I drew a portion of each element away from the main flow and gathered them in my gut. They were like two weights bearing down on me, each solid and separate. Slowly, taking a deep breath with each push, I started to meld them together. The power didn’t want to go, each pool of Vigor trying to retain its own unique nature.
But my battle in the spirit realm had earned me the strength and the understanding to do this. I squeezed and squeezed, using all my Augmenting power, and at last, the two forces merged. I kept on tightening, and that pool of power hardened to become the solid, pulsing point of a mud core.
Mud power flowed through me for the first time, thick and rich and glorious, and I almost laughed out loud.
“Well done, Swordslinger,” Yono said, her voice as soft as silk inside my head. “Do you know how many Augmenters even bother to try to learn to work with mud? Almost none. But here you are, mastering it in a single night.”
“What will it let me do?” I asked.
“For now, two new techniques,” she said. “First is Mud Geyser. This creates an enormous pillar of mud shooting out of the ground. It takes a lot of Vigor, but the results can be positively explosive. It will blind and debilitate targets, giving you a chance to take them out.
“The second technique is Mud Entrapment. Choose a target and direct this technique to the ground around them. It will create a pool of mud like quicksand, from which it is almost impossible to break free.”
“So, mud is all about slowing down my opponents?”
“That is when it is at its strongest, yes. It’s not an offensive element, like fire or wood, but one that is used to enhance your other maneuvers. And it can be used in surprising ways. A gifted Augmenter can use Mud Entrapment to soften the ground ahead of them when they use Hidden Burrow, the technique Tahlis uses to dart around. Used through such soft ground, Hidden Burrow becomes even faster and lets you take enemies completely by surprise.”
I hadn’t learned Hidden Burrow yet, and I wasn’t sure how useful it would be against the cultists in Hyng’or. I’d managed to defeat Mahrai’s golem, but I figured that had been mostly due to the element of surprise. Mahrai would know that I was an Elementalist now, so she and the rest of the cultists would likely be better prepared next time we met.
Still, having Mud Entrapment and Mud Geyser in my arsenal would provide us with a critical advantage.
I returned to where the others were sleeping, put my weapons down, rolled out my blanket, and settled down. As I closed my eyes, I reached out to touch the Depthless Dream one more time.
“Thank you for your help tonight,” I said.
“It is always a pleasure to help you, Swordslinger,” Yono replied. “As it is to help any friend of Kumi’s. Your princess is as dear to me as she is to all the Qihin people.”
“I wanted to ask, why are you bound in that trident?”
“I did things the other demigods didn’t approve of.”
“What sorts of things?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
A brief image appeared in my mind—the face of a beautiful woman, winking at me. It made me laugh, but it still wasn’t answer enough.
“I’m serious,” I said. “I’m only going to help you get free if I know you’re a safe person to let out into the world.”
“Trust me, Swordslinger, I would do nothing to harm you or any innocents. My crimes are not ones to which you would object.”
“But how do I know for sure that I can trust you?”
“You don’t. That’s how trust works. But think of how I’ve helped you so far, and of the fact that King Beqai brought us together. Isn’t that enough to win me some consideration?”
“No,” I answered honestly. “Why hide the truth from me if I don’t need to worry you might be dangerous?”
“I am not hiding the truth. I am merely postponing its revelation.”
“You will tell me before I find out how to let you out of the trident. Or you’re not going anywhere.”
“A reasonable arrangement,” she answered.
I didn’t want to risk sleeping while the initiates were on watch, so I spent my time meditating. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them, but I preferred to be safe rather than sorry.
I centered myself while the sound of snoring became like a metronome. The internal pathways I’d created by creating a mud core became familiar to me as I pushed Vigor through them and out of them. I practiced forging and channeling but never actually implemented the two new techniques.
Hours passed until I felt the steady breathing of someone in front of me.
I looked up to see thee Choshi crouching beside me. She had her spear in her hand and a worried look on her face.
“Master Ethan,” she said. “I think we’re in danger.”
I jumped to my feet, grabbed my weapons, and followed Choshi to the entrance of the cave. Zedal stood there, quarterstaff gripped between her scaled hands as she looked out across the valley.
The sun had just risen across Gonki, bringing the valley back to life. Stone outcrops cast deep shadows over the parched land, as did the cairns outside our cave, which sent dark fingers groping along the valley side. Crows and vultures, recently woken, circled in a clear sky, looking for any carrion that had died in the night.
“What’s happening?” I asked quietly, aware of the other initiates still sleeping in the cave.
“There.” Zedal pointed down the valley toward Hyng’ohr.
The first thing that I saw was a few scattered travelers, individuals on horse and foot moving fast up the road. Before I could work out who they might be, or why Zedal and Choshi thought they were a threat, I caught sight of what was following them.
