Emile looked up and stared at the woman.
"Wait—what?" He asked in dumbfoundedness.
"You understand and speak our language now! Isn't that cool?" She exploded in joy.
"But how?" Emile begged.
"The potion." She replied with sincerity.
"Yes—thank you. But how does the potion work." Emile repeated more specifically.
"Oh…" she put her finger to her chin and pondered, "well if we break down language into a set series of codes, simply symbols that are translated into sounds or meanings, then really language is pretty simple if you have the code itself. The potion finds where this code is in your head and I put my understanding in the potion, so my understanding of our language, my code, replaced your language code…. Does that make sense?"
Emile deadpan stared at the woman.
"Right—sure—no that clears it up perfectly." Emile responded sarcastically.
It didn't matter anyway, he could speak and understand the language now. Read it too. And from what it sounds like he knew every word the scientist knew, so he must be pretty smart.
"You're gonna give one to my sister too right?" Emile asked.
"Yeah! I've actually been working on this since you were registered and you happened to show up at the perfect time!" She smiled sincerely, "Oh! By the way I'm Jasmine, but people usually call me Jazz."
Emile thanked Jazz and left the laboratory feeling much better than he had felt before. Emile hustled back down the seemingly infinite hallways and returned to the cafeteria only to find it deserted.
He had been told prior that after lunch they were supposed to report to the hall they were greeted in earlier today. And now that Emile could read the signs, he quickly made his way to the rest of his peers.
"This is a Screecher…'' one of the instructors pointed to a projector on the wall as Emile stepped in. He looked around for his sister but couldn't find her. Presumably she was taken away to drink the same potion. Emile quickly sat in the back of the room and listened attentively.
Hours later and the first day of training ended. Emma had returned to class and began talking to every person she could catch. The two of them walked back to their apartment and got ready for the next day.
The next day passed and then weeks passed. Starting the second week Emile was made to stay late into the night, an additional six hours compared to everyone else. And the extra six hours were solely focused on physical training.
Once a week they had combat against various creatures, every day they had hand to hand training, general weapons arts, specialized weapons arts, gift training, and general information which included knowledge about other kingdoms and the creatures they've encountered.
The Fallen Sky Kingdom existed beneath the white dunes. To the north The Hollow Mountains separated the desert from the forest. Within the Hollow Mountains stood the Black Gates. A kingdom famous for being fearless savages who feast on the meat of their slain opponents, humans included.
To the east, following the shore of the ocean, existed the Ice Caps. Deep beneath the ice a cavern existed that was home to the Rising Tide kingdom. Its people were known for strict laws that restricted travel and preserved their own cultural practices.
These two kingdoms, the Black Gates and the Rising Tide, were the only other kingdoms Fallen Sky had encountered in the last few centuries. Beyond them, other surviving kingdoms could exist, but they simply hadn't found them yet.
It was nearing the end of the first month of training and at the end of every month an overall examination took place. At the end of the first month, the examination was another team combat. This skirmish would be limited to hand to hand combat and gifts, just like the first one. It would be a direct comparison to the battle they had on their first day.
The artificial lights in the lake below dimmed and illuminated once again and the dawn of the examination appeared.
Emile, Emma, Brie, Violet, and Roman were huddled together discussing what their strategy was going to be. Although weapons were prohibited, participants were allowed to bring tools or materials that worked with their gifts. For example, Roman carried a backpack filled with herbs and mushrooms so he could create various poisons to fill his makeshift bombs.
Similarly, Emile filled his pockets with different seeds he had been experimenting with in the laboratory with Jazz. During his gift training, he had discovered that he was able to almost instantaneously grow small plants. He had tried other living things with cells like trees, poisonous plants, and other things, but his soul core was immediately drained after every attempt leaving him exhausted and vulnerable. He didn't have enough soul essence to stimulate those cells to maturity.
The first group to go was one of the four person groups, one of the losing teams from a month ago. This group had a single offensive member, Warren, a boy with long black hair and a mustache. From what Emile had seen, it appeared as though he could cut words into living beings' bodies after consuming some of their body; blood, hair, skin, it all worked to activate his gift. And once activated he would draw words in the air with his finger and they would simultaneously be etched into the victim's body.
The gates were pulled open and Warren was the only vanguard for his team. He stayed where he was and waited for the Arachnid to leave its dark hall. After witnessing Brie's unfortunate performance that last time, not a single other person ran to the Arachnid before it appeared.
Half a minute went by and the Arachnid slowly moved into the light. The moment it passed the gates and fully entered the combat room, Warren took off. He sprinted towards the Arachnid, but the Arachnid was ready. It launched a web at the ground in front of it, making it so Warren had to spend time and run around the webbed floor. The Arachnid continued to shoot webs at the boy, barely missing him and splattering on the walls.
Warren weaved between the webs and made it to the edge of the webbed floor and instead of going around Warren pushed off the ground and exploded into the air. A web directly hit his chest and his momentum was slowed, one of his feet landed in the Arachnids trap.
Warren bent over onto the ground and shot his arm out towards the Arachnids legs. Warren violently dug into its leg and ripped out a clump of hair and some blood. The Arachnid grabbed Warren's back and slammed him into the ground. Warren's head ricocheted off the floor and wobbled in the air as the Arachnid pulled him up and repeatedly crushed Warren into the stone floor.
During this time, Warren was finally able to rub some of its blood on his lips and as he was fading from consciousness he flailed his arms in the air. Immediately, deep gnashes began to cover the monster's body. The word "so" was ripping through skin over and over. The Arachnid dropped Warren and retreated back to the wall. It had no idea what was happening, who was attacking it. The creature started attacking the air around it while a rich, green substance began to puddle on the floor beneath it.
The Arachnids attacks started slowing down until it eventually dropped into the puddle it had created. Warren's hands stopped moving and he laid there, motionless on the stone floor. The door opened and medical staff rushed in to take away Warren.
Meanwhile, Emile was watching Colonel Leo take notes of the group's performance. The sections for the other three members were empty while Warrens was overstuffed with comments.
"Alright, Emile's team, you're up!" The Colonel yelled.