Aether's Apprentices

by Daniel Schinhofen

  “We have extra tricks,” Yukiko smiled. “Having shadows that I can place will give me even more mobility.”

  “Let’s go,” Gregory said.

  Chapter Fifty

  The next few days were grueling for Gregory, Yukiko, and Jenn. They had to get used to their armor while being pressed by Vemril and her allies. They did win at times, but mostly during the early matches when they could use their armor’s abilities. Gregory used his foresight when fighting Vemril, but only used aether sight against any of the other magi.

  When they were done for the day, the three of them were exhausted. Instead of pushing to learn their magic, as aether deprived as they were, they cycled and held their aether for that hour, instead. The pain was lessening for them, but it was still unpleasant, bordering on torment.

  The novices trained hard, seeing their friends working the way they were. Each poured themselves into their training, resolved to be as good as they could be. Clover and Ling felt bad for not being with the others on the arena floor, but the first day showed them that they would have hindered the others more than helped. They focused on their magic and tried to reach for resonance.

  ~*~*~

  The last match of the last day was about to get underway, and they had not won a single fight that day. Vemril had brought a fire magi, wind magi, and a force magi with her. The force magi would hem them in, and then the fire and wind magi would combine their abilities to make a fire storm. Even with their rings, if the storms had been at full initiate strength, it would have crippled them. Gin’s old ruling on fire magic was still in effect, so the apprentices ended up with minor burns and were declared out, instead. Gregory was the exception to that, as his armor completely nullified fire. In the end, he’d found himself up against Vemril, with the force magi making it even harder for him to fight her.

  “Are we ready?” Gregory murmured to his wives.

  “Now or nothing,” Jenn nodded. “You think it can be used like that?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’ll do it,” Yukiko agreed. “This will be interesting. If we still lose, the audience will be excited, regardless.”

  “Good luck,” Mindie said, stepping back. She’d been healing them every day and heard their strategy sessions. She was excited and fearful for the plan they had in mind.

  “Apprentices, are you ready?” Gin called to them.

  “As ready as we can be, Sensei,” Gregory replied as he took up his position.

  “Vemril?” Gin called out.

  “We are ready to defeat them again,” Vemril replied. “I thought this combination might be the best for breaking them.”

  “Bow to the audience,” Gin commanded.

  All of the combatants turned to the small gathering in the stands. It was the Aether’s Guard clan and instructors, minus the staff. Roshana also sat there beside Clover and Ling, having been cleared by Bishop to attend each day.

  “Bow to me,” Gin continued.

  After bowing to Gin, they bowed to their opponents, then took up ready postures. Gin backed away with his arm raised, and Gregory exhaled slowly, getting ready for what they’d discussed.

  “Begin!” Gin shouted.

  Gregory burned his aether freely, as he’d been using very little the last few fights. Both aether sight and foresight were active as he rushed left, his eyes on the magi behind Vemril. With a push, he went to Vemril’s left, as if moving to go around her.

  Vemril snorted as she went to intercept him. She smirked as she did, eager to have another chance to fight him.

  Jenn rushed to the right, taking Vemril’s movement to go for the other magi. Yukiko backed up farther, her face blank as she waited for the right moment.

  “Right, front, left!” Gregory shouted.

  Vemril slowed a step, wondering what his directions were for.

  The force magi threw up the first shield in front of Jenn. The barrier was angled to the right to drive her away from the others. He’d been preparing to put another up when Gregory shouted, so he hesitated— he’d planned to throw one in front of the opening Jenn would find.

  That delay let Jenn blur. She’d been holding her aether in her legs and feet for just that moment, and she instantly used it. She was past the space the next barrier would have been and closing on the magi.

  The wind and fire magi began to create a fire storm together, ready to drop it onto Jenn as soon as the force magi stopped her. The force magi threw a barrier directly in front of Jenn, intent on stopping her cold. All three were surprised when Jenn jumped, stepped onto thin air, spun into a flip, and came down on the far side of the barrier. Her angle had her going toward the fire magi on the left of the group.

  “No!” the wind magi shouted, pulling his aether back to throw wind blades.

  “Dammit!” the fire magi hissed. He created a wall of fire in front of Jenn, cutting off his line of sight to her.

  The sound of weapons clacking told everyone that Gregory and Vemril were engaged in combat. The moment the fight started, Yukiko moved. She put a ball of shadow in front of her, one of the two her armor had left to use. When it appeared, she stepped into it and slid through the shadows, appearing fifteen feet to the side of the force magi. He threw another barrier out, trying to buy more time and stall Jenn.

  “Drop the fire!” the force magi snapped.

  Jenn smiled as she went left, where the fire had been, as it suddenly vanished. When she did, the force magi realized what he’d done and started to cast another force wall, but was suddenly engulfed in shadow. He panicked and surrounded himself instead, expecting the attack to come.

