by Hickory Mack
“No,” Chiori said, frowning.
“Okay, let’s go,” Kai led the way. “How was your day off? As miserable as mine?”
“Why was your day miserable?” she asked, trotting to catch up. “What would make you assume mine was?”
“You can’t be with your person. I can’t be with mine, either. So I can sympathize with what you’re feeling,” Kai said without looking at her.
“Your person? You have a mate?! Did you have to leave her behind to come here?” Chiori asked then scrunched her face up. “I’m sorry, it’s rude of me to pry.”
“Curiosity is normal, and it isn’t prying if I’m the one that brought it up, right? She’s rejected our bond, she can’t even feel it. So it’s kind of a one sided pain. At least you can be assured that your person misses you, too,” Kai said wistfully. Chiori clutched a hand to her chest, she felt like she’d been punched in the stomach. She sucked in a breath, her steps slowing.
“That’s awful, I’m sorry. I mean, does she even know? Is that why your magic is wonky?” she whispered. Kai looked at her for the briefest second, but she saw the pain in his eyes.
“She doesn’t seem to know at all. And, I think so, yeah,” he said.
“Are you going to tell her?” Chiori asked.
“I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to know. She’s in love with someone else,” Kai said as they exited the front door. Chiori thought of her journal, of the girl who’d wanted her love to be her mate. She wondered if that girl had known she could reject a bond to a mate she didn’t want.
“How? No, skip that, why did she reject the bond? I can’t even imagine rejecting Lord Makkai,” Chiori said, indignant on Kai’s behalf.
“I have theories, but I don’t really know,” he answered.
“Maybe, maybe you should tell her. How can she make a choice, if she doesn’t know? You’re supposed to be compatible, right? Shouldn’t it make a difference to her, to know you’re hurting?” Chiori asked.
“Would you want to know, Lady Chiori? If someone other than Lord Makkai were to bond with you, would you want to know?” he asked. She opened her mouth to speak and shut it again without a sound. “That’s what I thought. Would it make a difference if you knew he was hurting?”
“Probably. I don’t like for other people to be hurt, but I don’t know, it hasn’t happened to me,” she answered. They came to the woods and he slowed to a stroll.
“I’m sorry for bringing this up the way I did, I’ve been a bit agitated lately. You’re my student, not my sounding board,” Kai said.
“It’s okay, I’m supposed to be learning to trust you, for meditation purposes, remember?” she smiled. “I’m sorry you’re hurting, it sounds like your hurt is deep. I can’t compare my pain to yours, because I can’t even imagine how much worse it would feel if Lord Makkai rejected me. I can sympathize though, I know some of the pain a soul bond can cause,” Chiori grasped the sleeve of his kimono for a few seconds and let go.
Kai rested the palm of his hand on the top of her head as they walked.
“It’s not okay but thank you for saying so,” he said, moving away before it got to be too awkward for her.
“Your girl Mai came to me today and told me what happened on the trails last night. It makes perfect sense with what happened in meditation. You’re an Earthy, but in a tiny subsection called an Opti. What it means is, you can collect information from the plant life around you. It wouldn’t make sense to me, but you can construct a picture out of it in your mind. There’s more to it than that, and we’ll practice it, but it would be best if you could learn from another Opti. It’s an uncommon line trait. What do you think that means?”
Chiori squinted to look up at him, the sun in her eyes.
“Ichio mentioned it. He said all the witches can be traced down a line to the Original Seven,” she said.
“Yes, but this type of trait is more specifically focused in certain branches of each line. It’s passed down from one generation to another, like the magic, but instead of all the Earth magic users, only specific families will have developed this ability. Your mother would have had the same trait. Certain families have line powers that are specific to them and I’ll bet this is one of them. I’m going to need to do some more digging to figure out which family has the Opti trait, but I think I can do it,” Kai said.
“I know it’s a bit of a mystery to you, but, we can definitely figure out which coven your mother came from. We can find your witch family. They can’t have you, you belong to us now, but at least you can get to know them,” he said, biting his tongue at his slip up, but she didn’t notice. Instead, her face lit up.
“Really?!” she skipped a couple steps. “That would be awesome! I’ve only ever had my dad and he was never around. He cared more about his research than anything else. He would never tell me anything about any family, I’ve never met an aunt, or a cousin, or a grandma. I thought maybe he hated them, or we really were alone.”
“No promises on what we find, mind you. Maybe there is no one, maybe there are only grumpy old trolls living under a bridge. We won’t know until learning more,” Kai said. “Even after we find what we seek, it would be best to know both sides of you before approaching them. Some covens do not take well to faerie kind.” They’d reached the same place they’d meditated the day before. Chiori sat across from him and shied away from looking into his Earthy brown eyes.
“Why don’t they like the fae?” she asked.
“Fae are even older than witches, though there is some evidence that the elves are even older than that, and it is known that elves practiced a very similar craft to witchery,” Kai said. “It’s splitting hairs, really. At any rate, the fae lords are disgustingly old. Like, older than Airi, older than Ichio. They’re ancient, and they have long memories. They were there for the birth of the seven, and they witnessed every atrocity committed by witch kind thereafter.”
