I made up my mind. “You’re coming with me,” I said.
“Are you sure you aren’t coming with me?”
I was about to get angry before I saw the corners of Benjamin’s mouth twitch, and the gleam in his eyes. Insufferable man. It was hard to be angry at someone who was still obviously in love with me, though. Creator, this is going to be awkward, I thought.
Out loud, I said, “We’re going to stick to the plan. We need to get to Mirana in less than a week to catch the airship to Berber.”
“You don’t need the airship.”
“But you do. So we are going to catch the airship. Where are you going on Berber? Same place?”
“Yes.” Benjamin looked pensive. “I know my father spent time in Berber, and he actually spoke of Mensk before. I would like to see the capital.”
“So be it. The airship should take you straight there.” I stretched, making a show of it to give myself time to settle my emotions. The entire time, it irritated me that Benjamin probably knew exactly what I was doing. Traveling with my ex-suitor might be one of the most uncomfortable things I have ever done short of living in a cave with a perverted drake, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I just let him go and he got killed.
“Are you ready to go?” I asked.
Benjamin picked up his pack. “I am now.”
“And you’re carrying the maximum amount you can shift with?”
“Of course.” He rolled his eyes.
I frowned, but it probably had been a dumb question. Benjamin lived with his power every day. Wearing more stuff than he could take with him when he changed forms would be a pretty massive oversight. “Alright, sounds good. You can set that pace. I want to get out of this desert as quickly as possible.”
“That makes sense.” The handsome man nodded. “Will you promise me one thing, though?”
My heart suddenly quickened, and I felt equal parts fear, dread, and confusion as I carefully answered, “What?”
“Promise not to cook. I will handle the cooking.”
I blinked at him, then growled and threw a handful of sand I’d scooped up.
He laughed, and changed forms into a dune cat demon. I glared at his retreating back as he took off, and muttered, “It was just a few times I burned a few things. I am a good cook, dammit. Gwen taught me.”
Then I paused, and took a deep breath. I’d just dealt with a lot of emotions. If I actually thought about Jessica saying goodbye, I knew I’d probably start crying again. I wanted to give myself a pass for overreacting and taking Benjamin’s silly bait, but I had to be honest with myself.
If anyone else had said that to me, it would not have even gotten a reaction. I clenched my teeth as another realization hit me, and I hoped that the man had just been joking with me as a friend, not trying to flirt. I’d never been good at figuring these sorts of things out, and I realized that my entire situation was ridiculous. This train of thought made me grumble even more as I rose into the sky, ready to pace my ex below.
“Rot this,” I sighed.
Discounted
Benjamin had been right about one thing; he was definitely slowing me down. Now that I was third-rank ‘Bonded, I could fly even faster than before, but it felt like I was barely moving at times as I kept pace with the transformed man below.
Luckily, flying slowly was useful in its own way. For one, it was easy to spot the occasional monster on the road to Mirana. This helped us do travelers, the Guard, and the Army a favor when we slaughtered them. Most of the time, Benjamin didn’t even need my help, just a warning.
If we’d been regular soldiers who had to travel on foot or by zebra, we probably would have headed due south with Jessica and Christopher to Taretha, the capital. From there we would have traveled east past Harmly, Pilk, and then eventually to Mirana. The magic transport track only went as far as Harmly, but it would have saved us time and allowed us to avoid more of the wilderness.
Benjamin and I were not normal travelers, though. It was easy for me to avoid most monsters while flying, and Pewpew took down any foolish enough to get close in the air. I mostly ran into wizened owl demons, which were stupid and easy to kill. Benjamin had a slightly more difficult time, but his lupine demon form really was quite fast. He had an impressive amount of endurance too.
Since we hadn’t gotten sidetracked before hitting the main road, and took care to sleep in safe areas like military outposts or settlements catering to travelers, we’d made great time so far and even better, hadn’t had to spend any money.
Being up in the air also gave me time to practice with my new abilities. Following the road and watching for monsters didn’t exactly use up a lot of active thought, so I had plenty of time to puzzle out my new air powers.
The instructions I’d gotten for my new abilities had been even more useless than what I’d received with Flight or Vibration. I suspected that Duanna had something to do this this. One of the Air Element abilities I got instructions for was for how to blow air into an open flame, like a campfire. But after reading the instructions, I thought the ability didn’t actually seem much different than just blowing on an open flame without magic. After this revelation, I just ignored the instructions altogether. I had a few years of practice growing accustomed to different types of power, and I believed I could adapt.
Also, only my new Air Element ability was even difficult to puzzle out. Spatial Awareness had worked exactly as I’d expected it to. Now I could accurately aim Pewpew. I could hold the beam on a specific point for most of the time it was active, at least up to about twenty yards away. Scatter beam was even more effective for me now. I would still need to practice, but it was like I’d gained an extra sense.
I’d had good point control with Eneus, and I had always been good with weapons, but I had to imagine that now I could probably split a single raindrop—at least three out of five tries.
