Wind Keeper: Elementals of Nordica, #3

By TC Marti

Sion Zona thought he at least had a sense of security in Nordica…

 

…Until realization strikes that he is nothing more than a pawn in yet another game

 

He could've seen Tamuria playing this game. But Nordica? Sion spent the last year believing that Nordica was the Land of Elementals. A place where elementals could freely practice their ability on their own terms, unlike the perpetual restrictions Tamuria set.

 

Now that the truth's out in the open, it's clear the Nordicans were only using their elementals for their own, selfish gain.

 

Then again, not everything out there meets the eye. Was using elementals and Elemental Masters really Nordica's ulterior motive? Or is someone or something more sinister pulling Nordica's strings?

 

And if that's the case, every single elemental in the World of Eidolon is in danger. War has ravaged the region. Death is everywhere. And now, Sion must deal with not just an external enemy, but numerous internal enemies.

 

Wind Keeper is Book III in Elementals of Nordica and the series's final installment seen in The Renegades Epic: Phase I. If you are into action-packed science fantasy rich in battle scenes that combine modern warfare with sword and sorcery, tyrannical governments, global conspiracies, and genre-fusion, Wind Keeper is for you. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Phoenix Rising
• Release date: Jun 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201850623

TC Marti

TC Marti is an author, book reviewer, and freelance writer. When he's not writing, you can often find him in a gym lifting weights, or running miles on a trail.  He's also a huge fan of Arizona sports teams, an unapologetic Blink, and like most authors, an avid reader. 

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What occurred BEFORE Tuukka Worthy made Sion Zona Public Enemy #1? Find out in this epic prequel to the Elementals of Nordica Series!

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This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

WIND KEEPER

First edition. June 11, 2022.

Copyright © 2022 TC Marti.

ISBN: 979-8201850623

Written by TC Marti.

Also by TC Marti

Chronicles of Rondure

Civil War

BattleFront

Cymraeg Tales

Spirit and Fire

Elementals of Nordica

Wind Wielder

Wind Master

Wind Keeper

Wind Ruler

Sentrys of Terrene

The Last Sentrys

The Rebellion Awakens

The Terrian Chronicles

Liza Fury: The Discovery

Tarja Titan

Liza Fury - Catch 22

Tarja Titan: Sophomore Year

Watch for more at TC Marti’s site.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Also By TC Marti

Chapter One | Ignored

Chapter Two | Dolores Worthy

Chapter Three | Unseen Task

Chapter Four | Together

Chapter Five | Dictator Tuukka

Chapter Six | Trouble in the Heartland

Chapter Seven | Missing Masters

Chapter Eight | An Unexpected Gift

Chapter Nine | Instincts

Chapter Ten | Nunaat Village

Chapter Eleven | Fury

Chapter Twelve | Welcome to the Club

Chapter Thirteen | Reasons

Chapter Fourteen | Valley of the Sun

Chapter Fifteen | Framed

Chapter Sixteen | Arrested

Chapter Seventeen | Entities

Chapter Eighteen | Death

Chapter Nineteen | Caged

Chapter Twenty | The Battle of Oslo’s Port

Chapter Twenty-One | The Helping Hand

Chapter Twenty-Two | Tortured

Chapter Twenty-Three | Turning Tides

Chapter Twenty-Four | Tuukka Victorious

Chapter Twenty-Five | Revelations

Chapter Twenty-Six | Heart of Sonora

Chapter Twenty-Seven | The Second Fight

Chapter Twenty-Eight | Oslo’s Port Again

Chapter Twenty-Nine | Njordgard Again

Chapter Thirty | Assault

Chapter Thirty-One | Lockdown

Chapter Thirty-Two | Smoke Ma(on)ster

Chapter Thirty-Three | Showdown

Chapter Thirty-Four | Back to the Bunker

Chapter Thirty-Five | Wind Keeper

Chapter Thirty-Six | United

Chapter Thirty-Seven | The Vision

Chapter Thirty-Eight | Showdown in Nuuk

Chapter Thirty-Nine | Magnu and Volkanov

Chapter Forty | Merger

Chapter Forty-One | Cornered

Chapter Forty-Two | The Tide Shifted

Chapter Forty-Three | Climax

Chapter Forty-Four | Sion’s Promise

Chapter Forty-Five | Loose Ends

Author’s Note | The End of the Series?

