01_-_The_Alchemyst

humani have abandoned,” Hekate continued. She pressed her thumbs lightly
against Sophie’s eyes.
“To see with acuity…”
Sophie’s vision bloomed, and the darkened chamber came to blazing
light, every shadow picked out in exquisite detail. She could see each thread
and stitch on Hekate’s robe, could pick out individual hairs on her head and
follow the map of tiny wrinkles that were visibly growing at the corners of
her eyes.
“To hear with clarity…”
It was as if cotton had been pulled from Sophie’s ears. Suddenly, she
could hear. It was like the difference between listening to music on her iPod
headphones and then to the same track on her bedroom stereo. Every sound in
the room magnified and intensified: the wheezing of her brother’s breath
through his nostrils, the tiny shifting creaks of the huge tree above them, the
scritch-scratching of invisible creatures moving through the roots. Tilting her
head slightly, she could even hear the distant sounds of battle: the screeching
of birds, the roars of cats and the bellowing of boars.
“To taste with purity…”
Hekate’s fingers brushed Sophie’s lips and suddenly the girl was
conscious that her tongue was tingling. She licked her lips, finding traces of
the fruit she had eaten earlier and discovering that she could actually taste the
air—it was rich and earthy—and even distinguish the water droplets in the
atmosphere.
“To touch with sensitivity…”
Sophie’s skin came alive. The fabrics against her skin—the soft cotton
of her T-shirt, the stiff denim of her jeans, the gold chain with her birth sign
around her neck, her warm cotton socks—all left different and distinct
impressions on her flesh.
“To smell with intensity…”
Sophie actually rocked backward with the sudden eye-watering
explosion of scents that invaded her: the spicy otherworldly odors of Hekate,