"You're late!"
Tsuki looked surprised by my accusation. "I didn't know there was a set time for me to be here."
I growled in aggravation. "I told you to come as soon as you woke up."
He reached the edge of the forest where I stood waiting for him. We had decided early on that it would be better for us to travel separately. First, it would draw less attention, and second, it would save Tsuki some walking time.
He reached up to remove his mask as soon as he was in the safety of the trees. "I did come as soon as I woke up. Master Heele didn't even ask me to do anything before I left. I came straight here."
I scoffed. "Then, you sleep too long, lazy log."
Tsuki laughed and reached over to ruffle my hair. He was getting taller these days, and it annoyed me that he didn't even have to lift his arm much to do it.
I swatted at his hand but missed on purpose. "You're not that much older than me," I pointed out. "Don't treat me like I'm your little sister."
He laughed again. "I don't treat my little sister like this. She's too much of a bother for me to want to be around her."
Tsuki was the middle child, with an older brother and a younger sister. He'd once told me about his family, but I realized that he'd never gone into detail. "How old is she?"
"Hoshi?" he clarified. "She's ten years old. Your mother probably knows her. She works with the gleaners most days."
My eyebrows shot up. "She works in the fields? Why doesn't she go to school?"
Tsuki pressed his lips together. "She went for a while, but the other children were bullying her. Now, Ama teaches her at home in the evenings."
(Ama was what he called his mother.)
I nodded slowly. I wasn't surprised, but it was still sad to hear. It didn't take much for the people of the village to separate someone as too different to belong. Tsuki's family all wore wooden masks, but they looked completely normal otherwise. No one knew that they were akagine. The masks and the label "refugees" were enough for the villagers to treat them as inferior.
"Good riddance," I muttered, kicking a pebble in my path.
I'd never met his family, but I automatically liked them since I liked Tsuki. Sometimes they sent little gifts for me and Mother, even though I knew they didn't have much to spare.
Tsuki's mother was skilled at embroidery, and she sold her pieces in all the villages of the fief. Wealthy families would occasionally hire her to do something special for them, but more often she would be paid to do their mending. Tsuki's father worked as a guard for one of the merchant caravans, so he was away from home most of the time.
My eyes narrowed as a sudden thought occurred to me. "What about your brother? What does he do?"
Tsuki hesitated, tapping his knuckle on the bark of a tree as we passed. "Ah…"
I frowned. "What?"
He looked away from me, studying the ground as if it needed careful inspection. "Taiyo was separated from us when we were escaping Navon. We…don't know where he is."
My jaw dropped. "What?"
Tsuki's shoulders drooped. "That's why we settled down here. This was the fief we decided would be our meeting place if we got separated. Ama watches for him when she visits all the villages, and Afa looks for him in other fiefs as he travels."
I felt the sudden urge to give Tsuki a hug, but I knew that would make him uncomfortable. Instead, I patted his arm. "I'm sorry, Tsuki. You must be worried."
He nodded but tried to shrug it off. "We'll just keep waiting. It can't be easy to cross the border right now. He'll probably come as soon as the revolutionaries allow travel."
"Exactly," I agreed enthusiastically. "He'll catch up with you soon."
However, I knew that Tsuki's family had been in the village for almost two years. That was a long time to be without news of their son.
I decided to change the subject. "I hope Budding is waiting for us," I said, clasping my hands together. "I can't wait for today's lesson!"
A smile touched the corner of Tsuki's mouth. "You told me to come early, but you don't know if Budding will be there?"
"Of course, she'll be there," I retorted, even though I wasn't certain.
"Well, I guess we'll find out soon," he answered wryly.
The hut came into view and I scanned the scene eagerly. To my delight, Budding was waiting for us by the rain barrel. I sprinted toward her, leaving Tsuki behind.
"You're here, you're here," I sang. "Today is the day!"
Budding chuckled at my antics. "Yes, today we begin a new set of lessons."
Tsuki arrived and bowed politely. "Good morning, teacher."
She smiled at him fondly. "Good morning."
