“No. I…” Maiya trailed off, deep in thought. “I thought you were hiding something, but I never guessed it’d be something like this. Wow. This… is a lot to take in.”
“I don’t even know how much of it was real,” Vir admitted. “It’s bothered me ever since. What was that place? Who built it, and why? When you said there was an identical room in the Human Realm, I really didn’t know what to think.”
“This confirms it,” Maiya said. “It was real, Vir. At least, I think it was. Ever since I touched that tree, I’ve felt… off, somehow.”
Vir frowned. “Why haven’t you said anything?”
“Well, why didn’t you say anything?” Maiya fired back.
Vir cringed. He really had no good comeback to that. He’d wanted to wait until he knew whether or not those events were real, but now that he thought of it, wasn’t he just running away from a hard conversation?
“But what do you mean by ‘off’?” Vir asked. “Are you… hurt? Is it…”
“My soul?” Maiya said with a smirk. “No. At least, I don’t think so. It’s not a bad feeling. The Blessed Chosen thinks…”
“What?”
“Well, he thinks I’ve ‘awoken’ some power of some sort. Says we’ll be training it up. So that I can serve them.”
“Oh yes, your almighty Prana Swarm,” Vir said sarcastically. “I’m sure you’ll become a great servant of the mutated pranite terror.”
He’d expected Maiya to reply with a witty comeback, but she just bit her lip.
“I don’t think he meant the Swarm. Dunno why, but that’s just the feeling I got. Anyway, I gotta head to my next blood ritual. Talk when I’m in Sonam?”
Vir nodded. “Let’s.”
Maiya looked around anxiously, then brought her face closer to the orb. Too close.
“Did you just… kiss your orb?” Vir asked, dumbfounded.
Maiya flushed furiously. “It’s an indirect kiss, okay! Geez, way to go and ruin the mood.”
Vir laughed. “I didn’t mean—”
Maiya had cut the call.
Grakking chal. She’s gonna be mad about that one, isn’t she?
As he often did these days, Vir took a stroll through the city wearing his Outcast Calling badge. While no Gargan Callings technically existed, it was only the Gargans who bore that unsightly mark. They, and certain criminals.
It’d been eye-opening just how poorly the Calling was treated, especially when donning the Outcast badge after wearing a Chitran warrior badge. In a matter of moments, Vir went from living well to not living at all.
Someone spit at Vir’s sandals, which he, of course, dodged.
“Tch. This city’s gone to Ash,” the Chitran woman said, giving Vir a look of utter disgust.
Such encounters were entirely commonplace. Vir had initially been at a loss for how to react. Now he just bowed, avoided eye contact, and moved on.
Any other reaction generally resulted in a beating.
His destination was a spot he’d grown fond of—the summit of Greesha’s temple.
The tiered four-story stone steeple was tall enough to avoid the eyes of those below yet low enough to be close to the traffic of the city square.
A requirement for training the Life Chakra.
Vir had often come here during his free time. It was usually full of people and thus made for an ideal practice environment.
Sitting cross-legged, Vir settled into his meditation. Shutting off Prana Vision, he closed his eyes and attempted to sense the life that thronged around him.
As usual, after an hour of concentration, he felt the faintest thread of something, drifting far away.
Attempting to pull the thread was of no use; it just wiggled away from his grasp. Focusing too hard on it caused it to dissipate entirely.
This time, Vir opted to simply stare at it. To try to understand what it represented. Was this life force itself? Was it the power of the soul?
Thin and wispy as it was, it was difficult to say.
Eventually, Vir’s concentration broke, and the wisp dissipated.
Opening his eyes, Vir ground his teeth. This wasn’t working.
Right now, he was at an incredible disadvantage, lacking the Shield and Warrior Chakras.
Even forgetting the ability to dish out Chakra-infused attacks, which would make his existing attacks far deadlier, the Shield Chakra was what Vir was really after.
His inability to defend against them meant he had to avoid them entirely. Prana Armor had protected him thus far, but it had its limits. Its capacity was finite, and it only protected him from the physical medium carrying the Chakra-laden attack. If a Chakra attack even grazed his skin, he’d be crippled.
Thus far, he hadn’t faced a single warrior capable of launching Chakra attacks independently of their weapons. While rare, Cirayus could, which meant others could as well. Those, Vir would have to dodge entirely. No amount of Prana Armor would help him then.
The Shield Chakra negated that weakness, giving him a true Chakra-based defense.
The Life Chakra was, in many ways, a necessary stepping stone to the higher Chakras. Its utility in battle was negated by the Foundation Chakra, which protected against it. Much in the way the Warrior Chakra was negated by the Shield.
Still, it could be a potent weapon if used properly. Chakras could not be held open indefinitely, and so tactical applications became incredibly important. As Vir learned firsthand, a successful Life Chakra attack was as good as incapacitating one’s opponent.
Vir fully understood that Chakras were supposed to take years and decades to master. Except he didn’t have decades.
Besides, it all felt wrong to him. Ever since he’d learned about Chakras, it felt like such a waste that he had to relearn it. Ekanai had mastered them, and Vir was pretty sure all of his prior incarnations did as well.
Why did he have to start from nothing every time? It wasn’t just unfair; it was wrong.
Except there was a solution to this problem, wasn’t there? A solution Vir had considered and rejected several times.
But perhaps…
Vir drew in several deep breaths and closed his eyes again. If this worked, it’d be a windfall. If it didn’t… Well, Vir was about to have an incredibly hard fight on his hands.
Calming himself, Vir entered his mindscape.
Suddenly, he was no longer in Samar Patag. He was in the center of a circular meadow in the Godshollow, where gargantuan trees soared to the sky.
This had better work.
Vir opened his Foundation Chakra… and summoned Ekanai.
20
HOME AGAIN (PART ONE) (MAIYA)
Maiya had dreamed of this moment for months. When she fled her cult prison and returned to civilization. To normalcy. To safety.
Playing the role of an undercover agent had placed far more stress on her than she could’ve imagined, to say nothing of the assassination attempts.
Yes, attempts—there had been more than one. First, it had been poison. If Riyan and Kin’jal hadn’t trained Maiya to detect exactly that sort of thing, she’d be long-dead by now. When the third poisoning attempt failed, the Blessed Chosen got the hint, switching to assassination.
Needless to say, that didn’t go over well. There was no one in the Children of Ash who could take Maiya head-on, and she was far too careful to allow anyone to get the jump on her. Even in her sleep.
As for it being the Blessed Chosen behind these attempts, she had little doubt it could’ve been anyone else. The Sisters of Gray were on her side, Camas and his buddies had been cowed into submission, and there wasn’t anyone else with sufficient motive.