“Master Zephyr!” the bulky scribe called. “Master Corona is here. He says he wishes to speak with you. May I let him in?”
Selena turned to the scribe. “Ah… yes. You can leave. Return to your normal assignments.”
Piers walked into the room quickly, passing right beside the scribe. Selena smiled slightly, walking over toward the other guardian, waiting a few seconds for the scribe to exit before standing on the balls of her toes, kissing him lightly on the lips. “It’s been a long day,” she muttered.
“You’ve got that right. All of Kateline’s restraints are gone now, aren’t they?”
“Yeah. We only have three collars left.” She winced as Piers touched her injured shoulder.
“Want me to heal that?” he offered.
“Thank you,” Selena replied, feeling the warm spell shoot through her body. “Help me finish with the podium; we can talk after that.”
Piers sighed, gazing at Selena out of the corner of his eye, even as he began pushing the stone podium. Another full set of restraints was gone, just like that. Since the other armband broke, he had been living off one armband and his collar alone, but he had to wonder how much longer it would last. Corona had made a point of being quiet for the time being, a fact that Piers didn’t know whether to be grateful or fearful of. On a daily basis the spirit generally made his presence known at some point or another, but he hadn’t been doing that since one of Piers’s armbands had crumbled.
He knew his time would be coming soon, and he also knew it was only luck that had stopped any of Aless’s restraints from crumbling. If Selena hadn’t threatened them, he would have told Aless himself. Unfortunately, Selena was the only person he knew strong enough to subdue a feral guardian.
He took a deep breath. Selena and Cyril would have to tell him eventually, especially given the situation. It had been all right when there were enough sets for everyone, but with Kateline fully feral…?
The podium finally slid into its proper space, Petra letting out another loud scream. Selena dusted off her hands, sitting on the edge of the stone, taking a few deep breaths. “Petra was stronger than I expected,” she admitted.
“Of course he was. He’s a spirit,” Piers replied, sitting down and wrapping an arm around Selena’s shoulders.
“I’ve dealt with many of you when your spirits have broken out,” she answered. “Kateline too. Petra was stronger this time.”
“Are you sure you haven’t just been overworking yourself?” Piers suggested, ignoring the ivy breaking out from under the podium.
“I’ve haven’t been training as much,” she said.
“Has Zephyr been more…?”
“Not any worse than normal, but he’s always a nightmare to deal with,” Selena continued. “The whole situation is getting bad faster than before, isn’t it?”
Piers pulled her closer. “Yeah,” he replied, “one of Cyril’s shattered the other day, too. We’re down to one per set, save collars and Aless’s—”
“They’ll break soon too.” Selena sighed.
“We need to tell him what’s going on,” Piers stated.
“No.”
“His are going to break too,” Piers argued. “Why isn’t he allowed to know?”
“I just….” Selena flushed. “I….”
“You’ve never had a good reason, have you?” he asked. “You’ve been leaving him out of a situation that directly affects him, for no reason.”
“He doesn’t even deserve to be back….”
“Really now, Lena?” Piers argued. “I understand you’re upset with the guy for killing your teacher. Really, I get that, but you know it affects him too. Why won’t you tell him?”
“I…. It feels like I’d be not respecting Master’s memory. We’d be letting the man who killed him work on what he did to kill him,” she answered, tears welling up in memory.
“Gotta say, Lena,” he replied, “that’s a pretty terrible reason.”
“Zephyr makes me more emotional than I should be.”
“No,” Piers replied, “that excuse has worked for too long. You gotta work through this, Lena. He’ll be able to help us, you know?”
“It’s not really that,” she admitted, “but whenever I see him he’s just… he’s a reminder of what’s happening. Every time I see Aless, I remember Master’s death… and… it reminds me of what’s going to happen, too.”
“We can deal with that when we get there.”Piers didn’t want to think about it, though, because he knew his restraints would snap too. Thinking about it made him nervous, particularly after his incident a few mornings ago. Seeing Kateline fully feral only reminded him of the inevitable. He was going to be feral, and going to be forced into the Fire Temple when he was. It was a scary thought, but Piers didn’t feel it justified keeping Aless in the dark.
“Whenever I think about it, Zephyr decides it’s time to bug me,” Selena confessed, sighing.
“He takes advantage of your emotions,” Piers agreed. “I’m not asking for you to do it today, but… just, we’re gonna have to tell him eventually, and we’re going to have to work with him, even if you hate him.”
“I still don’t like the way he’s always looking at my student,” she said.
“Aha… I couldn’t stop staring at you two if I tried. I’m sure he’s just following my gaze,” Piers lied.
“You two are always staring at us while we train. It’s weird,” she replied, standing up. “I want to stay and talk, but I left Corin with a really bad leg injury earlier. I really think I should check up on him.”
“You wound me some days, Lena. Almost as if you want to see your pupil more than me,” he teased.
“You’re welcome to come with me, you know.”
“I should probably go talk to Cyril, but I’ll take you up on that offer. Just this once,” he answered, standing up and taking her hand with a smile.
“Because you never slack off?” she asked.
