by T. Z. Leigh
“What do you want from me, Nehaya? I’m getting sick and tired of you.”
“You’re giving up that easily? You’re nothing like Qayto. He always put all his effort into training.”
“What? You taught him too?”
“If you want me to hurt you, just say so. I’m too young to have been his teacher. My mother was, that’s how I learnt to be the best,” she said and showed one of her rare smiles.
“Okay, look, I’ll be honest with you. I feel a little worried about using my strength. Chief Zota said I would have to tame it, or I could be destructive.”
“Chief Zota is an old fool. How can you learn to tame something you are unable to do to begin with? Ignore what he told you and feel the energy within yourself. It originates in the gut. Sense it coursing through your muscles, through every vein until it reaches your shoulders. Once you have accomplished that, the rest will come easily to you. Now break the boulder, softie!”
He stared at the boulder. It was almost as tall as he was. He inhaled, then exhaled, trying to discover this so-called energy. He stood there, wanting to retreat from her demoralising glare, but he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. Instead of waiting for a sensation in his gut, he pretended there was one, a ball of...something appearing within him...and he felt it - a constant vibration of electricity gathering, needing to be expelled quickly before it would explode inside him.
He lifted his fists up to his face, then extended them in a mighty punch. The boulder moved back several feet, then split in two. He smiled. Nehaya didn’t.
“Don’t get so happy, softie. You still have a long way to go.” She paused, then turned away so he couldn’t see her expression. “But it’s a start.”
“Visualise your opponent. He wants to look inside your mind, read your thoughts, know your fears. You have only your mind and willpower to protect you.”
“Wait a minute, Hamal,” April said, opening her eyes. “Does that mean you can read my thoughts? That’s really disturbing.”
“Sorry, I was trying to be dramatic. A skilled Solkateen can realise your emotions unless you guard yourself against them. All Solkateens develop their mental shield at a young age, so you will need to try extra hard to achieve this. The other races are weak-minded and have little resistance to our ability. We can stimulate their brain to experience things that are false and create visions to confuse them. Think of something that makes you happy.”
She closed her eyes. Shopping...the beach...shopping... Sam...kissing Sam...
“Okay, stop! Did you forget in an instant that until you build up a shield in your mind, I can see what makes you happy, or sad, or...”
“Yes, yes, for God’s sake!”
His frustrated and furious voice bounced off the walls of the hut. “Concentrate! This is not a game! You won’t last ten minutes in a battle if you do not have your shield. Do you want to see what the Illusions of Pain or Torture feel like for you to understand? Shall I show you right now?”
She was shocked because until then, he had been patient and easygoing. Strangely, his outburst didn’t make her angry, but made her remember how Sam screamed when Voklav performed the Illusion of Pain on him.
“Okay, I’ll try harder,” she murmured.
“Good. Now close your eyes and pay attention to what’s happening. Be aware of me glimpsing into your mind...think of what makes you sad.”
She didn’t think of anything at first but tried to keep her mind blank. A hazy memory of her mother collected in the recesses of her mind, attempting to form an image. Anxiousness set in the pit of her stomach. Could she even remember what her mother looked like? She’d only ever seen photos of her. Darkness surrounded the image, and a slight pressure materialised on her brain as if someone had laid a hand there.
“I can sense you, Hamal.”
“Good. What do you see?”
She gasped. Her mother stood near the edge of a cliff, smiling and waving. Then suddenly, men were chasing her. She tried to run, but they grabbed her and threw her over the side.
“No!” April let out in a desperate yelp, hearing her mother’s screams as she fell into the water below.
“Concentrate...remember, it’s not real. Block me out. Imagine a wall of light encompassing your mind. No darkness can remain, only light.”
She took deep breaths. The sadness she stored inside her for her mother would never truly go away, but she pushed it from her mind. Her thoughts became cloudy around the edges, then disappeared in a light fog. Everything faded away until there was only bright light all around. The pressure on her brain lifted, she opened her eyes and saw Hamal smiling.
“Well done, April.”
“You are doing very well, Zachery, as if you have done this before.”
He smiled at his hands currently on Shalina’s back as she sat on a stool facing away from him. He had slowed her blood flow and was now regulating it again.
“That’s better. I was worried I would be sick,” she told him.
“I’m sure another ten seconds and you would have done it yourself.”
“No doubt. Moving on...” she said, turning around, “...you seem to have mastered blood flow. Next will be muscles and organs, then bones, which are the most difficult. So, what I want you to do is create a cramp in my right foot, which shouldn’t be too hard. Direct your energy specifically to my foot and force it into a cramp using your mind. See it, want it, force it.”
He knelt and held her right foot with both hands, searching for a pulse.
“You can hold my foot for now, but once your training has finished you should be able to complete all tasks touching my back only.”
“I will try my best. Also, I wanted to thank you, as in really thank you for healing me. You know, of my...issue. I would’ve died eventually in the Sewasphere...” His throat closed up and he had to gulp to continue, “...so I’m extremely grateful.”
