Elements (Tear of God Book 1) (4 page)

“I know how much Body I see.

Quantified so upon my touch.”

Nyam implemented the Quantification effect for Body users, Constitution, by touching the hole in Mink’s chest with a finger. She took out a pad of paper and made some notes, nodding studiously.

“A pure Body holds no illness.

Its natural state upholding.

No injury remains to harm.

Make Body pure upon my touch.”

She placed her hand into Mink’s gaping wound. By the time she removed it, his Body was restored. She made her way through the rest of the tubes. Each one used a different Element to put a crater in Mink, which Nyam would scrutinize before healing with Recovery, the Body users’ Purification effect. For a taxi puller, she was quite the capable healer.

By the fourth tube, Nyam had become grim. Then, having run the whole gamut, she gave in to her emotions. She never took failure very well. Grabbing palm-sized rocks in each hand, she stormed away, punching her stone-packed fists into the ground until the rocks turned to dust. Since the Body Element augmented the Soil Element, Mink mused that trees might actually be able to grow up here now. How nice that would be for the area, he thought, momentarily forgetting that he was still stuck in a statue form while his Spirit lay in a shallow grave and his mother was raging.

Wiping angry tears from her face, Nyam walked back to the campsite. Mink watched her sit and stare at the Fire. One of the nice things about being a Body user was that it took a lot to make the user tired, and the slightest bit of Fire sped recovery. After her shadow had grown noticeably longer, she started picking up and extinguishing embers in her hands, rubbing them into the back of her neck. Her mood improved greatly after this and she rose quickly, dusting herself off.

“Now you,” she said to his Body before toppling it over in the Mink-shaped impression still carved into the ground. She stood over the Body and chanted Unfeel to Dispel the effect in a deep, strong voice,

“May Curpo undo the effect.

Take back the power which you gave.”

With that, she pressed her finger to Mink’s forehead.

He sat up from his personal crater, rubbing his chest and belly. “Whoa, Mom. It doesn’t hurt at all.”

She extended a hand to help him up. “See? Told you so.”

After Mink got back to his feet, he hugged his mom. “Sorry it didn’t work.”

“Me, too. I’m very sorry I couldn’t find your Element, Mink.” Nyam’s mood soured again. “I could have sworn I was on to something.”

“It was totally crazy. I mean, when you shot me with that dust, I thought I wasn’t going to have a Body left.”

“Well, it did more damage than I thought it would, but I had strengthened your Body several times over. I wonder now if I strengthened it too much…” Nyam lost herself in thought for a moment. “No. That’s not it. They all did damage. One of them shouldn’t have. And one of them should have strengthened you.”

Mink could tell she was about to cry again. “It was an amazing effect anyway. You did really good at it. How much did you practice?”

“Sixteen times. With a double-blind study. Worked every time.” Nyam shook her head and went to the sleeping Juré and poked him on the shoulder. “Juré? You awake yet?”

“Yeah,” he said without opening his eyes. “Can I have a little more time, though?” Sleeping in the wind shortened the time he needed to recover. Only about four hours had passed according to Mink’s best guess.

“We only have three or four hours before the sun sets. I’d like to start Plan B now.”

“I thought yours was Plan B,” Juré complained, rubbing his eyes.

“Not that Plan B. Our Plan B.”

He stood and stretched. “I thought we were doing that tomorrow.”

“We were, until both of our methods came up with no rotting clue to his Element. I can’t wait. That means you can’t either.”

“Four hours isn’t going to be enough time for that plan to work.” Juré helped himself to the leftovers sitting by the Fire. “Better to get an early start tomorrow.”

That evening, talk of Elements were set aside in favor of games with dice. Before long, Mink had nearly forgotten about the bizarre ways his parents had tested him that day. They played long into the moonlight and it wasn’t until Mink settled for sleep that the fear of the following day swept over him.

B
REAKFAST HAD
been scant, more carbs than meat and only enough food to remind Mink that he had eaten. The sun had yet to rise over the eastern horizon, but the sky lightened to a pleasant, deep teal that he much preferred to the plain aqua of daylight. The wind rushed up the slope of the ridge with enough of the previous night’s chill that he fastened the hooks of his pocket jacket up to his chin. The cool Air refreshed Mink, who slept horribly thanks to yesterday’s events and the threat of today.

Here he was, with his own parents ripping apart his eyes, blowing up his Body, and plotting who knew what and he didn’t have the slightest idea what Element was his. He longed for the days when his parents tested him by training him on the basic chants of each Element. Nothing ever happened, but it was easier than this. It was beyond him to even decide which Element he would rather be. He disliked them all equally.