  The fire magi blinked when the fire dropped and Jenn closed on him. His sword came up, but Jenn opted for strength. Her swing crashed into his blocking sword hard enough to slam both wooden swords into him. He staggered back a step and a wind blade caught Jenn’s arm, but as it was her left arm, she let it dangle and poked the fire mage in the neck. She grabbed him and turned him into the wind magi, who hit his friend with a barrage of wind blades.

  With wide eyes, the wind magi stopped throwing attacks, only to cry out in pain when something dug into his kidney. He looked back to find the point of a wooden training blade an inch away from his eye and jerked away.

  Both men raised their arms and walked away slowly. Mindie was rushing around the edge of the arena so she could get to them. With those two magi out, Jenn and Yukiko turned on the force magi, who came stumbling out of the shadow bubble his torso had been encased in. When he saw his friends walking away, he lifted his maul and got ready to face them.

  Jenn grinned as she stepped in front of Yukiko. “You’ve been a problem all day. How did you like our plan?”

  The man stayed quiet and began to layer the walls needed to isolate Jenn, but still let him crack her with his maul. That was when a sharp pain hit his neck— he winced, ducking forward and down, away from the pain. Jenn was already rushing toward Gregory and Vemril when he looked back at her. Touching his neck, the force magi found blood on his fingers.

  Mindie stopped at him first. “Shuriken to the neck. Your spine would be severed.”

  “She used her friend’s shadow again,” the man sighed. “Damn, she’s good.”

  Gregory trusted his wives to win after he’d told Jenn the order to dodge. He caught glimpses of their fight as he clashed with Vemril. Vemril was a hard fight even with foresight, as she used her armor and aether to keep him from getting just the right spots.

  Gregory wove his naginata in chained attacks, not allowing Vemril to get the upper hand. Every attack she made, he deflected, guided past, or dodged entirely. He knew better than to take an enhanced blow straight on with the training blade.

  He’d tested blocking a physical enhancement magi with Bishop and his new weapon, and she couldn’t even scratch it, but it jarred his arms and shoulders. It had also been enough for her to follow up before he could recover.

  Vemril was grinning the entire time— she knew she only needed to jar him or land a go
od blow to win, but Gregory frustrated her over and over. She never felt as alive as she did on a battlefield when sparring until she’d clashed with Gregory. He made her work and worry, and that had her blood singing.

  When her allies started yelling behind her, she wondered what trick the apprentices had come up with, but she wasn’t worried. They’d beaten the younger magi repeatedly all day; it wasn’t like they’d suddenly come up with a win, now. These three worked as a good team, but her allies had years more experience in combat than they did.

  Gregory kept his attention focused on Vemril when he heard the screams come from the men. He wasn’t trying to beat her— he’d been working to keep her back to her allies and tie her up. Gregory grinned, having been successful, but his smile was hidden by the mask, keeping Vemril unaware.

  Vemril must have heard something because she dove to the side suddenly, letting her get away from Jenn’s attack on her back. Unfortunately, Gregory still had foresight up, so as she came out of the roll, he was already moving. Vemril had to jerk away from the two shuriken that came darting at her, and she batted away the one that might still have hit her. Because of that, she wasn’t prepared for the tap on her helmet from Gregory’s naginata.

  Vemril slumped to the ground, just lying there as she pulled her sparring helmet off. “What in Aether’s name happened?”

  “They enacted a plan,” Gin said, moving forward. “Last match goes to Aether’s Guard,” he announced to the stands.

  The other members of Vemril’s team came over, Mindie trailing them. Gregory caught Mindie’s eyes and she beamed at him.

  “Foresight?” the force magi asked. “You called out exactly what directions she needed to dodge. I didn’t think you could look that far ahead.”

  “I can’t, normally,” Gregory laughed. “You’ve used the same pattern all day.”

  “The one other time that we got close enough to pressure you, the fire magi put up a wall,” Jenn added.

  “You all focused on her when she got close, allowing me to get to the shadows near you,” Yukiko added. “Then, you focused on Jenn when she stepped in front of me.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t think about you using her shadow right then, and it cost me.”

  “Are you okay?” Jenn asked the fire magi. “I checked the attack to not crush your throat.”

  “It hurt like hell and it was hard to breathe, but I could. The wind blades did more damage.” He gave his friend a put-upon look.

  “How was I supposed to know she’d think fast enough to use you as a shield?” the wind magi sighed.

  Vemril sat up, looking at her clanmates. “They beat us. After all my bragging this morning, too.” With a deep sigh, she went to get up, but paused when Jenn and Gregory held out their hands to her. Taking them, she let the pair get her to her feet, then retrieved her weapon. “Thank you.”

  “Our thanks for helping train our apprentices,” Gin told Vemril, also nodding to her allies.

