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Residual energy patterns? Ivan followed his knight towards the ruins of the inn with a slight frown.
He knew that the use of psychic energy left traces that, for a while, could be used to identify the powers, effects and, in theory, even the user of these powers. All of that had been covered in the extensive lessons about psionics he had received when he had been a noble boy with no idea of how the world really worked. He had, however, never been able to perceive any of the examples his trainers had laid out for him. Back then, he had sucked at everything to do with psionics. And in the training he was now receiving from the Lotus Knight Compound and from Yaden personally, the issue hadn't come up yet.
He had a sinking feeling that Yaden would expect him to try again and he didn't see how he could succeed this time when he had failed on every other occasion. He didn't want to disappoint Yaden, but how was he supposed to see something in a visceral way? However, Yaden obviously was able to do it and he was a visceral, too. He had also always been right when he had told Ivan to do something, so far, no matter how outlandish it sounded. Ivan had always found the trick to do it in the end. So maybe he would this time as well. At least, none of the locals were standing close by, only watching curiously from near the well in the centre of the square.
Yaden stopped in front of what had been the inn, ponderously looking across the rubble. From the amount of debris, Ivan guessed it had been a two-storey building, like the others surrounding the square. Only the stone foundations remained, along with the thickest timber beams. Everything else had been reduced to a mess of charred stone, ash and the odd piece of slumping rebar, a testament to how hot the fire must have been.
Ivan took up a hopeful position next to Yaden and looked at the debris just as thoughtfully, hoping to at least seem like he knew what he was doing. The ruins looked utterly mundane to him, though, and he had no idea how to even begin picking up signs of psionic activity.
“Hmm,” Yaden said after a while, and carefully picked his way through the smouldering patches further within. “What can you tell me about this?”
“It burned?” Ivan squirmed but followed him deeper into the ruin.
Yaden looked over his shoulder with a smirk. “Oh really? What can you tell me about the psychic component? Was it a natural fire?”
“Do I look like a fucking oracle to you?” Ivan grumbled. Yaden simply ignored the remark and remained standing there, expecting a proper answer. Maybe now that he had access to his powers, he would be able to follow the instructions he had been given so many years ago. At least, he had to try. Ivan looked around again, this time trying to do what his trainers had told him to, empty his mind, focus his senses inward, concentrate... He was rudely interrupted when Yaden slapped his arm.
“Not like that.”
Ivan glared at him, unsurprisingly not impressing Yaden at all.
“Relax,” Yaden told him, “close your eyes and breathe deeply. Let yourself flow outward. Imagine your senses being a soft, light blanket being shaken out and covering everything around you. Don't look for anything specific – feel.”
That did sound like a visceral approach, Ivan had to admit grudgingly. Doing it, though, was easier said than done. Relaxing was not exactly his greatest talent. It was especially hard here, where they stood exposed and he knew he was being watched, and they could be attacked when he was supposed to be guarding Yaden's back and a million other things. Closing his eyes didn't sound like a good idea. He tried anyway, but the more he tried to relax, the more tension built up until finally a muscle in his thigh started twitching with irritation.
“Fuck!” he cursed and kicked at a piece of slag.
Yaden chuckled. “Okay. Maybe we'll try that lesson again another time.”
Ivan was about to swallow an angry retort and try again when his attention caught on that chunk of unidentifiable slag he had kicked. “Fuck,” he muttered and hunkered down next to it to run his fingers over the blistered surface. “Yaden, do you see this? No natural fire would burn hot enough to melt a stone like this.”
And it was still hot, he noticed. The surface had cooled, yes, but the core was full of raw, raging fire. And yes, rage, as in 'a human emotion'. There was a white-hot, desperate rage in that fire. It felt familiar, almost, that all-consuming rage that boiled up from the bottom of the heart, born of unbearable pain.
“A psion did this,” Ivan said softly, “a very, very desperate psion.”
Now that he had found his connection to the ember of rage inside the rock, it was the most natural thing to let his newly found sense flow outward. Though flow wasn't the right word. It jumped from one impression of psionic activity to the next. Like sparks reaching for fresh fuel. Like fire spreading, racing away until it met the edge of the ruins where there was nothing more to feed on as the psionic residue stopped. It was exhilarating and Ivan found himself curiously touching on every bit of heat he found, examining the exact flavour of this rage and of the fire.
