Chapter 7 – Attachment

After crying for a few minutes, Hanna wakes up with a smile that would make any young man her age fall in love with and gives her mentor the sincerest thanks in the world. Chris just smiles and backs down a bit because of the discomfort of having someone thanking him, for having successfully helped someone and receiving a reward, that's right, his reward is that strange feeling of having taught someone well.

Going back to the city in the middle of the sunrise they enjoy the walk and the landscape, something that almost nobody does, although it is a dream land. The silence is awkward so Chris invites Hanna on a walk around town as a reward for her hard work and she happily accepts. Although by the time they are in the middle of the day it is Hanna who directs the walk since Chris is a foreigner and never had the opportunity to know much about the city.

Food, clothing stores, utensils, libraries, all the places Hanna had already gone and also those she could never go to for fear of getting out of control she visited with a huge smile on her face. People, although they were already more than familiar with the rumors about Hanna's past, were always watching her with her new personality. Was she really such a cheerful person? It's the question they had practically written all over their faces.

During their journey throughout the city, they ended up wandering to the quarry, Guilian was already famous among the people who work in there and even admired him for his power of destruction. All the workers have a lot of respect for the firebrand that have been getting stronger by working longer and harder than everyone on the site.

Hanna is a little uncomfortable with Guilian's behavior but trusts Chris's opinion that he is a good boy. An explosion arises and a huge rock fall from the cliff, the Earth adepts use their powers to stop it, but it is too big, and they cannot stop it completely.

If it is not landed properly, the 8-meter-diameter stone will roll down the hill until it reaches the city. Suddenly, Chris and Guilian jump into action, with their powers the two take care of one half of the stone, making it explode into smaller stones and freeing the workers.

Hanna sees Chris in action for the first time and is impressed as she cheers the pair of foreign adepts for saving the day and begin to inspect what caused it. No one can explain where the explosion came from, but some workers acknowledge that gunpowder was used, a resource they do not have in Vodheim, which raises even more suspicions.

With a dead end, Chris and Hanna say goodbye to Guilian and proceed to visit Tsubaki, who was training on top of one of the mountains surrounding the city, at a training camp for Air adepts. The staff and students speak highly of Tsubaki, being a prodigy in air control, as she completed the beginner and intermediate level courses in just one week. She is currently finishing the advanced course to proceed to forge her own style. That leaves Hanna impressed, though she has always heard how difficult the course is.

Chris observes the facilities, which are three towers connected by thick ropes, while on the platforms that hang in the intermediate zone there are a series of rectangular panels which must be rotated in a certain way according to the level of difficulty of the exercise.

The most advanced level is to rotate all the rectangular panels while the three circular panels in each of them rotate in the opposite direction. Tsubaki is still somewhat stuck in controlling air gusts in a millimetric way, but she has become accustomed to dancing with the flow of the wind.

“Some masters change the drafts, and you have to keep yourself unharmed as you progress through the rotating maze.” explains Tsubaki as the three of them watch the students practicing the exercise, “Although being a foreigner, I noticed that the teachers made it more difficult, and I was getting a lot of blows for weeks.”

A huge tempest hits the mountain and causes some students to fall, Tsubaki reacts and generates drafts to cushion the fall of inexperienced adepts. Chris realizes how complex it must be to control the air to make spinning gales that protect young people from even scratching their knees when touching the ground.

The teachers protect the area from the tremendous current of air that whips them, it does not seem normal to them at all. Tsubaki sensed some disturbances in the air and was able to react to the event. The students are forced into shelter and Tsubaki says goodbye to Chris and Hanna.

“See you at the inn to plan the trip to Heinburn!” Tsubaki shouts so that his voice is not lost to the wind.

In the afternoon, while they were still walking, Hanna began to think in her head that detail, that the time she had with Chris was limited, and as if he were reading her mind, Chris immediately asks her about her future.

“What are you going to do now? Did you plan what to do when I finished training?”

As if that were not enough, Hanna begins to fill herself again with the memories of her past, of how everyone wanted her power, not her for who she was, but she was no longer the shy and fragile girl, now she had confidence in herself, she only needs a goal.

