Chapter Twenty-four
JADE SAT AT HER TABLE AND STUDIED Reece who was sitting across from her. He’d walked back to the tent with her after Kendis had unsmilingly greeted him, and then taken his time kissing her goodbye at the mess tent.
She opened a link to Kendis and started, “Reece --”
“Before you say anything, I know what you want to talk about,” he interrupted. He clasped his hands together on the table and looked at her miserably.
“I’m so sorry for what happened, Jade. Please forgive me, I should have had better control of myself than that and more respect for you.” He dropped his eyes down to his hands.
“I know there’s no excuse for what I tried to do. I was a selfish asshole and convinced myself you were just teasing me, you know, just pretending not to want to…” He looked back up at her, his eyes wretched.
“I...I…didn’t know you’d never had sex before.”
She looked at him in consternation. “How did you know that? I never told you that!”
Damn! Does everybody know that about me? Am I wearing some sort of sign or something? She had a sudden image of herself walking along with a huge sign floating over her head that said in flashing lights: “Never done it!” and a hand pointing a finger down at her. She heard a mental chuckle from Kendis. Harrumph!
Reece was shaking his head. “I didn’t know until I looked back at you from your walkway. I could see it…that you were inexperienced, I mean.” A look of pain crossed his face.
“I didn’t know how I knew that, not then. All I knew was that I had made a terrible mistake. Not because I thought you would report me or anything - though I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had - but I could feel the mistake in my soul.” He looked at her, his eyes desolate.
“I wanted to see you afterwards, to apologize, to do anything I could to get your forgiveness but I was too heartsick and afraid.”
She was puzzled now. “But why?” She could feel the same question in Kendis’ mind.
“I’m a precog, Jade. The esa manifested the night you threw me out.” He sighed. “I stood looking at you and the only thing I got then was a brief flash of three possible futures, and one of them made me realize what a bastard I was for what I’d tried to do. I went immediately to the nearest Elvwist enclave, the 2nd. I got some preliminary training from the precog instructor there, and that’s where I stayed until I came here.” He gazed at her miserably.
“While there, another esa kicked in. I can now “read” soul-bonds. I knew you and Kendis were bonded when I saw you the day of our beach trip. I had come to ask for your forgiveness and to ask you for another chance, but when I saw that, I knew it would never happen. Now I just ask for your forgiveness.”
She felt sorry for him, and she could feel his deep regret and penitence. He at least knew how wrong he’d been, and he had the courage to admit it. More than a lot of people would do. Okay. Forgiveness: she could do that.
She felt his relief when she said she forgave him.
He went on, “I still haven’t learned everything I need to know but I’ve been talking to Sparrow and it says I am a strong precog and has agreed to teach me.” He smiled wanly.
“It says it wants to help me not make any more stupid mistakes. Besides, there aren’t that many precogs, especially Human ones. Of course, for the most part, I can’t see really far yet. I didn’t really understand everything Sparrow said, but it said nothing about the future is set in stone, though sometimes all possibilities lead to the same conclusion. Or something to that effect.” He shook his head again and smiled, crookedly. “Sometimes, it can get a bit cryptic.”
He didn't tell her Sparrow had explained some of his most recent visions, which were longer in range, or that he had talked with Lark who had sent for him earlier to ask about the incident with Jade and had given him a royal dressing down, which he knew he totally deserved, especially now that he knew of her importance to all of them. Lark had only been mollified when it learned his precog esa hadn’t manifested until after the incident.
Reece also didn’t tell Jade about the one vision that had both driven him to despair and given him a modicum of hope: he had seen that one of his own futures, now diverged because of his stupidity too far to be more than an extremely faint, fading possibility, showed that one day, he and Jade would have been vow-mates, soul-bonded to each other instead of her being bonded to Kendis. This is what had made him so soul-sick.
But that vision was also the only thing that gave him hope that one day he would find such a love again since it indicated that there was more than one possible soul-mate for a person. After all, Jade and Kendis would never have soul-bonded if he hadn’t screwed up.
Reece thought of the changes that were on the way for all of them. None of the precogs had all the details but they had enough to know, to See, the coming changes. They would divulge what they knew to only a few select Humans and Elvwists. To tell more, they had Seen, would cause a major catastrophe. They were all working together to try and mitigate some of the pain they saw coming.
Jade heard from Kendis:
They broke the link.
“Reece,” she asked, “Couldn’t you See anything about the Dimmer attack the day we went to the beach? I know Sparrow saw something, but it said it was murky, and it couldn’t get a clear picture of events.”
“No, I didn’t even get that much. Sparrow said all the precogs are having trouble discerning events around the Dimmers. It’s almost like trying to “See” anything about the Dome or the Dome builders. It’s a blind spot for us.” He shrugged.
“Nothing’s perfect and I think of all the esas, precognition is one of the hardest to get a handle on.” He stood. “I’ll be going now, Jade. Thank you for your forgiveness.” He peered at her humbly.
“You are one of the nicest people I’ve ever met and I hope that someday we can at least be friends. I would like that, with you and Kendis.”
She didn’t say anything to that, she just told him he needed to go see Maggie, to which he replied he knew, and he was on his way there next. He smiled sadly and left her tent.
She looked after him, thoughtfully. She forgave him but she wasn’t ready to be his friend yet, and she knew Kendis wasn’t, either. Maybe someday, for her, but she didn’t think Kendis was ever going to embrace Reece as a friend.
She had the feeling he knew or saw something he wasn’t telling her but she shrugged. She’d had that feeling with Sparrow before, too. Maybe it was just something everybody felt around precogs.
She sent Maggie a message, summarizing her conversation with Reece, and advised her he was on his way there.
She spent the next two days either visiting with Journey, who was still staying in the make-shift hospital in Larks tent, or reading the old magazines Ro had brought her, and leafing through the ones Kendis had.
She went to the memorial service for Saber, held in the open central area of the camp.
In general, she followed Larks orders of taking it easy and drinking her elixirs.