Chapter 2-6

We left the compound, following in Sati’s footsteps. I thought it would be best to give her some time alone, but I wasn’t sure if she knew where we would be staying, so we followed casually. I was keeping my spiritual eye on her presence, and it looked like she was headed back toward the governor’s estate.

“Myta, how do you feel about Sati?” I asked her abruptly.

“In what way, master?” My flame raised an eyebrow at me.

“Things between us have taken an oddly sexual turn, given how we met her. And I’ve sensed her desire for us grow. Both carnal, and emotional desire. You’ve encouraged it so far, but I’m not sure you’ve thought through where a relationship with her might lead.”

“Hmm, I suppose that’s true.” Myta said. “It’s been fun to tease her, and I wouldn’t mind her sharing our bedroll. But you think she’s interested in more than that?”

“I think she doesn’t know what she wants.” My voice was dry. “Sati, for all that she’s more than twice your age, has none of your experience and maturity. She longs for a deeper connection, but I’m not even sure she recognizes the desire. Much less what kind of relationship she would want.”

“Being a child-**** and outcast hardly prepared me for this.” Myta argued.

“Hardship and **** **** you to see what you did, and didn’t, want from life. Sati… well I won’t say that her life has been perfect, far from it, but she thought that it was. She has no real experience in deciding what she wants for herself. So I’d rather we know what we want, before matters progress any further.

“Regardless of our personal desires, we are tied to her for the foreseeable future. It would be best if we are able to determine our boundaries early.”

“I understand.” My flame was lost in thought for a while as we walked. I could feel her mentally working through things. Imagining what our future might look like.

“I think that as long as you and I remain together, as long as you still have the time and attention to be my master, I will be happy. She is too different from me for me to worry that she would replace me in your heart. How much time and attention I need, however, I cannot say.” My vas said the last as though she were ashamed. As though she had failed somehow.

“That is enough.” I chuckled. “If you are feeling neglected then I want you to speak up. I should feel it through the bond, but I will leave nothing…”

I cut off abruptly, as a sense of dread filled me. Not thinking, I shoved Myta away, using the same motion to fall into a roll in the opposite direction. A moment too late, as my right arm was snapped and mangled by some descending ****. I came up from my roll in a low crouch, eyes locking to my assailant, who now stood unmoving. Waiting for me to recover.

My eyes and my spiritual sense clashed so strongly, that for a moment the dissonance staggered me. Before me stood a Tribeta boy, slight of frame and nearly as short as I. He had the normal pointed ears and textured skin of his people, and his hair was a deep rich green. But the expression on his face didn’t belong. He sneered at me with a contemptuous grin, his eyelid twitching in a familiar tic.

His aspect was familiar as well. Fiery, and with a smug arrogance to match his expression. I’d tried for years to curb that arrogant edge, to little effect. I pulled at my broken arm with my left hand, letting my mana pull the bone back into alignment with an unpleasant, grating snap. The pain drew a soft grunt from me, causing my assaulter to laugh.

“You’re getting even softer, old man.” The boy’s voice tried to growl, but just ended up cracking instead. “There was a time you wouldn’t even have noticed that little love tap.”

“You can’t fix what you don’t notice.” I waved my hand dismissively. “You never understood that, little pig.”

Screaming, he charged at me, mallet swinging. I slipped to the side, not quite fast enough to trip him up as he passed me. Recovering faster than I would have liked, he set himself in a defensive stance, rather than recklessly charging me again.

“At least you’ve learned a little patience.” I noted mildly. Outwardly I maintained my calm. Inwardly my thoughts were racing. “A lackey of yours called you a sage recently. Which is obviously a lie, but you’ve learned some new tricks to sell it.”

“Hah! Fuck you, master. No one cares about your ancient ranks and definitions anymore. I can match all the legends, so the Pure call me Sage Entreyu now!”

With a scream, Myta emerged from a nearby alley. I’d hoped to keep the idiot talking longer, Entreyu had always been a braggart. But my flame had succumbed to her rage. She sailed forward, her unique glaive blazing with white fire.

If she hadn’t screamed, Entreyu might well have died in a single strike. Or at least his host might have. I wasn’t entirely sure what would happen to the Pure monk, as I could feel that his spirit was connected, perhaps even present. But whatever his faults, my old student was a skilled and canny fighter.

