Strength (18 page)

Aerigo stopped faced her. “Hold still,” he said, and lifted a piece of black material—one of his shirts—and tied it over Roxie’s eyes, blindfolding her.

“What’re you doing?” she asked and breathed in Aerigo’s scent. She heard him say something but her attention was more focused on the spiced soap emanating from the Versaton material. “Huh?”

“Can you see anything?” Aerigo repeated.

“Not unless you can teach me x-ray vision, too
.
”
You smell nice though.

“No, so forget about using your eyes. Just feel with your mind, like you’re lost in the dark and have to feel around with your hands. But do it with your mind.”

“Okay.”

“Now find me.”

You’re standing right in front of me. Duh!
Roxie reached with her arms and found only air.
What the—
?
“Where are you?”

No response.

How am I supposed to forget about using my eyes?
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes under the blindfold. Even though she could see nothing, it was more comforting to keep them open. She stood still, having to reassert her balance, and began to visualize hands searching in the dark. They probed in front of her, finding nothing. She turned her head to the left and sensed the edges of a house.
A house!
When her mind brushed up against it, she could visualize its outline. Her surroundings were black but the objects she encountered were outlined in whites and greys. The images vanished as her eyes opened. Roxie closed her eyes again so she could focus. She probed further into the house. Roxie discovered a man and a woman, both in their twenties.
Their twenties?
It wasn’t so surprising that she could discern gender, but why did she feel sure of their age? Another interesting discovery, but she had to find Aerigo and ask him about it.

Turning her concentration and her whole body to her right, past the edge of the house, she found another person—Aerigo!
There you are,
she thought and began forming as solid a picture of Aerigo as she could. His white and grey outline stood several yards away, his feet spread, face staring right at her and arms folded. Along with her mental image came his age.
What?
She checked again and got the same answer.
No one gets
that
old!
Roxie walked towards him and tried to poke his arm, but his outline backed away. She lunged to catch him and end the game, yet his outline dodged with ease, his arms still folded. Then his form slipped out of her arc of vision.

Roxie was starting to like this game.

Knowing that thinking in a straight line would take forever to search her surroundings, she tried visualizing her arms sweeping out in all directions. This worked. It still took a while to form everything there was to see, but she soon discovered that Aerigo was standing some distance behind her. His age still confused her. She did an about-face and moved towards him again.

“Don’t concentrate so hard,” Aerigo said. “Just brush by all the unnecessary details and people, and concentrate on finding me.” He unfolded his arms and sprinted away.

Ah!
She took a step forward, an arm outstretched in longing, her mouth open to protest, but he was gone again. Roxie sighed.
Back to square one, apparently.
She concentrated again and realized how much easier it was to move around when she didn’t pay much attention to everything she encountered. She focused solely on Aerigo and shrugged off anything that didn’t feel like him. The hardest part was ignoring other people. There was something about sentient life that drew her attention no matter how hard she tried to ignore them.

Mind vision took a little getting used to. Standing and concentrating was one thing. Moving and sustaining the images was harder. Aerigo hopped around the vicinity from one place to the next, and Roxie determinedly walked after him.

Roxie almost missed Aerigo before finding him for the fifth time. The edge of her mental circle brushed his body hiding behind a group of Scondish people gathered at a food stand. She wended past the people as she saw him stand up and maneuver around the crowd.

“You’re doing very well. Keep it up because now it gets harder. My only hint is to jog instead of walk.”

“But it’s hard to keep on seeing while moving!”

“That’s why we’re starting at a jog. I know you can do it.” He ran out of her mental vision again.

Roxie lifted her blindfold and looked around. The group of Scondish people she and Aerigo had been standing next to were giving her perplexed stares. Roxie pulled Aerigo’s shirt back over her eyes and moved out onto the grassy space between homes.

She concentrated harder, expanding her mental circle. She found Aerigo waiting a hundred yards ahead of her, and at that moment Roxie noticed another detail to her mind vision; objects closer to her were outlined in brighter shades of white, but as the images sat further away, their outlines became greyer and darker. Aerigo’s outline was still fairly visible, but he wasn’t as easy to see.
I wonder what the range to our mental vision is.

Roxie jogged towards Aerigo and her mental image blurred but didn’t disappear. Suddenly her breath started coming in ragged gasps as the strain on her brain increased tenfold. She stopped, her mental vision sharpening again, and bent over to catch her breath. She wiped gathering sweat on her forehead as Aerigo jogged over.

“Don’t pull your mental vision with you,” he said. “As you can see you’re tire yourself in an instant. Let your vision lead you and follow it as you move. When you get comfortable with how it feels, move faster. Understand?”

“Follow my mind and don’t make my mind follow me?”

“Exactly.” Aerigo ran off.

