by Aaron Thomas
“It seems I have a schedule now, Leroy so we should be able to set up times for you to venture into town and to have meals prepared. It should allow you to make the most of your day instead of always trying to guess when to feed me.”
“Kilen, I have always brought your food when I wanted. Gortus and the others seem to stop what they are doing when I am around it’s strange.”
Kilen thought to himself and remembered that they did seem to stop training every time Leroy came around. He wondered why they would do that. Joahna spoke to him, They have training secrets that they do not wish to share. Kilen nodded his head in response and saw Leroy looking at him with one eyebrow perked. Kilen cleared his throat and rubbed his chest, trying to pass off the nodding as something else…anything else. Leroy nodded in response to clearing of his throat so it must have worked. Kilen quickly started to get dressed without saying anything. Joahna was afraid to talk in front of anyone anymore, less Kilen try to respond to him. Kilen put on his armor and Leroy assisted him strapping them on and pulling the leather straps tight. He then went to the door and opened it but before he could go through, remembered that Max was in the elemental. He turned sharply to look back in the room. Leroy stood and brought a small knife out of his apron to roll across the back of his fingers, finally holding it by the blade ready to throw. Kilen looked at the basin empty of water, then frantically his eyes searched the room. He caught a small puddle rippling by the far end of the bed against the wall. He knew it must be Max, a small part of him relaxed. Max leaped back into his consciousness. The effect caused Kilen to waver slightly and he took two long blinks to keep from blacking out. Kilen wasn’t ready for him to enter in his mind. Leroy was looking around as if the walls could attack him. Kilen finally came to his senses and smiled.
“Sorry, got up too fast.” It was the only thing that he could think of at the time. Leroy slipped the knife back into his apron and chuckled a little.
“You had better dunk your head in some water before you get to the practice ring. If you black out from turning too quickly Gortus will beat you so you can’t get up.” They both chuckled at that.
“Yeah, I think I will.” Kilen wanted to give a talking to Max but Joahna already was. They argued until Kilen tried to shout inside his head. It must have worked because they both became very silent. Kilen tried to talk to them again but it was hard to form words so he just shouted to them both one word, Morning!
They both responded the like, and Kilen was elated that he had been able to speak to them inside his own mind. He could feel their joy also. It was a start, an awkward one but still very good way to start the day. Gortus was waiting in the same spot as always. Kilen approached and they began the daily ritual of kneeling to pray. Kilen assumed his position in the center and without a word Gortus began the assault. Today was harder and faster than before, earning Kilen welts before he had time to react. He was struggling inside his mind. He was giving up on defending himself and attempting to land a swing on Gortus. The act landed him a well deserved lump on the head that made Kilen waver and fall down. “How am I supposed to defend myself if I cannot see your blade move.”
Gortus stood looming over Kilen, with his blade propped on his shoulder, “Stand.” Kilen did as he was told and brushed the dirt from his pants. Kilen was frustrated and his face gave it away. He was red and wore a scowl directed at Gotus. He was learning nothing of swordsmanship. He was only learning to take a beating. “Look into my eyes, and stop watching the blade. Defending yourself will be harder with me than with others but you will learn to better yourself through pain. Already your body tries to take over with anger. You mustn’t let it. Focus on my eyes, and watch my feet move at the same time and soon you will be able to predict my attacks. Even without being able to see my blade move.”
He tried to do as Gortus asked, but found that his gray eyes were unnerving. Kilen looked away and received a series of raps against his sword arm, but he managed to hold onto his sword despite the arm going numb. Max was silent in Kilen’s mind, trying to let him concentrate. He redoubled his efforts and forced himself to look into the dark skinned man’s eyes. The two were locked in a battle of vision as Gortus moved about the ring, spinning his sword and smiling with his pointed teeth all the while. Then the attack came. Kilen almost got his sword up in time. Then another and another finally Kilen was able to deflect a wide swing by Gortus. The deflection was followed by a downward swing and Kilen brought his practice sword up to meet it above his head. The wood vibrated as they hit Kilen was so excited that he had managed to stop two attacks that he forgot to block a third wide swing towards his sword arm side. The blow landed alongside Kilen’s neck.
When he woke Gortus looked down upon him, “If you lay there any longer I would say you were trying to skip out on today’s lessons.” Kilen pulled himself up and the world spun and twisted and finally he emptied his stomach on the practice ring. Some trainees in a nearby ring laughed at him but Gortus stood and they all went silent. Kilen knew what it was like to be at the other end of that stare. He slowly regained his balance and stood picking up his practice sword as he did. Unsteadily he raised his shield and sword to start another round. Gortus raised his chin to the side of the arena where Kilen saw Leroy sitting with two covered dishes and water skins. Kilen readied himself anyways.
