On Cosmic Tides

"You did well." Laurel was lounging in her office, Martin on his own sofa across from her. The rest of the sect was sleeping but she was too excited to relax. This was going to be a moment to remember.

"Thanks." He tossed a rock into the air, transformed it into a bird, then caught it again. Then he repeated the cycle. Toss, from bird to flower, catch. Toss, flower to bear, catch.

"I mean it Martin. This will matter. If we can convince a few of the clans to join in for our defense, that will be a big help."

He shrugged, which looked ridiculous lying down. "They're capable, but not amazing. A handful of extra cultivators at their level won't help beat back the order."

"Don't be so sure," Laurel said. Her own good mood was dimming with the reminder. "Naxos was hit the same as we were. A few of the Cores in the smaller oases were shattered. Some help from the north will ease the burden for them."

Martin swore for a solid minute before abating. "Are we sure we can't just kill them all?"

This was why the two of them needed other friends to talk them out of things like that. Because the suggestion was looking more and more appealing to Laurel the longer she sat with it. "No, I'm not sure. If I could guarantee that they wouldn't lead us on a chase while they came back to the City. Or that we could split them up and go one at a time."

"Reports say they mostly keep to their own Cities, only meeting up every few months, and even then not all of them. We could do it."

That wasn't necessarily false. They had sent special forces members to strike back at Laskar, maybe disrupt their campaign and stall out their own progress. What if instead, she and Martin took a swing?

Visions danced in front of her eyes. Pillars of lightning, a few heads cleanly split from their shoulders. There would still be the Empire to deal with, but without the Order, that was a manageable problem. She felt herself gnawing on the inside of her cheek and forced herself to stop.

"Not yet." It wasn't so much a promise as an admission. There would be no clever politicking to solve this problem. The Order of Decorra would not stand aside and let Laurel advance the Core beyond what they controlled. If it came to that, neither would she. Better risk it all with a chance of success than sit back and wait for defeat.

She sighed and sent a tiny bolt of lightning into Martin's torso. A spark, really.

"Ouch! Why?"

"For bringing down the mood. I had good news from the council meeting."

"I heard the news earlier over dinner. Not sure I would call any of it good."

She responded with another bolt of lightning. "This is. I wanted to wait because I am going to memorize this moment. I got permission."

"Permission for what?" Martin had slid down from the attacks, his head now near the floor while his legs were still on the couch.

"A wall. You've been talking it up for years, it's time to deliver. Curson said the mana-powered boosts to the city are saving enough money to make it feasible to source the stone. Construction will be on you though."

With a heave and a flex, Martin was crouching upright, eyes glittering as his smile went from pleasant to manic. "Are you sure? They actually confirmed it, not just promised to consider eventually or whatever the politicians usually say."

"Absolutely confirmed."

"Yes," he hissed. "This is going to be it L. I can feel it. Enough to push me over the edge."

"I know. Grandmaster Martin isn't quite the far off dream it used to be, huh?"

"Oh yeah? What about you? What are you thinking its going to take to get to Grandmaster?"

She waved him off. "I want to evolve my mana aspects before I worry about it."

From his expression, Martin didn't believe her, but he also wouldn't push her on it. It had crossed her mind, of course. Before the end of everything it had been an idle thought, but not something to focus on. She'd always had time, after all. After waking up, there had been a thousand other things to focus on, that were far more urgent. But these last years, the thought had trickled in, wouldn't this be easier if she was stronger?

Of course it wasn't quite so easy. If stepping over that final line between Master and Grandmaster was just a matter of wanting, their situation would be far more grim.

"Nothing's felt right yet," she finally said.

"Not even…" Martin trailed off but nodded suggestively towards the wall, and towards the Core pedestal, she was sure.

"Maybe. Advancing the Core has been the closest but I'm not sure if it will take me all the way there."

"And you think the mana aspects have to come first?"

"Yes." That was the clearest feeling she had when she meditated. And it was so close. Every storm, every flight, every blade practice, it all got her just another step further.

The pair sat in silence for a few moments before Laurel spoke again. "I never expected to get this far without the others."

"I know."

There wasn't much more to say after that, but it was a long time before either of them moved. Laurel wasn't looking forward to the inevitable dream, where two faceless people, standins for Farin and Imelda, would be swallowed by an apocalypse without her.

*********

After acclimating they were ready to move deeper into the Forest Monarch's realm. Cooper found himself eager. He wanted to dive in, feel the earth and the trees and the ever-present wind. Mana dripped off of every branch. He could practically swim through the rich energy, so eager to bend to his will.

A firm hand on his bicep brought Cooper up short. He turned to see Leander holding him back. The lad gave a firm shake of his head before lunging to snag Rebecca's sleeve. Looking around, Cooper realized they'd made it a dozen or so meters into the woods. Steps he didn't recall taking at all. Gabrielle popped up beside him and tied a length of rope around his wrist before he could protest.

