Elements (Tear of God Book 1) (2 page)

Mink understood that it had been difficult for them, too. After all, they were the parents of the only known person ever on the planet Georra who couldn’t identify his Element. They tried a little too hard to support and encourage him in any activity that didn’t rely on having an Element, going out of their way to show him he could still have a normal life. But this week-long vacation, roughing it far out on Rift Ridge, was becoming quite abnormal. Mink wanted nothing more than to be back in Floth with Dreh and Pulti, throwing back a few nutties and talking about how much better life would be after leaving home.

He couldn’t argue that nothing had worked before. His parents would only be bold enough to go to these lengths if they had something new up their sleeves. They must believe they had developed a new way to kick start his affinity. He could try the maybe-I-just-don’t-have-an-Element angle, but everybody had one. Even Machinists, who shunned Elemental powers.

Anticipation kindled inside of Mink as he started to wonder if their mysterious plan might actually work. This could be the end of the agony, of the name calling, of having to spend a few hours of each school day sitting at the only large desk in a room full of first-graders who looked down on him. He could start learning how to use his Element. Which one was it? He had to find out. Determined and focused, he turned to his dad.

“You just did something to me, didn’t you?” Mink felt skeptical of his own sudden optimism. His dad’s Element was Spirit, and Mink justifiably gave his father credit for any sudden u-turns in mood.

“Hm?” Juré responded, innocently enough. “Oh, no… I was just thinking this would be a good time for us to talk, if you’d like.”

The desire for discovering his affinity reached a fever pitch. Artificially influenced or not, Mink readied himself to initiate the tests.

“Forget talk. Whatever you and mom have planned, let’s get to it.”

Juré indicated a cushioned blanket on the ground and smiled. “Okay, son. Sit comfortably, looking south.”

As Mink sat, Juré fixed the Star of Order atop a short Wooden rod stuck into the ground, a few feet in front of his nose. The star was clear and golden, with a diameter about as wide as Mink’s face. His father was an attractive man who few would guess was forty-nine years old. Lean and academic, he had somehow managed to avoid any physical ailments that often gave Spirit users away. His skin tone was a shade lighter than his son’s, but they shared a strong family resemblence in hair, eyes, and Body type.

“I’ve already done this meditation an insane amount of times, Dad.”

“Not like this… Well, sort of. You will be doing the meditation the way you’ve been taught, but I’ll be… helping,” Juré reassured, moving behind Mink.

On the other side of the Fire, Nyam busied herself with making lunch while fighting back her long, curly mahogany hair. Mink took it as a good sign that whatever his dad wanted to do probably wouldn’t take too long. He stared through the center of the star to the lands in the south.

A lazy, clear river flowed out of the rift and into the forested foothills of the Federation of Animalist Nations. As he relaxed, he wondered how the Animalists tested for their Elemental affinities. The river’s casual but persistant movement helped him ease into the meditation, arms resting on his knees, hands loose, and fingers downward. He imagined the river’s current pulling all tension and thoughts out of his forehead through the center of the star and into its waters.

In a light, rhythmic voice, Juré began the Spirit Unification chant,

“I am one with my Element.

It passes through me and I it.

When combined, it is part of me.

My Spirit remains as in me.

My target and I can converse.

I can see as my target sees.

I can travel throughout the nerves.

Unify when I utter ‘Mink.’”

He spoke his son’s name and Mink immediately recognized the weight of his father’s consciousness in the back of his head. It never failed to impress him how powerful this felt. He noticed this time his dad had added two specifications to the chant.

“Perfect. Your gaze is in just the right place,” Juré said from inside Mink’s mind. “Does it feel to you like you’re favoring any one point on the star more than the others?” Mink had answered this same sad, standard question dozens of times before.

“Nope,” he quipped casually. “Actually, it’s more like they’re all pushing my focus dead center. Could you double check my fingers for me?”

A pulsing energy ran down each of Mink’s arms and pooled in his hands. Each finger represented a specific Element. Any one that bent closer to a thumb more than others when relaxed would be a good indication of Elemental affinity.

“Just like always,” Juré admitted. “All fingers are exactly equidistant from the thumbs. Dammit.” The energy shot back up Mink’s arms and into the back of his head again.

“So, what was the new thing you wanted to try?” he asked telepathically.

“I’m going to divert your eyes to each Element on the star and see if they return to center. But this time, Mink, I need you to fight my movements.”

“What?! That’s impossible, dad. That level of control is theoretical.” Mink tensed in anticipation of what his dad had in mind. No one had controlled movements of living people before, nor was doing so legal by any stretch.

