by Ivan Kal
A sudden crash and a yell from downstairs interrupted him, and he ended his cycling. He stood up and heard footsteps running up the stairs. He feared that the Arashan had found him, that perhaps he hadn’t escaped Ming Li’s notice, and he started preparing to fight. But then reason reared its head. If Ming Li was with them, he would be dead within a moment. So, he turned and ran toward the window. He opened it, and climbed outside, jumping upward and climbing to the roof of the inn. There he waited, listening. He heard people enter his room and exit as soon as they’ve entered, and then they entered the other rooms as well. They didn’t seem to have been looking for him, so he spread his senses, feeling them out. He heard the searchers telling the people in the inn to stay inside. None of them were Arashan, he felt, and he relaxed—but then he noticed a large fire in the harbor. The entire sky was red and filled with smoke.
Then the sound of battle reached him.
Something was wrong. He cast his senses as far around himself as he could. Groups of people were fighting, mages among them. He didn’t know what was happening, but the city was obviously under attack, and that meant that Ashara might be in trouble. His heart wrenched at the thought of something happening to her. She was his only connection to this world, his only friend. He jumped forward, going from the inn’s roof to the next one—the roof tiles crackling under his weight. He turned toward the palace and started jumping from roof to roof in its direction. He encountered people hiding in their homes, and soldiers unfamiliar to him. He kept his senses searching in case Ashara had been able and smart enough to run from the palace. He used Surging techniques to jump over the larger gaps, jumping high into the air until he was almost flying. He cursed his slowness, but kept at it, jumping over the endless roofs.
He heard yelling, and his senses picked up a group advancing across a street. He stopped on the roof and let his senses wash over them. One side was ten people strong, one of whom was a mage, and the other side was only three people, one of whom was badly injured. Two of them—the injured one and another—were mages. And the second one was very powerful.
But it was not that that caught his interest. It was the fact that the more powerful mage had her channels blocked in a way that he had encountered before. The Arashan had used that against his people, using poison-tipped arrows. Even a scratch would close down a spirit artist’s channels, probably in the hope that it would stop them from using ki. The tactic had limited success, however, once his people had realized that other spirit artists could break the blocks with their own ki.
Whoever that mage was, she had encountered the Arashan. Vin jumped across the roof and then ran to its edge before looking down. The group of soldiers in front of him was advancing on the three. Vin looked and saw Ashara holding the hand of the mage. Immediately, he sprung into action, Surging forward along the roof’s edge. He put his hand to the side and Shaped, using an advanced technique.
His ki spilled from his hand and he willed it into form. A spear formed in his hand, as if out of mist. It was crafted out of his ki and was black and blue, looking as if it had been made out of a single piece of crystal. A part of his mind noticed that he had unconsciously formed an exact replica of his blessed arm—the Thundering Spear. The twisting dragon at the butt of the spear shone with blue ki, contrasting against the black of the staff and the blade, which was tipped with edges glowing blue. It weighed nothing in his arms, and he could feel his ki’s power coursing through it.
He cycled, settling into a battle rhythm that he hadn’t used in a long, long time. A Bending technique flowed out of him and the light around him shimmered, masking his approach. The soldiers were dangerously close to Ashara’s group, and Vin judged the distance between them. Deciding that he was close enough, he pulled the ki from his core and through his body, then willed it to lurch forward. He stepped, the ki in his body hurled him through space as fast as the wind.
He exited the Wind Step with a crack of the stone below his feet in front of the soldiers. They all froze as his Bending technique broke, revealing him as if he had just shimmered into existence. For a moment he was surprised at the lack of burning sensation that accompanied using the Wind Step technique, but then put it outside of his mind for the moment.
He used another Bending technique, adding glow to his eyes and making the dragon on the butt of his spear move—at least to them—adding a bit of theater to intimidate them. “Leave, and you will have your lives. Stay, and you will die,” he said simply. These people were soldiers, doing only their duty. His honor demanded he at least give them a warning. The soldiers looked at him in various ranges of expressions from fear to disbelief. His senses were focused on them, and he watched as they spoke amongst themselves, and Vin saw in their spirits that they weren’t going to accept his offer. As soon as the first soldier took a step forward, Vin moved.
He Surged, snapping his right arm forward and stabbing his spear through the closest soldier’s helmet and into his face, killing him instantly. Then he pivoted, catching the spear with both hands as he circled it over his head and then slashed across the throats of two others before they could even react.
The other soldiers reacted far better than he would’ve thought given that they weren’t spirit artists. Two moved forward to attack, swinging their swords in a coordinated attack from both sides. Vin directed a Surge to his feet, bringing his spear close to his body as he spun forward, passing between the blades and stepping between them.
He could feel the mage preparing a spell, and knew that he was the priority. He directed a reinforced Surge to his legs and then jumped high into the air. His opponents looked, surprised, at him as he jumped at least two floors above them and locked eyes with the mage. He twisted in the air and threw his spear at the man.
