by Ivan Kal
He finished his training and experimentation session just as he realized that it was about time for the Ashara and Kyarra to wake up, and he started walking back toward the tower. But in his mind, all he could think about is that he had just discovered his new way. He thought about what would be a good name for it, and then he smiled. It came to him—The Way of Soaring Blades.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
KYARRA
The dragon laughed. “And who are you, little pest, that I should care?”
“I am the Hunter, and you will know my wrath,” the smoke growled.
–Excerpt from the Journal of Vardun Con Aroch
Kyarra struggled to keep her breathing intact as Vin worked to break the block on her magic. It was an unique experience, but Vin was confident that this time he would make it through, and Kyarra couldn’t wait. She had lived with magic almost her entire life, and having it denied to her was painful. She kept at her breathing as Vin’s power—his ki, as he called it—moved through her. His palms felt warm on her skin, and that warmth then radiated inside of her body, spreading everywhere. And even though she wasn’t moving, she was feeling as if she was exerting herself. It wasn’t exactly painful, but it felt uncomfortable. Then, suddenly, something changed, and she felt an increasing pressure. All at once, something snapped all across her body. She opened her eyes with a gasp and saw Vin do the same.
He gave her a wide smile and she felt tears well up in her eyes. She reached for her magic, and it answered. In an instant, the Staff of Storms appeared in her hands, and she clutched it tightly. She couldn’t contain her joy and she glanced back at Vin. She dismissed the staff and threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around his neck. She hugged him tightly.
“Thank you,” she whispered over and over. She felt him return her embrace.
Then she suddenly got self conscious, feeling his arms on her abdomen and realized how close they were. She jumped back and got to her feet, feeling her cheeks warming.
“Is everything all right?” Vin asked, his own voice strangely pitched. “With your magic, I mean?” he added.
She inscribed a glyph and cast a spell. A small orb of light appeared in front of her and she smiled at Vin. “Yes, everything is fine.”
With access to her anima back, she suddenly had her magical senses back as well. She cast another spell and looked at Vin. She gasped out loud at what she saw, and his face immediately took on a concerned look.
“What’s wrong?” Vin said and stepped forward.
“Your anima,” she said, pointing at his midsection. Instead of a roaring flame like any mage had, or the simple spark of non-mages, Vin had a black-and-blue sphere of anima unlike any she had ever seen or felt. She hesitated to even call it anima. It felt somehow denser, stronger, more powerful than her own.
After hearing her words, Vin relaxed. But she still couldn’t believe it. She had heard him try to explain his spirit arts, and his ki, but she hadn’t really believed that it was all that much different than her own. Now she knew the truth. And as she studied his anima, she suddenly came to a realization. It was anima—only it was also stronger, more concentrated. Vin had told her that his people had cultivated their power, that they somehow made it more. She suddenly realized how his people could do so much with their power. A mage casting a spell used the anima around them, because casting a spell using only one’s own anima was far more costly—a mage could at most cast half a dozen spells of average anima requirements before expending their supply. But Vin’s anima was of a far greater quality, and so he had to expend a far lesser amount to achieve what he wanted. And yes, his way of using that anima differed from a mage’s incredibly: it was all focused inward on his own body, unlike the mages, who focused outwardly.
She ended the spell, and looked up at Vin, who had been patiently waiting. “The anima inside you is amazing,” she said in awe.
“Thank you.” Vin bowed his head. “But it is still nothing compared to what it used to be in my old body.”
She summoned her staff and then tried to compare. His anima was powerful, but with the staff she had an access to near limitless amount of anima, far more than she could ever spend—and it recharged itself. With it she could do the same things that he achieved with his “ki.” She, too, could use magic without the need to use anima from her surroundings.
“That,” Vin said as he studied her staff, “is a blessed arm.”
“A what?”
“An item engraved with ki.” He frowned. “Or not. I do not feel ki infused in it. Those symbols… Those are glyphs for magic, yes?”
She nodded. He raised his eyes from the blade of the staff and looked at the fragment of power at its end.
“I’ve seen something like this before…”
“A fragment of power?” she asked, surprised.
“Yes,” he said, nodding. “Narzarah, the leader of the Arashan, had a sword with a gem that felt just like that, one in its pommel, feeding power to the glyphs along its edge. Yours can do the same?”
“Yes. Although the glyphs are not powered constantly, they can be activated with a thought,” she said and pointed the spear toward a large rock. With a thought, she activated a rune and instantly a bolt of spell-fire left the blade of the staff, burning into the rock.
Vin looked at the rock in surprise—the spell-fire had made a hole straight through it. “That is impressive.”
“Do you know if these Arashan have more fragments?” Kyarra asked. There were only nine on her world, and so she hoped that these Arashan had only a few themselves.
“Yes, I’ve seen two dozen Arashan wielding them at least. Those are usually the Arashan commanders, the most powerful ones of them. During the war they were our most dangerous foes, as those were usually equal to our most powerful spirit artists.”
