An Excerpt from 'A Short History of The Ihri' by Thrask the Historian

An anarchistic society that has managed to survive past the Primus Trials. This was once thought to be an impossibility, as evidenced by the popularity of Delor's Theory of Advancing Civilizations. The Ihri seem to disproven old Delor's theory incorrect, as they are a purely anarchistic society that not only survived in the 10th Wave, but thrived. This is due largely in part to the ridiclous power of their Primus Gegra the Gregarius, an ironic name given his supposed nature.

I watch Carmen climb up the hill, the tattered cloth still blocking her vision. The change that she has undergone in the past three days is evident as soon as I look her. Gone is the stumbling and tripping, replaced with a flawless stride as her body moves with precision. It seems more graceful and perfect than anything I’ve ever seen, with the single exception being the fluidity that Octavian displayed when he avoided the guard’s attacks. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that every muscle in her body is working together in harmony, each motion carrying her forward and not wasting an ounce of motion.

She reaches me after a few more minutes and proceeds to rip the cloth off her face to reveal a pair of bloodshot eyes glaring out at me. Sweat drips down her face but she ignores it, too caught up in her emotion. Collapsing onto the ground with an exaggerated exhale, she scowls. “I swear to god, if you ever ask me to do anything like that again I’m just going to slam the door in your face. No house is worth these past three days.”

“Hello to you too Carmen. I’m doing well, thank you for asking.” All her training was obvious during her ascent up the hill but I just can’t help myself from being a little patronizing. Years of interaction have turned us into caricatures around each other.

Taking the cloth, she wipes her brow with it and then throws it at me, forcing me to dodge to the side. Covered in sweat, it looks more like a rag than an eye cover. She then lays down on her back, looking up at the sky and giving me the middle finger as she responds. “Obviously it worked asshole, you saw what I was like when I was running. I managed to increase Foresight from Level 7 up to Level 23 but that shit was not worth it. Give me my comfy pile of blankets any day.”

Feeling a sarcastic response building on my tongue, I manage to bite it back before it escapes. There’s just something about her that brings out the petty side of me, a side that had been withering away in the last two years. The last thing I want is to let that aspect of myself become even more of a problem than it is now. Pushing down the urge, I walk back over to Carmen and sit down by her, the silence slowly ramping up in tension and awkwardness.

It has always been … hard for us. Hard to get along, hard to connect, hard to spend time around each other. We bring out the worst aspects in each other. Her selfishness brings out my condescension and judgement which then lead to her being even more selfish out of spite. An infinite loop.

The silence continues for a few more moments before I finally speak, my eyes still on the clouds drifting through the sky. “You know why we are doing this right?”

She scoffs in response. “I know why you’re doing this. You’ve always followed your mom’s example. Momma King wants to ‘help’ people and build up Everwall? Well guess what? Suddenly, that’s what you want as well.”

Sitting up and throwing her hands into the air in exasperation, she continues. “And damn it Cael, I get that you are the good guy but that doesn’t mean you get to shove it in my face all the time. I’m not like you okay? I just want to be comfortable and happy, that’s it. I’m not some ‘Defender of Everwall’ like you or your cousin.”

I mull over her words for a few moments before I respond, stifling my urge to come back at her with some sanctimonious comment about how she couldbe so much more. Maybe that’s my biggest problem with her; she had always been the one with the most potential. She was always the more gifted of the two of us but never applied herself. As someone who made his way through life with hard work and planning, she was my antithesis.

“You know you don’t have to be, right? Hell Carmen, you don’t even have to fight if you don’t want to. I know my mom would kill to have you on the City Council. But you gotta … you gotta do something, even if it’s just caring for a single person.”

A soft breeze blows around us as she seems to be considering what I’m saying. The single tree in our vision sways gently and a few of its leaves fall away, tumbling and twisting to the ground with acrobatic prowess.

“Maybe that’s all you think I need but I don’t have that and I’m not looking for it. I just … I just want to be comfortable and safe, not out here in the wilderness.”

I pause. “Want to know what mine is?”

She gives me a side eye as she responds, letting out a little snort. “A day off training if I guess correctly?”

I let out a little laugh. Just when I thought we’d been getting close to having a real conversation,, she had to go and lighten the mood with a gamble. I’m honestly not surprised.

