Wave Mandate

by Schneider, A. C.

  “It’s over, Kelerin.” The Headmaster spoke these words like the referee of a duel, as if Kelerin never posed any real threat to him, as if this were all one big game. Anger boiled up inside Kelerin, the more so that he was helpless to do anything about it now.

  Then, suddenly, a pulse burst distorted the air on its way to Valix, who had to deploy his Rippler quickly to defend against it. Dunner’s distinct voice followed, “Get him, Kel.”

  Without hesitation Kelerin dove forward, deploying his own Rippler and smashing it into Valix’s. They tumbled over the lip of the crater, down the steep ridge, rolling uncontrollably over rock and debris. Kelerin tucked his chin to his chest and used his arms to shield his head as best he could. After what seemed like an eternity they leveled off, coming to a halt at the crater’s basin. Kelerin tried to sit up and orient himself. The world was still spinning. He forced himself to stand and his oscillating surroundings slowed. A dizzied Valix stood not ten meters away, his Wave Whip lying half buried in ash nearly equidistant between them, although slightly closer to Valix than himself.

  Their eyes locked, both reading the same thought in the other. Simultaneously, they charged the center.

  *****

  Orisius/Jonas

  Dunner had been lashed by plenty of Wave Whips set to Deflection before, even once by Teacher Bram - that one left a mark for a month - but never by a Professor. Halbard’s attack knocked him ten meters from where he stood before the lash hit. He was now sprawled out and feeling like he just tried shaking hands with a tidal wave.

  “What do you think you’re doing, Student?” the normally imperturbable Orisius demanded to know.

  Dunner choked out, “Sorry,” coughed some more, then added, “slipped.”

  Clearly this Student had bought into Kelerin’s version of events, which was unnerving for the Headmaster, to say the least. Orisius couldn’t afford any cracks in the consensus he’d established based primarily on his own Academic standing. Dunner was a liability. “Halbard,” he ordered, “take this Student back to the Monitor and make sure he stays put while we wrap this matter up.”

  Dunner looked to be in no position to cause any more trouble, but Halbard refrained from pointing out the obvious. Instead, he headed over to the Student, hoisted him up and escorted him through pain filled moans back to the Monitor.

  Orisius turned to Jonas and noticed the man looked like he had a strong headache coming on, pressing the palms of his hands to his forehead. The Headmaster shifted his focus to the Child Prophet still standing in her trance like state just in front of the cruiser. Understanding flashed in his eyes, followed by determination. He unsheathed his Whip.

  Jonas, realizing what his mentor had in mind, was horror struck. Reaching back, he unsheathed his own Whip, twisting it to activate its Disruption stream, desperately bringing it down on a diagonal arc to intercept Orisius’ lash as it extended outward. It caught in time, throwing Orisius’ lash off course so that it cut away the section of crater rim beneath the Child Prophet’s feet. With the ground crumbling beneath her, Analel’s eyes opened wide as she was carried away in a rockslide to the depths of the crater.

  The streams of Jonas’ and Orisius’ Whips were now entangled. Swinging his Whip around and to the side, the Headmaster threw Jonas, who was still holding fast to his baton, through the air, landing him heavily on the rocky terrain, his side on fire from the impact.

  Slowly, painfully, Jonas stood. His Whip, like his fate, was still enmeshed in that of his mentor’s. “You were going to kill her!” he accused, disbelief battling with fear and anger, all competing for dominance in his mind.

  “She was getting inside your head, Jonas. I had no choice.”

  “She’s just a girl. An innocent girl!”

  “Innocent?” The Headmaster began to pace, as was his habit when lecturing pupils. “Tell me, how is it this Prophet Child doesn’t need a Box to communicate with our Student, Kelerin, down there?” he asked, pointing into the crater with his Wave Whip, still tangled as it was. “Are these two young patrons of our foremost Island institutions, special? Do the laws of physics and Wave theory governing the rest of us Osmosians not apply to them?” Rounding on Jonas, he answered his own question. “Of course they aren’t, and of course they do. Kelerin and the Prophet have clearly established some way to communicate with each other as needed. I’m sure if we look, we’ll find the device they’re using. They’ve been corrupted. This has all been planned.”