Kyarra swallowed. She couldn’t imagine so much power. And Vin’s people had fought against them, which made her feel somehow inadequate. “I don’t think that the Arashan that attacked the palace had any fragments. I would’ve felt them.”
“I doubt it. The ones they sent were not the commanders. Capable warriors and mages, for certain, but not their best.”
“Do you think that we can defeat them?”
“With that”—he pointed at her fragment—“we have a chance.”
Kyarra sighed in relief, but Vin still had a troubled look on his face. “What is it?”
He put a hand over his face, and then after a moment looked right at her. “One of my people is here with the Arashan. She betrayed her own world, and is now on their side. And she is powerful, Kyarra. Far more powerful than I am now. I can’t fight her—it would need to be you. But she has fought Arashan commanders before, she has killed them before. She knows how to fight them. She knows how to fight you.”
“You don’t think that I can defeat her.”
“I don’t know yet…” he said slowly. “Let’s get back to the tower, to rest, and tomorrow we will spar. I need to see how powerful you can be with that thing. And I will teach you how to fight a spirit artist.”
* * *
The next day Kyarra followed Vin with some trepidation as he led her to the place where they would spar. She had never really done that. Of course she had sparred lightly with Ovar, but he was a non-mage. It didn’t count. She took a look to study Vin as she walked behind him. She had quickly warmed to the man after their initial meeting. He exuded a sense of calm and confidence, things that she needed more of, and desperately. She didn’t know quite what to make of him; but he intrigued her, in the same way that Ashara did.
Vin was almost a complete opposite of Ashara. Where she was inviting by the sheer intensity of her personality and charm, Vin was covered in a mysterious veil that she couldn’t help but want to see behind. Every time that Ashara looked at her, she wanted nothing more than to lose herself in those green emeralds; but when Vin looked at her with his piercing brown eyes, she could feel him looking right through her, seeing her every secret. Where Ashar
a needed to fill silences with conversations, Vin could hold the silence and somehow make it comfortable. She liked that about him, that he was far more comfortable in silence than he was in conversation.
They reached a small clearing and he led her to the middle of it, he turned, and they stood across from each other.
“So, how do we do this?”
“I’m going to attack you, and you will try to stop me,” Vin said.
“Are you sure that this is a good idea? It sounds risky. I could hurt you,” Kyarra said.
“Life is full of risks. And I have to gauge your power as accurately as possible.”
Kyarra still felt unsure about it, but nodded.
“Ready?” Vin asked.
Kyarra took a deep breath, summoned her staff, then looked at Vin. “Ready,” she said, and Vin disappeared.
In the next moment she was looking down the blade of a spear that was on her neck. Her breath caught and her eyes widened.
“First rule of fighting,” Vin said slowly. “Expect death with every move. And the first rule of fighting a spirit artist is to never give them an opening, or you will find a blade rammed down your throat.”
She nodded weakly, and Vin stepped back. He looked at her for a moment, then tilted his head.
“Why didn’t you have a shield up?”
“I…I thought I didn’t need it?” Kyarra asked. She rarely had shields active, as they were a constant drain. She preferred using the one shot spell-shields on her rings, which she activated as necessary.
“Always have your shields active, even when you don’t need them. That carelessness is how I’ve ended more mages than I can count,” Vin said, and Kyarra suddenly shivered.
She realized that the man standing before her had fought mages, had killed them, enough of them that he couldn’t even remember the number. She nodded hastily and activated a spell-shield from one of her anima-wells on her necklace.
Vin moved back a to his previous position and looked at her again. “Ready?”
This time she prepared a few more spells, activating two more of her anima-wells and preparing herself to activate the glyphs on her staff. Satisfied, she turned to Vin. “Ready.”
Again he disappeared, but now he appeared two paces away and swiped with his spear at her shield, one she had spelled that shield to drain anima from the anima-well as needed. And as he struck the shield, she felt a huge draw, but his spear stopped. Vin looked impressed, but Kyarra didn’t give him a chance to attack again. She drew power from her fragment of power, deciding that casting spells with glyphs was pointless against someone like Vin. Instead, she pointed her arm at him and chains of power formed below him, coiling around his legs. He looked surprised for a moment, and then his spear flashed down, cutting the chains and breaking her spell.
He jumped back and two swords appeared over his shoulders. And while he was still in midair they flew toward her, impacting her shield. The force of the attack reverberated through it and struck against her will and the spell-construct, shattering it in the process, but also completely draining her anima-well. As soon as her shield collapsed, Vin adopted a strange stance, his spear behind him and one empty palm in front. He made a pushing motion with his palm and a wave of force exploded out and toward her. It splashed harmlessly against her secondary shield, the one she had cast from the ward of her staff.
She pointed her staff’s blade at him and triggered a rune, and a rush of wind crashed into him from above, forcing him to the ground. She then took a step forward and cast another binding spell. Chains coiled around him, and pressed him to the ground, preventing him from moving. She smiled as she caught him, and started walking forward.
