Chapter 20 - Lightning At Night

They rode deep into the forest, the party deciding not to follow any of the more traveled roads. Iris—now a bit more in touch with reality as compared to when they first set out—would have been worried they’d get lost within the dense woodlands, but Aerowyn had assured her of his competence in navigating their surroundings.

Colin appeared to be less troubled with their environment, but that wasn’t the case for Iris or Tarros. The quietude of the forest had the two on edge the entire time. Worse, every creak of the boughs above them, every chittering made by some animal beyond their line of sight resulted in the two snapping their gaze in the direction of the noise, fully expecting either Milo or a wild beast to come careening out of the foliage. It didn’t help that this served as kindling for Aerowyn’s mirth, laughing every time they got spooked.

“Trust me, you two, no one is following us by this point. We’re too far off the beaten path," Aerowyn said, steering his equild through some of the more dense shrubbery.

A while later, they found a small clearing, and Aerowyn made the executive decision to stop for the night. Rynor wasn’t close to falling below the horizon, but the ex-advisor informed them they didn’t know how much further until they would find another clearing suitable for the equilds to rest.

Iris helped collect firewood while Aerowyn tied their mounts to a tree and set up their sleeping rolls. Soon enough, there was a fire going, and the four sat around the fire snacking on some dried meat Iris found to be pleasant enough for her taste.

Her suffering rage wasn’t gone, of course, and she spent the time around the campfire letting it stew. She stared into the fire, lost in thought while the others exchanged a couple words here and there. Eventually, she firmed her resolve and turned to Colin.

“Teach me how to use Auris," Iris said, earning a bewildered look from Tarros off to her side.

Colin regarded her for a moment and put his food down.

“It’s late, Iris. I’m tired, you’re probably tired. I can help you tomorrow," Colin said.

“That’ll be one day later than I could have started. What if I find myself in a situation where that one day could make a difference?” She asked, clenching her hands in frustration.

Tarros was looking between the two, confusion evident. “Iris, what are you talking about? I don’t say this to be rude, but I thought you were a Blank? No, I know you’re a Blank. We’ve definitely had multiple talks about that before.”

Iris looked over at her childhood friend. She had so much to catch him up on. Mulling it over, she decided to start from the beginning. So she told him about everything, from Aerowyn picking her up from the jail cell, to waking up in the castle and eating the same food royalty ate—because she couldn’t gloss over that fact, food was too important of a detail to leave out. When she got to the part about the execution, Tarros was giving her a look of disgust, and she didn’t know if that was directed towards her or the situation she’d been forced into.

Following that, Iris described the escape from her second jail cell, to eventually arriving at House Night. The thought of Walter brought a pang of sadness, as she was sure the tender man was spared no mercy by the Oathbound. She risked a glance over at Aerowyn and saw he had stopped eating, now just staring into the fire while a single tear rolled down his cheek. Awkwardly, she continued, recounting everything up to the fight she had with Colin, where she’d finally figured out her Trait… her Trait!

She’d completely glossed over that major detail, also forgetting to mention Aerowyn’s Trait, or why the execution had happened in the first place. When she went to explain more about Traits, however, Aerowyn interrupted.

“I don’t think your friend needs to know about Traits, Iris," The ex-advisor stated matter-of-factly.

“Traits? What’s that?” Tarros asked.

“Tar has been with me since I was first allowed to leave the church, I’m going to tell him what I damn well want to, Aerowyn," Iris said, anger creeping into her voice as she stared down the older man.

Aerowyn sighed in exasperation, “It’s just going to put him in unnecessary danger. Allowing the boy—”

“I’m not a boy," Tarros commented.

“You might as well be compared to me, child. Now, where was I? Allowing the boy to hold onto such a secret, especially one determined to be a kingdom-wide secret, known only by the royals and other Houses, would be tantamount to suicide. One wrong word that would reveal that confidential matter to the wrong person, and he’d have the Oathbound breathing down his neck quicker than he could blink, or worse, the Slayers," Aerowyn explained.

Iris held up three fingers and counted off while she spoke, “First of all, Tarros can keep a secret better than anyone else I know. Which, to be fair, isn’t many people. Secondly, I don’t know if you’ve had your eyes closed the entire time we were in the city, but we’ve had Oathbound breathing down our necks constantly. Third, what the hell is a Slayer?”

The first argument she made received no reaction from Aerowyn. The second one made him roll his eyes, but he realized she had a point. The third, however, caused him to shoot an annoyed glare towards Colin.

