The shield, Vaela’s arm threaded through the handles, felt heavy. She held the vial of Shadow blood while her other hand raised her stick at Adyr. Surah’s back was almost touching hers, close enough to hear the increased tempo of his breathing.
Adyr prowled closer, her metal staff held in spear position, but no Ice Blade adorned the tip. Vaela stared down the weapon, hefting her shield slightly higher. No Ice Blade–great. If she got hit hard, she’d only get bones broken, instead of dying. Vaela walked her fingers to the end of her stick, moving her grip down. Her stick was still pitifully short compared to Adyr’s weapon. Her only chance would be using her shield to get in close enough. The shield or…
She pressed her thumb against the cork of the vial. If she could Harness the Shadow, could she be invulnerable like Hermit? She’d be able to drop the shield, using her own arm to block–staves, axes, Fire and Lightning? Maybe one day, but first she had to learn to control her Power. She fumbled against the vial, applying more pressure to the cork. Damn thing wouldn’t come loose. Adyr stepped closer, the tip of her staff only arms-length away from Vaela’s shield. Behind her, Surah shouted and charged Hermit. Adyr slid forward and jabbed her staff.
Vaela caught it on her shield with a clang. The vial fell from her hand.
“Shit!”
Adyr slammed her staff into the edge of the shield, knocking it away from Vaela’s body. Vaela wildly batted at Adyr’s staff with her stick. Adyr whipped it back, then abruptly snapped out of her fighting stance, standing tall. She stabbed the butt of her staff into the ground, eyes hard, and nodded to the vial in the grass. “Grab your weapon.”
A chill ran through Vaela at the hard edge in Adyr’s voice. Anger radiating down, directed at the blood, at Forging, at Vaela. She scooped the vial, clutching it to her chest. Didn’t Adyr know? She’d never split someone open, never bend them over an altar.
What had happened to Adyr in her time in the Church?
Vaela levered her thumb against the cork and it finally popped off. She raised it to her lips and Adyr looked away. Something had scarred the ex-priestess. Vaela held the vial poised at her lips. Shadow pulsed from the depths of the blood–not as strong as Hermit, but stronger than Timura. Her heart pounded and she forced her gorge down. This was the price of Power–someone else’s Sacrifice. She would honor it. Their pain would not be for nothing.
She threw back her head, emptying the contents of the vial into her mouth. Bitterness surged over her tongue for a split second before the rush of Shadow overwhelmed her senses. It flowed through her body and she reached for it. Harness it–she had to or it’d all be for nothing. The Shadow twisted away from her grasp, its texture almost oily. It writhed away and she wrestled for control. Timura’s blood had felt natural, almost willing. But this blood was foreign. She shuddered and steeled herself. The soul of this blood. She’d break it. Bend it to her will.
The vial dropped from her hand a second time, now empty. Vaela swiped a sleeve across her mouth, and hunched over, shoulders heaving. The Shadow flailed within her and she restrained it. Adyr walked up to Vaela until she stood a step away and peered into Vaela’s eyes. “I will not hold back.” The air chilled around her, her breath misting with every exhale. A hardness froze deep in her eyes–Cold.
Vaela tightened her grip on her shield. So Adyr wanted to be cold, be Cold itself, to her? Vaela stepped forward, closing the distance between them. Chill radiated from Adyr, a tangible hostility. As if to say, keep away. Don’t come closer.
Screw that. Vaela forced herself until she and Adyr were face to face, their lips almost touching. The cold wouldn’t keep her away. “Then we fight–to the breaking point.”
Adyr jerked her chin in a nod and they both stepped back. Vaela’s blood pounded so ferociously through her ears, she could hear nothing else. Fear twisted in her stomach and she raised her shield into place. Maybe one day she wouldn’t be afraid. The Shadow reared up and wrenched free of her control. Adyr leveled her staff at Vaela and rushed forward. Vaela grasped for the Shadow within her, but Adyr reached her first. The staff flew forward and Vaela flung the shield upward. The metal clanged against each other, the shock jolting up Vaela’s arm. She swiped with her stick, but Adyr was too far out of range.
Strike after strike rained down against Vaela’s shield–jabbing, ramming, probing. The staff whistled towards her head and she ducked behind her shield again, losing sight of Adyr. The staff rebounded off her calf and pain shot up Vaela’s leg. Vaela fell to one knee and raised the shield again. This time, Adyr’s staff caught the edge of it and Vaela’s arm was flung wide, exposing her body. Vaela stabbed her stick at Adyr, desperate to keep her back. Adyr knocked it aside and drew her staff back in a small backswing.
