It's not a pleasant flight, but of course they never are with Primus. The beast barely lets me straddle him before he thrusts down with his wings and nearly spills me back into the creek. I have to grasp onto Immy's waist to prevent myself from falling off. All Immy does is whoop with excitement and urge the beast on.
Because of our mutual animosity I have only flown on the beast a handful of times, none of them by choice. The enormous wings beat so hard that they shake the treetops as we rise out of the creek. Now I grip onto Immy's shirt like my life depends on it, since it likely does. I don't have any notion that the beast would break a sweat catching me if I plummet to my death. I'm pretty sure the thing would save us both if I take him with me.
Our island stretches out before us: a blanket of trees with scattered lakes and ponds throughout. I can see a fresh acre or two in the western coast that have the telltale sign of being recently claimed from the ocean floor. There is something intensely wetter about the sand that has been submerged for millennia. The color, even after its been dried by the sun, is so much richer; as if the ocean left an imprint upon it that hasn't yet been bleached out. Clarion, the woman who is responsible for the island tipping into the sea, has been adding to the size of our island for years. There is only so far we can expand, however, before it becomes too hard to hide such a place from the curious world.
The trees give way to coast in the distance and I can just make out a collection of people near the shore. The sand is rapidly getting smaller and they were forced back, almost to the treeline as the ocean works to sink the mass of land that is our home. Things like that happen when you uproot an island.
We land.
"Damon, you're late!" Thanks Mother, tell me something I don't know. "Clarion has been trying to hold the earth back from its recession but you know how hard it is once the earth has begun to move. I thought you would have been here already or I would have prepared to move the island myself."
Mother is the leader of the tribe and also one of the most powerful. She is a telekinetic with massive strength and control; able to move or manipulate whatever she wills with her mind. She used to be the one to move the island but the preparation and toll it took on her was immense. Last year they discovered I was able to do the same thing without so much as breaking a sweat and they unceremoniously dumped the responsibility in my lap. They tend to do such things to minors when it suits them, regardless of whether the victims are children of the tribal leaders or not. Apparently they should also make sure the victim actually shows up to do the job.
I don't respond to her patronizing as I jump off the beast and race to the water. The second my bare feet touch it I speak through them and freeze the island in place.
Everyone on the shore lurches from the movement and out of the corner of my eye I see a few stumble and fall to the sand. I guess it had been hard to tell how fast we had been slipping into the ocean.
It's hard to explain to others what happens when I use my power to move the Ocean. It's so much different than what happens when I control another water source. Controlling most water is like using an extension of myself. I Command it to do something and it does, even acts against its own nature such as forming solid objects or defying gravity.
When I move the Ocean it's as if I'm dealing with a being that has its own consciousness. Immy has a theory where the salt in the water acts as nerve impulses to form some "greater sentience" but I don't really care about the why, only the how to convince it to do what I need.
There would be no problem if not for the Ocean's concern for the life forms that live inside of it; the fish, mammals, even the creatures of the deep that haven't been seen by humans in millennia. I feel them myself as my senses expand outward. I probe with my mind, noting the billions of creatures that are surrounding the island while also sensing further out, noting the things that were built by the Others. Floating vessels and even some that travel under the water. All oblivious to the fact that our island of wonders hides itself from them.
The elders teach us that we are the righteous, the Chosen who are gifted abilities of the gods and it is our responsibility to protect the secrets of the island. We are given gifts to do so. Mirage is one who cloaks the island from view, protecting against satellites and even the naked eye unless a ship unknowingly slips under the illusion. Clarion is able to bind and unbind our island to the earth, securing it so we don't sink to the ocean's depths. I and my mother before me are the ones who do the actual moving; my mother able to use sheer strength to lift the entire land and I using the strength of the Ocean as I am today.
