Fallen Star

by Ivan Kal

  Still, something about this place relaxed Vin, made him feel at peace. Perhaps it was because it was the final resting place of the Hunter, or perhaps it was something else. It didn’t matter—Vin liked meditating here. Yet not even this place could give him any insight into why he couldn’t take the seventh step. So instead of trying, Vin trained his other skills. He had his net extended beyond himself and out into the valley, scanning his surroundings carefully. He was attempting to refine his sensory senses. His net built up an image inside of his head as he released countless tiny ki threads that moved according to his will. Every time his threads encountered something with more aura than the surroundings, he could feel it. The ordinary people and the animals looked almost the same to his sight, as they had just a tiny bit more of aura than the flora and what was ambient. Mages shone brightly, and then there were ones who blazed in his mind’s eye: the bearers of the fragments of power. He had some difficulty differentiating between several people of the same power, however, and he hoped to sharpen his senses enough to be able to do that.

  His net was great for other things as well. Ambient aura shifted and moved as other sources of anima moved through it, and he could feel those waves easily, meaning he could detect spells and wards at a far greater distance than he was accustomed.

  Now, he slowly moved his net over the valley. He had a truly enormous range, all thanks to the body he had forged himself on the third step. He could probably cover the entire valley, but the greater the area he was monitoring, the greater the chance of missing something. The net extended outward from him, so he usually targeted it in smaller areas, either all around him or only in one direction. Now he was extending the field in a single direction and using it to sweep across the valley. He had been doing this type of training for several days now, and had found that he could see the differences between animals more often than not. He avoided looking at Tourran, as the city itself was filled with wards and they overwhelmed his senses. When he was inside the city, he had to keep his net reduced to his immediate surroundings.

  As he was doing his regular sweep, he noticed a group of humans enter his field. That wasn’t so unusual—Tourran had patrols going all over the valley as well as a few smaller villages. But then another group appeared, and another, until multitudes of fast-moving humans were entering his net and running toward Tourran at an alarming rate.

  Frowning, Vin changed his sweep and followed the direction from which the people were coming from. The numbers increased, until he finally reached the area of a battle. To him it looked like blobs of aura dancing around one another, and then periodically some blinking out and dissipating into the ambient aura. He knew that he was looking close to the Tourran-Lashian pass now, and the battle was too large for a confrontation with bandits or some other smaller engagement. He moved his net over the battlefield, expanding it slowly to get a better picture of the situation, when he felt something familiar: a fragment of power, and one that he had sensed before.

  The Lashian bearer he fought while escaping from their Empire. Vin felt a rush go through him—the Arc Commander had been a good opponent, one that Vin wanted to fight again. From a few more moments of watching he was certain that the defenders were losing the battle. He then moved the net over the pass directly, and got another surprise. There were thousands of ordinary people and mages marching through the pass, but the most surprising thing was that there was one more fragment-bearer there, one that he had not encountered before. Vin knew that the Lashian Empire had two fragments, which told him that this was a full-blown invasion. Already Vin could sense at least ten thousand people in or near the pass.

  He stood up, keeping his net active, and made his way through the ruins to the outside. Once he exited the cave leading to the ruins, he looked to the east. He saw firelight in the distance, but he was too far away for any sound to carry. He was on the southern side of the base of the mountain range, and the pass was to the north and east of him; perhaps several hours away at walking speed. Vin glanced to his left, and in the distance he could see Tourran glowing brightly.

  For a moment he thought about what he should do. He couldn’t do much alone to beat back the attack—there were too many of them, and that was without the two fragment-bearers, one of whom he knew nothing about. He was confident in his ability to take on the Arc Commander, as he had fought against him before, knew what his fragment could do, and he had devised counter moves for dealing with him. The other bearer, however, was an unknown.

  He could go to Tourran, meet up with Kyarra and plan their next move, but he only really entertained that thought for a moment. He was a spirit artist, and fighting was in his soul.

  He turned east and set off running before activating his Wind Step and flying through the trees, his feet touching the ground only every few seconds. He was moving faster than any other person on this world was capable of, and he continued pushing more ki into his feet, moving faster. Soon he had reached the first of the retreating Tourran forces. Most were mercenaries, but a few wore the armor of Tourran Guard. He flew over their heads so fast that he doubted they even noticed.

  With his net he watched and tracked the fragment-bearer as he moved after the retreating soldiers. He made a beeline for him as he reached inside his soul plane and pulled out two of his blades. Threads flew out of his back to a length of about three paces, then intertwined and thickened, turning into tendrils of black ki as the two blades appeared at their ends. Vin got close to his target, his blades smashing into the ground ahead of him before the tendrils shot him forward, the blades pulling out of the earth and trailing behind him.

  He didn’t know how the Lashian noticed, but as Vin’s blades raised over his head and smashed down at the man’s head, he turned and blocked the attack. Dirt exploded outward as the force of Vin’s attack cracked the earth beneath the man’s feet and pushed him down.

  The man smiled at him, and Vin returned it. Then his feet touched the ground and he jumped back, backflipping several paces away. The soldiers that the man had almost killed remained frozen in inaction only for a moment, and then they were running away.

