Aeromancer

Chapter 4 - The Liar, The Pupil, The Shepherd

The siblings stayed the night. The temple was large enough that everyone was capable of having their own rooms, but Sydria insisted on being in the same one as Seti.

"Still awake?" She called out. Her bed was on the other side of the room. He wondered if she had the same stiff pillow as him. Even his old dorm room was more comfortable than this.

"Yeah."

She shifted on her bed and her voice grew clearer. "You know I'm on your side, right?"

"You have a weird way of showing it, especially since you blabber everything to dad."

"Are you talking about that girl at the clinic? That vivamancer was wrong," Sydria said. "You can't do stuff to people's brains and not get in trouble."

He clenched his jaw. "Cassie helped me. Because of her—" He stopped. He was about to say how he could see because of the geas but remembered that what really happened at the clinic wasn't what Sydria thought happened. "So she breaks the law to help me, who cares? What have you've done?" The words came out before he could filter them, and he regretted it instantly. He opened his mouth to apologize, but his pride wouldn't let him speak.

Silence lingered a moment before she replied, and when she did it was a whisper. "Yeah, I guess I'm just a stranger."

It was hard to fall asleep that night.

At morning's arrival, Seti was momentarily confused as to why it was so dark. He sat up with a heavy sigh when he recalled he was blind. It was followed by terrible leftover taste in his mouth when he remembered last night's conversation. To dismiss the feeling he activated his wind to propel air at his face, as he tended to do. However, instead of a gust of air to his face, the wind light spread out around the area.

The room lit up.

His wind didn't act as a flashlight anymore, but rather it was like a lamp. It remembered his last command and traveled through the room automatically, hitting every corner and touching every crack. The air was gentle enough that the drapes over the window didn't move on impact if it had felt anything at all. Sydria was still in bed, one leg over the edge, sleeping peacefully. The room they were in was small, with only a single drawer between the beds. On the drawer were two folded temple clothes for the siblings to wear when they awoke.

One thing he realized about this new mode was that the diameter was smaller than what it was before his ability broke yesterday. If he had to eyeball it, his vision was roughly ten feet in every direction. As well, he could only focus on one thing at a time within range. It reminded him of his normal vision, which could only focus on a single point and everything else was the peripheral vision. And a strange sensation came to him informing him that the area was thick with his air so that he could stretch it further beyond the ten-foot mark. When he tried to break the radius, his air had a spasm and return back within the limit.

Faulkner had called him a toddler with his adept abilities. Maybe he could extend his reach with some practice.

Another thing he realized was that his air hadn't traveled under either bed. He willed it to be lit up, and the air particles flew in without hesitation. The ease of control that he had was enticing. When that was done, he had an omniview of the room. The experience was only dulled by the fact nothing had color.

Seti slipped on the temple robes that Shanna provided for them. They had not brought extra clothes, as they didn't expect to stay the night. He grimaced at how uncomfortable the clothes were and made his way out the door.

The feeling that he was in a horror movie loomed when he walked down the quiet hallway, the amount of visibility matching a lamp light. The diameter of his view squeezed into the rectangle shape of the hall. Each door Seti passed had gaps that his air pressed through. He paused and let his air look into the rooms for him, getting a feel for his ability. With nothing of interest to look at, he continued to the main entrance room.