Kichi ran over to Ema and almost knocked her over. “You’re okay.”
“Yeah, I feel fine.”
How was that possible? Hisa had privately said that Ema would likely not survive, but there was no sign that she’d struggled for her life. There was a glow and energy to her.
Bin jumped onto Ema and scrambled. Ema hugged the little body. “We grew to be good friends while Bin watched after me. Now that we’re all together, everything will turn around.”
Masahide studied the chains tying Whitebeard to the floor. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“He is where he needs to be,” Kichi said. “Gon doens’t look good. Let’s bring him to Hisa.”
The chains rattled, and Whitebeard looked up. “You can’t. They’ve laid a trap for you, so prepare yourselves.”
On the dais, a small wind devil spun and revealed two men. One was Tsunekatsu of Marstonic, whose tattooed arms extended from a torn sleeveless shirt and his braid whipped.
The other was the lute player Kichi heard playing at the arena. His face was painted half red and half blue.
“Why are you here?” Masahide said.
The grin on Tsunekatsu’s face showed teeth. “I’m doing this so I can fight Hisa. She’s rejected me for too long.”
Kichi stifled a laugh and looked to the others. “He can’t be serious.”
“I’m dead serious. No one else is a challenge.”
Kichi glanced at the minstrel. “What are you doing here?”
“My motivations are a little more complex. For one, no one understands the importance of the pentatonic scale. Do you think it’s happenstance that the sharps and flats of a key just so happen to comprise those five tones? Or that the chords and their agreeable extensions, both major and minor, fall upon their respective pentatonic? Or that music found inside and outside the realm all use these intervals in common? Preposterous. And my other reason is that I foretold I would die at twenty-seven, and the Duke has promised me a delightful life even if it will be short.”
Masahide drew his sword. “You’re both maniacs.”
Kich produced the pure sword and stood by Masahide’s sword, creating a barrier between the aggressors and their unarmed friends. However, the knight and minstrel made no move to attack.
Tsunekatsu called a wind again, and its swirling dissolved their form. It was a way to become invisible. “Behind the throne is a passageway. If you survive, follow it and face me. I’ll be waiting.”
The minstrel vanished, too, but first, he plucked an eerie dirge. Many eyes blinked open about the gloom of the vaulted ceiling.
What came next dropped Kichi’s heart into her stomach. Four vesters descended and caught themselves with a beat of batlike wings. And two hinagons crashed to the floor, bending knees to absorb the impact of their weight.
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Masahide went back to back with Kichi as enemies surrounded. “We’ll have to use the Firequake tandem attack. Are you ready?”
“Yes,” she said, digging for the four marble stones she always carried. “But what if it brings the whole place down on us?”
“I don’t know what else to do.”
The marbles glowed and streaked through the air. Kichi felt Masahide seize control of the magic and intertwine it with his own. What would happen if one resisted letting go? More importantly, could one try to take control of another’s magic by force? She had no time to mull it over as the vesters swooped.
Ema raised an arm and ducked away from talons reaching for her. “If you don’t want to bring down the hall, I might be able to help.”
How would Ema help? Kichi hoped she wouldn’t get herself killed trying something desperate.
Instead, Ema closed her eyes and put her hands flat against each other. Behind the red glowing marbles, the background warped, like everything had been woven in a tapestry and now it ripped. The hall vanished fifty feet in every direction and was replaced by the tower that had held her.
Sometimes, the floor under their feet turned to open air with the arena far below, yet they didn’t fall. The dark room flashed to the afternoon sun and back. The vesters crossed their arms over their faces when the light struck. The hinagons panicked and ran. One fell through the floor and to its death.
Masahide shook the side of the cliff, and the tower collapsed. The stones that made it up turned red and melted. He flung his arm back, and the molten rock followed and transformed into a whip. The lash severed the creatures wherever it found them. One fell in half, and the others fell in a shower of limbs.
The black hall became solid again, and the bodies of three vesters and a hinagon hit the ground with a wet slap. The missing two had been left with the destroyed tower.
Ema extended a hand and a vester decayed. The power must have hit her as she stumbled back and let out a groan.
Kichi was close enough to catch her. “Where did you get all that power?”
“I was told to hide it long ago, and I did so for so long it’s like it wasn’t even there. But I just know it’s time to be myself now.”
“Let us cleanse the rest of these,” Masahide said, and he went to work absorbing vast amounts of spirit energy.
Whitebeard jangled his chains. “What are you doing? It’s dangerous.”
A hinagon and a vester filled Masahide’s blade. The hinagon alone was more than any one knight should absorb. “I was taught to live with one foot in life and one in death.”
“That leaves a whole vester for me,” Kichi said.
“You can do it,” Madahide said. “The trick is to stay conscious. No matter what, don’t close your eyes.”
Whitebeard dropped his head and shook his head. “The path to forty-seven rings should be tread carefully. But Masahde is not without wisdom. Do as you will.”
Kichi didn’t want another vester in this world, so she made up her mind and stabbed into it. There was so much power. The beasts around the castle were all so powerful, and it made little sense unless the Duke was gathering them. Akitomo must be worse than she’d ever imagined anyone being.
The surge in energy washed her away in a torrent. Keep my eyes open? Did it matter if she saw nothing but a light show? Her sense of self dwindled until she felt as insignificant as an ant. She could have been one with everything, or everything dwarfed her until it didn’t matter if she let go. Like a statue in the sand, she could let it wash over her and leave nothing. My eyes are open!
The vester was gone, but Kichi was still there. She stumbled and found herself close to Whitebeard. “I did it.”
“Well done,” Whitebeard said. “Now go after Tsunekatsu. It’s time to show your enemies how strong you are together.”
Kichi
Level: 12
Focus: Prescience
Secondary focus: Lava+3
Weapons: pure sword - 5% pure
Items: Near Field Amulet (Prescience+2, focus)