His head pulled to the side, his presence concentrating to deflect Myta’s sorcery. The thick lance of liquid fire she sent his way curved, the wash of natural flame that hazed off of it blistering his borrowed face. But my vas hadn’t stopped moving. Even as he dodged, she advanced, glaive cutting at his belly.

It was difficult for me to track their movements with my physical eyes. When I’d known him decades ago, speed had been the monk’s weakness. But now, piloting a stolen body, he was Myta’s match. He spun and struck like lightning, laughing his deranged laugh. Reveling in the ****. His body contorted in unnatural ways, clearly dragged about and manipulated by its unnatural possession.

In short order, Myta bore a few burns of her own. She was still faster, and far more graceful than her opponent. But his extensive fighting experience, as well as his odd movements, more than overcame the gap. I could feel my flame’s building frustration, fueling her rage even further.

I felt a sinking sensation as I realized that the monk cared little for the health of his host. He took hits readily to inflict even lesser ones on Myta. If he wasn’t concerned about his current body’s welfare, then it was likely that losing it wouldn’t do more than inconvenience him. Myta, on the other hand, only had one life to live. If she died in this fight she was gone. Even if she took a serious injury while winning, it would still be a victory for Entreyu.

As if my thoughts were an omen, Myta planted her spear in the monk’s right hip, only to have her left forearm cracked by a blow from the hammer. She screamed in pain and fury. Her arm wasn’t as mangled as my own had been, but I could tell that the bone was fractured. And meanwhile the monk moved as well as ever, despite the hip injury. His host was more like a puppet, than a person.

There was an obvious path to follow that thought. A puppet was useless when its strings were cut.

The encounter had happened so quickly, that I tried not to berate myself too much over not focusing on that before. Self-flagellation never served the person being flogged, it just gave the arm of their persecutors some rest. Instead, I shifted my focus inward, to my connection with the Radiant Sea. I hadn’t seen a tether of anima coming from Entreyu’s vessel, so it must have been buried deep.

Time seemed to stretch out as I focused. The experience was strange, as I didn’t retreat into my inner world. I couldn’t afford to do so, as there was no guarantee that the vicious monk wouldn’t simply kill me out of hand. But most of my experience with the Radiant Sea was in my inner world, and the rapid pace of my thoughts there might buy me the time I needed. So I attempted to focus on both the physical and inner worlds at once.

I was successful, in part. The real world was overlaid with images from my sanctum, green grass crawling over the paving stones around us, while the thunder of my anger rolled in my ears. Myta and Entreyu were still visible, still moving, but when I focused on their fight the world began to speed up again. So I turned my attention away as my vas attempted to give Entreyu an extra smile in his throat, and he in turn was driving his fist into her core.

With my attention off their actions, they slowed to a nearly complete stop. I felt as though my will was carrying an impossible load, as if my soul were a wedge that had stopped a rolling boulder. If my resolve faltered then that boulder would resume its travel, and I would be crushed beneath it. I wasn’t sure if the strain was from distorting my perception of time, or viewing the sea concurrently with the physical world. Perhaps they were one and the same.

My looming existential fear aside, I still had a task to perform. With my connection to the Radiant Sea strengthened, the bond leading back to Entreyu was obvious. It blazed in my sight like a river of sunlight. I reached for it, attempting to sever the link, but it was defended. It burned my spirit to touch, and even when I pushed through the pain to reach it, I could immediately feel how firmly it was anchored. I would need to destroy both spirits to remove or weaken the connection.

Perhaps I was blocked from my original goal, but there was another gamble I could make. I might not be able to disrupt the link between Entreyu and his patsy, but I could strengthen it. That would channel more of the monk’s power, but it would also tie him more closely to his stolen body, causing the damage Myta was doing to feed back into him.

I barely hesitated. Even if it put Myta in more immediate danger, this was our only chance to truly strike at our foe. I reached for the bond again, hazing its golden light with my silver presence. The defenses must have been created with the intent to prevent disruption of the link, rather than stop any other kind of tampering. The golden light barely reacted to my actions at all this time.

My presence sank into the bond like water suffusing a dry cloth. It spread rapidly, into the Tribeta boy and also back toward the monk. And across that distance, my mana carried my intent. I would bring them closer, bring them together. Two spirits as one.