And with the sky painting hues of orange and red, he was out of time. Further experimentation would have to wait.
Vir exited the cavern to find a bored-looking Bumpy rubbing his snout against the cave entrance.
“Let’s go home, Bumpy,” he said, sadly patting his trusty steed. This was the first time he’d failed to grasp a new ability, and it irked him like worms under his skin. It left his stomach queasy, and he knew he’d lie awake at night, thinking about it.
Vir made haste on the way back. They’d been gone too long, and Riyan would no doubt worry. As much as he wanted to put Tanya in hot water, delaying any longer might draw the Ghost of Godshollow’s ire. That was never good news for anyone.
The ride home took a mere ten minutes, but when he arrived, the stable was empty. That meant Tanya was out for sure, and either Riyan or Maiya as well. He only hoped they weren’t searching for him.
Vir opened the main door and stepped inside. “Maiya? I’m back.”
A door slammed open, followed by the furious steps of bare feet upon clay floor.
“Vir? Vir! Oh, gods!” Maiya said, running up to him and grabbing his hand. Neel followed suit, tail wagging. The bandy proceeded to run circles around them.
“What’s wrong?” Vir said, kneeling down to pet his furry friend.
“Vir, it’s terrible! You’re being hunted!” she said, her face plastered with fear.
“Uh, tell me something I don’t know…”
53MAIYA ADVANCES
“She possesses not a shred of talent!” Tanya’s frustrated voice came muffled through the kitchen door, but was clear enough for Vir’s ears.
“Don’t all mejai take months to sense prana?” Riyan replied calmly. “Give her more time.”
“Easy for you to say, training a prodigy like Vir. Even so, her progress is slower than most mejai.”
Prodigy. Now that was a word Vir never thought he’d hear cross Tanya’s lips—and certainly not in the same sentence as his name.
Vir still hadn’t grown used to Tanya’s attitude change. Ever since she learned of his Talents, she’d been treating him more politely, giving him a bit more respect.
He’d been mistaken about the woman. She didn’t dislike Ashborn—she thought him weak for being prana scorned.
Sadly, the opposite held true for his friend. Tanya had been getting angrier and angrier at Maiya for having failed to progress even an inch in her mejai training.
“I am as surprised as you, Tanya. The boy is certainly not what I expected. Did you know? I was ready to throw him out when they first arrived. What a terrible mistake that would have been! Perhaps the girl will manifest her abilities in time as well. She certainly has the affinities.”
“I only hope you’re right,” said Tanya.
The two fell silent, forcing Vir to leave lest they discover him. He’d just wrapped up training for the day when he happened upon a rare conversation he could overhear. These days, he tried to glean every little morsel of information he could, considering how tightlipped Riyan and Tanya had been about the Godshollow encounter.
They both refused to say a word about the identity of the ones who hunted him. Nor did they divulge why or how Tanya had suddenly appeared to rescue him. There was something going on here—something beyond the veil of what he could see. In fact, Riyan hadn’t even discussed the outcome of his fight with the spider. Tanya had seen its corpse, so she had likely informed the man of Vir’s success, but even still… he didn’t like this secrecy.
Inside the bedroom, he found Maiya on her bed, hugging her knees and sobbing.
“You got into a fight with Tanya, didn’t you?” he mumbled, sitting beside her.
“You tell me. You’re the genius,” she said, head still buried in her knees.
“Am not,” Vir retorted, his back against hers, staring at the hairline cracks that covered the clay ceiling. “You oughta know that better than most. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happened.”
Maiya finally popped her head up, peeking at Vir with one eye. “I’m not making any progress, Vir. Do you have any idea how hard it is, being constantly compared to someone who’s mastering Talents one after another?”
Vir met her gaze with a wry smile. “I do know. I’ve known that feeling for most of my life.”
Her cheeks flushed, and she stuck her head back into her knees. “Sorry… It’s not right of me to complain like this. I know. I know that! But still!”
Vir stroked her back, then moved his way up to her shoulders.
“Hmph,” Maiya mumbled. Vir didn’t need to see her expression to know she was pouting, and was probably embarrassed at her outburst, but was too shy to admit it. So he threw her a bone.
“I could use a change of scenery. How about we go catch the sunset at our spot? C’mon! It’ll be good.”
Vir got up and left, not waiting for his friend. He’d learned long ago that the best way to handle a grumpy Maiya was to let her have some space.
He threw on his boots and plodded through the sand up to the tree that capped Riyan’s abode, all the while thinking about how Dance of the Shadow Demon would’ve made quick work of the trip, with the long shadows of sunset. He’d been mulling over the ability over the past few days after he got back but hadn’t taken even a single step toward mastering it.
Then there was the other issue he was dealing with—finding excuses not to use Talents when Riyan asked him to. There was such little Ash prana left near Riyan’s place that Vir felt like he could use his Talents once… maybe twice before all the prana ran out. The man couldn’t understand that Vir’s prana was a scarce commodity.
Must be nice having unlimited prana to use.
Vir found a spot under the branchless tree and plopped down, making himself comfortable. They’d come here less and less lately. He’d forgotten how much he missed the spot.
The warmth of the sand soaked into his back, and he found his eyelids drooped. Soon, he’d drifted off into a peaceful slumber.
He woke up just in time to see the sun slip beneath the horizon, finding Maiya curled up beside him.
“Morning, princess,” she said with a smirk.
“Princess? What are you, then? My knight in shining armor?”
“Do you want me to be?”
“Dunno. Haven’t gotten along all that well with knights so far…”
Maiya burst out giggling, forcing a smile of his own. She looked off into the distance, and her smile slowly gave way to a frown.
“Any word from Riyan about those people hunting you?” she asked with a strained voice.
“Nothing,” Vir replied. “I’ve lost count of the number of times I asked him. I don’t get why he’s so secretive about all of this. We already know about those people, not like telling us would change anything.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know?” Maiya asked.
Vir shook his head. “If that was the case, then Tanya wouldn’t have shown up. He knew they’d be there, chasing after me. All I know is they weren’t really knights. They dressed differently, and they said they weren’t.”
“But if it’s not the knights, then who could it be? Who’d want to harm you? And besides, how did they even know to find you there?”
“I don’t know. I really wish I did. I’d always thought we were safe here, at Riyan’s place. But now? I’m not so sure anymore. We can only rely on our own strength to keep us safe, and neither of us are strong enough yet.”
“Tell me about it…” Maiya said, looking down at her feet.
“Well, why don’t we see what we can do about that?” Vir said, cracking his neck.
“What do you mean?” she asked with a tilt of her head.
“I’m saying maybe I can give you some tips if you show me what you’re doing,” he said.