The Mies Divide (Tentative)

Chapter 8

Rasul and I entered the training room, but calling it a "room" wasn't quite the proper way to put it, that'd be like calling an ocean a pool, but we had no other term for it. It was a vast simulated area with blue grass and lavender skies that was meant to replicate the surface of Nem, and it did so spectacularly. I had spent many nights staring up at the night's sky dreaming about what I would be doing if I were back home while I was still with my battalion. My daydreams usually consisted of something horribly mundane like hanging out in my parents' servant, Kai's quarters. He was my best friend growing up, but he was also Nemain and since joining Gaia I had realized how wrong it was that my family had him around. He didn't seem to mind, but he had been born into servitude and that had been all he had known. I wrote my parents once and they promised to set him free once they no longer needed him, but I doubted that I'd ever know now. I wondered briefly if Rasul's parents had kept Nemians servants while he lived on Earth, but then Rasul stopped walking abruptly and I skidded to avoid colliding into him. He turned to look at me, his dark eyes stared into my own for a moment before he averted them abruptly.

"You're going to meet some other magi today and work on combat training." He said, I tensed up at the word "combat" and I must have made a weird face, because he paused, "You do know some offensive elements, yes?"

"Yes." I replied slowly, with a glance at my engloved hands, "Though, I'm pretty rusty. I've always held a defensive role."

He pointed toward some narrow, twisted trees with branches that looked like broken phalanges off to our right and continued forward, "What did Gaia use you for, then? I didn't think they used many magi for defense only."

"It's 50/50. Most battalions have both a defensive and offensive magi and we all know some of each just in case"

"Not all..." Rasul said.

"Sorry," I said and tried to change the subject, "So you're a stone mage. Is that right?" I asked, the question had been at the back of my mind for a bit now and this seemed like just as good of a time to ask as any.

"For lack of a better term, yes. Some refer to it as 'Earth,' but I prefer to acknowledge Earth as infrequently as possible." He said and resumed trekking through the trees. I wanted to ask if that was his only element, but I quickly realized that would likely be quite rude and pushed it aside.

We broke through the tree line and entered a meadow where at least two dozen other mages were spread out sparring. It was so weird for me to see so many of them in one place, though I did my basic training with mages, too, we all looked more similar. Almost all Earthborn mages have black hair and eyes, though our skin tones varied depending on our region of origin. These mages varied depending on the element they controlled. It was nice to know what one of them had the power over, but at the same time, they looked like nothing I'd ever seen before. Near where we'd entered the meadow, two young men were sparring, I immediately pegged them to be water mages due to their blue cummberbund and the only other thing that I could distinctly make out about the two of them; their blue hair. After a minute, the taller of the two faltered, and the other shot a bolt of water in his face, which earned his partner a swift kick in the shin.

"Hey, Rasul!" The taller of the two men coughed, "Is this the new recruit you'd mentioned? I thought you said they were a mage?" Both men eyed me suspiciously, "No Brutes, allowed, remember?"

"She is a mage." Rasul clarified.

Anr and Axe raised their eyebrows as if to ask, "What?" together.

"It's a long story and you can get the details later, blah blah. She's Earthborn. They are a little different." Rasul said.

"But look normal enough-" Anr started, but Axe interrupted him with an elbow in the ribs.