“There is darkness beyond every sliver of light. Whether it is the sun, a cool spring on a warm summer’s day in the valley or the most beautiful sight at the peak of a mountain. There is darkness around every corner. We are that darkness.”
The teacher stood on the top of three brownish clay steps. She had long dark flowing hair, similar to the King and she was almost as tall as Jano. She weaved in and out of the columns as she talked.
The columns surrounded Jano and the other trainees, all of which were younger than him. He shifted where he stood. He could almost meet the eyes of the teacher on the steps, whereas the teenagers around him could barely meet the teacher’s chest. His face flushed red at the embarrassment he felt.
“The shadows favour us with their presence. You are lucky enough to wield it. To bravely look into the chaos and to take out only what you need, where others might see terror, greed or even lose hope all together. Chaos essence is everywhere. And with time, you shall do things which our neighbours could only dream of.” The teacher emphasised the last part with disdain.
“We have an outsider with us today. He is a friend of our king and a friend of our school. Remember what I said about the enemy of our enemies? He has come to learn from us and we will teach him as much of our ways as we can. But remember, he is no true Chaos-Shaper. So please, do not hurt him… too badly.”
The teacher gave a wry, mocking smile which belied the point of her words a little. His master had signed him up for rudimentary training at their revered training school. Apparently; they began teaching the ways of their essence to their teenagers and thus, he was surrounded by those at least ten years his junior. Dariea had already explained that being born here didn’t give them any more mastery of the essence than if they learned it somewhere else. Only that the essence was strong here, so it was easier to learn. Though she had explained that it was a powerful essence, one she had mastered and because of them being joined by contract, he might find it easier to pick up. She also explained that because these people believed that ‘Chaos-Shaper’ meant something so fiercely, that belief alone could make them stronger.
Still it hurt a little to see those around him being considered more dangerous than a fully grown man. The teacher gathered shadows into her palms, forced it into a little arrow and fired it at a target. There were replicas of the targets all around the school.
“Begin.” The teacher barked.
The group dispersed and began gathering chaos essence and firing arrows into the targets with varying degrees of success. Jano walked aimlessly to a target. He tried to reach out and gather chaos essence, but he was unsuccessful. Again and again he tried. Again and again he failed. He felt the brief touches of stone, but he shut that out.
He channelled his will into the darkness which clung to the school. Nothing happened, he just heard the arrows of the others drumming into the targets. He started to curse Dariea in his mind, for pushing him to sign up for the school while she ran errands.
“You’re distracted. Chaos is too large to tentatively grasp and it doesn’t just contain dark and shadow. You need to force it and bend it to your will.” Jano opened his eyes to see the teacher observing him.
“You’re from Qursa, no?” She asked and Jano nodded, his face flushing red.
“They say that you are no longer learning how to channel essence. That you leech from your Emperor like children?” Her voice wasn’t mean, just confused, as though nobody in their right mind would choose such an option.
“Well yes. Sorry..” Jano didn’t know what else to say, though an apology felt a bit off as soon as he said it.
“Why are you apologising? Your elders have failed you and left you weak. It is just surprising, as the Qursan Empire has always projected nothing but strength.”
Jano felt anger rising in him and the Emperor’s smug face as he waved and watched Dariea bundle them away from the city flashed in his mind. “You’re right.” He had to stop himself from adding an apology on the end, but he held firm.
“The Emperor takes all of our strength and distributes it to himself and those he sees fit.” He managed.
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“Ah. But even the strongest of us cannot manage alone.” She looked as though she might say something else but then her face hardened. “Now, command the essence and force it to your will. Chaos is not like a physical essence. It needs to be moulded and shaped, the runes will guide you, but here the Chaos is strong. You can tell it what to do; it will obey.”
