by Indie Gantz
I don’t know what I was expecting, but this is-
Anti-climactic?
“Yeah,” I answer back with a laugh. “Just a bit.”
It’s not as if we are entering a new world. It’s still Earth.
I know. I just kind of expected to feel out of place. Like it would be so different from home and I’d immediately see how much we don’t belong here.
I don’t think we belong anywhere.
“Ever the optimist.”
Tirigan ignores my sarcasm and begins to walk again, continuing through the forest; on Téssera land for the first time.
Calla walked through this barrier over and over when she used to meet my father in the jungle. She may have even taken the same path we did. Nostalgia pulls at me despite having never laid my feet on this part of the Earth before. I can’t help but imagine my mother spinning in circles or sprinting her way through the forest to get to John.
The feeling from before, the one that urged me to turn back, is gone now and is replaced by something else entirely. Instead of feeling like I want to turn around, I feel like I want to run ahead. Inorganic excitement bubbles up inside me. My pace doubles, and I work my way to the edge of the forest before Tirigan. There’s another clearing past the tree line. It calls to me like a siren, seductive and overwhelming.
My body lurches forward in an exhilarated sprint. Tirigan’s confusion muddles my thoughts for a moment, but then his own forced excitement joins in, and we race for the forest’s edge. Tree branches fly out of the way as we race past and there is inexplicable laughter spilling out of both of our mouths.
When we reach the edge and push through the last of the trees, we find ourselves at the precipice of another wide stretch of grass. The forest extends further on either side of us, but straight ahead is nothing but a decent sized hill. It slopes up slowly, just enough to make it obvious when we have reached the top, and then it dips back down dramatically. We stop there and take in the scene below. Our minds clearer, our hearts no longer racing.
There’s a small town in the valley between two larger hills. It sprawls across the east and west of where we stand, about three bêrus ahead of us from our position at the top of the hill.
We’ve reached Pacoa.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Practice Makes Impetuous
There can’t be more than a few dozen houses and buildings in the small town, but I can make out a couple farms on the outskirts, farther north than the rest of the town. There’s a patch of forest behind the farms and another heavily wooded area to the west. To the east, there’s a larger building set far away from the rows of houses towards the middle of the town. There are tracks leading away from the building, and after a moment I recognize what they are. Train tracks.
We don’t use them on Anunnaki land, but I’ve seen pictures. The humans used trains before more modern transportation was available. They were still in use when the world ended, but not nearly as often. Now, it seems, trains are once again the best method of transportation. Calla had called them pods in her letter, but even from this distance I can identify the tracks.
“There.” I point out the train station to Tirigan. “There’s the station Calla wrote about.”
We should practice before going down there.
I nod. “Yeah, we don’t want to look like complete novices. We shouldn’t wait until tomorrow like John said, though. We should cram enough to pass for Téssera and then just get a ticket and go.”
Tirigan takes a look around our surroundings for a moment then shrugs. He drops the green duffle bag and his backpack on the ground.
What? Here?
Where else?
If anyone looks up here, they’d see us.
And we would just look like two teenagers practicing their invocations.
Right. Well, no. I mean, yeah, but-
No one is going to be able to tell what we are doing from way up here, but if you’d be more comfortable, we could move into the shade.
Getting out of the sun sounds like a good idea, but the more I think about it, it becomes obvious that the sun isn’t as much of a problem as I thought it would be. I feel it warming my skin, but it isn’t as harsh as I’m used to. The spot Tirigan points out is a little more discreet, though, so I follow him.
We decide it would be a good idea to change out of our Anunnaki clothing and put on the clothes Calla provided for us. There’s a pair of jeans and a pair of black shorts for me, plus a long sleeve shirt and a short sleeve shirt. I choose the lighter options and change quickly.
Calla left Tirigan similar clothing. I can read the distaste all over his face. He frowns as he changes into gray slacks and a light blue, short-sleeved shirt. The pants aren’t the wrong size, but they don’t fit him nearly as well as his usual pants do.
“You can tailor them as soon as we find some needle and thread,” I tease.
I didn’t say anything.
You didn’t have to.
Tirigan folds our old clothing, places them back into the duffle bag, and then sits down in the grass. The sun is at its highest point in the sky, making it obvious how quickly the day is going by. There’s a nest of baby birds chirping a song above us, a sound that soothes away the tension in my shoulders. Before sitting down in the shade next to my brother, I pull a few pieces of fruit and some bread out of the food bag.
“Hungry?” I offer Tirigan some of the food, and he takes it with a nod.
Yes, thank you.
“Maybe you ought to start practicing something else now, too,” I suggest casually, hoping not to sound too pushy. “I mean, if you plan on speaking with strangers soon, you may want to get used to it now.”
Tirigan looks up at me from his place in the grass with a nervous expression. I suppose that is a wise...“Idea.”
“There you go.” I take a big bite out of my apple, and pull chunks of bread off of my half of the loaf. “You’ll be a pro in no time.”
Tirigan gives me a look like he doesn’t quite believe me. I give him an apple-filled smile in return.
You’re not…“Funny.”
