It’s a short run kind of day.

Dead of summer, middle of the day, it’s the most grueling environment we could have picked. At the very least, it’s a little closer of a race this time. I’ve gotten faster myself. But so has Tay. And unlike mortal me, she never seems to tire, no matter how far or fast we go.

She makes our race a blowout at the end, jogging nearly fifty meters past the driveway before slowly wandering back with her hands thrown over her head. I’m keeled over on the shoulder of the country road trying not to puke. Head bowed, heaving for air. Sweat pouring down my arms and dripping off my face, singlet stained dark. No words are exchanged when she walks up beside me, still panting raggedly. Just a fist bump. At least I made her try that hard.

We walk down the driveway together, detouring around the path to the house to follow a little trail through the garden instead. The vibrancy of Mars’ summer home swallows us in birdsong and bamboo. Too tired to revel in the natural life of the place, I follow Tay along an ornamental creek that wends through the groves of the garden, dead-ending in a small lagoon of soft grass walled in by bamboo and rocks. A deep swimming pool disguised as a koi pond fills the center of the clearing. On its northern side, a tree of silver leaves- a Lungracian- blooms in full glory under the direct sunlight. Metallic petals lay scattered over grass and crystal-clear water, casting teardrop shadows over the pattern of a zen circle inscribed on the bottom of the pool. The still surface shatters as we dive straight into the water, clothes and all.

Almost by instinct I shift my classes as I come to a rest at the bottom pool. Simple adjustments this time, lightning quick. Mage class first. A black leather tome fills my hand and I silently cast Spell Dilation and Water Breathing back-to-back. Biohancer next, to rapidly increase the breakdown of the lactic acid in my muscles. Then I shift Mage over to Ki Fighter, sinking into the vibrant river of life energy that permeates the garden.

Eyes closed, I sharpen my borrowed sense for life energy, cataloging every dot of life in and around the pool. The frogs, the fish, the insects, even the blades of grass. Most vibrant among them are the Lungracian tree- like a campfire in my mind’s eye- and the fusion bomb that is Tay’s soul, paddling around on the surface. Her own kinetic sense reaches out, brushing against mine. An impression of the feeling colors my mind: a gotcha smirk, a raised eyebrow, wondering if I really couldn’t help myself from checking her out.

“It’s not like that,” I sigh, when I finally decide to come up for air. “I’m training.”

Her head pops out of the water a moment later. “Oh yeah?”

“I’ve been learning how to sense others while hiding myself. It’s a handy ability. Your father uses it on you all the time.”

“I don’t get why you’d want to do it,” Tay drawls. “’s nothing fun about hiding. And ’s not like you even need more tricks.”

“Shifting creatively isn’t a trick, Tay. I’m just using tools we’ve all been given.”

“You can use all the classes. It’s cheating.”

“That is a gross oversimplification, and you know it.”

“But am I wrong?”

“For one, it’d be more accurate to say I borrow classes, not use them.” Technically, the technique is an exploit of the Shifter class that hasn’t ever been successfully explored, to my knowledge. “And it’s not a free win. Especially not against you.”

I start pulling off my shirt. Again I reach out, eyes still closed, trying to grasp the unimaginable volume of pure life energy that cycles placidly from her heart to the world. It’s leagues more than I’ve ever seen from another ki fighter, even including Mars. “No amount of skill can compete with that,” I murmur aloud, still thinking of the run. “Like your father says- logic isn’t everything in a fight. Sometimes heart is more important. Especially for classes like yours.”

“You say that like you think I might actually take a match off you.”

“It happens, doesn’t it? I’m not unbeatable. And even if I was, I wouldn’t count you out. Most people have limits to what they can expect to accomplish. You don’t play by the same rules.” I toss my shirt onto a dry stone nearby.

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“Everyone has limits, Thane.”

“Maybe.”

With a grunt, she pushes herself fully out of the water with her one arm. “You think I don’t?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” I say. “It’s just something I’ve been thinking about. You’re… different, Tay. I think so, at least.”

Her eyes flick down to the nub of her missing arm. “Different?”

“Not like that,” I quickly say. My lips purse in thought for a moment. “Whether or not Mars recognized it at the time, I think he saw it too when he adopted you.”

“Great wisdom from the teenage superstar,” Tay chuckles. “You’ve been listening to Aunt Jolie too much.”

My eyelids flutter open. “Not her.”

“Then who?”

“Something Gami said after he saw us together. Offhand.”

