Chapter 8 – Life 3 – The Sight

We traveled for some time, first along the coast and then from lake to lake. People proclaimed me the wise-woman, the hero, the leader, but in truth we would have perished long before without the help of the Water-Maker. Thankfully, one of the children born on the long journey had an inquisitive mind and a fascination with the Blue Watcher; he was soon discovered to have similar abilities. While separating salt from saltwater was not easy, according to the Water-Maker, he was relieved to have someone to teach his ways. He knew his importance just as well as any of us, and it had clearly been weighing on him.

There were many monsters, of course. One day we had to contend with sharks that could swim in a flying bubble of their own water, able to drown the unprotected. The next, there were a pack of Rhinoceroses whose horns were made of solid metal. It was Nasir who had to put himself on the line that day, needing to absorb their horns without being trampled.

All the while I remained in the center of the camp as it moved. No longer did I risk leaving my family unprotected. Instead, I used my strange sense that had replaced my eyes to find anything the light touched for a large distance. It wasn’t omnipresent, as we discovered with another sandworm, but as I practiced, I found myself noticing monsters from further and further away.

While I still longed to see, truly see, the faces of my husband and son once more, I knew that without my new powers our community would long since have been ground into desert sand. Such was the way of the world.

We eventually made it to a large city, once known as Baghdad. Some people from our group settled down there, tired of the endless travel. However, we gained more than we lost, thanks to the fact that the Water-Maker and his apprentice wished to keep traveling until we hit the Sea.

We kept traveling. There were bats with oversized wings that could blast us back with wind. There were lions whose shining manes were almost impenetrable. There were imps that hid in every crevice and blasted fire when you least expected.

But that said nothing of the mutants. They were far rarer, but far more dangerous. On a mountain, a golem that could throw balls of superheated magma. Near a lake, a siren that could summon a thunderstorm with a single cry of her voice. Worst of all was something we only saw at a distance, an ox the size of a large building, bursting with muscles and charging forward at speeds we could barely imagine. Had we been in its way… I’m not sure any of us would have survived.

We heard fragments of stories from other travelers while on the way. A city in the frozen north that used a volcano to stay warm. A fortress that traveled the oceans, searching for people with powerful magic. A cruel man in the east who styled himself Emperor, forcing people to hunt monsters in exchange for shelter. The truth of these stories was sometimes unclear. Some had tales of working technology from the old world, but details were scarce. Some had claims of monsters they couldn’t possibly have survived, even with a hundred warriors. Some promised paradisical lands that had no monsters or hardship whatsoever. These, I doubted most of all.

This world was a cruel place. Those who promised kindness only hid their anger and despair. We once passed a village that had been *very* interested in the Water-Maker and his power. He was over 75 years old at this point, but they didn’t care. He kindly, then forcefully, told them he wished to continue his journey. Three days of travel later, warriors from the village who had been following us came to capture him in the night.

My light-sense noticed their movements, but not their intentions. I had difficulty telling one face from another, and assumed these were merely stragglers from our own group. We had grown significantly, after all.

When their desires were made clear, I immediately sent out a beam of light to illuminate the area and warn my people. Amir recognized the action and ran to help. But as he struggled to keep up with a Wind warrior who could dodge his daggers, and Fatima tried to control a man who spewed fire from his mouth, there was a third man who held a dagger to the Water-Maker’s throat. He yelled, and when we all saw what he was doing, the battle ceased. He mocked us and our group, and eventually asked “Where is your precious Light Sage now?” Apparently, word of my presence preceded me.

Nasir, so clever, had an idea. I got up on his shoulders, so that I had a clearer line of ‘sight’ to the faraway man. I launched a beam of light at the man’s arm, burning through it in an instant. Fortune was with us; he dropped his dagger rather than killing the Water-Maker. Soon, beams of light disabled the other two warriors as well. The three were beaten to death in short order. I don’t think I could have stopped the crowd even if I had truly wanted to.

The experience had shaken the Water-Maker, and others. We had been doing well against monsters but hadn’t considered the threat of human desperation. If we wanted safety, it was time to make our own.

After several years of travelling, we made it to what many called our final destination. The great city Istanbul, ancient even to the old-world. The Apocalypse had been going on for over a hundred years, but Istanbul had lasted for over a thousand. Not perfectly intact, no, but once we showed our worth, a group came out and welcomed us. Istanbul was situated on a river between two seas, so water was plentiful. We were all thoroughly tired of sand and brown rock, so the great city’s greens and blues were things of beauty.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

A burgeoning civilization had formed near a massive temple that was more intact than expected, the Hagia Sophia. The people had passed down stories of how the temple had survived earthquakes and hostile invaders before, and likely could even again if needed. Istanbul was no paradise, like everywhere else they had monster attacks to worry about… but without the punishing heat and sandstorms, it felt perfect.

