Elements (Tear of God Book 1)

by Henri, Raymond

  “Don’t worry. I’m sorry, too. I can tell you went through a lot of trouble for this. Hey, at least you invented a new effect.”

  “Yeah,” Juré responded unenthusiatically before chanting his Dispel effect, Unthink,

  “Eternsa undoes the effect.

  Take back the power which you gave.”

  Mink had expected his eyes to relax, but they remained fixed in the center of the Star of Order. The throbbing, warm pain was no worse than before his eye muscles tore. In fact, his vision had otherwise returned to normal. He turned to face his parents and his broken eyes rolled downward, limp.

  “Can I get up now?” Mink asked as Juré shuffled toward Nyam, near the camp Fire.

  Exhausted, Juré only nodded, indicating weakly for Mink to rise with a gesture barely visible to his son’s down-turned eyes.

  “You look awful, Juré,” Nyam said, concerned over his weariness. “You need to eat.”

  Nyam had lunch waiting for her husband as he came and sat beside the Fire. He reached out for the plate, eyelids drooping, but instead shook his head and without a word, slumped over into a deep sleep. Mink had never seen his dad, one of the nation’s top Intelligence Operatives, so wiped out after a combo before. This had definitely been some heavy lifting. Having met only six Spirit users more powerful than his dad, he wondered if Juré had now surpassed them in skill.

  Nyam, half the size of Juré and yet twenty times stronger, reclined him more comfortably in his seat. Though small, her Body was chiseled, balanced by a round and disarming face. Her light tan skin and feminine hips further reduced the intimidating appearance of her muscles. She looked up at Mink, face aglow with excitement.

  “Well? How was it? What happened?” Nyam had been preoccupied with making lunch, and wouldn’t have learned anything from Mink and Juré’s telepathic conversation anyway.

  “I can’t move my eyes because the muscles are all torn up. That happened,” Mink reported flatly, moving his head up and around to compensate for his damaged sight, trying to see more of the camp. The shadows of the chairs and cart showed that it was still barely past midday. Earlier than he thought.

  “That’s an easy fix. This food will do that,” Nyam assured her son, all too familiar with healing serious injuries, and apparently well aware of the consequences of Juré’s new effect. “What about the meditation? Did you settle on an Element?”

  Mink evaded answering his mom’s question, not wanting to admit defeat. He hoped she would realize the failure on her own, but admittedly he was known to be coy and tease his parents when there was good news to be shared. Instead, he asked, “Did your brother really let Dad do this to him?”

  “Yes. What Element?” she persisted.

  “Repeatedly?”

  “Yes. And Aunt Lynn, Gutti, and I would have tried it if we could.” Nyam became impatient. Being opposing Elements meant that Nyam and Juré couldn’t cause any effect, good or bad, on each other. This was typical with couples as a means to avoid accidentally harming a mate.

  “Well, it’s probably the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life and it didn’t help.”

  Nyam must have thought some rather harsh words about the bad news with the way her brow creased and her head jerked. She shook her head and held up a plate of grains and fruit bits.

  “Eat this. I’ve Imbued it to restore your eyes and give you more than enough strength for my testing.”

  Mink accepted the food, meaning to take as much time as he could to stall the next phase with her. His mother was never as gentle as his father. Body users weren’t known for finesse. Nyam had been healing Mink for years of damage caused by every Elemental type. She had seen the worst of it and Mink didn’t have so much as a blemish. In the more recent testing attempts, his mom became habitualized to causing severe damage.

  “Thanks. I’m a little worn out still. You wanna just continue tomorrow? You know, relax for the rest of the day? Wait for dad to wake up?” Mink wanted to have his dad on hand to cancel out his mom’s effects when she started giving a hundred and ten percent. Visions of all muscles ripped and bones broken invaded Mink’s thoughts.

  “Actually, we have to do it today,” Nyam explained. “If neither plan works, we’ll need the next couple of days to try our other methods.”

  Mink picked at his food. “So much for a vacation.”

