The Cactus Had a Secret
For several moments after Gorgonbeak's defeat, nobody seemed quite certain what they were supposed to do. The remains of the battle lay everywhere: splintered partitions, scorched metal, feathers embedded in walls, and one particularly impressive hole where the former captain had discovered, rather violently, that a lance wrapped in wind and destiny was not something one ought to meet head-on. The ship's engines continued humming beneath them for a little while, but even that familiar vibration eventually weakened into a low mechanical groan before falling silent altogether. Caelan stood near the middle of the battered deck, the last traces of his Azure armour fading from around him in drifting motes of blue light. His white-and-silver lance vanished a moment later. Nearby, Misaki and Airi were checking their partners while the others recovered from their unpleasant experience of being temporarily turned into statues.
There was still awkwardness in the air, but it was a rather different sort from before.
Misaki approached first, Sakura walking beside her. The little bird creature had returned to her smaller form after the battle, though several feathers were still slightly singed. Airi followed with Flora, whose leafy head bobbed with each step. Neither girl looked particularly comfortable, which immediately made Caelan suspicious. People rarely approached with expressions like that unless they wanted something, had broken something, or were preparing to apologize.
Misaki stopped in front of him.
"Caelan."
"Hm?"
She hesitated, then lowered her gaze slightly. "I wanted to apologize."
Caelan raised an eyebrow.
"For what?"
"For earlier." She folded her arms, then seemed to realize that made her look defensive and promptly unfolded them again. "We judged you too quickly. Especially me. I heard what you said about being a cultivator and the sort of assignments you took, and I decided that meant you were dangerous before I really understood anything about you."
Airi nodded beside her. "We got carried away."
Caelan looked between them.
"You thought I was dangerous."
Airi glanced toward the enormous hole in the wall.
"Well..."
Caelan followed her gaze.
"Fair."
That earned the smallest laugh from Misaki, though she quickly grew serious again. "You still helped us. You knew we didn't completely trust you, and you could have just protected yourself. Instead you fought with us."
Flora stepped forward, small hands clasped together. "I was suspicious too. I'm sorry."
Sakura lowered her head with considerably more dignity. "As am I. I believed you might abandon us if danger came. Your actions proved otherwise."
Caelan studied the little bird.
There was something amusingly formal about the way Sakura spoke, as though she had spent her entire life preparing to stand before a military commander rather than travelling across a desert with a group of children.
"It's fine," he said at last.
Misaki looked up.
"Really?"
Caelan shrugged. "People being suspicious of me isn't exactly new."
The words were casual enough that nobody immediately knew what to say.
He scratched the back of his head.
"And you had just met me. I'd probably be suspicious too if some strange person appeared in the desert, got identified as something he insisted he wasn't, turned out to be stronger than expected and then casually mentioned he'd killed people before."
Airi stared.
"When you say it like that, we sound much more reasonable."
"I know."
"You're not supposed to agree."
Caelan grinned.
The final trace of tension broke.
Airi smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. "Well, you're still weird."
"I've been called worse."
"And you're on our side."
"For now."
Airi's eyes widened.
Caelan waited precisely long enough.
Then he laughed.
"That wasn't funny!"
"It was a little funny."
Flora giggled. Sakura tried very hard not to.
Misaki sighed, though she was smiling now. "Thank you anyway."
Caelan nodded.
"Don't worry about it."
Airi pointed at him. "And if another giant bird tries turning us into stone, you're doing the lance thing again."
"We'll see."
"That means yes."
"It doesn't."
"It definitely does."
A little farther away, Renji was stretching his arms with the expression of someone whose entire body had spent far too long pretending to be architecture.
"I felt like a rock," he muttered. "What exactly happened?"
Haruto rubbed his neck. "I thought I dreamed that."
"You didn't," Caelan said.
Everyone looked at him.
He crouched near one of the broken sections of railing and inspected the damage with mild curiosity. "Gorgonbeak put something into the air. Sleeping gas. After everyone went down, he started petrifying you."
Renji stopped stretching.
"He did what?"
"Tried turning you into statues."
Yuto looked horrified.
Shun, naturally, reached immediately for his Resonance Linker.
"Do we know why?"
"He said he was working for someone named Master Eidon," Misaki replied.
That wiped away what remained of the relaxed mood.
Haruto frowned.
"Eidon."
"Apparently we're causing problems for him," Caelan said.