I took the time to dictate to Amir my thoughts and experiences with my abilities. The fact that I could not generate elements but could absorb them instead. My affinity for the Moon, rather than many warriors who claimed to be stronger in the sunlight. Finally, the fight that showed me how to abandon my first element and claim my second, more powerful one.

Nasir, bless him, had several metal tablets made with my story carved into them, in as many languages as he could learn. He encouraged others to try and replicate my feats, including his father. Amir said he was fine just perfecting his daggers, and Nasir eventually relented.

As I grew older, my sight grew further. In the day I could see for miles, and for the night, tens of miles. Focusing on specific areas gave me a headache, but I was valued for knowing when waves of monsters were coming from any direction. I tried to teach my abilities to others, but few showed aptitude. Until finally, a young man who could absorb the wind was delivered to me unceremoniously. I didn’t even know if it was possible to come at the Light element from the opposite direction, but the young man, Badr, was an orphan, and willing to try almost anything.

Those who could absorb elements had limits, just as those who could make them did. Rather than by killing monsters, those limits were raised with practice absorbing, almost like a muscle. Sadly, it seemed this exercise was needed before getting a new element. The young man released all of his stored wind while looking at the Red Watcher many times over 5 years, and never got the Light Element. He then spent another 5 doing nothing but collect more and more wind at once.

Then, one day, when he decided he was not progressing any further, we took him out into the wilderness at a time when the Red Watcher was high, and he released all the wind at once. It was somewhat terrifying, almost like being in the eye of one of the great storms some told stories of. But then, all around us the night air was infused with a strange glow, beyond that of the moon.

Badr cried out in pain. He said his head was splitting at the seams. He quickly closed his eyes and found that he had a sight similar to my own. But when combined with ‘regular’ sight, which happened every time he opened his eyes, it proved too much for his mind to handle. We eventually went back to the city and fashioned him a blindfold. It seemed that those who learned the power of Light could no longer see with their mortal eyes.

Still, over time, Badr learned my ways. His range wasn’t as good as my own, but he could focus on an area as easily as I could, if not faster. Nasir also learned something new, at one point. I had not known this, but before we left our home city, he absorbed a substantial amount of metal from the fallen tower. Everything he had made, up to this point, was only a small fraction of what he held in whatever strange place absorbed elements went. And he had kept it that way for as long as possible.

But one day, he went to the edge of the city and ran at top speed, making a sturdy wall in his tracks. This went on for miles, I have no idea where he got that much metal. But in the end, his core was empty. And just at that carefully planned moment, the Red Watcher rose in the sky. He had been inspired by the Steel Monkey I fought the day I was blinded, as well as a metal lion that seemed to have the same affinity for Metal and Fire. His new ability was surprisingly quite similar to his old one, at least much closer to Metal than Light was to Wind or Fire.

Any metal he had made previously could be of several types, but now it was a sturdy steel that could take an incredible amount of heat from our fire warriors before even drooping an inch. In addition, we found armor made from it was much more resistant to manipulation, tested with a certain area filled with gray ogres who tended to distort armor with every punch. On the negative side of things, he needed to absorb much more metal to make his creations, and certain objects, like copper pipes, couldn’t be absorbed at all. Overall, though, he was happy with his new ability.

Amir passed before I did. Many assumed he would die in battle, but the doctors said he simply had a heart condition. Nasir and Badr mourned, of course. I had suspected this had been coming for some time. That is not to say I did not mourn with them, but I simply did not feel the depths of pain that they did.

One day, a few years later, I realized something. Nasir had finished carving my stories into his sturdy steel plates, which he left inside and around the temples. Fatima’s twin sons, both with the wind affinity, had come back with the meat of a large boar. Badr had just detected a group of monsters before I did, and there were already warriors on their way to intercept them. That was the day I realized.

The city was in good hands, even without the old woman named Light Sage’s guidance.

And so, I stepped out into the moonlight and did something I had never done and had told Badr to never do. I stretched my senses out far beyond what I could normally see. It hurt, oh how it hurt, but I pushed through the pain. Because it was beautiful. The lands, the seas, the skies, the cities and villages. Even the monsters and the crystals that made them, in their own way. I had read stories of times when people thought the Apocalypse had come. All of them paled in comparison to the “true” Apocalypse, but even then, humanity persisted. It was my hope that we would come out of this stronger.

I stretched my senses further, denying through the burning pain in my head and blood and bones. I saw ice capped mountains, jungles with creatures who had never met a human in their lives, even my desert home, now abandoned but beautiful even in its rest. I hoped people could return there one day. I hoped my legacy would benefit humanity. I hoped Nasir and Badr would live good lives. The pain was actually getting less, now. I could see the sun peaking over the horizon, an ocean away. Such vast beauty, I could see such impossible things! I hoped-

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You have died as a Rank 2 Light Seer (Yin).