  “Arc Commander Danir,” Vin said, giving the man a warrior’s bow.

  “Kai Zhao Vin,” the man said without bowing. Vin barely resisted the urge to shake his head. This world disappointed him in many ways, but the lack of respect between warriors was probably at the top of that list.

  “You shouldn’t have come here,” Vin said.

  “And why is that?” Danir said as he walked out of the crater and took a sideways stance with both of his arms on his sword.

  “Because I do not allow my enemies to survive fights against me twice,” Vin said.

  Danir smiled and triggered his fire cloak as Vin Shaped and created a spear as his blades smashed into the ground and launched him forward.

  He stabbed with his spear and Danir blocked, then activated a ward—but Vin had paid a very close attention during their last battle, and he knew exactly what Danir was trying to do. His blades came crashing down from above, stabbing at the man’s head. Danir jumped back just in time to evade as his ward exploded outward, sending a ball of fire all around him. Vin’s blades stabbed into the ground and he stepped closer, hiding from the blast behind them.

  As soon as the fire had passed, his blades rose and swiped at the Lashian quickly. He could tell that the man was surprised at their speed for something that was of that size but he moved out of the way rather than to try and block. Danir pulled his blade back and then stabbed forward, sending a pillar of fire ahead of him.

  Vin Shadow Stepped behind the man and attacked immediately with his spear from the side and his blades from above. Danir jumped to the side and rolled across the ground, leaving a trail of fire in his way.

  Vin followed, his blades smashing the ground as he chased after Danir. The man evaded and sent a wave of fire at Vin, who brought his blades close to defend himself from the attack. Danir got to his feet and jumped back, putting some distanc
e between them. As soon as the wave of fire broke against Vin’s blades, he pulled himself into the air with his tendrils. Using the two blades as additional limbs, he hung at least three paces above the ground as he brought his spear hand back and then threw his weapon at Danir.

  The man barely had the time to get his sword in between them as the spear sent a shockwave as it traveled through the air. His blade met the spear, and it shattered. Before Danir could recover, however, Vin started Shaping. Blades crystallized out of his ki around him and immediately went flying at the man. Danir’s eyes widened, and he activated another ward, his flames turning blue. Vin grinned—the man had done exactly what he’d wanted him to. Danir’s speed increased and he started cutting down the flying blades, but Vin kept it up, shaping his shadow and hunger ki into more and more blades.

  Danir seemed to have realized that Vin wasn’t about to stop anytime soon and activated another ward. A ball of fire surrounded him, shielding him from sight, and the heat intensified, making it impossible for his blades to reach him without cracking under the onslaught of fire.

  Even Vin, who was standing a fair distance away, had to turn his face aside. But as the fire in the clearing intensified, so did the amount of fire aura around them, and Vin used his ki conduits to pull in that aura inside of him and then slowly convert a portion of his own ki into fire affinity.

  Before Danir had a chance to react, Vin Sculpted, the fire ki he had converted was not as powerful as the ki he had inside of his core but it would suffice. Vin executed the Fire Dragon technique and a small dragon made out of fire flew out of his outstretched hands straight at Danir.

  The Arc Commander’s fire shield disappeared just as Vin’s attack arrived. Danir’s eyes widened and he jumped to the side the attack passing through air where he used to be and continuing onward to strike at the tree line incinerating everything in its path.

  Vin Shaped and his Swooping Blades appeared. A moment after the blades were on their way, swooping at his enemy. Danir activated his defensive ward again, and a sphere of fire surrounded him. Vin’s blades were destroyed before they could even reach Danir.

  Danir’s sphere of fire disappeared, followed by a slash of his sword, firing a crescent of blue fire. Vin dropped to the ground and then Shadow Stepped away. The crescent cut through the ground and hit the river, sending an explosion of steam flying all around the clearing. Danir’s blue fire turned back to red, and Vin saw him breathing heavily. The smoke from the fire and the steam didn’t help the fragment-bearer, and they also combined and made it very hard for anyone to see anything. Vin pulled in the steam and smoke aura, quickly converting as much as possible and then released a Bending technique, Blinding Cloud. Making it even harder for anyone to see anything as the steam and smoke intermingled and thickened around the Arc Commander.

  But Vin’s net could still sense Danir.

  Vin Shadow Stepped again, this time behind Danir. His two blades raised above, he cut down at his back, but Danir turned and blocked with his sword. The strikes smashed into his blade and sent a shockwave all around them. Another crater formed in the ground as Vin’s blades struggled against Danir’s blade. Then the Arc Commander sensed the danger, but he was too late. Vin had noticed the last time when Danir’s flames went from blue to red that he had gotten slower, that that state had taken more from him. He had provoked the man to use that power, to spend himself.

  And now, Vin struck.

