by Tom Early
Sam smacked both of us on the head.
“Shut up, you two. We’re going to win, and get whatever that first prize is, all right? Now, come on,” she said, raising the tone of her voice, “Team Human on three. One! Two! Three!”
She put her hand into the air. Tyler and I just stared at her blankly. She sighed.
“Great team spirit, you two. Any suggestions for how we get pumped about this, then?”
“We could just do a group hug again. It worked last time, even if it does lack ‘pizzazz’,” Tyler said, making jazz hands.
“I like that option,” I cut in.
“Fine. Group hug.” We all gathered close for another lovely three-person hug, and despite its inherent awkwardness, it actually did make me feel better about our odds.
We’d come a long way from the start. I could do things with my magic now that would have killed me a few months ago to even try. And here, with my friends, I didn’t have to pretend I couldn’t. Even with all the crazy fighting, I honestly felt like I belonged here. It was a nice feeling.
Sam was as deadly as she’d always been, but now she took the time to plan ahead a little bit more. It was good to see that her loss in the practice Trial with Aiden hadn’t been for nothing. She was just as focused and, well, Sam-like as she’d always been, but I could see that she was happier here too. I wasn’t sure whether it was because she got to fight more or because she felt closer to her mom, but I wasn’t complaining either way.
Tyler was the only one who hadn’t really changed. He didn’t need to. I relied on him as much as I had from the beginning, as the grounding influence, the reminder that some things would never change. He was the reminder that I didn’t just have Sam always at my side any more. That I mattered.
With the three of us together, there was no way we’d lose. Not now, not ever.
A half-hour later, we were with all of the other applicants, sitting in the Arena. Aria and Kaede walked up to us. Aria smiled at us one more time.
“Are you three ready for the match? Whatever happens, I’m glad to have the chance to face your team.”
Sam stood up. “Same to you, Aria. Thanks for the opportunity.” She held out her hand, and Aria took hold of it in the same dainty way she had with me when I first met her.
They held hands like that for a few seconds, and then both of them burst into laughter and hugged each other fiercely. The bonding power of girls was terrifying. Aria then stepped over to me and Tyler as well, and hugged us as well. It was really nice to know that I’d be coming out of all of this with at least one new friend at Janus University next year.
A few minutes after that, Speaker Sekhmene appeared in the Arena.
“Welcome, students, to the final battle of the Trial of Competition. Would the team of Feayr Hanson and Samantha Gray step into the Arena, please, and would the team of Aria Tempestas and Kaede Hibi do the same.”
I took a deep breath to calm myself, and entwined my right hand in Tyler’s left, and my left hand in Sam’s right. The three of us walked through the barrier, and into the appointed circle. Aria and Kaede walked to their circle, heads held high.
The Speaker’s voice rang out one last time.
“Let the final match of the Trial… begin!”
I threw up my Ward around the three of us as fast as I possibly could, and almost immediately a sheet of thick ice formed to protect us from an onslaught of wind. Aria spread her wings and rocketed into the air, beginning her cloud summoning incantation moments later.
The air began to darken as Sam and Tyler dashed forward, and Sam’s ercinee cast its own shimmering light over the battlefield as well. Somehow it was able to fly through the wind, probably because it was more light than bird.
Kaede slithered forward to engage them, her twin blades of light shimmering. She let out a hiss, and suddenly a massive serpent with iridescent scales and a ruff of multicolored feathers materialized next to her. Of course she’d have a giant snake familiar. Of course. It opened its mouth, revealing two massive fangs, and struck at Tyler, who rolled to the side with a yelp. Sam’s ercinee began to glow with a dangerous golden light, and it dive-bombed Kaede, harrying the sides of her head with its beak. She slashed at it with her blades, only to watch their light dim as the ercinee absorbed the energy, destroying one of her swords altogether.
Sam charged forward, speaking a rapid-fire incantation as Minor Orbs began to form in the air around her. She pointed up at Aria, and three of them shot straight upward, forcing Aria to narrowly dodge out of the way. Sam kept up the incantation as she switched her attention to the giant rainbow snake, and her Minor Orbs continued to chase Aria around the sky, slowing down her attempt to summon the clouds.
