Awakenings

by C. D. Espeseth

Adel rushed through the small archway to find Fellow Callahan feeding his fish in the central pond of his garden.

  “Bright and early. Good.” Fellow Callahan’s friendly green eyes twinkled in the morning light.

  Adel bowed slightly, just as she would to her father during the start of their training sessions.

  “I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve taken the liberty of changing your basic self-defence classes with these private sessions. I have assured the doyenne you are already very well versed in the basics of hand-to-hand combat.” Fellow Callahan stood up from his seat and took an instructor’s stance, hands behind his back, in front of her. “I have invited a friend to observe these sessions. This is Lady Buika, First in the Order of Presence within the Hafaza, though if you ask her, she should also be first in the Order of the Blade, as well.”

  “The Paladine holds that position, as you well know, Fellow Callahan.” Lady Buika gave a cool diplomatic smile to the older teacher. “I’ve been very eager to meet you, Adel. We are very excited about your potential.”

  Adel smiled back, not quite sure how to respond. She had only arrived yesterday after all. Lady Buika stood tall and had the dark complexion of those from the South, however, which country or what region in the South the lady came from, she had no idea. The First of the Order of Presence, Adel tried to remember what those titles meant. “Presence focuses on the Hafaza’s ability to enhance siphoning around them, and to strengthen the powers of others around them,” her father’s voice spoke in her mind. There was something else about how the Hafaza found the resonant notes to match, but Adel had not understood much of that particular lesson at the time, and the one test she had taken for singing aptitude had gone very poorly. Lessons about how the Hafaza did things had stopped rather quickly after that. Though Adel knew enough to know that to be First in a Hafaza order was quite an accomplishment. Her singing ability must be very strong indeed, but she could also challenge for First in the Order of the Blade, meaning this pristine and elegant courtly lady was also deadly with a sword, bladed spear and glaive.

  It was then Adel realised Lady Buika was staring at her and awaiting a response. Adel’s tongue felt clumsy, but she managed to spit out, “Thank you, Lady Buika. I shall try not to disappoint you.”

  “So modest,” Lady Buika crooned. “I’m sure you will not. Please, continue with your lesson.” She held a hand out to Fellow Callahan. “As your teacher has said, I am merely an observer today.”

  Adel bowed, but couldn’t help thinking, and what might you be the next day?

  Fellow Callahan tapped the stone bracelet on Adel’s wrist. “How is the bracelet holding up?” His eyes darted toward the scabbarded sword at Adel’s hip. “I see you’ve brought your father’s sword with you.”

  Adel touched the sword, only now remembering she had decided to take it. “I ...” She wondered why she had done that. “No, not yet, sir. I ... thought I might need it.” Adel didn’t quite trust the bracelet just yet, whereas the sword had channelled the power surging through her before. “I’m still not quite sure what is happening to me.”

  “I shall try to explain.” Fellow Callahan nodded to Adel and graciously bade Lady Buika take a seat on one of the wooden benches at the perimeter of the garden’s central square. She flicked out a paper fan and watched them with a keen eye.

  “The ability to siphon energy from the world around us has many factors. The size of the siphoner is a very small part of it. There are very practical elements of course, like the siphoner’s tolerance for the tingling pain, the shape of their body, what contact points the siphoner prefers. Even the levels of different salts, nutrients and water within their body can affect the rate and flow of the energy within the siphoner. Yet, there are factors far beyond that which is purely physical.”

  Fellow Callahan picked up two metal rings, one with a much larger diameter than the other. “If we were to say, that these two metal rings were both siphoners, which would you naturally assume could pull in more energy?”

  “The larger one?” Adel wondered if this were some sort of trick question.

  “Yes, the larger one.” Fellow Callahan nodded his head. “And in most cases, yes, this is true. The more energy one can pull in, or the larger tolerance for the energy coursing through your body, the more potent the siphoner, in general.”

