Vortex Visions: Air Awakens: Vortex Chronicles

by Kova, Elise

  Vi gave a small nod. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that. The last thing she wanted was to be around fire.

  “Stay close enough that our watchers can see that alarm,” Sehra continued, oblivious to the sub-context of Vi’s magic lesson the day before. “And do not be gone for more than four days or we will use the noru to track you down.”

  “Yes, mum.”

  “Understood.” Jayme brought a fist to her chest in salute.

  “We will be exceptionally careful. Thank you again, Chieftain, for permitting us to hunt. I am particularly grateful this year.” Vi lowered her eyes, dipping her head slightly.

  “You are welcome.” Her green eyes had turned hard, cold even in the early heat of the morning. “Perhaps you may practice your magic in the forests? I hear from Jax you’ve made progress lately. I would like to see it when you return.”

  “Perhaps…” The last thing Vi wanted to do was practice her magic. “Though I think I am looking forward to a vacation from my lessons.”

  “Are they too rigorous for you?” Andru asked.

  Vi bit the insides of her cheeks. The sooner she left, the better. Or she may show Sehra her magic a little too soon.

  “I find the wealth of knowledge my tutors give me settles in best when I have fresh air and time to process. I come back with the best questions.”

  “I look forward to hearing them during our next lessons, then.”

  With that, she put Andru mentally behind her, eager to find physical distance as well. Vi adjusted her pack, looking to her friends. “Ready?”

  The two girls nodded.

  “Stay safe,” Sehra said as she leaned in to plant a kiss on her daughter’s forehead.

  “You’re the oldest, Jayme, be sure to keep them in line,” Jax gave one final command.

  “I’ll do my best, sir!”

  The three started away from the towering trees of the castle and into the wooded city of Soricium. The trees were smaller, but still large enough to fit whole homes within and, thanks to the magic of the Groundbreakers, the people of Shaldan did just that.

  Soricium, overall, was much like the fortress. It was a mix of stone and foliage. Groundbreakers bent earth and plant alike to make dwellings that came alive right alongside their residents. Doors appeared from solid walls and branches arced over the streets to create pathways for the confident footfalls of the magically inclined. Rooftops were covered in mosses that kept the houses cool in summer, warm in winter, and flowered in springtime.

  “We’re not going to stay even remotely close to the city, are we?” Ellene dared to ask when they were well out of earshot.

  “Oh, not at all. I wasn’t lying when I said I needed distance. As much as we can manage in the time we’re allowed.”

  “What?” Jayme looked between them. “I just got done promising I would—”

  “How many times have you come here, Jayme?” Vi interrupted.

  “Given that I’ve been your courier for four years now and make a trip almost every month, that’d be…”

  “At least forty-eight times.” Ellene jumped in. “Well, almost every month, so at least forty.”

  “At least forty times and you’ve never even seen the Northern coast.” Vi gasped loudly, drawing even more attention than the two heirs and their guard already were, walking through the shaded city. Medallions of sunlight danced on the road ahead, striking beams like the footprints of mythical fairy folk the elders spoke of around campfires.

  “Can you keep it down?” Jayme looked around, uncomfortable.

  “I just think that’s something we need to fix.”

  “The coast is a little far,” Ellene said uncertainly. “Why don’t we—”

  “No, we’re going to the coast,” Vi insisted. “We can dip our toes in the water before it’s too cold.”

  “Yes, this has everything to do with water and nothing to do with the news that the fishing town has moved.” Ellene easily called out Vi’s true intentions.

  “They always change the landscape. I must update my maps!” The fishing town was a nomadic ground that traveled along the coast. They used their abilities as Groundbreakers to terraform the land for better fishing. Living in a region full of those with the power to manipulate the earth itself was both a delight and nightmare, for a hobby cartographer like herself. “Besides, you knew this was going to happen, or you wouldn’t have put my journal in my pack. You practically ensured it.”

  “Did you really?” Jayme looked to Ellene, but the girl looked anywhere else.