Roxie took a deep breath and steadied herself.
Jeeze, could this be any more complicated?
She spread her mind vision again, wondering where Aerigo went. As if in answer, Roxie felt her body lean forward, so forward she walked, and this time her vision didn’t falter, nor become difficult to sustain. Feeling confident, Roxie began jogging and found it only as taxing as concentrating on a puzzle to sustain the images, and her mind led her to Aerigo’s hiding spot in under a minute. The outline of his mouth curved into a smile, and then he sprint away. Roxie gave chase, determined to catch him.

The day grew more humid as the sun rose higher. The two Aigis were glistening with sweat long before the sun began its trek from its peak to its western resting place. Their instructive game of hide-and-seek turned into a one-way game of tag. Aerigo ran and Roxie gave chase, thoroughly enjoying every moment.

***

Roxie closed in on Aerigo for what was probably the hundredth time. Knowing that he was about to dodge her advance again, she did a full-body lunge and catapulted into his side, knocking both of them to the ground. She felt like she’d just bowled into a fleshy rock. She sat up and pulled off her blindfold, and Aerigo sat cross-legged, wearing a smile. She rubbed at the slight throb in her forehead. “Are we done?”

Aerigo stood, his entire body coated in sweat. “For today.”

Roxie flopped onto the cool grass and sensed where he stood, this time with her eyes open, and was drawn to ask the question that’d been nagging at her all day. “How old are you?”

“How old do I feel?” He held a hand out to her.

Roxie took his hand and he helped her up. “You feel a lot older than what’s feasibly possible. Just tell me. Please.”

“I look like I’m in my thirties,” he said as they started walking, “but I’m not. I’m over thirty-four hundred years old.”

Roxie gaped at him. “You’re
what?”

“Thirty four, thirty nine to be exact,” he said casually.

“How’s that even possible?” She knew he couldn’t be lying. She’d sensed the truth. She caught up with Aerigo walked at his side.

“We have a ten thousand year life span.”

“Why?” The thought of living that long scared her.

“That’s the way we’ve been designed. It takes a long time for us to learn everything the gods need us to. A hundred years would never suffice. A thousand might, but ten thousand is what was decided upon. After we reach physical maturity, we age about one year for every hundred years that pass.Years tick by like seconds to gods. Our extensive life span makes things simpler in the long run.”

“I’ll take your word for it. Let’s just get some food. I’m starving.”

Aerigo smiled at her, and Roxie felt like her heart turned into a balloon with a butterfly inside.

Chapter 15

The living room table had a bowl full of what smelled and looked like sweet fruits. Roxie reached for a purple berry, then stopped herself. Yayu was working in the kitchen. “Want any help?”

“Certainly, my dear. Why doncha grab some plates out of this cupboard and put them on that tray?” He pointed with his chin to a large tray on the counter next to him. The countertop was made of flattened planks of a dark wood glued together with some sort of grey clay or tar—something that looked like crack filler. “Grab three mugs from the bottom cupboard and a jug of water from the cold-box to your right.”

“This thing?” Roxie asked, pointing to a wooden box with a liftable lid. Nothing here was made of metal and Scondish people hadn’t discovered electricity. Out of habit she still looked for something that plugged in before remembering she was in a very different world. She kneeled before the box and lifted its lid wide. A puff of fog billowed out, obscuring her vision, and a wave of cold air bit at her exposed skin. “It’s cold!” she said.

“Did ya expect it to be hot?” Yayu teased.

Roxie opened her mouth to retort but settled for sticking her tongue out at him, then plucked a chilled jug from the cooler and set it on the counter. “There.”

“I betcha been wonderin’ how he and I got to know each other,” he said, inclining his head towards the window. Aerigo was outside doing minor repairs to Yayu’s home. A nasty thunderstorm had blow through a couple of days ago.

“Among other things,” Roxie said. She wanted to know more about being an Aigis, more about what she was going to be learning, and how Aerigo got all those scars on his back. And maybe if she’d ever see home again. She’d accepted being both human and Aigis, since she still looked and acted the same as before drinking what’d been in that glass bottle.

Yayu smiled and began vigorously kneading some dough. “He and I have known one another for quite some time.”

“A good few years,” Aerigo said through the window.

“Yes, but when he says ‘a few years’ he really means decades. He forgets about how much longer he lives, sometimes.”

Roxie nodded numbly. The thought of living for thousands of years scared her.

“So, he and I met when I was only twenty, and that was over fifty years ago.”

She went wide-eyed. “Why do I keep meeting people that are way older than they look?”

“That’s how people age on Sconda,” Aerigo said.

