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Thread: Panax-- an original story

  1. #1
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    Smile Panax-- an original story

    Hello! I'm Antimage.

    So, I'm a college student at CSUN in California. I read a lot, a lot, of XianXia and western fantasy. So I started writing as a creative outlet and before I knew it, I had a decent-sized story. You know how when you play a lot of video games, you think to yourself "I could make the perfect game (for me). It'll be totally badass." That's what this light novel is, pretty much the perfect light novel (for me).

    I haven't finished the story yet, but I plan to write a lot of it. The only reason I might turn this story into a XianXia light novel is because I don't want to stop writing. I personally love to read a lot, so each chapter is at least 5,000 words long or near it (I generally just write for several hours and then cut up the story into chapters, so plus-or-minus 500 words).

    Some chapters take longer than others because because I'm trying to weave a coherent story without being contradictory and trying to create an immersive world. Other chapters are faster, especially if they're battle scenes or if i already know how to finish an arc or mini-arc.

    Here's the description:

    In a world where humans who have the ability to sense and control elemental essences, comes a story about a boy in a remote kingdom that will grow up to shake the world. Born with an innate understanding with glyphs and a strong affinity towards the elements, he must overcome his enemies as they try to harness his power, or kill him if they fail.

    Genres:

    Action, Adventure, Fantasy, and a lot of elements from XianXia (a lot), and War

  2. #2
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    Default Chapter 1

    click to show/hide spoilers


    Chapter 1

    In a nursery room, there sits a small child playing with his
    hands and fingers, despite all the toys that litter the room. He mumbles
    incoherent words to himself while his caretaker—a plain middle-aged woman with
    a stern expression is silently reading a book in the corner, occasionally
    sipping her tea. Although the child is seemingly playing with his hands and
    fingers, he is actually moving small amounts of elemental Earth Essence around
    his palms, making them dance.

    At the tender age of 2, the small boy sits comfortably by himself every afternoon and plays with the
    small orange lights, making them dance around his hand and then around his body.
    As he moves the elemental Earth Essence further away from his body, he finds
    out that the bright orange lights don’t respond to his thoughts as quickly.
    When the small child realizes that if he puts forth all of his attention to
    these bright orange lights he can move them further and further away from his
    body, eventually having them dance around the whole room. It was at this time
    that a young woman in her mid-30s came through the door.

    The caretaker immediately sets her book down and stands and
    with a slight bow of her head she says, “Good afternoon, my lady”.

    With a look of concern on her face while she’s staring
    blankly at her son; and the lady of the house responds, “How come Panax never
    plays with his toys, I have never once seen him touch anything we’ve bought
    him?”

    “I don’t know my lady, he sits there all day just twiddling
    his fingers, it must be that he has a very strong imagination that he doesn’t
    even need the toys in this room,” the caretaker replies.

    With a slight sigh the lady of the house says, “Alright,
    thank you Agatha for your help. Go attend to your other duties, I’ll stay in
    here and play with Panax today.”

    Agatha doesn’t show her surprise and just responds with a
    “Yes my lady,” and leaves the room. In the two years that Panax has been born,
    the times that his mother would play with him could be counted on one hand.

    While Panax is mumbling to himself, his mother—Gwen, gently
    picks him up and tickles his nose and squeezes his cheeks. Although she does
    not play with her son very often, it is not because she lacks the desire to do
    so, but rather she has no time to spare. Because her husband is the Chief Strategist
    to the king, her job as his wife is to ensure that the internal political
    struggle is kept in check. Despite the constant need for her to ensure the
    different factions under the kind don’t kill each other, she still manages to
    sneak a peek at her son when he’s asleep—which has become one of her most
    treasured routines.

    Because she’s a water mage with a degree of talent, she can
    use her [Seer] ability to uncover deceit and deception, and with her help a
    king has never had more loyal subjects. Because the [Seer] ability is not
    all-powerful there are still ways to avoid detection, and it is those people
    that Gwen must expend her efforts to find.

    While her mind was filled with the day’s work—rumors of an
    unknown faction looking to overthrow the kind, she lets out a sigh and decides
    to not worry about such things when she’s with her son.

    As the days pass, Gwen’s visit became more and more scarce and
    on a particularly ordinary day Agatha thinks to herself, (Young master does
    seem quite unusual, I wonder why he’s so fascinated with this hands and
    fingers. It’s like he’s so focused on something. Hmm, I wonder . . .)

    Ever since Panax’s birth, he’s been able to see the motes of
    earthen elemental essence that permeate throughout the whole world. To better
    understand the extreme peculiarity of Panax’s circumstance one must understand
    that the difference between two powerful magi is their sensitivity to the
    elemental essences and their control over the essences. Powerful magi must
    train for years to increase their sensitivity to the essences and their control,
    it is equivalent to a swordsman training with a blindfold to better attune to
    their hearing and touch. The more sensitive a magus is to the elements or more
    attuned, the easier it is to control and manipulate large amounts of it.

    With but a thought, Agatha puts down her usual book and sits
    in front of Panax and observes him. She does notice that he is not idly
    twiddling his fingers but is actually focused on something--- something she
    cannot see or sense.

    “Young master, what are you doing,” Agatha inquires.

    “Playing,” Panax replies.

    “What are you playing with, would you like to play with big
    sister Agatha?”

    “Okay,” Panax says while he grabs Agatha’s hand and turns
    them palm-side up and starts to giggle.

    Agatha looks at Panax expectedly wondering what game he
    wants to play. After a while, when nothing happens, she asks, “Young master,
    what game do you want to play?”

    “Lights. Dance,” Panax replies. Since Agatha can’t see or
    sense the elemental essences, she can’t see the marvelous earthen amber
    essences that are dancing and twirling around on her palm.

    “Young master, I don’t see any lights, can you concentrate a
    bit more and make the lights come together, so I can see them?” Agatha says.
    Agatha thinks to herself, (If these mysterious lights are elemental essences
    and he can see them ...)

    Hearing her words and without replying, Panax starts to
    gather more and more amber motes together and tries to solidify them
    instinctively. As he gathers more and more elemental essence on top of Agatha’s
    hand, his body is getting more tired and weak, but there is something that
    drives him to keep going—this natural feeling of coaxing these amber motes to
    his will. And right before he’s able to pull the elemental essences into the
    material plane and solidify them he suddenly coughs up a mouthful of blood and
    faints.

    With a shriek, Agatha calls for help.

    Two years later.

    “And the lord on bended-knee requests the farmer Liang to
    become his Chief Strategist and is refused. Only after the third visit does the
    lord succeed and so begins his journey. . . “Gwen stops reading and silently
    sobs.

    A soft knock is heard at the door, “Darling, you can’t keep
    doing this to yourself. Panax is young and strong, he’ll recover quickly,”
    Garrote—the lord of the manor, her husband, says.

    “It has been two years! And still he has yet to wake.”

    “Everything that can be done for Panax has been done. All we
    can do now is wait for him to come back,” Garrote consoles. “Kyle and Lisa need
    their mother as well, these past two years has been tough on them too.”

    With the names of her two other children, Gwen realizes that
    what Garrote says is true, she has been neglecting them these past two years.
    With a sigh Gwen says, “I can’t stand to be away from him, not knowing if he’ll
    ever wake up. You know, Agatha says that that day when Panax fainted, she was
    certain that he was able to see elemental essences. I don’t know, maybe, if I
    spent more time with him he wouldn’t have. . .” With red-puffy eyes, Gwen
    closes the bedtime book leaves the room with her husband.

    A few weeks later, it was finally Kyle’s 8th
    birthday.

    “Hey little bro, I hope you’re having good dreams. You know
    I just had my First Rite today. It’s pretty exciting, we had all these random
    people over which kinda sucked, but man, there was so much good food. Anyways,
    the priest said that I have a pretty high water affinity, just like mom. I
    wonder what Lisa’s and yours will be,” Kyle says.

    “Brother,” Panax slowly replies.

    . . .

    . . . . . .

    . . . . . . . . .

    “Ahh! Panax can you hear me?” Kyle shouts.

    “Too loud.”

    As Kyle jumps up off his chair and runs out of the room,
    Panax can hear the faint screams of his brother, “MOM!! Panax is awake! He’s
    awake!! MOM!”

    “Alright, that ends today’s lesson. Go get something to eat
    and rest before your next lesson,” Professor Damon said.

    It has been a year since Panax woke from his coma and is 5
    years-old. Like every other 5 year-old child in the kingdom, his formal
    education in language and arithmetic started along with subjects fit for his
    station; he’s learning etiquette, economics, science, history, and anything
    else he shows a strong interest in. Although Panax had a cheerful and carefree
    demeanor since waking from his coma, deep down he was quite the opposite. Ever
    since he woke up, he hasn’t been able to sense the elemental essences that have
    comforted him—like missing a limb that he didn’t know he had. He didn’t know
    what the cause of this emptiness was, but he knows that there’s something
    wrong, something missing, but he doesn’t know what it is.

    While he ponders his emptiness for the millionth time, he
    heads to the kitchen to fetch a snack. To his surprise, his mother and father
    seated at the dining table with plates of fruits and cheeses. With a smile Gwen
    says, “All done with your morning lessons, Panax? I imagine you could use a
    snack, come sit with your father and me.”

    Ever since his coma, without Panax realizing it, his mother
    and father has been sneaking off from their duties any time they can to spend
    as much time with him as possible—and it is quite rare for both of them to be
    able to spend time with Panax at the same time.

    In the presence of others, Panax puts on his cheerful smile
    and approaches the table and immediately starts to eat. Without lifting up his
    head from the bowl of fruit, Panax says, “Mom, dad, where are Lisa and Kyle?”
    Although he asks where both of his siblings are, he already knows that Lisa is
    finishing up her morning lessons as well, but his brother on the other
    hand—after his Rite of Exploration, is always out-and-about.

    During the Rite of Exploration, which is initiated on the 8th
    birthday of every child in the kingdom, the child will learn if they have an
    affinity to be a magus. If they do have an affinity, then the next four years
    will be a time to find a suitable interest for the child to specialize towards
    with respect to their affinity. If the child does not have an affinity to be a
    magus, then they would still spend the next four years to learn all the various
    crafts in the world to specialize in, such as: blacksmithing, carpentry,
    tinkers, farmers, herbalists, doctors, coopers, fletcher, soldier, ranchers, sailors,
    and many others.

    It is because of this three-rite custom that the Kandarian
    Kingdom has been the cornerstone of industry. While other kingdoms have adopted
    the same three-rite system, none of them have the infrastructure to ensure
    every child goes through the Rites. At best, the other countries could only
    test one out of every ten children that are born; while other countries only
    test nobility.

    “Hmm, well your sister should be joining us soon. As for
    your brother, I believe Sergeant Dullahan has taken Kyle fishing, to learn the
    ways of the Sea Wardens.” Garrote replies.

    “What does a Sea Warden do?” Panax asks

    “Hmm, a Sea Warden ensures the balance of the oceans and
    seas. They make sure all the shipping lanes are safe from storms, they also
    help ensure that we don’t overfish, and they also meticulously study and
    uncover any secrets we can learn from oceans and seas.” Gwen resolutely
    responds. “Did you know, Panax, that your grandfather—my father, is one of the
    most prodigious Sea Warden in our kingdom? With his work, we are able to access
    a steady stream of fish to feed our people, and have access to safe trade-lanes
    to ensure a bustling marketplace.”

    Since his brother Kyle has an affinity as a water magus,
    after his Rite of Exploration he’s been learning all the various ways to put
    his innate talent to use, and this week Sergeant Dullahan is teaching him what
    it means to be a Sea Warden. Panax, while hearing of the marvelous things Sea
    Wardens can do, starts to brim with jealousy—unable to contain his desire to
    grow up and go through his own Rite of Exploration. “Mom, what happens during
    the First Rite if you don’t have an affinity to be a magus?”

    “Oh, well I didn’t know you thought of such things. You
    shouldn’t be concerned with it, it is quite rare for any children born of two
    magus not to inherent some type of affinity,” reassured Gwen. “Although there
    are many people in the world and even in our kingdom that don’t have an
    affinity, and after their First Rite, most choose a craft to find to apprentice
    under. If you don’t have an affinity then you’ll just have to find something
    that drives you and pursue it to the best of your abilities.”

    “Why do you ask, son,” Garrote inquires, “are you afraid
    that you won’t be a magus?”

    “Well, no particular reason. In my science lesson this
    morning, Professor Damon said that long ago everyone was born with an affinity
    for an element. But then when I asked why it has become more common for people to
    be born without one, he said ‘It became disadvantageous to have an affinity, so
    then the people without an affinity prospered’ I don’t understand what he meant
    though.”

    With a smile, Garrote replies, “Ah, that is actually a very
    simple concept son. And I can probably sum it up in one word: Bloodlines.”

    “Bloodlines? What do you mean father?”

    Without waiting for her father to reply, Lisa strides into
    the room and sits down and explains, “The ability to sense elemental essences
    is passed on through our bloodlines. From everyone being able to sense the
    elements to our current state is due to a shift, little brother. Being a magus
    is hereditary—it means that traits and features will be passed on from parent
    to child. The reason that Professor Damon said what he said is because he
    didn’t want to teach you history.”

    Smiling at her daughter’s sharp mind, Gwen continues
    “thousands of years ago, when everyone was able to sense and manipulate
    elemental essences, there was a plague. But this plague was special; it seemed
    to only kill those with an affinity. And after it scoured the land, there were
    only two types of people left in the world: those without an affinity and magi
    with immunity to the plague. Since then, the bloodlines of magic have been
    slowly building back to its former glory.”

    “How long has it been since the plague? Shouldn’t the whole
    population have an affinity at some point?” Panax asks.

    “Well, let’s leave that lesson for Professor Hoff-Stand,”
    Gwen replied, “your professors tell your father and me that you’ve been doing
    quite well in your studies, even surpassing your sister when she was your age.
    Even if you don’t have an affinity to be a magus, Panax, if you remain diligent
    in your studies, there are a great many things that you can still pursue.”

    Although Garrote and Gwen seemed supportive of Panax not
    being a magus, in truth it is because the thought of him not having an affinity
    never crossed their minds. At the age the age of 40 and 35, Garrote and Gwen
    respectively are ten ranks higher than their peers as a magus. For these two
    talented individuals to produce a child with no affinity was virtually
    impossible.

    As Panax’s mind starts to wonder—as it usually does, as to
    why he feels so empty, Gwen says, “So, Panax are you excited about your
    playdate this afternoon?”

    “I don’t see why I have to pretend to like the third-prince,
    when he comes over we always do things he wants to do, it’s stupid,” Panax
    retorts.

    “Son, as a host, you must always accommodate your guests,”
    Garrote states.

    With a sigh, Panax says, “I know, it’s just that when I go
    to the palace and I’m the guest, we still do what he wants to do.”

    “You know Panax, if you haven’t figured it out already, you
    and the third-prince are bound by fate,” Lisa states.

    “Bound by fate, what do you mean Lisa?”

    With a sharp glare from her parents, Garrote and Gwen
    resigned with a sigh and explained, “We didn’t want your relationship
    influenced with the fact that you and the third-prince are cousins,” Garrote
    says. “We are a branch of the imperial family; I’m the youngest of the king’s
    brothers. It is customary for the branch family members to have the same amount
    of children at the same age as the King’s heirs so that when the prince or
    princesses grow up, they have strong supporters and protectors. One day, your
    mother and I hoped that a real friendship and bond will form between you and
    the third-prince—not one of servitude.”

    Although Panax was shocked to find out that he shared the
    same blood as the royal family, a rush of questions starts to flood his mind,
    “How many brothers does the King have, father?”

    With a slight smile, Garrote knows where this conversation
    is going so he patiently answers his son, “I am the 5th and youngest
    brother to the king.”

    “Do all the king’s brothers have three children as well?”

    “Yes, you are the youngest child of the youngest brother of
    the king.”

    “Why haven’t I seen my other three cousins?”

    “Whenever possible, we try to not have all the members of a
    generation meet together, in case an opportunist-assassin gets lucky. At least
    until you all are strong enough to fend for yourselves.”

    “Does that mean big brother Kyle is bound to the crown
    prince?”

    “Yes, as your sister is bound to the princess.”

    “Wait, assassin? What is an assassin?”

    With a stern glare from his wife, Garrote continues, “An
    assassin is an agent of death, dispatched by a person or an organization to
    kill people.”

    Startled, Panax cries, “there are people who want to kill
    me?”

    With a resignation Garrote says, “Son, the imperial
    family—which includes us, is the backbone of the kingdom. We are the people in
    charge ensuring peace and prosperity runs throughout the kingdom. We must make
    sure that the lives of our people are envied by all other countries. Because we
    are the backbone of the kingdom, there will be those who will seek to eliminate
    us to destabilize our country and with that invade our lands.”

    In a daze, Panax slowly picks up a piece of fruit and lies
    down on the nearby sofa.

    With a sad look at seeing a piece of her son’s innocence lost,
    Gwen says, “Alright, enough of this gloomy talk. Lisa are you excited about
    your First Rite? It’s only a couple of months away.”

    “YES! Are you and father going to attend?”

    “Of course honey, the First Rite is too big of a deal to
    miss. What kinds of food do you want?”

    As Gwen and Lisa are talking about her First Rite, Garrote
    gets up and walks over to his dazed son, “You know son, I’m sorry for brining
    you in to a world where your life is constantly at risk.”

    After a while, Panax realizes that someone is talking to him
    and comes out of his stupor, “Huh?”

    Looking at his son’s eyes coming into focus, Garrote
    repeats, “I’m sorry son, for bringing you into the world where your life is constantly
    in danger.”

    “Oh, I understand father. From what Professor Hoff-Stand
    says, there are many people in the world that live in constant danger,
    primarily from starvation and bandits. So if I had to live a life of danger, I
    much rather be in the imperial family.”

    Surprised by his son’s outlook, Garrote asks, “Why do you look
    so distracted?”

    Without thinking about it any further, Panax just blurts
    out, “I feel empty father. Sergeant Dullahan says that some of the soldiers in
    the garrison, when they have their limbs cut off, they feel as if they can
    still move and sense their missing limbs. I feel that way, as if something is
    missing, I feel blind even though I can see. I feel like I can’t speak even
    though I can talk. Something is wrong father, and I don’t know what it is.”

    Shocked and startled, Garrote immediately feels a dreadful
    pit growing in his stomach. The description his son just gave him about feeling
    missing limbs is exactly the same symptoms of magi who have lost their affinity
    to the elements from [Rebound]. “How long have you felt this way son?”

    “Ever since you all told me I woke up from a coma.”

    “Do you remember your old caretaker?”

    “Yea, Pauline.”

    “Ah, no. Your first caretaker was Agatha. We had her
    executed because she induced your coma. From her words, she believed that you
    had the ability to sense elemental essences when you were 2 years-old—which is
    unheard of, and since we didn’t believe you were an innate magus we had her
    beheaded.”

    Shocked for the second time today, Panax asks, “Why are you
    telling me this?”

    “From what you’re telling me son, you suffered a [Rebound].
    A lot of magi who suffer from a [Rebound] sometimes lose their ability to sense
    elemental essences, and they describe the loss of their affinity to be like a
    phantom limb.”

    “Then, Agatha was right? I had the ability to sense
    elemental essences?”

    “It seems that way, if what you’re feeling is in fact due to
    a [Rebound]. However, son, Agatha’s execution should not weigh on your
    conscience. She was negligent, she encouraged you to manifest the essences at
    too young of an age. It would have been inevitable for you to suffer a
    [Rebound] and that negligence put you in danger.”

    Slightly nodding to his father’s explanation, Panax asks,
    “Am I forever to feel this way? Can I not recover my affinity?”

    “I don’t know son, children usually gain the ability to sense
    the elements during their First Rite, but you were able to do so before the
    baptism—which hasn’t happened since the dawn of our kingdom.”

    “Wait, how did people gain the ability to sense essences
    before the founding of our kingdom?”

    “Hmm, the first magus was someone like you, with innate
    sensitivity—able to see the elements without the help of the ceremonial
    baptism. There have been others throughout history that had an innate affinity,
    but it’s so rare that it might as well be impossible.”

    “Wait, so all I have to do is have the First Rite performed
    on me to gain back my affinity? Can we do it earlier?”

    “Well, this is uncharted waters son; theoretically the First
    Rite might awaken your affinity again; also, there is a reason that the baptism
    is performed on children at least 8 years-old—it is because their internal
    energy lanes and gates are strong enough to withstand the baptism.”

    With a long sigh, Panax’s urge to grow-up surges to new
    peaks—with the thoughts of regaining his lost affinity. He also feels like his
    burden lessened, now that he knows the source of his emptiness. With an
    end-date of 3 more years until his emptiness is relieved, he starts to actually
    cheer up and gets up to hug his father, “Alright, I feel better. I’m going to
    get ready for my afternoon lessons.”

    Later that afternoon.

    “Professor Hoff-Stand, why does our kingdom have five
    duchies?”

    “Ah, good question Panax. Since the first king—King Kandar
    the Founder, had 5 younger siblings with whom he assigned each to rule over a
    duchy. Since then it has been precedence for the royal family to produce at
    least six heirs so that five of them will be charged to rule over the duchies.
    That lasted until about four hundred years ago, when Kandar XVIII had only two
    children and refused to remarry after his wife passed and he decreed that
    future kings don’t need to have any set minimum number of children.”

    “So does that mean that the younger siblings of the kings
    are entitled to rule over duchies?”

    “You’re asking all the right questions today Panax, although
    the duchies have been historically been given to the other princes, it was only
    during our current King Kandar XXII that he granted the nobility of duke
    outside the royal family. Before our King Kandar XXII’s reign, multiple duchies
    have been ruled by a single duke if there weren’t enough princes or princesses.”

    “Why do we have five duchies, why not just consolidate all
    the duchies under the direct rule of the king?”

    “Specialties! Specialties my boy, specialties. The kingdom
    of Kandar is at the most western side of the continent, and our duchy—the Ashe
    Duchy, was established solely to produce food for the entire kingdom through
    our fishing industry. While two other
    duchies were established to repel our neighbors to the north and south while
    sharing borders to repel our eastern enemies, the last two duchies were
    established to mine minerals and breed livestock. The central plains of the
    kingdom are perfect for raising our cattle, goats, sheep, and most importantly
    our war-horses. Slightly south-east of the central plains resides our mines
    that extract iron and coals. It is because of these rich natural resources that
    our kingdom—although the smallest on the continent, is able to stand toe-to-toe
    with Talver and Santar’dun.”

    “How do the ores in the mines not exhaust? We must have been
    mining them for… forever”

    “Ah, that is the realm of the Stone Wardens, they’re able to
    replenish our mines—how they are able to do so, is outside of my scope.”

    With a knock at the door, a maid comes in to inform the
    teacher that Panax’s playdate has arrived and with a startled jump, Professor
    Damon says, “Oh my! It’s already this late. Time flies when you’re learning, eh
    Panax? Alright, you’re dismissed.”

    Knowing that his sense of emptiness isn’t just some figment
    of his imagination, Panax feels much more assured, not to mention that his
    emptiness may be cured by his 8th birthday. After his afternoon
    lessons, Panax waits in the foyer to receive the third-prince for his playdate.

    Soon the receiving maids escorts three elder-looking men
    followed by a small youth. Each of the men wore different colored robes. Panax
    recognized the colors and the symbols embedded onto the robes from his history
    lessons; they are all Elemental Wardens of at least the 80th rank.
    The escort of the third-prince had an Earth Warden, most likely to ensure the
    physical safety of the prince, a Water Warden to heal and support the prince if
    he fell from an attack, and a Fire Warden to ensure that the attacks were met
    with resistance.

    These three 80th rank wardens could be compared
    to a hundreds of elite knights on war-horses clad in the finest armors and
    weapons. They obviously wore their most distinguishing warden robes to deter
    any would-be assassin.

    “Greeting elder wardens, third-prince Dante,” Panax cordially
    says.

    “All right ladies, will you please lead our guests to the
    receiving room?” Thomas the head butler instructs.

    As Panax and the guests are seated and served tea and cakes,
    Panax asks the Earthen Warden, “Elder Collier, my tutor told me today that our
    Earth Wardens are responsible for replenishing our iron mines, can you explain
    how that is accomplished?”

    As with most adults, the elder wardens are quite shocked at
    Panax’s level of intelligence. Warden Collier replies, “Panax my boy, no need
    for formalities, you can just call me ‘Uncle Collier’. You are quite sharp for
    your age, anyone ever tell you that boy?”

    With a slight blush, Panax says, “Yes, my mother says that I
    get it from my father.”

    With a smile, Collier says, “Well, to your question, replenishing
    iron mines is no state-secret. Every Stone Warden—not Earth Warden mind you, in
    every other kingdom can do it. Stone Wardens convert the common compounds of
    the stone around the iron mine and merely copy its structure. The more iron
    they have around mundane stone, the easier it is to copy the structure of iron
    and imprint it on the stones.”

    “Why doesn’t every kingdom just indefinitely replenish their
    iron mines?”

    “Can you recall the teachings of our Church, and why we even
    perform the three-rites?” Collier says as he seemingly changes topics.

    Panax recalling everything from his tutors, instantly
    responds a passage from the Scripts, “To preserve, to balance, and to harmonize
    is the will of God for all mankind. But what does the three-rites have to do
    with the Church?”

    “The three-rites are to ensure that we train and cultivate
    the next generation of magi. Why are magi so important?”

    “Because they personify the teachings of the Church.”

    “Correct Panax! Magi have the ability to preserve, to
    balance, and to harmonize with God. And do you know where God resides?”

    “In the air we breathe, the seas we fish, the soil we walk
    upon, the sun that shines, the rain that falls, God is everywhere.”

    “Correct again Panax. Because of that, we have very strict
    laws when it comes to extracting any natural resources. If an iron mine—when
    fully extracted, can produce one million tons of iron, then a 70th
    ranked Stone Warden would have the strength to only convert about 1 ton of iron
    a year. Now let me ask you, how long would it take for all the Stone Wardens in
    the world to produce one million tons of iron?”

    “The amount of people that are above the 70th
    rank is less than 20% of the magi population. It would take . . . I don’t know,
    but far too long.”

    “That’s right my boy, it’ll be more convenient to just fully
    harvest the mine—which could be done in 5 or 10 years. But after the mine is
    fully extracted, it will be impossible for any Stone Wardens to replenish the
    iron, and when that happens, the natural resources of that mine is forever
    lost.”

    While deep in thought about the pros and cons of
    replenishing mines or fully extracting them, Panax is started when the
    third-prince Dante shouts, “I’m bored! Let’s go outside to play Panax.”

    “Ah, yes. I’m sorry for neglecting you, my prince.” As the
    two boys walk out of the room, the elder wardens look at each other and
    chuckle. The fire warden, Toulen says, “If I were to close my eyes and just
    listen to you and Panax talk, I would have imagined him to be an adult.”

    Collier replies to Toulen with a nod of his head and says,
    “It is quite amazing how smart and perceptive he is, he doesn’t talk like a 5
    year-old boy. He really is just like his father when he was young, quite the
    genius.”

    “Oh, is that how you’ve thought of me, uncle?” said Garrote
    as he strode into the room. Usually only one of the wardens were enough to
    escort the third-prince from the palace, but Garrote has sent a message to
    summon the “Three Uncles”, as they were known, to a meeting.

    Although these Three Uncles were only 80th ranked
    wardens, their true strength was how they synergized with each other. Since
    they were kids, these three were inseparable. They traveled far and wide
    fighting and adventuring, and through those years, they have developed a deep
    understanding of each other. That understanding was put on display when they
    teamed up to fight—although only 80th ranked, when combined they
    could give anyone who has reached the 95th rank a good fight.

