by Kyle West
We had a month yet to return to Valance, and with Shara now on our side, he had no way of knowing we had broken his rules. And assuming we were right in that the Prophecy was with the Sphere Priests, we would have plenty of time to find it – assuming it actually was there.
Whatever did happen, it wasn’t just Isaru and me anymore. There was Isa and Shara, and we had the support of two of the seven Elders. If two of them could believe me, then the rest would only be a matter of time...or so I told myself.
My first priority was making sure my parents were freed. After that was accomplished, we could figure out our next move. The time was coming where I had to rise to the mantle and claim my identity in full, no longer hiding it from the world. The thought of that terrified me, because deep down inside, I still felt incapable and unworthy of it.
But I had to try...even if I didn’t fully believe in myself.
CHAPTER TWO
ELDER TELLOR FACED OFF FROM me across the field of xen, each of us wielding wooden practice blades he’d carved out of Silverwood. I assumed Treeform while he took up Wind. Seeing such a large man take on such a light and graceful form should have been jarring, but Tellor moved with an easy grace that belied his size.
He was one with the blade, and in all the times we had sparred, I hadn’t managed a single hit.
He came forward while I remained perfectly still. A few paces ahead of me, he paused as if considering. He moved not a muscle. He was testing me, perhaps. He never let me know what his plan was, and it was only after I was soundly defeated that he took me through every movement of the sequence he had performed, step by step, in order to teach me where I’d gone wrong.
It was clear he wanted me to come at him, even if he had been the one to make the first move. Already, I felt impatience welling up inside me. I just wanted the bout to be over so that we could dissect the lesson afterward.
Instead, though, I remained as I was, even as Tellor himself stayed frozen. If it weren’t for his deep breaths, he would have been a perfect statue. Two things ran through my mind: first, he was trying to see how long I would remain still before losing patience, or second, he was doing this to make me bored and drop my guard, catching me with a sudden and deadly strike. Certainly, the speed of Windform allowed for that option.
But I remained vigilant. I loosely grabbed hold of Silence, just enough to keep my wits sharp and not burn myself out. Time stretched so long that I started to feel the sun burn the back of my neck.
After what must have been at least two hours, Tellor lowered his blade. I kept mine raised.
“You may lower your blade, Shanti,” he said.
I did so, but even as I did, I was hesitant. Tellor had tricked me before, but it didn’t appear as if that was his aim now.
“What did you learn?” he asked.
I blinked, trying to clear my mind. I felt dazed from holding Battletrance for so long, even if it was only lightly. “That the sun burns and my arms ache.”
Tellor’s stony face did not soften; he rarely smiled or laughed. “Why didn’t you attack me?”
“I suspected a trick.”
“You did well to suspect a trick,” he said. “But my Battletrance is stronger. Given enough time, you would have been worn down.”
I sighed. “As if I wasn’t already. What were you going to do, if I had attacked?” I asked.
“Why don’t you see for yourself?”
Again, he assumed Windform. Tree wasn’t the best for making an attacking move, so I countered with my own Windform. Sometimes, duels were restricted to only one form, or certain forms were banned, which led to different types of duels. A mirror match was often said to be the truest test of one’s skill since everything was equal besides the skill of the participants.
I had no illusion that I could win here; however, this was purely to see exactly how Tellor would trounce me.
I came forward with a side swipe, which Tellor easily averted. He didn’t even lift his blade, merely stepping out of the way. He stepped toward me, using his massive frame to cut off the movement of my sword arm. I hurriedly stepped back to regain space, going for a cut from above. Again, Tellor stepped aside easily.
Despite myself, I became frustrated. I swung again, harder, but Tellor ducked with lightning alacrity. And, cut after cut, Tellor stepped this way and that, always going the direction I least expected. I felt like a cat trying to catch a string just out of reach.
After a minute of this, I knew I wasn’t going to hit him. I paused to collect my breath, and Tellor just waited for me to try again.
“What’s the point of this?” I asked. “I know you can dodge whatever move I try.”
“If that were true, then no amount of training will help you. It’s not that I’m fast; I can merely predict every one of your moves as if reading a book I’ve read thousands of times. I know how the story ends before it has even begun.”
“So you want me to rewrite the story?”
Tellor gave a slow nod. “And what makes a story compelling?”
I charged forward and swung as hard and fast as I could. Tellor’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, but he stepped aside – just barely, and easily regained his distance. He gave a dry chuckle. My cheeks burned in anger.
“How?” I asked. “How do you know exactly what I’ll do?”
“Your emotions are outside your control,” Tellor said. “If your opponent sees how you feel, then they can see what you’ll do.”
This went beyond Tellor being able to read my emotions just from my actions – the Gift of Insight also allowed him to sense my mood beyond the capabilities of someone without the Gift. Even if I myself had Insight, Tellor’s was stronger through years of training. Even if I kept my features implacable, he would still know what I was going to do if I didn’t guard myself mentally. Guarding one’s mind from another person was just as difficult as guarding oneself physically, and just as draining.
“I give up, then,” I said.