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Further Reading: Wind Ruler

Also By TC Marti

About the Author

Chapter One

Ignored

Sion Zona took his seat in the main conference room at the Nuuk Base. Since Roku Must-Roosa ordered the Nordican attack that forced out the Tamurians back in December, the former prison acted as a meeting hub for the highest-ranking Nordicans and leaders.

Because Sion’s status as the Ordained was a well-known fact in Nordica, or at least Nordican areas still free from Tamurian rule, they called him one of the Big Three, next to Corra Eriksson and Roku. Corra, given her status as the Sovereign Ruler. And Roku, his command of old militias and recruits that congregated at the base dubbed the New Firebirds. Corra also delegated most of her duties to Roku, given the man’s experience.

I’m worried the Nordicans are looking at us as heroes, Sion said, as the other two, along with Roku’s daughter, Lalisa, looked on. You two need to warn them that looking to so-called war heroes leads us down a dangerous path.

Corra threw Sion a glance. So many of them have expatriated from South Nordica since December. You know those schools propagate them into believing war solves problems.

"It’s called unplugging the masses, Corra. Looking to war heroes is another way to coax people into worshiping governments. If we let this happen, the cycle won’t end."

What’re you saying we should do, Sion?

"Let’s start reporting things in our news more honestly. When your grandfather was in charge—"

You knew my grandfather for four months.

"Your mediaheads never demonized Tamuria or Iberia. Now every time I see a TV in the mess hall, I’m watching a freaking propaganda outlet. You guys have reinforced their persistent warmongering beliefs."

It is all they know, Roku said, as Corra noted.

"It’s time to change the mentality."

It’s time to launch a strike to take back Oslos’s Port. Roku turned to Sion. "And the Chosen Nine will be a part of this battle now that you have all reached Master Status."

Over the last three months, Sion, Corra, and the others continued their combat training. Sion and his cousin, Erno Kakko, superseded combat level seventy, along with Shia. It was at Master Status their progress slowed and closer resembled that of everyday elementals. 

That said, his sister, Raj Zona, and his girlfriend, Valkyrie Siskonen, remained at the highest levels. Since recovering from her debilitating illness, a Sword of Smoke manifested in his best friend Liri Viorunen’s hand, with Hannah and Timo close behind, having hit the threshold last week.

Tash Holmes was not an original member of the Chosen Nine. But a ceremony involving the burning of Mikko Siskonen’s ashes with fire from Raj’s sword, a blood sample at the forearm from Valkyrie’s sword, and a complicated incantation from Shia made her a substitute. The minute the ceremony ended, an alloy-hilted Sword of Metal manifested in Tash’s hand and she assumed the same combat level Mikko reached before he died last fall in a Tamurian raid.

I’m more than for defending and taking back Nordican land, Sion said, but an assault’s—

Our only option, Corra said. End of discussion.

Uh, are you forgetting the Nine answers to no one?

Sion, don’t start.

"No, I think I will start. Look, if you want to launch an attack, feel free. I’m consulting the Nine and we’re going from there, got it?"

Don’t be this way.

"What’re you going to do? Throw me into a jail cell for insubordination?"

You sound like your sister.

"Listen, the Nine’s not making a move until we discuss it, and you’re both respecting it."

Lalisa raised her hand.

"No, Roku said. You’re backing up Shia Eaglesky when she agrees to do this and fight in other battles, Lalisa. Throughout this conflict unless you face an attack, you are a reserve."

Lalisa deflated and bit her lip, eyes downcast. 

Roku insisted they train reserves for the Nine in the event something happened to Sion or the others. Of course, the plan only worked if Raj, Valk, and preferably Shia survived an attack, so Roku ordered extra protection to accompany them wherever they went.