“Something like that,”Piers said, releasing Selena’s hand and allowing her towander out of the temple.
“YOU’RE being far more aggressive than normal today,” Aless commented, sidestepping a punch and grabbing Corin’s arm, twisting it behind his back.
Corin spun under Aless’s arm, sliding his leg across the ground and hitting the back of Aless’s foot, knocking the Water Guardian off balance.
Aless had to admit, he had been reluctant to spar with Corin when Corin first requested it, but he was definitely enjoying himself. Normally Corin didn’t have this much energy, and he rarely experimented with his techniques. Today was different, though, and Corin was fighting as though his life was on the plate. It was refreshing to Aless, and he was enjoying seeing what the young man could come up with when he was focused.
A small group of students had come to watch them, which didn’t surprise Aless in the least. In fact, he almost wished more clan members were present. There was plenty to be learned from both of their techniques.
Suddenly though, just as Corin had been prepared to land a particularly vicious punch, he froze. “Damn,” he muttered.
Aless gave him a concerned look, turned around, and followed his sightline, instantly exchanging a worried glance with Corin. Standing there, partially obscured by the crowd, was none other than Selena, apparently having finished her business in the Earth Temple earlier than expected.
Piers stood to her left, muttering apologies under his breath. He whispered something to Selena, though Aless couldn’t quite hear it over the excited murmurs in the crowd.
Selena suddenly pushed through the group, shoving students aside and glaring at the two sparring. “If you wouldn’t mind,” she growled, Piers following close behind her, “I would like to take my student back to the monastery.”
Aless placed a hand onto Corin’s shoulder. “I was just sparring with him,” he insisted.
“It doesn’t matter,” Selena replied. “If you’re done, I need to speak to him alone.”
Aless glanc
ed at Piers for an explanation. The other man merely shook his head.
Aless hoped he hadn’t gotten Corin in too much trouble.
“HOW could you do this?” Selena ranted, gripping Corin’s arm tight enough to bruise. “Did you not listen to me? I told you to stay away from him!”
Corin winced, trying to pull his arm away from the death grip. Selena had dragged him through the monastery and into the main temple without saying a word. However, as soon as they arrived in her room, Selena had started shouting.
“Please,” he muttered, “j-just… I have a good reason….”
“Do I look like I want to hear it?” she shouted, dropping his arm. “I told you to stay away from him and I catch you sparring with him?”
“I’m sorry,” Corin murmured, unable to look at her.
“I trusted you!” Selena continued. “I trusted you enough to tell you some of the clan’s secrets and this is how you repay me? How can I know you haven’t been telling anyone? Apparently my trust means very little to you!”
“It was just this once,” he lied.
“And how do you expect me to believe you?” she asked.
“No!” Corin exclaimed.“I… it really was just today….”
“Explain yourself. I’ll give you a bit of time if you have a good reason,” Selena stated.
“I….” Corin bit his lip. “When I was in the hallway, he offered to heal my leg, and then he told me I could only repay him with a spar…. He was really nice to me, Master Selena, I just don’t understand why you hate him so much.”
“It was just for today?” she asked. “This was the first time you’ve talked to him since I told you to forget it?”
“Yes. I promise.”
“It’s fine, I believe you. I’m sorry for yelling. I’ll…. I hate him because he killed my old master,” she explained, looking toward a painting on the wall of her room.
“What?” Corin asked.
“Ten years ago,” Selena explained, “he killed my old master in front of me. I was ten winters old. He should have never been allowed back. He should’ve had a worse punishment.”
Corin stared at her in disbelief. “Surely he learned from his exile, though?”
“Maybe he did,” Selena answered, “but maybe he didn’t. After seeing that sort of scene, it isn’t worth waiting for it to happen again. I’m sorry for telling you all this, but you do deserve a reason. He’s a very dangerous man.”
Corin put his hand on Selena’s shoulder. This didn’t help lessen the guilt that sparring with Aless, as well as now having kissed him frequently, had been causing inside him. “I’m sorry.”
Selena sighed, tears beginning to well at the corners of her eyes. She covered her face with her hand. “I-I’m sorry Corin, but please leave for tonight. Tomorrow afternoon we’ll resume training.”
Corin stood up, sliding his hand off her shoulder. He was thankful she hadn’t seemed too angry with him, but worried for his future encounters with Aless. He didn’t know if he could see Aless again, knowing how much it hurt Master Selena. She was always so kind to him, so patient. And he’d repaid her with betrayal.
He flushed, ducking into his barrack, almost sick to his stomach with guilt.
ALESS sat down on his training pew, face buried inside his palms, rubbing small patterns along his forehead. That could’ve gone better. That could’ve gone a lot better. Corin was going to be in trouble, he could already tell.
“You screwed up, buddy,” Piers said.
“It wasn’t my fault.”
“Yes it was,” Piers replied. “You knew Selena was here and you chose to spar with Corin in plain view of the Earth Temple.”
“Corin begged me to,” he replied.
“You could’ve said no,” he argued. “Or you could’ve been a bit less of an idiot and stayed away from the Earth Temple.”
