36
Kora
Kora’s mind was the calm of the ocean before a storm, the stillness of a ship before a tempest. She rolled her shoulders, her spine cracking as she precariously balanced on the railing of her balcony. Her boots grounded her, crushing the ivy creeping up, as her arms rose above her head.
“Are you sure about this?” she yelled down to Raiden.
He laughed as he stood in a rectangular courtyard spanning this side of the castle.
Curated with apple trees and simple, light pebbles.
Matching baby’s breath and purple anemone flowers to Kora’s balcony interspersed the trees.
Behind Raiden were various lush gardens, before meeting the sloping hill towards Mistros City, surrounded by sequoia trees and sugar pines.
“It’s test day. Time to see what you can do!”
Kora rolled her eyes. It’d been five days since Kordelia had consumed her mind, breaking through the barrier she’d established. It’d been confusing waking up to find Raiden, Skylar, Aryn, Aerion, and Sirona all staring down at her, eyes wide like deer caught by a hunter.
Blood had matted Raiden’s face, Aryn had been scarily pale, yellow bile coating his chin. All five of them were weak, their hair frayed, and her room . . . it was as if a tornado had hit.
Since then, Raiden had decided there was no time for rest. She spent her mornings training with Aryn—and surprisingly Skylar—after a hearty breakfast, then would spend an hour with Aerion learning about history, runes, and weapons.
After lunch, she’d train her magic with Raiden until sundown, him determined that mastering magic meant she could grapple control within her mind.
He’d been the most insufferable, evading her questions about the past, shying away from getting too close to her, always instructing at a distance.
After sundown, Kora visited Erick every night.
Sirona always came with, probing Kora with questions about her new gift.
She’d made it clear that she thought it was dangerous, that she believed Kora was upsetting the balance of nature.
But she didn’t care if it meant Erick lived.
He looked better every day that passed, like her magic was still lingering within him, healing every part of him.
And then came Raiden’s tests. He’d planned weekly tests to see if she’d met his goals, and apparently punishments were to be involved if she failed.
She ignored how that made her twitch, a sizzle causing her thighs to squeeze together.
Today was the first test day, and he’d asked her to walk off the gods-damned balcony.
“I don’t fancy dying today!” Kora called. No, she was meant to die some other time in the future, hopefully when her mission had been completed and the islands saved.
“Still scared of heights, Huntress?” The smirk was audible from up here.
“No, but normal people don’t walk off balconies.”
“Do you see any normal people here? Come on, Huntress. I’ll catch you if you fall.” Those final words had a slight tease to them, and Kora bit her lip as the heat between her thighs increased. Good gods.
With a deep breath, she lifted one foot and stepped off the balcony.
Wind tore at her hair, bouncing off her leathers as she soared to the ground.
She willed her elemental blessed strength, fortifying her limbs with imaginary steel.
Her essence was growing each day, and Kora revelled in the physical and magical vigour returning to her body.
With a thud Kora landed with one leg knelt, the impact vibrating her skeleton as she grinned up at Raiden. The distance had nearly been higher than leaping from Hell’s Serpent, and pride bloomed within Kora.
“Passed.” He turned on his heel, beckoning her to follow.
“Do I get a prize?” Kora continued biting her lip, surprised at her own confidence as Raiden stilled at her flirtatious nature.
He pivoted, his chest so close to hers all she had to do was breathe deeply and they would touch.
“What do you desire, Huntress?” His eyes were even more breathtaking outside.
The muted Mist causing them to appear silver, like steel or armour, with nuances of green from the trees and orange from the castle.
“Answers,” Kora replied cheerily. “You promised if I best you in training, I could learn about my past.”
Raiden scoffed before walking away. “I recall Aerion’s stipulations being you had to pin one of us for three seconds—oof!”
Kora barrelled into Raiden, using a sliver of water magic to tangle with his feet. He went flying forwards, surprise on Kora’s side as she used her weight to push him to the ground. He sprawled on the pebbled path as Kora pushed her knees into his back.
“Ouch.” Raiden twisted his head to the side to look back at her with a grin.
“One, two—” Wind caressed her arms, lifting her off him. She groaned as he stood beside her, his magic stroking her neck lightly before fading.
“I think the less you know about your past, the better. We don’t know what it could do to your mind. But we know she can somehow use your understanding of that life to confuse you.”
