Seirin Bal Cerannon, Queen of the Oceans, looped her arm through Aeryk’s and stretched up to kiss his cheek. His skin was warm to the touch, and it dimpled into a smile just before she pulled away. She loved the feel of his body against her, his white shirt as soft as the clouds around the tower. At any other time, she would have pressed into him, wrapped his arms around her like a blanket. But she was too anxious, too preoccupied with what they’d come here to do.
Hurricane Point was the ideal location for this test, soaring the edge of a great peninsula, touching land and sea and sky. Aeryk claimed he could see the whole world from the top of the Observatory, and maybe he could.
Seirin wasn’t looking at the world, though. The horizon called to her, so far away, so elusive. She tried to ignore it, but the distance pulled at her – insistent, mocking even. Out there, ocean and sky merged into a single line, a line that never really existed. Until today. Today, she’d take that illusion and make it real. Nothing would stop her. Not now, not after waiting for so long.
Teras’s recent pregnancy had awakened an insatiable hunger in her, a primal need unlike anything she’d ever known. A child! Teras had a child. It was a miracle. The answer to an eternity of questions. Could the woman survive a collision of powers within her own body? The blending of elemental forces was dangerous, the ramifications unknown. Would a child survive it?
Takeshi promised to let her know as soon as he ruled out danger, but Yui’s birth had come and gone, and Takeshi still found reasons to delay. Let Yui mature, let her power manifest. Years passed, and Takeshi’s excuses continued. Seirin was tired of waiting.
Aeryk shifted nervously beside her. “Are you sure this is safe?” he asked, not for the first time. “No one’s ever done this before.”
Seirin’s contented sigh became irritated. They’d been over this a hundred times. He questioned, she answered. Her heart told her having a child together was safe, but he wanted guarantees.
“I asked Vissyus a few days ago.” Incredibly, she managed to keep her tone light. “He assured me it was.”
Aeryk frowned, his face uncertain. “We should have asked Takeshi. He’d know better than anyone.”
“He refused to tell us,” Seirin replied, unsuccessfully keeping the heat from her voice. How many times had she asked him? How many times had she walked away disappointed? “We have to do this for ourselves. It’s the only way we’ll know.” She worked her lips into a full pout. “Unless you don’t really want to.”
“Of course I do.” Aeryk’s response was satisfyingly quick. “It’s just that… This is his prohibition, Seirin.”
Seirin twined her fingers around his. “I know you value Takeshi’s opinion. I do too. But Vissyus doesn’t think it’s dangerous, and I believe him. He’d never let anything happen to us.” She gave him a shy smile. “He convinced you to share your feelings with me. As far as I’m concerned, that makes him the smartest man in the world.” Releasing his hand, she squared her shoulders and headed for the large, open windows. “Right. Let’s do this.”
Halfway across the floor, she hit a wall of solid air and stopped.
“I trust Vissyus too,” Aeryk said, walking up to her. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll let you go first.”
His words gave rise to conflicting emotions, the ice of anger, the heat of elation. He was worried about her. A warm rush coursed through her body. She wouldn’t take that from him – his kindness, his need to protect her. Finding him, loving him, was the best thing that had ever happened to her. What had she done to deserve him?
“All right, Aeryk. But you have to stop if anything feels wrong. Promise me.”
He brushed a kiss over her lips, his mouth lingering, the words I promise lilting through the space between them. His barrier opened. Warm, tropical air rushed through to fill the void. He strode into the breeze and made his way to the east-facing arch. A blue nimbus erupted around his body, his sky-blue eyes becoming slate gray.
Seirin’s heart pounded wildly in her chest as he drew his power. She held her breath.
At first, nothing happened. But then, as she reached out with her mind, she felt Aeryk’s spirit slip into the Earth’s waters. He used the power in ways she never thought possible. One minute, he manipulated the tide, the next its temperature. Rip currents formed far below the surface, riding against the tides to whip the turquoise waters into violent, white foam. A vast vortex swirled upon the seas below, but only for the moment it took Aeryk to heave it into the sky.
Seirin gasped as he took control. She watched in stunned satisfaction as the whirlpool bulged, inverted, and twisted into a turbulent column. Sea spray lashed the castle’s alabaster foundations; rainbows sparkled before it. And then it ended.
Aeryk lowered the cyclone back into the ocean. Seirin felt his power leave the water, felt it leave her body. Loss flitted through her, overridden by jealousy, and finally impatience. She hungered to know him the way he now knew her, to see the world through his spirit. Why would Takeshi forbid this? What harm could it do? She found it hard to believe he never tried with Teras. Yui’s birth validated their emotional commitment. Then again, what if they had tried… and failed? What if Aeryk was right and Takeshi knew something she didn’t?
