Tides from the Deep - Blood Devourer

Talia looked down at her wet palm, unable to process what had just happened.

She could hear some people audibly sighing in relief and felt her blood boiling.

“The Kraken’s spawn doesn’t have any talent,” a man shouted, exhaling loudly.

“Young one,” Tulo said with a frown, clearing his voice to silence the onlookers, “did you focus on the globe’s Mana?”

“I—I...” Talia stuttered. “I don’t know? Can I try again?”

“Oh, wow. Not even one count,” she heard Fiora from behind and bristled with anger. The blonde was giggling as loudly as possible for her to hear.

“Please, let me try again,” Talia said between her teeth. “I wasn’t ready.”

Tulo agreed and generated another globe. This time, before removing his hand, he said, “Are you ready?”

“I am,” she spoke with narrowed eyes, intensely focused on the globe of water, mentally rehearsing all the practice she had done with the Elders and alone. She had visualized this moment for years. She was not going to—

Yet, the instant Tulo withdrew, the sphere plummeted, meeting no resistance until it splashed over her hand, disintegrating. Talia's eyes, wide with disbelief, were fixed on her hand.

“Give me your hand,” Tulo said to Talia, looking harshly at Fiora, who had just bursted out laughing.

He grabbed her still-wet hand without waiting and grimaced.

“Try to push my Mana back,” he said.

Talia, still in a daze, did as instructed.

A few instants passed and then turned into almost ten counts before Tulo gently removed his hand from hers.

“Your channels are completely blocked,” he said slowly. “I can’t push my Mana through your palm, nor can I feel any resistance. It’s a rare condition that makes you unable to control Mana. Your Mana control is completely crippled. It’s as if your Primary Water Channel was Level Zero.”

“Oh, my!” Fiora started laughing so hard that she had to bend over. “The Mana Princess can’t use Mana!”

Tulo slowly looked up from the trembling girl in front of him toward the great prospect that they had found today.

He was a man of honor and discipline. Most importantly, he was fiercely loyal to the Water Riders and their principles.

And that meant taking a very hard decision today.

“Fiora Solara, your lack of empathy—but most importantly, your undeserved cruelty, just lost you your spot among the Water Riders.”

“WHAT?!” Fiora’s tan skin suddenly became extremely pale, and her mouth hung open in front of Tulo’s cold expression.

“The Water Riders protect those without the talent to fight. When in battle, they must have each other’s backs under all circumstances. Your scorn and cruelty are not welcome among us. Therefore, by my authority as Captain and on my honor, I declare that you will never be Initiated by a Water Rider on the count of treason. You will be left on this island. I will personally report to our academy’s Elders on your behavior—do not try to con your way into the academy to be Initiated, Fiora Solara. This has happened before, and the sour promises had tried to go to other islands in order to retake the test. It will not work. They were all thrown into the Deep for their lies.”

“But I—I was just joking!” Fiora screamed, beside herself.

“You won’t ever be Initiated by us,” Tulo replied fiercely. “You will remain on this island. And I won’t tolerate your cheap lies. Elder Noelo, please, take this girl back to your village.” Tulo turned toward those who had passed the test and said with heavy words, “Honor before everything.”

Noelo hesitated just a moment before complying with a rueful expression.

“You foolish girl,” he said softly to Fiora as he and a few other adults had to literally drag her away as she screamed and kicked, foaming at her mouth.

***

Talia was still catatonic, having barely even registered what had just happened to Fiora. She just kept looking at her own traitorous hands.

Why?! Mom’s talent is... isn’t it? Riala had mom’s Primary Water Channel and her Star Water! Shouldn’t I have some of that talent?! How is it possible?! She thought.

Tulo, who had not moved, looked at all the onlookers.

“We are done here. Bring the young promises who have passed the test to the safe shore and arrange for their travel,” he spoke back to his men. “I will join you in a moment. I shall have a word with the girl.”

Everyone started dispersing quickly: they had understood that messing with this man was not a good idea. Tulo emanated a stern aura that had everyone stand straighter.

And once they had left, leaving only the two of them on the shore that faced the Deep, Tulo placed his hands on the girl’s shoulders.

“Talia,” he spoke with uncanny familiarity.