    With a slight cough at being caught praising this rascal,
    Collier says, “Well, let’s get on with it, what is it that you summoned us
    for?”

    As Garrote sat down he said, “As you know, my wife and I
    have been trying to build a unified force to support eldest brother. A few
    years ago, Gwen caught whiff of some news of some people trying to oppose the
    king and a couple of days ago we discovered proof of their identity.”

    Outside in the garden where the boys have decided to play,
    Dante and Panax stop and lie down. Staring at the sky and allowing the cool
    breeze to caress his face, Dante suddenly says, “I’m sorry Panax.”

    Slightly startled from his reverie, Panax realized that the
    third-prince actually said something and finally recalled that he just
    apologized, confused Panax asked, “What are you apologizing for?”

    “Today my father just told me that you and I are actually
    cousins. I just wanted to apologize to you for treating you like a servant.”

    “Oh, I see.” With a slight chuckle, Panax continues, “It’s
    funny, my father just told me that you were my cousin today too.”

    With a smile, Dante continues to lie there with his eyes
    closed.

    “What do you want to do today, Dante?” Panax asked. It felt
    a lot more comfortable to call him by his name without any of the titles. It
    seemed to Panax that before today, he never had this close familiar feeling
    with the prince.

    “Let’s just lie here for a bit longer. Lately, father
    wouldn’t let me out of the palace, so I don’t get to really enjoy the sun
    anymore.”

    While the two boys were enjoying the warm sun, the cool
    breeze, and the scent of earth a sudden rustling sound came from the bushes.
    The two boys sat up straight as an arrow. After they turned their heads to look
    at each other, a slight smile crept on both of their faces, and they focused
    their attention on a single bush. As if they telepathically knew what the other
    was saying, they both nodded and silently made their way to the edge of the
    garden where the rustling sound came from.

    With their tiny feet barely making any noise, the boys
    finally made it to the single bush that they thought the sound came from, and
    they silently waited. As the tension built and built, their bodies were firm
    and sturdy as if a panther was waiting to strike. Just as the boys were about
    to leap into the bush, a rabbit sprung from the bushes and charged in between
    the two; causing the two boys to end up their butts. They both immediately
    recovered and started chasing the rabbit around the garden.

    As the afternoon passed, Garrote and the three elder wardens
    came out to the garden to escort the third-prince back to the palace.

    Panax and Dante were both sweaty and covered in dirt when
    the wardens came. Heavily breathing and smiling, they shook hands and promised
    each other that they’ll catch the rabbit next time for sure.


  3. #3
    Junior Member
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    Sep 2015
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    Default Chapter 2

    click to show/hide spoilers
    Chapter 2

    Later that night, Panax and Lisa were enjoying their dinner together, like most other nights.

    While she observes Panax, Lisa says, “You know, mom was right. You do look genuinely happy today.”

    “What do you mean ‘genuinely happy’ I’m always happy.”

    “Oh please, do you think that crooked smile of yours is fooling anyone? We were all quite concerned that you had changed since your coma, but it seems that you’re finally back to your spunky self.”

    “When have I ever been ‘spunky’?” Panax replied. He was quite surprised that his ‘happy-face-mask’ that he wore around others was so easily seen through by his family.

    “When you were little, you were always so happy and cheerful. So what gives, why are you so happy today? Is it because you found out that we’re actually related to the royal family?”

    “I can’t deny that it wasn’t a nice surprise, but that’s not it. Dad and I were talking and he comforted me on something that has been bothering me for a while.”

    After a brief pause of silence Lisa says, “Well?! Are you going to tell me what has been concerning you?”

    With the realization that he doesn’t need to keep any secrets from his family members, Panax explains how he has been feeling and how the conversation with Garrote unfolded.

    After a long silence, Lisa stares dumbly at her younger brother in shock.

    “You have an innate affinity?!”

    “Huh? Yeah, I think so?”

    “You were able to sense elemental essence before the baptism?”

    “Well, if what caused my coma was really a [Rebound], then yeah.”

    “Do you know how many people in the history of mankind has had an innate affinity? Let me tell you naïve boy! Less than a hundred. In hundred-thousand year written history, there has been less than 100 people with an innate affinity.”

    “Wow that seems like a really small number.”

    “That’s not the shocking part. Everyone single one of those with an innate affinity has brought great changes to the world of magic. Do you know what the last innate magus discovered?”

    “Hmm, I believe Professor Hoff-Stand said that she discovered a way to liquefy elemental essence and store them in gemstones.”

    “That’s right! And what is the primary benefit of using gemstones?”

    “Umm, even those born with no affinity could utilize the gemstones essences.”

    “That’s right! She single-handedly ushered in a new wave of changes to the world as did every innate magus before her! No wonder you’re so damn smart.” With a cold ‘humph’ she continues, “Well, at least now I don’t feel so bad as to why you beat all of my test scores. In fact, I could say that I’m quite proud to have an innate magus as a younger brother. I’ll have front-row seats to history being made; by you!”

    ~

    Two years later.

    On this particularly ordinary day, Panax is in his room diligently studying. Since his sister’s First Rite the house has been more empty than usual; his sister and brother would often be out learning what field of magic they want to specialize in for the future. It would be another four months before he can finally go through his First Rite, and maybe regain his lost affinity.

    Even at the age of 7, Panax surpassed both of his siblings in terms knowledge and understanding. It would take the tutors just one time to teach Panax something, even if it was complicated. So it came to be that the tutors no longer had anything to teach him. Since then, Panax has been absorbed in self-learning. He doesn’t really know why or where this urge comes from, but his insatiable thirst for knowledge drives him to constantly read every book he touches. There is some degree of satisfaction unraveling the mysteries of life, and he can get a glimpse of that through books. After reading countless amounts of books since he started his self-study, he has a great many ideas he wishes to try out in the world. He has been constantly known around the manor to always be carrying around oddities and trinkets looking for specimens to experiment on, a specific location to observe the stars, samples to collect, and he always had his large leather-bound notebook that he kept all his findings in.

    It became a kind of game with the servants of the manor, betting if Panax will burn off his eyebrows again today or end up in mud from head to toe.

    In these two years, Panax wasn’t able to see the third-prince once. He has also been oblivious to his other three cousins, and when he brought this up with his father—on the rare chance that he sees him, Garrote just responds by saying that they’re busy and can’t spend the time to come out to play.

    Since the 7 years of him being alive, Panax has never step foot outside the manor. Sure, the manor size was big enough to encompass the forest as his backyard, but he has never seen the cities—as they are mentioned in his books, or even have seen the ocean. These last two years as Panax has devoured every book in the manor’s library, his urge to go explore can’t be contained. So much so that Panax even tried to sneak out of the manor grounds—he didn’t even make it pass the gate before one of the manor guards found him.

    The only time Panax was able to satisfy his thirst for the world were the stories his brother and sister would tell him when they came back from an assignment, and he would barrage both of them with questions. Since Lisa’s First Rite, it was discovered that she had a high affinity to fire, so Sergeant Dullahan has been taking her around to learn the ways of the Fire Wardens while Gwen went to go supervise Kyle since they both had the same affinity.

    It struck Panax that something was odd, his mother has never had any amount of spare time during her court duties to spend with the family, but for the past two years, she’s been instructing Kyle on the ways of the Water Wardens. He decided to not mention this matter, since it may be beyond his understanding; he was just excited that he got to spend more time with her when they would come back from their trips.

    As he was quietly reading a light knock came from the door. “Come in.”

    The head butler, Thomas comes in with a tray of cakes and some tea and says, “Young master, you’ve been studying for quite some time, would you care for a break and a snack?”

    At the mention of food, Panax becomes instantly aware that he is quite hungry. While looking at the assortment of snacks he tells Thomas, “Ah you’re quite right, I’m actually starving, could you send for some real food?”

    If Panax was older, he might have recognized the slight look of surprise on Thomas’s face, but it was instantly covered up and with a reply, “Ah yes, well, I’ll just leave these here while I fetch something more proper for the young maser.”

    “Ah, there’s no need, I don’t actually feel like eating anything sweet, you can take them back to the kitchen.”

    Again, if Panax was older or had more experience in the world, he would have recognized the slight hesitation in Thomas’s expression. “As you wish, young master.”

    Just as Thomas was about to take the tray of cakes and tea away, Panax suddenly says, “On second thought, you can leave the tray here.”

    With a calm demeanor, Thomas retreats from the room after he sets the tray down.

    When Thomas left the room, Panax immediately takes out from his breast pocket a small lizard he found a couple of days ago. He meant to keep the little fella to better understand the regenerative abilities it possess by systematically cutting of his tail and recording his findings.

    He sets the lizard down on the table and silently measures the growth of the new tail and records his findings in his big leather-bound journal. As he is diligently studying the new growth, color, length, width, and texture of the new tail and scribbles them down, Panax doesn’t notice that his lizard has already approached the tray of cakes.

    As he looks up to find his lizard biting into his cake, a look of surprise can be seen on Panax’s face as if he made a new discovery. He makes a note on how his lizard prefers some cakes and ignores others as it meanders around the tray looking for more tasty treats.

    All of a sudden his lizard stops as if it was turned into a statue. With a look of curiosity Panax just observes the lizard for a while. Panax suddenly realizes that the chest of his lizard isn’t beating and lightly pokes it. To his surprise, his lizard just falls over to its side—lifeless. With great shock and his mind racing, he goes through all the implications of what just happened.

    Then with a sudden realization, he takes out a small kit of glassware from beneath his bed and gently scoop some of the frosting on the cake with a glass rod and places the frosting in a beaker. Just as he was about to take out his mortar and pestle a light knock is heard at the door.

    He instantly removes his dead lizard and the cake and places them in a bag and throws it under his bed. He then calls out to the door, “Come in.” in as much of a calm voice as he can muster.

    “Here is some lunch the young master as requested,” the head butler Thomas says.

    “Ah, thank you Thomas, you can just leave them on my bed, I’ll eat them in a little while.”

    “Of course. Ah, how did you enjoy your cake?”

    Slightly started about the issue of the cake being brought up, Panax panics a little and asks, “Wha- what do you mean?”

    “Oh, it’s just that I noticed one of the cakes missing. I assumed you had eaten it, I was just curious on how it tasted.”

    With his mind racing, Panax replies, “Oh yes, it smelt so sweet so I decided to wrap it up and save it for Madelyn, she has quite the sweet tooth.”

    Thomas quickly lectures, “It is not the place of servant in this manor to be taking things from young master.”

    “Ah well, I don’t quite mind. Although they are servants of the house, they’re kind of like older sisters to me, so it’s only natural for me to gift them things occasionally.”

    Without wanting to make such a big deal out of it, Thomas slightly nods and leaves the room.

    As Thomas leaves the room, Panax quickly pulls out his glassware again along with his mortar and pestle. He takes the cake out of his bag and gently places it on the cake tray, taking great care not to allow the frosting not to touch anything. He quickly sniffs the frosting to try and discern if there’s an obvious scent. He then takes out a spatula and smears a piece of the frosting on the tray to discern if there are any obvious grains. After his initial analysis, he finds that the frosting emits no odor and there are no obvious grains in the texture.

    Panax tries to recall what happened, (Hmm, something kill my lizard. The only thing he ate was that frosting. He froze like a statue. Wait, he froze like a statue? I wonder why that is)

    With this line of thought, Panax quickly takes out his dissection kit and quickly and expertly dissects his lizard. To his amazement, Panax finds out that all of the lizard’s blood congealed and turned extremely viscous— identical to that of jelly. He further finds out that the muscles are extremely stiff, almost rock-hard. As he discovers these two things, a sudden familiarity erupts in his mind.

    (These symptoms seem familiar, I read about this somewhere…. But where. Rock-hard muscles and jelly-like blood. Hmm), Panax thinks.

    His back then shoots straight up as he realizes where he remembers where he read about these symptoms and he quickly gets up to his personal bookshelf. The books on his bookshelf are all things that Panax were very interested in, some of them he found in the library while others were gifts.

    Although he can recite word-for-word every book he’s read, even after only reading it once, he keeps these books personally because they were personally given to him by his parents and siblings. Each time his brother and sister would come back from an assignment, they would always try to bring back at least one book to satiate Panax’s thirst for knowledge.

    One of the books his sister brought back detailed various medicinal effects of herbs and spices. As with all books of this kind, it details which herbs to use in compound with other herbs, as well as which herbs to not use— the book deals with the poisonous effects of such combinations as well as its medicinal effects.

    After browsing for a few minutes he finds what he’s looking for, a combination of some rare herbs that when finely ground into a powder can cause the blood to congeal into jelly and the muscles to harden to stone. He also finds some methods to counter the poison and some ways to detect the poison. After reading the instructions over again just to ensure he didn’t miss anything, he gets up and heads to the gardens, after locking his door.

    As Panax leaves his room, at the other end of the hallway, Thomas coldly stares at Panax. When Panax’s footsteps fade into the distance, Thomas rushes to Panax’s room; he takes out his key to Panax’s room—as head butler of the house, he of course has access to every room in the manor, and as he tries to turn the lock a look of surprise can be seen on his face as his key won’t turn.

    How could Thomas know that Panax long ago had tinkered with his room door when he read a book about how locks are made. With his curious mind, after reading the book, he made substantial upgrades to his lock with extra tumblers and counter-weights to ensure that it can’t be picked. His locked door actually needs two keys to unlock, even though his door only has one keyhole. The key to his room is actually two keys that must be placed together and used to unlock the door simultaneously. Even if a perpetrator got a hold of his keychain, he would need to know which two keys to combine to use as a key.

    When Panax left his room, he headed straight for the garden looking for herbs described in his book. Since he has a photographic memory, he is able to identify the herbs right away and the whole process took less than a minute when he reached the garden. Luckily the herbs used to detect this poison only used common cooking-herbs, which his garden had plenty of.

    He hurriedly paced back to his room when he heard slight grunting sounds and then slowed his pace. After he reached the corner of his hallway, he slightly looked around to find Thomas trying to enter his room. At this sight, Panax’s doubt instantly cleared up and a single thought popped into his mind, (Thomas tried to kill me). At first, Panax had assumed that the lizard had some type of reaction to a special ingredient in the frosting, but Thomas’s inquiry about the assumed-eaten cake gave rise to new suspicions.

    With this new assertion, Panax further thinks to himself (Why would he want to kill me. No, Thomas shouldn’t have a personal grudge against me. Then he must be working with someone or working for someone. Hmm). While his mind raced on trying to answer these questions, Panax slowly and quietly walked back out to the garden. Then he suddenly pants and makes heavy footsteps as he slowly made his way to his room.

    After Thomas hears the Panax is on his way back, he silently rushes away.

    Once inside, he grinds up the herbs and places them into the beaker with the frosting. After adding water and heating it up, the tell-tale sign of the poison is clear—the solution turned bright violet.

    Now with the hard-found evidence that there was indeed Devil’s Sculpture poison in his cake Panax sat back staring incredulously at his discovery. Devil’s Sculpture poison had a 100% fatality rate and was colorless and odorless. After the person that ingests the poison dies, with their muscles hard as rock they will be in a frozen-statuesque state. After a period of time, depending on the body size of the person and how much they’ve ingested, their skin will corrode and small spores of poison will be released and infect those around four feet of the decaying person. The only thing left behind the poison will be a statue of the person without any skin. The poison spores originate in the skin and only after they’ve corrode do they sprout out.

    Thinking of the effects of the Devil’s Sculpture poison, Panax quickly takes out his pet lizard and places him in another glass beaker and puts a stopper on it. Minutes after he encapsulated his lizard, Panax observes the skin corrode and small flecks of violet float around the beaker. Panax releases a long sigh as he almost forgot this fact about the poison. He puts everything away and doesn’t even touch his lunch that was brought in later and deeply thinks about what to do next.

    A loud clash of the plates could be heard from Panax room all of a sudden. Of course Thomas is the first to reach the scene and outside the door he can hear Panax yell with dissatisfaction. Thomas lightly knocks on the door and asks, “Is everything all right young master?”

    “Ah yes, can you come in Thomas. I was reaching for a piece of cake when I accidently knocked over the plate. I’m sorry to bother you, but could you clean it up?” Panax says as Thomas walks into the room.

    “Ah, how clumsy of the young master, it’s not a problem, I’ll clean it up right away. Would you like for me to fetch you some more snacks? I see that you still haven’t touched your lunch.”

    “That won’t be necessary, I was so absorbed in my studies I forgot about it. I found quite an interesting specimen in the gardens earlier and wish to study it some more, so I’ll head to the kitchens myself before I go back out in the gardens,” Panax replies.

    With a curt nod, Thomas doesn’t say anymore while he thinks to himself (Curse my luck. First he parcels up one of the cakes for a servant, then he accidently knocks over the tray. Not only do I have to worry about hiding Madelyn’s body, I’ll have to figure out a way to get more Devil’s Sculpture… ugh. To top it all off, I have to explain this delay to him… gives me the creeps.)

    Panax makes his way to the kitchen and asks one of the servants if they had seen Garrote around. Since finding out that Thomas wanted to poison him, he’s grown extremely suspicious of all the other servants in the manor. One of the reasons that Thomas and his co-conspirator chose today to poison Panax was that it was one of the rare opportunities in which all of the family members would be together, further adding to the effectiveness to the poison if they all crowded around the would-be poisoned-Panax.

    While Panax was studying in his room all day, his siblings and mother had just come back from an assignment earlier that morning. So to his surprise all of his family members are in the dining room chatting lively.

    “Ah Panax my son, come eat some lunch with us, we were just about to start.”

    With what happened to him earlier that day, Panax grew immediately frantic and strode to the table with a grim look on his face, he asks, “have any of you eaten anything yet?”

    “Ah no, like I said son, we were just about to eat.”

    With a serious tone that was quite out of the ordinary from his usual cheery-self, he says, “no, I mean have any of you had breakfast or brunch today?”

    Gwen and Lisa look at each other and slightly laugh, “of course we had breakfast this morning before we came home, Panax what’s gotten into you?”

    Maintaining his serious demeanor, Panax pulls out another one of his inventions and places in the middle of the table and activates it. It gives a slight whine and then emits an extremely high pitch frequency, almost deafening. Then the high pitch disappears and an eerie silence fills the dining room. After he turns the dial on his egg-shaped invention a few times, he asks again, “have any of you eaten any food prepared in the manor today?”

    Garrote, his father notices the egg-shaped invention on the table and can’t keep from asking, “Panax is that a Silencing Field? How come it can negate such a large radius?”

    Silencing Fields are the product of wind magi—specifically the Sound Wardens. They’re generally known to be extremely famous musicians, but some of the more applicable techniques discovered by the Sound Wardens are the invention of the Silencing Fields and the [Whisper Wind Technique]. [Whisper Wind] is used to enable Sound Wardens to send their voice to the ever-flowing wind, letting them speak with other Sound Wardens across miles, and in some cases if they’re strong enough hundreds of miles. This technique is particularly useful for the military to keep regular updates from their remote outposts.

    As for the Silencing Field, it is generally favored by assassins to reduce all the noise in a specific radius, usually about 3 feet around the person. Some of the more expensive Silencing Fields can negate all sound within 6 feet around a person, but Panax’s tinkering and exceptional mind allowed him to modify a Silencing Field to negate sound within a radius of 10 feet. Although some Sound Wardens with exceptional skill can create a Silencing Field that can encompass a 50 feet radius.

    Without replying to his father Panax asks for a fourth time, “Have any of you eaten any food prepared within this manor…” Panax then shoots a look to his father, as he knows that Kyle, Lisa, and Gwen both ate before they came back to the house, “father?”

    Slightly startled by his son’s piercing gaze, he replies, “No, I was too busy working this morning that I forgot to eat. Panax, why do you insist on asking?”

    With a look of relief on his face, Panax finally sits down and solemnly looks at his family members and suddenly blurts out, “Thomas tried to poison me earlier.”

    He expected a reaction of shock and horror from his family members, and to his own surprise only his brother and sister had that reaction. As for his mother and father, they both shared a meaningful look before Gwen asks, “Are you sure? What exactly happened, don’t leave out a single detail.”

    After Panax recounted the events just moments before, a look of pride and appreciation could be seen on his parents face as they came to hear how Panax was insightful enough to go through confirming the poison and how he was able to leave Thomas’s grasp without detection. Panax then took out the glass beaker in his pockets that had his pet lizard and he placed it in the middle of the table. Panax placed it in between all the bowls and plates of food as to obscure any line of sight to the door to prevent spies—at this point, Panax felt like he couldn’t trust any of the servants.

    With a long sigh, Garrote and Gwen look at the Devil’s Sculpture poison in the glass beaker and shook their heads as they realized the narrow escape their son had. Garrote finally spoke, as he was looking in the eyes of all his children, “We were aware of this possibility, but we didn’t think they’d strike at Panax, and so quickly. A couple of years ago, your mother discovered that an agent from Santar’dun was plotting a coup against our kingdom. We’ve been trying to root out any supporters we can find since then. If they used Devil’s Sculpture on you today, then it would mean they expected for all of us to meet today and they’re about to make their move.”

    “Wait, if I was infected with Devil’s Sculpture then the spores in my skin would have infected anyone near me, which would have been everyone here. Who knew that mom, Lisa, and Kyle would be coming home today?”

    Gwen states, “No one knew Kyle and I would be back, we actually were not supposed to be back until next week, but the River Wardens were busy with an emergency and couldn’t have mentored Kyle.”

    Lisa then states, “Sergeant Dullahan and I were expected to be back sometime this week, but no definite date was expected.”

    Garrote then surmises, “It’s too coincidental that Thomas poisoned Panax on the day that we all got back. Honey, what emergency did the River Wardens actually have?”

    With that line of thought, Gwen’s eyes instantly sparkled, “Actually Leaping Frog River had several barges hauling oil capsize. All the River Wardens were sent to deal with the problem.”

    “The capsizing of some barges carrying oil to ensure that you’ll come home earlier is something the agent from Santar’dun can arrange,” Garrote replies, “It turns out fate is on our side, we were lucky enough that Panax’s lizard was hungry and ate some cake.”

    “What do we do now father,” Kyle asks after processing all this information.

    “Initially, your mother and I had planned to put the younger generation in hiding around the kingdom after Panax goes through his First Rite. It seems we’ll have to send you kids off sooner rather than later. It’s too dangerous to try to snuff out this coup while the crown prince and all you kids are out and about.”

    “But wouldn’t hiding us all together be like placing all our eggs in one basket?” Panax asks.

    “Quite right son, that’s why we’re going to split you all up.”

    As Panax overcomes the initial shock of this coup, his desire to venture out and see the world swells up and he becomes excited.

    Before Garrote continues he looks at the Silencing Field at the center of the table and asks, “Panax how effective is this Silencing Field, and how can it negate such a large area?”

    While scratching his head, Panax explains, “I read a book on the magical implementations of wind magi and the Silencing Field caught my interest, so I had one of the maids go buy one with my money. She brought back a Silencing Field that could negate in a 3 foot radius, but I took it apart to study the inside. After I tweaked some things and added some things, I found that the field could cover around 10 feet.”

    With a look of praise on his face, Garrote asks, “The Silencing Field negates all sound right? Not just distorts it?”

    “Hmm, yes. No sound should escape the 10 feet radius.”

    “Let’s test it out to be sure,” Garrote says and then nods to Gwen.

    Gwen gets up from her chair and walks out of the Silencing Field’s range, and when she looks back at her husband, she can only see his lips move with no discernable sound. With a smile and a nod she quickly returns to her place at the table.

    “Panax, it seems that you’re ability to comprehend magical devices is quite unusual, even if you are an innate magus,” Gwen observes.

    “We’ll look into that later, since this place is as safe as any, your mother and I might as well tell you what we plan to do. Since the discovery of the Santar’dun agent, we’ve put into motion a series of hideouts for you kids. Since they attempted to kill us through Panax, it could only mean that they’re ready to make their move. So we’re going to send each generation far away to hide and train until this coup is dealt with. We have also put into place a few plans just in case we fail. The continuation of the royal bloodline is our top priority. So when you kids are out among the prince and princesses, you must protect their lives at all costs. Kyle will go with the crown prince and all the other first generation kids. Lisa will attend the princess and every second generation child, while Panax will accompany the third-prince and the third generation. Accompany each of the generations will be one of the Three Uncles. Go get your things ready, we all leave in an hour. I’ll go summon the Three Uncles and notify them that we’ll have to escalate things.”

    Panax rushes to his room to pack what he can hold. He agonizes over which of his personal books he should carry with him, even though he’s memorized every one of its contents, bringing some of them to refresh his memory wouldn’t hurt; not to mention all of them have sentimental value to him. He decides to bring <Medicinal Applications of Common Herbs> and <Magical Devices Vol. I> along with his enormous leather-bound journal, he can only personally carry three books. He decides to leave behind his glassware set, since it’ll be too delicate to carry. After he’s done bringing his most precious belongings, he rushes to the foyer—the rendezvous his father set. Upon arriving he sees butler Thomas’s body pinned to the wall near the main door.

    To his surprise and shock, Thomas is barely alive. His body’s four limbs have been impaled with a sharp earthen spike—suspending his body onto the wall. A look of anger erupts as he glimpses at the new arrival.

    Thomas yells while spittle of blood gushes from his mouth, “I should have held you down and shoved the food into your mouth, your luck will run out little one! Mark my…”

    Before Thomas could finish his words, Gwen gradually approached him and with a flick of her hand blood spouted from every pore and orifice from Thomas’s body, causing him to die instantly.

    After Thomas died, Panax realizes for the first time that his quite life in this manor, his days collecting bugs and rocks, his precious library and bookshelf, the familiar faces of the cooks and maids are all gone now. For the first time in his life, his future now held some uncertainty. At this realization he’s become slightly scared, yet excited. Maybe he’ll be able to see the vast blue ocean that he’s read so much about, the salty air and the constant breeze. Or maybe he’ll be able to see the vast strips of mountains that can reach so high up that you won’t even be able to see the top. As his mind raced to think about all the things he has yet to see in his own eyes—the desert, swamps, glaciers, ravines, cliffs, canyons, and all the types of animals and magical beasts, he becomes jubilant.

    “Let’s not tarry,” the voice of his father sounds from behind.

    As the five of them leave the house, Garrote says, “Gwen, take Lisa and Kyle to the docks, Dullahan is already waiting for you there along with Toulen and Shan. Collier will meet me and Panax in just a little while. Go, and be safe.” As he utters the last words, he reaches Gwen and hugs her dearly and softly kisses her, Garrote then turns to his eldest son and daughter and places his hand on their shoulders and says, “Be safe, protect the imperial family. It has always been our duty,” he then gathers them close in a tight embrace.

  4. #4
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    Default Chapter 3

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    Chapter 3

    When Gwen killed Thomas with a flick of her hand, somewhere in the imperial city of Kandar a jade slip cracked and shattered. A man with pale-white skin looks at the shattered jade slip and frowns (That useless fool can’t even finish such a simple task), the man thinks to himself as he looks at a wall covered with jade slips.

    Each of these jade slips has a persons’ blood bound to it, and when a person dies their corresponding jade slips shatters. This man is within the imperial garrison, staring up at the jade slips of all the imperial family while off to the side, a section of the jade slips belong to his agents. Although killing the royal family was a bonus, his primary objective was the complete removal of the border garrison—allowing the armies of Santar’dun to march in unimpeded. Before the Kandarian armies could mount an effective resistance, the vanguard of Santar’dun would already be well within their borders.

    In the grand-scheme of things, the conquering of Kandar was but a small objective to the kingdom of Santar’dun, they would merely plunder the iron mines, war horses, and the foodstuffs to bolster their own diminishing stocks before they continue expanding to the east—their true foe was Talver, the only other kingdom that could compete with Santar’dun in terms of land size.