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"Why?"

"So you don't run off again, obviously. We planned for this."

"That was a joke!"

"Maybe to you. Leander and I took it seriously."

Cooper turned to see Leander had similarly leashed Rebecca, who was as incensed as he was at the prospect of being led around. She moved to take the cord off, and was rewarded with a sharp tug.

"This place is messing with your mind. The rope stays," Gabrielle declared.

"Fine." Rebecca conceded and Cooper had no choice but to agree.

Humiliating as it was, at least they were sharing the embarrassment. Now to make sure his brothers would never hear about this, not if he still had breath in his lungs to stop it.

"What next," Gabrielle said. "You had all the steps, Cooper."

He shook himself and forced his mind back on track. Maybe the rope was necessary after all, as his feet had drifted another step further into the forest without permission. "We need to make the offering."

"Where?"

"None of the books said. I think it can be anywhere. Does everyone have their packets."

Three hands dipped into pockets and returned with small matching satchels. Hemp fiber, because one of the journals he'd read insisted that it was the best option, and Cooper had no evidence to say it wasn't. Better safe than sorry.

"Right. I guess we just do it here then. Not like there's a specific place…" he trailed off and turned to the right. The others followed, Leander of course already facing that direction and in a stance that said he was more than ready to act.

The sound came again. Rustling, then a grunt. A snapped twig. Sounds someone made when they walked through a forest without worrying about stealth.

The local glut of mana had slowed Cooper's reactions and thoughts, but not by that much. He had a club in hand a moment later. As did the others. Forest Monarchs historically objected to blades and fire, as might be expected of a tree spirit. They had as many blunt weapons as was feasible to carry, and the knives they did have were for survival purposes only..

Tension knotted his shoulders but it wasn't terror or fear. It was anticipation. The four of them took up positions, using the larger trees as cover, and waited.

It didn't take long before a pair of young men stumbled into their formation.

"Now!" At his shouted signal, Cooper and his sectmates surrounded the two interlopers. Another breath and he realized he recognized the one on the left.

"Rex?"

**********

Anger like he hadn't felt in ages bubbled up inside Leander. He knew it. Stupid Rex had shown up and was going to cause problems.

Ever since he first showed up, so confident in his superiority, Leander had known this would happen. The man's membership in the guild was frustrating enough, but every time he ended up in the capital, Laurel insisted that Leander stop and show him around. Somehow his Sectmaster had been convinced the two of them were friends. While he would always do his duty and complete the tasks she assigned him, he did wish hanging out with Rex didn't end up part of them so often.

And now here he was. Bumbling around somewhere dangerous, with his younger brother, and ruining everything.

"Oh hey! What are the odds?" Even his voice was stupid.

"Not very good," Gabrielle said with a frown. Yes, Leander knew she was smart. Trusting someone who showed up where they shouldn't, just at the right time was asking to get jumped. At best.

No one spoke for a while, and Leander suppressed his grin when he saw Rex be the first to break. "Okay, so maybe not a coincidence. We were just in Calorais and checked in at the guild branch. They may have mentioned you all were coming out here, and we thought we might tag along."

Leander made eye contact with Rebecca, then Cooper, ending with Gabrielle. He nodded when he saw a glimmer of acknowledgement from each. They were all on the same page. Another round of satisfaction went through him when he saw Rex start to fidget. The brother, Leander couldn't care less about, and had already forgotten his name. He was like a mini Rex, blonde-haired and muscled. And tall. Suspiciously tall. Probably just like Rex, arrogant, thinking he could just shove himself in where he wasn't wanted.

"Why don't you join us? This place is dangerous, especially if you didn't come prepared for it."

It sounded like Cooper's voice, but that was impossible. Cooper was his friend, he wouldn't have invited Leander's arch nemesis to join in on a quest. But as he watched, right in front of his eyes, the others nodded along. He focused on the air around him, saturating it with his mana.

"Offerings."

Everyone turned to where he was standing, still primed for a fight.

"Huh. That was normal volume." Gabrielle said, ignoring him entirely.

"I bet it's because there's so much foreign mana around. Leander you probably can't push back far enough to take over more of the air. Good call though. Rex and…"

"Jaques."

"Oh, cool, I have a brother named Jacques too. Anyway, you have to give the forest a gift before we get any deeper. We were just about to do ours, but I brought a few extra packets."

He proceeded to pass out another couple of bags from his pack. Leander's mind raced but he didn't have any other ideas for objections. Especially knowing how many other contingencies Cooper had packed for.

"Everyone ready?"

There was no use fighting it anymore. A cultivator knew when to strategically concede. Leander rose from his crouch and nodded to Cooper.

