Around the fire, half a dozen young heads nodded. Drek stifled a yawn. They all seemed eager to continue talking, but I figured they needed rest if we were to continue our training tomorrow.
“Time to sleep,” I said. “You set watches between you and then get some rest. I have something else I need to do first, but I’ll be at the back of the cave if you need me.”
While the initiates laid out their bedding and made plans for the night watches, I got up and headed into the darkness. I settled into a meditative pose, with the plumed snatcher matriarch core beside me. The Sundered Heart Sword and the Depthless Dream Trident lay together across my lap.
I didn’t need another core to learn Sandstorm, but I intended on fighting another spirit tonight. I closed my eyes, picked up the core, and pressed it to my chest. Energy rushed through me, a steady beat of power that made my whole body feel more solid and grounded, connected to the earth.
“Oh, that’s good.” The voice of Nydarth rose from the sword straight into my head. “Well done, my sweet man. You’re simply throbbing with energy, aren’t you?”
“And look how much you’ve achieved,” said Yono, her voice low and steady as the ocean, reaching from the trident into my mind. “Learning more techniques, gaining strength. It won’t be long before you have the power to release us from our confinement in these weapons, if that’s what you want.”
“Is it what you want?” I asked them silently, the words a thought inside my mind.
“It would certainly have its advantages.” Nydarth shot an image into my head, a memory of a dream from months before, the two of us naked and entwined. “There are things that only a body can enjoy.”
“Although, there’s a lot of pleasure to be had in being your weapon,” Yono said. “Feeling your firm grip around me and the hot thrust of action. Hmmmm.”
That last throaty hum sent a shiver up my spine, and I smiled. “I’m glad I can bring you pleasure. But right now, I need your guidance on something else.”
“We’re listening,” Yono said.
“Fill us with your questions,” Nydarth said.
“I fought the earth spirit in the temple. I sensed power there, and I sense the same power here. But there is no Earth Core in this Vigorous Zone. That seems like an inconsistency. When I fought other spirits, I did so near the hearts of Vigorous Zones.”
“Even without their cores, Vigorous Zones can develop places of great power,” Nydarth said. “Like the temple, this boneyard is one of them.”
So, I’d been right earlier. The cores must leave an impression upon the land, even after they were stripped away. It also explained why there were still magical beasts in this desert.
“Feel the power flowing through you,” Yono said. “Like a great flood wanting to be released.”
I emptied my mind and opened up to the flow of Vigor around me.
“The snatcher matriarch’s core will help if you wish to fight a combination spirit,” Nydarth said. “It will let you draw in more of the power, reach deeper into it, and tap what could be. The strands of Vigor that might be lost to others can be found by you.”
As she spoke, I sensed those strands as well. The scattered threads of strength that the Earth Core would have brought together, kept close by the power of this place. I wound them in, drew them close to the channels within me, and let my own water energy flow. With my eyes still closed, I drew the trident from over my shoulder and placed it across my knees. With Yono’s spirit weapon, my water channels strengthened. Water and earth churned together to form a new kind of magic.
I took deep, steady breaths as the world around me faded. Another one came into view, and I entered the spirit realm.
I stood on the edge of a lake. It was littered with bones, some bobbing on the surface of the water, others embedded in the bank.
The land around me was still and silent as death.
Chapter Nine
Inside this new spirit realm, bones were everywhere, jutting not only from the water but from the dry dirt surrounding it. The contrast between the two environments was stark, with the earth parched and cracked despite the water a few feet from it. Only a narrow borderland showed the joining of the two, a slender strip of mud marking the transition from one element to the other.
So, this combination realm was dedicated to the mud element.
This was the fourth time that I had entered one of these spirit worlds where two elements joined to make something new. The challenge was always tougher than in the realm of a single element, but at least I knew what to expect now. First, I would have to face the spirits of the individual elements, which I would have to defeat either separately or together. Then, a third spirit would appear, and I would grapple with the essence of mud. Only once I had done that would I be able to form the mud core within me and channel the power it could provide.
Sure enough, something strode toward me across the cracked and barren plane, appearing out of the heat haze blurring the horizon. An earth spirit, exactly like the one I had faced in his own realm, with a near-featureless head, muscular body, and four powerful