Renji looked around at the remains of their former captain.
"And you killed Gorgonbeak?"
Caelan pointed toward Misaki and Airi.
"They helped."
Airi brightened immediately. "Cactara punched him really hard."
Flora puffed out her chest with pride.
Misaki smiled and rested a hand on Sakura's head. "And Emberwing kept him occupied."
Haruto walked over to Caelan and gave him a firm pat on the shoulder.
"Thanks."
Caelan glanced at the hand, then at Haruto.
"For what?"
"For not leaving us as statues."
"I was on the ship too."
"Still counts."
Caelan shrugged.
"Then you're welcome."
The moment might have remained pleasantly sentimental if Shun had not chosen that exact instant to point out a much more immediate problem.
"The engines have stopped."
Everyone slowly looked toward him.
Shun was standing beside the control panel.
He pressed something.
Nothing happened.
He pressed another control.
The ship produced a faint metallic click which sounded remarkably like refusal.
Shun frowned.
"I suspect Gorgonbeak's death disabled whatever connection was maintaining the vessel's movement."
Renji stared at the enormous control panel.
"Can you fix it?"
"I don't know how it works."
"You're the one who understands machines."
"Machines from our world."
Everyone looked at Caelan.
Caelan looked back.
"No."
"You didn't even let us ask," Airi complained.
"I've never driven a sandship."
"But you've seen things like this."
"I've read about things like this. There is an important difference."
Haruto stared across the desert.
The dunes stretched to the horizon.
He sighed.
"We walk."
A collective groan rolled across the deck.
Nobody produced a better idea.
Within half an hour they had gathered their supplies, climbed down from the stranded ship and begun crossing the desert once again, leaving the enormous silver vessel sitting uselessly behind them.
The sun was less amused by this development than Caelan was.
By midday the following stretch of desert had become a furnace. Sand burned beneath their shoes, heat rippled above the dunes, and even the air seemed reluctant to move unless specifically ordered. Renji's furred partner possessed a naturally cool body and had somehow become the most popular member of the group simply by existing. Yuto walked close enough beside him that their shoulders nearly touched. Airi had attempted the same thing until Renji pointed out that there was only so much cold fur to go around.
Caelan, meanwhile, was perfectly comfortable.
Ki circulated steadily through his body, carrying excess heat away from his organs and skin. It was basic internal control, something he barely needed to think about anymore. He could feel the sun against his shoulders, certainly, but the heat itself was no more troublesome than standing beside a warm fireplace.
Airi noticed.
She stared at him.
Then at the sweat running down her own forehead.
Then back at him.
"You're not hot."
Caelan looked over.
"I am."
"You don't look hot."
"I'm cooling myself."
Airi stopped walking.
"You can do that?"
"With ki."
Misaki wiped damp hair away from her forehead. "Can you do it to everyone else?"
Caelan considered the question.
"Not easily."
The group stared at him with sudden hope anyway.
He sighed.
"Cooling myself means circulating ki through my own body. Doing it to someone else means controlling ki inside someone else's body without hurting them."
Everyone's hope faded slightly.
Airi raised a finger.
"What if we're touching you?"
Caelan looked at her.
"What?"
"If you're touching someone, wouldn't it be easier to pass it through them?"
Caelan frowned thoughtfully.
"Maybe."
Airi beamed as though she had just solved every problem in cultivation.
"Give me your hand."
Caelan did not move.
"Why do I feel like I'm about to regret this?"
"Hand."
Caelan reluctantly offered it.
Airi grabbed hold.
He carefully extended a tiny thread of ki through their palms and attempted to reproduce the circulation he used within himself.
Airi's eyes widened.
For approximately one second, she looked delighted.
Then she yelped.
"Hot!"
She released him immediately.
Caelan blinked.
"I barely used anything."
"That felt like touching a stove!"
Renji folded his arms.
"So that's out."
"No," Airi said stubbornly. "He just needs practice."
Caelan stared at her.
"Why am I practicing?"
"Because we're dying."
"You're sweating."
"I'm dying dramatically."
This distinction apparently mattered.
After several attempts, Caelan discovered that he could transfer enough regulated ki through direct contact to help cool another person's body, provided he concentrated carefully and used very little at a time. It was nowhere near as effortless as maintaining his own temperature, and attempting to spread it across several people at once immediately produced complaints.
Thus began what Renji rather unkindly named Caelan's Five-Minute Cooling Service.
