by Oxford, Rain
“What about sago and human nature?” I asked.
“Sago and human nature are both to survive everything that is thrown at them and thrive from it,” Shiloh offered. “I have always felt that human and sago were the most alike of all people, most likely because their Guardians are… were brothers. Are we lost?” he asked as we came to the same creek we had started out at.
Emrys looked appalled. “I could never get lost. I may not know where I am, but I am never lost.” He looked around and frowned. “I may not know where we are now, but we should definitely go this way,” he said, pointing up stream.
“Why is that?” I asked suspiciously.
“The stones are smoother than the ones that way.”
It was difficult to tell, since I couldn’t see through the rushing water, but I took his word for it.
Dylan nodded. “Good enough for me.”
I smelled it just as Sammy called to Dylan. He was pointing off into the woods, but when we looked, we couldn’t see anything. “There’s something there,” I said to Dylan. “It smells sour and smoky; there’s something really wrong about it.”
“And is it hungry?” he asked.
A deeper sniff made my nose hurt. “No, but it’s really angry.”
“Whatever it is, three Guardians and a trained wizard can handle it, I’m sure,” Shiloh insisted. Emrys looked thoughtful, but not worried or overly confident.
“Maybe we can calm it down,” Dylan said. “Look into the forest with your dragon eyes.”
“We’re not going to start calling it that,” I insisted, knowing at the same time that I was wasting my breath.
I reached into myself for the heat that was always there. My fire was unlike any other magic I did; nominal energy came from the world around me. My fire answered, but instead of drawing its heat outside, I let it swirl with anxiety for the threat. I had never discovered that I could control my energy inside myself like this before the demon’s attack, but now it seemed to become more and more second nature to me. It was also quite stifling because I felt like there was so much more to it that I was missing.
The colors dimmed and shapes blurred. The scent became even more overpowering and I could suddenly hear it shuffling in the leaves. Emrys was talking, but I couldn’t focus on his words. Instead, I could only watch the creature through the trees.
While the actual identity of the creature was impossible to see through the thick forest, the aura of it could not be missed. It glowed a dull yellow color, swirling with gray, brown, and red. I didn’t know what those colors meant, but I disliked it immensely.
As the creature moved back and forth, I missed when it broke through the trees. “Mordon.” Dylan’s voice finally got my attention and the fire quieted down, returning my vision to normal.
The beast was beautiful. It had the head of an elegant bird but had four legs and a tail. Resting upon the gleaming golden fur were two wings. Its paws ended with sharp claws, currently digging into the soft dirt. At the end of its swishing tail was a tuff of dark brown fur.
“So beautiful,” I said quietly.
“It’s a griffin,” Dylan said in awe. “I didn’t think they were real.”
“They aren’t. They have been extinct for longer than I have been alive.” Shiloh assured us. Despite our discussion of his existence, the creature approached us calmly, entirely unafraid.
As it neared, it veered towards Dylan. I intercepted, let Sammy down, and pushed him behind me. The child clutched my leg and peaked. The griffin made no move to change course and stopped only an arm’s reach from me. As he sniffed me, I let my senses take him in again.
I was wrong; the creature was not angry so much as distraught. He was lost or had lost something and he felt very hopeless. He was angry, but not at us. There was also the essence of something even more powerful than this majestic creature; the magical signature of a master wizard. He wasn’t under the will of another now, but he had very recently gained his freedom. What could have caused the overwhelming loneliness the creature felt?
I would never know, because Shiloh hit the bird-hybrid creature with a ball of red and blue plasma. I knew plasma was hotter than fire by thousands of degrees, so I wasn’t surprised by the creature’s screech of pain. It collapsed to the ground and withered in agony. “Help him,” I said in Dylan’s mind.
“No need.” Even as he said it, the creature climbed to its feet.