Protection that treated everyone around them as criminals. Yet another policy he and Corra implemented Col never stood for, as Sion learned during his semester at U of N.

It’s an important role, Lalisa, Sion said. We’re doing dangerous stuff, so you and your friends are the next women up.

I can’t go either, Corra said.

Corra served as Sion’s backup and snapped at anyone insisting otherwise. About all of her advisors. None of whom she cared for.

As for the others, Suzuka Su Kimiko, also nearing Smoke Master Status, shadowed Liri. Earth elemental Rosalita Rosie Driver did the same regarding Erno.

Before this battle takes place, Roku said, we must decide on suitable backups for Timo, Hannah, and Tash. Raj and Valkyrie do not need one unless we discover a casting or ceremony that will continue to provide backups to the Nine without the original Keeper of Fire or Blood’s help.

"I’m leaving that one to the Nine. Corra wrote a few notes on the pad in front of her before looking at Sion. If our Ordained is cool with it." 

I’ll tell the others.

The look in Corra’s eye told Sion she intended for her so-called request to be something else. But at least he could reel her in and remind the girl of where she stood and where he stood. As Hannah pointed out to him during her recovery period in which she still practiced improving her ability to control water, no government or military held power over the Nine.

We need a where, when, how, and what for Oslo’s Port, Roku said. As we have answered the who, and why.

"Where?" Corra said. "Uh, Oslo’s Port?"

"I should have been clearer. Where, as in Tamuria’s on high alert throughout the Northern Regions they continue to control. We need to trek down a particular nation’s territory."

Iberia’s, Corra whispered.

"Are you out of your mind?" Sion said. We trek through the regions of Tamuria’s greatest secret ally with their permission? What’s next? Would you like a seat in Magnu’s, Tuukka’s, and Iberian President Volkanov’s Lodge Club?

"And secret’s the key word," Roku said.

I’m not getting it.

"Karma’s sneaking up on both superpowers. They’re secret allies. But on the surface, the Tamurians and Iberians hate one another."

Corra’s eyes lit up. Iberia will have no choice but to give us passage toward Oslo’s Port. Or at least north of Tamuria’s Tallinn Region.

Roku inclined his head. Doing so does a few things. It keeps the Iberian versus Tamurian narrative strong. Something both empires want. And what better way to demonize Iberia than for Tamuria to sit and watch them let us pass through a region unscathed?

Corra smiled. The Tamurian and South Nordican media will have a field day with that one. We’re beating everyone at their own game.

You two realize you’re becoming part of the problem, right? Sion said.

"And I’m sure you realize how much fun they’d have explaining to their people why they blew up an entire convoy bent on attacking Tamuria."

Sion rolled his eyes. 

"We can have friendly terms with Iberia on the surface. Corra nodded at Roku. Because this man’s clever and cunning enough to act friendly with an empire who we know deep down is nothing but an enemy. It lets us get away with certain advantages, and Volkanov or his top man, General Vladimirovich, know they need to let it happen."

And you know they have yet to help us in this thing, Sion said. "Listen, Iberia’s controlling northern South Nordican cities because they have an agenda with Tamuria and you both know it."

Corra shrugged. Could you imagine what Tamuria could sell to their people if Iberia gave us the land?

Uh, that’s not happening, Sion said.

Neither Volkanov nor Vladimirovich can touch us lest they risk their credibility, Roku said. Nor can they refuse diplomatic negotiations.

They would also risk their credibility if the Iberian masses knew they were working with us, Sion said.

Then they’ll keep quiet about it and deny involvement.

You two are headed down a slippery slope, Sion said. You realize Iberia would eventually hang us out to dry, right?

"It would further help us become the global power in the long run," Corra said.

Sion raised an eyebrow. "So that’s what this is about?"

Roku nodded, and even Lalisa’s expression showed she supported it.

Sion, Corra said, "here’s the reality. There will always be a superpower. If we don’t take matters into our hands and do this, someone else will and it can be neither Tamuria nor Iberia."

