Chapter 1 Brooke
Brooke meets the group
The dried meat from the storehouse was all but gone, a few scraps left from this morning's last meal. Years ago, this land had been abundant, a field of flourishing reeds and grasses. My family and I had roamed it together. But then my father left and never came back. It had been my fate ever since to find him and to become a Spellbinder's student. I traveled through the dry, rickety land, the dust clinging to everything, when a startling sight appeared: a verdant patch of crops. A clean waterway fed the roots with carefully crafted magic. Taking a drink, I smelled the rich fragrance of cardamom, corn, and squash. My mouth watered, and I wanted to pull the crops straight from the dirt, but to steal from a farm meant indentured servitude for months, or even a year. The thought, a hunger both physical and emotional, ached in my belly.
"Hey, don't think about it twice."
I turned, but saw no one. The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, a low, casual sound that made the hair on my arms stand on end.
"That's Old Man Chi's crops," the voice continued. "He'll have you working to pay it off for a decade."
A presence grazed my shoulder blades, gentle at first, and a hand lifted my hair. The touch was as light as a breeze. I blocked, grabbing their arm, my magic instantly flaring into a needle-like blade of metallic light that hummed with a low, hard vibration in my hand.
"Hey, now," the voice said calmly. The man had dark hair that obscured his eyes, but his voice held a soft amusement. He stayed in my grasp, not resisting, until I tore my arm away. I felt the ease with which I pulled away and knew he hadn't tried to hold me. Of course he barely tried to restrain me.
"Do you know why you're here, or are you just hungry?" he asked. The question was not a genuine inquiry, but a probe.
"Excuse me?" I replied, my lips pressed thin.
"So where is your master, stranger?" he questioned.
I eyed my blade, which had dimmed but still thrummed in my hand, then shoved it back into my satchel. I kept the satchel close, a physical shield. I gave him a small, hesitant trust.
"Oh," he said, turning away. "Behind me."
A group came into view: two women, one older than me and one my age; two boys, maybe a little older than me; and their leader, a tall and sinewy man. He set a hefty hand on the shoulder of the man who had spoken to me, grabbing him.
"Why are you scaring the poor girl?! Huh?!" the leader said sternly. He then bowed to me, his body bending low in a gesture I found deeply unsettling. It was a pretense of humility that rankled against my sense of rightness. Disgusting.
"I'm sorry about him," the leader said. "And it seems he's only a year older than you." He gave a different kind of grin to the young man—one that was not friendly, but a warning. I caught a whiff of magical malice from it, sharp as a sting. A threat: I can throw you out and make you work here for the rest of your life. This, I thought, was slightly better than the forced politeness.
Kai ka Point of View
My heart hammered in my chest with tension as Hachi looked at me with an expression that was uncharacteristically serious. "You wanted to do what they were doing? Right, Kai?"
I tried to swallow, but my throat was tight. "Let's just start small. Sit next to each other," I mustered, trying to sound more confident than I felt.
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather ask Bear? You're both ill-equipped emotionally," Hachi replied, a quiet humor in his voice.
"Then it won't work," I said, a little sharp.
Hachi began to shift closer, his voice low and gentle. "Kai, you have to feel safe in order to do this. So, just trust."
He then laid out his instructions. "Use your energy to try to make yourself fall down or sustain your energy through something that I can interrupt. something that requires you to have to trust."
I sent a blade of water from the river darting close to me, cutting a single hair before it fell into the current. Hachi's hand, unexpectedly warm, came to rest on my cheek. He then cupped my face, holding it, before gently pulling me against his shoulder.
My voice broke as I tried to speak. "I-" I cried a bit. "I haven't done this in a while." Tears finally escaped.
He started to hum, a deep, steady vibration that traveled through my bones. I felt like I was curling around him, my body finding a home in his arms. I felt a confusing mix of shame and relief. I'm not helpless, but I sure did feel like it.
We were completely on the ground then, and I stayed in his arms, the magical energy that had built up in me unraveling like a mist along my skin. I sighed, the sound soft in my throat, and could just barely feel and hear my own heartbeat, quiet and slow.
