Reina brought the company to a majestic white building with a glimmering golden dome. The building had scores of healers buzzing about around it. The main entrance had a grand door, which was left unguarded, above which, in big, bold letters, it read: "Council of Elder Healers". The three hitched their horses and headed inside.
The building poured visitors into a gigantic, circular lobby. There were pillars standing tall at regular intervals, supporting the upper floors. There was no roof for 3 stories, and for each of these 3 stories, a balcony went around the perimeter of the lobby. In the center of the lobby, there was a very large sphere, the size of two horses standing head to tail. This sphere was yellow in color and cast light, and though it cast enough light to light up the lobby, it wasn't painful to look at directly. Every wall within the building so far was white, which made it feel even more spacious.
In the center of the lobby, directly underneath the large sphere, there was a large round table. On one side of the table, visitors gathered to acquire information, and on the other side, the building's staff members aided the visitors. The staff members were wearing white robes with a veil and a scarf embroidered with a red full moon overlapping two thirds of a brilliant golden sun, which is the outfit of a Walindian healer.
Reina made her way to the table and handed the staff a letter. The staff member read it, left her post, and gestured Reina to follow her. Shinsusa and Raz joined Reina on Shinsusa's mark.
They made their way through the building, climbing stairs as soon as they got near them. Eventually, they went up to the last floor available to the public. The stairs going to the next floor were gated and a man wearing chainmail with a long sword at his hip stood guard.
The staff member spoke to him, "These are guests of our esteemed Grand Daktor, please let them through."
The guard gave the staff woman a nod and opened the gate, granting them access to the next floor.
The staff member then turned to Reina, "The Grand Daktor is the only one on the floor above. You can go on through."
Raz translated and the three moved on further with the exception of Shinsusa who was stopped on account of her being armed. This made her clearly sad, and Reina took notice.
"We'll be back soon," Reina reassured Shinsusa, hugging her.
"I know… I just like to accompany you. Make sure you're safe."
"Awwww, I'll be safe sweetie~" Reina gave Shinsusa a peck on the cheek which made both the guard and the staff member audibly groan a bit.
Hearing the two groan confused Raz for he saw nothing wrong with what Reina did. Was it due to the homosexual nature of the act? If so, then Raz simply had no appreciation for their discontent. Raz had read about the hate that exists for homosexuality when he was studying theology, and even then, Raz had the same question: "How is homosexuality any different from heterosexuality?"
One argument that Raz had considered was the ability to reproduce but Raz dismissed it as invalid because there existed heterosexual marriages where either by choice or by fate the couple didn't reproduce. However, these couples were not shunned and ostracized by the people nor the priests. Raz argued how is a heterosexual marriage which doesn't reproduce any different from a homosexual one?
Though Raz wanted to protest, Reina had already begun moving up the stairs, thus, Raz followed her. The stairs opened up into a grand room with the footprint equaling that of the entire building. The room's roof was the dome of the building with the center of the dome being stained glass. The room was dimly lit with the one circular wall, carpet, and the stained glass all being rose-y. Thus, the entire room glowed red, making Raz feel as though he were inside of an animal organ. There were couches and sofas lining the circular wall of the room. There was a table where the light from the stained windows focused. On one side of the table sat a man in what appeared to be the most cushioned chair in the world. The back of the chair extended slightly above the man's short, side-swiped blonde hair, and the sides of the chair extended a few inches beyond the man's broad shoulders.
The man himself was clean-shaven and had beautiful green eyes which reminded Raz of some paintings of seas that he had seen. The man stopped writing with his pheasant-feathered quill as soon as he noticed the two enter and stood to great them.
"Welcome," he said, oozing grace, "Reina, I assume?"
Now that the man was standing, Raz noticed that his host was tall. He was at least six feet, Raz guessed that he was most likely six feet and four inches tall. Reina looked at Raz expectantly, and he translated.
"Tell him that we are glad to be here and ever so grateful for his hospitality. Oh, and also tell him that I am Reina, and you are Razmuth."
Raz translated once more.
"Great! Though, I had expected another fellow of yours to come. Shinsusa, I believe her name was, were they too busy?"
"No," answered Raz, without translating for Reina, "she was barred entry into this floor by the guard downstairs on account of the weapons on her person."
"Ah, I see. Though I loath it, I understand why that rule exists. Honestly, I would have come to visit you beyond the walls of this glorified chicken coup, however, I'm afraid, I have much critical and urgent business to attend to here. Oh, where are my manners? I completely forgot to introduce myself!" The man chuckled gracefully. "I am Seith, son of Phraea."
Raz translated everything after honestly for Reina, during which Seith went around the table to come and greet his guests. As soon as Raz was done explaining, the guests and the host shook hands.
"Well, Razmuth, I have much to talk to you about but first, I have something that I would like you to hold for a moment."
Seith went and grabbed an egg-shaped gold paperweight about two inches tall that was flat at the bottom and handed it to Raz. As soon as Raz held the item, he felt it to be extremely cold. So cold, in fact, that it felt as though Raz's hand was being stabbed by a thousand little knives. Raz also felt the warmth of his body being sapped into the object. Raz immediately dropped the item, shook his hands, and let out a light expression of pain, this put an expression of curiosity on Seith's face.
