Children Of The Sky (The Scripts Of Neptune, Book 2)

Chapter 47

It was the third time that morning that Chad had ended up on his backside in the weeds, and he was getting tired of it very quickly.

Dria was trying not to laugh at him, he could see it in her eyes and the twitch of her mouth, the way her teeth showed in a half-grin and then disappeared again when she saw he was onto her.

"Your stance is rubbish," she said, offering him a hand up. They were in the meadow by the foothills, and it hummed with late summer morning sounds and smells and sunshine.

Chad bounced on the balls of his feet when he was up again, wiping sweat off his brow. "Thanks. Means a lot. Can you show me how to do it again?"

Dria sighed longsufferingly and rolled her shoulders. "Left foot back," she said as she did it. "Or right for you, since you're right-handed. It'll give you stability and a better punch. Square your shoulders to your imaginary opponent."

"Like this?" Putting his foot back, Chad raised his arms in what Lillian had once called a defensive position, turning his torso so it faced Dria evenly. It felt sort of familiar; he'd learned some of this when he was with Lillian, Nyle, Sam, and Crynia.

Crynia...

"Close, but lean forward a little." Dria's voice snapped him out of his thoughts before they could go any further. "Your goal is to be able to stay on your feet if someone shoves you or throws a punch that you have to dodge. This--" Stepping forward, she took him by the shoulders, then tried to push him back. He pushed forward as she did it, only a little, and was surprised to find himself firm. Dria smiled and stepped back again. "--is all about stability."

"Right." Blowing out a breath, Chad straightened and shook out his hands. "Should we try this again, then?"

And so they spent their mornings at the university, and their afternoons studying and sparring and poking fun at one another. The ever-cooling evenings, strictly after dinner, were spent with Craventi discovering the nuances of Dria's magic. It seemed to be primarily a mimicking magic--which made sense, considering what Chad had read about Rhamarr being called the Changer--but they found out accidentally one night that she was also capable of changing her skin to mimic her surroundings, or to go invisible altogether. She latched onto that ability like a leech; Chad rarely saw her at the university outside of classes anymore, and he could only assume she was drawing on her magic to hide her in the halls. He was able to find her a few times, using his own magic to spot her wine-colored soul slipping among the sea of blue ones, but he stopped soon enough when he found it drained him even more.

Dria's magic often saved him from the effects of his own; she and Craventi had started taking turns healing him at night to ease the strain. He was gaining weight again, and the walk back from the university was no longer exhausting as it had been. The world, or at the very least his world, had found a balance once more.

The balance tipped into relative chaos the day his earth-magic professor came for a visit on the weekend. Isilm Kilph was a slight man, though wiry and strong, with a tuft of greying hair and mouselike features. Chad didn't know him well, but he'd always liked the man; he was firm with his students, but not in a cruel way, and his patience had never been exhausted with them to Chad's knowledge.

Kilph was nursing a mug of tea and chatting with Craventi when Chad and Dria returned from their day's wanderings, smelling of grasslands and covered in dust that'd stuck to the sweat on such a dry, hot day. Kilphs eyebrows and the sides of his mouth went up in tandem when he saw them.

"Both looking a bit adventuresome tonight," he made comment, sipping at his tea and watching Chad with glittering green eyes. "How was it today? Craventi's been telling me about your habits."