Without an ounce of hesitation, he reached out and grabbed onto Mother and Aunt Julia’s arms. He led them down the stairs, taking advantage of their momentary shock. Even as they realized what he was doing, they were unable to resist: He took the initiative to enervate the muscles in their upper body. He knew that any Life practitioners outside—if there were any—would be able to detect the action, but at this point, Ian didn’t see much point in subtlety.

He ignored the glares of protest as he dragged Mother and Aunt Julia out of the cafe door—nearly bumping into the guardsman—and onto the crowded street. Ian walked straight forward after exiting the cafe; fortunately, the beach front had been visible from the second floor. Though he couldn’t see it at ground level, he knew the general direction to walk in.

As they left the block, the closest few agents began to peel off the building. They didn’t make any aggressive movements, nor did they come too close, choosing to follow at a distance. If it weren’t for the fact that their vital signatures were slightly different from those of the regs, Ian might have lost them in the crush of people.

All the while, Mother and Aunt Julia followed limply next to him, clearly dissatisfied with the current situation. Even so, they appeared alert, casting furtive looks into the crowd, as though trying to pick out anyone suspicious. Aunt Julia, in particular, was looking around with an expression of deep contemplation, likely putting her Beginning affinity to good use. As someone who could also sense vitality, Ian wondered if she was able to pick out the practitioners from the regs based on their vital energy alone.

After traversing four blocks, Aunt Julia whispered, “Stop.”

Ian continued walking. “What?” he asked, speaking under his breath.

“They’ve set up an ambush site on the next block. They have more practitioners waiting, likely planning to neutralize us all in one sudden move.”

Ian didn’t question her augury. Even so, he couldn’t help but feel surprised: What clues did she see that allowed her to make such a claim?

“Why do you think they’re not just confronting us directly?”

Aunt Julia shook her head. “It’s too crowded here for an open engagement.”

“Besides, you haven’t done anything yet,” Mother muttered. “Why make an enemy of you when they could instead turn you into an asset? And with so many witnesses here, they won’t want to cause a scene.”

“So how should we proceed?” Ian asked.

“Go two blocks left, then continue toward the beach,” Aunt Julia replied tersely.

Ian didn’t give a sign of acknowledgement, but began to head left at the next intersection. For the next several blocks, Aunt Julia served as his navigator, directing him past no less than five different ambush sites. By the time they finally reached the beach front, they had traveled nearly twice the distance he’d originally anticipated.

The beach front was thankfully deserted, as the weather had taken a turn for the worse, with ominous gray clouds blocking out the sun and brisk winds stirring up the waves. Ian led Mother and Aunt Julia directly to the water, speedily walking over the sand. At this point, the agents that were following behind were joined by reinforcements, their numbers swelling to at least twenty.

Ian’s intention to escape via water was now obvious, and he knew that if there was to be a confrontation, it would happen now.

If they wanted a fight, he’d give them one.

All of a sudden, he threw Mother and Aunt Julia toward the water, away from himself, and formed a weak barrier of Death energy around him, just as a barrage of razor-sharp wind attacked.

His eyes grew dark with grim determination. The beach was an excellent place for a decemancer: it was where carcasses washed up, where shell and bone accumulated. Even the sand itself was largely composed of ancient shell and coral: While sand was mostly devoid of any residual Death energy, it was a good energy conductor. For instance, if there was a skeleton buried under the sand, it was far easier to access its energy than if it were buried under muddy earth.

And unfortunately for the people allied against him, this shore wasn’t as peaceful as it seemed: like Aunt Julia said, the Bay of Ramsay was treacherous, killing numerous overconfident seafarers every year. Moreover, the beach front had been the site of bloody civil conflict when the royals of old Selejo fled for what would become the SPU eighty years before.

Ian grinned as he sensed the remnants of skeletons under foot. Though they were old and their energy had somewhat dissipated into the sand, that which remained was enough.