"What's the matter?"
"It's too cold. It's so cold that it felt like I was being stabbed by a million knives and that it was sucking the heat out of me."
Seith's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped just a little bit, but he quickly composed himself. He picked the object back up and handed it over to Raz once more.
"But… It's too cold for me to hold. How are you holding it?"
"Take a leap of faith, hold it."
Raz took the object once again, this time it was slightly warm to the touch. In fact, Raz enjoyed the heat of the object. His pleasure was short lived however as the heat from the object quickly entered his body and dispersed among his cells.
"It was… warm, pleasantly warm. However, it was only that way for a short time, its warmth got sucked into me and dispersed within."
Seith's head tilted backwards. "Fascinating," he remarked.
"What's fascinating?"
"Well, Razmuth, what you felt wasn't heat. It was magic. It's what you may know as Visiri. If in large enough quantity, or lack thereof, it can be felt by any person, regardless of their magical affinity or ability. When you first held the paperweight, I had removed all traces of Visiri from it. What you felt then was the absence of magic itself, and the reason why heat left you was that magic was trying to enter the paperweight so that it would be in equilibrium with the rest of the universe. However, the second time, I had infused it with a great amount of Visiri for an inanimate object of its size. Thus, what you felt then was the abundance of magic. Since you didn't feel any pain, rather it felt pleasant and your body absorbed it, it shows that your body is capable of housing lots more Visiri than what is currently within it. What this means is that if you're able to learn how to control accepting and dispensing Visiri, you can use your body to its maximum potential."
Seith stopped and saw Raz's shock. Up until now, he had heard from many that he was gifted and special, but having someone putting that into a practical display was surreal. Raz felt a warm feeling balloon in his heart as his body got wriggly and a smile forced its way onto his face; he was excited.
"You may want to translate that for your teacher. Also tell her that you are indeed what she suspects of you being, or at least, have the potential to be."
'What she suspects me to be?' Raz wondered what that could be. Nevertheless, he translated what Seith had said, while he felt the gears of his mind grind against one another trying to figure out what is expected of him by Reina. Then, it clicked. If magic is dictated by the control of Visiri, could it be that arcanes simply control Visiri to cast magic, and since Raz can feel the flow of that magic, does it make Raz a fledgling arcane as well? And since Seith put Visiri in and out of the paperweight, is Seith an arcane too? These thoughts were enough to make Raz pause in the middle of his translation.
Reina leaned to look at Raz's face, which was a face of shock and awe. Raz's warm feelings had now spread to his brain as well and he could feel his own blood pumping through his body. He could feel the heat emanating off his body. He could feel the sharpness of the cold air surrounding him. It was as if he had just reached enlightenment.
"What's the matter, Raz?"
"Oh," Raz shook his head, "I just had a thought. Anyway, as I was saying…" Raz continued to translate what was yet to be translated.
At the end, Reina smiled and widely. She asked Raz to thank Seith on her behalf and to excuse them for their departure. Seith wished them well on their journey and the three made their way back down the stairs.
At the foot of the stairs, Shinsusa was waiting for them. As soon as Reina saw her, she spoke to her in a very happy tone.
"Shin! I was right!"
Shinsusa blushed a bit and smiled seeing Reina be so happy.
"I knew you would be. But we should probably not talk about that here. Let's head back, you can tell me all about it later."
Reina chuckled, "You're right, let's go. Come on, Razmuth, keep up!"
As the three were leaving, Raz left the guard mumble to himself behind them, "Hwat could the maste' wan' with a bunch o' round-faced chinks?"
Raz's excitement and joy was shoved aside by a red-hot anger that rose from deep within. Round-face was a slur for Ertistanis and chink was one for homosexuals. He had never been much of a fan of those words, but he'd mostly managed to keep his wits about him. However, with those words being directed towards his teachers whom he had grown quite fond of, just pushed him into a well of rage.
Raz turned around, and stared daggers deep into the guard's eyes. His teachers noticed this.
"What's wrong?" Shinsusa inquired, with a concerned yet curious voice.
"He should die."
"Why? What did he do?" Shinsusa was very confused.
Razmuth concentrated on the guard's neck. He thought about wind tightening itself around his neck, strangling him. He imagined that wind would concentrate into a circle around the guard's neck, the radius of which would get just smaller than the width of the neck.
And suddenly, the guard started clenching at his throat. He fell to his knees, scratching his neck and gasping for air. The blood vessels in his face began to balloon and his eyes got bloodshot.
Realizing what had happened, Reina rushed to Raz.
"Razmuth! Stop thinking about strangling him! Stop it! Think about something else, maybe think about getting back to Lord Lanna's estate, anything! Just stop thinking about strangling him!"
It worked, Raz concentrated on what it was like back home. How his parents would be feeling. He saw his mother's kind face as she saw him eat, his father's proud expression as Raz closed a deal with a client, their love for their family. The red-hot anger within Raz was replaced by a sea of calm and soothing love. And the man stopped clenching at his neck, fell to the ground and started panting.
"We need to leave. Now. Before he recovers," Reina instructed and the three left.