  Jonas was stone faced and Orisius couldn’t read whether or not his argument was getting through. He pressed on, as any decent Academic would when their experiment has yet to yield measurable results. “Are they acting alone? Is there someone above them, directing them and giving the orders? I don’t know,” he confessed. “The point is, as much as I hate to admit it, and as hard as it must be for you to admit it, Jonas, Kelerin and that Child Prophet down there are responsible for the deaths of scores of Academics. Would you take the chance of allowing that girl to get inside that boy’s head again, or worse, to get inside ours?”

  He walked right up to Jonas, looking him square in the eye. “We have to take care of this now. Normally I’d never condone, nor even entertain what I am very much suggesting we must do. These are desperate circumstances, Jonas. We might be at war, the Academy is in ashes. Do you understand what I’m saying to you? Do you understand what we must do?”

  Jonas’ face was still unreadable and the Headmaster was losing patience. “Say something, man!”

  He finally responded, slowly, deliberately. “I understand, and it might have even made sense, in some terrible reality, if it weren’t for the fact-”

  “She got through to you, didn’t she?” It wasn’t so much a question as a statement. Realizing it was too late to save his prized pupil, the Headmaster turned and began walking casually away in the other direction. “How much did you see?”

  “Enough.”

  The old man sighed. “That’s the problem; surrounding oneself with smart, talented people - sometimes they’re too smart.”

  Jonas attacked while the Headmaster’s back was turned, sending a rolling Wave coursing through the two entangled streams, speeding toward Orisius, but his mentor had way too much experience. Sensing the attack, and without even turning to face it, he lunged forward, further away from Jonas, yanking on his own baton and straightening out the entangled lashes so that the energy of the rolling Wave dissipated into a harmless straight line. He then yanked further, throwing Jonas forward this time, burying his face into the ash.

  Jonas was far from finished. Popping up to a knee, he pulled hard on his entangled Whip with both hands, expecting a game of tug-’o-war, expecting to be the one throwing the Headmaster for a change, being both younger and stronger as he was, but Orisius had decades of dueling knowledge on the novice Professor, and it showed. Leaping back in the direction of the pull, the Headmaster created slack in the streams, rendering Jonas’ attack impotent. He then brought his Whip arm down hard, using the newly created slack to form a rolling Wave of his own, the crest riding its way back to Jonas, who could have let go and surrendered, but pridefully held fast, the Wave lifting him off his feet and dropping him again. Another jerk sideways slammed him against the hull of the cruiser.

  Lying on the ground, beaten, Jonas heard Erin’s voice in his head again, only then realizing she’d been absent all this time. “Jonas,” she called to him in alarm, “I’m so sorry. Analel forced me out. I wasn’t expecting it. Are you alright? What’s happening?”

  “Read my mind,” he said, dead of emotion.

  There was a pause as she concentrated, then, “… Creator have mercy.”

  “I know,” he coughed, pushing himself to his knees, still not steady enough to stand. “He’s too skilled. Even without Prophecy on his side, we don’t stand a chance.”

  There was a pained silence from Erin that matched the pain Jonas felt throbbing throughout his entire body. “You’re right,” she admitted at last, “We d
on’t.” Her words hit harder than any blow he’d sustained thus far. He promised her he’d figure out what was going on, and now that he had, he was helpless to do anything about it. But then she said something that made him forget all about that. “Stall him for me.”

  “Wait! What?”

  No answer. Once again, he was alone.

  *****

  Analel/Kelerin/Valix

  Analel’s heart nearly leaped from her chest, going from a state of deep Prophecy straight into a sheer freefall. The sensation lasted no more than a second, though, as she soon met up with the crater’s concaved wall, transitioning into a tumble for the rest of her decent.

