Kaia Wilson was certainly no ordinary young woman, at least by her own reckoning. She was clever, she was talented, she was driven to succeed. She was the youngest junior state steeplechase champion in decades. She was, once again in her own estimation, beautiful and charming, with silky black hair, vibrantly tanned skin, intense blue eyes and a faint scar running down her left cheek that definitely made her look cool and adventurous no matter how much her mother complained about it. And of course, she was well on her way to becoming an expert swordswoman. Some people said she was full of herself, but she disagreed. Sure, she considered herself to be cool and athletic and clever and interesting, but she knew full well that she would never have grown into such an extraordinary person if left to her own devices. No, it was all thanks to her father, who she considered the most amazing person in the world. He hadn’t always been such an extraordinary figure, though. Throughout her early childhood he’d mostly just been a normal dad. He had a normal job and mostly just did normal dad stuff and kept his one real hobby mostly to himself. Sure, that one hobby had been swordsmanship, but it was still just a hobby. But all that changed one day just over six years ago. Her father had come home almost three hours late and hadn’t been answering his phone, driving her mom beside herself with worry. And when he did come home, he looked different. He seemed to have lost a bit of weight and put on some extra muscle. His face and hands sported a tan that hadn’t been there that morning and his hair seemed to have grown longer. He even had a few new scars that had never been there before. Her mother eventually accepted the convoluted web of excuses and explanations her father had spun, but Kaia was sure there was much more to the story. Because that was when her father changed. He had become more outgoing and adventurous. He got involved in the local political scene, quickly becoming known as something of a firebrand for his impassioned speeches and calls to action. But most importantly, he became a lot more invested in Kaia’s life and interests. At first it mostly seemed like he’d missed her, almost as if he hadn’t seen her for a long time, but the more time they spent together the more invested he became in her life and personal development. He taught her how to ride a horse. He trained her in rhetoric and elocution. He did everything he could to help her with whatever project or interest caught her fancy. And most importantly, he taught her how to use a sword. She was fairly certain it was a style of swordsmanship entirely of his own creation, too. He simply called it ‘water style’ swordsmanship, but after looking it up online Kaia was fairly certain no-one else taught the use of longswords the same way her father did. Oh, some of the basics were the same, but ‘water style’ was as much a mental discipline as a physical one. It focused a lot on mental clarity and purity of intent, and Kaia and her dad spent half their sword-fighting lessons together meditating. It was a useful skill in its own right, and Kaia attributed a lot of her successes over the past few years to her ability to clear her mind and just focus on exactly what she wanted to achieve in the moment. And besides, having a well-honed ability to clear your mind and focus was super-useful for boring school subjects like geography or economics, and was probably the main reason her grades were so good. Of course, being extraordinary wasn’t without its drawbacks. She didn’t get along with the girls in her class, who seemed to be getting more obsessed with boys and clothes and makeup and parties with every passing day. Since Kaia was completely uninterested in all of those subjects, it left very few avenues for conversation. The girls at the stable were nice enough, but it seemed like no matter what the topic of conversation started as, it never took more than a few minutes before it looped around to how their horses were doing. Kaia didn’t own a horse. The horse she trained and competed with, a big brown gelding named Yearning, was owned by the Stiles Ranch, with whom her dad had some sort of strange connection that she could never quite figure out. She took care of the horse when she was out competing and on the three afternoons a week when she trained, but mostly that responsibility belonged to one of the other girls at the stable who apparently did the job for free in exchange for getting to ride him on off days. Kaia always thought that this didn’t seem like a particularly good deal for the girl, but she seemed absolutely enamoured with Yearning, so Kaia let it slide. Now, Kaia liked the big lump of muscle well enough. He was friendly and responsive, but fiercely competitive when it mattered, much like Kaia. But the idea of spending her every waking moment obsessing over the minutiae of his condition seemed perfectly dreadful, and whenever the conversation turned to how each and every horse in the stable was doing, she couldn’t help but tune it out. Honestly, the people she got along with the best, other than her father, of course, were the fantasy nerds at school. Sure, she hadn’t read or watched or played most of the stuff they talked about, but at least their conversations were usually kind of interesting. And they played a few tabletop games that were genuinely pretty engaging, and which used exactly the kind of goal-oriented strategic reasoning Kaia liked to employ. Unfortunately, they were all fairly sedentary people, so Kaia could only hang out with them for so long before she got restless and had to go do something less stationary. Restlessness was a common feature in Kaia’s life, especially of late. She kept getting the feeling that there ought to be more to life than just this. It wasn’t that she wasn’t enjoying herself. Her life was fun and interesting and there were always new things to learn or improve on, but somehow it all seemed so… mundane. With every passing day, Kaia felt more and more like there had to be more to life than this. Like she was meant for something greater. Like she was destined for something extraordinary. It was thoughts like these that swirled around in Kaia’s head as she stood in the back yard, facing the straw-clad training post with her sword held in a double-handed guard position. The feeling that there was something missing in her life just wouldn’t leave her alone, and when her father