Zeph Kaizen's Arc

Chapter 49 of 51

The third horn faded into the pines. Zeph stayed on one knee beside the dead creature. His hands would not stop shaking. The candle in his chest was low. Kaine watched the tree line and did not push him. "I can't do this again," Zeph said. "Not the way I've been doing it." "Then change how you do it." Zeph pressed two fingers to the bracelet. The sacred markings warmed. He opened the door a hand's width, then wider. He went through. The shaft dropped away below him. The boy sat at the bottom on flat stone, gold hair bright, yellow eyes waiting. His palms rested on the rock. Zento stood behind him, arms folded, white eyes steady. "You said the boy is a well," Zeph said. "Not a bucket." "Yes." "Teach me to carry." Zento walked around the boy and stopped in front of Zeph. "A dipper stands at the mouth and pulls. He spends what he takes. A carrier goes down. He stands beside the water and lets it rise around him. He does not lift it. He wears it." "How." "Climb down. Sit where he sits. Put your hand where his hand is. Do not pull." Zeph looked at the drop. It was farther than the seam had ever gone. "If I sit there and the horn sounds, can I still fight?" "You will not fight from the mouth. You will fight from the floor." Zeph climbed down. The walls of the shaft were warm. He reached the boy and knelt across from him. The boy did not move. Zeph set his hand on the stone beside the small brown hand. Gold flooded up his arm slow, the way water fills a boot. It did not rush. It did not crack. He did not pull. He let it come. The candle in his chest steadied and grew into a lamp. His shoulders warmed. His ribs warmed. The shaking in his hands stopped. "Name it," Zento said. "I stand where the boy stands. I carry what he carries." The boy looked up and nodded once, small. Zeph opened his eyes on the wet grass. Kaine was staring at him. Gold ran quiet along Zeph's forearms, no flare, no burn. His breath was even. "You look different," Kaine said. "I'm carrying it now." The third horn sounded again, closer. Something heavier than the two creatures moved in the pines. Branches broke. Zeph rose. The gold stayed with him. He did not have to hold it up. "How long can you keep it?" Kaine asked. "I don't know yet. Longer than a breath." A shape stepped out of the tree line, taller than a man, wrong at the shoulders. Behind it, two more moved through the trunks. Zeph set his feet. His hands were steady for the first time in three days. "Come on," he said.