Kierna 2

The Golden Temple woke as the sun began its daily ascent. Sunlight streamed through the many open windows, illuminating the temple and the hundreds of teens scattered about. Some few had managed to find a cot or bed to collapse into. Most had fallen to the ground and stayed there, too exhausted to bother finding a bed. Kierna was in the second category, having been dragged away from the entrance and given healing just feet away from the door. As the first few students rose, they noticed the grim faced instructors standing still as statues, arms crossed with impatience radiating off of them in palpable waves.

An alert went through the students as they leaned down and shook their fellows awake as quickly as possible. Kierna grumbled as someone grabbed her shoulder and rattled her around like a ragdoll. She was spent, her trial yesterday followed by the healing having drained her further than she had ever thought possible. As she pried open her eyes, a monumental task in itself, she got to see what had set the rest of the students into a flurry.

Rolling onto her stomach and then scrunching up as she got her knees under her was an experience in agony. Every muscle screamed their displeasure, strained beyond belief from yesterday's grueling climb. Kierna still managed to get to her feet, staring bleary eyed at the instructors who waited in complete silence as the temple slowly came awake. After a short eternity, Pavel emerged from the cluster of watching instructors, and looked around the massive common room that had housed them all last night.

“I am Pavel. I will be your company commander during your year here. Blademaster Sorrow was brief in her introductions. There are ten, one thousand person companies. At the end of this year, the top ten from each company will be moved to the next round. I wish to congratulate you on passing your first test and being in the top 983 contestants in Gold Temple.”

Pavel let the statement hang in the air, his eyes sweeping over the confused students as they slowly realized what he meant. That seventeen of their fellows hadn’t made it to the temple. Twelve had turned around and went back to the base of the mountain. Five had died trying to ascend. He debated for a moment telling of them of the dead, of those who had been willing to risk everything for just the chance to succeed. He let the impulse pass.

“Training begins as the sun rises. The instructors around me will push you as we train your bodies. You will obey their orders as if they come from the Swordmaster herself. Today will be an easy day as you recover.”

Kierna didn’t like the look in the lanky man’s eyes as he said it would be an easy day. There was a sly humor there, something that hinted that today would not be easy at all.

She was unfortunately correct.

The upper levels of the temple were a series of gymnasiums and the instructors split the teens into squads of one hundred. Minus the seventeen who hadn’t made it. Kierna’s squad, the ninth, had three missing students. The ninety-seven of them remaining were quickly put to task as a masked instructor barked orders in constant barrage.

Kierna could feel the tears threatening to fall as her battered body struggled to complete the stretches and calisthenics the instructor was ordering them to do. All around her, the other teens were similarly struggling. It was the only reason she was able to keep pushing herself. They weren’t giving up even though they were struggling, so she couldn’t either.

Jumping jacks, push-ups, squats, lunges, and more. They stopped every now and then to allow the students to drink water, and then they began again. The gymnasium was windowless, the only light coming from a dozen fluorescent lights that gave no indication of the passage of time. As her legs trembled, wobbling under her weight as she tried to do one last squat, the instructor called for a halt.

Ninety-seven students collapsed in boneless puddles as the instructor walked around and told them how pathetic they were. Kierna zoned him out, her mind a blank slate as she stared up at the undecorated ceiling. The instructor announced the warmups were done and they were to go and eat and shower. The instructor marched them out, teaching them how to move in formation, and led them to the underlevels.

The first underhall was filled with low tables and the heavenly scent of food wafted through it. The still nameless instructor lined them up and watched as they all walked through the line to get their plates. A line of white coated chefs heaped plates of veggies and meat and handed them out with aplomb. Kiernas mouth was watering, she wiped at the corner of her mouth, hoping that no drool had slipped out.

They ate in silence, the instructors patrolling up and down the long lines of tables. They didn’t say there needed to be silence, but no students talked. The only sounds were the scraping of utensils on plates as every morsel possible was eaten.

Topher’s World was a barren hellscape. Unimaginable heat constantly bearing down, oppressing every inhabitant. Food had been scarce, and nothing like the fare Kierna was being given. She decided that it was worth it as she shoveled grilled chicken, roasted vegetables, and soft rice into her mouth. If she had to climb the mountain every day to be fed like this, she would do it.

The showers were one level lower. One hundred stalls that the squads rotated in and out of. The water was lukewarm at best, but Kierna still luxuriated for a moment, letting the water wash away the sweat and dirt of the last two days. When she left the stall, her clothes were gone and in its place were a set of charcoal gray workout clothes. Long, loose, leggings and a long sleeve that fell to mid thigh. Bundling up her hair she dressed quickly and joined the stream of similarly dressed students back to the common area.