  Nyam smiled, stretched, and looked around. Obviously her anticipation of their success trumped the severity of the methods needed to achieve it. “Speak for yourself. I love getting out of the city.”

  AS MINK ate the Imbued stew of grain and fruit one spoonful at a time, his excitement for the training fizzled. His willingness to be on the family vacation lessened, too. Clearly, Nyam’s Body effect was canceling Juré’s Spirit effect. His dad had put the whammy on him after all. He looked at his food and realized that he had regained full motion of his eyes. Anxious to negate the damage to his eyes and the brainwashing responsible for his agreeing to have any part of this madness, he downed the rest of the food hardly chewing.

  “Mind telling me what you have planned?” Mink managed to say between spoonfuls.

  Nyam tied her long hair behind her head. “It’s hard to explain. But, I’ve been working really hard on finding a way to test without giving you any pain. It sort of separates your Spirit from your Body, but leaves your soul so it can still resonate with your Elemental affinity. It’s probably easier for me to show you.”

  Mink highly doubted his mother. She hadn’t seemed too concerned with his pain before. His emotional pain noticeably broke her heart, lingering in her long after his father had healed it. Yet she always made him feel like a sissy for succumbing to physical pain. “Look, Mom. You don’t have to trick me or coerce me into going through with your testing. If you just tell me how much it’s going to hurt, I’m more likely to cooperate.”

  Nyam laughed. Smiling, she reached for Mink’s shoulder. “One thing I can promise you, Mink, is that you won’t feel any pain.” He wanted to trust her, but she was a little too excited.

  He cleaned his plate and set it down beside him. Juré was still sound asleep.

  “Can’t we wait for dad?”

  Nyam shook her head. “He slept for about six hours each time after he practiced that test before. We’ll be done sooner than that.”

  Rubbing his face, Mink noticed he was completely healed. “Whatever. Let’s get to it.”

  “Lay on your back then.”

  Mink obliged as Nyam exhaled a long breath and shook her hands, a move she believed helped her keep from laughing and get serious. She was an incorrigible nervous laugher, especially in dire situations. As if Mink didn’t already have enough embarrassment to battle, he had to deal with his oddball mom. She’d probably be a really good Body user if she could reliably make it through a chant without breaking the rhythm and killing the power. When she did allow herself to laugh, she half-sounded like someone gasping for Air in a compost heap. She put on her game face and her voice dropped an octave as she chanted in the deep, strong rhythm of Body users,

  “Body is under my control.

  I can change its shape with my mind.

  The Body is all I will—”

  Nyam stopped mid-chant. Her Body trembled and tears pooled in her eyes as she struggled to suppress the urge to laugh. “Dammit!” She exhaled a long breath and shook her hands again. “Sorry, I have to start over. Okay. Okay, okay, okay. Sorry. I’m just really excited. I think this is going to work. It’s really cool. I can’t wait for you to see it.” She exhaled another long breath and rolled her shoulders, beginning again,

  “Body is under my control.

  I can change its shape with my mind.

  The Body is all I will need.

  Increase its density ten times.

  The Body is no more than flesh.

  Leave the Spirit behind to rest.

  The Body is like a statue.

  My power molds its destiny.

  The Body no longer has joints.r />
  All senses have been suspended.

  I cannot kill with this effect.

  This effect will not change its shape.

  Target’s Spirit cannot be moved.

  The Fires of Symg empower.

  Curpo, give to me your blessings.

  Respond to me upon my touch.”

  And with that, Nyam pushed her finger down hard into the center of Mink’s chest. The firm, rocky ground beneath him compressed ten inches in the shape of his Body. Mink held his breath for a couple of seconds, waiting for the latent pain to strike. It never did. He felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. He could still see, but it wasn’t with his eyes anymore. He sensed everything around him as if it were all in his peripheral vision.

