Chapter 13: Chapter 13: I’m not afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.

A sea of iron moved as quietly as desert sands. Swords slid out of scabbards, helmets were adjusted, and others checked their quivers for arrows.

A shout broke the silence. At the head of the army a single person stepped forward, her footsteps resounding across the courtyard. Each time she lifted her feet she left an indent in the ground. The courtyard was made of solid stone.

“You know the drill.” Her voice was soft, but it sounded as if she was standing right next to me. “Every second counts. We have no time for doubts, and no need for goodbyes. If it touches you, cut the limb off. We will be joining the other legions. Athena will also be joining us.”

She paused, and I felt a wave of challenge emanate from her. She was expecting dissention. She got none. She nodded and her sword flew out of its scabbard.

“Looks like our ride is here!” She stared into the sky. “The Eye guides us. To victory!”

The knights broke their silence and cheered, weapons at the ready. Their voices mashed together, and the floor trembled under their might. The army was ready to march.

My father took a step back from the edge of the wall. The army disappeared from my sight, their voices crashing into me. He kept walking further away from the courtyard until we were on the opposite edge of the wall.

Why did you do that? I wanted to see more.

I looked up at my father. His face was purple. I looked at my hands. Both of us were purple.

What’s going on?

A strange sensation tickled against my skin, running across my hands and face and into the depths of my body. I followed the sensation with my eyes and saw purple tendrils of mist flowing from my skin into the sky. The mists swirled and a shape formed within it. First came petals with sharp thorns the size of my head, then a stem grew out of them, followed by grass that hugged the bottom of the plant.

Something hit my face. I closed my eyes as it started to rain, drops of water appearing out of a clear and sunny sky and trickling down my father’s hair and my cheeks. I felt his body stiffen and opened my eyes, concerned. Another drop fell onto my nose. It was purple. The water dissolved back into purple mist when it touched the ground.

The sound of rain falling onto stone and metal filled the air, and the shouts of the soldiers rose to overcome it. Their bodies had disappeared, replaced by a valley of purple trees, flowers, and rain. My fingers grabbed onto my father at the sight, and my body curled deeper into his arms. It was an alien landscape; unlike anything I had ever seen before.

Two figures entered my vision, blurred by the rain and covered in jungle plants. Their masks blazed with light, and a stray gust of wind exposed their forms for me to see.

A single silver mask flanked by a bronze mask stood in the centre of the purple mist. Jackson and Marv. Their hands were pressed against a giant crystal. The one that had been in the teleportation room. It spewed purple mist across the courtyard and with each passing second more of the alien scenery sprung forth. The wall was consumed with purple mist, flowers springing forth over my father’s feet. A tree sprang into existence to our side, towering over us and dripping purple mist onto our clothes.

It hurt my senses.

I moved my head, searching for any colour that wasn’t purple. For a semblance of the world I knew and was comfortable in.

I found it.

My heart slowed as I took in the sight. Eight lights shone out from beyond the clouds of purple mist. Colours flooded the sky in a rainbow, drawing my eyes like a lighthouse. Each light crossed over the other, and strands of mana wove together to form bridges in the air, Zodiac’s elemental spires towered over the alien world, chaining it down in reality.

A clear chime sounded in the air, breaking through the rain, and muting the roaring soldiers. The sounds of the world hushed. Figures appeared from beyond the mist. They stepped into the air from the tops of the spires, their shoes tapped against the clouds. They strode forward with purpose, dozens of them descending from the skies.

Magicians.

A wave of light washed over the purple land, bathing it in magic and colours. The flora and rain brightened as the magic came into contact with them. Before my eyes they transformed, the flowers bled drops of red, petals of yellow falling to the ground under the weight of bright green raindrops.

Everything was peaceful around us. The magicians vanished behind the rain and trees, and the sounds of soldiers disappeared into the distance. I was inside a magical land.

An earth-shattering shriek shattered the illusion.

Something rose beyond the distant trees. The rain blurred its appearance, a single spiral of mass that reached towards the sky, cracking it in two. I took a deep breath, steadying my beating heart. If it attacked, I’d need all my mental strength to face what was coming.

Then it all disappeared.

The walls reappeared, the spires looked over us, and the courtyard was below us again. There was no bright light or trumpeting of sounds to announce the change. It had been, and it was no longer.

It was quiet.

There was no rain, no soldiers, and no chime. A soft breeze brushed against us, bringing the whispers of the city with it. It was the peace of an ordinary sunny day.

No. Not completely ordinary. My father was the first to spot it, a small object on the floor. Then when he looked down it fell into my eyesight.

It was a flower.

We stared at it. Neither of us made a move. We were a couple of grown adults, one in a baby's body, and we were scared of a single flower.

“It looks like a sword rose.” My father grunted. “It should be safe.”