“You'll make it, whatever you set your mind into.” Chris says as he sees his student's expression to lift her spirits.

The moment is very intimate, although something interrupts the moment, rain. It starts to pour abruptly, and they end up taking refuge in a restaurant. The two ended up soaked and laugh when they see each other and because of the noise the cook calls their attention but stops when he sees Hanna.

Due to the obvious awkward silence in the business owner, Chris orders him to prepare them a hot drink while they dry up. The cook refuses to attend to him but realizing that Chris is the young man who fought the invader of the Empire loses all authority and obeys.

«Maybe you don't realize it, or you don't want to admit it, Hanna, but there is still discrimination against you, I hope you break that barrier. » Chris thinks as he eats a very interesting drink called "hot chocolate."

While the minutes pass, they conclude that the rain will not stop in a while and end up eating in the restaurant. After a whole struggle against cutlery, Chris gives up and eats with his hands in a moderate way, Hanna laughs and wipes a stain of food from her new friend's cheek.

Chris is not at all uncomfortable with the familiarity with her, it is as if they had lived together all their lives, but he realizes something. He doesn't want to admit it, but his heart starts to speed up.

«Don't approach me, please don't. I don't want it to end up like with Karen. » Chris thinks as he looks away from Hanna. She realizes what she was doing and walks away, not knowing that she is misinterpreting what Chris is processing.

After a few moments of awkward silence, they begin to worry for the weather, not just for the rain. All the adepts are perceptive about the weather and such a wild storm only leaves bad vibes in the body, ends up making the skin bristle and even leaves the mouth dry. In a totally unexpected way, there begin to be strange noises throughout the city, barely and can be perceived by all the noise of the water falling from the sky and walking the streets, some sounds begin to be distinguished, voices of people and by the tone anyone would tell that it is not a good thing.

Chris, without even thinking twice, leaves quickly thinking about the possible damage that may be in the city that people are so upset of.

«Something for sure is that there must be flooding. » Chris deduces as he enters the city center, but he begins to see an intense light and from the reddish tone it is more than clear that there is a fire, «In the middle of a storm? The fire must be too strong so as not to be extinguished by the rain, although according to my teacher, there are only two ways for the fire not to be extinguished by water: a powerful Fire adept or a very incendiary fuel. »

Upon arrival it is completely remarkable that it is not a single building, there are many, the fire is massive and worst of all, you do not see the end of the fire. People are evacuated, but it is very dangerous anywhere, there is the fire spreading through almost half of the city, and in the canals, there is water overflowing everywhere. Some rumblings are heard everywhere, landslides in the mountains. During the daily morning races Chris observed that the canals carry the water throughout the city, so if the land is too much it will end up obstructing the canals, leaving the city submerged in a lake in the middle of the mountains.

Running to the center of the city is Lillian, she is using her power to create a safe zone and evacuate people into the mountains, but landslides are very dangerous and even more so staying inside the internal structures of the mountains. The channels overflow, but Lillian keeps them at bay with her incredible elemental power, though she is too focused to guide her people.

Suddenly an entire mountain begins to collapse, the amount of rain was too much for the structure inside it to resist and ended up crumbling like a castle of cards. People begin to go into hysteria and begin to use their powers indiscriminately trying to fix what they can to be safe, but it is in vain, it only generates more panic and there begins to be violence everywhere.

«To avoid a revolt, the former Lord of Vodheim demilitarized the inhabitants for decades. By the time our parents were born, no one had combat experience. This is the consequence of this, although they use their powers for day to day, in their jobs mainly, no one has the courage to face this type of crisis. », Lillian is frustrated, she alone cannot save an entire nation that collapses from within.

Being in the middle of everything, totally distressed, Lillian only expresses one word, one name:

“Hanna.” Lillian pronounces worried about her best friend's well-being.
“She could save the city; I have an idea of how to overcome this crisis.” says Chris as he gazes at the ruins of the mountain, «That was the mountain where Tsubaki was, I hope he is well. » he thinks as he tries to stay calm.
“What about me?” Hanna asks right behind her two friends around the world.