  His mother reached down and picked him up with just one hand on his shoulder. Many Body users kept an active chant on themselves to be more physically attractive, but Nyam kept one for strength. Most people wouldn’t know that, though, as beautiful as she was. She stood Mink’s Body upright and pressed him down in the dirt to his ankles. Not only had he been numbed, he was solid as a statue. Giddy with her success thus far, Nyam pranced to retrieve something from a bag by her chair. From what Mink could tell, she had altered a simple thirty two syllable Manipulation chant, Change Look, into an ultra-powerful one hundred and twenty eight syllable chant.

  First, she gloved her hands with animal hide, and then pulled out a small stone case with eight thin rubber tubes embedded in slots. She was steady and careful on her way back to Mink. Setting the case down, she eased out the first tube. Aiming at her son’s chest, she gave it a squeeze and released weaponized dust Imbued with a Lightning effect. Mink couldn’t believe it. He thought his mother must have lost her mind as the dust blasted a melon-sized hole into him.

  “I know how much Body I see.

  Quantified so upon my touch.”

  Nyam implemented the Quantification effect for Body users, Constitution, by touching the hole in Mink’s chest with a finger. She took out a pad of paper and made some notes, nodding studiously.

  “A pure Body holds no illness.

  Its natural state upholding.

  No injury remains to harm.

  Make Body pure upon my touch.”

  She placed her hand into Mink’s gaping wound. By the time she removed it, his Body was restored. She made her way through the rest of the tubes. Each one used a different Element to put a crater in Mink, which Nyam would scrutinize before healing with Recovery, the Body users’ Purification effect. For a taxi puller, she was quite the capable healer.

  By the fourth tube, Nyam had become grim. Then, having run the whole gamut, she gave in to her emotions. She never took failure very well. Grabbing palm-sized rocks in each hand, she stormed away, punching her stone-packed fists into the ground until the rocks turned to dust. Since the Body Element augmented the Soil Element, Mink mused that trees might actually be able to grow up here now. How nice that would be for the area, he thought, momentarily forgetting that he was still stuck in a statue form while his Spirit lay in a shallow grave and his mother was raging.

  Wiping angry tears from her face, Nyam walked back to the campsite. Mink watched her sit and stare at the Fire. One of the nice things about being a Body user was that it took a lot to make the user tired, and the slightest bit of Fire sped recovery. After her shadow had grown noticeably longer, she started picking up and extinguishing embers in her hands, rubbing them into the back of her neck. Her mood improved greatly after this and she rose quickly, dusting herself off.

  “Now you,” she said to his Body before toppling it over in the Mink-shaped impression still carved into the ground. She stood over the Body and chanted Unfeel to Dispel the effect in a deep, strong voice,

  “May Curpo undo the effect.

  Take back the power which you gave.”

  With that, she pressed her finger to Mink’s forehead.

  He sat up from his personal crater, rubbing his chest and belly. “Whoa, Mom. It doesn’t hurt at all.”

  She extended a hand to help him up. “See? Told you so.”

  After Mink got back to his feet, he hugged his mom. “Sorry it didn’t work.”

  “Me, too. I’m very sorry I couldn’t find your Element, Mink.” Nyam’s mood soured again. “I could have sworn I was on to something.”

  “It was totally crazy. I mean, when you shot me with that dust, I thought I wasn’t going to have a Body left.”

  “Well, it did more damage than I thought it would, but I had strengthened your Body several times over. I wonder now if I strengthened it too much…” Nyam lost herself in thought for a moment. “No. That’s not it. They all did damage. One of them shouldn’t have. And one of them should have strengthened you.”

  Mink could tell she was about to cry again. “It was an amazing effect anyway. You did really good at it. How much did you practice?”

  “Sixteen times. With a double-blind study. Worked every time.” Nyam shook her head and went to the sleeping Juré and poked him on the shoulder. “Juré? You awake yet?”

  “Yeah,” he said without opening his eyes. “Can I have a little more time, though?” Sleeping in the wind shortened the time he needed to recover. Only about four hours had passed according to Mink’s best guess.

  “We only have three or four hours before the sun sets. I’d like to start Plan B now.”