As it flew from his hand, he felt a tiny thread of ki connecting his spear with his palm. He pushed his curiosity aside as his spear flew through the air. The mage turned his palm, and a ring on his finger glowed as a shield blossomed in front of him. As Vin’s spear made contact, a flash of light shone at the impact point, and then his spear pushed through, his ki shattering the weak shield. The spear impaled the mage through the chest, and then after a moment he shattered into a thousand pieces that scattered into the aura around them.
He dropped down to the ground, and immediately was attacked from two sides. He Shaped, and two blades of black and blue appeared in his hands, blocking the two swords. The swords he had Shaped were the short swords of his clan—straight, thin blades and as detailed as the spear had been—and they too were in the colors of his ki, the handles and the blades being black and the edges of the blades blue.
He kept his opponents’ swords on his blades, and then threw them off with a Surge. He danced away and evaded another strike toward him, lashing out in passing with his right blade to cut the neck of another soldier. They attempted to surround him, but his eyes spotted a small opening, and he Wind Stepped through. To them he just disappeared, and before they could realize it, he had stabbed his blades into the backs of the two soldiers closest to him.
The remaining three looked at him in astonishment and fear, and turned to run away. Vin debated letting them for a breath, but decided not to risk their coming back with reinforcements. He opened his left hand, letting one of his blade Shapes go, and it disappeared in the same way the spear had. He put the other blade on his opposite hip, holding the handle with both hands. He focused his ki into the edge of the blade, and then when he was certain he had enough, he released a Forging technique as he swiped with the blade at the soldiers backs. A slash of blue ki flew away from the blade, cutting the fleeing soldiers in half.
He dismissed his last Shape, ended his combat rhythm, and turned to look at the group behind him. He approached them quickly, which caused the two who were unknown to him to step back in fear. The injured mage moved his hand as if to cast a spell, but before he had a chance to, Ashara stepped forward.
“Vin!” she yelled out, and she jumped at him, engulfing him
in a tight hug. He held her against his body for a moment, returning her hug. He hadn’t realized just how much he had come to care for her until the moment he had seen those soldiers threaten her life. They had come a long way from the ship they had met on.
“Ashara, are you all right?” he asked.
“I’m fine. But Vin, I need to tell you something,” she said, her eyes wide. “The Arashan are here. They attacked the palace.”
Vin nodded. “I know. I’ve been waiting for you to come home to tell you. I’ve seen one of my people here—Ming Li, the one who chased me through the breach.”
Ashara opened her mouth to speak, but then turned around, looking at the two mages. “This is Kyarra, the Eternal Soul, and this is the royal mage of Tourran.” The Eternal Soul, Vin thought to himself. She was the one who he had hoped would help him against the Arashan.
Then Ashara pointed at Vin while looking at the mages. “This is my friend, Kai Zhao Vin.”
Vin focused his sight and his senses on the Eternal Soul. He saw her ki—anima, as they called it—and saw it was a vast, roaring flame. It was nothing like the sparks of people without “magic.” And there was something else, closer to her spirit, to her soul. A great power. Perhaps she did have the power to help him, at the very least now that the Arashan had attacked her, she would most certainly be an ally.
He nodded at the two, and saw them look at him with suspicion.
“What are you?” the injured mage asked, but then he shook his head. “No, it doesn’t matter. We need to get away, Kyarra. More could arrive at any moment.” He led them to one of the side alleys.
“Soldiers like them are all over the city. And if they are working with the Arashan, then there will be no escape,” Vin said. He couldn’t fight the Arashan, let alone Ming Li. He could either try to hide, and hope that they overlook his presence, or try to fight—and likely die.
“We need to try,” Kyarra said.
Vin focused his sight on her, then looked her in the eyes. “Your channels are blocked.”
Kyarra and the injured mage looked at him with wide eyes. Kyarra grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him close. “You know what this is?” she asked him urgently. “Can you remove it?”
Vin nodded slowly. “I can. It would require me sending my ki into your body, but it is possible.”
“Send what into my body?”
“You call it anima.”
“Do it! Please,” she said desperately.
“It is not something that I can do in a few moments, not for someone who is not a spirit artist. I will need time. If you want that block removed, we will require a safe place where we can take the necessary time.” He said, hoping that it was true. He had never attempted to break the block on someone who was not a spirit artist. A spirit artist could act from inside the block, aiding the one removing the block from the outside. For a spirit artist, removing the block was faster, if tiring. A powerful enough spirit artist could do it by himself in a matter of moments. But Vin was not as powerful as he used to be, nor did she have the knowledge required. It would take time for him to experiment.
Her face fell and she hung her head before releasing him and stepping back.
“We can try to hide in the city,” Ashara offered. “Vin could do it, and then you can fight back.”
Kyarra looked up with hope in her eyes, but then the other man coughed and shook his head. “They’ll find us by morning. They’ll break through the wards on my vault and find the spells to track your soul. I’m surprised they haven’t done so already.”
“Then there is no hope,” Kyarra said.
The man coughed again, blood spilling down his chin. “Perhaps there is,” he rasped.
“What do you mean?” Kyarra asked.
“I could use a…a translocation spell,” the mage said weakly.
Kyarra shook her head. “I don’t see an anchor anywhere on you. And even if you had one, you are too injured to pass through the spell-construct. You wouldn’t survive the trip.”
