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The flames moved like a living creature, like a newborn blindly twisting and groping to find sustenance. No longer the clean, pure heat Ivan had created them to be. Feeding on real matter, they had gained a wild component that was much harder to control than fire powered only by his will – and that was hard enough for him to keep in check already.
But none of that reduced his joy at finally being allowed to use his powers again. The medic had finally cleared him yesterday morning, and he and Yaden had celebrated with an extended – if cautious – training session. Probably the last one they were going to have at the Lotus Compound, now that they were getting ready to move to Sooraj.
Control was one of the top items on Yaden's training list for him, closely followed by expanding his mental energy reservoir or, as Yaden called it – 'training his psychic stamina'. After those two, the list went on and on. It seemed to Ivan that each time they trained together, Yaden added another three or four subjects that Ivan had no clue about and needed to learn.
Not that he minded. He soaked up everything Yaden offered and wanted more. Colin was already complaining that Ivan was as obsessed with training as Yaden. As far as Ivan could see, it wasn't the same thing, though.
Ivan simply enjoyed every moment he was able to tap into his talents. It felt to him like he had been locked in a cave all his life and now was finally allowed to step outside, to breathe freely. It was like a drug. His forced abstinence after the manaburn had been a constant itch under his skin, the fire pressing him to let it out.
Yaden was driven by the need to become better. Never mind that he was already one of the most powerful psions of their generation. He never seemed to dwell on the incredible things he could already do. Instead, he was focused on the things he couldn't do. Or rather, couldn't do yet.
But apart from Ivan's personal improvement, their mutual top priority was teamed combat. The two times they had fought together – once against the organ traders and demons, and more recently on Shiraz – they had been as much a danger to each other as to their opponents. They had already put in some training, but judging by their performance on Shiraz, they both agreed that they needed to get a lot better. At least by now, Yaden was sufficiently aware of Ivan's position most of the time that he hopefully wouldn't hit him with a forklift again. Finding out what kind of synergy effects they might be able to achieve was another item on Yaden's long list, one they were both extremely curious about, but it would have to wait until Ivan had refined his control over his powers.
Which brought him right back to the task at hand, which, as Yaden had cheerfully informed him, nicely doubled as training and as a useful application of his powers.
They were all on the island today, and Ivan's job was to slowly make his way down from the former servants’ quarters towards the mansion, clearing the path of the overgrown vegetation. It was like herding a flock of extremely volatile chickens, he thought with a grin, firmly reining in a few flames trying to lick at a bush next to the path. So far, he had managed without any serious mishaps and he planned to keep it that way.
Even without him being starved of using his powers, it was a pleasant exercise. Challenging, but not exhausting, and genuinely useful for a change.
With the pleasantly warm climate and the sun shining from a cloudless sky, Ivan had quickly shed his shirt. It was the first time he had an opportunity to work like this since he had started his sessions with K'jal and he found himself startled every time he looked down at his own arms and chest to find them clean, every trace of his sister's claims of ownership gone. At least his enforced training break after the manaburn had brought on one real advantage – plenty of time to complete the removal of all the slave tattoos. He was finally, truly free of her.
Not just that, he was now part of something new and so much better. What they were doing here on the island was a team effort. A team where assigned tasks were not determined by status, but by competence.
Darios was down at the mansion with the technician who had checked the generator, wiring and plumbing for the mansion and the former servants’ quarters, getting a crash course in electrics so he would be able to install lights and deal with minor crises so they wouldn't have to call out an expert for every tiny problem.
Colin was back in Agami, organising the move of their packed up belongings and coordinating the arrival of their furniture to the island.
Yaden was currently busy raising a large chunk of ocean floor up to the surface to form a second, smaller island nearby, which they would use exclusively for training – a place where they could let loose without worrying about damaging anything. Ivan very much looked forward to testing how large a firestorm he could create before he collapsed – after seeing the flame wave Myriam had called up, he was pretty sure that, so far, he had been working with the training wheels on.
Myriam was on the island as well, currently cleaning out the small cottages they were going to move into, in preparation for Colin arriving with their stuff.
The first time they had all gone to the island to look at it, there had been a long discussion on how to get Myriam there safely. Yaden and Colin had been sure she wouldn't want to be ported. They had tried to choose between leaving her home with someone to watch over her or getting a glider, which Darios would pilot. But a glider ride from Agami to the island would have been three hours long. As usual, it had been Darios who had come up with the sensible suggestion of asking Myriam whether she actually minded being ported. She had been understandably scared about letting someone from the Psions Guild port her, but she had bravely agreed to it on the condition that Yaden and Colin would have their hands on her shoulders and that she could bring the ugly, green lizard plushy she always kept close by.
Considering what she had been through, she was doing great.
”IVAN?!” The scream shattered his concentration. It was Myriam's voice, filled with panic.
He had the presence of mind to pull his carefully cultivated flames back into himself before he sprinted up the cleared path towards the cottages, his heart beating frantically. There shouldn't be anything dangerous on the island. She should be safe. But she didn't sound safe. Whatever threatened her needed to be eradicated.
He dashed past the last few shrubs and came to a skittering stop in the yard between the cottages, trying to locate where the scream had come from.
”IVAAAAAAAAAAN!”