Nyam stoked the Fire until it produced some flames she could wring her hands in while Juré came and stood by Mink to take in the wind. It could have been his imagination, but Mink swore more of his father’s hair had blanched overnight. Swatches of gray now peppered the deep black of his hair.

“I’m getting old, Mink,” Juré said, reading his son’s gaze. “Gotta expect life to leave some marks of accomplishment.”

“So, you’re first up again?” Mink stretched and tried in vain to psyche himself up for a long day. Why couldn’t they just test him while he slept?

“Your mom and I are going to work together on this one.” Juré winked. “Lucky you.”

He didn’t like the sound of Plan B so far. To his knowledge, Mink’s parents had never collaborated on Elemental work before. It would have been self-defeating since Body canceled Spirit. This piqued his curiosity more than anything. What could Plan B be, and why might it take two days?

“You’re going to want this,” Nyam said from behind Mink.

Turning, his mother offered him his weapon of choice, a paddle. It measured a couple feet long, two and a half feet at its widest point, and three inches at its thickest. Dreh, Mink’s best friend and a Wood user, had made it for him after learning Imbuing. Mink knew how to use it very well offensively and defensively. The only benefit to not knowing his Element was being able to put more effort into his other studies to compensate. Mink took the paddle from her with no small amount of dread.

“We’re going to invoke a defensive reflex in you,” Juré explained.

“What does that mean?” Mink asked, not really wanting the answer.

“Life or death situation,” Nyam deadpanned.

Mink’s parents backed away from him, chanting at the same time in a way that made it very difficult for Mink to tell which effect they were planning on using. The one thing he understood was that they were going to Attack him.

“I pin the Spirit back with aim.

Through my focus on my target.

My power severs the Spirit.

With hit or miss, my attack stops.

Instant Spirit push through brainstem.

My attack cannot do me harm.

With all of Eternsa’s blessings.

Remove Spirit when I say, ‘Spear.’”

“I destroy by hitting with aim.

From my contact with my target.

My power creates breaking force.

With hit or miss, my attack stops.

Contact magnified hundred-fold.

My attack cannot do me harm.

With all the blessings from Curpo.

Break my enemy when I touch.”

They were really going to use Attacks on him! In battle situations, Elementalists tended to ready their effect with a chant and not carry out the implementation until conditions ensured success. Body users had to touch the target while Spirit users only needed to say a word within sight of it.

It would be impossible for Mink to avoid Juré’s sight, due to the flat of the land and lack of even a shrub or rock large enough to conceal him. Ah, another probable reason they chose to come here! If Nyam used the Quick Legs effect, and Mink had no reason to think she wouldn’t since her daily job required it, avoiding her touch would depend on his paddle skills. Mink’s innate strategic ability, which had been fine-tuned through years of Elementless training, told him one thing—he could only lose.

Mink held his paddle in front of him in a readied stance as his parents finished their chants. They separated, flanking him in a wide circle. Mink rushed to his father’s side. There was a chance that he could get them to make some kind of sound before implementing their effect, nullifying their chant and forcing them to start over. That strategy would be more successful with his mom than his dad.

In a blink, Nyam had zoomed behind Mink, putting him on the defensive with a barrage of kicks and punches. He deftly rolled forward, using his paddle to guard his blind side. Mink waited for an opening and swung his paddle flat at his mom’s stomach. She evaded in a blur and disappeared from sight.

Mink kept an eye on his dad while he scanned left, right, and behind for where his mother had gone. She was no where in sight. That meant one of two things: either Nyam had run off to charge up an effect, or Juré had used an effect to make Mink unable to see her. That Juré continued to maintain a distance silently gave Mink reason to expect the former. Besides, Nyam had most likely grunted or otherwise negated her chant and needed to redo it.

Nyam was a very capable fighter. She captained her high school’s Brawling Squad and, though she hadn’t placed at the national level, she had never failed to qualify. If Mink could hold his own at all, it was purely because his mother had spent the last eight years training him how to fight against constant bullying. Therefore, he knew all her best moves.

Juré, on the other hand, was hopeless at hand-to-hand combat and not much better with a weapon. Still, Mink was more concerned with what his father was capable of. Not only could Spirit users make it impossible to fight, but they also had a fair number of instant kill effects. Mink just couldn’t figure out why Juré hadn’t done much yet.

The sound of Nyam’s approach woke Mink from the staring contest he was having with his father. Even though he managed to thrust the paddle into Nyam’s shoulder, the force of her momentum pushed him backwards. His feet slid several yards, her extended finger threatening within a couple feet of his face. Her wrist snapped inward, putting her within easy reach of Mink’s forearm. Flipping the paddle, he fanned Nyam’s arm away from the outside.