called for her to strike, her head was still full of conflicting thoughts and feelings. She struck at the post, but her swing was as wavering and uncertain as her mind, and the blade barely cut through the first two layers of straw before being brought to a halt. “What was that supposed to be?” Adam asked with a raised eyebrow. “That was the sloppiest strike you’ve made in years.” “Sorry, dad.” Kaia replied, her ears growing faintly red with embarrassment. “I was distracted.” “You should know better than to let yourself get that distracted with a sword in your hands. If you get another scar your mother will never let us hear the end of it. Now calm down, clear your mind and try again.” Kaia nodded and took a deep breath, pushing away all her unnecessary thoughts and distracting feelings one by one. The secret was to find clarity in the moment, that was what her father said. True purity of intent, a state where you can focus your entire life and all your thoughts on a single goal, is something so rare you might only find it once in your entire lifetime. But if you focus on just a single instant, a single goal or desire, you can perfectly devote yourself to that goal, if only for a moment. Kaia narrowed her eyes and swung, focusing her entire being on the strike. The sword came down at the perfect angle, the full force of her body behind it, and cut through not just the straw but also the wood beneath it. The clunk of the top half of the training post hitting the ground almost startled her enough to make her drop her sword, and she just stared uncomprehendingly at the bisected post for a minute before a smile slowly crept onto her face. “I… I did it? I did it. Dad! Dad, I did it! I got all the way through the post!” Adam smiled proudly and ruffled her hair. “You sure did, sweetie. I’m proud of you.” Kaia grinned up at him, but there was something off about his tone. “Dad… Are you OK? You sound strange.” “I’m fine. It’s just a little melancholy, I guess. I don’t think I have anything left to teach you.” “Wait, really? You saw that first strike, right? It was terrible!” “It was. And in a matter of seconds, you managed to clear your mind and deliver the most perfect strike I’ve ever seen from you. I’m not sure even I could have managed that.” “Oh… Does… Does that mean you won’t train me any more?” Adam scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Just because you’re as good as me doesn’t mean you can’t get any better. Of course we’ll still train together, but starting tomorrow, we’ll be training as equals, not as teacher and student.” Kaia felt tears welling up in the corners of her eyes as an almost staggering feeling of pride blossomed in her chest, but she tried her best to keep her tone light and level. “Yeah right. Are you really going to call me an equal when I haven’t beaten you even once in a spar?” “You just need a bit more experience fighting, sweetie. Besides, my age is starting to catch up with me, so I’m sure you’ll beat me any day now.” “You’re forty, dad. You’re not exactly ancient.” “Hush, you. Respect your elders, you little whippersnapper.” Kaia snorted and dried her eyes on her sleeves. “So, now that I’m supposedly your ‘equal’, do you think we could start sparring with real weapons?” “Ask your mother.” “But daaaaad!” “Nope. You want to spar with real weapons, you get permission from Evangeline. I don’t want another chewing out like the one I got when you tripped and managed to slice your cheek open.” “Ugh, fine.” Kaia Wilson was very excited. She was excited because for this afternoon’s sparring session, her mother had finally agreed to let them use real swords. Admittedly, she’d insisted on about twice as much protective gear as Kaia and her dad thought necessary, but it was still a big deal. And so, Kaia was hurrying home from school, eager to get back home to her dad. But as she jogged past Tumble Downs Park she spotted something strange out of the corner of her eye. It looked like some kind of strange, flickering light right at the top of the small hill near the edge of the park. Feeling curious, Kaia decided to go take a look. The bright, shifting blue glow was even stranger up close. It looked like some kind hole or doorway in the air made entirely out of eerie light. And it seemed to be moving. At a snail’s pace, perhaps, but definitely moving. In fact, it seemed to be moving vaguely in the direction of her house. After spending a few minutes just studying the thing, she realized it was speeding up, too. Not by a lot, but it was already noticeably faster than it had been when she arrived. Slowly, tentatively, Kaia reached out a single finger to touch it. The moment her finger made contact with the portal, she felt an enormous force tugging at her body. With a startled yelp she was pulled into the light, and then things stopped making any kind of sense. She was standing still, but she felt like she was tumbling wildly through the air. The entire world seemed to shrink away into nothing as the glowing blue light overtook her vision, and for a time she knew nothing but the glaring light and the nauseating sense of movement. Then, just as suddenly as they began, the sensations stopped, and Kaia slammed painfully into a stone floor. “…possibly be the Godslayer. Awa, who is this person?” “I don’t know! I’ve certainly never seen her before.” “Did you mess up the spell somehow?” “I mean, obviously yes, but I don’t see how! It should either have summoned the magus of water or no-one at all. I don’t understand how it could possibly have summoned the wrong person.” Kaia slowly blinked her eyes open, the back of her head throbbing with pain and her entire body aching. It felt rather a lot like that time when she’d fallen backwards off her horse in mid-jump. An unfamiliar stone chamber greeted her pained gaze. The grey marble seemed to be covered in scorch marks, and while it was obvious that large wooden beams had once run across the ceiling, only charred stumps seemed to remain. Voices were echoing around her, sounding confused and agitated. “Perhaps the Godslayer is dead after all.” A new voice suggested. “Or maybe he’s simply been surpassed as magus?” Another added. “I guess that’s possible, although it’s hard to imagine the hero Adam being surpassed by anyone.” Kaia’s eye’s grew wider at the mention of the familiar name. Trying to dispel the remaining dizziness that clouded her mind, she opened her mouth to speak. “Are you guys talking about my dad?”