The Fate: Book 1: Tournament Wysteria

by Ko, John

  The Daughter stays quiet for so long that Wake begins to apologize again, but she waves it away. “Excuse me. I’m going to go try that out now. Thanks … and Way, speak to me freely on such matters. I might get a little angry, but I promise not to hurt you.”

  “How much farther do we have to go?” Wake asks the Fate. The sun has yet to rise and the forest is still shrouded in darkness. No one was awake when we left, not even Poe, Wake thinks, not liking this one bit.

  “We are almost there,” the Fate calls back over his shoulder. “Try to remember the way. You will have to come back here by yourself tomorrow.”

  “It’s too dark for that,” Wake complains, but he starts paying closer attention to where they are going. It’s not long before the small game trail opens up to the base of a mountain.

  “We are here,” the Fate announces. Wake takes a look around, wondering just why they had to come someplace like this. There’s a small field and the slope of the mountain itself, but not much else.

  “I assume you have already gone through the standard training needed to master your Wave Step, correct?” the Fate asks him.

  Wake nods. Of course I have. Dark Blue is one of the Physical Colors, and to master it requires Physical training. He’s practiced his jumps for years.

  “Please show me,” the Fate says. “From each foot and then both.”

  It’s nothing too complicated. Wake leaps as far as he can from first his right foot, then his left, and then finally from both together. These are the very same jumps that he imagines taking every time he activates his 128’s.

  “Nice Form. Now please follow me,” the Fate tells him as he heads for the steep slope of the mountain. Halfway up, where it becomes more of a climb than a walk, they come to a stop. “Have you guessed the next step in your training?”

  Wake looks down the steep slope and sighs. “You’re going to make me jump my way down the mountain, aren’t you?”

  “Exactly,” the grinning Fate says. “Just be careful not to twist an ankle.”

  The Fate waits for him at the bottom. “Not bad, but still far from good enough.”

  Wake’s first trip leaping down the mountain was terrifying. He took the tiniest of jumps from each foot and then both while the Fate hurtled down the mountain with no fear. The second time down is a bit better. On his third, he manages to somehow even keep sight of the Fate, at least for most of it. But now he’s exhausted.

  “One more trip and then we can join the others for breakfast,” the Fate says.

  The next morning Wake finds himself again at the bottom of the steep slope. That’s three trips down. Just two more to go, he thinks, remembering the orders his Captain gave him back at the inn.

  Although no one’s counting except for me. I could just go back now, Wake thinks, lying there on his back. He turns his head to find a late blooming wildflower staring back at him. Its blossoms are too large for its thin stem, causing it to bend so low that it almost kisses the ground. The straining stem reminds him of how his legs feel right about now. At least, I didn’t get hurt.

  Okay, just two more, he decides as he gets up.

  Wake makes the final few leaps without fear. The Fate lands next to him a moment later. Wake throws up his hands and cheers. “I win.”

  He hated this special training at first, but now it’s become sort of fun. It’s only been a few weeks, but his legs feel stronger and his timing has become fine-tuned.

  “Congratulations,” the Fate says. “Next time, I will only count to five before starting.”

  “No, no, let’s keep it at ten.” Wake laughs. “I like winning once in awhile too, you know?”

  “I believe we all do,” the Fate says, already heading back up. “One more time, but this time we will not be racing. You are ready for the next step.”

  “What’s that?”

  “This time down, you do it with your eyes closed.”

  It wasn’t as hard as Wake first thought. The Fate only asked him to close his eyes just before he jumped. He’s allowed to open them before he lands to gauge the terrain and make sure he doesn’t break an ankle. Now, he’s flying down the mountain with his eyes mostly closed.

  “I believe you are ready, Way,” the Fate tells him. Wake turns to walk up the steep slope before the Captain stops him.

  “Please close your eyes and grab the other end of Stick,” the Fate says. Wake grabs ahold and shuts his eyes as the Fate leads him somewhere.

