Chapter 15: Two Ends of a Spectrum
"DROP IT," HE SAID.
FELIX shrugged. There was a strange lilt to his voice when he said, "I was curious, so I talked to Leone about it, since I was going to be working with you. It wasn't a Demon, was it?" He paused and Daniel gave him no response, devoting every shred of his concentration to the task in front of him. He didn't want to listen. The sooner he got this done, the sooner he'd get away. Felix went on, "And you couldn't stop the guy that killed your parents, because your powers weren't developed yet. So you watched your parents die as they protected you. And you couldn't do anything about it. You still can't do anything."
"You're going a bit too far, Felix." Daniel gritted his teeth. "You might want to stop before I..."
"You lack the courage to attack and trust your magic," he pushed on regardlessly.
Pale eyes bored into Daniel from an image in his memory. You should have seen me a few hours ago. You might be saying something different now. Felix was testing him, but right now he really would rather fail. He didn't want to learn this – how to break and enter and take things that weren't his.
"Daniel—" Something brushed at his mind.
"Stop that," he said sharply. His mind was a fist, knuckles clenched, and her was swinging and Felix dropped. The layers were gone. The door to his mind was splintered. All that was left was that pulsating brightness, no longer dimmed by the barriers that had surrounded it. He touched it and on the floor the Delegate convulsed.
"Felix? Mister Fancy Pants? Are you okay?" The questions were useless. He'd cracked him open like an egg so he couldn't expect him to be okay. Now around Daniel, he'd never be okay again. But he’d asked for it. Influencing me…
"I'm sorry," he said, backing out the door. "I thought you said you'd keep me out."
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"You don't have a weapon, right, girl? Here, choose," Dax said, pushing open a door after they had walked down a corridor. She stepped in and covered her eyes with her fingers as Sol remained by the door. The light was blinding. Through her fingers she saw weapons lining the walls, shining. She could've grabbed them all if she could. It was magnificent.
There were curved ones and straight ones, and short ones and long ones, blades all gleaming as if they were freshly polished. Dax led her around the walls of the room, where the various weapons hung on racks. "That," he pointed to a long thin sword that looked like Calida's, "is a foil and this is a broadsword." He hefted a wide flat blade. It looked like Robert's.
"These two are on the opposite ends of the spectrum of swords, but for you..." The short Beast turned back to the racks, stroking his goatee. What happened to me choosing?
Sol, who was floating - there wasn't anything under his robes, not even feet - by the door, pointed towards one particular rack. "I would suggest those, Mr. Dax."
The Beast Delegate hummed in approval. "For an Ethereal, you have good taste, Sol." He headed towards the rack, which seemed to be the one where all the miscellaneous weapons were placed. “Try… that one.” She took down the one Dax pointed out and gripped the handle. He took it from her, winding the coils around his thick forearms, smiling as he ran his fingers over the handle. “This is a ranged weapon – a whip, called a short blacksnake. It’ll be good for an Air Adept, ‘cause you can crack it while doing something with your magic, like flying,” he informed her. “Made of aldehyde-tanned leather, so it’s white-colored.
“The length of it is made of a dried stingray’s tail, like the traditional buntot pagi from the Philippines. It’s still venomous, be careful with it. And a flexible handle,” he bent it to show her, “with a lead weight at the other end so you can use it as a club. One hit will break bones. If you hold it further down, you can use it like a nunchuck.” Dax swung the handle around and around his hands, before catching it and cracking the whip.
There was a screaming hiss that made Amber jump and Sol came forward to lay part of his cloth on the Beast’s shoulder. “I think you should stop showing off, Mr. Dax.” He grinned, then handed the whip back to her and got Sol to bring him something else. It floated down from the rack, glinting. Sol has Air magic? Amber touched the whip and grimaced at its weight. It felt like coarse sandpaper, rough and abrasive and definitely capable of ripping someone’s skin off even with only a graze.
“Oi, oi, don’t touch the tail – its venom can paralyse you over time, even if you don't have an open wound.” Dax set it aside and put a knife in her hands. “This is a dagger. If your enemy gets too close, use it for defense.” Amber nodded and gripped the handle, watching light reflect off the blade.
Sol inclined his head again, looking approving. “This fighting style comes from a traditional Filipino martial art. It is called Latigo y Daga. It is quite effective, in my opinion.” She nodded again, slower this time, slightly unsure about what was going on.
They watched her grip her new weapons experimentally, giving them a few test swings. After a while she frowned, saying, "I don't get it. Why don't you guys just use guns? I mean, won't it be easier than swords or something?"
"Demons were created by Metal, thus they cannot be harmed by normal weapons. All of our weapons here," Sol swept a part of his robe to encompass the racks, "are infused with magic, crafted by the goblins. This process is simple with bladed weapons and others, but guns are more complicated. I believe that the goblin smiths are still working on the prototype."
"Sol's right. It's damn hard to make a gun that can actually kill Demons. Most of the time the gunpowder just lights up with the magic and the whole damn thing explodes," Dax grumbled, tugging at the hair on his chin.
"Uh... You're a goblin?" Amber asked.
Dax snorted derisively. "Wasn't that obvious from the beginning, girl? And no, we're not all fat, that's just me." He patted his protruding belly.
She nodded, not knowing what would offend him and just deciding to play it safe. "So, you two are just here to help me pick out weapons? Aren't you the leaders of two races of Delegates?"
Sol tilted his head, allowing her a glimpse of the seemingly infinite darkness in his hood. "We are," he affirmed, "but we are also your tutors."
