31. Drowning
“ T his exercise is all about endurance!” Master Kato shouted to the class as they lined up by the lake.
It had been four days since Aeden had inadvertently healed Rowan’s finger, and he had focused on everything else other than that ever since. Including avoiding going to see Mistress Plato.
Rowan had tried cornering Aeden a couple of times, but he managed to avert her and make his excuses before escaping – usually to a textbook in the library or to help Lyric with his research on Nyra. As of yet, Lyric had not found anything meaningful to help them identify his Aer-Kin.
Aeden had even avoided bringing up his newfound healing magic.
He wasn’t even sure if Nyra knew that he had drawn upon their Weave to summon the magic to begin with.
He had told Rowan that he would address it, which was why he was avoiding her, but he was still processing his magic manifesting in this way.
Out of all the powers he could have developed as a Support, healing was the one he wanted the least. If he was being honest with himself, this new discovery had knocked him back in a way that he wasn’t expecting.
“This is going to be horrendous,” Harrison said. He was shivering next to Aeden in nothing but his shorts. Aeden focused on the lake in front of them.
The rest of their class was also dressed for a swimming exercise, dithering and shivering excessively as they awaited instruction from Master Kato.
The master of the water was a fellow Support class, although Aeden wasn’t quite sure what powers he possessed.
He was tall like Master Storme, with dark skin and short dark hair.
Dark tattoos covered his upper body. He also stood in a pair of shorts as he addressed the cohort.
It was a cold day, the windchill making it ten times harder to stand by the lake than it would be in the summer. Aeden guessed that this was the purpose of the exercise. It was an endurance test, after all.
Aeden stood reluctantly, focusing his mind on anything else besides the cold. He thought of the beach, of warm sunny days, even of warm baths to avoid the reality that he was freezing cold.
They hadn’t even gotten into the water yet.
“They can’t send us in the lake, not when it’s this c-c-cold,” Harrison said.
“I think they’re going to,” Aeden said.
“Oh, so you can s-s-speak.”
It made Aeden feel guilty. He didn’t enjoy keeping his distance from his friends – in fact, it was quite lonely – but as he kept telling himself, he was doing it for their own good .
“This is a simple exercise,” Master Kato said, standing in front of the lake.
“There are three markers out in the lake. You have to swim past each one and then back to the shoreline. There are a number of obstacles that you’re going to face, the main one being the cold.
” He stepped into the water without so much as flinching.
“Remember, this is an endurance exercise. The water is only as cold as you allow it to be.”
That seemed like a ridiculous statement to make; the air outside was cold enough, and Aeden knew that the water was going to be that much worse. That said, he was still trying his best to keep his head down and prove what he could do.
“It won’t just be the cold that you face in these waters,” Master Kato said. “There are some lake creatures that may see you as food.” He laughed to himself. “I have already been out to scout the route, and as best as I can tell, they’re not around this part of the lake . . . today, anyway.”
That did little to relax Aeden, and judging by the audible sigh of frustration from his peers, he wasn’t the only one who felt this way.
Failing was not an option today. He’d not only be failing Nyra if he was expelled, he would be failing his parents and his true mission at the academy, uncovering the secret of their deaths.
In fact, he didn’t know if failure was an option now that he was a bonded rider.
What he did know was that he couldn’t risk anything, for Nyra’s sake and for Aeden’s own mission to find out more about his parents.
“My advice is to stick to the markers,” Master Kato continued. “The last thing you want is to get caught in an undercurrent.”
“Great,” Harrison said, “like we didn’t have enough to worry about. My balls are going to shrivel up as soon as I hit that water, then what? ”
Aeden looked at Harrison. “Do you really want me to answer that?”
“Everybody line up at the edge of the water!” Master Kato demanded, and all the students walked towards the water’s edge.
The water was still and calm, and Aeden steadied his breathing as he sought the three markers that Master Kato had referenced. One by one he marked them, surprised at the distance between each one.
“I’ll be swimming from the back to make sure no one falls behind. When I say so, you’ll all step forward and begin the exercise.”