“Well, she knows mine. She’s been watching all this time. I had you pinned, you can’t use magic to win.”
“You used magic to get me down.” Raiden winked as he continued strolling. “All the more reason. What’s to stop her interfering with your web of memories? Swapping things out? Changing what happened?”
That was another thing. Kordelia was referred to as she quite a lot. As if uttering her name would summon her. Sirona checked in on Kora every night during her visits to Erick, constantly probing her scar, checking for cracks in her mental state.
“Can she do that? The things I see, it’s out of place.
Like darkness at the edge of your vision before you pass out.
” Kora shivered as Raiden led her through the gardens on the west side, weaving through magnificent trees and bushes overflowing with anemone.
She rushed to keep up with him, the sequoias so wide she could lose him within a moment’s notice if she took a wrong turn.
“I have no idea. This is a first for anyone. Barron’s magic is unknown, and not recorded.”
“If only we could find some of the original texts,” Kora said as her mind drifted to her lessons with Aerion.
“Books from the Devanian scholars could potentially explain everything we need to know about magic, a fugue state, and Barron. Aerion’s books are barely sixty years old. What about that archive?”
“We can’t go there.”
“Why? Any archive surely has scriptures from before the conquest.” Kora paced to match Raiden’s long strides.
He glanced back at her. “I’ll keep that in mind. But we can’t go there.”
“Can you at least answer one question? It’s not about my past.” Kora clasped her hands together as they deepened into the thick of the trees, ignoring how the last time she’d done this, Blake had betrayed her.
Raiden nodded once as his hand brushed a tree engraved with a swirling cloud, turning right at its thick base.
She may have forgiven him, but she needed to know.
“Did you know Agatha? Why couldn’t you save her?”
“I don’t know who that is,” he replied as he followed a series of marked tree trunks.
“She was at Mossfell Castle. Grey hair, scolding nature. Blind. A stare that could kill you where you stood.”
Raiden stopped abruptly, turning to face Kora. “That was Agatha? You knew her?” His tone did nothing to comfort her. “I’m sorry. She . . . she said she couldn’t follow your path any longer. That her time was at its end. I tried to help, to convince her to come with us.”
Kora’s mouth gaped as she smothered the familiar grief lingering at the edge. She couldn’t mourn any longer, couldn’t succumb to the darkness beckoning her to hide away and allow Barron’s tainted version of Kordelia to assume control.
“She was my friend,” Kora responded as they continued through the woods. “She taught me about Devania, and magic.”
“She seemed wise,” Raiden mused. “She had magic herself.”
“What!” Kora tripped on a root, and a band of power wrapped around her arm as Raiden used his wind to steady her. Her cheeks blushed as his magic faded, leaving a cold coil of air around her arm.
“She transformed before my eyes, reverting to youth. Something I’ve never seen happen before. It’s like she knew she was going to die.”
Kora wracked her mind for hints of Agatha’s magic. She’d been perceptive in her blind state, with heightened senses and a skill for potions, but never beyond that. Had Agatha possessed a secret life? Was that why she’d sometimes cry in the back rooms, mourning something she never revealed to Kora?
But her skin . . . she’d reverted in age when Kora had sprinted to her body, desperate to save her from Mossfell Castle.
Raiden couldn’t have saved Agatha. It hadn’t been his fault.
Out of everyone, he’d been the most adamant to keep Kordelia mentally locked up, yet he’d also been the most distant physically . . . until recently.
She recalled flashes of her blue dome within the void, how Agatha had begged her to let the mysterious figure back into her mind, now understanding all this time it’d been Raiden. Somehow, Agatha knew he would help Kora.
“I miss her,” Kora admitted.
Raiden’s eyes saddened briefly and then he blinked. He clearly understood Kora didn’t want pity, she didn’t want to be doted upon and consoled. She wanted action, she wanted a new kind of revenge.
“Grief never leaves you,” he said, his voice scratching. “It gets a bit easier every day, but it will always be there.” Raiden marched on, not offering Kora the chance to ask who he’d lost as he pushed back a thicket to reveal a shimmering river cutting through the heart of a clearing.
Thick aspen trees surrounded them, their bases sturdy and wide, and light cascaded everywhere, bouncing off the crystal-clear river. Kora inhaled deeply as she scanned the ground. No broken roots, no shadowy pockets or misshapen hands. This wasn’t the Emerald Forest.