Chris is surprised with almost a heart attack by the unstable concentration, Hanna is the only person who looks calm in such a situation. After years of anxiety, fear and harassment, a natural disaster is like a walk in the park. Chris orders Hanna to go to the buildings and steal the fire, as with the campfire, and Hanna immediately realizes what he means.

“One last detail, release the fire into the sky.” is the last thing Chris says to Hanna.

Hanna walks the streets, at the front door of each building she begins to gather the fire in her hands and leaves no trace of the flames, people are surprised by the ease with which she does such a feat, one building after another is completely extinguished. Fire adepts try to imitate her, but they don't succeed, they don't have enough control to compress such quantity of fire. They must suck all the fire out or the remaining will end up expanding until it covers everything again.

Lillian followed Chris' advice:

“Concentrate all the flow of water from the canals to the area without fire and that the Earth adepts try to keep the channels clear.” Lillian orders with her eyes open despite her blindness, which makes everyone take her very seriously.

Rapidly all mobilizes receiving these words from Lillian. With the joint efforts in unison, the water begins to descend, and the fire light begins to constantly reduce, Hanna is getting faster and faster at stealing fire from an entire building. The constant practice combined with her enormous elemental power allows her to have enough experience handling a large amount of fire.

The rain begins to stop, the constant fire released into the sky caused the clouds to begin to dissipate. The constant hot air released by the fire stolen from the buildings by Hanna heated the clouds, raising their temperature and reversing the condensation of water and the sunset begins to be seen.

Lillian was exhausted for sheltering her people and thanks Chris for giving her a strategy when she couldn't even think due to all the focus she required to use so much power and keep it stable. Everyone applauds and cheers their Lady Lillian, but she just wants to rest peacefully in her little house with a cup of tea.

It's almost getting dark and there is little time left to end the fire, just a few more houses and everything will be over. One of the last houses to be extinguished is familiar to Hanna, her grandfather's house.

Ignoring the others, Hanna runs quickly to put out the fire and desperately tries to find her grandfather, does not find him on the street with the neighbors and fears the worst. Once inside the burning residence, he begins to compress the fire almost automatically and tries to see each room and does not find it. But something is not right, there is one last place she has not inspected, the basement.

Hanna opens the gate in the middle of the room and finds her grandfather lying on the ground, barely has signs of still being alive. She tries to take him out of the house, but it is useless, she has used her powers so much as to have enough strength to climb the stairs, and, even so, she keeps trying. She suddenly hears footsteps and realizes that Chris got to where she was and helps her get her only family out of such a dangerous place.

Once outside, they try to make him recover, but it is useless, he inhaled too much smoke and for his age it is a miracle that he did not die inside that hellish furnace. With too much difficulty he begins to pronounce a few words for his beloved granddaughter:

“You are identical to your mother, fly away.” and just like that, he loses consciousness and inevitably... Dies.

She breaks down in tears, the people around her begin to move away because of the terrible sensation, a great elemental power begins to overflow, but a person comes to her aid, Lillian hugs Hanna and with her water power counteracts the fire power, until the poor girl loses consciousness from crying so loud. Lillian asks Chris to take Hanna with her to her house to treat her and without a second of hesitation agrees.

After a whole night full of crying while sleeping, just dawning, Lillian tells Chris that it is too late, stress and trauma have made Hanna's great elemental power hurt her body, the scars have expanded. Eventually her body will be consumed by her own fire, and she can't do anything about it. Chris has his mind full of bad images, Hanna crying uncontrollably, Lillian's expression for the terrible fate her dear friend has, the words Hanna said about her past, her grandfather's last words, it's too much for him.

Chris kicks Lillian out of her house and is left alone with Hanna, makes a few movements with his hand on his own body and then directs his hand towards Hanna. The whole room begins to light up and then a great silence. Lillian immediately breaks the door with water and enters along with Guilian and Tsubaki, the two of them were safe in the quarry. Inside they find Chris lying next to the couch where Hanna is resting, he is somewhat agitated and exhausted, but manages to get up and head towards the exit, while Lillian is stunned by what happened.

“You didn't have to go that far.” Lillian mutters as Chris passes right next to her.
“I strengthened her power by training her, I bear at least some of the blame.” Chris responds trying to take away some remorse for not protecting his friend's smile.

