Azaleth picked out a handful of small stones from a bag at his hip. He grinned. “Turn around.”
“What?” She stared at the first stone, already floating above his hand. Thankfully, it wasn’t spinning. Azaleth wasn’t planning on using it as a deadly weapon. Just as a stone.
“The training bracers only work when you already have some knowledge of what you are doing. But you don’t.” He gestured toward the floating stone. “I’ve seen you dodge projectiles, though. Maybe it will work.”
“You want me to dodge a rock I can’t see coming?”
He gave the affirmative hand sign.
This was a horrible idea.
A sudden and intense longing for her old academy instructors seized her. They never would have considered throwing rocks at her as an educational technique.
Still, she felt like a guest here, and what other choice did she have? It wasn’t like she could propose a better idea for developing a skill she didn’t possess.
So she turned, regretting the decision even as she did.
Azaleth gave no warning. The rock came straight for her left arm.
Alena twisted, but was distracted by the impossibility of everything.
The stone stopped, hovering in the air just beyond her.
Alena dropped to a knee, not trusting her balance. She blinked, but the sensations continued their subtle assault.
She felt the air. Not like the breeze against the skin, but as a presence. The air itself had a weight to it.
She felt the stone, too. The sensation wasn’t as vivid as that of the air, but she noticed it all the same.
And more. So much more. Feelings she couldn’t put a description to. When Azaleth walked to her, he wasn’t just Azaleth. He was a collection of sensations. She felt the water within him, felt the air moving down his throat and through his lungs. For a moment, she thought she could see into his mind.
None of the feelings were overwhelming. Each was subtle, but it was far more than she was used to.
Azaleth bent down beside her and undid the bracer. He pulled it off gently, and the feelings subsided. She could still feel them, but they were whispered echoes of the sensations before.
Her young tutor checked on her, and it took her several tries to convince him that she was fine.
She curled up into herself then, pulling her knees tightly to her chest, looking out over the plains at nothing in particular.
Alena sometimes shot a glance at the bracer. It had caused her to feel this. This wasn’t her.
But she knew that to be a lie.
Ryder had been right. Azaleth and the Etari were right.
She had an affinity. If she was interpreting her experience correctly, she had several.
Months ago, back in Landow, such a revelation might have broken her. She would have wandered for days, stunned at the knowledge.
But her mind had been battered by revelations in her travels. The mind adapted to stress, just like any other part of the body.
Alena stood up, picking up the bracer as she did. She turned it over and saw a small stone embedded in the leather. It appeared to be a small shard of diamond.
Azaleth tracked her gaze. “It’s gatestone.”
The same type of stone that had turned her life upside down in Landow. The same stone that had torn her from her family and sent her all the way here.
She wanted to hate it, but didn’t find it within her. It was just a stone. A tool.
What she really hated was the man who had used the stone against her.
Alena looked at the bracer more closely. The leather was old, the way it appeared after hundreds of uses. Why did they use it for training?
Connections lit in her mind. They used it for training to prepare for the rest of their lives. She looked up at Azaleth. “You have a stone on you, don’t you?”
“All adult Etari do.” He lifted up his shirt, where the stone was embedded near his navel.
Before the discussion could wander any further, Sooni returned. Her gaze was a question. Azaleth flashed a hand sign, letting her know the ultimatum had worked. Sooni smiled and looked to Alena.
“Welcome to the family.”
41
Brandt chased Ana up the mountain, his breath coming easy as he used his lightness to pull himself from stone to stone. He could keep her pace, but barely.
She crested the cliff and disappeared from sight.
Suspecting a trap, Brandt altered his direction, climbing a section of rock further to the right that provided solid enough holds. He crested the ridge less than a dozen heartbeats after Ana, unsurprised to see her waiting where she had finished her climb, wooden sword in hand. Had he followed her trail exactly, he expected that sword would be battering his ribs at the moment.
He landed softly, darting into a grove of trees as water condensed out of the air and formed a whip that snapped at him.
The trees protected him from Ana’s water affinity. Out in the open, she had learned to use her water whip to great effect, but it wasn’t quite as useful in the tight confines of the grove.
She came in with her sword, using lightness to bounce off of trees and attack from above.
Brandt parried her attack, leaping up to the trees and running along the branches.
She followed him on the ground below, leaping up to meet him when she spotted an opening. Their swords met and cracked together, each of them balanced upon a single tree branch.
Ana kicked at his shin, but Brandt jumped, the heel of her foot passing just underneath him.
He wasn’t sure how her other foot reached him so fast, but the results weren’t in dispute. He lost his balance, plummeting to the ground below. Even light, the landing hurt.
Ana laughed as she dropped down. She offered him her hand. He took it, but instead of letting her help him up, he pulled her down. Ana let herself fall, landing on top of him. Their lips met, and for a few moments, all was right