“You’re welcome. Now, if you will?” she muttered, wiggling her foot.
He could feel her pulse, though it was very faint. Concentrating on it, he imagined pulling it nearer to him until the pulse was strong. He drew it even closer, absorbing the beat, so it became his own. As the blood ran into her foot, he pictured the muscles and ligaments there contracting, twisting viciously to contort the foot into a horrific shape.
“Enough!” she yelled.
It took him by surprise. When his vision focused, he realised by her tightly curled toes how violent a cramp he had actually caused. He let the blood flow around the body normally again.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. You did well...too well, in fact. You are very special, Zachery. You will be a powerful anatomist one day.”
Voklav’s words replayed in his head. He’d said something similar.
“Why do you say I’m special?”
“Let’s just say I know a legend when I see one. Or feel one, if you want to be specific.”
“Thank you for helping me.”
She smiled warmly but rubbed her foot with a little pain in her eyes. “I think that’s enough for today.”
When Zachery walked into their hut smiling to himself, Jamie rolled her eyes.
“I guess your training went well too.”
“You’ll get it soon, don’t worry,” he replied, sitting next to her.
“Yeah, you tell that to Captain Kirosko. He keeps saying the same thing every time! I mean, is there no other way of teaching me?”
“If you think about it,” Sam pointed out, “maybe there isn’t another way of teaching it. I mean, how can you make someone speed run apart from describing it?”
“Thanks for your input, Sam, really. Guess I won’t ever be able to move at super speed.”
“You can just imagine you’re running really fast. Hamal always says for me to visualise what I want,” April said thoughtfully.
“So, you think of me the whole time you’re training?” Sam grinned.
Zachery could see he was enjoying the blatant flirtat
ion that had been going on between them. However, Sam was certainly leading the way.
“You wish!” April retorted, suppressing a smile.
Sam sat next to her and ran his finger down her arm. “You don’t want me?” he asked too quietly for the others to hear. “You sure?”
She shivered and goosebumps appeared on her arm where he had touched. “You think you’re so slick, don’t you?”
“Maybe.”
“We’re going for a walk!” Jamie called out as she and Zachery left the hut.
Sam barely even heard her. He grinned at April, who rolled her eyes at him.
“Is this the type of thing you do to all the girls, or what?”
“It’s funny, I don’t know how everyone gets that opinion of me...that I chat up every other girl I see.”
“Who knows...you’re usually such a shy and humble character...”
He laughed. “Being confident and proud of who you are is not the same as being a player.”
“I guess not.”
“I thought you of all people would understand that...with everyone viewing you as some rich girl without a worry in the world...when you’re not.”
“How do you know?”
He held her gaze silently.
“Okay. I guess when you play a part for too long, you start to believe it’s true. It was easier to deal with everything when I was that carefree girl.”
“I’m sure it was. But I’ve seen the real you, I don’t understand why you would want to be any different.”
“I hate feeling weak or helpless, and I didn’t want anyone to see me that way.”
“Having a bad experience in childhood doesn’t make you weak or helpless. Since being here, I’ve seen how supportive and strong-willed you are. You shouldn’t let yourself or anyone else think differently.”
She laughed weakly. “Real smooth talker, aren’t you?”
“I am,” he grinned, “but right now, I’m just being honest.”
“Can I ask...how did you feel...when your dad passed away?”
The grin disappeared. The question had taken him by surprise.
“It hurt a lot. My dad was always the one to encourage me to do the best I can. My mum too, but it wasn’t the same, and she never agreed with me getting into wrestling. My dad always told me to make a difference. He would tell me...one day you won’t be here. No one can live forever...but your legacy can. What you accomplish while you’re here and how you treat others will earn people’s respect long after you’ve gone...”
“He sounds like a great man.”
“He was. I still miss him,” his voice wavered, “that’s why we’re gonna take down Irisena. Our parents should never have been stolen from us...and we’re not gonna let them get away with it.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry. I’ve just been thinking about my mom a lot recently.”
“I’m here whenever you need to talk to me. You don’t have to bury your emotions anymore.”
“Thank you,” she said, almost choking on her words.
She leaned in and kissed him softly between the eyes, then peered into them deeply, as if searching for whatever could be hidden there.
“I’ve never seen eyes this shade of green. I always thought they were contact lenses.”
“A lot of people tell me that, actually.”
He thought it was best not to mention most of those people were girls. His voice was now soft and innocent.
“Can I ask...how much work have you had done to look so completely flawless?”
She burst out in laughter. “As I said, real smooth talker.”
Zachery and Jamie were sitting on the bank with their feet in the river. The water was cool and soothing in the hot and humid night.
“Okay, enough talk of my pathetic training sessions; how’s yours going?”
“Good, actually. I can control blood flow, and we started on muscles today. Not sure what it’ll be like once we’ve moved onto bones, though. Makes me feel a bit queasy thinking of hearing bones break.”
“You’ll be okay. You’re doing great. At least one of us is doing really well.”