I was already swaying from the drain of the Wards keeping the wind off us, and considered my options. I was already too strained to attempt to summon the yuki-onna, and anything flashy and complicated was pretty much out of the question as well. That left only straightforward small stuff, then. I started to gather water from the air once more, and shards of ice glittered dangerously all around me. The most basic attack I really had.
I pointed at Kaede, determined to get her out of the picture first. The shards shot themselves rapidly straight at her, and Kaede moved back rapidly, ushering her snake forward to keep Sam and Tyler away from her and swatting at the ercinee with her hand to get it away from her, barely dodging the first wave of my shards. She made a pulling motion from the hilt of her remaining blade, and a short rope of light extended from it. As the next wave approached, she began to twirl the rope, and her blade began to spin incredibly fast, rotating in circles that shattered my ice shards against it. I cut off the assault when I realized it was hopeless, and switched to the giant snake. It was busy trying to eat Tyler while his and Sam’s blades rebounded harmlessly from its scales. I didn’t like that. On the other hand, its mouth was open as it tried to bite Tyler, and I could take advantage of that.
As it lunged for him, I let loose a volley of ice spikes into its mouth, and several of them connected, sending it reeling backwards and exposing its softer underbelly. Sam grinned viciously, and used a spinning kick to knock its head back up even higher as Tyler began to furiously slash at it. The snake backed away rapidly, bleeding heavily, and Kaede let out another hiss, banishing the snake back to whatever realm it originally came from. One down.
Tyler advanced on Kaede, slashing at her and forcing her to return her sword to its normal state to block his attack. I felt a small pulse run through the familiar bond, telling me what Tyler intended. He began to circle around Kaede slowly, slashing inwards every few seconds when he could, forcing her to turn with him to avoid being hit. Kaede’s back was turned toward me for a half second as she attempted to stab Tyler, and I buried several icy shards deep into her, and her back erupted in dark blue light. When Tyler circled back towards me, though, I saw that he also had a dark blue light pouring from his shoulder.
Somehow Kaede’s blade had gotten past my Ward. Was I getting too tired to keep it up? Fortunately, Kaede was still dizzy from my attack, and Sam, who had been focusing on keeping Aria distracted, threw a Minor Orb directly at Kaede’s head. She was blasted back a few feet, and another blue light poured from her head as it rolled back from the impact. Out of nowhere, the ercinee dived in and dissolved into a cloud of stinging fireflies that swarmed around Kaede’s face, and the blue light turned to red a moment later. Kaede was out.
That was when things went to hell.
Up in the sky, Aria let out an angry cry at seeing Kaede fall, and her incantation shifted suddenly to Dispel, destroying Sam’s Minor Orbs surrounding her. Without a moment of hesitation, she resumed her cloud incantation, picking up where she left off. Sam began to summon new Minor Orbs just as the clouds began to gather and darken the sky, and Tyler and I ran over next to her. The hurricane-force winds intensified, and I let out a groan of pain as I felt more and more power get drawn to strengthen my Wards and keep us standing.
Sam sent up
her new Minor Orbs just as Aria began gathering lightning around her form. Just before they connected, however, there was a small streak and then a burst of light as Pip, Aria’s stormswallow, somehow absorbed the rotating balls of wind before they hit her. Sam’s ercinee flew up to fight it, and was promptly blasted out of the sky when Pip released all of the wind it had absorbed directly at it. I guess there was a limit to how much force the ercinee could ignore, after all. Sam winced as her familiar hit the ground, and banished it before it got too badly hurt.
The sound of thunder rolling filled the air as Aria drew more and more lightning around her, the sky above the Arena crackling with light. Her illuminated face was that of a serene angel, punishing those beneath her. As Sam desperately gathered the energy to summon more Minor Orbs, Aria lifted a finger slowly, and then pointed it directly at me. The coil of lightning around her crackled ominously, and the sky erupted in light.
