Breath of Divinity

Following Sytris’s pronouncement, Haley, Lauren and Tim had taken to roaming the halls, trying to make awkward small talk, as Sytris began his first lesson with Jonathan. Oscar had opted to remain in the kitchen, taking seconds of nearly everything that had been served.

The “getting to know you” phase was always awkward, but this time it was unusually so. In Haley’s experience, typically when you met someone new, all you needed was to find the right topic of conversation and everything would fall smoothly into place. But this wasn’t one of those times. These people weren’t random strangers she met in school, or at the store, but siblings she had apparently known and loved before they were forcibly erased from her mind. On top of that, from the snippets Haley was learning of them they didn’t seem to have much in common either.

Jonathan and Mr. Whitmore, from what Jon had told them, had lived a fairly quiet life, although she surmised that Mr. Whitmore had a very hard time dealing with his son after his wife’s passing. Raising a child would have been a difficult enough task, she imagined, but after losing the love of your life it would have been exponentially harder. Jonathan of course had also been hurting, but seemed to deal with the loss mostly by bottling it up and pretending that it didn’t affect him.

He acted cold and distant, but she had seen that demeanor too often to be fooled about what it was concealing. Still, no one pushed him. It wasn’t their place to tell him what to feel about the death of a loved one.

Lauren remained quiet for the most part, and when she did speak she let almost nothing significant slip.

Tim, on the other hand, seemed to have lived a life that was suffocated under a fussing mother. Mr. Bryant traveled a lot for work, and although she was around for the most part, Tim’s mother often had to work irregular shifts from what it sounded.

He tried to make it sound like he was okay, but Haley could detect an underlying sense of loneliness to it. He was definitely excited about having siblings, which was how she knew that awkward moment when Jonathan had said he had never even considered it had stung. She had pretended not to notice for Tim’s sake , but the disappointment had been plastered across his face. If she was being honest with herself — and she was trying not to be — it had rubbed her the wrong way too.

She didn’t let them know this though. Instead they continued to sift through topics of conversation for another few minutes, but then, shortly after, Sytris appeared to them, asking who was next.

“Jon’s done already?” Tim asked in surprise.

“Erm — well, he wanted a break. I thought we could start with someone else in the meantime.”

Eager for the chance to break away from this setting, Haley had agreed to follow. Sytris led her down the passageway he had led Jon, but this time they didn’t stop in a specific room. He opened the door at the very end of the hallway and they emerged outside, into the brilliant sunshine and fragrant summer air.

The backyard was large and beautifully kept, and a whole section was dedicated to an array of vibrant, multicoloured flowers. About ten feet away stood two wooden logs each with a large dot of red paint on the center of their planks.

“What are these for?”

“Weapons training,” Sytris said simply. “As explained before, the gods of Algyria are immortal, meaning we can live forever, but it is still possible for us to die.”

“Yeah, Brightsteel is deadly to us, I heard.”

“Not just that, there are quite a few things that pose a danger to us, in fact. The same is true for the Harbingers, but Brightsteel happens to be the one most easily found. Each of the weapons you received is something that you held close to you in the days of your youth. Lord Orus’s ring, your bangle, Lord Nokk’s necklace —”

“Tim’s glasses,” she added. “Yeah we know. Speaking of which, why does a divine being need glasses anyway? Aren’t we supposed to be perfect? All powerful? That’s how gods are usually described, right?”

To her surprise, Sytris burst out laughing. She watched him with a puzzled expression, then he finally pulled himself together.

“Forgive me, Milady. But it is quite funny. ‘Perfect’ and ‘all-powerful’ are absolutely not words you would use to describe us. We are almost as far from those concepts as mortals are. We are celestial beings, yes, but we are not infallible. We just happen to have access to magic. And regarding why Lord Lenos needs glasses… Well, as I said there is a good number of things that can harm us. A lot of them we can heal from, but they can also cause lasting damage.” As he spoke he rolled up his sleeve, and Haley felt a slight wave of nausea as he unveiled a gruesome scar stretching from the base of his elbow down to his wrist.

“How did you get that?”

“Perhaps that story can be saved for another time,” Sytris said with a small smile.