With an upward sweeping gesture of his hand, he pulled the energy from the ground. To those on the beach front, it looked as though Ian had pulled violet-pink lightning from the ground into his fist. A moment later, bones began to breach the sand, reassembling into misshapen skeletons. They clambered forth on broken limbs glued together by pinkish, ethereal sinews. In their eye sockets glowed violet-pink light.

Meanwhile, more and more practitioners came forward, almost all of them elementalists. Ian sent the skeletons after them as a distraction, then ran to the water and grabbed Mother and Aunt Julia. With the two of them in hand, he kicked off into the air, dragging himself forward with practiced ease. He released the two women as soon as they were airborne, using newly-formed bone harnesses to tug them forward.

The practitioners on the beach followed after them, the water elementalists skipping over the water, the wind elementalists riding the wind, and the fire elementalists blasting themselves forward by emitting fire from the soles of their feet and palms. The earth elementalists remained on the beach, lacking a swift method of pursuit over open water.

As he glided over the water, Ian accumulated bones and shells, dredging them up from the depths. If sand was a good conductor of Death energy, then water was the best conductor of all: His reach extended hundreds of feet to the bottom of the water, where the ocean’s countless dead had already met their rest. Soon, enough bones to open a small museum twirled aimlessly around him. They began to take on structured shapes, eventually forming into a sinuous serpent.

Ian made a grasping motion with his hand and a nearby bird flew into his hand, its body swiftly decomposing into a pile of flesh and bone. Ian created a weak soul gem from the bird’s energy and made a flight focus from its wishbone. A moment later, he created another soul gem from a second bird that had come too close. He waved his fingers and the soul gems socketed themselves into the serpent’s head, with the flight focus locking into place on its forehead.

The wyrm shuddered and flashed with a violet crackle. Ian tossed Mother and Aunt Julia onto the wyrm’s back, securing their haphazard harnesses of bone to the wyrm’s ribcage.

So much for a discreet exit underwater, Ian thought bitterly. They had wasted too much time at the cafe. He hadn’t imagined that he’d be in this kind of situation so soon, on the run from Selejo.

Moreover, he was worried that if he wasn’t careful, he’d send these pursuing practitioners to their deaths. The idea of killing someone permanently...he couldn’t deny that doing so was all but an inevitability. But if he had to kill someone, he’d rather it be someone he had a grudge with. Not these practitioners who were only following orders.

The problem looming over Ian’s head was that his talents weren’t well-suited to incapacitation when moving at high speeds. For one, range was a problem: at a distance, he had no means to directly affect the bodies of the practitioners, meaning his usual strategy of locking people’s muscles wouldn’t work. But even if he froze the pursuers in place, they’d fall as soon as they left his range of influence, and likely perish out on the ocean. The best strategy he could think of was to simply outrun them.

He spun around and joined Mother and Aunt Julia on the bone wyrm, straddling the area behind its patchwork skull. He placed a palm on the skull’s flight focus and began to funnel Death energy into it. The wyrm carved a jagged path through the air, seeming to trace the tops of the waves. Ian gritted his teeth through the salt-water spray, determined to draw out as much energy as possible from the water. Now wasn’t the time to be overconfident, as he could still sense no less than twelve practitioners keeping pace.

Whoever the Eldemari had sent, they were talented. Ian estimated that most powerful among their number was a dual wind-fire elementalist who had been jetting through the air on skates of flame, a steady stream of blue fire erupting behind him as he outpaced his fellow agents. Ian estimated he had Cloud and Sun affinities at least in excess of 60%. More than likely, one of his affinities—Ian guessed Sun—exceeded 70 or 80%.

The kind of flames produced by a high-affinity Sun elementalist would be difficult to deal with.

Ian sent a small flurry of bones to heckle the pursuers, focusing especially on the powerful dual elementalist. The elementalists swerved awkwardly, slowing their speed; the few who made contact with the bones were knocked completely off course, falling several hundred feet behind in the span of seconds. Thankfully, none of them hit the water; as fast as they were going, such a fall might be lethal.

When will they learn to give up? Ian wondered, exasperated by their tireless pursuit. The bone wyrm was outspeeding their adversaries, but even as the practitioners seemed to fall behind, the dual elementalist put on another burst of speed, twin flares of blue flame exploding behind him.

