He dipped his finger in first to test the heat before taking his tunic off and hopping in the wooden tub.
Hot water seeped through his dirt-crusted skin, melting away days' worth of frigid anxiety.
A moment of silence. Finally.
He pushed the off switch to his brain and sunk into the quiet.
Unfortunately, like all of the greatest things in life, silence, inner silence more precisely, is something that must be worked for, grown, and nurtured through the determination of your spirit.
David had never practiced, or strained his spirit towards the goal of inner silence. Every moment on Earth for him was filled with a distraction, which in turn transformed every moment without a distraction into a moment where he thought of a distraction. An endless loop of disquieting noise.
So, the switch flicked back on.
How long have I been in this world, now? 4, 5 days? How many times have I almost died in that time? There was the first meeting with the Niven who almost burned me alive. There were the raskers, which almost killed me twice. There were the tunks that cornered me. In town, the Niven and her master almost kidnapped me, which I'm sure would have been worse than death. And then I was thrown in prison and was an inch away from being pulverized by an Ormer.
How much longer can I keep doing this? Eventually, there won't be that miraculous moment where I'm saved from death. I'll just die. The end.
I've been moving through this world like I'm not a part of it. Any action I take is a reaction, a response to the insanity around me. I won't survive like this.
If I want to live long enough to return to Earth, I have to take the initiative.
I need two things: knowledge and strength.
It's not a coincidence Kleymon brought me where he did. He placed me in the web of a very powerful group of people: the Shadekillers. If those visions he showed me were actually true, these people are likely the humans who killed him and his mate.
I must understand the Shadekillers and tread very carefully around them.
It's also abundantly clear that an incredible amount of power is the only way you can survive this world.
But even then…
The spray of blood from Barog's body replayed in his mind.
Even then, it may not be enough. Still, I need to learn how to use my abilities so I can do more than create a spear or sword. Maybe if my flame manipulation improves, I'll be able to open the portal back to Earth. Wishful thinking, but I have to hope for something.
After the bath water had become tepid and a murky brown, he got out and dried off with a small rag.
The clothes on his bed were a plain white tunic, loose boxers, and a pair of brown stockings.
He left the stockings. The room he was in was small enough that heating the tub had already made it quite toasty.
His bed was a thin mattress stuffed with cotton and placed on a wooden frame, with coarse linen sheets and a lumpy pillow.
He fell asleep the second his head touched the pillow.
.
.
.
Two loud knocks on his door woke him up. He felt well-rested and hopeful that he could make it through the day without nearly dying. After slipping on the brown stockings and the pair of leather ankle boots he had been provided, he opened the door.
Cyst, clad in the same black clothes as yesterday, greeted him with an easy smile.
"Follow me."
The white stone hallways they walked through were washed in the cool morning light.
"Where are we going?"
"We are going to the Sun Chamber. There, the Blades will decide what to do with you."
An old man balancing a towering stack of folded wool clothing in his arms scurried past them.
Cyst continued. "I suggest you make yourself seem useful. If the Blades do not believe you have sufficient reason to be here…they will be unhappy."
"Why would they be unhappy? Should I not be here, Cyst?"
"Well, Netsu skipped quite a few steps bringing you here, to the Castle of Light. New recruits are first brought to our training ground in the city. They are educated on our history, trained, and once they have completed a mission, they may reside here. Half of our recruits do not make it back from their mission."
David did not like the sound of that. If he joined the Shadekillers, which it seemed he was going to have to, he may have to go on one of those missions.
"There is something else you should know. The Blades can be…erratic. They have gone through trials you would not dare imagine, and seen more blood and death than every other member of the Shadekillers combined.They are weapons. The greatest weapons the Shadekillers have forged. They want to know if you can be a weapon too. Just…keep that in mind."
"I will. Thank you Cyst."
They marched through more corridors and up three sets of spiral staircases before reaching a door at the top of the final staircase. While walking, numerous people passed them by. Most were human, and appeared to be servants, performing their daily duties. There were others though, who were decidedly not human.