    Even if these plans to incite a coup within Kandar are decades in the making, Santar’dun had no need to overthrow this small little kingdom. Only because their their own ports and farms were destroyed by the guile of Talver agents, did Santar’dun finally initiate a coup in Kandar. With the spread of miasma in their fertile farmlands, they wouldn’t be able to raise enough foodstuffs to fuel their war machine for years to come.

    In these past several years Gwen and Garrote uncovered more about coup than the pale-white man realized. If he had known about what Gwen and Garrote were about to do, then he would have immediately sent his best agents to kill them, if he himself wouldn’t go.

    Gwen, Kyle, and Lisa head to the river docks to take a barge down to the ocean ports, while Garrote and Panax head southwest to another port by foot.

    When Gwen and her kids reach the river barge, they spot Dullahan and finally begin their speedy race to the ocean ports. Since Gwen is a Water Warden, she is able to cause the water to swell and push her small barge down the river at breakneck speeds. While she propels the barge, she shouts to Sergeant Dullahan, “Dullahan! Signal the ports!”

    With a stern nod, Dullahan gathers Fire Essence into his palm and shoots three burst of flares into the sky. These flares were so bright, they could be seen for dozens of miles away. After his initial three-burst of flares, off in the distance a domino-effect can be seen as more sets-of-three flares erupt.

    At the ports, all of the fishing ships, dinghies, sloops, frigates, and other water-crafts start to burst with activity.

    Because Gwen’s father is one of the most accomplished Sea Wardens Kandar has ever produced, his word was law when it came to the affairs of the fishing industry. And he started to pass orders down the command-structure of the fishing industry.

    After Gwen and Garrote realized how deep the coup was several years ago, it lead them to speculate on why Santar’dun was moving against them now. After their own agents and information networks came back with the news that Talver agents corrupted the fertile farmlands of Santar’dun, Gwen and Garrote came to the same conclusion—that the fishing ships and ports are the main target behind Santar’dun invasion.

    With that realization in mind, Garrote and Gwen started preparing for the evacuation of not only their children but as many refugees as the ships can carry—along with as many fishing crafts as possible.

    Panax is currently running behind his father into the dense forest and he can’t help but ask, “Father, where are we going?”

    “The whole plan hinges on the fact that the agent of Santar’dun underestimates our information network, I can’t risk explaining it to you now while we’re on the run. Just keep up son.”

    In the densely packed forest was a giant boulder, about 30 feet in diameter. There sat Collier with a stern, yet calm expression while he waits for Panax and Garrote to meet him.

    Garrote lets out a soft sigh as they reach Collier, and without stopping for a second Garrote says, “Let’s keep moving, Collier.”

    With a nod, Collier jumps off the boulder and joins Garrote and Panax.

    After running for a few miles, Collier says, “There are some people following us, 4 of them. A few of them around the 60th rank. Be careful.”

    Not even a minute later, the four Santar’dun agents catch up to the trio. The leading Santar’dun agent is a Wind Warden strong enough to maintain [Fleet Foot] on his three companions to increase their speed.

    “I’ll delay them as long as I can, you make sure Panax gets to the hideout!” Collier shouts.

    Collier then turns around and pulls an earthen wall from the ground completely encasing the four agents and himself. As an 80th ranked Earth Warden, Collier’s control over the elemental essences is nearly flawless. The energy channels in this body have been baptized with earthen essence for decades, allowing him to channel enormous amounts of Earth Essences through his body very quickly—his manipulation of the essences has reached a level that these four agents have yet to comprehend.

    Although the lowest ranking warden the Santar’dun agent has is at the 55th rank, their highest ranked warden is at the 75th rank. Even though they are individually lower than Collier, with their combined efforts, Collier would find it difficult to leave without sustaining heavy injuries and may even lose his life.

    Knowing that Collier is trying to delay them, the 75th ranked agent yells out, “Ja’Ken! Pa’Do! Go through and kill that whelp and his father, he’s only at the 50th rank.”

    Realizing that these two were about to charge up and over his walls, Collier suddenly raises them to completely form a dome, but his actions were a bit too late and one of them still got out. Ja’Ken a Wind Warden of the 60th rank used his [Wind Walker Technique] to near-instantly cross the gap as the walls were closing around him. The other warden, at the 55th rank, Pa’Do used a tunneling technique to get under the walls and escape the dome. The only two wardens that were left to face Collier was a 75th ranked Wind Warden and a 70th ranked Fire Warden.

    Seeing that two of the wardens escaped and is chasing after Garrote and Panax, Collier’s expression turns grave, he knows that time is against him, but to defeat the combined efforts of two wardens around the 70th rank will not be easy.

    Because the [Earthen Dome] has fully encased the three of them, it is pitch black. Although Collier can’t see with his eyes, he’s able to release the earthen essence in the ground to scatter within his dome; through his sense of the earthen essence, he’s able to clearly feel where the other two wardens are.

    The other two aren’t any slower in setting up their own [Elemental Sense]. The 75th ranked Wind Warden unleashes the Wind Essence in one of his emeralds that are in his pouch, while the 70th ranked Fire Warden releases some Fire Essences from some rubies.

    After setting up his [Elemental Sense], Collier summons two [Earth Golems] from the ground and imbues them with a strand of his soul—giving them life.

    When the two agents realize that Collier summoned his two [Earth Golems] they have a look of disdain on their faces. To be able to summon a single [Elemental Golem] costs an extremely large amount of essence. Because they’re in a densely packed forest, Collier has no need to use amber gemstones to fuel his magic, since Earth Essence was all around him. If the 75th ranked Wind Warden wanted to summon his own [Wind Spirit] then he would have to use whatever Wind Essences he could find in the atmosphere and combine it with the Wind Essences in his emeralds and it would be barely enough to summon a single [Wind Spirit].

    With a wave of his hand, an earthen spear is formed into Collier’s hand and he rushes towards the Fire Warden while his two [Earth Golems] entangle the Wind Warden. Collier’s greatest fear in this fight is if the two agents are able to combine their attacks, so he wanted to fight them one-on-one and kill the Fire Warden as quickly as possible. As a member of the Three Uncles he understands completely how effective good teamwork is. He and his brothers could kill any warden up to 10 ranks above them.

    The Fire Warden has a slight look of fear but then a longsword wreathed in flame suddenly appears in his hand as he meets Collier’s earthen spear. A loud bang could be heard as their two weapons collide. The two of them are pushed back several feet. While the Fire Warden is reeling from the counter-force, an [Earth Spike] forms from the stone wall behind him. As it was about to impale the Fire Warden, the [Earth Spike] strikes the Fire Warden’s [Flame Armor]. A look of surprise can be seen on the Fire Warden’s face. Their exchange happened very quickly and the formation of the [Earth Spike] seemed to materialize instantly—showing the battle experience of the Earth Warden he was facing.

    Just as the Fire Warden’s [Flame Armor] struck the [Earth Spike], Collier throws his earthen spear while another earthen spear forms in his hand and he continually throws a barrage of spears at the Fire Warden. While the Fire Warden is concentrating on the flurry of flying spear in front of him, he fiercely slashes his longsword. Just as his longsword is committed to fend off the last spear, a single long and slender [Earth Spike] forms right underneath his open guard. Without time to reform his [Flame Armor] the slender [Earth Spike] pierces the chest of the Fire Warden, and he slouches over as a mouthful of blood erupts and then his eye dim—lifeless.

    With a look of disdain on the Wind Warden’s face, he thinks to himself, (What a useless rat, he couldn’t even last a minute.) It wasn’t that the Fire Warden lacked strength or combat experience, but he was single-handedly facing an Earth Warden that was 10 ranks higher than him—not to mention Collier’s decades of battle-experience.

    The Wind Warden didn’t think that his partner would have died so quickly, else he would have commanded the Fire Warden after the boy, and had Pa’Do stay behind to assist him. Without thinking about it further, the Wind Warden decides to use his trump card.

    The bag of rubies tied to the waist of the dead Fire Wardens suddenly flies to the agent’s hand and he then securely straps it onto his own belt.

    The temperature inside the dome instantly jumps to unimaginable heights as a sharp thin jet of flame shorts towards Collier.

    Collier’s face suddenly freezes with shock and horror as only one phrase enters his mind: dual elemental warden!

    Even though the common people with no affinity could use elemental essences in gemstones, they aren’t able to draw them out and manifest them into magic—only magi can do that.

    The fact that the Wind Warden in front of him can manifest the Fire Essences into a [Flame Jet] proves that he’s able to manipulate fire. Dual elemental wardens are extremely rare, but the optimal combinations are even rarer. As wind fuels fire, the heat of the flame from the Dual Warden is exponentially hotter than normal fires—being one of the most coveted dual combinations in the world.

    As the thin searing [Flame Jet] shot towards Collier, he raises an earthen wall in front of him—not to block the [Flame Jet] entirely but to absorb as much of the power before it breaks through. Collier has no illusions about how his owns walls will stand up against the [Flame Jet]. The combination of a Wind Warden fueling a Fire Warden’s flame was precisely what he was trying to avoid by killing the Fire Warden first.

    The [Flame Jet] first pierces through both of [Earth Golems] in front of the Dual Warden, then rips through the wall in front of Collier like it was paper and through his left abdomen. The [Flame Jet] doesn’t seem to lose any power and then further impales through the [Earthen Dome] behind Collier.

    Luckily the [Flame Jet] only pierced through flesh and missed his organs. It is also widely known that the weakness of [Flame Jet] is that in order to kill their targets, you must aim the jet at the head or the heart, anywhere else will just leave a wound that would end up being cauterized.

    Thinking frantically, Collier suddenly collapses a portion of his [Earthen Dome] only to reform it with him outside. Before the Dual Warden can manipulate another [Flame Jet], Collier forms a second [Earthen Dome] around the Dual Warden.

    Suddenly realizing that Collier is using a stalling tactic, the Dual Warden erupts with rage as he summons a [Fireball] with intense heat and shoots it towards the wall. It explodes the inner most [Earthen Dome] layer and the debris shatter the 2nd most inner layer. To his fury, the Dual Warden realizes that there’s already a 3rd [Earthen Dome] layer. He begins to summon a shower of [Fireballs] and directs them in a straight line in front of him.

    The only advantage Collier has over the Dual Warden is that they’re currently fighting in a dense forest that is packed with an infinite source of Earth Essence. Completely exploiting this advantage, Collier forms dozens of [Earthen Dome] layers to prevent the Dual Warden from escaping, in the hopes that he’ll exhaust the rubies.

    After his first pouch of rubies becomes dull, does the Dual Warden realize how much Fire Essence he’s used. With only one pouch of rubies left, he decides to suddenly form a [Flame Jet] about the size of a person. With a shout carried by Wind Essence the [Flame Jet] coalesces in front of him into shape, it reaches his height and then he unleashes it.

    The unbelievably thick [Flame Jet] shoots through the dozens of [Earthen Dome] layers and the Dual Warden rushes forward with his [Wind Walker Technique], near-instantly traversing dozens of feet at a time.

    As Collier sees the erupting [Flame Jet] the size of 6 feet in diameters, followed by the Dual Warden, he’s shocked. Even if a Fire Warden and a Wind Warden were to combine their attacks to create a large [Flame Jet], the largest they could hope to manifest is one with a diameter of 2 feet. Truly, a dual elemental warden is quite formidable.

    With so many [Earthen Dome] layers summoned, an area of about 400 feet in diameter has upturned trees and jagged layers of rock and stone could be seen everywhere. The Dual Warden doesn’t need to setup another [Elemental Sense] and he quickly spots Collier and suddenly rushes towards him with [Wind Walker].

    With two short swords instantly appearing in the Dual Warden’s hand, Collier also immediately summons his earthen spear and meets the charging Dual Warden. With a loud clash, Collier is sent flying as his earthen spear shatters, while the Dual Warden continues forward.

    With only a few rubies left in his pouch after creating that giant [Flame Jet], the Dual Wardens manipulates what’s left and summons a massive cloud entirely made of Fire Essence. The Dual Warden fuels the cloud of fire with Wind Essence and he shouts a single word: [Combust]

    All of a sudden the massive amounts of Fire Essence are pulled into the material plane and instantly erupt with blistering heat.

    About a few hundred feet from where Collier’s [Earthen Dome] is, Garrote and Panax can be seen. Ever since the arrival of the Santar’dun agents, Garrote used his [Elemental Sense] to expand as far out as possible—to the range of a few miles. There at the edge of his [Elemental Sense] he finally spots what he’s been looking for and he summons a stone pillar that erupts a couple of miles away.

    The two people at the edge of Garrote’s [Elemental Sense] were slightly startled as a stone pillar suddenly erupts from the ground with one word inscribed on it: Danger.

    These two people recovered from their shock quickly and one of them immediately vanishes from sight—disappearing like the wind, while the other runs away from Garrote.

    Having just left the [Earthen Dome], Ja’Ken and Pa’Do charge towards Garrote and Panax. In only a few minutes, with the help of Ja’Ken and his [Fleet Foot] spell, they were able to catch up to the fleeing duo even if they had a head start. Ja’Ken immediately summons his bow and draws the bowstring back with seemingly no arrows.

    He then fires at Garrote’s back.

    Although it can’t be seen, the [Wind Arrow] flies towards Garrote at an astonishing speed. Pa’Do doesn’t remain idle, he immediately summons an earthen wall in front of the two. Although his earthen wall can’t be made into a dome like Collier, a 55th ranked Earth Warden was still quite formidable.

    With the sudden appearance of the earthen wall in front of him, Garrote immediately raises his hand to disassemble the earthen wall. Even though Garrote was able to collapse the wall in front of it, it still took him one second to do it.

    In that second, the [Wind Arrow] reached Garrote’s back but was met with an extremely high-pitched ‘ding’ as it slammed into his [Earth Armor] before it pierces his shoulder.

    Surprised and in pain, Garrote’s face is turned ashen with fear.

    Garrote immediately turned around to fend off the two while shouting, “Panax run! And don’t stop, just keep running! Don’t stop and don’t look back. Go!”

    Garrote immediately summons a sword and a shield and rushes towards the two head-on. Usually when two of the same elemental wardens clash, it really comes down to the ability of the warden’s manipulation of the essence—not so much how much essence he can channel.

    When Garrote easily disassembled the earthen wall of Pa’Do, it made Pa’Do become cautious. Because Pa’Do was 5 ranks higher than Garrote, he was still able to remove his earthen wall so easily—this showed that Garrote’s control over Earth Essence was greater than Pa’Do. Garrote’s manipulation of Earth Essence might not pack as great a punch as Pa’Do but he’s able to formulate his spells astonishingly quicker than Pa’Do.

    There are usually two aspects to an elemental warden’s power: abundance and control. The more elemental essence a spell or technique has, the stronger it is. The more control you have over the elemental essences, the faster you can pull the essences into the material plane. To be an effective combative warden, you’ll need both. Although some fighters prefer to focus on one aspect over others, it’s undeniable that the two are equally important.

    Sadly this world measures strength and grants rankings to wardens based on how much elemental essence they can channel through their bodies, not how quickly they can manifest their spells.

    Only true experts really understand the worth of having complete control over the essence. It’s the difference between summoning a [Flame Jet] in seconds rather than tens of seconds.

    Luckily for Garrote, Ja’Ken is still currently manifesting another [Wind Arrow] and during this time, Garrote immediately charges towards Pa’Do. Pa’Do immediately summons a hammer and swings it at Garrote as he approaches.

    Garrote expertly meets the hammer with his shield. He slightly tilts his shield off to the side and the hammer glances off the shield and swings pass Garrote’s head, missing by inches.

    (Ah, curse this ****er’s luck. Just a couple a’more inches, and I woulda had him), Pa’Do thinks to himself.

    Although it looked like Garrote caught a lucky break, any trained expert could see that the slight tilt in Garrote’s shield diverted the hammer enough to leave Pa’Do overextended while at the same time forcing the hammer to miss. An expert use of the shield.

    Garrote then immediately thrusts his sword upward right into the armpit of Pa’Do. Feeling that he overextended with his hammer, Pa’Do summoned a small thin earthen wall to protect his opening while he was in mid-swing.

    Sensing the collection of Earth Essence, Garrote correctly assumes that Pa’Do is trying to summon an earthen wall to block his sword thrust. Just as the earthen wall is pulled into the material plane, Garrote instantly dismantles the wall. Shocked at the speed of Garrote’s control, Pa’Do doesn’t have enough time to feel fear as Garrote’s sword thrusts enters his armpit and immediately rushes towards the heart of Pa’Do.

    With a casual flick of his sword-arm, Pa’Do’s lifeless body is tossed aside.

    When he sees his partner skewered, Ja’Ken immediately changes focus and finally materializes his [Wind Arrow] and shoots it at Panax’s back. Just as Garrote noticed the release of the bowstring and how it wasn’t aimed at him, he instinctively formed an earthen wall in between Ja’Ken and Panax. His abundant battle experience at this point allowed Garrote to fight based on reaction speeds. He didn’t even mentally process that the [Wind Arrow] was aimed at his son, he just instinctively tried to block the line of sight.

    Right as the [Wind Arrow] flew from Ja’Ken’s bowstring, the earthen wall formed. Although densely packed Earth Essence can withstand a lot of punishment, they are weakest to small piercing damage. Just like how miners would use a pickaxe to break through rock, the fiercely small and sharp [Wind Arrow] tears through the earth wall.

    Where spells like [Flame Jet] uses its extreme heat to soften up the earthen walls before it breaks through, true piercing spells and techniques like the [Wind Arrow] loses quite a bit of power as it must physically break through.

    After hearing the explosion of the earthen wall broken through by the [Wind Arrow], Panax turns around to find that the weakened [Wind Arrow] is flying directly towards him. Although the [Wind Arrow] is drastically weakened, Panax is only a 7 year-old child. Even a [Wind Arrow] formed by a 10th ranked Wind Warden could easily kill him.

    As if time slowed down, Panax’s mind race to realize that his life is about to end. His mind races so quickly that Panax even has time to feel regret for not being able to explore the whole wide world. Even as the [Wind Arrow] approaches him, his desire to live and explore the world swells up to new heights.

    At this point, with the [Wind Arrow] just a few feet away from him, Panax without thinking, instinctively reaches out to the familiar feel of the Earth Essence all around him. His desire to live and survive this attack causes him to just pull as much Earth Essence into the material plane as he can. He forms a small earthen wall in front of him instantly. Not near-instant or a split second, but instantly—the speed of the complete formation of the small earthen wall would have even shocked Collier, let alone his father and Ja’Ken.

    The [Wind Arrow] pierces through the earthen wall and with the small amount of power it has left, impales itself into Panax’s collar bone. With a blood-curdling scream, Panax is flung backwards and is knocked out.

    The scream of his son pulls Garrote out of what just happened and all of its implications. Ja’Ken is also shaken from his stupor and immediately uses his [Wind Walker Technique] to place several dozen meters in between Garrote and himself.

    As Ja’Ken readies another [Wind Arrow], Garrote immediately forms an [Earthen Dome] to encompass the two of them.

    Ja’Ken miscalculated on the diameter an Earthen Warden could create an [Earthen Dome]. He was sure that it was enough to prevent this exact situation.

    Although the piercing damage of most Wind Wardens could counter the sturdiness of the Earth Warden’s defense, the creation of an [Earthen Dome] completely sealed the advantage of a Wind Warden’s mobility.

    The difference between Garrote’s [Earthen Dome] and Collier is that Collier specializes in being able to create many dozens or even hundreds of domes, while Garrote tailored his training to form only one.

    Although the [Earthen Dome] created by Garrote is not any sturdier than Collier, one might assume that Garrote’s dome is inherently weaker, but that’s not the case.

    Garrote thought that an [Earthen Dome] with a diameter of 50 feet would be his limit, and it was. But after seeing his son get shot, Garrote’s surge of emotion allowed him to form an [Earthen Dome] just large enough to encompass Ja’Ken.

    Garrote trains his [Earthen Dome] to enable him to have complete control over the small area it covers. While other [Earthen Dome] spells can easily encompass a hundred feet. Garrote had to struggle just to create one with a 60 feet diameter.

    Just as the [Earthen Dome] formed around the two of them, Ja’Ken immediately unleashed [Elemental Sense] to find his target. Just as Ja’Ken was about to manifest his [Wind Arrow] several dozen [Earth Spike] instantly formed in the interior of the [Earthen Dome] all shooting towards Ja’Ken. Surprised at the amount of [Earth Spikes] formed, Ja’Ken’s [Wind Arrow] was interrupted and used his [Walk Walker Technique] to evade the spikes.

    AS he thought he got clear of the danger, several dozen more [Earth Spikes] immediately formed where Ja’Ken landed. Ja’Ken had to immediately used [Wind Walker] to just barely stay alive. To his chagrin, as he immediately landed further away, he could still sense several dozen more [Earth Spikes] shoots up from him in all directions.

    Garrote’s [Earthen Dome] spell is different than how most people train their [Earthen Domes]. The small space inside of Garrote’s dome greatly increases his control over Earthen Essence, allowing him to near-instantly barrage his opponent with a flurry of spells.

    As Ja’Ken focuses all of his attention and efforts to strain his [Wind Walker Technique] to its full potential, Garrote easily summons hundreds of [Earth Spikes], earthen walls, and launching [Boulders] at him. With the combination of these three spells, Ja’Ken realizes that he must take either an [Earth Spike] or a [Boulder] spell head-on, he couldn’t dodge both, but wasn’t able to decide fast enough on which spell to dodge and which to take head-on. That split-second of indecision allowed for the earthen wall to impede his movements long enough so that both an [Earth Spike] and the flying [Boulder] smashed into him.

    After Ja’Ken’s immediate death, Garrote dismantles his [Earthen Dome] and rushes to inspect his son. Right when he the [Earthen Dome] crumbled and fell apart, Garrote is instantly fearful as he watches a solitary figure stand over his son.

    That instant of fear only last a second as he finally recognized the solitary figure.

    “Junior Khar! You got my message, where are the others?”

    Khar was one of the two figures where the stone pillar erupted from the ground with the message: Danger.

    “Senior Ashe, brother Sama went to notify the elders. What happened?”

    At this exact moment a large shout could be heard, then seconds later an enormously large [Flame Jet] shot passed the two of them.

    With looks of shock on how large that [Flame Jet] was, Garrote instantly remembers and tells Khar, “Collier is still back there fighting off a 75th ranked Wind Warden, go help him if you can. I’ll take Panax to the order.”

    Even though Khar is only a 40th ranked Wind Warden he doesn’t show any signs of fear and only nods before he vanishes with his own [Wind Walker Technique].

    Right when Khar arrives at the clearing where Collier was fighting, he becomes shocked. Khar can easily pick out which one is Collier, but the other man is clearly controlling Wind Essence to fuel the [Combustion] spell, yet also manipulating a large amounts of Fire Essence.

    In an instant, Khar realizes that he’s going to face this Dual Warden—and a Fire/Wind Dual Warden at that!

    Before the Dual Warden finishes his [Combustion] spell, Khar already started to form his own spell: [Twister]

    The both of them manifest their spells at the same time. Although the spell [Twister] is considered a novice level spell, like all wind spells it does one thing quite effectively: draw in fire!

    As the clouds of Fire Essence are pulled into the material plane and before the [Combustion] spell burns Collier alive, the [Twister] spell forms and draws all the fire away from the edges-of-the-cloud and towards the center.

    [Twister] drew in and absorbed all the Fire Essence and unleashed them overhead into the sky—like a giant signal flare. Even if Wind Essence can be used to bolster and fuel a flame’s intensity. A Fire Warden must be careful and manually manipulate their flames, else their flames can be carried along by the wind of a Wind Warden.

    Because he didn’t expect any interference, the Dual Warden didn’t manually control his flames and paid the price of this mistake.

    Without missing a beat, Collier immediately summons an earthen spear and constantly throws them at the Dual Warden. With all of his rubies exhausted, the Dual Warden has no choice but to rely on only his wind element.

    The barrage of earthen spears flying at the Dual Warden forces him to dodge.

  5. #5
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    Default Chapter 4

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    Chapter 4

    Without being able to utilize his talent for dual elements, it’s just as if he’s a 75th ranked Wind Warden. Although he could still manipulate the small amounts of Fire Essence around him, it’s not enough to bridge the gap of Collier fighting in a dense forest that’s filled to the brim with Earth Essence.

    Thinking about the lack of Fire Essence around him, the Dual Warden draws in Wind Essence to cast [Gale]. A fierce fury of sharp winds begin swirl around the Dual Warden. Instead of directing [Gale] at Collier, the Dual Warden shoots it up into the sky. Overhead, the amount of leaves that are torn from trees can be compared to raindrops.

    Soon all the trees nearby have shed all of their leaves, allowing the rays of the sun to beat down onto the clearing.

    Although the Fire Essence aren’t still has plentiful as the Earth Essence, it is now far more abundant than before.

    Even as the rays of the sun bring down a lot of Fire Essence, it could not compare to the density the Dual Warden had in the two pouches of rubies. Because of the difference in density of Fire Essence in the sunshine and in the rubies, the Dual Warden could only muster up maybe a fifth of his previous strength. The one advantage of natural Fire Essence is that it was unlimited.

    Before the [Gale] spell finished tearing away the leaves, Khar had already jumped down from his perch and is currently standing next to Collier with his rapier drawn.

    “Elder Warden Collier, it’s good to see you safe and sound.”

    With a slight chuckle and spitting out a bit of blood, Collier replies, “Heh, I suppose ‘safe’ is a relative term. Thanks for saving my skin back there. This Dual Warden was quite tough with two bags of rubies.”

    Slightly started at the fact that this Dual Warden had two bags of rubies, Khar just firmly nodded his head, (It seems like he won’t be able to cast spells with the same intensity as that [Combustion]) he thought to himself.

    Although it is not uncommon for elemental wardens to carry around bags of gemstones to fuel their magic, it was more commonly acceptable to embed these gemstones—fairly large ones, into staves and crowns or other pieces of equipment.

    Khar himself has a few emeralds embedded into his belt, shoes, tunic, earrings, and rings to fuel his wind magic. Only those that choose to live a life as a combative warden would invest in equipment with gemstones embedded in them.

    The Dual Warden in front of them did not lack for battle-experience, so it was quite curious to see that he, nor any of his partners, had no equipment with any gemstones.

    The truth of the matter is that, to infiltrate the kingdom of Kandar, Santar’dun agents had to be inconspicuous, so he as well as other agents left their gear back home in Santar’dun. Because Kandar had all of their wardens’ register through their three-rite custom, it was quite difficult for unregistered wardens to walk about with gears bejeweled with gemstones. So he could only make do with bags of gemstones.

    As for Collier, he didn’t even have one stone of amber on his body. One of the advantages of being an Earth Warden is that there are very few places where Earth Essence can’t be found in abundance. Even volcanic islands, the abundance of Fire Essence can almost be matched by Earth Essence that permeate from the ground. One of the few places that is almost devoid of Earth Essence is out in the open ocean or high up in the sky—everywhere else can be considered an Earth Wardens’ domain.

    “Elder Warden Collier, I don’t think I can assist you head-on in this fight, I have a few spells that I can support you with though,” Khar says sternly.

    “You can just call me Collier, especially after saving me back there. As for this Dual Warden in front of us, the best we can do is to delay him as much as possible until the rest of your order comes. At least then, Garrote and Panax can still get away. How are they, by the way?”

    Before Khar could recount what happened to Panax to Collier, the Dual Warden spoke.

    “Is this really the pinnacle of Kandarian magic? Quite pathetic, an 80th ranked Earth Warden can’t even seem to hold out.”

