Page 31 of The Tribes of Magic (Paragons #3)

GAIA

I ’d plan to head home, just like I told my friends, but I ran into Kato just outside the dining hall.

“Seven. I was just about to head inside to find you. Do you have a moment to talk?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

His blue diamond gaze swept down the hallway to his left, then to his right. There were people in both. “Not here. Follow me.”

Kato turned and started walking. I followed him down many long hallways until we came to the base of the Spiral Tower.

I’d studied the Castle’s blueprints, so I knew all the key points of interest, inside and out.

The Spiral Tower was situated along the hallway that joined the Sorcerers’ castle and the Elves’ castle.

I looked up the winding staircase. The windows were stained glass, and the handrails were bright gold.

“This is the Spiral Tower. Your tower,” I said.

I hated myself immediately. What a stupid comment. Of course he knew the name of the tower where he lived.

“I just need to pick up a few things before we go.”

Go? Go where? I didn’t have the chance to ask him. He was already moving up the seemingly endless staircase with purpose and confidence—and at a very brisk walk. I guess it was easier to pace yourself when you knew when the end was coming. I did my best to keep up.

“You did well today.” He glanced sidelong at me.

I must have been a sight to behold, stumbling my way up the winding staircase.

“Which part?” I wheezed. “Catching the mercenaries? Or setting off a tsunami at the swamp?”

“I was referring to the mercenaries, but yes, according to Eris, the tsunami was very impressive. But do you know what would have been even more impressive?”

I thought I had a pretty good idea what he was going for, but I just couldn’t help myself. “An even bigger tsunami?” I smirked at him.

He didn’t take the bait. “What would have been even more impressive was if you’d actually meant to set off the tsunami.”

I swallowed down the hard, foreboding lump in my throat. “My magic is either wild, free-flowing, and out of control— or I can’t get it to come out at all.”

“Whether your magic is shy or aggressive, Seven, it’s the same problem: lack of control. Learning control over your magic will allow you to call it when you need it and dismiss it when you don’t.”

“You make it sound so easy.” I hacked out a few coughs. This staircase was brutal.

“Using magic will never be easy, but you will get stronger. You just have to decide to fight for your magic. I will help you. Everyone’s magic works in unique ways. We will figure out how your magic works. I promise.”

“Why are you fighting so hard to help me?”

“Because you’re worth fighting for. You’re special. And one day, you’ll realize that too.”

“How can you be so sure about me?”

He stopped walking and turned to face me.

“I’ve known you’re special since the day I met you.

When the Cursed Ones attacked the Garden, everyone ran.

But not you. You buried your fear and tried to protect people.

Again and again, I’ve seen you do that. I’ve seen you put others first. That is the kind of person I can respect.

That is the kind of person I will do everything in my power to help. ”

My eyes were wet and my throat tight. I was still getting used to the idea of people fighting for me.

“Thank you, Kato. You’re a good person. And a good friend.”

“So are you.” He took my hand. “Now, come on. We’re almost there.”

He led me higher up the winding staircase. We soon reached the end, just as he’d promised. A large door, twice as wide and three times as tall as a normal door stood before us. It was made of wood and metal and looked really, really heavy.

“How can anyone even open that huge, heavy thing?” I asked him.

“Not just anyone can. I’ve coded the lock to my magic, so only I can open it.”

His hands closed around the door handle, which actually resembled a wheel more than a handle. He gave the wheel a hard turn, and the metal-linked vines retreated across the door’s wooden surface. There was a series of mechanical clicks and clinks, followed by some humming and buzzing.

“Does opening your door always take an hour?” I chuckled.

“I needed to put up lots of defensive measures. The other Knights love to prank me.”

I was going to protest that no one would prank a Knight Commander, but then I thought of Conner. Conner would definitely prank Kato if he got the chance. I wondered if he had to get inside Kato’s room to do it. Because one look at Kato’s defenses told me breaking in was nothing short of impossible.

Finally, Kato got his door open. I followed him inside, noting that his room was much friendlier than his door.

There were big glass windows on every wall, letting in lots of light.

He had a balcony that went all the way around the outside of the tower.

There was even a lounge chair out there.

I pictured him in the warm sunshine, reading from one of his many books.

And he had a lo t of books. Every wall of his room that wasn’t covered in glass was covered in shelves full of meticulously-ordered magic books.

“Wow! You have your own personal library up here!”

“A Polymage needs to know a lot about every kind of magic.”

Kato brushed his fingertip across one of his books. Its spine was not perfectly aligned with the others, but he corrected that mistake now. I smiled. His OCD was adorable.

“A Polymage also needs to stay perfectly organized, or you get buried by all the things you need to do. Come on. I want to show you something.” He waved me closer.

I followed him past a canopy bed fit for a prince, past an opening in the bookshelves, to a walk-in closet. Or maybe it was more of a walk-in armory closet. Suits of armor hung from various racks. Kato headed to one of those racks now.

He grabbed a suit off a hanger and handed it to me. “What do you think?”

I looked it over. “It isn’t metal. Or leather.” I turned the suit over in my hands, and it seemed to change color as the light and shadows shifted. “Conner has a suit a lot like it. His is made from dragon scales.”

“This one is not made of dragon scales. It’s made of a material I developed myself. It doesn’t have a name yet.”

“In that case, I vote for calling it ‘unicorn armor’. People will be throwing money at you to get a suit of unicorn armor.”

Kato’s face grew serious. “I didn’t make this armor to share with anyone. It’s…special.”