Seeing me nod in response, she continues, “Easiest bet I’ve ever made. It’s always your family. You may have some issues with them but you love your parents more than normal. If I had to guess, you think you need to protect them like they aren’t able to do that themselves.”

I can’t help myself as a chuckling laugh manages to make its way out of me, causing me to fall into a cough as I try to regain control. Carmen had always been perceptive and that obviously hadn’t been lost in the change.. Were I the Cael of just two years ago, her answer would have been correct.

But that’s just the thing. I’m not the same person that I was when I was taken to Helldarvin. Whether it was the hard choices I had to make, developing a level of self-sufficiency, the advice from Octavian, or even the occasional grateful look I’d received since the First Trial, my motivation has changed and evolved with me. Keeping my family safe is still a factor but it is no longer the core that drives me forward each day.

“Believe it or not, it’s not. Of course I still want to keep my family safe but I actually am out here for another person. A little girl named Lily.” I pause for a few seconds as I think back to that moment and reminisce about one of the few innocent memories I’ve had since Genesis. Her childlike wonder and glee, despite the battle torn world we now lived in, had nearly brought me to tears. “I met her when I first came to Everwall. She was living with her mom in a shack near the manor and … and had lost her father during the change. We threw a ball around and talked for a few moments. I was reminded that there’s more out there than just my family; there are hundreds of children who will grow up in this new world. If I’m able to keep their world from collapsing for just a little bit longer then… Well, that’s what keeps me going. And if I can make this world a better place for them along the way, then all the better.”

Looking at me with surprise, I’m pretty sure she is reevaluating me in her mind. After a few long moments, she looks back up at the sky says, her voice wavering slightly, “Damn Cael, can you make me feel like any more of an asshole? If I don’t help you now it’s gonna look like I don’t care about kids.”

“It’s only the two of us here Carmen.” I laugh as I respond. “I need your help but if you really are doing this just for a house then you can leave as soon as the Second Trial is over. But if it ends and you discover that you actually care about someone else? Well, we can deal with that then.”

Rubbing her hands together to brush off some dirt, she uses one of them to push herself off the ground, nodding her head as she does.

I stand up as well and take a few steps back to create a gap between us. “Now, let’s see how much you’ve improved your Foresight.”

Two hours later, the two of us stand across from each other, recovering and restoring our respective pools. Carmen is drenched in sweat, just as I’m beginning to feel a few drops drip down my back, as the sun reaches its zenith.

I have to admit, I’m incredibly impressed by what she has managed to accomplish in this short amount of time. Unfortunately, though, she seems to have fallen into a bad habit I hadn’t expected her to develop. She had tied the black cloth on her eyes right before we started sparring so that she had one less sense intruding on the vision of Foresight. Apparently, her sight interferes with her processing of what she sees, which is something we’ll need to fix later on.

More importantly, the result is something that I could never have predicted. In the three spars we’ve had so far, I haven’t managed to hit her once.

Of course, I haven’t been using all of my Skills, mainly focusing on Mana Blade, Mana Infusion, and Chilling Wind, and we’ve been cutting ourselves off after ten minutes, but that doesn’t diminish what she has managed to accomplish. Mana Infusion increases my Dexterity and Strength to much higher levels and for her to perfectly avoid every single strike, even while slowed down by a Chilling Wind, is nothing short of miraculous. Her recovery time leaves a bit to be desired but I, better than anyone, can understand how exhausting the strain of a mental Skill is.

A quick check shows that my Mana Well is entirely full and I clap my hands. “Let’s go again. I’m adding another two Skills this time so let’s see how well you handle that.”

“You haven’t managed to hit me yet, I don’t think two Skills are going to make that much of a difference Cael. But go ahead, see if the fourth time's the charm.” She responds, obviously feeling cocky from her ‘victories’.

Without responding, I cast Fleet Feet of Air, speeding my movement up even further, and then begin sprinting towards her. A quick thought causes brownish Mana to ooze out of the pores in my hand. It almost instantly reaches the desired mass and a sharp crack emanates out as it transforms into organic stone, covering my entire hand in a large gauntlet. Despite its size and traits, it feels natural on my hand, not slowing me down at all.

