He calmed his breaths and reflected upon recent events. The duel with Riyan had honestly not gone well for him. The man pressured him right from the start, forcing him to burn through valuable usages of his Talents.
He thought about what he could’ve done to avoid that situation, coming up empty. Riyan was just too strong for Vir to have even a chance of besting him. In a proper fight, the only way he’d survive against a man like that would be to run away.
When Vir had awoken after the duel, battered and bruised, he’d drowned in shame, having broken his promise to Maiya.
To his immense surprise, Riyan had not only passed him, he’d actually been quite proud of Vir’s performance. Apparently, few warriors could make Riyan take a fight seriously.
Rarely did Vir come out of a fight with so many advantages, but he wasn’t about to question the whims of the gods. Not when Yuma herself smiled upon him for once.
And that wasn’t all he’d gained from the duel. For once, he’d actually been conscious when Riyan used his Life orbs to heal him. He half-wished he hadn’t—the bone mending process was downright excruciating, to say nothing of the flesh restoration. Riyan had neglected to include Numb Wound in his healing kit. Because of course he had.
Vir came to hate the particular orbs responsible for those tasks. There wasn’t just one orb that did everything, which made the process somewhat long and involved. Set Bone, Mend Bone, Heal Skin, and Mend Flesh were all different orbs from various tiers. Each had to be used in the correct order, or things could get ugly—if flesh healed before the bones were repaired, it could actually make the wound far worse.
By toughing it out, he’d been able to confirm that magic did in fact work how he’d expected—Riyan sucked prana away from his hand, creating a kind of ‘suction’ space. Almost like what happened when you’d suck on a straw.
From there, ambient Life prana had rushed into the orb. Rather, the prana tried to enter Riyan’s body, but became trapped inside the orb instead, charging it. With this, Vir had now proved without a shred of a doubt that magic and Talents leveraged the same fundamental principle. They both relied on ‘sucking’ prana from a part of the body to draw in more from either the ground or the air.
Just that Talents drew ground prana into the body, while mejai used air prana to power orbs.
Vir slowly opened his eyes. Through Prana Vision, he sensed Maiya open the bedroom door and walk into the living room. Using the ability incessantly had expanded both its range and resolution, and now, he could detect human prana signatures from a dozen paces away—even through walls, if there wasn’t too much prana in the way.
“Wow…” he said in awe. As much as Prana Vision did for him, it told him nothing about a person’s appearance.
Maiya had once again dressed up as a Sawai aristocrat’s son, but this time, she sported blue eyes and blonde hair, just like him.
“You look… beautiful?” he said.
“Beautiful? Seriously? I’m supposed to be a guy, y’know,” Maiya said with her hands on her hips. “Kind of a problem if I’m ‘beautiful’ like this.”
“Yeah, I know. It feels weird to say that. You look a little effeminate for a guy. But I guess that works, since we’re supposed to be ’risto kids.”
Maiya looked amused at his words. “Oho? Picked up that bit of slang from Saran, did you?”
“Sawai’s too formal-sounding. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna slip and use the wrong word in front of the Brijers. Now c’mon, let’s be gone. I want to be at the village before sundown.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice! Let’s do it!” Maiya said, grabbing her rucksack and following Vir out the front door. Her eyes burst with expectation.
Neel looked at them forlornly, sad to be left alone. Unable to resist his big, beady eyes, Maiya gave the bandy a big hug. “Don’t worry, Neel. We’ll be back before you know it. Be a good boy while we’re out, okay! And don’t eat up all of your food at once!”
The bandy tried to lick her face, but Maiya pushed him away just in time, closing the main door behind her.
“Can’t wait until Mom and Dad see me like this! I’ll give them the scare of their lives!” she said.
Vir smiled at her as he hopped onto Bumpy, giving her a hand up. “I’m sure they’ll be happy to see you.”
“I mean, I just want to finally tell them I’m okay. I dunno if the letter we sent at Saran would’ve reached them. They must be worried sick.”
Vir guided Bumpy eastward. Despite their poor experience riding along highways thus far, it really was the only safe option to make it to Brij. After they intercepted the Saran-Daha highway, they’d head south to a junction that forked off to Brij. If they didn’t take a single break, Vir estimated the journey would take six hours.
After a slow, but uneventful, journey across the dunes, they came across the highway that ran parallel to the desert’s border. From there, they made good time.
Bumpy was as bumpy as ever, making the experience a bone jarring one. Vir and Maiya had long ago grown accustomed to the Ash’va’s ride, so neither of them breathed a word of complaint.
“Let’s go over the script again,” Vir said after another hour of jostling. Mainly to keep himself occupied—they’d seen only one other traveler along the road so far, which made for a safe, but uneventful journey. That also meant it was boring, and his conversations with Maiya had long ago petered out.
“Pretty much the same deal as last time, yeah?” Maiya replied. “We’re gonna pose as the children of rich merchant parents on our way to the Viridian Coast. We’ll wait there for a trading vessel to pick us up.”
Vir nodded. “I think it makes sense to say we’ll be boarding a ship there. We’ll avoid any suspicion if Hiranya gets wind of our presence—they’ll think we departed for the sea. My only worry is that the Brijers might see through our disguises.”
“If they do, we’ll leave,” Maiya replied. “They’re just villagers. Not like they can use magic.”
Neither can you. And we were ‘just’ villagers too, not long ago, Vir thought. Maiya was thrilled to ditch her identity as a villager.
Though she continued to practice her magic diligently, she’d made slow progress. Tanya had been ecstatic, but Maiya was left frustrated.
For whatever reason, her command over the prana in her body wasn’t nearly as good as his own. She could barely move it at all, and even after training under Vir’s supervision for hours upon hours each day, her command had improved only slightly.
Vir wondered whether this was the norm, and if he was the odd one for being able to channel prana so easily… but he hadn’t met enough mejai to know.
Unfortunately, the smooth sailing lasted only until the junction with the road to Brij. Calling the branching path a road was generous—its severe lack of upkeep meant it was more mud than gravel, and several sections had washed away entirely, forcing them to detour several times.
By the time they finally arrived, the sun had grown long in the sky, painting deep shadows. The scenery changed from desert to barren plains, and finally to the lush greenery that surrounded Brij.
Vir worried that securing accommodation would be tough if they arrived too late, but luckily, there was still activity in the streets.
He found himself lost in nostalgia. It wasn’t all that long ago when he was the one ogling strangers. Now he was the stranger.
“How quickly the winds shift,” he muttered under his breath.
“Tell me about it,” Maiya replied from behind him, tightening her grip around his waist.
Vir didn’t think he held much attachment to the village, not after the way they’d treated him, yet he almost found himself brought to tears. He couldn’t imagine how it must have felt for Maiya, who still had family here.