  He began to play with the rings around his wrists and hands, making them spin and loop around each other. The old man’s arms flowed in hypnotic sinuous waves, and the rings rolled from one forearm to the other, across his shoulders, across his chest and then back up on the tops of his hands and back again in a continuous circuit.

  “Now, the High King has used this natural ability to his advantage, and most Syklans still understand Siphoning on only the basic level. Yet, what if the smaller ring had a higher understanding of its own form, was more efficient in moving the energy through and around itself? Could snap energy from one place to the next with almost no loss of potency and with little resistance?”

  The smaller ring jumped up off Callahan’s wrist and began to circle on the inner circumference of the larger ring. A faint metallic ringing began to sing around the old man.

  “And what if the smaller ring had a higher awareness not only of itself but also of the environment around it? An awareness that allowed it to pull in energy from further away, deeper into the earth, and higher into the heavens?”

  The inner and smaller ring began to glow a soft orange while the outer ring it spun within began to frost over with a thin layer of ice. The smaller ring then began to cycle through fits of sparking blue light to glowing orange in rapid succession.

  “How are you doing that?” Adel gasped. That should be impossible. Callahan’s body was never physically in contact with the smaller, inner circle of metal. The outer ring must be his conduit, but he was controlling the flow of energy within the inner ring with such precision and speed that Adel expected the small ring to fly apart at any moment under the strain.

  “And what if this idea of needing a metal cage around yourself to siphon, was akin to crawling before you could run?” Fellow Callahan’s hands danced like a set of whipping snakeheads before they grasped the larger ring and began to spin the smaller ring at such a speed it began to sing as it travelled faster and faster within the larger.

  “And what if what is known is only the tip of the iceberg?” Fellow Callahan’s hands snapped forward, one high at shoulder height, the other directly below it at hip height, and between them spun the larger ring, suspended in the field of flashing blue energy shot between those hands. A deep hum began to resonate through the garden as the larger ring began to glow orange and spark all at once. The smaller ring stopped spinning along the inside of the larger and crept upwards against the pull of the earth, to hang in the middle of a dancing purple sheet of energy within the larger ring.

  Adel’s mouth hung open in wonder. The strain was evident on Fellow Callahan’s face but between those old hands hung two metal rings in the air with nothing to hold them up but the pure will and flow of siphoned energy coursing through the old man’s body. It should be impossible, it should have killed him a hundred times over, but there it was, right in front of Adel’s eyes.

  The humming slowed, and Fellow Callahan slowed the spinning rings, the once glowing hot outer ring cooling before her very eyes. The dance of the metal rings resumed around his arms and then, just as wonderfully as it all began, the energy and the movement faded back to stasis.

  “Where … how?” Adel didn’t even know where to begin. Fellow Callahan had somehow dispersed the massive amount of energy he had siphoned just as smoothly and carefully as he had pulled it in.

  “The Syklans and the instructors they have sent into the world to swell their order know a very effective technique of using brute power to pull in energy. They let it explode through their bodies and their weapons. While it has been used to devastating effect, what they know is but a tiny fraction of what is possible.” Fellow Callahan toss
ed the larger ring to Adel. “And you, my young student, need to know more about what is possible.”

  Adel caught the ring easily. “Yes, sir.”

  “Good.” Fellow Callahan’s eyes sparkled with the smile he wore. “We will start you with the larger ring. Place it on your wrist. Siphon a small amount into the ring to heat it, and then discharge it the way you already know how. Get a feel for the metal and how the energy flows through it.”

  Adel reached for the energy flowing around her. The air was always her first choice, and her skin raised in goosebumps as the air cooled and the energy flowed into her. The ring began to heat, and she felt its resistance and the slight push back against the flow she diverted into the ring.

  She bent and discharged the energy into the ground, the giant well which absorbed whatever touched it. The earth’s thirst for a siphoner’s flow was never quenched.

  Adel began spinning the ring on her wrist before she knew what she was doing. It was instinctive as if she had done it thousands of times before, and as the metal ring spun, it began to feel more and more familiar.

  She caught herself and gave a slightly confused shake of her head. “Sorry,” she said and stopped the ring spinning. She snapped her heels back to attention and admonished herself for her daydreaming.

