When Water Burns

[Karuka]

Closed to Breaker. Bunnies approved.

Bright sunshine played through fluffy clouds and skipped on waves along the southern Corone coast, providing a pleasant warmth to all who walked under it. The scents of salt, kelp and fish wafted through the breeze, promising the ocean’s bounty to all who could lift their noses to take in the air. A small fishing village, tucked into a cozy little cove at the bottom of a cliff, hummed and murmured with contentment.

It was not for contentment that the redhead standing at the top of the cliff, easily two hundred feet above the town, had come. In Underwood, the scents of smoke and the sounds of screams had shattered an otherwise pleasant visit and prompted the seer to run for the coast. “Did we get th’ wrong town, Taodoine?”

The phoenix on Karuka’s shoulder gave no answer, scanning the sky with an implacable indifference. “Some help you are. It looks th’ same town. Maybe we’re early, for once. We have a day or two, maybe, it seems.”

Bright blue eyes turned skyward as well, trying to probe into the future to find what she had missed, but nothing unraveled from the tapestry of time to thread its way through her thoughts. Either the Norns had nothing to tell her or there was something in the area interfering with her ability to See.

She looked down once more, trying to find the source of the interference; the future was too a noisy beast to be utterly silent. Roughly a mile from the town, a group of people trained, weaving arcane energies in an intense and focused practice.

Ah. Mystics. She’d have her Sight back within a few hours, then. Karuka picked up her spear and looked at her companion.

“What do y’ think, Taodoine? Shall we go see what’s happenin’ here?” A good-natured chirrup of agreement turned into an agitated squawk when the woman turned and started walking away from the cliff, and then into a scream of aggravation when the phoenix was unceremoniously tossed into the air.

The golden-skinned woman bolted for the cliff, shoving off of the edge with well-muscled legs. Strong talons gripped the vlince of her shirt before she could fall too far, and massive wings churned the air around her, carrying her a few more yards. The grip released abruptly and she fell from the sky like an angel from heaven, watching the ground race faster and faster for her slender body.

At thirty feet up, she brought her staff forward and braced her hands in a V at either side of it. Blue eyes burned gold, a red streak fell from the sky behind her, and a thin protective shield shimmered into place in front of her.

At ten feet off the ground, talons grabbed vlince once more, powerful wings thundering around her ears and sharp pinions stinging her face as the magnificent Fallinese raptor worked to slow her descent.

Between bird and barrier, she landed lightly on her feet, hardly a hair out of place. “See, Taodoine? That wasn’t so bad.”

He shook and grumbled, and she laughed, tugging her breastplate back down and starting down the path to the Mystic camp. What were they up to?

[Breaker]

"Mystics, duck and cover!" Twenty youths with the colors of the rainbow in their eyes responded feverishly. They threw themselves into shallow trenches and hollows or tumbled behind fallen tree trunks, raising wooden round shields as they shrank behind cover.

Joshua 'Breaker' Cronen glanced away from the ice sculpture floating above his head and surveyed the field of battle - the farm as his Mystic trainees knew it. Breaker's patented black metal boots stepped lightly across the sagging thatch roof of the single story house as he turned a quick circle, taking in his opponents at a glance. It was the mindset of battle that he needed to teach these younglings if they were to help him win the Gisela Open. The score of Mystics surrounding him represented the most skilled magic wielders from a unit a hundred strong Sei Orlouge had offered to bolster Breaker's army. Their arcane arts showed promise but they lacked experience in pitched combat.

Breaker could provide that single-handed.

"Shields up!" The Ixian Knight's Chief Investigator called, catching a couple of blue haired teens looking rather than guarding. They wouldn't always get such a warning on the battlefield, but he had weeks yet to train them.

The intricate ice sculpture above his head unfolded in a sudden shower of sparkling shavings. What looked like a carved rose revealed itself as a bristling nest of flachette darts. With a whisper like a sword leaving its scabbard a hundred icy missiles sped off in all directions.

Josh found himself cackling at the madness of the moment and the effort of controlling so many flight patterns at once. He pivoted across the creaking rooftop, watching carefully so as not to kill any of his charges.

A mere handful of flanged darts descended on the blue haired pair he'd chastised. They were brother and sister separated by a year, and the youngest of the score. They flattened themselves and scooted beneath a rotting tree trunk, sealing the gap with leather-wrapped shields.