We must contact Volkanov’s Iberian leader in the Northern Regions, Dmitri Yanakovich, Roku said. I suspect he will have expected a call this entire time, especially since we’ve spent the entire spring suspecting Tamuria of planning an attack to regain the base.

Better yet, Roku, Corra said, "Iberia can also make it so Tuukka wouldn’t know about the call until it’s too late. What’s Iberia’s finest trait that his schools and media feed the people? Secrecy. He needs to uphold the mantra Iberia’s this psychotic, cunning, secret, and evil entity. And he can feed it to Tamuria’s masses."

Riddle me this, Sion said. "Secretive as Tamuria claims Iberia is, their brasses are in this war game together. They will tell Tuukka and his intel leaders about this secret meeting with Yanakovich. How do you expect to launch a surprise attack on Tamuria in Oslo’s Port knowing this meeting will leak to Tamurian mediaheads?"

"If it happens, Roku said, either Tuukka and Magnu feign ignorance and sacrifice their people at Oslo’s Port, or they intercept contact between us and Iberia, in which state Iberia will have informed him of the call.

"However, it’s highly likely Yanakovich does not inform Tuukka. Or if he does, Tuukka refrains from informing his commanders in Oslo’s Port. This would allow a legitimate surprise attack to occur and cause the greatest ire among Tamuria’s masses.

We must reach Oslo’s Port with little resistance. The best way is to strike up an agreement with Iberia.

Yeah, and this is the world’s greatest setup, Sion said. "Have you ever stopped and thought what would happen if Tamuria attacked any Iberian-controlled region you wanted leeway through? That’s another scenario you need to consider."

Tamuria wouldn’t, Corra said.

Sion again rolled his eyes.

"If they wait until we cross and attack Oslo’s Port, it’ll further prop up their narrative at playing the victim. If they attack us in an Iberian territory, or attack Iberian territory regardless, they’re the aggressor. To be the, she curled her fingers into air quotes, good guy in this scenario, they must play the victim."

Sion shook his head, his greatest fears confirmed. Since they took Nuuk, Roku and Corra talked about military might, aggression, force, violence, and intimidation tactics. All of which opposed the teachings of the Sacred Texts she was kind enough to let him know about last November. And here she was, with Roku, in May, handling this thing in the exact opposite way her grandfather Col Eriksson would have handled it. 

Chapter Two

Dolores Worthy

Two Days Before Wind Master’s Closing Scene

Alright, so here’s the skinny, Dolores Etienne, now serving under the Worthy moniker, said to her troupe comprising six of the fiercest Tamurian Mutant Masters in the Western Hemisphere. "You’ve all been selected among a pool of thousands serving in all different sectors of the Tamurian Military to contain a conflict brewing out of our control.

"When you arrived, you were briefed on the escape of nine maximum security prisoners and thousands more courtesy of the terrorist organization up north known as the Firebirds.

"You may have heard we dealt a death blow to the same organization in late-November. Well, here we are in May, and the Firebirds have revitalized. Among them are nine of Tamuria’s most wanted. Their names? Corra Eriksson, Sion and Rajae Zona, Timo, Hannah, and Erno Kakko, Liri Viorunen, Shia Eaglesky, and Valkyrie Siskonen.

"Each of whom spent months to years training with the Firebirds’ subsidiary, the Northern Alliance. Two of the most notorious terrorist groups to threaten Tamuria, and each founded by Lord Col Eriksson. The Nordican terrorist who ravaged the South Nordican landscape during the Ten-Year War and continued to fund terrorist training camps and passageways to Nordica long after his defeat.

"The time has come to deliver the final death blow to the Firebirds and the terrorists who have long frequented the thirteen counties in Nordica. As you know, Nordica collapsed, but our largest military base, in the Kalaallit Northern Region of Tamuria, fell to surviving militias led by those most wanted.

"It was the largest, and most brutal attack on Tamurian-controlled soil since the Ten-Year War and it served as the catalyst to our latest conflict with Nordican terrorists.

"And these events have led Tuukka Worthy to fund and design a pilot program that won’t just defeat these Nordican terrorists once and for all; it will also keep the long-suffering people of Nordica under our control.