  “As you know, each Color has a different Dash Step. And each Dash Step is unique in its own way. Dark Yellow or Earth 128’s work by using the natural attraction of objects. We can also reverse this force to make it repulse. Those are the basic principles behind Earth Leap, repelling and attracting against something solid. Even your friend Kerry’s Circle Step is a variation of this basic principle.”

  “It’s Kearney, and he’s not my friend,” Wake says.

  “Either way, each Color’s Dash Step is different and can be personalized even more so. For the Dark Colors, the only way to do this is through Physical training. But there are limits to Physical training and one of them is … mental.

  “Keep your eyes closed. No peeking,” the Fate says from somewhere beside him. “What I want you to do is imagine that you are about to jump. But do not forget that we are on the mountain, so leap accordingly. Can you picture the slope and the angle you have to take?”

  “Yes,” Wake says, envisioning the flight of his leap. Jumping down a slope requires a much more forward, almost downward trajectory.

  “With your eyes still closed, I want you to activate Wave Step down the slope,” the Fate explains. Wake is ready for that. He guessed as much that this would be the next step.

  “Wave Step.” Wake dashes forward.

  “Daebak, Way,” the Fate yells from behind him. “You can open your eyes and turn around now.”

  Wake opens his eyes. We weren’t on the mountain? We never left the field. When he turns around, the Fate is impossibly far away. What’s going on? Wake wonders, Did he move back or … Did I just really Wave Step that far?

  “You didn’t move, did you, Captain?” Wake asks. The Fate shakes his head. I really just covered that distance in a single Wave Step?

  He still can’t believe he made it so far in one dash. Mental … He said it was mental limitation, Wake realizes. I tricked myself into taking a leap straight ahead as if I was jumping down the mountain, but I was really on flat ground. By doing that I changed the angle so that I was going purely forward. There was no wasted upward movement.

  If I had realized I was on flat ground, I would never jump at that angle. I would crash straight into the ground. My mind wouldn’t even allow me to attempt such a jump knowing that I would hurt myself. Wake looks back at his Captain. That’s how he moves the way he does. A normal-thinking person could never move that way.

  “We are done here,” the Fate says. “Just keep practicing until you can …”

  “Do it with my eyes open,” Wake finishes.

  The Fate smiles and nods. “Tomorrow, we will invite Poe and Sense along. After all, Poe is Dark Blue like you and Sense Dark Green.”

  “So you’re calling him Sense now?” Wake asks. Sensei won’t mind; he was just complaining the other day of not being Fate-named.

  “Yes, why do you ask? Did I call him something else before?”

  Chapter 34

  IEIRI

  [Old Training Grounds, Silla]

  Ieiri comes down from the clouds and gasps, “Water.” Only her pride keeps her from collapsing to the ground. Enada, Master of the Dark Wind, tosses her a canteen.

  “We’re done for today,” the imposing warrior says.

  Ieiri marvels at the strength of her new teacher. At first, she had her doubts. The Master of the Dark Wind barely looked older than Ieiri herself. But the outcast Daughter laughed at that, replying that she’s old enough to be her grandmother. It’s a mystery with no answer, but Ieiri’s sure that’s one of the reasons Enada lives a
part from the rest of the village.

  “Thank you for today’s training, Master Enada.” Ieiri bows deeply.

  “You’re welcome, and I told you not to bow to me. Daughters bow before no one,” Enada says. “I expect a better effort tomorrow.” With that, she picks up her long pack and departs.

  The fledgling Daughters hiding at the edge of the field come rushing in.

  “Ieiri, that was so great!” They clamor around her.

  “Hey, Ieiri, do you want some more water?”

  “I need a moment,” she says, falling onto her back. “And you’re not supposed to watch us practice. It’s forbidden.”

  “No, we’re not supposed to watch her. There’s no rule against watching you,” the one with the black eye says with a giggle.