Almost no wizard was powerful enough to create or control real plasma, but Guardians were the exceptions, as it appeared. “This is impossible!” Shiloh said. “Griffins have magic against wizards, but they stand no chance against a Noquodi’s power!”
“Actually, I think this is a modern Griffin, made to guard a Noquodi,” Emrys argued.
“Absolutely not! Griffins are extinct!”
“I agree. But this creature was somebody’s decision they did not make. At least not yet.”
There was no time to decipher the riddle as the creature attacked Shiloh. Unfortunately, there was no time to do anything. It was on Shiloh before anyone could react, and the instant the creature touched him, they both disappeared.
I couldn’t even catch him before Dylan dropped to the ground. My eyes changed as I reached him and I could see that while his body still flowed with magic, the majority of his aura was missing. Despite that, his heartbeat and breathing were regular.
My eyes returned to normal. “Is he speaking with Madus?” I asked Emrys.
“With Enki, I believe. Let me help you get those things off.” The Guardian pulled a small, metal tool from his back and quickly got the bracelets off of Dylan, Sammy, and me.
Just as quickly as Dylan had passed out, he woke up. “Enki says that Shiloh is safe, but stranded on Enep. Enki is going to negotiate with Enep’s god to allow us access to that world to heal it, so that Shiloh can return to Vaigda. For now, we should heal Malta, because we could get called away any moment.”
I helped him to his feet. “The gods should love you for all the work you do for them.”
He shrugged and smiled. “I am a Guardian. It is my responsibility to use my power to save the worlds, the books, and the people. What does it matter if the world, book, or people aren’t mine? I help whoever needs it, even the gods.”
“You hear that? You should be just like him when you grow up.”
We looked over to see Emrys holding Sammy. I was a little surprised to see that Sammy was okay with it, but he seemed deep in thought. Did babies have deep thoughts?
“No way,” I argued, taking Sammy. “He should be selfish and careful his whole life. He can grow up and work in a safe office. Sammy, if you ever put yourself in danger like Dylan does, I will tell your mother.”
“Oh, Sammy, you’d better listen to him,” Dylan warned. “Your mom can be scary protective. I tried to go to work when I was sick once, and I ended up on bed rest because I argued with her about it.”
“Are we still concerned about Shiloh, or can we move on to saving Malta?” Emrys asked.
“Let’s go save Malta. How do we do it?”
“Malta has six tribes; these are the power centers of our world. I can have Madus flash us to several of the tribes, but some of them are too unstable, so we will have to walk. You can heal each tribe by using its magic.”
“Explain ‘using its magic.’”
“Our world is based on nature, but has six divisions, each that produces a different form of the mortal magic.”
“And by mortal magic, you are talking about nominal energy?”
“Yes. When you go to this tribe, you need only to use some of its magic to bond with it. You will then heal it through your bond. However, the people of this world can only use one kind of magic. We are on the outskirts of the water tribe.”
“So the people here can control water?”
“Essentially, yes. Some of them can make it rain, some of them can control the entire water cycle, and some of them can purify water for health or religious practices. You will
understand more when you see it.”
“Is this a Dagon thing?”
“A what?” I asked.
“People that are half fish?”
“Of course not,” Emrys insisted.
“Can I protest? I mean, can we just leave this one alone?” I asked.
Dylan snickered, but Emrys took me seriously. “I would really prefer we did not, as water is important to this world, but we can if Dylan insists.”
He didn’t. The water city was pretty much what I expected. We found ourselves on the edge of a cliff looking over a vast sea. Cold wind drifted up through the mountain. Scattered around in the ocean were huge cities, full of tall buildings and structures… all of which were made of ice. They were cities made of ice.
“I can’t do it. Dylan, you will have to go without me,” I said.
He considered me, then nodded after a moment. “I know. You would melt the cities. Emrys, Mordon needs a safe place to stay warm.”
“I do not understand. Why can you not come?”
“Because I can’t stand the cold. I never could. My greatest power is fire, but if I use it to keep myself warm, I’ll melt the city.”
