by Blake Vanier
“Check it!” she yells with such vehemence that it sends pain shooting through her ribs.
Another soldier runs up to take the first soldier’s position. “I'm calling in a jumper. We’ll get you out of here. That was an impressive maneuver, Ma’am.”
“Yeah… What's the status on Echo-Charlie?”
“Phillips and his guys took care of him.”
Isis shakes her head. “We weren’t prepared for this.”
The first soldier comes back to Isis. “No pulse, Ma'am. He's gone.”
Isis sighs with pain. “Thank the Creators.”
20
Lepisents
Iona
Ryder, Korbin, Iona, and Thea tumble into the training room. They immediately sort themselves out, standing in a straight line. Sosimo watches them from his stationary bicycle. An Aether generator whirs as it charges from the motion of his legs.
“You know, you’re thirty minutes early,” he says. He gets off the bike.
Ryder steps forward. “We finished all the chores, so we were hoping to start with the lepisent lessons early.”
“You finished cleaning the chocolate molds, wiping down the front display window, sweeping the shop floor, dusting the vintage grinders, and organizing the new candy?” Sosimo asks.
Ryder nods. “We did. We also mopped the mixing room floor, set aside the ingredients for the next mixing, took out all the trash, and washed Gracie.”
Sosimo smiles. “I’m impressed.”
“You smiled!” Thea squeals. She runs up and jumps on him. “I knew you could.”
“Smile or not, we’re still in the training room, so if you don’t act like it, I won’t do it again.”
Thea slides off Sosimo, runs over to the others, and stands perfectly straight with her arms to her side and a straight face. The rest of the children do the same.
Sosimo lets out a huff. “You’ve finished all the chores and you’ve learned how to use Fundamental Aether well enough. There’s no reason to wait any longer. Let’s get started, then.” A wave of semi-controlled excitement runs through the children. Sosimo eyes them as they try to contain it. “You all might be excited about shooting fire balls and bolts of lightning, but there is a lot more to lepisents than just offense. They’re equally as important for defense.”
“Really? But how do you defend with a lepisent?” Ryder asks.
“We’ll cover defense as soon as you manage the basics. Now, hop on that bike and start pedaling, I’ll need Aether to demonstrate how to use the different lepisents.”
Sosimo lashes a leather harness to his forearm and brings two crystal rods from the table to the generator. The crystal rods are inlaid with wood curling around their bases.
Sosimo holds up his forearm to show the children the harness. “This is the most practical way to hold lepisents. It’s cheap and it’s easy to change the lepisents you’re using.” He shows them a slot on the top of his arm that the crystal rods can slide into. “These are the lepisents we'll be using.” He flips the lepisents over to reveal carved symbols on their undersides. “Each lepisent is typically labeled by three symbols, which represent the cast, the behavior, and the type.” Sosimo points to the first symbol. “Who knows what this means?”
“That's Moltrik Aether,” Thea blurts out.
“Very good. And this second symbol means electricity, so both of these rods create some sort of electrical attack using Moltrik Aether.”
“What's the last symbol?” Korbin asks.
Sosimo points to one of the wands with three solid circles on it. “This symbol represents its type. This one means it’s a pulse lepisent.” He holds up the next lepisent with three solid lines. “This one is a continuous lepisent.”
“What does that mean?” Iona asks.
“It's how they’re used, which is just how it sounds,” Sosimo says. “Let me show you.” He slides one rod into his forearm harness. “This is the continuous one.” He grabs the Aether generator and a stream of electricity arcs from the lepisent to a stone, person-shaped target, blinding the children.
“Woo! Neat,” Iona says, rubbing her eyes.
“Exactly what you'd expect. Once a continuous stream of Aether finds a target, it tends to stay connected. If you want to attack something else, you'll have to stop the Aether flow for an instant and change targets.”
“Show us the pulse one!” Korbin says.