“It’s a chant I need to say while in your occipital lobe. I’ve managed to test it successfully several times before.” Juré recited in the slow, light way of a Spirit user,

“Your eyesight controlled by my will.

I already see what you see.

Your vision and my vision unite.

I move the muscles of your eyes.

I am focusing your vision.

Sight understood by consciousness.

Our spirits inside control the

Muscles that move and focus eyes—”

As Juré continued to chant in Mink’s mind, he feared his dad might actually be serious. The longer the chant, the more powerful the effect, and this one was already going long. This method was disturbingly similar to the Reeks’ animation of their puppets after a ritualistic murder, which scared Mink to his core. Juré continued on,

“Your eyes, my will, your will, our sight.

Your control will not be foregone.

My control will not be overrode.

The wind in our sight is my strength.

Each breath empowers my Spirit.

Vision is light carried by Air.

Anointed Eternsa’s agent.

Control is mine when I say, ‘See.’”

He implemented the effect by saying, “See.” At once, Mink’s vision all but went black. He could tell where the Star of Order was, but could no longer make out the river in the distance. His eyes burned. The muscles all around them cramped. Objectively, Mink marveled that his dad may have broken a historical barrier.

“Whoa, Dad. Where did you come up with this?”

“Your uncle Durren worked on it with me.”

Mink’s Uncle Durren was a Senior Advocate in the Main Cameral building at the Capitol, and a very busy man. It was equally flattering and embarrassing to have such investment in the discovery of his Element. Yet again, Mink felt he had become a cause.

O
KAY, MINK,
I’m going to move your eyes to each of the points, starting with Lightning,” Juré explained telepathically. “Resist me as much as you can. When you feel me let up, relax. If your eyes don’t move back to center, then that should be your Element. If they do go back to center, we’ll go to the next point. Got it?”

“Yeah. No problem. Thanks, Dad.” Mink had no idea what was going on.

“Sure. I’m starting now.”

Mink’s eyes started moving upward on their own. He tried to resist and felt the muscles rip.

He screamed. “Stop, stop, stop!”

“It’s going to hurt, Mink. Just do the best you can to resist.”

“No! It feels like all the muscles in my face are being torn apart!”

“I know. I’m sorry, son. Your muscles must be disabled so that they don’t prevent your eyes from favoring your Element.”

“But, without muscles my eyes are just going to go limp and fall down to the Wood Element. That doesn’t mean I’m a Wood user.”

“No, your soul will take over after your muscles are gone. This method has proven accurate several times.”

“Uncle Durren let you do this to him?”

“A few times, yes. Okay, relax.”

As his eyes rose involuntarily up to the Lightning point on the Star of Order, Mink fought as best he could against the excruciating pain of his father’s control. He was beyond relieved when the pressure stopped, and his eyes dropped back to the center of the star.

“Well, it’s not Lightning,” Juré casually observed. “Next we’ll try Air.”

The sharp pain shot through Mink’s face again as he resisted his father moving his eyes up and to the right. He hissed through his teeth and moaned horribly. He hoped to God that Air was not his Element. Juré often remarked that he would like to have a child with an Air affinity to augment his own Spirit Element. Mink was quite disinclined to give any support to his father at this time.

“Relax,” Juré encouraged.

Mink’s eyes quickly settled back into the center. “Yes, yes, yes! Thank you, God! Yes!” he thought spontaneously.

“Okay. Moving on.” Juré’s tone turned cool in response to his son’s momentary lack of restraint. “Maybe you’re Spirit, like me.”

That was highly unlikely. Were Mink a Spirit user, his mom’s Body effects wouldn’t work on him, and he would show the scars of all the abuse he took from other students at school. His eyes moved to the right with enough force and pain to make Mink realize just how much his dad had been going easy on him. He could scarcely resist the force. Not wanting his father to think him a total wimp, he strained hard against the pull. A hot pain engulfed his face.

“Seriously, Dad! I’m going to go blind! I think I just felt something pop.”

“Good. Your muscles have finally broken. Took longer than I would have liked. You can stop resisting now. You won’t be able to.”

In a surreal shift of sensation, Mink’s eyes felt nothing, as if he were now the observing consciousness in his dad’s head. His eyes moved on their own back to the center of the star, traveled down and to the right toward Water, held for a second, and then moved back to center. Oh well.

The test turned to Wood, the lowest symbol on the star. Mink was surprised his broken eyes actually managed to lift back up from Wood to center. Too bad. Wood was the most coveted Element, after all. Augmented by both Soil and Water, mitigated by none, and only canceled by Lightning.