Authors: Rain Oxford
The scent of ice was masked by the scent of smoke.
“You will have to get used to it,” Emrys said.
It took me a moment to realize he was talking to me,
but I didn’t know what he meant that I had to get used to.
“What does the damage look like here?” Dylan asked.
I shifted my vision easily since my fire was already
active. Looking around, I could have whimpered for the pain I saw. Dull and
fuzzy shapes blurred with the sharp, glowing scars in every direction. I could
see it in the ice, through the ice, in the water, and in the sky. White light
spread in pulses like blood oozing from a scab that keeps being forced open.
Nominal energy floated around like wind, avoiding the scars, but sometimes it
would get too close and would be sucked in. The energy was subdued and sickly.
“Are people here getting sick?” I asked.
“Yes, the magic is poisoning all of us. The more we
use our magic, the more ill we become,” said a new voice. Focusing on an open
wound in the ground, I hadn’t realized someone had joined us. I turned to find a
beautiful aura, shining light blue mixed with a little dark blue and some light
green. This was an extremely calm person who could keep her reason throughout
anything. I let my eyes return to normal and found the girl to be nearly as
pretty as her aura.
While definitely a woman, she still had a softness
about her and a complete innocence in her face. Her eyes were as blue as could
be; a mixture of light and dark just like in her aura. She had shoulder length,
light brown hair. The dress she wore was dark blue and fitted her perfectly.
She was also barefoot, standing on ice like it was wood.
She smiled. “I like the blue and purple much more
than the black.”
I looked away; I hated when people noticed my eyes.
“I am sorry if I embarrassed you. My name is Deona.”
She spoke Sudo, but with a very strong accent.
“I am Mordon. This is Dylan and Samhail.”
“Deona is my daughter,” Emrys included helpfully. “I
have been teaching her the languages of other worlds so that she may be a
diplomat.”
“That is completely my choice, of course,” she said.
“He thinks it would be too boring and I should be an explorer or a toy-maker.”
Sammy squirmed in my arms until he could look at the woman upside down. This
caused Deona to giggle.
“How many people have died because of the magic?”
Dylan asked.
“Ten that we know of so far, but they are all in the
air tribe. The water tribe is very resilient. However, our women have stopped
reproducing and our children are suffering the most. They are no longer allowed
to use magic, but that only slows their deterioration because we must use magic
to live.”
“I feel like the world is in pain and is reaching for
me, but can’t find me.”
“It is,” Emrys said. You need to use water magic to
heal the damage.”
“How?” he asked. Deona waved her hand and water was
formed in midair, only to sling at Dylan. He held his hand up, but the water
just hit him in the face. He looked startled. “Do that again.” She did and it
splashed him in the face again. “My energy isn’t working like it should. I have
never
had trouble controlling water.”
“The water here is a little different than on Duran,”
Emrys said.
Dylan shook his head. “That’s not it. This makes me
itchy inside. Mordon, what do I look like?” he asked in English.
“You don’t want me to answer that,” I teased. Sammy
rammed his head into my chest and I thought he cracked something. It took a few
minutes to catch my breath.
“Look at Dada!” he demanded.
I shifted my eyes back and studied Dylan. Something
was definitely wrong. Most of the blue nominal energy was moving around Dylan
like his skin was a barrier. “You are only getting a little bit of energy. Try
drawing more in.”
“I am. I feel it inside, but it doesn’t want to
obey.”
There was still little increase of the blue energy.
However, his green energy looked fine. “Use the god energy. That is normal.” I
let my eyes shift back.
“I never used it for something as simple as water
before. Try it again,” he said to Deona.
For the third time, she drew water and flung it at him.
This time, he made a jerking movement with his hand before the water exploded
into vapor in front of him.
We all just watched slack-jawed for a minute.
“Oops,” he said.
“You have to be gentler with water. Water wants to
please, but you have to be gentle and calm,” Deona insisted.
“I know, and with nominal energy, I can do that. God
energy wants to do whatever it wants, and that is apparently to blow up water.”