I scanned the surrounding area, my eyes filling with confusion. "Where's Min?"
The hoak was nowhere in sight. I hadn't gone a day without seeing him since I'd begun my lessons.
"He's on an errand for me," Budding explained. "No need to worry."
I pouted, but only briefly. My morning didn't seem complete without teasing him. Still, my excitement overcame everything else, immediately cheering me up again.
"I'm afraid that you've made the trip here for nothing," Budding said to Tsuki. "These lessons will be useless to anyone other than a tiernan."
He shook his head. "I wanted to come anyway."
Up to this point, we'd been learning about sensing magic and utilizing it—something every magical creature could learn how to do. Tsuki wasn't as good at it as I was, but he'd improved over time. Even though these new lessons wouldn't be helpful to him as an akagine, he still found it interesting.
Budding started walking into the forest. I expected her to lead the way to the nearest focal point, but she didn't. We just seemed to be wandering without a destination in mind.
"Everything in the world is tied to a source of power," she began. "This is what gives life. Life for a tree looks different than life for a deer, but they all have it or they wouldn't exist."
"What about things like rocks or water?" I asked. "Are they alive?"
Budding inclined her head. "They are the physical manifestations of certain types of power. They may not be sentient, but they are, in their way, alive."
"How many sources of power are there?" Tsuki inquired.
She smiled. "Who knows? I can only tell you about the ones I have seen."
I rolled my eyes at her answer, but Tsuki considered it thoughtfully. He seemed to take everything she said seriously.
"What are the ones you know about, then?" I prodded.
Budding began listing them, counting each with her fingers. "There's the power of the planet, the power of the elements, the power of light, the power of darkness, the power of creation, the power of destruction, and the power of connection. Everything is rooted to at least one source, but some beings are connected to more."
I shuddered. "Some of those sound scary."
"That's your human teaching," she explained. "Nothing is innately good or evil when it comes to the building blocks of life. They are simply pieces of the whole."
My expression turned skeptical. "How can destruction ever be a good thing?"
"Creation is the process of putting things together, while destruction is the process of taking things apart," she replied. "How can either of those things be always good or always bad?"
"Like if the body is creating disease, then it would be helpful to destroy it," Tsuki pointed out.
Budding grinned. "Exactly."
"I guess that makes sense," I admitted.
"Tiernan are nature spirits," she went on. "Do you understand what that means?"
I did some quick thinking, trying to find an acceptable answer. "It means that we're connected to the planet?"
"Yes," Budding approved. "The world itself is the largest source of power we know of, and therefore it's most common for living things to be connected to it. I would estimate that nine out of ten living things are rooted in the power of the planet."
My eyes widened. "That's a lot."
"It is," she agreed. "However, that doesn't mean that everything uses that power in the same way. Humans flourish differently than fish, but both are tied to the same source."
Tsuki and I nodded.
"What are some examples of creatures that are connected to other powers?" I asked.
Budding gestured to Tsuki. "Kags are rooted in the power of destruction, therefore akagine inherit that connection."
He tilted his head to the side. "Does our human heritage connect us to the power of the planet as well?"
"Yes." Budding looked pleased with his reasoning.
"What else?" I demanded.
She smiled at my question. "Hoaks are rooted in the power of the elements. For them it breaks down even further, so each individual is associated with a specific element."
"So, Min is an earth hoak?" I assumed.
"Correct."
"But there are also fire hoaks and water hoaks and air hoaks?" I continued.
"Yes."
I was about to ask more questions, but Budding raised a hand to quiet me. "There are entire fields of study devoted to these things," she said. "We can't possibly cover everything there is to know right now."
"Who studies them?" I blurted, knowing that I was getting off-topic again.
She reached over and pinched my chin. "Scholars," Budding answered shortly. "For today, it's most important for you to learn about tiernan and how we use our source of power."
I nodded eagerly.
We reached a sunny glade with a small stream trickling through it. Budding seated herself on the grass, indicating that we should do the same. Tsuki folded his legs underneath him, sitting with his back straight. I flopped onto the ground, spreading my arms and legs on the fragrant greenery.
