“I don’t know if you’re so different,” Finn said. “Will you come with me? I’ll show you something. If it doesn’t interest you, you can leave and I won’t be the one to stop you.”
Meilin reluctantly followed him to a foyer with an iron chandelier, and then through an arched doorway. The room inside was cluttered with dusty mirrors, musical instruments, and objects Meilin saw no use for. It reminded her of all the useless weapons at the morning’s training exercise. This room was piled with things that would serve as shoddy weapons. The mess of it irritated her. What was the purpose, she wondered, of a room full of disorganized junk? Even if there was something useful in here, no one would be able to find it.
“What is this place?”
“This is the Moon Tower,” Finn said. “It’s a place where Greencloaks can form deeper bonds with their spirit animals.”
“My bond is fine,” Meilin replied crisply. Jhi sat down heavily beside a dusty gong. “She would go into passive form on the first day. Rollan is still struggling.”
Finn raised his eyebrows. “I wouldn’t compare myself with Rollan. We are our own competition.”
Shocked, she said, “My father said that very same thing to me.”
“Well then,” Finn said with a ghost of a smile. “He must be very wise. Now, this tower isn’t for training. It’s more like play, or meditation. Sometimes music, art, or logic games will encourage a stronger bond and reveal hidden skills.”
Meilin sighed in frustration. “I know her skills. But she’s nothing like me.”
Finn’s expression sharpened. “You do everyone a disservice when you forget who you really are. Is combat all there is to you?”
She opened her mouth and then closed it. The question was maddening in its silliness. “Of course not. But my home has already been taken. It’s what Zhong — what my father — needs of me at the moment!”
“And at the end of all this?”
Meilin raised her hands in a helpless gesture. “We’ll see about that once we get there. If we get there.”
“Take my word on it: That might be too late. Balance, Meilin. Surely your father told you that. Look at this.” He pulled up his sleeve, looking for one tattoo among the tangle of tattoos. Finally, he pressed his finger to a symbol inked between a tangled thorn tree and a collection of pictograms. It was a circle, divided in half with a wavy line. One half was light. The other half was dark.
Meilin was again shocked. “That’s a Zhongese symbol. How do you know it?”
“I was one of the Greencloaks’ greatest warriors. I have been all over Erdas in my time. So you know this symbol?”
Of course she did. “One side is light, one side is dark. One side is active, the other is passive. Day and night.”
“Opposites,” Finn said. “But both part of the same whole.”
Meilin worked hard to quell her indignation. She was getting tired of Greencloaks telling her she needed to make more of an effort to bond — as if she hadn’t been trying. “How does that do me any good?”
Finn gestured to the things around them. “This is a place to find out.” When she still looked unconvinced, he said, “I’m using this room myself. Would you like to hear the story?”
She merely raised an eyebrow in response.
He began, “My final battle was near Zhong, in Oceanus. My brothers and I were ambushing a small band of the Devourer’s allies. There were fifty of them and only five of us, but we had fought worse odds with our spirit animals. Five Marked siblings in one family, yes,” he said in response to Meilin’s puzzled look. “The Greencloaks told us we were chosen. I was supposed to accomplish so many great things.” Finn said this last part with a bitter smile that gave Meilin a stab of anxiety. The Greencloaks were saying the same thing about her.
“I was known to be clever with the making of things, so my brothers asked me to build a trap. It was a cunning one, a great pit with young trees bent this way and that over it. Over the top of their flexible trunks, I’d woven in brush with the roots still hanging, so the plants would stay green. When I was done it looked just like a grassy bank. Just another hill to climb. It was strong enough to support one man, but the trees would give way under the weight of more than one. Then all we’d have to do is wave at the enemy from up above after they’d all fallen through.
“Half of the Conquerors were meant to fall in it before the other half even knew what was going on. But then something went terribly wrong. They discovered the trap — or rather, their spirit animals did. Somehow, all fifty of them had bonded with spirit animals. That’s impossible, but they had. So it was not only fifty Conquerors, but fifty Conquerors aided by fifty spirit animals.”
Meilin made a soft noise of disbelief — bonding with spirit animals was so rare that it was hard to imagine fifty Marked individuals in one place, outside of the Greencloaks.
But Finn’s face was serious. “You doubt it. I doubted it myself. Like I said: impossible. But you’re also impossible. No one can summon a Great Beast, and yet the four of you have. It seems we have entered impossible times.”
Meilin inclined her head. True enough.
Finn continued, “The spirit animals discovered the trap easily, making it useless. There’s nothing dangerous about a hole no one falls into. My brothers and I tried to hold them off, but it was no use. There were too many of them. Imagine if you can, Meilin: fifty spirit animals. Animals we’d never seen before. Rhinos. Cougars. Anacondas. Scorpions. My brothers were slaughtered. It was — I barely . . . My youngest brother, Alec, distracted them so I could get away.
“Recovering has been difficult. It was horrific. Not just for me, but for my spirit animal, Donn. I nearly lost him. During the battle, he entered the passive state and now he will not come back out.”
Meilin’s eyes were wide. “Your brothers. That’s terrible. And your spirit animal . . . I didn’t know that could happen.”
Finn looked around the Moon Tower. “My spirit animal, Donn, and I had a very difficult bonding. I lived in a very remote village and the Nectar didn’t make it in time — I was the only child of age and the Greencloaks found me too late. The Moon Tower helped us to find a measure of peace. I know it will help us again.”
Meilin said, “I want to ask a question, but it might be rude.”
Finn smiled a tiny smile. “I won’t be offended. There’s not much that can hurt me in this world anymore.”