  Coming full stop at the bottom, she first thought to conduct a quick mental triage of her body, making sure everything was still intact and where it ought to be. Cuts and bruises on her hands and arms were covered with ash, the dirty film coating her skin stemming the flow of blood. Her head was in pain and she guessed it might be the result of her attempted offensive Wave Thought, some sort of side effect felt by first timers of the technique, but a quick check of her forehead nixed that theory when she felt something slick and pulled her hand away, discovering it to be covered by a dark smear of the same blood/ash mixture coating her arms.

  Staring at her bloodied hand she found herself lamenting the fact that her attempt at an offensive Wave Thought got cut off when it did. Being her first time and all she couldn’t be sure of anything, but it felt like she was making progress before gravity literally pulled her out of her Prophetic state and dropped her into this pit. She only hoped she’d done enough.

  Her equilibrium now returning, sounds of the world around her began coming into focus. Not twenty meters from where she lay, Kelerin faced off with Valix in a giant, burnt out, bowl shaped arena. Something was different about their movements, something off. It took Analel a second to realize, neither one of them was wielding a Wave Whip. Instead, they fought using their Ripplers as both offensive and defensive weapons. They were stalking each other, circling around a singular point, a ring of trampled ash beneath their feet. That’s when she noticed the Whip at the ring’s center.

  Their fighting lacked the flowing grace of a Wave Whip duel or a WateRen match. It was a choppy, two dimensional war of attrition alternating between calculated patience and brutal spurts of violence. Analel watched Kelerin give a false start for the Whip, Valix lurching forward, but recovering just as quick before Kelerin could take advantage. Shortly thereafter the roles were reversed, with Valix faking an attempt and Kelerin heading it off.

  It continued like this for a while until Valix followed up one of his fakes with a kick into the ash, sending up a spray of the stuff into Kelerin’s eyes. Temporarily blinded, Kelerin stomped forward, guessing Valix’s next move and landing his foot on top of the Whip, pinning it to the ground just as Valix made a grab for it. He then rained down elbow after elbow with his Rippler arm, pummeling the shield’s deflector Waves into the upraised Rippler of his crouching opponent who was still trying to pry the Whip out with his free hand.

  Analel could tell the barrage was taking its toll because Valix released his grip on the Whip and drove his Rippler into Kelerin’s torso, carrying him several meters before depositing him onto his back. She cringed as she watched Valix, now straddling Kelerin’s hips, hammer down with his Rippler in a blow that would have decapitated Kelerin had he not bucked upward, throwing Valix’s center of gravity forward. Valix overshot, his Rippler’s edge burying itself into the ground just above Kelerin’s head. Scooching back on his rear, Kelerin ducked out from underneath, freeing himself from Valix’s mount, Analel nearly cheering at the sight of it.

  Kelerin rubbed black streaked tears from his eyes, blinking rapidly to clear his vision. His frustration showed, giving Analel cause to worry. As a Prophet she knew when Academics got frustrated they made mistakes. Kelerin charged forward at full speed, Rippler out in front, Valix answering with a charge of his own. Just before colliding, Valix sprung into the air, using the top of Kelerin’s Rippler as a foothold, flipping clear over him and sending Kelerin careening forward in the process. He recovered quickly, rolling to his feet and reversing direction, but the damage was already done. Valix had hit the ground running and Analel could see exactly where he was headed. He was going to get to the Whip first.

  Unless…

  “ANALEL, NO!” she heard Kelerin call out to her in the distance. Ignoring him, she ran as fast as she could, her cloak betraying her, fighting her every stride. Still, she reached the Whip, snatching it up and trying to remember which way to twist it, too late, however, as Valix was already upon her.

  “I’ll take that,” he said, grabbing the braided tubes while backhanding her with his Rippler, knocking her clean into the crater wall. Her forearm got caught between her body and the rocks, crunching sickeningly on impact.

  Through pain that had her drifting in and out of consciousness, she heard Kelerin again cry out, “NO!” and watched him dive under a hastily thrown horizontal lash by Valix, landing on his Rippler, sliding the last few meters before pushing up to his feet and throwing a huge uppercut with his improvised sliding board. He caught Valix mainly in the torso and chin, launching his nemesis well off the ground. Valix landed in a crumpled heap of unmoving limbs. Kelerin ignored him and came straight for her.

