“Fuck” Aj thought, his response the same as Kit’s. If this thing connects to some powerful entity that can see into the hearts of sovereigns and gauge their strengths, would it be able to tell that his sovereign isn’t dead?
“I assure you Sovereign Darkseed this process is entirely safe and is considered a common procedure amongst the families when enlisting Sovereigns.” Natalia said, attempting to reassure Aj. “Please show the Arbiter the respect he deserves and you will have no issue. I look forward to the results” She continued flashing that damned smile.
Suddenly the tips of Aj’s shoulders grew tense. He felt that every eye in the building and beyond was staring at him, peering into his very soul. He took a few frantic looks around the room before realizing that other than Natalia, no one was looking at him. This had to be due to the Eye of The Arbiter. The sensation continued on for several minutes, suddenly jumping in intensity and decreasing without warning.
“Ough” Kit groaned “It feels like your Doctor asking you to cough with your pants down in front of a school assembly”
“An interesting analogy” A warbling voice said as space teared in front of Aj, revealing a stunning figure now sitting at the 3rd chair of the table. It was vaguely a man just above 6 feet tall except its entire torso and body was composed of fire and stone. Its four stone arms connected to its grey stone torso by coiling fire. Its face resembled that of a refined young posh man, except that its skin was composed of gray stone and what looked like two fangs pierced out of its cheek bones.
“Hi I’m Aj” Aj blurted out, the awkwardness and pressure too much for him to bear. The figure turned towards him, resting its lower 2 arms on the table.
“What have you brought into my ring, Aj?” The figure said smiling like a hyena, its voice surprisingly high pitched but menacing.
“I uhh-” Aj responded, trying to find the words before being cut off by the figure. Its hyena smile turned into an upwards sneer.
“Whatever plots you or your masters have, know this” The figure rose up and began floating among the table “I, Malphiris, Arbiter of the 1st, will not allow you to make a mockery of my domain with powers greater than that of the 1st ring. Is this clear?” Malphiris asked in such a way that suggested that he would relish Aj messing up and incurring his wrath. Aj didn’t exactly understand what was going on, but he thought it best not to upset the arbiter any more than he already was.
“It’s very clear Arbiter,” Aj said, bowing his head. Malphiris only grumbled in response and phased out of existence with a similar tearing of space.
Aj felt a rush of relief as the pressure the arbiter exuded was gone and he no longer felt that every eye was on him. He quickly scanned the room and saw that everything was the same as before except for Natalia who now had her hand on the Eye of The Arbiter and was staring at the space where the Malphiris had just been.
“Dude what the fuck’s going on with her eyes?” Kit asked honing in on a detail Aj missed. Her eyes were typically black, but now they were an irisless obsidian night sky and among that sky were constellations of fiery burning red stars.
“I don’t know man this is nuts, how do you think that went anyway?” Aj asked Kit mentally.
“I think it could've gone better, but we’re still here at least. The arbiter had to notice we’re different right? He gave the impression that he might threaten every sovereign he evaluates, but he probably doesn’t assume they all have hidden masters. That part worries me” Kit replied, concern clear in his voice.
“Sovereign Darkseed” Natalia said, interrupting Aj and Kit’s mental conversation. Her eyes back to normal and her hand off the Eye of The Arbiter, apparently finished with whatever she was doing. “Thank you for cooperating with the Arbiter, it would be my pleasure to reveal to you your evaluation and make you a formal offer on behalf of the Tiermon family”
“Okay that's good news” Kit said mentally. