And...that was the end of that. Dad butted in. “How’s the training going with your brothers, Nathanael?”
“On that front, it’s been good. We might have discovered something about Joshua. It looks like he might be able to bend shadows to conceal himself.”
Nathanael dipped a bit of chicken in some gravy and shoved it in his mouth. All eyes were on him, especially Dad’s.
“How did you find out?”
Nathanael swallowed what was in his mouth before answering, “Well, he was standing next to Job as they did a one-on-one attack...” He looked at me and waved his fork between us. “That’s when they gang up on me, basically.” He took a drink of water. “Anyway, one second he was there, the next he was gone and beside me. That’s what he’s been working on.”
Again I was confused. “Hello! Can someone tell me exactly what ‘bending shadows’ means?”
Dad intervened, “It gives him the ability to move around without being detected. He can jump in front of someone to protect them without anyone seeing him get there.”
Nathanael swallowed again. “But only for a few seconds at a time, at this point.”
“Anything with Job?” Dad inquired.
“No, nothing.”
After they were all filled in, the conversation became lighter. They all wanted to know how the graduation plans were going. At first I hesitated, afraid to say anything in front of Nathanael. But he squeezed my hand and said, “I’ve missed too much already, tell us.”
With that I became a blathering fool and during the whole rest of the meal I talked. Everyone hung onto my every word and, quite frankly, I didn’t care because it was my birthday. They were going to listen, darn it!
Eventually, even the fact I was the birthday girl no longer worked. They kicked me and Nathanael out for our walk. We stepped out and I could feel the warmth of the breeze as it sidestepped around me.
We held hands as we made our way down the street. He pointed at one of the old houses at the end of the block that needed so much work. “That place would be so beautiful.”
“Yeah, I know. Mr. Grimbles’ family has owned it since it was built. He’s lived in it his whole life. He and Mrs. Grimbles raised their family in that house, but when Mrs. Grimbles died a few years ago, the kids stopped coming around. I heard there was a big falling out over her estate between him and them. He’s got to be close to ninety years old and he can’t keep the place up. Look how huge it is.”
“That’s too bad. He could hire someone?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think he has much money. Mom usually gets his groceries when she buys ours, though he offers to pay her, she never takes his money. She always tells him to use it when he has a date.”
Nathanael chuckled and I giggled.
“It always makes him blush. I used to visit with him when he sat on his front porch. I don’t know why his kids don’t like him, he’s a nice man.”
It made my heart sad thinking about it.
Mr. Grimbles came out the front door just as we were passing. “Hi, Saydi,” he said waving.
We stopped. “Hi, Mr. Grimbles. How are you?”
“Good, good. Now who’s this strapping young man who has the hand of my true love?” he teased.
“This is Nathanael.”
Nathanael jogged up the walk and stretched his hand out as he went up the steps. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Grimbles.”
Mr. Grimbles eyeballed him, then chuckled, shaking his hand. “You be good to her or I’ll throttle you with my cane,” he threatened, waving it a little too close to Nathanael’s face. He had to lean away.
“You got it, sir, couldn’t be anything but with Saydi around.”
“Good, good. Now go on, take your girl for that walk.”
Nathanael bounced down the steps and came to my side. “Thank you, Mr. Grimbles. It was nice meeting you.” Nathanael waved.
“Yes, yes,” Mr. Grimbles said, sitting in his rocking chair.
“He does seem like a nice man,” Nathanael reiterated.
“He is.”
~ * ~
We ended up at the swimming hole, throwing rocks.
“I’m going to try and catch up on everything I should know by now. If it weren’t for my horrible behavior...” he stumbled. “Anyway...”
I giggled. “Okay.”
“Have you ever wanted to move to the city?” he asked.
“My whole life.”
He skipped a rock across the full length of the swimming hole. “Why?”
“You tell me? I can’t believe you haven’t gone stir crazy here.”
He chuckled. “If you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of drama being around you.”
That made me laugh. “Yeah, I guess.”
“No. I work in the City and I never noticed it when we were in Victoria, but now the noise, the people, it gets to me. I can’t wait to come home to the peace and quiet.” He pecked my temple. “Hopefully, I’ll have lots to come home to.”
My heart did cartwheels at the realization that he did love me truly. “You have lots to come home to,” I confirmed for him.
His whole face smiled as he paused before throwing another rock, and gazed in my eyes. “Good.” Then he chucked the rock. “How many babies do you want?”
I snapped my head at him.
Directing his attention back to me, he pressed, “What? Don’t look so surprised. I’m curious.”
My heart thumped hard as he took a sideways look toward it with a grin on his face. And to make things juicy, I said casually, “Twenty.”
His hand stopped mid throw as he slowly pivoted his head. The look on his face was pure terror.
I laughed. “A couple or three,” I reassured him, easing his pain.
He let out his breath. “Thank you. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make enough money for twenty.”
It gave me goose bumps talking with him about our future and knowing we had one together.
“What kind of wedding do you want?” he continued.
I looked at him from the corner of my eye, suspicious. “I don’t know.”
He chuckled. “Don’t tell me you haven’t had it planned your whole life, right down to the napkin rings?”
“Well, maybe some,” I had to admit.
“Tell me, so I know how much money I have to save.” He threw another rock in the water.
I giggled and my face grew hot. “I don’t want a big one. Just family and close friends. My side will only be Mom and Dad...” I gave him a half smile, being goofy. “...And the town.”
He hung his head low. “I’m going to have to work twenty-four seven,” he whined.