“One more round Master Gortus. I want to leave with a small amount of success today.” Grotus smiled then looked around Kilen at Leroy and the covered dishes that sat beside him. He licked his lips, running his tongue over the pointed teeth.
“Fine, I guess I have to knock you down quick this time.” Gortus started swinging as Kilen stared into the depths of his cold gray eyes. He felt the attack more than saw it. It collided with his shield, sending vibrations through Kilen’s arm. The second swing was on the sword side of his body. Kilen swatted it away, angling his sword so that the force of his swing wasn’t a direct hit. Kilen finally saw his mistake in the way he blocked. His sword was too high, leaving his midsection open. He felt the wood before he saw the practice blade start swinging. He doubled over in pain, attempting to catch his breath to keep from blacking out. When he was finally able to breathe, he looked up and found Gortus already digging into one of the plates. Leroy was smiling and Kilen knew now the reason why they didn’t allow Leroy to see him training…it was Gortus stomach. “Twilix will be waiting for your training today. She said to meet her in the gardens, as usual.” Kilen was excited to be training with Twilix again, so he shoved his mouth full of food and barely chewed as he ate. He choked a couple times but it didn’t deter him from eating as fast as he could. Leroy talked to Gortus about all the dishes that they would like to try. Some of the meat wasn’t available in the Earth Realm. Some of the meat Leroy flat out refused to cook, like rat kabobs.
Kilen left the two to talk as he made his way to meet Twilix. Max was a bundle of excitement in the back of his mind at the prospect of getting to use an elemental body again. Today is my turn at the elemental, Max. I think that I can impress the water wizard more anyway. I was able to discern how to use many of the water magic abilities. You will have to wait for another day to try your hand at it again. Besides, you stayed up all last night casting spells under the barracks.
Kilen slowed as he walked the halls, speaking softly so that the men in his head could hear him but any passerby would think that he was thinking out loud. “You were casting spells underneath the barracks?”
Max was now feeling a little let down at not getting to take elemental form but answered anyway. If I practiced in the room or outside someone would have noticed. Leroy would have seen me for sure. That boy sleeps lightly. So to keep from drawing attention I melted myself through the cracks in the floor. The crawl space below is filled by mice and one fat cat to keep them at bay. I was able to kill three rats silently. I think the cat will soon be a good friend of ours.
“How is the training going?” Kilen asked as he passed by a servant cleaning a vase.
W
e have learned a lot, Kilen. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at my abilities today. Max never was quick with the ability to use magic offensively but from what he’s told me he is coming along nicely.
“When did you two talk? I have been listening all day and Max didn’t return to my mind until after I woke this morning, so you couldn’t have talked to him while I was sleeping.” Kilen stopped outside the door to the king’s gardens and waited for an answer.
I have found our presence in your mind to be distracting during your training or conversations. So we have found a way to go around your conscious mind and slip our speaking into your recesses of your mind. This way we do not distract you during your day. We are starting to find the walls in your mind, and figure out a way around them. Kilen knew that was the best answer he was going to get at the moment, but he would re- enter the conversation later.
Inside the gardens he found the usual flowers in full bloom, but this was the first day that he didn’t find a small layer of fresh dew on the petals and leaves. He also didn’t find anyone else in the garden. He sat down his shield and wandered the garden looking for any herbs that were present. Soon he heard a light shoe brushing the stone path in the garden. He turned and saw Twilix approach. Her eyes had dark rings around the edges and her shoulders hung low as if she were exhausted. She went straight to the bench and sat down. With great effort she slowly took a book from the folds in her dress and started reading. Kilen wondered if she had even seen him standing there. He cleared his throat and slowly her head rose to look at him. She smiled a smile that reflected the innocence of a child and Kilen once again set his mind straight that she was a dangerous wizard.
“Is something wrong, Twilix?” he asked.