Then there is of course, the Seer, who plots our course. She is the one who shows me and Clarion where to plant the island so that the outside world won't find us for as long as possible. In my opinion she's shit at her job. She's had me move the island a half dozen times already in the last year and a half. The closest move only six weeks apart when an "unforeseeable event" apparently changed the course of a bunch of ships. I told mother the old lady's a crap Seer if she can't even see these so-called "unforeseeable" events. Mom told me to respect my great-grandmother and stop complaining about doing what is asked of me.
The Seer before Nana, someone long dead now, had apparently foreseen that a great sea vessel would somehow bring about the downfall of our society. That was all well and good when we only had to move the island every couple years but it seems like ever since I took over the actual moving we've been doing it far more often. The worst part about it is having to argue with a semi-intelligent being composed of water that stretches across the entire world.
>Move island here.<
I fix the point in my mind, a swath of ocean that seems like any other but for the spire jutting from the ocean bed. It was a marker placed by Clarion so I could communicate more clearly with Ocean. It was easy to convince her to make the marker after the first time I tried to communicate with Ocean and it took us several leagues from where we were supposed to be. The spire was far enough under the surface of the water that it wouldn't be visible under satellite and once the island moved close enough, the illusion of open water would cover it anyway.
>Large piece of earth should return to ocean bed. Not natural to float on top of water.<
I really shouldn't be surprised, Ocean makes this same statement each time I move the island but that doesn't mean I'm any less frustrated. Luckily I've learned to avoid arguing with it and simply express my desires.
>Large piece of earth will be fixed to seabed once moved by Ocean.<
>Little ones in the way. Will not hurt them to help young Waterman.<
Little ones: the creatures of the sea. It doesn't matter that some can swallow me whole as easy as I yawn. It all comes back to how truly immense the ocean is; we are all specks floating in its mass. The difference is that it cares more about the needs of the creatures than my needs and the needs of my tribe. Moving the island is a danger to them — uprooting their habitats, messing with their ecosystem. All so we can hide from the pressing world for a little bit longer.
We go back and forth for a while, arguing for over an hour about how to get the island to the specific destination. Ocean has the power to move the island that distance in only a matter of minutes, but since it would devastate everything living in the vicinity, I have to explain that it needs to move small distances at a time.
As soon as we agree, Ocean moves us. When it does, I feel relief pour over me. It's not that I've ever failed at this but it just never made sense to me. Why would such an immense entity who cares nothing about my island obey me? There's always a hint of unease passing through the waves when I reach out to it, as if it doesn't want to anger me. Like my power is greater than its own. If that were true then I wouldn't need its help to do what we're doing now.
I sit down on the sand in the shallow waves and let myself relax. Maybe the Seer is right, maybe this move will keep us safe for the next eight months. That would be a relief, not having to worry about dealing with Ocean. I know that's too much to hope for, so I give it eight weeks.
The waves crawl up my legs as the island rushes forward toward the spire. I could divert the waves around me, keeping a dry area on the sand for me to sit on while we travel. Instead I let them wash over my waist, then my chest, getting closer and closer to submerging me. For a minute I think about letting them. Asking the ocean to seal me in a capsule of solidified water and just taking me to the next island it finds. Maybe even a mainland.
I wonder what my family would think if I just slipped away like that. If they would pursue me or if they would just let me go. I take a deep breath and I'm about to form the capsule when I hear a voice cut through the waves.
"Well that was the most excitement we've had for a while. You never fail to disappoint Day-Day."
"Go away Liah." I should have known my sister would come pester me.
"Mom told me to go check on you, she said she was sorry for yelling and that she was worried."
"Liar."
"Okay, fine. I saw you got all beat up on that mountain of yours and wanted to fix your face."
"Just leave it." I close my eyes and will her away. If only my power was mind control.
"It's nothing really. I don't even have to touch you, watch."
"I don't want—" Too late.
I feel the cuts on my face and inside my lip close up, pushing the debris out so I have to spit it out of my mouth. The ache from my swollen ankle eases immediately and the entire leg relaxes along with it. A dozen other bumps and bruises heal at the same time and truth be told, my body feels amazing. That doesn't mean I want to feel this way.