“The fire feels hotter than my own,” Ivan voiced his newly discovered sensations, “and it's kinda sweet-and-sour, you know? Like, I don't know ... mango?”
“The residual energy has an actual flavour to you?”
“Yeah?” Ivan shrugged. “Not actually in my mouth, but, yeah, well... Taste is the closest I can get to describing it. Is that wrong?”
“No, not at all,” Yaden replied, his voice tinged with wonder. “It's just that I always thought I was the only one. But apparently, this cross-sensory input is a visceral thing.”
“Okay... Whatever you say, boss.” Ivan let his newfound senses brush across the ruins of the inn. “Psion, definitely. And desperately angry.”
“I agree,” Yaden said. His voice sounded slightly distorted, as if part of it was lost in ambient noise. Trying to focus on his friend again, Ivan's senses snapped back inside his own body, making him reel from the sudden loss of the added extra information input. He blinked several times to clear his head.
Yaden's eyes looked slightly unfocused as well, as if his senses were not fully in the here and now. Just as Ivan had felt a moment ago. Now that he had done it once, Ivan was pretty sure he would get the hang of it sooner rather than later. Surely the Lotus Compound would have plenty of samples for him to practise on.
“But it also feels ... I don't know ... almost familiar,” Yaden muttered.
“You mean, you know the psion who did this?”
Yaden shook his head. “No ... it's ... I can't quite put a name to it. Something tastes ... familiar, like I have felt this before.” He slowly turned in a circle. “There,” he said, pointing across the central square of the town. “The source of this rage is out there. A ways outside of town.”
“Right. Your range is so creepy.” Ivan shrugged. “So let's go and kick his ass?”
Yaden opened his mouth to answer, but suddenly snapped it shut with a deep frown. “Shit,” he hissed. “It's a chrysalis. That's why it feels so familiar. It's a young psion just awakening to their powers. It's how I felt when I fought the volcano.”
If Yaden was right, they were facing an incredibly unstable and dangerous foe. Awakening psionic powers were notoriously unpredictable and, if awakening under duress, stronger by a few orders of magnitude than anything a regular psion could produce.
“Uh, yes, sir. But didn't the lieutenant say it was a wanted rogue psion? How can they just awaken now?”
“It might be two. The one they tried to arrest, who threw the wardrobe. Probably telekinetic. And another one who just awakened. The pyrokinetic.”
Ivan groaned. He had little idea how to fight another psion, let alone two. But he had had plenty of warning that Lotus Knight missions never followed protocol and always ended up being a mess, so he didn't bother complaining. After all, he had survived a fight against a demon bull with less training and hope than he had now. And he was exceedingly determined not to die on his very first proper mission.
“So let's go kick two asses?”
Yaden didn't look too happy. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
A short laugh escaped Ivan. “You have a bad feeling? Seriously? I'm about to shit my pants, but that won't stop me.”
“What?” The way Yaden blinked at him, refocusing his attention back on Ivan, was almost comical. “No, no, that's not what I meant. What I mean is that I don't think this young psion did this on purpose. They probably had no training, no way of controlling that much power. We should try to subdue them.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
Yaden merely raised an eyebrow. No, his knight wasn't kidding at all. Of course, he would want to protect potential innocents, including newly-awakened psions gone berserk. And the worst was that Ivan couldn't help agreeing. He didn't want to imagine how he would have dealt with suddenly unleashing a firestorm he had little control over.
He raised his hands in surrender. “Sure thing. One subdued pyro coming right up, boss.”
The way Yaden's frown changed to a proud smile made Ivan's heart beat faster with joy. It also made him smirk self-consciously as he realised how very starved for any kind of praise he was. Well, he'd certainly deserve a bucket of praise if he survived this, he thought with grim amusement.
Yaden headed back to where the exhausted firefighters were now sitting close to the well, resting. Lieutenant Marlonne was talking to them, but instantly turned to Yaden when they approached.
