A Legacy of Blades - An Epic Tower Fantasy

The group had been walking for a couple of hours, chatting on and off as they encountered nothing outside of normal forest life, when Orion asked a question that it seemed he'd been putting off.

"So, what was that back there, anyway? I thought you were gonna be squashed flat, no doubt in my mind. Been thinkin' hard but can't seem to figure how you pulled that off."

"I'm not sure if you've noticed," Anilith replied evasively, "but I spend a fair bit of time with my thoughts."

"Right, self-reflection an' all that. A regular philosopher, you are. If only you'd keep it time-appropriate, might avoid some nasty surprises. Your point?"

"Well, point is, I realized something. A few things, really, but they all tie together." She took a breath, gathering her thoughts before she continued. "This has to do with that skill, so if I start to lose you, just stare off blankly, and I'll backtrack. I'll try to be generic to avoid that, but gods only know where the Tower draws its lines."

"The first time we talked about this, I never mentioned the way I've been learning to see things. You've caught on to some of that since then, so I know that part isn't news to you guys. These are muddied waters I'm testing, so bear with me. I used to think that was connected to that skill, but I've been seeing more and more signs that they're separate abilities. The best way I can explain it is that they each paint a picture, but when they work together, that picture is much more detailed, almost woven rather than painted."

Orion gave no outward sign he was listening, but she knew the man well enough to have learned that he was always listening. Razhik, well, that was anyone's guess.

"Early on," she continued, "I didn't know my abilities well enough to notice the differences, but over the past few months, some things have become apparent. The events of the past couple of days only helped confirm my thoughts. I still can't explain how that skill works, but I know that I can see things through the Wind."

She paused, looking carefully to make sure she hadn't lost her friends.

"It listens and, while I can't say I know exactly how it works, it lets me see things from another perspective. It's something about how the Wind moves, how things resist its touch. For a while, it confused me, making me think my skill was more encompassing than it is. Maybe it has room to grow, but for now it lets me sense…" She paused again, not wanting to stray too close to mentioning the skill by name, "edged weapons near me. Now, the Wind baffled me for a while, incorporating its image with my skill's without my noticing. Training has helped me see the edges where these abilities meet, start to understand the overlap, and how different they really are."

Orion finally acknowledged her at that. "Kid, you're not really tellin' me much. You're observant, see things differently. Big whoop. Been with you long enough now to know you're all sorts of weird."

"Look, I know you're no slouch when it comes to observational prowess. Truth be told, I feel like I've got a long way to go catching up, but I'm getting there, old man. Just making sure you understand the basics."

"Fair enough, I'll shut my yapper."

"Anyway, once I knew what to look for, I knew I was on the right track. The Wind shows me one kind of danger, my skill works with another. Together, they let me react to things others might not see coming. The Sonomancers showed me…"

"I'm sorry," Orion interjected, "what was that?"

"Sonomancers? That's what Mingus called them, anyway. The Goblins with the weird tubes."

"..right, well if that's what he calls them, ain't no way it's a made-up name or anythin'. Carry on."

"Well, they showed me one of the overlaps clear as day. Their attacks are invisible, but I could feel them coming, almost see them in my mind's eye. Granted, that didn't make me fast enough to dodge all of them, but—why didn't I think of trying to reflect them? Gods, I'm an idiot! Save that one for later."

"Relax, kid. None of us always sees the right choice at the time, an' maybe it would've backfired had you tried. Live an' learn, hindsight an' whatnot. Combat's especially tricky, what with your life on the line an' all. Cut yourself a little slack."

"Thanks." She looked down and shook her head. "Anyway, I got to thinking. It didn't make me fast enough to react to everything, but I know my…teacher from the outside would have been fast enough. Honestly, I've never understood how he moved so quickly, and that led me down a new path. Ever since I started hearing the Wind, I've felt a connection to it, a connection rooted in my time with my teacher. I'm sure the Tower won't let me get into specifics, but he talked about the Wind a lot, and I always thought it was just him waxing poetic. Now, I think it was a lot more, and I think I was learning more from him than I ever knew. Talk about self-reflection."

Anilith paused, unable to find the right words. Giving up, she simply said, "Something funny happened that last fight."

"You're tellin' me."

"You know my rock?"

"How could I forget? The attention that thing gets, it's basically our mascot at this point."

"Well, it's been teaching me, too. Showing me another way to see the world. It's how I felt that chamber, before. It's what distracted me back there, too, and what really got me thinking. I'd sure be able to see a lot if I could use both, right?"

