Sachihiro van Damage

The walk through the undine water tunnel is turning out quite cathartic for us. The kids are more relaxed and being careless again, there is less tension on their shoulders, even Ava seems bored and is probably thinking of tormenting that young man John again. Having reached this far there is a sense of the worst being behind us and our way from here on out only smooth , we are almost halfway home at this point.

I smile to myself watching Hannah and Mira skipping like little girls with their hands swimming through the body of water that serve as walls of our low-way. Ingwe Nikita and Aurora are far ahead and I assume there are discussing girl things about their mother’s homeland again. There is worry in Vuyo and displeased acceptance in Kiera’s shoulders, both Om’s mates. I sight looking at Taditha speaking to the Jotnar woman Selah. I just don’t trust that woman, she’s capable and attractive and seems okay enough but I just don’t trust her.

There others are scattered throughout the length of the tunnel as we enter our 2nd tenday walking the length of this place. There is more traffic than I am used to and we aren’t the only humans down here as far as I can tell but still it is mostly filled by the pseudo water-people.

For several tendays now I’ve been at the very brink of Awakening and it has my skin crawling uncomfortably with internal pressure. Ever since I watched Asriel fight against a clutch of bloodthirsty fae on equal footing I have wanted to be what he was and be able to do what he could. An Awakened Lord, a 2nd tier being of power capable of extraordinary feats and be a badass unstoppable warrior yet since I felt myself close to that stage I’ve been hoping like crazy to stave off the process.

We definitely have not found any place safe enough for me to be comfortable with that step nor do we have the time. I watch Zhen’s back as he walks with his fingers trailing the water wall, the two undine warriors walking rear guard behind me don’t seem to be paying any attention to us. I walk up to the old man, he is already at the 3rd tier after all, a master magician with wisdom to share.

‘’I’ve been an ass of late, sorry about that.’’ I open up and he grunts, giving me a look and then a nod and I know its water under the bridge. If only things with da were as easy.

‘’Why shouldn’t we dream big, I bow to worship no one, not even the gods. I mean I respect them don’t get me wrong,’’ I say making the warding sign of respect with my hand. ‘’But I don’t like to be beholden to anyone, and what if some day the power I gain comes with constrains I’m not willing to yield to?’’ I ask the old man with a gesture.

‘’So what do you see for yourself really, what is it you want to be because you cannot be everything.’’

‘’I once had a conversation with my master in which I was questioning the philosophy which we as her disciplines have been taught to view Awakening. I had already Awakened into my first tier and I had glimpsed paths that could eventually lead me to revel the gods themselves one day during the Awakening process,’’ I say seriously waiting for him to call me delusional.

He nods, urging me to continue.

‘’So I spoke to her and told her that though I greatly valued her wisdom and teaching I was hesitating to continue the path because I thought I had a new path of Awakening open for me with the way my foundational Awakening had taken place. I was sure of course that in another three to four thousand years I could be one of the most dangerous beings in the world, though I know realistically I won’t likely live a fraction that long. Master was quiet a while and asked me what I knew of the gods. I told her everything I knew, which is what everyone knows, the basics as they are,’’ I say waving my hand in a gesture conveying ‘no importance’.

‘’Then she asked if I really wanted to be one of the gods, I don’t but it was her next question that struck a cord within me. ‘Why use the gods as a measure of your success if you do not seek to be one of them,’ simple question I couldn’t find an answer to.’’

‘’You assumed that godhood means ultimate power,’’ Zhen says nodding.

‘’Exactly, I had assumed that revelling the gods was the ultimate goal of any warrior. Well not exactly always, first I wanted to be like my ma and da, a strange combination if I say so myself. Then I wanted to be like Borr and his chosen, a power I had a vague awareness of but didn’t really understand beyond the stories told in camp fires before tribal raids. Then I wanted to be an Awakened Lord like my friend Asriel,’’ what at the time was the coolest thing I’ve ever imagined. ‘’Then an unravelled swordsman then an all round complete warrior, then a father of a nation with the power to back that up if a threat presents itself you get the gist?’’

‘’You do not know what you want,’’ he says with a snort.

‘’No not that, what I want changes with time, or at least I want too much.’’ I say throwing my hands. ‘’How could I direct my own Awakenings if I don’t even know which direction I want to take?’’

‘’Yet when you let the Mana course through you uncontrolled you do not gain as much as you would had you directed it. It doesn’t have to be in any single direction but even generalising will have more beneficial results that just closing your eyes and hoping for the best.’’ Zhen says but we say no more as Sway and Mira make their way over.

Zhen is like a father to Mira, because of that she has an odd relationship with Sway. She treats him less like she does her own kids but more what I imagine she thinks siblings should be. I’ve wondered if its conscious behaviour and now as I watch the three of them interact and talk Sandorian magic I’m again wondering.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

‘’So what were you two talking about?’’ Mira asks when Sway gets bored and again runs ahead to be with his cousins.

Zhen and I look at each other and just continue with the previous conversation.

‘’Mana can be formed on every known world in the entire universe. It is a constant force thought to be formed of ether chaos and intent that allows many living things to grow beyond its perceived limitations.