The tip gleamed in the afternoon sun, poised for just a moment before she’d bring it down into Vaela’s soft flesh. Vaela dropped her stick and covered her head. She reached for the Shadow. Her grasp on it was like a torn net, holes gaping where fear had gnawed through. The Shadow slipped away and Adyr’s stick smashed into Vaela’s forearm that covered her head. She shouted as pain burst into her arm. Her body curled down tighter and the staff slammed into her side, under her ribs. She gasped and fell to the ground on top of her shield, contorting around the pain. The tip of the staff dug into her neck, so hard it was crushing into her windpipe. Her shield arm was pinned by her own weight. With her free hand, she weakly grabbed at it and a boot kicked her hand away.
Don’t give in. She couldn’t…
Black spots dotted her vision as her chest burned. Air. Can’t breathe.
Can’t…
She raised a trembling hand up towards Adyr in defeat. The pressure at her throat disappeared and Vaela wheezed. She curled into a ball on the ground and clutched her throat with her free hand.
Weak. Pathetic.
As air flooded back into her lungs, the burning in her chest faded. The tightness of her throat remained, constricted by bitter disappointment. Adyr knelt in the grass beside her and reached for her shoulder. Vaela shoved upright and turned away. “I’m fine.” Her voice rasped out, hoarse with pain.
To the side, Surah took wild swings at Hermit with his branch. Hermit held his staff to his body, not bothering to use it to block. Instead, he glided out of the way, dodging each swipe with ease. After a few misses, his staff darted out and swept Surah’s feet from under him. Surah crashed to the ground and rolled to his feet, knife gone, but branch still clutched in his hands. He resumed his efforts to thwack Hermit.
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Adyr stepped around and sat in front of Vaela, staff across her lap. The Cold had left her eyes and she chewed her lip. “I-I’m sorry if I hurt you.”
Vaela swallowed hard and snatched her stick from the grass. “What’s your problem with my Power?” It came out harsher than she meant, her labored breathing stabbing the words out. “I was born with my Power, same as you.”
Adyr drew back and touched her right arm under the shoulder. “Maybe so, but Forging is far crueler.”
Vaela pounded a hand on her stick. “That’s like saying a knife is cruel. But it’s not. It’s the person who uses it.”
“It always requires blood. Always Sacrifice.”
“Yeah, well, sometimes it’s for good.”
Adyr inhaled sharply as if Vaela had slapped her. She blinked away tears and reached to her tunic’s neckline. She jerked it down over her right shoulder. “This could never be for good.” On her arm, horizontal scars descended in a neat row, as if someone had systematically carved notches into a stick. They extended further past where she’d pulled her shirt down, disappearing down her arm into the sleeve.
To where? All the way down her arm? How many cuts–and how many times had they been re-opened for them to scar like that?
Vaela dropped her stick and shield beside her and crawled over. Adyr’s breathing was shallow as she fought back tears. Vaela reached for her arm and Adyr hissed. Vaela pulled her hand back and looked up. Adyr adjusted her tunic back into place, eyes full of hurt. “How could that ever be good?”
Vaela wrung her hands, not knowing what to do with them. All she wanted was to wrap them around Adyr, comfort her. She couldn’t find the words to say. “You… you Sacrificed your blood though? Willingly?”
Adyr’s hands clenched her staff, knuckles white. “Yes. I didn’t dare not to.” She stared down at her hands, Ice slowly frosting the staff around them. “The Church always took. Took everything…” A tear fell to the staff, cutting through the Ice.
Everything. A lump formed in Vaela’s throat. How much had Adyr lost? More than blood, maybe.
Vaela pulled back her right sleeve, revealing the dark mark that trailed up her forearm. “I don’t want to use my Power to hurt people.” She raised her arm to her face, fingers tracing the mark. “For a moment–a single moment–I was able to use it to protect someone. Someone I cared about.” She hugged her arm to her chest and closed her eyes. A fluke. By all rights, she and Timura should both be dead. Crushed by her own weakness. For one moment, her body had been a shield against the malice of the world–and maybe never again.
Fingers brushed against her forearm and Vaela opened her eyes. Adyr leaned close, her fingers caressing Vaela’s mark. Their eyes met, faces so close, and Adyr’s expression softened. Her touch sent goosebumps up Vaela’s arm and tingling raced down her spine. Adyr’s fingers reached her elbow and she searched Vaela’s eyes. “Do you really think you could use it to defend people?” A longing haunted her expression, tinged with sadness. For one who’d devoted her life to a religion, she seemed so faithless. As if all her hope had been bled out of her.