"Why can't you ever just leave me alone? I don't care if you're the next Reyselda, sometimes I'd rather just keep my scars." I mean every word but don't intend to take out that much anger on her.
"Well you'd be the only one. And you don't have to be such a jerk about it." She sits down next to me in the water and fixes her eyes at the horizon, eyes unblinking as she stares straight ahead.
It was unfair to take my frustrations out on her, of all people. I guess that's what she gets for being my sister and coming to check on me. Between the two of us, she's the one that should really feel bitter at being used by the tribe.
Shortly before we were born there was a great healer of the tribe, Reyselda Kamoor. She was so powerful that her restorative abilities extended to things that weren't even living. Wood that had rotted, food that had spoiled, even clothing that had frayed would be restored just by being in her presence. There was an aura around her that exuded health and healing, keeping each member of the tribe in the prime of their lives and living forever. Then she disappeared.
Rumors had swirled and a tremendous panic swept through the entire village. People who had gotten used to living forever were now faced with their mortality. Fighting ensued as long-held grudges were brought to their bitter end and the tenuous hold my family had on order was threatened. Immortalis told me that he had been a suspect for her disappearance since his own nature kept him eternally young without the aid of another. The elders had ruled him out as being a suspect since he and the majority of the community were at a festival the night that she disappeared.
When the tribe came to terms with the fact that she would never be coming back, the others with healing gifts tried to fill her role with no luck. People began to age, the older their true age the faster the process and before too long they had lost everyone older than two centuries. That was when my sister came into her abilities.
Most children develop their gifts between the ages of two and five and at four and a half, Maliah was no different. The difference was the amount of power that she had even at such a young age.
The story went that I had just come into my own powers and had accidentally drowned a wild rabbit. She was so upset at finding its unmoving body that she reached out her hands and the thing came back to life, vomiting out a huge amount of water. The elders initially thought that that was her power, bringing the dead back. Never before seen, but that didn't mean they didn't believe it. They had her test that ability on a recently deceased tribe member.
When they were finally able to bring the trembling child to the body, they realized their hope of bringing the dead back was gone. What they did discover was a healing power to rival Reyselda's own. As Maliah strained to put breath back into the corpse, those standing by witnessed something they were trying hard not to hope for. The cut flowers that lay on the altar began blooming and linen on the body that had begun to decay was made whole again. It even extended to the elders surrounding her and several of them claimed to feel decades younger.
I had snuck away from my attendant and was standing outside the crypt when I heard the joyous cheers from inside. It took me a long time to realize it wasn't because my great-great-aunt was back to life but that the tribe had found a new source for their immortality. Maliah was whisked away and the elders immediately set to work finding out what that four-year-old could do. Instead of the normal childhood, playing and slowly learning how to appropriately use one's powers, she was forced to spend the majority of her time with the elders. They determined that she did have similar capabilities as Reyselda and inducted her as the youngest elder when she turned sixteen. I still believe they gave her the eldership to make amends for stealing her childhood.
I look over at her again and see the internal contrast our people have brought upon her. On the outside she is barely an adult. Nineteen with a face that looks younger than mine, that is until you look into her eyes. Her eyes show a wisdom that has been there since we were young but has grown beyond all my imagining ever since she took the burdens of our tribe upon herself. I try to find a non-awkward way to apologize when the island suddenly swerves. Even though we're sitting down, both Maliah and I lose our balance and splash into the water.
I roll onto my knees and frantically make contact with Ocean again, feeling a weight of dread settle over me.
At the time the ocean swerved the plan was to angle away from the spire that Clarion built. We would then double back on the intended point once we had made a far enough circuit. That was the main reason I had been negotiating with Ocean for such a long time. There's a single ship in our vicinity and this jolting detour is taking the island, along with our cover of camouflage within sight-distance of the ship.