He retreats and endures fainting with every fiber of his power so as not to worry his companions. After a while, Hanna wakes up and begins to assimilate what happened, there was incredible damage throughout the city, a mountain was totally destroyed, but none of that really matters to her, she has lost the last of her family. And the cherry on the cake is that Chris and his teammates are about to leave for their tournament in Heinburn.

So many things in her head make her stay disconnected on that couch, and she begins to remember every day she was locked in that house with Lillian, pitying herself for her past and remembering her grandfather's last words, "Fly away." The next day a funeral is held for all the victims of the natural disaster and Lillian gives a few words for the whole town, while, in a totally invisible way, Chris and his companions head towards the tunnel where they arrived, as it is the road in better condition.

Arriving at the beginning of the tunnel they notice a familiar silhouette in the darkness of the tunnel, and taking a few steps reveals herself the mysterious person, Hanna was waiting for Chris on his way out of the territory.

“Are you determined? It's about traveling the world, it's not an easy thing.” Chris asks Hanna without even having to ask her the motive.
“Yes.” Hanna replies with an intense flame in her gaze, figuratively.
“Do what you want.”, Chris doesn't want to touch on any sensitive topics for now, and he likes the idea of her accompanying him.

And without further ado, they all go through the tunnel together, Tsubaki starts talking to Hanna to get to know her better, finally another girl in the group, and Guilian tries to join the conversation and Tsubaki starts to get upset about it and again the group is full of arguments as it usually is.

“How funny, you get along so well.” Hanna says without restraint while laughing a little.
“By the way, why were the two of you in the quarry?” asks Chris to break the tension a little.
“After so much training, I wanted to teach Guilian a lesson and have that prankster side removed.” Tsubaki replies with great frustration.
“Well, you'll have to wait for the tournament for me to show you why you can't even touch me.” adds Guilian, mocking the rookie who usually makes mad.

The fighters begin to get more upset with each other, trying to deny that they get along, and Hanna just starts smiling more and more. Meanwhile, Lillian has just finished her speech to those affected and begins to remember everything Hanna said the night before, about her thoughts about her future, what she thinks about Chris' teammates, the training she went through, what she accomplished for the city, and about her grandfather's words.

Once inside her house, Lillian begins to remember all the time she spent with Hanna, since they were little girls, she prepares the tea she used to drink with Hanna on those busy mornings for those who work on the streets. Listen to the deafening silence all over the place, as if the rest of the world ceases to exist.

“You must really have a great determination to have embedded a fragment of your own soul in order to protect her from her own power. You are now linked beyond life.” Lillian says on the air while alone in her house.

At the same time Chris begins to remember the night before:
“Where did you learn how to do such a thing?” asks Lillian to Chris at the inn the two alone.
“Learned about it in the temple of old Yamamoto, where I was raised and trained with Karen. If you know her, you should know that what I say is true. Tell me, how do you know what I did? There are not many spiritualists in the world with our level of perception.”
“A student of him, Elizabeth, she taught both the power of Water and the spiritual arts and thus developed the power to perceive the surroundings through the flow of energy.”

At her home, Lillian receives the damage report, the fire was sparked, the marks note that fuel was used to ignite the buildings. After inspecting the ruins of the mountain, they realized that there were detonations as in the quarry that same day and that they found very peculiar explosives in other mountains, but the staff located them in time and cast them away.

Had they been detonated; the city would have been completely flooded by rain. After that revelation, Lillian receives one more fact. The air currents reported at the Air element training camp were triggered by a dust burn identified by refugees from the desert near Anthar, the Empire's tech city.

When that special dust is burned, rain is generated, but it causes drought in the surroundings. One of many disastrous wonders created by the science of the Empire. Lillian processes the information and does not want to admit it in front of its staff.

«It seems that they want war in the Empire, but for Hanna's sake they won't make me give in so easily. I will not give you our greatest treasure, the stone will stay in Vodheim. » Lillian thinks with a very serious expression, making her assistant uncomfortable.

Both Chris and Lillian have learned very important information, now he is heading to a new destination with a new companion on his journey and has obtained a new goal, to strengthen Hanna until she completely controls her power.

Chapter end