"Okay," Dax said at her nod. "We're going to run through this really quickly. Name: Amber Starling. Title: Conquest. Symbol creature: White Tiger. Powers: Air and Metal.”
Opening her mouth to say something, she though better of it and closed it. Why was she talking to them so easily? They were strangers; she'd only met them today and yet she was asking questions as if she'd known them as long as she knew Daniel. Maybe because they aren't Human...? How did that explain why she was more comfortable around them?
And a Beast had attacked them. Dax, though he looked almost Human and acted civilized, was a Beast as well. She supposed she'd still feel a little safer with Humans.
"Miss Starling," Sol said. "I hope that we will have a fruitful time together, as tutor and trainee."
"Yep," Dax scratched his nose. "I'll just let Sol go first, since he's so eager to start." The goblin walked a little ways off to sit on a bench on the other side of the room.
"Basics, my dear," Sol raised a tendril of cloth, waving it around like a finger. "Lift Mr. Dax off the ground."
"What?" Ignoring his fellow Delegate, Sol's clothes gave a rolling wave, which she interpreted as go on, do it. She reached out like Daniel had taught her and felt for the links in the air, hardening them, bringing them up and under the Beast. He floated up in a buffet of wind, but it didn't last. The air dispersed and he started to drop. "Oi, get me—whoa!"
Slightly freaked, she gathered the links again and lifted him up just before his long nose touched the ground. The gap widened to a few inches. "That's enough," Sol commanded. She dropped her hands and Dax crashed into the floor, letting loose a stream of curses. The weapons on the racks rattled.
Amber winced. "Sorry." Dax waved her apology away and stood, dusting off his pants as he resumed his seat.
A hand landed on her shoulder and she jerked away. Cloth ghosted past her shoulder. The hand had just been air. The sides of Sol's hood lifted up, making him look like he was smiling. "Your magic is strong, but you do not have control over it. Do not be discouraged. We will work on that soon."
"Okay."
"I was told by Ms. White that you flew during a Demon attack. Can you do it again?" Sol asked, cloth rippling at her shoulder.
"Um..." She hesitated, then concentrated, staring at nothing and yet seeing how the air was like a chain, linking up and coiling around. The last time it was almost instinctual – don’t let me die, make me fly – but now she’d have to do it consciously. There was a difference that she couldn’t define. Starting with her feet, she pushed upwards with the strengthened links in the air, so she lifted a few inches off the ground. Then she supported the backs of her knees, keeping her knees bent slightly and her toes pointed. Under the armpits, around her neck, she slid the links around her body, as if she was chaining herself up.
Them Amber pushed off and up and shot up into the air. As she began to slip she fed energy into the links of air, feeling the particles vibrate and push towards each other. "Good," Sol complimented her and she somehow managed to smile through her panting.
He approached her and pushed her feet up, like he was trying to rotate her. "Superman," Dax called to her helpfully. It was slow going, but eventually Sol got her to relax in a horizontal position, where she supported her kneecaps and chest with the air.
"Now," he said. "Flip back up on your own."
"Uh..." She tensed up, feeling her head slip towards the floor.
"Stay relaxed, or you will lose your balance," Sol waved his cloth in the air in the universal calm down motion.
"Okay, okay." She tried to keep herself from nodding. Amber looked at how the air covered her like a cloak and pushed at her limbs and held her up. It's just a balancing game, like on a see-saw, that's it. She just had to keep pushing at her own body with the same amount of force on both sides and she'd be fine.
Amber blinked and suddenly she couldn't see the chains and links in the air anymore, and instead of the air moving to push her up, her arm was jerking upwards. She caught a glimpse of Sol's cloth whipping around towards her before the ground slammed into her.
"Girl, you okay?" Dax's grumble of a voice reached her. The breath knocked out of her, Amber lay spread-eagled on the ground, where she had fallen on her back.
"I'm fine." She dragged herself to her feet and found Dad standing next to Sol, whose head was bowed. "What happened?"
Sol looked up and she found herself staring into the blackness where his face was supposed to be. "I'm sorry," he said, the timbre of his voice solemn, sad. "I attemped to catch you, but I could not." She was going to say that it was okay, it had been her fault anyway, but he'd lowered his gaze again and his cloth rippled around his shoulders, like he was shaking.
"The air has always listened to me," the Ethereal said. "Even through the years as the power stream became depleted, it listened. Lately it has been feeling...dead." His cloth twitched and a faint wind blew through the room.
Dax patted the other Delegate's back and, as the cloth billowed, he said, "Oi, now, Sol. That's why we have her around in here. She's the reincarnation of the being that created you, and you're acting too weak to train her?"
"Ah, yes.” Sol’s voice still sounded a little dead. “Yes,” he said again, like he was trying out an unfamiliar tone, “you are right." Sol raised his head, renewed intensity filling his voice. He turned and smiled at her with that weird lifting up of his cloth. "I am fine now, my dear." She forced a small grin onto her face. He patted her shoulder, white cloth somehow having substance enough to feel real. "I will pass the time on to Mr. Dax now." He resumed his initial place by the door.
The reincarnation of the being that created him? Air? Amber blinked as Dax approached her. That meant that the four of them were the original elementary reborn. I’m sorry, but I really don't feel very powerful right now.
A/N:
Hey, so I have a bunch of new characters here, and of course there'll be more to come, but I really hope that you guys can tell me what you think of them? :D