  “I’ll take that water now.” Ieiri shakes the last drop free from her canteen. “Let me just lay here for a little while longer. Then I’ll be ready to take you all on.” She wonders why she’s allowed to train with Enada, yet the others are forbidden to even speak her name.

  “You’re ready,” Enada says.

  “If you say so, it must be true,” Ieiri says.

  The Master of the Dark Wind stares holes into her soul. “It’s been weeks and I haven’t taught you a single Technique. Do you have no ambition, girl?”

  Ieiri looks up at the Master of the Dark Winds. “Even though you say you haven’t taught me any new Techniques, I have learned much just from fighting you, and for that I am grateful.” Ieiri bows her head. The leather-clad lady snorts in annoyance.

  “When I was your age, I begged my teachers every day to teach me something new. If they refused, I would seek out a new one. Didn’t you come to me to learn Air Techs?”

  “It may be true that you have not taught me any Techs, but you take time out of your day to spar with me. I have never fought with anyone like you before. It is humbling,” Ieiri says. “But yes, when you think I am ready, please teach me some Air Techniques!”

  The outcast Daughter laughs. “What about Old Claw? I’m sure he knows plenty about Air. Surely, he humbled you.”

  Ieiri looks the Master of the Dark Wind’s in the eye. “Before you, only Fate was my master. You are the only other person I have called that.”

  “Old Claw refused to teach you then?”

  “Yes, at first, but eventually he offered,” Ieiri confesses. “But I refused!”

  “Likely story …”

  “It’s true. I would never lie. The truth is, I would never have accepted you either, except Fate’s not here. I would never choose another, but I need to get stronger.”

  “So is this Fate stronger than Old Claw? Is his mastery of Air greater?”

  “No,” Ieiri admits.

  “Then he is a poor master, indeed.”

  “No! You don’t understand,” Ieiri shouts back. “He begged the Old Man every day to take me on as his student. I knew the day would come when he would finally accept. When that day arrived, I was prepared.”

  “Please, do tell.”

  “I said I would accept the Old Man as my teacher, if he could beat me in battle … And then I defeated him.”

  Enada looks at Ieiri and laughs.

  “Don’t laugh, I’m telling the truth,” Ieiri says darkly.

  “No, child, I believe you,” Enada says. “You set him up didn’t you? Don’t worry, I won’t ask how.”

  Ieiri nods. “So you believe me?”

  “I fought him once, a long time ago. I don’t care how much older he’s gotten. There’s no way he’d lose to anyone in a fair fight,” the outcast Daughter tells her. “I am not blind. We have fought every day for weeks. You’re a lifetime of training away from matching my strength, but even then … sometimes, I feel as if you are the one leading the dance.”

  “Master Enada?”

  “Yes, girl.”

  “Please don’t talk badly of Fate ever again.”

  The Master of the Dark Wind stares at her for a long time. “Now, I know why,” she muses to herself.

  “I don’t understand, why what?”

  “Why none of my teachers would teach me their strongest Techniques.”

  “Oh,” Ieiri says sadly.

  Enada slings her pack over her shoulder and prepares to leave. As she enters the shadows of the forest, she looks back and says, “Tomorrow … tomorrow, I will teach you the secret of the Dark Wind.”

  Chapter 35

  RACHEL

  [Practice Field behind The Clerk’s Dormitory, Greenwood]

  “Again,” the Fate tells her. Rachel picks herself up from the ground for what must be the hundredth time. The others are off practicing amongst themselves, leaving her alone to be tortured.

  This is impossible, she thinks with a sigh. “Don’t you think I’ve tried this before? No matter how hard I try to make sense of your Spectral Armor, it just looks like a mess … like you took it all off and threw it on the floor. Sometimes I can make out Stick or a boot or a gauntlet, but most of the time all I see are a jumble of glowing lines.”