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Rox,” Yayu, said. “Once I reach a hundred, my age will catch up with me, as it does with everyone on Sconda.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we look young a long time, but not forever. Maybe we age the way we do because of the healthy foods and drink, or maybe it’s all the exercise we get. Could be a combination of both. We stay young for most of our lives, but there’s a certain point where we drop off the plateau of youth. Once we hit that point, it’s only a couple of years—no more than three—until we die. During those last few years, our bodies physically catch up with our true age.”

“Isn’t that, like, really abrupt? Getting physically old and then dying, in just a couple of years?”

“I prefer it to slowly aging and having a weak body for many years.”

“I guess,” Roxie said. “It just seems wrong, somehow—the way you age, I mean. You get to enjoy life for so long, and then it gets taken away from you before you can blink twice.”

“You’re just not used to the idea, my dear,” Yayu said. “I, along with the rest of my people, am quite content with the way things work.” He began cutting the dough into bun-sized portions, and placed them on a pan. “I was huntin’ one morning for some chickens, which we call
kaiga,
and I was just about to shoot one with my bow when someone appeared next to me.”

“Aerigo, right?”

Yayu nodded. “He scared the livin’ daylights out of me! Mind you, I’d never seen anything like you two before. I didn’t know what to make of him. Soon as I decided to shoot an arrow through him, he told me in Scondish to stop, which just added to my confusion.”

“When was your first visit to Sconda?” Roxie said to Aerigo.

“Hundreds of years ago, I think.”

Yayu continued his story. “I just remember starin’ at him for a few seconds before he pointed out that my chickens were gettin’ away. I looked from this stranger back to my runnin’ food, tryin’ to figure out what I should do. I ended up runnin’ after my dinner an’ shot two of ‘em. Thankfully, this creature from another world was polite enough to wait for me to return, not that he had to wait long. I escorted him to my village and presented him to the council—a different group of people than you’d meet today. They explained things to me and spoke a bit with him before they ordered me to provide Aerigo with a temporary home.” He broke off. “By the way,
I
learned his name from the council.
He
,” Yayu pointed at Aerigo, “didn’t ever think of introducing himself.”

“I had a lot of things on my mind,” Aerigo said defensively.

“You always do,” Yayu said, not unfriendly, then turned back to Roxie. “So I ended up sharin’ my home with him for two years, plenty long enough for us to get to know each other. Once I learned that Aerigo was trustworthy, I worked on making him smile more. He can be so serious!”

“He smiles a lot more when you’re around, that’s for sure. He seems to forget how once you’re out of the picture.”

“I can still hear you,” Aerigo said.

“I guess old habits die hard,” Yayu said, ignoring Aerigo.

Aerigo came to the window, placed his hands on the frame, and cleared his throat. The other two put their hands up as if asking “what?” Aerigo gave them an injured look. Roxie cracked a sympathetic smile. He tried to frown at her, but the sides of his mouth twitched into a grin. He shook his head and returned to repairs.

“Anyway,” Yayu said, “he finished his business as an Aigis, then agreed to enter into our annual race before leaving. It’s a very special race that holds a lot of meaning for Sconda. Afterwards, there’s a huge celebration that lasts until midnight. Not only is it a competition between tribes from all over the continent, but it helps bring unity and keep peace among them. On top of all that, our god visits us in person and celebrates the birth of our world. It’s a very sacred occasion.”

“Your god comes down and visits?”

“You’ll be meetin’ Din in a few days at the celebration, and he’s really nice. And mind you, it’s a really long race—long enough for
us
to get tired. You’ll see for yourself.”

“Wait a minute! I’m not fast enough!”
I can’t compete with people a gazillion times faster than me!

“You’ll be fine,” Aerigo said reassuringly.

Roxie thought a moment. Could she really hope to compete without embarrassing herself? Aerigo and Yayu both seemed to believe in her, however, so the least she could do was be a good sport.

“I bet you’ll do well,” Yayu said. “Out of all the runners, Aerigo finished near the top, with me beating him by a neck.”

Aerigo and Yayu began chatting back and forth while Yayu put the rolls in his brick oven, but Roxie tuned them out to ponder along more personal lines. If Yayu was around seventy years old, wouldn’t he have a wife by now? “Are you married?”

The question deflated Yayu’s joviality. He blinked and Roxie saw him frown for the first time. “I was,” he said. “But now I am widowed.”

“I’m sorry,” Roxie said. And she meant it. “May I ask what happened?”

Yayu spoke softly. “Most people on Sconda get married about age thirty. It’s a tradition and something we cherish and love to celebrate as a Clan.

“Through some friends I met the most beautiful woman in the world. It was love at first sight for me, but I had to charm her into returnin’ my love. Just a little. I met her a few years after I met your Aerigo,” he added.

My Aerigo?
Roxie dared not ask what the heck he was talking about.

