Chapter 31 - Who Are They?

"Jayson, can you tell me what's the shape of water." A woman asked to a young Jayson.

"Shape? But, water doesn't have a shape... right?" Jayson replied.

"Mmm yes and no. Water itself doesn't have a shape yes, but it can take the shape of any container it occupies. That makes it flexible."

"Is that why you say 'water essence is the strongest elemental essence type'."

"That's part of the reason." She replied with a smile.

"What else makes it the strongest?"

"...Close your eyes Jay, and think of a calm lake on a clear and peaceful day. Look down at the water in the lake. What do you see?"

"Ummm, fish?"

"No, you're looking in the water, look at the water." She replied with a light chuckle.

"Ummm, oh, my reflection?" Jayson guessed as he opened his eyes.

"There you go. Your reflection. Water perfectly reflects your own image once it's still enough. Because of this, the more calm and collected you are, the better you'll be at controlling this essence. Your mental state heavily reflects how well you can control this."

"So that's why we meditate?"

"Yes, that's why we meditate. Avery gave you the nickname bluejay right?"

"Yeah it's kinda cool, don't tell her I said that though."

"It's a fitting name." She replied while chuckling again. "Bluejays are very territorial and protective. They're quick to attack intruders and always protect their own. You have similar traits Jay. Make sure you always protect the people you care about, because you have the strength to do so. I know you may feel like an outcast here, but remember, family isn't who you're born with it's who you'd die for. I'm sure you'll find people who you will see as your family."

"...I understand mom." Jayson responded as his mom patted his head.

"Alright Bluejay."

.....

The smell of honey lingered under Jayson's nose as he slowly regained consciousness. He was barely able to make out the figures of the people sitting in front of him before they realized he was awake.

"Jay!" Tanner shouted out of relief and excitement.

Shaedon got up and ran out from the cover they were sitting under to announced it.

"Jayson's awake!" He shouted out.

"You okay Jay?" Tanner questioned.

"Yeah, I'm feeling fine." Jayson replied.

"Avery and Nakayla used life essence to fix your injuries."

"Mmm, I'm sure they're worried about me. How long have I been out?"

"Over a day now."

"An entire day passed..."

"They figured your exhaustion had built up from not getting appropriate rest during this journey." Shaedon exclaimed as he walked back under the cover.

"Nothing I could really do about that."

"Jayson!" Sayu shouted while running in to embrace him with a hug full of relief.

"Hey Sayu." Jayson replied.

He slowly gazed up to greet all of the others that came in after Sayu. The other kids lead by Avery, stood in front of Jayson with saddened looks painted across all of their faces.

"What's up guys?"

"Why?" Avery asked.

Jayson sat their confused on what she was asking, but at the same time knew she was trying to ask a lot of things at once.

"Don't you ever throw yourself into danger like that again! Especially by yourself! We move together." Avery said sternly.

"...What happened after I passed out?"

Avery walked over to lean against the wall before answering the question.

"That girl you were talking to with the mask. She made the attackers retreat."

"What did she do?" Jayson questioned curiously.

"She didn't do anything, but she did say something to the guy that was using a sword. She whispered something to him which made him stop fighting all together. He quietly stood down before the two of them walked off into the falling ash."

"That's odd."

"Yeah and when they were leaving they didn't even bat an eye at us. They walked straight pass us as if we weren't even there."

"...There's something extremely off about those guys." Jayson said while thinking back on his brief conversation with the masked woman.

"While we were healing you Mr. Elijah came back." Shaedon said. "He helped us carry you outside of the village."

"Is that so... I'm guessing that's all he did for us."

"Yeah, he went back to look for missing people and to get an idea on how much damage was done." Avery responded.

After being struck with a sudden wave of guilt, Jayson punched the floor and pushed himself onto his feet.

"Jay I know what your thinking, and what happened wasn't your fault."

"How isn't it my fault?" Jayson questioned.

"They were after me. Nobody else, but me. I don't think they've given up on me either, so we have to get moving again."

Jayson took a few steps out from under their cover and inspected the area.

"Where are we?"

"About a mile and a half to the east of Himawari." Avery replied. "We have to head south a bit to get back on the path we were following."

"Leave this village immediately and head north east to the frozen lake."

Jayson remembered the advice he was given by the masked woman and thought about it for a moment.

"...No, before we get back on path there's something to the north I wanna check out."

"But didn't you just say those attackers might still be after us?" Avery questioned.

"We should be fine." Jayson answered. "I feel like this will benefit us. You guys ready to go?"

"I guess so." Mano replied.

"This thing really is abandoned then." Nakayla stated while looking up.

"What thing?" Jayson questioned curiously.

He gazed up to the cliff which was covering them and noticed a rather large structure attached to the cliff face.

"Is that..."

"A honeycomb." Avery answered quickly.

The honeycomb was roughly double the height of the sunflowers they recently encountered, and as wide as a large boat.

"The kids wanted to see what size bee would be living in something like that."

"...I rather not stick around to find out." Jayson responded in awe of the abnormally large structure. "C'mon guys let's get outta here."

As they began packing up to leave the area, Jayson pulled out the object that Kiri had given to him and inspected it a bit more.

"What is this supposed to be?" He questioned softly.

.....

Back in Aestus.

"This is an issue we should've been investigating more about for a long time now." Elder Aira stated. "The fact that they were able to surprise us like this was due to negligence on our part."

"I'm sorry, but can you explain to me who these people are?" Claire asked in her usual calm tone.

Elders Aira, Claire, and Treya sat in the Elder's Courtyard discussing the events which transpired a few weeks prior at the gate of pride.

