The doors swung open and we found Porter down in the amphitheater. There was one of his other Disciples present. The Samurai.

"Good morning," Kendall said before Porter could berate him for being late. The Siblings, and most other students for that matter weren't here, though.

"The day's practically half over," Porter joked. He was in a good mood. "You should get up earlier, like... what did you say your name was again?"

"I am called Hasami, Sensei," the Samurai said. Scissor.

Porter grinned. "Sounds promising." Strong Attunement, he could sense meanings behind words. A makeshift translative ability. I knew that. "Come sit, Kendall."

We all took our seats in a spaced out cluster, off to one side.

"You probably noticed that Aku didn't wake you up for class," Porter said.

"Yeah."

"My orders. First thing everyone does when they get up is check their messages. I wanted to get to know my Disciples, starting with how lazy they are. You didn't do too bad, I'm still waiting on Miss Beaulieu and her brothers. But in the meantime, I'm sharing wisdom."

"Can I ask a question then?" Kendall said.

"You may."

"Right. Um, what's your teaching philosophy?"

"At this level, I won't be teaching you. I believe that for someone to truly learn, they have to want to enough to teach themselves. Sort of the Utopian school code. The material is out there, it's the twenty-fourth century. My job is not to teach, it's to test."

"What exactly does that mean?"

"It means many will knock, but few will enter into the doors of greatness by their own power," I said, jumping in.

"Ooo," Ash cooed.

Porter pointed at me, then to Kendall. "It's your job, in the end, to become great. You know why that is?"

He didn't answer.

"Because men can kill gods. It's our versatility, our mind, that we conquer truth by," I said. "Aku is a machine, we are men. You want us to be able to hold our own against gods."

"Mm," Porter said. "So your main exercises will be functional."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Hasami had his hand raised, Porter gestured for him to go.

"When do we begin?"

"We've got two disciples present, Hasami and Kendall, so we can start now actually. One meant I'd've had to explain again, maybe. Now one of you gets to fill in the Beaulieu's." He headed up the steps. "The point of this place is wisdom. That's true magic's fuel. So I expect you two can figure out what comes next. Practical training. Today we're doing nothing but combat calibration." He grimaced. At me. "And talent assessment, I suppose."

Things were falling into place for me, I could see the path Porter wanted to take. Why he wanted it. Ultimately this was about him, and he could have taught, but he didn't want to. He was a fiery crucible, intentionally unhelpful.

There was interconnectedness, though. Everything was entangled, causally, and that meant that morally, there were some terrifying implications to grapple with. I could see the point of the Eidolons as I'd been reading about them the night prior. It was conflicting, though, the whole Peace or Die thing.

I was digressing.

God's tapestry is not straightly woven. It's never so simple.

Porter, despite what he conveyed, was part of the bigger picture. There was undue weight to the world around me. Bigger things were brewing.

We all stood and went up to the platform, where Porter had gone. Hasami asked if he might go first, and Porter said yes. Once on the platform, a shimmering distortion crashed down a force field and locked away the platform.

A wireframe man manifested, the barest minimum of a physical simulation opponent.

The wireframe man had a wireframe sword, and he got into a stance with computer-like accuracy. It occurred to me that if Aku wanted, the opponent could be unbeatable, with the kind of mind behind it.

Hasami charged forward and so did the wireframe man. At the moment, they clashed blades, something confusing happened. Several things simultaneously, actually. And when the weirdness had subsided, in the blink of an eye, the Wireman was in pieces. Hasami had made multiple strikes at once, and the results had compounded.

Powerful. I had to wonder if there was a ceiling to what he could do with that.

He gracefully sheathed his katana and turned back to face everyone.

It was too specific an ability to be done with Attunement. Ceremony, complexity rather, had to be involved. I had looked for a rune on the blade but failed to see one. Maybe a very specific meditation, or metaphysical focus. Choice? That'd be interesting.

Porter spoke and pulled me from my wonderment. "The circle is equipped with a protection seal, nothing can die inside it. I expect you to find a challenge in the future, using this ring."

"Yes, Sensei."

"Right. Blackthorn, are you at all planning to develop your own offensive abilities?"

"I use a deck of runes, pretty highly developed. Prefab spells."

"Use the range then to practice. Pick a gun. I can't tell you how many magus I've seen die because the thing trying to kill them simply resorts to brute force. Protection spells almost always falter when things get physical. Put your game face on! I want you to try, and you better fail, to find their limits." Porter swiveled and then walked off, waving a hand behind him as he went. "Have fun with it."

"Oh, he's leaving," Anna observed.

"Heiya!" Hasami yelled as he obliterated a larger, more defined, simulation while we'd been watching Porter walk off.

The Siblings came through the doors and were looking around.

"Where's Porter?" The dark haired girl asked.

"You just missed him," Ashes snidely said.

"Fuck!" She swore.

"And hey, nice ass," he added. I was surprised that he was this willing to cause problems, this destructive. Predictably, all four of them started towards us, intent to vent their frustration.

And here we go.