He pushed her back until she was standing at the edge of the plateau, with no room left without falling off the mountain. At the last second, as she was about to take her final step back, she suddenly flipped up in the air, high over his head, and landed on his other side.
As she did, she brought down her staff, and to her shock, she managed to strike Aiden hard, right on the shoulder. He reached up to block it, but was a fraction of a second slower than her. Caitlin was amazed: that had never happened before, not in all the years, all the centuries, all the places, she had known him. She had never seen anyone get a blow in on Aiden.
Her blow hit him hard, and Aiden sank to his knees. As he did, he dropped his staff, and it bounced off the ground and fell off the mountainside. It hurled, end over end, as it plummeted, bouncing off the rock, clanging as it went. It was a loud, surreal clang, one which shook the entire valley.
Aiden slowly turned and looked up at Caitlin. She had never seen him look so amazed.
She herself was flabbergasted, not knowing what she had just done. And then, she felt overcome with remorse. She had beaten her teacher.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, extending one hand to help him up.
He shook his head, and slowly rose to his feet. As he did, his eyes filled with tears.
But, Caitlin could see, these were not tears of pain: they were tears of pride.
“The day has come,” he said. “Now, finally, you understand. Now, there is nothing more I can teach you.”
Aiden took two steps closer, held out his palms, and gently reached up and placed them on her forehead. He closed his eyes, and as he did, she could feel the incredible energy coursing through them, into her. She felt a transmission of power, a whole new energy, something she had never felt before. She didn’t know what was happening to her.
“Caitlin of the Pollepel Coven,” he slowly announced. “I hereby endow you with every power you will ever know.”
Caitlin closed her eyes, feeling the energy coursing through her like a tidal wave. As she did, she was suddenly overcome with a series of visions.
She had a vision of war. She saw the skies blackening, saw an army of evil vampires filling the air, racing towards the Mount of Olives. She saw Rexius at their head, and to her disbelief, Sam, her brother, by his side. She could hardly believe it.
She saw them inflicting wave after wave of damage and destruction. She saw Caleb fighting them off, and Aiden, too.
But she saw them losing. And then, to her horror, she saw Caleb get stabbed through the heart. Dying.
Caitlin opened her eyes with a cry.
She stared at Aiden, who stared back at her, grimly.
“What do you see?” he asked, his voice somber.
“I see a coming war,” she said. “Here. On this mount. I see my brother. Attacking. I see….death. Caleb’s death.”
She opened her eyes, and Aiden nodded back gravely.
“You see much,” he said.
“Is it true?” Caitlin asked, afraid to know the answer.
Aiden turned away and gazed out, wordlessly.
“I won’t allow it to happen!” Caitlin insisted. “I will stay here. I will defend the mountain, with all of you!”
“This is not where you are needed. You, and Caleb, and I, each have our own destinies. You are needed to find your father. The shield. That is the only thing that can save us now. You are our last hope. If you stay here and fight with us, we will all surely die. That much is certain. If you go, then there is a chance, a small chance, that we can survive.”
Caitlin felt so torn inside, swirling with conflicting emotions. She didn’t know what to say. She felt more helpless than ever, like a puppet in the hands of fate. On the one hand, she knew she had the power to make choices, to determine her destiny; on the other hand, she clearly saw that certain things were fated. But how much, she wondered? How much was everything fated? How much of life was destiny? Could fate be changed? Or was she helpless, were they all helpless, to just sit back and watch destiny unfold? These thoughts tore her up inside.
“You receive two powerful new skills today,” Aiden continued. “Your final skills. The first is the skill to change properties: you can now change silver into an ordinary metal. Which means you can never be contained by silver. No other vampire has this skill. Only you.”
Caitlin felt a new energy tingling in her arms, and felt more invincible than ever.
“And your final skill is the most powerful of all.”
Aiden paused.
“It is the ability to choose your future place and time.”
Caitlin stared back, thinking.
“What do you mean?” she asked, perplexed.
“Up until now, you have only been able to travel back in time. Vampires can never travel forward. But today, with the completion of your training, one exception is made, for one time only. If you survive, if you find your father, then you shall have one chance to choose. A time and place. In all of history. You will be able to choose your destiny.”
Caitlin furrowed her brow, trying to process it all.
“Are you saying I can move forward, to the future?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Not without the shield.”
“But with the shield?”
He looked back at her, noncommittal.
“When you have the shield, you will understand.”
Caitlin tried to understand, but it all seemed so mysterious to her. She wanted to ask more, but she sensed he’d already told her all that he would.
“But I still don’t know where to go next,” she pleaded, “to find my father.”
“You don’t know because you’re not seeing,” he said. “Now tell me: what else do you see?”
Caitlin closed her eyes again. This time, she was flooded with a vision of a magnificent temple, stretching hundreds of feet in every direction, in the center of Jerusalem. She saw a square within a square, and a chamber in its center courtyard. She sensed that this was the holiest place on earth, and her final destination. She saw herself entering it, carrying an ivory staff.
“I see a vast and holy temple,” she said, her eyes closed, struggling to make out the details. “I see myself entering it. And carrying a staff. An ivory staff. And in my head, I keep hearing a voice. It says: A square within a square.”
Slowly, Caitlin opened her eyes, and as she did, she saw Aiden holding out a staff. She could not believe it: it was the staff of her vision. It was a weapon that Caitlin recognized, but had not seen in years: a four-foot ivory staff, intricately carved, with a round circular head and mysterious etchings all over it. The last time she had seen it had been in the Cloisters, in New York City. The crozier that Caleb had once used, and one of the greatest weapons of their coven. It glowed like a thing of magic as Aiden held it out to her.