The Ether Walker

Chapter 11

The communal bath was a large spring underneath the Academy. We went down all six flights of stairs, then down another carved into the stone floor that opened up into a medium sized cavern. There weren't any lights so we each created wyrdlights. I couldn't help but notice mine was brighter than the other two. The ceiling wasn't very high, just a few feet higher than my head, trapping the steam wafting up from the water. The light bounced off the water, creating spots of light all over the room.

"There's a dressing room over there," Camden pointed to a dark opening in the wall shaped like a doorway to my left. "And we will wait at the top of the stairs," they turned back around, leaving me alone in the steam. Without the added light from Camden's and Zach's wyrdlights weird shadows popped up. Until then, I never realized my fear of the dark. Maybe it was because I was alone in the dark in a place I had never been before.

I quickly created more wyrdlights and distributed them around the spring, only feeling better once every inch of the room was illuminated with the near-white light. I created one more to hover over my shoulder as I approached the dark doorway. Now I know why wyrdlights are the first thing they teach us, there aren't any other lights anywhere!

I peered into the dark room, sending my light in before me like a little scout. The room had two long benches in the center with shelves carved into the walls, presumably to put your clothing and any other items while you bathe. There were a few essentials on one of the shelves; threadbare towels and a few bars of plain soap in different stages of use. Some were still the size of my palm while others were barely nubs. A long way from the assorted choices of scented soaps in the Prince's room.

I undressed, laying out my uniform on one of the benches. It really did need tailoring. And a good wash. So I decided to take it with me along with a towel and one of the larger bars of soap.

Laying my load down at the edge of the spring, I eased myself into the water. There was a slight slant in the ground so as I walked further the water raised higher. I dunked my head underwater before grabbing the soap to clean off all of the filth from the day. After I was all clean, I turned to my uniform and attempted to scrub out as much dirt as I could. I noticed the Academy didn't clean the old uniforms well while I attacked stains left over from the previous owner.

I left the clothes stretched out on the rock floor to dry while I soaked in the hot water. Once my hands turned into a million wrinkles, I got out of the spring and wrapped the towel around me. The uniform was still really damp. I took a step towards the stairs, unsure what to do about the uniform. I can't wear it, the undershirt would be see-through!

While I was still hesitant to go up the stone steps in a towel, Zach solved my indecision by appearing at the base of the stairs. A blush creeped up on his cheeks as he averted his eyes to stare somewhere to my left. I clenched my towel tighter.

"You were taking a while so I came down to check on you..." Zach hurriedly explained. A matching blush appeared as my face heated up. I could only imagine the embarrassment if he had shown up five minutes earlier.

"I washed my uniform but it's still wet."

Zach glanced down where the clothing lay, looking relieved he had something to focus on. "Oh, I can help with that," he said, striding over. He etched a symbol, his body in the way so I couldn't see it properly, and pulled it over the fabric. Water droplets slowly began to rise from the uniform into a small sphere below the glowing symbol. The ball was the size of an apple before all of the water was taken from my clothes.

"Can you show me that symbol?"

He turned towards me, and drew a wavy line then surrounded it with a circle. "This symbol is for controlling water. One line only attracts the water. More lines let you do more things with it but they also take more mana and concentration. Like a second line will let you move the water and a third you can change the temperature."

I mimicked his drawing, pushing mana into the symbol just like with the shield spell, and moved it over the spring. Large droplets began pooling together, slowly at first, then moving in little streams to a giant swirling sphere of water. I became transfixed, watching how the water flowed together, not realizing Zach was yelling my name.

"-ra! Mira! Stop! That's too much!" Zach finally snapped me out of it. The water orb had become at least ten feet in diameter. I tried to halt the flow of mana, turning to Zach in panic when I couldn't.

"I-I can't!" Khagan! Help me!

His presence reared up in my mind and cut off the flow like a knife. The symbol immediately shattered, releasing the water back into the spring. Zach quickly etched and created a large shield in front of us, keeping us dry from the giant wave as it splashed into the invisible wall.

It was only after the water finally settled, mostly back into the spring, did Zak release the shield and the symbol drew back into his finger. The only dry area in the baths was the circle around us where Zak's shield had kept dry. Thankfully this included my now-dry uniform. My body was thrumming with the rush of using so much mana.

"What was that, Mira??" Zak turned to me. I shrank back a bit, shocked at the expression on his face. It looked all too similar to fear.

"I-I don't know..." I stammered.

"Are you alright, you aren't going to faint on me?"

"No, I won't," I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down. "I'm fine now." I smiled and stood up to prove it.

His eyes widened, filling with emotion that was definitely fear now. "You aren't even tired!"

My smile faltered as I realized I wasn't supposed to be fine. I took a step back. "Uh...Thank you for helping me, I'm going to change now," I said, unsure of what I did wrong. I gathered up my clean uniform and quickly scrambled into the dressing room, not even caring that it was pitch black.

By the time I had changed, Zak had left. I was both relieved and disappointed. I didn't know how to deal with this new development. I didn't know how everything got so out of hand. I wasn't even supposed to be a summoner! All I wanted was to return the scrying stone to Zak, go back to Avery and ride all of my problems away.

Now that I remembered, I'm going to have to find the stables. I knew that a long ride was needed for all of the craziness from the past week. I climbed the stone steps on autopilot, lost in my thoughts. I was shocked out of my daze when I reached the top of the stairs to find, not Zak or Camden waiting for me, but Caith instead.

Wow, can this day get any worse?