  “The pay was good and the job was fun,” Vemril said. She gave each of them a long look. “I hope to never face you on the battlefield. You’ll be terrors in a few more years.”

  “I hope to never face you, either,” Yukiko said. She touched her left elbow, which had been nearly broken the day before. “It’s painful.”

  Vemril chuckled and shook Yukiko’s hand. “It has been for me at times, too. We’ll be looking forward to hearing about the tournament. If any of the three clans can do the empire proud, I’d bet on yours.”

  The apprentices bowed to Vemril and her allies before they shared a final round of goodbyes. Gregory took the mask off his helmet and exhaled, giving Gin a grin. Gin nodded as he looked the three over proudly.

  “Did you set up this last group?” Yukiko asked Gin.

  “Not exactly. I asked Vemril to give me her best combination against you. You were winning nearly half the time the last few days, even if it didn’t feel like it to you. Now, when did you come up with this plan?”

  “All week, but especially today. We’d talked about using Jenn’s barriers to give her more mobility instead of defense, which is how she got over the one barrier,” Gregory said.

  “We’d talked about using the shadow bubbles for me to get more mobility, but we’d also discussed the disorientation it might create if placed on someone’s head,” Yukiko added.

  “A good idea, and it did buy you the time to kill the wind magi,” Gin nodded. “Alright, back to the clan hall.”

  “Yes, Sensei,” they said in unison as they headed for the tunnel.

  “Mindie,” Gin said softly once the three were far enough away, “go the other way. Dia will be waiting for you.”

  “Yes, Armsmaster,” Mindie said with a nervous smile. “I hope to see you for dinner.”

  “I believe you will,” Gin replied.

  Chapter Fifty-one

  Gregory sat in the garden, letting his aether exude out from him as he resonated in peace with his wives. Yukiko and Jenn flanked him, both also extending their aether as they meditated. In his aether cavern, though, he reviewed the last fight of the day again.

  We could have done that during the other fights, but then we wouldn’t have had the armor enchantments left to use. That last fight was almost flawless. Jenn’s arm was hit, but it didn’t break through her armor. She moved on reflex to declare it out herself. Gregory let his thoughts echo in the cave, thinking over what they might have done differently.

  As he worked through it in his mind, his aether grew, and he looked at it in confusion. After a moment, the aether spat out a globule of fire to Gregory’s side. Blinking, he shifted away for a heartbeat, then went back to it, as the fire was shifting its shape. After a few more seconds, the fire resolved into a miniature arena. Nine figures stood inside the boundaries while others dotted the stands. As Gregory watched, the figures on the sands of the arena bowed to the crowd, and he inhaled slowly.

  “You can show me the fight like this?” he asked, looking at the aether flame.

  The fire danced for a second, then settled back down.

  “Thank you,” Gregory said sincerely before bowing to the flame.

  He turned his attention back to the small model of the arena and watched the fight. It began with the first match and went through until the end of their last one. Jenn and Yukiko had told him what had happened during the fights, so the model showed him exactly that. It wasn’t perfect, as the magic being used was all blue flame, but he already knew what was what, so it was easy enough to follow along with it.

  “We could’ve done things differently and won more often,” Gregory said as the fight came to an end.

  The aether that made the arena was dim, and when the last fight ended, it became small sparks that flew off to his channels. Gregory was glad that it hadn’t just become smoke, but he wouldn’t complain if it had, considering what he’d just seen.

  “Thank you,” Gregory said, bowing from his seat to the flame again. “I need to tell the others.”

  Gregory closed his eyes and let his meditation fade. Bishop had brought them back to the clan hall, then sent them to the garden to meditate, telling them that she would come to get them when it was time. Blinking as his trance faded, he saw Yukiko to his right and Jenn to his left, both also coming out of their meditation.

  “I just had—!”

  “The aether just—!”

  Both Yukiko and Jenn started together, then stopped at the same time.

  “It formed an arena of flame,” Gregory said when they paused.

  “Yes!” they said together with excitement.

  “It has to be more of the mind and spirit paths combining,” Yukiko went on.

  “I agree, and it helped me see all the fights. I assume it created your fighting based on what you told us,” Jenn added.

  “Same with your fights for me,” Gregory nodded. “This is amazing, though... if the aether can show us the fights again, we can use it in the coming tournament, if we see the other matches.”

 
“Rewatch them, then work on countering them with our own tactics,” Jenn nodded.

  “We can start simulations with the mind path of how the others fight,” Yukiko added.

  “Yes,” Gregory grinned.

  “Apprentices,” Bishop called from the archway. “Are you ready for your baths?”

  “Yes, Bishop,” they called back to her, standing up and stretching.

  “Didn’t think we were meditating that long,” Gregory said.

  “It has been two hours.”

  All three were surprised, as that meant they had meditated and seen over six hours of fighting. They exchanged glances, then started walking, not ready to discuss it in front of Bishop.