“Why bother showing me if you weren’t going to tell me?” Haley said, irritated.

“To dispel the myth that we are perfect. If you faced a Harbinger with that mindset it would likely cost you your life. And speaking of the Harbingers, your weapons are going to be your most important tools in the battles ahead. While your gifts will certainly be invaluable assets as well, your weapons are the only way to… ensure they won’t be future threats. Mastering both your powers and your weapons is the key to survival. If you would…” He gestured at her wrist.

Haley held up her bangle and whispered, “Iduna.” As the silver light died away, her twin fans were revealed, gleaming in her palms once more.

“I did some research on these,” Haley said. “Tessen fans are meant to be used like clubs, right? To bludgeon the opponents?”

“That is how it was for the fans that yours were modeled after. But these fans are more special. They can certainly be used for blunt force, but they were originally intended for more ranged use.”

“What do you mean?”

“You see those?” Sytris pointed at the logs behind them. “Throw your fans at them.”

“Why? What’s going to happen?”

“You’re not much for trusting the process, are you?”

“Nope,” she said brightly.

Sytris gave her a pointed look and gestured at the logs again. Haley unfolded the fans. The metal ribs extended, unfurling to their full lengths, and she let them fly. She half expected them to go clattering to the ground in a few seconds, but instead they remained on a steady path, picking up speed as they flew towards the logs. There was a sound like a chainsaw cutting through wood as the fans cleaved through the logs and they fell to the ground. But that wasn’t all: the fans changed direction in midair, zooming straight towards her like glowing boomerangs.

She acted purely out of reflex; her hands shot upwards and she snatched them out of the air. Most curious of all, they didn’t even leave a scratch.

“Okay, that is really cool,” she said. “Do they always come back after they’re thrown?”

“If they aren’t obstructed, yes. I must say, that was a pretty good throw.”

“I used to play baseball with my dad. It’s all in the wrist.” Haley frowned as a sudden thought occurred to her. “Did we have these weapons as kids?”

“Non-lethal versions of them, but yes. Why?”

Haley racked her brain. The fans felt familiar — the way she angled her wrists upon release; how her eyes tracked their progress through the air; how her hands had glided upwards to catch them, almost as if magnetically attracted. It was like muscle memory, as if she had done it a thousand times and her body had adapted to the motions.

“You’ll get your memories back,” Sytris said, as if he was reading her mind. “Don’t worry. Lady Mnemosyne can do it, I’m certain of it.”

Haley was too distracted to even be phased by the mention of Lauren. She was surveying the fans, trying to remember the days when she had held them years before.

“How about you try again?”

Haley did just that. She took a deep breath, positioning her wrists very carefully, then she let the weapons soar. They made a very satisfying whizzing sound as they flew, and yet again sawed right through the wood as they made contact, like a hot knife through butter.

“You’re a natural,” said Sytris, as the fans returned.

“Do you mind if we practiced with our powers for a while?”

The smile on his face flickered slightly. “Of course,” he said, though uncertainty was etched in the sharp lines of his face. “Although I thought you would have wanted to hold off on using your abilities first.”

Haley looked up at him. “What gave you that impression?”

Sytris shrugged. “I rather thought you would have preferred to ease your way into it, since you seemed to want to maintain some sense of normalcy. But if you would like to proceed to the next step, there’s no reason we can’t. As the goddess of nature, your domain extends to all forms of plant-life, and of course the earth itself. I think this could be a good starting point.” He waved his hand in front of him and a small table appeared out of thin air, upon which was stacked a house of cards.

“How did you do that?”

“That you can also learn in time. Right now though, I want you to start small. Send a small tremor through the ground and topple the table.”

“That’s all?”

“That is all,” he said serenely. “Just a small quake.”

Haley shrugged.

“It may sound simple, but don’t be disappointed if you don’t succeed on the first attempt. A lot of you and your siblings’ powers are dependent on sheer willpower and mental fortitude. Just a few minutes ago Lord Orus was rather upset about a lack of results. The key is to remain calm, to concentrate deeply on what it is you want to —”

Sytris’s words were drowned in a very low rumble, a rumble that grew steadily louder until it filled the whole clearing. It was as if an industrial tractor was roaring in the yard beside them. The ground ahead of them rippled; the neat, unnaturally green lawn tore up as huge cracks wound their way through the earth. The ground underneath them ruptured and the whole table collapsed, leaving cards fluttering through the air. Sytris stared at them, his jaw agape.

