Clara 1

Clara Blake

She backed away from the massive armoured form, unsure if it was even alive. It had not moved at all, given no sign of awareness of her presence. She had planted the seed. A combination of elements she used on her garden, Kether told her it mimicked nature creating life. And her she would get her when it was time to put it to a good use. She left Alaric in the middle of the night, using the air to leave her shape in the bed, air which would dissipate by the morning. Alaric, she thought, Poor man, you’ll understand someday. She cast her regret away, cast her love for him away. It was necessary. Did I love him? She wondered, unsure since she left without leaving any sort of message. It was his eyes, she remembered, eyes like an elemental. But she thought no one so prone to being depressed could be an elemental. Just a man, she sighed, but such deep hazel eyes. She let her thoughts of him go, she let him go from her life. This was the path she had chosen. To be Magi.

She would never be merely an Elemental, nor an Ascendant. Elementals worked on mastery of a single element, and mastery of the trance state. One became an Ascendant when they were able to commune with two elements. Some naturally began communing with more than one element when they first went into the trance state. Clara was more. She had started communing with many elements when she first entered the trance state, five years past. Like her mistress, Kether Ward, had started the same way, a few hundred years ago. Kether Ward. Alaric Ward. She had asked her about the name when she first met Kether five years ago. Her teacher told her there was no close relation, for she was old, and Alaric was only in his twenties. Kether had a brother once upon a time, but he died long ago, when she was young and had not even had her first communion with the elements.

Clara continued backing away from the dark blue armoured giant. She did not see what her plant growth power would do inside of the war machine. Destroy it? The city of Min had not been able to stop it. Two hundred soldiers and townspeople were dead or scattered to the forests around the small fishing city. The Elementals that had been there only assured the complete destruction of the city, by using more power against it, destroying everything around the invader, everything but the monster. It was too strong to be frozen, unaffected by fire, and too heavy to be affected by any air. It stood there, in the center of the city, unaffected, blue armour tinged with black, the only sign that it had been there during the battle. Clara had seen the power of the elements used, had watched the battle from afar, for she was too weak to have done anything useful. Having only used the power in the last five years, she had not the strength the Elementals had. Her power would come only after a long time of communing with the elements. Those who used only one element became powerful faster, but in time, she would to outstrip them all, like her mistress. Kether Ward was the most powerful Magi alive.

Reaching the edge of the burned city, she turned, and entered the trance state again. Clara focused her attention on her breath; in and out, calmly until she felt the world around her vanish. She felt a small joy when the floating sensation happened quickly, nearly losing the trance. Cutting the cord to the feeling of joy, she floated without emotions in her own emptiness. She waited, calm, in the darkness. Slowly, she felt the opening, the expansion from her center that was her link to the elemental power of the world. Her sensation of the physical world came back on its own, and her vision was cast over with the sight of many colours. She could see the air, a pale light touching everything, thin red lines running through it, the potential for fire. Blue lines, ran through the light as well, the potential for water. She could not feel joy at the sight of the world around her. Only in her memories of it could she bask in the wonder of how the world looked to the eyes of an elemental. She searched through the many colours for the green pulsing of the magnetic pull of the earth. Finding it, she began walking north, letting the pulse pull her toward its source, north.

As she walked, the lines of blue multiplied as the air grew more saturated with water, and the blue lines began hum, becoming brighter. The air cooled and the wind from the north picked up strength. She recognized the hum of the water in the air as snow, and felt surprise. And watched as the lines faded away, as the multitude of colours faded as the trance left her. The cold wind made her shiver, and she pulled her black hooded cloak tight around her, seething with cold anger at her ineptitude. She continued walking toward the wind, knowing north would be facing the wind. I am defeated by snow. She shook her head, and steeled herself against the incoming storm. Tried to, but the quickened air bit through her cloak, touching her bones. The cloak was not made for winter. The fading light cooled her further, as her shivering became a constant tremor. Her clothes were not made for winter; soft deerskin shoes, which were still dry, and a cotton dress, short on her cold legs.