    As the Dual Warden was speaking, he started to gather more Fire Essence from the sun, “do you really think that you’re able to leave this place alive?” the Dual Warden continued. “Just because you’re delaying for those two to get to safety doesn’t mean that I’m not delaying until more agents get here!” After talking for a bit he was finally able to cast [Fire Spirit]. A humanoid-shaped-fire came into existence. The [Fire Spirit] spell was the equivalent to the [Earth Golem]. The difference lies in the fact that earth and water elements had physical substance to create their golems, whereas fire and wind are immaterial, so they must create spirits. It generally meant that the Fire and Wind Wardens must constantly fuel their spirits, else they will lose form.

    In combative abilities however, spirits are more nimble than their golem counterparts, but are easier to dispel. After the Dual Warden imparted a strand of his soul into the [Fire Spirit], it came to life. The [Fire Spirit] immediately charged towards Khar while the Dual Warden gathered more Wind Essence to fuel the intense heat of his [Fire Spirit]

    Collier immediately created an earthen wall to block the approaching [Fire Spirit]. After the spirit neared the earthen wall, its intense heat started to melt the stone and soon a loud explosion could be heard as the [Fire Spirit] broke through the wall. As it broke through however, the [Fire Spirit] was ambushed by two [Earth Golems]. Collier immediately cast another set of two more [Earth Golems] to protect Khar.

    Even the Dual Warden couldn’t helped but be surprised. It was quite difficult for him to maintain one [Fire Spirit]. The Dual Warden was quite impressed that Collier was able to summon two [Earth Golems] when they were back within the [Earthen Dome], but now seeing him summon four [Earth Golems] was beyond belief, even when factoring in the golems’ inherent “cast-and-forget” attribute.

    With two [Earth Golems] protecting Khar and two [Earth Golems] blocking the [Fire Spirit], Collier turned his sights onto the Dual Warden himself. Just as Collier caught his breath for a bit, Khar finished casting [Fleet Foot].

    While the [Wind Walker Technique] allowed a Wind Warden to traverse dozens of feet near-instantaneously, the spell [Fleet Foot] increase the overall speed of an individual—their nimbleness.

    To Collier’s surprise, Khar was able to cast [Fleet Foot] onto the four [Earth Golems], Collier, and Khar himself. To be able to maintain the skill [Fleet Foot] on 6 people at the 40th ranked, shows that Khar specialized his spell to be able to affect more people, or else he would only be able to maintain this spell on 2 people at best. The trade-off however, is that it would only last a few minutes, as oppose to the tens-of-minutes others can maintain.

    The advantage the [Fire Spirit] had over the golems is that they are more nimble, but with [Fleet Foot] cast onto the four [Earth Golems] that advantage instantly vanished.

    The Dual Warden specialized in offense, not support or defense. So he never bothered to train in support magic like [Fleet Foot]. The only support magic he learned was [Wind Walker] because that would allow him to close the distance between him and his opponent. Seeing his [Fire Spirit] lose the advantage of speed to these lumbering [Earth Golems] he finally realized his error in not bothering to learn more supportive magic.

    As the [Fire Spirit] used its deadly intense heat to finally melt one of the [Earth Golems] another golem dashed behind the spirit and bear-hugged it. The heat was so intense that as soon as the golem hugged the spirit, the golem’s chest started to cave-in. The golem didn’t let go and eventually hugged the [Fire Spirit] until it collapsed onto the spirit entirely. After melting the rock and stone, the [Earth Golem] completely encased the [Fire Spirit]. After the [Fire Spirit] died, the rock of the golem started to cool and formed a barely-discernable statue of a golem hugging its knees.

    With the threat of the [Fire Spirit] removed, the two [Earth Golems] that originally protected Khar started to dash toward the Dual Warden himself. Just as the Dual Warden used [Wind Walk] to back out of the way of the two dashing [Earth Golems] another set of two [Earth Golems] rose from behind him.

    Completely blocked from all directions, the Dual Warden had no choice but to attempt to physically break down these golems—a task even he would find daunting. No other elemental magi could out-match an earth magus when it comes to physical defense.

    While the Dual Warden dances in the center of the four golems, a constant storm of “dings” could be heard as his two short-swords chip away at the golems. Collier is mentally exhausted, he created 8 [Earth Golems] in a period of 15 minutes—a feat even for an 80th ranked Earth Warden. After he regains a bit of his strength, he begins to summon earthen spears and pins the Dual Warden down with a barrage.

    Before Collier could throw his first spear, Khar finishes casting [Tailwind] on him. A supportive wind spell that allows projectiles to increase in speed.

    Although Khar’s [Tailwind] spell is lacking compared to the [Tailwind] spells Collier has experienced in the past, the fact that Khar was able to predict what Collier was doing and finish casting [Tailwind] in time, shows his aptitude as a supporter. It would usually take wardens several weeks working together to get to this level of support, yet Khar adapted instantly—like a fish in water.

    Luckily for the Dual Warden, the only defensive spell he bothered to learn was [Flame Armor]. As he fuels his [Flame Armor] with high concentrations of Wind Essence from his pouch of emeralds, every blow from the [Earth Golems] is met with an intense heat which ends up leaving the golems with deformed stumps for hands as they keep melting and cooling.

    The Dual Warden, with the fast barrages of earthen spears at him, can’t afford to move around and must spend his attention on fending off these earthen spears. While he’s stationary, the four golems now find it easier to strike at the Dual Warden.

    If the Dual Warden was more studious under his master’s tutelage, he may have understood why the [Earth Golems] didn’t stop attacking him. Because of his lack of knowledge, he mistakenly relies on his wind-fueled-[Flame Armor] to stop the golems attack.

    But as the golems hand melts, then crashes into his shield, cools, then melts again, their fist-stumps become extremely hardened. Now that the golem’s hand has shrunk to the size of a man’s fist, but its extreme density caused it to be impervious to any more melting.

    Knowing that the Dual Warden has yet to realize this phenomenon, Collier commands the four [Earth Golems] to finally strike at his shield simultaneously.

    Noticing that the rhythmic beatings of the golems momentarily stopped, the Dual Warden finally glances at the golems since the barrage of earthen spears and is shocked to find that the hands of the golems look like small balls of steel.

    Even as he noticed it, it was too late. The four [Earth Golems’] hand completely shatter the [Flame Armor] and the shockwave completely obliterates his internal organs. The Dual Warden died completely before the golems’ physical arms obliterated his body.

    With a long sigh, Collier finally collapses to the ground. Although this battle wasn’t the worst he’s ever had, it certainly ranks in the top-10. To fight a dual elemental warden with a combination of fire and wind without being thoroughly prepared, was a stroke of bad luck for Collier. Luckily with Khar’s support on his golems and the [Tailwind] that was cast on his earthen spears, he was able to pin down a Wind Warden. If the Dual Warden was given free rein to move as he pleased, then Collier would have possible met his demise.

    After snatching up the spoils from their corpses, Khar and Collier head towards the order’s hideout. With Khar’s [Fleet Foot] spell, they both were able to arrive at the entrance of the order at the same time Garrote did. On the way over, Khar explained to him that Panax was able to form an earthen wall to protect himself. Although Khar, himself wasn’t close to the combat when Panax was hit by the [Wind Arrow], he was still able to see it clearly from a distance.

    After Khar stood over Panax’s body and examined his health, did he find that the [Wind Arrow] only pierced enough to strike at the boy’s collar bone, not even enough to pierce through it—that was then Garrote emerged from his [Earthen Dome]

    Collier couldn’t help but become shocked. If Collier’s surprise about the emergence of the Fire/Wind Dual Warden could be considered a drop of water, then the news of Panax’s innate affinity could be considered as an ocean.

    In the hundred-thousand year history of humankind, there have been fewer than a hundred innate magi. Each one of those magi with an innate affinity brought great changes to the world. It didn’t seem that the only innate gift they had was with an elemental essence, but it seemed that they had some connection to magical phenomenon. The last innate magi was able to liquefy elemental essence and imbue them into gemstones, she recorded the process down and the technique was then widely spread.

    Other innate magi weren’t so altruistic. Some of them belonged to great clans and they would horde the teachings of the innate magi to dominate the world, but for some reason or another the teachings of an innate magus would always become widely known and shake the world.

    Collier felt excitement as he thought about the wonders Panax might bring into the magical world, his only wish now is to live long enough to witness them. When the three of them, four including Panax, reached the entrance to the order, they met Sama.

    Khar asks, “Where were the elders, and our reinforcements?”

    “The elders and several senior brothers headed out a while ago, but they engaged other enemy agents scattered around the forest,” replied Sama.

    “Ah, so that dual elemental warden wasn’t bluffing. He actually had reinforcements, good thing they were intercepted. Don’t really want to think what would have happened otherwise,” Collier said with a raspy voice.

    “One of the agents from Santar’dun was a dual elemental warden?” Garrote asked.

    “Yeah, that wasn’t even the half of it, the ****er was a wind/fire dual elemental warden,” replied Khar.

    “Well, I’m glad you two are safe, let’s go inside and treat our wounds,” said Garrote.

    Collier looked at Garrote up and down, “Doesn’t seem like you are any worse for wear Garrote, you haven’t lost your edge, I see.”

    With a slight chuckle, Garrote and the group are led inside the order. The entrance instantly vanished as they passed through.

    Sometime later, Panax wakes up. The first thing he sees as he opens his eyes is the small motes of earthen elemental essence that float around him. As he blankly stares at them and instinctively pulls a cluster of them closer to his face so that he can see them more clearly.

    Off in the corner of the room, without Panax’s notice, Collier sits there along with Garrote silently marveling at Panax’s adept control over the elements.

    The cluster of amber-colored essences disperse and reform again, then they disperse and then shortly reform into a tight ball. He continually gathers the essences and then disperses them over and over. Each time he gathers the Earthen Essences he forms a different shape, first a sphere, then a cube, a star, an egg-shape, a sword, a shield, a pike, a flail, a hammer, a bow, a pair of daggers.

    Garrote and Collier are flabbergasted at the sight of the changing shapes. After their own First Rite, they had to be instructed on how to search-for and bind a shape. It took them several months to be able to get the technique down, and that was with outstanding latent talent. It took Kyle and Lisa a year before they were able to master the technique and bind a shape.

    The binding of a shape allows their elemental essence a conduit to form in the material plane. Most elemental wardens have weapon-shaped bindings, some however have mundane shapes like spheres, and cubes.

    And here Panax was, just having woken from recovering from being struck by the [Wind Arrow], was able to immediately start the binding process, without being taught. The true gifts of an innate magus can’t possibly be fully understood—they’re too astonishing and too numerous.

    The binding process abruptly stops. Floating above Panax, Garrote and Collier can clearly see the Earth Essence has formed into a glaive. One end of the glaive has a thin slender double-edged blade, looking like a shark’s tooth, while at the other end, the glaive tapers into a sharp point—almost like a needle.

    Panax didn’t know what he was doing, but when the Earth Essences took the shape of the glaive, he immediately felt a connection to it, almost as if he found a long-lost friend. The glaive, with its slender shark-tooth-like blade and the needle-point tip felt like he regained senses to a lost limb. Quickly the glaive merges with Panax’s soul. The room quiets down, and finally a slow breath could be heard in the corner.

    Garrote and Collier didn’t even know that they were holding in their breaths. Panax quickly is brought out of his reverie and immediately notices his father and Collier sitting off to the side. For some reason Panax felt embarrassed, he didn’t know why. The binding process felt very intimate to Panax, and upon finding out that it was witnessed by others, he couldn’t help feel embarrassed; as if his father and Collier were watching him bathe.

    Although Panax didn’t know about it, Garrote and Collier did. They knew that the glaive has completely merged with his soul. It would be more accurate to say that the soul merged into the shape of the glaive. Much like how Garrote’s soul is in the shape of his sword and shield and how Collier’s soul is in the shape of his spear.

    Although the shape of each person’s soul takes on the shape of weapons or mundane objects, no two souls are alike. Even if another glaive was produced in someone else’s binding, there are obvious discernable differences. The size, shape, aura, texture, patterns, and even decorations would set each binding-shape unique from one another. Much like how Panax’s glaive had the shape of a slender shark-tooth blade and the needle-tip.

    “How are you feeling son? Does your shoulder hurt?”

    At the mention of his shoulder, Panax suddenly remembers what happened, the immense sense of regret as he realized he was about to die. The longing to explore the world and the fear the [Wind Arrow] carried with it. He then remembers instinctively pulling the Earth Essences into a barrier to block the [Wind Arrow]. He then remembers the searing pain caused by the fracture of his collar bone.

    He suddenly reaches to touch his left collar bone, and to his surprise there wasn’t even a scar. If he didn’t personally see the [Wind Arrow] strike at him, he would not have believed that there was ever a wound here.

    “How long have I been out?”

    “Only a day, you were struck by the [Wind Arrow] yesterday afternoon. I was quite surprised, as was Khar, to find the wound so shallow. I can’t even imagine what would have happened to you if you hadn’t formed that earthen wall,” Garrote replies, “I personally felt the power of the [Wind Arrow] shoot pass me before it struck my barrier.”

    At the mention of him forming the earthen wall, Panax finally realizes that everything that has happened, his reconnection to his lost affinity and the intimate moment of his binding were real. At his father’s reply, Panax finally is able to feel the giddiness and happiness of finally recovering his “lost limb”.

    Without even knowing it, tears started to flow from Panax’s face. Panax was quite surprised at the sudden wetness he felt on his face. He reached up to find out that he was crying. A bleak smile crept up on his face as he looked to his father and Collier, and he said, “Finally.”

    In the days that followed, Panax has learned that he was staying in an underground cave network run by an order called the Left Hand. Collier and Panax will leave the continent to one of the many islands west, off the coast of Kandar. The islands were used as safe havens for their fishing ships out in the middle of the ocean. At the mention of being able to sail on a ship and experience the ocean, Panax’s mood has reached new heights. The closest island to Kandar was a little bit less than 100 miles, while most of them were off a few hundred miles. The dense connections of islands enables the Kandarians a safe refuge as they build housing facilities, while at the same time ensuring their fishing industry is able to feed the population.

    Garrote will stay behind and assume command of the remaining Kandarian army to ensure the safe passage of the refugees. He got word this morning by a chain of Wind Wardens with the [Whisper Wind Technique] employed the Left Hand that Gwen, Lisa, Kyle and Sergeant Dullahan safely reached one of the main islands to the northwest. Thankfully they didn’t experience any troubles.

    In the beginning of their escape, Sergeant Dullahan set off a series of three-burst-flares which cascaded all the way to the western ports of Kandar. The ports of Kandar became busy non-stop since the signal of flares the day before. Every water-craft since then has been ferrying the citizens of Kandar to the western island under the guise of a miasma outbreak. They were instructed to gather only essential belongings and head to the ports before the miasma drifted to their city or village.

    The feat of mobilizing millions of people into several tens-of-thousands of water-crafts couldn’t go unnoticed for long. On the third day of evacuation, news of the exodus reached the ears of the pale-white man stationed in the Kandar’s imperial garrison. Startled by the news of the emigration, the pale-white man sent his most capable agent, which was available at the time, to go verify the news and find out as much as they can. Even with the speed of a 66th ranked warden, it took him half a day to finally reach the villages and cities that were being evacuated.

    When Thar’da, the 66th ranked Wind Warden asked civilians what was happening, the news started him greatly. He also knew that the primary purpose behind the coup was to secure the ports of Kandar, since their own harbors have been destroyed by Talver agents, they needed to ensure that their warships had sufficient facilities to dock and repair. Not to mention the large amounts of food the Kandarian fishing industry represented. As he used [Fleet Foot] to bee-line straight for the coast, he was shocked even more.

    All along the coast, from north to south, tens-of-thousands of soldiers could be seen setting up fortifications: ramparts, palisades, and ditches. (Damn it, we underestimated these dogs. Who knew that they would actually be so cunning), Thar’da thought to himself. He immediately activated [Whisper Wind] and reported everything he saw to another Wind Warden back in the imperial garrison.

    When the pale-white man heard of the report, he burst with anger and indignation. First his assassination attempt on Garrote and his family failed when the jade slips of the Dual Warden and his partners shattered. The value of losing the dual elemental warden to his kingdom was a strong enough blow to his military merits that punishment-by-death wouldn’t be out of the question.

    His mind started to race, (If I don’t secure the ports of Kandar, my head will definitely roll). He came to a single conclusion: (the Kandarians know about our primary objective). With that in mind, there was no need to play in the shadows anymore. He immediately stormed out of the garrison and sought the imperial family. If he could capture any of them, he’ll be able to use it as a bargaining chip.

    The agents he sent to track the imperial family couldn’t be contacted. Much to his dismay after wandering around for a bit, he found several maids tied up and unconscious. These maids were actual Santar’dun agents. He really didn’t expect the Kandarians to move so quickly and efficiently. He quickly sent the order to one of his lieutenants. Within ten minutes from sending word, the whole capital of Kandar was sealed. Thousands of Santar’dun soldiers occupied every street and covered every gate, also the vanguard of the Santar’dun army started to mobilize and crossed the border. Even the vanguard of the army felt no resistance as they prepared to attack the border garrisons.

    Every border garrison was emptied immediately. Garrote sent word to the Three Uncles earlier that day and with a message, their plan to evacuate Kandar was put into motion. The border garrisons didn’t disappear though, they were all hiding within the hills and forests within Kandar—waiting for instructions.

    Garrote couldn’t protect every Kandarian though. His plan had to sacrifice the whole city of Kandar and every city that lies to the east of it to the enemy. Evacuating those cities would have been too obvious a move. He had to expend all of his resources just too safely ensure the imperial family was outside of the enemy’s grasp.

    On the third day of the evacuation, Garrote finally arrived at Seaway, their biggest port city. It was located at the very center of their western coast—this is the place he chose to fend of the Santar’dun armies while the evacuation took place.

    While in his command tent, he receives reports from all over the kingdom about the progress of the vanguard’s approach, the locations and strength of his hidden regiments, the location of the imperial family, and the movements of the main Santar’dun army.

    The element of surprised was now all used up. It was now a race against time, he knew that moving all the refugees would be impossible, but he would try to save as many as possible while his army stalls the vanguard of Santar’dun as long as possible. Besides the advantage of surprise, his greatest tactical advantage was that his opponent had underestimated him. The past 7 years had been planned for this day. When Garrote and Gwen discovered the deep roots of influence Santar’dun had over their top officials, Garrote and Gwen knew that this was the only outcome—snuffing out Santar’dun support was merely a delaying tactic. The only reason Santar’dun didn’t steamroll them with their military might was because most of their forces were committed in the east against Talver.

    Santar’dun had hoped to quietly and efficiently bring the fishing industry of Kandar under their fold. Their assumption was that the Kandarian imperial family was none-the-wiser, else how could they let so many powerful influential officials be corrupted by Santar’dun gold.

    On the fifth day of the evacuation, reports that the enemy vanguard was within the city’s reach. This is when Garrote would make his first move. His experience and cunning as a military strategist quickly got him promoted to Chief Strategist for the entire kingdom of Kandar. Although he was the youngest brother of the current king, military officers were designated based on merit, not birthright.

    Although the entire strength of the Kandarian army stationed on the coast numbered 120,000, only half of that was stationed at Seaway, while the other half were scattered up and down the coast to aid the refugees. It wasn’t luck or guess-work that Garrote predicted the vanguard would strike Seaway first. It was their largest port city several-times-over when compared to their other cities. It wasn’t that the other coastal cities of Kandar were small, but the size and scope of Seaway was enormous. It could even be divided in half—one half of the city being a coastal city and the other half being a land-based city and the two cities would eclipse all other coastal cities., it was that large.

    If the armies of Santar’dun could capture Seaway intact then even if they lost all the other coastal cities, then it wouldn’t be as big of a loss. If they could capture every other city except for Seaway, then their efforts could be said to be in vain. The amount of resources it would take for them to garrison the dozens of smaller fishing cities from rebellions would outweigh its benefits. If they only need to garrison one city—Seaway, however then that was a different story.

    Nearly 60% of all of Kandarian food come from Seaway, that’s how important this city means to both the Kandarians and Santar’dun. Seaway is a great fishing city, but its main purpose was to be used as a trading hub, nearly all of the goods produced by the kingdom was shipped through Seaway. The only other market in Kandar that could compete with Seaway is the capitol itself—and even then, most people would say that Seaway and Kandar markets are tied in being the most robust.

    When Garrote heard news that the approaching vanguard was within reach, he ordered his men to sally forth and engage in the enemy. He knew that by ordering his men to attack at dawn his men held a disadvantage as they approach the enemy in the east, because of the rising sunshine will momentarily be blinding. Like all terrain that goes from coast to inland, there’s a slight incline in elevation. Despite all of these disadvantages, he ordered his men to attack the enemy for one advantage: the early morning fog!

  6. #6
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    Default Chapter 5

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    Chapter 5

    The pale-white man was leading the vanguard against the Kandarian fortification of Seaway. While he was deciding on the few stratagems to deal with the heavily fortified city, reports that the Kandarian army was attacking came in. Surprised at the news, the pale-white man asked the messenger to report again. After hearing it a second time, the pale-white man was first skeptical. The largest advantage Garrote held was that he could stay in his fortified city and chip away at his vanguard.

    Seaway did not lack in food, so the siege would be ineffective. To sally forth against his 100,000-strong army was contraindicative of everything he’s been taught. The pale-white man didn’t dare to be reckless after seeing how efficient their evacuation plan was, but to sally forth went against all common sense. After a bit of contemplation, he could find no way of subterfuge and finally ordered his men to engage with impunity.

    The common soldiers of all the empires were generally mundane beings, which is to say that they had no affinity for the elements. The Kandarian army was no different, the bulk of their 60,000-strong army was made up of trained soldiers. Their officers, like most other empires, consists of elemental wardens though. Each captain was at least at the 30th rank and every officer that can increase their strength by increments of 10 ranks would be guaranteed a promotion.

    A captain would be in charge of a regiment of 1,000 soldiers. The 10 sergeants under them would be in charge of squads of 100. Then going up, 5 captains would combine to form a company of 5,000 led by a lieutenant general—a 40th rank warden. Lieutenant generals with a command of 5,000 units is the smallest denominator the kingdom of Kandar uses. From there, the Chief Strategist or Great Generals will mix and match them to form battalions and brigades.

    At Seaway, there are 4 generals, at the 50th ranked, and each in command of a 15,000-strong battalion and each general having 3 lieutenant generals under their direct command. While the Great General is in tactical command of the entire 60,000 brigade, the “big-picture strategy” is formulated by the Chief Strategist—Garrote, with the help of other strategists.

    Garrote commands the Great Generals on what should be done and why it should be done. The Great Generals then determine how to accomplish these goals—a perfect melding of strategy and tactics.

    Although the initial request Garrote made to sally forth to engage the enemy was met with much scrutiny, they all came to a unanimously support the plan after Garrote explained to them why.

    The army of Santar’dun is organized much in the same way as Kandar’s. The only real difference is that their empire is so large that they have several dozen officer positions to properly coordinate their armies in a large scale attacks. At Seaway however, the vanguard only had a strength of 100,000 yet their command-structure wasn’t rearranged to accommodate such a small force. Because the pale-white man didn’t reorganize the command-structure, the orders that he would pass down must go through several extra layers before it reaches a large portion of the troops.

    Just before the assault, the Kandarians forces could be seen a mile away from the Santar’dun camp. A block of 30,000 men stood firm in the center, directly opposing the 100,000-strong army. Flanking the 30,000 block of troops were two 15,000-battalions on either side. While it was still quite dark, the block of 30,000 units moved forward at a moderate pace while the rolling fog from the sea still lingered. The two flanking battalions followed slightly further back.

    Although the pale-white man knew that the warhorses of Kandarian were seized by him, he falsely assumed that it was a disadvantage for the Kandarian army. If Garrote did have access to his warhorses, then he would have drastically changed his strategy, but he’s cunning enough to turn the lack of warhorses into an advantage, by waiting for the enemy to make the first move.

    Right when the Kandarian block of 30,000 was 600 feet away from the Santar’dun camp, a large rumbling sound could be heard as 20,000 cavalry units charged from the camp. As they charge towards the 30,000 block hoping to run right through them, the Wind Wardens within the cavalry cast [Fleet Foot], [Gust Armor], and [Piercing Winds] onto the front-line cavalry. [Fleet Foot] allowed the cavalry charge to have a higher penetration power when they collide with the Kandarian block. [Gust Armor] encompasses the front riders with a swirling vortex to deflect any incoming arrows. [Piercing Winds] allows the lances of the cavalrymen to have astonishing piercing effects.

    To be a cavalry officer in the army of Santar’dun, you had to have a strong affinity for wind, and this is why. The combination of just three wind spells increased the power of the cavalry several-fold.

    When the charging cavalrymen first appeared, the block of Kandarian troops suddenly moved. Instead of a block, the troops spread out as far as they could which changed the formation to be a thin semi-circular line. The line that met with the charging cavalry looked like a backwards “C”. The bulge was going to meet with the charge head-on. The two flanking battalions of 15,000 were still several hundred feet behind the main Kandarian army, out of the enemies’ sight.

    Just as the Santar’dun cavalrymen expected, the Earth Wardens within the enemy armies started to pull up earthen walls to slow their charge. While the effects of [Piercing Winds] could be seen as they plow through the earthen walls like paper, the front-line Kandarian armies start to launch a volley of arrows. Some of the arrows did randomly strike the cavalrymen in the back, that didn’t benefit from [Gust Armor], but those front-line cavalrymen only had a smirks as the armor brushed off the dozens of arrows that struck their [Gust Armor]

    Just as the cavalrymen was about to clash into the Kandarian line, the leader of the cavalrymen—a 40th ranked Wind Warden got a message to halt the attack. But he was too close to the enemy now. If he stopped his charge, then forget about the broken legs of the warhorses, his men would be flung into the Kandarian line.

    In the moment before the collision, Earth Wardens in the Kandarian army formed a ramp of earthen wall. The ramp of earthen wall ran the whole length of the Kandarian line, and the charging cavalrymen had no choice but to charge across the ramp and fly over the huddling Kandarian soldiers.

    In the beginning when the pale-white man noticed the change in formation, he immediately grew frantic and sent word through the command-structure to halt the charge. Although the appearance of an earthen ramp wasn’t a new strategy, it was very seldom used in large scale attacks. Because even if the cavalry charge was forced to jump over the front-lines, they could still charge through the soldiers behind them. Because it was so seldom used, the cavalry commander wasn’t familiar with the earthen ramp tactic and kept on charging.

    Because there was only empty space behind the Kandarian front-line, the enemy cavalry eventually came to a stop in a clear opening. Just as they were about to reform his charge onto the front-lines from behind, the two flanking battalions rushed from their hiding to pincer the enemy.

    Before the front-line-C-shaped Kandarian line turned around to join the attack on the cavalrymen, they erected earthen walls in between the two armies to conceal their movements.

    The screams of the battle could be heard across the battlefield. The pale-white man realized that since the front-line Kandarian troops must have turned around to attack the cavalrymen it would be an opportune moment to pincer the enemy as well.

    He gave the order for the vanguard to commit to the assault.

    The cavalrymen realized that they were in a tight spot, so they dropped their cumbersome lances and started to pull out their swords. The Wind Wardens in the cavalry materialized their own weapons. Although the cavalry charge lost its momentum, they still held the advantage since they were on horseback.

    The biggest weakness the cavalrymen had was that their company only comprised of Wind Wardens, used to punch through enemy lines. But in a melee, they lost a lot of their effectiveness. Before the two flanking Kandarian battalions reached the cavalrymen, a myriad of [Earth Spikes], [Fireballs], [Boulders], small bits of [Combustion] exploded within the cavalrymen.

    Although some of the Wind Wardens in the cavalrymen could negate some of these effects and even retaliated with their own spells, most of the cavalrymen were just regular soldiers.

