Fractured Darkness (3 page)

Wyna frowned when Noma asked for practice space and told her that Urad had the only large exercise area.

Noma sighed and asked where she could find Urad at that time of day.

Robik gleefully took her hand and hauled her out of her classroom and into the sunlight.

Noma took in the smiling faces of the talents who waved at the newcomer and had to admit that if all it took was a large wall to make the talents secure, Trala would be putting bricks on bricks right now.

The exercise yard was perfect for her purposes, but it was currently occupied with talents in physical combat.

Urad was fighting three men at once, as were several others, including women. Noma would have been content to wait it out, but the fight didn’t seem to end. Folks were kicked, flipped and twisted in the air until she was tapping her foot.

“Aw, screw it.”

Robik tried to stop her, but she waded into the melee with long strides, using her shadows to keep folk out of her way.

“Urad, I need to speak with you.”

He glanced at her and then ducked a blow.

She huffed, wrapped him and his opponents in shadows and pulled them apart. She held his opponents back and pulled him forward. “Urad, I have need of this exercise space for a few hours to help talents get a grip on their powers. We will need to share the space or you can surrender it for the afternoons.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled down at her from the point at which she held him, ten feet in the air. “What do we get out of this deal?”

“Better trained talents and opponents who are not so evenly matched. Perhaps if some of these talents had a better grip on their potential, they could be more effective at attacking.”

He gave her a considering look. “What do you know of it?”

“You realise if I let you go, you could probably flatten me with one punch. I realise it as well, so there are only two options. I can knock you out, or let you go and trust that you won’t injure me. It is the burden of all those who do not have physical advantage.”

She lowered him and the others to the ground and released them. With the three behind him, she kept her guard up, but for Urad, she trusted the gleam in his eye to remain there.

“So, you are demanding the space reserved for the monitors?”

“Only for a few hours a day. A talent must be used to be controlled and with a fire talent, the more control the better.”

“What will you offer me in return?”

She blinked. “Is that customary?”

He smiled. “It is now.”

“What do you want?”

“Have dinner with me.”

A woman gasped in the crowd.

Noma shook her head. “Not if you are seeing someone.”

“That was my sister, Rynil.” Urad rolled his eyes.

The group laughed.

Noma came to the conclusion that everyone was listening intently. “Fine. Dinner it is.”

Urad grinned. “Then, you may bring your class here and practice.”

Noma turned to Robik. “Go and get them.”

He armoured up and moved through the crowd with increasing speed until he was a blur when he rounded the corner.

Noma turned back to Urad and laughed. “So that is what the armour is for.”

He was staring back at Robik’s path. “What just happened?”

“A little focus let his primary talent emerge. He has armoured skin, but I was taught that it is usually a precursor to another talent that could injure an undefended body. Apparently, speed is on the way for Robik.”

Urad stared at her. “You taught him that in one morning?”

“He taught himself. All I did was take him through the exercises that my parents and the mind of my world taught me. A little focus and self-control while letting the mind roam free. That is why we need the space. A safe place to let themselves unleash a little of what rises before fear and doubt creep in once again.”

“What?”

“Fear of discovery causes a power to retreat, to turn inward and only show in the shallowest of manners. This causes the lashes of power to flare and strike when the emotions are high. That is what makes the power dangerous. If you can control it, embrace it and focus your mind, you can call it when you need it and use it out of reflex. It is all about getting a grip on yourself.”

The eighteen trainees filed toward what had previously been the battleground, a little nervous at being in the presence of those who had obvious fighting talents.

With her shadows, Noma moved the fighters aside and took her group through a breathing exercise with the projectors at the front, facing the wall a hundred feet away.

They heard laughter from the fighters who were watching, but when Noma said, “And now, let the power flow.” They gasped in surprise as fire, ice, wind and rain mingled with those who sprouted spikes and shifted shape.

The fire struck the wall as the youngest girl projected a column of blue flame. Where the flame struck, flowers sprang out.

Cries of surprise filled the air.

Noma smiled and breathed in and out, “And slow the flow.”

The powers flaring around her trickled and ceased.

She turned and saw all the beaming faces, youngsters hugging each other and the older talents grinning foolishly and staring at their hands.

She applauded. “Well done, everyone. Well done. Now, we are going to try it one at a time. Hroki. You go first. I am eager to see that flame again.”

The young woman nervously stepped forward. She held out her hands and…nothing happened.

Noma held up her hand to stop the giggling. “Now, I chose Hroki because her talent is not only spectacular to witness but very easy to block.”

The woman’s grey skin darkened a few shades. “I don’t understand.”

“You have a talent that is based on transformation under a wave of power. Your mind needs to be calm and open and to have you feel self-conscious about being the first one up is causing a constriction. Look into my eyes and breathe. Just breathe in and out. Lose yourself in my eyes.”

Hroki’s pewter gaze locked with hers. Noma didn’t have much talent for mental connection, but she was good with a calming gaze.

Noma stretched her shadows around them. “Okay, Hroki, just you and me. You can do this. Make a circle on the far wall.”

Noma moved behind her and put her hands on Hroki’s shoulders, thinning the shadows to a pale grey so that the others could watch but Hroki had the sensation of privacy.

The power lifted one hand and drew a small circle on the wall before drawing spirals in growing pattern until a twenty-foot span was covered in flowers of a dozen different species.

Hroki lowered her hand and smiled. “I did it.”

Noma squeezed her shoulders and lowered the last of the shadows. “You did, and you did it with fifty people watching.”

The morning class came around and congratulated Hroki while lining up for their turn at going solo, and to Noma’s amusement, some of the fighters were in the lineup.