“You didn’t tell her?” Aerowyn questioned, incredulous at the fact the subject had never been explained.

Colin raised a brow, “You mean when I tried to in the palace right before you barged in talking about turning traitor to the Crown and freeing Iris? I don’t regret that, by the way.” The last part he said in anticipation of Iris making a fuss.

“I didn’t know that, sorry," Aerowyn responded. “The Slayers are the King and Queen’s personal guard.”

“I thought that was the Oathbound’s job?” Iris said.

“Yes and no. The Oathbound do serve as the royal guard, but the Slayers are the personal guard of the King and Queen," he said, stressing the ‘personal’.

She thought back to the two individuals she’d seen in the palace standing next to the King and Queen, their black figures unmoving while she was fighting—getting beat up, she corrected.

“What’s different about them?” Iris asked.

Aerowyn spat, his revulsion clear. “Abominations, is what they are. It’s people, usually those that others wouldn’t miss if they disappeared, that have been experimented on and implanted with performance enhancing artifacts to allow for maximum lethality. The process is atrocious and inhumane, to put it lightly. It’s not just their bodies that are tampered with, either. During the process, they are each put through rigorous mental torture in order to sculpt their psyche to something the King and Queen can use without any possibility of unreliability. They become these mindless beings, who only know two things: to obey, and to kill. If you ever find yourself on the other side of their blade… flee.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Iris was taken aback, not expecting even more sadistic behavior from the royalty. Thinking back on it, she should have known better. If they were executing these innocent people using others, just to in turn execute that person after figuring out what Trait they received, then they were surely able to commit other such crazed acts of depravity.

“Do you know who they are?” Iris asked, recalling their midnight black helmets that obscured their faces.

“No one except the King and Queen know that. Well, Ivar does too," Aerowyn said.

“Ivar?”

“The one who personally does the Slayer transformation. I suspect there’s another third party that gives Ivar the ones who will go through the procedure, but I was never able to figure that out.”

“This is good information and all, but I’d still like to know what a Trait is," Tarros said, not as interested in the topic. It was just like him, Iris always knowing him as someone who cared less about things that didn’t involve him and instead focusing more on the things that mattered at the moment.

She steered the conversation back towards Traits and how her and Aerowyn both had one. When she got to the part where she’d activated it for the first time in her spar against Colin, Tarros spluttered, involuntarily spitting chunks of dried meat all over their campsite.

“You can see Auris?!” Tarros exclaimed.

“Yeah, although it didn’t really help me all that much when I couldn’t use it at the time.”

“So you can now? I don’t understand, Iris. I really thought you were a Blank.”

“I was, but Aerowyn had a possible solution to that and managed to pull a few strings.”

Iris explained her use of the Mother’s Milk, skipping over the first iteration where she had nearly killed herself because of her self-inflicted guilt. She didn’t need Tarros needlessly worrying over her. She continued recounting everything to include her success with widening her channels through the use of the concoction and her Trait in tandem. That had led up to where they were now, and Tarros leaned back as he blew out a breath.

“Wow. I can’t really think about what to say to everything. You’ve been through the shit, for sure. So how does it feel, having access to it now?” Tarros asked.

She waved her hand around, feeling the ambient magic in the air with her newest sense. “It’s hard to put into words. This is something I’ve never known all my life, and feeling it now, it’s just… divine.”

“Wait, why do you need me to teach you?” Colin said, confused. “You used it on our way out of the city.”

“I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was angry and sad, I just kind of did it," Iris replied.

Aerowyn nodded in a sagely manner. “Emotions can affect Auris use, to a degree, but it’s not considered good practice. Many who rely on that may find their ability to wield it inhibited if their emotions aren’t strong enough when it matters most. I’ve known a few people like that over the years.”

His words made sense. She didn’t want to be someone that could only use the ever-present energy when she was riding an emotional high.

“Then teach me, please," Iris said towards Colin.

Regarding her once more, the Graven seemed to come to a decision.

“Fine," he conceded, standing up and walking to a more open spot, prompting her to follow him.

Tarros and Aerowyn made themselves comfortable inside their bed rolls, but they both remained propped on their sides as they watched her impromptu practice session, acting as her own personal audience. If she was lucky, she wouldn’t embarrass herself.

