Maiya removed her helm, wiping her sweat-matted hair from her face before grasping his forearm with her other hand. “Thanks!” she said with a grin. “That was fun. I like these spars.”
The knight chuckled. “Most handmaidens find this training quite grueling. I am pleased that you’re enjoying it. Combat is the purest expression of one’s self, after all.”
“Uh, huh,” Maiya agreed. She’d initially found these battle maniacs’ devotion to combat creepy. These people trained in the arts of war from the moment they could walk, but now that she was here training with them, she was starting to understand. Fighting was fun.
Especially when you were winning. Especially when you completely outmatched the enemy and decimated them with a hailstorm of magic and blade—Maiya shook off those thoughts. She was becoming a bit too much like them.
She felt sorry for the poor fools who ever went to war with them. The fact that the Altani military wiped the floor with them really drove home just how powerful a country full of mejai could be.
For Maiya, the hardest part of these duels was maintaining enough battlefield awareness to keep her blood rods powered while also fighting herself, but she’d been developing an intuition for how long orbs generally lasted. These fights had been growing easier.
Finally, maybe I can take things easy from now on, she thought. She could use a vacation… And she missed Vir. She missed sparring against him, though she usually lost. Would she lose now, though? She had to wonder.
But there was something else, too. A pain in her chest whenever she thought of him. She’d felt nothing like it before. As if a part of her was missing, a void that only Vir’s presence could fill. She wondered what it was. Soon, she could finally start searching for him. The thought filled her with warmth.
“Good.”
Maiya spun around to find the head handmaiden walking up to her.
“You are ready to fight Ash Beasts. From tomorrow on, you will transfer to the Kin’jal Three Garrison on the Ash Boundary.”
No! Maiya’s face lost all of its color. Just like that, all her hopes of searching for Vir went out the window. No-no-no!
“I—I’m afraid I’m not ready, madam.”
“You are,” came her curt reply. Maiya could swear she saw an evil glint in the old hag’s eye.
Vir… I miss you.
81ACOLYTE
Vir heaved a sigh of relief, having just completed his latest mission for the Brotherhood—stealing a certain document from a well-to-do merchant’s home in the Upper Westside Commons district.
As he’d learned, the Brotherhood did nearly anything, and the law didn’t seem to pose much of a barrier to them. Vir had serious reservations about some of these tasks, but to deny any more than he had would bar him from future contracts. It was a cost he simply could not afford.
“Sorry about this, mister. I really am,” he whispered. Then he took a deep breath, hoping to forget the vile task. “C’mon, boy!” Vir said, nuzzling Neel. “Let’s go get paid!”
The bandy had been a big help on contracts that involved killing animals, so long as they weren’t in the sewers. Vir had been reluctant to bring Neel there due to the unsanitary conditions.
Plus, he’d been wary of venturing back there, given recent events. He’d even declined one contract that called for him to venture especially deep into the sewers, but he’d been forced to accept the others. As he’d learned, city living was expensive, especially with an Ash’va to look after. Even with the extra silver payout he’d received for locating the Prana Rat King, his trove of funds had dwindled rapidly.
Walking back to the Brotherhood to claim his reward, he passed by many guards patrolling the streets. All looked on edge.
As they rightly should, he thought, giving them a small nod as he passed.
The past two weeks had been highly unusual for Daha. First, a dozen Altani skyships had descended like Acira, swarming on the castle grounds the day after Vir’s encounter with Janak and the Prana Swarm. There wasn’t a single eye in the city that hadn’t stared at those incredible aircraft.
Hiranyan hot air balloons were a common sight, but comparing those to what the Altani had was like comparing seric talwars to wooden ones. They weren’t even in the same realm.
Their skyships resembled sailboats—only large enough to fit twenty or thirty Altani mejai—but they lacked masts or sails of any kind. Instead, a dozen pipes protruded from the skyships at all angles.
Vir could hardly believe their speed. The fleet crossed over the entire city in seconds, coming to a halt with puffs of air shot through their pipes. Vir overheard others saying the Altani used C and B Grade Wind orbs and a team of over a dozen mejai coordinating with each other to fire off wind spells to maneuver their ships.
He could scarcely imagine what a circus that must be. If the mejai didn’t perfectly time their spells with one another, their entire ship would go careening off and crash.
What was more, the Altani mejai didn’t even wait for the airships to land. Dozens of ropes were thrown overboard as the ships came to hover above the castle, and mejai climbed down them with superhuman grace. It looked like a choreographed dance, more than anything.
From this one display of power alone, Vir understood why the Altani were so feared and respected. Their discipline and sheer magical technology were leagues beyond anything Vir had ever seen.
It was only hours later that he’d realized why they were here. The Prana Swarm.
Vir pretended like he had nothing to do with that and promptly ignored them. A task that was easier said than done, because security had been ramped up all around the city. The number of guards had quadrupled, and Altani airships patrolled the city at all hours.
It caused quite a stir until royal pamphlets were posted, announcing joint military drills between Hiranya and the Altani. This had the effect of boosting Dahan morale, as it showed the strength of the Altani-Hiranyan alliance.
Vir knew better. He slept fitfully, always keeping Prana Vision boosted to its maximum whenever he was awake, lest the Prana Swarm escape the sewers to terrorize the city.
Nothing of the sort had happened, yet…
The Prana Swarm wasn’t the only thing keeping him up at night. Over the last weeks, a feeling had been growing within his chest. A knot of anxiety. What was once imperceptible had ballooned until it dominated his dreams, turning them into nightmares. Nightmares of Maiya getting hurt. Of misfortune befalling his one and only friend while he was here in Daha, fulfilling his debt to a broken old man.
Riyan said it might take months…
But after weeks of those nightmares, Vir decided he could take this no longer. He’d wrap up his business in Daha, soon. He knew not how he’d search for Maiya, but at least being done with this obligation would give him options. And for that, he’d lean on the Brotherhood.
Vir nodded at the receptionist as he strode into the Brotherhood Sanctum, proceeding directly through the hallway to the open-air arena where he’d been Balar Ranked, and finally to the Executor booths.
He’d become a familiar face recently, so no one paid him any mind.
Today was an especially exciting day for him, for two reasons. With today’s payout, he finally had enough to afford some decent gear.
The second reason was…
“Enter,” said an Executor inside the Balindam booth. For whatever reason, Vir had been called to this booth more often than all the others. It was as if Fate was telling him he had some connection to the Pagan Order.