It seemed to happen in slow motion. I heard Tyler cry out, “No!” and then I was being pushed roughly to the ground a few feet away. I looked back and saw Tyler’s Ward shatter as the massive burst of lightning hit him head on. He didn’t even have the time to scream before he collapsed in a burst of red light.
All of his pain hit me head on, rushing through the familiar bond, and I screamed gutturally. A second later, the quiet perpetual awareness of Tyler I had in the back of my head vanished as the familiar bond disappeared.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then I learned what real pain was. For a moment, I was burning, drowning, and being torn to pieces, all at once.
Then it was if I was falling through my own mind. I watched as what I could see grew further and further away, as my mind receded from consciousness, reeling from the loss of the familiar bond. I kept falling into myself, and soon I could feel the piece of Winter at my core.
I turned around slowly, and saw a forest, the snow falling gently, only a few steps away. I walked forward, and I entered. For a moment, it felt like there was something else in there with me, a presence only in the barest sense of the word. Then I felt cold, incredibly cold, as something brushed past me, and walked out the same way I came in.
My eyes opened, but it wasn’t me. I was gone, lost in the whirling snow.
I stood up slowly. My vision was tinged with white and blue, as I turned my head up to look at the winged girl up in the sky, the one who had dared to defy me. There was another girl on the ground next to me, but she was no threat. I rolled my shoulders and smiled at the winged one, my teeth far sharper than they had any right to be.
“So,” I purred, my voice causing Sam to freeze and turn to look at me in horror and Aria to stare in alarm. “You’re the little creature that has dared to defy me. And while everyone’s watching, at that.”
I turned around in a slow circle, my enhanced vision catching the barrier, and dismissing it as insignificant. I took in the small mass of humanity surrounding me. They smelled of confusion, not fear. How… rude.
I let out a sigh, and an icy blizzard pulsed out from me, arctic winds carrying shards of ice swirling around me like a tornado. I stretched, yawned, and the blizzard began to widen. I heard a yelp of pain from the girl on the ground next to me, and watched lazily as she used some bending of the air to make it deflect the small part of the blizzard already bloodying her skin. It would seem that humanity had picked up a few tricks since the last time I was here. How adorable. I looked back up at the winged one in the sky, who was doing her best to beat back the meager breeze I had summoned, with all she had.
“No, that won’t do at all, little one,” I hissed, “I need to teach you that you’ve been very, very bad.”
I beckoned her closer, and she screamed as the blizzard enveloped her, smashing her to the ground and dragging her to me, her skin being sliced all over her body by the spinning shards of ice. Absentmindedly, I felt the pathetic excuse for a barrier around me shatter as my power began to stretch, and revel in its use after so long. I could feel it, eager to bring Winter, bring the Final Season and the End to those nearby. I let it, and breathed in the screaming that erupted. It really had been far too long. I saw flashes of silver in the corner of my vision, as what appeared to be a woman and a lion at the same time began to force back the storm, but she wasn’t my focus.
The winged girl was dragged kneeling to the ground in front of me, her tear-streaked face looking up at me in terror.
“F-Fay? Why are you doing this?” The girl’s musical voice trembled, her body quaking from the fear and pain. More and more red lines opened on her face as the storm raged on.
I looked at her curiously. “Fay? What on Gaia is that, I wonder? Ah, you must mean my host, the parasite, the one who’s been using my power in return for helping me rise once again. No, I’m afraid he’s sleeping, little thing. I’m here now.”
She let out a choked sob as I stroked her wings gently.
“You know, these are lovely wings. So pretty, and soft.” I bared my teeth. “I think I’ll take them.”
I made a slicing motion with my hand, and a blade of ice severed both wings, laying them at my feet. The girl screamed, and just kept on going. Impressive lungs, this one.
“Please, stop this…” she managed to force out, before she succumbed to the screaming again. It really was getting irritating, so I summoned another blade of ice to cut out her throat.
I sensed something moving behind me for a split second, saw a flash of silver, and then my vision went black as something smashed into the back of my host’s head.
