It would be impossible for Mink to avoid Juré’s sight, due to the flat of the land and lack of even a shrub or rock large enough to conceal him. Ah, another probable reason they chose to come here! If Nyam used the Quick Legs effect, and Mink had no reason to think she wouldn’t since her daily job required it, avoiding her touch would depend on his paddle skills. Mink’s innate strategic ability, which had been fine-tuned through years of Elementless training, told him one thing—he could only lose.
Mink held his paddle in front of him in a readied stance as his parents finished their chants. They separated, flanking him in a wide circle. Mink rushed to his father’s side. There was a chance that he could get them to make some kind of sound before implementing their effect, nullifying their chant and forcing them to start over. That strategy would be more successful with his mom than his dad.
In a blink, Nyam had zoomed behind Mink, putting him on the defensive with a barrage of kicks and punches. He deftly rolled forward, using his paddle to guard his blind side. Mink waited for an opening and swung his paddle flat at his mom’s stomach. She evaded in a blur and disappeared from sight.
Mink kept an eye on his dad while he scanned left, right, and behind for where his mother had gone. She was no where in sight. That meant one of two things: either Nyam had run off to charge up an effect, or Juré had used an effect to make Mink unable to see her. That Juré continued to maintain a distance silently gave Mink reason to expect the former. Besides, Nyam had most likely grunted or otherwise negated her chant and needed to redo it.
Nyam was a very capable fighter. She captained her high school’s Brawling Squad and, though she hadn’t placed at the national level, she had never failed to qualify. If Mink could hold his own at all, it was purely because his mother had spent the last eight years training him how to fight against constant bullying. Therefore, he knew all her best moves.
Juré, on the other hand, was hopeless at hand-to-hand combat and not much better with a weapon. Still, Mink was more concerned with what his father was capable of. Not only could Spirit users make it impossible to fight, but they also had a fair number of instant kill effects. Mink just couldn’t figure out why Juré hadn’t done much yet.
The sound of Nyam’s approach woke Mink from the staring contest he was having with his father. Even though he managed to thrust the paddle into Nyam’s shoulder, the force of her momentum pushed him backwards. His feet slid several yards, her extended finger threatening within a couple feet of his face. Her wrist snapped inward, putting her within easy reach of Mink’s forearm. Flipping the paddle, he fanned Nyam’s arm away from the outside.
Mink saw his counter-strike open in a split-second. The handle of his paddle was close to Nyam’s rib. She must have seen it too, the way she jerked her arm in to protect herself. Instead of blocking the attack, she caught the handle with her elbow and inadvertently helped him jam it against her. The force of the blow elicited an “Oomph,” followed by a roll of her eyes. In a blur, she ran off to start her chant over.
They continued their battle for three hours past lunch, yet Mink was the only one sucking wind. Juré, conserving energy, hadn’t done much more than taunt his son. Nyam’s lack of fatigue prompted Mink to believe she set up a secret Fire to revive herself, and not all of her disappearing acts were for chants. Hunger and exhaustion would soon get the better of Mink, and he wondered how he could make it through the rest of the day without a break.
“Any chance of a time-out?” Mink wheezed. Not surprisingly, neither parent said a word. There wasn’t any reason for a stalemate considering how much his parents overpowered him. The purpose of this training was to identify his Element, but all it did so far was keep Mink away from food. He worked up some energy to move the fight closer to their campsite so he might find an opportunity to grab something to eat.
He made it about halfway before Nyam was on him, using Quick Legs to give the impression that she was Attacking him from two-sides at once. The hours of using the paddle as a fan, shield, and edged weapon had taken their toll on Mink’s shoulders. It felt three times as heavy as it had in the morning, but he still managed to block his mom and make some forward progress.
Juré rushed into the fight. The sudden change in battle dynamics gave Mink an adrenaline rush and second wind. As soon as Juré arrived behind Nyam, she jumped in the Air, forcing Mink into a high guard. It was difficult for Mink to track Juré’s movements while blocking Nyam’s kicks over his head, but he did glimpse the flash of a weaponized dust tube extended toward him.