  “Not at all.” Fellow Callahan’s eyes squinted as he studied her. “May I ask what you were just thinking?”

  Adel’s cheeks warmed. Caught daydreaming already. She wasn’t even through her first lesson. “I …” Adel didn’t know what to say, so she just spoke the truth, “I was just thinking how familiar this felt.”

  “Yet, you have not had a lesson with the rings before, correct?” Fellow Callahan asked. He did not seem surprised by her admission.

  “No, sir. I have not,” Adel answered.

  Fellow Callahan nodded. “All right, this time, I want you to do what comes naturally. The goal is to spin the ring as you just were and to create a continuously moving conduit point with your body. Instead of siphoning into just one point, like through your hands, you are to siphon continuously through the point where the ring touches your body. Like so.” He slowly moved the ring around her forearm. “Here, and here, and here.” He pointed to the different points the ring was touching as it spun around her arm. “Move it around if you like or try to keep it spinning in one place at first. Let the feel of it guide you.”

  Adel gave a sharp bow of acknowledgement. “Sir.”

  “Begin.” Callahan clapped his hands and stepped back.

  Adel let the ring spin as slowly as she could around her wrist and then onto her forearm. The familiarity of the exercise returned to her tenfold. She siphoned in, and the energy leapt into her. She guided its tingling feeling into the rotating contact point around her forearm.

  “Good, keep going, let the ring travel where it wants, let the energy dance with it.” Callahan’s voice floated to Adel, but she was so absorbed in the feel of it his words sounded as if they were spoken underwater.

  The ring spun faster, and somehow, Adel knew what to do. She let her other hand dive into the spinning circle and let the ring jump from one wrist to another as effortlessly as if she were breathing. The energy danced through her skin, keeping time to the beats of the ring. She closed her eyes and focused on the feeling of it.

  Her skin buzzed and tingled, the pressure of the metal ring touched her again and again, cooling the tingling skin and pulling the energy into itself. On instinct, she let the ring roll to the top of her hand and mimicked what she had seen Fellow Callahan do. Slowly and almost awkwardly this new phase of the dance started, like a baby taking its first steps, but the sinuous motion began to flow through her, and the ring rolled around the circle of her arms and shoulders carrying the energy with it. Adel felt the flow dance through her, and it was wonderful. Her body felt strong and powerful, yet at the same time flexible and yielding, her muscles tingled with the energy and cooling touch of the metal ring dancing upon her skin.

  She let the wonderful sensation take her, let the ring roll down her spine, across her hips, and she flowed and contorted to keep the ring moving, to keep it upright and rolling. It was wonderful and somehow as natural as breathing.

  “Very good.” Fellow Callahan’s voice swam to her ears through the dance of energy. “Now back onto your wrists.”

  Adel complied let the ring spin off her ankle, which she only now realised was above her head, and as she lowered her leg the ring ran along her shin, then thigh, and back onto her hand as she reached for it.

  Her entire body tingled with the sensation of it.

  “Look at the ring, Adel,” Lady Buika said in awe.

  Adel only then remembered she had an audience. Her eyes once again focused on what she was doing. The euphoria of her strange dance wore off quickly as the shower of electric sparks spinning off the white-hot ring came into focus.

  Panic replaced the wonderful dreamlike fuzziness which had been flowing through her body. “What do I do?” Adel cried.

  “You are fine, keep it spinning-” Fellow Callahan began.

  It was then she saw the stone bracelet in his hand. He had taken it off her somehow.

  “No!” Adel lost her focus. The heat of the ring hit her as if she had touched a boiling cauldron. She felt her skin burn, but then knew it wasn’t just her skin burning, her whole body felt aflame.

  “It’s fine–” Fellow Callahan stepped forward. Somehow his face was still calm.

  Calm! She was burning!

  The sword. It was still at her hip.

  Adel reached for her sword and slammer her other hand into the ground.