  “She’s an enabler.” Vi laughed, hooking her arm with Jayme’s. “Now, it’s just us and we have a long hike ahead. Tell us all about the news of the South?”

  Luckily, Jayme had no shortage of stories this time, for she talked as they left the city proper and the trees became free of dwellings. Her stories continued as they traversed the burnt stretch of earth that ringed Soricium—a holdover from the Empire’s siege during the war well before Vi’s birth.

  On the second day, Vi and Ellene caught Jayme up on their adventures since the last time Jayme had been in the North—much less to talk about. Which was good, because by the late afternoon they had reached the sea, and Vi had all but forgotten the storm of power that loomed within her, threatening to break free.

  Chapter Seven

  From this high in the treetops, there was only wind.

  A vine as thick as Vi’s bicep was wrapped around her waist and the bark of the tree curved upward to cradle her feet and give her a comfortable stance. She squinted into the sunlight, trying to make out the exact curve of the land around the waves—nearly impossible with the midday glare off the sea.

  Her journal was propped against her upper abdomen, held by her left hand. In her right was a stick of charcoal she was using to make hasty sketches—desperately trying, and failing, not to smudge. Every now and then, Vi lifted her eyes toward the horizon, checking her rendering.

  It was close, not exact, but coming along. Vi stared again, this time in sheer wonder at how much the land seemed to have changed from the maps pinned back in her quarters. She’d stared at them for hours on end, committing their wiggling lines to memory. To think that some could make such a difference on the earth itself. Vi couldn’t help but wonder what it was like to control power like that.

  To have full control of magic at all.

  “Are you quite done?” Ellene called up to her. The girl was stripped to her underclothes and dripping wet.

  “Are you?” Vi shouted back. “You two look like you’re enjoying the water a lot for people who didn’t want to go this far.”

  “You should enjoy it too. Rather than spending the entire time perched in that tree.”

  “She’ll just spend most of the time perched,” Jayme chimed in.

  “All right, all right, I’m basically done. I’ll come down.” Vi returned her charcoal to behind the front flap of her journal, quickly lacing the tie closed.

  Ellene raised a hand and the tree shuddered and came to life. The vine around Vi adjusted its grip before hoisting her into the air. Her stomach rose to meet her jaw as she descended from the canopy. She’d been so high up that the wind in her ears grew to a whistle well before she neared the ground.

  With a twist of her wrist, Ellene brought Vi to the earth gently. Her feet touching down on the soft carpet of small grasses that quickly became white sand. With a snap of her fingers, the vine uncurled and hung limply behind Vi.

  “Was the snap really necessary?” Vi asked, kicking off her shoes and putting them with the other pairs.

  “Everyone likes a bit of drama.”

  “Who did you hear that from?” Vi knew neither of Ellene’s mothers would say such a thing. She was fairly certain she’d heard them espousing the opposite.

  “Darrus,” Ellene answered simply, quickly, as though she could sweep the name away. It didn’t work.

  “Who’s this Darrus I keep hearing of?” Jayme asked from where she sat, legs stretched into the sea foam.<
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  “Don’t get her started,” Vi cautioned, pulling up her leggings to step into the warm waters of the northern sea. If she didn’t know better—didn’t know that to the northwest, just over the horizon, there was a whole series of tiny islands separating the Main and Crescent Continents—she’d think she stood at the edge of the world itself.

  “Darrus is just a boy.” Ellene huffed, sitting back down where she’d been before.

  “Wait, it’s not that Darrus, is it? From the spring dances?”

  “The same,” Vi affirmed. The last time Jayme likely heard about Darrus would’ve been months ago. Which was the last time he was anything to Ellene.

  “I thought we weren’t speaking of him any longer? How did you word it?” Jayme made a show of thinking, but there was no way she’d forgotten Ellene’s emotional tirade. “He was ‘dead to us’?”

  “Apparently asking Ellene to dance at the winter solstice can bring a man back to life.” Vi grinned.

  “So this is still about dances?” Jayme’s eye roll conveyed exactly what she thought about that.

