Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Four years later…

“Cameron!”
Cameron jerked awake and glared up into the eye searing sunlight at the person that had woken him from his drunken stupor.
“What, Chelry?” Cameron grunted rubbing his eyes.
The barrel chested man sighed like a maid that had just finished cleaning and came back into the room to find the mud covered toddler. He had fiery orange hair that ran down his shoulders into a bushy beard that covered his face except for his nose, rosy cheeks, and bright green eyes. He stared down at Cameron from his towering height of six-foot-ten in annoyance.
“You’re going to be late again. You know you have to go, they’re choosing the new Casters, and as an unattached Sword you have to be present,” Chelry answered hauling the drunken Cameron to his feet. He tried to stand but tipped back almost to the floor. His body saved from more bruising by Chelry’s quick reflexes.
“Don’ wan’-“ Cameron hic-d.
“Oh, no you don’t. You’re going,” Chelry stated as he threw Cameron over his shoulder.
“Oi! Chelry I can- hic- walksh,” He slurred protesting to the back of Chelry’s boots.
“Yeah, sure,” Chelry grunted back shifting his inebriated cargo more securely onto his shoulder.
“Chelriman, perhaps we should just let him be. Every year is the same outcome,” A small dark elf suggested quietly as she fell into step beside him.
Her dark grey skin glistened in the sunlight as they headed for the Compound. Her long silver hair done up in its usual serious bun gleamed like metal.
“Esma, you know the rules, he’s been unattached for four years. Besides who knows, he might just get one,” Chelry answered.
“Chelry I’m gonna puke on y- blah-“ Cameron vomited.
Chelry sighed as Esma watched in silence.

Cameron protested all the way to the summoning hall to the back of Chelry’s vomit splattered boots. He was ungracefully deposited in one of the chairs by Chelry who gave him a warm smile and thumbsup then went to sit in the spectator’s seats. Esma sat next to Chelry and gazed around the room at the unattached Swords present, back rigid and shoulders squared. She looked like a child sitting next to the gentle orange-haired giant beside her.
Cameron sunk as low into his chair as possible and tried to think of something flat and unmoving. He caught the glances of the starry eyed recruits and glowered back at them. Unlike them, he had been through this dog and pony show before. More times than he cared to or could remember, honestly. He unmercifully crushed the memories before they could drag him through reminiscing and pain. A bell chimed, making Cameron groan slightly, signaling the start of the ceremony.
The Casters filed into the room, all dressed identically in long flowing robes of white matching the Swords seated in the stone chairs. All but Cameron who still wore the grey trousers and shirt he vaguely remembered putting on yesterday morning. He sank lower into his chair as the bell continued to assault his ears and rattle his brain. The Casters entered into the circle created by the Swords and waited for the next cue. The Swords stood as one, except Cameron, and the Casters began to walk the edge of the circle in front of them, studying each one in turn.
His mind wandered back eight years to the first time he had attended a Joining. He remembered vividly the disappointment he had felt at not being chosen by whatever forces governed the compatibility between Caster and Sword. The disappointment was short-lived, Shaliah graduated from the academy a month later. Cameron smiled sadly to himself as one Caster after another passed his chair without hesitation. He should have guessed he’d Join with her, they had grown up together in the orphanage.
He cursed his mind for its wandering as he watched through half-lidded eyes at the proceedings. A male Caster, of about late teens if Cameron had to guess, stopped in front of a male Sword, roughly in his thirties. He watched the pair study each other in silence. When both gasped and grabbed their temples, Cameron smirked; the “Connection” wasn’t all sunshine and roses like the teachers tended to paint it. After the ice-fire of the connection subsided the Sword stood back straight and both he and his Caster left the room forever joined to each other till death.
His mind still wandering, it took Cameron a second to register that two black boots had stopped in his line of vision. He glanced up and saw her. She was gorgeous. Roughly five-foot-six, a supple build to her body but Cameron could tell she had strength. Jet black hair fell in a wave to her waist. Her bangs framed her face and fell teasingly into her crimson eyes. The red irises watched him in curiosity from a soft round face. Those eyes seemed to stare to his soul, weighing its worth.
Cameron sucked in his breath as the Connection started. Fire followed by ice ran through his veins. He glared up at her. He didn’t want to be joined again; losing one Caster was enough for a lifetime. But he couldn’t stop the rush of power flow through him and she couldn’t stop the power flow out of her into him.
“No,” Cameron grunted through his teeth.
She gave a small cry of pain as she gripped her temples. He hated every second of the torturous process, resisting as much as he could. The fire rose up again inside his body, followed by ice even colder than before. It was like a war between the two was raging over control of his soul. He cried out himself, unintentionally, as he too gripped his temples. This Joining was by far worse than any he had heard of or experienced.
The fire-ice war subsided inside him and he was able to face his new Caster. Tears of pain had fallen down her cheeks. Her look of resolution remained on her face as she wiped them off with the back of her hand. Something wasn’t quite right, Cameron had been through a Joining before, it didn’t feel complete.
A tremor radiated from them, rippling the marble floor below their feet. The girl started to fall and Cameron instinctively caught her. He pulled her to him and she clung to his body as the tremors increased.
After the tremor ceased Cameron cracked open one eye. A murmur followed the cries of surprise from the audience, most of whom had fled their seats. The girl politely cleared her throat and Cameron quickly released his hold on her.
He sheepishly rubbed his arm, refusing to look at her. She was hugging herself, self conscious of clinging to a man she had never met before. Cameron sighed, opening his mouth to say something. A bolt of lightning cracked the space between them, throwing both to slide across the floor. As he came to a stop at the base of the far wall he vaguely heard his name being called.
“Crap,” Cameron whispered as he passed out.