He spun on his back heel and swung the paddle to fan the dust away from him. Nyam and Juré quickly backed off to avoid the fanned dust. Much to Mink’s dismay, his paddle caught a fair amount of the dust. The crackling and fizzing sound confirmed that the dust was Imbued with Lightning, canceling out Dreh’s Wood effect. Nyam wasted no time punching Mink’s paddle and pulverizing it into splinters and shards.
MINK STOOD and stared in disbelief, weaponless, breathless, hungry, his hair clinging to his skin with sweat and dirt. The electric cloud of dust floated and crackled between Mink and his parents, who showed no sign of slowing down their offensive. Conversely, Juré had stepped up his game. Without a paddle, Mink had no way of avoiding Nyam’s touch, even if he were at full energy.
Desperate to protect himself, Mink wanted to make for the cliff-side of Rift Ridge and take his chances jumping down to a ledge for cover. What happened instead was his leg gave out when he stepped, dropping him to his knee. His eyes pleaded with his parents. He didn’t think he could move anymore. The last of the weaponized dust settled into the ground and Nyam wound up a punch.
Juré seemed to have a difficult time looking Mink’s way. Twice, he glanced over, but quickly dropped his gaze. Setting his jaw, Juré finally looked Mink in the eye and implemented by uttering, “Spear.”
Instantly, a sharp pain shot through Mink’s chest and extended far behind his back as his Spirit was stretched out and pinned about twelve feet behind him. A completely unfamiliar buzzing sensation mixed with the pain. He recognized Juré’s instant-kill effect on an intellectual level, but he couldn’t rationalize that his father had actually used it. The last of Mink’s Spirit was pulled out the back of his head. He died with the snapping feeling of the severance of Body and Spirit.
Death consciousness was nothing like when his mom turned his Body into a statue. Mink felt both as small as a speck of dirt and as large as Georra. Peace washed over him. He noticed the absence of any physical sensation, and felt no curiosity about anything, let alone his Element. His remaining consciousness focused on his parents with a dim familiarity. Time stopped.
But, there was something else—another presence. Mink’s awareness expanded to include a personal vehicle on the cliff three miles up the ridge from where his Body lay. A person moved quickly toward the vehicle through tunnels inside the mountain. Tracing a line east from the vehicle through the ground and downward from the person approaching it, Mink’s focus honed in on a very large crystal. It was huge, encapsulated by a geode as large as any of the buildings in the Capitol. Mink was overcome with the sense that he now knew many things that were once important to him. He began to resonate with a different dimension.
He snapped back into his Body to see his mom with an outstretched fist as he fell hard and fast on his rear, very much alive and sore. “Time! Time out!” Mink screamed, scooting away on his butt. “I rotting died!”
“Language, Mink,” Nyam admonished.
“Did you not hear me? I died!”
Juré helped him to his feet. “Mink, your Element should kick in to try to save you now that it knows you can die. This is our next-to-last resort. Trust us. You won’t suffer any permanent damage.”
Nyam folded her arms. “We need to exhaust you and take your weapons away so that you’ll only have your Element to rely on. You’ve probably gone so long without identifying with it that it’s retreated deep inside you. We must draw it out. This is for your own good.”
So that was their game. Wear him out, destroy his paddle, and then strike him simultaneously. One of them was bound to hit a fraction of a second earlier than the other. Long enough for Mink to experience death, but not so long that the second Attack couldn’t cancel the first, bringing him back to life. Had Nyam been any later taking action, there would be no turning back.
Something had happened while Mink was dead, although not even a second had passed. Had he made any kind of connection with his Element? He racked his brain for any sense of it. Only a flash, whatever it was. Then, Mink remembered what he saw.
“Wait! After I died, I saw someone.” Mink pointed in the general direction. “Three miles up the ridge. A Machinist. Some ore scout, or something. He found a huge crystal buried inside the ridge.”