How many times had Vaela felt that same melancholy? That the world was too large, too dark. Growing up, when her father had come into town, he’d sometimes see that expression on her face. And suddenly, he’d release a burst of brightness–a wild story that illuminated everything. Made the world’s largeness all the better to hold their laughter. Made its darkness all the more to hold their cozy secrets.
Vaela jumped to her feet, arms thrown wide. She pulled Adyr to her feet and pointed to the horizon. “I’ll have to be able to defend people. One day, I’ll be a great adventurer and face danger unlike what anyone has ever seen.” Adyr’s eyes widened and Vaela spun away from her. “I’ll go to lands no one has ever explored.” She swept a hand across the sky. “To the ends of Dome. To the very Peaks and back!” She whirled past Adyr and retrieved her stick. Adyr hung on her every move, face awed, lips slightly parted. Vaela swallowed a smirk and held her stick in front of Adyr’s face. “And I’ll do it all with just this. My sword.” She thrust her stick out, as if skewering an unseen foe, then raised her right arm overhead, mark on full display. “And my shield.”
Adyr glanced back at Vaela’s shield, still in the grass. Vaela laughed and faced her again “Not that. This.” She held out her arm. Adyr touched Vaela’s forearm, almost reverently.
That’s right. Today, she’d fallen. Madame Gavora’s shield had protected her from some of it, but one day, she would be the shield. Her own flesh and blood–the gates that held back pain that threatened to wash her friends away, the roof that sheltered them from the burning rain.
Today, she’d fallen. Today, she’d rise.
Tomorrow, she’d fall again. Why not?
Adyr traced her mark and Vaela stepped up to her. She raised her hand and touched the back of Adyr’s right hand. Her fingers trailed up Adyr’s forearm and approached her elbow. Adyr gasped and her body tensed. Vaela stared into her eyes–so full of hurt, a heart not cold enough to numb the pain away. Adyr cast her eyes down.
Maybe Adyr didn’t need to be warmer. Vaela just needed to be colder.
Yes. That was what she wanted. That if the world burned around her, she’d be shelter. And her own flesh and blood would bring a crystalline peace.
Adyr looked back up. Vaela slid her hand up her arm, palm cresting over the scars. She stepped forward, their bodies touching, and wrapped her arms fully around Adyr, pulling her close. Adyr pressed into Vaela, hugging her tightly.
Off to the side, out of sight, Hermit’s staff and Surah’s branch thwacked off each other. A loud thump was followed by an oomph. Vaela released Adyr and Adyr wiped her eyes. Vaela turned, giving her some privacy, but stayed close enough that their shoulders touched. In the field a dozen paces away, Surah laid in the grass, groaning. He clambered to his feet and used his branch to cane back to Vaela and Adyr.
Hermit’s Shadow lengthened and a Shadow Rabbit hopped in front of Surah. “Hey, where are you going?”
Surah slashed his stick through the Rabbit and kept walking. “I’m done! Finished! Defeated!” He stomped over to Vaela.
She clapped him on the shoulder with a grin. “Giving up already? What would you do if we got attacked?”
He brushed her hand off with a huff. “I suppose I’d die. And I’d be perfectly fine with that, thank you very much.”
Hermit joined them and leaned on his staff. “You just need some hard training and lots of practice.”
“What I need is a hot bath and a cold drink.” Surah glared at Hermit. “Why are we even doing one-on-one fights? If we want it to be realistic, all three of us would attack you. That’s what we’d do against Kaverlna.”
“Mmm, ol’ Inky isn’t the only one of the Twisted trying to cross.” Hermit wedged his staff between Vaela and Adyr and nudged them apart. “Cuddle time is over. Time for round two.”
Vaela slapped his staff away. “Will you give us a straight answer for once? Who else is trying to cross?” Not that she really believed all this nonsense about the Twisted and Created anyway. Still, she had to object on principle.
“Focus on fighting. I saw you get your ass kicked by blondie.”
Vaela grabbed Surah and pushed him towards Adyr. “You two spar together this round.” She stabbed her stick towards Hermit. “I’ll take care of this one.”
Surah scampered over to Adyr. “Gladly.” He poked his branch at her. “You wanna just blow this off and eat some food?”
She smiled, but then raised her staff. “We really should practice. Regular training is important.” Surah sighed and slunk off into the field with her.
Vaela grabbed her shield and pulled it on her arm. The Shadow still swirled within her, just out of grasp. She smacked her stick against the shield and snorted. One way or the other, she was going to wring the life outta some Shadow. She pointed her stick at Hermit. “You’re telling me about what’s really going on… even if I have to beat it out of you.” No, strike that. Because she beat it out of him.
He laughed and lowered his staff. “Alright. I’ll tell you who very well might be the ones to kill you.”