Author’s note: This episode is inspired by wuxia stories that I have wrote. But…too long to post here, will do so in the loading screen. Alright, I hope you have as much fun reading this chapter as I had writing it.

EPISODE 8: First Lessons

Arthur’s POV

“Well, now that the battle is over, it’s time for our discussion.” Dastur announces to the group. Everybody seemed to groan at his words.

“What discussion?” I asked. Even louder groans could be heard.

“Why, our post battle discussion. You present your views on the performance on the battle: How you fought, how can you improve yourself, what you expect from your teammates and other important things like that. It’s a great bonding exercise, we get to spend some quality time together! What do you think, Kyle? Isn’t it exciting?”

Zaubern’s, Cartamor’s and even Shūsa’s reactions had tipped me off about the excitement that was about to come. However, I could not see a way out. Zaubern came to my rescue.

“Ah, hope you don’t mind it, but I promised the lad that I was going to teach him some spells after the fight, you know, help him out….”

“Yes! That's it! You should have seen Zaubern. I had to get on my knees to get him to agree! I am sorry Dastur, but I can't let go of this chance. We will do the discussion later, okay?” I pick up from where Zaubern left off.

Dastur frowns then nods. “Alright, you two are excused. But the rest-”

Cartamor was the next to speak up. “Actually, I need to get writing a new song that I told you about. And my lute needs some tuning, so I guess... I will have to skip it…”

“Fine! So, it’s you me and you, Shūsa. Let’s get started.”

Shūsa walked over to a chair and sat down without a word. He then started staring impassively at Dastur. “Well, then let’s begin. Shūsa, what did you think of today’s battle?”

Shūsa furrowed his brows as if in deep thought. Finally, after terse minutes of silence, he uttered one word, “Good.”

Dastur, however seemed unfazed. Perhaps he had grown used to Shūsa’s demeanor. He started speaking animatedly again.

Zaubern had started to insistently tug on my arm. “Come along, Kyle. This is going to take hours.”

I followed him back to the practice room. “So, are you going to really teach me magic, or was it only an excuse?”

“Kyle, I want you to know that what I did now, getting you out of Dastur’s claws…” Here he paused to take a breath, “…is a bigger favor than teaching you magic.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“You have no idea. One time, he had kept us in that room for over six hours!”

“Really?”

He glared at me and said, “Do you think I am lying, boy? Six straight hours! And he went on and on about tactics and whatnot. In the end, the matron herself had come over to shut him up. Sometimes, I think that he- KWACK KWAC-” The old man suddenly burst out coughing. Blood spluttered from his lips. I rushed towards his side but he waved me away.

After a few worryingly long seconds, he stopped.

“I am alright. It is just my asthma acting up again.” I must have looked worried because he added, “Don’t frown too much. I am an old man with a nasty cough. That doesn’t mean I am going to keel over any moment.”

Something about that sentence was off. I voiced my suspicions.

“You know, I think you are right. But I also think that you are lying.”

“Oh? And where exactly, have I lied?” His face gave the truth away.

“You told me that you cast mage armor spell armor in time. But you lied, didn’t you?”

He gave a weak laugh, “That’s preposterous! If that’s a lie, then why, your whole story being a poor orphan must also be a lie! That’s how serious your untrue allegations are!” At the end of his tirade, he gave me a pointed look.

The old man was hiding something. At first, I hadn’t looked too closely at him. But now, when I really observed Zaubern I could see a depth that I had missed before. I realized that the eccentric mage that everyone saw was only an act. It was an incredible moment; as if a light had been suddenly switched on in the room. Nothing had changed, but it was like I could suddenly see through the dark. And I saw a man, old and frail, but still fighting.

“Why are you here, Zaubern?”

“What do you mean? I am here because I defaulted on-”

“That’s another lie.” This time I looked directly into his gray eyes. “You are here by choice. I see it now. You’re not the man everyone thinks you are. You didn’t simply decide to fight in the Arena because of a whim. Tell me why you are here, Zaubern.”

He sighed and said, “Well, if you have already seen through the act, I guess there is no harm in telling you.”

For a few seconds, he paused, collecting his thoughts. When he started speaking again his voice felt sorrowful.

“I had an apprentice once. He was a real orphan from the streets, unlike you. Had real talent. But was headstrong and stupid. Never listened to anything that I said.” He turned again to look at me. His eyes were filled with regret. “One day, I caught him stealing. Or what I thought was stealing. I didn’t even listen to him. I didn’t know…”

Every word of his had started increasing the sinking feeling in my stomach. The horrible truth was slowly dawning upon me.

“You sent him to jail. He was forced to fight in the Arena, and he died. And then you discovered the blood on your hands…”

“I didn’t know. If I had known the truth, do you think I would have DONE THIS?” He suddenly thundered. A fit of coughing followed. Finally, he was the one who broke the silence.

“His mother was the reason. She had borrowed too much and… well, that isn’t relevant. You wanted to know why I was here. I am repaying her debt. It’s what he would have wanted.”

“So you can choose to be here for somebody else’s crimes?”

“It’s that kind of ignorance that reveals you as an Outsider. Take my advice, shut up and listen to what others say and just nod accordingly. That way, you’ll last longer in here.”

The old man changed from sad to sarcastic in a moment. Well, that suited me better anyway.

“I want another favor from you Zaubern. Don’t worry; it’s a smaller one than the Dastur one.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“Teach me magic.”

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I didn’t care if the old man had taken pity on me, or simply had accepted to shut me up. I was finally learning magic!

“Okay. Close your eyes and relax. Take deep breaths. Empty your mind. What we are trying to do is to remove all distractions and enter the meditative state. Once you can do so you can feel your own Magicka. This is the basic step for casting all spells, but also the most important.”

“Sounds easy enough.”

“It isn’t.”

Actually, it was easy, to a man who had done it over a thousand times. I meditated regularly. By now, I could let go of everything and enter the trance in a heartbeat. It had saved my life and sanity a lot of times over the past years.

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I found myself to be stuck into a grey world of sleeping in the cave and eating what Yama offers me. Time doesn’t seem to pass at all. Finally, I was somewhat healthy enough to take a walk in the cave, even if it was one lousy step. The way my body had deteriorated frightened me.

Unfortunately, Yama was there to see me and my embarrassing fall. He chastised me soundly.

“You are still recovering from the fever. And every exertion you make only extends the recovery time. If you want to run, then do so after you have healed, but not before.”

“I don’t want to do nothing. I just… need to keep moving. I don’t know who I am, or how I got here… but I need to do something..”

He looked at me pensively. “Very well. We will begin your training today.”  

“What? You just said-”

“I know what I said. But we are going to train your mental ability, which doesn’t require you to even get up from this bed.”  

“Okay, sounds good.”

Stolen story; please report.

“Alright. Now, the first step is called Remove the Unneeded. It’s a meditative state where your mind is totally empty. If you can learn this, it would make the upcoming steps easy for you.”

I nod. “So, what do I do?”

“Meditate. Achieve tranquility within yourself. There are various methods; I don’t care how you do it. Why don’t you try?”

Meditate. I sat in a cross legged position, and took deep breaths. I then tried to clear my mind.

It was very hard. My mind, I discovered, was never still but always darting about. It was always saying something, always working. I had to find a way to quiet it down.

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I discovered the trick after…I didn’t know how much time passed here. But it must have a day or two. Maybe even more.

To Remove the Unneeded, I had to completely sink in myself. It is hard to describe in words. But I had finally done it. When I mentioned it to Yama, he motioned to show him.

“Not like that, kid. You are too slow. You must do it in the span of one breath.”

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To learn a span of one breath took several weeks. I had now recovered enough to walk around the room easily. But I still wasn’t strong enough to stand enough for long periods of time.

I believe that I had begun to condition myself, in pursuit of this meditation. I found that challenges excited me, pushed me more. I must have been a competitive person before my memory loss. My breathing had grown longer and more measured in the past few days. Sometimes Yama would help me out and give me tips, but I mostly figured out this on my own.

When I had gotten it down, I showed it to Yama again.

This time, when I was meditating, he suddenly drew his bow and shot a arrow at me.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Testing your concentration. You must be able to remain in control under any situation. In this case, I will shoot arrows at you.”

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Calm under fire. The third stage.

It took over four months.