“I've located our missing psion,” Yaden informed her calmly. “They are somewhere in the forest to the east of town. Is the area settled?”
She shook her head, wide-eyed and clearly very impressed. “No, sir.”
“Good.” Yaden nodded at her with that amazingly calm and encouraging smile.
Ivan was starting to associate it with what he called Yaden's 'official Lotus Knight persona'. There were many times when Yaden didn't know things and winged it, and Ivan had seen him get decidedly uncomfortable and shy when he was forced to talk to high ranking nobles on Emperor's Island. The one time they had visited Opera, he had turned all but invisible among all the rich and important people there. But when they were on a mission, he somehow was able to turn into this mountain-range-like bastion of calm and confidence.
It was a skill Ivan was determined to master too, someday.
“We're heading out to deal with the psion, now. Please don't be alarmed if you see fires, storms or flying rocks. We know what we are doing,” Yaden added.
“Yes, sir!” The lieutenant saluted crisply.
Ivan waited until they were out of earshot before he asked, “We do?”
Yaden's grin was the exact same he had always suspected under that thicket of a beard on Bora Bora. Reckless and full of anticipation of adventure and mayhem. “Nope. But she doesn't need to know that.”
“Now that's reassuring,” Ivan answered with a matching grin. “And here I thought I'd missed the memo.”
Yaden tapped the ground with his foot and the cobblestones of the square shifted to allow a large slab of rock to rise up. It hovered above the ground, bobbing slightly, while Yaden used his foot to pat the cobblestones back into place.
“Wow, that's handy,” Ivan commented and climbed up onto the rock, sitting down on it.
“Very,” Yaden agreed and joined him. “I wonder if we can find some way to increase your mobility, too.” He stood on the rock and Ivan could see how his toes dug into it, controlling its movement. The rock rose higher and gathered speed, flying in the direction that Yaden had pointed out earlier.
Ivan pondered Yaden's question. It wasn't as though fire was something he could stand on. Maybe with enough directional focus, he could generate some thrust so he could propel himself like a rocket, but that would probably only be feasible for short hops. It was definitely an idea to keep in mind though. It might give him the edge in combat, especially for dodging large area attacks.
They were slowly flying out of town before they picked up speed over some outlying farms. Ahead of them, dense pine forest rose up the mountainside, startlingly green and vibrant in the light of the early morning sun. While Ivan was slowly getting used to the healthy vegetation of flowers and carefully groomed bushes and trees on Emperor's Island, after growing up on Yaiciz where all plant life was hanging on to life by a thread, these trees felt almost threatening in their height and blatant vitality.
“So what's the plan?” he asked Yaden, concentrating on the task at hand again. He wouldn't get a chance to experiment later if he died now, so better check the game plan twice.
“We'll try to get as close as possible without them noticing us,” Yaden answered Ivan's question. “Ideally, I want to talk, not fight.”
“Even though we are talking about a wanted rogue psion here?”
Yaden shrugged. “The Psions Guild is far from infallible. Just because they are looking for that man doesn't make him a criminal.” He smirked down at Ivan. “After all, I found you on Bora Bora and gave you a chance. Besides, you know the general policy of the Emperor: Ask questions first, knock heads only if necessary. If you want first strike carnage, you'll have to hire up with the Empress.”
Ivan shuddered at the thought. The Empress headed the Imperial Military. Her nickname of 'the Emperor's Iron Fist' was well-earned. “No thanks, I'm happy with my current employer.”
Yaden took them down, closer to the treetops. If they hadn't been on a deadly mission, it would have been a beautiful trip. The air was crisply clean, the sun slowly rising higher, casting light onto occasional clearings filled with thick carpets of wild flowers between the majestic pine trees. Here and there, Ivan glimpsed the sparkle of water – brooks running through the forest, he guessed.
His musings were rudely cut short when a sudden gust of wind violently jerked the rock out of balance.
“What the fuck!” Ivan desperately scrambled for something to hang on to while Yaden fought to steady the rock.
“They've noticed us,” Yaden stated calmly, his face a deep, focussed frown. “That wasn't a telekinetic attack. That's...” he raised his head and looked up at the sky, “not good.”
