Chapter 11

Breaths of Power

The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the ground and painting the wastelands in hues of gold and amber. The wind was warm and dry as it breezed in through the window to the driver cab of the Dame.

She leaned back in the driver seat, the hum of the engine beneath her feet a steady. Maia allowed herself to enjoy the moment.

She hadn’t let herself dwell too much on what she’d overheard the night they left Red Market. She wasn’t ready to confront it, not yet. Instead, she focused on the journey. On the wind in her hair and the warmth of the sun on her skin. This was what she wanted—what she’d been asking for. And she was going to enjoy it.

Her father even let her drive. She’d only driven the Dame a handful of times before she’d finally broken down. Back then, her legs hadn’t even been long enough to reach the pedals. She drove the truck now, while her father dozed in the passenger seat, the warm breeze ruffling his greying hair.

They were two days into the journey, and his mood had been lighter than she’d seen in months. They were hunting along the way, cooking whatever they could catch, not yet cracking into the supplies they’d packed. It felt good—natural, even.

He was even letting her control the music. She took great pride in her choices, grinning every time her father stirred from sleep at a particularly well-timed beat. This was how it was supposed to feel—free, the world opening up to them

[Now playing: Losu tracks 14: Ahead On Our Way]

It was a very fitting title for a road trip.

It wasn’t exactly a road they were driving on. More like a worn track in the dirt. They’d taken this route many times before, it led to the Dry Cliffs, but soon they would cut east towards Lindrao. She loved this part of the route, the red cliffs loomed in the distance, jagged and fierce, but what Maia loved most were how vibrant the purple cracks in the sky where out here. Most people feared them, but to her, they were beautiful—like threads of crystal weaving across the sky.

Maia’s grin spread wide as she her thoughts—once again—found their way to Lindrao city. She was trying to enjoy the moment but she was also very excited to see Lindrao again. The giant red bridge that stretched across the chasm was an epic sight. Even the landscape itself around Lindrao was so much more interesting than the wastes. There was greenery. Well, at least a little. There were the remnants of woodlands, still clinging to their old vibrancy. She could remember it all a little from when they’d left Lindrao a few years ago.

She glanced back at her father. And this was also for him too. He might not ever talk about her, but Maia knew that he still thought about Kyra. He’d never started seeing anyone else anyway. Not that she knew about anyway, and it was kind of hard to keep a hidden girlfriend from your daughter when you both lived in a truck.

And Kyra missed Matthias too. She was sure about that. She’d ask about how he was doing in her letters, she wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t care about him. This was for all of them. They’d been happy when they all lived together in Lindrao, hadn’t they? At least it seemed to her like it was only after they left the undercity was when her father had started being the miserable grouch that he was.

The truck jolted over a rock, and Matthias woke with a start, his eyes snapping open. Maia couldn’t help but chuckle at the look of surprise on his face.

“We can stop soon, I reckon,” he muttered, rubbing his eyes and scanning the landscape ahead. “You remember that camp by that old abandoned mill?”

“I know the one.”

“If I remember right there’s a bunch of cacti there, we’ll practise your abilities tonight.”

“Not on the cacti!” She protested.

“Better than people.”

“Nix would disagree,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, well, good thing she’s not here then,” he replied dryly.

A comfortable silence settled between them as they drove on. The cliffs in the distance slowing growing larger. The occasional clumps of rusted machinery marking their way.

“I like this one,” Matthias said, nodding toward the Dame’s audio player where the soft melody of the track still played. “This is from those Verdant caches, isn’t it?”

“Yup.”

“Huh, sounds like a song I’d heard in Lindrao. What was the name on those tracks again?”

“Losu.”

“Maybe this Losu guy just went about collecting songs from all the places the Verdant destroyed.”

“Grim way to look at it.”

“It’s the truth,” Matthias frowned, his thoughts clearly drifting. “The Verdant came, and despite what they promised people, they burned and they didn’t stop burning.”

“Promises?”

“Some folk joined the Verdant. They came in with big promises of restoring our world, or some shit. But it was all lies. They wanted to break our world, suck it dry and that’s what they did.”

“Those verdant scravs back at Red Market… what do you think their Fatebonds are?”

“Best not to think on that.”

“But I mean, if the Verdant are gone… why would they have left scravs behind with Fatebonds unfilled. Seems cruel?” It was something she’d been wondering about for a while.

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“No more cruel than the Archons leaving us with ours,” he replied bitterly.

“But the Archons died. The Verdant left,” she emphasised but Matthias just shrugged in response. The nothing answer wasn’t enough for Maia. She was curious.

“What’s going to happen to them when they don’t fulfil their Fatebonds?” She pressed on.

“Same thing that happens to all of us,” Matthias said, glancing at her. “We die.”

“But what determines it?” This was the part she was confused about. “If both the Verdant and the Archons are gone? Who decides if the Fatebond was fulfilled or not?”

“Nothing to do with those powers anymore, I guess. I think it’s something inside of us. Once we give up, maybe. Once we know in our hearts that we can’t fulfil it. Maybe there’s some killswitch in there, wired up in our brains when we got these damn Fatebonds.” He sounded sad then, frustrated even.

Which sparked Maia’s annoyance a little. What did he have to be sad about? If his Fatebond was to protect her, then it wasn’t like his was at any risk. He was going to do that anyway. He’s her father!

But maybe that was the problem. Maybe as she got older—and more reckless as Matthias liked to say—the risk to her was growing, and therefore the risk to him? She didn’t know why that thought bothered her so much. She shook her head to clear it out of her mind. She didn’t want to think about any of that right now. The whole point of this trip was to have fun. Not mope about Fatebonds.