“Pulse lepisents require a little more finesse than continuous types.” Sosimo changes the lepisent on his forearm and points it at the target. “Alright, stand back.” He grabs the Aether generator. There is a heavy shock and a loud crack as a bolt of energy shoots from the lepisent and explodes against the target. The target slams against the ground, breaking off its head. “Ha. I haven’t done that in ages… felt good.”
Korbin jumps up. “You snapped its head right off! That was awesome. Are we going to do that?”
“Maybe, but not for a while,” Sosimo says. “There was a large amount of Aether behind that pulse. If you work at it and if you’re patient, who knows what you’ll be able to do?” He walks over to the table and grabs smaller forearm harnesses for the children. “Everyone, put one of these on. We’re going to first practice with the continuous lepisents.”
The children take turns. They are all successful in making electricity hit the target with much less spectacle than Sosimo’s first attempt.
Next, they practice with the pulse lepisent, which requires feeding Aether at the right rate and with the right quantity. Feeding it too fast with not enough Aether creates a backfire; feeding it too slowly just makes it crackle. After a few backfires―which the children quickly learn are a painful mistake―all of them meet with varying degrees of success.
“And when you get good, you’ll be able to adjust the size of the pulse by playing with the rate and quantity of Aether you give the lepisent.” Sosimo looks over the children, standing in a line once again. “Good job, everyone. Any other questions?”
“Did you burn your face playing with Aether?” Thea asks.
Iona’s chest becomes so heavy she has trouble breathing.
Sosimo’s body deflates. “No.”
“Then how?”
Sosimo looks down. “Havityn Igor hit Kiats and destroyed my home and everything in it. I shouldn’t have survived.”
“I’m happy you survived,” Thea says.
Sosimo looks at her and turns away. “I’m going for a walk. Please clean up.” He leaves the training room.
“Smooth move, Thea,” Korbin says. “He was just starting to act cool.”
“I’m sorry. I was just curious,” she says, playing with her hands.
*****
The children hop up from the couch as Sosimo walks in.
“Hey, Mr. Sosimo,” Thea says. “Are you okay?”
Sosimo nods. “Better now, thanks. Sorry I disappeared.” Before Thea can open her mouth, he claps his hands. “Let’s start dinner.”
In the kitchen, Sosimo slams a fifteen-centimeter-thick cookbook on the counter, flipping it open. He looks up a recipe and skims through the directions. “Thea and Nero, start chopping tomatoes, onions, peppers, and garlic.” Thea grabs Nero by the arm, dragging him toward the counter. They each step up on a stool to reach it. “Ryder and Korbin, start on the stove. Iona, you can help me with the salad and rounding up the rest of the items. Let’s also toast some sourdough with salt and oil. Grab the baking sheets in the cabinet.”
Noises and smoke quickly envelop the kitchen. The children scurry around the stoves and counter tops, a stool always in tow. Chopped food goes to the stove and they work with little direction from Sosimo.
Iona pulls open a lower cabinet, grabbing a baking sheet. “Woo.” Light pours though a few blackened holes. “What the heck?” She grabs the next sheet, which is in a similar state of holiness. Finally, the third one is in usable shape. “Hey, Sosimo, what happened to these?”
Sosimo looks at the sheets, brushing the scorch marks with
his finger. “Someone melted holes in them. Looks like Aether. Do you know anything about this?”
“No. Why would anyone do that? Seems a bit silly,” Iona says.
“It does.” Sosimo takes the good cooking sheet, placing the others to the side to be recycled.
Iona notices her mouth is dry. She looks at the rest of the children working. Nero is frozen, peppers waiting to be cut in front of him.
Thea grabs the pepper. “Come on, Nero. What are you doing?”
Nero glances back toward Sosimo, then starts cutting some onions. Why does he look guilty? I wish he’d talk to me…
After an hour, they set several platters of mostly recognizable food on the table.
Sosimo sits first. “Looks good. Let’s eat.”
They haphazardly fill their plates, and the room is filled by the sounds of silverware and chewing.
Once the eating finally settles, Sosimo breaks the silence. “So, Nero, I want to talk to you about something.”
Nero looks up, paling.