“We were one of the few couples to marry before the age of thirty—and she was a year older than me. What a wonderful woman!” Yayu said in a voice wracked with affection and pain. “We enjoyed me chasing her all over Ormolu for months. I still have the necklace I made her when I asked her to marry me.” He reached for his sternum and made a fist over an invisible necklace. “The high council approved our union and the Clan priest gave us his blessing. We had three children. I’ll have to introduce you both to them on race-day.”

“I’d like that,” Aerigo said.

“Me, too,” Roxie added.

Yayu smiled wanly before continuing his story. “About ten years ago my wife was taken from me. It was a water sage, a
drogue,
as we call those vile creatures. When they’re out of the water,
drogue
look like dragons without hind legs or wings. In the water, they’re invisible. They look like water, except their outline doesn’t quite blend in. You have to look carefully for them. It’s only a shimmer that distorts their surroundings, and their eyes... they don’t go invisible at all. It’s chilling to see a pair of amber eyes staring intently at you with nothing attached to them.” Yayu shivered. “Napora, my wife, had gone to the river for her morning jog.
Drogue
are very rare in this part of the world. They prefer cooler places, but one happened to wander downstream.” He paused to collect himself. “A witness said my wife never saw it coming, but he did the right thing and killed that heartless monster. The guy brought me the
drogue’s
jaws as a token of vengeance, and in honor of Napora. Now I have them hangin’ by my door.” He nodded towards where the jawbones of a massive creature loomed. They reminded Roxie of an alligator. “You might think it odd that I keep them. But they serve as a reminder to live life to the fullest every day. You just don’t know what the future holds.”

Roxie said, “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“Don’t you mourn for me. I’m always sad when I think of her, but she was the best woman any man could ask for. I’m so grateful she was mine, even for a short time. Napora wouldn’t want me to feel any other way.”

“That’s very sweet,” Roxie said. Aerigo stood silently, absorbing the saddest news his friend could tell.

“I never thought I’d be able to live without her. Even with our kids, it was hard at first. I considered suicide, just so I could get back to her. But I had a dream one night.” His face contorted and he took a deep breath before continuing. “Strange things happen in dreams, and that dream will always be at the top of my list,” he said in a faraway voice. “I knew I had to keep on living—living life to the fullest—after I had that dream.” His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. “She came to me. She came and told me we would be together again, in a different life. She hugged, kissed and held me all night, and then she told me that she would always be with me. She told me to never stop loving her—I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Yayu looked to Roxie and his voice found more strength. “Strange magicks inhabit this world. We don’t understand all of it yet. We may never understand it all, like the magic of dreams and what power they hold.” He licked his lips. “You see, after I woke up Napora was still with me. She even spoke to me some more.”

“How is that possible?” Roxie feared that Napora’s presence may have been a hallucination caused extreme emotions, but she doubted that was the truth. This world didn’t need psychology when magic was real. Maybe it had been his wife’s spirit or ghost, or something like that.

Yayu shrugged. “The fact that I could still see her, even after I was definitely awake, proved that it was really her and not just my imagination. However, she’d faded after my youngest child ran into my room to get me out of bed. She never came back, though, but that doesn’t matter. I’d already decided to fulfill my wife’s wishes. And here I am today, doin’ the best I can and enjoyin’ life to the fullest while it lasts.”

Roxie gazed fondly at Yayu, who stared at the floor, and she decided it best not to say anything. She glanced at Aerigo, also lost in thought, and she yawned uncontrollably, which snapped both her friends out of their trance. It
had
been a long day, and an overly long week. Everything was catching up to her now. New worlds, meeting a god, learning she wasn’t human and could do unnatural things, magic, more gods, strange people and more. So much had happened in what? A week? A week and a couple of days, if she counted right. “Yayu, I’m gonna take a nap before dinner, okay?”

Yayu gave her an amused smile. He’d already started chopping up what looked like pork tenderloins. Roxie headed for the loft past the living room area and ascended the ladder.

***

Nexus lay sprawled in his throne-like chair, leaning to one side, his head resting on a fist, waiting. He hated waiting, but this time he knew action taken too early would be fatal to his plans. His prophecy demanded patience and careful action, and right now he was taking a mental breather. His own body has forced him to waste years recovering from the last fight with his father.

Finally, the giant doors to his palace swung open of their own accord, making way for a collection of minions. Leading the procession were a pair of men wrapped in dark green cloaks and blood red bandanas wrapped over their faces so only their eyes showed. Four Elves—the four who hadn’t volunteered to spy on Aerigo—followed the men, three burly trolls twice as tall as the Elves followed, their arms swinging low and long like an ape’s, and two black dragons squeezed through the towering entrance with their wings folded by their armored sides. The group crossed the open hall and stopped before Nexus. The men, Elves, and trolls dropped to one knee and bowed their heads. The dragons closed their eyes and lowered their massive heads to the floor.