Threshold of Annihilation (The Firebird Chronicles #3) - T.A. White Page 0,135
believe I said that too.”
Jin’s eye turned to Devon as he fell silent.
She straightened and bopped him on his casing again before he could argue further. “I never said you had to reveal yourself to them, but I also don’t want you making decisions without having all the facts.”
Kira picked up her chai again. “If you want to ignore this possibility, you can. I’m on your side. Forever and always. Remember that.”
Wren stepped into view below, catching her eye. He jerked his head in an unmistakable summons.
“Better go before your seon’yer rmembers everything we’ve gotten up to without his permission,” Jin advised.
“We wouldn’t want that,” Kira said before heading inside.
It took only minutes to dress in the clothes she found in one of the dressers. Made from the same ballistic proof material as the ones she received on Ta Sa’Riel, she admired the cut of the fabric before heading out.
Kira’s jog slowed as she found Wren waiting at the bottom of the stairs for her.
“Something the matter?” she asked.
“In light of your revelations yesterday, I thought it would be appropriate we spend some time together.”
Kira descended the last steps, wondering how she got so unlucky.
Wren quirked one eyebrow at the grudging look on her face. “Unless you have something else to do?”
Not unless he counted investigating the waverunner who went by the call sign Moonbeam.
Truthfully, Odin and Jin would be more useful for that.
Kira shrugged, giving into the inevitable. “I don’t have any plans until the banquet.”
Which was still hours from now.
“Good.” Wren set off at a brisk pace, heading for a room adjacent to the training room she’d visited two days before.
So much had happened since then that it was hard to believe so little time had passed.
The room Wren entered was empty except for Maksym who waited in the middle of the space with his arms crossed over his chest.
Before him was a table, various size spheres arranged before him.
“What’s this?” Kira asked, looking them over.
Wren stopped next to Maksym. “Your little adventure has cut into my duties as your seon’yer. I thought we’d take this time to fix that.”
Kira ran her eye over the spheres, not hiding her skepticism. “With balls?” She looked up at Wren again. “Are we going to play a game?”
Maksym’s cough didn’t entirely conceal his choked laugh.
Wren looked like he was struggling for patience. “I’ve learned some things about you since your time away. Your problem with ki doesn’t lie in its use or manipulation. If anything, the amount you are capable of accessing is too much. You lack control. Without it, you will only land in the same situation as before.”
He nodded at the inhibitor she still wore.
Kira touched it lightly, wondering how he had come to that conclusion. Not that she could argue with his assessment. It fit her thoughts as well.
“You use ki like a hammer when a scalpel will do just as well,” Wren continued.
Those words and the disproving look he sent her seemed studded with a double meaning.
Kira’s eyes narrowed, wondering if he’d somehow managed to uncover some of those files Himoto had gone to a lot of trouble to bury. Specifically, those records pertaining to the burst.
“What do you want me to do?” Kira asked.
Maksym picked up a sphere the size of a tennis ball and held it in his hand. A faint glow lit it up from inside. Moments later it lifted an inch off his palm where it hovered.
Gradually, the glow diminished, and it plopped back into his palm.
Maksym nodded at a sphere the size of a watermelon on her left. “Start with that one.”
Tentatively, Kira picked it up, surprised to find it was much lighter than it looked.
Maksym touched the ball. “Now, push your ki into it.”
Kira frowned but didn’t argue, focusing on the sphere again.
Ki, Kira had learned, was something that existed both within and without.
The Tuann were like a glass and the world around them an ocean. They could only use what was in the glass but the ocean would refill the glass over time.
Since building a friendship with Joule and spending time on Roake, she’d learned there were set stances and patterns of movement that could help draw out the ki within and give it form.
What Maksym asked of her was a bit different than what Finn and Joule had showed her on Ta Sa’Riel. Closer in line to how she’d always used her soul’s breath. More reliant on instinct and feeling around in the dark as much as anything else.