Small talk had started to break out as they huddled in small groups, the instructors leaning against the walls. Kierna sat with her squad in the center of the room and waited silently. She had never been around this many kids her own age before and anxiety of how she was supposed to interact with them ran rampant. Pavel entered only a few minutes after she sat down, ensuring she didn’t have to figure out social niceties right away.

“Every day you will wake up and do the exercises the instructors put you through. You will then eat breakfast and shower and change into clean clothes. The early afternoon is for aether cultivation. While you are too young to begin aether manipulation, you can begin cultivation.”

Kierna felt a frown frowning as she struggled to figure out the difference. As far as she knew, they were the same thing. She had been tested when she was born and told she could become a cultivator. There had been no schools for it on Topher’s World though, and neither of her parents could cultivate.

“I understand your confusion. Part of your training here will be in aether theory. To massively simplify, aether manipulation is the more advanced version of aether cultivation. You must do one before the other if you wish for the best results. Which, we do.”

Pavel waved them away and their instructor quickly rounded them up and led them outside. The cold mountain wind woke up her drowsing mind, as the exercise and heavy meal had started to put her to sleep.

“Spread out on the ground. Sit down in a comfortable position and I will begin instruction,’ the instructors voice was tinny from the voice modulator in their mask. Kierna sat down with the rest of the students, trying hard to ignore the chill wind that had her shivering. It took only a minute before the students were all staring at the instructor in anticipation.

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“Aether is in everything. Live, dead, sentient, inanimate. Doesn’t matter. Aether is always there. Including you. Most people can’t do anything with aether, they can’t touch it, can’t make it obey their will. Their aether just sits in them. We can. The first step will be to feel the aether in your body. Some of you this will be natural, its something you already feel and just don’t have a name for. A sixth sense of sorts.”

Kierna contemplated that for a moment. She had felt out of sorts since arriving on the mountain, the world feeling different. She had attributed it to being on a different planet, but maybe, what she was feeling was the different level of aether?

“Once you have touched your aether, the next step will begin to make it move inside of your body. This is the lowest level of aether cultivation and where most aether cultivators journey ends. Establishing your aether channels and having your aether move in them will greatly enhance your natural abilities. Strength, speed, stamina, and regeneration will all see huge growth. It’s better to start this at the beginning of your training rather than the end since it will help you train. There will be risks though.”

Kierna glanced out of the corner of her eye and saw that everyone was hanging onto every word the instructor said. Some of the others here would already know this, their families or sects having taught them. Public information on aether cultivation was scarce and often contradicting though, and she had never been able to fully piece together exactly what it was that aether cultivation was. She knew what it did. It turned normal people into beings of great power, but, how it did it she didn’t know.

“When you begin to move your internal aether, there will be a period of unpleasantness. Aether has been sitting in your body, slowly aspecting. When you start to move it, you will force that aether out of your body. Along with other things. It will smell.” There was a hint of humor in their voice as they said it that made Kierna believe that the smell was much worse than they were letting on.

“Now, close your eyes and follow my instructions. I will be trying to lead you to a meditative state of mind that will allow you to sense your aether. If it doesn’t work right away, that’s fine.”

Kierna closed her eyes and began to follow his instruction as he told them when to breathe in, to hold their breath, to let it out in long exhalations. The rhythm of it slowly lulled her. She was tired physically, mentally and emotionally. She had upended her entire life for this chance and nearly died on the very first day. She hadn’t talked to another person since she left her crying parents, staying silent among the other students. Each breath took her further and further inward, until even the instructor's voice faded away.

Her inner mind was a void, her body weightless, the only feeling the inhalation of air filling her lungs. Time lost meaning. There was only the inhalation, hold, exhalation. Her whole world condensed to that, the strain of the outside world falling away. Then, as she took a deep breath of the crisp mountain air, she felt it. Rushing in with her breath, sliding through her lungs and spreading through her body. It was both strange and familiar at the same time.

She snapped out of her trance, the momentary awareness being banished. The instructor's dark eyes snapped toward her, sweeping over her clinically before giving a shallow nod. Just sensing the aether, if that’s what Kierna had felt, had been enough to knock her out of her trance. The instructor wrapped up the meditative session shortly after, the sun having started to slink behind the mountains. Long shadows filled the courtyard as the rest of the students rose up and started to march back into the temple for dinner.

Dinner was more of the same. Heaps of roasted vegetables, thick slabs of meat, and generous helpings or rice with pitchers of water. A gentle murmur of conversation began as the others began to finally talk to each other.