The rest of the icy missiles split four ways and swarmed further afield. The rest of the Mystics had taken cover in the broken up fields where corn and rye once grew. The darts banked cleverly and assaulted from four angles but the trainees worked well together, using small shield formations to reduce the darts to crystalline powder.

"Advance!" Cronen roared as he conjured another growing ice rose above his head.

Shadow magic gathered and pooled out in the fields, and a matching portal sprang to life above the farmhouses's southern limit. Mystics poured through two at a time with arcane energy swelling around them.

A pair of twin sisters with opalescent hair and eyes landed on the thatch. They crouched behind their shields and advanced in tandem, raising cudgels and preparing defensive enchantments.

Two darts split off from the blooming ice flower and flew at their feet. They sidestepped as one and skirted the assault, needlessly casting spells that melted the darts before they could splinter the thatch.

Josh thrust out his palms and swept the opalescent sisters off the rooftop with a gust of air. They landed heavily on stacked sandbags the troops used for physical training, winded but otherwise unhurt.

A second portal opened above the farmhouse's northern limit and a half dozen fighters poured through. To the south the last ten had arranged themselves in a modified turtle formation, and suddenly shield walls pressed Breaker from both sides. He could see only flashes of stylized clothing, crazily colored hair, and eyes that glimmered with intent as the Mystics closed quarters.

The shimmering ice flower descended around Breaker from above. A crownlike helm floated just over his head the while rest of the mass formed a bulky suit of armor ringed with razor ridges and spikes.

They fell on him with shields upraised and cudgels smashing down. His armor shattered away in flecks and showers but he moved amongst them as if weightless. A trip here, a shove there, and soon Breaker stood alone again save for a single blue haired youth.

The young woman stood at the corner of the thatch, hand upraised in a swarm of mana as if maintaining a portal. But where was her brother, and for that matter the portal... he sensed the shadowy opening above too late, heard the sharp intake of breath as the blue haired boy landed on his shoulders and knocked off what was left of his helm. A slender palm tagged the top of his close cropped brown hair.

"Gotcha," the Mystic cried triumphantly, "we win!"

Josh lifted the boy down and stepped through a portal his sister provided, arriving back on the hard dirt outside the farmhouse amidst raucous cheers.

"And it only took us a week to beat you," Tayla said with some sauce as she let the portal wink out of sight. She tossed her long navy hair over one shoulder and leaned her shield and cudgel against an aging oak log wall.

"Better now than never," her brother Tayron quipped, tossing blue bangs out of matching eyes and sprawling in the shade to stretch.

"You're learning quickly, all of you." Josh said generously as the trainees stowed their gear and those who practiced light magic wove healing for those in need. "Perhaps soon we will escalate to the next level. You'll have to knock me off the roof rather than make physical contact."

The Mystics grumbled and joked about their likelihood of success but appeared elated overall, clasping forearms and slapping one another on the back, even going so far as to hoist Tayron high for a chorus of "What a Marvelous Mystic", their favored victory song.

"Enough of that now," Breaker chided as the revelry found a natural lull, "to your chores, troops."

The blue haired siblings and the opalescent sisters had drawn dinner duty so they filed through the squeaking oaken door to stoke the cookfires. The others spread out toward the fringe of the forest to gather wood or check the snares they'd set along game trails in the past week. A young female with green hair down to her waist meandered through the only salvageable soil they'd found on the overrun farm, checking her kale and cherry tomato plants with care.

Josh cracked his jaw and spread his arms to the sunny sky, taking in the fresh forest air and warmth. Perhaps they'd run to the ocean that afternoon and find out how far Mystics could swim.

[Karuka]

Karuka watched the last minute or so of the exercise from the cover of some foliage just before the trail ended and the training grounds began. Twenty Mystic students, ranging from just under twenty to just about twenty-five, it looked like, plied their arts defensively and offensively. Karu knew these sorts of sessions, had participated in and taught some herself, far away and not so long ago.

Granted, she’d been a horrible teacher of mages and seers; her own powers came to her more as instinct than as anything formally trained.

She found her opportunity to approach when the pupils scattered, leaving their trainer alone and less than fully aware.