The older initiate started narrating instructions then. Ones he had forced the sect members to practice over and over before they left. Each of them chose their own tree. For Leander, it was an ancient ash, a trunk thicker around than he was tall, a canopy of sprawling branches that had kept anything from getting too close. A king of the forest.

Leander knelt at the base of the tree, and dug a small hole, careful not to disturb any more earth than he had to. Into the hole, he placed his offering, bag and all. After things were arranged as best he could make them, he moved onto the final step. Mana, pushed out into the air, but not into the dirt, and especially not into the seeds. Energy but without the intent to harm or control.

The ritual over, he placed his hands on his knees and waited. And waited. Then he waited some more. Long enough that the shadows shifted, the sun having dropped further towards the horizon. So long that he didn't notice his eyelids drooping or his breath slowing down. Just a quick nap while he waited would be fine.

*******

Leander bolted upright, head jerking around to take in his surroundings, breath coming in short gasps. It was dark, the moonlight only barely filtering through the crown of the ash tree he was curled up against.

He stood. Whatever was going on he wasn't facing it on the ground. His eyes adjusted, he saw the others were spread around, slowly coming awake, though not as violently. Cooper was just stirring and Leander jogged over, crouching at his friend's side until he was fully conscious.

"Did it work?" The first words out of Cooper's mouth were a reminder of what they had been doing beforehand.

Dutifully, Leander returned to his tree. There he knelt down, and stared at the ground. No hole, and no sign of his offering. Not trusting his eyes in the dark, he felt around, fingertips tracing over the ground in a wider and wider circle around himself.

A bit of the fear eased as he realized what it meant. When he wasn't panicking at being left vulnerable, Cooper's lectures on what to expect came back. Though none of them had mentioned being put into a magical nap. But the packets disappearing meant that the offering was accepted. They would be able to travel as though it was a normal forest, dangers and benefits included, without being run off by an angry tree.

Not that they could do whatever they wanted. The angry tree was still a possibility if they did something too offensive. A limitation that every historical source claimed existed, but that no one could actually describe.

"We'll make camp for tonight," came Cooper's voice. Leander could hear how excited his friend was that everything was going according to plan. "Tomorrow when we can see where we're going we'll head deeper."

***********

Leander woke before dawn, too excited to stay in bed. He wasn't alone. Cooper was already up and putting together a breakfast of hard cheese and dried fruit. Rebecca was up as well, her and Flint doing some sort of team meditation off to the side.

He joined Cooper, gratefully accepting his own rations and chowing down. Nothing like a few weeks away to remember why Esther was the greatest person in the world. He washed it all down with some water, one of Helene's most stable water-creating mana stones having been one of the many pieces of equipment Cooper insisted on bringing.

Finished, he looked over to Cooper, who had taken out a notebook and was muttering to himself. Leander shuffled closer so that he could nudge his own shoulder into Cooper's.

"Wha-? Oh, yeah. You're right, I'm just being cautious."

He arranged his face into what he hoped was a skeptical expression.

"Yeah, okay, a lot more cautious than usual. But this is my expedition, my responsibility, you know?"

He nodded. He did know. Just like him, Cooper was worried about keeping everyone safe. And now Rex and Jacques had shown up to make everything more complicated.

Seeing the others were still fast asleep, he settled in to meditate. Laurel insisted that improving cultivation was about small steps forward, and just because this place was for the others didn't mean he couldn't advance himself.

As it always did nowadays, he focused on his mana aspect. What should he do, who he should be, it all swirled around in a mess he could make neither heads nor tails of.

A blade aspect was out of the question. That part was easy. He was competent with the daggers he carried, but felt no connection to them. His skill had been won through diligent practice, not any sort of magical inspiration. Lightning was feeling farther away every time he searched for it as well. He meditated on fires, considered how a strong offense could act as a defense, but nothing ever resonated.

If two thirds of his plan was already gone, was it worth clinging so hard to the rest? No.

The answer resonated through his mana when his soul finally accepted the decision he had been avoiding for years.

That still left him with the puzzle of what to do now.

His mana aspect was ready to evolve, and if he was going to listen to Laurel's advice and do it before his advancement to adept, it needed to be soon. His body and spirit were both pushing him closer and closer to that next step.

He wasn't sure that sound was the right fit either. It felt too easy. Like he was taking advantage of a childhood he would just as soon forget. Leander might not be the next Stormblade, but that didn't mean he had to choose that first option that opened for him either.

Something tugged at his attention and he brought himself back to full consciousness. There would be more time to meditate later. He found Cooper's hand on his arm, gently shaking.

"All good?"

He nodded his head. Things were complicated, but they always were.

"Felt like you made some progress. Congrats!"

At the obvious enthusiasm in Cooper's voice, Leander allowed himself a small smile. A cultivator could be proud. As long as they didn't overdo it.