Chapter 5 - Divine Apostasy Book 3

Chapter 5

Sift gasped in pain and stumbled backward. Lylan caught Sift and held him steady. Ruwen slid out from underneath the beaver and pushed himself up. He picked up Sift’s arm, pulled the sleeve off it, and strode toward his friend.

“Hold him still,” Ruwen said to Lylan. “I don’t know if this makes it hurt worse.”

Ruwen pressed the arm against Sift’s shoulder.

Sift winced. “Shade’s first rule: a hand offered to a fool costs an arm.”

Ruwen stared at Sift. “Are you calling me a fool? And did you just make that up?” Ruwen looked at Lylan. “Did he just make that up?”

Lylan held Sift with one hand and applied pressure to the severed arm with the other. “There are so many, it’s hard to know.”

Sift wavered on his feet but didn’t cry out. “This really hurts.”

Ruwen took Io from Sift’s right hand and placed the dagger in its sheath. Lylan had pulled the glowing bone hook out of the beaver’s wrist. The hook hung on her belt, and the hand was nowhere to be seen.

The arm hadn’t reattached to Sift like Ruwen had hoped. They would have to try something else.

“I have an idea,” Ruwen said.

Sift groaned.

“Stop doing that,” Ruwen said. “Sit down and cross your legs.”

Lylan helped Sift sit, and Ruwen knelt in front of him. Now that Sift couldn’t fall, Lylan used both hands to press the severed arm against Sift. Ruwen reached down, grabbed Sift’s left hand, and raised it to Sift’s right shoulder. The severed arm now lay diagonally across Sift’s chest.

Ruwen leaned back, sitting on his feet. “That beaver used Spirit to strengthen and heal itself. I want you to try to do the same.”

Sift locked eyes with Ruwen. “Seriously? You saw the control it had. I am literally the opposite of that.”

Ruwen pointed at Sift’s heart. “But you got that to Jade.”

“Is that why you put me in this pose?” Sift asked. “So I can Fortify my Air Meridian?”

Ruwen ignored the sarcastic questions. “You absorbed some of the Spirit leaking out of the beaver, so I know you have some in there. Move it to your arm?”

Lylan looked confused. “What is a Meridian, and how is that going to help him?”

Sift closed his eyes, and Ruwen hoped that meant Sift had started the Fortifying process.

Ruwen met Lylan’s eyes. “You saw the smaller balls of light in the beaver, right? The one near the bicep and the one above the knee?”

Lylan nodded.

Ruwen continued. “Those were actual Meridians. I don’t know how to get Spirit in them yet, or if the Spirit changes somehow inside them, but it doesn’t matter, because Sift isn’t trying to fill the actual Meridian.”

Sift spoke up, his eyes still closed. “I couldn’t do that even if I wanted. You all saw at the lake. The paths to my Meridians are a mass of deadends. I don’t know much, but I know you can’t fill a Meridian if you don’t have a path connecting it to your center.”

“Stop listening and move your Spirit,” Ruwen said. He looked back at Lylan. “Each Meridian is associated with parts of the body. Sift’s left shoulder, arm, and hand are all associated with his Air Meridian.”

“I still don’t understand,” Lylan said.

Ruwen stared at Sift. “Even though Sift can’t place Spirit in the Air Meridian itself, he can still funnel Spirit to the area surrounding the Meridian. To the section of his body the Meridian is associated with. Doing that makes that area stronger. It’s called Fortifying.”

Sift opened his eyes. “This is pointless. It took me years of daily Fortifying to get my heart to Jade. Without being able to find my center, the process just takes too long.”

“But we saw your center at the Lake,” Lylan said.

Sift sighed. Ruwen hadn’t thought Sift could look in any more pain, but he was wrong.

“But Sift can’t feel it, and so getting Spirit out is hard,” Ruwen said.

Ruwen thought about his early attempts, not that long ago, in Blapy. He had the luxury of knowing exactly where his center sat, and it had still been difficult. It really only started to get better when he had started the breathing techniques.

“Did your parents teach you any special ways to breathe when Fortifying?” Ruwen asked.

Sift nodded.

“Show me,” Ruwen said.

Sift looked uncomfortable. “It’s supposed to be a secret.”

