What Comes Next

“Wait exiled forever!?”

Rune seemed so nonplussed by the declaration that Midori was left sitting in silent shock for a moment before chasing him outside.

“Rune, what do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I said, Midori.” He settled near the edge of the lake and put his feet in the cool water, a calm smile fell over his face that only fuelled Midori’s anxiety.

“How are you so freaking calm right now!?”

He patted the ground next to him and flashed her that calm smile. It was not the first time she’d wanted to hit him since they met, but it was definitely the most intense of them.

Midori settled down next to him, stripping the leather moccasins from her feet she dipped them in the cool water of the lake and a faint sigh of relief escaped her lips. Looking across at Rune his calm smile had shifted into an almost gloating kind of smirk that just made her want to hit him even more.

“I’m calm because I know that I will win.”

Rune said it so matter-of-factually that she almost found it hard to argue, but not impossible.

“I believe in you, Rune, of course I do. But what if he plays dirty? What if something unexpected happens and you do lose? Are you really ready to be exiled from your home?”

She put a hand over his and squeezed with all her support, and he lovingly stroked the back of her hand with his thumb.

“If I lose…then we shall find somewhere else to call home.” Lifting her hand he kissed the back of her hand, “wherever we are together will be our home.”

Unable to contain herself any more she punched him as hard as she could in the arm while letting out a tittering laugh of delight and embarrassment. Midori had long since dreamed of someone saying such things about her, she’d never thought to look for that person in another world though.

“I don’t want you to have to leave though.”

“That will only happen if I lose, and I have no intention of that.”

She gave him a final nod and then put the matter to bed. There was nothing more to be said, she trusted Rune’s confidence and if he was not worried then she did not need to be.

“Okay, then what’s next?”

-----

What came next were even more preparations.

Rune seemed completely immersed in various meetings, and while Midori had sat in on a few of them she spent most of her time wandering the village or continuing her practice of magick.

She found it was most easy in the cavern below the village, which was now adorned with glowing flora of the sea and a small group of villagers training with the nixies.

A pact of mutual cooperation had been made and so the villagers were now learning how to include the nixies in their combat, how to utilize the skills they possessed to their fullest and even combine their tactics to create something new.

Midori had gotten the hang of what Sahaela called ‘basic’ spellcraft. Creating small bubbles of water, little motes of flame that danced along her knuckles, and even a faint static charge that bounced between her fingers. Beyond that it got more complex.

If she had enough time she could manage to create, or cast perhaps was a better term, anything her mind could imagine. It was doing it in seconds that she could still not quite wrap her mind around, always ending with either the container for the spell cracking or the contents fizzling out.

“You’re getting too focused on the time,” Sahaela said with a frustrated sigh. She floated through the air like it were a stream, her arms sweeping through the air carrying her like a current.

“Well it’s kind of hard not to. You have me focusing on painting this picture, it’s hard not to rely on the instincts I’ve built up. Paintings of the depth I’m doing take time.”

“Yes, but you are thinking too much in a step by step process. This isn’t that. The painting is being built in your mind, you control how it’s layered so skip the A to B and go A to F to O.”

What she said made both no sense and yet somehow also perfect sense.

It was in her mind that the image was built and in her mind she focused on every detail, but if she could clip parts out and make it more of a mental montage that might cut down on the time.

“Okay, I’m going to try that…”

Closing her eyes she placed her hands on her knees while sitting cross legged, slowly turning one hand with her palm up.

In her mind she was in the art room, the beginning of a ball of fire on the canvas before she began to imagine the fire even more detailed. And suddenly the detail was there on the canvas, as if she had spent an entire afternoon working on just that. The surprise was too much and as sudden as the colour had appeared a tear was made in the canvas and she felt the container of her spell crack and a gout of flame erupt before blackening a portion of the ceiling.

“Not quite…but I’m getting there,” Midori sighed and laid down on the cool stone feeling her muscles ease slightly.

Practising magick was tiring work.

-----

Three days to prepare everything for their departure.

In truth they were done after the first day but the villagers of Yanara demanded a feast to celebrate the victory in Nythe and Rune’s departure to challenge the Khan.

There was a melancholic nature to the celebration, every congratulations tempered with a sense of goodbye and an underlying belief that it would be the last time they saw Rune.

It was only Gilya, and a trio of children that ran through the village like wild cats, that seemed to have every confidence they would be seeing him again.

The children had grown quite fond of Popcorn and were pampering him like he were a fluffy king complete with a crown made of braided grass and flowers.

Gilya sat with Midori and Rune at one of the tables set up for the celebration, both drinking some bubble juice while the pregnant woman nursed the juice normally saved for children.

“You have grown so much since you first arrived, young one.” Gilya said while cupping Rune’s face, a warm smile plastered on her face.

“You’ve grown into a Khan that I can be proud of, that I can and will happily support.”

Small droplets formed in Rune’s eyes that he brushed away with the back of his hand after a long, loving hug from the woman who had raised him.

“And Midori, you have adapted well in such a short time, I’m incredibly impressed.” The older woman turned to face her now with that same, loving smile.

Did Rune grow up seeing that smile? She hoped so, and hoped that she would be able to smile like that at her own child.

“Thank you, I’m a bit surprised myself. I somehow learned the language so much faster than I think I should have.”

“Likely due to your encounter with Sahaela, you said you experienced her memories?”

Midori nodded and Gilya just smiled knowingly.

“Perhaps that is your gift then. Experiencing memories, connecting and bridging the gaps that divide us. I can’t think of a better gift.”

She could not help herself and replied with a smirk, “I mean accelerated healing and super strength sounds like a pretty good alternative.”

The three of them laughed and Midori felt a comfortable sense of belonging there, with two people from a different world speaking a language she had learned through magical means.

And thinking of all that she couldn’t help but laugh even harder.

Life was strange sometimes.