The attacks had calmed down over the week, with only sporadic forays into Molinian territory. Jano found himself more required to repair the buildings rather than constantly fighting, though he was still called upon from time to time. He stole himself away to the training yard and spent the morning cycling between meditating on his spirit and training his various chaos and stone attacks.

He was still processing the last few weeks. The training, the festival and most importantly the attacks from the Shimmer. He felt somehow responsible. As if they wouldn’t be here without him.

“Stranger. A word.”

He was interrupted in his meditation by Herat, who strode confidently forward. She had something behind her back and Jano stood up expectantly. He assumed a defensive pose as he had done several times at her instruction.

Herat giggled. “Not today, I’ve seen how you treat the enemy. I’m not sure I’d like to fight you anymore.”

Jano felt sheepish at her words, he knew he wasn’t a great warrior. He was improving for sure, but it felt like a bit of an insult. He wasn’t sure what to say, so he pushed his hands together in salute and bowed. “It is thanks to your instruction that I have managed to survive out there at all.”

“Of course it is. But that’s besides the point. Here I wanted to give you something.” From her back she pulled a scythe. It looked almost identical in size to his own, a little shorter than usual.

“It is lightweight and balanced to provide a perfect counterweight to your own weapon. It should be similar to those you have been training with; but obviously for real.”

She handed him the scythe and he held it in one hand and then passed it between them both. She wasn’t wrong, the weight felt perfect. The handle was the same length as his other weapon, which wasn’t typical for the type so it must have been custom made. The blade was evidently well crafted and looked as though it would never dull. It had small markings on the curve. Runes of a kind, though he couldn’t read them.

“I don’t know what to say.” He said softly.

“How about thank you? Thank you very much? You’re an amazing teacher. Any of those would be absolutely fine.” She mused out loud. Her serious demeanour was almost entirely gone.

“Of course. All of those things.” He bowed once more.

“Stop it. You’ll get an awful bad back. Now you need to go. I have a fresh batch of recruits coming in and I don’t want you scaring them off. Not everyone wants to train like you do.”

“Fresh recruits?”

“Yes Jano, I don’t know if you noticed but we have been under attack. There has been a push for more combat ready warriors. Using essence in everyday life is one thing, but to use it in battle is quite another. Never mind skill with weapons: as I’m sure you’re aware.” Jano was sure she didn’t need to add that last bit.

“Of course. I’m sorry.” He said and started to gather his things.

“Stop apologising, I gave you your gift. Now go and find something else to do. You can’t train your life away.”

Feeling suitably told, Jano waved as he passed through the gates of the training school. A few others from different clans of Molinia walked past him. It made sense that she was training the other clans. The Chaos-Shapers were a clan full of formidable warriors. They stayed ready, they didn’t need to get ready. The other clans on the other hand.

Jano put the scythe in a loop of his belt. He only had the one bracket made which held his weapon and that was back at his chambers with his scythe still inside, so it hung awkwardly at his side. He made a mental note to get it altered to fit two weapons. He wandered from the training yard and looked around. The streets of the settlement were relatively quiet once more, now that most of the other clans had gone back to their respective homes. People were understandably cautious about leaving their homes.

He put his hands in his pockets and felt the small token. In the festivities and the heat of battle, he had forgotten all about it. He had noticed the treasure hall wasn’t far away from the royal quarters. He grasped the token and resolved to finally pay it a visit. He started walking.

The treasure hall was almost an annex to the main complex of the royal residence. It was a squat building but long, like a library with a really low roof. The door to the hall was made of wood, which barely fit the frame. Air whistled through the cracks. It looked decidedly less grand than he thought. Still, he pushed the door and it creaked open, allowing him inside. He was overcome with blinding light as the door shut behind him. After a few moments of his eyes adjusting, he found himself looking at rows of wooden shelves.

A small woman all dressed in her formal finery, complete with a delicate chaos ceremonial mask looked back at him from behind a solid stone desk. She sat patiently, like nothing in the world was happening outside of her walls.

“Welcome to the Treasure Hall. What can I help you with?” She spoke with such precision that Jano immediately felt out of place. He quickly rustled in his pocket and grasped the token. He placed it on the stone desk and took a step back.

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The woman picked up the token and checked it over, as though examining its authenticity.

“Ah I see. Well then, you are permitted to examine and take one item from the rows to the left of this room. Where the boundary of the small wall separates the shelves, that is where you must stop.”

She kept the token and put it away in a drawer below Jano’s line of sight. He muttered his thanks and gave a small bow as a sign of respect before following her command and heading to the left. It reminded him of the treasures left in the Jade Stone University back home, but slightly less grand and with certainly fewer items. He now knew that those items were obtained by conquest, and he wondered which towns and cities had fallen to the Qursans. He wondered if these were obtained the same way.