I reached towards it, trying to get a closer look, and my father knelt down, grabbing the flower and holding it up to me. It was a mix of red and yellow, long thorns sticking out of the petals. They were too big to hurt me. True to the flower’s name, they looked like a sword blade. I touched a petal and shuddered.

It was real.

That meant it had all been real. The rain, the flowers, the trees, and the creature that screamed into the air as the legions went to fight it.

They had all been teleported to a distant land.

This was what magic was capable of. I kept the petal in my hand, sword thorns and all. It would be a reminder of what I was working towards. The wonders of the world that offered more possibilities than I’d ever had before.

One day that would be me up there.

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My father stepped cautiously towards the courtyard and confirmed it was empty. “If you do that in the future, be sure to tell your mother first.”

I gurgled in agreement.

“One heck of a sight, isn’t it?”

My father and I almost jumped out of our skins at the sudden voice.

“Indra?” My father saw the man standing behind us.

“That's me.” The magician had taken his mask off, his face filled with lines of sweat. “I'll tell you, powering a teleportation of that size is no easy task.”

“Didn’t you...” my father and I looked towards the courtyard.

We’d seen the magicians going through the teleportation spell.

“Someone needs to keep the compound guarded. We have too many valuable things here.” Indra smiled weakly. “We’re in charge of the living wall. The greatest defence Zodiac has. Even if the divine himself came down to destroy us all we’re not supposed to leave our posts. Unless he’s attacking us here, and then we’d be fighting him anyway.”

Indra’s rant died off. He didn’t look okay. He held onto his wrist, and then slowly rubbed at his upper arm, moving on to his shoulder.

Wait.

I knew what was happening. He was out of mana.

Seeing my stare, he smiled and shook his head. “Look here little guy, this might save your life later on.”

He pulled something out of his robe, a small piece of candy that was a deep orange in colour. He unwrapped the transparent packaging and threw it into his mouth. The change was immediate, his back stood straighter, and he stopped massaging his shoulder.

A mana potion? Except it was in candy form.

There were other bronze masks on the wall. Twenty in total. These must be the nature magicians that Marv had mentioned to us during the first tour of the living wall.

A few of them had already begun gathering symbols around themselves. Orange light blazed in the air and the wall rippled around them. Sections of the stone lifted into the air and the magicians moulded them into different shapes. One made a giant shield, the other made a whale, and Indra made a ball.

“Don’t worry.” Indra shot us a smile. “Nobody is dumb enough to attack us. And if they do then it means they’re not strong enough to know that we should be feared. Here you go little fella, go wild.”

He moved the ball towards me, and I reached out to grab it. His ability to move the stone so smoothly made me jealous. I hadn’t been able to finish working on earth manipulation, but I was sure I would be able to get it soon.

The stone fell between my fingers when I touched it. I’d forgotten that it turned into a liquid. I tried to focus on the stone and manipulated myself. I imagined it moving in my hands according to my will. In my mind it floated up into the air, light as a feather but ready to be dropped.

The stone froze in my hand. Its liquid stopped shifting, and it slowly began to lift towards the air. I kept my concentration on it, putting all of my mental energy into reforming the stone.

I felt a connection form, a bridge between myself and the stone in my hands. For a single beautiful moment, the stone and myself were one. It would go where I willed, an extra limb detachable from my body. It was a part of me that I’d never known, but I felt that I couldn’t live without it.

Then something went wrong. A pressure built up from within the stone, and it pushed against my mind. A blinding pain shot out between my eyes, and I cried out. My eyes closed and opened as my forehead pounded, but then something changed. The weight of the stone in my hands was gone.

The stone rose into the air, completely out of my control. Whatever had resisted against me had crushed all of my control over the stone. It stayed in the air, shaking violently.

Then it popped.

A shower of liquid stone exploded over us. A few drops brushed against my skin and my father had an entire bowl-sized portion drop onto his hair.

Ouch.

My father had a look of surprise on his face. He wasn’t hurt. I turned to look at the wall and saw several of the bronze masks looking at us. Indra’s face was a picture of surprise.

“Jackson said to keep an eye on you.” He finally spoke.

My father looked at him and then at me. “What just happened?”

“That was the wall’s self defence mechanism kicking in. It sensed an unauthorized intruder trying to take control of the ritual.” Indra wiped at his brow. “I stopped it from reacting violently.”

I stared at the bits of stone on my clothes.

I’d done that?

I grinned.

I’d just manipulated the stone. I don’t know why I hadn’t unlocked the earth manipulation skill, but it was only a matter of time.

“You need to do a little bit more than that to get a skill. They don’t grow on trees. But you’re in luck.”

A shadow passed over my head and I looked up to find Indra gazing down at me.

“I can teach you exactly what you need to know.”

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