Orion's eyes went wide at the thought, but he didn't interrupt.

"Turns out, it doesn't work like that. I can use one or the other, but not both. But there's more, something I hadn't considered."

Anilith took a breath, looking around and experiencing the forest with more than just her eyes. The Wind spoke of its tranquil beauty, allowing her to feel it in a way that sight just could not embody.

"I wondered for so long how my teacher achieved such inhuman swiftness, how he moved so efficiently, appearing to embody the Wind itself. I realize, now, that he was showing me the whole way, revealing secrets I wasn't ready for at the time. In his own way, he convinced the Wind to watch over his student, a student who only learned to listen in his absence." She hung her head. "It was his absence that finally made me feel it, the pattern. His presence was the key to a lock I couldn't see, but in his absence, a resonance formed a connection. I've been drawing speed from the wind itself: that is a part of my magic, I'm coming to understand. I internalized the lessons of my teacher, and through me, they echo into the world."

Orion looked at her, understanding coloring the glance.

"In those final moments, just now, a part of me found a new connection. You see, old man, from the moment I started feeling the rhythm of the Earth, something felt off, as if something was missing. It was like I was listening to a familiar story, but the pacing was all wrong. That undercurrent of familiarity helped me find the truth; that I'd experienced this before." She looked at Orion, meeting his gaze. "My training partner on the outside, Temperance, was as steady as they come. He…"

She noticed a glazed look overcome her friend and realized she'd crossed a line. Was it mentioning Temperance by name?

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Anilith waited for the look to pass before trying again. "My training partner on the outside embodied the steady song of the Earth, his was just more complex, a slow, passionate movement supplementing the song's undertones. Following that connection, I found a way to draw upon the Earth's power, and that let me stand up to the Ogre. Looking back, though, I realized how slow I felt, like every inch of movement took the strength of mountains. It made me wonder when the last time I wasn't using the Wind's speed. Even now, my mind is struggling to quantify the change, but the results were undeniable."

"It seemed impossible," Orion said, rubbing the back of his head, "that somethin' so small could match somethin' like that. Believed it well enough when you were movin' so quick, but then you started pushin' back, right when I thought you were about to be jelly."

"Don't act like you and our resident Lord didn't help out. I know that thing wasn't in peak condition by then, but everything conspired to give me a chance against that beast. I wasn't about to waste it. Still, something about drawing upon the Earth like that weakened me in a way using the Wind doesn't. Maybe the difference in strength was too great, leaving me feeling weak when I lost it. Maybe the weakness came from my unfamiliarity with the pattern. My teacher left a near-perfect image for me to mirror, while my training partner's lesson proved to be more of an…alteration. Both left a connection for me to learn from, but I don't think I could've learned what I needed without my favorite rock; the connection was just too strained."

Orion stopped dead, the truth of her words suddenly hitting him as he understood the connections she spoke of in a way that transcended words. "You're telling me that you've learned to use both wind and earth magic, just in the past few months? Shit, kid. That just doesn't happen. I guess we haven't seen you actually cast any magic, but gods. Two types of magic? Don't seem right, especially with your stickball powers."

Anilith sighed. "I'm telling you…Well, I'm not sure what I'm telling you. I'm saying that I've learned from the earth and the sky, while drawing from aspects of each, but I don't know what that means about my magic. I can't find another answer that fits, though, because nothing else makes sense. I just don't see a connection between that and what we've been training."

Orion looked at her strangely for a moment, appearing to consider the problem from a different perspective. "It's hard to say, kid, but I think it might be there. The connection, that is. Just 'cause you don't understand somethin' don't mean it ain't real." The man visibly shivered for a passing moment before a grin spread, cheek to cheek. "Makes me wonder what kind of monster you might become. Might be I made a mistake helpin' you learn the ropes, eh?"

"Might be," she replied with a smile, "hard to say when I don't have a damned clue what I'm doing. At the end of the day, I'm just happy to have found some definite limits. My teacher always said there was no man more worthy of growth than he who has learned his limits. I might be in the dark when it comes to that skill, but at least I'm learning in small ways."

"Sounds like you had a good teacher, out there." Orion chewed his lip, clearly conflicted about something, the conversation stuttering to a stop as he lost himself in an unknowable battle.

Anilith knew him well enough to know when to let a conversation die, so she refocused on their surroundings.

