VIRAN

  Viran stirred at the water in the bottom of the trough with a single broad, flat claw, debating how to make his last two tries useful.

  The sparring dummy dripped mockingly at him, its jaunty lean the half-imagined product of the last hour of his efforts.

  Taking an axe to its singular foot would solve the problem, but Viran wasn't here to solve the problem. Tipping the dummy over wasn't the actual goal. He was here to learn something for next time, when it wasn't a dummy across from him.

  And failing at it.

  He hadn't learned that getting this big this fast was a mistake. He had known that for months already, Auntie had explained it a dozen different ways.

  The words hadn't slowed him down at the time, but he was feeling their weight now.

  Not physically, moving was easier than it had ever been. Viran could walk across the sparring circle, lift the dummy out of the inch or two of mud, and toss it to the temple roof without even removing the weights from the sopping wet straw if he wanted to.

  But none of that would help him control the water if the world wanted the liquid to do something else.

  Like splatter uselessly against his target, because every array he had woven out of mana was too weak to survive something as simple as moving through the air after he let go.

  "I need to check in with Isha about the sky." Dovin said. "Keep at it until the comet light fades, then hitch the oxen. We'll revisit this at Eastwatch. A good start would be nice, but you have until summer to get a handle on it. Past then, your channels will start to settle, and the possibilities this decade shrink."

  Dovin gestured at the air, talking about time, and then left Viran alone.

  Not all the way alone.

  It just felt that way, while everyone else was busy.

  There were voices floating over the rooftops, the people of Second Bend had gathered for the welcoming. Auntie was somewhere in the temple too. With Mirri, saying hello after a whole season apart. It had been a long time for them, long enough to miss each other a little.

  Not two seasons of missing each other though. Or three.

  Or forever worth of hurt, coming out one minute at a time. A steady, invisible, drip drip drip into the sand that would taper off until the next time he was doused over the head with a reminder.

  But the courtyard was empty right now. Just Viran kneeling next to a tenth-full trough of water, his magic, and a dummy who wouldn't hear him if he spoke.

  "I wouldn't have minded a hint, before you left."

  Opponents gave away hints all the time. They made choices. Shifted their weight. Their eyes moved, grips tightened, and a thousand other things that whispered their intent, because everything that moved moved for a reason.

  There was no reason for the training dummy to fall over, unless Viran made one. It was just going to sit there, rooted in the soil like a mountain, not making any mistakes, until he failed.

  And no amount of strength would move a mountain, no matter how small they looked from far away. It would have to be magic, if he wanted to tear away the layers of stone, and end the scuttling, shifting threat hidden beneath the horizon. Nobody would be safe until he could. Auntie was only one Warden, she couldn't do the work of three forever.

  She needed his help someday soon, the same way Viran needed her help right now, to keep everything from collapsing.

  Which brought Viran back to the problem. Keeping things from collapsing.

  Mercy's comet was still flickering on the rippling surface of the water, but Viran ignored it, delving into his manasight instead.

  The threads of the world were waiting for him to look, as always, but Viran didn't start pushing his own mana through them yet. The water had a shape it wanted to be, a little round along the edges when it was at rest. It wouldn't keep that shape when it was moving through the air, though.

  Maybe a spear this time. Rounded sides might count. Even if the air tore at the water on the tip, the rest would still be following. That might get enough of the liquid to the dummy to at least rock it, if Viran landed the 'bolt' high on his target, and the lattice held together.

  With a clear shape in mind and a flex of will, he started weaving mana through the channels in his fingers.

  The middle was easy, the threads easy to control and simple to track, while they were close to his hand. He wound them through the mana in the water and tightened them, defining a border where the water wouldn't pass because that space was 'his.'

  Viran encountered a problem, about two thirds of the way through extending his lattice. He couldn't track both sides at once, so he tied off one end, and focused on finishing out the other one.

  Distance down the trough still imposed a steeper penalty on control, so he didn't get much further. Holding the construct together for too long would drain his mana, maybe enough to make a second try harder.

  He only lost a few drips around the edges, when he hoisted the liquid out of the trough. Going slowly helped, but Viran could feel the strain of the air tugging just a little less gently on the far ends of the lattice. If he had pushed it much further, he might have burst the bolt before he could even cast it.

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  Aiming his spear, which was more like a javelin, Viran stepped forwards, torquing his hips and swinging his tail through the familiar motions of throwing something. He added something unfamiliar to the motion, letting go with his mana instead of his hand.

  Water splattered against the dummy's neck, and someone started making awkward choking noises behind Viran, like they had just eaten something gross.

  When he turned around, Mirri was busy spitting out sand, wiping at the grit that had been thrown into her mouth when Viran's back foot had kicked up.

  But she was here.

  "Mirri! Hi! Again. Sorry." He said instead of hugging her.

  She waved him off, and spat one last glob of grit onto the sands.

  "My fault. Bad timing." She said. "You looked like you almost had it. It kept the shape to impact, at least."

  Viran shook his head.

  "That was my last idea. I don't think I can do it myself."

  Mirri was quiet for a few seconds. Much more quiet than normal.

  It had been a while since they talked. Viran wasn't exactly sure which day the caravan had split, and hadn't wanted to ask. He had still been hoping she would change her mind and come back.

  But it had been ninety-two days since she had found him, and made him get out of the river.

  She looked happier, after her winter here with Leria.

  He was okay now too, after a winter on the Roads with Auntie. Now he had a plan to fix things, so the world wasn't so bad. He just needed time. Power and time, and maybe some—

  "I can help with that. Later, at Eastwatch." Mirri corrected herself quickly. "Dovin actually sent me to mention that he wanted you to hook the oxen up soon, instead of when the comets are done falling."