“No, of course you wouldn’t. The tribe buildings are built with extremely high melting points. You would sooner melt metal from your world. Feel free to keep yourself as warm as you want.” As he said that, he made a hand signal to the water, like he was beckoning it. And the water responded. A fair amount rose to the edge of the cliff and formed into an iceberg with a flat, smooth surface.
“That doesn’t look safe,” Dylan said. He stepped onto it, though. Emrys stepped up next to him. There was plenty of room for me and Sammy, but when I stared down at the sea below, breathing became difficult.
“I’ll take the elevator.” As soon as I said it, Dylan grabbed my arm and pulled me onto the platform. He covered my eyes while I held Sammy as tightly as I could without hurting him. I felt the icy wind and had to suffer through it; I wasn’t about to use my fire while floating on a sheet of frozen water.
The wind finally stopped and Dylan removed his hand. We were standing in front of an ice structure that looked sort of like an ancient Mokii castle from before the Reformation. I reached inside for my fire and let it stir with the agitation of the cold. It felt like something else was stirring inside me, though. It was almost like a sleeping entity that should stay away. Something was changing in me the more familiar I became with my fire.
The scent of ice was masked by the scent of smoke.
“You will have to get used to it,” Emrys said.
It took me a moment to realize he was talking to me, but I didn’t know what he meant that I had to get used to.
“What does the damage look like here?” Dylan asked.
I shifted my vision easily since my fire was already active. Looking around, I could have whimpered for the pain I saw. Dull and fuzzy shapes blurred with the sharp, glowing scars in every direction. I could see it in the ice, through the ice, in the water, and in the sky. White light spread in pulses like blood oozing from a scab that keeps being forced open. Nominal energy floated around like wind, avoiding the scars, but sometimes it would get too close and would be sucked in. The energy was subdued and sickly.
“Are people here getting sick?” I asked.
“Yes, the magic is poisoning all of us. The more we use our magic, the more ill we become,” said a new voice. Focusing on an open wound in the ground, I hadn’t realized someone had joined us. I turned to find a beautiful aura, shining light blue mixed with a little dark blue and some light green. This was an extremely calm person who could keep her reason throughout anything. I let my eyes return to normal and found the girl to be nearly as pretty as her aura.
While definitely a woman, she still had a softness about her and a complete innocence in her face. Her eyes were as blue as could be; a mixture of light and dark just like in her aura. She had shoulder length, light brown hair. The dress she wore was dark blue and fitted her perfectly. She was also barefoot, standing on ice like it was wood.
She smiled. “I like the blue and purple much more than the black.”
I looked away; I hated when people noticed my eyes.
“I am sorry if I embarrassed you. My name is Deona.” She spoke Sudo, but with a very strong accent.
“I am Mordon. This is Dylan and Samhail.”
“Deona is my daughter,” Emrys included helpfully. “I have been teaching her the languages of other worlds so that she may be a diplomat.”
“That is completely my choice, of course,” she said. “He thinks it would be too boring and I should be an explorer or a toy-maker.” Sammy squirmed in my arms until he could look at the woman upside down. This caused Deona to giggle.
“How many people have died because of the magic?” Dylan asked.
“Ten that we know of so far, but they are all in the air tribe. The water tribe is very resilient. However, our women have stopped reproducing and our children are suffering the most. They are no longer allowed to use magic, but that only slows their deterioration because we must use magic to live.”
“I feel like the world is in pain and is reaching for me, but can’t find me.”
“It is,” Emrys said. You need to use water magic to heal the damage.”
“How?” he asked. Deona waved her hand and water was formed in midair, only to sling at Dylan. He held his hand up, but the water just hit him in the face. He looked startled. “Do that again.” She did and it splashed him in the face again. “My energy isn’t working like it should. I have never had trouble controlling water.”
“The water here is a little different than on Duran,” Emrys said.
