The summer flew by in an instant. The only notable event was the midsummer cleansing ceremony and this time Alex also sat in the spectator seats watching how children got slaughtered in the coliseum. While most of the chosen enjoyed their week off, well, three days to and from Serenity, and the one spent there, Alex missed the college and his gardening.
Of course, a nice consolation was the Lord’s seed he got after the ritual, similar to the other chosen who were yet to achieve adulthood, but the general consensus around the college grounds was that it is much better to attend bishop’s lessons than have ten Lord’s seeds.
From whispers here and there Alex concluded that most likely Lord’s seeds were harvested once every ten years from a very unique and rare tree growing in the ‘sacred land’. No one really knew where it was located, but Alex didn’t care, especially since there were only few years left for him to consume the seeds.
Turns out the holy power, or the force of nature contained within the seeds was so rich and pure, not only it was a great supplement to the cultivation, it stimulated the physical growth of a child without any side effects. Already before eating the seed Alex looked six or seven years old while actually being only four. And after he consumed the first one, he experienced even faster growth.
At first he was worried about the lack of the necessary nutrients needed for a child’s development, but soon realized that the cultivation of the force of nature worked as a universal panacea. It was no wonder Vova ‘reached his adulthood’ at the age of nine. And the guys who looked sixteen probably were only twelve or thirteen!
Alex calculated that after leaving this place he had a year at most until the seeds became ineffective towards his growth and became simple force of nature ‘batteries’, but that was also fine. He already knew they had to be preserved in special containers for the force of nature to not dissipate, but after he ‘acquired’ them, there was no way he could leave them in their pretty little boxes.
During the past weeks Alex managed to persuade priest Clark of the necessity to decorate the college grounds, especially the lawn around the church. Thus they began to plant different shrubs, mostly something similar to jasmine.
Since according to Alex they needed to deliver faster results to the Lord, Clark succumbed to his request and they kept digging out grown bushes and shrubs in the surrounding forest, but later moved on to the nearby villages and requisitioned blooming shrubs from there. Locals were extremely religious and didn’t mind it, but Alex insisted on compensating them by planting new trees and bushes in the now empty spots and even gained a little bit of fame.
‘The little chosen’, how they called him, kept blessing everyone he met with his signature ‘Lord, guide us’ and soon befriended most of the villagers. From a distance they recognized ‘his’ wagon, that, of course, belonged to Clark, and came over to offer water, food and even their help. After all, the little chosen was doing the Lord’s work.
Before the autumn came even the most snobbish chosen had to agree that the college grounds had become much more pleasant to the eye, especially the surroundings of the church.
But when the leaves began to turn yellow, Alex thanked priest Clark for his teachings and went to the kitchen. He requested priest Irden to take him as the cook’s apprentice and even before the old man agreed, he grabbed a broom and began sweeping the kitchen’s floor not minding other chosen laughing and pointing fingers at him.
Through the winter Alex only kept attending the language classes and the rest of the time spent cultivating or in the kitchen. It took few weeks for priest Irden succumb to Alex’s pleas and he finally allowed the little chosen to take part in the actual cooking.
Soon he received a great surprise when Alex on a simple frying pan made incredibly delicious cookies while claiming the recipe came directly from the Lord. And since the recipe came from the Lord, the cookies also belonged to Him and needed to be put on the altar in the church for His Lordship to enjoy. The next morning cookies were, obviously, gone, but Alex looked even happier because of it and continued to bake another portion every ten days. Once in a while he offered a cookie to his only three friends to share while the rest of the chosen could only watch in envy.
Of course, there was nothing special about his creation. While digging out the shrubs during the summer, Alex gathered some sweet berries and dried them in his room. Then he used the simplest flour, added a bit of salt he got from the villagers and then the dried berries. The result, small, dry pancakes, tasted ‘godly’ only to someone who was used to eating only plain and tasteless porridge every day – so basically everyone in the college.
Needless to say, except for the few days he spent in Serenity in the summer, Alex continued to sweep the church’s floor every day. Currently he already had marked three spots that could serve as the entrance to the treasury and a dozen different protrusions and items that could work as levers or switches to open it.
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There was no real way to check all of them since at all times there was someone in the church. The only thing Alex could do was to pay attention to the minute reactions of the guarding priests and sometimes even the bishop when he got ‘dangerously close’ to a particular spot and could activate something on an accident. Unfortunately for now there were no real results and all he could do was to remain patient.
When the spring came, Alex requested audience to bishop Phelippe. He explained how much of an eyeopening was the work he did last year together with priest Clark, that Lord wanted for him to follow the path he was on and bunch of another nonsense.