By this time, I had fully recovered. Still, I mostly stayed near the cave. Yama had given me various exercises that were supposed to help my physical recuperation. Instead of starting with lifting weights or running, he had me maintaining different poses for as long as I could. At first, they were pretty difficult, but soon I could do them passably well. The he added different weights in the postures; and I had to balance them in different postures. As long as I could. Finally, when I could barely do it, he added running in the night, on the beach. Again, as long as I … let’s just say my life sucked.

Yama would generally leave in the morning, waking me up so I could begin practicing. He would return around midday, with birds and some fish that were our lunch and dinner. I ate the most of it.

The days passed peacefully and silently. Yama was a laconic person. Whenever he spoke, he was forever wistful and sad, as if remembering his better days. Yet he enjoyed my company. His behavior had changed drastically. He now laughed and spoke more than before. I believe that he saved me because he was lonely on the island and wanted a companion.

Neither he nor I asked personal questions. However, from his words I knew there was no easy way to get off this land. But the way he evaded these questions? He was definitely hiding something. I didn’t still completely trust him; but in time I knew that he was serious about my survival and training. Even so, his motivations remained unclear.

I spent my days training.

Even a Tibetan monk would be envious how easily I could attain my Zen state. A professional ballerina will be ashamed of herself if she could see how flexible I was. My body was a mean machine; only lean muscles that radiated power and grace. But, according to Yama,  it wasn’t enough.

So I trained even harder.  

******************************************************************************************

“I can do it now.” I announced to him one morning. I had promised him that I wouldn’t say these words until I had completely mastered everything. I believed that I was ready a week ago; but even so I had decided to push on. Today, I was sure.

“Let’s take it outside.”

We reached the small glade, where I practiced. “Sit.” He walked away, from me eying the distance; probably intending to fill me with arrows.

“Begin”

I took a breath. I removed the unneeded.

The world wasn’t needed.

Worry wasn’t needed.

Pain wasn’t needed.

Anger, Hope, Happiness, Guilt, Envy… everything was unneeded.

Thinking was unneeded.

Only the moment remained. I was aware of the moment, the time itself. Yet I was also distant from it, as a bystander. It was an out of body experience.

Three arrows, one after the other. Dodged the second one. The other two flew harmlessly from the left side.

Four arrows, my body moves by itself. I roll right. The arrows thudded neatly where I was sitting moments before.

An arrow, aimed at the sole of left foot. Moved an inch to the right. Three more, aimed at my midsection. Turned sideways. Arrow to the head. Lean backwards. Another to the arms. Step… no, duck downward. Three arrows fly above me.

A continuous stream of arrows fly, all forcing me to contort my body. The different postures engraved in my mind take over.

The Bending Heron. The arrows fly over my head. The Subtle Peacock. My feet continuously bend, evading arrows left and right. The Humming Bird. The slightest of jumps, allowing me to change directions haphazardly. Arrows miss me entirely.

“Getting old, Yama?” My body speaks. “I expected better from you!”

“Hah! Let’s see you deal with this!” The man speaks.

A boomerang flashes near my head. The Diving Falcon. Arrows aimed where I am going to dive. The Diving Falcon flows into the Dodging Gazelle. The boomerang comes back, now aimed at my feet. The Dodging Gazelle becomes the Leaping Grasshopper. Eight thrown knives. The Leaping Grasshopper returns back to the Diving Heron. Each of them smoothly becomes the other; as if in an unending dance.

My body decides to counter attack. The Charging Rhino. I swat arrows left and right with my hands. The Running Leopard. I lower my center of gravity and start running. Arrows fly, but I dodge them by miniscule changes. The Running Leopard naturally becomes the Roaring Tiger. I put the arrow that I had picked up while running to his throat.

“It’s over.”

“You have learnt well. Let’s go.”

He turns away and starts to walk. It’s over. I have won.

Wait.

He is carrying the bow wrong.

Without facing me, without stopping, he lets loose an arrow. The fastest one I have ever seen him shoot. It manages to catch me off guard. But not my body.

I raise my right hand and catch it, inches from my face. Then I snap it in two.

“Beautifully done. Your body has been perfected. Tomorrow, we begin your training in earnest.”

I stare dumbfounded, as he walks away.

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