Blaize and the Maven: The Energetics Book 1 (5 page)

“Marius sent you.” Cuinn didn't have time for these games.
 

Fintan fidgeted and avoided his gaze. “What do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean, brother.” He emphasised the last word. “Marius sent you, didn’t he? Don’t tell me he and Fai have gotten you involved?”

Fintan didn't meet his eyes, and shifted, moving over to where the crockery was waiting to be put on the table. “Let’s have some of this delicious supper your cousin’s cooked first, eh Cuinn? Time enough to catch up about old friends afterwards. I hear there are brownies.”

Cuinn could just hear the edge of Tierra’s muttered “… brownies for Cuinn, not for thieving Scandinavians …”

“Don’t tell me you’ve already managed to upset Tierra? Watch how you go on this Maven issue, or you’ll make it two for two.” His tone was light, but Fintan’s wince showed he knew Cuinn meant it.

“Come on, let’s set the table and we’ll talk after dinner. Surely there must be some gossip you've brought us back from the Guilds. That dreadful woman Maya, for example, what's she up to these days? You know Tierra loves her gossip.”

At Tierra's huff he turned to her, giving her a gentle poke in the side. “I don’t know what you’re upset at, it’s not your life he’s come to turn upside down. I thought you wanted me to stop working? I’ll never get anything done with this chatterbox around.”

Tierra rolled her eyes but smiled, and some of the tension in Fintan's face disappeared. He put the crockery out and came back over to Cuinn, slapping him on the arm as he grabbed for the cutlery.
 

Cuinn put his unease and everything else that was on his mind aside for a couple of hours. “So, what did you bring us to drink? Something suitably expensive I hope?”

Blaize tried hard not to regret drinking the foul green liquid. She knelt on the sand, bowed over with pain and eyes squeezed shut, as she concentrated on chasing every last trace of poison from her system. She was close but was reaching the ends of her energy reserves, and her limit on how much more she could pull from the ether.
 

It was a strong poison.
 

Her arm was agonising. It burned as if acid was eating her from the inside out. She’d left it till last, had focused on her vital organs rather than her extremities. She swept her energies around her viscera again, before she breathed in and out once more and concentrated her attention on the pain and poison in her arm.
Don’t think about what could happen.
She could lose the ability to hold, to touch, and feel in her arm.

She liked her arm.
 

But she was so tired. The fact that she’d had no food in the last 24 hours might be good for purification, but was less good for strength and energy. The last two trials had brought her close to exhaustion, and she’d struggled to bring herself back to full strength in between. She opened her connection to the ether wider. She needed to pull more energy to burn the final grains of poison out. Her head spun.

A last burst of effort, and tiny threads of energy like the finest lace spread throughout the inside of her arm.
There. I’m done.
 

With lead in her legs, she got back to her feet, determined to finish as she'd begun. She consciously slowed her breathing to pretend it hadn’t been such a close call.
 

“It is done.” She lifted her head to the Three, and again, met each of their eyes in turn, and if her gaze wasn’t quite as steady as before, she didn’t think anyone would blame her.

Once again, she met Fai’s eyes last. Although Fai’s face was still impassive under her cropped black hair, as Blaize watched, Fai's lips parted and she let out a soft, deliberate breath.
 

Blaize couldn’t believe that just minutes had passed. She was drained.
 

“It is done.” The Three intoned the phrase in unison.
 

How did they do that? Did they practise? Or did Huo mind speak to the other two so they knew when to say it? Who knew?

Huo spoke again. “We will confer. Remain in the circle until we return.” They rose and walked out.
 

Blaize sank to the ground, all attempts at grace gone.

She gazed at the star-salted sky.
How insignificant we all are.
A million stars … an infinite galaxy. Her efforts to pass the trial were pretty small stuff when compared to that.

Her eyes were as gritty as the sand beneath her, and she blinked away some of the tiredness before she closed them, and opened her energetic connection. She didn’t pull any energy from the ether, but sent gratitude, and vowed once more to Source to be aware, conscious, and mindful in all her actions whatever happened.

The link with Source calmed her. She hadn’t even realised she was still anxious until her heartbeat slowed with the prayer and connection.
 

Blaize could sense the different energies as the Three filed into the circle once more. Their bare feet padded on the sand and stone
—
no-one wore shoes in the temple
—
but Blaize continued to sit with her eyes closed until they were all settled. The evening sounds of the jungle grew, the noisy chorus of crickets a background of white noise.
 

She opened her eyes. The sun was going down and the night had cooled the air. Until now, Blaize hadn’t felt the difference because of the energies she had raised. One of the benefits of fire energy. She didn’t get too hot and she could keep herself warm when it was cold. Though she much preferred hot climates when she had a choice.

Once the temple was silent again, she shakily rose to her feet. She stood in front of the Mavens, unable to read their faces. They were as poker-faced as ever.
 

“Blaize Blackfire, we greet you.” Serafina took the lead.

“We greet you.” The others followed the ritual salutation.

“I greet you.” She intoned the words back. This was the moment. She thought she had passed, but these trials were never predictable. But she was too tired to be anxious. She had given her best today, and it had nearly killed her.
What more could they ask?

“You have purified body and mind, and passed the trials of Strength, Endurance and Finesse," Huo said. "You have completed the Manipura Trial in front of three Mavens. We, the Three, have weighed and judged you. Our opinion, representing the Manipura Guild, is that you are ready for the title of Practitioner.”

