Year Minus 1500

1

The first meeting between Geoff Cantrell and the Dai was because an orphanage was

on fire.

The day had gone well enough for Geoff. He was riding through the Shaper side of

the Demarcation on what he considered his rounds. He saw the smoke in the distance

and decided to see what was going on.

Cantrell traveled the world. He rode through most of the human territories, sailing the

seas when he reached the coasts. It took him years to circumnavigate the globe. He

didn’t mind. He had nothing but time, and wandering kept people from realizing that

he was immortal.

Occasionally, he would run into someone who knew him. They asked how he had

been. He told them of some of his travels and things he had seen.

And he liked meeting new people and doing new things. Boredom was his enemy

more than anyone or anything he ran into on the road.

So when he saw the smoke, he thought that it might be something natural, but he had

met people using fires to cook for the whole community. Those had also been good

times.

He kicked his horse into a trot and headed for the base of the cloud. He wanted to

conserve the horse’s strength in case they had to run for it. He had no way to fight a

major fire, and the horse would want to run away as fast as possible.

If there was a fight to be had, he needed to be loose so he could get away if he felt

like running.

He usually didn’t feel like running unless it was against superior numbers. Then he

retreated and picked off his enemies one by one until there was nothing left to fight

over.

For the most part, clearing out a section of men was enough to make the rest more

wary of running roughshod over the people living in the area.

Sometimes he had to do that more than once.

Geoff pulled his horse up when he saw that the smoke came from a building on fire.

He thought he heard screams inside. He dismounted and rushed to what he thought

of as the front door. He found a board had been set up to keep the doors from being

opened from the inside.

He wrenched the board out of the way and threw it to the ground. He pushed open the

doors and went inside. He hoped he wasn’t doing something stupid when he could

just walk away.

“Is there anybody in here?,” Geoff shouted. He pulled up his collar to shield his face.

“Hello?”

“We need help!,” called a voice. It sounded like a boy to Geoff. He started toward it.

The burns he took scabbed over and healed as he moved.

Geoff paused at another door. It had another lockbar on it. He tried to get his hands

around the wood, but his fingers wouldn’t fit under the space. He stepped back. How

did he solve this?

“The door is barred,” shouted Geoff. “I’m going to try to kick it in.”

“Go ahead,” said the voice. “I’m holding back the flame in this room.”

“Right,” said Geoff.

Geoff pulled his sword. He stepped back to give himself room. Then he swung the

blade against the piece of wood. It split apart and fell to the floor.

He slammed against the door. The panel flew out of his way. He smiled.

“All right,” said Geoff. He waved at the cloud of smoke drifting around him. “I think

we should go.”

“Thank you,” said one of the kids. She waved at the other children to gather around.

“How do we get around the fire?”

“I can push the fire out of our way,” said the original speaker. “Get behind me.”

Geoff nodded. He stepped out of the door. The kid made a gesture and a wind pushed

the smoke and fire out of their way.

He ushered the children out of the burning building. He carried the ones that looked

too small to make it on their own. He stepped outside and paused at the group of men

waiting on him and his charges. He put the smaller students down so he could have

his hands free.

“We didn’t set the orphanage on fire to allow them to live,” said one of the bandits.

“Now we have to do things the hard way.”

“You could walk away,” said Geoff. He eyed the opposition as he stepped in front of

the children. “You can come back and try to kill them when I’m not around.”

“We can kill them now,” said the spokesman. “One of these children is the future Dai.

We don’t want him to grow into his authority.”

“There’s six of you,” said Geoff. “Anyone who walks away gets to live. Anyone who

wants to kill these kids will get chopped up. This is my last word on this.”

“Kill him,” said the spokesman. He fell down with a knife sticking out of his eye.

The other five men hadn’t seen Geoff move. They had raised their hands to create

weapons from the elements. Then their leader fell over. And then the swordsman was

charging at them, blade in hand.

Three of the five controlled the earth. One controlled the air. The last controlled

water. Their leader had controlled fire, and had set the fire. They had wanted the

burning to resemble an accident. Now it would just look like the massacre they had

hoped to avoid doing to evade any investigation.

The three earth movers pushed walls up to block their enemy from getting close to

them. They had already seen his speed once. That was enough.

The air user pushed a wind across the battlefield. The idea was to throw the target for

a loss so the others could deal with him.

The water master created a wave of water to cover the children. Once that was done,

he intended to freeze it in place.

Neither Geoff, or the orphans, cooperated with those plans.

The immortal used the walls advancing on him to block the wind long enough for him

to climb over them in a display of footwork that left the closest target stunned. That

was long enough for a quick stab to the chest and a kick to free the blade.