Tellor dropped his blade to the xen. “It’s not about defeating me, Shanti. It’s about defeating yourself. Particularly, the part of yourself that says I give up. So long as you train here, every day, you will get better. That is the most important kind of victory.”
“You know what I mean,” I said. “I haven’t so much as grazed the side of your shirt.”
“The greatest victory is over oneself,” Tellor repeated. “Self-control is not merely controlling your actions. It’s controlling your thoughts.”
I didn’t see how this had anything to do with my skill or beating Tellor in a duel. I understood the principle that practice made me better, but when it took all of my patience to stand perfectly still for two hours, it was hard to see any lesson in it.
Everything he said just grated on me more.
“What will it be, Initiate?” Tellor said. “What will you choose to believe?”
“I believe that this is enough for one day,” I said.
Suddenly, Tellor picked up his blade and charged forward, like a boar roaring down a mountain. I hastily grabbed my own practice blade, just in time to meet his. The force of the impact shattered me, nearly making me drop my weapon. And then, Tellor relentlessly struck from seemingly impossible angles, at impossible speeds. I could barely keep up and solidify my form. I had time enough to see that he was using Earthform, which focused on overwhelming the opponent with raw power.
I wanted to yell at him to stop. I was drained and ready to give up. I almost dropped in surrender.
If I was one iota less stubborn, that was exactly what I would have done.
I realized then that I was expecting defeat before I even lifted my sword. Fighting Tellor was not like fighting desert bandits or the gangsters in the Ruins. It wasn’t like fighting the initiates in the Spring Tournament. It was on a level I didn’t belong to.
And yet, all the same, it was a level I was being forced to adapt to.
I suddenly switched forms; the transition was awkward and jarring, and yet
, it did give Tellor just a moment’s pause to readjust himself. While I had chosen Waterform, Tellor switched to Flame. Flame, as the name might suggest, was not especially strong against Waterform, and yet all the same, he had chosen it either to prove his skill, or to depress me further when he defeated me with it.
He cut and stabbed furiously, all while I hopped out of the way of his blade, getting in my own cuts and jabs. Anyone watching would have seen a very bizarre dance; Tellor seeking to maintain distance for his powerful swings, and me trying to close that distance so that those strikes were rendered moot. I was pleased to see that even a drop of sweat was making its way down his brow.
Then, Tellor unleashed a slash against which there could be no defense. I ducked, but it was to no avail. The blade hit me hard in the side. I cried out as I was knocked back onto the xen.
Tellor stood above, a tower of muscle, his eyes shining bright. Perhaps he had won, but he had actually been trying.
“Good,” he said. “Very good.”
I closed my eyes and just lay there, trying to catch my breath. After a moment, I made myself sit up and take my blade again.
He arched an eyebrow. “You want to try again?”
I nodded. “Let’s see how you do against my Sightform.”
He cracked a rare smile. “Sightform, you say. Perhaps, then, it is time to show you my Dragonform.”
CHAPTER THREE
WE SQUARED OFF ONCE AGAIN. Until this point, I had never faced Dragonform. It was the form most difficult to master, and only the most experienced Champions could perform it competently. It was one of two freeforms, allowing within its parameters every sequence of every form without the disadvantage of having to form shift. Half of one Waterform sequence, for example, might flow into a Flameform sequence, even when the two forms were opposites.
The disadvantage was how hard it was to pull off, and the sheer amount of energy it required to maintain. If done well, however, the Dragonform user had an incomparable advantage, provided their concentration didn’t slip.
There were only two ways to defeat someone using Dragonform; the first was to take advantage of the form’s complexity, because mistakes within the form itself were common. The other way was simply to outlast the opponent since their burn rate would be higher, which could only be done by choosing an adequate defense based off the form they were currently using. Choosing the right defense against what basically amounted to mixed forms was difficult in and of itself.
I wasn’t expecting Elder Tellor to make many mistakes, especially against someone as inexperienced as me. Even if he did make a mistake, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to recognize it.
Tellor held his practice blade in only his right hand, leaving his left free. It looked like an eclectic opening for Wind, since his posture was open, and his feet were spread wide. I wasn’t exactly sure how to set myself up, so I assumed Treeform, holding my blade directly in front of me, which would give me the greatest possible flexibility in defense.
This wasn’t right, though. After all, I had promised to use Sightform, a form guided by the sheer instinct provided by Insight. The form’s name suggested that its sequences were guided by vision, but this was not the case; they were guided by inner vision. Like Dragonform, it had a high burn rate, meaning it couldn’t be maintained as long as conventional forms. Dragonform and Sightform were the only two freeforms, and if Dragon wasn’t pitted against Dragon, then Sight was usually the only adequate defense.
Even if I was within Sightform’s bounds, to an outside observer, I was still in Tree. It was instinct, not my eyes, that would be guiding my every move.
At least, if all went according to plan.
Tellor drew his blade in for the basic Treeform stance, shifting from Wind. For some reason, seeing that form’s familiarity was a bit of a comfort, even though I knew it shouldn’t be. No matter what form Tellor chose, or whatever mix of forms, it would be executed with deadly precision.