“Teachin’ formally now, Josh Cronen?” Many years before, in a Citadel match, he’d been an unwitting (perhaps unwilling) teacher for her, when she’d first picked up the daggers on her hips. She’d learned a lot from that battle, mostly in the form of pain, and then turned down an opportunity for real, formal training when he offered it afterward.

That had been a long, long time ago, and time had changed both the man and the woman.

Josh turned abruptly; his senses were supernaturally keen, how he had not recognized the approach was a little worrisome. Still, he smiled warmly at the dark-skinned redhead who had crashed his lessons.

“Very formally.” He jerked a thumb to the ramshackle farmhouse and barn that served as mess and barracks for his score of mystic students. “Welcome, Karuka Tida, to the Breaker Academy.”

“Karuka O’Sheean now. My mother’s name, rather than my father’s.” She stepped forward lightly, scanning her eyes over the grounds, then toward the sea and the plains. Taodoine’s tail brushed against her face. He was still angry at her for the cliff-dive earlier, and was showing her by keeping his back turned to her, even while riding her shoulder.

Josh nodded politely, reaching up to stroke Karuka’s pet and getting a sharp nip for his troubles. Karu’d seen people lose fingers to her companion’s bites, but Josh seemed unperturbed, retracting his hand but showing no signs of broken skin or of any pain.

“Been to Fallien lately, Karuka?”

“Ah, no. I’ve had this wee bit from an egg. Got that just b’fore I met you, actually.”

Josh motioned toward the farmhouse, inviting Karuka to walk with him. “What brings you to our magnificent pillar of education?”

The redhead’s mouth twisted a little as she accepted the offer. “Trouble. Usually I’m either right b’hind or right with it, but I think I might be ahead of it, just this once. I dunno what or where from… but trouble is comin’ t’ this place. An’ y’ve a day or less before it’s here.”

[Breaker]

"We'll need to step things up then," Josh replied with a twinkling smile as he held the door open for Karu, "I hadn't scheduled trouble 'till next week."

The door creaked shut as they paced through a short mudroom piled folded tables and chairs as well as armor and practice weapons, some wooden and others blunted iron. The floor creaked equally beneath Karuka's catlike steps and Breaker's heavier tread, but the ceiling and walls showed signs of recent work. Upon arrival the mystics had shorn up the old building with nails and cables of concentrated shadow magic, allowing their rigorous exercises to take place.

An empty doorway led into a long kitchen and mess hall with oaken floors and cabinets. Tayla led the effort with her blue hair tied back in a bit of leather cord. She stirred a growing pile of vegetables spread across several pans on the old woodstove which washed the room in heat. Her brother Tayron stood over a long counter. He'd set a whirpool turning inside a washbasin from which he produced a handful of clean radishes. The spicy roots spread across the counter and Tayron's broad kitchen knife slashed down in sharp stacatto. Josh introduced Karuka and then led her toward the opalescent twins.

The young sisters had skin like swan down and hair that shone like the finest jewlery in Radasanth's upper district. He had spent nearly a week with them and deciphered only two ways of telling them apart. One's eyes were slightly darker mauve, and the other had a scar on the right side of her neck from a mishap during childhood travels - something about an Akashiman throwing star.

"Kayla," he said spotting the slashed patch of pale flesh on the neck of the twin bent over the oven, "meet Karuka O'Sheean. She's kind enough to lend us some of her warrior's wisdom." The willowy mystic straightened and set her baster aside in one motion, wiping palms on the apron she'd added over her well-worn training garb.

"A pleasure," Kayla extended her hand to shake, but two voices spoke in stereo. Kayluin, the twin with darker eyes, had turned from peeling yams to join her sister in meeting the new arrival. "There'll be ample for everyone should you care to join us."

"I should think so," Josh responded, remembering that Karuka had a knack for refusing invitations. "We'll join the rest of you in the yard after completing the grand tour." Kayla made a mock cursty with her apron and then crouched to stoke the oven's fire.

"Mmm, that'll be the last of the boar we slew last week," Josh commented as he led Karuka around the kitchen's far corner where aromas eddied and pooled. "We keep everything basic, but we eat well." They passed two hollowed out bedrooms packed with layered bunks and entered the office at the end of the hall. Josh gestured for Karuka and her Phoenix to take the matched wooden chairs that sat facing the chipped old desk. He started to circle behind it for the padded leather stool he preferred but decided against it and leaned on the front of the desk instead. His calussed palms dropped to the surface and slid old parchments and scrolls sent by Sei around aimlessly as he examined the traveller and her familiar.

