Chapter 3


    I shake off grogginess and my memories of the dream, keeping it in mind for later consideration. For now, food is a priority. I feel like I’ve been asleep for days, which is possible. I’m tired of waking up scared and confused, but I’m not surprised after the last couple of weeks. I manage to make some oatmeal without hurting myself, then find Oriole seconds after getting up to find her. She doesn’t meet my eyes and seems subdued, and the pain in my back is worse, so I’m assuming she couldn’t help the wound. Oriole speaks very little, but her words are chilling.


    “I couldn’t help and the wound got worse, so now it’s a waiting game. We can hope, but there isn’t anything I can do anymore.”


    With that bleak statement she walks out, a shadow of her normal self. I decide that, if my situation is bad enough to leave Oriole so sullen, it won’t do me any good to ponder it. I want to train, so I walk out to the backyard. Evaline is there doing sword drills I don’t recognize. The movements for her drills are more showy, but deadly nonetheless. I go back in, find my swords, and carry them out to do my own drills. After I’ve warmed up, I don’t feel like doing my normal form and technique workout, so I offer to spar. Evaline accepts graciously. I know she goes easy on me, but my back hurts so much I can’t be bothered to find it offensive. The pain almost makes me black out a couple times, and Evaline wins handily before walking off into the forest. I sit down heavily on a nearby log, glad for the rest. I glance over, then do a double take. Evaline’s sword is spiked into the ground, which is inherently wrong, because no one skilled with a blade would leave it in such a damaging place. The way Evaline walked off, wordless and tense, only heightens my concern. She usually has something to say to me. That combined with my every instinct screaming danger convinces me to find her.


    I pick up the slightly curved sword, noticing how it doesn’t really look like any recognizable sword design. I’ll have to ask about where she got it later. I stow my own swords in hip sheaths instead of the more favorable back sheath because of the pain. I tromp into the woods, using Evaline’s sword to push brush out of the way. I walk for hours, following a trail of broken brush and boot prints. Evaline seems to have a specific destination in mind, so it’s hard for me to catch up and manage my wound. I almost lose the trail a couple times, having to backtrack to where I lost it. All in all, it’s nearing sunset by the time I step into the clearing. The trail I walk off is higher than the clearing and I can see it’s almost perfectly circular, with strange patches of destroyed grass and ground that look like someone either took a torch or a sledgehammer to it. Some spots have boulders and sand that are definitely out of place in the forest. Opposite from where I stand is a drop off, although I can’t see how steep it is.


    Evaline is standing in the center of the clearing, although I can’t tell what she’s doing from here. I step into the clearing, walking carefully to avoid twisting my ankle on the rough ground. I still have a profound sense of something being wrong, and Tam drilled me into trusting my instincts too much for me to deny it. I have to look down to keep from stepping wrong, so I’m fairly close to Evaline the next time I look up. I suppress a gasp when I see what Evaline is doing. She’s doing something with her hands, moving them in some strange way, and the clearing is…reacting. Splintered and burned chunks of wood rise from the ground, slowly interlocking into a vaguely recognizable shape. It looks like a person, but made of wood and stone, a terrifying statue. I must have made some noise of surprise, because Evaline turns. I gape, my mind struggling to comprehend the evidence. I look around the clearing, taking a step back. I search for an alternative explanation frantically so I have a reason to deny what I just witnessed. Evaline tries to explain, “Myar-”