We eventually sat on the very cool grass and talked through everything that had happened, making sure we both knew how the other felt and what was going through our heads. As it turned out, we both had assumed all the wrong things about each of our reactions. We were madly in love.
Nathanael stayed focused, but requested of his dad that he lighten up on his schedule with his brothers. He wasn’t making any progress with my Spirit Light being away from me. Mr. Braxton agreed and gave him breathing room.
My ability to use the wind and water expanded. Just as Zack predicted, the wind was at my command for miles when I needed it, or it could be as small as a toothpick. It took time, but by using both my hands and mind, my mind grew to be the stronger commander and was able to control wind and water with precision. With fire I needed to use my hands, but I was agile with it.
One thing that kept evading me, something I couldn’t master, was one-on-one combat with Nathanael. I simply couldn’t bring myself to attack him. We’d fly through the air, both of us poised in attack position, and the second I got near him, I’d pull back and blow past him, not throwing one punch.
“All right, are you ready?” he called from the other side of the mine.
Though I nodded, my insides were all tied up.
“Okay, I’m not going to count this time. You need to feel when I’m going to jump.”
Our focus was engaged on each other tightly, and I peeled away my emotion, listening for his heart beat and breathing. Aha! A split second before he was going to leap, his heart beat quickly twice. He launched into the air, I right with him. We both crouched with our hands poised to grab the neck. The closer we got to each other, the more my tummy turned.
“Saydi! I’m the enemy!” he yelled, frustrated.
I pulled my arms in and tried to veer off to the side. He grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me around—it startled me. My automatic defense was to kick—a direct hit to his groin.
A blood curdling scream filled the cavern as he buckled, holding himself, landing on the ground with a thud.
The second my feet hit the ground, I was on my knees beside him. “Oh my God! Nathanael, are you all right? Please!”
It was real how much it hurt him; he was rolling back and forth with his knees at his chest, hands cupping himself. The groaning was intense.
I scrunched up my face, watching his agony with only one eye open. I reached out to touch his shoulder. “Nathanael, are you okay?”
The voice was like sand and forced. “Give me...another minute.”
“I’m so sorry!” I moved my hands all around him, wanting to touch him, to sooth him, but I was scared it would hurt him more.
After a minute or two, the rolling subsided and he lay on his side not facing me, but still curled up, whimpering a bit.
Putting my hands on his arm, I peeked over at him. “Are you okay?”
He nodded, eyes still closed, with tears squeezing out of them. “It hurts badly enough getting hit in the nards by a regular person, never mind someone with the power of a Tov.”
I pushed the hair away from his face and kissed his cheek. “I’m so sorry.”
“Oh, you are going to be sorry. You’ll be lucky to get half a baby out of me now.” He slightly chuckled.
Giggling, I rested my lips on his ear. “We can adopt.”
He outright laughed and when he did, he yanked his knees up tighter. “Ahh! Don’t make me laugh!”
“Well, we now know what will happen to the Pyre if we have air-to-air combat.”
Again laughter rang out, followed by pain. “Stop it!” He rolled again. “I almost feel sorry for them.”
“For who, your nards or the Pyre?” I goofily asked.
He growled in agony while he laughed.
When he recovered, we decided to move to a safer line of training—rocks. Not just normal rock deflection, but the other thing that evaded me, such as controlling them once my Pue had them in its grasp.
Nathanael put the palms of his hands on my cheeks and gazed deeply in my eyes. “Concentrate.”
Before I finished nodding in agreement, he was on the other side of the mine again with his shirt off. “Okay, are you ready?” he called.
I nodded. The idea was for me to intercept the rocks and make sure they got to their intended target, should Joshua or some other Pyre manage to throw them back. We liked to call it our sneak attack. If only I could do it.
Again, Nathanael was in the air just above the ridge and came down so fast his fist crashed into a boulder, smashing it. Hundreds of basketball and baseball-sized rocks came at me. “Concentrate!” Nathanael urged.
The Pue infiltrated my mind, allowing me to envision what I wanted to happen. With agility, it flowed through the throng of rocks, sweeping them together and then followed my direction, moving behind me. In a flash, they changed direction, spinning end over end—rushing toward Nathanael.
Before the bunch reached him, a further vision had the Pue rushing through the middle of the tightly knitted grouping, pushing against each side until it created two secure clusters. With a thought, I directed them to change course and fall back behind me again. Throwing my arms forward gave strength to the launch. Both sets catapulted toward Nathanael and a split second later I flung my arms out to the side. The clusters veered off, going around him and with accuracy they thundered against the cavern walls, disintegrating on contact.
The Pue released and quickly made its way back, cascading above me, waiting for the next command. I jumped up and down. “I did it! I did it!”
From across the compound, Nathanael had his arms crossed with a huge smirk on his face. “What was that?”
A split second later, I was bundled in his arms, with his lips on mine.
~ * ~
Nathanael never forgot to make alone time with me that didn’t include training, but our priority always remained the training. My Magisters also worked extremely closely with both of us, even teaching Nathanael some new tricks. He was also able to gain some important insight into what they could do, learning what strengths they had and how to work with them.
Mora: She could read emotions and body language, absorb light and electrical particles as well as turn water to ice.
Dad: Of course, he commanded the wind, water, sky, and he could bend night particles; the earth was considered his weaker trait, yet was stronger than Nathanael in that area...and not to mention Dad’s hell fire; it was a fire he could produce from thin air that wrapped around what he’d throw it at, not releasing nor burning it. It could protect what it encased from being attacked or it could hold someone, like in a jail cell, not allowing it to be penetrated.