Kiersten's Arc

Chapter 26 of 33

The door closed behind Kiersten and the sound of the wood outside cut off. Warm air met her face. She stood at the top of a short stone stair. Lamps burned in iron brackets down the wall. The Godward Sanctum had opened for her, and now she had to use it. Noble came down the stair behind her. He set his staff in a rack by the wall. The crystal at its head dimmed. "You'll want the library," he said. "You have work to do before the hunter finds another road." "You know what I need," she said. "I've had vessels here before. Not many. Enough." He did not look at her. "This way." He led her down a hall lined with shelves. Books stood in tight rows. Candles sat in glass cups on every third shelf. He stopped at a round room with a stone table at the center. A circle was cut into the floor around it. Old script ran along the circle. "Stand in the ring when you practice," he said. "It holds what leaks out. Nothing gets through the walls." Kiersten stepped into the ring. She pressed her thumb to her heart tattoo. Witness rose behind her eyes, quiet, steady. "I don't know where to start," she said. Noble pulled a book from a low shelf and set it on the table. He opened it to a marked page. Diagrams of a body. Lines from the hands to a point in the air. "Sight first," he said. "You feel endings. You already do half of this. The book teaches you to hold what you see instead of chasing it." She read the first page. Breath in three. Hold six. Out in nine. She had learned this from Ananda. Her chest remembered the pattern before her mind did. She closed her eyes and worked it. The ring warmed under her feet. Witness settled deeper. A picture formed behind her eyes — a man on a road, cloak dark, face turned down. He walked at a steady pace. He was not close. He was not far. She held the picture. She did not chase it. She counted her breath and let it stay. When she opened her eyes, Noble was watching her. "You saw him," he said. "I saw him." "Good. Now you know his face. Next time you'll know his hour." He shut the book. "Sleep. Eat. Come back tomorrow. Every day until you can hold him long enough to strike." Kiersten stepped out of the ring. Her hands were steady. She had a wall around her, a book in front of her, and a spirit inside her that no longer flinched. She followed Noble down the hall toward a small room with a bed. The hunter was still coming. But now she had time she could count, and a place to spend it.