A Niven woman with long flowing golden hair and sharp ears nodded respectfully towards Cyst as she passed.
Shortly after, they had to contort out of the way of the brown, feathered wings protruding from the back of a bald man, who also nodded politely at Cyst. David was amazed by not only the man's wings, but the perfect posture he upheld while walking, as if a metal pole was soldered to his spine.
Both the Niven woman and the winged man wore the same white and gold accented tunic as Netsu, but without the embellishing golden cloak.
So they do wear matching outfits.
Cyst opened the door at the final staircase.
Fresh air and a pale yellow sun greeted them shyly.
They were atop an empty brick courtyard with a few wooden benches near the edges, perfect for looking at the city that stretched far, far below.
They crossed through the courtyard, and then over a small bridge connecting the courtyard to a gigantic red glass dome. Though the other glass domes of the city were quite far away, he was sure that this one was at least three or four times the size of any of them.
The blood-tinted glass of this dome was shaded black from a peculiar haze that seemed to circulate from the inside. There was no apparent door to enter or exit from. If there was ever a building ideal for executions, it was this one.
David wished he could feel the solid heat of a flame spear in his hand. But even if it wasn't a suicidal idea, the Ormer bracelet Cyst had clamped on his wrist before she let him into his room yesterday prevented him from using any of his abilities.
Cyst placed her hand on the glass dome. A red glow pierced through the black haze and illuminated into the shape of a door.
She motioned for him to walk through. He may have been confused, had he not already used a door like this before. Like last time, there was no physical sensation when he moved through the glowing rectangle.
"GRRRRRRRRR."
A large, sinewy, panther-shaped creature snarled the set of monstrous teeth that filled one of its two heads.
"Hush little girl, we will have our meal soon. Once he has been judged."
The gray-skinned man's voice was rough, like a stone being chiseled into an arrowhead. He scratched the fat rolls around the two-headed creature's neck. A satisfied purr echoed through the room.
"Must you bring that…thing? She stinks worse than you."
The gray man's molten irises flicked across the room to where a refined older woman with slick hair and a pale face that screamed agonizingly bored lounged on her throne.
"I am surprised you do not recognize the stench of antiquity, of the Shadowtime, when every land was drenched in a darkness that suffocated all but the most resourceful of tribes. For those groups who did carve their own survival during this merciless time, fire was sacred, revered almost like a God. Tribes would search for ways to bolster their fires to fight the darkness. They found that plants like cournuts or acha leaves could do such a thing. However, eventually a greater revelation was discovered. The flames would burn brightest, and so high they reached the sky, only with a Pyre placed in the middle."
His canine teeth glinted as he grinned.
"I can attest to that, myself. A Pyre causes the flames to turn—"
"ENOUGH, RAVA!" The guttural outburst came from a man occupying a throne built from twisting dead coral. Black veins in his light blue, translucent skin bulged around his forehead.
"We have a recruit that may be an invaluable asset in our war. And you wish to waste our time with ancient history and pathetic insults? You may trade your little barbs with Wen later."
The two Blades in the chamber who had yet to speak voiced their agreement.
"Yes, let us get on with it."
"Agreed. I would much rather hear this stranger's story than any of yours, Rava."
David watched this exchange with a broiling mix of fear, curiosity, and bewilderment. Fear quickly slayed the other two, as he failed to take his eyes off the two-headed creature lying in front of Rava. The spiraling teeth on one of its heads made him feel sick to his soul.
Cyst ushered him forwards.
The black haze that surrounded the glass dome blocked any sunlight from the outside, cultivating a sinister lighting. He forcefully looked away from the two-headed creature, and searched for the source of the haze.
He spotted a hooded figure standing near the edge of the dome. The haze seemed to billow out from under the shade of its hood.
