Editing Kanimaeli - Spirit of Air (section)

==The Kohnen and Further East==

I spent most of my time with Tay-Hath Qu'sar Rahir Shaffan – just Rahir to me – who was a master of the Way and guided my clumsy movements, teaching me to bring control to the raw movements I had been using and drawing on my experience so far to direct me to focus the Air in new ways. They called the art "Karcorch Kohnen", the Way of the Kohnen. To Rahir, I was “Kay-ung Aaplay”, Student Aaplay, and I studied hard and with little rest.

Our hosts were the extended household of Clan Abad, overseen by the stern but fair Chieftain Sharad Abad. The spiritual heart of this community was within the temple, guided by the Chief Priest Ashar Anem. It was here that we learned what they knew of Araeli. The Lord of this realm, Araeli, was spoken of with reverence, a being deeply connected to Aergarnion, and also valuing all life. His realm, once a beacon of openness, now bled from the wounds of war with Earth, an unceasing assault that had thrown everything into chaos. They spoke of his unpredictable nature, like the swirling winds of this land, but also of his immense power. He existed beyond a single Realm, they said, making true defeat almost impossible.

The Queen of the Storm, Ilianna, had seized power, forcing Araeli into hiding amongst the high peaks. He wasn't vanquished, not truly, but his influence had waned. They described him vividly: a humanoid form, magnificent white wings, clad in armour of a spectacular metal (a gift from the Gods), with eyes that held the electric spark of storms and could pierce the very soul.

We also reflected on the balance of this realm and how it related to the temple. Life and Death were close companions but opposite, as were Radiance and the Void. There was an unsettling possibility that remaking the temple would connect Sanctuary with the wider realms and free Artemis to suck more life and souls from the world – perhaps that was not what we desired after all.

When we were finally ready to leave and continue our quest, the Kohnen offered us desert cloaks, woven with threads that blended well with the desert sands and offered protection against the heat of the day and the cold of the night, a real blessing to ease our passage through the ravaged lands. We set out under the cloak of a star-dusted night; the Air here was never calm, instead a constant hum of unseen energy, and yet our initial journey was uneventful. I pulled the offered cloak tighter around me, finding a surprising comfort in its coarse weave. I meditated as the others rested, but this time failed to find peace; the unnatural stillness of the air was disconcerting and there was no rising of the Air from the hot sands, a bizarre lack of normality. I was left on edge, a prickling sensation on my skin, without rest. High above us shapes flitted – more of the Strax (as the Kohnen called them) that we had encountered before, but thankfully they showed no interest in us if we were noticed.

The second night I had to seek sleep rather than meditation, exhaustion taking me quickly into a fitful rest. Xlotl was keeping watch, and suddenly there was a terrifying shift in the sand beneath him. He called out as his wings snapped open and he beat them hard to rise into the air. Below, in the newly formed pit, there were at least two serpentine heads, spiralling with terrifying speed around the deepening circle. Were they separate creatures? Were they fighting or working in terrifying unison? Jaws, lined with needle-sharp teeth, lunged at Xlotl as we scattered. One missed, but then a smaller head darted forward, sinking its fangs into his flank, injecting an unknown venom. With hardy resilience, Xlotl fought against its effects while still gaining altitude as quickly as he could.

I woke quickly, flicking my wrists to send bolts of focused Air lancing towards the creature. They struck true but seemed to have little impact on its skin. This thing, despite the manner of its approach, felt alien and not aligned with the Earth I knew. With Xlotl rising out of its reach, inevitably its attention snapped to me - I was its new target. The sand shifted again, throwing me off balance; I managed to keep my feet, but now I stood within the newly forming depression. Jaws, large enough to swallow my head whole, lunged. I moved with the Air as it did so, just barely managing to deflect the attack, my heart hammering against my ribs. I moved with the current, dancing around the creature, and focused a punch at it; the strike connected with its scaly hide but I was still struggling to have an impact. The creature was relentless, its movements fluid and terrifyingly fast.

Xlotl managed to levitate Antinniera, grasped her with his tail and flew up and away from the threat. A flash of movement caught my eye; Pi, with a sharp cry, had transformed into a hawk and leapt into the Air to join the others and climb to safety. The multi-headed horror below was still focused on my, and dived into the sand so that I could not track its movement. I was alone, trapped in the sand pit and facing an unseen enemy. There was no point in staying to fight a futile battle; I drew my fans and drew on Rahir’s teachings to draw out a new power from them, allowing me to step into the Air and escape with the others. I couldn’t do this for long, but I could do it for long enough to escape. It should have been a moment of liberation, joining my companions in the Air for the first time, but the unnatural feeling persisted and I just wanted to get away.