  "Comets?" Viran asked.

  She pointed up with a single claw.

  Viran almost staggered at the pandemonium of lights above, when he looked.

  Mirri let out a bit of a hissing chuckle at his expression, and he closed his snout. She had always joked about him letting flies in, and it was springtime in the sky now. Maybe flies actually tried to get in your mouth if you left it open this far south.

  Dovin had said there would probably be more humans this year, and maybe even landing in Tenashki, but this looked more like landing everywhere.

  "Auntie said sometimes there's two or three instead of one, but it's supposed to be rare. Why are there so many this year?" He asked, pointing at the flickering lights in the sky.

  "I also have no idea." Mirri elaborated. "All of the adults in the room got busy when the Seraph landed on the roof. I’m bringing my emergency kit, it’s worth having in case I need it tonight." she continued to babble, clearly almost as off-balance as he was.

  "You are a real adult now. You won. By alot." He reminded her. "It's why you got to stay here, over the winter, even though Auntie was angry with us."

  "She wasn't angry, she—"

  Mirri hissed a little before she dragged his attention back to the task at hand, being 'responsible' instead of admitting he was right.

  "What else have you tried?" She asked, pointing at the dummy. "Just throwing?"

  Viran kicked the trough next to him, water sloshing safely along the bottom.

  "And poking." He admitted. "I can't hold it together at a distance, not solid. I'm doing something wrong with the lattice, and I don't think it's shape."

  His cousin's tail twitched as she locked her eyes on the dummy.

  Viran knew that look. She got it when she was hunting, too. Or serious about a spar.

  "I have another minute. Show me while I'm really looking. Throw a... bolt." She commanded, hesitating on the last word.

  Mirri was clearly aware they weren't really bolts yet. She was just being nice about it for him. Viran obliged anyway.

  Mirri's eyes fuzzed a little, threads of mana strong enough for Viran to see with his own magesight drawing in and crossing each other over her eyes. Making a window for her to see.

  He tugged at his own threads, lifting just a handful of water. The tiny globe was easy to form, something well-practiced. It was even easier to maintain, half of the lattice was sitting right on his scales.

  "That's—" Mirri frowned and stopped. "Go ahead."

  Viran hadn't stopped. He lobbed the water gently through the air, giving her plenty of time to see and track the 'bolt.'

  The dummy didn't even flinch.

  "You're weaving a half-lattice like you're sparring, or trying not to scorch the furniture." Mirri sounded certain, and very much like a fire mage. "You need to fully displace the natural aether along the lattice itself as you form it."

  Viran frowned.

  "But it's free mana, and that would break how the water wants to be." He said. "Doesn't that cost more power?"

  "It costs more power because the effect is more powerful," Mirri explained. "If half your lattice is empty aether that wants to fly apart, the whole spell will shred itself once it encounters enough total resistance. A solid weave of your intent will carve a path until it is actually stopped, not until it flies apart under its own forces."

  Viran debated trying again, but he had chosen two more. And they had found out what the problem was. Solving it should be easy, once they had time at Eastwatch.

  If Mirri came back from her Wyrm hunt. The Venatrix would be able to kill anything Auntie had left alive in the Midlands easily, but it would be something the Rangers would take casualties fighting, if Auntie was calling for outside help with the monster.

  Mirri was barely a full Priestess, even if she was a Young Immortal. She might be the most vulnerable member of the team.

  Thinking back a little more, Viran was almost certain of it.

  "Did you say a Seraph was in Leria’s office talking to Auntie?" He asked. "Did they say what was coming?"

  Dovin had told him it was humans from the sky before they had reached Second Bend, but he was supposed to let Auntie be the one to tell Mirri. They didn't know how many humans, or where they would land, or how much mana they would have.

  Well, they hadn't known at the time. 'Everywhere' seemed like the answer to 'where.'

  "Mom did. Humans. I didn't stay to hear the Seraph, things were painful enough when they forgot to whisper, and Dovin was being aggravating on purpose. I have to go put boots on for a Wyrm hunt anyway." Mirri added, far too casually for it to be anything other than a facade.

  The way the orange on her jaw scales paled a little gave it away too, but he didn’t need that to know she was scared. Mirri was smart. A Wyrm that took a Venatrix to kill must have eaten people to get that big.

  A lot of them.

  "And we’ll both be practicing at Eastwatch." She continued, as if nothing was wrong. "You know about your Proving? The way the match is being set up by Saah?"

  Her wings fluttered nervously behind her, then stilled unnaturally as she said it.

  Viran nodded, and decided to let her pretend not to be scared. About the humans or the Wyrm hunt.

  Her scars were healing. At least the ones he could see, now that she had turned away.

  "Dovin said he would tell me more later. Don't worry about me." He said. "Have fun on your patrol!"

  Mirri gave him a funny look over her shoulder while she rolled her eyes.

  She also flinched a little when she accidentally jabbed the back of her own neck with a horn, tilting her head, but he ignored that to be polite. Viran had hurt too many doorways along the coast adjusting to his own horns growing to be rude about something like that, and she would get annoyed if he congratulated her on something she had done by accident.

  "Careful with the new aurochs, he's a donation." Mirri said. "Leria says he's too ornery to trust around town, so he's ours now."

  "How will I know which one is new?" Viran asked.

  Mirri snorted.

  "He's the big stubborn one." She called over her shoulder.

  April Lyrids are a meteor shower that lasts from April 15-29 each year, peaking between the 22nd and 23rd, and are the oldest recorded meteor shower.

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