Ivan followed his line of sight. At first, he mistook the light for a reflection of the sun, but that reassuring mistake didn't last long. No, that bright, vertical line ahead of them was a veritable column of fire, rising from the ground up to the sky, twisting and turning like a stationary tornado. It emanated enough heat that he could sense it from this distance, both with his psionic sense and from the heat that pricked his cheekbones. It seemed contained, in a way, under control, but the sheer amount of energy this kind of theatrics required made Ivan's heart beat in his throat. This was ridiculous. How did you fight someone who could conjure up things like that? The heat differential between the column of fire and the surrounding air was so high it created a powerful updraft, pulling the air near the ground all around, towards the fire, fanning it even further. A veritable firestorm, the outskirts of which had been the gust of wind that had almost kicked Ivan off their travelling stone.
At least their target was now impossible to miss.
Yaden had adjusted his stance, leaning into the rising wind, his arms stretched out low, furiously doing ... something. Their rock was travelling forward, slowly but mostly steady again. This was not a good moment to interrupt Yaden with stupid questions. Instead, Ivan concentrated on scanning ahead, trying to find out what he could about that pillar of fire, apart from the fact that it was scary and sexy at the same time.
“Be ready,” Yaden suddenly growled through clenched teeth. “Fire incoming.”
After his fight against the demon bull-gorilla, Ivan wasn't overly worried about fire. As long as he stood between Yaden and the attack, he was confident he would be able to shield his knight with his body. Luckily, he had enough time to see the attack coming from literally a mile away. A glob of flames separated from the whirling pillar, heading straight for them.
Now that their travelling rock was steady again, he could get up onto his feet easily. His flame sabres sprang up with a flick of his hands almost on instinct and he found himself in a parrying pose long before the deep-red fireball reached them. Calmly, he counted the seconds until impact in his head, ready to bat away that nuisance like a softball; three, two, one -
And a space freighter made of fire slammed into him.
Unlike other fires he had encountered, this fireball offered resistance and plenty of it. He had only a split-second to realise he had completely misjudged the situation. Even in a million years, he wouldn't be able to simply redirect these flames. But at least, his priorities were absolutely clear.
Yaden. He had to protect Yaden, at all cost.
So instead of trying to bat away the fireball, Ivan reached out and grabbed the flames with his hands, ignoring the searing pain, and dropped both himself and the fire off the travelling stone before the heat could reach his knight.
For a heartbeat, he fell towards the treetops, head over heel and confused, the fireball racing away from him. And then he impacted heavily on something rock-hard in the middle of the air. Their travelling stone, which Yaden had raced below him to catch him.
“What the fuck?!” Ivan yelled in shock and pain, scrambling to find purchase, hanging on for dear life.
His shout was nearly drowned out as all around them, chaos broke loose, the wind picking up to gale force in a matter of seconds. The sudden manoeuvre had cost Yaden his control over the firestorm.
“Intent to hurt you!” Yaden shouted over the howling wind. “Have to block that, too!” He was crouching low, steadying their rock to a hover. “I have to contain this storm. Keep me alive!”
He was right, of course, and Ivan silently cursed himself for his stupidity. All effects a psion created were manifestations of their will. He had learned that in his studies of psionics. He just hadn't translated it properly in this instance. It wasn't just the visible fire he was fighting here. He was also fighting the other psion's will to harm them.
But fire was fire, he thought grimly. So he should be able to gain a measure of control over it, even if it technically wasn't his. Besides, however much the other psion may want to hurt them, there was no doubt that his determination to protect his knight was stronger. And what were singed palms compared to what he had already been through? Nothing.
Yaden had already returned his concentration to keeping the air around them calm enough to get them safely forward. While Ivan knew, in theory, that Yaden had some control over the weather as well, this was the first time Ivan actually saw that talent in action. And like all of Yaden's skills, it was mighty impressive, judging by the violent changes all around. The sky had gone dark above them, as the firestorm spread out into a circular cloud of ash and lightning. Fine embers started falling from the sky, tossed around like snowflakes and about as dangerous, but the sight was breathtaking. Ivan didn't bother acknowledging his knight's orders, instead, he scrambled back onto his feet. He'd keep Yaden alive or die trying. Simple as that.