“I’m Dion,” the girl next to Kierna said quietly between bites. She was mousy, small shoulders hunched over her plate as she ate in small fast bites.

“I’m Kierna.” The table quickly started introducing themselves to each other. Teens slowly worming their way out of the shell. Kierna didn’t talk much, but rather listened to the rest. They were competing with each other over the next year. Only ten would come out of their company and she was determined to be one of them. What was the point of making friends if they likely wouldn’t be going with her when she went to the next stage.

“You felt your aether, didn’t you?” Dion questioned, her voice little more than a whisper that was lost to all around them. She still hadn’t looked up from her rapidly diminishing plate.

“I think so. How’d you know?”

“I saw you come out of the trance. It was right after I did. The feel of it rushing in with every breath, it snapped me awake,” Dion explained. Kierna nodded at that. To feel that rush of strange familiarity filling her body had shattered her trance.

“Did you notice anyone else?” Kierna asked.

“Two others. The boy at the end of the table with the scar on his eyebrow. He was watching me when I woke up. Then another girl, shortly after you. The tall one with long braids.” Dion pointed out the others to her and Kierna looked at her competition.

The boy was darker than her, with thick, black, curly hair. A wide scar ran through his right eyebrow and his dark eyes were twitching back and forth as he followed the conversations around him. The other girl had three long braids that fell beneath the table, her dirty blonde hair the longest Kierna had ever seen. She had buckteeth and pointy chin with light blue eyes and a braying laugh that she was showcasing frequently. Both of them seemed more at ease in the crowded social situation that Kierna felt or Dion looked.

“Competition or allies?” Dion whispered.

“We should be allies,” Kierna whispered back. It would be nice to have a friend, and if she had to pick one, she wanted the girl who didn’t bray or the boy who looked like he was trying to become friends with everyone around him. Someone quiet and reserved and competent would be perfect.

“Allies it is then. I think they’ll start the testing tomorrow after the healing effects have faded away.” Dion didn’t raise her eyes from her empty plate. She talked out of the side of her mouth as if scared to look Kierna in the eyes.

“Makes sense to me. We work together starting from now on?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have the breathing pattern memorized?” Kierna was hopeful she could reclaim the headspace that allowed her to feel the rush of aether.

“No. Tomorrow we can do it though. It’s easy enough, but I need to measure the beats he’s using.”

“A plan then.”

They sat there in a more comfortable silence. Kierna hadn’t had many friends back home. The small settlement had few children and those who had been there had been older and hadn’t wanted to spend time with the younger girl. She was comfortable in silence, the crowded hall was making her nervous. Dion was a good match for her, two quiet, determined people.

“Attention!” Pavel rose from the crowd, floating on the air like Swordmaster Sorrow had. All talk died at once as every eye swiveled to the company commander.

“Today was an easy day. Starting tomorrow there will be competitions. Each squad will be ranked based on performances decided by their instructor and every week there will be a squad vs. squad challenges. At the end of every week we will be updating the standings. The bottom ten from every week will be eliminated and removed from the temple.” Pavel floated back down to the ground and walked away as the instructors rose and started to escort everyone back to the common room.

Squad nine was assigned a corner of the common room with rows of sleeping mats for them to sleep on. Kierna motioned for Dion to follow and moved to the furthest corner of the room before sitting down and patting the mat next to her. Dion complied silently, laying down without a word to stare at the ceiling.

“What do you think they’ll be testing us on?” Kierna asked as her own mind swirled with stray thoughts.

“Aether cultivation, physical training, fighting, maybe some academics?” Dion replied.

“We should start the aether cultivation training then.”

“We don’t know the breaths.”

“I’m not losing my spot here. I’m willing to try.”

“Two count long breath in. Four count hold. Three count exhale. I think.” Dion said as she closed her eyes and began to breathe in. Kierna closed her own eyes and began to take a deep breath in, counting to two before holding for four and then a three second exhalation. She fell asleep on the third cycle, never noticing Dion had fallen asleep and was snoring quietly next to her.

Pavel watched over them all, his own need for sleep having faded to just an hour here and there. Ryen stood next to him, their elbows almost touching as they viewed the hundreds of sleeping teens.

“Anyone standout?” Ryen asked. She had felt a few of them, their bodies responding instinctively to the aether collection arrays in the temple. Greedy children, trying to absorb power that was beyond them.

“A few here and there. It’s too early to truly start to sort them out yet. About a hundred of them were able to find their aether today though.”

“A good start.”

“We will see.”