Page 16 of Dark Princess Emerging
As lunch was mostly over, everyone got up and followed them to Annani's backyard, and Cassandra carried an empty drinking glass with her for some reason.
She walked up to a garden chair, put the glass on top, and they returned to the covered patio where everyone was assembled.
"Try to nullify my power," she said.
Morelle frowned. "I don't know what power I'm trying to stop." She still wasn't entirely sure how her nullification worked. "I will just think about stopping whatever it might be."
She concentrated, and the familiar energy humming under her skin sizzled pleasantly as if it had just woken up from slumber.
Morelle shook her head.You're imagining it. It's not happening.
She disregarded the feeling, letting it fizzle, and leaned against Brandon, who was standing behind her.
Cassandra turned to look at the glass she'd left on the green garden chair. "Here it goes."
For a moment nothing happened, but then, with a sharp crack, the glass exploded into countless glittering shards.
Startled, Morelle jumped, throwing her arms out to shield Brandon.
"Relax," Cassandra said. "My explosions are contained. The toughest part of learning to control my talent was aiming at a specific object so I wouldn't accidentally blow things up when I got angry or excited, and to moderate the power of the explosion so the pieces wouldn't fly too far away."
Morelle was still trying to convince her heart to stop racing, but she'd calmed down enough to realize that Cassandra's powerwas somewhat similar to Ell-rom's. It was also destructive, but the female had learned to control it. If Cassandra could be trusted, perhaps she could help Ell-rom master his death-ray ability.
"Let's try again," Amanda suggested. "Now that you know what to expect, see if you can block it."
One of Annani's Odus appeared with a broom and a new glass. He swept the broken shards into a bin and put a fresh glass on the green chair.
When he returned to the house, Cassandra looked at Morelle. "Ready?"
"Yes."
This time Morelle focused on the glass, imagining Cassandra blowing it up, just as she had done with Syssi's coin tossing.
Cassandra concentrated, but the glass remained intact.
"It worked!" Amanda clapped excitedly. "Let's test the range. Morelle, go inside while Cassandra tries again. Stay by the window and watch her. After that, we will try it without a line of sight."
"I'll go inside with you," Brandon offered.
Morelle nodded.
She could see Cassandra clearly through the glass door and maintained her focus, picturing that glass exploding.
When Cassandra attempted to use her power, nothing happened.
"Remarkable," Amanda said as she joined Morelle and Brandon inside. "Now, let's move away from the glass doors, and I'll tell you about how I met Dalhu. It's quite a story. He actually kidnapped me, and I fell in love with him anyway."
"He did what?"
Morelle suddenly remembered what Anandur had told her about Amanda mating the leader of the Doomer team, who had come to harm the clan. She'd been so preoccupied thinking about her newfound ability on the way home that she'd forgotten to ask how it had happened.
"Oh yes," Amanda launched into the tale, gesturing animatedly. "My Dalhu used to be a Doomer?—"
A sharp crack from outside made Morelle jump.
While she'd been distracted by Amanda's story, Cassandra had successfully shattered another glass.
"Perfect!" Amanda beamed. "So, the nullification requires conscious attention. When you're distracted, it doesn't work."