Hyped up as he was, he sensed the next fireball before he could see it – the intent to harm him was almost palpable, even though he had no clue how exactly he knew. It was a blotch of angry heat racing towards him. Once again, he took up a spot between Yaden and harm – only this time, he stood with his arms outstretched before him, ready to catch and divert the ball of flame that he could now see hurtling towards them. It was surprisingly difficult, the fire driven by a will almost as strong as his own, but he managed to push the incoming fireball aside, though it got close enough to sear the tips of his outstretched fingers.
“Fuck you!” he hurled back into the storm at their unseen attacker.
Their travelling rock had picked up speed again, slowly but steadily approaching the pillar of fire through the storm and the lightning and the whirling motes of flame.
A whole barrage of fireballs followed. But it did little more than give him the opportunity to perfect his technique. It was easier the lighter he kept his touch, almost like playing beach volleyball, he realised with a slightly hysterical edge to his amusement.
Their rock sped up and Ivan realised that the air around them was a bubble of calm compared to the chaos around them. Dry branches were being lifted up from the ground and hurled towards the centre of the firestorm, trees shook wildly, some had already been flattened to the ground by the unnatural strain. Debris whirled around them, leaves and sticks and ripped-off branches – but never closer to them than a few metres. Whatever Yaden was doing, Ivan was mighty fine with it. He had to get close enough to the other pyrokinetic, then he would take them out. Either by fire or a nasty kick in the balls, whatever it took.
At the base of the fire column, Ivan could now make out the crumbled ruins of a small building. In front of which a lone figure, tiny but wreathed in bright red flames very similar to how Ivan had burned when he had fought the demon.
“There!” he shouted over the storm and pointed. “Can we smite them now?!”
“No!” Yaden yelled back.
Being one of the good guys did have some downsides, Ivan thought with a snort. No complaints here, though. Being one of the good guys was pretty awesome, too.
Yaden brought the rock down and they landed with a crunch audible over the howling storm. The small figure standing by the ruin – was that a child? A girl? It was a frightening thought to have a kid wield such powers.
The way she had one hand pressed to her temple and the other balled into a fist at her side, she looked like a cerebral psion. At least she wasn't hurling fireballs at them for the moment. So what had Yaden planned? His knight was standing with his feet planted firmly apart, his arms raised to the sky, whirling them in a slow circle as if pulling something into an ever tighter knot. Fuck, he was drawing in the storm. The winds were weakening, heartbeat by heartbeat, and the sky was growing lighter with every moment. Now, it was more a matter of moving air than weather.
“She is growing tired.” With a nod to Ivan, Yaden started moving forward.
Ivan made a point of staying in front of his knight to block any further attacks.
Calmly walking up to her, Ivan got a clearer view of the girl. She was maybe twelve years old and wearing sturdy, baggy travelling clothes. Behind her, another person, an adult judging from the size, lay on the ground, unmoving. Ivan guessed this had to be the psion the town guards had tried to arrest. Was she standing guard over him?
Her attention had been on the dying storm, but when she noticed them approach, she focused fully on them. Ivan could feel the psychic heat emanating from her as she tapped deeply into her pyrokinetic powers.
“No! NO! YOU WON'T TAKE PAPA!” she screamed and red fire exploded towards them in a giant wave of desperate rage.
This was not an effect Ivan could bat aside. He was pretty sure he could shield himself from the impact, but that would have fried Yaden behind him to a crisp. So, in a split-second decision, he opened his arms wide, welcoming the fire. It was his element and he stubbornly willed himself to simply absorb it, taking it in, letting it feed him. And at first, it worked wonderfully. Fire poured into Ivan, was drawn into him, igniting his blood with joy and energy. But it didn't end there. More fire rushed at him, more energy, and it filled him up to the brim and beyond. Pain raced through him and more kept flooding in. He screamed but refused to surrender.
And suddenly, it was over.
With silent wonder, he stared at his smouldering hands. He had survived, though only barely. And most importantly, Yaden had survived. He tried to move, to talk, but the pain hit him full force, every single fibre of his body ached. Manaburn. Again.
And with that thought, his world went dark and he collapsed.
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