Lylan gave a short laugh. “Look around. I think we’re a little past secrets. The last thing you should be worried about is hiding the way you breathe.”

Sift looked at Lylan and then at Ruwen. “Even so, both of you promise to never tell anyone. Please.”

Lylan rolled her eyes. “That is the dumbest promise ever.”

Sift looked at Lylan, and after a moment, she nodded. “Fine.”

“Of course,” Ruwen said.

Sift closed his eyes again. He took a deep breath, held it for a second, and then exhaled slowly. He did this two more times. After the third exhalation, he immediately took a shallow breath and forced it out. This was followed by five seconds of no breathing, and then the pattern repeated.

Ruwen let Sift do the entire rotation a few times and then spoke up. “Does that help you move your Spirit?”

Sift opened his eyes and focused on Ruwen. “Not really.”

Ruwen’s face itched under the wraps, and he wished he could take them off. There had been nothing in the book about keeping the breathing techniques a secret, but then it seemed everything related to Harvesting was shrouded in secrecy. Even his Suffocation Bracer made him invisible to hide the patterns of his breathing.

Secrets filled Ruwen’s life, and even here, he couldn’t reveal them all. But Sift was his best friend, and Lylan was right, breathing seemed like a dumb secret to keep here.

Ruwen remembered the description for the Fortifying breathing technique inThe Worker’s Guide to Harvesting:

Fortifying: The most used breath. Exhale sharply, emptying your lungs and minimizing the distance between Meridians. Take a short shallow breath immediately followed by exhalation. Repeat seven times, almost as if panting. Take three deep breaths exhaling slowly after each. Repeat from the beginning.

“Sit up straight. You’re slouching,” Ruwen said.

“Ruwen!” Lylan said, a touch of anger in her voice.

Sift sat straighter. “No, he’s right. The proper pose is important.”

Ruwen bit his lip under the face wraps. “I’m going to tell you another technique, but I want the same promise of secrecy from both of you.”

“Toss my dagger, you two are idiots,” Lylan said.

“I agree,” Sift said in a serious voice.

“Fine. Again,” Lylan said.

Ruwen described the breathing technique to Sift. “Have you ever seen or heard of that before?”

“No, but it can’t hurt to try,” Sift said.

Sift practiced the breathing method a few times with his eyes open. Then closed them and started the cycle.

After a minute, nothing had happened. Ruwen tried to bite his thumbnail, but the wraps covered his mouth.

Ruwen signaled to Lylan in Shade Speak. Close. Eyes.

Grabbing his shirt, Ruwen waited for Lylan to close her eyes. She understood what he meant to do and looked the other direction. Ruwen lifted his shirt just enough to expose the Spirit it hid. He moved closer to Sift, and the tendrils of Spirit curled outward, much of it touching Sift. The Spirit disappeared as soon as it made contact with Sift’s skin.

They all sat like that for another few minutes. Ruwen thought Sift’s shoulder looked brighter, and he lowered his shirt. He tapped Lylan on the arm and she faced him. She still had one hand on Sift’s shoulder while her other hand pressed Sift’s arm against his chest. She leaned closer to Sift’s shoulder and then looked up at Ruwen, her eyes wide.

“It’s working,” Lylan mouthed.

Spirit oozed out of Sift’s torso and into his arm. After a few minutes, the entire area around the severed location had smoothed out, and the injury had disappeared.

“You can let go,” Sift whispered to Lylan.

Lylan leaned back, letting Sift go. Sift rotated his arm and winced in pain.

“It still hurts, but it's usable. Where did you learn that breathing technique?” Sift asked.

“In one of my books,” Ruwen said.

Sift nodded but didn’t pry further. “I owe you one.”

Ruwen smiled and stood. “More than one.”

Sift and Lylan stood as well, and Lylan retrieved the sleeve of Sift’s shirt. Sift held out his arm, and Lylan slid the sleeve up it. But when the pieces of shirt met, they didn’t reform like they usually did.

Sift pulled the sleeve back off and tied it around his forehead. “I’ll fix it once we get back home.”

“Where did that creature go?” Lylan asked.

Ruwen turned around and looked where the mangled beaver had been, ten feet away. It had disappeared.