The Trinity War (Book 3 of the Trinity series)

Chapter 34

It was nearing dawn. The sun was still down and there was a blanket of darkness and silence over the plateau where the Aeryan monk community resided. Most people were fast asleep in their cabins, resting before beginning their days. But I was awake. And so was Master Yoqi.

Gerrard and I had been in Aerya for nearly two months now. I had learned a lot from our stay in the air nation. I had learned to control my thoughts, to figure out what I wanted, to be better able to have power over my mind. I had begun at the beginning, as Master Yoqi had told me to do. And now that I had, I felt like a stronger witch. 

Taking what I learned from each of the nations we had visited, I realized that I not only gained a lot of information, but I also gathered enough experiences to make me more powerful. From Sylvanterra, I learned the importance of valuing every life, regardless of how insignificant it is to me. From Aghbad, I gained strength, power, and endurance. I learned how to harness and master the element that my mother had passed down to me. And from Aerya, I learned how to concentrate and train my mind. All of these experiences together left me feeling ready for the task I had ahead of me.

But I had spent a lot of time learning. Now, I was ready to find Mikael and ask him my questions. I knew exactly what I wanted to talk to him about. But I just needed to find him. And for some reason, deep within me, I knew that if I found Atlantis, it would lead me to him. So that's why Gerrard and I were leaving today. But before we left, I wanted to say goodbye to the man that had been my teacher for the past two months. 

I walked up to Master Yoqi's cabin and went around the side to the back. Just as I anticipated, Master Yoqi was sitting crosslegged at the edge of the plateau, his eyes closed, the marks on his head glowing. I sat down next to him, finding a comfortable position. I sat with my back straight and took a deep breath, closing my eyes and preparing to meditate. 

As I sank within the depths of my mind, I tried my best to concentrate on nothing else except my breathing. In, out. In, out. Slowly. Slowly. Slowly...

It was easy for me now, meditating. I had practiced it enough times that shutting out all my thoughts became second nature to me now. Once my eyes closed, my thoughts turned off. I was in complete control of them. If I wanted to meditate on a single thought, I was now able to. I could pick one thought out of the tangle of thoughts in my mind, like plucking a rose from a bush, and concentrate only on that. If I wanted to. Most of the time, though, I used meditating to stop thinking. To shut myself off completely.

To breathe.

As I meditated, I lost track of time and space. I was aware of only my breathing. I could no longer feel the rough surface of the ground beneath me. I could no longer feel the presence of the man next to me. I wasn't aware of my surrounding, but I was hypersensitive to the changes within my body. Which is why when I felt a slight burning sensation on my arm, I opened my eyes immediately. 

The sun had broken the sky, its light pushing the darkness away and illuminating the mountain peaks around us. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Master Yoqi had finished his meditation. But instead of leaving me alone like he usually did, he was looking down at my arm with an amused expression on his face. When I looked down, too, I realized what he was smiling at. 

Spiraling up my forearm to my elbow was a glowing design that was slowly dulling to leave permanent dark grey marks on my skin. Unlike the marks of the other air masters, mines was something familiar, something that I had seen on my mother.

"The Trinity crest," I whispered, my fingers lightly tracing the different elements of the crest that I had become so accustomed to seeing. Instead of being arranged in a circle, as they are in the crest of Trinity High and Trinity University, they were linked together, going up my arm in a spiral.