Seeing as how the edge of the ice was only a few
steps away, I easily drew water out of the ocean. For most wizards, water was
the first lesson in magic. It was always the hardest element for me, but still
a basic skill. I formed a small water-ball and threw it hard at Dylan, hitting
him in the face with cold saltwater. He glared at me and was hit with a second
one.
“I didn’t do that one!” I said. I looked at Emrys,
but he shook his head. Sammy giggled and raised his hand. More water rose out
of the ocean. This one formed a ball and hit Emrys on the face.
“See what you did? You taught him to hit people with
water!” Dylan groused. “Hitting is wrong, Sammy.”
The baby giggled and hid his face.
“I didn’t teach him anything; I just did it.”
“He learned it by watching you and feeling your shift
in energy,” Emrys said. Dylan glared at me again, with proof that it was my
fault. So I tried to hit Emrys in the face with another ball of water, but he
blocked it.
“Hitting is wrong, Mama,” Sammy said, exactly like
Dylan had.
Dylan now had a big smile on his face and I groaned.
* * *
It took several tries before Dylan could calm down
and use his god energy to block his face without making the water explode.
Deona tried to convince him he should get in the water to connect with it, but
he wasn’t having it.
Even after he could block the water from his face, he
couldn’t control the actual water. After a while, Deona left to find dinner,
which shocked Dylan and me as she dived into the water and didn’t return. Emrys
explained that the people of this tribe could breathe both on land and under
water, then went into the castle to get us some warmer clothes, leaving us
reeling.
Dylan was shivering pretty badly.
“What are you missing?” I asked. “Why are you having
so much trouble?”
“Because it’s like I have to completely relearn how
to use magic. My regular energy won’t work and the new magic doesn’t work the
same way.”
“It doesn’t?” He sighed with frustration, which was
his problem. He had told me how he originally learned to control water. “Push
all the nominal energy you have out. Drain it all.” He looked at me like I was
crazy. “Do it.” He closed his eyes and I felt his energy drain. “Clear your
mind, close your eyes, and listen to your breathing. Just sit there and
listen.” After about five minutes, just before I lost him to his short
attention span, I moved around to his side. “Open your eyes, keep your mind
clear, and slowly take off your boots. Think only of your boots.” He did.
“Stick your feet in the water, just like you had that day in the springs.”
“It’s cold,” he complained, sticking his feet in
anyway.
“Too bad. Think of it as really cold fish pee.”
He shivered violently. “Dead fish pee.” As naturally
as a reflex, all of the water rushed away from his feet as if there were a
clear bubble around them. “Yay! I controlled the fish pee!”
Sammy squealed with baby giggles. Dylan got up and
hopped up and down, trying to get his socks back on while stepping on ice. He
got them and his boots on just as Emrys was coming back. He handed Dylan and I
a couple of sweaters, both blue, and an orange blanket for Sammy.
“Dylan was able to control the water,” I said.
“Great. Then he should now be able to heal this tribe
just like he did for Vaigda. But only this tribe for now. There is too much
damage for you to heal at once.”
As Dylan sat down and started his thing, I shifted my
eyes to watch and make sure the world’s magic didn’t hurt him. I could see the
magic of the tribe respond cautiously to his magic. His energy didn’t even
hesitate to take over, washing healing magic over everything. The scars
disappeared slowly at first, then quicker until the space and time looked good
as new.
Dylan slowed his energy flow until he could stop
completely with no backlash. I shifted my eyes back as he opened his. “Did I
get it all?” he asked, panting slightly. His breath was making puffs in the
frigid air.
“Yes, you healed everything I can see.”
He wasn’t standing fully when Emrys shouted for me to
catch him. Dylan’s eyes were closed and he was hitting the ice before Emrys
could finish his warning. I caught Dylan’s arm before he slipped into the
water. Sammy started struggling to get down, but as he was barefoot, I was not
letting him anywhere near the ice.
“The gods have to stop doing this or give him a
warning because they will give him a concussion.”