‘’Mages are scholars, scientists that study an element or physical law to the extent that they can replicate its observed effects. Any and all lightning mages in Sandoria know how lightning normally forms in nature. We know about charges, resistance, capacitance and the movement of electrons through space. We calculate and estimate the forces involved in a lightning strike or the static that is necessary to charge it, it’s all scholarly work, science. But its theoretical work until it can be proven to work and that’s where mana generally comes in,’’ the old man says blowing pipe smoke out of his nose.

‘’Mana is mostly just energy, pure unblemished neutral energy but the speciality or the knowledge of the person casting the spell shapes what it manifests as when its discharged into the world. I’m a lightning mage because that is what I’ve studied and I’m a master magician because my mana levels don’t allow me to cast lightning above a certain tier of power. Its better to be a scholar by the time you Awaken rather than to Awaken and only then start unravelling the intricacies of the world, at least if you want to get the most out of it.

‘’What you know influences what you can do with mana when you Awaken which is why we in the kingdom spend years on our disciples teaching them even before they Awaken to mana. I don’t know how who had probably never studied the elemental nature of water has Awakened to water and be able to cast it about as you do. Had you been a merman or any other water based creature some natural understand of the element would be expected but then maybe you once drowned as a child and had an epiphany about water that stayed with you to adulthood.

‘’That, culminated with the fact that you didn’t really direct your Awakening to a particular speciality maybe means a lot of things that you ‘know’ naturally were added into the mix of your awakening.’’

‘’Like how to fuck,’’ Mira says with a little grin before schooling her face to seriousness as we scowl at her.

‘’Yes well I’ve been thinking about this since you mentioned it and yes my dear as crude as your example may be you probably have a point. Sex is probably something Sachi obsessed about at some point growing up and found himself determined to get better at it...’’ he says giving me a questioning wanting me to confirm his theory. ‘’As well as being a warrior, as well as being a good with water or something of the sort.’’

‘What about my awareness, I’m able to perceive everything in my immediate surroundings in my mind clearly even when my eyes are closed and my hearings is blocked.’’

‘’Yes well I don’t really know how you could have trained that... tell me have you ever been stabbed in the back without seeing the knife coming? Some traumatic events can cause a strong desire for something never to happen again that likely translates in your undirected Awakening. Or you were a hunter perhaps and always wanted the best senses or situational awareness?’’

Mhmm... some things to think about.

We are almost at the first isle after almost 3 tendays when previously invisible runes drawn on the ‘walls’ of the tunnel flare up alarmingly. Our small escort takes battle formations and so do we but the glow doesn’t last long as it disappears it emphasizes how dark it is down here. Looking up I could sometimes just barely make out the sun rays sometimes as they were reflected and refracted on the crystals of water. Now its suddenly pitch black and we are already sending to each other and running to each other for defence.

We meet in the middle and prepare for battle, the water all around us swirls ominously to my ears. I try not to imagine how deep under water we must be, dread leaking into my chest. ‘’You better protect my family!’’ I say grabbing one of the undine men with a water spear ‘cause I have no idea what I would do if those runes failed.

‘’Calm down,’’ he says pushing my hand away with disdain. ‘’These tunnels where designed by our most revered sages and have been here since before-‘’

There is crashing far back, loud crashing and swishing. Suddenly the air pressure in here is not balanced.

‘’Run!’’ someone yells and we are running ahead with a suction force pulling us ahead but it makes little differences and the flooding ocean water overtakes us.

I’m pushed and pulled and twisted like a wet rag as the water overtakes me. I’m trying to control my movements but it’s no use and everyone within my sphere of awareness seems to be as uncontrolled as I am. I’m spinning in a twister of draining water pulled ahead as rune after rune seems to fail with the integrity of the tunnel collapsing but the shape held together by the suffocating air pressure as water rushes to fill the space.

The is power is the water, unyielding unwieldable power that crushes all forms of resistance. Even the undines tumble and spins under the power of the ocean water. I try to reach the kids but It’s no use, I channel water mana through me and suddenly I’m no longer being torn apart but nor am I able to control myself either.

Please god please don’t let my kids drown. I try to reach Ikigai but find myself holding Amanda instead, casting water around her she also stops being torn apart but a part of me almost let her go. She is unconscious I notice but thankfully alive and now flowing smoothly with the current as one with the water. I grab anyone that is close by and find Gaia, Sway, Sema and Sirimiri. Not a single one of them the people I was hoping to find but needs must.

The water burns slightly, not an unpleasant burn but it makes itself know against my skin and eyes. And the others too judging by what is happening then I notice something strange as I flow along holding my breath hoping not to drown. Firstly my mana isn’t decreasing.

I have myself and 5 other people clad in water mana and the strain I would normally feel on my body, almost like the pain of trying to hold my breath isn’t there. There doesn’t seem to be any strain on my mana well at all and if that isn’t strange enough I notice that the unconscious Amanda is breathing. Well at least her chest is rising and falling though we are all completely submerged in water.

One by one the people around me eventually start passing out from holding their breaths or in Gaia’s case he goes into the Rage before screaming bubbles and passing out as he spasms. I am horrified at my own helplessness, where are my children, where are my wives? I try to swim into the current but if I’m gaining ground I don’t know it, my body is already sore from all the abuse but that is as nothing to the panic closing in around me.

Eventually I can’t hold my breath any longer either and I take a breath swallowing water. Clarity fills me. Has there ever been water so rich in ether, so rejuvenating to the senses?