”
I shook my head. “Not necessarily. If he’s descended of a Common Line, he’s not strong enough to access the amulet’s full power on his own, true, but there is another way. He has to perform a very specific ritual to release the power. Even members of the Priest and Warrior Lines can only access a tiny fraction of power unless they perform the ritual, unless they are directly descended from Varan or one of his Warriors like you are. Heck, even you can only access a certain amount.”
I did a mirror check. “That is why the amulet chose you in the first place. That was always the plan. A descendent of the original Warrior who delivered the last member of the Royal Bloodline to the Amazons should be the one to find and deliver the amulet to a Royal descendent, presumably so that he could access both the full knowledge and power contained in the amulet without having to perform the ritual.”
“So, that pretty much proves you are descended of the Warrior Priest Class, as well. That must be where this new ability is coming from, this Kissing the Darkness thing. If the Elemental Mages you mentioned were other descendents of the Priest Class and they lost their abilities over time as the Atlantean blood was watered down by human, it would explain your abilities,” Jack pointed out.
I mulled it over. “I guess that makes sense. Once I got close enough to the amulet at Darroch’s house it must have sensed me or something like that. That’s why I keep getting the dreams. Obviously it wants us to rescue it.”
Even to me that sounded a little weird. Referring to an object like it was a person who’d been kidnapped, but the amulet was starting to feel almost sentient. That old High Priest must have had some serious magic mojo to create it.
“Anyway …” Sure everything was in place, I turned away from the mirror. “We need to get it back so that you can do your job and find the right person to give it to. I prefer you find somebody not evil and creepy.”