by Ivan Kal
“Yes, right,” Kyarra said awkwardly.
“I think that that is enough for today. We should get back. To rest.”
* * *
The two of them were sitting in the tower, with both Vin and Kyarra pretending like nothing had happened. But Kyarra couldn’t help but think on that kiss. It had opened…something. She was fairly certain that she had in a very short time developed feelings for Vin—and the thing that bothered her the most was that she was pretty sure that she felt the same way for Ashara. With an effort, she shoved those thoughts away, and instead she turned her mind on other things, like the fact that Vin was explaining to her how she should battle a spirit artist.
“A spirit artist has a few advantages over a mage. For one, we can sense ki—anima—and we will always know when you are casting a spell. But dormant spells, those cast but not triggered, are another story. On my world even those were easy to spot, but here the ambient aura makes them hard to see. You can use that to your advantage. A mage has more versatility compared to a spirit artist; but while a spirit artist can achieve far less things, the things that we know how to do, we do far superior,” Vin said.
“You said that this…woman is stronger than you? How do you imagine me fighting her when I couldn’t even win against you?” Kyarra asked.
“Oh, I have no doubt that you would’ve won against me had it been a battle to the death,” Vin told her.
Kyarra looked at him skeptically. “I doubt that. I was not trained in combat magic. I know many spells but it is not the same as having actual experience.”
“Think on our fights, you’ve been trying to capture me. You were essentially fighting with your hands tied. And I could tell that you hadn’t even been drawing that much power from you staff, nor had you even been tired by the end. I, on the other hand, had been going all out from the beginning, pushing all of my power,” Vin told her.
She frowned—it hadn’t felt like he had been going all out. And now that she thought back on it, she hadn’t used even half of the runes on her staff—most of them were devastating spells designed to quickly destroy an enemy, not capture them. And she had learned a lot from just those three fights; even without those runes, she was confident that in the next one she would win.
“And you want me to kill this woman?” she asked slowly.
“You cannot win otherwise. She will be coming at you with everything she has, and trust me when I tell you she is far stronger than me. You will need to fight with intent to kill, and even then it is not guaranteed that you will win. I considered fighting alongside you, but I would only be a distraction. It would only take one moment where I was too slow and she would kill me.” He looked away uncomfortably, then met her eyes. “If I am being honest, you have more power than she does—not that that is anything new, as most of the Arashan who wielded weapons like the one you wield had more power than a spirit artist—but she has been fighting her whole life, and she knows how to deal with mages. You only have a chance because she might not be used to fighting mages on this world, where the ambient aura itself is a weapon for you to use. You need to catch her by surprise.”
“I don’t know how to do that,” Kyarra admitted.
“I don’t know much about how your spells work, but I do have a few ideas. Tomorrow we will see what we can think of together.”
Kyarra nodded, and the two of them lapsed into a silence. Usually it would’ve been something that Kyarra welcomed, but now it was different. She couldn’t get her mind off their kiss. Eventually, Vin stood and went over to Ashara, who had been preparing dinner by the fire. Then it hit her just how much she had missed Ovar—these kind of situations were when he would give her unsolicited advice, which would make her angry, but deep down she would know was right.
She stood and walked over to one of the cupboards where she kept her enchanted rings and Ovar’s medallion. She looked at the round, golden medallion that bore a single symbol on it: the Narsian Empire’s symbol for Guardian. It always seemed strange to her when she saw it. That thing had been made well before the Narsian continent had shattered, when two fragment-bearers had unleashed all of their power—no one knew exactly what had happened, but the theory was that they somehow cracked their fragments, which resulted in an unimaginable explosion. The remnants of that Empire had of course become the Shattered Kingdom—a name that they had taken as a point of pride. They had survived the shattering, which had brought down the greatest Empire in history and shook the world.
She reached for the medallion, and the moment her hand touched it, she felt a spell trigger. She had no chance of even reacting before it flew out of the medallion and wrapped itself around her. She felt herself lose touch with reality and heard shouts in the distance, but the world around her disappeared. She felt as if she was falling, and then suddenly all of it was gone, and she was standing on a cliff overlooking a massive city built into the mountains, with soaring white towers. In a flash, she recognized it as the Mages Guild Academy and the city that supported it. Then a voice from behind her spoke.
“This will be the last time I see this sight for a long time, whether I succeed or not.”
Kyarra turned startled to see a man, one with pure, white hair, wearing a strange robe-like garment of light blue and gold. His eyes were brown and sad. His face had the agelessness of a mage, and yet it still managed to look old and weary. He didn’t look at her; instead, he looked at the soaring towers. And then Kyarra noticed the staff he carried in his right arm—The Staff of Storms. Her staff.
Her heart started pounding in her chest as she realized who it was that was standing before her, and what exactly she was seeing. It was a memory, or a sending, or something combined. The man released a long breath, his shoulders slumping sadly. Then he raised his head and looked straight at Kyarra.