Four left.

The water master’s wave met a wind flowing from the kids. That turned his creation

into a waterspout between him and the suspected Dai. He frowned at being stymied.

The frown didn’t last long. Two steps and a swing left his neck open to the air. He

clutched at the wound, trying to keep the blood from spurting into the air. A backhand

chop fixed that with flying fingers and head.

The two remaining earth movers threw rocks at Geoff. He thought that was a good

plan. It kept him at a distance. There was plenty of substance to use. They just needed

to get lucky once to stop him from shielding the children.

The air user moved to pit his wind power against the kids. Once they took care of the

knight, let the future Dai try to stop them then.

Geoff ducked through the rain of rocks, moving through where they were headed

before they got there. His sword increased his reach so he just lunged at the closest

man and dropped him to the ground with a stab to the neck.

The last earth mover surrounded his body with stone in a casing to protect himself

from injury. He stood too close to the wandering knight now. Throwing things only

worked when the target wasn’t almost in arm’s reach and coming on fast.

Geoff stabbed him through the eye slits left over in the helmet part of the thing and

left him to fall.

Geoff turned to face his last opponent. He found the man trying to overcome several

of the children with his wind powers. Their combined output kept pushing every blast

to one side, or another.

The wanderer decided that he didn’t need to see which side won the contest of wills.

He had warned the shapers to keep moving. He put his sword away as he approached

the man. The air mover looked up at his closeness. A punch to the face said it was

already too late for him to do anything to save himself.

Geoff kicked the man in the head after he fell down. Then he used the man’s sleeves

to make bonds to tie him up. That should keep him out of trouble until they talked to

someone who knew what was going on.

“Thank you,” said one of the kids. “You saved us.”

“Do you children have someone to look after you?,” asked Geoff. “I think we should

find them and see about putting this fire out.”

“They live up in the big house,” said a little girl with curly hair, and not enough teeth.

She pointed at a place that was smaller than the barracks the kids had been in before

he had come along. He nodded.

“They’re not there,” said the future Dai. “They were supposed to go into town for

supplies. We were supposed to do chores until they got back.”

“All right,” said Geoff. “How many of you can move elements around?”

A majority raised their hands.

“All right,” said Geoff. “All of the water shapers look for water. We want to use the

water to put as much of the fire out as we can. Fire shapers, try to herd the fire into

one spot to make it easier to put out. Earth shapers, we need you to help douse the fire

with thin slats of dirt moved on the fire where you can. Air shapers, keep the smoke

blowing away from us.”

The kids scrambled to follow his orders. He hoped they knew enough to do things

without hurting themselves.

“All of you,” said Geoff. He frowned at the rest of the orphans. “I want you to get

buckets to help dump water on the fire. Can you do that?”

The children ran off. He hoped they stayed out of trouble while he kept the movers

acting to carry out most of the work.

Within minutes, the fire was out. It wasn’t as smooth as Geoff would have liked it,

but it was better than most adults he had dealt with in his travels.

The survivor woke up after everything was done. He found Geoff considering him

from a few feet away.

“The sprouts say their foster parents will be back soon,” said Geoff. “Here’s your

chance to come clean. Did you hurt them first?”

“No,” said the air master. “They’re being held in town until we get back. They’re

supposed to be let loose when we confirm the orphans are dead.”

“Who paid you?,” asked Geoff. He frowned at the hesitation of an answer. “It’s best

you give me the name. He won’t know it was you that told, and I don’t want to start

using a piece of hot iron on you. It’s best to save ourselves a bit of unpleasantness

that will be unpleasant for you if you don’t answer my questions.”

The air shaper looked at the dead men that used to be his friends. This stranger had

sliced them apart in a minute. Did he dare try to negotiate, or did he try to make

things easier for himself so he wasn’t executed like a sheep for mutton?

“Clyde talked to the man,” said the minion. He indicated the fire worker who had

been stabbed in the eye in the opening moves. “He told us that he had been paid to

try to disturb the succession so the Dai would not ascend to the throne in our

lifetimes.”

“And these children?,” asked Geoff.

“They’re the candidates for the next Dai as far as I know,” said the captive.

“We’re going to get the foster parents,” said Geoff. “I’m willing to cut you loose

afterwards, but if you cross me, I will chop you down.”

The air shaper nodded his head frantically.

Geoff had the kids help him bury their enemies. He rode out with his captive walking

behind him on a tether. A few hours later, their caretakers arrived with a full wagon

of supplies. They had a story about a werewolf saving them from a cell and giving

them a bag of coins to buy supplies.

It would be another five hundred years before the Dai would see Geoff Cantrell again.