Tellor made the first move, not breaking his Treeform stance. Even so, I noticed slight elements in his stance that were not characteristic of Tree. His gait was lighter, an element borrowed from Wind while at the same time, his chest was puffed out, which reminded me of Earth. It was a bit jarring to look at.
Don’t look, I thought. Feel.
I moved ahead to close the space between us.
His first strike came at me predictably from the side. Perhaps he was just testing me, because I easily redirected the blow – only to have him swipe at me with his leg. That was a Flameform maneuver, and it left his side apparently open. Even if it didn’t feel right, I couldn’t resist the temptation. I swung for his exposed flank, only for him to twist and jump – the Overflow sequence, a sequence part of the Water repertoire. Before I could even step out of the way, Tellor’s wooden blade came down on me from above.
Only, it had yet to happen – I was still seeing this in my mind’s eye. Sightform has its own tricks, allowing for the key advantage of seeing an opponent’s moves before they happened.
In this way, I was able to step aside the Overflow easily. Tellor cracked a smile, even as he swirled around – the Whirlwind sequence, a specialty of Windform. In the small space it took for his blade to strike mine, I shifted to Flameform as easily as drawing breath. I was deep in Battletrance now, and my Sightform still held steady. I closed my eyes as I fought – the greatest irony of Sightform was that the eyes were often a hindrance, and the greater one’s faith in their instincts, the greater the results. The power of the Xenofold pulsed throughout me, flowing through like a roaring river. A river which threatened to drown me if my concentration slipped for but a moment.
Time seemed to slow, and every potential sequence Tellor could enter was laid out like a book.
The problem was, Dragonform allowed so many potential directions that it was difficult to know which one he would choose, even with Sightform. I had to go with my gut – any intrusion from the conscious mind would spell defeat.
And so like this, we danced back and forth. Tellor was now using some strange sequence combining elements of Earth and Water, dancing with the blade. His brute strength combined with his grace made it seem as if he were creating a new form from whole cloth. Flameform would not work well in this situation, so I dropped it to assume Tree again.
Tellor began to get the edge, battering me left and right with his blade, only barely deflected by my own parries. I realized that his mixed form was perfectly calibrated to fight Tree, which I had been favoring. I hastily shifted to Wind, knowing I couldn’t directly counter those strokes for long. Wind would allow me to gain some distance and get my bearings. Even Tellor couldn’t hit me with those slow, lumbering strikes which, if done by a real blade, would have easily dismembered me.
Tellor switched tactics, shifting into a form I didn’t recognize at first. My Wind wasn’t holding up against it, but I couldn’t find a way to shift back into Tree, which was my safety form. My concentration was slipping. I became aware of all the energy I had burned in previous fights, and the flow of the Xenofold threatened to overwhelm me. I was losing control.
Hold on, I thought. Just a bit longer.
Tellor used the opportunity to shift into Tree, with no added additions. He dropped his Dragonform entirely, making me realize that he had grown tired. But he was in no way done. Limited to the energy-saving Treeform, his strikes became far more precise, going to where I was going to be rather than where I actually was.
I shifted to Flame, just barely managing to dodge an overhanded strike. Tellor’s recent shift into the defensive Tree gave me the chance to shift into something more aggressive. Before Tellor could react to my Flameform, I pressed forward so that he couldn’t counter it. I swung as hard and as fast as I could. I felt my trance slipping further; Silence was getting harder and harder to maintain. This place of the dragons, the True Hyperborea, had great power to draw from, which was allowing me to fight far beyond my usual capacity.
Unfortunately, the same fact als
o held true for Tellor.
But all the same, he was on the backfoot. A few unexpected moves were mixed in with his basic Treeform defense – , mostly the confusing distractions of Waterform, such as a feint here or a foot placed subtly to the left to redirect attention. I doubled down on my Sightform, not trusting my eyes.
Instinct. Instinct is all that matters.
I deepened my hold on Silence, drawing all the power I could.
And then, I saw it. Victory. Just a few more moves, and it would be mine.
With a scream, I brought down my blade. Tellor stepped to the side, and the opening was there. Just a quick stab and he would lose.
But my concentration failed. Every muscle in my body went limp as my vision blackened.
I fell to the ground.
CHAPTER FOUR
I BLINKED AWAKE, FINDING THE blue sky and sun directly overhead. It was quiet, and every muscle in my body ached. I didn’t know where I was for a moment, but seeing Tellor’s weathered face above brought me back to reality.
“Did I...?”
I was about to say “win,” but Tellor interrupted. “You pushed yourself too hard, Shanti. Even in this place...we should have saved this bout for tomorrow.”
“I...passed out?”
Despite my complete exhaustion, all I could feel was frustration. I had been so close to winning. Tellor had been about to change forms suddenly, which would have given me a window to gut him.
“You were about to switch to Earthform again, weren’t you? You were waiting for me to get closer, and then...the switch. But before I did that...I was going to hit you. There would have been a window...right?”
Tellor’s eyes widened ever so slightly in surprise. “How...I had thought I had guarded against that.” He looked at me considering. “You saw that, did you?”
I nodded. I made myself sit up, even if it seemed to take all my energy to do so. I had seen it. “If I had just held out a little bit longer...”
