Obsidian Sky (15 page)

No, not quite bare. Aidan’s hand was so red and hot it was as if he had let it sit in the fire for an hour. He was using the heat to protect him from the blade’s sharp edge. Before Isaac could recover from the shock, Aidan activated a fire bubble around his body, bouncing Isaac backwards. Isaac eyes lit up in amazement as his sword remained in the hands of his opponent, who was now throwing it to the side as if it were a stick. With Isaac now ripped away from his weapon, Aidan began the torture.

It was not Isaac before him anymore. It was just another face. Another face to match the wound, and the wound was very, very deep. Aidan sneered, his emotions taking over completely now as he prepared to do to his so-called friend the same thing he would do to an enemy. This was how it had to be. No friends. No family. No love. None of those things existed outside of the dreamland that was Lowsunn. Why should he have them now? All it would do was lessen and cripple his potential. It would make him weak.

Duncan was right.

It was too late to join him now, but maybe once he took care of Isaac, and Bailey…no, not Bailey. Bailey deserved to be spared…wait, why not Bailey? Why did she have to live? Wasn’t it better to just end her life now? Before she too was taken by the monsters outside the village? Then there would be no opposition. He could follow through with Duncan’s plan. Train the village. Overthrow the Elders. Find the Choate. He could –

“DO IT!” Isaac screamed from a few yards away. Aidan responded with a fireball from his right hand. It shot towards Isaac like an arrow and burst right on his abdomen. The swordsman fell to his knees as the wind was knocked out of him. Aidan sucked his teeth. How dare this weakling interrupt his train of thought? Aidan ordered the ember closest to Isaac’s feet to burst. It was a magnificent explosion, reaching six feet high before it died out completely. It had only brushed up against the swordsman, but it was enough to make him cry out and clutch his leg. Aidan waited to see what Isaac would do next. He would probably run towards him, try to retrieve his weapon. Maybe he would ask Bailey for help. Or run. That would be nice.

But he did none of those things.

He climbed to his feet, even with his leg singed, and raised his head until his eyes were level with Aidan’s. And then he waited.

Was he using one of his Yen? Aidan glanced over at Isaac’s right arm, still exposed from the fight with Duncan, and saw that his three seals hadn’t changed. Two active, one dark – the dark seal was the wish he had used to become a master swordsman, even though he had previously had no skill whatsoever in Sword Arts.

Why was he just standing there?

Aidan allowed another ember, one that was a little further away, to burst. The ember seemed to glide across the grass this time, until it was right under Isaac’s gaze. It exploded, and hit him square in the chin, knocking him onto his back. He groaned and clutched his face, whimpering at the burning sensation, but then he cleared his throat, climbed to one knee, and then back to his feet, resuming the stare.

If he wants to die, then fine, Aidan decided, ordering the embers to hit Isaac all at once. They sprinted towards him and converged, forming a bigger and more deadly flame. And yet, throughout it all, the swordsman refused to move. Aidan shook his head, and ordered the execution.

The explosion nearly lit up the night sky, and even Bailey had to shield her vision from the light it created. When the smoke and flames subsided, there was no evidence of Isaac’s existence, but that was to be expected. What Aidan did not expect was a hand smacking the middle of his back, precisely where his spine was located. He turned around in surprise, and Isaac was there, smoking, singed, but very much alive. Isaac put the tip of his dagger under Aidan’s chin as he grabbed the pyromaniac by the throat with his other hand.

“Even if you set me on fire now, you will die,” Isaac said, and Aidan believed him. Even after he nodded, Isaac still didn’t let up. “Do you understand what just happened, Aidan? Do you realize just how badly you’ve lost?”

Aidan didn’t know what to say. Suddenly he didn’t feel so angry. He was just confused and tired. Isaac glared at him with his cold blue eyes.

“All this time, I’ve held back too,” he said, making sure the words sunk in. “I may not be as skilled as you. I may not have the destructive power. But I can take damage better than the rest of them. My stamina is far greater than yours, and I could equal myself to you with a simple utterance to the Judge. Your attack back there. The one that was supposed to kill me, right? Guess what? It didn’t work.”