  The air around her exploded in a shower of dirt and grass. The ground cracked and heaved beneath her, and the leather scabbard exploded away from the black blade of the sword like a burst whale bladder.

  Adel dared not move and waited. This was only the calm before the storm of searing pain about to slam into her. Adel closed her eyes and clamped her jaw, trying to prepare.

  Yet the pain never came.

  “Here.” A pair of gentle hands took her wrist of the grounded hand and slid the cool stone bracelet back onto it. “You are fine, child. Look.”

  Fellow Callahan stood beside her and Adel shook as she opened her eyes.

  Her arm was not burnt.

  It wasn’t possible.

  “But I felt it. I was burning.” Adel’s voice was shaky, and she looked into Callahan’s calm eyes for answers.

  “Your father waited too long to send you to me, perhaps.” Fellow Callahan grimaced slightly as he watched her other hand still holding the hilt of the black blade. “You should not have interrupted her, Lady Buika,” the old man’s voice admonished.

  “But it was wonderful, beautiful even.” Lady Buika had stood and walked to them. “Adel, that was amazing. More than we could have hoped for.”

  Adel checked herself for any sign of burns, but there was no pain and no marks of any kind. As the feeling of what had just happened faded, her mind started to catch up. She had never tried the rings before, yet as she had gone through the movements, it felt as if she had practised this for years upon years. “I don’t understand,” Adel said. She was so confused, and those words were the only coherent ones she could form.

  “You are the heir, Adel. Don’t you see? Her skill and essence flows within you, through your veins and soul,” Lady Buika said as if it should explain everything, yet it explained nothing.

  “The heir? Whose essence. What are you talking about?” Adel felt herself losing control, she didn’t know what was happening. Tears formed in her eyes, and she wiped them away angrily. “What is happening to me? Why did you take the bracelet off? I don’t understand!” Adel whipped her hand away from Callahan and stepped away from them.

  It was Lady Buika’s turn to look confused now, and a frown twisted her lips.

  The two of them looked at her in bewilderment, as if she were some strange creature which had just stepped out of the woods and fouled their
lovely garden.

  This was a mistake, she told herself. Somehow all of this was a mistake. She wanted to go home. She wanted her father to wrap his big arms around her, she wanted to stop feeling as if she were about to explode, she wanted to feel safe. I just want to go home and for none of this to have ever happened. She felt as if she couldn’t breathe. Her legs felt weak, and she flopped down onto the grass ungracefully. She grabbed her knees and tried to breathe.

  “Adel, my child.” Fellow Callahan’s voice was soft and gentle. “We want to help. You are safe now. I’m sorry for taking the bracelet. It was too soon. I see now you have been dealing with this problem for far longer than you should have.” He carefully stepped forward and patted her knee. “The lesson is over for this morning. Come on, on your feet, we will go have a cup of tea.”

  He helped Adel to her feet with a kind smile, and Adel took a deep shuddering breath.

  “He never told you?” Lady Buika asked, and there was anger behind her simple question. Lady Buika’s jaw tightened and fists clenched.

  Adel then saw the long, hard lines of the warrior’s body beneath Lady Buika’s silk dress. The stance of the Lady’s feet, the calluses not completely hidden upon manicured knuckles, and the sharp, raptor-like focus which mixed with the anger in her eyes. Lady Buika was the first of the Order of Presence, and at that moment, Adel knew why.

  “Yes, but give her a minute please,” Fellow Callahan said calmly but stared pointedly at Lady Buika. “What we need to say must be explained carefully and in full, wouldn’t you agree?”

  Lady Buika took a deep calming breath. “You are right, of course. You can, however, appreciate how this news is quite unexpected.”

  Fellow Callahan was leading her towards his quaint wooden house at the end of the garden, but Adel had had enough. “Tell me what?” Adel held out a hand to show she was fine, as Fellow Callahan was about to protest. “Tell me what?” she demanded of Lady Buika.

  Lady Buika hesitated, but Fellow Callahan nodded. They could see Adel wasn’t going anywhere until someone started giving her some answers.