Authors: Nicholas Taylor
Iselin thought for a while and chose her words carefully. "When you and I first met I was so jealous of Sasha, not in any perverse way, but in that she was so connected with you. I remember when I Ascended for the first time and I saw and spoke with the White Dragon. From that point on my confidence never wavered, but for the first time I was unsure. I always worried what would be of you when Sasha grew old and passed away. After you Ascended and so did she, knowing what was said to the both of you, your purpose in this world, it honestly frightened me.
"You two are to do so much together and I worried for your safety and hers, but another part of me wondered about where I fit into all of this. She is your compass, the White Dragon made that clear, she, your sister not your wife..." she looked down.
"Love, you know-" Legon started.
"I am not sad, I didn't understand, but since then I have tried to just have faith that everything is the way it ought to be. And it was just now that I realized that you two are one person. The reason why I feared her death was that I knew she was your morality; she was your conscience and compassion. I thought that was because of how you grew up, your connection, but I see now you were never meant to be without her and she without you. You are like twins in so many ways, not sharing some of the same organs but instead sharing part of your cores. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
It was Legon's turn to look down; when Iselin had said they were like twins he thought otherwise, thought about them having different parents and her being older than he. But that aside she was right, they had always been in-sync with each other, separate but the same…like twins. A warm feeling fell over him at the rightness of what his wife was saying, and all of his worry of losing Sasha left. He'd never lose her, he couldn't. "Do you think that's why she was on the hill?"
Iselin's eyebrows nit together, "Excuse me?"
He looked into her confused eyes, "On the hill when we Ascended, do you think that's why she was there? You're right, at our cores we live off each other, I get my empathy from her and she my strength. Neither one of us could live if the other passed away. Do you think that's why she was there? Was it fate that she Ascended when she did?"
Iselin shook her head. "I don't know all I know is that you are both destined for greatness and that I love you both." Then she smiled, "But if I'm being honest I love you a lot more."
They both laughed, breaking the tension. Legon pulled her in close, feeling unnaturally calm as he continued gazing at the stars.
Chapter Twelve
Atrocity
"In all of the creation there are none save us that are more cruel to our own kind, none more capable of hate and destruction. What is it that makes us this way? How long will we be suffered to exist before justice mercifully blots us from time?"
-An Island of Sorrow
Sasha moved to her left, keeping on the balls of her feet eyeing Legon with caution, trying to predict his next move. He held his fenna Tento like he was going to lash out at her with it but she thought it more likely that he was bluffing and was going to attack with magic instead. She was right, Legon shot a spell at her that she deflected with her own fenna. She smiled, thinking that for once she was going to win.
"INIS!" she yelled sending a ruby bolt of lightning at Legon.
He held up Tento, trying to deflect the spell pushing him back several feet. She could see him panting; she could almost taste her victory. If she defeated him today then she would be able to start working with Elves in their Ascended forms. Once in an Ascended form magic users were significantly stronger than when in an Elf form. This was not the case for Sasha, she was Ascended and able to use her full abilities as an Elf, but she had yet to prove herself. In fact, to her dismay, she wasn't performing at near the same level of power she knew she was capable of. She pushed the thought from her mind.
Legon smiled a hard smile at her. "Don't get cocky, you haven't beaten me yet."
Then he held Tento high in the air and said in a powerful voice, "Binnon Toriso-vetis!" Tento pulsed lavender, but Sasha did not see any attack, Legon drove Tento into the ground all the way down to the hilt. There was a rumble and the earth trembled,
what is this attack?
she thought.
Too late she found out. All of the plants around her shot out, vines as thick as grapefruits launched at her, even now as an Elf she had a hard time moving fast enough to avoid them. She swung her fenna feeling genuine fear for the first time when sparring with her brother. Power ran down Sasha's arm and into her fenna as she used cutting spells to defend herself. She tried to jump in the air but was cut off. She looked at Legon, still with his blade in the ground; in her moment of hesitation she felt a vine as thick as a python wrap around her wrist pulling her sword. There was more around her waist, she freed her fenna as another wound around her neck. More still encircled her whole body, she couldn't see anymore, her breath cut short she forced out, "Ignotis... aurium."
There was heat and then her leafy prison glowed crimson. The vines burned away, she caught a fleeting glimpse of Legon before the vines around her neck shown with a lavender light signaling the end of the fight. Had she been in a real fight with Legon the vines would have broken her neck. She relaxed as the vines released her. Legon pulled Tento from the ground and came up to her, breathing heavy.
"Better," he panted. "I had to go full power that time."
She sheathed her sword. "But it's not good enough, even at full power you should be nothing for me. What was that attack you used?" she asked.
Legon looked confused for a moment. "That's right; you haven't ever seen Toriso-vetis before have you? Binnon is the highest release of magic as you know, at Binnon all of your other spells are stronger but you can channel that power into one spell. The attack I used on you was my most powerful one. Like anything, we all have what you could call moves that we are better at, take for example Mage. He is an Elemental so when he uses Binnon he uses elemental attacks, he prefers fire. Does that make sense?" he asked her.
"I think so...I just don't seem to have anything offensive that sticks out to me," she lamented.
Legon scoffed. "What was that spell you used at the end?" he asked.
"Umm, let me think, I was scared so I just said something that came to mind, I think it was Ignotis-aurium," she said.
Legon shook his head impressed. "You infused the air with fire, it was strong. Had you used it before I attacked you would have won," he said.
Now it was her turn to scoff. "Please, all it did was cut away vines..."
Legon got serious, "Sasha, you countered my most powerful attack when I was at full strength and you did it with a spell you used for the first time..."
She thought for a moment. That was the first time she'd used that spell and it had broken Legon's Binnon attack. She nodded noting the new found information. "Thank you, I will try harder," she said.