“How many of them did you make?”

“Three.”

He pointed out two similar suits still hanging on the rack. All three suits were flexible unitards.

“Very cool.” I tried to hand the suit back to him.

He stopped my hands, closing my fingers around the suit. “That one is for you.”

“I thought you didn’t make the armor to share with anyone.”

“You aren’t just anyone,” he told me seriously. “You are my Tribe.”

I gawked at him.

“Say something, Seven.”

It took me a few moments to get my jaw unstuck. “I’m not sure what to say,” I admitted. “I’ve never been part of anything bigger. I’ve never fit in anywhere before.”

“Neither have I. It’s nice not being alone anymore. A Tribe of two is much nicer than a Tribe of one.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

A Tribe of three would be even better yet, but Conner wasn’t coming back as long as the Government refused to let the Knights look for the missing Apprentices.

“A Tribe of two, it is. Two friends.” I smiled at him.

He returned the gesture. “So you’ve forgiven me for being so hard on you at training this morning?”

“No,” I said lightly. “But I’m still your friend. Fair warning, though: the next time you make me do something that humiliating, I am going to throw snowballs at you.”

“Fireballs would be more effective.”

I laughed. “I think I have to work my way up to that.” I glanced at the suit in my hands. “So, will wearing this give me any special powers? Like hopefully make me fireproof, since apparently I’ll soon be dodging fireballs.”

“Come on. I’ll show you what it does.”

I followed Kato out of the armory closet, across the room, and into a changing area.

It looked like an actual changing room. Except instead of a tight cabin with only a flimsy curtain, this changing room was luxury class, decked out in marble and gold.

There were mirrors on all the walls. And Kato showed me which button to press to make the door go from mirror, to transparent glass, to completely black.

Then he left me there alone to get changed.

The unitard suit fit me perfectly. The material was snug but flexible, stretching with me as I moved. It glittered like black scales, but it was smooth and soft.

When I stepped out of the changing room, Kato was waiting in his room, dressed in a suit of his own.

“What do you think of it?” he asked me.

“It’s beautiful.” I pivoted around, watching the light hit the material at different angles, making it change color. “But what does it do?”

“You’ll see.”

He took my hand and led me back down the Spiral Tower.

As we crossed the Hex, people stared at us and our funny suits.

I hesitated as we approached the stream that marked the edge of the Castle grounds.

The stream was fast and busy, its basin overflowing with water from the recent rainstorms. A tug from Kato’s hand pulled me forward.

“How are we supposed to walk through all that water with only a thin layer of fabric covering our feet?” I asked him.

He glanced back at me, his blue-diamond eyes twinkling in the sunlight. “Trust me.”

So I kept walking. And, sure enough, even though I was soon up to my knees in water, I didn’t feel cold or wet.

What I did feel was a deep, close connection to nature.

To the trees of the forest we walked through.

To the animals sleeping below ground. Even to the tiny droplet of moisture in the air.

I felt the earth, the birds, the animals, the trees, everything.

“Wow,” I gasped. Water was dripping down the tree trunks, and I felt that too.

“Your suit links you to the planet,” Kato explained. “It allows Gaia to speak to you.”

I could feel that. My senses were in tune with the elements. I could feel the light of the moon, the shadows, the water, and the earth. My worries fell away. There was only the planet’s song now, the harmony of this world and everything alive in it.

“Gaia has many voices,” Kato told me.

Past the forest, we came to a rocky hill. As we climbed it, I felt like the rock face was a part of me, like it was just an extension of my skin.

“Gaia has many moods.”

We jumped off the hill, falling through the sky, down to the lake. The drop was slow. Time had lost all meaning.

“Knowing Gaia will allow you to know yourself.”

We crashed through the lake’s surface, swimming underwater for a very long time. We didn’t even need to come up for air. We could breathe through the planet.

“I understand,” I told him.

We stepped onto the shore, and I could feel dirt and sand between my toes, even though my feet were covered.

“Magic is beautiful when it exists in harmony.”

Kato used the spark of his magic to light us a fire. The flames danced across my skin, as delicate and soft and strong as a ballerina.

The sky was completely dark by the time we headed back to the Castle.

It felt like only a few moments had passed, but in fact it had been many hours.

I realized I was long overdue for bed, but somehow that didn’t bother me.

I wasn’t tired. I felt invigorated, alive, and in complete harmony with the planet and myself.

“I hope I didn’t take too much of your time,” I said as we returned to the Castle grounds.

“I took you on this journey to show you the majesty of magic. The wonder,” Kato replied. “So that just for a few hours, you could feel a connection to magic, instead of seeing it as a challenge to overcome.”

We’d stopped at a crossroads path in the Hex. One path would take him to his tower. The other would take me away from the Castle and back to the main road.

“Thank you for today,” I said. “Thank you for showing me how wonderfully freeing magic can feel.”

“Sometimes I need a little reminder of that myself.” Kato bowed to me, then he turned to walk away.

“Wait.”

He turned back around.

“When should I stop by your tower to return the suit?”

“Keep it. It’s yours,” he told me. “Put it on whenever you need a reminder that your magic is working with you, not fighting you. So you shouldn’t fight it either.”

I set my hand over my heart. “Thank you, Kato. This is the best gift anyone has ever given me.”

“Good night, Seven.”

“Good night, Kato.”

Happy drowsiness settled in with every step that I took toward my cottage. Finally, I fell into my bed and had calm, peaceful dreams for the first night in a very long time.