"Who they are? We still don't really know." Aira responded.

"They call themselves 'Luminents'." Treya interjected. "They're an independent group who appear to have no clear motive or reason behind their actions. They consist of powerful essence users from all four of the major continents."

"However, they conceal their identities with the glowing masks you would always encounter them wearing." Aira added.

"So there are members from the water continent as well?" Claire asked.

"Yes, one of the two we encountered was a water essence user, a highly skilled one too." Treya replied.

"When you say highly skilled, could you give me something to gauge that on?"

"Kenzo and Mai were easily outclassed in the fight. It didn't seem like they were trying to kill us, but rather just testing how strong we were. The water essence user even protected us from an enormous landslide before taking their leave."

"Hmm, that does seem quite odd." Claire stated.

"They're a potential threat every time we step outside of Aestus and we don't even know why." Aira exclaimed.

"How about we situate a tracking unit to search for any leads that may be useful?" Claire suggested.

"No. We tried that before, we're not doing that again." Aira responded sternly.

Treya was aware of the reason why sister Aira quickly rejected that option, and decided to leave that topic alone.

"If not that, then there is one other obvious option." Claire stated.

"And what would that be sister?" Treya questioned.

"Kaden Adams. They appeared at the gate of pride because of him right? Who's to say they wouldn't do it again."

"You want us to use him as bait?" Aira simplified.

"Correct."

Aira peered outside of the courtyard and gave the proposition some thought.

"I hope your training is going well Kaden." Aira thought to herself.

.....

"Haaaaaaaah." Kaden sighed in an exaggerated manner.

"You're suppose to be meditating." Mai said while maintaining her focus.

"This isn't getting me anywhere."

"Because you're not allowing it to."

Kaden fell backwards onto his back and looked over to Via and Aaron who were training behind them.

"Find that constant level of air essence you'd have to exert to keep yourself hovering." Via explained as she hovered one foot above the ground. "This will be the minimum amount of air essence you'll have to use to get airborne."

"That looks fun." Kaden thought.

As he was admiring their training, Kaden was met with a light splash of water onto his face.

"You'll never draw out your water essence at this rate." Mai stated.

"Surely there's another way to do this." Kaden exclaimed. "Isn't this taking a bit too long?"

"You should have more patience Kaden."

"Actually he has a point."

Mai and Kaden both looked over to there left to find Kenzo standing near the edge of the pond.

"Normally it would take only one to two weeks for the average person to bring out there water essence. In some cases it may take as long as a month, but I've never seen a case where it goes longer than that. Until now."

"Firstly, Kaden was unconscious for two whole weeks, so his training hasn't been going on for as long as he's been here. Secondly, he isn't 'the average person'. He has all four elemental essences in him, so it makes sense why this is taking longer than usual."

"Too many empty days are passing by, there are things we can be doing on top of this meditation." Kenzo exclaimed.

"Helping him to draw out his water essence is priority right now." Mai stated.

"Your priority should be improving after that last battle."

"Kenzo!"

"...Forgive my comments, Lady Aira."

"I told you to don't address me that way." Mai replied.

Kenzo nodded his head and walked back towards pathway.

"Seems like his panties are a bit twisted today." Kaden playfully said.

"He isn't exactly wrong." Mai stated. "I'm still inadequate in combat and I didn't really help much in that last battle. He's just frustrated."

"What last battle?"

Mai quickly realized that Kaden wasn't yet informed about what had happened while he was unconscious.

"If you weren't told about it then it isn't my place to say anything further." Mai responded.

"That just makes me even more curious."

"Sorry, but I can't feed your curiosity." She said as she went back to meditating. "Let's continue."

"She's set on hiding whatever this is from me." Kaden thought. "Fine, if she won't, hopefully he will."

.....

Later on that day Kenzo was patrolling through the village on his own. He stopped near the intersection of two paths and released a heavy sigh.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Kenzo asked to Kaden who was standing before him.

"I only have a few questions buddy." Kaden replied.

"I'm not your buddy."

"Yeah yeah, take a walk with me buddy."

"..."

"So, if I remember correctly, you were there when I attempted the gate."

"I was."

"Well you see, I don't really remember anything that happened after I stepped through the gate, so if you could just remind me a bit it'll help a whole lot."

"Let me tell you this. Quit wasting Lady Aira's time. You're a distraction in which she has been tasked to deal with. At least attempt to make some sort of progress so that she can return to fully dedicating herself to her own training."

"Don't give me that shit." Kaden said as he tossed aside the fraudulent friendly tone of voice. "When I first came here you didn't even saw her as a fighter. Following her around like she's some sort of troublesome kid."

"That's because she wasn't a guard yet." Kenzo responded.

"That doesn't mean she couldn't protect herself."

"She can hardly protect herself even now. During the attack she was being played with and if it wasn't for Elder Treya, Mai wouldn't have made it back here."

"And what about you? If we were attacked why couldn't you handle the situation?"

"I was occupied myself."

"Alright so if you couldn't do shit, then don't get on her about anything." Kaden exclaimed.

"You wouldn't understand." Kenzo said as he began to walk again. "Those guys were extremely strong, the aura around them was like nothing I've ever felt before."

"So you're calling yourself weak?"

"Where in what I said, did I make a notion of anything resembling that statement?"

"How many of them were there?" Kaden questioned.

"...Just two."

"Two attackers pushed back you, Mai and Granny Treya? What were they after?"

"What do you think they were after?! It was you." Kenzo replied as he looked forward and left Kaden standing alone in the path.

"Me... Hey! Why me?! What would they want with me?!"

"Kaden Adams." Elder Aira said as she suddenly appeared. "Let's take a walk."