    Surprisingly to the cavalrymen the front-line-C-shaped Kandarian line didn’t charge at them directly, but split in half, revealing a path for the cavalrymen to escape to. Without hesitating on if it was a trap, the cavalry commander led his men towards the earthen wall that was used to block the vanguard’s vision.

    After the initial clash from the two flanking Kandarian battalions and the barrage of magical spells, the cavalrymen retreated to the earthen wall with only 8,000 men. The wall was instantly shattered as the vanguard of the Santar’dun army breached it. Seeing the sorry state of the cavalrymen, the soldiers of the vanguard were enraged and gave chase to the fleeing Kandarians.

    Because the fog was so thick, the Kandarian army actually had to slow their retreat down so the vanguard wouldn’t lose sight of them. As the pale-white man watched his army pursue the fleeing Kandarian army, he felt uneasy. This thick fog held too much uncertainty. He immediately gave the order to halt the pursuit. As a low-ranking general in the Santar’dun army, he may not have as much battle-experience as others, but the Kandarian army sallying from fortification was too bizarre.

    When the army of Santar’dun halted their pursuit, Garrote cursed. The enemy vanguard was still a bit too far out for his trump card, (Only 700 more feet… I wonder how I’ll entice them). Even though the area was covered with a thick fog, he was still able to clearly understand the enemies’ movements because of his strategically placed scouts. Santar’dun would have eventually placed a scout-network of their own in time, but they had just reached in range of Seaway the night before, so they didn’t expect the fog to be so thick. They also wouldn’t have expected Garrote to sally out of the city; they had assumed that time was on their side since they were the attacking force. Who would have imagined that Garrote seized their initiative?

    With a thought, Garrote passed a command to the Great General in charge of the brigade. With a smile, he nodded and passed the order down. A series of elemental wardens used their spells to carry out the messages in short-burst ranges. Although long-range communication was primarily done with [Whisper Wind], it wasn’t suitable in the battlefield because of all the ambient noise. Short to medium range communications during a battle were generally carried out by Earth Wardens and Fire Wardens. Earth Wardens would sprout up small pillars of earth with coded messages onto them, while Fire Wardens would shoot up a series of colorful flares. The Kandarian military has thoroughly trained all of their officers to be able to decipher these messages. The key used to decode each message was always changed by the Chief Strategist or one of the Great Generals.

    The fact that the pale-white man didn’t implement his own communications network showed that the pale-white man himself was an incapable leader or the Santar’dun command-structure was severely lacking. It is quite unbelievable for such a large empire to not employ the use of such basic and integral communications, so the former was most likely the case.

    The Kandarian command-structure is the epitome of efficiency, before even the pale-white man rode up to his vanguard, the command Garrote gave to the Great General was already in effect.

    The pale-white man was sitting on his magical beast—a type of rhinoceros with naturally iron plated skin and several horns jutting from its joints when a thin layer of the fog around the Kandarian army lifted. He could easily see the haggard state the Kandarian army was in. He thought to himself, (Seems that the cavalrymen put up more of a fight than I had thought, it seems Kandarians are too tired to continue). With a wave of his hand, the vanguard continued to charge forward.

    If the pale-white man saw the creeping smile on Garrote face, he would have belayed his order.

    The only principle in warfare is deceit:

    If you are weak, appear strong; if you are strong, appear weak.
    If you are far, appear close; if you are close, appear far.
    If you are in disarray, appear organized; if you are organized, appear in disarray.
    With just a few basic principles, victory in battle won’t be a matter of luck but time.

    As the vanguard approached the haggard Kandarians, they slowly and surely retreated— further bolstering the ruse of weariness.

    Afraid that by ordering the rest of his 8,000 cavalrymen to charge he would repeat his mistakes, he let the encroaching vanguard deal with the haggard enemies. Right at this moment, the 40th ranked Wind Warden of the cavalrymen finally approached the pale-white man and said, “Sir if I may?”

    Looking at the cavalry commander then nodding, the cavalry commander says, “When the Kandarians army converged onto our horses, very few of them actually fought. Most of our deaths was a result of the eruption of so many spells on such a small area. Our men spent most of the time trying not to die. I could say with certainty that we barely killed 1,000 Kandarian soldiers.”

    Shocked with the report, the pale-face man screamed at the top of his lungs, “HALT!”

    Because of the dense fog, his command still took a bit of time to pass through the whole vanguard, but it was already too late. The pale-white commander can’t see it, but the Kandarian army have already started to retreat into the city of Seaway. As the soldiers entered the city, the injured were immediately tended to by skilled Water Wardens. Being able to sense the blood flow of their patients, these Water Wardens are able to stop the bleeding and ease their pain. As for the more serious injuries of broken bones or dislocated joints, the Water Wardens needed to work in tandem with a few Earth Wardens that can mend bones. The Kandarian army actually had a few Light Wardens that specialized in healing to assist the groups of Earth and Water Wardens.

    It should be known that the rarity of Light and Dark Wardens is almost as rare as a warden with a dual elemental affinity. Any of the major empires on this continent would not spare any expense in trying to recruit any Light or Dark Warden. These two types of wardens, barring dual elemental wardens and innate magus, are the rarest.

    While the Light Wardens were prized in their healing methods, the Dark Wardens could be said to be specialized in any regard of the soul. Legend even had stories that if a Light and Dark Warden were to combine their powers, they could transfer someone’s soul into a new body—achieving immortality.

    The whole objective of the Kandarian army was to lure the enemy under the fog to the city. If Garrote waited for the enemy to attack the city walls, then he would run the risk of losing thousands of civilian lives in the ensuing battle. When he made this point to the generals and Great Generals, they all nodded in agreement.

    Just as the pale-white man was about to give the order to retreat, a large rumbling sound could be heard. The pale-white commander was slightly confused but didn’t hesitate to order the retreat. Whatever caused this sound and the rumbling can’t bode well for his army. As they turned to flee, a large wave rose from the ocean. It was more accurate to call it a tsunami. It was several hundred feet tall. The pale-white man finally understood that he’s has been duped. He didn’t realize that the Kandarian army lured him so close to the city walls.

    Underneath the tsunami a massive frigate could be seen, but it was like a tiny dot compared to the enormity of the tsunami. On the prow of the frigate stood a man, seemingly in his 40s. Next to him was Shan, one of the Three Uncles—a Water Warden of the 80th rank. The man that appeared to be in his 40s was in fact Garrote’s father-in-law, Tidus. With the power of an 94th ranked Sea Warden along with some of his collogues, they summoned a massive tsunami to smash into the vanguard. While some of the Sea Wardens helped to maintain the tsunami form, the other Water Wardens formed an illusionary bubble to protect the city and the ship from the tsunami.

    Although they were summoning such a large wave to help them, the law of mother-nature was impartial. The tsunami could easily crash and wipeout the whole city as easily as it could the Santar’dun vanguard.

    Fear was seen in every Santar’dun soldier as the tsunami approached them, the few of the elemental wardens that were talented enough started to erect earthen walls, barriers made of ice, even walls of fire to help impeded this enormous tsunami. Some of the Water Wardens tried to manipulate the Water Essence in the tsunami and disrupt its form—trying to force it to crash into the city. Just as a few barriers were set in place when the enormous tsunami finally crashed into the vanguard without slowing down in the slightest. Even [Earthen Domes] created by some 50th ranked Earth Warden was instantly smashed by the weight of all the water and the force it carried with it. Screams could be heard as the vanguard was decimated. The rumbling of the tsunami and the crunching and snapping of bones, armors, weapons, and horses could be heard for miles despite the dense fog.

    After the initial crash, Tidus and his cadre of Sea Wardens started to pull back the water into the ocean. They didn’t want the water to continue and destroy the villages further inland. In a few breaths, the land in front of Seaway was damp and covered with the remnants of a 100,000-strong army. The corpses of the vanguard were spread out for miles away from Seaway. As a few of the straggling elemental wardens survived the horrific crash got up, hidden regiments that were formally border garrison guards descended onto the ragged survivors and executed every survivor. Small pockets of fighting broke out as the Santar’dun wardens tried to escape the clutches of the garrison guard regiments.

    With a long sigh, Garrote finally sits back in his chair and rubs his head.

    “Well done, Chief,” Great General Mayer said.

    Looking up from his hands, Garrote notices the Great General and nods, “Ah Paul, thanks. You didn’t do too bad yourself. I have to say though, I was quite nervous.”

    Paul replied, “Nervous? What for? The battle of Seaway was a complete and overwhelming victory. I daresay that your merits will be tough to beat in the coming war.”

    “Yeah, I suppose. But in truth, we got lucky.”

    With a slight frown Paul thinks for a bit before seriously asking, “What makes you say that?”

    “Well, the intelligence report from the Left Hand said that the commander of the coup and this vanguard was some low-ranking general, Vols’Tak. First, he underestimated our readiness to the coup. Second, he underestimated our military tactics. Third, his vanguard responded so slowly to the changing battlefield, it seems that either his command-structure was weak or he was slow in issuing orders. Any one of these factors would have drastically changed the outcome of this fight. And by simply replacing Vols’Tak with a more competent commander, we would really have been hard-pressed to fend off a 100,000-man vanguard,” explained Garrote. “We’re just lucky I guess that Santar’dun underestimated Kandar as a whole and sent some nobody to seize our lands, “Garrote continued.

    Thinking heavily for a while, Paul says, “Hmm, quite right, quite right. But you mustn’t cut yourself short. A victory against a 100,000-strong vanguard with just 60,000 men is quite a feat.”

    “Yeah, it was quite exhausting. Let’s tend to our wounded and try to ferry as many refugees as possible. I imagine after this attack, the people won’t believe the whole miasma-thing,” Garrote chuckles.

    Back at the cave network run by the Left Hand, Panax can be seen meandering and exploring the interesting tunnels. He carries his leather-bound journal while he draws the insects and animals he finds. He harvests a bit of the local mushrooms and weeds and places them in his sampling bag.

    Not too far from him is Collier. Collier was assigned to ensure Panax’s safety. Even though the Left Hand said that it was relatively safe, they also warned that some of the tunnels and caves were abandoned by the order years ago because of the hostile magical beasts. Even though it was a long time ago, Collier didn’t want to take any risks when it came to the safety of a future innate magus.

    While Collier is staring at Panax jumping around from bush to bush and scraping fungus or moss on the walls, he thinks to himself, (I wonder if this inquisitive mind of his is because he’s an innate magus. Or would he have also been so curious if he was a normal person?)

    Since Panax’s father just left earlier that morning to assume command of Seaway, Panax has been roaming around and exploring the caves to his heart’s content. Deep in the recesses of a crack on the cave wall, Panax notices a peculiar scent. He follows his nose until he sees a dazzling beautiful flower. The petals on the flowers are constantly changing colors, from blue to red and then to yellow. Accompanying this dazzling lightshow is a peculiar aroma. While the scent is certainly sweet, it also smells slightly fishy.

    Extremely fascinated with this flower, Panax decides to pluck it and place it into his sampling bag. As he squirms into the tight crack on the cave wall he finds that he’s not able to reach the dazzling flower. Instinctively he wills the walls to open up for him, and without even noticing it, they comply with his wish.

    The walls of the crack open up and Panax is able to clearly see the flower in front of him. As he draws near with his tiny child-like hands towards the flower, he stops. Something feels wrong. He looks at the flower again and suddenly he gets this urge to protect it instead. He feels that if he were to pluck this flower, it would have been tantamount to murder, as if plucking this flower would be the worst thing he could ever do.

    Instead Panax places a small glass vial underneath the flower as if he’s done this a hundred times. After a few seconds a tiny droplet of golden water drips from the flower and into the vial. Feeling content about not harming the flower, yet not walking away empty handed, he places the vial into his pocket.

    After he walks away a couple of feet, he turns around and stares at the dazzling flower on the cave wall. He stares at it in confusion, as if the flower is talking to him but he can’t seem to understand its language. Then finally he realizes something. He wills the earthen walls around the crack to close again—protecting the flower from the elements. But he doesn’t stop there, he completely encases the flower in a cocoon with the cave walls. He does allow a small hole through so that the fragrance of the flower can be smelled.

    As he finishes this task, his heart finally calms. With a smile on his face, he secretly thanks the flower for the small drop of golden water. He doesn’t know for sure, but he felt that to produce that single drop of golden water, the flower had to expend a lot of energy to do so.

    Collier watched Panax through the whole ordeal and was initially surprised at how easy Panax can manipulate stone as easy as dirt. Secondly he recognized the flower as the Rainbow Flower. When the flower matures the petals will change to more and more colors. Being able to only change into three colors means it has yet to grow still.

    When Panax closed the wall to protect the Rainbow Flower, Collier came up to him and asks, “My boy, have you seen that flower before, maybe in a book or in a shop?”

    “No, why do you ask.”

    “Hmm, how did you know to harvest its seed?”

    “Seed? It just produced a droplet of golden water, I didn’t get a seed.”

    “That drop of golden water contains the seed of the Rainbow Flower, you truly didn’t know? How did you know to use a vial and wait for that droplet?”

    “Hmm, I don’t know. It just felt right. At first I wanted to pluck it, but that felt wrong. So I asked it to give me something else instead.”

    “You asked it? Odd, plucking a Rainbow Flower before he achieves all seven colors will certainly kill it. I would have stopped you myself if you didn’t do it on your own volition.”

    “Rainbow Flower? Hmm, I think I read about a 7-colored flower somewhere before. Doesn’t it take a decade to mature enough to show a single color? Which would mean that that flower in particular is at least 30 years-old!”

    “Quite right, you’re quite knowledgeable for someone so young. You never cease to surprise me Panax. Ah, before I forget. After your First Rite how would you like it if I became your guide into what it means to be an Earth Warden?”

    Slightly startled, “Wait, I already recovered my lost affinity to earth, why do I need to participate in the First Rite?”

    “The First Rite doesn’t just allow you to gain an affinity to the elements, the ceremony baptizes you. It strengthens your internal energy channels and opens up your first energy gate. Without strong energy channels you can’t possibly act as a conduit for elemental essences to any real degree.”

    “Oh, I see. Then yes, after my First Rite I would appreciate it greatly if you would instruct me on what it means to be an Earth Warden.”

    “Are you going to head back to the main caves?”

    “How could I? For the past 3 years, I’ve always wanted to explore these mysterious worlds. The only outlet I had before was to read them through books. Now that I am here, standing and breathing in a real cave, how can I go back after exploring just a single afternoon? After father nullifies the Santar’dun threat, we have to leave for one of the islands. Until then, I’m determined to not miss a single thing this cave has to offer!

    Oh, Collier I also read that there are sometimes hot springs inside deep caves, do you think we will find one? Oh, also I read that there are certain animals that only live in the caves and that their skin is pale-white! Oh, some caves that I read say that there are gigantic lakes inside them! What do you think we’ll find?”

    Laughing at Panax’s curious nature, Collier responds, “We can ask someone from the Left Hand to act as a guide around these network of tunnels if you’d prefer.” After speaking, Collier realizes that he forgets sometimes that Panax is only a 7 year-old child.

    “Ah, that’s a brilliant idea. I wonder why I overlooked something so simple. Yes, let’s ask one of them to guide us around these caves. Hmm, but do you think we’ll be a bother to them?”

    “Not at all, let’s go.”

    “Oh, right. The book I read about the Rainbow Flower wasn’t very detailed on what it’s used for or why it’s prized so much. Besides being pretty, what does it do?”

    “Ah, right. A mature Rainbow Flower, when harvested and treated by an alchemist or an Herbal Warden and can be turned into a medicinal pill to treat grievous wounds. Some say if they are skilled enough, the pill could even treat life-threatening wounds.”

    “Mmmmm, when you say ‘harvest’ what do you mean?”

    “Well, that the flower is plucked and the petals ground into a powder of course.”

    Shaking his head, Panax replies, “No. Nope. Not going to let that happen. At first, I wanted to pluck that 3-colored Rainbow Flower too, but when I got close to it, it felt wrong. As if I was going to murder a sleeping baby. There must be other ways to harvest the effects of the flower without grinding all of its petals.”

    Shocked to see how adamant Panax was in not harming the flower, a bit of suspicion starts to form in his mind, but Collier responds nonetheless, “Yes, a fully grown Rainbow Flower could have its nectar harvest, much like what you did with the 3-colored flower earlier. In fact, I have never read any accounts on Rainbow-Flower-harvesting that showed that the nectar-seed could be harvested before it’s mature. But I’m no Herbal Warden.”

    Panax felt relief as the Rainbow Flowers could be harvest without killing it.

    After they returned to the main caves of the order, Collier was able to recruit a guide to show Panax around the cave system. The next few days went by in a flash for Panax. The guide first took him to the hot spring that the order uses. Afterwards, he took them to the lower levels of the caves that were technically restricted, but he got permission.

    There Panax could be seen jumping from one location to the next, scraping stuff of the walls, picking up crawling insects with no eyes and observing their bodies, harvesting some plants and flowers that grow in the deep caves without sunlight, and observing all the different types of minerals and ores imbedded in the cave walls.

    After the 3rd day, the guide and Collier were quite tired, but it seemed that Panax was a crazed maniac that was recently freed from a hundred years of imprisonment. He was even taken to the cavern that the order used as a secret harbor. There Panax saw the ship that he was going to board when the time came to go to the islands. Although it was just a glimpse, he could see a tiny bit of the ocean that lay beyond the cavern.

    During these few days, Collier asked him, “Panax are you not sad about being forced to flee your homeland? There are a lot of refugees that must leave their homes for the foreseeable future.”

    After thinking about it for a second Panax replies, “No. Although the Ashe Duchy and Kandar are my home, so is this whole world. I feel like wherever I go, I will always feel at-home.”

    After this simple reply, Collier sunk into deep thought, (There’s no doubt about it now… He’s going to be a great Earth Warden. One of the hallmarks of a great Earth Warden is his sense of connection to the planet itself. There’s no place an Earth Warden can’t call home to. It was a bit odd that Panax isn’t reacting the same way Kyle and Lisa are. From what my bothers tell me, they’re burning with the thirst of revenge.)

  7. #7
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    Default Chapter 6

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    Chapter 6

    The original plan was to route the enemy vanguard—buying enough time to evacuate the citizens, and then Garrote would join his son and Collier across the ocean. But with the complete decimation of the Santar’dun army, it was no longer necessary for Garrote to personally accompany his son. So he sent word back to the order of the Left Hand that he will meet up with them on the island while he ensures the safe evacuation of Seaway.

    Without delay, the disciples of the Left Hand started to prepare for the week journey to the islands. The frigate was quickly loaded with goods for the voyage and also building supplies. While the western islands have been used to harbor fishing boats during storms or to repair some minor damage, most of their facilities didn’t have any shelter.

    Since Gwen and Garrote didn’t want to arouse the suspicion of the Santar’dun agent, they didn’t preemptively build any shelters on those islands. So for the foreseeable future would be filled with mass construction.

    When Panax first step foot on the ship, he was amazed at the sheer size of it. Although the cavern that Panax was in could only fit this single frigate, the disciples of the Left Hand told him that there were several dozen caverns scattered across the southwestern cliffs of the kingdom that would be sending out more warships.

    Excitement could be seen on Panax’s face as he was trying to fully absorb this experience into his memory. He stood at the prow of the ship while it started to make its way out of the cavern. Just as the ship sailed out of the cavern, Panax became astonished. Before him were only two colors. The orange of the setting sun and the blue of the sea as far as he can see.

    The strong salty breeze brushed his short brown hair back while his eyes were closed and his face was basking in the waning sunlight. After he opened his eyes again, he couldn’t believe the marvel of the ocean. He’s read about how big and blue it is and how many millions of creatures live in it, but he couldn’t imagine a sliver of its splendor. He hadn’t realized that he’s been standing there on the prow of the ship like a statue for nearly 2 hours before he came out of his reverie.

    As he opened his eyes to stare at the darkening sky and the billions of shining stars, he realized where he was again, Collier approached him, “You should go to the port side of the ship, and you might like what’s there.”

    With a look of excitement, Panax ran to the railings and cast a look into the waters. He was slightly disappointed because he couldn’t see anything. After Panax heard a soft chuckle, he looks over at Collier with an inquisitive look.

    “Port side is the other one, young master.”

    With a look of embarrassment, Panax darts over to the other railing and is astonished to find dolphins swimming next to the frigate.

    “If we have time later, I could take you down in a small dinghy and you can pet them—maybe even ride them, “An unfamiliar voice sounded next to him.

    With a curious glace at this new voice, Panax’s face can’t help but scrunch in confusion.

    “Ah, sorry for my rudeness, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Tim Hodges, 23rd ranked Fish Warden. I called the dolphins here because Collier said that you’ve never seen such animals before.”

    “Hmm, dolphins are mammals….” replied Panax

    At first Tim was surprised by the response, then broke out into a laugh, “Quite right, but the Kandarian Academy teaches us that every creature that lives in water is a fish, every creature on land is a beast, and every creature in the sky is a bird. I suppose it depends on how each creature has an affinity for one or the other.”

    With a slight nod, Panax replies, “I’m Panax Ashe, thanks for calling them out, they’re more beautiful than the books can describe,” Panax says as he stares at the graceful dolphins. To him, the dolphins seemed like they are flying in the water.

    “Yeah, it’s no problem. So is it true, that you’ve never stepped foot outside your house before?”

    “Yes. I suppose it makes sense now that I’m looking back on it. With the threat of invasion by Santar’dun, it would have been dangerous for me to wander about outside the manor.”

    “Hmm, I see. Well if you’re impressed with these dolphins, just wait a little while longer,” Tim said with a wink.

    With a look of anticipation on his face Panax continues to stare out into the ocean imagining all the mysterious creatures that live in the water. All of a sudden an eruption of water is launched into the air. A stream of small water droplets land on the ship and gets Panax soaked. He’s read about quite a few common creatures that live in the sea, and there is only one creature in the ocean that can spray so much water into the air: the whale!

    Just as he thought about it, an enormous blue humpback whale emerged from the water. The only thing Panax can see in his immediate view is the eye of the whale and a part of its upper body. Panax had to crane his neck far beyond the stern of the ship to be able to see it’s fully body. Flabbergasted with the sheer enormity of the whale, Panax is in a daze as he marvels at the magnificence of the blue whale.

    Panax stares into the right eye of the whale and he unconsciously notices a spark of intelligence. As if the whale was somehow looking at him, analyzing, and formulating his own opinion about Panax. As Panax is standing there at the edge of the railing, a sudden urge fills his heart and he leaps off the ship.

    Collier has been watching Panax attentively the entire time he dashed over to the port side. And while he was softly chuckling at Panax’s astonished expressions, he stares dumbfounded as he sees Panax jump overboard.

    Tim was also enjoying the splendor of the dolphins and the whale he called over; he only saw a blur out of the corner of his eye before he realized what just happened. As a trained disciple of the Left Hand and an experience sailor, Tim is only startled for a second before he shouts, “Man overboard!”

    With these two words, the experienced and practiced sailors start to furl up the sails and the Wind Wardens that have been powering the sails with Wind Essence immediately stop. The sailors prepare a small raft to go rescue whoever it was that fell over.

    Just as the sailors were about to lower the raft and climb in, Tim suddenly shouts, “Wait.” The look of all the sailors can’t helped be show confusion and then they look at Tim and follow his gaze. To their astonishment they can see a small boy lying on his back on top of the blue whale.

    By this time, Collier also made it to the port-side of the ship after he recovered from his surprise. He stares at Panax as he’s currently laughing and giggling while he’s on the whale’s back. The most surprising part wasn’t Panax, but the dolphins and the whale. While he’s lying on the back of the whale, the dolphins started to make noise, a kind of “ki ki ki ki” and the whale started to sing, as if they were talking to Panax.

    After a brief moment, Panax realizes that everyone on the ship is staring at him, he looks up with an embarrassed look. He then turns around to the whale and spreads his arms as wide as he can and hugs the whale before standing up. All of a sudden the whale surges up and out of the water, bringing Panax level with the ship. When the whale reached its peak, Panax jumps off of it and lands onto the ship.

    “Uh, I’m sorry. What I did was irresponsible, I wasn’t thinking and that caused you all to worry about me,” Panax said while his head was lowered.

    After his apology, the sailors have already stowed away the life-raft and started to burst out laughing, “Ah, The Mighty Ocean has certainly blessed us! No need for apologies young master. For you to be so friendly to these creatures can only mean that we’ll have a safe voyage, a good omen!”

    Slightly startled by their reactions, Panax looks at Collier instead—waiting for some lecture about how reckless he was. But to his further surprise only a smile crept on his Collier face. Before Panax could think about it further he was grabbed by Tim.

    “Young master Panax, you must tell me your secret! How did you get the whale to let you ride him? I’ve been a Fish Warden for 7 years now, and for my accomplishment in the third-rite I could only manage getting the dolphins to carry me, and that was after I nearly drowned!”

    While Panax was stammering to respond to Tim, a loud booming voice said, “Enough you lollygaggers! Get back to work, quit bother the young master.”

    Panax’s face showed immediate signs of relief as he was saved for the barrage of questions he didn’t know the answer to. He looked up at his savior and realized it was the captain of the ship. With a slight nod from the captain and a wide grin, he went back to attend to his own duties.

    It was at this time that Collier approached Panax and clasped him on the shoulder and asked, “It just felt right, didn’t it? Jumping to the whale, it just felt right, right?”

    “Yeah.” Was the only response Panax could give. He didn’t plan to jump off the side of the ship either, but when he stared into the eye of the whale, he had this sense that the whale was welcoming him to swim with it.

    The two of them just stood there looking at the whale and dolphins while they were still swimming next to the frigate. After a while, a question that has always been on Panax’s mind came up, “Uncle Collier, why does everyone in the Left Hand call me ‘young master’, even the captain? I somewhat understand why you do it, because I’m my father’s son, but it seems odd for the Left Hand disciples to call me young master.”

    “Oh, has no one explained to you the origins of the Left Hand?”

    Panax shakes his head.

    “The Left Hand was formed by the first Ashe matriarch thousands of years ago. The Left Hand serves as an intelligence network for the kingdom. Even its name was chosen out of consideration to the kingdom of Kandar. Imagine that the military is like the king’s sword, wielded in his right hand, the king uses it to cut down any enemy that stands before him. Now then, what do you think he holds in his left hand?

    “Hmm, a shield.”

    “That’s right, a shield to protect his citizens. The Left Hand serves as the shield. The intelligence reports provided to your father played no small role in his victory at Seaway. The ability to recall all border garrisons to keep them from being massacred is also thanks to this order. The safe evacuation of the imperial family was handed over to the Left Hand as well. If not for them, then the Santar’dun commander wouldn’t have been wrong to underestimate us.”

    After thinking a while on this matter Panax says, “Oh, wait. Does the Left Hand serve the king or my father? You said it was founded by the first Ashe matriarch, which would be like my many-times-great-great-grandaunt, right?”

    “Oh, quite perceptive of you. That is a sensitive area, quite taboo actually. Although the Left Hand uses its resources to ensure the safety of Kandar and the king uses it as he sees fit, truthfully the Left Hand only listens to the current head of the Ashe family—which is your father. The current elders of the Left Hand are actually former heads of the Ashe family—your granduncles and grandaunt.”

    Surprised at this revelation, Panax shouts, “Wait, my grand uncles and aunts?! How come they didn’t come see me?”

    With a soft chuckle, Collier says, “After the elders intercepted some of the Santar’dun agents in that forest they headed off to prepare the islands. They are already waiting for you at the island. They came to see you when you were recovering from the [Wind Arrow] wound, but they had to leave for the island to establish a cave network there.”

    With his eyes gleaming, he wonders to himself, (I wonder what they’re like).

    The rest of the journey to the western island wasn’t as exciting as Panax jumping off the ship to swim with the whale. Tim did teach him how to fish and they grilled their catch under the bright sun. During this week, Panax also was quite absorbed in his experiments and came up with several fascinating ideas that he can’t wait to build when he got adequate supplies for them.