One person at a time walked beside him while holding his hand.
Yuto received the first turn and looked perfectly pleased with the arrangement.
Airi took the second and immediately complained that five minutes was too short.
Misaki endured her turn with dignity.
Renji acted as though accepting assistance was somehow an insult to his ancestors, though he did not actually refuse.
Shun spent his entire five minutes asking questions about ki circulation until Caelan threatened to stop cooling him.
By the time the rotation had repeated twice, Caelan was seriously reconsidering every decision that had led him to this universe.
"This is ridiculous."
Airi, currently enjoying her second turn, smiled brightly.
"This was my idea."
"I know."
"You're welcome."
"I wasn't thanking you."
Several more dunes passed.
Then Caelan stopped.
Everyone behind him nearly walked into one another.
Haruto looked up.
"What?"
Caelan stared ahead.
A broad slab of stone protruded from the side of the next dune.
His expression slowly changed.
"No."
Misaki recognized that expression immediately.
"No what?"
"We're not walking anymore."
Renji looked at the rock.
Then at Caelan.
"I don't like where this is going."
Caelan walked toward it.
The slab was large enough to hold several people if flattened properly. He ran one hand over the stone, stepped back, and directed a narrow current of compressed wind across its surface. Sand and fragments sprayed away as the air carved through rock with surprising precision.
Shun watched with interest.
"You can cut stone with wind."
Caelan continued working.
"Yes."
Airi looked at the slowly forming platform.
"Are you making a carriage?"
"A sled."
"There's no snow."
"It doesn't need snow."
"It absolutely sounds like it needs snow."
Caelan ignored her.
Within minutes, the rough stone had become a wide, shallow platform with raised edges. It was not particularly elegant. Nobody would ever mistake it for the work of a master craftsman. It did, however, appear capable of carrying all of them without immediately snapping in half.
Caelan stepped onto it.
"Everybody on."
Renji didn't move.
"How does it move?"
Caelan raised one hand.
Wind gathered behind the stone.
Renji stared.
"No."
"It'll work."
"That isn't an answer."
"It worked in my head."
"That is even worse."
Airi climbed aboard immediately.
Haruto followed.
Within another minute everyone was sitting or crouching on the slab while Caelan stood at the front, looking far more pleased with himself than anyone found reassuring.
Sparky settled beside his feet.
"Have you done this before?"
"No."
Sparky's ears lowered.
Caelan thrust one hand backward.
Wind exploded.
The stone shot forward.
Everyone screamed.
For about three seconds, Caelan's invention was magnificent.
They skimmed over the sand at tremendous speed, leaving a great plume of dust behind them as the broad slab bounced lightly over the tops of the dunes.
Then they reached the first turn.
Caelan leaned.
The sled did not.
"Oh."
The entire platform shot sideways.
"CAELAN!" Misaki shouted.
"I'm fixing it!"
He threw wind in the opposite direction.
This corrected their course far too enthusiastically.
The slab spun.
Airi shrieked.
Renji grabbed Yuto.
Haruto somehow ended up facing backward.
Shun clutched his Resonance Linker to his chest with both hands.
Sparky flew off Caelan's shoulder and landed directly on Caelan's head.
"I CAN'T SEE!"
"STOP!"
"I'M TRYING!"
The sled hit the side of a dune.
Everyone launched upward.
Most landed in soft sand.
Caelan did not.
He flew headfirst into the largest cactus for several hundred metres.
There was a muffled thump.
Then silence.
Airi slowly lifted her head from the sand.
"...Caelan?"
The cactus shook.
"Ow."
Everyone began laughing.
"Don't laugh!"
That made it worse.
Caelan emerged from the cactus with several long needles sticking from his hair, shoulders and sleeves. Sparky, who had landed safely in the sand, rolled onto his back laughing so hard that tiny sparks popped around his paws.
Caelan glared at the cactus.
"Who puts something that large there?"
Renji wiped sand from his face.
"The desert."
"I dislike the desert."
"We know."
Caelan reached up to pull another needle free.
Something inside the cactus glimmered.
He stopped.
The others noticed.
"What is it?" Haruto asked.
Caelan pushed several thick sections of cactus aside and reached carefully into the hollow at its centre.
His fingers closed around something smooth.
He pulled it free.
It was a stone no larger than his palm, covered in delicate markings that glowed with a soft green light. The symbols seemed almost alive, brightening and fading in a slow rhythm.
