Page 86 of The Tribes of Magic
When I stepped out of the changing room, Kato was waiting in his room, dressed in a suit of his own.
“What do you think of it?” he asked me.
“It’s beautiful.” I pivoted around, watching the light hit the material at different angles, making it change color. “But what does it do?”
“You’ll see.”
He took my hand and led me back down the Spiral Tower. As we crossed the Hex, people stared at us and our funny suits. I hesitated as we approached the stream that marked the edge of the Castle grounds. The stream was fast and busy, its basin overflowing with water from the recent rainstorms. A tug from Kato’s hand pulled me forward.
“How are we supposed to walk through all that water with only a thin layer of fabric covering our feet?” I asked him.
He glanced back at me, his blue-diamond eyes twinkling in the sunlight. “Trust me.”
So I kept walking. And, sure enough, even though I was soon up to my knees in water, I didn’t feel cold or wet. What I did feel was a deep, close connection to nature. To the trees of the forest we walked through. To the animals sleeping below ground. Evento the tiny droplet of moisture in the air. I felt the earth, the birds, the animals, the trees, everything.
“Wow,” I gasped. Water was dripping down the tree trunks, and I felt that too.
“Your suit links you to the planet,” Kato explained. “It allows Gaia to speak to you.”
I could feel that. My senses were in tune with the elements. I could feel the light of the moon, the shadows, the water, and the earth. My worries fell away. There was only the planet’s song now, the harmony of this world and everything alive in it.
“Gaia has many voices,” Kato told me.
Past the forest, we came to a rocky hill. As we climbed it, I felt like the rock face was a part of me, like it was just an extension of my skin.
“Gaia has many moods.”
We jumped off the hill, falling through the sky, down to the lake. The drop was slow. Time had lost all meaning.
“Knowing Gaia will allow you to know yourself.”
We crashed through the lake’s surface, swimming underwater for a very long time. We didn’t even need to come up for air. We could breathe through the planet.
“I understand,” I told him.
We stepped onto the shore, and I could feel dirt and sand between my toes, even though my feet were covered.
“Magic is beautiful when it exists in harmony.”
Kato used the spark of his magic to light us a fire. The flames danced across my skin, as delicate and soft and strong as a ballerina.
The sky was completely dark by the time we headed back to the Castle. It felt like only a few moments had passed, but in fact it had been many hours. I realized I was long overdue for bed, but somehow that didn’t bother me. I wasn’t tired. I feltinvigorated, alive, and in complete harmony with the planet and myself.
“I hope I didn’t take too much of your time,” I said as we returned to the Castle grounds.
“I took you on this journey to show you the majesty of magic. The wonder,” Kato replied. “So that just for a few hours, you could feel a connection to magic, instead of seeing it as a challenge to overcome.”
We’d stopped at a crossroads path in the Hex. One path would take him to his tower. The other would take me away from the Castle and back to the main road.
“Thank you for today,” I said. “Thank you for showing me how wonderfully freeing magic can feel.”
“Sometimes I need a little reminder of that myself.” Kato bowed to me, then he turned to walk away.
“Wait.”
He turned back around.
“When should I stop by your tower to return the suit?”
