Tristan's Tale Pt. 05

"Do you think he's having a stroke?" said Sailor in a stage whisper.

"Dibs on his stuff if he dies," I replied.

And then, all of a sudden, there was an arrow in Emmit's hand, white wooded, black tipped, black feathered. His face broke into a smile.

"That's pretty awesome," I admitted, trying not to show the anxiety I felt at seeing how pointy it was. You know, the thing that would soon be flying at my face at a rate of faster-than-I'd-like miles per hour.

"Shall we?" said Emmit, notching the arrow to the bow. I shivered.

"Have you ever even shot a bow before?"

Emmit smiled.

"Great," I muttered. "At least you probably won't hit me."

"That's not how your Chi works," reminded Sailor.

"Emmit, you never finished your story," I said, swallowing. "What happened to Rinzai?" Yeah, I was stalling for time. I felt confident fighting a guy with a dagger. But this was something else entirely.

Sailor shooed me away from Emmit to a clear spot on the mats. I noticed a few of the other people in the room looking at us with a mixture of curiosity and disbelief on their faces. The mats are big, but not big enough that you can't hear what's going on a mat across from you when the room's mostly empty. Alice even called out a congratulations to Emmit in the midst of fighting with a matching rose colored sword and shield.

"Italo gave him the chance to forfeit," said Emmit, sighting along the arrow. "Because he hadn't missed a single target yet, and Rinzai had missed two."

Sailor dropped into a fighting crouch. "Don't hit me," he called over his shoulder. "Aim for the guy with the sword."

"Rinzai said no. Italo went first: he fired his shot, and it struck the bullseye. Then Rinzai fired his shot," he said, and I heard a loud wooden thwap.

Sailor lunged forward at the same time.

My mind raced. Which to deal with first, the arrow or the dagger? If I-

The arrow took me in the shoulder in a lance of bright pain. I staggered back as it fell to the mat in a softened clatter, and then vanished. That hurt.

"And it struck the bullseye," finished Emmit. I could hear the smile to his voice. "So Italo shot his second arrow, and it flew as straight as the first. He expected Rinzai to forfeit, since he had no more arrows, and Italo was up by three points."

Okay, that was the arrow. I still had to deal with the-

I was way too late. Sailor had already grabbed my wrist, and he used it to pull himself near me such that the length of my sword rendered it practically useless. He hacked away at my chest.

"But Rinzai calmly drew his bow, and sighted down the range." I dismissed my Chi to get some more maneuverability, knowing the next steps I needed to take to get him away from me.

My fighting skills plummeted. My awareness grew nonexistent, and the room seemed to dim. I found I had no idea what to do with this person who was actually starting to hurt me quite a lot.

"And then his string snapped forward, though there had been nothing in it."

"Shit," I muttered. I went to bring back my Chi, but I couldn't focus — Sailor made a swipe at my eyes, and I just barely got out of the way. It was just so much pressure. I started to panic a little, wildly trying to dislodge my hand, but his grip held firm. I had a vague idea of how to implement a technique Jade had showed me, but didn't know where to start. I wasn't usually this sloppy, was I?

Thwap.

Sailor yelped in surprise, and let go of me. He'd completely blocked Emmit from my sight. There was no way Emmit was shooting anyone but him, and he knew it.

He spun. But he hadn't been hit. "What the hell?" he demanded to a grinning Emmit.

"And though Rinzai hadn't shot a thing, the target fell over."

I grabbed Sailor's ponytail, and pulled, using it to maneuver him into a headlock.

"Italo looked astonished," said Emmit. "And then Rinzai did it again, toppling his third target without an arrow."

I held on for dear life, squeezing hard. After a brief struggle, Sailor tapped.

I let go. I still felt the echoes of the burns on my chest and shoulders from where he'd slashed me.

"Damnit, Emmit," cursed Sailor, coughing. Then, he brightened. "Hey, I like the sound of that!"

"Rinzai waited for Italo to shoot his last target," said Emmit, "But he didn't. Instead, he told Rinzai to shoot it."

I frowned. "What? That doesn't make any sense."

"Rinzai loosed his bow at the target, and this time, Italo was able to see the air drawn into the shape of an arrow on the bowstring. Rinzai let fly, and the target fell."

This was one of the more storybook stories, then. "Why did Italo give him his last target?" I asked.

