BA3 - Chapter 12

Long River escorted me through the many levels of the school, giving me a proper tour. Lodging was at the very top. We had a room to ourselves, and my bag had already been brought up to the open bed roll—something I was not accustomed to. While I knew the Kokyu slept on the floors and rolled up their beds every morning for a neat and tidy room, it was still strange to see. Convenient for saving space, though.

Next, the took me to the shoot_tk. The long vertical shaft at the center of the pagoda. It was open to the sky above, and wind was pumped through from the bottom. The square corridor opened from all four directions to the center spire that glowed with pearly light. I reached out and placed my hand against the glass. It was warm and hummed with energy.

“This is for descending all the way to the bottom, and can only be accessed from the rooming levels,” Roku said with a nervous look that I deciphered in a second. He’d used it for purposes other than that before and had been punished.

“How did you get in trouble?” I asked with a kind smile.

His eyes bulged and he looked to Yen, asking, “Can they read minds?”

I chuckled. “Some of us can.”

Ko-nah was still as a tree in the dead of winter while the others chuckled.

Yen put a hand on Roku’s shoulder, then looked at me. “He was trying to send snacks up to our room.”

“I get hungry at night. I need a lot of energy for these muscles,” Roku protested and flexed.

“So, how do I use it?” I asked, nodding toward the shoot_tk.

Yen crossed his arms with a grin. “Have you done air manipulation yet?”

The other Bastion students had not, but tk_the crew name had covered it in Min-hwan’s summer training. “Some, but not much,” I said, trying to be vague so if I seemed to pick it up too quickly, I’d have an excuse.

Yen closed his eyes. “Align your core for an enzo spell.” He took a deep breath, and so did I, closing my eyes like him. I let him guide me through the process of creating the munje.

“When you have enough for ten seconds down both arms, move like this,” he said, and I opened my eyes. He took a wide stance, then began circling his arms horizontally out in front of him. It looked as though he were pulling the air in toward his chest. His torso swayed side to side with each scooping motion.

I mimicked him, since this was not how I’d used air manipulation before.

“The wind in the shoot_tk is strong, so you’ll need your own shell to help direct it around you. Allow the enzo to flow down your arms in this motion, and imagine a barrier growing up from your feet. It’s shaped like an arrow, and will help you pierce the magically infused gusts.”

‘Magically infused? Mae, can you see anything about that wind?’I kept my face placid and asked in my mind.

“I’ll need some ma to evaluate it,” she replied.

Yen moved his arms faster and I noticed the light blue enzo munje flowing down his clothes. “One part with reinforce your body to keep it in that arrow shape. The other half is to create the air shield that will provide enough resistance to slow your decent when you near the bottom.”

He halted his movement and then held his arms parallel to the ground. “This is stop, and up.”

He bent his elbows and brought his arms halfway to his sides. “This is slow down.”

Finally, he slapped his palms against his legs and stood up rigidly. “This is go down real fast.”

I nodded. “Sounds easy enough.”

“Ready to try?” Yen asked with an excited grin.

I looked to Ko-nah. If he wanted to kill me, this would be the easiest way. Dispell my magic just before I jumped into the shoot. But would I be ejected out the top of the pagoda, or plummet to the bottom like a stone? Either way, Ko-nah could murder me easily without being implicated.

“We’ll all follow you down,” Ko-nah said, as if trying to assuage my fear. Despite not being able to read my mind, my facial expression had shifted, making the worry obvious. The others could’ve been thinking I was scared to fall, but I could tell Ko-nah knew exactly what I was thinking.

Would he not be concerned I’d do the same to him? If I wanted to kill him, this would be my best chance. The tightness of Mae’s fear pulled at my chest, but she was silent.

“Okay,” I said, my voice cracking from nerves. I released the enzo and watched the cloud of baby blue mist drift down my dobok to my feet. Warmth swelled from my hands and looped under my toes. When I put my arms out wide, the bubble of warm expanded and grew colder.

“You’ve created the same polarization filed in front of you as used on the flying trains!” Mae declared with excitement.

‘Analyze as much of it as you can,’ I thought with a smile.

“You can feel it?” Yen asked, beaming.

“I can,” I nodded, excitement washing away my straight face.

Kago stepped up to the shielding glass. “When you’re ready place your hand here—”he set is palm against a faintly glowing red light I hadn’t seen before—“then say tsuro.”

