I tended to the burns on my body, drank water, and ate some dried berries I’d brought along in my pack. I wasn’t exactly in top shape, but my energy was returning thanks to rest and rehydration. Now, it was time to return to the guild house.
“Thank you for leading me here,” I said to Nydarth. “I think we should head home.”
“Oh, no,” she replied. “We still haven’t done what I brought you here for.”
“This wasn’t it?” I asked, bewildered. What more could there be?
“This is a place of fire,” she said. “A place where my power is strong. A place where I can best guide you in combining different elements. You, sweet man, are going to create your own techniques.
Chapter Eighteen
“Sit,” Nydarth instructed. “Let me show you how to combine what you already know to form entirely new attacks.”
My heart raced as I sat in front of the Fire Core again, the Sundered Heart Sword laid across my lap.
I looked at the weapon, the closest I could get to looking Nydarth in the eye. “Can they be whatever I want?”
“If only it was that easy.” Her voice slid straight into my mind. “The techniques you create will depend upon the channels you already have. By combining them, you will create something new.”
“Like when I brought my fire powers together earlier?”
“Think of that as the foundations for what you are about to undertake. Something strong but unsophisticated upon which to build grand palaces of power.
“Of course, real foundations won’t kill you if you overuse them, so it’s not a perfect metaphor. But it will do for now.”
“So, I’ve already combined techniques, but now, I’m to do it more carefully?”
“What you did wasn’t to combine techniques. It was just to pool a great store of power and let it go. What you are about to do is to combine different elements.”
“Wood and fire?”
“Exactly.”
“I wonder if this is why Tolin had me learn wood techniques,” I muttered to myself.
“Who can say what goes through that man’s mind?” Nydarth said, as though I’d been talking to her. “But let us take the opportunity he has created.”
Here was more evidence that Nydarth knew Tolin. Tolin had also reacted strangely when I’d first spoken to him about the “fire-slinging sword.” Beyond Nydarth’s mentions of him, I suspected there was a greater connection between them, given the way that his temple and her sword had come together in my world. But it was a subject for later investigation, so I banked the thought and concentrated on the present.
“How do I do this?” I asked.
“To create ash pathways, you must first have an ash core,” Nydarth said. “You can’t harvest it from the world but must create it inside you by melding together the essences of wood and fire. I have to tell you, there is a reason why not many Augmenters do this. It is not only natural ability that is required, but a certain kind of courage. Reforging Vigor in your heart is a dangerous thing, one that could kill you if it goes wrong. But I’ve seen the boldness of your spirit. You won’t shy away from danger, will you?”
I sighed and closed my eyes. It seemed that whatever I did here, I was placing myself in some sort of danger. But as the saying goes, fortune favors the brave. I’d spent my whole life bucking against the expectations of others—racing through the education system, challenging the assumptions of posh snobs, choosing a career most people would never have considered. Now, I was carving a path for myself through a world I hadn’t even known existed a year before. I wasn’t going to let fear stand in my way.
“Let’s get on with this,” I said. “What should I do?”
“I want you to clear your mind. Focus on your breathing. The sensation of the air moving in and out. How your chest moves to that rhythm. How your spirit flows with your body. Let all thoughts fade away until there is only sensation.”
I let my mind drift, as I had learned in the guild’s meditation classes, becoming mindful of the sensations within my body. The flow of my breath. The gurgling of my stomach. The rhythm of my pulse.
And the Vigor.
“Now, open up to the Vigor inside you, both wood and fire. Can you feel it?”
Fire was the first to draw my attention. It blazed bright within me, the heat of an inferno, restless, constantly in motion, yearning to expand and swallow everything around it. It was hard to sit still with that sensation buzzing in my mind.
Then, I sensed the power of wood. It too was expansive, but spreading slowly, carefully, growing toward stability. It swayed like reeds in the wind and bent to the forces around it but kept its own shape.
“I feel it,” I said. “Both of them.”
“Good. Wood has been with you longer, so draw upon that first. Channel a portion of it into your heart.”
I reached inside with my spirit, drew upon the Vigor, and guided a portion off its familiar path. I worked slowly and steadily as I shifted its channel until it flowed into the very core of my being.
“Now, the fire,” Nydarth whispered. “Draw that in too.”
The fire was easier to direct. It wanted to change, to move, to reach new places and burn up what it found there. It was almost too easy to direct it to the precious, vulnerable center of my spirit. The challenge was to cut it off before there was too much.
The powers of wood and fire swirled around each other. Even without Nydarth guiding me, I knew what I had to do.
I forced them together, as I had forced the Vigor of the fire cores to combine. As they mingled, there was a sudden and overwhelming sensation inside me, like hearing a noise so loud it deafens, or staring at a blindingly bright light. An explosion seemed to go off in my