"Because he knew Rinzai was going to hit the mark," said Emmit. "And in doing so, he had just evened their scores."

I laughed, and brought out my Chi with a sensation like a crisp snap of your fingers. Not like the sound of it. The feel of it. It was hard to explain.

The instant I felt my hand wrapped around the familiar black cloth of the handle, the room brightened again, and my mind quieted.

"He was saying that they were equals, then?" I asked.

Emmit shrugged. "Who knows, with the Odieh."

"Was that a little too much for you?" asked Sailor.

"Yeah," I said, and rolled my shoulders a few times. "Let's do it again."

~

We were the last ones in the room when the two decided to go to bed. I'd used my mind to deliberately create the Chi-me I'd grown accustomed to fighting before they had left the room. It had been a lot easier than I'd imagined. I found I actually had more control over the creation of my double when I had the sword out. Rather than him spontaneously appearing, and making fun of me as I'd fought, I saw that I'd been the one doing it the whole time. I just hadn't been conscious of that fact.

"Are you sure you want to keep going?" asked Emmit.

I nodded. I gave a slight bow to my Chi. He returned it, and brought out the greatsword. I'd had him color it black, for clarity. I'd yet to be able to change my own Chi's color — I didn't even know if that was possible or not — but he, in this form, was just a product of my mind. And with my Chi out, I had a lot more control in that domain.

I noticed Emmit and Sailor sharing a worried look between the two of them, so I spoke up. "This is my last night of training. Tomorrow I have to beat eighty percent of Moleh before the last class."

"No," said Sailor, "Just eighty percent of the ranked ones. That's much easier," he said sarcastically.

I nodded to myself. It made sense that there would be a large pool of unranked people. Skipping them would save me some time.

"I've got this," I said, reassuringly, and started to circle my Chi. He stepped for a strike; I countered. He'd expected it, and looped around my blade, I stepped back, then did a high overhead strike.

They looked at each other again. "Um," said Sailor.

"Tristan, who are you fighting?" asked Emmit.

I dodged a cut. Oops. Had I not told them? "The short version is that I'm imagining someone fighting me and projecting them into the world."

Our swords clashed with a harsh metallic noise. "Did you hear that?" I asked, suddenly curious.

"Hear what?" asked Sailor.

"Nevermind."

"What's the long version?" asked Emmit.

Of course Emmit would ask. I paused briefly, goading my Chi into attacking me. It didn't work, and his eyes narrowed suspiciously. "The long version is the projection is actually my Chi. It's me, and I can split it from myself in my mind and it has its own sentience, after a fashion." Training with it still wasn't the best option — better would be to train with the people on the third and fourth mats like Rodrigo, Jeff and Thad, Kelechi, and Derrik. I still found that I could predict what my Chi was going to do. But it worked both ways, and I had to deal with my attacks being read ahead of time. Perhaps it wasn't so bad after all, I reasoned. I was being forced to outsmart myself.

"Just...take care of yourself, alright?" asked Emmit.

I wasn't sure why they seemed so worried. "Guys, I'm fine. I'll see you tomorrow."

They left, and I continued to fight with determination. I'd already had my nightly vial earlier, and easily sunk into a tunnel-visioned focus of training. And then Jade came in the room.

"I wondered if you'd still be here," she said, and her voice managed to evaporate all my focus. My Chi went to take advantage of it to get a hit in, but I dismissed him and the sword, and he vanished, a grin spreading across my face.

"Still training. Tomorrow's the big day," I said. "Have I ever told you that you look amazing?"

"Thanks," she said. There was something in her eyes. A question. She looked at me thoughtfully.

"How did your dancing go?" I asked, referring to her Chi room, which was apparently some kind of Renaissance ball or something. A damn sight more exciting than Emmit's, I'll tell you that much.

"Alas, nobody brought any weaponry to the ball," she said.

"You'll get it," I said.

She nodded. "I will. It takes longer, apparently, the deeper your connection is."

Geez. I didn't want to think about what that meant for Emmit. "Tristan, I'm going to be frank," she said.

"I'd prefer it if you stayed as Jade."

She gave me a flat look.

"Okay, okay, sorry..."

"You've been keeping things from me," she said. It was matter-of-fact.

I blinked. What was she talking about?

I don't mean that in the way that implies she wasn't making sense: I just literally didn't know what thing she was referring to.