Cyst stopped him as he made it to the baseline of a golden pentagon that had been painted on the room's floor. At each point of the pentagon was a throne of one the Blades. The two thrones directly to his right and left were sat in by two humans, a man and a woman.
The man was dressed in a long brown poncho with an interlocking white pattern in the center that resembled a maze. His fleshy face of undefined lines masked any form of emotion.
The woman was adorned in a dark blue dress that ebbed past her knees and a colorful collection of leather bands around her arms. She was concentrating on curling a strand of her brown hair tightly around her finger, then letting it unravel, repeating the process unendingly.
To the right of her, at the next point in the pentagon, was the throne of the older woman. David noticed that her hair shifted from gray, to white, and then black.
She seemed more attentive now and was smiling at him like he was an old friend she had not met in years.
To the right of her, at the head of the pentagon, was the dead coral throne. The man's black pools in sunken eye sockets engulfed David. His simple white robes were worn with the dignity and grace of a king.
Finally, to the right of the coral throne, was a thick, petrified tree trunk. Rava, the gray-skinned man, sat on the smoothed out top, his two-headed pet lounging on the three small steps that led up to the trunk.
Rava's molten eyes belatedly moved from the older woman to David. They ground him down to the bone, looking for some core part of him that could be stolen or broken.
An instinctive desire to flee coursed through his nervous system.
He tried to take an imperceptibly small step backwards, but was held back by Cysts' firm hand on his back.
She whispered in his ear.
"As long as you do not run or attack one of them, you will get through this."
"I already put in a good word for you." She said these last words as if they were a joke that only she knew the punchline too.
He took a deep breath in and out, trying to remain calm.
Cyst left his side and walked a few steps to the right, where Netsu, Bal, the gray petal creature, and Elise, the white robe, stood at attention.
The guttural voice of the man on the coral throne bubbled up, addressing him.
"Has Cyst told you of us? Of where you are?"
His throat was drier than the Sahara. He swallowed his saliva to bring some amount of moisture back before he spoke.
"You are the Blades, the greatest weapons the Shadekillers have ever forged. We are in the Castle of Light."
"Yes, that is right. We are weapons, but a weapon must have a target. Who is our target? What is the purpose of the Shadekillers?"
"I…do not know."
A loud brackish laugh resounded from Rava.
"The name does not give you any hints?"
"It does, but I would rather hear an explanation from one of you."
"A man who does not waste time. You could learn something from him, Rava." The older woman said.
Rava was ready to give a bitter reply but was interrupted by the man on the coral throne.
"Our purpose is simple, a death to all Shadebringers."
Everyone in the room repeated the phrase in a grim echoing chorus: "A death to all Shadebringers."
"If you join us, this becomes your one and only purpose. You will pursue this purpose until every Shadebringer is ash in the wind or you are. Do you understand?"
That was basically what I expected.
"Yes."
"For you however, it is not an if. You have transgressed our rules coming here, and now, your fate is to join us or die. Do you understand?"
Unfortunately, that was also what I expected.
"Yes, I do."
"The only remaining question then, transgressor, is whether you are worthy, if you have the strength to endure."
I can endure. Long enough to get away from this place.
"...I do."
"What creature's meat have you eaten?" This question came from the man in the poncho.
Now, comes the difficult part. If they find out a Shadebringer chose me, and sent me here, how will they react? Not well, I would guess. Is it better to lie? Feign ignorance? God, they're gonna see right through me.
"Did I not tell you that already, Okrose? I was quite clear about it when I arrived." Netsu spoke plainly, as if he was addressing a mathematician that did not know multiplication.
"I am not asking you. I am asking him. Was that not clear, Netsu?" An iron edge supplanted his words.
"Oh it was, I just fail to see why you would ask him. I saw it. Bal saw it. As did my Petalman, and Elise. I know I only have one functioning eye, but it does function quite well. Well enough to recognize when a man has eaten the meat of a Flamebringer. Do you not trust me?"