    Her voice fades into the background as I see it. One of the wolfish monsters that killed Tam. It’s on the far side of the clearing, in the woods near the bluff. My vision goes red. I start running across the expanse of churned ground with reckless abandon, focused solely on the thing that killed the man I called a father. It notices me and snarls, eyes an unnatural indigo color. I draw my swords and leap at it, but it dodges easily, stepping inside my swing and further into the clearing. It doesn’t bite at me like I expect it to, instead stepping back outside of the range of my panicked backswing before attacking. Evaline’s yelling at me from somewhere in the clearing, but I’m too focused on the fight to comprehend. The wolf monster isn’t fighting like the ones that attacked Tam did, in one all-out attack with no sense of self preservation. The fight is more like a sparring match than a battle against nature, with the thing stepping light and using every asset, like a swordsman. It scares me much more than an animalistic attack would, because it demonstrates a terrifying level of intelligence from these creatures. I manage to find an opening and swing, but my back explodes with pain and I cry out, faltering. The wolf monster jumps at me and knocks me onto my back, causing me to momentarily black out. When I’m next aware of my surroundings The monster is standing on my chest and slavering on my face, close enough for me to smell its breath, like hot carrion and another, sweeter smell that I can’t quite place. Evaline yells something and I feel a blast of wind as the monster is launched off my chest, flying a good forty feet before slamming into a tree. I look at it, at Evaline, then get to my feet as fast as I possibly can. I notice a large streak of white running through Evaline’s hair and wonder vaguely how I never noticed it. Backing away slowly seems to be the best option, although adrenaline makes it more of a frantic scramble. She sees my fear, approaches me slowly, like I’m some wounded animal.


    I find my voice, although the commands my brain gives my vocal cords are scrambled at best.


    “What…How… Nope. I refuse to believe that.”


    Evaline comes closer still, prompting me to step back again, tripping on a branch. My fear hurts her, I can tell, and she tries to mitigate it, albeit unsuccessfully.


    “Look, Myar, I know this is confusing but-”


    I laugh madly. “This is well past confusing, well past most normal descriptions. I might even put this level of weirdness past insanity.”


    She’s taken aback, not as much as I’d expect. Apparently, her position close to the town healer has numbed her to people acting crazily. I look at that streak of white hair again, proof of what I just saw. A stray strand blows in the wind and my eyes lock onto it, then behind it. My blood runs cold. Indigo eyes stare from barely five paces behind Evaline. It’s too far for me to help, to close for Evaline to react. The perfect ambush. I try to call out, but the guttering flame of panic that started when the monster pinned me flares up, robbing me of my voice.


    I scramble to my feet, tripping on the rough ground. Evaline notices that I’m looking past her and turns slowly, too slowly. The wolf monster leaps, crossing the distance between it and Evaline incredibly quickly. I blink, and suddenly I’m blocking the monster’s path, swinging my swords in whirling arcs strangely dissimilar to the entirety of my training. I manage to mortally wound the thing, slicing open a large portion of its stomach, but it uses the last of its energy to jump past me and knock Evaline back. Normally, something like that wouldn’t even be of note, but the only thing back from Evaline is the cliff. I run at the cliff and jump without a moment’s hesitation. The cliff is about a hundred feet straight down, something I observe as time seems to slow down around me. I tuck in my arms and legs moments before my sense of time returns to normal. I fall at level with Evaline and grasp her hand inches from the ground. With a bone jarring jerk and a strange thwap, like cloth in a strong wind, we stop. Evaline gasps, and for some reason I can hear her heart beating at a frantic pace. In fact, all my senses seem far stronger than normal. Evaline sees something behind me and her eyes widen. I try to turn around and look, but as soon as I do, we fall to the ground. The fall, small as it is, still results in a few scrapes. Noticing the pain of the small scrapes helps me notice what isn’t there: the crippling back pain that’s been plaguing me ever since the night I lost Tam. I breathe a sigh of relief. I’ll question why later, after I finish asking Evaline about a thousand other things. The whole situation started with Evaline, and she isn’t nearly as confused as I am. I get up and turn to look at her. She’s gaping, completely dumbstruck, at something at my back. I turn again, but this time I catch a glimpse of something dark attached to my back. At the same time, I feel a tingling at my back, like a limb waking up. It’s strange, but while these things happen, Evaline recovers her wits.


    “I can explain.”


    “You’d better be able to, because I can’t and I’m not exactly sure how stable I’ll be without having any answers.”


    She’s startled by my bluntness, but takes it in stride. “In short, that was magic.”


    “I gathered that, but how?”


    “We’re not sure how magic originated, but it seems to be an ability people are born with in varying strengths.”


    I take note of her use of we, but don’t mention it. “ How does this relate to me? How did I only just discover all this?


    As a talk I gesture expansively to the cliff, the monster that fell off it, the clearing. The movement makes me spin, and Evaline starts to talk but goes quiet.