    On the 6th day of the voyage, a middle-sized island could be seen from the crow’s nest atop the frigate. Although there were many small-sized islands west of Kandar, there were only a dozen or so mid-to-large sized islands. The islands themselves have no names, but the sailors refer to each island by the name of their harbor. The mid-sized island that Panax was approaching was named Old Reliable by the sailors. Since the sailors’ superstition didn’t allow for anything but auspicious names, most of the other islands had names like: Haven, Anchorage, Tidus’s Chair, and Mermaid’s Paradise.

    His grandfather was such a legend among the sailors that dozens of different myths surrounded him like a fog. Besides his accomplishment as one of the most powerful Sea Wardens, the sailors named the harbor on the biggest island after him. Legend said that to break through the 90th rank, Tidus sat on a chair in harbor and stared out into the sea as a ferocious hurricane swept through the islands—like he was some kind of statue. He didn’t move a single bit during the week-long storm and just sat there. It was said that he absorbed so much Water Essence into his internal energy channels that he broke through the 90th rank and then gained 2 more, reaching the 92nd rank within a week.

    After hearing about this myth, Panax reminded himself to be sure to ask his grandfather personally if any of it was true.

    As the frigate docked onto a dilapidated wooden dock, Panax was quite surprised and assumed that the sailors all had some twisted sense of humor to call his harbor Old Reliable. To Panax, it seemed like this wooden dock would collapse at any minute. Much to Panax’s relief, Collier immediately started to strengthen the wooden beams that held the dock up. After a quick fix, the sailors started to unload the frigate and move all the supplies next to a rickety-old-rundown building.

    It would be more accurate to call this a shack, and not a building. It seemed like the keeper of this dock used it as a home. As everyone was bustling about to unload the frigate, an old emaciated man walked out of the broken-down shack and greeted the captain of the frigate. To Panax the man from the shack seemed gangly and malnourished, but the light in his eyes showed that he had some spirit in there.

    Behind the shack was nothing but some rolling hills and a dense forest. Even more dense than the one near the Left Hand’s hideout. This forest seemed wild and untamed, Panax felt a sense of danger was he kept staring at it. While he stands there in contemplation about what he’s feeling, Collier pushes him along and out of the sailors’ way.

    As Collier and Panax near the old sailor from the shack, his raspy voice is heard, “I imagine that you’ll want to see the others?”

    Collier nods and extends his hand, “Yes, I’m Warden Collier.”

    With a firm handshake, the old sailor introduces himself, “I’m the Keeper of the Docks, Bale Timmons.” Bale then turns his head to look at Panax, his piercing gauge measuring up the little boy.

    Without missing a beat, Panax extends his hand and introduces himself, “Hello Bale, my name is Panax Ashe.” When the two of them clasp hands, Bale’s face shows a wide grin while he continually nods his head, “follow me.”

    With a nudge from Collier, they follow the Bale, while the captain goes back and helps with the unloading. Just around the bend and over a large hill, Panax can see that there are several other docks lined up as he can see. He thinks to himself, (Odd, I didn’t see any other docks while we sailed in, I wonder if it was because we were at a weird angle.)

    As if the old sailor was a mind reader, he randomly says, “All of the harbors on all of the islands are protected by wards. These wards protect the docks from storms and spying eyes.”

    Startled at Bale’s response to his own thoughts, he says, “Doesn’t seem that the ward around our dock is working.”

    With a nod, Bale responds, “Yea, there was a storm several months ago and as luck would have it, the ward around that dock was struck by lightning and shattered. Haven’t had a decent Rune Master to come out and repair the damn thing.”

    On this side of the large hill, Panax could see several frigates as the same size as the one he came here with unloading supplies and people as well. With just a quick glance and some mental math, he calculated that after everything is unloaded, they’d have close to 3,000 people.

    Again, as if Bale was reading Panax’s thought, he says, “You guys are the first wave here, almost all of the other islands are full. By the end of it all, we expect to be able to support 200,000 people. Tidus’s Chair is already overflowing with refugees at a 1.5 million refugees, so we should count ourselves lucky.”

    With a suspicious glare at Bale for once again answering his line of thought, “Who are we supposed to be meeting?”

    With a chuckle from Bale, he just points further ahead. Panax follows his finger and looks at a clearing on the beach. To his surprise he sees a group of children all dressed in fine clothes, one of them he recognizes to be Dante.

    Just as Panax notices the third-prince, Dante also notices him and with a shout he starts to run over to Panax. After Dante, a group of three children also kick up a lot of sand as they follow the third-prince. When Dante finally reaches Panax, his face is all full of smiles and then he rushes forward to embrace his cousin. Since that afternoon 2 years ago when they were chasing the rabbit, Dante rarely was allowed to go outside of the palace. This resulted in him having an unhealthy pale skin, but the week-long journey to Old Reliance allowed him to regain some of that color back.

    Just as Dante’s embrace of Panax ended, the other three children finally caught up. Two of them were girls and the other one a boy. Dante notices the arrival of the others and turns around to introduce everyone, “Panax, this one here is Nyah. She’s the oldest out of all of us, daughter of Natalie—your aunt. The other girl is Talissa, daughter of Olivia—your other aunt. And this one here is Brayden, son of Pierre—your uncle. Everyone, this is Panax, son of Garrote.”

    Much to his surprise, he was instantly aware that all of the kids that Dante just introduced him to were his cousins—all five of them are the 3rd generation of the imperial family of Kandar XXII.

    Meekly, and somewhat out of character for Panax, he said, “Am I correct to assume that today is the first day any of us have met each other?”

    Nyah spoke at this time—being the eldest of the bunch by a few months, “Yes, nice to meet you Panax. We were all actually introduced to each other not too long ago.” Panax observed Nyah and realized that she had a genuinely friendly demeanor and she was quite tall for her age, even for a 7 year-old.

    Before the children started talking to each other, Collier said, “All right you kids, I am going to see to some important business matter. Don’t go off and get lost, we’ll all meet up later for dinner.”

    With that, all the kids made their way back to the beach and sat down to get to know each other.

    Panax started off the discussion, “So Nyah, you’re the eldest out of all of us? Does that mean you passed your First Rite already?”

    “Ah no, my 8th birthday isn’t for another couple of months.”

    “Oh, my 8th birthday is in 3 months: January 19th.”

    Slightly started, Nyah continues, “Oh, then that would make you the eldest out of all of us. My birthday is at the 31st of January.”

    “Oh I see. Then, the next birthday would be Talissa’s?”

    Talissa replies, “Ah, yeah. My birthday is in March. Brayden’s is in May. And Dante’s is the youngest, with his 8th birthday in August.”

    “So we got to know each other earlier, so what do you like to do Panax,” Brayden said, “I imagine that like us, you’ve been cooped up in your home huh?”

    With a laugh Panax replies, “Yea, it sucked. The only thing I could do is read just so I wouldn’t be bored out of my mind.”

    After hearing this, Nyah responds, “Oh, I like to read too, did you bring any books from your home? I only managed to bring one.”

    “Ah yeah, I brought two reference books and my own personal journal. Umm, I also like to build things.”

    After hearing this, Brayden’s eyes lit up, “Oh, me too! What do you usually build?”

    “I usually just find whatever I can around the house and tinker with them. Most of the times I break it, but sometimes I can put it back together.”

    “When I was younger I would make wooden swords and weapons from branches that I’d find around the backyard. Lately, my father started teaching me how to use a forge and smelt real iron tools,” Brayden says.

    “What about you Talissa, any hobbies?” Panax asked.

    “Hmm, well my mother just recently taught how to ride a horse, the breeze against your face as they run at full speed is quite fun—it feels like you’re flying. I also like to shoot with the bow.”

    “Oh, how exciting. All of your hobbies require a lot of physical strength, that’s pretty cool. I’ve never held a weapon in my life,” Panax replies.

    With a slight blush, Talissa nods. Dante finally started to speak, “Hey Panax do you think we’ll ever get the chance to catch that rabbit again?”

    Panax realized the weight of Dante’s question was loaded with the underlying question: “Do you think we’ll ever be able to go home again.”

    With a bright smile, Panax shakes his head, “Definitely, and when we do, we’ll teach that rabbit a lesson for making us look like fools.”

    With a smile, Dante nods and asks no one in particular, “What do you guys wanna do?”

    “Ah, let’s go swimming, this is the first time I’ve been to a beach,” Panax suggests.

    All of the kids immediately agreed but then they suddenly had an embarrassed expression, except for Talissa. Noticing everyone’s mood, Talissa asks, “What? What’s wrong?”

    With an embarrassed chuckle Panax was the first to admit, “I actually don’t know how to swim.”

    Nyah, Brayden, and Dante slowly nod their heads to agree.

    With a bright smile on her face, Talissa says, “it’s really easy, I can teach you guys. Plus, even if you can’t swim, you can just splash in the water towards the shore.”

    With this suggestion, everyone’s mood instantly recovers and they start running towards the beach. As the kids make their way there, some of the supervising adults also approach the beach, just to ensure that they’re safe.

    Of course while Talissa was teaching Brayden how to swim, Dante and Nyah were jumping into the small waves that crashed into the shore. Even though the excitement of swimming in the ocean was overwhelming at first, Panax was immediately distracted when he saw a shell move. Upon closer observation he realized that it was a hermit crab. Although he did jump into some of the waves and got a swimming lesson from Talissa, most of his time was spent scouring the beach to find new oddities.

    After splashing around in the water for an hour or so, the kids then spent the rest of the afternoon in a sandcastle competition.

    As Panax watched the other kids build sandcastles out of their hands, he debated on whether or not if he should utilize his innate affinity. He figured that eventually they will end up knowing, so he might as well get it out of the way now. The kids finally noticed that Panax hasn’t started on his sandcastle yet, and they incorrectly thought that it was because he didn’t know how. So they all gathered around him offering to teach him how to make a solid foundation and wet the sand.

    But when they got there, Panax suddenly builds an exact replica of his home in the Ashe Duchy. With its sudden eruption, the kids and a few of the adults were surprised to see the miniature-sized mansion. Some of the adults even started to make their way over to see the sandcastle in detail. With their expressions of shock, Panax took this time to explain, “Umm, although I haven’t been able to go through my First Rite, I was born with an innate affinity to earth,” he spoke softly. The kids barely heard what Panax said and just marveled at the sandcastle in front of them. It was so detailed that traces of lines could be seen on the manor walls, the garden bushes and trees actually had leaves and fruits in bloom, even in the garden, Dante realized that there were two figures chasing a rabbit—these two figures were identical to how Panax and Dante looked, just amazingly smaller.

    “Wow, Panax that’s so cool. You need to add a pool! I’ll go get some water for it,” Talissa screamed.

    “Yeah! It’s supposed to be a sandcastle, so give it a moat!” Nyah chimed in.

    “I know we weren’t able to catch that rabbit… but you should make a pile of dead rabbits off to the side, to show that we hunted hundreds of them,” Dante said.

    It was only Brayden that really understood what this meant, “Wow, so you’re an innate magus huh, my father told me about that before we left. That’s pretty cool. Is that your home?”

    Surprised that the kids took the sandcastle at face-value, Panax nodded, “Yeah, this here is my room. And here is where our garden is. Our kitchen is over here, and this is our backyard, I spent a lot of time there looking for insects.”

    The adults that were supervising the kids knew that even Collier would need some time creating a sandcastle with such exact details, yet Panax was able to create one instantaneously.

    After adding a pool and a moat, the kids actually wanted Panax to construct their own homes. So he went around to various spots and started to bring up various miniature-sized mansions and would change them according to the kids’ descriptions. As the sun was about to set, Panax finished building all the replicas of everyone’s home. After he was done, all the kids just sat around their home-sandcastle and stared at it longingly.

    They didn’t realize that when they left their homes a week or so ago, that they might not ever see it again. The sandcastles reminded them of the reality of what has happened, it may be years before they can go back home.

    Panax suddenly notices everyone’s mood and decides a way to cheer them up, “Hey guys come here.”

    At Panax’s insistence, the kids started to gather around him.

    “Mm, I know what you’re all thinking. ‘When will I ever get to go home again?’ right? Well, it won’t be long, my father completely decimated the enemy’s vanguard. But until then, we should try to make the best of it here. Let’s design our own home to call on this island, I’ll even build it.”

    At these words, all the kids perked up, to be able to design and build their own homes is quite the fantasy.

    “We can’t design it to be too big, I don’t think I have the confidence to do something like that. Here” Panax immediately raises a solid block of sand and ask them to give him ideas as to how to shape it. In the night, before Collier went to fetch them for dinner, the kids finished designing their “perfect home”. To keep the design realistic, Panax told them that they could only add one feature, so naturally their home had swimming pool for Talissa. It also had a small forge for Brayden, Nyah wanted her own library, and Dante wanted a dining room big enough to fit everyone, and naturally Panax added his own workshop. Content and eagerness can be seen on their faces as Collier approaches them.

    “All right kids, have fun today? I imagine you’re all quite hungry. We’re all going to have dinner soon.”

    With a shake of their heads, all the kids unanimously said that dinner can wait. The whole bunch of them left to look for an area suitable for their new home. Collier was quite curious as to why they were so excited so he decides to follow them. After a hundred feet or so, the forest became too dense for the children to venture in further so they decided this spot is as good as any other.
    Last edited by Antimage; 09-20-15 at 07:45 AM.

  8. #8
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    Default Chapter 7

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    Chapter 7

    Collier and a few of the supervising adults were off to the side and were watching these kids curiously. All of a sudden, Collier can feel an enormous amount of Earth Essence being gathered. One of the supervising adults is actually a 37th ranked Earth Warden too, so he could also sense it.

    In an instant, the Earth Essence was used to create a large pit into the ground, about 300 feet long by 200 feet wide and 10 feet deep. All of the trees started to collapse. At the sight of a large pit, all of the kids and the adults stared in shock. Then Panax used a series of erupting earthen walls from the ground to push aside all of the foliage. The whole rectangular pit was now completely cleared and surprisingly Panax didn’t feel very weak from his control over such a large amount of Earth Essence.

    He immediately created a partition at the left side of the pit, creating Talissa’s swimming pool. Since the drain on working on this home was a lot less that what he expected, he also created two smaller areas for hot springs.

    He knew that by controlling a lot of Earth Essence before he was formally trained and baptized with his First Rite, he ran the risk of going through another [Rebound] and that was the last thing he would have wanted.

    On the other side of the pit, he started to lay the foundation for Brayden’s forge and smith. Since there were five of them, he equally divided each feature into 5 equal parts. Even though the actual forge and smith took very little space, he filled in the rest with hundreds of weapon and armor racks and also tool sheds.

    After he completed the foundation for Nyah’s library he erected an enormous building with shelves naturally built into the earthen walls. Although he’s just a child and had no real sense for architecture, Panax just copied some of the designs he had seen in his library in the Ashe Duchy. He erected arches supported with engraved pillars; each of the various pillars first had the picture of each of the children carved into them. The other pillars were then engraved with pictures of various animals—especially the dolphins and the whale that he saw. And within the library he also started to form furniture made of stone: tables, chairs, and nightstands.

    The swimming pool, hot springs, forge, smith, and weapon racks weren’t very exhausting. But when Panax finished constructing the library, he was covered in sweat. He finally sat down to catch his breath. Seeing Panax sit down, Collier rushed over to him with a hint of worry in his eyes, but mostly excitement. Building structures out of stone is quite a simple task for someone of his rank, but to be able to build it so quickly would require the combined efforts of several Stone Wardens of at least the 60th rank. If Collier was tasked to build what Panax has built with the exact dimensions—something he will have to do when they need to build shelter for the refugees, it would have taken him a full day.

    “Here Panax, lie down for me a bit,” one of the supervising adults approached him, “I’m Tori, 34th ranked Water Warden. Let’s see if I can help you dispel some of this fatigue.”

    A water droplet formed on the tip of her finger and she lightly pressed it in between his eyebrows. Panax suddenly felt a cooling sensation enter his mind, as if he has been completely doused with refreshing water. He regained his mental strength and stood up.

    “Thank you Warden Tori,” says Panax.

    “If you’re up to it, could you continue? I’d like to see what you’ll end up making,” requested Tori. Although the other supervising adults and Collier were concerned that Panax might overextend himself, they were all quite excited at the prospects of him instantly raising gigantic buildings out of the ground.

    With a slight nod, Panax then summons the main building of the home. Since he lacks the experience of an architect or the creativity of an adult, so he models the main building of the home after his mansion in the Ashe Duchy. In its enormous interior, Panax at first wanted to create five rooms for the 5 of them, but realized that the rooms would be too big. So he modeled each room size after his own room in the Ashe Duchy.

    After partitioning the personal rooms, he realized that he made over 50 rooms for people, with a lot of room to spare for the dining room and the kitchen. After about 20 minutes of summoning walls, doorways, arches, pillars, tearing some down when it didn’t look right, he finally was able to finish the mansion. He took several breaks in between each of the room constructions. The whole span of time it took to create the mansion from the creation of the pit was only 30 minutes.

    Exhausted and covered in sweat, Panax finally ran out of juice and fell over onto his back. He felt like he ran 100 miles and stayed up for an entire week without sleeping—he was physically and mentally exhausted.

    Collier bent down to check on Panax and was relieved that he was just sleeping, apparently this was the limit to his magic, which even surpassed Collier’s own control over the essence.

    From the corner of the forest a man started to clap. Collier was slightly startled because he wasn’t even able to tell that he was there even after probing with his [Elemental Sense].

    Collier first started to summon [Earth Armor] onto Panax and the kids, but then he realized who the man in front of him was and ended the spell.

    “I didn’t even know Elder Ashe was here,” Collier said as he slightly bowed.

    “Ah, after becoming and elder, we forfeit the Ashe name it’s too confusing to keep track of all of us, Elder Ming will suffice. So this is my great-grandnephew huh? He looks a lot like Garrote,” says the elder-looking man as he observes the sleeping Panax, “and I assume these are my other great-grand nieces and nephews. Don’t be shy, come say hi to uncle.”

    With a soft chuckle, Collier says, “Kids, this is your great-grandfather’s 2nd brother, Ming Ashe. He’s one of the elders in charge of this island.”

    After Collier supported this mysterious man’s identity the kids no longer held any reservation and all went to greet him. They were all quite unsettled as they gazed into his piercing eyes.

    “Let’s let Panax sleep for a while, let’s go check out this mansion he’s created.”

    Without waiting for anyone, Elder Ming starts to walk towards the mansion and goes through the doorway—there’s no door or windows yet. While he looks around he asks, “So did Panax create this mansion for you kids to live in? How grand. Hmm, it seems that there are at least 50 rooms in this place.”

    Ming lets that last statement hang in the air for a little while and as he was about to speak when Nyah suddenly spoke up, “this mansion is a lot bigger than I thought it’d be. We first designed the house for the 5 of us cousins to live in, but it seems such a waste if that was the case. We should house as many refugee families as we can in here.”

    Quietly nodding Ming continues, “Hmm it seems Panax has forgotten to add an adequate storage area for the kitchen, let’s fix that right up.” With a wave of his hand, Ming tore down a section of the kitchen and a few personal rooms near it to make a large storage room.

    Collier was surprised at the efficiency of Elder Ming’s control over Earth Essence, he knew that Elder Ming was a revered Earth Warden of the 95th rank, but he couldn’t imagine that his control over the essence surpassed Panax’s—an innate Earth Warden.

    As the party of adults, children, Collier and Elder Ming roamed around they finally arrived at the library. Even Elder Ming’s eyes couldn’t stop from sparkling with appreciation. He knew the size of the library was worthy of praise from this small child, but the real treasure in the library was the carvings on the pillars. Nyah couldn’t help let out a squeak of excitement as she looked around the library that Panax built her.

    She marveled at its sheer size and then her eyes fell directly onto the pillar carvings. Each of the kids also went to the pillar that depicted them. Although Panax’s creativity limited his design on the construction of the home, his photographic memory allowed him to copy images with perfect precision. Each of the kids stared up at the carvings in the pillars that had their exact image. Because the carvings were fairly large—to match the size of the pillar, it made them seem like heroic figures.

    Elder Ming stopped and looked at the pictures of the dolphins and whales and he couldn’t help hold in his breath. The images weren’t just exact and detailed, but they held a bit of life, almost as if the animals are going to jump out of the carvings at any moment.

    “All right, I’ve just decided that we’re going to have our feast in this building. I don’t believe my great-grandnephew will mind. Let’s gather everyone up from the beach and start preparing for the night,” Elder Ming said with a booming voice.

    Just as the last person left the mansion to gather others for the feast, Elder Ming stayed behind to look after Panax, and with a wave of his hand Panax suddenly roused from his sleep full of life and vigor. After waking up from being invigorated from Elder Ming, Panax was quite surprised to find himself alone with a strange old man.

    Just a he was about to grow suspicious, Elder Ming said, “No need to be on guard, I’m your great-granduncle Ming Ashe. I’m sure during your history lessons with Professor Hoff-Stand that you’ve learned your genealogy. Quite impressive work here Panax, a little rudimentary but quite good, quite good.”

    Without even hearing the praise, Panax exclaimed, “Ah, you’re my great-granduncle?” Panax immediately stands up and bows to his elder.

    Startled by his great-grandnephew’s formality, Ming starts to laugh, “No need for such politeness, I’m family. We can just keep it simple. I’m going to call you nephew from now on. It’ll be easier to say, you may also call me uncle if you wish.”

    With an enthusiastic nod Panax agrees.

    “I’d like to play a game, if you’d care to join me?”

    “Sure uncle.”

    (Hmm, it definitely feels good to be called uncle), Ming thought to himself. He then started talking to Panax, “The game is fairly simple, kind of like tug-of-war. Do you see this single mote of Earth Essence?” Ming raised a single index finger and Panax can see that there is just a single Earth Essence floating there.

    “All you have to do is move this Earth Essence closer to your body than it is to mine, simple enough? I’ll draw a line in the floor, if you can keep the essence closer to your side for 5 minutes then you can consider it your win, fair?”

    After thinking about it for a while Panax asks, “All I have to do is to make sure THAT mote of Earth Essence touches my body or stays across that line in 5 minutes?” he said as he pointed directly at that Earth Essence.

    “Yes, if it enters my body, or by the end of 5 minutes the mote is on my side, then you lose.”

    “Okay”

    The single Earth Essence is placed directly above the line drawn in the floor while the two of them are about 10 feet apart.

    “Begin.”

    Panax completely wrapped his consciousness around the Earth Essence making sure not to lose sight of it. Elder Ming was quite surprised by this move, all he really needed to do was to directly control the essence and pull it to his side, and Panax didn’t really need to send a strand of his soul to wrap around the essence.

    Then to Elder Ming’s surprise, Panax summoned hundreds of millions of other Earth Essence to converge directly onto the single essence. After so many essences converged into a single spot, even Elder Ming found it hard to locate and control the original essence. Panax started to directly pull the whole condensed sphere of Earth Essence towards his body. It finally reached about 2 feet away from him. As Elder Ming decided to bump up of his strength from 20% to 40% to pull the dense sphere of essences back, Panax let go his control over the hundreds of millions of Earth Essences and just focused on the one he wrapped his soul around.

    The sudden release of his control sent the ball of essences towards Elder Ming while a single Earth Essence could be seen shoot towards Panax. As it was one inch away from merging with his body, Elder Ming used 60% of his strength to immediately pull on the single Earth Essence. He accidently overcompensated and should have used only 50% of his strength, because the single essence directly flew into Elder Ming’s body, making him the winner. Right before the single Earth Essence entered his body, Panax’s soul strand was filtered out as if it ran through a sieve, then it returned to Panax’s body.

    He wanted to test Panax’s competitive spirit, how far he would go to win, but he found out something equally as valuable: the kid was cunning.

    With a soft sigh, Panax’s eyes gleam with praise as he looks at his uncle, and he says, “Uncle is too powerful, thank you for going easy on me.”

    With a laugh, Ming said, “You’re quite a sly one aren’t you, immediately summoning those hundreds of millions of Earth Essence to confuse me.” As he said these words he became shocked, “wait… hundreds of millions of Earth Essence? Your talent with Earth far surpasses every innate magi I ever read about.”

    A slight blush could be seen on Panax’s face and he replies, “Yes, but that still wasn’t enough to beat you.”

    “All right, let’s go help the others organize the feast. I invited everyone on the beach into your mansion, I hope you don’t mind.”

    “Not at all, I initially built it for my 4 other cousins, but it was too big. So having other families come live in here is only natural. But now I’m thinking if I should covert the pool and hot springs into more living spaces.”

    “No, leave it. The exodus of our people is a stressful time for most of them, they’ll need a way to relax and wind-down.”

    “Oh right, you’re an Earth Warden huh? Do you have a specialty?”

    “Yes, I’m a 95th ranked Herbal Warden. I’m in charge of producing medicinal pills and training-enhancing pills for the Left Hand.”

    At the mention of an Herbal Warden, not to mention a 95th ranked one, Panax’s eyes bulged out, “Ah this must be fate! Uncle, can you tell me what I can do with this?” Panax pulls out the small glass vial that contained the nectar-seed of the Rainbow Flower.

    Surprise and shock filled Elder Ming’s face, “Ah, where did you find this?” He takes the glass vial and observes the golden drop of water while slightly sniffing its aroma, “That’s odd there are only 3 seeds contained within this nectar. If I’m not mistaken this should be a nectar-seed from a Rainbow Flower, but it should have 7 seeds, why is there only 3.”

    “Ah, well I found a 3-colored Rainbow Flower back in a cave at the Left Hand’s hideout, and I asked it to give me something. Or at least it felt like I was asking it. I held the glass vial underneath it and then it gave me that drop.”

    “What?! A 30-year old Rainbow Flower was able to part its nectar-seed because you ‘asked it’? That’s impossible. I have been an Herbal Warden for a solid century and never have I heard a nectar-seed of a Rainbow Flower being harvest before it’s mature.”

    Confused and unsure of how to respond to his uncle’s statement, Panax just stays silent.

    A thought occurred to Ming as he recalls the images of the library, “Panax you’ve never been outside the house before this exodus, correct?”

    Panax nods

    “Did anything odd happen on your way here, to this island?”

    “Odd? I don’t know, oh. Well, I guess it’s kind of odd.”

    “Tell me.”

    “On the voyage here, Tim Hodges called some dolphins and a whale over to the ship so that I could see them.”

    “Ah, yes those carvings in the library I assume are depicted from them?” Elder Ming interrupted.

    “Yes. When I was standing on the railings and I was looking into the eye of the whale, I had this feeling. I don’t really know how to describe it, I guess it was similar to the time I harvest the nectar-seed. It felt like the flower and the whale were trying to tell me something, I didn’t really understand them, but I had this sensation that I knew what they wanted. . . so. . . I jumped off the ship and swam with the whale.”

    If Elder Ming was drinking a beverage, he surely would have spit it out in shock.

    With a slightly embarrassed look Panax continued, “Even though I know it was reckless, I felt that the whale would have protected me.”

    “Ah no, no. It’s quite all right. Panax I think you may be a dual elemental warden. Earth and Water it seems. Your affinity to Earth is unparalleled among your age group. But ‘asking’ the Rainbow Flower to part with its precious nectar-seed, and the whale ‘asking you’ to swim with it are pretty strong signs of a Water Warden.”

    Slightly confused, “I thought Herbal Wardens are in the realm of the Earth Warden, how does ‘asking’ the Rainbow Flower indicates an affinity to water.”

    “You haven’t been properly guided to the aspects of being a warden, it can be quite easy to forget that you’re only 7 years-old. Some disciplines are shared. Water Wardens could train to be Herbal Wardens as much as Earth Wardens can, plants both need earth and water equally to grow.”