There was a collective groan from the cohort, which only served to bring further laughter from the eager Master. He seemed to be enjoying all of this just as much as they were all hating it.
“Forwards!” he shouted.
Reluctantly, they all stepped forward, and Aeden knew that for however long this would take, he was going to have to dig deep. He braced himself for the cold with every step he took.
Nothing could have prepared him for the icy chill that greeted him as his feet hit the water and stole a breath from him.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Harrison said as he stepped in beside Aeden, his teeth instantly chattering.
With each step that Aeden took, the sensation only got worse as the water slowly crept up his legs until he was waist-deep in the lake.
“And there goes my balls,” Harrison said .
Aeden, however, needed to focus on himself if he was to get through this moment.
“Dip,” Master Kato said to another collective groan. “Now!” he demanded, sensing the hesitance from the cohort.
Reluctantly, everyone dipped into the water, Aeden himself crossing his arms over his chest before plunging himself into the lake.
A horrendous cold tore through Aeden’s body, and he quickly stood back up, his ribs already aching as he took what felt like a hundred breaths in only a matter of moments.
“A bit of immersion therapy will make this exercise a little easier,” Master Kato laughed.
“Anyone that enjoys this is a sadistic son of a bitch if you ask me,” Harrison said.
“Something to say, Harrison?” Master Kato asked.
“Nothing, sir.” He then lowered his voice. “Son of a bitch, has he got enhanced hearing?” he chattered as he slowly entered the water.
“On my count, you will start the exercise.”
Aeden braced himself for a countdown.
“Go!” Master Kato shouted, giving no countdown whatsoever.
“Shit!” Aeden said as the students threw themselves into the water and started swimming. Aeden took another step forward, then jumped into the water and set off towards the first marker.
It was cold, colder than anything Aeden had ever felt before. He used his arms and legs to help propel himself through the water as he tried to find a good rhythm to his swimming strokes .
It was torturous. Each of his arms and legs felt as though they were made of stone. He would have questioned making any headway if it wasn’t for the fact that the first marker was getting closer and closer with every stroke he made.
It was his thighs that felt the worst, as if they had been touched by ice themselves. He tried his hardest not to focus on it, but that was to no avail. The cold was all he could think about.
He made it to the first marker and set his sights on the next one.
There were six students ahead of him. Who they were, he had no clue, as he was unable to make out any details from this point.
He kept going, pushing through the temptation to swim back.
He kept pushing forwards – after all, progress was progress.
Aeden simply wanted to get out of the cold water as fast as possible, and that meant swimming fast and hard, with everything he had.
Just keep going, just keep swimming, and we’ll be back on dry ground soon.
Aeden pushed a little too hard as he reached the second marker, which was the furthest point out from the shoreline. He took in a breath of air just as he lowered his face into the lake.
Freezing-cold water entered his mouth as he breathed in, and it instantly brought him to cough.
He stopped as the compulsion to cough took over, and he treaded the water as he tried to gather himself.
He was not prepared for the panic that greeted him.
His legs kicked frantically as a flashback came to the forefront of his mind.
At the centre of it was a blurred face before he found himself being dragged from the water.
It was the same feeling he had just endured, the breathing in of water, the spasming lungs as they desperately searched for air.
He was brought back in an instant to the night that Kael nearly drowned him, and that was all he could think about as the panic got worse.
Suddenly he could feel Kael’s hands forcing him under the water.
But that was illogical. He wasn’t here, was he?
Flashes of the attack in the bathroom erupted in Aeden’s mind, and panic enveloped him as the memory gripped him like sea vines.
He continued to thrash around, flailing in the water as his heart beat hard and fast, his desperation for air only getting worse as he continued to cough.
A new fear had been unlocked, and this was the wrong place and the wrong time for it to activate.
“ Aeden! ” Nyra called out to him through the Weave. “ Aeden, what’s happening? ”
Aeden couldn’t draw on any strength to reach back out to her through his panic.
He raked his hands and legs through the water but only found himself sinking below the surface.