For some reason it was not too difficult to persuade the bishop to allow him to learn craftsmanship in the village. Alex’s initial idea was to become apprentice to the local blacksmith or carpenter and every day afternoon go and learn from them. Surprisingly Bishop even suggested that in order for him to learn more it would be beneficial to leave right after the breakfast, but there was no way Alex would agree to skip the language classes. Even if the other chosen were stupid and the learning pace was slow, his whole future depended on this knowledge.
The only condition that bishop raised was for him to learn something useful that could be utilized in developing college, just like with the gardening last year. Alex didn’t mind that one bit – it even fit nicely into his plans.
Be as it may, the next day he found himself standing in the middle of the nearby village, called ‘Woodsted’, deep in thoughts. He had visited this place multiple times last year and knew every craftsmen here, but for some reason he began to hesitate.
At first he intended to become carpenter’s apprentice for half a year and afterwards learn from the blacksmith. Both were required to construct the weapon he wanted. But now, from the distance seeing the white flame in the forge, he suddenly got an idea.
“Lord, guide us! I hope you are doing well, Simeon!” Alex approached the blacksmith who currently hammered a heated piece of metal he earlier took from the forge.
Blacksmith ignored him, but Alex didn’t mind. If he had to work with something so dangerous and delicate at the same time, he would also ignore everyone around him. He sat down in the smithy not caring about the smoke and noise, and continued to watch the large bearded man in the thick leather apron in awe. Even though this was a simple person, he hammered as if he was cultivating the force of nature his hole life. And it was not only his tenacity. The rhythm and the precision of every hammer strike was like that of a modern machine.
It was already late afternoon when the blacksmith finally turned to him.
“What brings you here, little chosen?” Simeon asked.
“I was on my way, but then I saw you heating up that piece of iron in the forge. It turned white from how hot it was!” Alex did his best to speak in simple terms, “I understand it became hot because of the Lord’s power, otherwise the forge would melt as well, right? But how did you talk to the Lord? Do you have a special prayer?”
“Hahaha!” Blacksmith found the boy funny, “Of course, it was thanks to the Lord’s power, because everything in this world belongs to the Lord. But I won’t disturb Him just because I need some heat – I make it myself!”
“Woa! So you also are one of the chosen!” Alex looked back at blacksmith in admiration.
“Hahaha!” This time Simeon found it even more funny and laughed with tears in his eyes for several minutes.
“It’s not that hard.” He said after finally calming down, “Actually everyone can make the fire by burning wood, you know that, right?”
“Of course! But my iron frying pan never turns white.” Alex said in a sad voice.
“That is good! Otherwise your food will burn!” Blacksmith said, “Cooking and blacksmithing are different. I need my fire much hotter.”
“So you use more wood?” Alex asked a question that for a kid might seem logical.
“No, no! Hahaha!” Blacksmith heartily laughed again, “I use these!”
He passed Alex a hazelnut sized pebble. It was irregular, blackish and lusterless, just like any other stone pebble on the roadside.
“Have these stones been blessed by the Lord?” Alex asked in awe, “I have never seen a burning stone.”
“Well, they are special stones.” Simeon said, “In fact, only because of those stones I can make weapons for our holy warriors. They can’t wield simple iron swords, you know?”
“Woa! You’re amazing!” Even though Alex wanted to inquire more about the weaponry, he first needed to find out more about these stones. They were probably something like natural magnesium or manganese in this world and he definitely needed to get his hands on something like that, therefore he continue to question, “So not only you can make holy weapons, you can also make magic stones!”
“You give me too much credit.” Blacksmith shook his head, “The one who created these stones is our Lord. And, in fact, Radu is the one supplying me with these. They are rare, but somehow he manages find a larger piece of a rock like this from time to time. Then he cuts it in little pieces and exchanges with me.”
“Oh, Radu!” Alex exclaimed and jumped on his feet, “I completely forgot I was on my way to him! Arhh! I’m sorry, Simeon, I’ve got to run! Lord, guide us!”
For few moments Simeon stared at the cloud of dust that was left after Alex ran away, but then shook his head and laughed to himself again. The little chosen sometimes was too funny.
Alex, on the other hand, didn’t find anything funny at all. He had to pretend to be in a rush so that his leave looked more natural. With what he had in mind it was kind of important – he was certain there will be investigation in the future.
Radu was the local mason and soon to be Alex’s teacher. Until the conversation with Simeon, Alex never intended to become his apprentice, but the recent discovery changed everything. Now with one stone he could kill multiple birds, and he intended to do it literally.