Broken Chains

After Scarlet had felt Puck through a hit under his chin, she had internally winced a little after feeling the impact ring through her stick but hadn’t shown anything outwardly. Puck shouldn’t know how much sympathy she sometimes had for him.

When Puck didn’t get up after a few seconds, she walked over, and after seeing his glassy eyes, she started to get worried. Had she hit too hard? Feeling for Puck's pulse and searching for any signs of severe injury, Scarlet suddenly felt something touch her spirit on an ethereal level and got so surprised as to jump away in a somersault by reflex.

Finally starting to realize what was happening, Scarlet got both excited and anxious. Making the first contact with the forces beyond the mundane was different for everyone, but it always bore both great risks and rewards.

Scarlet had faith, though, in Puck. He would pull through.

Sitting down next to his unmoving body, she felt more and more different movements and actions touching her soul as anomalous things happened around Puck. Both beautiful and horrifying visions appeared like weak illusions in the air around Puck, one replacing the other ever faster than the one before.

Feeling her anxiety starting to win her over as she simply sat there and watched the otherworldly display, she decided to stand up and go through her sword meditation to calm her mind. Then finally, it happened.

Suddenly all the visions got slower and felt more distinct before finally, one single vision won over. Before Scarlet could analyze the scene deeper, it already fundamentally changed its nature as a vision became reality.

From one moment to the next, there was suddenly an otherworldly wind howling through the cavern they had trained in. Ducking low to avoid being swept away, Scarlet thought she could vaguely feel expressions and emotions from the spirits in the air around her. They told her of the sky and flying, of the vast and unending world to be explored, and the freedom that was the birthright of any creature.

A single tear started condensing in Scarlet's left eye, as long-pushed-down emotions got pulled up again. Slowly, as she looked up again, Scarlet felt the spirits leaving, as it was in their very nature to be free and unbound to any place. Something remained though, having become part of Puck's very existence. Scarlet could feel how he had incorporated the new truth.

When the wind finally had left, Puck still hadn’t awoken, but that was to be expected. He would sleep for a long time after this. Simply staying there in the cavern and gazing into the air, Scarlet felt so many of her old memories clawing to come back to the surface of her mind, and finally, after all that time, she let them. It seemed like it was time. She had mourned and withered away in this distant corner of the eternal ice long enough. Finally, she, no they, would get out there to pursue both their own freedom and free others of the chains that bound them.

Moving slowly but steadily through a narrow tunnel of the eternal ice, Puck still couldn’t help but marvel over all the recent developments. The visions had come suddenly and unexpectedly for him, but Scarlet seemed to have expected them. She had told him something about how the leaf he ate helped him touch the true nature of things. But what was the true nature of things? And how did souls work?

Puck still did not have a true answer to those questions, but day by day Scarlet was teaching him something new, and more than anything he was exploring things by himself. Once Puck had asked Scarlet if she also could touch the true nature of things, but upon that question, she had only smiled mysteriously and hadn’t answered.

It had only been a few days after his visions that Scarlet told Puck it was time to head out and leave their home behind, and Puck had complied without questions. Something in him had told him that it was simply the natural and right thing to do. The first days of the trip had been the worst ones, as Puck's efforts in trying to touch the wind had been unfruitful, and the added weight of carrying Zephyrian with him had made him even slower than before.

Then the first breakthrough happened. Having gotten more and more frustrated of having to carry Zephyrian with him, Puck had wished nothing more than that the sword would simply be weightless or go away. Having been disturbed by Puck's emotional state, Zephyrian had simply let loose an ephemeral sigh and guided Puck's soul and actions without even asking him first. Without any warning, Zephyrian had suddenly vanished in a puff of air, and Puck had only been able to look dumb until he got told what had happened. Apparently, he, as a wielder, could store Zephyrian in his soul.

After that, Puck had gotten even more determined with his training in trying to touch the wind. The first real success came when they were walking through an uneven tunnel where the air was rushing by them into the depths. The wind had seemed so much closer there, and when Puck had reached out to it, it had answered. Spinning over his head, a small gust had ruffled his hair. The price for that small gust though had been terrifying. Instantly Puck had felt more tired than ever before and had fallen asleep in the middle of walking, alerting Scarlet only with his impact on the ground.

Still, it had been a success, and Puck had learned that nothing helped more to get better than daily and unrelenting training, and so he did just that as they moved through the eternal ice, exploring caves left alone for eons and sleeping on only a few pelts over the cold ice.

It was another two weeks later that it finally happened. Having raised her hand for him to be quiet, Scarlet knelt down to the floor and listened into the darkness before studying Puck with an appraising gaze.

Only one question went through her mind: “Was he ready?”