Sachihiro

After the send-off we eat as much as we can of the boar we hunted what feels like a lifetime ago. The meat is well tenderised and seasoned but it goes down like a tasteless lump in my throat. Kuyoki smiles sadly at me, I smile sadly back at her but neither of our hearts is really in it.

I look at the girls huddled together talking and being strong about Hannahs loss, my girls are growing up. I can’t believe I really took them away from all those potential mates back home, but Michael isn’t that bad as part of the family all things considered, at least for someone from outside the tribe. I wonder if Hannah had anyone she would have liked to marry.

I’m slumped against a log throwing sticks into the blue camp fire dancing in the wind. The fire-wards are what’s making it blue, drawn on slow burning wooden blocks, they are meant to keep those in the fire’s warmth warded from bugs and mental confusion. Its never a good idea to have too many wards in a single fire though so mental protection for us that rely on mana in our fighting lest there is another ambush again.

Mira is sitting next to me, her shoulder brushing mine slightly but she is talking to Zhen who himself has Frayé by his side with her hands in his watching her son. Everyone is growing up really; who knew that little Freyá would ever care for a family. She herself is also listening to Kiera, Ingwe and Vuyo slightly behind her sitting further back from the fire. I look at the growing boys Oakro and Hiro, the youngest in our travelling party, kids and already Awakened. What is the world coming to?

Oakro, Gaia’s younger boy is lean and tall, he could be big like his father or he could have a leaner athletic build like me if he grew up groomed right. Lean he’d sacrifice some overall power and shock absorption but gain agility and eventually some dexterity, I wonder what his Awakening Mana accomplished within him. Hiro needs attention as well, the kid has potential and he will definitely be big with Om’s blood even though Vuyo’s people average in size at best.

‘’Da,’’ Aurora sends then walks up towards me from where she has been sitting huddled with her sisters by the other camp fire. Andrew joins her and they hold hands as they come to our fire, I get myself up from between Cicilia and Mira.

I signal with my head and we move away a-ways where the others won’t hear if this is as private and serious as I suspect. ‘’Da, Andrew and I want to get married.’’ My daughter says to me with eyes locked on mine.

I look at her, I look at Andrew, there is no hesitation in their auras and posture at all. ‘’Are you sure about this? You did grow up as brother and sister and you might mistake those feelings for romantic ones, especially at a time like this. With your sis-’’

‘’But we are not actually siblings! Our minds are made up da,’’ she says holding tighter on her partners’ hand.

‘’I love your daughter da, and I ask for your blessing on our union.’’ Andrew says without hesitation. When did this kid get as tall as me?

I suddenly feel old and tired, very old indeed. How could I deny them anything though? ‘’You have my blessing son, take care of my daughter.’’ I say placing a hand on his shoulder. ‘’Come here,’’ I say and hug them both tightly. I’m losing the kids, but I’d rather lose them to themselves than lose them to death.

I step away keeping my face dry with mana but my eyes are watery, ‘’aargg I’ll need to tell your mothers. We can have the ceremony when we get to Deep Kee-‘’

‘’I have already spoken with ma and the ceremonies will be done now,’’ Aurora says amused at me. She places a hand on my arm and I feel love, trust, joy, hope wash into me. I let her aura have easy access inwardly sighing, unable to keep the tears from falling any longer.

I face Andrew in the fighting circle Gaia has created a dagger in my left hand to counter the one on his right, I grin. I can’t take it easy n him at the same time I really don’t want to make the mistake of underestimating him and embarrassing myself so I watch him closely. Andrew will one day be as big as Om if not bigger. He is a complete Barbarian warrior so even though I haven’t paid any particular attention to his fighting prowess through the years I have high expectations.

He is in my area of awareness and with my complete focus on him he is practically telegraphing every move he things of making, we circle each other. My awareness is enhanced actually, now that I’m actively focused on him I’m noticing how much ‘clearer’ everything within that focus is. The way he bobs his shoulders so, the way shifts his feet. He shifts his stance i shift mine accordingly, as soon as he positions himself to make a move I position myself to counter it.

He feints and I let him, having seen even before he moved that he would feint by the way he positioned himself and the hesitation in his eyes. Its amazing how much you can tell about a person by their bodies, things they would try to hide or not even know they are broadcasting. Andrew is especially easy for me to read because I know all the people that taught him to fight, I know their fighting styles, I’ve sparred or watched them spar with others.