"You have been selected because you all have shown merit and talent in your mutation. Some of you have fought and survived the toughest battles to expand Tamurian Exceptionalism and its manifest destiny to a global scale.

"You’re all seasoned veterans who have vastly improved to reach your current state. And best yet, you have shown the Tamurian Empire, King Magnu, and Lord Tuukka Worthy unwavering loyalty. For this, Our King and Our Lord feel it’s time to reward you with this pilot program that will enhance your abilities tenfold.

"I have already gone through the process and yes, it is a painful procedure. You will receive injections of DNA that belonged to those very maximum security prisoners. DNA they inherited from their direct lineages through science and study, has been replicated for, so far, one mutant of each mutation.

"Lord Tuukka Worthy spent the last three months tracking you all down. You are the first Mutant Masters in the Tamurian Empire to receive it and you won’t be the last. Upon receiving the serum, you will notice a stellar increase in your already-incredible element wielding mutations.

"Now, as you can see, we only have six of you present. And it’s because Lord Tuukka Worthy has yet to track the appropriate Wind and Metal Masters. However, with your help, we will be able to track and capture our Wind and Metal Masters to—give their serum for the greater good of Tamuria.

Are you all ready to join us in the pursuit of Tamurian Exceptionalism and defeat this terroristic foe Nordica has been for decades?

In unison, the six Mutant Masters dropped to one knee and placed a right fist over their hearts, facing Dolores and the two male guards flanking her before saluting the Tamurian flag waving over them.

It is settled. You will all begin your transition immediately.

Chapter Three

Unseen Task

Sion stalked back to his living space. One would think for someone looked up to as the Ordained that he’d receive better quarters. But nope. He slept on a cot since December in the Wind Master barrack like any other grunt.

Life on the Nuuk Base comprised a daily routine which forced him and Valk to carve out an hour, two tops, to meet. Square away time, as Roku called it. And even then, he frowned upon private male and female interaction.

Old school, if one described Roku. Men with the men. Women with the women. Further sorted by ability.

Oh, and better yet. Roku subjected the Wind Masters to the same training exercises as the elementals. Whoever acted as trainers under Roku in Helski or under Col at U of N trained Sion and the others.

And yet he was important enough to sit in meetings, even if Roku and Corra scoffed at his suggestions.

He was a pawn in Roku and Corra’s game and nothing else. Just as the Tamurians and Iberians were pawns in Tuukka’s, Magnu’s, and Volkanov’s game.

He’d walk away right now but someone, the Ordained, had to evoke damage control in Oslo’s Port.

Then what?

Back to five in the morning wakeup calls in these frigid morning temps? Even in May? Where physical training became a blessing in the world’s biggest disguise to get warm? Heck, if one positive came it was that the strict nutrition here peeled him more than ever before.

At least he’d have a chiseled eight-pack to show Valk when they got a moment together—

"Hey, Sion, you in there?"

Speak of the freaking trickster. He whipped around, ensuring the barrack remained empty as Valk poked her head through the entrance. Something they’d sanction her for if caught, even if legally, they had no control over the Nine. Such irony.

He rushed over, pulled his girlfriend inside, locked the door, and lifted her into his arms. They let you out early?

I snuck out. Shouldn’t you know your girlfriend by now?

Sion cracked his sly smile and planted a kiss on her forehead. And I love every bit of you for it. What’s up?

I just got word about our little escapade into Oslo’s Port. Roku came by and pulled me out along with Jenn.

"So he double-crossed me?"

She raised an eyebrow. He sat Valk on his cot and filled her in on the details during his meeting with Roku, Corra, and Lalisa.

"They were supposed to leave me to talk to you all about it."

Valk twisted her lips.

What’s up?

I’m not going, that’s what.

I don’t want this to happen either. But Roku and Corra aren’t taking no for an answer.

"We’re the Nine, Sion. We do have a choice. We can walk away from this thing right now and there’s nothing Roku or Corra can do about it."

I get that. But you know they’ll spin it—

"Look, I made a promise to a girl and I’m keeping it. I can’t do