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“All right let’s take a break!” Umbro called to the group after he finished setting up the barrier.

“Yay! Lunch!” Ember cheered running to help set up the blanket under the shade of the trees that lined the clearing.

“Hey Umbro.” Tornado asked as they headed towards the group. “I’ve been wondering. How do you set up the barrier?”

“It’s a barrier made of darkness. They don’t teach it in the army but I’ll show you later.”

“Don’t talk so seriously, you two.” Ember scolded as she handed out the plates. “You’ll spoil the food.”

“She’s right, you’ll go bald if you keep worrying about catching up to everyone, Tornado.” Durza added.

Umbro messed up her hair as he sat down next to her. “Oh, like you can talk Miss Overachiever. You haven’t stopped training since you joined Suul.”

“Well Mr. Slacker you could be moving up if you wanted but you’re just lazy.”

“Hey, you know very well I have good enough reasons not to gather the higher ups attention.”

“You two have a close relationship, don’t you?” Tornado pointed out.

“We’ve known each other since we were kids.” Umbro confirmed.

“But I’ve always been stronger.” Durza teased.

“And I’ve always been taller.” He countered.

“You’re a guy you’re supposed to be taller!”

Pye began passing around the food as their argument continued.

“Wow! You made a full meal.” Ember gasped as he unloaded bowl after bowl of food.

“Yeah. My family runs the bakery down the street so I’ve gotten a lot of training.” He explained. “It’s not all that impressive though.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Your parents run a bakery and they named you Pye?” She asked.

“You do realize it’s spelled differently, right?”

Tornado leaned back against the tree he sat under. There was such a peaceful atmosphere about their little group. It was hard for him to believe that the reason they banned together was to overthrow the Dark Lord. As he listened to their light conversations he felt so at ease that he could fall asleep right where he sat.

“You made dessert, too!” Embers excited voice woke him up. “What did you make? Is it pie? Tell me it’s pie!”

Pye’s ears grew red wit embarrassment. “I just remembered that it got messed up. I’ll bring dessert again tomorrow as compensation.”

“Hey don’t be like that. You know I’m just messing with you, right?” She assured him. “I’m sure it’s great.”

“Fine.” He sighed revealing the pie from the basket. He served a piece to everyone in the group making sure to give Ember one last as punishment.

Tornado took a bite of the sweet pie. “It’s really good.” He told Pye. Somehow there was a nostalgic feeling to the sweetness. It reminded him of the desserts Lia used to make him back in Avalon. He tried to shake off the feeling. Nostalgia wouldn’t do him any good here.

Ember finally got her piece and took a bite. “It’s delicious! I’ve never had a pie this good before.” She gasped, “It’s official. I love pie!” His ears turned red again. She realized what she said. “Eh . . . um I meant, I love pie like pie, pie. Ah, I meant like the food not Pye as in Pye.” Her voice tricked off as her face flushed over. She distracted herself from the embarrassment by shoving another bite of the pie in her mouth.

Tornado’s fork fell from his hand. He realized that his hand was shaking.

“Tornado are you okay?” Durza asked concerned. “You don’t look so good.”

He scrambled to his feet turning from the group. “Umbro how far out of the clearing does the barrier reach?”

“About ten feet.”

Tornado crossed the clearing walking quicker and quicker until he was running into the woods. He got past a few trees before he stuck a tree with the blade of his kama. He held on trying to stay on his feet. “It’s no use. I just want to scream.”

A shout was heard coming from the forest.

“Was that Tornado?” Durza asked worriedly. “Do you think he’s okay?”

“The barrier is still in place.” Umbro explained as he took another slice of the pie. “He’s fine.”

Durza was unconvinced. “I’m going to go check on him.”

“Just give him a minute.” She made a face at him. “Everyone has something they don’t want to talk about. He’ll tell us about it when the time comes. For now just let him be.”

Tornado leaned against the tree and fell to the ground. Anger, frustration, sorrow, so many emotions tearing him apart but the nostalgia tore at him the most. He cursed himself for remembering and yet clung to the memories with all of his strength. They were his hope and his pain.

“Why did I tell her? Why did I admit how I felt when it would just end like this? I may never see her again. What was the point!” He slammed his shaking fists against the ground. “Damn this place! Damn it . . . Aero. Please, let Aero be better off than me.”

The group began packing so they could get back to training. The carefree atmosphere had turned to worry after Tornado left. Many caught themselves glancing over to the trees when there was a break in conversation.

“Durza.” Umbro called. “Do you want to go tell him we’ll be resuming training in a few minutes?”

“Sure.” She nodded running over to the forest. “Don’t start without us!”

As she stepped into the woods the air grew cold and still. Even the trees seemed to hang low to her head. The whole feeling gave her chills down her spine. Durza listened closely looking around for him. Stumbling footprints marked the grit on the ground. She followed around a large tree and noticed the metallic gleam on a kama sticking out of a tree trunk. She hurried forward and there sitting in the shadows of the trees was Tornado. He sat slumped forward wit his head buried in his hands.

“Tornado?” She asked worriedly. “Is everything okay.”

He looked up but avoided her gaze. “I . . . just don’t feel very well right now.”

“We’re about to start training again. You can just watch if you want. You probably shouldn’t be pushing yourself.”

“No.” He stood up shakily. “I need to keep my mind off of it. I’ll be fine.”

They entered the clearing to be met by many worried looks.

“I’m fine.” Tornado assured them.