“You must understand, I don’t know if this is necessary. But I cannot take the chance… If you do not know, I am Vardun Con Aroch. I cast a spell on my soul to bind it to this realm. I assume that, if my spell worked as intended, this message will not be necessary, for I will remember all my lives. But in case that it doesn’t, and that I forget, I leave this in capable hands to be given to me when the time is right.”
Vardun took a few steps forward to stand beside her. “I have seen a great darkness engulf this world, and I had seen it engulf others as well. I have seen gods and mortals fighting side by side, and dying side by side. At first I had convinced myself that those were only nightmares—after all, none of the other seers had seen what I had. Yet I could not shake the feeling that it was the truth. And so I pushed my gifts as far as I could, and I saw more possible futures…and in each one, we lost.
“Until, that is, I found one glimmer of hope. A small group of threads that glowed dimly amidst the darkness. And I knew that what I saw was truth, and the only way for it to come to pass was for me to be there. And so I did all that I could to ensure that hope lives on.”
He waved his hand and the view changed. They were somewhere else, again standing on a cliff, but now overlooking a vast plane. In the distance, a massive structure stood, shining with energy. Kyarra’s heart stopped as she realized what it was: a massive stone gate. A World Gate. The same thing that Vin had warned her about. An army of darji and other races, some that she didn’t even recognize, stood there—and she knew that those were the Arashan. They waited before the gate, facing another army. She looked at the second massive army and saw dozens of different banners, recognizing some. The banners of the Shattered Kingdom, of Amaranthine, of Yussia, and of Andaros, and many more.
“I cannot see past this point. What comes next is blocked from my sight. I do not know if it is someone actively working against me or if I have simply pushed my sight too far.” He let out a weary sigh. “Yet this moment scares me the most—for I know that without me, there would be no army here to meet them. Without me, there would be only death and darkness,” Vardun said, and Kyarra looked at the field again. There, at the head of the assembled Arash
an army, she saw a small group step up. She could not tell who they were—all were wearing armor, and something told her that even if they weren’t, she would still not be able to see them. But the one in the lead looked like Vardun, yet not Vardun. It was as if his form was shimmering, changing and shifting, and for a moment she saw herself.
Then someone stepped out from the opposing army, a figure covered in black-and-red armor. Even from so far away she could see and sense the red eyes staring from behind the figure’s helmet with hatred, as it wielded a spear glowing with light.
“This is where you must be, if we are to have any hope of survival,” Vardun said. “I do not know how much time you have. I have left precise instructions as to when this message was to be given…but my sight is not as accurate this far into the future. And even then, this is only one possibility against countless. This was the only way,” he said, turning to look at her. “I’ve tried to see what would happen if I left the knowledge of this to the world, and it led to dark futures as well. I have left a journal of my dreams and visions, placed in a vault in the bank in the city of Azagoh. You will find a few other things there, things that I knew could be of use should you need them. But be wary of trusting my prophecies too much, as many are cryptic by nature and I am not at all unconvinced that some great power had been influencing me and letting me see what it wanted me to see.”
He looked up at the sky. “Hopefully, all of this was not for nothing.”
Then the world collapsed around her, and she lurched back to her body.
She opened her eyes slowly, only to see two shapes looking down on her—one on each side, both with the same look of concern in their eyes.
“Kyarra? Are you all right? What happened?” Ashara asked her.
“I felt a spell,” Vin said as his hands touched her head. “It is it still active? What was it?”
“It… It’s all right,” Kyarra said slowly, feeling warm at their concern for her. “It was a message from my first life.”
They looked at each other and then back at her in confusion.
Kyarra chuckled as they helped her back up. “It was a sending, and a memory,” she said more seriously. Kyarra looked at them. They were so different from each other, and yet she could see herself falling in love with both of them, each for a different reason. Each called to a different part of her. And the concern in their eyes as they watched her made her happy, even though she didn’t want to admit it.
She didn’t want to come in between them, but she couldn’t help but envy them their relationship. It was something that she had never had. A friend, a confidant, a partner. She so desperately wanted to be a part of what they had. She shook her head and took a deep breath. “I know why Vardun did this to himself. He was a seer—he could see the future. He saw the Arashan coming, and the only future where there was hope was a future where he was there to meet them. That is why he bound his soul. It is why he did everything that he did.”
Both Vin and Kyarra looked taken aback by her words.
But Vin was the first one to recover. “What did you see?”
“I saw the World Gate, and an army of the Arashan. I was there as well, with another army.”
“Where is the gate?”
“It was on a large open plane. I don’t know where it is…” Kyarra tried to think of any identifying markers, but there were none. “But he said that he left something in the vault in one of the Free Cities. I think that that is where we need to go first.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
ASHARA
After much consideration, they spent another week in the tower and then decided to leave for the Free City of Azagoh. Vin wanted to spend more time training Kyarra, as he wasn’t sure how much opportunities they would have once they leave for Azagoh, in part because they had decided to try and find a passage to Tourran on a ship. Presuming that they did find a ship, they would spend at least two months sailing, and Vin doubted that they would be able to practice on a ship, at least not like they could here.