"We're jogging to the ocean this afternoon for some endurance training, and maybe to take some fish... the two of you are welcome to join us."


Can edit this up later, but wanted to post it while I'm at the cafe... will catch you tomorrow night!

[Karuka]

Karuka set Taodoine on the back of a chair, scratching his head to soothe and reconcile with him rather than taking a seat herself. It hadn't escaped her attention that Josh had accepted her invitation to their afternoon meal on her behalf - as if she'd be so graceless as to refuse some kindly offered hospitality. It wasn't like he was asking her to join his clan - although, from the looks of it, someone else had already taken care of that part. Was there no one she knew from the old days that Sei didn't?

"Well, I'm in th' area until whatever's comin' hits an' is dealt with, so I don't see why not. I could use a good run." Taodoine finally deigned to forgive her, fluffing up and snuggling his head into her chest. "I dunno if you'll catch either of us fishin', though." Water was not the phoenix's favorite element, and Karuka had yet to learn how to swim in case the boat didn't survive its foray.

Breaker gave the redhead a smile. "Somehow, I wasn't expecting you to agree."

"Did y' think I had anything better t' do? It's not wee fishin' villages that attract big enough trouble t' draw me in, but you an' yer students... that's quite another matter."

"I think they'd be used to it by now. It's what they're training for, anyway. I brought about a dozen of them from Ixian Castle and the rest of them traveled in from their homeland. They are a special unit for my Vanguard, and shaping up nicely. Nearly quickly enough, too, with the Gisela just around the corner."

"Th' Gisela? That dumb wargame held across Althanas ev'ry once in a while?"

Josh grinned again, broader and brighter than before. "The very same."

A knock came at the door and a young Mystic male showed himself in. This one, Alperen by name, had silver eyes and golden hair. "Good afternoon Breaker, Ms. O'Sheean. Tayla and Tayron asked me to tell you that the food is ready, if you'll join us."

Josh motioned Karu ahead of him, and the two followed the younger man out into the yard, where twenty-two folding chairs surrounded a pair of tables. The Mystics carried plates, cups, pitchers, platters and silverware out, spreading them so everyone could enjoy, and Josh took the heavy plate with the boar on it himself, rather than making two of the girls struggle under its weight. Karuka moved ahead of them, scooting a strawberry pie out of his way and picking up a rubarb pie out of the small selection available.

Breaker hadn't quite set the meat down yet when the pie in Karuka's hands became a pie in his face, unexpected and unprovoked. He stood still for a second, while cheery Mystic banter turned to silence so severe that he could hear the rapid beatings of tiny rodent hearts at the far end of the field. It was broken by a male snort, then a female snicker, and then a round of laughter, his own included as he removed the tin from his face.

"I owed y' fer that dagger, y'know," Karuka told him with a grin. "This makes us even." An amber finger swiped down his cheek and stuck itself between a pair of pomegranate lips. "An' it makes y' delicious."

[Breaker]

The pie tasted of fresh fruit and love, but agreed less with Breaker's lungs than his taste buds. He doubled over, fighting first to stop laughing and then to clear his throat. The bloody nerve of Karuka Ti- O'Sheean.

"Now we know 'is weakness!" Roared the voice of Robaire, one of the older youths who had made his home in Radasanth seven years prior. "We shoulda' used pie in the first place!" Another round of laughter followed amidst the clacking of earthenware cups. Robaire was the closest to robust amongst the score of mystics, and had complained the most at Breaker's rule of no ale or alcohol during the fortnight of training.

"Aye, don't eat that Breaker!" Added Sayron, Robaire's muscular friend, "ye'll ruin yer' perfect figure!" Sayron was the fittest of the score, always curious how Josh sustained his energetic output while eating less than the tiniest mystic. There were some things the red haired lad would not yet understand.

"Breaker's always delicious," one of the opalescent twins murmured furtively, to her sister-- or to Karuka?

Cronen finished clearing his throat and wiped tears of mirth from his eyes as he straightened his spine. The identical Y-shaped scars on his cheeks shone in midday light as he surveyed the crew.