  Danir’s wide eyes moved down and saw two blades, the mirror of the ones he kept blocked with his sword, stabbing through his torso. Vin’s second pair of blades, springing from his mid back, were buried deep in the man’s chest. Blood started dripping from Danir’s mouth as he opened it and tried to speak, but nothing came out. Vin could see the disbelief in his eyes, and then the next moment they glazed over, and he died standing upright, with only the blades keeping him standing. The fragment of power fell from his grip and Vin caught it, feeling a strange rush run through him. He could see a thread of something attached to Danir, but it faded, and then was gone. A moment later he felt the fragment attempt to bond with him, but he interrupted the connection with a wall of ki. He couldn’t afford to allow something he didn’t understand to bond with his soul, not at a moment when he couldn’t even understand why he couldn’t take the seventh step.

  He heard the thunder of hooves and looked up to watch as the smoke and steam cleared to show riders. He had followed them with his net and had known they were coming. He watched as they came to a stop in front of the river and looked at him. Vin raised the body of their Arc Commander and the flicked it in their direction. It slid from his blades and flew to fall half in the river, half on the ground in front of them. He could see the disbelief and shock in their eyes—as well as fear.

  He extended his net beyond to the pass, looking for the other fragment-bearer. He didn’t want to fight another one right then, especially when he didn’t know what that one’s fragment’s power was. He found him at the pass, still, and he released a sigh of relief.

  Then Vin froze as he felt something else. There was another army moving through the pass, and Vin could’ve never not recognized them. The red tethers attached to their souls were unmistakable.

  The Arashan were here.

  A part of him was immediately angry. Kyarra and everyone else on this world had allowed this to happen—allowed the gate to be built, even though he had warned them. Another part of him felt a touch of fear, as the last time he had fought against the Arashan Host he had lost, and now that same Host was marching on Tourran.

  He had no choice but to retreat and warn Kyarra, to prepare a defense. He looked at the riders, a few of whom had dismounted and had went over to check on their dead Arc Commander. He saw them look at him, afraid, not wanting to act for fear of provoking him. Vin smiled inwardly, and then his four blades stabbed into the ground around him and raised him into the air. He grinned and then saluted the Lashians with their fallen Arc Commander’s fragment of power.

  Then he turned around and walked away on his four blades, using them as spider-like legs to quickly get away from them and toward Tourran.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  KYARRA

  Present

  The palace was a chaos of activity, her people were running around delivering messages while Guards marched through the corridors, making sure that there were no more assassins. Kyarra was leaving the armory—she had replaced her spent anima-wells and spell-rings and put on armor. Nothing restrictive, but each piece was enchanted with defensive wards. She wore a half plate over her torso, bracers and greaves. In her hand was her staff, and her crown had been replaced with a net of anima-wells that went around her head and rested on her forehead.

  She left the armory and was escorted to the war room, which was more of a covered roof at the top of the palace. She entered and was met with a room open to the outside. Columns were built into the circle of the large room and held the roof, leaving a large area open from which one could look all around the city. There were various telescopes and other devices on the edges, too, which would help with information gathering.

  “Are the defenses ready?” Kyarra asked. The only people in the room were Master Jeressi and Commander Atiok, as well as their assistants—the rest she had sent to organize the troops and get them on the walls. Through her farseeing spell she had seen the Lashian Legion marching down the pass, and she knew that if they kept at the pace they were going they would reach the city before dawn.

  Master Jeressi cleared his throat. “They are, Your Majesty. The Mage Masters are on their way to the inner wall.”

  “What about the Guild Mages?” Kyarra asked.

  Jeressi’s expression darkened and he shook his head. “The Guild seems to have been evacuated. Master Galera sent a message informing me that the trans-location platform isn’t functioning.”

  “They ran away?” Kyarra, asked her voice rising.

  “It seems so, Your Majesty,” Master Jeressi said.

>   They think that we can’t win, or they don’t won’t to help defend the city. Or…they had something to do with the assassins. Each possibility made Kyarra feel angrier and angrier.

  She turned to look at Atiok. “And the troops?”

  “The Guard is already reinforcing the walls. I’ve spoken with the mercenary captains, and their people will be on the walls as well. I’ve also sent a portion of the Guard into the city to keep the peace. There is a lot of unrest.”

  Kyarra nodded at that and approached the table, looking at the maps. Their enemy was coming in from the east, and would soon be able to begin a siege. When Kyarra had seen that the pass had fallen she had worried that an attack through the sea was imminent as well, but she had checked and hadn’t seen any fleet. She guessed that the Lashians knew about the wards at the bottom of the bay—any fleet attempting to enter Tourran’s harbor wouldn’t be leaving it.

  Relating to the harbor, she had already seen ships preparing to leave. Merchants and free traders, mostly; she could try and close down the harbor, but she had neither the people nor the motivation to stop them. They weren’t her worry now.

  Suddenly, she heard strange sounds coming from the edge of the roof, and she turned to look, but Atiok stepped in front of her, his sword drawn, Jeressi readied a spell when the sounds grew louder. It almost sounded like something was hitting the side of the palace.

  And then a large blade appeared over the edge and stabbed into the floor, followed by another, followed by a man’s head. Atiok and Jeressi nearly attacked, but Kyarra stepped forward.

  “Vin!” Kyarra said, immediately feeling relieved. She had sent people to his home hoping that he had returned from his trip into the valley, but his two new attendants told them that he hadn’t returned. She had already feared that he would be caught behind the enemy lines.