Tristan's Tale Pt. 05

Emmit was laughing the whole time. Having been so close to the source of his pain so recently, I could feel the kernel of sadness at the core of his laughter. Could see it in the wrinkles around his eyes.

But I'm glad we did what we did. Sometimes the old ways are best.

~

"You've got a point, Tristan," said Alice after we'd remembered we weren't seven and returned to our cushions. Jade's head was on my shoulder, her hand was in mine. It felt good. It felt so good it was kind of scary. "But people do go back."

I nodded, thinking of Jed. "Call me crazy," I said, "But she crossed worlds and snapped us out of our lives like it was nothing. I don't doubt for a millisecond that she could, and would, do the same to snuff out our lives if we weren't useful anymore. Don't we know too much? Aren't all of her people dead, or something?" I looked around. "I never got the real history lesson past my briefing."

"Yeah, she's the last of her kind," said Sailor. "The rest of the world banded together to hunt her people down."

"So this is all done in secrecy," I said. "This must all be hidden from the world." I looked around. "Why would she leave us alive? We're all liabilities. Who says she's not being actively hunted now?"

"We're in danger," I said. "A lot of danger." I gestured around at the Lounge. "And how do we take it? Sailor, what's your catchphrase?"

He nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. Okay."

"There's nothing to do here," I quoted. "Nothing goes on. So people fuck and half-ass their training. Am I right? By and large?"

Emmit coughed. "You're correct, but could also be perceived as being rude right now."

"This is where we're going to draw the line?" I asked, surprised. "Calling people out on how they deal with the fact that their lives are at stake by fucking?"

"And by forming petty alliances with shiny badges?" said Emmit. I burned. He knew where I was going with this. And he'd already agreed! Why was he sabotaging me?

He probably wasn't. He was probably just being honest. Deep breath, Tristan, don't get too reactive. That won't help anything. I noted, after I'd taken a breath, that he hadn't said that he was the one perceiving me as rude.

"Eh, watch it, Emmit," said Rodrigo. "Talon's good people."

Ouch. That wasn't what I wanted to hear. Emmit shrugged.

"They've always got your back," agreed Vanessa.

"But do they push you?" I asked. "Do they make you try harder than you want to try? Train more than you want to train? Or is it mostly politics and backing you up when people from another Clan mess with you?"

My mind was whirling. That gave me an idea.

Sailor caught on. "Ohhh," he said, his face brightening. He wagged a finger at me. "Dude, you should have just said! Hell yeah. I'm so down to start a Clan with you!" He grinned. "Can we be called the Mighty Ducks?"

I laughed. "I don't know about that, Sailor."

I looked at Jade. She'd been awfully quiet the whole time. "What do you think?" I asked her. This was the stupid, ambitious thing I'd said I'd tell her more about. But I hadn't yet asked of her what I needed from her.

"I've seen the dangers of not being strong enough," she said in a quiet, determined voice. "I'm up for anything that betters my Art."

I smiled. "Great." I almost kissed her, but her eyes seemed faraway, and determined. It wasn't the right time.

Alice looked thoughtful. "I don't know if this is the best idea," she said. "But I'll join. And it's not for any reason you've said so far."

"Why, then?" I asked.

"Because we're slaves," said Alice. "I thought I was free here. I thought the liberty to fuck whoever and to control other people was freedom. But you're right, Tristan. Anything besides developing your Art seems to be kind of a waste of time."

I beamed. "Right?"

"That said, I don't know if starting a new Clan is the way to go about this," she admitted. Her hand went up to stop my initial protests. "But what the hell. I'll see how it goes. I'm up for something new."

That was almost all of them. I looked at Rodrigo and Vanessa. "Come on, guys."

They smiled. "Giving up Talon's protection isn't very high on my to-do list, comprende?" said Vanessa.

Rodrigo nodded. "No, gracias."

"But think about it," I insisted. "What do they really do for you? Make you safe? It's a false safety. It's a lie."

They looked at each other briefly, then turned back to me. Their eyes were resolute.

"No," said Vanessa. "But I wish you good luck."

"Clans are useful, but not so important," said Rodrigo. "Nothing changes between us, eh?"

"Of course," I said. I couldn't get them all, I suppose.

"So how do you finalize something like this?" I asked, looking around.

"First, you acknowledge there is no such thing as a Clan," said Emmit.

I stared at him. "What?"

"It's true," chimed in Sailor. "That's just a label. It's just a name."