“Were there a lot?” Chiori asked, eyes wide.
“Yes,” Kai said, “there were a lot. Sometimes power is given to those who don’t have the personality to use it kindly. Sometimes, that kind of person wants more than what they already have, and they’re willing to do some terrible things to get it.”
"Like Mithua."
"Exactly like Mithua."
“What’s it like, living in a coven?” she asked.
“Imagine the quietest, most peaceful place you’ve ever been,” Kai said, a small smile on his lips. “It’s the exact opposite of that.” Chiori laughed.
“Why?” she asked.
“Well, for one thing, lots of witches live for a long time. I mean a reeaaally long time. It isn’t unheard of to see eight generations of a single family all alive at once. Imagine your ancestors disapproving of your actions, not from wherever we go after we die, but here in the now, with the voice to tell you what you’ve done to dishonor them,” Kai said seriously.
“Oh,” Chiori said. “That sounds uncomfortable.”
“That’s putting it lightly,” Kai laughed. “There’s always a ceremony of some sort. A wedding, a mating, a birthday, a birth, a holiday. I can’t remember a week in my life where there wasn’t at least two or three events. It can be exhausting, but, it’s interconnected, too.”
“How do you mean?”
“Everyone knows everyone. You’re connected to everyone through a friend or relative. You can trust that they’ll be there if you need them, and they can trust the same of you. Each coven is interconnected with half a dozen more, similarly to the way human nests form a colony, but separate covens can be half a continent apart. Our numbers are small, so we’re careful, we look out for one another,” Kai said.
“Ichio said the witch’s small numbers are why the humans are able to control them, practically enslave some of them. Their deal to be given human women to make babies with would be cut off if the witches didn’t comply,” Chiori commented. Kai scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably.
“That’s true enough,” he sa
id. “It’s a topic of heated discussion around many coven tables I assure you. Nobody likes the way things are, but they are afraid of provoking the humans into violent acts. Possibly even war.”
“You really think it would end up in war?” Chiori asked.
“Humans are humans are humans,” Kai said. “They are a violent species. I’d hope a simple request for better treatment would not be met with too much vitriol, but you never can tell what the humans are going to do, or how they’ll react.”
“Even toward each other,” Chiori said, thinking of all the beatings she’d taken when everyone had thought she was one of their own.
“Especially toward each other,” Kai agreed. “Now, is your curiosity sated?”
“Yes. For now.”
“Ha, I’ll be ready for more questions in the future. Let’s get started, please take the Lotus position,” Kai instructed.
She closed her eyes and started the breathing techniques he’d taught her, waiting for instruction. Chiori let her mind wander, thinking of her day, she reviewed her time with Moscow and thought on her moments with Hina, wondering what she should say to her, part of her unfairly hoping that Nakia had already taken care of the problem.
No instruction came. She felt herself smile and worked to relax her face. She’d play whatever game he was offering. While she waited Chiori thought of her class with Sen, rehearsing the seventeen ways to say yes, no and I don’t know. The easiest were hai for yes, and iie for no. The rest she had to work for, and she toiled on it while Kai remained silent. She peeked out of one eye. His eyes were closed too.
She took the opportunity and studied his face, unworried about being caught staring. His skin was flawless, his eyelashes thick and long, his jaw angled perfectly, and sometimes she’d caught the flash of dimples in those cheeks. Hina was right about one thing, her instructor was ridiculously beautiful. One of his eyebrows raised in question and she snapped her eyes shut, her face going red. He’d definitely caught her, even with his eyes closed!
“Cheater,” she breathed.
“Heh,” he responded. “Alright, playtime is over. You have a decent amount of patience in you. We’ll work on your thought control in the very near future.”
Chiori wanted to die. What had he heard?! Kai gave her a half grin and a wink, then arranged his features into seriousness.
“Start over. Calm down,” he gave her all the time she needed, it took several long minutes before he sensed she’d entered the right mental space. “Now I want you to see. Put your hands on the Earth. Feel the grass and the dirt between your fingers.” Chiori did, wiggling her fingers into the cool ground.
“Nice deep breathing, feel the breath of the life around you. Feel that connection with the Earth inside of your soul,” Kai said, then described to her the very ground she sat on, the trees around them in a semi-circle until she could see it in her mind as clearly as if she’d opened her eyes, then he let her talk him into the world she’d created in her head.
“Now do the same here,” he said into her mind, sitting on the ground in her image-scape.
“Meditate, meditate, meditate,” Chiori muttered, still too embarrassed to look him in the face. She sat down and placed her hands in the grass within her mind. It was warm here instead of hot, and teaming with energy.
“Feel how it connects you to the Earth. The energy inside of you, the energy and magic we’re looking for feels almost exactly like this,” Kai said. Chiori familiarized herself with it as she hadn’t been able to when she’d helped Lord Makkai with the trees, she’d been too focused on what she was doing. It felt good.
“Now open your eyes, feel it under your skin, see it with your eyes,” Kai instructed, and just like that, she did. She could see the Earthy green glow in her fingers, and it ran in streams of magic where it pooled, swirling in her palms.