It came from the cottage which had been designated as Yaden and Colin's house. Ivan crossed the yard in record time and burst into the large central room. The scene before him wasn't as life-threatening as he had imagined from the volume and intense fear in Myriam's voice. But it certainly appeared life-threatening to her.
Myriam was huddled into one corner of the room, clutching the lizard as if she were trying to hide behind it, her broom discarded on the floor. Her assailant was one of the annoying little bear-rodent creatures that inhabited the island. They were a little bigger than a large cat, with red-brown fur, large ears, a bushy tail, and plump bodies. They would have been cute if they didn't also sport sharp teeth and claws, and a mean character. So far, no one had been able to figure out whether they were native to the region, pests, or escaped pets of the previous owner of the island gone feral.
Ivan had had a run-in with one earlier when he had smoked the little beast out of Colin's bread-baking oven. The encounter had been brief and rather painful for both of them. The creature had scratched Ivan and he had retaliated by thoroughly singeing it. At least Colin's oven was now free of unwelcome squatters.
This didn't seem to be the same creature. Its fur wasn't burnt. It sat on its haunches, its tail fluffed up, and hissed and snarled at Myriam threateningly, swiping at her with its claws. Apparently, it had decided that the small human was easy prey.
With an angry snarl of his own Ivan spit the fire he had been forced to swallow so suddenly in a hot burst at the beast. It wasn't hot enough to kill, merely to scorch its whiskers, but it scared the little monster thoroughly. It screeched in pain and shock and scuttled out of the cottage, narrowly dodging past Ivan, trailing smoke and the smell of burning fur.
For a moment longer, Myriam stared at the spot it had vacated, then she flung herself at Ivan with a sob, burying her face against his chest. Ivan wrapped his arms around the crying girl a little awkwardly at first, but when she burrowed against him, he hugged her close and started making reassuring little sounds.
“Are you okay?” he asked her when she finally calmed down a little. “Did it hurt you?”
With another sniffle she looked up at him, her eyes red from crying but also trying to force a brave smile onto her face. “No, I'm okay. It ... it scared me ... I guess...”
Ivan smiled back at her encouragingly. “They are fucking fearsome alright,” he agreed. “But you know, you could have burned it...”
Her eyes went wide with horror at the suggestion. “But I can't hurt anyone!” she exclaimed. “I have hurt far too many people already... And Yaden said I have to be careful.”
She was a twelve-year-old girl. One who had just awakened to her powers and had no idea how to control them. Yaden had quickly decided to postpone trying to coax her into tapping into her talents and trying some small exercises. They would wait until they had the separate training island where she wouldn't have to be afraid of losing control. If she did, out there, it wouldn't matter. Ivan was of the firm opinion that she should learn how to defend herself.
“I think that doesn't apply to people or creatures trying to hurt you first,” he gently explained. “But you better check that with Yaden,” he added at her doubtful look.
“Okay.” She agreed reluctantly, but then she smiled up at him brightly. “Thank you, Ivan. You saved me. When I'm grown up, I'm going to keep you safe, too!”
Her words were a little too close to what Anya had told him when she had been Myriam's age and he had been younger. They made him tense up and want to flinch away from Myriam, but he gritted his teeth and fought down the impulse. Myriam didn't mean it like that. She wasn't a sick monster like Anya, just a little girl trying to be brave and helpful.
And now she was frowning at him. “Are you alright?” she asked with her usual attention to minute changes in the demeanour of people around her.
Ivan's first instinct was to pretend he was perfectly fine. But he wasn't and, in Myriam's wide, worried eyes he read plainly enough that she knew. Telling her seemed like burdening her with more terrible things when she already had enough of those in her own past. Making up some excuse wouldn't be hard, he had done it often enough. But he didn't want to lie, didn't want to have secrets from this new family of his. He already knew everything about her past, it was only fair that she knew about his, too. Besides, she was probably much better at realising she was being told a white lie than he was at telling them.
“My ... my sister used to say that,” he started explaining haltingly.
“Oh.” Myriam stepped up to him again and now it was her who wrapped him in an embrace. “Did something happen to her?”
Ivan couldn't suppress a shaky laugh. “No. No, I'm sorry to say that nothing happened to her.”
Now, her frown sharpened and her voice suddenly had an edge he'd never heard from her before. “Did she hurt you?” she asked with that uncanny insight of hers.
How to explain all that to a little girl? Maybe it was best to keep it true, but short on details.
“Yes. A lot.”
It was enough for Myriam to instantly make up her mind. “You don't have to worry about her hurting you anymore,” she told him with a calm that was a scary mix of childish innocence and killer-psion confidence. “I'm your sister now. And if I see her, I will set her on fire until her bones explode.”
Apparently, the rule about not hurting people didn't apply when her family was threatened, Ivan thought with grim amusement. It was a sentiment he could relate to. He wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone who tried to harm her. Or Yaden. Or anyone else in the family he had so unexpectedly acquired.
He looked down at Myriam and slowly hugged her back. “Thank you,” he said softly.
She nodded with a meaningful expression on her face, as though they had sealed a secret pact – which, in a way, they had.
“How about we go check the other cottages to make sure there are no more of those little monsters around?” he suggested. “So you won't get ambushed again.”
She smiled happily and picked up the lizard and her broom. “That would be awesome.”