“I…I don’t know what to say.”

“Bailey asked me to not go all out because we needed that rage dwelling deep inside of you. You were a weapon just begging to be used. But with the village in turmoil, that’s the last thing we need. You have to be rational and work with us until we figure out exactly how many enemies are out there and what their abilities are. Once again, we need you to keep your emotions in check.”

Isaac took the dagger away and sheathed it, but his grip stayed on Aidan’s throat.

“We’re bound to one another,” Isaac continued. “Whether you like it or not. We’re both brothers of the wild. Yes, that’s right – I’m from the outside too. And as a loving sibling, I allowed you to hurt me, to take out the rage that would have consumed us all. Because I love you. And I know you needed it. Now that it’s over, you feel better, don’t you?”

“I do,” Aidan said in shame. He wanted to run and hide in the mud.

“There is nothing wrong with anger. It’s a part of all of us. But how you use it, is entirely up to you. You can already scald someone with boiling water. You don’t have to let it continue festering until all of the water’s spilled out over the side.”

“I’m sorry, Isaac,” Aidan said, wearily looking at his friend. Isaac released his grip.

“The healers will tend to my wounds,” Isaac replied, “but I had to show you how much we need each other to survive what’s coming. I hit you on the back with my hand to let you know that it could have easily been my blade.”

“I understand.”

“Hey, listen. Don’t start going distant on me now. We’re still friends.”

“But I just tried to kill you.”

“Yeah. So?”

“Didn’t you hear me? I just tried to kill you.”

“Yeah, what are friends for?” Isaac laughed. “One minute they hate each other’s guts. The next they’re back on the playground. Don’t worry about me. Our tantrums may be a little more destructive and painful than the natural kind but I’m still alive, aren’t I?”

Aidan smirked and made his second vow for the day: to never hurt his friends again.

“I want to say sorry to you too, Bailey,” he said, turning to her. She approached the boys with a smirk on her face, reached out, and gave Aidan a hug.

“It’s okay,” she laughed, patting him on the back. “Just don’t do that to us again. Next time we’ll really defend ourselves.”

“I have a lot of soul searching to do,” Aidan admitted. “To be completely honest, I don’t know who I am anymore. I kept thinking that I was still the boy who grew up outside of this village. But I don’t even know if that was living at all. I try to imagine myself as a villager of Lowsunn, but I realize that I’m not entirely that either. I belong nowhere.”

“No, you belong right here,” Bailey said, drawing a circle between the three of them with her finger. “As Isaac said, we are bound together by fate, survivors of the wild. When you don’t know who you are, come to us and ask, and we can tell you.”

“Well, then who am I?” Aidan asked abruptly. Bailey chuckled and folded her arms.

“You are a child of both the wild and Lowsunn. Of the earth like we all are, but also of fire. The only time you lose yourself is when you lose sight of those facts. You can’t sway too far one way or the other, between the earth and the fire. Move with the ebb and flow of life, take each situation as it arises, and you will never falter. Don’t let yourself become so much earth that you get trampled underneath others’ feet. Don’t blaze so bright that your fire goes out.”

“I feel like I’m in the middle of a fairytale here,” Isaac laughed, rubbing the soot out of his hair. Aidan nodded at Bailey and gave a heavy sigh. She was right. There had to be a balance. The villagers of Lowsunn were too afraid to act. They needed the Aidans of the world to fight on their behalf – someone who could withstand the opposition and protect them. But he couldn’t become so enraged that he embodied a spirit like that of Duncan’s either, treating the very people he shielded as his underlings. No man was made to control another.

“Isaac, let me take you to the infirmary,” Aidan replied, placing a hand on his shoulder. Isaac winced and shook his head.

“Nah. It’s all superficial burns anyways,” he winked at him. Aidan attempted a smile and did something unexpected. He gave Isaac a hug.