“No way,” she breathed, holding her hands up. “Look at it all.” She showed the pools to Kai who looked every bit as excited as she felt.
“I knew it. That’s exactly what I expected to see, and it’s only the start. There’s more,” he touched his own heart. “Here. Feel the flow of it, see it.”
Chiori watched the pools on her palms, felt the way they swirled, little reserves ready to be used, and then she felt the streams that fed it in her wrists, spider veining all the way to her elbows. She didn’t need Kai’s encouragement, she kept feeling it, kept pushing to envision the pathways, allowing both of them to see what was there.
Soon she was covered, her hair glowed from root to tip, her eyes glowed green. There were more pools of energy at the bottom of her feet, one between her eyes that she felt rather than saw, a large one settled deep into her abdomen and the largest, a lake of energy lay over her heart, where rivers rather than streams fed it.
Kai was kneeling in front of her, examining her so closely she felt self-conscious, though she knew he wasn’t looking at her, he was looking at her magic. Chiori watched his eyes, wide with curiosity and amazement. She touched the ground and watched her power mix into the Earth and the Earth replenished it. Curiously, Chiori tried to see Kai’s power. Only succeeding where he touched the ground, she saw the same was happening to him.
“We’re connected,” she murmured. His eyes snapped to hers and she saw fear, and hope.
“What did you say?” he said quietly. He was so close. Chiori’s heart skipped a beat.
“To the Earth,” Chiori said. “See?” He looked at her hand, where she’d made the ground around her outstretched fingers glow, and at his knees where she’d done the same. His face fell, for a fraction of a second, he looked so sad it hurt her heart. She reached out to touch him, but pulled back, mindful of the last time she’d touched him in a mindscape.
“I see it,” Kai said, his tone that of an adult placating a child. He continued studying her magic squinting for a moment and making a quiet noise of confusion.
“Sensei?” she pressed. He glanced up at her and smiled.
“You’re a freak,” he said lightly, taking her by surprise.
“Rude,” Chiori’s eyebrows furrowed and she made a face.
“Look here,” he pointed at her palm. “See that tiny thread of bronze among the green?”
“No?” Chiori squinted, catching the glint of bronze. “Oh, yes!”
“That isn’t Earth magic. It’s Metal. You have little threads like that everywhere. It’s undeveloped, but you can be a dual user if you practice at it,” Kai said enthusiastically. “The best Metal practitioners can sing any spell you can imagine into an object. And you’re fae! A metal working fae.” He looked seriously impressed.
“It’s just a tiny bit,” Chiori squinted at it again.
“True. However, your dual abilities aren’t all that makes you freakish. A normal magical creature has their power well here,” Kai pointed at the lake of power in her chest. “Its depth determines how much power that being will have the potential to control. You’re so young, it isn’t fully developed, it has room to grow, but it’s already impressive.”
“Plus, it’s full. It shouldn’t be. At your age it should only be maybe a third of the way filled up. For powerful witches, the smaller pools you have, the ones in your hands and feet, will form to help circulate the power. Kind of a self-defense mechanism to avoid stagnation, or the opposite scenario, the magic over filling and overpowering the body,” Kai’s mouth twisted.
“For you, those pools aren’t enough. You are literally leaking power into every part of your body, your heart chakra couldn’t contain it. There isn’t enough depth in the pools in your hands and feet to contain too much at once. Your body has compensated, solving the issue by building a second well.” His finger followed the rivers down to the second well in her abdomen, the place the butterflies fluttered when she was around Makkai. Then his finger trailed back up, and he pointed between her brows. “There’s a third, here.”
“What does that mean?” she asked, her nose crinkling.
“It means you are going to b
e extraordinary,” Kai answered, looking into her eyes again. “I’ve never seen anything like this before, and, being what I am, I’ve seen an inordinate number of magical roadmaps. To be honest I’m amazed you have as much control over it as you do. I happen to think that practicing is going to produce some of the most fantastical magical accidents I’ve ever seen,” he teased.
“I don’t want to have fantastical magical accidents,” Chiori protested. “Everyone already thinks I’m useless, more trouble than I’m worth. Did you know I broke the house?”
“Hmm. Let us out of the mindscape, open your eyes,” Kai said. She wasn’t sure what to do but he disappeared, and she heard fingers snap. Chiori opened her eyes in the real world, the Sun was setting and she realized they’d sat there too long, this was the latest their class had gone on so far.
“Nakia’s going to be mad,” she groaned. Kai stood and offered his hand, and this time she took it.
“I did know you broke the house. I also know it’s been fixed since then. You’re not useless. Once you know how to use all that power, you’ll outshine everyone here. Except me, of course,” he said with a cocky grin, holding her hand gently after he’d helped her up.
“Hmph,” Chiori scoffed.
“I wonder where you pull it from, your power. You’re an Earthy, but you don’t spend much time in contact with the Earth. Perhaps that’s part of the problem. We’ll work on learning an exchange, teaching your body to release some of that power back into the Earth, it’ll make life easier for you, I think.” Kai brushed a strand of hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear.
“Okay,” Chiori agreed.
“Poor little Halfling. You look exhausted. Let’s get you back before they send someone out looking for us.”