"I guess dinner is served," he said with a short bow, and then picked up a carving knife and tongs. Laughter and banter filled the old farm's fields as the keen blade sliced through moist, crackling meat. Various vegetable dishes circulated along with trays of freshly cut fruit. Soon platters of steaming pork joined the flow, and by the time Josh had carved off half the boar's left flank everyone's plate was piled high.

Kayluin - the more mauve-eyed of the opalescent twins - had been kind enough to save Breaker a small portion of sweet potatoes and pork, as well as a large bunch of red grapes. He winked his thanks to the slender mystic and joined the rest of the crew, who had already dug in with loudly voiced appreciation.

"Forgive their manners," he leaned forward and spoke to Karuka through the cacophony of voices. She'd seated herself across the table, presumably the better position to pie him. "Unfortunately they've followed my example." He slaked his salivation with a small slice of roast beast.

"Never y'mind that," she said, blue eyes fixated on the colorful mystics, "how come ev'ry step since I got back t' Corone seems t' point back to Sei Orlouge?"

"He's gone to great lengths to make it so," Josh replied, measuring his words, "we share a passion for protecting those who need it most," he said, "and we've achieved some great things in that vein. As for Sei's other projects," his hazel eyes twinkled, "I can't say for sure I know more than you."

Steel forks and knives scratched earthenware plates and the modest feast vanished one mouthful at a time. The mystics settled backed and relaxed into casual chatter. Some discussed recent happenings at Ixian Castle while others crafted fantasies of the upcoming tournament. As a training exercise the Gisela would be unaparalleled; nowhere else could a soldier face the mightiest forces on Althanas with guaranteed survival. Josh had many clear reasons for entering the tourny... and those he kept hidden beneath the surface. Being one of Sei's Generals afforded him a long list of justifications for a number of things.

Some of the mystics grew restless and cleared away the dishes, chattering about the fish they would catch for the evening meal. Josh had circulated instructions for the afternoons as they ate.

"Karuka, would you care to see the gardens while things get cleaned up?" There was a long list of good things about being a General.

[Karuka]

"Ay, I've a love of carefully tended growing things."

Taodoine flapped off as Karuka stood. Meat that was cooked or older than half a day was not to his taste, so he was off to get a rabbit. His absence also meant that he wouldn't have to endure the talking and that his master would have a few minutes without his talons digging into her shoulder.

The gardens were humble, containing a few food crops in the little patch of arable soil. Even so, Karu crouched down to look at them. "Grasses an' berry brambles love soil like this, as do hardy things like dandelions and nettles. Lettuces aren't known fer thrivin' in such salty soil, an' nightshades aren't much fer gravel."

She traced a tomato plant with her finger. "One of the lasses here has quite a love of these tiny wee things, t' get 'em t' love her back and grow so."

"Alina's doing. She's the one with the long green hair. I thought I might have to send her home until she got a garden planted." Breaker took a few steps forward to check on the compost heap. "You said you came because there was trouble, but it's been quiet out here. Unless you mean that I'm trouble. In that case, guilty as charged." He flashed her a winning grin.

"Oh, I'm sure y'd be ay enough trouble on yer own. Are y' intendin' t' light the village on fire this night or next? Would y' demolish it while its residents slept, leavin' naught but ash an' corpses in yer wake?"

Josh frowned. "That is horrifying and specific? Clairvoyant?" That was little enough surprise; in their Citadel battle years before, the redhead had been clumsily inept with the daggers she still wore on her hips, but she had always seemed to know what he was about to do. It hadn't saved her, but it had made the fight more difficult for him than it should have been.

"We'll keep an eye on things, but I'd be more than happy if you stayed on. Maybe you could even offer some pointers to the couple of stragglers in class." Breaker considered himself an excellent teacher, but even his tried and true methods couldn't work perfectly for everyone.

"Perhaps," Karuka stood up, giving an answer no more agreement than denial. Blue eyes tracked across the packed dirt and sparse sawgrass. "Yer kids are gatherin' up."

"Then it's time for our run, then."


***

Karuka ran barefoot through dense woods, over sharp rocks, around hard turns and through slippery streams. The air hung thick with the smell of salt and each stride brought the roar of waves closer. Cronen led the group, pacing himself so his charges could keep up, but she hung toward the back with green-haired Alina and a young man with orange and purple hair who went by Xidar. Both were fine Mystics who were eager to make a mark in the upcoming Gisela. Neither was the most physically designed for the job.