“I’m hilarious,” I counter with an impatient huff. “You’re lucky to have me, Sarrum.”
Tirigan rolls his eyes as he pulls out one of the textbooks and hands it to me. We should each have at least an elementary knowledge of our elements before we go into town. Start studying.
“Actually, I think we should do something about our eyes first.”
Tirigan thinks about my suggestion for a moment, then acquiesces. He pulls out two of the four Eidikos stones Calla left us, the ones that allow us to change our appearance, and hands me one. They all glow green, but they’re different shapes and sizes. Tirigan holds his in the palm of his hand, his hand at chest level as he looks down upon the stone.
“So, we just…” I look to Tirigan, who’s now looking at me with raised eyebrows. Think of a color?
I believe so, yes. That’s the way Calla described it.
“Okay,” I say hesitantly, wrapping my fingers around the stone and closing my eyes.
I don’t want my eyes to stand out. The color I was born with is just as good as any other. I imagine looking at myself in the mirror and seeing my deep brown eyes staring back at me. I’ve always wanted just a hint of color in them, maybe green like my mother, but simplicity may be best for now. Just as I feel the stone growing cooler in my hand, I see my eyes in my imagined mirror again, this time with small flecks of green fading into brown. A tingle runs up my arm and to my face. My eyes feel like they are open underwater for a second, and then the feeling passes.
I open my eyes and look over at Tirigan. His eyes aren’t purple, but they aren’t his normal brown either. The edges of his pupils are green, much like the green I imagined having, that then grows into a soft brown. Then, just before the white of his eye, the color brightens into a brilliant shade of cyan. Tiny lines cross over his irises through the different colors. It’s memorizing.
You changed them.
I did? I didn’t really mean to; the green was almost an afterthought. I didn’t think it through too much.
They suit you.
“Thanks. You really went for it, though.” Tirigan looks down, embarrassed by my comment. “It looks good. I like it.”
Tirigan looks back up with a timid smile. “Thank you.”
I brighten at his out loud answer. It’ll be awhile before I get used to that.
“Should we change our hair too?” I ask, reaching for one of the other stones.
No, we may need to change our appearance abruptly. It’s best to save those.
Good thinking.
You should study.
“Yeah,” I agree, taking the textbook and resting it in my lap. I thumb through the pages with one hand and eat my apple with the other. “So, I guess I should concentrate on Néro and you on Aéras. Right?”
It would appear so, yes.
“Well, that will make things a little easier,” I say quietly into the book. “And I assume you’ve already done as much Aéras research as physically possible?”
Actually, no. When I look up at him with a shocked expression, Tirigan rolls his eyes, exasperated. The air element is incredibly complex. It involves manipulating the atmosphere itself, which is made up of many different things. To master Aéras, I would have to have complete knowledge over the inner workings of Earth’s atmosphere and each individual atom that comprises it. I’d hardly say one night of reading is enough to accomplish that.
A wave of panic crashes over me as a strange sound escapes my lips. It probably represents the sheer amount of information I’m suddenly aware I am completely ignorant to.
“You’re saying, in order to master Néro, I have to understand everything about water. Everything.”
“Yes,” Tirigan says aloud, nodding as he does. Although, as we have both already demonstrated, we do not need to master the element in order to invoke it. Mastering the element takes years of practice and study. There shouldn’t be anyone our age who has mastered their element yet.
“Then why mention it?” I turn my attention back to the book, following the chapter guides to the chapter with an in-depth description of the water element.
I thought you’d like to know what lies ahead of us, or what we could potentially achieve. For now, though, I think having a basic knowledge will suffice to get us through the next part of our plan.
“Yeah, well, I just about had a heart attack. So, thanks for that.”
“You’re welcome.” Tirigan gives me a smug smile. I shake my head and look back down at the book.
“If talking out loud means I’ll be hearing less of you, then I think I’m going to like the new you.” Tirigan ignores me and starts rummaging in the duffle bag.
There are more than thirty pages devoted to Néro, but I know it’s impossible that everything I’d need to know is in this book. The first page I come to is a fact sheet on the water molecule, and I start reading through it.
The book breaks down the molecule point by point, discussing every chemical and physical property water possesses. There are sections on practical and biological uses of water, as well as several compounds that can be created using an Eidekos stone. The examples of both simple and more advanced casts are definitely the most interesting part of the whole thing.
It’s important that an elemental understand the nature of their element completely before attempting some of the more difficult invocations. For example, if Téssera want to create a defensive shield by invoking Néro, they will need to understand how to manipulate the hydrogen bonds in water, which will then create the desired surface tension for a good shield. If the surface tension of the water shield is too weak, the shield will prove useless.
I stop reading and take a deep breath. This doesn’t seem so bad. I can do this. I’ve always been good at science, chemistry in particular, and I already have a good handle on Earth’s periodic table. Sure, my knowledge of water doesn’t extend too far past its molecular symbol, but since I have a basic knowledge, it shouldn’t be too hard for me to pick up the rest as I study.