"Why are tiernan called nature spirits when you have a physical body?" Tsuki wondered.
Budding looked at him with pride glinting in her eyes. She always liked the questions that he asked. She said he had the mind of a scholar.
"A tiernan's pure form is a spirit," she replied.
I shot up to a sitting position. "What?"
"Tiernan are spirits that are tied to another living thing," she went on. "We can use the physical form of our counterparts to become physical ourselves. That's why tiernan can change shapes—we don't have a permanent shape to begin with."
I leaned forward. "How come I can't do that?"
"Because your human half gives you a physical form," Budding explained.
I blew out my breath with a scowl on my face. "That's stupid."
Tsuki gave my shoulder a nudge. "Isn't it better to have a body?"
"Not when it looks like this," I muttered, gesturing to my yellow skin.
He responded so quietly it was almost a whisper. "I think it's pretty."
I snorted. "Then you're stupid, too."
Budding waved her hand to refocus our attention. "Tiernan can be divided according to the things to which they are tied. You and I are called tree tiernan, but really we are connected to all plant life. Trees are just the strongest connection we feel."
"So, as long as I'm around plants I'll feel fine?" I inquired, thinking back to Wake's journey away from her river.
Budding's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "As a child of a wanderer and a human, you are uniquely equipped to go wherever you wish. I'm sure you'll feel better around plants, but you wouldn't die if you had to cross a desert."
"Would you?" Tsuki asked.
Budding nodded. "I wouldn't survive a desert, even if it had cacti and sagebrush. The density of plants would be too low for me. The journey from the mountain to this forest was difficult enough, due to the break in trees."
I experience a surge of gratitude. I hadn't considered that aspect of Budding coming to teach me, and my heart warmed knowing that she'd come anyway.
"Magic is merely the ability to use our power sources according to our will," she continued. "Humans are not considered magical beings just because they don't know how to control the energy they absorb. It's a simple definition, but the outcome is drastic."
I laid back down, resting my head in the crook of my arm. "I wonder if humans could learn to use their magic."
"Perhaps," Budding allowed, "but for now, let's just focus on teaching you how to use your magic."
I immediately sat up again. "Yes!"
She brushed her hand over the grass around us. "Our power comes from the earth, but plants are like the conduit that we use. Since we draw our magic from plant life, the easiest thing to learn is to channel it back."
As she spoke, the grass around her hand deepened in color and started to grow. I gasped in delight, staring at the blades as they expanded.
"How do you do it?" I asked excitedly.
"It's best to start with small plants because it's easier to see the changes that are being made," Budding cautioned. "As you practice, you will be able to sense the changes even without visual differences."
I nodded impatiently. "Where do I begin?"
"Drawing magic into yourself uses visualization, correct?"
"Yes," I answered. Budding had taught me to imagine that I was drawing it out of the air like a gossamer thread—slowly and gently.
"Placing magic into living things uses the same technique," she prompted. "Imagine the magic as a string being wrapped around the recipient, or a trickle of water being poured onto it."
I squared my shoulders, giving the grass my most serious stare. I visualized another version of myself—one that stood among the strands of magic that wafted through the air. I imagined her reaching out a hand to carefully catch the golden threads without breaking or scattering them.
Matching my movements to that other version of Tiff, I slowly guided those bits of magic to the plants next to me. I imagined the strands settling down on the blades of grass like a dandelion seed, then being absorbed.
The grass began to grow.
"I'm doing it," I squealed.
Tsuki and Budding both applauded. "Well done," my teacher exclaimed.
It didn't grow as much as the grass by Budding, but it had definitely happened. I could feel my chest expanding with the pride of my accomplishment.
I'd done it, and on my first try! There were few things that I'd learned where I'd caught on so quickly. Budding seemed genuinely pleased, which told me that I was doing well for tiernan, too.
I grinned at my companions, feeling the glow of the sunshine radiating from my face. "I did it," I repeated.
Budding touched my arm with emotion shining in her eyes. "It was perfect, Tiff. You made this little part of the world a better place."