Wow. That was telling. I was hiding a bunch of stuff.

I frowned. "You know, you're right. I hadn't even thought about it, but you're totally right."

She looked at me. "I expected you to be a bit more defensive than that," she admitted.

"Well, this conversation isn't over yet," I said. I pushed my hair out of my face. "What makes you bring this up?"

It was then that I saw what was in her eyes. It was worry. Same as what Emmit and Sailor had. "I've heard you aren't eating," she said. "But somehow you're not getting punished for it. And Emmit mentioned you stayed up all night last night."

I nodded.

"That's not...possible," she said with some difficulty. "People eat. People sleep." She looked up at me with wide, worried eyes. "What's going on with you?"

It says a great deal about my commitment to training that I'd completely overlooked the fact that my missing meals and sleep was kind of inhuman.

So I told her everything. About making meaning out of the Tournament to give myself direction. The loss I felt, the frustration I experienced when I couldn't get my Chi. About my bet that breaking the mold of this place to better suit the pursuit of my Art would be well received. My exploration below Caer'Aton'Moleh. She looked doubtful when I mentioned the fruit Jasper had brought me.

But when she heard about the vials that kept me up all night her eyes went wide with shock.

"Tristan!" she exclaimed. "Are you out of your mind?"

"I told her she'd have to get your permission first!" I protested.

Jade made a curt, dismissive gesture. "Not that. This stuff you're drinking. You have no idea what you're doing to yourself!"

"It's worked so far," I said.

"But at what cost?" she looked up at me, concerned. "Tristan, this stuff could be killing you! God, you're such an idiot sometimes!" She threw her hands up in frustration.

"I feel fine!" I insisted.

"People don't do this," she exclaimed. "People don't get delivered magical fruit from the two faced man. People don't find vanishing stairways that lead under Moleh! People don't raid Medical for drugs!"

She looked at me with a mixture of fear and exasperation. "God, Tristan, why is everything so different with you? Why do they give you a free schedule? Why don't they prepare you for anything? Why does the two faced man come into my mess hall to tell me you're fighting an Odieh?"

I looked at the worry on her face. It hurt just to see it.

"I don't know," I said softly. "If I did, I'd feel a lot better."

She sighed, and ran her hands through the long tangles of her hair. She was silent for a moment as she looked at me.

"I just have this feeling," she said. "And it's a terrible feeling. But I just get the sense that you're going to leave."

Leave? Of course I was. Isn't that what I wanted? To get out of this place? To explore the rest of this world?

Looking at Jade in that moment, I wasn't so sure anymore.

She heard my silence. My indecision. "I don't know what to do, Tristan," she said. "I'm so drawn to you. You've got such a presence. I love your fire. I love your earth and your wind and water." She stepped forward. "But we really have no idea what's going on here, do we?" she asked softly. "Things aren't nearly as fixed as they seem."

I wrapped my arms around her, and she buried herself in my chest. "No," I agreed. "I don't think so. Everything could change and we wouldn't even know it."

"We don't even know if this is real," she said softly.

I kissed her head through the embers of her hair. "It's much better to believe the Jade at your chest is real than that she is not."

"And the Tristan," she said, looking up. I was surprised to see a look of determination in her eyes. "I'm going to make the most of this," she said with finality. "If it's all going to disappear tomorrow, I want to know that today we lived how we wanted to."

I nodded. The strength in her voice was infectious. "That's all we can do," I said. "We might as well do it as best we can."

"I'm not going to be afraid anymore," she said. "You've helped show me that, today. I'm not going to just live here." Her voice was like a fire, rising. "I'm going to take this place by storm." Her eyes had never before been so brilliantly green.

"You and me both," I said. "Together."

"Together," she echoed.

My blood was like electricity in my veins. I felt so alive. So powerful. So ready to take anything on.

She gave a nod of assent, as if having just decided something. "Good. Then this is what is going to happen." She placed her hands on her hips. "You," she said, "Are going to train all night. Tomorrow, you're going to challenge everyone, and break into the top twenty."

It was both a question and a statement. "That was my plan," I said. But hearing it from her made it sound like the only conceivable thing in the universe that I could do. Like it had already happened, and was just waiting for me to catch up.

Not to mention it was powerfully erotic hearing Jade talk like this. I pointedly adjusted my pants, and tried not to not pay too much attention to my sex drive, or the wild organization of her hair, the peculiar smolder her eyes had begun to acquire, her slender waist, her chest or what it had looked like earlier when she'd bent over my neck...