The trees, so densely grown where they'd entered the foothills, thinned as they climbed higher, their progress slow as none of them were eager to rush into any more battles in that moment, content to enjoy the hike. The air had cooled remarkably, feeling more like the breeze of a midspring day, rather than the summer clime of the fields below.

The mountain loomed before them, a boulder compared with the pebbles they currently scaled. Anilith could only imagine the chill air that must wait for them at the peak. She found herself reminded of the importance of enjoying the pleasant moments while they lasted, making sure she kept her awareness focused on the ground beneath her feet. There was no harm in multitasking, after all. A little training wouldn't hurt.

Looking around, knowing this peace wouldn't last, she was glad to be among friends. "Sometimes, it's good to take things a little slower, eh?"

Orion merely grunted while Razhik spoke for the first time since they'd entered the trees. "Every day was slower before I agreed to this festering adventure. If I'd known how much trouble you were going to be, I'd have stayed right in my hole, thank you very much. Him, I expected, but you?" He made a noise that was definitively not words. "I'm just glad you kept that discussion out of metaphor. 'Yes, but you see, that skill really takes the form of a bucket, while my as-of-yet inexplicable Wind talk is really the water that fills the bucket. They work together to make a more complete whole, you see.'" He retched, sounding, for all the world, like a cat who had cleaned itself with too much vigor.

"Yeah, I don't know that that image really works, Razhik. I'm glad you kept quiet. A bucket of water, really?"

"What's wrong with water, huh?"

"It's just…you know what? Never mind. Let's just enjoy the day, shall we? It's only a matter of time before the latest and greatest surprise sneaks up on us."

Razhik stopped dead, glaring at the girl. "Oh, you just had to say something. Hear that, Tower? She's taunting you! Itty-bitty little soft-skin doesn't know respect. Honestly, between the two of you, it's a wonder any of us are still alive."

Orion just grunted again, contributing his sage advice.

"Oh, come on. Wouldn't life be boring if you didn't go on an adventure every once in a while?"

"Better bored than dead, lady. Any idiot could tell you that!"

"How long has it been since you left your hole for anything other than a snack, Razhik?"

"I happen to like my snacks. They're probably the best reason to leave a hole, if you ask me, not that anyone ever does."

Anilith scratched her nose in thought at that. "Well, what do you think then?"

Razhik looked over, blinking far too rapidly. "About what?"

"You were listening before, right? To Orion and me?"

He averted his gaze, looking…embarrassed? "I mean, bits and pieces. You were getting all technical and everything, and I don't like that stuff. It's too…buzzy, you know? Kings have people for all that complicated stuff, after all. I prefer to approach things more by feel, so I can really know what I'm getting myself into. Ori doesn't agree with it, says it takes longer. He's convinced I woulda figured my own magic out loads quicker if I just thought about it harder. As if that would really do any good!"

"How long did it take you to figure out…whatever it is you were doing with the light before?"

"Oh, that old trick? I learned that pretty quick. Can't have been more than a few centuries, right, Ori?"

A noncommittal grunt came from the man's direction.

"A few centuries? Quick?"

"Well, I have been known to sleep for decades."

The scale of time reminded Anilith how different life was in the Tower. "Sometimes I forget where we are. It must seem hardly a blink of an eye, these months together!"

"And yet, these past few days have been filled with more excitement than I've known in, gods, I don't even want to think how long. It's disgusting, really. I live for the boring days, and you are anything but boring."

"Thank you?"

"I'm not sure that that was a compliment, but you're welcome, I guess."

"You know, you're a genius in your own right, Razhik. Kind of an idiot, but in the best way. I appreciate that about you."

"Thank…you?"

"I'm not sure that was a compliment, but you're welcome."

Razhik fixed Anilith with a hard stare. "Watch it, lady. There's a fine line between humor and insolence."

She recognized the twitch at the corners of his mouth for what it was and relaxed, despite his tone. "I'll try to remember to feel my abilities out, rather than just rely on reason. I forget sometimes; some things aren't reasonable."

"The bucket of water is growing on you, then?"

"Come on, man, we had something good going there."

Orion grunted at them. "What in the gods' names are you two on about?"

"Razhik is just sharing some wisdom," Anilith replied.

Orion's face froze in an expression of horror. "We're all doomed, then."

"Oh, come on," Razhik exclaimed, "I thought we had a good thing going!"

They all shared a laugh, reveling in the moment of calm. Anilith scanned the area with her newest sense all the while, on the lookout for anything that didn't fit the land's pattern. Nothing appeared, and the trio enjoyed one moment of peace.