Journeymaster 5
“Fu… So… Ya!” Nikko said in three gasping laughs. Her mouth was wide open, eyes bright and the deepest green he’d ever seen. She grabbed both of his hands in hers, and before he could protest, they were spinning around in a momentum of her laughter and night air.
Now that they were far away from the eating establishment and the Manor, she didn’t care how loud she laughed or who was watching. Fu only puzzled at her strange behavior, caught up in her twirling mirth.
Finally, they came to a stop, both winded from the sudden outburst. Standing very close to each other, the moonlight beamed down, casting a halo over Nikko’s hair.
She grinned up at him. “You’re truly not afraid of anyone, are you?”
“What do you mean?” Fu asked curiously.
“You stood up to Zemus. I couldn’t believe it. You didn’t look afraid at all,” Nikko expanded. Then she began to walk, holding one of his hands in hers and swinging it back and forth with a childlike energy.
“I…” he began, mulling over the answer he should provide. The pride in him wanted to embrace her fearless compliment. But he knew that wasn’t totally truthful. “I am not as brave as you think. Not always.”
“I think it was pretty courageous,” she noted, not deterred by his answer.
He gave a breathy half-laugh. “Mind mages are good at acting. In all honesty, Zemus spooks the curl out of my hair.”
That was her cue to mess with his ponytail, tugging on it. “Seems pretty curly to me.”
“Not everything is as it seems,” he insisted.
She fell quiet at that, and he wondered if maybe he shouldn’t admit his uncertainty so readily. Nikko just stared up into the sky, focusing at the distant starlight for a time.
Then, she finally spoke again, “Courage doesn’t mean you don’t have fear. It means that you do something despite being afraid.”
“Hmmm…”
“You’re always doing things like that.” She leaned forward to look at him as they walked. “You challenge the teachers. You challenge the Masters. You challenge everything about the Manor. I don’t know anyone else who has the kind of courage that you do.”
He pursed his lips, not knowing what to say.
“I wish I could do the things you do… or… find the courage you have, if nothing else,” Nikko confided.
“No, you really do not,” Fu told her. He turned with a quiet look. “I think it is anger, not courage. Perhaps it is reckless. Perhaps I have someone watching over me in the Manor, smoothing things out. Like you said before, it is funny how quickly I advanced.”
“Maybe that’s true.” The girl stepped in front of him, forcing him to stop walking. “But I know there’s more than just anger in you, Fu. I know because I see you’re different right here and now. Different than when you’re in the Manor.”
He looked down, not able to meet her eyes.
“The Manor has changed you. It’s made you angry,” Nikko told him. Then she placed a palm against his cheek. “But it’s not all that you are unless you let it be.”
“I do not really know what I am,” he told her.
That’s when she gathered up both of his hands again and brought them to her chin. “Does anyone really know?”
“You seem to,” Fu offered a slight smile. “Everything seems to move around you so… perfectly. With this sort of ease. Not like me. I have to force everything. Fight everything.”
It was her turn to use his words against him. “Not everything is what it seems.”
“Oh?” he prompted.
“I’m far from perfect, FuSoYa.” She walked again, leading him to a silent pond that reflected both moon and stars back at the sky.
“You are perfect to me,” he murmured.
Nikko stopped and laughed. Shaking her head as she peered at their images in the rippling pond. “What are you doing, Fu? You’re probably the most talented mage the Manor’s seen. And yet, here you are with someone like me.”
A ripple of insect dance streaked across the surface of the water.
Fu felt the lump in his throat growing as he struggled to find the proper thing to say. It all felt so important, as if everything in the future hinged on his response right now. Instead of something flowery and fake, all he could manage was something stumbling, yet honest.
“Nikko, I mean what I say,” he began. “I really like you. I asked you here tonight because I hope that maybe we could start to see each other. In that way. More than friends.”
Her mouth parted for a long moment, her eyes flickering over his face as if trying to tell how serious he was. When he didn’t show signs of stepping down, a soft smile curved her lips. “What will the Masters think of this? A promising Journeymaster and a low-grade student?”
Fu puffed out his cheeks. “I have no care about what they think of me. As long as you do not worry what they think of you.”
“I’m not worried about that.”
“So you will give this a chance?”
“If we do this carefully.”
“Is that a yes?” he perked up hopefully.
“Oh, Fu. It was always a yes,” she said, leaning closer to him.
What do I do now? Is there something I should say?
He tested it, putting his arm around her. Nikko didn’t pull away. In fact, she seemed pleased, nestling deeper into the crook of his arm.
Perhaps silence is best.
She stared up into the starry sky again. The darkness painted thousands of white dots across the heavens, and the moon hung so large that Fu felt he could touch it. He didn’t understand her fascination with it, not when their time would be better spent staring at each other.
“Do you ever get the feeling,” Nikko said, voice slightly muffled by his robe, “This isn’t all there is?”
“I am sure there are places far beyond the Manor. Some of our people are learning to work the land and settle the borders,” he nodded.
“No, I mean, even beyond that. We can’t be the only people who exist in this whole universe. That just seems silly, don’t you think?”
“Actually, I never considered it before.” He honestly hadn’t. He was much too busy with studies and the Manor to consider the possibility of more troublemaking life forms on other worlds.
“What about now?”
“There are some people in the Manor who think there may be life on other worlds.”
“And what does FuSoYa think?” she teased him, looking for his answer.
“I do not know,” he responded. “I think it may be possible. I would not deem it completely unrealistic.”
“You are so pragmatic, you know.” Nikko nudged his side. “Don’t tell me you don’t have any imagination up there.”
“I have imagination,” Fu responded. “But you did not ask what I imagined. You asked what I believe is true.”
“Truth isn’t always logical.”
He paused, realizing he couldn’t really argue with that. Instead, he chose to ask, “Why the sudden interest in other worlds?”
“I don’t know.” She snuggled closer into his robe. “I guess I just wonder if things are different somewhere out there. What a world is like without the Manor. And sometimes I wonder where we came from. Why there’s such a huge gap in our history.”
“Now you are starting to sound like my father,” Fu chided. “And you see where that got him.”
“I know this isn’t the popular opinion,” Nikko disagreed. “But I really think your father is a fine scholar. I think the answers he’s looking for are important.”
The mind mage shook his head. “What is the good of hunting down a past that everyone forgot? Maybe they forgot it for a reason.”
“What if that was your past, Fu? Would you just accept the fact that it was gone and never ask questions?” she reasoned. “That’s exactly what the Manor wants people to do. Have you ever thought there’s a reason they encourage us not to look?”
“Probably because they are too busy destroying our present,” he grumbled. “Which is what my father should be trying to prevent, rather than running around chasing memories.”
“Maybe that’s what he’s trying to do, just in a different way.” She gave him that long-suffering look. “That would technically make him a bit of a Manor rebel, wouldn’t it?”
Fu couldn’t stop the scoffing laugh that came from his mouth. Nikko looked a bit put out and de-cuddled from him.
“I just wish you’d give him a chance. He is your father.”
“How did he end up in our conversation? This was supposed to be about us.” He frowned.
Nikko sighed. “Okay, point taken. But, at least promise you’ll think about easing up on him. Just a little?”
“I will consider it.”
“You should do more than consider it,” she advised with the most serious look she could muster. “There’s a lot of things I’d say to my parents if I had the chance.”
“Yes, well, I’m sure that they were not as annoying as my father,” Fu grumbled.
“You’ve officially proven that you have an imagination.” Nikko just sighed and caught him around the arm, leading him back towards the town. “I think this is all in your head.”
“I think not!” he protested, as he was pulled along.
The only answer he received was the sound of her laughter.