Ashara spent the week mostly by herself, while Vin and Kyarra spent almost all of their time practicing. And, after the third day, Ashara noticed that they were acting strange. It wasn’t anything really obvious, but they seemed to be avoiding each other. Oh, they talked with one another, but always only about their fights or magic. At first, Ashara thought that they were just focused on their training—but then she noticed the looks, and after that more things fell into place. They acted strange around her, would stop their conversations as soon as she got close to them. They spoke with her just fine one-on-one, but even when all three of them were together, they interacted with her, but never with each other.
They were in the process of packing things up when Ashara had had it with their strange behavior.
“All right,” she said finally, grabbing their attention. “Something is wrong with you two, and I want to know exactly what it is.”
They both looked at her with startled expressions, and both responded at the same time.
“Nothing is wrong,” they both said at the same time. Then looked at each other in surprise.
“I am not stupid,” Ashara told them. “Something has been bothering you two. You are not acting like yourselves. Just tell me. It can’t be worse than the Arashan.”
They glanced at each other. Ashara rounded up on Kyarra. “Just tell me!”
“I…” Kyarra started. “It was… It’s nothing.”
Her words only convinced Ashara that there was something. Ashara turned to Vin, and saw him looking at Kyarra with an odd expression, one that she had never seen on him. He noticed Ashara looking, and quickly calmed his face. She glanced back at Kyarra and saw her glance away guiltily.
Understanding washed over her like cold water. “Oh… Oh…” Ashara said softly. “You should’ve told me sooner. I mean it’s not like I—like we were… You should’ve told me.”
Vin took a step toward her, but Kyarra was closer and she walked up and grabbed Ashara by the shoulders. “No, Ashara, it’s not like that. It was nothing—a moment, nothing more.”
“It’s all right,” Ashara heard herself say as she stepped back. “I can see why you would like each other. I mean, it is obvious.”
Kyarra’s face fell and she shook her head. “No, Ashara. Please let me explain. You don’t understand.”
“Fine,” Ashara said, a small hope rising in her heart. It hurt, the same way she had been hurt in Amberhorn. “Explain it to me, then.” She glanced at Vin. “To us.”
“I…I…” Kyarra stuttered, then took a deep breath. “I have feelings for you both.”
Both Ashara and Vin stared at her wordlessly. Ashara’s mind went completely blank as she went over her words again in her mind. A part of her was happy, but another was angry.
“Kyarra,” Ashara said slowly, “I know that in Tourran, it is accepted for some people to be…in relationships with more than one person. But I hope that you are not suggesting that we share you.”
“I, no, of course not…” Kyarra said, flustered, but then softly added, “I don’t know. Maybe.”
Ashara opened her mouth to respond, but Vin cut in. “We can’t do this right now.”
“What?” Ashara turned on him sharply.
“We are about to set on a journey back to Tourran. We need to be focused on that. Dealing with this now will only serve to throw us out of balance. And if we are to succeed, we need to be calm and collected.”
They all stared at one another for a long moment. A part of Ashara wanted to disagree, to make Kyarra choose right this moment; but a more rational part of her, the one that had learned a lesson from the last time she had lashed out without thinking, told her that Vin was right.
She nodded curtly. “We should get on the road. It is a long way to Azagoh.”
* * *
They stopped at the village and purchased supplies for the trip, and they even managed to purchase horses by trading Kyarra’s skill with magic. She placed a few dozen spell
s, wards and such, which would’ve cost the villagers a fortune otherwise. With the horses their trip was shortened significantly, and they expected to reach the city within a week. They’ve managed to stay off the topic of feelings, though the atmosphere between the three of them had been tense for the first few days, but it had then somehow settled back into their normal state of affairs as they each focused on the road ahead. Ashara lectured Kyarra in Narssi, refreshing her skills, and Vin tried to follow along. Ashara had managed not to think about relationships until Vin found her alone one night as Kyarra watered the horses.
“I’m sorry, Ashara,” he told her. “I never meant for this to happen.”
“There is nothing for you to apologize about. It’s not like we were promised to each other. And I do know how easy it is to develop feelings for her,” Ashara said.
“There is something…special about her,” Vin said with emotion. It showed Ashara just how much Vin really cared. He rarely showed such emotion.
“There is,” Ashara agreed with him. “It is all right, Vin, truly. No matter what she decides, I promise you that it will not impact anything between us.” And, silently, she hoped that she could keep that promise.
Vin shook his head and moved closer, clutching at her shoulders and looking at her with real fear in his eyes. “No—I will step aside. I shouldn’t have allowed this to happen. But I…I lost my balance,” he said quickly, and Ashara gaped at him. She had never seen him like this before. Does Kyarra really mean that much to him? she wondered. After such a short period of time?
“I can’t,” Vin whispered. “I can’t lose you, Ashara,” he said. And she realized suddenly that his caring was not for Kyarra, but for her. “I had been alone for my entire life. I didn’t even realize what it was that I was missing. Not having you… It would feel worse than being back in the Arashan dungeon.”
She hugged him close, holding him and reassuring him. “It needs to be her choice. And you don’t need to worry, Vin. I love you like a brother that I never had—you are my family. And I will always be there, no matter what.”