  “I thought yours was Plan B,” Juré complained, rubbing his eyes.

  “Not that Plan B. Our Plan B.”

  He stood and stretched. “I thought we were doing that tomorrow.”

  “We were, until both of our methods came up with no rotting clue to his Element. I can’t wait. That means you can’t either.”

  “Four hours isn’t going to be enough time for that plan to work.” Juré helped himself to the leftovers sitting by the Fire. “Better to get an early start tomorrow.”

  That evening, talk of Elements were set aside in favor of games with dice. Before long, Mink had nearly forgotten about the bizarre ways his parents had tested him that day. They played long into the moonlight and it wasn’t until Mink settled for sleep that the fear of the following day swept over him.

  BREAKFAST HAD been scant, more carbs than meat and only enough food to remind Mink that he had eaten. The sun had yet to rise over the eastern horizon, but the sky lightened to a pleasant, deep teal that he much preferred to the plain aqua of daylight. The wind rushed up the slope of the ridge with enough of the previous night’s chill that he fastened the hooks of his pocket jacket up to his chin. The cool Air refreshed Mink, who slept horribly thanks to yesterday’s events and the threat of today.

  Here he was, with his own parents ripping apart his eyes, blowing up his Body, and plotting who knew what and he didn’t have the slightest idea what Element was his. He longed for the days when his parents tested him by training him on the basic chants of each Element. Nothing ever happened, but it was easier than this. It was beyond him to even decide which Element he would rather be. He disliked them all equally.

  Nyam stoked the Fire until it produced some flames she could wring her hands in while Juré came and stood by Mink to take in the wind. It could have been his imagination, but Mink swore more of his father’s hair had blanched overnight. Swatches of gray now peppered the deep black of his hair.

  “I’m getting old, Mink,” Juré said, reading his son’s gaze. “Gotta expect life to leave some marks of accomplishment.”

  “So, you’re first up again?” Mink stretched and tried in vain to psyche himself up for a long day. Why couldn’t they just test him while he slept?

  “Your mom and I are going to work together on this one.” Juré winked. “Lucky you.”

  He didn’t like the sound of Plan B so far. To his knowledge, Mink’s parents had never collaborated on Elemental work before. It would have been self-defeating since Body canceled Spirit. This piqued his curiosity more than anything. What could Plan B be, and why might it take two days?

  “You’re goin
g to want this,” Nyam said from behind Mink.

  Turning, his mother offered him his weapon of choice, a paddle. It measured a couple feet long, two and a half feet at its widest point, and three inches at its thickest. Dreh, Mink’s best friend and a Wood user, had made it for him after learning Imbuing. Mink knew how to use it very well offensively and defensively. The only benefit to not knowing his Element was being able to put more effort into his other studies to compensate. Mink took the paddle from her with no small amount of dread.

  “We’re going to invoke a defensive reflex in you,” Juré explained.

  “What does that mean?” Mink asked, not really wanting the answer.

  “Life or death situation,” Nyam deadpanned.

  Mink’s parents backed away from him, chanting at the same time in a way that made it very difficult for Mink to tell which effect they were planning on using. The one thing he understood was that they were going to Attack him.

  “I pin the Spirit back with aim.

  Through my focus on my target.

  My power severs the Spirit.

  With hit or miss, my attack stops.

  Instant Spirit push through brainstem.

  My attack cannot do me harm.

  With all of Eternsa’s blessings.

  Remove Spirit when I say, ‘Spear.’”

  “I destroy by hitting with aim.

  From my contact with my target.

  My power creates breaking force.

  With hit or miss, my attack stops.

  Contact magnified hundred-fold.

  My attack cannot do me harm.

  With all the blessings from Curpo.

  Break my enemy when I touch.”

  They were really going to use Attacks on him! In battle situations, Elementalists tended to ready their effect with a chant and not carry out the implementation until conditions ensured success. Body users had to touch the target while Spirit users only needed to say a word within sight of it.