Chương 27: Settling In

Once they'd returned from their raiding trip, it hadn't been difficult to convince the neighbors to do the same. The four of them had gone out two additional times, hauling back anything of value, but by then it had started getting dark. Kenzo had returned home briefly to make sure his mother was fine and fed, then rejoined the others for dinner to discuss their plans. The stew had been simmering since mid-afternoon.

Enzo's parents had thrown in the meat that wouldn't last as long, slow-cooked with tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers from the garden, bulked out with canned beans and enough chili powder to make Sumi's eyes water. Poor woman. She'd had no idea what she was getting into. Six people sat around the dining table, with Murph lying underneath, her head resting on Enzo's foot. Pops sat at the head, working through his second bowl already. Their mother occupied the other end, eyeing Sumi's bowl to see if she needed more.

Enzo looked around the table.

"Our priorities are food, water, security, and developing our magic. Not necessarily in that order. Thoughts?" Pops nodded.

"I'll begin hunting tomorrow. Plenty of game in these parts. I'll take the rifle first, but based on what you lot have been saying, I'll probably have to switch to the bow."

"You haven't shot a bow in years, Pop," Val said.

"The fundamentals don't change, sweetie. It'll come back." He said it with the certainty of a man who'd spent thirty years in the woods and saw no reason to doubt himself now.

"Some of the neighbors have been talking about it too," Kenzo said.

"The Andersons used to fish every weekend. And Frank mentioned a couple of buddies further down the block who also hunt."

"There's also foraging," Sumi added.

"The books we grabbed cover the local edible species. Berries, nuts, mushrooms. Northern California has plenty to offer if people know what to look for."

"Didn't you say you were going to put together a gardening club, Mom?" Val asked, glancing at their mother.

"That's right, dear," their mom said.

"The ladies are gathering tomorrow to talk about creating a gardening club. All those seeds you brought back will go to waste otherwise. And between us, there is plenty of backyard space for extra gardens."

"I'll set aside some books for you, Mrs. Locke," Sumi said.

"And the hunters, too."

"That's a wonderful idea. Thank you, Sumi." Kenzo grinned.

"Can I join the gardening club?"

"You absolutely may not." Enzo grinned. The last time Kenzo had tried to help in the garden, he'd been six years old. And Mom still hadn't recovered from the trauma.

"Let's discuss security now," Enzo said, glancing at Val.

"I need you to put the word out. We're securing the neighborhood. Figure out who wants to join us, map out a perimeter, then lock it down."

"What? Why me?" Val demanded.

"Kenzo can do it." Enzo shook his head and turned to look at Kenzo.

"He's going hunting with Pops." Kenzo paused in the middle of chewing.

"I am?" Then he saw Enzo's expression.

"I mean, I am!"

"I don't need an escort, son," his father said. Enzo turned to him.

"Yes, you do. There are Eaters and other things out there now. Besides, Kenzo could use the training. Take Murph with you, too." Pops studied him for a moment, then nodded.

"Alright, then. They can come with me, as long as they're quiet." Val scowled.

"That still doesn't explain why I have to do it. Besides, what if they don't want to join us?" Enzo grinned.

"Because you're the least useful one—""Be nice to your sister, Enzo," their mother said, waving a spoon at him.

"Sumi and I will both be busy working on magic solutions for other things," Enzo said.

"As for them joining us, just make sure they know we have four mages. And that if they say no, they can deal with the Eaters and any other weird magic problems on their own." Val sighed.

"Fine. But you owe me. And you're going to pay later for calling me useless." Enzo chuckled. She meant every word. His sister had always been like that, but that just made her reliable in her own way.

"You should talk to Frank about setting up a proper watch, too," Kenzo added.

"He can handle recruiting people for it. Just needs to know where." Val grunted and kept eating. Enzo leaned back in the chair.

"That leaves water. The taps are already failing because of low pressure. I know we have tank water for now, and so do many of the neighbors. But it's still going to be an issue." Pops nodded.

"We've got the creek once summer passes, and the lakes up in the Tam are always an option." His father was right. The creek would be the most viable source of drinking water once it started flowing properly, but the lakes up in Mount Tamalpais were a problem. It was at least three hours on foot, and not everyone in the neighborhood could make that trip. Certainly not during the summer. And certainly not now that there were Eaters and whatever was happening to the animals.

"I'm going to work on mastering water mana conversion," Sumi said.

"I can feel it already, but it's not changing as easily as body and life did. It's about as hard as fire and earth."

"Whoa," Val said around her food.

"That's, like, seven types that you can use, right?" Their mother smacked her arm gently.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Val swallowed.