The fleshy man named Okrose did not even look at Netsu, nor acknowledge he had said anything.
"Tell me what you ate, transgressor."
Netsu nonchalantly waved his hand. "Very well, tell him what you ate, little rat."
"YOU DO NOT GRANT HIM PERMISSION TO SPEAK, YOU DISGUSTING FREAK! YOU ARE NOT A BLADE, AND YOU NEVER WILL BE!"
Okrose's fist trembled with rage, though his face still abstained from any emotion.
A toothless smile haunted Netsu's scarred face.
The woman in the throne across from Okrose stopped curling her hair.
"That is not something you decide. I believe another vote may be in order. After all, he has brought us two Flamebringers. That is worthy of recognition." After voicing her proposition, she returned to her infinite curling.
"You flatter me, Yomi." Netsu winked his one working eye at her.
She did not seem to notice.
"Leave us, Netsu. You are a distraction." The command came from the man on the coral throne. The black veins at his temples were bulging again, and he looked ready to flatten the next person that spoke out of line.
'My apologies, Caitann." Netsu silently bowed, walked to the section of the chamber David had entered from, placed his hand on the glass to open the door, and exited.
It frightened David to see Netsu exercise such restraint. What sort of power did Caitann hold for Netsu to obey him so unquestionably?
"Answer Okrose's question, transgressor."
Here we go…
"I…I believe it is the meat of a Shadebringer."
A momentary silence thicker than rotting milk enveloped the chamber.
"You are unsure. Why is that?"
"Well…I…I found it in a market and…I did not know it was meat when I bought it. It was only after I ate it, that I realized it was."
"He is lying." Rava spoke with cold contempt.
"You bought meat in the market at Dracon, and it gave you a Shadebringer's abilities. Is that what you claim?"
"No…not from Dracon."
"Is that not where you are from?"
"No, it is not."
"Where, then?"
"It is called…Earth."
He felt guilty even using the word, as if speaking it in this world might start a lightning-chain of events that would rip Earth apart.
"Urth? I have never heard of such a place. Rava, you enjoy espousing your knowledge of distant lands and times, have you heard of this place?"
"No. Another lie I suspect."
David suspected he could say that the sky is blue, and Rava would be sure it was a lie.
"Tell us about Urth."
"It is a small community of only humans. I do not know where it is on a map, but I think it is very far from this place."
"Bring us to Urth then. If you truly ate the meat of Flamebringer, as Netsu claims, you are capable of creating a rift there."
Sweat was trickling down his back like a waterfall.
"I do not think I can. I tried to escape from Netsu by opening a rift to Urth, but I could not do it."
"If a man must come up with more than one excuse in a conversation, then they are lies, not excuses." Rava's pet began to growl again, the muscles in its black hindlegs tensing, ready to burst forward.
"It is true. He did open a rift, but it would not let us enter and faded heartbeats after." Bal's sharp voice sliced through the chamber.
"I saw it as well," said Elise.
"As I did I. I felt his connection to the land. It is as deep as a Shadebringer's."
This was the first time he had ever heard the petal creature speak. It sounded like a pile of leaves rustling in a warm breeze.
"Cyst, remove the restrictor from his wrist."
She quickly moved to David and lifted up his arm. A single tap of her finger, and the bracelet snapped open, loose enough for her to take it off. She returned to stand beside Bal and the rest.
"Open a rift to Urth."
Okay, I expected this. I have to open a rift, but I can't do it to Earth. I'm not going to risk that again. Who knows what kind of damage these insane people would cause there. I'll open a rift to somewhere I've already been in this world.
He placed his arm in front of him, his fist clenched tightly. He imagined a clear stream winding around trees with blue speckled leaves. Gray-black mountains could be seen in the distance.
He began to slowly open his fist, and once entirely open, he opened his eyes.
There was no rift, nor a sign he had come close to opening one.
"I…I'm not sure what happened. I'll try again."