I see the resolve in his eyes and he commits, it’s almost comical how telegraphed his attack is though he is much faster than i expected. Our daggers sharpen each other’s edges, I dodge his follow through while swathing aside his arm. I cut into his belly, a shallow cut but I’m sure it stings. I’m happy he doesn’t flinch away but strikes for the opening my attack created, I twist away the dagger cutting through air.

He kicks me back and I take the hit to the abdomen to swipe at the offending leg splitting his calf open. He retreats with the space he created and I let him, the purpose of a mating ceremony challenge is not to defeat my daughter’s intended unless I’m completely against the union. The purpose of this fight is to test his resolve and ability to protect my daughter, to protect his mate.

He comes in again slashing and punching using his momentum and size to try and get me to retreat but instead with small hops I deflect strike after strike after strike even catching the ones thrown wildly and would have easily been dodged. I give ground as I do but instead of retreating back as he would want I retreat back and sideways foiling his forward momentum then deliver 2 quick slashes down his chest and across his belly before dodging a grab and stepping quickly on light toes back away from him.

I know I’m taking it too easy on him but I can’t find it in myself to hurt him badly enough to end this quickly without maiming or knocking him unconscious, and with no actually healers in our party maiming him is out of the question. And of course the ceremony can’t continue if the young is passed out-

He isn’t bleeding, I’ve now cut him numerous times there is no doubt in that. Yet there is no blood on my dagger I notice, the blood on is wounds looks to viscous and thick, not flow far from the wound. I attack and he goes on the defensive, even managing to block two of my cuts but after a 30 second exchange he is riddled with cuts and stab wounds all over his torso and legs.

Even with that he doesn’t go down so I cut the tendon behind his left knee, not a permanently debilitating injury with the healing supplies we have but it willl end this fight. He goes down with surprise but catches himself and rolls until he is on one knee still facing me, I nod to him throwing the dagger into the sand at me feet. ‘’I am satisfied,’’ I say watching the blood collect itself slowly and congeal towards the wounds.

Niki runs to him and frantically pour healing powder on him before noticing that his many open slash wounds are not bleeding as they should, she looks at them open mouthed but steps back as Aura stands besides the half kneeling Andrew. She is proud of him, I can see it all over her body even with that ice queen stoic expression she learnt from ma going on I can tell she is happy.

Da steps forward with the family ceremonial dagger, Andrew again affirms that he takes Aurora in front of witnesses, Aura does the same. Da slashes their palms and now surprisingly Andrew’s blood flows freely as they clasp hands, interesting. I spectate, moving further and further back to let the others get the best views of the whole thing, there is a slight sense of relief now that this is over with.

Three times they affirm each other’s acceptance and the connection between them blossoms to my spirit senses. I look at everyone around me, I feel less burdened with Aurora’s safety now that she is mated with Andrew. I’m probably a shitty father for even thinking that way but its how I currently feel.

The pair retreat to the only tent pitched in our camp ground, the tier 2’s go about the duties and the newly Awakened go to Zhen for their first organised lesson on how not to kill themselves with their new abilities. He starts off with an example of how Mira nearly killed herself fighting the Tribes as a newly minted mage way back when, she scowls at the story, I smile amused as I eavesdrop.

‘’You okay?’’ Kuyoki asks as I move away from the lesson to a shaded secluded spot I chose for my meditation.

‘’Yea, happy and a little weirded out by our little girls growing up,’’ I say sheepishly.

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‘’You’ve been avoiding me,’’ she says quietly but insistently sitting next to me in her own meditative posture.

‘’Not intentionally but its been busy,’’ I say looking at my mate in the eyes for what feels like the first time in a while.

‘’You haven’t touched me in a long time, one thing that has always been there is your lust, yet since before this trip you haven’t touched me.’’ It isn’t an accusation coming from her I can see and feel that. More a sad declaration but with Kuyoki there is also stoic acceptance in her declaration. She has a fatalism that I once admired about her, maybe I still do but right now it makes me sad and angry.

‘’What do you want?’’

‘’To-‘’

‘’Well I’m busy right now.’’ I find myself snapping at her.

...

...

‘’Of course,’’ she says and walks away. I place my face in my hand groaning silently. I could have handled that better but I’m tired, so tired. I just want to get home.

I get my posture correct, close my eyes and take a deep breath.