Flight had significantly improved, and I knew that my skill would grow just by flying more. I’d gotten slightly physically stronger. My endurance and healing ability had noticeably improved, and I’d been right that my Vibration power had increased some. With all my other new abilities sorted out, I returned to Elements and Energies: Air.
At first, I thought it would be like Vibration, something that I generated from within myself and...pushed onto the world. That turned out to be extremely wrong. I grew more frustrated over time, but also felt grateful for being up in the sky. Being surrounded by air actually seemed to make my new Air power...stir.
Years ago, I might have had less patience with my slow progress, but now I knew these things could take time. I didn’t allow myself to grow frustrated enough to stop thinking. Instead, after centering myself, I carefully picked at the problem and tried flexing my power over and over again. My breakthrough came after a very simple line of thought one day, remembering all the fire mages I’d fought. As I flew through the air, Eneus minimized on my wrist, I started copying some of the movements I’d seen them make.
They’d looked like they’d been grasping, or pushing. In a lot of ways, they acted similarly to how I did when I used Vibration power, especially a vib-punch.
I thought about that, continuing to move my hands, then I tried moving my awareness outward, to the air. After that, I could feel...something. With an effort of will, I tried moving some air...into myself. I suddenly stopped in midflight, shocked. The air had vanished, and I felt something...moving inside my spirit.
“What the rot?” I wondered out loud. Before the sensation faded away, I held it, feeling like I was flexing muscles I hadn’t known I had. Then carefully, I held out a palm and pushed similarly to a Vib-punch, but following my instincts to make tiny adjustments.
A tiny gust of wind swirled around my hand and I crowed in triumph. It hadn’t been much, but I’d figured out the key: my Air Element power was not normal magic, it was more like channeling.
I experimented with a number of ways to use the new power after this, experience with Vi
bration guiding me. It had taken me days, or even weeks to learn a single Vibration ability, but I was able to piece together a new way to use Air Element in a few minutes.
The first thing I tried was an air slash. Most strong mages used some sort of attack like this, and I’d even seen air mages do what I was attempting. They could flatten air into a blade that could actually cut things. My air slash was fairly weak, and no matter how hard I tried to compress the air into a blade, it felt like trying to roll a boulder uphill and never got any better.
When the air blade failed, I tried making whips of air, gusts of air, and found some success in speeding up my Flight ability by adding a jet stream. Over days of experimentation, I even found a way to combine air and Vibration power to enhance my Vib-shield.
This was a huge advancement in my understanding of how I could use my new power. A day before Benjamin and I would arrive at Mirana, I tried adding Vibration power to a wind slash. The attack was still useless, as it always was, but I noticed that it actually carried the Vibration power away from me.
I was obviously onto something, now.
If I could create an air attack that was more useful, that was actually threatening, maybe I could add Vibration power to it. If I had more ranged abilities, maybe I wouldn’t need to rely so much on Pewpew.
The image of Jialji reloading for shot after shot while I fought in a stream still haunted me.
My greatest and last inspiration during travel came when I saw a patch of leaves on the ground below being whirled along the ground, the wind traveling in a circular motion.
“What about a drill?” I whispered. Then I smiled.
***
As a central trade city, Mirana encouraged travelers and traders in Tolstey to do business there by making business easier. I was grateful for that. We didn’t have to pay a weapon tax.
Once we got in through the gates, my senses were flooded by a thousand smells, sounds, and sights. I’d been to Mirana before, and I liked it. However, after only a few minutes in the city, I noticed something odd. It felt like half the city was wearing masks. I asked Benjamin, “Are you seeing this?”
“Yes. I’ve heard it’s even worse in the capital.” He didn’t turn to look at me, and had been short with me all morning. At first I hadn’t figured out why, but then I’d remembered I’d spent most of my time up in the sky while traveling. He’d grumbled something about no company.
Benjamin was a good man, but sometimes he could really stretch my patience. In honesty, I had to admit maybe I was stretching his, too. Maybe this would convince him to give up on me. I was just not what he was looking for, after all.
We made some light conversation, and Benjamin thawed a little. He really was a good man, and still my friend. He could be moody, but to be fair, all men could be moody at times.
We had some time to rot before the airship would arrive, so we headed to the Adventuring Guild for information. The Guild didn’t offer much in the way of an official newspaper or messenger service, but there were always adventurers hanging around, and most would gossip for the price of some swill.
After a few years of traveling, I’d come to realize that adventurers weren’t all that different from any other people in a dangerous career. A few of the women we talked to eyed Benjamin curiously, but they must have assumed he was my man, because none of them made a pass. I wouldn’t have cared if they had, but I was still glad. Things between Benjamin and I were already strained and awkward enough.
I only paid half attention while we chatted with a group of low-level adventurers, calling themselves Mystic Roots. The conversation had gone back to rumors about Delvers LLC. Bayne, the ranged specialist of the group, kept going on about magic guns and the Jaguar Clan in Mirana. Benjamin effortlessly kept the conversation up. Good for him, he had always been good at that. The fact that he was a man probably didn’t hurt. I felt my mind wander as I took a sip of my beer.