“Don’t worry, kiddo,” he said then, his voice softening, he must have picked up on her shifted demeanour. “We’ll find out what your Fatebond is. We’ll get it done.”

That wasn’t what she was annoyed about, but she gave her father points for trying. Truth was, Maia wasn’t too bothered by her own Fatebond. She didn’t know what it was, so it didn’t scare her. She was confident that whatever it was she could handle it.

***

Training scene absorbing the cacti life force into her. She can feel the power but she lets it dissipate. Unable to shape it the way that Matthias is instructing her to. It doesn’t feel right to shape it that way. He gets frustrated that she won’t even try and goes to bed.

She tries again after he leaves but still can’t get it do anything. When she turns to leave she pricks her toes on a smal bunch of cacti that she hadn;t noticed. Where did those come from?

"Just focus," Matthias instructed, his voice gruff, as he stood a few feet away. Their small fire crackled not far away, casting long shadows across the desert floor. "Pull the energy in, hold it, and shape it. It’s not that hard."

“I am focusing,” Maia muttered, her fingers twitching in frustration.

“You’re not," Matthias countered, his voice tightening with impatience. "You’re barely trying. You’re holding back."

Maia glanced at him, her jaw clenched. She hated this. Hated when he got like this—pushing her to do something she didn’t even fully understand. And worse, something that felt wrong.

“I’m not holding back,” she said through gritted teeth, her eyes fixed on the tall cactus standing in front of her.

“You are," Matthias said flatly, stepping closer. "You need to stop being scared of your own power, Maia. It’s part of you, whether you like it or not."

"I’m not scared!" Maia’s voice was louder than she intended, frustration boiling over. She wasn’t scared of the power itself—she just didn’t want to use it the way he wanted her to. It didn’t feel right. Draining life from the plants, shaping it into something destructive… it wasn’t her.

“Watch,” Matthias said, raising his hand toward the cactus. Maia watched in silent discomfort as the vibrant green began to fade, the plant slowly withering, drying up, its skin cracking and turning grey as he drained the life from it. The faint teal mist that emanated from his skin was like a ghostly vapour, swirling around him as he absorbed the energy.

“You can feel the life energy in this, I know you can, you’ve told me as much before,” he said. “And I know you can draw on it the way that I can.” He sighed. “Maybe we’re approaching this wrong. Tell me, how does it feel, to you?”

She turned to another cactus nearby, holding out her hand, letting it hover just above the spikes. She closed her eyes, breathing in deeply, trying to block out her father’s heavy presence next to her.

“It feels… fresh.”

“That's just the smell.”

“No… it’s not, it's more like a feeling… an idea?” she cocked her head.

“Interesting,” Matthias stepped closer to her, “let’s work with that. Where exactly do you feel this?”

“I’m… breathing it,” and then added quickly, “but it’s not the smell, it’s—”

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he chuckled softly, his patience surprising her. “Let’s go with that. Your overlay isn’t picking up anything?”

“Nothing,” she replied.

“Alright… I want you to try breathing in that feeling. Not sensing it the way you currently are. I want you to visualise drawing all of that into you in a breath.”

She nodded, taking a deep breath and focusing her mind on that idea. Of pulling in that sense of life from the cactus in front of her. She felt it fill her lungs. That freshness, full and energising and alive. She gasped, her eyes snapping open.

She could feel it everywhere now, coursing through her. She glanced down at her hands, seeing a soft green mist surrounding her fingertips. The feeling was intoxicating. She trembled, overwhelmed by the raw, unshaped power flowing through her.

“Yes,” her father’s voice urged her on. “Now, focus. Shape that energy. Your arcanum overlay will guide you.”

Maia’s eyes darted to the overlay windows hovering in her vision, but there was nothing there.

“There’s nothing there, Ba,” she whispered.

“They work by picking up your own power, you need to give it shape. Concentrate on pushing that energy forward in a blast.”

She stared at the withered husk of the cactus in front of her. How could something that felt so right have come from something that felt so wrong? She felt her resolve falter. She hesitated but then thrust her hand forward, focusing on expelling the energy just as her father had instructed.

But nothing happened.

The mist just continued to flow out of her, gently falling and evaporating into nothing before even touching the ground.

Her breath was coming in ragged now, the excitement and intoxication draining out of her. The light of the green mist about her fading away until she was again cast in the flickering orange light of their campfire, and the faint purple hue of the cracks in the sky above.

"Better," Matthias said, satisfaction clear in his voice. He didn’t seem to notice the shift in her mood, didn’t see the way she hugged her arms tighter around herself filled with a horrible sense of regret. She knew she shouldn’t feel this way, it was just a cactus after all. But still, it felt wrong.

“I think that’s enough for tonight,” he took a sniff, “I think the meat’s ready,” glancing over at the smoking pot over the fire.

Maia nodded, though her heart wasn’t in it. It wasn’t supposed to feel this way. She ate plants all the time. She hunted and ate animals too. She’d fought and killed scuttlers and other monsters of the wastes. She’d taken life before. This shouldn’t be any different.

"It’s just a cactus," Maia murmured, almost trying to convince herself. Her father was already crouched by the fire, poking at the pot, oblivious to her discomfort.

As she turned to follow him, she felt a sudden sting on her shin. Startled, she glanced down to see a small cactus at her feet, its prickly needles poking through her trouser leg. Odd. She hadn’t noticed that one before.

Looking closer, she realised there were more. Small clusters of cacti that hadn’t been there just moments ago.

That’s weird. She hadn’t noticed any of these earlier.