Born to a loving people and enduring the long training process required to teach her to use her gift, Anesya is suddenly ripped away by a cruel man, her incomplete training a death sentence.
Gifted since birth with spectacular powers and a caring heart his people never intended he have, Tarmathian turns his back on them to make a difference in a realm where caring and tolerance require calm, diplomatic tactics.
Brought together by circumstances and standing united, the couple attempts to save their dying races. Exploring beyond the veil of magic into the realm of souls, they discover it takes two to fill a cup of love.
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A Second Chance
Copyright © 2005 Paula Calloway
ISBN: 978-1-55410-574-8
Cover art and design by Martine Jardin
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Smashwords Edition
A Second Chance
Tarot: King of Cups
By
Paula Calloway
Dedication
To my husband and daughter, with love.
Tarot Card: King of Cups
Taking on many forms, a King still carries the same qualities of the position for it is in his nature to be wise, calm, diplomatic, caring and tolerant. He is a union of constructive vitality and concentrated concern. His knowledge of life, in general, comes from the heart and those he teaches know he gives his guidance with loving attention.
Genuinely caring and compassionately responsive, his gentle touch and quiet words heal the deepest pains. Calm and relaxed, his intuition keen, his diplomacy spanning his realm, he listens attentively. Tolerant of all viewpoints, he displays patience during the most demanding situations. Allowing others the room to develop and asking for nothing, he is a patient advisor with a deep grasp of humanity’s nature.
His calming influence and securely stable disposition allow him to keep his head in a crisis. Balancing others’ needs, he assures a harmonic surrounding, but maintains the ready ability to diffuse a heated situation. Achieving goals with subtle influence and choosing his words carefully, he responds to the needs of those around him. His open-minded views accepting the limitations of others, he is comfortable with his surroundings.
Prologue
Except for the nervous family members who waited outside the council chambers and the patient council inside, the settlement slept. As with the birth of any child, the family gathered and the council waited to see if the Lunarian birth celebrated a healer or child of the community.
No one understood why a child with no voice possessed The Gift, but everyone understood the first sound of birth determined a child’s way of life. If the baby’s cry shattered the silence, the family raised the child within the community. Should the baby utter no sound, the elders raised the child on Island Home.
A child of the community raised with their family became a vital part of the social structure and grew to accept when one of their siblings, or even one of their own children, needed more lessons to control what they possessed. The Gift, as everyone called it, destroyed if the possessor didn’t learn to wield the magnificence of its power.
Island Home stood protected by a shield, which sheltered the rest of the land from the children who refused or failed to gain control of The Gift since such a price equaled death. The elders never left Island Home unless to deliver the sad news of the loss of a child to a family. To see an elder ride unescorted into a settlement and dismount at a family’s door meant a heartache no one ever wanted to face.
A young healer on Island Home considered the elders an extended family of caretakers and relied on them for everything. They expected and welcomed letter and various other keepsakes from the child’s real family.
At the Age of Training, usually five, a child gained their voice, earned the title of neophyte and learned of the elements. By the Age of Responsibility, generally thirteen, a student graduated to the title of apprentice and studied how to draw the elements.
Upon the Age of Accountability, generally nineteen, a student graduated to the title of cleric and learned how to release the unused elemental powers. At the Age of Hastening, generally twenty-two, a young adult graduated to the title of specialist and acquired the skill to shape elemental force.