"H-how can you...run so...so fast wi-without...without shoes?" Alina puffed and panted; this was the hardest part of the day for her.

To Karuka, meanwhile, the run was barely a jog. "It's not so fast, really. An' I run without my boots so I can hear better."

"Hear?" Xidar asked incredulously. He knew of some types of insect that could hear or taste with their feet, but a human?

"Ay. Th' earth b'neath yer feet has so much t' tell, if only y' listen. Hard t' do with hard, dead leather b'tween you and it, ay?"

The two looked at each other, then back at Karuka.

"Y' can't grow a garden here without bein' able t' listen some. Have y' heard anything else?"

Again, the slower Mystics looked at each other. "No. It's been quiet."

Karu wasn't sure if she believed them, but it was probably more that they couldn't translate what they'd heard... or simply didn't know how to listen.

Light broke through the trees, soil became pebbles, and the sky spread in a crystal clear dome over an endless expanse of blue.

"All right, you lot." Josh spread his arms expansively. "Let's see how well you can swim."

[Breaker]

The mystics let out a collective groan. It had become an almost ingrained response to Breaker's unique training ideas despite the short time they'd spent together. He'd led them to a shallow sandy cove south of the local village's port. Josh kicked off his boots and left them in the foaming surf, wading out until his black sifan pants clung wetly above the knee. Callused feet burrowed beneath a barely perceptible layer of sand. The water was tepid, almost the same temperature as his body. It would be colder further out, but he'd swum in the cove once before and felt confident the waters were warm and safe. He turned and faced his students and Karuka.

"In ancient Akashima," Josh said, and the mystics groaned again. "Before the time of the samurai," Breaker continued, making the lecture a little longer than necessary, "small fishing villages such as this had little defence against raiding nomadic tribes from further inland. In order to protect themselves the fishermen sought to become feared warriors." He drew on the Eternal Tap and created the image of a warrior decorated with seaweed and pointed shells out of warm seawater. "They created costumes to frighten their enemies and devised extreme training strategies that would allow them to attack..." Josh bent his knees. "From the deep."

The water warrior exploded like a geyser. Josh launched himself out of the water and spiralled through the air into a passable shallow dive. Underwater he felt light and buoyant, ultimately mobile. With salt strong on his lips and eyes he pushed off the sandy bottom and seized a large rock. His muscles corded against the anvil-sized stone as he lifted it and settled into a slow-motion run. The water and weight of the rock fought him with each step, as did the dwindling oxygen in his lungs. The edges of his vision blackened by the time he'd returned halfway, bare feet churning muck and making the water murky. He could have gone to the surface for a breath, but he had to show his students the possibilities with proper training. To become a God he'd do the impossible every day...

... She appeared in no form but touch and taste. All around him in the water and on his lips, whispering in his ear.

You took your time in visiting me. Am'aleh teased. The deity of the sea could find him anywhere, but thrived in her own element.

You will meet... my students soon. Josh thought back. The water felt thick as honey, the sandy bottom like sinkmud. His bare feet churned onward as he lifted the boulder overhead, letting it break the surface first so he bore the full weight. Darkness pressed in.

They are most welcome, Am'aleh replied, wear my colors in the tourny of war Breaker. Show the other Gods our might and soon you will join me...

The colors of the world came back as he stepped out of the ocean and back into his boots. The rock crashed to the ground as Breaker inflated his lung with clean, delicious air and vented a battlecry that startled some seabirds from a nearby cedar.

"Radasanth!!!" Several of the mystics wilted visibly and looked about in panic, but their peers promptly reminded them the lesson had not ended.

"Swim out and dive to the bottom; it is no deeper than that sapling is tall." He assured them, indicating a still springy sycamore whose leaves reached perahps sixteen feet. "Find a stone just heavy enough to bear your feet to the bottom and carry it back. Take breaks," he added, "Do not expect to take more than a dozen steps before dropping the weight and swimming to the surface. This," he said with a familiar twinkling smile, "will be a true test of your endurance. Begin."

The mystics spread out in a broken line and waded into the water. Their swimming skills varied but they made it past the first sandbar and one by one their colored heads went under.