No. Vissyus would have warned her. Where Takeshi relied on instinct, Vissyus took a far more theoretical approach. His faith rested in the physical, not the metaphysical. He analyzed and dissected – if he’d found a flaw he would have said so.
Reassured, she hurried to Aeryk, spun him by the arm, and searched his face. “Aeryk? Are you all right? Did it work?”
Aeryk placed a finger under her chin and lifted. “Beyond our wildest dreams.” He beamed at her, his blue eyes shining like a summer sky.
She pulled away, determined not to let his piercing gaze distract her. “I have to know,” she breathed. “I want to feel it.” She gestured to a point just beyond the beaches where the waterspout had only recently collapsed. “I let you understand me, and now it’s your turn.” She stroked his cheek. “Please.”
He flashed an encouraging smile, placed his hands on her shoulders, and turned her to the huge, arched window. “Do you want me to tell you anything about it?”
She shook her head. “No.” She shrugged out of his grip. “I don’t want to know. I want the experience to be pure.” She flared her shield and cast one last look at him before launching herself into Hurricane Point’s sultry air.
Excitement sent her pulse racing. Instead of working the atmosphere from the safety of the Observatory as she’d planned, she climbed to the top of the tower’s domed roof and landed, not at the edge, but in the middle, the peak, from which she could gaze into the horizon. From here, she’d see everything as she felt it.
A gentle breeze – light and southeasterly – streamed over the warm bay, where it picked up moisture as it made its way to the Point.
She slid her thoughts into it. The bound elements served as a conduit to their gaseous states – a wall she always noted but never tried to breach. Until now. Thrusting her spirit forward, she broke through. Her mind touched the vastness of Heaven, and its enormity stunned her. Not even her waters reached so much of the world. Deserts diminished her, earth drank her in, used and then discarded her. But the air… the air was different. Where water cleansed and purified, air consumed and dissipated. She needed to know how and why and what it meant for Aeryk to wield this power.
Feet planted, body taut, she pulled her thoughts out of the comfortable air-born water and hurled them into the atmosphere. As with Aeryk, nothing happened right away. Then, she felt a slight change in the temperatures aloft and below. Pressure dropped, the air cyclonic and rising.
Thunderheads formed swiftly, tall and dark and anvil-topped. They surged over Hurricane Point, where they fed off the warm, tidal waters. Dark shadows blanketed both land and sea in an eerie dusk-like light. Lightning strobed from cloud to cloud, the wind moaning fiercely.
She let the storm slam into her body. Her senses quivered with each electrical strike, her heart thumping in time with the thunder. Overhead, funnel clouds broke from the main storm to touch down along the beaches in a flurry of sand and water.
Seirin drove them out to sea before calling a fresh land breeze to dry the air. Smiling triumphantly, she launched herself from the tower. Laughter, like the tinkling of a waterfall, replaced the rain’s staccato thrumming, her shield more vibrant than the sun. She flew over the waves in a wide arc that eventually brought her back to the Observatory. Her feet barely touched before Aeryk embraced her. His strong arms lifted her from the diamond floors, and together, they spun about the room as if dancing.
They continued to practice long into the night. The following day, they rose early and began again. By midday, they were exhausted. They broke from their work and wandered to the pristine beach below the fortress.
“Do you still want to tell Takeshi?” Seirin lay beside Aeryk on a blanket of soft, white sand, gazing into his face while he studied the sky.
“He’ll find out sooner or later. Better to tell him than have him discover it on his own.” His brow puckered. “The problem is finding the right time. Yui keeps him so busy.”
“Isn’t she beautiful?” Seirin placed her head against him and traced a finger across his chest. “She’ll be taller now. We haven’t seen them for a long time.”
Aeryk chuckled. “All right, Seirin.” He ran a hand through her hair. “You win. I’ll contact Takeshi and ask if we can visit in the next few days.”
A shadow fell over them. Seirin looked up to see Takeshi Ahk-Kiko, Lord of Spirit, standing on a low rise a few feet away. She inhaled sharply. Did he know? Is that why he’d come?
“Teras would like that,” Takeshi said, his crimson robes rustling in the light breeze as he walked. They always reminded Seirin of blood.
“Takeshi.” Aeryk smiled. “This is unexpected. What brings you to Hurricane Point?”