  “Forget me,” she implored, “finish Valix off.”

  “He’s finished, look at him. Are you OK?”

  The fear of losing consciousness passed but with it her pain had increased considerably. “I don’t know,” she admitted, allowing herself a weak laugh through clenched teeth. “These aren’t the kinds of injuries we Prophets are accustomed to.”

  “No?” he asked, smiling.

  “I know, right? Surprising.” The pain was bringing out her sarcasm and Kelerin found himself enjoying this side of her. She continued, “Usually it’s our foot falling asleep from sitting cross-legged for too long, or things of that nature.”

  “Wow, brutal. I bet brain freeze is an all-out nightmare for you people?” She let out a full throated laugh at that before wincing in pain. He frowned. “Where does it hurt?”

  “Where doesn’t it hurt?”

  “Don’t be such a baby.”

  “Excuse me; I was dropped into a pit!”

  “Analel…”

  She huffed, blowing disarrayed hair out of her eyes.” My forearm.”

  “Let me have a look.”

  Showing him, he gingerly moved to touch the purplish/bluish bruise that seemed to be getting bigger even as he was examining it. However, the moment his fingers pressed against her, something happened - his eyes changed:

  They were reflecting her image, but that image began to morph. She found herself being drawn into what was happening inside them, like Wave riding, only faster and more visceral. She felt layers of her soul stripped away, tunneling ever deeper into the immerging imagery.

  The next thing she knew, she was standing on a mountainous plateau amidst a breathtaking alien landscape. She didn’t recognize the place but it somehow felt wonderfully familiar. The rocky terrain beneath her feet had a golden hue to it. In the distance, and surrounding the mountain where she stood, a ring of similarly colored peaks - above, a parallel ring of over one hundred moons, their radiance dazzling the night sky, bathing the peaks below in an intense glow as far as the eye could see. Everything was awash in gold.

  It was the most beautiful sight Analel had ever seen and she wished she had someone to share it with. That’s when she felt her hand in his. She looked over to her side and there was Kelerin, as amazed as she was. She knew how he felt because the expression he wore matched her own, reflected back to her in his eyes. And then something happened - his eyes changed:

  It was as if no time had passed at all, sitting against the wall of the crater with Kelerin leaning over her. They were both panting like they’d just run a race. It was all over much too quickly, their golden world, returned to ash gray.

  “Did you�
�� see…” she began, stopping when she realized she hadn’t a clue how to finish her question, but she didn’t have to.

  “What was it?” he asked, still breathless.

  “I don’t know. Something’s happening to us, Kelerin. Something big.”

  He shook his head, unable to make sense of it all.

  “You lose, Kel,” the cocky voice cut into their private moment and had Kelerin whirling around, deploying his Rippler, but Valix was already in full swing. The close range lash cracked against his defense with so much force, the moment it hit he knew he’d dislocated that same shoulder again. The pain was debilitating, far more intense this second time around. Gritting his teeth, he tried to level his Rippler but his shoulder was shot and he had to use his right hand to help support his left.

  “It won’t help,” explained Valix, matter-of-factly. “Even if you could hold that thing steady, which you obviously can’t, I’ve got too many options.” He gestured with his Whip to a point above Kelerin’s and Analel’s heads. “I can bring down the wall on top of you, forcing you to choose where to defend, high or low.” He lowered his Whip to point directly at Analel who was peering out from behind Kelerin’s shoulder, negating his efforts at shielding her. “Or at this range I can easily go for the girl and you’ll have to choose who to protect, yourself or her. Knowing you, you’d probably choose her, which makes no sense given that I’d only be taking her out the minute after I finish you off, but that’s just you, isn’t it?”

  Kelerin hated to admit it but Valix was right. The only thing left to do was try and reason with the arrogant jerk. He had little faith in their chances, but it was their only play. “You don’t have to do this, Valix. Please?”

  Valix laughed, a malicious sound escaping from between two perfect rows of teeth, bright white against a soot-stained face. “Oh, WOW, are you pathetic, Kel,” he said, sheathing his Whip behind him. “I’m well aware I don’t.”