* * * * *
Emma looked down on the practice arena as Legon and Sasha spoke. Next to her was the girl that Barnin and his men had found in Mors, Rachel. Over the months since Rachel had been in the Elves care she'd grown back all of her hair and gained back a healthy amount of weight; still, there was always a look in her eyes that showed that while her body was healed her heart was far from it. It was those same hazel eyes that were wide after watching Legon and Sasha go at it.
"Do you need to leave?" Emma asked.
Rachel looked over at Emma; her face the same age as Emma's but again, it was her eyes that looked like those of some of the Elves. There was a sorrow in them that spoke of a millennia's worth of sadness. But unlike the Elves, there wasn't a light of hope and the signs of a millennia's worth of joy.
"Forgive me," Rachel said, always polite. "It's just...just that I don't see Un Prosa Legon and Un Prose Sasha like this often. He is so powerful." She looked to the arena again, "Why does Un Prose Sasha look sad?" Rachel asked.
Emma had given up telling Rachel she could call Legon and Sasha by just their first names. "She is disappointed that she still cannot beat him in this form," Emma said.
Rachel thought for a moment, "But isn't Un Prosa Legon extremely powerful? He is a dragon is he not?"
Emma took her time; she understood magic a great deal but never found herself in the situation to explain it. "When Legon is in the form of a dragon, what you would call Ascended, then he is powerful yes, he is a class eight. But in his Elf form he is not as powerful; he is stronger than a class five by a long shot but not anywhere near full strength. Sasha however is a class six just as she is, how you see her now is her Ascended form, her only form, as an Elf. She has all of the power of a class six dragon focused in her small body, that makes her very strong. So strong in fact, that from my understanding it would likely take a powerful class six or a class seven to overpower her."
Rachel's eyebrow rose, "Then why did she lose?"
Emma smiled tightly, "That is the question isn't it? It seems that she has not been able to fully use her power. In his current form Legon should be no challenge for her, but for some reason Sasha has been unable to use her full abilities."
Rachel seemed satisfied but thought of another question. "Why didn't Un Prosa Legon use that attack when you were all on the hill when he Ascended?"
"Binnon takes almost all of a Venefica's energy, Legon had been fighting all day long and I doubt he had the strength left to use Binnon. That aside, Binnon is not practical in conventional battle, had he used that attack he would not be able to defend himself from any other attacker. It would mean giving yourself only one chance to defeat all of your enemies," she explained.
Legon and Sasha were leaving the practice area and coming towards Emma and Rachel.
"Em, Rachel, it's good to see you, would you two like to join us for lunch?" Legon offered warmly.
Rachel bowed deeply. "Yes, thank you Un Prosa," she said, "and may I say it was a privilege watching the two of you fight."
Emma noticed just the hint of tension cross Sasha's face. "Thank you Rachel, that is sweet of you."
"Thank you Rachel, OK, let’s eat I'm hungry," Legon said.
Sasha rolled her eyes, "When aren't you hungry?"
* * * * *
Keither cracked his neck and stretched, feeling the baking sun warm him. He was ready for a break and making his way down to a bakery that he liked when he saw someone there he knew.
"Aren't you a little old to be eating something that fattening?" he asked.
The man in front of him turned around eyeing him. "You should respect your elders," Sydin said with a smirk. "How are you?"
"I am doing well and so is Sara; and you?" he asked.
"Doing well."
Keither got a pastry of his own and joined Sydin at a table. They sat silently enjoying their food for a little while before Keither brought up the only conversation he seemed to have anymore. "How is the war effort?"
Sydin sighed, "It could be going better, but we are winning and I suppose that’s what counts in the end."
"Is it?" Keither asked.
"I guess that will depend on what we count as a victory won’t it?" Sydin said "I think we will rid the land of the Iumenta, but as for our losses...well we will recover."
"What's it like?" Keither asked.
"What's what like?" Sydin asked.
"Living forever, with this," Keither said gesturing around him.
Sydin smiled without humor, "You try and remember the good things I guess, but in some ways I wonder who has it worse. The immortal that will have centuries of happy memories in exchange for centuries of heart ache, or the mortal who only gets a few short decades to make memories at all."
They talked about how the war was going for the Elves, and how Keither was doing at his job; all in all it was good to see Sydin. Keither didn't get a chance to talk to many people from his past anymore, with Legon being in the Capital and Barnin being deployed to the plains. All Keither had to talk to anymore was Sara.
"You know if it wasn't for the mental networking I don't even know how my marriage would function," Keither said.
"How is your marriage?" Sydin asked.
"It's good, we don't see much of each other, it's more like we just live together we are so busy. But, we talk all day in our minds, and in that way it makes it alright that I don't get the time with her that I used to."
"Have you thought of starting a family?" Sydin asked.
Keither laughed, "That would mean having energy at the end of the day to make a family." Then he got serious, "We want too but...with the war it's not easy."
"It never is, and I suppose that for now that is a good idea, but Keither don't lose your youth and life to this cause, you aren't an Elf, you do not have thousands of years for memories with your wife."
Too soon both Keither and Sydin had to leave. Later that day Keither went back to where he and Sara were staying, he thought back on his conversation with Sydin. When he got in Sara was reading some paperwork. Keither came up to her, kissing her passionately.
She smiled. "Where did that come from?" she asked surprised.
"I don't want us to lose our youth, come on we are going out," he said pulling the papers from her hand.
"Bu-but I have work that I need..."
"To do tomorrow, we are going to dinner and then I am going to try and not step on your toes as we dance," he said pulling her along.
She laughed. "Dinner and dancing, but I look horrible," she tried to protest.
"You look radiant and I'm not losing a moment more of the night," he said pulling her outside.