“That was poor timing on Tiamat’s part, I believe,”
Emrys said.
* * *
Emrys picked Dylan up and we all went inside the ice
castle. Sheltering us from the cold wind, it was actually warmer inside the walls
of ice than out. Despite me continuously heating myself and Sammy, the ice did
not threaten to melt. The castle was sparsely decorated with wooden and glass
furniture, as well as lanterns. Emrys explained that the water tribe felt that
it was impure to use anything other than water to survive, but it was also
against their religion to reject gifts. As every tribe in the world relied on
water to live, they received many gifts.
One such gift was a bed of furs, which Emrys laid
Dylan on. It was very creepy how limp and lifeless Dylan was when the gods were
talking to him. It was like the majority of his soul was missing, and only
enough to keep him breathing and his heart beating remained.
“Is this a castle of some kind, or an average
building?” I asked.
Emrys shrugged. “This is the normal structure for the
water tribe. The people here come and go anywhere above the water and practice
their water magic. It is similar to a large family in that they are all
familiar and share everything. They are very territorial in the water, though.
Underwater, they each have a large territory and will not let anyone enter,
even a mate. Any socializing is done above the water. They are welcome to cross
each other’s territory by creating a bridge above the water, but one foot in
the waters of another’s home and they will have to fight for their life. This
includes outsiders. Many have fallen because of their uneven footing on the ice
and were eaten. That is why I said that Tiamat had poor timing, because in the
water, even Dylan would be killed.
“What if you fell into Deona’s water?”
“Then I would have to either die or kill her.”
I really didn’t like this culture. As I was pondering
this, Deona and another woman entered. No rooms in the building were divided by
doors, so they entered silently. Deona carried a woven straw basket and I could
smell the raw fish that it held. The other woman was similar in appearance, but
had slightly darker hair and eyes and was marginally taller.
“This is my sister, Mayra.”
Mayra gave me a short bow and turned her full
attention to Emrys. She gave him a greeting in her language, which sounded like
nothing I had ever heard before. He returned the greeting but looked slightly
uncomfortable. “Mayra is related to Deona only by their mother,” he said.
It made sense that Mayra was unrelated to Emrys when
she settled up to his side and wrapped his arm around her. She was obviously
unwelcome, but Emrys made no move to get away. He did have a very uncomfortable
expression on his face, which she ignored.
Apparently, the women of the water got men by being
extremely pushy. “Does it bother you that the women choose their mates here?”
Deona asked me as I stared at the very unhappy Guardian.
“I guess not. Dylan’s girlfriend has her moments. Any
woman does, I suppose.”
“Good,” she said. She set down the basket and grabbed
my arm to pull me towards her, but instantly let go with a yelp of pain.
Her skin had felt like ice. Her hand was red as she
shook it and held it close.
Burns.
My skin had burned hers on contact. I
shrugged, not really feeling sorry for her. Just because Dylan liked his women
pushy didn’t mean I did. “I guess we’re not compatible.”
Sammy giggled.
“A dragon child and a water tribe? Deona, did you
expect that to work?” Emrys asked.
“I did not know he was made from fire,” she argued.
I dug into the baby bag to find Sammy’s shoes and
then let him down when they were on. He was so excited to get down, he ran
around in a circle. Then he stopped, frowned, and held up his arms. I started
to lean down when I remembered we were trying to get him to talk.
He got it, but said something garbled. It didn’t
quite sound like baby garble, but it was definitely not English or Sudo.
“What is that?” I asked him.
He frowned and shook his head.
“He has learned the Enochian language, the language
of the gods. I would teach him not to speak it if I were you; there is a lot of
magic in it,” Emrys said.
I would have to talk to Dylan about it later.
“English, Sammy.”
“I want up. Too cold,” he said, not in English but in
Sudo.
I sighed; Vivian was going to beat me with a stick
when she found her bilingual baby refusing to speak English. I picked him up
and he kicked off his shoes. I guess he was telling me not to put him back
down. He smiled when I frowned with disapproval.