He repeated the process, but soaked his brain in all the details he could recall of the forest: the insects skating on the stream, the spiky plants, the bushes where the Tunks hid.
Yes, this will do it. I just had to be more…Fuck. Why is this happening?!
"One more time and I'm sure—"
"Enough. If you cannot open a rift, you must at least be able to manipulate flames."
"Yes, of course! I can do that." He could hear his own desperation.
A flame spear. That's what I'm best at.
He imagined the burning heat, the heavy weight of the spear in his hand.
The flames are a part of me, free to use how I wish.
A warmth burgeoned, starting in his chest and radiating throughout the rest of his body. He attempted to concentrate the heat onto his hand, but it would not listen.
It grew hotter. From a slight case of heartburn to a burning fever. Sweat slipped through every pore of his body.
He screamed at the heat to form a spear. It laughed at him, and the burning fever exploded into a river of magma scorching down every vein in his body.
"Something is wrong. Elise, restore him now!"
He could not feel his legs. He could not feel anything but the heat. He pleaded with it to let him go. He no longer wanted to control it.
He lay on the ground, staring up at the haze covered dome. A blood-cough chopped through his lungs and splattered his chin. Elise was crouched by his side, her hands placed on his chest.
The numbness in his body was replaced with an autumn chill. He took a gasping breath as his lungs drained from her treatment.
"Is he ill?"
"No, I feel no illness. He is…perfectly healthy." Elise looked at his face, her blonde eyebrows arched in confusion.
He felt the same confusion.
"Can you stand?"
He wiped off the blood around his chin, and nodded.
Elise extended her arm and helped him to his feet. He wobbled for a few seconds, leaning on her for support, but soon found his balance.
The Blades were staring at him intently, each with some form of bewilderment, concern, or disgust.
"I…*COUGH* *COUGH*"
"I'm sorry. That's never happened to me before."
"You are an anomaly, transgressor. You claim the power of a Shadebringer, yet you cannot use any of their abilities. You claim a birthplace that is unknown to all of us. You look weaker than a lord's son that has never worked or fought a single day in their life. Hmm. Leave us. All of you. We will discuss this matter alone."
Things can never be easy, can they?Just when you believe you've grasped a ledge you can hold onto, life dumps a bucket of caustic oil over your face.
He trudged behind the rest of the dismissed, back through the dome and into the courtyard.
"How did it go, little rat? You look…ill."
He walked past Netsu and sat on one of the benches in the courtyard overlooking Auros Lepida.
"I am. But it doesn't matter. Well, it did matter. It's why the Blades are probably deciding to execute me right now. I have no use for them."
"The Blades are not fools, though they may seem it. Do not worry. You will live and become a Shadekiller. The oracle told me as much."
A whispered conversation began to take place between Netsu and Bal.
Cyst walked to the bench and sat beside him. She said nothing, and neither did he.
For ten minutes they sat like that.
Netsu called out to them. "Come. They have made their decision."
He walked through the glowing door, to the base of the pentagon. He kept his gaze on the golden pentagon, not wishing for the last thing he saw to be one of the Blades or the depressing black haze surrounding the dome.
"The transgressor's fate has been decided." Caitann's words marched towards him.
"He will be sent to the training ground, to undergo the regular practices of a new recruit."
David felt the looming weight of death topple off his back, and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Should he complete his training and his assigned mission, he will be welcomed to the Castle of Light as a Shadekiller.
Klin, the Librarian, will accompany him at the training ground. Cyst, alert Klin to gather his things. Escort him and the transgressor to the training ground before the sun scarabs sleep. That is all. Leave us." Caitann dismissed them with a gesture of his hand.
Cyst and the others bowed before leaving, with David following suit.
Just after exiting, Netsu looked back at David, his toothless grin on display. "Did I not tell you, little rat? You will be a Shadekiller."
He did not think that was a good thing, but good is relative, and when compared to death, being a Shadekiller was much, much better.