As soon as she heard her name, she snapped out of the reverie, and huge tears started streaming out of her eyes.

“Talia,” Tulo said again, “look at me.”

The girl kept sobbing, but she raised her shining blue eyes to meet Tulo’s.

“I knew your mother,” he spoke slowly. “I fought under her. She saved my life multiple times. I was there when... when she defeated the Kraken. I was the one who found you.”

Tulo paused, looking at the girl and grimacing. He had never been a great communicator.

“You found me?” Talia asked, confused.

She had no recollection of this man, and she was pretty sure she had never seen him set foot on Solara before.

“I sent letters to your sister—I wasn’t allowed here,” the man said, shaking his head.

Letters? I never got any letter, Talia frowned.

“Even now, we’re still dealing with the damages that the last Kraken appearance has left behind. The abyssal creatures have never been this active... Plus, I broke many rules the day I agreed to follow your mother. I was amending my mistake: that’s why I couldn’t visit before, but I thought I would come here for your Init—”

Tulo cut himself off when he realized what he was about to say.

“Anyway,” he continued, “your mother, my Savali, she taught me everything I know. I had to violate our code to come here at least this once, but it’s nothing compared to what I owe Yalena.”

Only the rhythmic sound of waves filled the next moment as Tulo scrutinized Talia’s eyes, identical to her mothers’.

Despite the fact that Talia had never really given any weight to the rumors that she was a monster, she now felt a lump in her throat, and a question came upon her lips before she could catch herself.

“Am I my mom’s daughter?”

“Yes, child,” Tulo sighed, “those kids don’t know anything. I was there. I was there. You’re Yalena’s daughter, Talia.”

“But she had white hair!” Talia rebuked. Her sister, Riala, had white hair like her mother. She, instead, had auburn hair.

“You have your mother’s kind eyes, not the Kraken’s,” Tulo sighed. “Most might not know what Yalena looked like, but you’re her spitting image. Do not ever think you’re the spawn of the Scourge of the Deep. I wish I knew how these ignorant children and fools treated you. Your sister has never said anything about this in her letters...”

Talia tightened her fists.

“I never received any letters!”

“What—” Tulo looked surprised.

Knowing her relationship with Riala, her sister, she wasn’t even going to question Tulo’s words. So, she changed the topic.

“Do you think my mother’s still alive?”

“I don’t know,” Tulo admitted.

“I’ll find her!” Talia said with crazed eyes. “I’ll find my mom, and I’ll become a Water Rider!”

Tulo opened and closed his mouth, not sure what to say, before smiling.

“Your mother has the longest-standing series of infractions among the Water Riders. She always did the impossible. Perhaps that’s what you’re destined to do as well.”

Talia, her jaw clenched, stared at the ground while her tears fell from her pointy nose. Then, another question came to mind.

“Did you know my father?”

“I... no. No, I don’t,” Tulo said with clear hesitation in his eyes.

“We’re almost out of time,” he continued. “The others must be waiting for me. Is there anything else you want to ask?”

She breathed in the marine breeze, wetting her lips and tasting the slight saltiness that came with living in the middle of the sea. Then, she exhaled slowly and asked her last question.

“Is there any way I can learn to manipulate water?”

A shadow of hesitation washed over Tulo’s face as he hesitated to speak, “Even if you were somehow Initiated... no. You won’t be able to become a Hydromancer with your channels blocked. You won’t be able to cast any magic whatsoever. I wish I knew a solution, but perhaps the best option for you is to stay on the island, to find a trade and a good man to marry.”

***

In the Southern Archipelago, people didn’t have to worry about the elements.

At most, the weather would change from happily sunny to a festive drizzle that would allow vegetation and cultivations to grow. In fact, everyone lived in nothing more than huts since building anything more elaborate would require not just a lot of work but would also occupy the beautiful space of the island with ugly constructions. Moreover, the islanders’ culture was one of community and experience: there was no shutting yourself in your own hut. People would think you have gone nuts.

Even the introverts would, at best, sit under a palm tree and watch others play, perhaps while reading scrolls or solving a wooden puzzle.

Stealing, too, wasn’t much of an issue.

This meant that people would just leave most of their belongings in their huts.