Tay goes quiet at the reminder of my other mentor. The growing schism between her father and Gami sees its echoes between us, too. We are their disciples. Two students of opposite masters, yet entwined too closely to let something so trivial break us apart. We know what we have together. What our place in the world will be. We are more than the men who made us. The silence is just a casualty of my nearing return to that city beyond the horizon.

Not wanting to let the moment linger, I rotate away to pluck a fresh apple from the lowest branches of the Lungracian. A casual twist of my hands snaps it cleanly in half. One of Mars’ oldest tricks.

I toss half of the apple back to her. “My legs are completely shot, by the way. Good work.”

I look back to see her staring right back with a knowing smile. Halfway through climbing out of the pool, reveling in the soreness as the muscles of her back stand out in tension, braced on her one hand. Tan skin and brushstrokes of freckles from top to bottom. Body strung tight as a string from years of grueling training, and wearing almost nothing to cover it. Her crimson eyes are wide open, drinking me in, enjoying the way my gaze lingers while she slips from the water because she was doing the exact same not ten seconds ago.

A tiny gust of wind stirs the pool as I shift classes again, this time to Psi. Taking the brushing of our sixth senses to a higher level. Our surface thoughts press and mingle together. For just a moment, I see myself through her eyes. Not like a mirror, but like I’m riding along with her thoughts. Taking in again the little things I love about him. The way his lips pursed in concentration when he messed with his hair earlier, then checked his shirt again, just in case. That look of focus, concentration when he finds an errant strand of grass on his shoulder and plucks it off. His quiet, and his dogma. Then, finally, the way all those things change again when he notices me watching, head cocked to the side.

My- her cheeks wrinkle from a smile. “Hey.”

The connection snaps, my concentration broken. I know I’m flushing when I look away. Tay waits for me to say something else and double down on my embarrassment; I dunk my head back under to save myself from giving her the satisfaction. Linger down there until I clear my head. Practice my class more, shifting to Water Elemental, concentrating on the flow. As always, my mind’s eye wanders, drawn to the eddies as Tay extricates herself from the pool.

When I come back up again, I rest my elbows on the lip of the pool, head buried away from the sun. I track Tay with my eyes closed as she walks around the shore. Bare feet slap towards me, then above my head and past, heading for the Lungracian. A branch creaks quietly.

Lazy birds chirp. Hot wind blows. Our idyll summer days.

In the end, it’s me who breaks the silence.

“I don’t know if your father likes me,” I mutter.

Tay chuckles from above. “Don’t be dramatic, Thane. Of course he likes you.” I hear her swaying around somewhere up and to my left, probably dangling from the tree by her legs. “Are you saying that because he threw another apple at you? It’s been a couple months since the last. You were about due for another.”

“I’m being serious- Ow!”

“So am I. You’re overreacting,” Tay growls, tossing a second apple up and down in very audible threat. “If Dad didn’t like you, we wouldn’t be dating. Especially not for three years now.”

“You’ve seen how he looks at me sometimes. Especially since I started studying with Gami.” My brow darkens. “He looks at me like I’m dangerous. Like I’m becoming my father.” I spit the last word.

“No he doesn’t,” she snaps. Instantly defensive of Mars, though he’s done less than most parents to earn it. She swings from hanging by her legs to stretching like a cat atop the length of the branch. “And you’re nothing like your father. You haven’t even met him.”

“You say that so confidently, despite never having met the man either.”

“Because I’ve heard Dad’s friends talk about him. He wasn’t a good person,” Tay says, totally adamant. So black and white. “You were looking through my eyes. What did you see?”

I purse my lips, thinking through my answer, when she bulldozes right along.

“I can tell you what I saw, Thane. I can tell you what I’m seeing now.” With a little grunt, she drops off the tree and sinks to her knees in front of me. Calloused fingers curling roughly under my jaw, lifting my gaze. Her sunburnt skin is all she wears. I’ve never seen her naked. But it means nothing in the moment. I’m lost in her eyes.

“Shift,” she says.

I do. Psi. Our minds meld again.

“Look at me,” she says.

I do. Seeing the garden and the pool through a split lens, blurring further and further until the force of her personality completely washes mine out. I hold him for a moment longer until he finally understands what I see: someone worth loving. Someone worth trusting a piece of my heart to. Then I cup his chin between my fingers and pull him to me, lips parting, hungrily molding into him as a calloused hand draws me down into the water.