    “What?” I ask, confused as to why she isn’t even dodging my question. I try to turn my head and look at her, but something is blocking my view. It’s the same dark thing I glimpsed a few minutes ago, but ignored. I fully turn toward Evaline, expecting an explanation for my increased senses, whatever I keep seeing at my back, anything really, but she’s just looking at whatever I can’t see, awestruck.


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    I’m somewhat annoyed and too curious to just ignore my back anymore.


    “What is it?”


    It’s a long time before Evaline says anything.


    “Myar, it’s what we call the Shift.” She says the last word like a name.


    “And what is the Shift?”


    “The day we figure out how much magic someone has.”


    “Elaborate. Please.” I’m more than a little plaintive.


    “It’s a physical and psychological change that occurs around the age of


    seventeen, your age. It allows you to access and control your wells of Radiance. The Shift is directly proportional to how much Radiance you can harness. Radiance is what we call magical energy, by the way.”


    “How do I harness this ‘Radiance’, then?”


    “Oriole and I can help you, and there’s somewhere we can take you to further your training.”


    “What does this shift have to do with my back, with killing those monsters? What are those, anyway?”


    “The monsters are called Twisted, but as to how it relates to your back, everything.”


    “Okay then, what did this Shift do to my back?”


    Evaline sighs, stalling. “The Shift, at least for you, is your back.”


    “I don’t understand.”


    “Your back was what changed in your Shift.”


    I’m cautious now, caught off guard. “How so?”


    “I don’t know how to say this, so I’ll be blunt. Your Shift was extremely powerful, and it gave you wings.”


    “Excuse me, what did you just say?” I splutter, desperately searching for something, anything, that makes more sense than what Evaline just said.


    “Your Shift gave you wings.”


    I try to deny it, but when I flex the part of my back that was tingling a few minutes ago the right way, the wings come around in front of me. They look like they’ll reach twenty feet wide when fully extended. They look a bit like the wings of a raven or crow, with large, dark feathers. The feathers are strange because, when I touch the wing, they seem to stiffen, gaining a golden sheen. I can feel the wings, feathers and all, so they do seem to be genuine. I feel like I should be significantly less calm, but my earlier panic is just… gone. Now that I have a few answers, I want more, but by now it’s almost sunset. I unfold my wings and turn to Evaline.


    “How are we going to get back to the house before sunset?”


    Evaline starts to say that she doesn’t know before she stops, a slow, somewhat evil grin spreading across her face. “We fly.”


    Flight is less of a learning curve and more of a learning cliff, it turns out. Pun intended. I almost crash about five times, actually hitting the cliff twice. Once I get the hang of it, flying is exhilarating. I swoop down and lock forearms with Evaline, picking her up and carrying her to the top of the cliff. I set her down gently, then continue flying back toward the house. I stay low to the trees, occasionally seeing Evaline on the ground, using magic to match my pace. I’m still confused about the whole magic thing, but the techniques of thought, of staying calm and adapting to a situation Tam taught me go well with this realization. Now more than ever, I wonder what Tam was training me for. The house comes into view all too quickly, and I land the only way I know how, folding my wings and rolling on impact. It works, but I’ll need a better solution. Oriole comes into the training area to greet us. I remember that she knew Tam, and was around him for a long time. Oriole probably knows why Tam trained me, but as of now she seems too focused on me to be bothered with questions.


    “Evaline, how powerful was his Shift?” Her voice is sharp, with a hint of fear. What would she be afraid of? Evaline answers hesitantly.


    “I don’t know.”


    “What do you mean, you don’t know?”


    “He overloaded all of the Radiance wells we set up.”


    “All of them?” Oriole looks at me sideways. “I did feel it from here, but still, all of them?”


    Oriole wheels on me suddenly, eyes me, barks. “Show me your Shift.”


    I pause, reluctant, but Evaline looks at me and nods subtly. I spread my wings. Oriole steps back, looks at me with such a degree of awe I know she’s never seen anything like it. Suddenly, she’s back to being all business. “Evaline, I think this is the time for you to return. I’ll give you more information later. As of now, you can rest. Myar, you’ll go with Evaline, but I can’t risk telling you where. You should rest too. Most people are exhausted by their Shift.”