Creating some distances between me and Benjamin was really a good idea. Once we were on the airship, it would be a lot easier. Part of me looked forward to breaking the ice, to being good friends again, not just friends, but part of me was worried he might try to force what he had always called a “serious talk.”
I had had enough serious talks while still being lovers.
The time flew by, and I just couldn’t seem to shake my heavy thoughts. Even things that would normally grab my attention, like street vendors selling new types of food, just passed by like ghosts. My mood must have been obvious, because with a start, I realized that Benjamin had just quietly walked next to me for a while. In fact, we’d already made it to the airship landing platform, and the public clock indicated it was almost the top of the hour.
It was almost time for the airship to arrive, and it seemed to be right on time. I could barely spot a brown dot in the distance over the city, and as the seconds passed, it grew larger. At first it approached at full speed, but gradually slowed down. Most people thought the pilot controlled this, but I knew from Rakles that the ships themselves had the docking procedure built in.
With a shake of my head, I dismissed the last of my heavy thoughts. Our transportation was about to land, and despite having ridden them before, the sight always filled me with a bit of awe.
The airship looked just like a large sailing ship, one that floated in the sky. I watched it drift in, almost delicately docking with the boarding ramp. “Sometimes I think about how much money it costs to run those things, how many magic stones,” muttered Benjamin.
“Yeah, well, that’s why it’s not cheap to ride one.” I fidgeted as I waited for the passengers to get off so we could board. I wasn’t in a huge hurry to actually ride one of these things again, but for the first time, Mirana had been rubbing me the wrong way. It seemed like every other person we talked to had tall tales about floating military vehicles, or High Priestesses. Deep down, I feared Enheduanna might pop out of nowhere again and give me another mission.
“I wonder about that,” mused Benjamin. “If there were any other way to quickly travel between Berber and Tolstey, would the prices be cheaper?”
“Well, we could just travel on our own to Berber couldn’t we?” I asked.
“You could better than I could.” Benjamin narrowed his eyes at me in confusion, like he didn’t know where I was going with the conversation.
“Sure, but it would be dangerous and uncomfortable and dirty, right?”
“Well, I suppose.”
“It’s worth the money,” I said decisively. “If more people could travel alone through the mountains, the airship might be a little cheaper, but it’d still be expensive. It’s a lot safer, and some of the people who take the ride have merchandise. It’s hard to move a wagon of goods on your back, and a wagon would be dangerous to travel with in monster country.”
“You may be right.” Benjamin didn’t say anything more after that. This seemed to be how most of our conversations ended these days. Rather than growing frustrated with him, I studied the passengers who were disembarking the airship.
My attention and eyes wandered, but suddenly snapped back, my body growing rigid. I thought I’d seen a flash of red hair, then I thought I’d seen a couple familiar faces, two people from my past. Distant memories of a cabin in the Berber woods, and two very strange people I’d spent time with crashed into focus.
The press of the crowd carried away the people I’d seen, and I decided to forget about it. There was no way I could have just seen Vitaliya and Gonzo, especially not in Tolstey. Then again, I had met and killed Jialji, less than a month before, so who knew.
Oh well, not my problem either way, I thought. If I’d still been in the Army, I supposed it would have been my job to care about suspicious individuals, but now I was...I wasn’t sure what I was now. A vagabond?
“Let’s get going,” I ordered. Benjamin nodded, and we moved up the stairs, then across the gangway after the last passengers were done exiting.
Benjamin suddenly asked, “We have cheape
r rates, right? We will save money since we’re going to be guards?”
“That’s how it worked before,” I muttered. “It might have changed. How should I know?”
I quickly realized I was acting grumpy and tried to take back my tone. “I think everything should still work the same way. Travel is just making me grumpy, I’m sorry.”
Benjamin grunted, and I nodded. That was his way of saying everything was okay. Good. I didn’t want to take out my mood on the man, even if he was part of it.
My mind began to wander again when we found the boatswain and Benjamin began haggling. He enjoyed that sort of thing, so I returned to my thoughts. I had mixed feelings about returning to Berber, but at least we were about to start heading north. Traveling over land, through the mountain range would have been a pain even for me, and flying would have made it a lot easier.
I’d been worried about missing this airship, but as I settled onto the deck, a weight lifted from my shoulders. Now I could just relax until I got to Berber.
Killing Time
I grinned in triumph as my power faded—another idea for my new Air Element power had worked. To my side, Benjamin sat wrapped in an oiled cloak and sighed. “This is miserable,” he groused.
With a blink, I remembered it was drizzling rain, made worse because of the speed of the airship. A magic screen and one of the ship’s sails kept the worst of it off of us, but we were all still damp. The cool wind of our passage didn’t make things any better. I would probably also be stewing in self-pity if I didn’t have my shiny new powers to play with. It was fortunate I could practice somewhat privately.
On the deck of the ship, I didn’t dare admit to my orb-Bonded status. Getting stabbed in the back wasn’t on my to-do list, and remaining anonymous with my face uncovered was the best way to appear like a regular mercenary or adventurer.
Airships didn’t ask whether a would-be deck guard passenger was ‘Bonded or a Mo’hali Hero anymore—they had just asked if we were good in a fight.
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