In a way, I got off easy. With Néro, there’s only one factor I have to learn extensively. Fotiá is probably the same way. Aéras and Gi, however, have a lot of elements and compounds to learn in order to master.
I chuckle softly and look up at Tirigan. “I think I got the easy one.”
“How so?” Tirigan asks out loud. I startle at the sound. His words are spread apart farther than they naturally would be if he had thought them, like he had to think very hard as he said each one, but I don’t correct him. His cadence will sound more natural with time and practice.
“Water is finite, there are only so many different properties it possesses.”
Tirigan pulls a Fotiá stone out of the bag and pinches it between his fingers. He stares at it until a flame flickers out of it.
“How did you do that?” I ask, carefully pulling the stone from his grasp and avoiding the flame. The stone isn’t warm like I expected it to be. It’s cool.
“Magic,” Tirigan says with a wry smile. Just as I’m about to throw the stone back at him, Tirigan’s mind cuts me off. Put it out.
I furrow my brow at him for a second, then I realize what he wants me to do. “Where would I even get the water?”
I pull a nearly empty bottle of water out of my bag, and Tirigan gives me a patient, yet slightly annoyed look that tells me I’m missing something.
Think a little harder, Charlie.
“Wha-” I’m about to go on a rant about his pompous expression and that if he has the answer he should just tell me, but then it hits me what Tirigan’s getting at. Water is everywhere.
It’s in the ground we sit on and the trees providing us shade. It’s in our bodies, and it’s in the air. Theoretically, I could pull water from just about everything around us right now.
Oh.
“Yes,” Tirigan replies, looking at me expectantly. You can do it, just concentrate.
I set the Fotiá stone on the ground, the small flame flickering slightly as I do. Concentrating on the grass around the stone, I focus on bringing water up through each individual cell of the thin blade.
The grass begins to smoke, the fire from the stone spreading to the grass around it. I lean back instinctively.
It’ll spread if you don’t extinguish it.
“Yeah, yeah. I got this,” I mutter, bringing my attention back to the ground and trying to ignore the circle of fire getting bigger before my eyes.
My hands fall to the ground on either side of me. I can instantly feel the power beneath me. The rest of the world falls away. I can’t hear anything but the roar of water under the earth. It’s almost like there’s a current flowing just below the surface, and all I have to do is draw it up.
I set my sights on one blade of grass, just out of reach of the ones on fire. I picture what it would look like, Earth’s water flowing beneath us and siphoning up through that single blade of grass. I mentally push the water through the blade and wait for something to happen. Only seconds later, something does.
A single drop of water collects at the tip of the blade and falls onto the burning ground with a hiss. Encouraged, I push again, concentrating so hard the lines on my forehead might now be permanent. I’m rewarded when a steady stream of water pours from the tip of the blade. Smiling, I turn my attention to the rest of the grass surrounding the small fire. The water funnels through each blade, like mini hoses, dousing the fire with water until the flames are out, and smoke and steam waft up into the air.
When I pull my hands back from the ground, the water stops flowing. The baby birds above us still chirp their song. A small breeze picks up the stray strands of hair off of my neck. The smoke starts to burn my eyes a little. It’s all very normal. You’d never know my entire world just changed again.
When I finally look at my brother, Tirigan’s staring back at me with a satisfied grin. “Good.”
When he goes right back to his bag of stones, I can’t help but feel a little let down. “Good? Just good? That was awesome!”
Fine. It was incredible, Charlie. You are the master of Néro and all of its properties.
“That’s more like it,” I mumble, turning my attention back to the history book. “I felt something while I was doing it,” I say after a few moments of scanning the page. “It was like I was connected to the actual source of water or something.”
You were. Not directly, mind you, but the water you pulled out of the ground comes from a source nearby. We cannot create or destroy our element, merely manipulate and control it.
So, I couldn’t just fill my water bottle with water, I’d have to pull it from somewhere else.
Yes. Téssera are still bound by the natural and physical laws of Earth. We can’t do anything we wish.
“Okay,” I say with a sigh, flipping the page and skimming over a passage about hydrogen bonds. “That makes sense, I guess.”
Tirigan nods and pulls another stone out of the bag, this one is green and Tirigan puts it up into the sun’s rays to see it shine. Would you like to hear what I read about the stones, and how we can go about using them?
I turn the page and don’t look up.
“Sure, have at it.” Shrugging slightly, I add, “Of course, I haven’t exactly seen you do anything to practice your element. Are you scared?”
I hide my smirk behind the book, but when Tirigan doesn’t reply, I look up to find him blinking at me in irritation. When I only smile brightly in response, his mouth turns down into a frown.
“Fine.” It takes me a moment to register that my brother has just agreed to try invoking Aéras again. He stands abruptly and brushes off his pants. I close the book to give him my full attention. What would you like me to accomplish?
“Oh!” I say excitedly, jumping to my feet to join him. “I get to choose? Um....” I look around and try to think of something for Tirigan to do. “I don’t know… you’re supposed to be able to manipulate the atmosphere, right?” Tirigan nods. “So, that’s how you moved the wagon before. You adjusted the air pressure that was already pushing against the wagon by increasing it. Right?”