    “Ah, that makes sense. Dual elemental warden, huh? I’m quite content with being able to control just Earth, I don’t think I’ll need another affinity.”

    Laughing Elder Ming says, “Imagine for me Panax that you’re back on that ship and you are looking at that whale. Recall for me how you felt. Did you dislike it?”

    Panax immediately responds, “Definitely not, it was an experience that I’ll take with me forever.”

    “Exactly, an affinity to an element greatly affects our desires. Not the other way around. We do not choose our affinity and neither can we reject them. I can guarantee you that every child that discovered their affinity through the First Rite never regretted their element. They may be a bit sad if they have no affinity though.”

    After a long while, voices and shouts of excitement could be heard towards the beach. It seemed like the others have finally finished gathering the people and supplies for a feast.

    Before they reached the mansion and Panax and Elder Ming, Panax curiously asked, “How old are you uncle?”

    “213 years-old,” Elder Ming flatly answered.

    “Whoa, how are you so old?!”

    “Haha, normal humans’ average life-span is about 100 years, right? The average life-span of a magi is 200 years-old. But for Earth and Water Wardens, their average life-span is around 300 years. So I’m actually quite young, all things considered.”

    “Oh, seems like there’s still a lot I don’t know about.”

    “Let’s not worry about such things today. Let’s enjoy a big feast to bring up everyone’s spirits.”

    As the feast carried on through the night, all of the people’s spirits have lifted from being forced out of their homes. The cool night carried the smell of roasting meat and the sounds of singing and dancing. Every face, old or young, had a carefree smile on their face. Everyone wanted to forget the current realization that they’re now exiles and just focus on enjoying this moment. As some of the people started to file into the mansion and claim rooms as they became more tired, Elder Ming—with a wave of his hands, he erected several individual homes that could accommodate a family of 5 all around the mansion. After a few hours, Elder Ming was able to create enough housing for all 3,000 people present today.

    Tomorrow and into the foreseeable future, he and other Earth and Stone Wardens must keep building homes for the incoming refugees. Elder Ming sees Panax and the other 4 kids and smiles as he sees Panax create an individual home just for the 5 of them—forgoing to claim rooms in the mansion.

    Although Panax was about to walk into the mansion to claim a room for himself, Dante suggested the since they represented the imperial family, they must let the rooms be occupied by the citizens first. Panax instantly agreed to this line of thinking and thus created a small home for the 5 of them to live in—no one objected.

    After the feast and everyone safely tucked away in the mansion or in the other homes, Elder Ming could be seen in a dark cave somewhere underneath the island. A light knock on the door pulls him out of his thoughts, “come in,” he says.

    A women that seems just as old as Elder Ming walks in and smiles bleakly at him. Although her old age can be seen in the wrinkles on her face, her eyes’ still sparkle with a youthful vigor, she was Elder Ming’s wife, Hanna a 91st Wind Warden. “So, anything interesting happen while I’ve been busy clearing the bottom levels?”

    “Ah, yes. Our great-grandnephew, Panax Ashe is an innate earth magus and probably also has a dual affinity for water. So there’s that. He created a mansion 300 feet by 200 feet within a half-hour. There’s also that. Oh, and he was able to ‘ask’ a 30 year-old Rainbow Flower to produce a 3-seeded nectar-seed for him. Can’t forget that either.”

    Hanna stares at her husband dumbfounded and finally says, “Ugh, you go finish clearing the bottom levels tomorrow, I want to meet this great-grandnephew of ours.”

    The next day at dawn, the people won’t be getting up for another couple of hours, but Panax is already up and roaming the beaches.

    He’s carefully inspecting the beaches as if he lost something last night and is looking for it. He’ll occasionally bend over and pick something up and place it into a pouch slung across his chest. Off in the distance, Elder Hanna can be seen sitting cross-legged on a small hill near the beach. She just quietly observes this curious little boy, of course she knows that it’s her great-grandnephew Panax.

    After a couple of hours wading through ankle-deep water, Panax finally returns back to the small village that has been created. Because Elder Ming created so many homes around the mansion it looks like a small city.

    Not wanting to wake his cousins up, Panax approaches the mansion’s workshop that he created for himself and started to catalogue his findings. He read that there are a few species of fish that can only be captured in low tides, which happened to be this early morning. He produced several glass jars that had seawater in them and placed several fish into each jar and carefully made qualitative observations about each fish.

    While Panax was putting each fish in a separate jar, Elder Hanna used a [Silencing Field Technique] to stalk Panax and observe him. Panax was so engrossed in his observations that he didn’t realize Elder Hanna was floating behind him, only a few inches from his body.

    As a 91st Wind Warden, to easily stalk a 7 year-old boy was quite literally child’s play.

    She saw and study Panax and was pleasantly surprised at how meticulous he is in all of his notes. She deeply enjoys watching this little boy work, with all the small nuances: like how his penmanship is neat and orderly while still a bit stylistic and pretty, he writes in straight even lines even though is journal pages are just blank sheets of paper; also how Panax silently mumbles to himself, asking himself questions out lout and then after a bit of thought answers his own questions; and how all of Panax’s questions are inherently difficult questions to answer: like “why does this fish have a much thinner tailfin than this one, even though they’re from the same region?” yet he will speculate and form a conclusion of his own with substantial observational support.

    She deeply enjoyed how this little boy’s mind worked, so much so that she forgot to check her surrounds and a slight gasp could be heard towards the door. Elder Hanna and Panax both turn their heads to see Nyah at the doorway. Then after a split second, Panax realizes that Elder Hanna is behind him and he lets out a yelp.

    With a laugh at her own carelessness she speaks, “Ah, I’m sorry for startling you my boy. I’m Elder Hannah, Elder Ming is my husband. I hear that you are my great-grandnephew, Panax.”

    Still slightly startled at being jolted from his deep thoughts, he introduces himself, “Ah yes. I’m Panax Ashe, sorry for being startled earlier, I was lost in thought.”

    “No need to apologize, I should be the one to. I’ve actually been observing you since you came into this workshop, I’m quite impressed with your notes.”

    “Oh wow, I’m quite embarrassed, you’ve been behind me that long, yet I didn’t know it?”

    “Well, I am a 91st Wind Warden, so don’t think too much on the matter. And I believe this pretty young one is Nyah, my great-grandniece. Good morning.”

    With a slight bow, Nyah greets her great aunt, “Ah, good morning great-grandaunt Hanna. I was actually just on my way to the library but I saw some light in here.”

    “No need to be so formal, you can just call me Aunt Hanna. I heard that this mansion was built yesterday, are there even any books in the library?”

    “Ah, no. I was actually planning to read the book I brought from home.”

    “Ah come over child, let me see what types of books you fancy.”

    With a nod, she hurries over and hands over her book to Elder Hanna.

    “Let’s see here, <The Villains’ Way> huh. I’ve read this before. What parts do you like about it so far?”

    “Well, I’ve actually read this book several times already, it’s one of my favorites. Despite its title, I enjoy how the story is about how a hero joins nefarious organizations to learn their ways, so that he’ll be better equipped with destroying them. My mother says ‘you must know yourself and know your enemy, it is only then that you will achieve victory’.”

    “Quite right, quite right. Your mother is a very smart woman.”

    Glowing with pride as her mother was complimented, Nyah heads into the mansion and enters the library.

    After looking at Nyah leave, Elder Hanna finally turned her eyes back onto Panax and to her surprise was already immersed into his discoveries. Without wanting to bother him further, she decides to go peak on her other great-grand nieces and nephews.

    As Panax was thinking about some of the peculiarities among the fish that he’s caught, he turned his head around to ask Elder Hanna a question, but was only surprised to find that no one else is in the workshop.

  9. #9
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    Default Chapter 8

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    Chapter 8

    While thinking about how stealthy Elder Hanna is at entering and leaving his workshop and how it rattled him a bit, a thought surges into his mind. He begins to take out his Silencing Field and immediately opens it up. He’s read how to create glyphs from some books in the library at home. Any human, even without an affinity, can use gemstones and create glyphs to enhance certain things.

    Glyphs can be categorized within the realm of magic and was invented by an innate magus several tens-of-thousands of years ago. It was only with the implementation of gemstones that normal humans were able to create glyphs themselves. With the advent of the gemstones, every human with interest was able to create glyphs, and the millions of different types of glyphs that the humans have created allowed for the field to advance by leaps-and-bounds.

    Glyphs are sentences of magic that allow a particular effect to take place. Each glyph is made up of at least a few runes. The runes are like the words, and glyphs are like sentences—made up of a string of runes.

    Different types of glyphs are created based on their effects. Glyphs that prevent something from entering an area is called a ward. Glyphs that prevent something from leaving an area is called a seal. Glyphs that have a harmful effect on something over a long period of time is called a curse. Glyphs that imbues an object with an element is called an enchantment.

    Before the discovery of liquefying essences into gemstones, glyphs had to be maintained from an elemental warden pumping essences into the glyph to fuel it. Nowadays though, the arrangement of gemstones incorporated into the design of a glyph allows the glyph-itself to draw essences from these gemstones—sustaining it for years or even decades depending on the glyph.

    The humans who dabble in creating glyphs have decided to call themselves Rune Masters, so the elemental wardens adopted that term as well. Of the best Rune Masters on the continent, 4 out of the 5 of them are normal humans. Because glyphs are one of the few areas-of-magic that humans can utilize, the ones that practice it, completely immerse themselves in their study; while elemental wardens usually learn only enough to have a basic understanding and then focus their time on other aspects of magic.

    Just as Panax was observing the alterations he made to the original glyph on the Silencing Field, Dante and Brayden walk into the workshop.

    “Morning Panax. How long ya been up?” Dante asks.

    “Hmm, about a couple of hours now I suppose. What are you guys doing here?”

    “We just came from checking out Brayden’s new forge and then Nyah told us that you were in here, so we decided to pop on over and see what you’re up to.”

    “I see, I’m just trying to figure out how to change this glyph.”

    “What? Wow! You know how to write runes and create glyphs?” Brayden yells as he rushes forward, “my dad was going to teach me after I mastered the basics of the forge so that I can start enchanting the tools I make. Hey, do you think you can teach me?”

    Dante was interested at glyph making too, so he started to walk over. But when Panax was teaching Brayden the basic runes and how to combine them, his eyes started to glaze over and decided to see what Talissa was up to.

    “So glyphs are like sentences. You can have a glyph with just a couple of runes, and that’ll be like creating a very basic sentences like: I ran,” Panax instructed Brayden. “But you can also string together a lot of runes, but they have to all fit and synchronize with each other—that’s the hardest part of making glyphs. Pretty soon you’ll be able to create really elaborate and complicated glyphs. Here give it a try.”

    Brayden takes the pen and starts to write some of the runes Panax’s has taught him, and after a while Panax stops him and says, “Okay those two runes are good, but the runes need to be exact. You can’t have any parts of the rune be missing. See here? This rune’s tail here is supposed to come down all the way to this length here,” Panax points and instructs.

    “Okay good, now that the runes are perfect. We can move onto the next step. This is the hard part, we have to synchronize these two runes. Some glyphs are created in a straight-line, while other glyphs are created into a circle, it just depends on what you want it to do. The two runes that I taught you generally are created in a straight line like this,” Panax picks up the pen and draws it on the piece of paper. Brayden watches with an attentive stare as he tries to analyze what’s going on.

    “Why do these two runes tend to be created into a line?” Brayden asks.

    “Well, do you remember what each of these runes mean?”

    “Yes, this first rune stores Fire Essence. This second rune is weird, the best translation for it is that it ‘emits’,” Brayden responds.

    “Correct, very good. The second rune is kinda like a verb, you can use it with a lot of different ways. If we connect these two runes: the first one to gather Fire Essence and pair it with a rune that ‘emits’, then we can create a glyph that spouts out fire. See how the second run has these funny lines? It tells you the direction it will ‘emit’ in. Go ahead and try to connect the runes.”

    After Brayden inscribes the rues onto the paper and connects the two runes, Panax says, “There you go, good. Next we’ll try it for real, here take this, it’s a rune stylus. Just a fancy word for pen-that-can-carve-into-anything. Try to form those two runes on the ground, and make sure they’re at least the size of your palm.”

    After Brayden failed a couple of times, Panax just raised the stone on the ground to erase the etchings, and on Brayden’s 4th try, he finally created the two runes perfectly and synched them up.

    “Okay, perfect. Now if you were a Fire Warden you could just gather Fire Essence into the first rune and the glyph will activate, otherwise you’ll need to place a ruby right there,” Panax commented and pointed to a seemingly-perfect area that would hold a gemstone. “Hmm, I should have taught you how to make an earth-gathering-rune instead of a fire one, at least then we can see this run in action.”

    As Panax finishes his statement, a familiar voice sounds from behind him, “Here, you can use this ruby.”

    The two boys are startled to find Elder Hanna hovering behind them.

    “Ah. You have to stop doing that Elder Hanna, you’ll scare me to death,” both of the boys said at the same time. Then they looked at each other and burst out laughing. “She was stalking you too, Brayden?”

    “Haha, yeah. Earlier this morning. Scared both Dante and me when we were observing the forge.”

    Without even commenting on the boys’ remarks, she says, “your knowledge in runes aren’t too bad, but the second rune you created shouldn’t be thought as ‘emit’. You should think of it as ‘coalesce’. It will form whatever essence it draws from previous runes into its natural form. Humans created this glyph to be able to manifest the elements of a gemstone. Here,” she throws them a thumb-sized ruby.

    Panax hands it over to Brayden with a smile, and excitement can be seen on Brayden’s face as he takes the ruby and places into the first rune. Immediately the glyph starts to glow and the Fire Essence from the ruby is drawn out and stored into the lines of the first rune. It glows a bright red, and just as the first rune is filled with Fire Essence, the second rune activates and atop the second rune burst forth a flame. The second rune formed a burning flame from the Fire Essence of the ruby, as if the ruby was firewood and the second rune was like a campfire.

    A wide grin can be seen on Brayden’s face as he’s mesmerized by the dancing flame from the glyph that he’s created.

    With a nod and a smile, Elder Hanna finally speaks up, “good work Brayden. Take a look at the thumb-sized ruby. See how bright and full of Fire Essence it is? A fire this size when powered by a glyph with a ruby can be sustained for a month.”

    “If the power of fire can be sustained for a month, then why don’t more homes use glyphs to power their fireplaces during the winter, instead of firewood,” Brayden asks.

    “Haha, a ruby of this size costs 15 pieces of Kandarian gold. A normal family would be hard-pressed to spend that much when they could go out and gather some twigs. Although the ruby can sustain this glyph for a month, when it’s depleted it’ll take a Fire Warden some time to replenish the ruby. Did you know that testing for warden ranks is based on how quickly you’re able to refill gemstones?” Elder Hanna said.

    Surprise could be seen on both of their faces, they have still yet to complete their First Rite, and so the ways of the warden are still shrouded in mystery to them.

    Elder Hanna continues, “at the church, or you can procure one yourself, there’s a gemstone in every element the size of your fist—quite large. And the amount of time it takes you to completely fill that gemstone will determine your rank. An Earth Warden of the 1st rank will take a single year to fill that fist-sized amber. For a warden to improve in 10 ranks requires them to fill those fist-sized gemstones in increments of months, like if an Earth Warden can fill that amber in 11 months, then he can be considered to be at the 10th rank. 10 months: 20th rank, 8 months: 40th rank, 4 months: 80th rank, 3 months: 90th rank, and if a warden can fill the fist-sized gemstone in 2 months’ time, then they could be considered to be at the 100th rank.”

    “What happens if you can fill the gemstone in less than 2 months?” Panax curiously asked.

    “The only people in history to be able to fill a gemstone that size so quickly are innate magi.” Elder Hanna looked piercingly into Panax’s expression as she said those words. And much to her surprise there wasn’t a hint of arrogance, only wonder.

    “Cool! Panax, does that mean you can fill those gemstones that quickly?” Brayden beams as he asked.

    “Umm, although I am an innate magus, I don’t think my internal energy lanes are strong enough to channel so much Earth Essence through my body. Even as an innate magus, I’ll probably still have to train very hard to even have some accomplishments.”

    Surprised and approving of Panax’s response, she says, “well said Panax. Here take this. I hope you will remain diligent in your efforts,” with a flick of her wrist an amber the size of a fist shot towards Panax.

    With his eyes glittering, Panax looks at the fist-sized amber in his hands. This is the first time he’s ever held such a high concentration of Earth Essence.

    “This is my gift to you, in hopes that you keep working hard. This amber is full of Earth Essence, so use it wisely.”

    Just as Brayden looked at the testing gemstone the church uses with fascination, Elder Hanna notices a look of confusion on Panax’s face.

    “What is it Panax?” Brayden notices the confusion too and asks.

    “Umm, you said that this amber is full, right?”

    Elder Hanna nods.

    “For some reason, I feel that it’s only half way filled.” Panax stretches out his arm and hands the amber to Elder Hanna.

    She thinks for a little while and tells the boys to remain here while she fetches Elder Ming. Panax has been a staple of too much uncertainty, so she thinks to herself, (Ming said that the testing amber was full and that I should give it to him to encourage his diligence, but what if Panax is right and the amber isn’t full). She shortly finds her husband below the cave network surrounded by the corpses of magical beasts and immediately tells him to follow her. Without missing a beat, the two of them return to the mansion.

    She takes the amber and hands it over to her husband. Elder Ming examines it closely. After a few minutes of prodding with his [Elemental Sense], he is 100% positive that he can’t add any more Earth Essence into the amber. With a thought he hands back the stone to Panax and says, “Try filling it.”

    With a nod, hundreds of millions of Earth Essence starts to gather into the amber, roughly the same amount he used to play tug-of-war with Elder Ming. Although Elder Hanna couldn’t sense the Earth Essence, she looked at her husband’s face of shock to understand that he’s actually filling the amber. After a while, Panax starts to grow tired and stops drawing in the Earth Essence.

    While covered in sweat, Panax observes the amber again and realizes that he’s barely filled in the missing gap. With a confused look on Panax’s face, he hands over the testing amber to Elder Ming. Once in his hands, he starts to probe the amber with his [Elemental Sense] and surprisingly finds out that there is actually a lot more Earth Essence in the amber, he turns to look at Panax and asks, “Ah, how odd. It seems that you were right, the testing amber wasn’t full before. I can sense a lot more Earth Essence in here now.”

    “Actually, while I was probing it myself, I can definitely say that the amber is only 55% full,” Panax said.

    Nearly dropping the amber, Elder Ming was shocked to hear what Panax just said. Elder Hanna slowly repeats what was said, “Panax did you just say that, the testing amber—that was considered full, is now only 55% full? How much Earth Essence did you converge into the amber?”

    “I don’t really know for sure, but if I had to guess. I would say that I poured in about 5%.”

    After a moment of silence, Elder Ming told his wife quietly to the side, “Honey, the amount of Earth Essence in here is substantially more than before. If this is only 5% increase, then . . . I can’t imagine it being at 100%. That’s like combining the essence from two or three testing gemstones into one. That density of essence is unheard of.”

    After thinking for a bit from the two couple, they turn around and toss the amber back to Panax and say, “All right Panax, keep filing that amber whenever you have the time, but before it’s completely full, come find me or Aunt Hanna alright? Also, before you continue pouring in Earth Essence in, let me make sure you’re doing it correctly.”

    After Elder Ming taught Panax the correct way to draw Earth Essence through his energy channels it became slightly easier for him to manipulate the essences. After about two weeks of pouring Earth Essence into the amber, among other things like: creating homes for the new refugees, teaching Brayden more about glyphs, helping Nyah fill in the library from books the refugees bring, and swimming with Dante and Talissa, he only managed to fill the amber up to 65%.

    He found out that after he pours in more and more Earth Essence, it becomes increasingly difficult to cram more in there. Although there’s still plenty of space within the amber, some of the Earth Essence inside start to leak out, so he must ensure none leak out while at the same time draw more essence in.

    After the first month of being on the island, the refugee population has increased from the initial 3,000 to 40,000. Most of the building supplies—things that Earth Wardens couldn’t produce like glass, fabric, leather, ingots of iron, copper, silver, and gold, were used for fixing and adding more docks, building the farms and irrigation system, weaving clothes, and making windows and doors.

    Essential buildings have also been raised within the first month as more people started to pour in. At first they erected a market place to the refugees to trade with each other. But as the weeks came, more and more of the refugees came wounded and injured, so the Earth Wardens created a hospital and several Herbal Wardens started to churn out medicinal pills from ingredients the refugees brought and whatever could be harvest nearby. A few Water Wardens have decided to work there full-time, helping ease some of the pain.

    During this first month, Nyah has been spending a lot of time in the hospital learning from the Herbal Wardens on how to asses injuries and how to treat them.

    Dante during the first month, as the third-prince, was taken around the island by a few of the adults to ensure the presence of the imperial family could be seen. Much of his time was spent on helping new refugees find a place to stay and organizing a portion of the island.

    Since being on the island for four weeks, Panax finally was able to fill the testing amber up to 75%. Brayden also started learning how to use the forge and started to assist several of the blacksmiths that have come to the island. The blacksmiths that have been producing farming tools, windows, doors and other mundane things and have taken a liking to Brayden’s helpful nature. Upon his incessant request, one of the blacksmiths agreed to craft for him a bow and a quiver.

    With the bow and quiver in hand, Brayden jogs over to find Talissa where she’s currently helping Panax and Nyah organize the library. With a light knock on the door, the three of them turn to look up at the grinning Brayden.

    “I come bearing gifts!” Brayden proudly shouts and immediately reveals the bow and quiver behind his back, “Here, these are for you Talissa, Martin finally agreed and to make you a bow and quiver.”

    With a happy yelp, Talissa jumped up and down as she reached over to hug Brayden, “best cousin . . . ever! Thanks Brayden.”

    “Hmm, seems that the quiver is empty. Let’s go get some arrows and test it out,” suggested Panax. The four of them went to find Dante to see if he’d like to join them but was met with one of the adults, saying that he’s currently busy. A bit dejected, the kids went to the edge of the forest and Panax was able to create several hundred arrow shafts from the trees. Although they were just tapered at the end of the shaft and didn’t have an arrowhead, they still needed to find some feathers for fletching.

    The kids went to the market to find the butcher to trade for some feathers. After seeing the imperial kids, the butcher agreed to give him the pile of feathers to them free of charge. The feathers were initially supposed to be given to the weavers to make mattresses.

    After spending the afternoon fletching the arrows, Panax created a clear path with a stone pillar at the end as an archery range. Before Talissa even drew back her bow, Dante came up to the group.

    “Finally done with my duties. You know, looking at you guys, I’m starting to wander if being in-line for the throne is overrated. It seems that you guys get to do whatever you want,” with a long sigh Dante sits down.

    With a laugh, Talissa hands him the bow and quiver and says, “Here, you go first. Seems like you need it.”

    After Talissa instructs Dante on the proper stance and form on how to use the bow, Dante draws and lets the arrow loose. It whizzes in the air and almost reaches the target. After the third shot, Dante finally lands a lucky arrow on the stone pillar 40 feet away. As the arrow touches the pillar, it immediately shatters.

    “Oh, that’s not good, didn’t think about how the arrows with no iron tips will stick, hmm. Give me a second,” Panax says as he sees the arrow splinter into hundreds of slivers.

    Panax comes back to fetch a pale of water and pours it into the ground nearby, after a little while he controls a slab of mud from the ground and presses it against the stone pillar. Satisfied with his work, he jogs back to the group.

    “Okay, that should be better. Try again Dante.”

    After he fires another arrow, it barely strikes the edge of the mud and sticks. With cheers of encouragement each and every one of the kids tries out their skill or luck for some. Surprisingly, all of Talissa’s shot always landed on the stone pillar but more impressive is that they were all clustered together, unlike everyone else’s lucky shots here and there.

    After Talissa, Nyah came the closest in having 8 of her arrows strike the pillar, then Brayden, Panax, and lastly Dante. Although that’s how the order was, Talissa and Nyah’s arrows were almost always seen on the stone pillar, the boys might be lucky if 3 of the 10 arrows hit the pillar.

    As the days passed and their days were filled with chores to help around the island, at this point every one of the kids had some niche. Nyah could always be found helping in the hospital or the library. Talissa was always either helping the weavers make blankets and clothes or at the archery range, Brayden was always seen helping the blacksmiths and running around filling order requests for tools and furnishings, Dante was always on the docks helping the adults in organizing the incoming refugees, and Panax could always be found helping the farmers or fishermen to secure a steady supply of food.

    A couple of months pass in a blink of an eye.

    The island is particularly bustling with activity as everyone is setting up for the New Year’s festival. It was late at night and Panax could be seen in his workshop as he’s always there in his free time thinking about how to solve the increasingly problematic food issue. Since his father’s success at Seaway a couple of months ago, the evacuation has been progressing smoothly. With the winter snow setting in, the main army sent by Santar’dun can’t help but wait for the snow and ice to thaw before moving their 400,000-strong army to subjugate Kandar.

    Because of the looming threat is on hold, more and more refugees started to come to Old Reliable, nearly around 300,000. The whole island, except for the dense forest in the center, has been converted with homes. The initial expectations were that the island wouldn’t house more than 200,000 refugees, now with more of the island being converted to homes, means there will less land dedicated to farming.

    Elder Ming tried to even raise living platforms that expanded into the ocean, but he found it too taxing to accomplish. He would also need to dedicate Stone Wardens to maintain the strength of the pillars underwater from the constant flow of the ocean, in short it wasn’t worth it. Elder Ming also tried to cut into large hills and form underground cave networks for the refugees, but there simply wasn’t enough space below the island—too many magical beasts have yet to be cleared to expand lower. He also didn’t want the cave networks to be used by refugees, since they were temporary headquarters for the Left Hand.

    The current solution to the land problem is that they have started to build multiple-storied homes. As Stone Wardens raised the current homes into the air, creating second and third floors, the base of the home got wider to accommodate the new height. While most of the island has just single-story homes, about a third of the homes have been raised into this pyramid-3-tierd-home to meet the demand of housing.

    With the housing problem under control for now, Panax has been trying to figure out ways to enhance their farming capabilities. Their current farms can’t sustain 300,000 refugees. Each day they must dip more and more into their food stockpiles, and even on some occasions they must ask nearby islands for food. The fishing industry has been under enormous pressure lately, and not just on Old Reliance but on most other islands as well.

    The Sea Wardens led by Tidus understands that if they allow their ships to overfish, it may negatively harm the fishing habitat. And if they’ve overfished then it could be possible that the seas would no longer produce any fish for them in the future. Even while Tidus is constantly petitioned by the refugees and the leaders of some of the islands to allow their ships to fish more, he sternly and resolutely denies them.

    If the western islands don’t come up with a solution to their food, then they might not even last to the next winter. Some evidence of illegal fishing was already caught by Tidus’s Sea Wardens and they’ve been punished by having their rations further reduced, to just a single meal a day for everyone on that island.

    As Panax is racking his brain on how to fix this problem, he looks up and finds a familiar figure standing by the doorway.

    “Father!” Panax yells and runs to Garrote and tightly hugs him. “What are you doing here, aren’t you supposed to be assisting in the evacuation?”

    “With the threat of Santar’dun several thousands of miles away and bogged down by the snow, I was able to sneak out for a bit and spend New Year’s here. What, aren’t you glad that I’m here?”

    Shaking his head resolutely, “No, no. I’m quite happy to see you, it’s been a couple of months,” Panax says hastily.

    “I hear you’ve been a great help out there in the fields with the other farmers,” Garrote praises.

    “Yeah, it’s kinda fun growing something with your hands.”

    “Well, don’t overdo it. It seems that you sometimes forget how old you are. Panax, you’re only 7. Help out whenever you can, but leave the heavy lifting to us, adults. Okay?”

