Page 61 of The Lost Art of Revealing Hidden Truths
Delana laughed. “Me neither.”
“If it makes you feel better,” Perian said, “I don’t want to have sex with either of you, either.”
This made everyone laugh, until Brannal finally called them all to order.
“All right,” he said, a little bit sternly. “Perian is going to sit here and count to one hundred.”
“Why am I the one just sitting here?” he wanted to know.
Brannal continued to explain. “Everyone else is spreading out through the forest, trying to get away from one another.” He eyed them. “Your goal is to get back here untouched; if someone else is able to use their element on you, you’re out. You don’t want to be seen, and you don’t want to wind up wet, dirty, or particularly ruffled.” He looked at Nisal. “I’ll leave it to you to see just how ruffled you can make someone, shall I?”
Nisal grinned. “Oh, if I’m hitting anyone with air, they’ll know it.”
Perian remembered the wall of air that had flattened people when some of the Mage Warriors were showing him defense back when he’d first been at the castle, and he was sure they were right.
Brannal added, “I won’t be trying to reach Perian, but Iwillbe trying to get everyone out.”
There was a general chorus of complaints, which Brannal ignored as he continued.
“I won’t set anyone on fire, of course, or cause any forest fires. Anyone have questions?”
“Can we block other elements?” Delana wanted to know.
Brannal nodded. “If you’re able to prevent another element from touching you, then you may do so. In all the prosaic ways, like ducking out of the way, in addition to using your element to block the other one or forming a shield.”
“First one back to me wins?” Perianasked.
“First one untouched by an element who actually makes it to the fire and touches you wins,” Brannal agreed.
Perian eyed them. “So… wouldn’t it be to everyone’s advantage to not go far and then just sneak back immediately?”
“Well, they could try that, but I wouldn’t recommend it,” Brannal said with a glint in his eyes. “I’d strongly suggest that people take the count of 100 to get as far away as possible. Any more questions?”
Perian didn’t think he’d like to go up against Brannal when he decided he was going to defend something, and the others had similar expressions on their faces. Perian also appreciated that Brannal had learned his lesson, and no one was meant to be capturing Perian.
“Ready?” Brannal questioned.
They all nodded, and Brannal eyed Perian, who obediently started counting. He watched as they all disappeared into the forest.
Suddenly, a wind ripped around the fire pit… but left a perfect untouched center where Perian and the fire were. Peering at it, Perian was pretty sure it was composed of wind, water anddirt, and that was why it was so hard to see through, making everything around him a blur. He would definitely not want to get caught up in that.
Perian raised his voice so that he was shouting as loud as he could in the hopes they could actually hear him and would know when they could start coming back.
When he hit one hundred, the gale suddenly rushed outward, screaming past the trees and out over the lake before it finally dissipated.
Perian was pretty sure that if anyone had failed to heed Brannal’s instructions, they were going to show up looking extremely bedraggled. Or might someone have put up a shield and trusted it would withstand that force? Perian couldn’t see Brannal anymore, but the man had probably thought of that and was lying in wait nearby in case anyone had taken the risk. The trees looked pretty unscathed, and Perian wondered how much work that had taken Brannal to achieve.
Then it was just a waiting game for Perian, and after a moment, he dug through his bag and pulled out the book he’d brought. (Notthatbook. With Delana and Nisal coming, it hadn’t seemed like the best choice.) He was glad he’d shoved the novel in his bag just in case.
Perian loved how dedicated Brannal was, and he was never going to regret that, even if it sometimes meant that he was literally grounded, sitting on a block of wood by the fire just waiting for someone to make their way back to him and be declared the winner.
Perian couldn’t hear much at first, just the regular sounds of nature as they resumed from the shock of Brannal’s wind-water-earth chaos, but then he heard the sound of some yelling, what sounded like water falling from on high, and more yelling. The ground trembled for a moment, which Perian assumed was Arvus, but he supposed it could have been Brannal, too, if he was messing with them.
Eventually, Molun came out of the forest, covered in dirt and grumbling.
“Betrayed!” he said very theatrically.
Perian said, “I have food.”