Again, on such a small island, no one really had a way to hide things from each other anyway.

That’s why Talia was currently staring at her mother’s first glaive.

It was a beautiful weapon, rather heavy and unwieldy, and also something that wasn’t allowed to just be carried around the island.

Up until now, it had been gathering dust in one of the storage places the islanders had and that was managed by one of the Elders.

This glaive was supposed to be passed onto the first of the two sisters to graduate from the Water Riders academy.

It was also too heavy to be wielded by someone with no Attributes.

Since Riala hadn’t yet graduated and Talia hadn’t even passed this test, the glaive had yet to be entrusted to any one of them.

The villagers said that their mother, before leaving for the final battle, had declared: “Only the one ready to sacrifice everything to challenge the Deep can be its next owner.”

Yalena had later clarified that graduating from the Academy and venturing on solo missions was what she meant, but that wasn’t what Talia had in mind.

Funny for you to say it like that, Mom, she thought, unracking the glaive and almost falling backward as she felt her body strain under the massive weight.

Even though the weapon was extremely heavy for her, it wasn’t impossible to carry.

She slung it over her shoulder, trying hard not to fall over, and donned a smirk.

Just the right weight, she thought with a strained smile as she walked out of the storage room, wobbling.

The Elder responsible wasn’t there today – he was with everyone else, celebrating the young promises and their future adventures.

Meanwhile, Talia had been left behind—or at least, that’s how anyone else would have thought of it.

For a moment, she felt her blood boil, felt the need to cry, to hug Takai, and say goodbye to him, to tell him what she was about to do.

But she knew that if she did, she would not be able to get away with it alone: Takai would definitely want to come – and that wasn’t something Talia wanted.

He was too weak for what she was about to do.

And so, Talia walked toward the inner island, the forested part, where vegetation and nature coexisted with humankind.

She took one of the less used paths that led to the highest point on the island, already feeling her arms and legs protesting under the weight of the glaive.

Still, there wasn’t a single fiber in her entire body that, albeit in pain, would have given up in that moment.

Sure, not one inch of her wasn’t shouting in her head during the first five minutes to give up, to not be crazy, that she would just go kill herself like this.

But she couldn’t give up.

She needed to reach the summit of the island, roughly a mile away from the shore.

From there, she had another place to be—but her only way to reach it was to pass through the summit.

Otherwise, all the rest of the people gathered alongside the shore would see her.

Her trek continued, even though she had to stop to take a few ragged breaths, even after she had transitioned to using the glaive as a walking stick – which turned out to be a worse idea than carrying it on her back – and even though she felt like she was about to pass out from exhaustion.

After the halfway mark, Talia started seeing black at the edge of her vision, afraid that if she stopped, she would just collapse on the ground and not get up until someone, worried about her, would find her.

It took all she had and more.

“You’re the strongest girl I know, Talia.”

She had once had a vision of her mother telling her that.

As usual, no one had believed her since she often made these visions up to confuse people. But this one time, she had seen her mother with so much clarity and detail that she had sworn to her sister that she wasn’t lying.

Her mother’s words resounded in her ears every time she was about to quit, every time she was so close to passing out that only a pinprick of her field of vision was available to her at once.

When she finally reached the summit, she let the glaive fall to the ground, grabbed her knees, and puked.

It wasn’t a glorious and satisfying moment like she had envisioned it—instead, she retched a few more times, her auburn hair completely in disarray, while her vision flashed with red and yellow patches.

“Who’s there?!” She heard a broken voice, sobbing.

“Blergh,” was her response as she opened her mouth. Her stomach was apparently not empty yet.

“Who—” She heard the voice pause, and it took all her strength to pull herself back up and look at the other girl whose hopes had been completely shattered today.

Fiora, with her blonde hair and red, puffy eyes was staring right back at Talia, a mix of confusion and anger tweaking in her eyes.

“What are you doing here, freak?” The blonde asked, trying to clean up the mess on her face. “And what happened to you? Are you sick or something?”

Talia breathlessly pointed at the glaive, then forward. In between each word, she wheezed and coughed.

“Deep... entrance... kill... monster...”

“What are you saying?” Fiora frowned.

“Initiation...”