**********************************************
Deep in the forests of the Appalachian mountain range, the trees of one small grove began to sprout leaves, until moments later they were covered in foliage. The leaves then changed color rapidly, taking on the vibrant red and yellow hues of fall. A wind blew out of nowhere, sending them spiraling around the trunks in a beautiful swirl. They began to circle around one spot.
A few minutes later, a man with lightly tanned skin, thick copper curls, gold-brown eyes and broad shoulders, dressed in a tunic of autumn leaves, strode out of the glade.
In Japan, on a secluded side of Mount Yoshino, the cherry trees suddenly began to blossom, the beautiful pink flowers filling the air with their sweet scent. One of the oldest trees in the grove began to sway its branches slowly, filling the air with rose rain. The other trees did the same, more and more flowers floating gently down.
A few minutes later, a black-haired woman with delicate features, rose-hued oval cheeks and almond-shaped eyes that were a brilliant emerald, wearing a beautiful kimono of cherry blossoms, strode out of the curtain of flowers.
In the middle of the Nile River, on a stretch of fertile earth rarely visited by humans, the sun suddenly intensified, bathing the small piece of land in warm golden light. The light grew in intensity over time, until if there were anyone looking, her eyes would have been burnt away.
A few minutes later, a tall woman with skin the color of dark amber, thick black hair and eyes of pure gold strode out of the radiance, garbed in shifting sunlight itself.
The Seasons had returned.
Chapter Thirty-Four
I woke up again as me, the real me, strapped to a table in a dark room. My head was throbbing, and it felt like someone had decided to spell their name on my chest with a knife. I forced my neck to bend with what little mobility I had, and looked down. My chest was uncovered, and I saw what had caused the pain. Drawn across my chest in deep bloody gashes were several strange, sharp-looking symbols. I tried to reach for my powers to freeze and shatter the straps holding me down, and nothing happened. At all.
A quiet voice spoke up next to me. “That won’t work anymore, I’m afraid.”
From out of the darkness, a man stood up. He was wearing robes of deep crimson, and he had a sharp, square jaw covered by a light beard. His eyes were flecks of blue, and his long blond hair was combed away from his face. His thick eyebrows were drawn together sternly on his lined face.
; “Do you have any idea what you did?”
“W-what? What’s going on?”
He repeated his question. “Do you have any memory of what you did?”
“No! I just remember seeing Tyler getting hit by Aria’s lightning, and then nothing! What happened? What did you do to me?” I struggled, trying and failing to call on my magic again.
The man sighed wearily. “What a mess, and I can’t even really blame you for it. I can tell you this much, boy. You can stop trying to use your magic. It’s not there anymore.”
I froze. “What?”
“Do you know who I am, boy?”
“Of course I do,” I replied sarcastically. You’re the person who kidnapped me.”
“You, or what was controlling you, I should say, gave me no choice. It was the only way to save your life, as well as the lives of everyone at the Retreat.”
“What are you talking about? We were finishing the Trial!”
“You were. You were unconscious, boy, from the shock of losing your familiar.”
“Wait, what? Tyler’s alive, I can tell!” And I could, the bond was there again, thrumming softly.
“He is, but the process of protecting Tyler required us to move him to Limbo temporarily for healing, and that plane shift momentarily severed your bond. Had we known what you were before this, such an action never would have been allowed. You wouldn’t have been allowed near the Trial at all, in fact.” He sighed again. “But what happened cannot be changed, and now I fear there’s a lot of damage to be repaired.”
“Just tell me what happened,” I said, frustrated, “instead of dancing around the issue.”
The man looked at me in the eyes steadily, and I saw the barely restrained anger in them.
“That thing inside of you took control, and unleashed a deadly blizzard that broke through the confines of the Arena. Using your body, it brutally tortured and mutilated your opponent for the Trial, Aria Tempestas, all while threatening the lives of everyone else at the Retreat with that deadly storm. Three students died from being struck repeatedly by the blades of ice that blizzard carried within it, and I have to be grateful that only three did. If you hadn’t been so focused on torturing that girl, many more could have perished before the Argent Sphinx was able to knock you out.”