The dense forest was full of life. Noise and motion were everywhere yet she was relaxed. For the first time since leaving her hell, she was calm.
This was the noise and motion of creatures going about their business with no regard for her. They werent chasing her, harassing her, chaining her. In fact, most of them were avoiding her. There had been one incident with a large cat like creature, but it had learned its lesson and was off nursing its wounds somewhere in the undergrowth.
In another surprise for her, she was happy.
Less could be said for her companion. He was at the base of the rocky hill they had decided to take shelter in when the rain started. She had used her superior agility and smaller frame to easily use the vines and tree branches to swing her way up to the cave where she now sat, enjoying the noises of the jungle while he, still some distance down, swore and cut himself on the sharp rocks. As similar as they had discovered they were on their journey, they were still miles apart.
“Having fun down there?” she called. She had to speak up as the small drizzle had become a torrential downpour. Both were soaked to the skin, but she embraced it. She had doffed her coat in the cave to keep it dry and was sitting in her small cropped vest. The lilac gem in her navel on display for the world to see.
“You could help me,” the man said, breathing hard.
“Youre supposed to be training me,” she grinned. “It should be a piece of cake for you to come up here, o mighty soldier of Taria.”
The man grimaced and redoubled his efforts at the epithet. He had not been a soldier for many years now and had not set foot in Taria for even longer. He knew she was trying to get a rise out of him, but he would not let it show. He was, after all, her teacher.
By the time he had made it to the cave entrance, she had climbed further up. She was lost in the low lying cloud that started maybe ten or twelve feet above the cave. He could hear her scrambling around, enjoying herself. In any other circumstance he would call her back, but they had been through far too much since leaving the others that he let her have her fun, in fact, silently, he willed it. He settled himself into the cave and started preparing their camp. The rains in this part of the jungle could last for several days, and there was little to no chance of making it through until well after it had stopped.
“Tell me again,” she said.
Her name was Aledia. She was one of a quickly vanishing people that had once lived in the middle of the desert that filled the heart of the nation. As a child, she had been taken by her family and sent to live an existence that denied her the knowledge of her people, her past and her birthright.
She had been given, or sold, to a wealthy family in a major city and had been raised as their own daughter. She had known from a young age that she wasnt really theirs, but it had concerned her little. They loved her and for a time she loved them. It wasnt until puberty hit and she came into her own that things started going poorly.
Her people were not going extinct through natural causes, but were being hunted. They were able to naturally tap into the worlds energy and manipulate it – most people called this magic. A people who could do this at will, with no training or restraint threatened everyone, and so they had been systematically wiped out.
A few small tribes still eked out a meagre life and there had been others like Aledia who had been secreted out before the mass extermination, but their time was limited and they knew it.
“You must focus your thoughts not on action, but intent,” he replied.
He was Jaimaya, like her, he had been pushed out of his homeland before the extermination had begun but in his case, he was exiled as a punishment. He took up a job in the royal court of Taria, a small nation that bordered the desert where he had lived. He had thought to stay there, close enough to his home so that he would be close when the exile lifted. But the exile was never lifted. The people of Taria were one of a handful of small nations who opposed the extermination, but they could not stop it. When it was learned that he was in exile, he was quickly made the personal guard to the young daughter of the King’s brother. Never expected to need to take the throne, she was able to live her life in peace, growing into a rather serious young woman who had dreams of more than just the throne.
Aledia sat cross legged in the cave. Her coat was back on and done up. Her hair was held on the top of her head in a messy bun with several strands hanging down to below her shoulders. Her eyes were closed and if you were able to hear over the sound of the rain, she was humming quietly.
The tips of her fingers were touching each other and glowed with the same colour as the gem currently hidden beneath her coat.
Across from her, quietly watching, eyes flicking from her face to her hands to the cave entrance and back again, Jaimaya waited. The girl had talent, of that he had first hand evidence, but it was uncontrolled. Wild. She had done significant damage to the town they had met her in and it had been a struggle to keep her abilities under wraps as they travelled.
He knew that she would not be able to learn a lot from him. He also knew that she needed to be taught. A power like hers would end up tearing the world apart if she was left on her own. But the only people who could help her were scattered, living nomadic lives, each day on the brink of extinction, in a place that he was not allowed.
“Intent,” she said, pacing. “Intent. What does that mean?” she was shouting now.
The rain had stopped and the two of them were continuing their trek through the jungle. The ground was soft underfoot and they had to take several detours when they came across incredibly fast flowing water that used to be a quiet stream.
“It means that you need to know what you want the energy to do. The energy comes from the world, and all the people on it. It is pulled in every direction; everyone has their own whims and goals and that changes how the energy is distributed. In order to change that, to do as you will, you need to have a goal of your own, you need to be able to overcome the pull from everyone else.”
“Doesnt that mean I would be exerting my influence over people?”
“In a small way, yes, but since youre pulling from everything, not just our collection of nations, but the entire world, including people beyond our shores, the influence you exert is spread across everyone, each individual is affected so slightly that they dont notice, but in your hands the effect is much larger and the energy is able to be used as you desire.”
Aledia considered this for some time. She had never understood how she was able to do what she could. But every time it had happened, people had been hurt or things had been broken. She had been scared of what was inside her, but also angry when the people who had cared for her and who she had cared for were even more scared, scared to the point of chasing her away.
Even now just the thought of everything that had happened until she had met Jaimaya triggered that flash of pure anger in her stomach. She had learned enough to keep it there and not let it overwhelm her, but she could not trust herself to do that every time.
“It will come naturally to you,” Jaimaya said. “You will begin to think about what you want the energy to do, rather than how you will use it. The energy will do as its needed, but that need has to come from you and it has to be strong. There are ways for you to learn to focus that need, but I cannot teach them to you. I was only taught the very basics myself and it was a long time ago, our people can teach you so much more.”
“What about you, though?” she asked. “Ive seen you use this as well.”
“I dont have the pure talent you have,” he replied a little envious. “Its much like any skill, like writing, or ploughing a field. Anyone can be taught it, but some take to it much easier than others. I dont have much in the way of talent for this. The times Ive used it has taken a lot of concentration and effort. Plus Im an old man, and the body just doesnt work the way it used to.”
There was little else to speak about as they trudged through the waterlogged jungle. They speculated about what happened on the far side of the continent, what had happened to their friends – even the idea that Markus and the girl were her friends shocked Aledia; she had changed a lot in such a short time – and what would happen to them when they got to the desert.
“What are you going to do?” she asked at last. It was a question both of them had been considering, but neither had asked.
“I dont know,” he said after a long pause. “What do you think I should do?”