He turned to look at Haley, who was grinning.

“That wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be,” she said cheerfully.

Sytris still looked dumbfounded. After a few seconds he found his voice again. “How did you do that?” he said, in a surprisingly calm voice.

“Well, I just kind of imagined what the end result would be and concentrated hard on it. I felt this pull in my stomach, and then it happened.”

“I see… Well, it’s a bit bigger than the scale I expected.”

Haley let out a small laugh, looking at the ruined lawn. “Sorry about that.”

“Not to worry. It was actually perfect form. How about we try again? Over here this time.”

He led her to an untouched patch of grass where a large boulder was sitting. Haley balled her fists and squeezed tightly; her brow furrowed in concentration, her eyes narrowed. Her chest was rising and falling slowly as she breathed deeply; she felt her stomach clench once more, then —

The entire patch of land ruptured, then it collapsed entirely, leaving nothing but a giant hole in the ground. Sytris looked amazed. Haley wanted nothing more than to continue, but realizing that they would soon run out of lawn, they decided to change tactics, this time focusing on the trees around them. Haley tried to get them to shake their branches the way they did the previous night. This one was much harder than the first task.

She tried four times before she got a result, but in time she got it too: the branches of the trees began to sway in an unnatural direction, revolving so fast it was as if they were spinning on levers.

“Incredible,” Sytris said, his smile as broad as the trench she had just dug. “Remarkable, really. You’re a true prodigy.”

Haley couldn’t contain herself. She was grinning as if she had just learned she’d won the lottery, bursting with pride. It was an amazing moment. Nothing could have ruined it, nothing — except for Mr. Whitmore rushing out to meet them, sweat glimmering on his face as he tried to weave his way around the destruction.

He stopped in front of them, completely out of breath, and tried to speak several times but failed. Finally, after several deep breaths, he managed to gasp, “Jon — Oscar — gone!”

“What do you mean gone?” Sytris asked. All the elation their session had generated had been wiped away. His expression was sharp, serious.

“They took the ventus!” Mr. Whitmore wheezed, clutching his chest.

Sytris’s eyes widened in horror. “Where?”

“We don’t know. Neither of them are answering their phones.”

Without another word Sytris darted off, back in the direction of the house. Haley followed him as he hurtled inside, pushing through the door to find the remaining inhabitants of the house gathered in the living room.

“Lord Lenos, I need you to find your brothers, please.”

“Wha — me?”

“Without Skylar, your speed is the only way we can reliably cover enough ground to find them before any monsters do. We can follow in the car, and when you do find them you can alert us of your position.”

Tim took a step back, holding up his hands. “That’s an awful lot of pressure, don’t you think? Find them before the monsters do? How am I supposed to do that?”

Sytris tapped Tim’s glasses. “With this. I told you, the objects are linked, that’s why they flared up when you reunited after your years apart. Each of your accessories has a unique magical signature that can be traced using the others. Hone in on either the ring or the necklace, and follow the beacon.”

“I don’t know how to do any of that! And I don’t know how to turn the speed on or off either!”

“Well that’s where we have some luck. Unlike your siblings your abilities are not mental in nature. It’s not something you need to know. Just do. Run as fast as you can and your body will do the rest.”

Tim looked around at his parents, as if hoping they would offer a word of comfort, or maybe even disagree. They didn’t. Mr. Bryant gave him a small smile and a nod, and Mrs. Bryant just said, “Be careful.”

Tim turned to Sytris and nodded shakily. He took a deep breath and turned to face the door. Everyone else backed away, clearing space for him to move.

“Now,” said Sytris, his voice low and slow. “Run, Lord Lenos… Run!”

With a clap like thunder, Tim was off, a blur of bright blue light that raced through the door and out of sight, leaving nothing behind but a strong breeze and a smell of burning leather.