The days flew by, and despite the short time, Rada had learned everything that would be useful in the test.
The evening before the test, in the elder's study.
"This is it, tomorrow is the big day" the elder had a calm tone, but there was hidden a hint of worry too.
"Yes master" Rada was sitting in front of him.
"Any progress with your pearl?" the master asked.
"No unfortunately..." Rada slowly shook his head.
"Nothing can be done about it for the moment" the elder sighed.
"I hoped you'd be able to get through the door before the test, but things don't always work out the way we want them to..." There was some self-irony in his words, he seemed to mean something else as well.
"Yeah," Rada replied.
He listened without interrupting the teacher, sensing that the man was particularly into something lately.
"No use thinking about it too much."
The Elder handed some books to Rada.
"Take."
The man looked at them carefully, one of the books had written on the cover "The Depths of Darkness - (Part One)." Rada's eyes went wide, he immediately understood what these books were about thanks to his studies with Cody.
"They're manuals!" he said enthusiastically.
"Exactly!"
"They are copies of the originals and are divided into three parts, well actually there are nine parts, but the last three are unknown even to me," he let his regrets show.
It was necessary to know that there were ancient manuals left by great Cultivators and Bearers, in one of his travels the elder managed to obtain these manuals.
However, after having studied them in depth he understood that something was missing. In fact, after several researches, he knew that the manuals were nine and each of them would have accompanied the Bearer to the peak of his power.
Not knowing where to find them was a source of great desolation for him, but he couldn't do anything about it.
"Consult the manuals only after having access to the door, it is useless otherwise" explained the master.
"All right," replied the pupil.
The curiosity was so great that he could hardly restrain himself from peeking, so he waited, for when he would be alone.
"As for your cultivation, there doesn't seem to be much to say, you already have a good foundation, you will have to be the one to build your own way."
The elder looked at Rada kindly, at the same time, with a mixture of desolation and regret. Yes regret, how he wished he had met such a pupil long ago, taken him with him on his travels.
In his heart, inexplicably, he had the strange feeling that the boy before him would accomplish great things. That they would leave legends behind.
"Alright master."
Rada smiled at the strange but kind teacher. Despite the short time he had taught him much and for that he was grateful.
"I will not be attending the trial tomorrow," the elder's face slowly became more and more serious.
"Oh, no?" Rada was astonished.
"The Village elder is not allowed to attend?" asked Rada with a strange face.
"Tzè, of course I am allowed, however I have my own good reasons for not attending."
The man's annoyed look, made Rada even more thoughtful, he had like a flash.
(Possibly because of the capital's observers?) but he dared not ask at the elder's somber sight.
"Other than that, I'm sure you'll be fine, mind you."
The elder took a breath of cold air and left his final recommendations before sending Rada away.
"What on earth could have happened?"
Standing in front of the window of his room, Rada found himself thinking about the old master's strange behavior.
"What do you think Kiba?"
The puppy's ears pricked up.
"I have no idea, and I don't want to know," he replied in a meek tone.
"How obnoxious!" exclaimed the boy, but he smiled at the puppy's way of acting much more like a human than a beast.
"I'll go with you tomorrow," said the puppy, still coiled in on himself.
Rada turned to him, his eyebrow raised.
"I thought you didn't care about that," he asked surprised.
"I do, but I have a strange feeling..." replied the pup, there was concern in his voice.
"What are you talking about?" asked Rada with a strange face.
"I have no idea, it just is though!"
Kiba felt annoyed by the constant questions and went back to sleep in no time.
"Sigh..." Rada let out another sigh. He ignored the at first glance unreasonable behavior of his companion. He admired the beautiful starry sky beyond his window for some more time.
He turned around slowly shaking his head. Even the sky gave him confirmation of the world he was in, for there were two moons and not one.
He sat down and picked up one of the elder's manuals, exactly the first volume of the series, it was quite rough in appearance.
"Shadow Quick!" Rada read aloud, the name immediately gave him pause.
"Only those who are lulled into darkness are allowed to move in it" one of the sentences he read, left him particularly perplexed.
"Only those who are lulled into darkness are allowed to move in it... Quick Shadow..."
He kept repeating these words in his head, somehow he tried to deduce something, but he had no way to put his theories into practice.
He sighed once more and went back to bed despite himself.
The night passed quickly, it was already dawn when Rei and Cody showed up at the elder's house.
"Well, today is the big day, both of you will be participating as members of the same team, trust each other and everything will be fine."
In the dining room, the elder dispensed final advice to the two siblings.
"You'll know everything else when you arrive toward the test site."
Breakfast over, the elder escorted the boys to House Bran, where Logar was waiting for them.
"Mr. Bran, it's a pleasure to see you again" arrived at their destination Rada greeted the man.
"The head of the Bran family looked more detached than usual. Under the thoughtful eyes of his children, Logar prepared to leave.
"I entrust the boys to you Logar" said the elder, who did not mind his behavior.
The elder then looked towards his ward and said, "I'm counting on you son, protect little Rei" in a gentle tone.
"Protect her? But have you seen her master? If anything, she should protect me!"
With his usual humor, the boy took away the heavy atmosphere from before.
"What is that supposed to mean!" Rei gave an elbow against his side.
"Ouch! Nothing, nothing!"
The unfortunate man, in pain, raised his hands in surrender under Cody's amused eyes.
"Then we're off!" greeted Rada.
"Big sister, big brother, good hunting!" Cody saluted vigorously.
"Good luck to you both!" wished the elder.