I can’t concentrate. On top of Hannah and the little ones I pray are home safe, my formerly pregnant wife and daughter I sent with them, this whole fucked up journey now I also have Kuyoki’s hurt feelings on my mind. Let me not forget that I killed Rigs not so long ago, worst part I initially tolerated him into the family ‘cause I thought his sword would be useful and now he’s off the board for no fucking reason when he might actually have been useful.

I sigh and get to my feet, ‘’I’m gonna patrol the area.’’ I send generally and take off at a jog, I don’t want to walk, walking is too slow for me right now.

It starts as a jog but my pace increases until I’m swerving between trees in a sprint, some of the trees appearing so suddenl have to use them as leverage to keep my momentum. At this pace it will take 3 hours to tire me out, I coalesce my water mana around myself playing with it to help tire myself quicker. I can hardly feel the drain, not at all like I had before.

I pull deeper from within myself and it responds eagerly but doesn’t manifest physically besides the misty droplets keeping pace with me as I run. I need to direct the mana to do something now, but there are only a few spells I know how to cast and even those few took a while to learn-

Wait, mana has never responded like this to me before. First I let the undirected mana disperse out of me slowly, it manifests itself as a dark mist spreading and leaving a trail behind me. I reach some open ground and increase my pace as much as I can to tire out quicker. Worst thing about having it out with Kuyoki is that she’ll take it and not even hold a grudge even if I’m the one in the wrong, it like kicking a puppy.

The woman is uncompromising when it comes to training the kids but she doesn’t fight for herself as she trains her children to. My feet sink into the sand increasing resistance thus bringing closer blissful fatigue but still it will take too long. I push my pace up another notch digging deep into myself as my hamstrings start to strain; I’m again at dodging trees.

Throwing around water bolts would be too conspicuous and bring the wrong type of attention, casting a water shield while a run and maintain it at full power might just be draining enough to get me tired quickly though so I try that. The oval shaped slash of water forms easily from the mist in front of me, too easily.

I usually brute-forced my shield then let it splash away as soon as it deflected whatever I was blocking. In fact I learnt that letting it dissolve soon after It takes impact took away a lot of the force of whatever impacts it, more than can be accounted for by the shielding alone. Whenever I meet someone with a stronger spell that should overcome the shield I pump more mana into it without fear of depleting my reserves since I don’t depend on mana to fight.

But now the shield hardly seems to have taken any mana to form. I slow down taking in my surroundings properly, all I’ve come across are birds so far, its odd. I stop when I find an area that seems suited to my needs, I haven’t tired myself out but curiosity about my own limitations has focused my mind nicely.

I expand the oval disc of water sideways and upwards, it sloshes like a water-skin but thins itself out conforming to my will. This shield is much broader than any I have ever done before but I still don’t feel my mana being strained by casting and maintaining it, even the mental strain associated with creating these spells is hardly there.

Did I Awaken to mana again, have my affinity increased? I scratch my head, pulling my hair back I sit cross legged and play around some more.

While the shield is still up I discover I can also channel water bolts above each palm, I could never cast two different spells at once before. The mists around me thicken and cover greater distance as I continue to gently push my mana out of my pores while experimenting. The mist creating an environment where my cast spells easily form without siphoning much of my internal mana.

Soon I have several dark orbs of water circling around my head, the mist around me is dark grey and completely opaic and the shield I had always cast and dispelled to counter mages has extended almost all the way around me. I’ve managed to spread the concave layer of undulating water around and above me reasonably well but now the burning sensation of strain in my chest is warning me of my current limits.

I shoot the 5 water bolts circling my head forward at a tree one after the other, they aren’t particularly fast, I could definitely dodge them. But they splatter on the tree creating visible bruises on the bark, certainly fast enough to be a problem for anyone that hasn’t invested mana into their physic.

I smile feeling the connecting to those bolts of water still, they didn’t splatter against the tree and disappear as most seem to assume. By slowly the mana infuses itself into the pores of the bark, it finds openings as water does finding little resistance in the tree.

My shield in the meantime starts trembling as I keep trying to get it to completely encircle me. I don’t know if I’d ever need something like that but better to be able to do it. I have enough mana filled mists around me to fill the rest of the shield but it doesn’t comply, mhmm... what if I?

Changing the shape of the shield is a slower process and the strain on my mind makes itself immediately felt, I take a breath, concentrate on having two different perspectives and divide my mind. A part of my mind maintains a connecting to the bolts seeping into the tree, the mist around me, keeps track of my spacial awareness and everything around me and does all the autonomic brain functions I’m not aware off.