She continued on, moving through the trees she didn’t feel blocked any wind. Three hours later, her teeth chattering a desperate rhythm, the trees parted and she was on the great east-west road. She turned west, happy to have the wind at her side. The road was white, covered lightly in snow. she could see the snow falling, light flakes like a soft blanket to suffocate the fire that was her life. She could not reach Orion city in the next few hours. Stepping a few paces off the road into the trees where she would not be seen, she contemplated what to do. She tried to enter into the trance again, but it was a half-hearted attempt. She failed miserably, from the shaking in her bones. It is the summertime! Her mind screamed, and she growled in anger at the snow, at herself, at the trance, at her teacher. It was she who had gotten her into this state. Kether, great and powerful mistress of the elements. Her teacher, deciding to speed along her progress in the elements with some of her own workings. They were coming, her mistress would say. Who they were, she would not say. She would only tell her not to worry, and then tell her that she must be ready at any time for her call. And practice with the elements. The trance, Clara remembered, the trance is the most important thing. The trance. The trance had left her in the cold. Clara was slowly freezing to death.

She heard the sound of something sliding on the ground and she looked toward the road. She didn’t have to look again. She stepped out of the trees toward the road, where a woman with a grey cloak and long black hair had fallen, sliding along the snow covered great road before coming to stop, not moving. Coming out of the snow blurred and sunless sky. Holding a scimitar. And the devil comes, Clara thought.

“Clara.”

“Yes mistress.”

“I cannot walk. Take me off the road.”

“What happened?” Clara’s anger turned to alarm she watched her teacher laying on the ground, not moving, her hair covering her face.

“I will tell you, but get me off the road, child.”

“Yes, Mistress.” She bent to pick up her teacher, thinking it was going to take time to drag her over to the trees. Kether Ward was tall, full bodied, with the muscles of blademaster. Which she was. Why use physical weapon? Clara thought, thinking it strange for a Magi like her. So unnecessary. To her surprise, she weighed almost nothing as she put an arm around her shoulders and behind her knees. Kether’s head tilted back, hair exposing a face men would stare at, yet also exposing the part of her face men wouldn’t. Where her left eye would have been, there was now only scarred skin, a scar which led from the corner of her eye to below her ear. A sacrifice for her power, she had once told Clara.

The rest of her face was beautiful; smooth light coloured skin, narrow nose and full lips, tinted with violet colour. Her black shining hair was kept covering the left side of her face most of the time. Her good eye, shining bright violet in the growing darkness of the evening, told Clara why she weighed nothing. Still in the trance? Thinking of her own predicament as she lifted her teacher easily, carrying to the trees of the great road, she felt guilty and inadequate at her inability to hold the trance. She remembered then why she was the student, and Kether the master. But not forever. I will be even more powerful than you someday, mistress. She laid her down on the ground, and Kether sighed as the trance state left her, darkness folding on them. Clara felt panic as it went dark around her, before her eyes adjusted to the gloom. Kether did not move, and Clara shook her. “Mistress, Mistress? What do you want me to do?”

“Heal me, please Clara. Just like you do with the plants.” Her voice descended in volume as she spoke, her dark brown eye closing as her voice quieted. “I have held the trance for far too long.” Her eye closed and her lolled to the side as she became unconscious.

“Mistress!” she cried as she watched her body come back into solidity. She could see ripples across her teacher’s face, as though her skin was unsure of how to reform itself. More ripples flowed along her body. Clara felt helpless, unable to enter the trance more than once that day. She sat there, cold and alone. Trying to stop her mind from spinning like a top. Trying to regain her calm. Stopping the thoughts, letting them pass through her mind like the wind passing through her cloak. Trying to let go of the little voice that kept asking if she even wanted to heal this woman. The woman that had taken her away from a peaceful life, with a kind, good looking man. She closed her eyes, and in the darkness found the path.