Vin frowned at them. He remembered that a translocation spell was what the Norvus’s mage believed had brought Vin to their ship. He didn’t know exactly what it involved, only that it was some way of traveling across vast distances.
“One can cast a translocation spell without an anchor, if you can hold the destination perfectly in the mind. And I don’t intend to go with you.”
“Jeressi…”
The man smiled weakly. “I can hold the spell from the outside, send you to somewhere else. If this man can help you get back your magic, then it is worth it. Go—get your powers back, and then return and free Tourran.”
“If he says that he can, then he can. Vin would not lie,” Ashara said, and Vin’s heart warmed at her support.
Kyarra kept her eyes on the man. “Jeressi, it could still kill you.”
“I swore an oath to serve Tourran. I’ve already failed the King. I will not fail the people. And you are their only hope.”
Kyarra reached out and put a hand on the man’s shoulder, then nodded.
“Good,” the man said. “You should know that there is only one place in the world I know well enough to send you to without an anchor.”
“Where?”
“My old sanctum.” He paused. “It is in the mountains of Aglazbah.”
Kyarra and Vin both looked in confusion, not knowing where it was. But Ashara gasped.
“You want to send us to Emaros? To the Free Cities?” Ashara asked.
“It is where I learned magic, where I perfected my craft. I know my sanctum as if it is a part of my body. I know that I can send you there.”
Vin didn’t know where that was, but if they could send them away, he was all for it. He could not allow himself to die before becoming strong enough to stop the Arashan. “As long as it is away from this city, I am in agreement,” Vin said.
Kyarra looked unsure, but then she nodded. “All right, nothing will matter if I don’t get my magic back. Once I have the Staff of Storms again, I can push the Lashians back, and make them regret what they have done.”
“Step closer together, all of you,” the man said, and then he met Vin’s eyes. “You… I don’t know who you are, but we are putting all of our faith in you. The lives of the people of Tourran depend on her regaining her powers.”
No, Vin thought as he looked upon the roaring fire of the Eternal Soul. The lives of everyone on your world depend on it. “You have my word, honored one. I will not break my promise,” he said.
The man nodded at him, and then started moving his hands while chanting softly, drawing symbols in the air. After a moment, a ring of light appeared around the three of them, and the symbols moved to arrange themselves around them in a circle. Then they heard footsteps—many footsteps. Vin attempted to spread his senses, but he couldn’t get them through the circle.
“Jeressi!” Kyarra said as the footsteps got louder.
The man did not break his concentration. He kept his focus on his work, and then he stopped. He looked at the three of them and said a single word.
And the world disappeared in a flash of light.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
MING LI
Xiang Hao Ming Li sat in a comfortable chair, her feet on the table in front of her. The Grand Marshal paced around the room as a few of his people stood uncomfortably to the side. Darza, the leader of the Arashan that had passed through with the Grand Marshal, was standing on the other side of the room.
“How could you let her escape?” the Grand Marshal yelled at his people. None of them responded.
Ming Li couldn’t help but grin at their discomfort.
She was, in fact, very happy. The events of the previous night had been entertaining, for sure, but it was her discovery that Vin had been in the city that had her truly excited. There was no mistaking his work; the remnant of his ki on the soldiers he had killed was unmistakable to her eyes. His ki was strange, of an unknown affinity, but Vin was the only one to whom the ki could belong t
o on this world. And if the witnesses’ reports were accurate, he had left with two women—one of whom had been the Eternal Soul—using a translocation spell.
She had been a bit disappointed when she had learned that they couldn’t track them. But that feeling had left her quickly once she realized that Vin now knew exactly where the Arashan were. His honor would not allow him anything but to return and attempt to stop them. All she had to do was stay put and wait for him to come back to her.
“I assume that this constitutes the fulfillment of our part of the bargain, Grand Marshal,” Darza said.
The Grand Marshal turned to glare at Darza. “A part of our bargain was capturing the Eternal Soul,” he gritted out.
“As you said, it was your task, not that of the Arashan. We provided you with the poison to block her magic. The failure is yours alone,” Darza said.
He gritted his teeth, but nodded. “Very well. I will send a message to the Emperor. We will begin building the gate. A ship will be leaving soon for our homeland, and you are welcome to travel with us.”
Darza bowed her head in acknowledgment. “Thank you, Grand Marshal. We shall depart with the ship.”
“Actually,” Ming Li chimed in, “I think that I will stay.”
Both the Grand Marshal and Darza looked at her in surprise. “Why?” the Grand Marshal asked.
“If this Eternal Soul is as powerful as you feared, then I don’t doubt that she will be able to regain her magic. Once she does, she will return, and you will need someone capable of defeating her here to meet her. Think of it as us…ensuring that our word is kept,” she said, her eyes sparkling. “The Arashan promised you Tourran, and we have delivered. Now we will make sure that it stays in your hands,” Ming Li continued, sharing a look with Darza. The Arashan had not shared with the Lashians anything about Vin. They knew that it was not a question of if the Eternal Soul could remove the block, but when. Vin would see to it, she knew.