The other part of my mind, the part that is now straining and about to cause me a nose bleed is experimenting with the shielding spell I learnt from Vevina. I move the mana attached around and within the water particles as best I can but water is fluid, it conforms to shapes but it doesn’t have a shape. Or does it?

I wake up shivering covered in snort and blood, I stifle a groan checking my immediate surroundings with my awareness. No one and nothing around me, I open my eyes slowly but even in the dark its like my optic nerves are raw and someone just found a convenient way to stick a pick into my brain. The groan escapes me.

I lie on my back and let the pain wash through me, embrace it and feel it as best I can. I hate mana drain, absolutely hate it and usually don’t let this happened but with divided mind, and not knowing my new limits I wasn’t paying proper attention. I must have been here a while, its darker than it was before, at least 2 or 3 hours maybe.

I let my mana tank replenish itself naturally however it does and as soon as I’m no longer empty the pain and shivering stops, but there is an ache threatening to be something more if I use mana again. I snort and take sip off a mana potion from my spacial ring’s medical supplies, we are running low on those and we won’t find anything as good as can be found in Paradisum anywhere else. The fae are masters of potions as far as I can tell from all my travels, I wonder why they’ve stuck around the Tundra and the Highlands since they don’t seem to gain much from us humans.

I send my mana senses out but find no mental connection to anyone, I’ve gone too far for sending, careless. Getting up I wipe myself off which is futile, so I use a little channelled water to get myself clean-

Wait, what was that I felt when I send my mana sense searching? I send another pulse of mana sense questing out without direction and I get a ping back into my mind, I turn around and look at the bruised tree some 50m away. Its faint but I can feel my mana in there still, even after having drained myself and lost control of everything else.

Well the water in the tree couldn’t exactly escape after I passed out but I expected my connection to it to disappear at least. I move closer, I’ll be quick then go check on the others.

Covering the distance quickly I place my hand on the tree and close my eyes, the connection is till there. I can feel the vessels of the tree, the channels through which my water is moving nourishing the tree, very interesting. Potentially dangerous for me though to have traces of my mana around for anyone to find, though very few could track me with it and probably no one would even bother doing nefarious shit.

I move away quickly towards the camp having re-affirmed my connection to the water mana in the tree. Its at about a km away when I feel the connection fray, so not as easy to maintain as mental communication. I look back at the tree in the distance, I can easily tell it out from the rest of them. I strain, more than I did when fighting the stone hulk in the dungeon, more than I did when fighting Rigs in the circle but within a few seconds my water mana within the tree evaporates.

Nothing happens at first, then the groaning of bark on bark-

KAA- SHAAA

The tree explodes apart like an overripe fungal sac with splinters shooting out in all directions. I watch surprised at the destruction, my heart rate increasing at the implication of the destructive potential there. A tree isn’t something easy to destroy, I’ve seen rhinoza’s charge into a tree and being stopped cold in their tracks.

I unsheathe Razor, clad the blade in killing intent aura, take a stance to collect my power into my centre for the strike, with Afterimage as a force multiplier I bring my two handed strike hard on the nearest tree.

The blade digs deep and comes out easily, at least 20cm into the wood with that strike. It would take 10 or more similar strikes to cut all the way through it, which I don’t have time to confirm.

I turn and run back towards the camp, time alone has done wonders for my mood. I feel much better prepared to try get us out of here now and maybe deal with some interpersonal issues I’ve been avoiding.

‘’Find anything interesting?’’ I’m asked as I meet up the perimeter guard.

‘’Not really, didn’t get to the other end of the isle this time either.’’

‘’Yea, Thandeka, Cyrus and Lavender are out mapping it now. It won’t be long until the locals start looking for someone to blame or cannibalising themselves,’’ Esuas says seriously.

‘’Yea, after the shock has worn off and they realise no one is coming to save them we’ll have prospective warlords to contend with. Anyone figured out how to get off this isle yet?’’

He just grunts unhappily, he and Tóma are annoyed more than most at the situation we find ourselves in. He feel vulnerable surround by so much water, helpless almost but its more a mental limitation than an accurate description of the situation.

‘’So what are your gains from the power up? I can feel the mana bristling within you.’’ I ask thinking about my own experimentation and exploration.

He grunts in ascent, ‘’I haven’t got a handle on it yet, never been more surprised to level in my life. Didn’t even know I was close, we dwarves live much longer than you humans and well... we take things slower. Never been much to rush myself like you do, will be a while before I get a proper handle on what I can do.