“Do we really need to go so far for this? I feel like you’re being a little paranoid,” Maiya said, shivering against the cool desert’s chill. The sun had only just set, painting the sky with a bright blue hue, and already the temperature had plummeted.
Vir held her hand and pulled her along. “It’ll all make sense soon. We’re almost there.”
They’d journeyed a half hour on Bumpy to the small oasis south of Riyan’s abode.
While Maiya hadn’t been back here since she’d mapped the place with Vir, he’d visited the desert pond each night over the past week without fail.
He’d of course checked out on the roster—no need to repeat the tragedy of when he’d first snuck out of the abode. Riyan, for his part, didn’t seem to care so long as the two diligently challenged his draconian course from dawn until dusk… Or until they suffered an injury, which happened with alarming frequency these days.
Their endless hours in Riyan’s dome of horrors and subsequent massages left them both sore and exhausted, but Vir’s days never ended there.
For that was when his real training began. Each night, he trained for hours at their spot on top of the abode, though he’d upgraded his half-finger gloves for thicker wool ones that kept his fingers warm, courtesy of Riyan.
Because of this intense regimen, he resembled a walking corpse. His only luxury was soaking in Riyan’s grotto pool in the wee hours of the morning, after he’d returned from his nighttime practice sessions.
He did all of this alone, of course. Maiya had been keeping a reasonable schedule, as usual.
She’d peppered him with questions about what he was doing, and when that didn’t work, she tried to tail him in secret. Unfortunately for her, Maiya’s stealth skills were downright abysmal. Vir always caught on and—usually after a long argument—sent her back, huffing.
It wasn’t long after he’d begun dealing noticeable damage to the tree that he’d taken his training elsewhere. The nearest trees lay at the oasis—now dubbed Maiya’s Oasis—and he needed trees for his training. Lots of them, ideally.
The oasis was perfect. Except that Maiya would be sad if she ever discovered how he’d desecrated those beautiful trees.
Unfortunately for her, the only other place he knew with trees was the Godshollow, and that was simply too far away to be practical.
The trees at least served him well. He progressed rapidly with his chakram arts, channeling his memory of when Reaper Ekanai had possessed his body. His journey had not been an easy one. He’d expected to inherit Ekanai’s skills after that fight against the wolf, but reality was far harsher.
He’d remained exactly as he was. Only now, he knew what the ‘correct’ form looked like. Even a few short hours after he’d been possessed, his memory of the moves Ekanai had made grew muddled, leaving him to introspect and analyze each and every movement the Reaper had done.
It was more akin to copying a grandmaster after watching a move performed a single time. Not an easy task, but at least Vir had a goal and an understanding of what separated the right technique from wrong.
Vir brought Maiya to an area of the oasis where the coconut trees had several hundred cuts a piece. It looked like some terrible Ash Beast had waged a minor war with the palms.
“What in all the realms! What kind of beast did this?” Maiya asked, aghast. Vir laughed sheepishly. “Not exactly a beast… Watch this.”
Vir removed the chakris he’d worn as bracelets, as well as the chakrams around his neck.
Taking a great breath, he lunged into motion, throwing the bladed disks in all directions.
He jumped and launched a chakri from between his legs. He dove into a roll and threw two chakrams in quick succession—mid-roll. He lunged into the air and hurled chakris in opposite directions at trees on his left and right. That last one had taken him extra effort to master.
Vir came to a stop in front of Maiya, his hands on his hips. He wore a smug smile.
And why wouldn’t he? Every single disk he launched found its target. Every chakram and chakri was lodged within a tree trunk.
“H-how!” Maiya choked out, forgetting to be angry with him. “It’s only been a week since Riyan gave you those. How is this possible?”
“You know how I’ve been tired all these days? It’s because of this,” Vir said, gesturing to the trees. “I’ve been coming out here to practice. Every single night until I can’t stand anymore.”
“That’s… well, I guess I suspected something like that. But even then! You can’t get this good in just a week! It took Riyan years to master his arts. And he probably had Sawai nobility tutoring him. This should be impossible! Like, impossible, impossible! What in Vera’s name did you do?”
“Uh… If you’re shocked at that, hold on to your pants,” he said, pointing to the nearest chakri lodged in the palm tree’s trunk.
“What?” Maiya asked, confused.
“Walk up to that chakram for me, would you?” He desperately tried to keep the smirk off his face.
Maiya huffed, failing to understand what he was getting at, but she complied anyway. She walked right up to the chakram and stood under it.
“Happy?” she said with her hands on her hips.
“Okay, now walk up to the chakri on the next tree.”
She did so and slowly began to understand. She walked to the third, and then the fourth disk.
“This is incredible! No, it’s impossible.”
Every single disk was embedded at exactly the same height. Maiya’s height.
For the first time ever, Vir saw her look at him in a way that she’d never done before. With fear.
Shame ripped through his body.
“I’m sorry, Maiya. Didn’t mean to frighten you! Just thought I’d show off, is all.”
“Vir?” she said meekly, staying several steps away from him.
“I’m me! I promise. You’re overreacting!”
Okay, maybe she wasn’t overreacting. He had just shown her skills he shouldn’t rightly have. It made sense that his friend remained skeptical.
“Okay, look. I’ll admit I’ve been keeping some secrets from you. So I think it’s time I came clean,” he said, sitting down next to the oasis pond, patting the dirt next to him. “I promise I won’t bite!”
Maiya hesitated before sitting next to him, huddling her knees together for warmth.
Vir began with the strange things he’d experienced in the Godshollow. He explained how Reaper Ekanai had possessed him back then, and how his eyesight changed. She knew about his theory that he could see prana, of course, but he hadn’t said a word about his investigation into its secrets after she’d dismissed his idea as nonsense.
He reiterated his idea that he could see prana, and that he’d all but confirmed it at this point. He told her about the black prana within him, and how it didn’t exist anywhere else.
“That’s… I dunno what to say, Vir. I knew something took over in the Godshollow, but wow. This is beyond amazing. It’s… I don’t even have words for it,” she said with genuine excitement, her fear melting away. “I’ve never seen you move like that. I’m so happy for you, Vir! Maybe one day you’ll be able to get over your stamina issues too!”
“Wouldn’t that be something?” Vir said, trying not to get his hopes up prematurely.
“What you said about prana, though, it goes against everything I know,” Maiya said, tapping her chin. “I’m not doubting your words or anything. If you say you can see prana, then I’ll believe you.”
“I can. I just can’t explain these extra affinities that nobody seems to know about. It’s almost as if the mejai don’t want people to know about these other three.”
“Shadow, Earth, and… black, right?” Maiya said. “Earth, I can understand. It is a bit weird that we don’t have Earth Affinity orbs, given that there’s Wind, Water, and Ice. It’d make sense for it to exist.”