15: Prana Vision (Patreon)

Vir sat cross-legged under the leafless tree that had quickly become his and Maiya’s ‘spot’. His friend was off doing who-knew-what, leaving him alone under the searing heat of the midday sun with his trusty four legged companion. The bare tree did little to protect either of them. Beads of sweat dribbled down Vir’s forehead.

Life had become such a flurry of activity after arriving at Riyan’s place that he’d hardly even had time to reflect upon the events of that fateful day at the Godshollow. The day Rudvik had died… The day he’d been possessed. He recalled only bits and pieces of those moments, but he did remember a name: Reaper Ekanai.

The one who’d tried to kill Maiya. Who’d spoken of some mission that Vir had no inkling about.

The warrior from his vision had been fierce and mighty. Invincible. Though Ekanai was clearly deranged, the sense of total confidence that filled Vir at that moment had been intoxicating. He’d felt nothing like it before… Or ever since.

The most tangible effect he’d carried forth from that ordeal was his altered eyesight. At first, he’d worried that his eyes had been somehow corrupted. As time went on, he realized that wasn’t the case at all. He saw more now. More than he ever had in his entire life.

And now he knew that what he had was special. Riyan had confirmed it himself—not even the world’s strongest mejai could see prana. For the first time in his life, he possessed a powerful secret. Something no one other than Maiya knew about. Now, he had to learn how to leverage it.

But something had been worrying him about the ability. The dazzling intensity of the colors he saw during the vision had dimmed significantly. He struggled to see the colors that had almost nauseated him in the forest.

So instead, Vir shut his eyes and fell into his memory of the events back then.

He’d been separated from Maiya. He had run desperately to find her, finding her beset by two of the knight’s bandies.

Vir recalled the dread he’d felt at that moment. He’d been too far to help her. Then… then time had seemed to slow.

It rained that day. Black clouds.

No! He realized that wasn’t true. Reaper Ekanai’s memories had bled into his own. There was no rain in the Godshollow, but it was raining in Ekanai’s memories. Vir focused on the image of rainfall. He soon realized that the rain in Ekanai’s memory wasn’t rain at all—it was falling ash.

Ash that fell eternally in a blighted realm.

Then he saw the lightning. So much lightning! A lightning storm, the likes of which he’d never seen. Vir had only ever heard of those; Brij never saw that kind of weather. The crack of lightning striking nearby startled Vir. He forced his eyes open, finding only Neel staring at him quizzically.

He took a moment to let the feeling pass over him.

You’re not in a lightning storm. You’re sitting here on a dune under a tree.

There wasn’t a cloud in sight.

He repeated this mantra in his head several times and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes once more.

The lightning from Ekanai’s memory felt like it was everywhere, scorching the soot-covered earth wherever the Reaper had looked. Everything was so… golden. No! Not gold, but one of the new colors that had bled into his vision afterwards. The ‘gold’ color appeared only when lightning struck, and dissipated soon after.

Gold… for Lightning.

Despite Maiya’s rejection of his theory, Vir still suspected that his newly gained sight allowed him to see prana. As he’d learned from her yesterday, Lightning affinity orbs were golden. He’d initially thought that orbs of the various affinities were dyed in different hues to help people differentiate them. But now he wondered whether they simply took on the color of the affinity’s prana itself.

Vir shook his head. It was too early to come to that conclusion. He opened his eyes.

He stared at the ground beneath him. There was a color there, but it was so dim, he couldn’t make it out. The problem he currently faced was that his new ‘sight’, whatever it really was, had faded significantly.

Vir had hoped that rekindling his memory of the events in the Godshollow would help restore his vision, but it was not to be. At a dead end, he did the only thing he could—test the other affinities.

If Lightning strikes contain ‘golden’ prana, and Riyan’s Life magic was ‘white’, then it stood to reason that the other affinities’ prana should show up in their respective elements. The simplest thing Vir could think of was water.

Vir walked back to the homestead and dropped Neel off inside before retrieving Riyan’s Ash’va from its stable. He hopped on, not paying a single thought as to whether Riyan was okay with him commandeering his animals,  and rode the beast a half hour southwest.

The abode was on the southern edge of the central desert. Near to there, the land turned from rolling sand dunes to plains with rivers that eventually led to the Godshollow.

Vir dismounted the Ash’va on the plains and walked up to a freshwater stream. He sat beside it and stared… and saw nothing.

Odd…

But Vir was not one to give up so easily. For minutes, he sat and gazed at the flowing water. Minutes turned into tens of minutes, and he began nodding off. As his neck lolled, he startled awake, worried that some predator had snuck up on him. His heart pounded within his chest, but as he looked around, he realized it was just Riyan’s Ash’va. The beast’s loud grunt must’ve scared him awake.

Then he noticed he could see the colors again. The effect died off within moments, but it was enough for him to glimpse ‘Blue’ within the flowing water.

Vir pumped his fists. “Yesss!”

Another element whose ‘color’ matched the color of its orb.

Now, if I could figure out a way of seeing the colors without having to nod off, first…

Despite that inconvenience, he was glad that his enhanced vision hadn’t faded away forever.

But why would it only manifest after I wake up? Unless… Could that be it?

An idea struck him. He stripped off his clothing… and plunged into the stream.