Shun was beside him before Caelan had finished examining it.
"Don't touch—"
Caelan looked at the stone already sitting in his hand.
Shun sighed.
"Never mind."
His Resonance Linker came out.
The device hummed.
Lines of information flickered across its screen.
Shun's eyes widened.
"That's a Sigil."
"A what?" Caelan asked.
"A Virtue Sigil."
The entire group gathered around.
Even Airi's amusement vanished.
Shun ran the scan again.
The result did not change.
"These are supposed to resonate with the Linkers. They're connected to partner evolution somehow."
The green light pulsed.
Shun stared at the reading.
Then at Airi.
"Oh."
Airi pointed to herself.
"Why are you looking at me?"
"It's responding to you."
"Me?"
Shun turned the screen around.
VIRTUE SIGIL DETECTED
ATTRIBUTE: SINCERITY
PRIMARY RESONANCE: AIRI TACHIBANA
Airi blinked.
"Sincerity?"
The stone brightened.
Airi looked around.
"Are we sure?"
Flora stepped closer.
"Why wouldn't it be you?"
Airi looked at her partner.
"Because sincerity sounds very serious."
Flora smiled.
"It means you say what you feel."
Renji muttered something under his breath.
Airi looked at him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"It sounded like something."
Flora continued before an argument could begin. "You don't pretend very well. When you're happy, everybody knows. When you're angry, everybody knows that too."
"Especially that," Renji said.
Airi ignored him.
Flora placed one small hand against Airi's leg.
"You care about people honestly. Maybe that's what it means."
Sakura gave a small, dignified nod from beside Misaki.
"You rarely hide your feelings simply because doing so would be easier."
Airi's expression softened.
The Sigil continued glowing in Caelan's hand.
He looked between it and Airi.
"Apparently the cactus agrees."
Airi stared at him.
"You found my magical sincerity stone by crashing face-first into a cactus."
Caelan looked down at the needles still stuck in his clothes.
"Yes."
Haruto put one hand on his shoulder.
"A heroic sacrifice."
Caelan narrowed his eyes.
"I will throw you into the next cactus."
Haruto laughed.
Airi carefully took the Sigil.
The moment it touched her palm, the green glow intensified.
Warm light spread between her fingers.
Flora's eyes widened.
Airi stared down at it, suddenly looking much less playful.
"It feels..."
She struggled to find the right word.
"Familiar."
The markings across the stone brightened.
Then the Sigil floated from her hand.
Everyone stepped back.
Airi's Resonance Linker rose slightly against its strap as if pulled by an invisible force. The device opened along a narrow seam that none of them had previously noticed.
The Sigil became light.
Green radiance flowed directly into the Linker.
The device flashed once.
Then everything became still.
Airi stared.
Caelan raised an eyebrow.
"Did it just put itself inside that thing?"
Shun was already scanning.
"Yes."
"Is that normal?"
Shun hesitated.
"Apparently."
"That isn't the same thing."
"It's the best answer I have."
Airi lifted the Resonance Linker.
A new green symbol glowed faintly across its screen.
SINCERITY
Flora's own body shimmered briefly in response.
Not enough to evolve.
Just enough to show that something between them had changed.
Airi looked down at her partner.
Flora smiled.
Then Airi looked at Caelan.
"Thank you."
Caelan pointed at the cactus.
"Thank that."
"No."
"The cactus did most of the work."
"You crashed into it."
"Exactly."
Airi laughed.
"I'm glad you're with us, Caelan."
She glanced toward the ruined stone sled lying crookedly several dunes away.
"Even if your transportation ideas need work."
Caelan folded his arms.
"The design was fine."
Renji stared at him.
"We nearly died."
"You landed in sand."
"That is not a defence."
"It is technically a defence."
Misaki shook her head.
Sparky climbed onto Caelan's shoulder.
"You know we're walking now, right?"
Caelan looked toward the endless dunes.
Then at the broken sled.
Then at the cactus.
He sighed.
"Fine."
They started walking again.
The sun remained merciless.
The desert remained enormous.
Their water supplies were not growing any larger, and somewhere ahead waited an enemy powerful enough to send creatures after them.
But Airi's Resonance Linker now carried a soft green glow, Flora walked beside her with a spring in her step, and the group seemed somehow lighter than it had that morning.
Even Caelan found himself smiling.
Though he made a point of giving every cactus they passed a very wide berth.