10,000 Years Ago
“Rules. That’s your brilliant plan to spruce this game?” The Seeker snickered, “You can’t put rules on magic. Its nature alone contradicts itself.”
“There you go, using that word again,” The Paradigm waggled a finger at the Seeker, “You’re such a downer.”
“Just because I see the reality of a situation does not make me a ‘downer’,” The Seeker retorted putting her hands on her hips.
They were approaching the little river village just as the sun was reaching its highest point. Flexing her wings the Seeker adjusted her robes trying to make them less stuffy. The Paradigm seemed indifferent to the heat as it trudged on in its non-descript pants and shirt that gave no hint to its gender.
“Alright, then how are these rules going to work?” The Seeker asked stopping next to the Paradigm.
A couple of children ran around the side of one of the huts heading straight for them. The pair didn’t even flinch as the children ran straight through their bodies. A sizzling sound was the only thing that marked the passage of the children as their cries of joy continued on away from the pair.
“Well,” The Paradigm stroked its chin, “haven’t really thought that part through yet.”
The Seeker, though blindfolded, rolled her eyes, “I figured. I still say we wipe them out.”
“No,” The Paradigm cried, “No, indeed. You’ll enjoy this round. I promise.”
“Oh,” The Seeker asked raising an eyebrow, “Care to wager on that?”