  Why won’t he just accept it? Without being able to physically see my opponent, I cannot see the true form of their Tear Armor. I’m hopeless. Her legs are sore from just having to stand up so many times. And her rear aches even more from getting knocked down over and over again. “I can’t do it! I can’t see where you’re attacking from, how you’re attacking—anything. I can’t see!”

  “You can tell when I am coming straight at you,” he says.

  “Only if you’re far enough away,” she replies. “And I could already do that before without all this needless knocking around. But that’s it. That’s all I can make out.”

  “You will get it,” the Fate says.

  He just has no clue, sometimes. She reaches down and presses the bottom of her Tear. I should have done this from the very beginning.

  “What are you doing?” he asks.

  “I’m adjusting my Pain Threshold.” She wants to adjust the amount of hurt that her Spec Armor lets through. The more pain she feels, the less damage her armor would take, but right now that’s not important.

  “You should not do that. You should have it set to the same amount in practice as you would in a match.”

  “Yes, I know that, but this is different. I’m just turning it up one level.”

  “Keep it at five,” he insists.

  “I will not,” Shine says defiantly. “I know what I can handle and what I can’t.” She suddenly feels the Fate’s aura come uncomfortably close. She can feel his warmth. She can smell his unique scent—earthy, dark, yet, still somehow fresh.

  “You set it to one!” the Fate exclaims in shock.

  “You saw?” Shine asks. It’s her little secret; not even her brother knows. “Please don’t tell anybody, especially Wake. My shielding has always been weak. The only way I could even be an average Draw was by setting it as low as possible.”

  “But after all that getting knocked down, why are you setting it lower?” the Fate asks. She can almost picture his eyes growing wide as he realizes. “Is it possible that you normally fight at zero?”

  “So what if I do? Like I said, I know what I can and can’t handle.” They say to set it so low is dangerous, but she’s gotten used to it.

  “What if you get hurt?”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t.” She never wanted anyone to find out. It makes her look desperate. “Look, I set it to zero by mistake one day. I wasn’t trying to hurt myself or anything. By the time I realized that I did, it’d been weeks. Wake’s attack don’t hurt that much, so it was never really dangerous. By the time I figured it out, I was already used to it. And it helps me last a little longer. I need every advantage that I can get.”

  “Is that why you always cry out when you get hit?” the Fate asks in awe.

  “No, I always did that,” Rachel mutters under her breath. “I don’t want you to take it easy on me now that you know. And don’t tell anybody else, either.”

  “I will not,” he says
. She can feel him staring at her.

  “I always thought so, but now I really know …”

  “What are you talking about now?”

  “Who among us is strongest,” he says.

  Shine wonders if she can take another day of this special training. Even the steaming waters of the bath aren’t helping as much as before.

  She lies there with her head back, arms resting on the sides of the oaken washtub. Thank goodness the inn has these nice, big tubs, she thinks, grateful to be able to stretch out her long, sore legs. She dips a small towel into the warm water, squeezes out the excess, and places it back over her face.

  It feels so good. All the sweat and dry autumn air is beginning to make her skin feel so dry it hurts as much as the falling. Being knocked onto the dusty ground isn’t helping much either, though it’s really her bottom that aches the most.

  She hears the door open and someone enter. Rachel twitches in surprise, wincing as her posterior bumps the bottom of the tub. “Hey, Unnie, it’s just me,” Riser says. Rachel can hear the Daughter hang her towel and begin to tug off her armor.

  “Nothing like a long soak after a hard day, huh?” Riser asks.

  Rachel purrs in agreement. Riser splashes gently into the other tub. “How’s your training with the Captain going?”

  “Painfully.”

  “It’s just been a couple days. You’ll pick it up soon enough.” the Daughter tells her with all the confidence in the world.

  “Esperanza, thank you so much for believing in me, but I’m afraid it may just be a waste of time. I’ve never been lucky at learning things like this … some things are just impossible.”

  “Lucky? I guess that explains why you haven’t made any progress,” the Daughter mumbles to herself. “I was worried it was something else.”