"Sorry, Mom." Sumi smiled.

"Yes, though only body and life work perfectly. The rest I can feel, but they're difficult to wield. I can't convert them consistently yet." Enzo frowned. She'd proven that besides arcane, body, and life, each of the major elemental types was real, but he'd still been unable to convert anything. So far, only earth mana had felt like something, but even that had failed.

"What about you, bro?" Kenzo asked.

"What are your plans?" Enzo glanced up.

"Ah. My immediate priority is diagnosing the ring Val broke."

"It was an accident!" He ignored her.

"Then I'm going to try making shield rings that people without magic can use. Like Pops suggested." His father took a sip of water.

"Was just a question." Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Enzo shrugged.

"Still a damn good idea." He turned back to Kenzo.

"So, the first thing I need to do is set up a workshop in my room."

The next day, Val sat cross-legged in the backyard with her eyes closed and her palms resting on her knees. Listening to Enzo and Sumi, magic sounded like one of those kid's toys, where you needed to put the right shapes in the right holes. While also making up reasons those holes were sometimes right, and sometimes wrong. For Val, magic was more like breathing. She pulled mana in through her core, cycled it through her channels, and let it settle into places where her body needed it most. Fire came easiest.

It gathered in her chest and radiated outward through her limbs like warmth after a good sparring match. Even arcane was harder than fire, despite mana becoming arcane by default once absorbed. It just… resisted her. Took more effort to mobilize. She was getting better at it, though. Body and earth were even harder. Other than Reinforce, she hadn't even bothered trying to create new techniques that required those two. Instead, her focus was on honing what she was already good at. That was what she knew.

Building a proper foundation meant learning one strike at a time. Once it was good enough, move on to the next, but continue honing the skill until mastered. That was what martial arts taught her. Her heart thumped. Again and again. Pushing her blood faster and faster, and with it, carrying mana across her body. Controlling one's heart through force of will was still an odd sensation. And yet, that was the least strange thing that had happened since the rain fell.

"Sweetheart?" Her mother's voice carried the particular lightness that meant something unwelcome was coming. Something Val was probably supposed to act happy about.

"Some of the neighbors are here. They're wondering where they should dig the latrines." Val opened one eye.

"The latrines."

"Mm-hm. They said you'd know." She had no idea why they thought that. She'd spent all of three hours with them this morning, working out the perimeter, which streets they were including in their new watch patrols, where they would cut down trees to secure the hills and roads, and build lookout posts. And she'd left Frank in charge of it after that. Val sighed. Let her heartbeat return to normal, feeling the extra energy and power fade away. Then she unfolded her legs and stood.

"How's the gardening club going?" Her mother beamed.

"Oh, wonderful. Margaret has the most beautiful raised beds, and Susan brought over some starter pots she'd been keeping in her garage. I'm teaching them about beans and peppers first. Hardy things that won't need much water." Val followed her inside. Three neighbors stood in the entryway, looking uncomfortable in the way people did when they wanted someone else to decide for them.

She answered their questions, pointed them toward the far side of the perimeter where the slope and soil made the most sense, and sent them on their way. Back outside. Cross-legged. Eyes closed. She started slower this time, building it back up from where she'd lost the rhythm. Fire grew in her chest. She pushed it outward, feeling the channels warm as the mana moved through them. Faster. Smoother. She could feel the difference when the cycle hit the right tempo, a resonance that made her whole body hum.

The back door opened again.

"Val, dear? The Hendersons are asking about water rationing." Her jaw tightened. She breathed out through her nose, slow and deliberate, and opened her eyes.

"Coming, Mom."

Sumi sat on a chair on the private balcony of the guest room the Locke family had been kind enough to give her. Her notebook rested on the little table beside her, her pen tucked behind her ear. She closed her eyes and breathed in. Formed the lens over her third eye. Mana entered her mind the same way it always did. A steady pull from the air around her. The hard part was what came next. Body and life converted almost without effort, like they belonged to her. She barely had to think about it.

So much so that she often accidentally converted to one of them when she was actually trying to draw in arcane instead. Arcane had been a little difficult at first, but now it came so long as she focused. That arcane was mana's natural state and still challenging to wield was interesting. As was Enzo's ability to manipulate it as easily as breathing. Even body and life were not as stable for her as arcane was to him.

The real question was whether affinity could be trained, because despite her improvements, arcane still required more effort in every baseline test. But it was the other types that were a problem. Fire, earth, wind, and water. She could convert all four of the natural elements. Had even tried those that rounded out the Chinese five elements, wood and metal, but so far had felt no response. Failure didn't mean it wasn't possible, though. The others had proven that. Maybe they were just impossible for her.