“I’m sorry, brother,” he said into his friend’s shoulder. “Forgive me.”

“Already did,” Isaac groaned. And Aidan let him go.

“I still can’t believe you were part of the wild though. I thought you grew up here in Lowsunn.”

“Mostly I did, but remember that every one of us has a story, and an old life before Advent. In my case, I happened to spend the first two years after Advent on the outside. In the shining city of Siren. Heard of it?”

“No.”

“It’s very far away, along the coast of this continent, surrounded by tall mountains and vast valleys so one would have to travel very far in order to stumble across it. It’s where the Peacekeepers live.”

“I have heard that term used before. On the outside it’s a derogatory term for someone who died trying to talk down a threat.”

“Yes, my people coined the term and everyone else defiled it. No matter what you may think, they’re not a bunch of touchy-feely types. They’re a group of free individuals with a common goal – that everyone in the city of Siren should be able to use their wishes as they see fit, as long as it’s to add to the world and not take away from it. It’s not like here in Lowsunn, though it sounds similar. In Siren, there is no council, no ruling body. Just a community of creative, free-thinkers that are helping each other rebuild.”

“Sounds magical, but why aren’t you there now?”

“Like anything good in this world, you eventually have to fight for it. We were invaded at the two year anniversary of Advent. A band of treasure hunters known as the Slayers heard rumors that the Choate artifact was hidden in our city. I don’t know who started the rumor, but given that the artifact has yet to be found, it was more than enough information for the hunters to investigate. We were peaceful with them and willing to let them scour the city to look for it. When they found nothing, they demanded compensation for their time. They wanted bodies to help with their menial tasks while on the road, particularly those who had already used their Yen so they weren’t threatened. Cooking, cleaning, fact checking. That sort of thing. We drew lots and I and three other boys lost. Before I left I made sure to take a hot poker, in the shape of our seals, and sear my flesh with it, to make it look like I had already used my three seals. I made up some story about –”

“You went willingly?”

“It was either that or start a fight. If you had seen Siren, you would know that ensuring its integrity was of the utmost importance. I sacrificed for them. And so, I left with the Slayers. I traveled with them for about a year across the land. I didn’t learn much. They never spoke in my presence unless giving me an order or telling me to eat. They were never cruel, but I knew that it was only a matter of time before I was no longer useful. All of the boys from Siren were kept separated so we never got a chance to plan or talk except in glances. But it was scary to wake up periodically and notice that one of us was missing, and no one knew why. I realized that I had to make my escape, and so, I used one of my Yen to become a swordsman. I had seen the Slayers work, and there was one that had always caught my eye. He went by the name of Trident. Tall. Strong. Fearless. His skills with a sword were incredible. We were often attacked on the road, being a small group, but he always volunteered to dispatch the intruders. He was so quick that our attackers couldn’t even use their Yen against us. Quicker than thought. That’s how I remembered him.

“I escaped when they were sleeping and to this day, I don’t know how. With all the power that emanated from them, I was sure I would be caught and immediately executed. But I left, so easily that I’m sure they allowed it. Why? I may never know. But one thing was certain. I struggled without their protection. It was only three days after my escape that Bailey found me on one of the scouting missions. Given her reputation with the board, she was able to get me into Lowsunn easily, and thankfully I was younger than twenty-one then, so my five year clock hadn’t started until around the time you arrived…Do I look forward to going outside the shields? No. But I know I’ll have to one day. And that is why I’ll soon be using my second Yen. Another ability to prepare for the inevitability.”

“Of what?” Aidan asked.

“Of war,” Bailey declared with a heavy sigh. “Whether Duncan was bluffing or not is irrelevant. This new information about the Choate, rumor or not, will spread quickly. It won’t be long before someone, maybe even the Slayers, seek to learn the truth. The threat of more conflict looms over us regardless of whether or not Duncan has friends nearby.”

“Not to mention the tear in the shield, wherever it may be,” Aidan replied.