Cameron awoke screaming, flailing his arms out and catching Chelry in the nose. He took a deep breath, getting a hold of himself, and let it shakily out. He swallowed, rubbing his face with his hands. He knew beyond a doubt that the events running fresh through his mind hadn’t been a dream. The “Connection” was pulsing strong through him.
Slowly his eyes drifted to Chelry, who had his hand to his nose, “Please tell me I didn’t.”
“You have,” Esma interjected calmly before Chelry could answer. She was somehow managing to look uninterested and condescending at the same time from the doorway of Cameron’s one room apartment.
He glared at her as he pulled the covers up to his chin over his bare chest, “Ok, then did I really get hit by lightning?”
“Yes, that really happened,” Chelry mumbled pulling his hand away from his nose, “along with the tremors.”
“Where is she?” Cameron sighed.
Chelry shrugged as Emsa answered, “You’re the one Joined to her.”
Cameron gave her a glare as he peaked under the covers to make sure he had on pants before he slung them off. All things covered he got up, swaying slightly, and headed to his closet. As he rummaged around for a shirt and his boots, he tried to sense where his Caster was. When Pairs Joined, the individuals developed a sixth sense that allows them to know where the other is at all times. Cameron wasn’t sure on the specifics behind how or why but it had to do with the Connection.
From what he could sense she was fairly close, within 100 feet. He stood up from putting on his boots, bumping a small, dark colored wooden box perched precariously on the top shelf. The box hit the floor spilling its contents at Cameron’s feet. Slowly he knelt, picking up Shaliah’s turquoise bracelet.
Chelry and Esma watched in silence as Cameron clenched his hand around the trinket and stormed out into the hall. Following his gut Cameron headed down the hall. He passed doors and people alike until he came to the one he needed.
Without pause he turned the knob and flung open his “new problem’s” door.
“Why! Why did you have to choose me of all people? Don’t you….know….who-” Cameron began his rant, but his voice trailed off as his brain registered what his eyes were telling him.
The Caster quickly snatched up her robe and held it to her bare chest, her long black hair cascading over her shoulders. She turned around presenting her bare back to him. Cameron just stared at the tanned skin of her back broken only by a scar that ran from her right shoulder blade to her left hip. His eyes widened in shock as she snatched up the pitcher off her dresser and threw it with all her might at him.
“PERVERT!”
Cameron cried in surprise and ducked, the pitcher sailed over his head to smash into the corridor wall beyond. Hurriedly, he stood back up and back-peddled out the door, slamming it shut just as he saw her bend to pick up something else. He heard other things hit the door along with her curses at him. Whatever the objects were they were heavy. Something sharp protruded through the door an inch from his eyes causing him to fall back onto the floor. He stared at the door waiting for the hell fury on the other side to emerge.
Chelry approached down the corridor to lean on the wall next to Cameron, “When will you learn manners?”
A few passerby’s snickered into their hands as they gingerly passed him. Cameron flushed crimson. His Caster still hadn’t emerged from her room.
“When I grow up, I guess,” Cameron spat back as he stood, stomping on broken pieces of pottery, and headed to his room.
Silence had fallen on the other side of the abused door. Chelry grunted in amusement as he followed his old friend.
“You should apologize,” Esma said coldly as Cameron came through the door; it startled him backward into Chelry. Her gold eyes seemed to stare through to his soul and judge it wanting. Her thin face held an expression somewhere between noninterest and annoyance.
“Don’t jump out at me like that Esma,” Cameron sighed, clutching his chest.
Esma leveled a bored look at him as she replied calmly, “I don’t ‘jump’ out of anywhere to anywhere.”
“Of course not,” Cameron mumbled as he scooted around her to his closet. Of all the other Swords he knew, Esma was the only one he was afraid of. Despite her small size of five-foot-two, she was incredibly strong, as evident by the giant two-handed sword strapped to her back, a trait common to her people, she being from the Galics, an off branch of the elven people that lived in the mountains to the west.
She watched from the doorway as Cameron tenderly replaced the bracelet into the box. He stood there for a moment staring at the dark lid, gently caressing the grain lines of the wood. He sighed heavily as he set it back in its place.
When he turned around Esma was gone. He shrugged as he closed the closet door and he headed back out the door to his new Caster’s room. He swayed slightly in the hall, catching the wall, as the adrenaline drained out of his body, cheerfully reminding him he had been completely drunk not four hours ago. Cameron held his hand to his temple trying to quell the mind splitting headache coming on.
Chelry approached from down the hall, “You going to be ok?”
“Yeah, I’ll be…..alright,” Cameron sighed as he continued to the girl’s room. He paused there with his hand raised to knock on the door. Chelry stood behind him and Esma beside Chelry, both waiting for Cameron to proceed.
“What the hell,” Cameron sighed and knocked on the door. After a few minutes of silence he heard the Caster call for them to come in. He opened the door slowly, weary of more projectiles.
“Ah, s-sorry about earlier,” He stammered as he flushed bright red. Chelry gently nudged him over the threshold of the door into her room. Cameron glared back at him as he stumbled forward. Chelry merely grinned in return. Esma’s cold blank expression didn’t change as she followed them both into the room.
Cameron turned his attention back to his Caster who stood there in the middle of her room. Now that he wasn’t distracted he could appraise her. Her black hair was pinned back away from her face but let loose down her back, a few shorter strands still curled close to her eyes. She wore a white shirt with a black corset vest over it and black pants. Her boots were black and low heeled, the kind preferred by working women rather than the frilly death traps Cameron had seen around town. He could just see the handle of a knife in the left one.
She had a kind look to her which was offset by her blood red eyes, a trait common to the southern tribes that lived in the borderlands of the south. Mischief played closely with amusement in them.