“I’m not sure if this method will work for you, as it was made for those of Graven blood. Hopefully you’ll be able to follow what I’m saying," Colin said, taking on the countenance of a teacher, albeit an inexperienced one. “I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but wielding Auris is all about intent. From what scholars have learned over time, the energy perpetually stays in a state of potential, just waiting to be used, to be pulled upon and shaped into the user’s desire. See if you can feel what I’m doing.”

Colin held out his hand, palm up. At first, there was nothing, but then Iris could feel a change centered on the spot above his hand, like the Auris was condensing and shifting, if that was the right word. She tried to intensely focus on what her senses were feeding her, attempting to pick apart every little change to the magical energy. Slowly, a small spark came into existence, crackling in and out of existence, but growing in size. Iris observed with a rapt interest born from a lifetime of hunger to use the near limitless magic. The ball of lightning grew until it was the same size as Colin’s hand if held into a fist.

He let it go with a tiny exhalation of breath, the charged Auris harmlessly dissipating into their surroundings. Turns out, when you’re busy admiring such a small act, you don’t really manage to learn anything from it. That, or it was way out of Iris’ capability to glean anything from it.

Curiously, while she had seen Colin easily manipulate Auris to empower his own body with that same lightning, this relatively small effort seemed to tire the man, sweat already visible on his forehead.

“Normally, I’d prefer not to manifest that power outside of my body, as Graven’s have a more natural disposition towards self-empowerment with lightning rather than external manifestation. Regardless, let me explain what I did. I started by pulling the ambient Auris and my own internal Auris into a spot above my palm, mixing them together with my will in order to prime its composition, making it easier to shift it into lightning. From there, I maintain my hold over it while pushing in more of that same mixture, though I still need about a fifty to fifty even split so that it doesn’t spiral out of my control. More experienced and efficient members of my family, like my father, could do the same with a more imbalanced ratio, using much more of the surrounding Auris to power the feat," Colin said.

“I guess that’s smart. But what happens if you run out of Auris from your internal pathways?” She asked, curious to see if they knew the answer.

Aerowyn was the one to answer her question, chiming in from the sidelines. “It’s not pretty. It’s much the same as when you first used your Trait. More often than not, the individual will just pass out from running empty, waking up sometime later with the worst hangover imaginable. It won’t matter if their body pulls in more Auris while they’re unconscious. Usually, this happens in battle when tensions are high and cognizant thinking isn’t prevalent. Trust me when I say, many warriors meet their end in such a fashion, as your enemy won’t care if you’ve exhausted yourself. In that scenario, don't expect to wake again. That’s why it’s important to be efficient—and smart—when wielding it.” He fixed her with a glare as if to say, ‘don’t be reckless’.

“So, how much of that were you able to feel as I did it?” Colin asked, bringing her attention back to him.

“None at all, besides the Auris compression part," Iris said simply.

Tarros and Aerowyn laughed off to the side, and she could feel a slight flush in her cheeks from her failure.

Colin rubbed the back of his neck. “Right. That’s probably my fault. That would have gone easier for you if I explained it from the start, rather than showing you beforehand.”

“I don’t know if that would have helped, actually. But I’d like to try again, if that’s alright. I’m going to see if my Trait might be able to bridge a bit of that gap," Iris added.

Colin’s eyes widened a hair, and he bobbed his head up and down enthusiastically. “Smart thinking. Might as well give it a try.”

With that, he repeated the same motion from before and started concentrating. Instead of just feeling around, Iris activated her Trait, and the world came alive in a wild spectrum of flowing vibrancy.

She focused on the spot above his hand, scrutinizing the energy that was now condensing together. Just like he had described, some of the magic was being sucked in from around them, while an equal amount of it was exuded from the pathways in his palm, mixing together into a swirling yet tame mass of Auris. Closer near the center, where the two sources meshed together the most, Iris could both see and feel a change taking place. There was a shifting, and she noticed how the new combined Auris took on a charge, so to speak. That must have been the point where Colin was directing his intent! From that charge, a spark was born, leading to a chain reaction that primed the rest of the blend. It grew and multiplied, until there was that same ball of lightning floating above his hand.

The entire process lasted just as long as the first, and once Colin was finished, he dismissed the lightning again, and Iris deactivated her Trait in turn. Breathing heavily, he asked about what she’d seen.

“It was just like you said, from beginning to end. It was beautiful to watch. I do think being able to see everything happening may just help me out," Iris said, wiping the moisture from her eyes. It was going to take some getting used to seeing the world under the influence of her Trait.

“That’s good to hear," Colin responded, before adopting a smug smile. “Your turn.”