It took a moment for her to answer, “The king has me on a few tasks that have drained me. I apologize, but I’m afraid I will be little use to you in your training. It’s a good thing that there is little to teach you, Kilen. You have mastered some things that take wizards years to learn and you did it in such a small amount of time. It’s a wonder that more weapon bearers aren’t being chosen by their intellect instead of the strength of their arms. Perhaps if they were we would we have a lot better relationships with our surrounding realms.” Kilen had no idea what to say but he did have an idea of what he could do for her. He pulled magic through the earth rings and gave her the energy she lacked. He even healed her body a small amount, before she could hold up her hand to stop him. He stopped, the rings on her eyes had lessened and she sat a little straighter. “You should not do that again until I tell you to.” Her eyes were intense and blazing with fury at him. “I am sorry, Kilen. I am sworn to the King on this matter so I cannot tell you why you mustn’t heal or re-energize me. You have to trust me when I say that the less you help me the better it will be for you. I think that your lesson is over for today.”
“You haven’t taught me anything!” He snapped at her. He was just trying to help. A moment went by before Twilix un-tensed her body and stopped trying to stare down Kilen. “You told me that you would train me…you promised.” She sighed and slowly stood up.
“Fine, if you must hold me to my word I will train you, but not in elemental. It is too dangerous for me to watch over you in such a weakened state.”
He smiled back at her, “That’s fine. I have been practicing on my own anyway.” Her fury grew as her fists went to her side in anger.
“YOU WHAT!! You are not supposed to do that, you could kill yourself. The last time you did it you nearly did!” Kilen noticed that she was shaking, whether or not that was from fury or from exhaustion was another question.
“I have control of it now. I know what I did wrong when I let go of the form. I have done it nearly twice a day since the day you showed me.” Kilen pleaded for her to understand.
“You will not attempt an elemental unless someone is there to instruct you. Do you understand?” He nodded his head in reluctance. “Good, let’s get on with this training. We will practice the more delicate side to magic…art. Today you will sculpt the likeness of your mother in ice for me, using only magic to do so.” Kilen nodded and began gathering water from the air and building it into a large mound to work with.
Joahna’s voice came determined, Make me an elemental. Kilen rejected the idea in his mind hoping the feelings he was having would come across. They must have because Joahna spoke again, She said that you should not summon an elemental without someone there to instruct you, she is here to instruct you. You break no promise made. As Kilen thought it over he came to the conclusion that Joahna was right, he had promised that he wouldn’t make one without someone present to teach him. She did promise to show him again someday, why not now? He formed the mass of ice into a person’s form without any details in the face and body, and then started to lay down. He knew that he didn’t need to lay down, but it would probably be better for him to make the show in front of Twilix so that she didn’t get suspicious.
“What are you doing?” If she was weak there would be nothing she could do to stop him from creating an elemental. He pressed on.
“Sculpting you a statue of my mother from ice,” he said flatly. Kilen began to push Joahna into the form and noticed it was turning to ice. He didn’t know if that would affect the elemental or not so he started to heat the water rotating in the chest like a heart pumping warm blood to the extremities. Kilen formed the image in his mind to that of his mother so that Joahna would have something to form it out of.
“Stop it, I know what you are doing. You promised that you would not make an elemental.” She pleaded as she tried to freeze the form. In her weakened state Kilen found that she was still a match at his full strength.
Kilen heated the water as quickly as he could while he spoke, “I promised that I wouldn’t form one unless someone was here to teach me. You are here and you can instruct. I am forming the elemental, and it would be easier if you would stop fighting me.” Reluctantly she lets go and Joahna snapped into the form. He stood very still, waiting for Twilix to respond.
“That was devious. I feel betrayed Kilen. I think that I have given you a false sense of confidence with my training. You are still under my watch and care. It will take a very long time to regain my trust, if ever.” Her words cut him like a knife. He now saw her side of the events. In her eyes he could have killed himself or both of them in the creation of an elemental. He felt guilty and instantly regretful of his actions. He wanted to tell her about Joahna and Max but was afraid of what would become of him and Kara. He lay silently not saying a word with his eyes closed. Then he realized that Joahna had pushed on his emotions, now that he was gone from Kilen’s mind, the confidence he had to go against Twilix’s wishes were all gone. Joahna had influenced his mind to get what he wanted. Kilen grew angry, but could do nothing without giving away the presence of others in his mind. Joahna started slowly forming a large block of ice, then carved arms and legs under ice clothing, fingers, hair, and eyes with shades of frosted ice for the shading. When he was finished Joahna stood there not moving as a tear leaked out of Kilen’s face. He had been betrayed by Joahna and Twilix thought it was him.