“It’s alright, but in the future I would caution you to knock before entering a Caster’s room unexpected,” she said with a small smile playing at the corner of her lips. She had a soft voice that reminded Cameron of the nuns he had grown up with at the orphanage.
“Uh, right. At any rate. My name is-“
“Cameron Gantervez, Sword of Monphil, recently attached to the late Caster Shaliah Camelle, Phantom Caster of Monphil.”
Cameron was slightly stunned, he was sure he had never met this woman before, “And you are?”
“Kailah Malavander. Element Caster,” She replied bowing slightly, “Pleased to meet you, Cameron.”
“You have to be kidding!” Chelry whispered in awe.
Cameron himself was taken aback. Element Casters were uncommon, and it was even more uncommon for them to “graduate” from the Academy and attach to Swords at so young an age. Element Casting took years to master, one slight misstep while casting and the Caster was “lost” to the element. Meaning they were absorbed by the element. Fire Casters burned, Water Casters froze, Air Casters faded, and Earth Casters crumbled.
“What element do you cast?” Esma asked, she didn’t appear to be impressed, though nothing seemed to impress Esma ever.
“All of them,” Kailah answered evenly, no hint of bragging in her soft voice.
“I’m surprised,” Esma replied even though her face and voice didn’t show it.
“Why on earth are you attached to me then? Shouldn’t you have been in the Council section?” Cameron asked shocked.
Kailah turned her burning red eyes towards him and Cameron actually felt slightly scared at the menace there.
“It’s personal,” Kailah answered turning her gaze to look out the window. In the entire conversation Kailah’s tone hadn’t changed from the even soft informative pitch, but now her words dripped aggravation and a hint of malice. The Council section was the elite of the elites among Casters, they never attached to Swords because they didn’t need them.
Casters originally began joining to Swords in the Era of Wars due to necessity. When a Caster casts his power his consciousness went with it therefore leaving his body open for attacks, he couldn't move it. This is where the Swords became useful; they held off or defeated any non-Caster enemy that tried to kill them and if possible tried to kill the enemy Caster’s body. As time passed, Casters learned to anchor their consciousness to their Swords but their feet still had to stay connected to the ground in order to cast, with air Casting being the only exception.
The Council section is a group made up of Swords that are able to attach and detach from any and all Casters at will and Casters whose powers are so immense that they don’t need a Sword to anchor to. This council is the ruling body of the Order. It is made up of currently twelve members.
Cameron was still getting over his shock when there was a knock on the door.
“Yes?” Kailah called and a messenger came through the door.
He handed a letter to Kailah, saluted and left without saying a word.
“What is it?” Cameron asked as Kailah opened the letter, curiosity causing him to recover from the shock.
“Our first contract as an official Pair,” Kailah replied after she had read it.
She handed the letter to Cameron and turned to the closet. She pulled out a backpack and crossed the room to her bed.
“Werstel Forest? Find and apprehend Illusion Caster Steff, Rogue Order Caster. WAIT!” Cameron screamed at her crumbling the notice in a fist.
“Yes?” Kailah paused on her way back to the closet.
“Who says I’ve accepted this new…partnership?” Cameron asked perturbed. He grimaced from the throbbing headache.
“We don’t have to accept it, it happened and that’s the end of it. Now, go pack,” Kailah replied continuing back to the closet.
“Hell no! And besides, contracts have to be accepted by both Caster and Sword,” Cameron said trying to grasp at straws.
“Your point?” Kailah asked walking past him to the bed with an arm full of clothes. She reached under the bed and pulled out another backpack.
“I refuse. I’m going back to the bar, plopping my butt down, and having another drink,” Cameron said folding his arms across his chest, sticking his nose in the air, and walking towards the door.
BAM!!!
Cameron cried out as he stumbled back from the wall of ice he had run face first into. His eyes followed the trail of ice that ran from the wall, across the floor, and ended in a patch under Kailah’s boots. He stared at the back of her head, his hand to his nose.
“No, you are not,” Kailah said softly not even turning around.
Cameron’s eyes narrowed into a glare, “You can’t order me around.”
He pulled his hand away from his nose checking for blood. Seeing there was none he returned his glare to her.
Kailah stopped packing and sighed softly, “Cameron, I have no intention of ordering you to do anything. I’m only trying to help you.”
“I don’t need you to help me, take down the ice barrier,” Cameron said in an even, flat tone.
Kailah was silent for a few moments as Cameron stared at the back of her head. He heard a crack behind him and turned to see the ice barrier deforming. He watched as the ice seemed to creep across the ground and into the soles of her shoes. He glanced back at her and left the room brushing past Chelry and Esma without a word.
“Would you like me to bring him back?” Esma asked quietly from the doorway.
“No, thank you. You two must have other matters to attend to,” Kailah replied quietly without turning around.
“Very well, come Chelriman,” Esma said emotionless as she left the room. Chelry stammered out a goodbye, slightly flustered.
Kailah stood there staring down at her backpack, Cameron’s words echoing in her head.
“I don’t need you to help me, huh?” Kailah whispered to herself. A moment later she set her jaw, tossed her hair over her shoulder and headed for the door, "We'll see."

Reviews

[Gosia]

I liked the idea of "connecting" Casters and Swords.
I have to admit that I felt a spark of excitement when Soul Seeker and Paradigm (I keep forgetting the name) appeared again. Those two seem like highlight to your story.
Cameron and Kailah seem to be a dynamic duo and the interactions between them are just right - I really appreciate a certain dose of humor. I often get the impression that fantasy books are dead-serious, but instead of making tme feel the magnificsent atmosphere, they make me feel as though I had a bad case of hemoroids. Putting the detour aside, the chapter was pleasantly fast to read and the its lenght was just right.

[Warlon]

Poor Chelry, he's just a big lovable teddy bear :(.