The remaining starsquid came toward us with flashing tentacles and its mouth wide open. Two more emerged from the water behind it.
I held my hands close together and summoned fire between them. It grew and spun in place until it became a slender whirlwind of fire. I parted my hands, and the Burning Wheel shot away, past the starsquids. There was a hiss of evaporating water where its fiery wind touched the damp ground.
The starsquids turned to run after the vortex of fire as it vanished into the distance.
“Those things really aren’t that smart, are they?” I asked.
“We’ve been lucky. These marshes are usually much more densely populated. The creatures’ attack on our city must have depleted their numbers. ”
There was a screeching sound. Kumi started at the noise, stumbled on the uneven ground, and laid a hand on my arm to try to steady herself. I caught her around the waist before she could topple into the mud. Mist clouded around us in the darkness.
“Thank you,” Kumi said softly as she looked up into my eyes. “You’ve done me a great service.”
Her mouth fluttered open as she reached up for my face.
“Fog means lampreys,” I reminded her. “Raincheck?”
“Why would you want to check for rain? It falls as it wishes,” the princess said as I pulled her to her feet. “Cover your ears. I’d like to show you something I’ve been practicing.”
She swayed side to side as I jammed my frost-armored hands against my ears. I could faintly hear her Song of the Sea, but this one was almost like a lullaby, and my eyelids started to droop.
The surrounding waters reached for the lampreys and swarmed over them. At first, I thought Kumi was just giving them a wash, but then their movements turned sluggish. One by one, they fell down in the marsh, soundly asleep, until only one remained.
Kumi’s hand on my shoulder told me it was safe. I pulled my hands away from my head and kicked a barely conscious lamprey into the ferns.
“Color me even more impressed,” I said.
“It’s something I’ve only just managed to learn. It’s rather difficult to direct. You, of all people, must know the difficulty of using a technique you’ve not practiced.”
“Maybe you should practice it more. It seems quite useful.”
Kumi’s hands traced the edges of my Frozen Armor. I let it fall off me to the logs beneath our feet.
Her teeth teased her lip before she shook her head. “I’d rather not have people falling asleep in the middle of a fight, Ethan. Come; the core of the Vigorous Zone awaits us.”
She led me along a series of winding trails past windblown trees and tall stands of rushes. We strolled around deep pools and deeper patches of mud until we reached the shore of a large lake. I’d been happy to simply enjoy Kumi’s company rather than taint the air with idle chatter.
The waters of the lake rippled out in concentric circles as if a large stone was constantly being dropped into the middle. A pillared shrine on a small island awaited our presence as we stepped around the shore of fine sand interspersed with reeds and willow trees. Ducks drifted on the glassy water, and fish poked their heads out to snap at passing insects.
“The water core is out there,” Kumi said.
“It’s beautiful,” I whispered. “Shouldn’t there be more monsters guarding it?
The princess laughed. “We slew them in my father’s halls. The anglers take their time to populate a Vigorous Zone again. Which is good for you.”
Kumi walked out into the lake. The water rose around her legs and caused her skirt to float on the surface. I swam after her and found it was surprisingly mild and soothing. The remaining aches of the past few days faded away. It was almost magical, and I wondered whether these waters carried some kind of Vigor.
Kumi shot through the water like a fish as she used her whole body in a waving motion rather than just her arms and legs. She sprung onto the island like some kind of dolphin and wrung water from her braids.
I pulled myself onto the bank and walked up the island’s grassy shore. An ethereal glow shone from the center of the shrine, and the water of the lake stirred as we approached. The water core rippled with a surface of liquid light that I couldn’t look at for too long. The orb reminded me of a miniature sun that glowed a deep azure.
“Very few people make it this far into the Vigorous Zone,” Kumi whispered. “You’re quite the honored outsider, Ethan. I’ve only ever been here twice before.”
“I’m surprised the guild hasn’t come for it. It seems like they’ll grasp at anything if they think it will give them power.”
“The guild members are extremists, but even they haven’t lost their minds. They must know that if they take the water core, the Vigorous Zone will stop creating the monsters they need for techniques. Without it, their power would wane.”
“You’ve grown in power without consuming cores,” I said. “Wild magic isn’t to be underestimated.”
“That’s a different sort of power. One that I’ve been cultivating for years and that only allows me to touch my surroundings, rather than draw it from within.”
“That just makes you all the more impressive. I’ve seen a lot of magic in my short time here. Yours outmatches some of the most impressive I’ve witnessed.”
“You honor me.” She smiled up at me. “It means a lot that such a powerful, trained Augmenter thinks such a thing.”
She kissed me on the cheek and filled my face with warmth. Her lips brushed the corner of mine, and as my hands found her shoulders, Kumi’s lips parted even more, and a quiet moan escaped them.
“You said that you wanted to create a new core,” the princess said as she cleared her throat and stepped away from me. “What does that entail, exactly?”
I walked over to the water core and