Carmen responds by getting to her feet and moving in that eerily perfect motion. Each step harmonizes perfectly with what her body is capable of to create motion that produces no waste. Perfection in every movement towards the pursuit of a singular goal.

Unfortunately for her, I think I’ve discovered the weakness of Foresight. There’s no doubt about it, Carmen has managed to discover one of the single most powerful Skills that I’ve ever seen, but it isn’t flawless. If my understanding and her poor description is correct, then her Skill seeks out the best path towards a goal that she holds in her mind. These past few spars, for example, were most likely focused on the goal of not getting hit. Foresight manages to perfectly predict every action that I’m going to take and she’s manages to follow the actions while also keeping her mind focused on the future.

Like all Skills, however, it seems to have its fair, if somewhat smaller, share of flaws. Best I can tell, Carmen can only see a few moments forward during combat as variables change too quickly. If her attention wavers for a split second then she falls out of the trance and has to renter it, which takes a second or two.

Her biggest weakness, though, isn’t her Skill, it’s her body’s capabilities. At a certain point, seeing forward into the battle is pointless if you aren’t able to move or react at the speed that your opponent is. And that is precisely what I intend to show her right now.

Propelled forward by the wind feeding motion into my body, I reach her within a second. Instead of retreating like she has in the past three spars, she lunges forward and her hands come up to try and grapple with me. A quick activation of Mana Infusion gives me the Dexterity to easily dodge her attack and I slip around her, placing my gloved hand on her shoulder and gripping tightly.

The pain lurches her out of her trance and she reaches up to rip off the cloth covering her eyes, throwing it down on the ground in frustration. “Dammit! I saw that coming but there was nothing I could do to stop it! You move so goddamn fast!”

“That’s the biggest flaw of Foresight. If you can’t handle what’s thrown at you then no amount of Foresight in the world will be able to change that.” I respond, keeping my voice even and calm to try and calm her down. After our semi heart to heart earlier, the last thing I want to do is start another argument upon her first loss.

“Well what can I do to fix that?” She asks, picking up the cloth and slipping it into her back pocket. In the most apparent display of being a sore loser that I’ve ever seen, she sits down on the ground as if her first loss means that we are going to stop completely.

Now I’m just happy she ‘won’ the first few.

“There’s a few options for you. I think you’re … you’re standing at a crossroads right now.”

“What do you mean?”

I take a second to figure out how I want to get my point across. This will be an important decision for her and this decision will impact the entire team. “Not everyone on a team has to be in a combat role; Alejandro is a perfect example of this. He can do well in a fight but his main strength is in what he can do before the fight. He serves the team better by acting in a supporting role.”

“In a sense, this is the decision you need to make. Foresight can make you a killer combatant if you manage to increase your physical capabilities. You’ll be able to avoid every attack and hit opponents in the perfect area for taking them down quickly. Of course, this path will be extremely difficult as you’ll need to train every day in order to strengthen your body to where it can handle that level of combat.”

Her face originally lighting up at the idea of being an unstoppable combatant but turning sour upon mention of more training, she thinks about it for a few moments and then says, “And the other option is being a supportive role?”

“Pretty much. You won’t be as effective immediately but I think we can figure out some other way for you to contribute to the team in the long run. For now we’d have you train on increasing the distance you can see forward. With enough time forward, you could effectively be a scout without leaving our side. In the long-term, you could become our strategist or a host of other roles, if you decide to remain with the team of course.”

She considers this for a few more moments, falling deeper into thought than I’ve seen in years. Normally one for making decisions on a whim, this careful calculation shocks me slightly. Maybe … maybe there’s hope for her yet.

She seems to steel herself as she looks at me, the mercenary look in her eye now tinged with the slightest appearance of empathy. It flickers and disappears after a split second but I know what I saw. Carmen is beginning to care, if just a little at the moment. The seed has been planted.

“I think I’ll play a supporting role. Being a badass killer sounds amazing but it involves more physical training so I’ll have to pass. Training Foresight will be way easier, and hey, if it stops you guys from getting killed then maybe it’s worth the time. Plus if you die I’m positive your parents won’t give me the house.”

Baby steps, I remind myself as I feel the familiar frustration arise from her response. Baby steps.