Sosimo frowns. “You’re not in trouble.”
The tension flows out of Nero.
“I recently purchased an essence for an Artifact project I’m working on.”
“You make artifacts?” Thea asks. “I thought you were a candy maker.”
“My first trade is artifact-making.”
“Then why do you make candy?” Korbin asks. “Artifacts are awesome! You’d be way more cool if you made Artifacts.”
“I’m not worried about being cool,” Sosimo says, eyeing Korbin. “I still sell some on the side; however, my candy store has been my life ever since Havityn Igor―anyway, Nero, instead of making an artifact with it, I'll let you try to absorb it so you can train with us, if you'd like. It's a Moltrik cast.”
“Ooh, yeah, Nero, you should,” Thea chirps.
A little bit of hope swells in Iona. “Nero, that’d be great. You should do it.”
Nero looks at the other children, and then at Sosimo. “Really?”
“Yes. Really.”
“If I try and it doesn’t work, will you be able to use it?”
Sosimo shrugs. “If I can catch it, yes, but if it is anything like the one in the mountains, probably not.”
Nero uses his fork to play with his food. “Then, no, it's okay. You can use it for your artifact.”
“Are you sure? You may not have another chance for a long time.”
Nero nods. “I don’t want to waste it for you. I don't think it'll work.”
Poor Nero.
“Come on, Nero! You’re just being scared,” Korbin says.
“Korbin, cut it out,” Sosimo says. “It’s his choice, not yours.”
“Yeah, but he’s always scared. It’s the truth. Ask everyone.”
“Drop it. Nero’s being very considerate for letting me use it. You should take a lesson.” Sosimo turns to Nero. “Thank you, Nero.”
Silence blankets the table for several minutes. They pick at the last bits of their dinner.
“Is everyone still wanting to participate in ‘capture the orb’?” Sosimo asks. “We’re about a month out.”
“You’re going to let us?” Korbin asks.
“Yes. You’ve practiced enough. I think you can handle it just fine.”
“Yay!” Thea throws her arms in the air.
Sosimo looks at Nero. “You don’t have to participate. They’ll be using Aether. It could be really hard on you.”
“I don’t want to be left out. I’ll be careful.”
“Okay. It might sting, but it won’t kill you. I’ll register you all and get us tickets for the second to last day of competitions. We’ll get to see the finales of the strong man competition, and Aether weaving. It should keep you all entertained.”
“What happens on the last day?” Ryder asks.
“There’s a closing ceremony and the finales to Stone’s trials. They include the Trial of Odosa that we’ll get to see the prelims for, the Trial of Borutaress that is a no-holds-barred combat between two Borukins, and The Trial of Orinda… It’s a tough day to get tickets for.”
“What’s the trial of Orinda?” Iona asks.
Sosimo lets out a sigh. “It used to be a fabulous battle of honor and friendship between the best Borukin and a Drake. Do you know who Drake are?” The children shake their heads. “They’re a powerful race of shifters. They exist as two different forms, both of which are lizard like. One is bipedal about the size of you children; the other form is large with a long body. Unfortunately, the Trial of Orinda has turned into a vicious battle against creatures that don’t deserve to be killed.”
“Why’d they stop fighting Drake?”
“The relationship between the Borukins and Drake became strained, and the Drake pulled away. When the Drake were leaving for their island, there was a skirmish and one was captured. She was tormented and forced to fight in the trial. When she started killing Borukins in only a handful of minutes, they replaced the Drake with creatures more manageable. No one has challenged her in a long time.”
“Her?”
“Yes. Her name is Testrel.”
“And she’s still alive?”
Sosimo nods again. “I suspect she will be for another hundred years. She’s held captive in the Orinda Museum.”
“Can we see her?” Iona asks.
“I’d rather not. It’s a despicable place.”
“Please, Mr. Sosimo?” Thea clasps her hands together. “What if we never get to see a Drake ever again?”
“You probably won’t… I’ll think on it.”
*****
In the training room, the children form a line in front of Sosimo. They are just about to start their morning exercise when Nero runs in, jumping into position next to Iona.
