Guardians Book One - Magic Rising

Chapter Nineteen

Kath slept long and well that night in the too-comfortable bed, and the following day, training began in earnest. It started small; silly, fun activities, tracking the Guardians as they walked around the household, Kath herself blindfolded. She learned to taste on the air the movements and intentions of the magical beings, identify their unique flavours, and feel with her skin and her mind, rather than her eyes, when they let loose small flares of power.

"We do not fight," Wisdom had told her. "We are more...muses. Inspirations. Yet without us, what does the world have?"

"Not every power has to be about beatin' people up," Innocence chipped in. "Where someone triumphs over cynicism, I'm there."

"When a student completes their thesis, I am there," Wisdom finished. "We are some of the newer Guardians, those made for the recent world, the mere past few hundred years, the forces that drive creation forward, rather than being the original elements of the planet." Kath imagined the pair silently issuing inspiration through the invisible threads of the world, waiting to be caught and filtered into something practical.

"How old is Lady?" she asked.

"She is twenty five, like you," said Wisdom. "But Water is infinite. One of the first. She bears the memories of all Water, and the traces of the memories of the Guardians before her...those who fell...as does Pestilence. They are never truly alone. Their selves are the accumulation of thousands of years of responsibility and the urges of nature."

"They keep things in check, kinda," said Innocence. "Imagine if Water was let loose — all the water in the world! Or illness. And those two try hard to help people. Pes is very good at givin' the keys to those who can see 'em, to heal, to find how to understand disease — understand him. Don't everyone want to be understood? In some ways, he's more human than Lady. His magic, anyway. Disease is a thing o' living beings, after all. The old elements, they only got themselves to know."

"Is that why Lady doesn't trust me? Because I'm human?" Kath tugged up the blindfold so she could see the Guardian's expression, picking at a hangnail while she waited for the reply.

But he looked shocked. "Lady likes you! I reckon she wouldn't have brought you here if she don't trust you."

"Hmm," said Kath, unconvinced. She thinks I'm going to hold her back...like I need protecting and hiding away. If her magic is that ancient, she's closer inside to a force of nature than a human...can I blame her? Well...yeah. She IS human. She can't be all...removed. She sighed. What can it be like in her head?

"Please consider," said Wisdom, moving closer, "Although it is not my place to say. Perhaps it is not you Lady mistrusts. She sees a fight she has to win and, as Water, all the subtle ways of doing so. She cannot afford to, yet..." the Guardian pursed her lips. "When people make decisions she does not agree with or understand, she fears. The Lord of Light — and her father - was once human, also. And as such, they make mistakes."

Kath flushed, remembering Lady's nightmare, the dead eyes staring up at her, bones crunching underfoot. She shook herself. "What — how is this...going to end?" She murmured. Wisdom gave her a small shrug.

"The Lord of Darkness...wishes for chaos. As to why..." Her eyelids dropped. "Although of course I despise such an approach..."

"She means, it's better not to know," piped up Innocence. "Anyway, look. An hour more with us, then you got circuit training with the lassy herself."

The hour flew past, Kath's head ringing with overbearing and overreal sensations. Vicky brought her a cool glass of lemonade on a tray.

"Don't strain yourself, even if time is short," she advised. Kath just appreciated the sugar hit.

"Where's Lady?" she asked. Vicky smiled.

"In the river. Where else?"

Kath trailed outside; the summer heat was blissfully less cloying up on the hills than in the city. She paused for a moment to stare into the skyline, the soft verdant patchwork of fields and hedge boundaries, the spires and barns, the wild towering might of rocks, and beyond all that, miles away, the hazy sea. She inhaled deeply. Somewhere, a wild pony whinnied. It's like the end of the earth here. So old...untouchable.  

Lady was indeed in the river. Even in her streamlimed black swimsuit she looked for all the world like a water sprite perched on a damp, mossy rock and dabbling her feet in the rushing water; through the bubbling foam of its flow, the water clear down to the weeds swaying in the flow, rich red earth and pebbles beneath. Her wet hair streamed down her back, glowing faintly; the low branches of the weeping willows she sat under brushed down one arm, the knotted brambles, heavy tree roots and blackberry bushes around the river hiding who-knew-what spirits. Slow slivers of sunlight issued through the tree branches, throwing shimmering patterns on the rushing water and the woman. Her place — and it very definitely was that - was a rich tapestry of earth and water, the singing of the river on the rocks, the dark heady smell of mud and  undergrowth and nettles. Kath hesitated, like one entering a place of worship.

"She won't mind," said a soft voice behind her, and she turned to see Pes, his hands concealing something behind his back. He turned to look at Lady, and his face crumpled with a trace of faint sadness for a moment, before turning back to Kath. "She just likes a moment, sometimes...in a place where we can rest." Raising his voice slightly, he called to her, "Lady. Kath is here."

Lady turned and rose in one fluid movement, her feet not slipping once on the wet rock. Her face was serene, her eyes bright, and she actually smiled to see Kath.

"I wondered where you had gone," she said to Pes, her voice dreamy. "Not one more moment..." She leaned back to ring out her hair, and stretched. The sun threw dancing patterns through the leaves down the length of her body, and she focussed again.

"You...ah. We must begin, then. Please allow me to get dressed, and...I know you have a good level of fitness. I can teach you some basic hand to hand fighting, but I feel a gun would be appropriate. Your aim is...impressive." She sighed. "I also...have a present for you."

Kath tilted her head. Lady waved at Pes, who smiled, and drew his hands out from behind his back. In them lay a short knife in a leather sheath.

"My dirk," said Lady, her voice rippling with the river. "Iron treated. Remember, iron is...sacred. There is iron in all things — in humans and in all that lives. It confuses pure elements, Guardians, and weakens them by tainting them with the taste of other lives. This is...my oldest weapon, and attuned to me. To my element." She motioned at Kath. "Please. Take it."

Hesitantly, Kath picked it up and drew it out of the leather. It made a sleek, satisfying sound and was heavy in her hand, sharp and unadorned apart from the aquamarine in the hilt. Always aquamarine. I suppose it'd have to be.

"Thanks..." Kath whispered, and Lady moved forward, holding her one hand over Kath's and the dirk, grabbing Pes' hand in her other.

"In this sacred place, at this time liminal, may we protect and serve the earth," Lady intoned, her eyes glittering, the light dancing and dancing on her still-wet skin. Pes stared into her face, dry-lipped and wide-eyed, and held her hand tighter.

"Until the end of days," he whispered, his voice rough and harsh as ever, but strong. Kath swallowed. This is what water does to her! I hadn't expected some sort of...ceremony. I'm not a priest or a witch or whatever. I'm just a person...

But now, she supposed, that wasn't quite true.

She made herself look into Lady's glorious face.

"I...swear?" she croaked, her fingers limp on the dirk. "I'll...I'll do my part. I'll save the world." And it had to be her imagination, the ringing in the air, as if the world had shifted very slightly. Lady dropped her hand from over Kath's, her head dropping to her chest.

"Words are important," said Pes, quietly. "Why do you think none of us have proper names? Names can be used against you. Words have meaning beyond — their meanings." And he managed his usual gamin grin for her.

"So I've signed away my soul?" Kath tried to joke. Pes patted her arm.

"Think we all did that a long time ago," he said.

Lady moistened her lips, and dropped Pes' hand to rub both of hers together. "And now, ten minutes to dress. Then we train."