Takeshi folded his hands into his sleeves. “Vissyus. The three of you are very close. I thought you might answer a question for me.”
Seirin sat up quickly, sand flying. “What’s he done?”
Takeshi must have suspected something. But since he didn’t confront them, he couldn’t know exactly what. Bringing Vissyus into it troubled her, though. He’d put the pieces together soon enough.
“Done?” Takeshi raised a questioning eyebrow. “He hasn’t done anything. It’s what he might do that troubles me.”
Seirin masked a guilty flinch as best she could. “What do you mean?”
“Elemental powers shape our view of the world – you with water, Aeryk with sky. Vissyus’s ideas come from the transformative power of heat and fire. He believes we’ll eventually need to remake ourselves in order to survive. Yui represents a validation of his thinking, an evolutionary step in our physical and spiritual growth.”
Seirin relaxed. This wasn’t about them, at least not yet. She needed to keep it that way. Takeshi’s concern for Yui would do. Mollify that, and he’d probably leave happy.
“If it’s a validation of his thinking,” she said, “then there’s no need to worry. He’ll simply run his tests and come to us with the results.”
“His whole theory is flawed.” Seirin caught a hint of frustration in Takeshi’s normally calm voice. “Evolution is generational. Forcing it is dangerous. Vissyus doesn’t understand that. He never will.”
The certainty in Takeshi’s tone chilled her. “Have you been looking into the future again? Did you know he could do that, Aeryk?” Aeryk gestured helplessly, and she frowned at him before turning back to Takeshi. “I’m sure Vissyus didn’t mean any harm. Still, I’ll let him know how you feel.”
This only seemed to agitate the Spirit Lord. “You will see him soon?”
“In a few days. We made arrangements to visit his fortress.”
“You need to be careful with him, Seirin. His brilliance has made him arrogant. Don’t let him drag you into something he can’t control.”
“Nonsense.” Seirin managed a bright tone. Inside, her stomach twisted. How much did he know? They’d been so careful. “There’s nothing to worry about. It’s just a misunderstanding, that’s all.”
“I hope you’re right, Seirin, because if you’re not…”
Seirin patted the sand beside her. “You’re just tired. Come. Sit with us. When was the last time you had any rest?”
Takeshi made no move to join them. “Not since Yui was born, which brings me to the other reason I wanted to see you.” The air went cold. Aeryk’s hand found hers. Saying nothing, he simply squeezed. “I have a task ahead of me, a sabbatical of sorts.”
“A sabbatical?” Seirin barely suppressed her incredulity. “Does that mean you’re leaving? Takeshi… you have a new family.”
“Yui and Teras will accompany me. I may be gone for a very long time.”
Seirin’s heart fluttered. “Will we be able to reach you?”
The previous day was merely a prelude of the future she craved, one abruptly and indefinitely postponed. She believed Takeshi would let them have children once they brought their findings to him. If he left…
“I am afraid we will be completely secluded.”
“What?” The pressure on her hand increased, but she yanked it away and stood to face Takeshi. “I don’t understand. How can you do this to us? You gave your word.”
Takeshi’s eyes flashed, the only visible emotion on his otherwise smooth face. “As did you, though apparently you have reconsidered.”
“What’s so important?” Seirin challenged, ignoring the accusation. “What’s making you go?” Dangerous swells built behind her. Waves thundered against the shore.
“A tear falls into a pool, and its ripples carry us into a storm.” Takeshi’s voice remained as calm as a meadow despite the roaring ocean.
“No more riddles, Takeshi! Why are you leaving?”
“Change comes. It is my responsibility to master it. Other than that, I cannot say. The future hides behind a veil, but I see enough to know it brings chaos.” His shield shimmered to life, soft and white. “Forgive me, Seirin.” His body began to dissolve. “I must attend to this.”
“Takeshi!” She threw her thoughts into the moisture around him, freezing him into a crystal statue that shivered and then shattered, its emptiness matching her hollow heart. She’d failed to hold him. Spinning, she brought up her shield and burst from the ground. Takeshi forced her hand. She had only one place left to go.
“Seirin!” Aeryk shouted, racing over to her. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to see Vissyus.” They’d come so far, only to have their accomplishments brought to a shuddering halt. She needed more, wanted more, even if it meant turning her back on the law. “Takeshi won’t help us, Vissyus will.”
Aeryk skidded to a stop, mouth agape. “No! Seirin, you can’t. You heard Takeshi. He warned against this.”
“I am no longer interested in what Takeshi says or does. I’m going… with or without you.”