Chapter 10
Nina winced in her sleep. Something weird was happening and she didn’t know what. What she knew was the she was definitely conscious and couldn’t seem to wake up. She felt Kevin’s arm under her head, his breath brushing past her hair.
Suddenly, she was pulled away from it all. She didn’t understand how it had happened. It alarmed her to wake up to nothing but absolute darkness. What was even stranger was the field that spread out before her. It was the same field in the dream where Morrigan’s essence had visited her to say goodbye. Nina almost felt like she would appear beside her again, but she waited and nothing happened at all. No one came.
Nina sighed and looked over the expanse, waiting for another vision to take place in front of her. Of the war she saw. Of the hope that she’d live on. Of the path she’d need to choose to survive what Dahlia had warned of oncoming death while in her womb. Dahlia never told her how she would die, but implied it would be soon. Very soon.
She turned around and almost screamed.
“You’re here, too?” Nina groaned.
“What?” Viria deadpanned. “I had to. Our essences conjoined after Morrigan’s faded and I need to teach you how to dilute it on your end ‘cause, God, I’ve never felt hornier in my life like I did an hour ago.”
“Oh, my God,” she cried out in exasperation, hands pulling at her face. “What else do I not know?”
“You don’t want me to answer that,” she replied with a smirk and Nina was glad she didn’t. She crossed her arms and looked at her.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Meditate,” Viria answered simply. Nina looked at her, confused. She wasn’t familiar with how meditating achieved anything. Viria sighed and crossed her ankles, lowering herself gracefully to the ground. She patted the ground in gesture for Nina to follow. She lowered herself and crossed her legs, knowing she would stumble and make a fool out of herself if she tried it Viria’s way.
“It’s something my life tree taught me,” she said and Nina cut in immediately.
“How is that even possible?”
“I’ll teach you everything with time,” she said sternly as if speaking to a child. Nina huffed and Viria carried on, “Straighten your back, square your shoulders, and breathe deeply for me.”
Nina did as she was instructed, but she couldn’t understand where this was going.
“I want you to clear your mind completely,” Viria continued, “Stop listening, stop feeling, stop thinking and focus fully on a point within yourself. When all goes silent, try listening for your heart beat, feeling it if possible.”
With a sigh, Nina tried to focus. It wasn’t any different from doing a ritual or conjuring advanced spells, only this time, she wasn’t really doing anything.
She gasped as her consciousness was pulled away from her with a sharp tug elsewhere and she found herself in the same place, only alone this time. And not in control.
Her body moved on its own. Slowly and gradually. Then stopped and moved again in the same pattern.
“That’s your life tree communicating with you through yourself,” Viria’s voice came in with a breeze out of nowhere. “Let it guide you. Follow what it teaches you. Your true teacher is your life tree and no one else. This is the place you couldn’t reach under Morrigan’s aid. This is the place no one could reach under anyone. Her essence would not allow you to breach this territory or you would have done so a long time ago on your own.”
“You think so?” she said into the air.
“No, actually,” Viria replied, “it’s good to have some motivation and boost to self-esteem, though.”
“How nice of you,” Nina deadpanned as she followed the movements her body had, this time, on her own accord.
“Good. Now, you keep doing this until you feel like you’ve had enough,” Viria said. “Then you can just meditate again and leave the place.”
“But what about diluting the essence?”
“That’s for your life tree to teach you,” she replied, and Nina felt her consciousness evaporate into the air. She knew Viria was gone with the way it had felt. Nina was all alone now, with a life tree that couldn’t even talk to her. She wished Totters was with her.
“Master”, his still young voice from rebirth called out to her and Nina was startled. “You called for me in my dreams…”
Nina looked around to see him fly in from God knew where, settling gently onto her shoulder.
“How even!” she cried out as Totters cocked his head to look at her. She breathed deeply to calm herself down. She would figure it out. She’d figure it all out one day.
Diana was furious. She simply couldn’t get a hit. And Ivanna was absolutely punishing.
“You have a limp on your left hind leg,” she stated as she threw an energy disc at Diana’s ankle, tripping her to the ground mid-run, “Your right eye is weaker, interfering with your aim. You jump too much and hardly stick to the ground.”
“What does this have anything to do with the fight?” Diana growled.
“I’m stating your weak points,” she answered and shot another disc of energy at her. Diana rolled out of the way instead of jumping. That was a little improvement.
“If anything, jump to the right because that leg is better,” she advised, making the ground fall apart under Diana. Diana did exactly that, landing on her foot and not tripping. She got ahold of the friction under her paw and did not slide away. “Let go of anger and keep your weak points in mind. Work accordingly to it. Your efficiency shows not through your stamina, but strategy. It’s not about how much damage you can take, or do to the other person to get them to stop attacking. It’s about rendering the other person unconscious at most. The sooner you’re able to finish a fight, the better.”
Diana charged at a tree and catapulted herself off the trunk straight toward her opponent. Ivanna lifted off the ground and Diana’s strategy changed midway and she twisted her body and pushed herself off of the tree that was behind Ivanna and upwards. That was unexpected and she managed to knock Ivanna to the ground, herself landing on her right foot and standing up stable. Ivanna immediately stood up. She was impressed with the improvement.