    I return to my room but sleep eludes me. My senses are still way stronger than they should be, and the sound of what I assume are termites gnawing on the foundation isn’t exactly the best sound to fall asleep to. I get up. Maybe I can figure out where Evaline is taking me. I wander the house stealthily, hoping to find where Oriole and Evaline are talking. I find them easily because of my enhanced hearing, and I walk slowly toward the room. I hear Evaline’s voice.


    “... Myar about where we’re taking him.”


    Oriole’s answer is softer “We can’t risk it.”


    “Isn’t taking him across the whole of North America without training him at all a risk?” Evaline’s definitely angry.


    Oriole replies calmly. “That’s what you’ll do when you stop for the day. You must teach Myar the basics of magic quickly, but speed of travel is also a priority. He’s passively releasing Radiance at an incredible rate and if you don’t stop it, sleep will be a thing of the past, no matter where you are. Speaking of, I can feel him nearing, so we should get to bed.”


    I wait for a few more minutes, but after a few creaks from the floorboards, the house is silent. I creep back to bed and mull over what I overheard, eventually falling into a restless sleep.


    By the time I wake up, the sun is high in the sky, and it seems the preparations for the trip to… wherever we’re going are in full swing. Oriole hands me my pack, now repaired, full of supplies. My swords are in their scabbards. The sight of the gifts Tam brought me, the things he taught me to make and use, sends a pang of grief through me. Evaline walks up, glances at the pack, at me, and asks the one thing I never thought of.


    “How are you going to fly? And more importantly, where are your wings?”


    I hadn’t noticed that my wings felt different this morning largely because I’m not used to having them. Evaline spins me around to look at my back. She prods at it, then makes a small noise of surprise. “Your wings are gone, but there are two small ridges where the wings should attach to your back. Try opening them, but don’t think about it too much.”


    I do as she asks, and my wings spread out behind me with a quiet rustle. It’s still a strange feeling, but it feels more natural than I’d expect, taking into consideration the fact that they just appeared yesterday. Evaline and Oriole both let out a small huff, so similar it’s eerie. Oriole mutters a little, then strides purposefully back into the house. About fifteen minutes later, she comes back out holding a shirt heavily modified with rope. She hands it to me and I fold my wings before putting it on. Oriole winds the rope on the front of the makeshift harness around my backpack,then orders me to spread my wings. Strangely, I don’t feel my wings cut through the back of my shirt.


    “I cut holes where your wings go so you don’t have to ruin your shirt every time you open your wings,” she explains, “Now, you two have a long way to go and not exactly a forgiving deadline, so you should get going.”


    As Oriole walks back into the house, I begin to ask Evaline what Oriole meant by deadline, but she just signals for me to follow her. A few seconds later, Evaline starts running with magic and I have to start flying to keep up. We keep up the inhumanly fast pace all day, stopping once for lunch, where neither of us talk before starting again. The sun finishes setting and it’s too dark for Evaline to run anymore, so we set up camp. I land, stumbling with the force of it, but not tumbling to the ground like yesterday. Evaline looks exhausted, but she turns to me with a look of determination on her face. Without preamble she says, “I need to teach you magic, and quickly.”


    “Okay?” I say, unsure of how to respond. She ignores me.


    “Lesson one, the most important lesson, is to control your Radiance. That is all I will teach you tonight.”


    “How would I control my Radiance, then?”


    “You need to focus completely inward, find whatever feels like a leak in a dam, and patch it. That’s how Oriole explained it to me, but it’s harder than it sounds.”


    It doesn’t actually seem too hard because Tam would have me doing strange things like that, variations on meditation, for hours on end, day after day until I got it right. Not for the first time, I wonder what Tam was training me for. I sit on a nearby log, then close my eyes. I find the leak within seconds, partially because I’m used to doing similar things and partially because it’s less of a leak and more of a gaping hole that pours out what feels like liquid light at an incredible rate. I try to patch the hole, but it doesn’t work, so I have to slowly build inward from the sides, cutting off the torrent slowly. It takes all night, and by the time I open my eyes the sun is rising. Evaline looks blearily at me.


    “We won’t go very far when we’re this tired. Get some sleep, Myar.”


    I obey without moving from my log.