Nyam turned to Juré with an unquiet look. He returned her gaze with a combination of recognition and disbelief. They paused in prolonged silence. Finally, Nyam spoke to Juré, “What do you want to do? We’re not prepared for this.”
“We should investigate,” he replied adamantly. “If it is what I think it is, we can’t let the Machinists know about it.”
Nyam had sprinted up to where Mink indicated within just a few seconds while the other two huffed to catch up. She crouched and peered over the edge. Backing up, she signaled for her boys to approach quietly. She became impatient and sat, flicking small stones across the plateau, while she waited for them to bridge the distance she had managed to cross in no time.
“Still there?” Juré asked in a hushed voice once they had arrived.
Nyam leaned over to check and nodded. “The vehicle is. I don’t see the scout though. He may not have reached it yet.”
Juré turned to Mink. “Is he alone?”
“As far as I could tell. And it was like I was seeing all over the place, even through things.”
“Juré, you should report this. We can’t do anything else about it.”
Juré peered over the cliff and got a good look at the vehicle. He scooted back and looked west toward Freeland.
“I’ll go inside his mind once he appears. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find out what he knows and what he plans to do. Maybe he didn’t see the crystal, just ore deposits.”
“Well then,” Nyam said. “You better get the chant ready. He could come out at any time.”
MINK GAZED with growing fascination upon the vehicle. A few hundred yards below, it clung vertically to the cliffside by way of anchors at each wheel dug into the rock. He imagined that operating such a contraption would be fun. Elementalists ridiculed the need to use machines, but without an Element to use, he hardly felt superior. It wasn’t unheard of for Elementalists to abandon their abilities and defect to Freeland. In fact, part of Juré’s job was to identify and facilitate dissenters. Still, Mink’s unique perspective helped him see the beauty of the vehicle and he felt like his life could be easier if machines were allowed back home.
The scout was taking forever to emerge from inside Rift Ridge. Of course he didn’t know that people were waiting for him and, had he known, he might not even come out. Waiting was not one of Mink’s strong suits. He got that from his mom. It actually crossed his mind that he might be able to see how close the Machinist was if his parents killed him again. He obviously needed a distraction.
Juré couldn’t say anything until the scout emerged lest he have to recite his chant over. By then, the risk of the Machinist getting out of Juré’s sight was too high. If his parents weren’t so serious, Mink thought to entertain himself with trying to get his dad to make a sound and ruin his effect. Nyam entertained herself by throwing rocks at a tree a couple miles down the slope of the ridge. By the way the tree shook, Mink could tell when she landed a direct hit.
“Do you think he decided to camp inside for the night?” Mink asked.
“Shh!” Nyam warned. “We can’t give away our position.”
Mink’s restlessness got the better of his tongue. “Hey, Dad,” he whispered. “When you’re in his head, see if you can make him drive his vehicle up here and let me take it for a spin.”
At that, Juré became cross and almost uttered a sound. Instead, he gave Mink a knock on the head with his knuckle.
“Mink,” Nyam whispered, face contorted into a scowl. “Don’t ever say things like that! Machines are evil!”
“All right, all right. Sorry,” Mink said. “Just bored with all this waiting.”
“Well, get over it. You can borrow my music crystal.”
“No thanks, Mom.”
“It’s your own fault for forgetting yours.”
Mink didn’t exactly forget his. He opted not to bring it to avoid one of his parents picking it up and lecturing him about his musical tastes. It’d been so hard for him to fit in with young adults his age, listening to music his parents approved of would only make things worse. He had to admit some of their music was pretty good though. Mink sat in silence, passing time by replaying his favorite songs in his head.
The scout finally swung out of the cave onto the vertical rock face of the cliff. As he shimmied along a ledge over to his vehicle, Juré set his eyes and said, “Scout.”
Mink held his breath as he watched the scout open the machine’s shiny door and climb in. Whenever Juré had entered Mink’s consciousness, he always felt it. Or had he? The Machinist didn’t seem to notice any change, let alone the people staring at him from the top of the cliff. The vehicle roared to life, released the anchors from beside it’s wheels, and rolled down the steep incline in what looked to Mink like controlled falling.
