Mapping the Mist by E.S. Barrison

Author:E.S. Barrison [Barrison, E.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: E.S. Barrison

Malaika considered fleeing. It’d be so easy to leave behind these ridiculous Mist Keepers. But Tomás had piqued her interest enough to meet with this mysterious Ningursu. After all, now it meant she didn’t have to be alone.

So she stayed the night in a small tavern on the coastline, and in the morning, she met with Tomás just outside the building. Jiang did not wait with him, having left to deliver a message to Ningursu about Malaika’s arrival. So without arguing, Malaika followed Tomás into the forest and through the mist.

As they traveled, the mist tunneled around them, pushing them across the map. Tomás didn’t stop to admire the surrounding world, passing through forests and towns without blinking. Traveling like this was exhausting, though. While Malaika used the mist to move, she had spent time resting and observing the world she traveled through. Her focus had always been on helping the dead.

But Tomás treated this traveling like a race with a deadline.

They did not travel in silence. While hopping from forest to city to river to town, Tomás filled Malaika in on the history of the Council. He told her how Ningursu became the first Mist Keeper thousands of years earlier, and over the years, he built out the mist as a haven for the dead. In that time, he had accumulated enemies — immortal enchanters, seers, monsters, and more all threatened his rule. Before his successor, Aelia, took over releasing souls, Ningursu had tried to build an army of Mist Keepers. The pressure of the mist caused most of them to fail.

It made Malaika’s success more impressive. With no proper guidance, she stepped into her role with ease. Ningursu had spent hundreds of years cumulating his abilities of all-knowing sight and control of the Mist. Every Mist Keeper to follow underwent training of their own as well. When Aelia first joined the mist, she studied for years with a known alchemist to master her healing abilities and talents. Tomás then mentioned that his ability, which allowed him to read and manipulate minds using the mist, nearly caused him to fail his own apprenticeship. His successor, Julietta, had her own series of difficulties when she became a Mist Keeper, leading to memory loss and confusion. Jiang too struggled, although Tomás did not elaborate further on the giant.

“You adapted well to the mist, and if we can understand why, then future Mist Keepers may have an easier time adapting. Every loss of an apprentice breaks the Council further; so many lives have been sacrificed to the mist…potential lives we never should have lost,” Tomás said.

“I wish I could tell you why, honestly,” Malaika responded.

“There had to be unique circumstances surrounding your shift into the mist.”

“You mean other than that bastard killing me?”

“Yes, besides that.” Tomás tiptoed over a log as they strolled through the forest. Malaika hopped over it behind him, landing firmly on the ground beside him.

“Maybe I’m just that much smarter than all of you,” Malaika touted.

Tomás shrugged. “Ningursu may know.

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