Meta Gods War 3 by B. Miles (the ebook reader txt) 📕

his friend’s shoulder. He pictured taking his muscles and ripping them off his body then forcing them into Theus’s chest. For a moment, he felt something shift inside of him, then—

Theus dropped the flames. The fire sputtered out as he staggered forward and groaned, hands on his knees.

“Damn,” Cam said softly.

“Good job, Theus!” Chesina clapped her hands from her perch on a rock grouping fifty feet away. She waved her hands and cheered.

Cam shot her a look as Theus waved back. “Are you sure you had to bring her?” Cam asked.

“She wanted to watch me work.” Theus grinned and shrugged. “Guess you’re not the only shaman around now.”

Cam laughed and clapped his friend on the arm. “Just be careful. Now that you can touch the priori, you’re going to be a little… addictive.”

“Oh what a horrible curse.”

Cam stretched his arms and cracked his neck. “Seriously though. Did you feel that, while you were channeling?”

“Feel what?”

“I swear, when I’m pulling in priori while touching you, I can almost… push my power along our connection.”

Theus frowned a little. “I’m not sure I felt anything. I mean… maybe a little bit. I’m not sure.”

“We’ll keep trying. I swear, I was so close.”

“I’m feeling a little…” Theus’s jaw clenched. “You know what I mean?”

“Of course.” Cam shaded his eyes and looked toward the Mansion. A figure walked toward them, stepping from the shade of the columns and into the mid-afternoon sunlight. “I think I see a new training partner on his way.”

Theus followed Cam’s gazed and let out a grunt. “Good. Let him deal with you.” He moved away with a wave and called for Chesina.

The girl jumped to her feet and ran over. She was a cute girl, a little too round for Cam’s tastes, but she was good for Theus. She made him happy at least, and that was all Cam cared about. Theus put his arm around her shoulders and walked off as she looked up at him like a puppy.

Cam wiped his sweating brow with his sleeve. Theus got tired much quicker than he did. The difference in their power wasn’t huge, but Cam could handle the power for much longer. He wondered if it was a physical thing. He was bigger and stronger than Theus, and he had a feeling that the priori interacted with his body in particular ways, which was why orgasm seemed to flush it away.

Sirrin raised his hand as he neared. Cam raised his hand in return and rested his palm on the pommel of his sword. Sirrin looked older than the last time they saw each other, back when Lycanica first showed herself. His eyes were sunken and patches of his hair were white. His clothes hung from his body like robes.

Cam wondered if that was the fate that awaited all shaman.

“Out training already,” Sirrin said. “You’ve been back for, what, three days?”

“Can’t help myself.” Cam shrugged and tilted his head. “I’ve been wondering where you’ve been hiding.”

Sirrin made a vague gesture back at the Mansion. “Bottom of a beer barrel in some basement corner.”

“Sounds about right.”

Sirrin gave him a tight smile. “But here you are. Hero of the people.”

“Here I am.”

Cam didn’t move. Sirrin’s tone was light, but his words held a deeper meaning. Cam couldn’t quite understand where this anger was coming from, but he wasn’t interested in pushing it out. If Sirrin wanted to talk, he’d talk.

“I hear rumors that you saw her again.” Sirrin looked at his fingernails like he didn’t care about their conversation.

“And Danua.”

“It’s true then? They fought in the sky?”

“It was like fifty shaman floating in the air and trying to kill each other.”

“Sounds horrible.”

“Horrible, and beautiful.” Cam shrugged and kicked a rock. “Danua wasn’t like Lycanica. She was… quiet. Less angry.”

“I suppose the gods would be a lot like we are. Since we’re made in their image.”

“The godlings are. We’re not.”

“The Ur was a god once. He only left the world.”

Cam grunted in reply, not interested in getting into a philosophical conversation. “What brought you out from under your mug today, Sirrin?”

He gave Cam a hard look as he half turned away and stared back at the Mansion entrance.

“I hear you’re collecting apprentices.”

Cam tilted his head. “That’s true.”

“One from every village. You’re going to be busy.”

“Offering your services?”

Sirrin continued to stare back at the Mansion, but a small smile drifted over his lips. “No, I’m not.”

“Didn’t think so.”

“I came here to warn you, actually.”

Cam snorted. “About what, exactly? How hard it is to drink myself to death?”

Sirrin’s smile faded. “It’s not as easy as you think,” he said. “Training men to do this. And they don’t always take to it. You got lucky with Theus.”

“I’m not sure it’s all luck.”

Sirrin was quiet for a long moment. “I took an apprentice once,” he said.

“I take it that didn’t go well.”

Sirrin grimaced and Cam felt guilty for his flippant tone.

“No, it didn’t,” Sirrin said. “The Need is a hard thing. For some it’s like a never-ending hell, even when it’s been satisfied. The memory of the Need lingers, and the power that comes with it is like a drug that begs for use. You seem to have learned how to deal with the Need better than most, but believe me, your situation isn’t common.”

“What happened to him?” Cam asked, his voice gentle.

“He took his own life after five years of study,” Sirrin said. “He touched the priori for the first time after three years of study, then hung himself from a branch behind his house two years later. I never could ask him why, but I know it, I dream of it. The Need pushed him, the Need took him. And I have to warn you now, before you draw more men into this life, that some might not survive it.”

Cam let out a long breath as he studied Sirrin. The man’s face was drawn and tense, and it was obvious that the memory of his apprentice wasn’t a good one. He could only imagine the sort of