“I’m in,” Juré confirmed. “All his recent memories and thoughts are coming to me now. They’re very scattered. Just like a lazy Machinist. No concentration. They had used some kind of imagery equipment from space to locate a potential mine here. He was just supposed to confirm the find.”
“And did he?”
“Yes. He’s very pleased with himself and thinking of ways to spend his bonus.”
“What about the large crystal?” Mink asked. “Did he find that?”
Juré’s shoulders slumped. “Yes. He found and tested it. The magnitude of the energy readings were off the charts. He’s only trying to think of a name for it before reporting it. There is a very good chance it is a Tear of God.”
Mink laughed aloud at the mention of the ancient Georran myth. The Book of Origin mentioned God shedding a tear for each of her eight children. One was allegedly discovered and used to unite the Elementalists 16,000 years ago under the flag of Octernal, but no trace of its existence had ever been found. There was no way such a thing could be real, and Mink thought the suggestion that it would hold any divinity was preposterous.
“Juré,” Nyam said in a grave tone. “Slow him down.”
He nodded and began the Spirit user’s Area of Effect chant,
“Deep sleep spreads like a contagion.
All those nearby drop instantly.
Their minds have no idea they sleep.
Nearly comatose in dreamland.
Those sleeping cannot be woken.
Hewl’s essence be the fuel I need.
The wrath of Eternsa take form.
Dream when I say, ‘Hibernation.’”
“Hibernation,” Juré said.
Mink thought Hibernation was a good choice since it could also effect any Machinists who were hidden from his dad. All three of them watched the vehicle speed down to the base of the cliff wall where it sloped toward the flattened riverbank, not slowing at all. Had the vehicle perhaps blocked the scout from Juré’s view at the moment of implementation? The serious nature of his parents creeped Mink out. Finally, the vehicle reached a copse along the river and halted. Nyam and Juré stared at it in silence, long enough to be sure the scout had finally fallen asleep.
“Okay. Now what do you want to do?” Juré asked Nyam.
“We have to confirm the find ourselves. If he’s wrong, let him waste their time. On the other hand… we have to act fast.”
&
nbsp; “Then your work is done,” Mink interjected dismissively. “There are no Tears of God, so let’s move on.”
“Could what you saw fit in the Cradle of the Citadel?” Nyam prodded.
“Yeah, I guess so. I haven’t been there since I was eight.”
“Then we can’t take the risk. We have to evaluate it ourselves.” Juré turned to Nyam. “I’d go with you, but I have to babysit the scout. No telling how long he’ll sleep.”
“But I need you with me to relay his memories of its location. I can’t run around blind in there.”
Mink rolled onto his back and stared at the few wispy clouds sneaking by in the outer layers of the atmosphere. This had already been a strange day and he suspected there would be a few surprises yet. At least his parents had busied themselves with something other than him for a change. He envied the clouds. So much better to be a distant passing observer of this world than its de facto whipping boy.
“Take Mink then. He saw it.”
“Uh-uhn. No way,” Mink protested from his prostrate position. “This is your guys’ show. You wanna go look like idiots chasing a tale of the ancients, please, leave me out of it.”
“Then tell me what you saw.” Nyam stood up and started stretching out. “Is it a straight shot to the cavern, or are there a bunch of forks and dead ends?”
“I dunno. It wasn’t exactly like seeing, y’know? There were other caverns and stuff. Could be a straight shot. How should I know? I didn’t have enough time to trace a line through the maze. Dad’s going to be much more useful than me here.”
“Your dad has to stay here. I need a guide, someone who has seen inside there. Otherwise, I could be searching for days in the dark.”
“I tell you what,” Juré broke in. “If you agree to let me Silent Signal Fire you and help your mom, you can hold the glow crystal.”
Mink chuckled at the childish bribe. “Oooh. The hard bargaining begins, I see.”
Elements (Tear of God Book 1) Page 3