Sumi shook her head. She always did this. Let the intrusive thoughts win, while what she wanted to focus on wandered. It was why everyone thought she was quiet and had little to say. She clicked her tongue and focused on the task. Water mana. She'd successfully converted it twice already. It was possible. It just required focus. Intent wasn't enough. She had to hold the right concept in her mind while the mana was still moving, still pliable. Still ambient. Water meant flow. Currents.

The way a river carved its path not through force but through persistence, finding the lowest point and following it. Water was the pull of the tides. The weight of depth, pressure building the further down you went. It was rain collecting in gutters, in storm drains, in aquifers. It was patience. It went where gravity demanded, and it never stopped. The mana shifted. Sumi felt it change as it entered her reservoir, a subtle difference in texture. She added it to the top layer, organizing it as she had the others.

Arcane mana sat at the bottom. It was force. Kinetic. Essential to what magic was, yet not enough by itself for most things. Above it, life and body occupied their familiar layers, each with a weight and character of their own. Life was warm and restless. Body was heavier, slower, almost viscous. The water mana settled. Cool and fluid, lighter than the others. It wanted to move. She could feel it pressing against the edges of her reservoir, looking for somewhere to go.

She opened her eyes and offered it an exit, tracing her finger through the air, using the physical motion to guide the thread of water as it appeared in the air. Physically directing the mana still made it easier, which defied explanation. Sumi guided the water in a slow arc, watching the light catch the surface. It was real. She could feel its weight pulling against the mana sustaining it.

Small droplets broke free from the stream, falling for a fraction of a second before dissolving into nothing as the mana sustaining it dissipated. She held it for twenty seconds, then let go. The water vanished as though it had never existed. Pulling the pen from behind her ear, she chewed on the cap for a moment, staring at the now empty space. Then she started writing. Conversion itself wasn't the problem. Not in the long term. Making water with the mana wasn't difficult, either.

The problem was persistence, because the water only existed as long as she fed it mana. The moment she stopped, it disappeared. No residual moisture left behind. Which made it useless for drinking. Useless for the gardens. She chewed on the pen again. Not useless for everything, though. You didn't need water to last if all you wanted was to get clean.

Kenzo had known Enzo's dad since he was five years old, and still he had no idea how the old man moved so quietly. Dom wove through the trees like he'd been born in them, placing each foot with a patience that made the forest floor silent beneath him. Murph was worse. She slipped through the underbrush without disturbing a single branch, low to the ground, her movements fluid in a way that had nothing to do with how dogs were supposed to move. If he didn't know any better, he'd think she was part panther.

Kenzo, by contrast, stepped on every twig in Marin County. Each snap earned him a look from Dom that could have peeled paint. They pushed through a dense thicket and emerged onto a trail. Dom paused, stretched his back, and waited while Kenzo fought his way through a bush that seemed personally offended by his existence.

"Sorry," Kenzo muttered, pulling a leaf from his hair. Dom grunted.

"Where are we?" Dom pointed left.

"Leads back toward home." He pointed right.

"Toward the lakes." Then he knelt and brushed some dirt from the path with his fingertips.

"Looks like some of the others passed this way recently. Must be carrying a decent haul. See how their heels are slightly indented here?" Kenzo leaned down and squinted at it. It didn't even look like a footprint. Maybe, generously, a vague dip in the trail. He nodded.

"Mm-hm. Yeah. I can't make out anything, old man." Dom chuckled.

"Come on. Let's go." They continued along the trail, heading right. Kenzo fell into step behind Dom and started cycling earth mana through his legs and feet, trying to root his awareness into the ground beneath him. Feel where the twigs were before he stepped on them. He doubted it would help, but it couldn't hurt to try. The forest was different now. He'd noticed it on every trip out. The trees had changed the least, but even they seemed to be changing. As were the sounds.

Things even Dom couldn't identify called from deeper in, closer to the mountains. Birds didn't sound like birds. Then there were the silences that lasted too long before breaking. Murph growled. Low, barely audible, the sound coming from deep in her chest. Dom stopped and held up a fist. Kenzo froze. Dom pointed between the bushes to their left, and Kenzo followed his gaze. A tree stood thirty feet off the trail with four deep gouges raked down its trunk, each one as long as his forearm.

The bark had been peeled away in curls that littered the base. And beside the tree, what was left of a deer. The carcass had been torn open and partially eaten, ribs exposed and scattered across the dirt. Whatever had done it was bigger than anything that should have been in these woods. Dom studied the scene for a long moment, then looked back at Kenzo. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to.