Iona sniffs the air. Is that smoke I smell? Nero's clothes look to be more battered than usual. Little bits of wood are hanging from his hair. What’s he been doing?
“You just barely made it on time,” Sosimo says, frowning. “Did you light yourself on fire?”
Nero's lets out a breath. “No―it was an experiment―” He glances away from Sosimo.
“Oh, yeah? You're not burning down anyone's house, are you?”
Nero shakes his head vigorously.
“We'll talk after. Let's begin our exercise.”
They go through the traditional Borukin Roroonki morning exercise, moving fluidly from one move to the next. When they finally finish, Nero tries to leave, but Sosimo stops him. The other children run off, but Iona sticks around, pretending to finish some stretching.
“Where are you off to so fast, Nero?” Sosimo asks.
“I'm just trying to get to Saraf's on time. He doesn't like when I'm late. And I need to shower.”
“Why do you smell like smoke?”
“Umm…” Nero looks at the ground.
“Just promise me you aren't doing anything dangerous that could harm you or others. Fire is not something to play with. It can quickly get out of control.”
“I wasn't playing with fire. I promise.”
Sosimo stares at Nero for a moment. “Alright. Have a good day.”
Nero nods, disappearing out the door in a breath.
Iona walks over to Sosimo. “What do you think he was doing?”
Sosimo shakes his head. “I haven't the faintest idea, though there seems to be a faint wisp of residual Aether around him.”
“But I thought he couldn't use Aether.”
“I know. It's strange.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” Sosimo says. “What is it?”
“You said there was a group called the Daynin or something, that forces their young to absorb entities. If it’s so traumatic, why do they do it?”
“It just gives your body more time to adapt to Aether so you’re more effective when you start training. The reason it’s traumatic is because babies usually don’t have the desire to take the essence. The conditions the ceremony uses to ensure success ar
e not very pleasant.”
“How would we know if I’m a Daynin?”
Sosimo shrugs. “There might not be any way to tell. I didn’t think they were still around. There are any number of ways you could’ve absorbed an essence, so it’s hard to say where to even start.” Sosimo eyes Iona’s blue-gemmed necklace. “Can I see that? You said you’ve had it as long as you remember, right?”
Iona takes it off, handing it to him. “I have.”
“It’s beautiful.” Sosimo looks closely at an engraving on the silver under the gem. “This writing, do you know what it says? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“What?” Iona takes her necklace and looks at the engravings. “I thought they were just designs. You think it’s writing?”
“I can’t say for sure but it looks that way to me. At least it’s not random.”
“What could it say?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, Iona. I’ll think on it and let you know. Let’s get ready for breakfast. I’m starving.”
*****
“Can you believe Nero this morning?” Korbin asks while the children wait for Sosimo to prepare their next lesson. “All his clothes were trashed. He must’ve been doing something really stupid.”
“I don’t know. It could’ve been cool,” Iona says.
“No way, not our little Sammy.” Korbin shakes his head. “Cool isn’t in his dictionary. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did it just to get attention because he’s jealous.”
Sosimo turns and walks toward Korbin, staring him down. “Do you know who your family is?”
Korbin shakes his head, shrinking down. “No. They died.”
“Your family is alive, Korbin.”
Korbin looks at Sosimo with surprise.
“Your family is Ryder, Thea, Iona, and Nero. This is your family. You need to look out for each other, because in the end, they’re all you have. Do you understand? Even if you don’t always like Nero, he’s your family. Treat him as such.”
Korbin dips his head. “Yeah. Okay.”
“Don’t forget it.” Sosimo steps back, takes a deep breath, and looks at the others. “Alright, let’s get on with training. Put on your harnesses. Today, I want to touch on defense. A Borukin’s high Aethersotto allows us to interact with Aether using a styk to defend ourselves. You all, on the other hand, will have to use Aether from your lepisents for defense. Today, I will teach you how to block, destabilize, or deflect an attack. Let’s begin. Korbin, hop on the bike for me.”