The ice cold water sent a shock through his entire body, and sure enough, the ‘colors’ came blazing back in all of their glory. This time, the effect lasted far longer, lingering until he’d dried himself off and done several jumping jacks to warm up.

That’s when the pieces of the puzzle fit together; the jumping jacks had also boosted the colors in his vision.

“It’s related to exertion!? Or wait, no. My heart?”

Back when he’d had the vision in the forest, his heart had been pumping madly, and blood coursed through his body. Ever since then, he’d been taking things easy to recuperate from his burns, so he’d never really gotten his heart rate up.

It’d explain why he’d regained the vision when he startled awake, and also when he’d done those jumping jacks. Everything fit.

Sight being related to blood flow was something that intrigued Vir. He didn’t know why this would be the case, but it was something to make a note of.

Vir returned to the Ash’va and rummaged through a leather satchel strapped to its side. After searching for a moment, he retrieved a tinder bundle of dried leaves, along with some flint and steel. Rudvik had taught him never to venture into the wild without the means to start a fire, and he’d taken that lesson to heart.

He spent several moments scrounging the area for dry wood. Ordinarily, he’d choose standing deadwood, but there was none of that here, so he made do with twigs he found on the ground. The blistering sun had dried them well enough to use, and he wasn’t going for a big fire. Even a small flame would suffice.

Vir arranged his twigs and built a base for his fire. He struck the flint and steel, causing it to spark. After a dozen tries, the spark finally took to the tinder bundle. He dropped the flint, picked up the bundle, and blew on it. Cautiously at first, then with more force as the flame spread to the dried combustible material.

Once the tinder bundle was ablaze, he quickly laid it down under the twig teepee he’d constructed. It took a few minutes for the fire to fully establish, allowing Vir to do some jumping jacks in the meantime, keeping a close eye on the nascent fire.

Sweating and heaving, he crouched and stared deeply into the flames.

There was no mistaking it—he saw ‘Red’ in its dancing tongues. An odd color that contrasted the yellow flames to create something that looked supernatural.

Vir pumped his fists with joy. The only elements left untested were ice and wind. He wasn’t sure where he’d find ice out here, but if he just waited long enough…

Whoosh!

As if the gods had heard his thoughts, a gentle breeze blew past, ruffling his hair and threatening to put out his little fire.

Vir didn’t care, because he saw it! ‘Green’ in the air that rushed past him.

He spent the next several hours alternating between exhaustion and giddiness as he repeated his jumping jacks. During that time, he noticed something. The colors had actually become brighter. Now they were almost as bright as when he’d been back in the Godshollow. Almost, but not quite.

The new colors overwhelmed his vision, but he was much more familiar with them now. He didn’t lose his balance or feel nauseous. Instead, he appreciated the world in a way he never could before.

The way the colors danced through the air, the way they swirled through rivers and coursed through the trunks of trees… It was all so delightfully elegant. Like he’d stepped into a fabled realm of the gods.

Vir cast his gaze on a hare that ran across the plains. In it were traces of ‘blue’, ‘green’, ‘white’, and ‘brown’. Several elements were there, but the quantities were so tiny that he’d never noticed them before.

Then he looked down at the earth and instantly regretted it. A wave of nausea overcame him, making him fall onto his butt. A vast ocean of prana lurked beneath his feet, all of it a single color: ‘Brown’. It was both bright and vast to his senses. So vast that he felt it dwarfed all the other affinities combined.

Ground—no! Earth Affinity? But that’s impossible!

There was no earth affinity. If there were, there would be orbs of that color. It’d be well known and used across the world. But it wasn’t. He’d never heard of such an affinity.

Then he recalled Riyan. Hadn’t he seen the very same affinity in Riyan’s own body?

What does this mean?

Then he looked at his arm and saw the prana that coursed through his body. There wasn’t a trace of any affinity within his body. Not even a single mote. It was a barren void, with only a slight trickle of a deep, inky ‘black’ from the marrow of his bones.

Yet despite its paltry quantity, the depth with which that ‘black’ prana shone was far beyond any of the other affinities he’d seen. It wasn’t even remotely comparable. But what was it?

Vir felt a sudden prick of pain from his back; his exertion had taken its toll. He’d have to see if there were better ways of ‘activating’ his color vision, but for now, he could at least do jumping jacks, or jog, assuming he wasn’t injured. The pain from the burn wound had lessened so much that he’d forgotten all about his injury. All thanks to Riyan’s ministrations. He was almost back to normal again. He only hoped he hadn’t opened up any wounds during his reckless exercises.

Thinking about his recovery made him remember Riyan’s condition for him staying, which soured his mood somewhat. He still needed to prove his combat prowess if he wanted to stay. Vir’s stamina was always a problem for him, and he’d had no training in the combat arts.

If he wanted to prove to Riyan that he was worth keeping around, he’d need something more. Something like this new ability he’d gained. Something like Prana Vision.

“Vir! Vir, are you there?” From far away, he heard Maiya’s panicked voice.

“Boy! You will pay for this! How dare you take my Ash’va!”

It was Riyan’s thundering voice. And he sounded pissed.

“Oh no. Badrak’s Balls! Nonono!” Vir’s blood ran cold.

I never told them I was going out.