She had her afternoon all booked up.

Noma felt fairly proud of her afternoon’s accomplishments. All of her students were walking with their heads high and shoulders back. They were more at ease with what they were and it showed in every line of their bodies.

Robik was at her side and he asked, “Is there anything I can get you?”

She rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. “Who do I see about finding a place to sleep for the night?”

Urad stepped up to her. “I can help you with that after dinner.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Right. I forgot about our trade.”

He held out his hand. “Come on. A deal is a deal.”

She slipped her hand into his and shivered as a tingle ran up her arm and across her heart. “A deal is a deal.”

He walked with her through the nearly empty city.

“What was this place before powers took it over?”

He chuckled. “There is a rumour that it was the home of an ancient power. The priests consider it haunted, and they are forbidden to come within ten miles of this place.”

“A wall without a door is unusual.”

“When we took over, a stone talent sealed it and made it her life’s work to build up the walls.”

“Her history is recorded in the library?”

“It is. There is an archive power who used her skills to write the life stories of everyone who has ever been given shelter here.”

“How does she know them?”

“She can touch an object of any person and know their life’s story. She then writes it down.”

Noma made a mental note to stay out of that woman’s way. Her life story wasn’t something she wanted to see in print.

They walked until they reached a canopy with tables and chairs clumped together under it. He escorted her to a seat, and a young woman with sparkling amber eyes brought them drinks.

“Dinner tonight is stew and bread.”

Urad chuckled. “Just as it is every night.”

Noma raised her eyebrows. “Every night?”

“The best way of feeding several hundred people at a time is a soup or stew. The bakers and the cooks rotate with other positions but generally choose to stay in the food service segment.”

Noma looked around and saw only a few other couples sitting in the immediate vicinity. “What do you use as currency?”

“Our service to the community. Each hour you spend in service gains you more access to food, clothing and lodgings. We offer lodgings to each new member for one month until they settle in to our way of life. You seem to have grasped it immediately.”

She grinned and sipped at the glass in front of her, blinking at the alcoholic hit.

“There wasn’t anything to grasp. I am always looking for something to do.”

“Where did you learn all that? I mean the breathing and the control.” His expression was earnest.

“When my sister and I first began to surge, we were away from a city. My mother had learned techniques to calm anxiety from her own mother, and she took us through breathing and focus. We worked together and gained control of our individual talents as well as we learned to quell each other when we got out of control. Once I met other talents, I learned that it was being able to
use
the power that caused the control and let us grow. No matter how much my power ratchets up, I keep control because I acknowledge it as part of me.”

She was leaning forward and he was amused.

“Sorry. I get a little passionate on the subject. It was a concern at home and I can see it is one here as well.”

Urad took his glass and leaned back in his chair. “You seem to have come from a world at war.”

“I came from a world preparing for war. It went to war the moment that I left it.”

She tried not to imagine what was happening at home. Resicor would not have split them up if she didn’t have to. Their world had been determined but not cruel.

“So, you have a shadow power?”

The food arrived and cutlery to match it.

Noma looked into her bowl and flicked her gaze up to him. “Very observant.”

He smiled and set his glass down on the table. “Aren’t you curious about my power?”

“A little, but you will tell me if you want to.” She took a piece of bread, tore it off and dunked it in her bowl before eating it.

The spice of the stew made her smile. The light burn in her mouth woke her senses and made her head spin.

She sipped more of the beverage and swallowed heavily.

“So, Urad, are you and your sister close?”

He nodded. “We ran from our home the moment that the priests started visiting our home on a daily basis. Our parents packed us supplies and smuggled us out of the city at sunset. We travelled for two weeks, hiding during the day and running at night.”

“How old were you?”

“I was twelve, she was thirteen. It was my power that tipped them off.”

He was giving her a teasing hint.

She sighed, “It is considered exceptionally rude and quite dangerous where I am from, but what is your power?”

“You will find out in a few minutes.”

It was another tease, but she shrugged and finished her meal, setting her spork down with a sigh. “That was really good.”

“They mix up the themes of the spices, but the ingredients remain the same. We aren’t exactly set up for herding our own animals.”

“So, these animals are hunted?”

“Some are hunted, others are called when their death is near. They walk here and spend the last days of their lives in comfort. We honour their end.”

Noma nodded and sat with her glass between her palms. “There is a huge space around this structure, why don’t you use it?”

“We are safe here. It is the only place most of us have been safe in our entire lives.”

She looked at his sombre gaze and accepted what he was saying. The talents around her were afraid of the outside world, and they had reason to be. To fight against that was to disrespect their struggles. If she was to understand the people she was with, she had to keep that first and foremost in her mind.

They sat in silence for a moment, and before they could change to another topic, there was a large group of children gathered around them.

The light was fading and the children looked at Urad with anticipation. The young healer that Noma had carried in was with two other girls, holding hands tightly.

The youngest looked at Urad and smiled hopefully. “Is it time yet, Urad?”

Urad looked at the sky and nodded. He held up one hand and a ball of light formed before it left his palm and began to move through the open areas of the keep. Every fifty feet or so, a piece of light broke off and illuminated the area.

Noma laughed. “You are a light talent.”

He inclined his head. “You are correct.”

“My sister is a light talent. You have excellent control, but why are you in charge of security?”

“Someone has to be, and I have been here for two decades. This is my home and I will see it defended.”

The ball of light returned to him in four minutes with the exhausted and laughing children right behind it. Well, all seemed tired but Robik. He was grinning and laughing at the others, his speed had kicked in and he was delighting in showing off.

Noma covered her mouth as she grinned. Something else was about to kick in.