Blaize’s shoulders sagged. Something inside her opened up, and she looked down at the sand.

“We have a concern that we wish to share with you, however.”

Blaize's stomach dropped, and her eyes snapped back up to meet Huo's dark stare. His gaze was unblinking and held her with an almost physical weight.

His voice was silky, but in the manner of liquid metal, his words capable of engulfing the listener and burning them up in an instant. “We rarely remove Practitioner status, but it is possible. This is a warning to you. Your anger, pride, your desire to be the best has the potential for harm as well as good. Practise safely. Do not take inappropriate risks, whatever the goal. Do not let others trigger you over things that are history. Be in the present where your actions count.”

Blaize slowly nodded.
Not exactly rousing support. But I passed.
She knew she was proud, but she had her drive, her anger, under control.
And I’m only competitive about the important things.

“Thank you for your faith in me, Mavens. I will do as you say. I hope to bring honour and pride to my Guild.”

"Then kneel, Adherent. Take the Manipura oath,” Huo said.
 

Blaize knelt in the hot sand. Her body felt as if it had been pelted with stones, her clothes were tattered and dirty, and she wasn't sure if she'd ever manage to get up again, but none of that mattered in this moment.

“I honour the power within me. The fire within me burns through all fears. I can do whatever I will to do. With these words I recommit myself to the Manipura Guild as a Practitioner. To uphold our precepts. To strive to conduct myself for the honour of Guild and energetics race.”

She bowed her head and shuddered as the energy of all of the Three entered her. The heat was just the wrong side of painful, and she clenched her teeth. The fire had different undertones depending on their auxiliary energy, but it was still fire.
 

The skin on her arm burned, and she felt a new tattoo form on her left arm, the pain coalescing and hanging there for a white-hot moment, like the flick of a whip. As quickly as it had come, it was gone, adding a second band to the one she already had, a mark that couldn’t be faked. Two bands was the mark of a Practitioner, and although for formal occasions she would wear a robe with the two red stripes on her left sleeve, from today she would bear the marks on her body as well.

The pain had gone, leaving a numb after-image like the negative from an old film camera, the lack of pain as surprising as the pain had been. She resisted the urge to rub the area to wake it up, her body and brain enlivened as the energy of the Three spun around her system.

“We use the energy of the Three to break the binding between you and your Maven, Fai," Huo said. "As a Practitioner, you are released from the need for a Maven in Manipura. You are independent, and the Guild treats you as such.”

Another rush of energy and a sharp pain in her belly, the seat of Manipura Chakra, and the energetic bindings that tethered her to her Aunt were severed. She felt a wave of sadness along with the triumph.
Does Fai feel the same?
The pain faded though the absence of her bond with Fai remained.

“It is done,” Huo said.

“It is done.” Serafina’s voice was lighter.

“It is done.” Fai’s voice held suppressed pride.

Blaize stood again, for the final time in the ritual. “It is done.”

And if she never heard that phrase again, she'd be just fine.

She waited as the Three left. It was her job to clean up the temple. She blew out the candles and picked up fallen petals from the sand. She took the petals and threw them into the surrounding jungle, then found the broom in the cupboard. She felt her body, mind, and spirit settle as she erased the footprints and other evidence of the ritual, to leave the temple clean and ready for the next visitors.

Outside the temple, and alone, she pulled out a pair of shorts and a T-shirt from her scooter’s storage compartment and swapped her once-white clothes for the new ones. She took a moment to stretch out the kinks in her neck and back before she swung a leg over the little scooter she used to get around the island. Since Fai would need to entertain the visiting Mavens a little longer, Blaize could deliver the good news to her cousin Nixie first.

The peace Blaize felt now might just be the calm after the storm, but she wouldn't analyse it too deeply. She’d done well today.
 

She had the right to be proud.

***

The elegant man, dressed, as ever, in a tailored suit, was visiting Indigo in the suburban house in Vancouver where she lived, and which he paid for. He sat on a hard chair in the basement but looked as relaxed and unruffled as usual. He was a man in total control of himself, his environment, and her.
 

Indigo felt a trickle of sweat down her back. Why had he come here today? She hadn't expected him till later in the week. She hadn't been ready. She liked to prepare. She wasn't prepared.

"Would you like a drink or something?" The words felt awkward in her mouth, but she knew it was what people did in this kind of situation.

He smiled at her, an indulgent smile, like a father whose child had done something clever. He had white hair, discerning grey eyes, and looked a well-preserved fifty, though Indigo knew he was many hundreds of years old

"No. Sit," he said, and gestured to the concrete floor in front of him. There were cushions and even other chairs in the room, but she sat at his feet, and looked at his knees. She didn't want to meet his eyes.

He was her Maven, the man who’d seen something in the lost girl she’d been and moulded her into a woman. The first man who’d ever wanted her, though he’d never touched her sexually.

Their Maven-Adherent bond had never been broken despite the fact she had become a Practitioner many years ago. But although he did still
—
sometimes
—
use the bond to teach her, to protect her, usually he used it to control her.

"Things are coming to a head. An ancient prophecy has been set in motion. But as ever with these things, the prophecy can be changed at certain pivotal points. At this point, the prophecy is against us. But we have six chances to ensure it can never come true."

Indigo looked up at his serene face. "What happens if it doesn't?"

"Then, my dear Indigo, we have the chance for the kind of power you can't even dream of. Power that will mean we evolve past even the most powerful energetics you know. Power that will give us the opportunity to destroy our enemies and repay our friends. Power that will change our race forever."