"And there are no names," I said. "Right. Okay." I looked around at everyone for a second. "I acknowledge there's no such thing as a Clan," I said flatly, "Now how do I start one?" "Do I sign up somewhere? Is there a bulletin board I don't know about?"

"I think you just start wearing pins," said Sailor.

"No pins," I said.

"What?"

"No pins," I repeated, firmer. "Trust me. We'll do something better than that."

"What's the name of the Clan?" said Jade curiously.

"I...have an idea," I admitted. "but it's going to sound kind of ridiculous until we start doing awesome stuff. And I know you may--"

"Skip the preamble," said Alice matter of factly. "We get it, you're insecure about the name."

Right. I forgot about that part. I did my best to ignore the burning in my cheeks and the sense of being rebuked, because I had to assume that hadn't been her intention. I took a deep breath.

"Lotus."

There was a moment of silence. The longer it stretched, the more tense I felt.

"I like it," said Sailor.

Emmit nodded. "It's an effective attention grab. Very antithetical to Tower."

"The fact that it sounds a little airy-fairy is a good bait, too," said Jade. "It has an implicit trap in it, so you get to subvert anyone with the wrong expectation. Show them you're more about monastic strength than flower petals. That puts a lot of pressure on you," she added.

"Geez," I muttered. "That's basically it, yeah. How-"

"You're hardly the first to think of making a new clan," said Alice. "It's been done."

"Most don't last," added Vanessa.

"No pressure," said Jade, grinning.

"Lotus pins would look cool," said Emmit thoughtfully. "But I'm hesitant about this. Clans are just labels. We could get the same effect without false names and pointless accessories."

"Names may be made up," I argued, "But people care about them. Too much, apparently, otherwise they wouldn't have so much of an emphasis on forgetting them here. But names have power. I think, if we're conscious of what we're doing, that we can use these made up things to get people on board with something that would be good for all of us." My motivations for the Clan were pretty obvious. If I could rope enough people into it, then I'd hugely increase the amount of training partners I had access to. The key was to make people willing to train outside of class. That was going to be hard.

Exhibit A: Rodrigo and Vanessa had tuned out, and were engaging in extracurricular activities on the ground next to Sailor. He seemed totally oblivious to the noises. "Lotus pins would look pretty cool. Why not use them, if you think they'll be useful?" he asked.

"We have to distinguish ourselves," said Jade. She glanced at me. "I assume I'm the one making whatever we'll have instead of pins?"

I gave her my best winning smile. She rolled her eyes. "You did win last year's Clay shaping in the Tournament," I said. "And I'll give you all the Clay to do it with. It'll be good practice."

She tapped her finger to her cheek thoughtfully. "That's right. I forgot that you're weird. Hmm..."

"Weird?" I asked.

But she was thinking, now, and didn't hear me. Sailor filled in for her. "What with the pulling out fistfuls of Clay and whatnot," he said. "Emmit showed me the lump you gave him. That shit was huge. And that was half of what you took?" He whistled, looking impressed.

"You figure out what you're doing with that Clay yet?" I asked Emmit.

He smiled. "I've got a few ideas. I've been a bit pressed for time, but soon you may see something."

"Like a rope?" I asked, grinning.

He chuckled. "No, nothing like that."

"What did you do with that thing, by the way?" I asked.

"Threw it in the fountain," he said.

We stared at him. "What?" he asked.

"Makes sense," muttered Alice. "That's the only place you could really dispose of anything like that. And now Tower won't be coming after it behind your back."

"I never would have thought of that," I admitted. "I wonder what'll happen to it."

"Maybe the fish will eat it," suggested Vanessa.

"If they tried, they'd cut themselves on it," said Sailor. "So keep your eyes peeled, guys. If you see a bunch of dead fish floating on the top of the fountain, you know what happened.

"I'll be able to do all sorts of..." said Jade, trailing off thoughtfully, clearly still absorbed by the idea. "Give me a while and I'll come up with something better than pins," she said, bringing the conversation back. "Although I think this whole business is a bit superficial, I also acknowledge that you've got a higher purpose driving it which demands this kind of silliness." She gave a sly look to Alice. "Do you see what I meant, by the way?" she gave me a possessive pat on the arm.

"I do, I do," said Alice with a smile.

"What?" I asked, looking between the both of them. They just laughed, though, and didn't end up giving me an answer.