“She also cured me, so I’m happy either way.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, knitting her eyebrows.
Zachery took a deep breath. He forgot that he’d never revealed his secret to anyone.
“I...I had lung cancer. I never told anyone, not even my dad and step-mum. I didn’t want them to know…they didn’t deserve that chance.”
“Chance?”
“To prove that they cared about me. It’s their fault in the first place. I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life, but they were both chain smokers. I grew up in a foggy home. My doctor said that cancer can develop from passive smoking, but it’s less likely, especially at such a young age. Just my luck, wasn’t it? Anyway, because I’m not eighteen yet, the doctor wanted to tell my parents. I was planning on leaving home once the summer term at college was over, because I didn’t want them to know. If they found out and started making a fuss over me, I would’ve hated them even more...showing concern only when they thought I was gonna die. And part of me questioned whether it would’ve made any difference at all. I didn’t want confirmation that they couldn’t give a shit whether I was dead or alive. That’s why I stopped bothering with my education. I didn’t see a point in it. I was so down about it all that I...was going to refuse treatment. I can see now that I was being stupid. I had this dumb idea to die quietly somewhere on my own.”
“I just...God, Zachery...I’ll never smoke a cigarette again. You were going through that all by yourself? I...I’m so sorry.”
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. It’s just one of those things that you think is never going to happen to you until it sneaks up from behind and attacks without warning.”
They both didn’t speak for a few minutes. He stared into the water, feeling the weight of hurt on his chest. He didn’t want to ruin the mood, but it had felt really good to tell Jamie.
“Let’s talk about something else,” he said, smiling a little. “I’m done being angry or depressed. I used to feel like I had nothing...now I have everything I could ever want.” He took her hand in his and looked into her eyes. “I’m happy now, and it’s mostly to do with you. So, thank you.”
She put her arms around him, squeezing tightly. He put his arms around her shoulders, and they both watched the water in silence for a while.
“Now and again, I wonder...do you know how perfect you are, or are you blissfully unaware?”
“What?” he chuckled.
She looked into his eyes. “You’re smart, good looking, sweet. Sometimes the thought crosses my mind...I wish we could go back to the way things were. Before the fighting, saving the world, being kidnapped. But that’s not true. I would rather be here...if it means being with you.”
“I wish you would always look at me like that.”
She gazed with softness and vulnerability, and her eyes shone with awe. He moved her hair away from her face.
“I can’t believe you don’t know how beautiful you are,” he whispered, then gently kissed her right cheek, then her left. “I’ve wanted to be with you since the first time I saw you, and now that we’re together...I don’t think I’m able to live without you.”
He saw tears gather in her eyes and she turned away from him.
“Look at me,” he murmured.
“I can’t. I don’t wanna start crying in front of you.”
He laughed. “Okay, fine, don’t look at me.”
“Zachery,” she whispered as his lips met her neck. “I couldn’t live without you either.”
He smiled against the hollow of her throat and when he looked up at her, the tears in her eyes were gone.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Good! Again!” Nehaya ordered.
Sam was topless, pounding the ground where he stood to make mounds pop up around him. The rises were roughly twelve feet away and had almost formed a cir
cle around him. The three-hundred-sixty degree turn had taken him an hour from start to finish, and he was hot, exhausted and sweaty. He pounded the ground once more to complete the circle, breathing heavily.
“It took all my willpower...not to yell hulk smash...this whole time, but...there, I did it.”
“Well done. Wait, what smash?”
“Never mind...hang on, did you just praise me?”
“Get out of the circle and I might think about it.”
He walked to one of the mounds around chest height and punched it with one hand. It broke in half, the bottom part still protruding from the ground, and he started to step over it.
“Where are you going? You’re not allowed to leave the circle until all the hills are in pieces.”
“What, haven’t I done enough for today?”
“No. Hurry up, I don’t have all day, softie.”
“I told you to stop calling me that.”
“Shatter the circle and prove to me that you’re not one, then.”
“Don’t think I’m stupid. I know what reverse psychology is and it isn’t gonna work on me.”
“I don’t know what that is, but I’m trying to prepare you. We’ve been training for over three weeks now and you have nowhere near reached your full potential. You’re holding back. I can tell something is stopping you, what is it? Chief Zota’s stupid advice still lurking in your brain?”
“No.”
“Then what? Do you not want to be as good as Qayto? He was the absolute best, even before his prime. Maybe I should tell Sven to contact him and explain how pathetic you are.”
“Shut up! I can’t be as good as him in three weeks, are you crazy?”
“Break the circle, or I’ll break your head.”
“What?” he scoffed.
She shouted, “True potential is realised when one knows the capability of their strength and skill, and does not allow the large capacity of their ego to prevent them from reaching it! You may have been a fighter in the Sewasphere, but here you’re nothing, so don’t act like you’re a hero. Your only way of becoming someone worth anything is with my help. Do the exercises I tell you to do, stop whining like a baby and be a man. If you can’t, go back to the Sewasphere and lay down to die like your girlfriend did!”