4

  FORGIVE

  Along with everyone else in attendance, Kalex stared slack-jawed at the woman in Lyla’s arms. Gone was the animosity towards her, replaced with an odd feeling of pity.

  “I…I don’t know.” Kalex mumbled out, skepticism evident in his voice.

  A flare of emotion spiked through the yard, almost dense enough to see.

  “Kalex!” yelled three people at him in unison, with an extra voice echoing in his mind.

  Lyla, Sorene, and Rigel looked at each other, surprised by their tandem exclamation. Lyla was having difficulty stringing words together with the tangle of emotions going through her, and Sorene fumed with an expression Kalex only knew her mother to give. Rigel stood straight, slightly less relaxed than usual, and spoke his grievance.

  “Young man, I’m not sure you realize what you just accomplished. Using your energy in the manner you just…” Rigeled turned to Wren, who made a noise to interrupt him. Turning back to Kalex, he continued with a more uptight expression.

  “I’m sorry, you used your myst in a way that only people at the pinnacle of the Mender’s Branch can. Truly, I’ve only seen something similar once before. If you have this ability to imbue your myst into someone else without harming them, you will be able to help Scyris.”

  Rigel slowly strolled onto the training yard and stood beside Lyla, who wore astonishment.

  “I noticed this flaw the moment she crashed onto my planet.” Rigel continued. “Lumen usually have this issue, but her case is particularly bad. She is the result of powerful people taking the easy route of giving power. The universal law everyone abides by: without a foundation, power hurts its wielder as much as it does their opponent.”

  Tears again flowed down Scyris’ face as she curled deeper into Lyla’s embrace.

  “The signature given to every Lumen helped her steadily grow in power, but just enough to still have the ability to enter the lower worlds, and once that was taken away, her myst was a disaster. She would have perished without Lyla’s innate nature to help the wounded. What surprised me was that after she and Lyla mended her myst channels, even through the blocks caused by her lack of a foundation, she still garnered strength, and held onto her resolve.”

  Rigel sighed.

  “I know this doesn’t mean much to you. The past can be fickle, so allow me to sweeten the pot. In addition to having the chance to harness this incredible power you wield, I will cover any debt you have to Mr. Nurdle, and provide another planet for him to reside.”

  “Wait, what happened to my planet? Wren wouldn’t give me any details. Just told me that I can’t go back there right now.” Gretex interjected.

  Before Rigel could answer, Kalex jumped to reply.

  “Your last name is Nurdle?!” Kalex looked down at his hands. “I guess I haven’t really looked at your status yet.”

  Raising his head to meet Gret’s gaze, his expression turned horrified. “I’ve been swearing your name for as long as I can remember, and the monsters that share your name. They’re all over Diat. Why would you name yourself after the vile things?”

  Gret lifted an eyebrow at Kalex’s outburst. “First of all, rude. Second, I didn’t name myself after them; I named them after myself. The long years spent in hiding and having access to more power than I knew what to do with was the cause. I wanted to create a companion to the Seers on Diat, who would undoubtedly spend their lives in relative seclusion. The project didn’t work as intended, and the Lexidexs filled the role, but they are not monsters. I believe most people on Diat find them endearing.”

  Kalex made a gagging sound. “Thank you for telling me this, it makes me feel much better about absorbing all the myst out of your planet.”

  Gretex’s eyes bulged, Wren, reaching up to lay her hand on his forearm to calm him. His mind filled with every curse he had ever heard, but before he could point them at Kalex, Sorene piped up with a snort of pure inconceivability.

  “If I had a sillie for every time I’ve seen people who need help, pushed aside by the powerful, I’d be rich. Ma always told me to help others when I could, and this is a situation where you definitely can. You helped us on the farm and taught me how to make my bottles better and didn’t ask for anything in return.”

  She looked over to Lyla, who nodded in agreement.

  Scyris finally calmed down and gazed at the newcomer with whom she hadn’t had the best introduction, defending her. During her time on Cragfont, she was always viewed as lesser, with nobody to come to her aid in situations like these.

  She had grown close to Lyla, viewing her as a sibling she never had, so her support was understandable. The bottle-throwing woman was a different story. Standing to defend someone she’d just met and whose introduction was less than stellar made Scyris lose her words.

  She gazed at the two women as they stared daggers at Kalex, With Lyla’s being the most intense.

  Not a single word was spoken, but Kalex could feel her anger and questioning toward him. They came in so vividly that he suspected Ekk and Lex of helping the process along.

  Ultimately, he could only sigh and agreed to help her.

  “Alright, you’ve all convinced me.” He said with a shake of his head. “I’ll try to show her how to move past her blockages, but I can’t guarantee anything will change.”

  Lyla gently helped Scyris to her feet, and Sorene stood on the other side of her. All of them smiled with various degrees of satisfaction.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “We never did proper introductions. Sorene,” Kalex pointed towards Scyris. “This is Scyris Everblade, the lording Lumen of the Realm of Seeds.” Kalex moved his hand over to Lyla. “And this is Lyla Graves, a Roamer who saved my life and the only family I have.”

  Sorene’s eyes turned into saucers as she took a shaky step back from Scyris.

  “How many times do I have to tell you people?” Scyris’ voice cracked as it changed to the timbre she usually used. “I’m not part of the Cabal anymore. I actually have no idea who’s running the Realm of Seeds right now.”

  Gret smiled broadly as she finished. He knew exactly who had taken the mantle.

  “But the legends told about you,” Sorene said. “You’d have to be thousands of Moons old! You’d have to be powerful enough to split Enternia in two, but I was able to disarm you with a bottle!”

  Scyris gave Sorene a flat stare.