"If that's me," I said after a long moment, "What are you going to do?"

"I am going to go back in that Chi room and get my Chi in under fifteen minutes," she said. And the minute the words left her mouth, I knew them to be true.

"Afterward," she continued, "I'm going to go to sleep, because I'm a normal human being."

Before I could say anything in response, she added, "But before all that, you are going to follow me a short distance into an empty room, and you are going to fuck me like it's your last day on Earth." She gave me a matter-of-fact, smoldering look. "Don't make love to me. Don't make me feel beautiful. I want you to take me like you captured me in war."

She ran her hands over her breasts and down her body. She closed her eyes, and bit her lip. "You've got no idea how turned on a girl gets watching her man fight how you fought. How you knew exactly what to do. Not to mention what you did for Emmit, or the fact that you're founding a Clan. God, you're sexy when you take control."

Her eyes snapped open, and they said everything else that needed to be said. She seemed satisfied with what she saw in me, and began to walk away. I just watched her, stunned.

She snapped her fingers impatiently, without looking back. "Come come."

And I did.

~

I got off the bed and stretched, feeling like a languid God.

"I feel great," I said cheerily as I dressed myself. "Clear headed. Ready to get back to work. Thanks for that."

I grinned when there was no response from Jade. I cast an eye in her direction. The white sheets were an absolute mess, partially covering her pale skin, so her reddened ass was all the more noticeable. Her hair had been visited by a windstorm. Her expression was one of muted, disbelieving awe.

"You did a good job," I said. "Thanks for keeping up."

She blinked drunkenly at me, her mouth quirking in a smile like we were sharing a secret.

I finished dressing myself, humming absently.

After a moment, I heard her make a long, contended moan. "I think you just fucked away half my IQ." She buried her face in the bed, and stretched, pushing her ass up. After a moment she opened her eyes, and noticed the expression I was making. She grinned, and wiggled back and forth.

I looked at myself with a sigh. "I just got dressed."

Her look was dangerous for a moment, but it subsided, and she sat up, wrapping the sheets around her. She blinked sleepily, and looked about the room. "I was wearing clothes when I came in here, wasn't I?"

I picked them up and gave them to her. "I'm only giving these to you so I don't lose the rest of the night," I said.

"Whatever you say," she said innocuously. She shut her eyes, and gave a sudden shudder. "Oh, my," she murmured.

I laughed. "I think you'd make quite the appearance at the ball if you showed up like this," I said.

"I'd do it if you asked me to," she replied mildly.

Normally, I would have blinked in surprise at this show of submission from her. But given the circumstances, I understood where it was coming from. "Maybe some other day," I said. I frowned at the possessiveness in my tone.

She didn't mind. Not now. She slipped into her clothes. When she stood, her legs shook for a moment and I stepped closer to her. She steadied herself on my shoulder, and gave me a grateful glance. We were silent for a short amount of time, just breathing with each other.

When we were ready to leave, she shook her head as if to clear her mind. "You really...take what you want," she said. She looked at me curiously. "Is that always there? In you?"

I ran my hands gently through the embers of her hair, passing over the tangles without pulling on them. "Maybe. It might just take the right kind of fire to kindle."

She smiled, and we shared a kiss. She leaned on me a little as we walked, and I was happy to support her.

"So if two people have Set, why come here for sex?" I wondered, remembering Tori and Colin.

"The different scenery," said Jade. "And the cabinet, I imagine." She gave me a wry look. "You didn't even need it. You just..." she shivered, and pulled herself closer to me. She kissed my shoulder.

"You made me an offer I couldn't refuse," I said.

"I'll have to be careful about the offers I make, then," she said. "Otherwise soon I won't be able to walk."

We laughed. "By the way," I said, suddenly thinking of the training before me and what it was for, "would you mind not telling anybody about the fruit or the sleeping vials?"

She looked at me curiously. "Why's that?"

"If I'm going to be fighting everybody tomorrow, I'd like them to think I'm a little off kilter. I might be able to turn that to my advantage."

"I'm sure you don't mind that it would add to your reputation, either."

I smiled despite myself. "No, I suppose I wouldn't."

She agreed, and we parted easily as she went to the Chi room and I went to the mats.