Saving Neba

𝐗𝐗𝐗𝐕𝐈𝐈: Labels

Herald Tessoline was right. My skills did improve, just by coming to Neba for yet another practice. Today, he was teaching me thenina prinexha, which I learnt, after he'd explained what he meant, was simply fire coordination. Of course, he'd groaned when I had said, "So, fire coordination?"

There were curved pipes—which were held by metal suspenders that were affixed to the ground—, loopholes, and raised trajectories set in front, covering most part of the field. Herald instructed me to kindle a fireball—he had taught me in one of our sessions how to reshape a pejyora-hi and told me to reshape it into an elongated drain fire like a dragon would breathe out.

I kept it still within the confinement of my open palm while it glowed patiently. The instruction was to carefully tread my fire through the pipes and loopholes while maintaining the routes. I sighed as I started again. I was doing it right until Crypta coughed and, in that second I'd glanced at him, the moving flame hit one of the pipes, I lost control of my fire and it dowsed as it hit the glass.

Crypta Domroyante was not distracting me. It was the thoughts that kept running through my mind that did. Crypta was in a black suit—he had just come from a meeting with the Uktamas and had decided to stay and witness the training session—and his face was expressionless. He neither smiled nor nodded when I did something impressive nor did he frown or shake his head when I made a mistake.

I took my eyes off his straight face and focused on the current assignment. First, I had to make a connection with the fire. The task, I'd been told, required full concentration. Blocking Crypta out, I shut my eyes and made a mental picture of the fire I had structured, just as Herald had thought me. I could see a gold-yellow flame begin to form in the eigengrau background which signified my successful connection. Opening my eyes, I tried to memorize how the closest route went. The first pipe was bent to the left so I brought my hands up and tilted my palms to the left. The fire turned swiftly in that direction.

A smile formed my lips as I glanced at Herald. He was impressed too if the positive beam on his lips was any indication. His green eyes shone with excitement. Turning back, my gaze fell on Crypta who was seated on a bench a knight had brought for him. His lips didn't twitch. He just kept his eyes on the moving fire.

I felt something detach from me, like an energy leaving my body, freeing me of that burden. I heard Herald sigh just as Crypta stood up abruptly. "You're making this same mistake again!" Herald's voice rang in my ear. "Why have you dowsed your flame?".

Turning to see Herald approach me, I figured that my pejyora-hi was nowhere. "When you get to the channels, any lack of meditation will cause a disruption." He pulled a suspender so that the first pipe was less arched than before. He probably assumed that I couldn't handle its curvilinear structure. "Try again?"

"Carry on, Emerald." My heart skipped twice as Crypta said to me and turned to leave. It had been so long since I heard him speak a word to me. Heck! Whenever he called me Emerald, I felt a shiver run down my spine. It had been so, so long.

Had it not really been four days? That Monday when I had shown him my power and he'd asked me what fuelled it.

That thought had been him, Crypta Domroyante, the second son of Xengera Domroyante, heir to the throne of Neba—if he eventually married before Aiden—and Tevessa's greatest enemy. My brain was a proud bitch at the moment, telling me to ignore him and focus on my training so that I would be a master of my powers and not hurt any more persons back on earth. My heart, however, kept pulling, tugging me to apologize to Crypta. I had been rude to him when all he'd done was ask a simple question. Plus, I was acting in ways that forced him to question just how much he should trust me: like lying and keeping secrets from him.