I'd worry about that later. "We've got to get serious about the Art," I said. I leaned forward and looked at everyone. "Otherwise we're never getting out of here. She can hear us, even now. It's insane. We live in a single building. We should be going stir crazy. But we aren't." I stood up. "So let's do it then."

Emmit, Sailor and Jade looked at me, confused. "What?"

I looked back at them. "Train."

I waited a moment as they hesitated. "What were you going to do with the rest of your night? We have to take these hours. We have to think long term."

I could see they weren't on board yet. "Guys, if I owned anything here, I'd bet it all that Shae is actively suppressing fear and all kinds of freaking out in you. Every day. In this very moment." I looked them in the eye, one by one. "Like sheep, drugged before the slaughter."

"You shear sheep," said Emmit, standing.

I blinked. "What?"

"You shear them," he repeated. "You don't slaughter them. Sheep make wool."

"You've never had lamb?"

"I'm just saying," he said, "that you could have gone with cows if you were doing a slaughter metaphor. Or pigs. But sheep?"

"I'm with Emmit on this one," said Sailor, standing as well.

I offered a hand to Jade, which she took gracefully. The sight of her standing so close to me was riveting — like standing a little too close to the edge of a cliff, but not wanting to leave the drop for the very same reason it was terrifying.

"Forget the animal metaphor. What about on the training?" I asked. "Where do you stand there?"

Sailor looked at the ground. At his feet. At mine. At me. "Near you, apparently."

"This is very sudden," said Alice. "It's kind of crazy."

"And?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes, and stood. "I guess I am too."

I grinned. "Let's get to it, then."

Emmit laughed, and wrapped an arm around Sailor. "For once, then, something," he said, with a sweeping motion of his hand.

"Finally," said Sailor.

We left Vanessa and Rodrigo, headed for the mats. From the sounds we started to hear from behind us as we left, they didn't seem to mind.

~

There were a few other people training when we got there. At least Jet's message hadn't fallen on deaf ears. I had hoped for Jade to train with us, but she said she was going to go look for her Chi instead. It made sense. If it was anything like getting it the first time, deepening your understanding of it was a pretty attractive prospect.

Emmit didn't know anything about fighting, and was happy to watch. He didn't know what to do since his Chi was a bow, and planned on talking to Jet tomorrow. Alice thanked me for the inspiration, and paired up with a third-mat guy who'd been the odd man out in a trio, so it was just me and Sailor fighting.

Emmit kept us entertained by telling us stories.

"It was the end of the contest, and Italo had three arrows left while Rinzai only had the one," said Emmit with the excitement in his voice that let you know he was telling a Rinzai story, "But they each had three targets remaining."

"I don't believe Rinzai would let it come to that," muttered Sailor, frowning as he tried to get inside my defenses. My sword tracked his every movement, the huge blade stopping all of Sailor's advances. I was frustratingly far away from the awareness and skill I'd had when I first brought out my Chi, but I had an almost embarrassingly easy time dealing with Sailor. Whatever skill either one of us had, the fact of the matter was my blade was easily four times longer than his, and despite its size, weighed practically nothing. I spent most of our time swinging one handed.

"Rinzai wasn't born amazing," said Emmit. "More than some, but not perfect. It was his third or fourth week here, and he'd challenged Master Archer to an archery competition."

"So you'll be studying with Italo?" I asked, putting the pieces together. I'd forgotten Jade's mention of Italo's domain of Art mastery. I wondered what Tala's was.

"Yes," said Emmit, "If he ever comes back. Although admittedly I have no idea how that's going to go."

"I don't get why you won't just show us your Chi," said Sailor.

"It feels a little inappropriate in this room is all," said Emmit. He made a dismissive gesture. "but this is all beside the point. Rinzai wasn't yet the legend he became, and so he'd missed two targets in the contest along the way."

"I thought he had a sword," I said. "Didn't he have a sword?"

Emmit shrugged. "I'm unclear myself. Maybe he started with a sword, then got Set and chose a bow."

"I thought he got Set the first day he got here," said Sailor.

Emmit shrugged helplessly. "This is just the story I've heard. As for the truth, well, you'll have to ask him if he ever shows up."

Sailor snorted, "Yeah right," and threw his Chi at me. I parried it out of the air.

Or would have. It disappeared before I could touch it, and I blinked in surprise.

Sailor had darted forward, ducking down. The dagger was in his hand again, and he threw it once more.