Whistling wind ripped past the opening that appeared in a blink next to Kago’s hand. Ko-nah swirled his hands around him and created the same barrier under his feet. The three of us stepped up to the edge, and I looked to Kago and Roku.

“You aren’t coming?” I asked over the rushing air.

They shook their heads. “We need our second band,” Roku said, looking downtrodden.

I turned to Yen, then Ko-nah, then over the edge threshold. It was bright all the way down, but I couldn’t see the bottom from my angle.

“I don’t really like this,” Mae said with apprehension.

I shook my head and stepped a little closer. ‘We have to learn more about their technology, and this is a piece of it.’

“See you at the bottom!” Yen said as he pushed past me, leaping out into the abyss as if he were jumping into a calm lake. He zipped upwards and disappeared for a brief second, then shot back down with an excited howl.

Ko-nah stepped up next to me. “Can you trust us?”

I gritted my teeth and my gaze shot to the two excited students waiting by the open doorway. I could back out. I could pretend I was afraid.

Ko-nah jumped and shot upwards. He dropped back down into view, holding his arms and elbows out as a forty-degree angle. He hovered, wiggling about as if he were balancing on a ball, then found his equilibrium. This was my chance. Just a flick of ma munje to dispel his shield and Ko-nah would be ejected into the sky.

He looked at me, the fear in his eyes revealing that same knowledge.

“Running out of shield, here!” Ko-nah yelled. “Are you coming?”

I stepped close enough to feel the wind pulling me. It was now, or never.

I jumped off and felt my body buckle under the gravity of being blasted straight up. The zo in my muscles held fast to the shape I’d created with my arms. I shot through the top of the building and up to the tops of the massive trees.

The sun was just setting, and the horizon was painted in orange and pink. The colorful hues reflected off the towering glass buildings of the city and bathed the land and sea in golden light. Wonderful.

“Jiyong, go down!” Mae yelled.

I looked down to see I was at least ten meters above the pagoda. I pulled my arms and elbows in, dropping me back through the wind tunnel and into the school. I blew past Ko-nah with a whoop, then raised my arms to slow down. I could see the individual floors on the way down, and slowed further when I saw Hana.

She ran to the glass and mouthed my name with a panicked expression. I smiled, then lowered my arms once more. Ko-nah caught up to me and we dropped in time.

“There’s a lot you need to hear,” Ko-nah yelled at me.

A red banner reading, “Slow Down” repeated over and over against the wall. I slowed my descent and looked down to see the glowing floor. I drifted down uneasily as the strength in my muscles waned. I passed a bubble of aqua munje and the wind died down to nothing just when I reached the bottom.

Ko-nah landed next to me and brushed his hair out of his face. “Fun, right?” he asked with a friendly smile and excitement in his voice.

I scowled. I’d never seen this façade. How was he faking this well?

“So glad you’re enjoying your sentence,” I said with cold detachment, leaving him behind in the shoot_tk.

“You’d understand if you’d just listen,” Ko-nah said with pained frustration.

I stopped at the door and looked back. “Sympathetic ears are for friends.”

Ko-nah took a deep breath, then brought his knuckles to his chest.

Heat raged in my chest and exploded out my mouth. “Don’t you dare!”

He stopped short of knocking, and swallowed, then dropped his hand to his side.

I stepped away from the noisy wind tunnel, hoping the rushing sound had covered my anger. Yen was on the other side of the opening, clapping for me with a grin.

“How was that?” He asked.

“It was alright.” I shrugged with a playful smirk, though I still felt the tempest of rage in my chest.

Yen laughed and I did too, though the fire in my veins threatened to make my hands tremble. Ko-nah stepped from the tube with a smile, ready to get on with the tour. We took the elevator back to the top for relaxation time before lights out. I unrolled my bed and unpacked my few belongings. Ko-nah didn’t attempt to talk to me again, and we came to lights out with an uneasy sense of dread building.

Ko-nah could easily be doing Dokun’s bidding. The whole thing could be a setup designed to force me to reveal our intentions, and allow Dokun to murder us righteously with one of his Enjiho. Or he could be playing a different game entirely. I hated the game of lies, the doubt, the second guessing…

But there was something about the fear in his eyes, and the desperation in his tone.

“You still need me.”

Perhaps Ko-nah got himself in deeper than he’d intended, and was looking for yet another way out. Well, it was time for him to live with the choices he’d made. I wouldn’t be his salvation today, or any day.