  “Can we please change the topic?” Ellene begged.

  “Sure, how about Lukke?” Vi recounted the last suitor before Darrus. Ellene had quite a few. But it was hardly surprising. She was smart, fierce, beautiful, enjoyed the chase, and most importantly—had the time to deal with boys.

  “Another boy?”

  “You two are the worst!” Ellene laid back into the sand with a huff.

  Vi and Jayme both shared a small laugh at her expense, but allowed the teasing to subside.

  “What about you, princess? Any suitors catching your eye?” Jayme turned the tables.

  “You know the answer is no. If it wasn’t no, you’d already be aware from the gossip that would be flying around the capital.” There was one thing Romulin had always been quite clear on—that regardless of where she was in the world, any romantic involvement on her part would have the gossip mongers of the capital talking. She was the heir to the Empire, and just about everyone seemed to want to have a hand in her match… except for her.

  It wasn’t that Vi didn’t care. She hoped that she’d find love, or love would find her someday. But she’d just never felt that way about anyone, not like the storybooks made it out to be, all butterflies and stardust. Certainly not the instant attraction that had Ellene swooning over someone new each of the three springs since she turned twelve. Vi counted her blessings for the fact, since it made following Romulin’s sound advice to avoid romance entirely even easier.

  “Plus, I have too much to worry about. I don’t have time to add a boy to the mix.”

  “The Senate might disagree with that when you get back,” Jayme muttered.

  “Yes, the crusty old men and women who want to take my crown also want to decide my romantic fate.” She’d never be so bold in front of anyone other than Ellene and Jayme. Her directness had them both laughing, and Vi spared a small smile on the outside. She knew it was no laughing matter though. Eventually, she would have to marry—and it would no doubt be a politically arranged union.

  “And what about you? You’re doing an awfully good job at pointing fingers at Ellene and me.”

  “What time would I possibly have to find a suitor?” Jayme shook her head. “Last I heard, most suitors like their other half at least relatively present, and I’m traveling across the continent every few weeks.”

  “Well, you won’t be now.” Vi sat down between them, not caring about her clothes getting soaked in the process. She didn’t know when she’d feel the water again. “Sounds like you’ll be stuck with me now.”

  “Lucky me,” Jayme said, deadpan.

  Vi roared with laughter. “I’m the worst, aren’t I?”

  “You have no idea.”

  Even Ellene snorted with amusement at that.

  “Perhaps you found love already in the man you’re traveling with?” Vi suggested, not entirely sincerely.

  “How dare you!” Jayme gasped and Vi couldn’t tell how much was for show. “Andru is awful.”

  “He’s as bad as he seems?” Ellene asked.

  Jayme sighed heavily. Her brow softened and she shook her head—a slight reversal on her earlier position. “I don’t know. Perhaps I’ve been unfair to him. He’s just so uncomfortable to be around, with that shifting gaze and those fidgeting hands. I assumed—”

  “Don’t go sympathizing with him,” Vi cautioned. “You’re my ally.” Romulin had said Andru was more important than she could realize. Vi needed her friends on her side to help navigate whatever that meant.

  Jayme just shrugged. She was never one for hesitating when it came to contesting Vi, at least in private. Vi appreciated the woman all the more for it.

  “Either way, he’s not a love interest. Certainly not for me.”

  “Then maybe we’ll both find love when we get back to the capital?” Vi suggested.

  Jayme just shrugged, seizing the opportunity to shift the topic. “Speaking of Solarin… Can you really leave all this? For the capital and all its snow and ice? It seems like paradise here.”

  “Everywhere is paradise, just a different kind.” Her maps told her that much. The world was wide and diverse; there were highlands and lowlands, frigid mountains and tropical jungles. Who was to say which was better than the other?

  “Spoken like an Empress,” Jayme groaned.

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  “Because it’s such a cliché answer.”

  Vi shrugged. “It’s the truth.”