Dylan shook his head. “That’s not it. This makes me itchy inside. Mordon, what do I look like?” he asked in English.
“You don’t want me to answer that,” I teased. Sammy rammed his head into my chest and I thought he cracked something. It took a few minutes to catch my breath.
“Look at Dada!” he demanded.
I shifted my eyes back and studied Dylan. Something was definitely wrong. Most of the blue nominal energy was moving around Dylan like his skin was a barrier. “You are only getting a little bit of energy. Try drawing more in.”
“I am. I feel it inside, but it doesn’t want to obey.”
There was still little increase of the blue energy. However, his green energy looked fine. “Use the god energy. That is normal.” I let my eyes shift back.
“I never used it for something as simple as water before. Try it again,” he said to Deona.
For the third time, she drew water and flung it at him. This time, he made a jerking movement with his hand before the water exploded into vapor in front of him.
We all just watched slack-jawed for a minute.
“Oops,” he said.
“You have to be gentler with water. Water wants to please, but you have to be gentle and calm,” Deona insisted.
“I know, and with nominal energy, I can do that. God energy wants to do whatever it wants, and that is apparently to blow up water.”
Seeing as how the edge of the ice was only a few steps away, I easily drew water out of the ocean. For most wizards, water was the first lesson in magic. It was always the hardest element for me, but still a basic skill. I formed a small water-ball and threw it hard at Dylan, hitting him in the face with cold saltwater. He glared at me and was hit with a second one.
“I didn’t do that one!” I said. I looked at Emrys, but he shook his head. Sammy giggled and raised his hand. More water rose out of the ocean. This one formed a ball and hit Emrys on the face.
“See what you did? You taught him to hit people with water!” Dylan groused. “Hitting is wrong, Sammy.”
The baby giggled and hid his face.
“I didn’t teach him anything; I just did it.”
“He learned it by watching you and feeling your shift in energy,” Emrys said. Dylan glared at me again, with proof that it was my fault. So I tried to
hit Emrys in the face with another ball of water, but he blocked it.
“Hitting is wrong, Mama,” Sammy said, exactly like Dylan had.
Dylan now had a big smile on his face and I groaned.
* * *
It took several tries before Dylan could calm down and use his god energy to block his face without making the water explode. Deona tried to convince him he should get in the water to connect with it, but he wasn’t having it.
Even after he could block the water from his face, he couldn’t control the actual water. After a while, Deona left to find dinner, which shocked Dylan and me as she dived into the water and didn’t return. Emrys explained that the people of this tribe could breathe both on land and under water, then went into the castle to get us some warmer clothes, leaving us reeling.
Dylan was shivering pretty badly.
“What are you missing?” I asked. “Why are you having so much trouble?”
“Because it’s like I have to completely relearn how to use magic. My regular energy won’t work and the new magic doesn’t work the same way.”
“It doesn’t?” He sighed with frustration, which was his problem. He had told me how he originally learned to control water. “Push all the nominal energy you have out. Drain it all.” He looked at me like I was crazy. “Do it.” He closed his eyes and I felt his energy drain. “Clear your mind, close your eyes, and listen to your breathing. Just sit there and listen.” After about five minutes, just before I lost him to his short attention span, I moved around to his side. “Open your eyes, keep your mind clear, and slowly take off your boots. Think only of your boots.” He did. “Stick your feet in the water, just like you had that day in the springs.”
“It’s cold,” he complained, sticking his feet in anyway.
“Too bad. Think of it as really cold fish pee.”
He shivered violently. “Dead fish pee.” As naturally as a reflex, all of the water rushed away from his feet as if there were a clear bubble around them. “Yay! I controlled the fish pee!”
Sammy squealed with baby giggles. Dylan got up and hopped up and down, trying to get his socks back on while stepping on ice. He got them and his boots on just as Emrys was coming back. He handed Dylan and I a couple of sweaters, both blue, and an orange blanket for Sammy.