“Give your opponent the chance to attack you,” Ivanna continued as she neared her and started to combat. “Make sure your dodges and defenses are up to par. Observe your opponent and find their weak spot.”
Diana dodged and kept backing away as she tried to read Ivanna’s movements and find her weaknesses. But it proved difficult. She had none.
“I’ll give you a hint,” Ivanna grunted as Diana shot forward to attack and earn herself more room to dodge. “What’s the one part of my body I’ve hardly moved when fighting up close?”
Diana zeroed in on her forehead and launched a punch, throwing Ivanna off effectively and sending her falling to the floor. She scrunched her eyes as she tried to dissolve the pain that was starting to accumulate there and Diana saw a bump starting to form against the redness.
“Good news, Diana,” she said weakly. “You learn quick. Training you guys won’t be all that bad at all.”
Laughter came from one of the trees, and Ivanna knew who it belonged to. She immediately rolled onto her knees and stood despite the pain and dizziness. She’d been waiting for Viria.
“That was a good match for starters,” Viria said hopping off from where she was settled high on a tree. “Tell me, is attacking and running on instincts all they teach you?”
Diana recalled her training days and how Gael would fight with her once she was rescued from the Morbus. “Well, maybe?”
“She learned fast, though,” Ivanna stated. “I feel relaxed with that notion.”
“Everyone will be needing a reboot,” Viria stated as she pulled Ivanna’s head close to examine it, softly running a thumb over the bump. Viria moved her hand in a complicated formation and spat onto her thumb that glowed an icy blue, and she spread it onto Ivanna forehead.
“Ew, Viria!” Ivanna yelled and pulled away from her smirking face. “I tell you not to use your spit! You could’ve used mine!”
“Learn the healing formations and I wouldn’t have to,” Viria laughed.
“We’ve hardly had time!”
“You can meditate and practice while sleeping, too,” she reminded Ivanna and walked past her to Diana, “I won’t use my spit on you. Shift and let me deal with your injuries.”
“I’m fine,” Diana growled at her.
“No need to be hostile, wolf,” she breathed for patience. “We’re not enemies for the time-being. Shift. I need to restore your stamina and body to a better condition.”
Diana grunted and shifted, revealing a curled up figure on the floor trying to cover herself. Viria chanted something and pieces of Diana’s clothing that had ripped apart in the woods came zooming into the clearing and piecing itself together onto Diana’s body, coming together as good as new. She lowered herself to Diana’s level and crossed her legs under herself, putting her hand out to her.
“Arm,” she ordered. Diana tentatively placed her hand into her small one. Compared to hers, Viria’s hands were extremely calloused. She could feel the scabs of wounds on them. Unlike Diana’s there was no softness to spare. She observed Viria carefully, her eyes falling to horizontal lines on her arms.
“You… you cut yourself,” she stated.
“Used to,” she confessed as her fingers glowed blue and started pressing over Diana’s wounds. “It was simply a lot of anger pent up inside that I took out on myself and turned to self-hatred. It was better to damage myself than other things and people around me. Not that I had any control over what I was thinking and I’m not proud of that past, but I got to move on.”
“What even happened to make you do that?”
“Eh, typical teenage shit.” She shrugged with a glance at Diana, and she knew what Viria would say next would be painful. “I walked away from my mate.”
Diana was silent. She couldn’t comprehend it. The fact that a sixteen year old’s life had gotten so hard to the point she was compelled to leave the one person who should have been her world. Who could do that? Why would anyone ever do that? Wouldn’t it hurt her mate just as much?
“B-but why?” Diana demanded.
“Ah, I was too fucked up in the head and denied it the whole time after I figured it out,” Viria said with a shake of her head. “I didn’t even dare thinking about it ever again. Anyway, it would’ve hurt him more to be with me, really. I wanted to get better but nothing worked until I got on medication and was able to start thinking right in the next few months. It helped me try to overcome my limitations and I’m a lot better now. I’d probably have killed myself by now instead of doing all this.”
“You could still go back to him…” Diana tried to coax her. “He would want you back.”
“I severed my essence bond with him,” she explained. “Once a witch does that, the essence tries to find a new mate and his was successful. Mine is too damaged to try and form a connection with anyone without transferring my own spiritual scars to them. It’s a well-intended limitation I put on myself for the time being.”
Diana felt distraught. What Viria had explained was almost as bad as having a mate die. She couldn’t imagine a life without Fergus and her memory being wiped out during her capture was a blessing in itself. Also, Viria was just a child. She was only sixteen and to have found her mate so young and left him as soon as he was found, she couldn’t imagine what kind of torture Viria had to live through every day.
Viria sighed. “You know, A lot of people say that being alone is better and we should never be dependent on anyone. That’s where they go wrong. People are made simply to be with each other for support. And mates, especially. I don’t know if you shifters are aware but you and your mates can combine your powers together and become equally as strong as the other. When your mate dies, their power and essence transfers into you and it helps ease the pain of the loss. It’s not necessary that there be love between two people. Love doesn’t save anyone. But compassion helps a lot to get anyone by.”
People are made simply to be with each other, it echoed in Diana’s head. And for a moment, she wondered if there was a time Viria had absolutely no one.