We hurried to put distance between us and whatever that was, pressing on for perhaps an hour before we felt somewhat safe. But the respite was short-lived. The very air around us began to churn with a violent energy, an unseen force I instinctively felt was directed at us… and was angry at us! Xlotl, ever attuned to the subtle nature of the elements, sensed grit within the Air; there was a malevolent force manipulating the Air to rise against us. Soon everyone could sense the wind, a chaotic swirl that intensified rapidly, whipping the loose sand into stinging clouds.

Xlotl raised his voice, calling out a powerful prayer into the heart of the growing tempest. He called upon the Creator, commanding the wind to leave us be. It seemed to work, as a circle of calm, perhaps a hundred yards in radius, bloomed around him, the wind within it diminishing to almost nothing. Yet, the storm raged on beyond this invisible boundary, a swirling vortex that moved with Xlotl as he advanced, testing his mental fortitude as he struggled to impose his will.

"What is it you want?" Xlotl bellowed in the tongue of the Air Elementals, his voice swept away by the howling wind beyond the circle. The response was a single, chilling word: "You." It seemed that this powerful creature of Air, dominated by some unseen influence, was convinced that we were traitors come to steal "the power" that was rightfully theirs. Just then, Antinniera’s keen eyes, noticed a fissure snaking across the ground within Xlotl’s protective circle. From the crack, a grotesque thing emerged – a spider crafted from bone.

Antinniera quickly closed with the abomination, her new armour gifted to her by the Kohnen deflecting its attempts to hurt her, and smashed the thing into splinters of bone with her halberd. I scanned our surroundings, worried that more might emerge, and Xlotl lifted himself slightly off the ground to keep himself safe. More cracks appeared near Antinniera, the sand seeming to solidify and then fracture as if something was pushing its way through. Pi, ever the stalwart protector, flew over to Antinniera as she retreated towards Xlotl and me. Antinniera was throwing spheres over her shoulder at the emerging fissures as she went. Explosions sent slithers of metal shooting through some of the horrors emerging, but it wasn’t enough to stop them, and they advanced slowly towards us.

I took to the air myself, rising a good six feet above the sand. These skull-like bone spiders were really quite slow, thankfully, but their advance was relentless and we were contained by the storm so we could not simply outpace them. Antinniera tried hurling a flask of oil at them, followed by a lit torch. Flames erupted, and then several of the creatures were destroyed in a crackling inferno as Antinniera chanted a spell. Yet, still they came.

Xlotl continued to move backward, the circle of calm trailing with him. It seemed that he was trying to use the power of the storm against the bone spiders, hoping the gale would tear them apart. Pi took a more direct approach, descending and returning to his human form to swing his hammer at them. There was a resounding crash as a shockwave rippled outwards, tearing through a cluster of the bone spiders in a single, devastating blow. The force of the impact also staggered Pi, and Antinniera continued to back away, but threw a pair of fire shurikens with deadly accuracy, a spider disappearing in a puff of rainbow-coloured smoke. Pi seemed to be having fun crushing one after another, but strangely the spiders were deliberately avoiding him. I doubted they were afraid – they simply seemed uninterested in confronting him.

I focused my will, channelling the Air around me, and sent bolts of wind tearing into the advancing spiders. One shattered under the force, and Antinniera swiftly followed up with a volley of conjured projectiles, obliterating two more. Xlotl continued his measured retreat, and the edge of the storm reached the fissures, the violent winds snatching two of the death spiders and flinging them away like ragdolls. Gradually, the gale seemed to consume all but one.

Pi, his eyes locked on the last remaining creature, pursued it relentlessly as it scuttled away, trying to get past him. Finally, he brought his hammer down with a sickening crunch. The immediate threat was, for now, dealt with. The respite was fleeting, though, as eventually the protective sphere around Xlotl collapsed entirely and we were within the storm. Antinniera and I were buffeted by the force of the wind, but were surprised to find that we did not seem to be harmed. Xlotl was even better off, completely unaffected despite the swirling vortex around us. Pi, however, was suffering terribly, the wind tearing at him as if it had a physical form, the sand within it scouring his exposed skin.

He began to swing his hammer wildly at the storm, a futile gesture against such raw elemental power. Instinctively, I reached out, using the power of Calm to protect him from evil. The effect was immediate, and the storm was no longer able to physically harm him. But the danger was not entirely past. Now, the bone spiders that had been caught by the storm, were flung at us like deadly projectiles! One struck Xlotl, a glancing blow, but none of us were spared from the attack. One scraped Pi, and he reacted instantly, swinging his hammer in a wide arc. Another shockwave rippled through the air, momentarily clearing a space around him and shattering the offending spider. Antinniera, with a swift movement, knocked another away with her buckler.

The air still crackled with residual energy, the storm a menacing presence surrounding us. How were we to escape?