Then, just as she was about to call out her win, a wave of black-and-blue anima exploded out of him and her binding spell was broken. She raised her staff as four blades flew toward her in quick succession, all shattering against her shield. Vin rose to his feet and pushed both of his hands against the ground, a wave leaving his hands and striking the ground, raising earth and grass into the air. She lost track of him for a moment, but not wanting to lose, she activated another rune, sending a wave of wind forward, blowing the debris away.
He had disappeared. She turned just as he smashed an open palm against her shield from behind her. She felt the spell-construct break as it was forcefully dismantled. In the next moment, a blade materialized in the air in front of her and she froze.
“That was better,” Vin said. The blade shattered away into anima and was absorbed by the environment. “Much better, actually. But you are not using all of your power; you are barely tapping into your staff. You could handle a dozen spells at the same time, but you don’t. Why?”
“I’ve never had to before. I always had the time to cast spells slowly.”
Vin nodded in understanding. “Let’s go again, and this time use more spells. Try to overwhelm me, to think ahead. Plan. Cast spells that will activate after a delay, lead me into a trap. Cast spells before we start. The Arashan mages were always prepared for every eventuality. That is your strength—you can think ahead and prepare.”
Kyarra nodded, getting more excited. She had never used her magic like this. She had cast spells that no ordinary mage could’ve, shifted entire storms, but never had she used it like this. And she couldn’t help but feel giddy. Vin’s power was so strange and unpredictable that she had a real challenge in him, too.
She readied her spells again, casting them in advance as he had advised. She activated the spell-shield from her staff, but added another one of her own, anchoring it on the ground. That one wasn’t able to move with her, but she wasn’t moving much regardless. Then she cast a spell that would trigger if he stepped on the ground behind her, and a few more. Then she looked at Vin. “Ready?” she asked with a grin.
Vin laughed, and she felt her heart skip. “Ready!”
He started throwing his flying blades at her the same way as before, but this time he just stood back and kept firing two at a time. She felt the structure of her shield weaken at his attacks as her will came under fire, it was not a shield designed for constant attacks, but rather one designed for surviving devastating single attacks. The strength of the shield was much greater than what he could overcome, but a mage’s spell was only as strong as its construct and she had to keep it active. She reinforced it, drawing anima from the fragment and focusing her will. Then she pointed her hand at him and threw a ball of fire at him. It was a spell that could’ve hurt him, but she was certain that he could dodge it—he was sufficiently away from her to have seen it coming. And he did evade, by jumping to the side, but it surprised him enough that he hadn’t noticed her cast another spell. A binding of air caught him around his midsection and pulled him into the air. He twisted and did something to break it, and then his form quivered and he disappeared. But she had cast a detection spell on the ground, and as soon as his feet touched the ground, she threw another binding spell at him.
A wave of anima again exploded around him, breaking the binding before it even touched him. Another spell left her arm and a strong wind strike buffeted him from behind, sending him stumbling toward her. As he stumbled forward, he stepped on one of the spells she had set to activate in that case, and suddenly a prison of power grew from the ground, snapping shut on top and trapping him inside. It was a modified shield spell, one that prevented anything from getting out. She was actually really proud about that. She started whispering to help her concentrate as she started casting a stronger binding spell—she doubted that this shield would hold him long without the reinforcement.
She was successful—she saw him punch the shield with his palm, and the shield shimmered but didn’t go down. She snickered at the bewildered look he gave her. She had added extra protections to the spell so that it could deal with his attempts of infusing anima and breaking it apart. That had cost the spell-shield actual strength, but Vin didn’t know that.
Vin moved a step back and started hitting the shield with his fists, and
as it wasn’t created to actually last long, it cracked and broke under the force. Kyarra had nearly finished her spell when he disappeared again. She felt a powerful strike against her shield, and it collapsed. She turned around as Vin materialized his spear, and then he stepped on another one of her spells and the earth opened up, swallowing one of his legs and making him stumble forward. She raised her arm to cast the greater binding, but Vin reached forward caught her shirt with his hand and pulled. She lurched forward, colliding with him and losing the spell-construct for her spell. They tumbled down to the ground, with Kyarra on top.
“Oh no!” she exclaimed as laughter bubbled inside her chest. “I almost had you. If I had just finished that spell…”
“Ah, but a good spirit artist never lets a mage finish their most powerful spells,” Vin said through a grin that split his face.
She giggled as she looked down on him. “Oh, I don’t remember ever having so much fun with magic!” she said and then her head moved down and her lips were on his. They kissed for a long moment, and for that time it was like there was nothing but him and her.
And then Kyarra realized what she had done and jerked back, panic filling her face. She watched as Vin’s smile turned to a similar expression and they separated, standing up quickly.
“I…” Kyarra started, but she didn’t know what to say.
“That was good,” Vin said, and then his eyes darted around. “I mean the fight. It was much better.”