I swiveled my sword, and, at the last minute, blocked it with the pommel. The dagger chimed, bouncing off the orange gem. I smacked his shoulder with the flat of the blade as he stepped back, frowning. "That's not fair," he exclaimed, pouting. He looked at Emmit, pointing at me. "Did you see that?"

Emmit nodded, visibly impressed. "That was...fast."

"Wait a second," said Sailor. He stepped forward. Wary for his usual tricks, I stepped back, and put the point of my sword between us. He rolled his eyes. "No, really. Is that what I think it is?"

I cautiously dropped my guard, following his gaze. "The pommel?"

"That's Jade's color! That's the same thing as the sphere she gave you!" said Sailor. He pointed at me, laughing. "Holy shit! You're totally in love!"

I blushed a burning red. "What?" I stammered. "What? No. I mean — no. I wouldn't even know, I don't—"

Emmit joined Sailor's laughing. "I didn't pick it!" I protested. "My Chi forced me to let him chose how he manifested!"

"Wow," said Emmit, "It must run deep, then."

I glowered at the both of them.

Eventually, I managed to get us back on track, and away from...that. I didn't know what it meant about me that my Chi had brought a touch of Jade into its form, and I wasn't sure I wanted to.

Sailor cursed after another few minutes trying to get a good hit in.

"Looks like I missed my chance to mop the floor with you," said Sailor, breathing hard. "That boat's fuckin' sailed. This is hard."

"I wish I could make this more even for us," I admitted.

He shook his head. "Don't be. This is great practice for me. I don't know how it is for you, though."

Truth be told, I would have been better off fighting against my Chi, although I wasn't sure if I'd be able to summon that particular hallucination anymore, I'd have to try later, after the two of them went to bed.

"It's fine," I said. "I'm getting good practice."

My heart wasn't in it, though, and it must have showed. Sailor frowned. "Well this is no fun if it's not good for you too. You're obviously better than me, you've got more of a shot at the Tournament."

I shook my head. "I'm not better than you, Sailor. I've only been training a few days. You've got a year of experience."

"That's not how it works," said Emmit. Sailor nodded his agreement. "Rinzai showed up with such a strong Art that he was better than almost everyone in a matter of hours."

"Someone challenged Derrik earlier today for ownership of Tower outside my only shaping class," said Emmit. "The person had just got Set. They were riding the rush."

"What happened?" I asked, very, very interested.

He gave me a quizzical look. "What do you think happened? Derrik demolished them. There's a reason he's the head of Tower and the highest ranked, non-Odieh fighter in Moleh. And it's a reason that's been tested time and time again. His Art is absurdly powerful. His Chi is monstrously strong. It's a huge advantage over anyone who isn't on his level."

I flexed my fingers around the grip of my Chi. That was all the more reason to train.

My Chi felt right, in my hands. Mine, I thought with an inward smile. "Using my Chi does feel a bit like cheating," I said, a little embarrassed.

"Ah, go fuck yourself with your embarrassment," grumbled Sailor. "I don't want to hear that."

"Sorry," I said.

"Not better," he replied, thinking. "I've got a bunch of internal shit going on about how creepy powerful your Art is, but I'm putting that to the side so we can train. You feel me?" I nodded, trying to hide my embarrassment. Sailor turned to Emmit. "How about you shoot him while we train?"

Emmit gave it some thought. "That's only fair. I'll get good practice at trying to shoot while drowning out the oppressive feeling of Tristan's Chi."

I blinked. "Wait. Slow down. What?"

Sailor grinned, a little maniacally.

~

Emmit's Chi turned out very different from what I thought it was going to be when he'd told me it was a bow.

"Isn't that a little...inconvenient?" I asked hesitantly, trying to take it all in. The bow was as tall as he was — maybe a little taller.

He shrugged. "I haven't yet had opportunity for it to be either convenient nor inconvenient."

I rolled my eyes. "Alright, Emmit."

It was gorgeous. A slender length of curved white wood was connected at the ends by an elegant black string. The middle of the string — where the back of the arrow went, I imagined — was tinged by a strip of white. And opposite the white, in the middle of the bow, there was a black shelf for the arrow to rest on.

"Very yin and yang," I observed. "But how do you make arrows?"

He frowned. "I'm not sure, exactly. Although, I have this sense..."

His face turned to a look of concentration, and he stared at his hand. He stood frozen, veins beginning to bulge in his forehead. Me and Sailor exchanged glances.