  “I’m not even six hundred standard years old! Although I was the strongest person on the planet when I visited Enternia, I could only get so powerful! If I asked the Lumen Cabal for more power, I’d be too strong to stand on Enternia for even a moment!”

  She left Sorene contemplating what she had said and strode over to Kalex. She wore a mask of anger and determination, but Kalex could see panic and anxiety written all over her myst.

  “Shall we?” Scyris muttered.

  “Let’s.” He replied.

  —

  Rigel promptly began the match the moment Sorene and Lyla exited the field.

  Scyris wielded her scythe, while Kalex stood unbothered and unarmed. With his eyes closed, he reached out for Scyris and felt the myst struggling to push past the thin pathways that ran through her body. Scyris leaped forward to attack, and her problem became more apparent. To Kalex’s presence sight, it felt like a raging river attempting to flow through the eye of a needle.

  When Scyris got within striking distance, Kalex sent his myst to her, easily bypassing her inherent protection and seamlessly integrating it into her myst channels. She froze in place, staggered as worry dripped from her expression.

  Kalex focused on a single point in her hand that seemed to have only a minor block, to try this newfound power out and hopefully mitigate any widespread damage if he messed up.

  He sent more myst directly to the spot, hoping to enlarge the opening and heal any of the damage using the healing Lyla had shown him how to do on Enternia.

  The hand holding the scythe emitted an eerie blue light as Kalex sent his myst to attempt to enlarge the aperture.

  The pain was intense and thankfully brief. Scyris’ hand dimmed, and she tested her fingers with astonishment. “It feels the same but different in a way that’s hard to explain. I was exhausted with the effort of circulating my myst, but, in my hand at least, it’s effortless.”

  She focused on the myst in her hand and enforced her scythe until it glowed with blinding light. The blade lit up a vibrant gold color and burned so intensely that she had to drop the weapon.

  “I can’t believe it. I’ve never felt power like this.” She looked from her hand to Kalex. “Thank you. This is the biggest boon I've ever received besides the initial power I gained by becoming a Lumen. I can now wield my armament unhindered.”

  Scyris picked up her weapon and caught a glimpse of everyone watching. Sorene and Lyla stood smiling, while Gret, Wren, and Rigel were stone-faced, without a single shred of emotion. Timik was off to the side, attempting to tear a piece of dried meat with his teeth. The situation before him was lost in his desire to take a bite out of his stolen delicacy.

  “I know forgiveness is a long way off,” Scyris said as she turned to face Kalex. “But, thank you, truly”

  Kalex opened his eyes and stared directly into Scyris’.

  “I forgive you, but you might not forgive me.” Kalex’s glower turned into a smile.

  “I figured out the process of expanding your pathways, and we can’t stop with just your hands! Every block is a pinch point, so we need to eliminate them all to bring out all of your strength!”

  Before Scyris could say anything, a tether of pure myst shot out and attached to the middle of her forehead.

  While Lyla and Sorene squirmed at the scene in from of them, the other only looked more concerned.

  “This can’t get out.” Rigel whispered to Wren.

  “No, it cannot,” Wren replied with a deepening frown.

  “What do you call this thing?” Timik said while trying to bite into what looked like a gemstone.

  All eyes moved to Timik.

  “What?” He mumbled as his teeth broke the surface.

  Wren’s gasp was all that could be heard before a cloud of purple light engulfed the training yard.

  Kalex was halfway finished widening Scyris’ pathways as the world slowed around him. Wren and Rigel seemed to move normally, while everyone else stayed frozen in time.

  Faster than he thought possible, Kalex withdrew his myst and sent barriers of myst around everyone present. Wren blasted through the one around her as if it wasn’t there, while Rigel struggled for a moment before breaking through his, with Timik as their destination.

  Quicker than anyone other than Kalex could see, Rigel dislodged the gem from Timik’s teeth and threw it into the air, while Wren put the much bigger man over her shoulder and ran to the middle of the yard.

  Before his eyes, a hole appeared—a hole in the world they resided in. The inside was a dark, roiling miasma of muted greens and purples. The feeling it gave promised death.

  As the hole reached its apex, Kalex felt a familiar feeling—a reaction he had only experienced a few times in his life—the feeling of utter consumption.

  Wren added barriers to the ones Kalex had erected and sent restorative myst to an unconscious Timik. She began to crouch, intending to weather what was to come.

  Something in Kalex pulled him toward the gaping void. Wren and Rigel radiated fear, while Kalex felt drawn.

  Without thinking, he extended his presence sight and realized why he saw the fearful faces. The moment his myst got within the hole's vicinity, his strength began to leave him, being forcefully absorbed.

  “So this is what it feels like,” Kalex said as he fixed his stance. “It’s a good thing I’m not a town guard!”

  Kalex pulled back in kind, and the light emitting from the hole dimmed as a stalemate was achieved. The slowness in time he was experiencing disappeared. Words could be hard all around him, but he wasn’t listening—his focus pointed completely at the void in front of him.

  With a mighty flex of his control, the myst in the surrounding area funneled towards him, bringing whisps of the strange energy the void contained with it. When it touched his core, it felt like a spark to tinder. His core erupted with power as the hairline crack in it widened.

  Wren couldn’t believe her eyes. A damaged soul crystal was a disaster that could be felt around the planet, where the world’s most powerful were needed to contain it. What Kalex was doing was impossible—bearing the full force of a tear without damage. Looking closer at the boy born on her planet, she saw something that frightened her more than the tear itself. The force that caused elites to drain their energy reserves to fight off seemed to reverse, as a smirk adorned Kalex’s face.

  “How is this possible? How does he have it too?” Wren said under her breath.