“Even if you say that you don’t look well.” Umbro decided. “As leader I say you aren’t allowed to practice fighting today. Instead we’ll have you focus on barriers and darkness control. Durza, you lead Pye and Ember in battle. We’ll divide the clearing in half. Is that enough room for you Durza?”

“We’ll work with it.”

“Okay let’s get to work.”

They split into their groups and parted ways. Tornado followed Umbro unsure whether to be thankful or not.

“Okay so first we’ll start off with darkness control. You’ll need to be pretty comfortable with it before I can show you how to create a barrier.” Umbro instructed as he turned to face Tornado. Tornado gave him a confused look. “What?”

“You aren’t going to ask me anything.” Tornado answered.

“Here we really don’t do that kind of thing. Secrets are meant to be kept. It takes a long time to gain the trust needed to be open with another person especially one outside of your family. If you want to tell someone something you choose to do so.”

“Right. ‘The Dark Realm runs on secrets.’”

Umbro laughed a bit. “Yeah that’s putting it bluntly. Well let’s get started.”

Tornado nodded. He was relieved that what Barren had said seemed to apply to every situation not just those involving the Dark Lord.

“Alright so let’s see what you can do. Summon up some darkness.” Umbro instructed while Tornado made a shadow appear under their feet. “Okay, pick it up.”

“What?”

“Bring it off the ground. It’s not going to do you much good in battle if your shadow is all you can use.”

Tornado rose the darkness but it flowed back like water in a puddle. He used his hands elevating them as if the shadow was a marionette.

“Okay stop.” Umbro warned. “Moving the darkness with your hands is a awful habit. The same goes for any element. The opponent will be able to anticipate your next move way too easily. The elements move at you will. All you have to do is move them in your mind and they will obey. Try it again with your arms crossed. I know it seems stupid but trust me it’ll help.”

The lesson continued in this manner until Tornado was properly able to move the darkness. He was able to mirror Umbro’s darkness with a smooth flowing consistency of water.

“Good. You’ve improved a lot. Now try this.” Umbro made a flat surface in the air. Carefully he stepped up and stood on the darkness.

“How is that possible?” Tornado asked shocked. “Darkness isn’t a solid element like earth or water.”

“Darkness is nothing, it’s undefined. Have you ever seen it used in battle? Sometimes if the user’s emotions are strong enough it can take a solid form. It’s an unknown element unless you can learn to control it. When you can make it dense enough to stand on then you can make a barrier with it.” Umbro told him as he sat on the darkness. “Darkness has many powers that the army will never teach you. I believe than many of it’s properties have been forgotten even by the Lord himself. If we can discover them then we can win this rebellion. I’m not asking you to push yourself to get stronger with it but just trust the darkness. I don’t care even if we are impure because we use the darkness. The light can heal and bring warmth but maybe the darkness has its good points too. Trust in the darkness, Tornado, we have power, too.”

“Umbro?” Tornado wondered. “Does he know something?”

“Ah. Sorry, I was thinking out loud. You should practice.”

When Tornado got home he was so tired that he fell asleep as soon as he got to his room. He slept soundly with peaceful dreams. He was sure it was Queen Mab who was sending them. Even the Dark Realm wasn’t too far from her reach. He wondered when he would ever be able to go back to his old home.

“You never really left you know.”

“Queen Mab?”

“You’re still here with us and we are there with you.” Tornado stood in the throne room of Avalon. Queen Mab stood before him with the clouds of dreams floating around her. “You still remember everything you learned here, don’t you? As long as you don’t forget you we will always stay with you.”

“I won’t forget.” He answered. “Well, as long as they aren’t stolen again.”

Queen Mab laughed at him. “You do seen to get in a lot of trouble where ever you go. Stay safe and come back to us. Everyone misses you dearly.”

The visions of Avalon faded from his view as the light shone through his open window.

“Open?” He mumbled sitting up in bed. “Didn’t I close my window?”

“Yeah and you locked it, too.” A voice answered.

“Huh?” Tornado looked over sleepily. Sitting on top of his dresser was Durza.

“’Morning.” She told him with a smile.

“Durza! What are you going here? Wait how did you even get in here?”

“I came through the window of course. As for why I wanted to see how you were doing. You seem pretty energetic so I’m guessing you’re feeling better. You should hurry up and get ready or we’ll be late. You have ten minutes.”

“It’s that late already! Why didn’t you wake me up? Ah never mind just get out.”
“Okay I’ll go visit Barren.”

Tornado sighed shutting the door after her. He could hear them conversing as he got changed.

“Good morning, Barren.”

“Ah Durza. How have you been?”

Tornado slammed open the door. “How can you be so calm about this?”

“Well it’s no surprise she got in. Her family is known for their stealth. I’m sure Durza has mastered lockpicking.”

“Yep. It was extremely easy. You may want to get some more complicated ones someday.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. You two should grab some food and be on your way or you’ll be late.”

They headed down the road to the training grounds. The shops were just beginning to open their windows so very few people were on the streets.

“So are you feeling any better?” Durza asked. “You’re physical health seems fine but I can’t help but feel there’s a lot on your mind. You can just answer yes or no. I understand if it’s something you don’t want to talk about.”

“No.”

“I see.” Durza answered.

“You say that it’s something ‘you can’t help but feel’ but there seems to be more you want to say.” Tornado pointed out.

“You talked in your sleep.”

“Great.” He sighed. “What did I say?”

“’Next time I’ll bring Aero.’”