    “Haha. Well ‘Mr. Adult’ solve this problem for me and I’ll take my break: our food stores can only last for 2 months—barely enough through the winter. If we supplement our stockpiles with farming, fishing, and trading, we’ll be able to last for a year. How do you propose we feed ourselves next year without adequate farms or fish?”

    Taken aback by his son’s snarky reply he can only shake his head and say, “Your concern is noted son, but thinking about this problem can’t be helped right now. With the fields nearly frozen during the winter, we’ll just have to try our best when spring comes.”

    As if a lightning bolt struck his body, Panax stood there silently. The only thing that changed was Panax’s face. It went from realization, shock, confusion, to finally happiness. With a shout Panax just runs out of his workshop and goes into the library. He immediately locates his <Magical Devices Vol. I> and starts to flip through it. He stops abruptly at a device and analyzes all of its components then he starts to flip through the book again before he finds something else. He’s analyzed a few devices and finally closed the book and runs back into his workshop.

    Panax immediately opens up his leather-bound journal and starts drawing runes and forming glyphs. After a few minutes of following his son and observing his focus, Garrote smiles and leaves. After a couple of hours, Panax looks at his handiwork and is content. He goes to the floor and inscribes the glyph he just created then activates it by drawing Earth Essence into the first rune. Happy with the results, Panax goes back to the workbench to work on the other two glyphs he needs.

    After two weeks of nonstop work on these three glyphs, he finally shouts in excitement when he’s finally done. The first glyph that he finished took him a couple of hours. The second glyph took him a single day. The last glyph however, has been the source of countless frustration and anger, and it took him 10 days to complete it.

  10. #10
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    Default Chapter 9

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    Chapter 9

    The final product is that the three glyphs are perfectly inscribed onto three slabs of granite. Later the next day, he tells his father to meet him at the farmlands for a surprise and to bring a thumb-sized ruby, amber, and sapphire.

    Early in the morning Panax arrives at the farmlands and is surprised to find Elder Hanna, Elder Ming, and Collier along with his father.

    Before Panax could speak, Elder Ming said, “Your father said that you might have a solution to our food problem, is that right Panax? Haha, no need to give me that face. Don’t be shy, we’re all family here. What do you have for us?”

    “Umm, well. In my book <Magical Devices Vol. I> there were a few conceptual devices the author wanted to create but wasn’t able to. One of the devices fertilized a piece of land, regardless of where it is: rocky mountains, deserts, even icecaps. I created that device.” Panax immediately hands over the three slabs of granite to the adults.

    At the mention of <Magical Devices Vol. I> Elder Ming and Elder Hanna’s eye gleamed a little bit.

    After taking the slabs and momentarily examining the glyphs behind them, all the adults were quite shocked. “Panax, where did you learn how to craft runes and glyphs?”

    “Most of the basic runes I learned in some of the books in our library at home. A lot of those runes on those slabs though, I had to create.”

    “What? You created some of these runes? How?” Elder Ming exclaimed, out of the four of them he was the most experienced Rune Master.

    “Well after I read and memorized a lot of the runes, I realized that some of them did the same things except for a tiny difference. I wrote down all the differences between some dozens of runes and compared their structure. I learned that some of the structures to a rune correlate directly to a purpose. I spent a week experimenting with different ways to create a rune, and I finally was able to achieve what I wanted.”

    “Are all of your notes in that journal of yours, may I see it?” Elder Ming asked.

    With a nod, Panax hands his journal over to the adults and Elder Ming flips through and analyzes the boy’s work. “Amazing, so the length of the tail to this rune corresponds to how wide an area it can cover. The layers of circles in this rune allows you to affect intensity. This rune here is quite well-known to affect direction, and you can even make it split into multiple directions based on the order of these dots? Truly amazing work Panax,” Elder Ming praised as he looks at all of the notes and lists of runes Panax has jotted down. “You’re ONLY 7 years-old! How can your mind be so analytical? And look at these runes! There are dozens of individual glyphs that are interlinked together, and you created it in 2 weeks?! Too unbelievable, too unbelievable,” Elder Ming yelled with excitement.

    Panax slightly blushed as he didn’t know how to respond. The first and second slab of granite had maybe 5 glyphs in between them, but the third slab had at least 30 glyphs interlinked together to create a desired effect.

    Noticing his son’s blush, Garrote laughed and said, “Don’t be embarrassed son. It’s just quite unbelievable that you have such a powerful mind. Anyways, show us how this works.”

    With a nod, Panax immediately summons a three-sided obelisk about the height of 7 feet. He then implants each granite slab into the three sides, making sure the glyphs aren’t exposed to the outside, he flips each slab so that the glyphs point towards the center of the obelisk. At eye-level there are three holes that are perfectly shaped for each gemstone.

    This is the first time since Panax summoned that earthen wall to protect himself from the [Wind Arrow] that Garrote has seen Panax manipulate Earth Essence and he’s amazed at his son’s proficiency. Noticing the slots for the gemstones, Garrote says, “Here Panax, an amber, a sapphire, and a ruby,” as he hands the three gemstones to Panax.

    Elder Ming, Elder Hanna, Collier, and Garrote notice that two of the slots for the gemstones have circular plates around them, but before any one of them could ask what they mean, Panax says, “This one here is for the amber,” he places an amber in the slot, “the glyphs behind it will draw the Earth Essence in the amber and disperse it into the ground, ensuring the crops to have enough nutrients. This is for the sapphire,” as Panax slots the sapphire into the circular plate. He continues, “The glyph with the sapphire will only activate if the rune is correctly oriented. You can turn the glyph on and off by rotating this circular plate the rune is inscribed on. It will click if it’s oriented correctly.”

    The adults nod in approval at the creative use of a circular plate to ensure its activation. Conventional glyphs would usually only need the insertion of the gemstone to activate, thinking along these lines, Elder Ming interrupts by asking, “Do you intend for the gemstones to be placed in the obelisk permanently? It’s sad to say, but there may be thieves that could just pry them out.”

    With a nod, Panax continues, “There are also wards that prevent such a thing to happen. The wards are designed to prevent normal humans to pry the gemstones, however if a warden of at least the 20th rank comes by, then it could be pried from them—it can’t be helped.”

    The elders nod in understanding.

    Panax continues, “The sapphire will wet the ground, ensuring that it is fertile and irrigated all year-round. To save on the Water Essence inside of it, the farmer may want to rotate the glyph and deactivate it during the rainy season.

    This last slot is for the ruby. It was the most challenging glyph to create. To ensure that the Fire Essence didn’t dry up the ground, I had to create a dozen glyphs to cycle the Fire Essence so that only very little leaked into the ground. This glyph should be only activated during the winter season as it will prevent the ground from freezing over, allowing us to farm year-round. If all three runes are activated indefinitely then a warden must come by the obelisk at least once a month to replenish the gemstones.”

    After he slotted the ruby and turned the glyph, the three-sided obelisk started to hum while emitting a soft white glow. Instantly the snow and ice on farmlands within a mile radius started to melt and a soft warmth permeated throughout the ground.

    Elder Ming bent over and scooped a handful of dirt from the ground and examined it. And started to boom with laughter, “Hahahaha, I never thought I’d live to see the day when a 7 year-old upstages me. I’m the author of the <Magical Devices> series. This soil is perfect Panax, well done. Hahahaha. When I was the family head, I wrote those books and placed them into the library, who would have thought you would finish some of my work.”

    Surprised at Elder Ming’s confession, Panax asks, “Ah! Does that mean you have the other volumes? I searched all over the library and I could only find the first one.”

    “No, I don’t have them on me. But don’t fret, if you’re able to create this, then you have no need for the other volumes. I’ll tutor you directly and be your guide after you go through your First Rite.”

    A look of embarrassment and confusion could be seen on Panax’s face as he looks at his feet and then slightly eyes Collier.

    It was only when Collier sees Panax’s stare that he realizes why he’s acting so weird. With a laugh Collier says, “It’s all right Panax, Elder Ming will be able to sufficiently guide you. Not only is he a higher rank, but he’s an accomplished Herbal Warden as well as a first-rate Rune Master. You’ll learn a lot from him.”

    “Okay,” Panax nods as he was recently reminded that Collier wanted to be his guide after his First Rite as well.

    “Since that’s all settled, Panax how many of these obelisks can you make?” Garrote asked

    “Well now that I know which runes and glyphs to make, I can make a dozen of the three-set-slabs a day.”

    All of the adults smile and Elder Hanna says, “All right. Devote all of your time into making as many of these as possible. If you can, write down all the glyphs and instructions down so that we can send a few obelisks to the other islands along with instructions on how to make more. But don’t overdo it, if you feel tired then rest. I imagine your grandfather Tidus will be thrilled with the news.”

    “Oh, by the way, Panax how is that fist-sized amber coming along. May I see it?” Elder Ming asks.

    “Sure. It’s about 90% full, but it’s getting really difficult. Each time I try to gather Earth Essence into the stone, more and more of the essences leak out. I’d have to spend a full day on it just to cram enough Earth Essence to increase it by 1%, it’s too exhausting to do continuously.”

    Elder Ming takes the testing amber and examines it. As an Earth Warden he notices that the amber is astonishingly bright with essence. Normally ambers emit a soft orange-yellow glow, but with this testing amber so full of Earth Essence, it is almost nearly white. Garrote and Collier also take the stone into their hands and examine it and they also notice some of the essences are in fact leaking out of the stone.

    “How curious, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any gemstones leaking essences before, you say that it’s about 90% filled?” Collier asks.

    Panax nods before the amber is given back to him.

    “Well, we’re all quite excited to see what the amber will look like when it’s completely filled. It’s nearly bright-white right now.” Garrote says.

    “All right Panax, try your best at making those obelisks, but pace yourself,” Elder Ming says.

    Collier and the adults think along the lines of the same thing, (Truly unfathomable, it seems that we will witness the history of an innate magus.)

    A couple of days pass and it’s finally the time for the New Year’s festival. All of the refugees these past couple of days have had their spirits uplifted as news of a miraculous device was created to help with the food shortage. Wanting to spare Panax of unwanted questions and attentions, the elders attributed the device to the hard work of the imperial family to help solidify their influence—which Panax was more than happy to oblige.

    Panax and his cousins could be seen roaming around the festival playing games and eating snacks. It was quite a joyous time for all people present, a single day to forget that they are all now exiles. There were many contests based around feats of strength, like: archery, javelin, races, contests of strength, and even a swimming competition. Of course during the archery competition, Talissa won smoothly in her age group. There was even a raised arena for elemental wardens to spar each other and put on a show of skill for everyone.

    On the beach, the Water Wardens would put on a water show for the children and some of the adults. Jets of water would rise from the ocean in a brilliant cascade. Also on the beach, was a stone and ice sculpting contest among the Earth Wardens and Water Wardens, and of course Panax won within the “below 10th rank” group. Even though he had exceptional control, he isn’t really artistic so he would naturally lose compared to the higher-ranking adults when they formed beautiful statues and tableau vivant. But his statue of the blue whale was still quite breathtakingly detailed and life-like.

    Some of the adults and children prepared a play for the festival. Panax and all of his cousins participated, although Panax played as a tree and Talissa played as a bird which perched on his branch, the other three cousins were quite eloquent and convincing in their acting. Among the three, Nyah was the most convincing in her acting. She held nothing back as tears would flow from her cheeks when her character found out about the death of her father—a chord that struck with a lot of these refugees as a fair amount of sniffling could be heard in the audience.

    As the day finally passed and night arrived, the apex of the festival started: fireworks. Displays of extravagant flares from Fire Wardens could be seen for miles as they were shot up into the air. The fireworks display from the other islands could also be seen. Beautiful dazzling colors lit up the sky and enormous creatures—mundane and magical, were created with these lightshows.

    Late that night, or early morning, in the cave networks below the island, Garrote and Elder Ming and Elder Hanna are seen sitting and drinking tea.

    “The news reports don’t look to promising Garrote, this won’t be like Seaway. When do you plan on abandoning the continent and start to rebuild here in the islands?” Elder Hanna asks.

    “Abandoning Kandar and fully constructing in the west islands is the last resort. If there’s a chance that we can stop the Santar’dun main army, then I’ll try,” Garrote resolutely responds.

    “The reports indicate that their 400,000-strong man army consist of a regiment of 30,000 elite knights. 30,000 elite knights! The cost that Santar’dun puts into training and outfitting a single elite knight compares to an entire regiment of 1,000 of their ordinary soldiers, these aren’t going to be same type you met at Seaway. They’ll all be outfitted with gemstones that power personal wards to fend off arrows and physical attacks. They even outfit their warhorses with gemstones to boost their speed and vitality,” Elder Ming sighs.

    Garrote calmly looks over the report in his hands again before sighing. “There is one tactic that I’m willing to employ, but it’s quite treacherous.”

    Elder Ming and Hanna look at each other before they nod towards Garrote.

    “We can instigate war among the kingdoms that surround Santar’dun. We’ll employ Left Hand agents to disguise as Santar’dun agents to destroy the farmlands and food supplies of these countries. During their time of need through this winter, we can supply them with our own foods. The first obelisk that Panax installed has shown some remarkable results. It seems that the crops grown near these obelisks take 1/5 of the time it normally does to mature. This alone gives us an unprecedented advantage.”

    “Hmm, yes. That could work. But if we really instigate these wars, it’s possible that we will incur the wrath of the full might of Santar’dun. They may send the bulk of their forces to crush all of the western kingdoms. Also what happens if these kingdoms trace the instigations back to us?” Elder Hanna analyzes and asks.

    “If Santar’dun is willing to risk sending the bulk of their forces this way, then we might have to cut a deal with Talver and ensure that they keep the eastern front of Santar’dun under pressure. And if the kingdoms can trace the instigation back to us, I think gifting them these obelisks and how to manufacture them may appease them. What do you think?” Garrote asks.

    “I do not like leaving the fate of Kandar in the hands of Talver. These obelisks, although precious, can only be kept secret for so long, so gifting them will be acceptable. Besides asking Talver to keep up the eastern pressure, how else do you plan to deal with the full force of Santar’dun?” Elder Ming asks.

    “More and more of our military strength has been recovering after the victory at Seaway. We’re finding more pockets of resistances within the central duchies. We currently only have the strength of 300,000 men. With so few forces, if the full force of Santar’dun is brought on us, we will lose. I can’t possible see any way around it. When faced with overwhelming force, clever tactics and strategies are less effective. Santar’dun has nearly 3 million soldiers within their borders. Nearly 1.5 million fighting Talver, and 400,000 sent here. The prospects for our 300,000 men against their million soldiers is quite bleak if they were to push us with the bulk of their forces,” Garrote sadly reports.

    “Have you considered gifting these obelisks to Santar’dun? We know that the main purpose of their invasion is because of their diminishing food supplies,” Elder Hanna says the one thing that all of three of them are thinking. But how can they so easily hand over such a precious item to their aggressors, especially without any guarantees.

    “No, we can’t show weakness to the enemy. The other advantage we hold, besides the food, is that Santar’dun doesn’t have a navy. Most of their ships and harbors have been destroyed by Talver. We can try to outfit our ships with long-range glyphs to harass them from a safe distance.”

    “No, we don’t have enough time to outfit that many ships to deal any real damage.”

    “I know this is a bit of a stretch, but it seems that Panax’s innate affinity is closely tied to runes and glyphs. Think he can construct us a glyph to deal enough damage to Santar’dun?” Garrote asks.

    “Hmm,” Elder Ming and Hanna are deep in thought, “that . . . might work. His comprehension of runes far outstrips my own. It may be possible for him to create a glyph with a powerful enough attack to put a real dent into the 400,000-strong army,” Elder Ming says absent-mindedly.

    “Okay, let’s get our agents in place to instigate war among the surrounding kingdoms. If Panax can create a glyph to defeat Santar’dun then we can recall our agents. If he can’t do it, then we’ll send our agents out and deal with the main bulk of Santar’dun when the time comes,” Garrote resolutely states, “in the meantime, let’s keep sending diplomats to our neighbors and ask for aid.”

    Elder Ming and Hanna both gravely nod.

    A couple of days after the New Year’s festival, Garrote approaches his son in the workshop and asks, “What are you working on son?”

    Surprised by his father’s appearance, Panax replies, “a detection system, actually. So people can’t sneak up on me,” with a slight chuckle.

    Panax resumes his work on changing the Silencing Field in front of him when he realizes his father seems hesitant about something and without turning around he asks, “what is it father? Something on your mind?”

    “Actually yes. I’m not sure how to bring this up, so I might as well just be straight with you. Your innate affinity seems to also give you tremendous analytical abilities when it comes to creating runes and glyphs. I need you to create me a glyph that is capable of defeating the army of Santar’dun,” Garrote plainly states to his son. Even though his son will turn 8 in two weeks, as an innate magus his potential already outstrips most adults.

    “Uh, I don’t understand.”

    With a laugh, Garrote says, “That’s something I don’t hear you say very often. The elders and I have come up with a few ways to deal with the 400,000-strong army of Santar’dun that’s making its way westward. Before we put these drastic strategies in place, we’d like to see if you’re able to create a glyph that’s capable of devastating Santar’dun.”

    “I see. Well I’d like to help you out anyway I possibly can, but I don’t know the first thing about weapon-based glyphs.”

    “The only thing that you need is: a willingness. I entirely believe you have the ability to create such glyphs, but you must be willing. Elder Ming can assist you on brainstorming what to create,” Garrote sternly says.

    With a nod, Panax agrees.

    “All right, I’ll send word to Elder Ming. Ah, before I forget to tell you, I plan to go back to Seaway and prepare for the battle this spring after your birthday.”

    A little while later.

    “So Panax my boy, let’s see what you’re really made of, eh?” Elder Ming says with a smile.

    “I don’t know anything about weapon-based glyphs. Can you show me how some of them are made?”

    “Sure, here’s a book detailing all the various glyphs the military uses.”

    Panax flips through a fairly thin book. He looks through all the various designs and reads the purpose of each one. Most of the weapons-based glyphs are actually enchantments that imbue and direct Fire Essences. The basic design seems to be pillars inscribed with glyphs. Most of these enchantments seem to be variations of glyphs that cast [Flame Jet] that will emit form the tip of the pillar. A few of the glyphs imbue Wind Essence and cast [Gale] in a straight line from the tip of the pillar. The more Panax reads through the book the more he realizes that it’s quite lacking. He feels that the dozens of combinations of runes and glyphs can create so many more possible weapons, but if these are the staple of military-based-glyphs then it’s quite disappointing.

    Panax turns and ask Elder Ming, “Are these it? Are there no other applications of weapons-based glyphs? Do all militaries use some form or variations of the ones presented in this book?”

    “Hmm, Yes. Although most of the militaries have their own secret-weapons, the bulk of the weapons-glyphs that are used in modern warfare today, are based on those represented in this book,” Elder Ming answers, “why? What are you currently thinking?”

    “With the near-limitless potentials of glyphs and runes, it seems that the current state of weapon-based glyphs are severely lacking. Why are all the offensive ones use glyphs that variations of warden spells?”

    “Because that’s what people know. Most military research and development teams use the awe-inspiring power of warden spells and incorporate them into glyphs. What are you thinking to build?”

    “I don’t know yet, but it seems that whichever direction we go, it will far surpass anything that has been created thus far.”

    “How can you be so sure?”

    “There’s a glyph that I’ve been researching. I noticed some of its affects in my Silencing Field that I’ve been tinkering with. If I can fully find the right runes, it might be possible to create two glyphs that are linked together. The link between the two glyphs can traverse hundreds of thousands of miles. We could create communication devices that, when linked, would allow anyone to send messages across the world to anyone else. But the biggest application of this new glyph is remote activation and control.

    This books says that one of the biggest limiting factor to glyphs is that after it casts a spell a single time, the gemstone will need to be replaced or at least refilled by several wardens. The problem with the first issue is that it’s too costly to use a single gemstone for a single attack. The second problem is that wardens on the battlefield replenishing gemstones are vulnerable and often targeted.

    If we can link two glyphs though, we’ll be able to have dozens of wardens refilling the gemstones on the glyphs at the front-lines from the safety of the islands.”

    “Truly? You can create a link between two glyphs? And it can even span across the globe?” Elder Ming said meekly, he didn’t dare believe something so practical can be achieved so easily. In truth however, Panax’s understanding of runes directly stems from his ability as an innate magus, his ability as a Rune Master is unprecedented. The innate magus before Panax was exactly the same, she had this compelling sense of intuition that led her to discover dozens of new applications for elemental essences. This is how magic has advanced throughout history—by relying on the births of these innate magi.

    “Yes, the further the glyphs are, however, the harder it will be for the wardens to replenish the depleted gemstones. It’s like the [Whisper Wind Technique]. What is the main difference that allows a Wind Warden to send a message with [Whisper Wind] a few miles versus several hundreds of miles?”

    “It depends on the Wind Warden’s strength.”

    “Right, and from what Aunt Hanna has told, the strength of a warden is based on how much essence he can channel. So the more essence you can pump into the [Whisper Wind Technique] the further it can go. The same law applies to these linked glyphs, you’ll just need to spend more essences to connect to the glyphs at the front-lines.”

    “Hmm, quite interesting Panax. Okay, so let’s say you achieve this linkage between glyphs, we still need a device to actually destroy the army of Santar’dun.”

    “Well, that’s where I’m having trouble. I never read about warfare or seen a battle. I don’t know where to begin,” Panax replies, “Uncle, if you could create a device that could do anything, what would you want it to do?”

    “To send my enemies to the abyss of hell.”

    With that simple statement Panax gets an idea and he grins widely at his uncle. Seeing this smile, Elder Ming couldn’t help but grin too, “what is it?”

    “Uncle, how many of these testing stones, specifically the amber ones can you acquire? The ambers need to be full though. Or at least full come spring time.”

    “Each church throughout Kandar has at least 2. And with most of the churches evacuated to these islands, I would say I can collect about 50 of them form the churches. I’ll also try to find some among rich families. Tell me what you’re thinking Panax, don’t keep me in suspense!”

    Panax secretly tells Elder Ming his plan.

    With a large grin Elder Ming says, “Yes, that would work. We can always rebuild the city, so don’t worry about that. All right, you get started on figuring out how to link glyphs, I’ll go use my resources to acquire as many testing ambers as I can. I’ll also tell your father, I think he’ll be pleased.”

    “Oh, before you go, try to gather as many Earth Wardens to this island before spring.”

    A week later.

    A few days before Panax’s First Rite he was able to finally fill the testing amber to 99%. He decided to hold off on filling it completely until the day of his rite since the elders, Collier, and his father will be there, he can just show them the testing amber then and not waste their time.

    Since the exodus, the church has been scrambling to establish facilities on the islands to uphold the three-rite custom. Most of the children must wait until May and November for their First Rite as they decided to clump the 8 year-olds into batches. Even with scarce resources, the church has been able to maintain the status-quo and get every 8 year-old child through their First Rites.

    Because Panax is a member of royalty, he was able to get a priest to perform the First Rite for him exclusively. Because the imperial family was able to build the farming obelisk, not very many people objected to the extravagance of calling a priest to perform a single rite.

    By his 8th birthday, the first batch of crops on the whole island was mature enough for harvest. The obelisk has been only implemented for 6 weeks.

    The new harvest was also used to supply a feast for the people as Panax, a member of royalty was having his First Rite. Besides the intimate few, no one knew he was an innate magus.

    As the ceremony began, a few of the guests started to file into the church. Above on the dais, Panax was already seated in the place of honor while flanked by his father. Off into the corner of Panax’s eye, he see a familiar figure and he stands up and shouts, “Mom!”

    Since the ceremony hasn’t really officially begun, he jumps from his chair and runs straight to Gwen and embraces her. Off to either side of Gwen, Lisa and Kyle could be seen.

    “Lisa! Kyle! You all made it! I thought you guys would be too busy to come.”

    “Haha, well. Your First Rite is the big one,” Kyle said.

    “Kyle, I’m sorry I wasn’t there for your Rite of Choosing. I wanted to go, but I was still in Kandar. I heard you chose to become a Sea Warden and that grandfather Tidus accepted you as his person disciple? Tell me, are the all legends about him true?” Panax excitedly asks.

    “Don’t worry about it little bro, mother and I barely got settled on Tidus’s Chair when I went through my Second Rite.”

    “Okay, enough chit chat, let’s go up and not dally,” Gwen instructs her son.

    Up on the dais, Panax is seated on the only chair, while his mother and father proudly stood behind and off to the side. As the ceremony began, the priest leisurely strolls down the aisle with a plate that had a shard of Soul Crystal. The one and only reason why it was so costly for kingdoms and empires to test a child’s affinity was solely because of the need of a Soul Crystal. Kandar was the only kingdom that actually used a solid piece of Soul Crystal, other empires and kingdoms diluted the crystal to form Soul Water. With Soul Water, they’ll be able to test dozens of children as opposed to the single child you could test with a Soul Crystal. The advantage of using a Soul Crystal was the formation of the Kandarian Identification Card.

    Despite the use of Soul Water, the kingdom of Kandar is still the only one able to test all of their children where other kingdoms and empires could, at-best, test 1/6 of their kids. Some kingdoms and empires didn’t bother to test all the kids and just tested the children of nobility.

    The direct reason Kandar had such a high quantity of Soul Crystals is because of the mines that produced them. The origin of the Soul Crystals is Kandar’s greatest state-secret. The Left Hand directly mines each crystal vein they come across as they dig further and further down their cave networks. The high concentrations of dead magical beasts, with their magical cores still in their bodies, will eventually solidify into a new Soul Crystal vein. The elders will dig further down and create cave networks until they come upon a nest of magical beasts. After killing all the beasts, they will seal up the tunnel for a set amount of time. The creation of Soul Crystals is somewhat akin to making wine, as you need time to allow the alcohol to ferment.

    As the priest finally stood before Panax, he brought the tray containing the Soul Crystal in front of him. With a knife on the side of the tray, the priest nods to Panax. Panax then takes the knife to prick his finger and allows the blood to drop onto the Soul Crystal.

    While the Soul Crystal absorbs the blood, the priest goes on to identify Panax by stating his birthday, who his parents are, the place of his birth and his affinity. The Soul Crystal changes colors and finally rests on orange-yellow.

    To determine affinity strength you needed to look for clear spaces within the Soul Crystal. If there is any area on the Soul Crystal that is still clear, then it’s interpreted as having average affinity. If there is only a speck of color, then its low affinity. If the Soul Crystal has no clear spaces in the crystal than its high affinity.

    Just as the priest was about to announce Panax’s high affinity for earth, the Soul Crystal started to change colors again. The eyes of the priest were wide with amazement: dual affinity. After a few breaths, the Soul Crystal is a deep blue with no clear spaces.

    When he announces that Panax has high affinity in both earth and water, shocked gasps of surprise can be seen all of the guests within the church, except for Panax’s immediate family. After the testing of affinity came the binding of the Soul Crystal.

    The crystal, guided by the priest, floated into the air and flattened into a thin card—3 inches by 5 inches and only 1/5 of an inch thick. On the card listed all of Panax’s identification: Name, birthplace, birthday, parents’ name, and affinity. The priest nods towards Panax and Panax finally grabs onto the thin card and lets it enter his body.

    The baptism officially begins as the Soul Crystal card enters his body and merges with his soul. A sudden enormous change occurs within Panax’s mind, as if he was colorblind before and now can see color. The baptism of the soul only took a few moments and afterwards, Panax was able to sense Earth and Water Essence, although he immediately figures out that his control over the Water Essence is extremely lacking compared to his control over the Earth Essence.

    “Now with the First Rite officially completed, you are now a registered citizen of Kandar,” the priest’s voice booms and a rise of cheers and applause could be heard as several shouts of “congratulations” are mixed in.

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