Aless sighed and mentally admitted defeat. He should’ve said no, or promised Corin to spar with him the morning. But Aless had been stupid. He could admit it. He had just wanted to spend more time with Corin… and the young man had been so scared from the incident—it was the right thing to do! Though, Aless admitted, he could’ve at least chosen a better location. Being between the Air, Chaos, and Earth Temples really was the worst choice he could’ve made, in hindsight.
“I saw Selena’s neck,” he began. “She doesn’t wear a collar. Why is that?”
“I’m personally not at liberty to say,” Piers declared, “but keep it in mind; it’s pretty important.” He tugged off his coat and threw it to the side, stretching his arms, making a point to flash his empty arm in Aless’s direction.
“Am I the only one who wears a full set anymore?” Aless asked.
“Nope,” Piers answered, “but that’s because you don’t wear a full set, either.”
Chapter 18
THAT night Corin found he couldn’t sleep. He had been consumed by guilt from the incident with Selena. She really would hate him if she found out what he had been doing in the mornings. Selena had trusted him with so much and he’d betrayed her, going directly against her words.
He rolled over again, still in his messy robes from earlier in the day. He hadn’t had the energy to change before he had attempted to fall asleep. Corin rolled onto his stomach, hearing a strange crackle. He pulled himself up, reaching into his robes and pulling out the large sheet of paper Kateline had tried to show him.
Corin instantly rolled his eyes at his stupidity—how could he have forgotten about that of all things? He quickly scanned the room, and upon not seeing either of his roommates in their beds, quickly scrambled out of his, flicking on the light and placing the parchment on the desk, reading it over.
It was in the same language as the book he had read earlier, he noted, and despite Adelle not being able to read it, he still felt it had to be Centrallian. He only spoke his dialect Centrallian and Common, and was only able to read and write Centrallian. It being anything else was out of the question, in his opinion. Adelle had always been a stronger student than he; she had been the one to teach him to read in the first place, which made her inability to read a single word of the text confusing.
The document he had been given contained a myth, one Corin remembered Aless telling him. If the text was true then the tale was a fairly simple one. A thousand years ago a young woman from Central had fallen in love with a guardian in wait. She didn’t want him to go feral, and had chosen to create a set of restraints to control the spirits, which were now what the guardians used.
But, he realized, this story was different from the version he had heard from Aless. This story didn’t follow the original’s ending, he noted, and this one also had a large section blackened out on it, strangely enough. This one described the guardian as having accepted the spirit and gone mad, but it said the woman grieved too much to return to her duties in the monastery.
At the end of this version she was filled with depression, finally going to her own… message blotted out. She later went to her lover’s temple, where he was being held below the podium in the center and opened it, allowing him to run free.
However, he destroyed a large portion of the grounds and she realized her error, eventually running toward him and embracing him. The girl had been a member of the clan too, and an immensely powerful scribe in her own right. She whispered something, but the area afterward was blotted out so Corin couldn’t read it.
The text was the oldest document he had ever seen, and he was inclined to take it as the truth. Corin yawned, eyes fluttering shut. Where was Kateline when he needed her? He reread the text, checking if he missed any details.
DESPITE the events the day before, Corin still found himself wandering to the Water Temple in the morning in search of Aless.
It turned out to be the right move, he noted, smiling as they walked to the riverbank. The older man had been concerned, which was to be expected, but thrilled once he had discovered they had gotten away with it. Corin had been honestly a tad bit surprised to
see the older man.He was half expecting Aless to avoid him in light of Selena’s recent discovery.
“Are you sore from our spar?” Aless asked, looking with slight concern at Corin.
In reality, Corin had been up all night hunched over a desk reading the strange document, which had managed to kink his neck rather effectively. However, he wasn’t ready to completely destroyany trust Selena once had in him, so he quickly made up an excuse.
“I pulled it sleeping,” he lied, entwining his fingers with Aless’s.
“I’m surprised you managed to get any sleep last night—you look like death,” he commented.
“I was still pretty concerned about Kateline,” he answered, which was a partial truth. “I was rolling around a lot.”
“I’ll massage it out for you, if you like,” Aless offered.
The Water Guardian had three major motivators for doing this. The first was obvious—it was a horrible idea to spar or train with anyone with even a minor injury, let alone a large one. The second was equally predictable: Aless wanted to spend some time with his darling apprentice. However, the final one was more unexpected, at least from him: he wanted to ask Corin about the lack of restraints on Selena.
The whole situation had confused him to begin with:everything from why the other guardians were purposefully depriving him of information, to why Piers wouldn’t tell him but would give vague hints, to why Kateline still hadn’t been released from solitary. It was immensely frustrating and Aless really didn’t have many people whom he could ask.
Corin knew Selena, and Corin liked him, so he was likely to help. It was really the only hope he had. At least, the only hope he had to figure out what was happening around this damned place.
“Thank you,” Corin replied, sitting down in front of the river. Aless almost laughed at the situation. As much as they had made efforts to train, most of their memories around the river revolved around them talking or kissing.
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