He relaxed and suddenly the idea of being surrounded by basically children and learning the ropes didn’t seem so bad. He felt something flickering in his mind. He pictured the rune which had been drawn on a massive chalkboard. It was similar to that of his stone spear technique but it represented several arrows of chaos. Due to the nature of chaos essence, these runes were variations on those used for more typical kinds.
Jano focussed on the target. A tiny arrow of shadow thudded into his target. “Good work. Be more authoritative, it is new to you, but the secrets will slowly unravel. If you need anything more from today’s lesson, just ask.” She smiled and looked Jano up and down. Sizing him up, but not in an aggressive way.
So for the rest of the day he practiced commanding chaos essence. Sweat formed on his brow as he practiced gathering it and firing it at his target. He missed as often as he managed to hit it, but towards the end, the balance started to shift. If Dariea had chosen to learn its power, then he had no doubt it was worth it. Jano wondered whether he could ever be authoritative enough to command it when he wasn’t physically wrapped up in the essence.
As he left the school, he couldn’t hide the grin from his face. Yes he was in a remedial magic class and surrounded by children, but he was actually doing it for himself. Something clicked inside of him, he wanted to leap ahead and be as strong as Dariea. Even the King of the Chaos-Shapers had called her mighty. Perhaps one day, monarchs all across the land would know his name.
Grinning like an idiot, he began heading down the settlement to the lodgings provided in the grounds of the King’s royal quarters. He had to share the place with Dariea, but to Jano it was a palace in comparison to his home in the Slums. They even had separate quarters of the house and multiple bathrooms indoors.
Daylight was an odd concept when the settlement was shrouded in an eerie darkness. Enough daylight made it through so Jano could see his surroundings, but even Qursa saw more sun than these people. And it was constantly cloudy in that city. Of course, all the Chaos-Shapers had to do was head down from their settlement and they could walk amongst the geysers and the greenery. Jano certainly didn’t miss the grey walls or it’s rigid rules.
The townspeople were preparing for some form of festival and Jano watched as they carried huge logs and dried shrubbery up the hill. They were either planning to build something or burn something and either way, he hoped he would get to witness it. Jano kept himself to himself, but he chanced a small nod to one of the townsfolk carrying some wood lattices and he received a cheery nod in response.
An odd smell lingered in the air and just as it began to trouble him, he realised it was some sort of wood stain. He was about to head into his temporary house, when Dariea whistled at him.
“Oi. Over here.” She had started being less and less formal now that they were out of the city. “You look like you’re in a good mood! How were your lessons?”
“Thank you for arranging them. It was particularly interesting to see how other types of essence can be used.”
A smile crept across her face. “Good. You are basically a blank slate, so I want you to experience different types of essence before we decide which routes you are to choose.”
“I think I want to stay with stone. Will training with chaos affect the basic skills I have learned so far?” He replied, concern clearly evident in his voice.
“No I shouldn’t think so. I doubt you will be only learning one path. But I would not be so hasty. Essence is not as rigid as we are made to believe, but neither is it as fluid as we would hope.”
She was starting to sound a bit like her old self again. And it totally confused Jano.
Sensing the confusion, she added. “I can teach you
many things, and we will need to if we want to destroy the Emperor, but I can’t teach you how to make your own decisions.”
“Is chaos essence powerful to master?” He asked.
“All essence is powerful, if you take it far enough. But yes, in short. It can be very powerful.” Jano noticed that her smile disappeared a little as she said the words and he couldn’t help but wonder if it was intentional or not.
At that moment, more townsfolk walked past the courtyard onto which their house looked over. They were carrying great colourful materials under their arms. “Oh I forgot to mention. Aren’t we lucky, we made it here for the spring festival after all. Come on, let's go and look at some of the preparations, they’ll be held in a fortnight.”
Dariea started up the hill which Jano had just walked down. He sighed but she was already shouting for him to follow. It took almost no time for Jano to decide to follow, as he was as excited about his new surroundings as Dariea sounded. He kicked off the dirt and ran after her to catch up.