  “I don’t even want to leave this spot right now.” Jayme looked out over the waves, toward the horizon. “Everything seems so… simple here. Being with you two, like this. It’s almost like I can believe the three of us are just girls relaxing. Nothing more complex than that. I can almost tell myself that time may not come for us, and we could be forever this way.”

  Vi studied Jayme’s face. There was something distant and sad about it. It was almost the same expression Jayme got whenever she spoke of her family—her father specifically. But before Vi could really put her finger on it, Jayme stood and shook the emotion from her with the sand clinging to her legs.

  “Speaking of leaving, though. We likely should. If we’re going to lie about how far we went we need to make sure we’re back in four days.”

  “Our guard hath spoken,” Ellene said to Vi.

  “Right!” Vi jumped up, giving Jayme a salute.

  “Don’t mock me.” The soldier rolled her eyes. “Some of us have to work for our positions in life, you know, we’re not just born with them.”

  “We’re not mocking you, we’re very proud of you for your hard work,” Vi said with genuine sincerity that she hoped shined through. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have had half the connection with my family I did.”

  Jayme glanced askance, clearly uncertain about the praise. True to form, she pushed past it. “We should also likely hunt something. It’ll be even more believable we were on a hunt if we come back with a kill.”

  “Don’t look at me, that’s Vi’s area of expertise.” Ellene tugged on her tunic and the shorts she wore underneath. The girl often went barefoot, claiming it was a Groundbreaker tactic to feel the earth better.

  “Do you mind? Seeing as I doubt I’ll be killing anything in this jungle with a sword.” Jayme strapped the weapon in question back to her waist.

  “No, I can hunt something on the way, I’m sure.” Vi detached her bow and quiver from her pack, handing the pack itself to Ellene. The girl already had a system for managing both. But before she could sling it on her back, Jayme took it and had it over her shoulder.

  “If I can’t help with the hunt, the least I can do is carry supplies,” Jayme insisted.

  “But—”

  “Let her, Ellene. You may be able to help me with your magic like you did the last time,” Vi thought aloud.

  They were a good twenty paces into the forest when Jayme dared to ask the question Vi could only assume ha
d been burning her up since the mere mention of magic. “What about your magic, Vi? The Chieftain said—”

  “I’ve no idea what Sehra was talking about. The last thing any of us want, myself included, is for me to use my magic,” she said quickly, sternly. Her friends shared a startled look at Vi’s tone. “Sorry… It’s been… strange lately, is all.”

  “Strange how?” Ellene asked.

  “I think I’m Awoken now,” Vi confessed.

  “Why didn’t you tell us sooner? That’s excellent news!” Her friend hopped from foot to foot. She’d never really understood Vi’s plight. Ellene had manifested early, was Awoken quickly, and moreover had an ancient power in her that was said to have descended right from the Goddess herself. The Northerners called her a Child of Yargen.

  “Like I said, it’s been weird and I’d rather not test it,” Vi said firmly. But, unsurprisingly, Ellene missed it.

  “Why? You should—”

  “If you think it’s for the best,” Jayme interrupted Ellene.

  “The best would be for us to move more quietly so we don’t scare away any jungle fowl.”

  At the suggestion, they moved through the forest silently and Vi appreciated that her play for a reprieve from the conversation worked.

  Ellene made almost no noise, the ground curling around her feet with pulses of power to muffle her steps. Vi was the next most quiet, her steps in the jungle confident from a lifetime of venturing through it. Jayme… she tried her best. But she clearly wasn’t accustomed to the shrub brushes, dangling vines, or gnarled roots that reached up to trip an unwary traveler.

  The first day yielded nothing. They broke for camp, and all agreed that the next morning they’d find their luck. After a few hours of walking, their optimism was rewarded. Vi held up her hand, stopping her companions.

  Movement in the distance caught her eye. Vi squinted, looking through the shifting shafts of light that were determined to make their path through the thick canopy. She crouched low, hearing the others following her lead.

  There was another flash of green, the light hitting a rainbow of colored feathers. Vi slowly pointed, making sure they both saw it. She brought her finger to each of them, pointed at the ground, and then mouthed the words, “You stay here.”