As he began to walk down the first row, there were a number of weapons immediately visible. He supposed it was because those were probably the most popular items taken from the hall. He wasn’t interested, he was quite happy with his new scythe to make the pair. After all, he was basically useless with all weapons other than those now he had been given some training by Herat.

He continued down the row. There was a sword placed on two small stands and he could see the indigo and black colour of chaos essence swirling. He watched it for a bit longer and noticed there were shades of crimson as well. He recognised some of the runes which sat on the sign underneath, but he didn’t need to as everything was written in the common tongue as well. They even gave a brief description of their uses.

‘Lesser Blade of the Chaos Dominion’, it read. ‘Allows the bearer to draw directly from chaos with every strike.’

He continued onward. There were so many chaos specific artefacts that he found appealing, but he was in two minds. He had learned some small forms with it, but he still preferred stone essence. He hoped for something that might help both, but he was starting to lose faith as he continued to browse.

‘Pendant of Shattering Strength’, the sign caught his eye and he stopped to look at the artefact. ‘Boosts the spirit to grant the wearer extra strength in body and to a lesser extent, mind.’

That could certainly help, though he had gotten stronger from his training with Herat and he was quite tall, his gangly frame was nothing to write home about. He was fast but he was still quite uncoordinated, so he wasn’t sure whether the extra strength would be useful to him.

He made a mental note. There was nobody else in the hall, so he doubted it would disappear before he had looked at all the other options. He walked past more weapons and artefacts, he passed by books and scrolls and he walked by several items he had no clue what they could be and was even more confused by their descriptions.

He turned down the next row and was almost put off. It was mostly jewellery, carved from dark source material and by the looks of it, imbued with chaos. He wasn’t sure about wearing rings or bracelets of any kind. They made you stand out in strange places, and could make you a target for thieves. However the wall was next to him and this was the last of his allotted space to browse.

He thought about returning for the pendant but resolved to at least look through the remainder. About halfway up the row, he found a necklace which stood out. It was made of pure white material and it was in sharp contrast to the chaos imbued items around it.

‘Spirit Soothing Stone’, a small matte white stone hung from the white chain. He was intrigued. ‘Soothing the spirit through both excess and drought. Whether essence is plentiful or without.’

Jano stared at the description and had no idea what it meant. But he was entranced by the look of the thing. He wanted it, though he couldn’t say why. He picked it up and took it to the front desk where the woman sat quite patiently.

“Excuse me, but could you help me with this?” He asked and she peered over the desk at the item he had in his hands.

“How can I help you?”, she said.

“Well, what is it exactly?”

She looked at him a little askance, “It is a Spirit Soothing Stone hung on a necklace.”

She spoke in such a matter of fact way, that Jano felt awkward asking a follow up question. “Thank you, but what does that mean? What does it do?”

She didn’t look angry, just a little confused. “A spirit soothing stone will smooth out any sudden bursts of essence which pours into your spirit, should you exceed your limits. It also will help where you have exhausted yourself, should your spirit be spent. It will provide some extra comfort, a buffer zone if you will, before you cause yourself serious damage.”

“Oh.” That piqued Jano’s interest further.

“Do you wish to take this in exchange for your token?” She asked.

Jano waited before responding though his instinct was to say yes. He thought about the strength pendant. It would be nice to have an immediate boost to his strength. After all, he would need to fight a whole lot more before he could depose the Emperor. Something about the necklace gave him pause. He had already felt what it was like to have that surge of essence invading his spirit when fighting with his scythe and he was more than aware of the heaviness that could build in his spirit. He had lived that way for years after the Lesser Court’s ruling.

If this necklace could help him process any excess essence faster and could give him a boost when he had expended himself too much, surely that meant he would be able to go further for longer. He was torn.

“What kind of person do you want to be boy?” The woman asked. “That is the only question we need to ask ourselves. After that everything else starts to fall into place. So I’ll ask you again, what kind of person do you want to be?”

The woman smiled as Jano pulled a shocked face. It was as though she was reading his mind. After a few moments, he realised she had probably seen dozens of people agonising between a number of different items when faced with the prospect of only picking one. It was probably what she said to everyone, he thought. Though the way she seemed to be peering directly into his spirit, he couldn’t know for sure.

“I would be most grateful for the Soothing Spirit Stone.” He bowed a little and she slid the necklace across the desk gently.

“Then you may have it. Might I say, an excellent choice that one. Overlooked by many a promising young warrior.”

“Thank you for your guidance.” He didn’t know what status she held in the settlement so he bowed again and headed out of the hall, drawing a sigh as the creaky door shut behind him.