Joahna let go of his form leaving it to look like Kilen. As soon as Joahna had returned to his mind, Kilen stood to face Twilix. He said nothing, he just stood there waiting to be chastised for his betrayal. “Do not think that because you are so skilled in even this skill that it will impress me enough to let go of your actions here. Tomorrow you will be facing Mary again for your training. I will have nothing left to protect you from her if you should lose. I will probably be too busy to even be present during the fight. Do not die Kilen Everheart.” It was a command from an instructor, not a request. She turned and walked away a little more energized than she had come. He sat on Twilix’s bench for a while looking at the image of himself and of his mother standing facing each other. He had left his mother behind, put his sister in a dungeon under the castle, and now betrayed his instructor. Kilen did not like the man he had become. Slowly
he came back to his own mind, hearing Joahna and Max already screaming at each other about Joahna’s actions. “Silence, I don’t want to hear a word out of either one of you for the rest of the day. You betrayed me Joahna by altering my emotions, and Max you are no better for not letting me know what he was doing. Think on that while I can pretend to have my thoughts to myself for one day.” He felt a little like what he would think Master Crescent felt like when chastising Bowie and himself for pranks they pulled on innocent people.
He left the garden, leaving the two statues to melt in the noon sun. In his self loathing he couldn’t figure out how he had managed to find his way through the castle to the kitchen, but he didn’t second guess himself. He was there now. He walked through a sweltering kitchen to the back door and found Leroy cooking some meat over a low fire with a lot of smoke in the new cooker. Master Harvel was ordering servants to organize piles of stones all over the surrounding area. He noticed Kilen and rushed right over. “My lord, can you spare some time to build some cookers for my staff?”
“I hadn’t planned on it right at this moment but I guess I could spare enough time to build one.” The scrawny man motioned to where he had gathered piles of rocks in different locations. Small spots had been dug into the ground where he wanted the fire to be and the ovens to be built over them. He clapped his hands and shouted while waving his ladle. Soon fifteen scullery workers had been summoned to help in the building process. “Tell them what you want them to do to help, my lord. I will be near if there is anything I can do to help.”
Kilen smiled, knowing that none of these men cared to have the extra work to do besides their normal load of cooking for the army and castles occupants. “Actually, could you have your men fill those holes with the rocks that you have for the ovens?” The men took off to complete the task two to a hole, lifting the heavy rocks and arranging them inside the holes. “Could you help me with this one Master Harvel?” Kilen walked towards the only hole not being filled as Master Harvel looked to find another man to help. They were all busy doing the labor for the other holes. Reluctantly, he followed Kilen and both bent to pick up the first stone. The scrawny man couldn’t lift it. Kilen smiled and looked around at all the scullions looking at them, waiting for Master Harvel to do his share of the work. He looked up at Kilen, pleading for him to have someone else do the labor. Kilen still bent over the rock waited for Master Harvel to try again. This time the man put the full force of his back into it and Kilen saw the effort. He used the magic in his rings to lift the whole weight of the stone, giving the illusion that Master Harvel was lifting also. The scrawny man looked back and forth between the stone and Kilen as though to say, “thank you.” The men went back to working the stones. Kilen and Master Harvel said nothing while they worked to fill the hole and pile the rocks above the ground level. When they were done they noticed that all the holes were filled and a substantial amount of rock lay off to the side. Kilen cleared everyone away as Leroy approached. Kilen turned around and saw once again Chit and Brandon sitting in the soldiers tents for a meal all alone. Chit had bruises and small cuts on his body and looked as though he had been beaten severely. Brandon and Kilen met eye to eye as he looked around. He knew Brandon was going to watch him use his magic to build another furnace and say nothing about it. He decided that if Brent wouldn’t allow others to train him that he would have to do it himself. It was time to form an earth elemental. After all, he wouldn’t be breaking his promise to Twilix, Brandon was there to oversee his training if something went wrong. Kilen looked back and met eyes with Brandon one more time before starting to form a person’s form out of the extra rock pile. When the form was nearly complete he said to no one in particular, “Max.” With that he felt Max prepare himself inside of Kilen’s mind. He pushed and heard the familiar concussion as Max left his mind to enter the elemental. Max stretched as if waking from a long sleep and tested his rock muscles on a stone at his feet, crushing it and then absorbing the pieces like clams digging into the sand on a beach. Kilen observed him, using the water vision as Max moved towards the first pile of rocks. Standing very still he watched as Max formed the first oven. The speed at which he manipulated the earth dwarfed Kilen’s own skill. The minerals flowed like water through the stones, forming solid pieces and like clay moved to form a perfectly shaped oven. Kilen opened his eyes and turned to see Brandon standing at the table, mouth partly open.