Ian focused his attention on blocking the dual elementalist’s path with a shell barrier; however, the elementalist disregarded his efforts, smashing through it with impunity. The way he shrugged off Ian’s attacks suggested the aid of an energy aegis. Ian frowned, suspecting that the man might have a weapon like the glosSword set to a defensive combat mode. 

Ian gritted his teeth and snarled in frustration. He sent more shells to obstruct the elementalist, practically burying him in a mountain of bleached white. He compressed the shards inward, forcing the elementalist off course in zigzags. Unfortunately, the blaze coming out of the elementalists palms and soles was powerful enough to carbonize whatever fell within its radius, preventing Ian from truly impeding the elementalist’s progress. The rest appeared to be deflected by the energy shield.

Fine, then, Ian thought. If you’re going to be so persistent, don’t blame me for what happens. Ian slowed down slightly to let the practitioner fall into his range, then raised his off hand in a sharp motion, made a fist, and threw his hand to the left. Behind him, the dual elementalist froze in place, his momentum completely halted. Then, he was thrown off to the left and into the ocean.

Ian looked behind him for the first time in several minutes, his eyes full of morbid concern. He hoped the dual elementalist had only broken a few bones. As the dual elementalist plummeted into the water, his helmet fell off, revealing a youthful, soft face.

Ian almost couldn’t believe that he recognized it. Eldemari? he thought to himself with a gasp. He shook his head and turned around. No, not the Eldemari, but her son, Zilverna Sezakuin.

He felt only relief as Zilverna thrashed in the water, his expression full of rage. If the Eldemari’s son could afford to be angry, he wasn’t likely to die before the other practitioners fished him out of the water and dragged him to safety.

Ian let out a sigh and finally allowed himself to relax. The pursuers behind had finally given up the chase, and the wyrm was quickly pulling ahead. He leaned back onto the wyrm’s spine, closing his eyes and directing it up above the water. It rose bit by bit until it flew level with the dark, thin storm clouds, eventually passing through them into a blue sky.

Throughout all of this, Mother and Aunt Julia were awkwardly strapped to the midsection of the bone wyrm, jostling around roughly as the wyrm undulated through the sky. Now that they were free of their pursuers, Ian gingerly freed them from their harnesses and dropped them onto the wyrm’s upper spine. Both women flailed for a better handhold upon being deposited in their new position, legs tightly straddling the wyrm’s girth.

With a small smile, Ian planted long spines of bone before them, giving each woman a rod to hold on to.

“So, how’s the flight so far?” he asked, sitting up and turning around to face them.

Mother gave him a blank expression. “A bit turbulent,” she stated, raising her voice to be heard over the wind.

Aunt Julia didn’t speak; she appeared to be lost in thought.

They flew in silence for the better part of an hour.

“Why didn’t you just kill them?” Aunt Julia asked, breaking the silence.

Ian turned around. “Hmm?”

“You heard my question,” she said.

“Why would I kill them?” Ian asked, raising an eyebrow.

“They were trying to capture you and force you into the service of the Eldemari,” Aunt Julia continued. “If my augury isn’t wrong, it would’ve been trivial for you to end them.”

Ian nodded slowly. “Isn’t that exactly why I didn’t need to?”

Aunt Julia shrugged. “I guess the dilation chamber didn’t change him as much as you thought, Iolana. Though that’s not a bad thing.” She shot him a content smile. “I always valued your kindness, Julian.”

Mother rolled her eyes. “There’s a difference between being kind and being weak.”

“I don’t think his show of mercy was weakness,” Aunt Julia retorted, her eyes shining.

Mother frowned. “I never said it was.” She glanced at Ian. “She’s wrong, you know. Before you let people walk all over you, let them take your kindness by force. That’s why you were weak, why I despised you for trying to please everyone, myself most of all.”

Ian mulled over her words, not entirely convinced. Mother didn’t need a reason to be nasty; her explanation felt like justification after the fact.

He sighed in resignation, unwilling to start an argument. “If that’s what you think.”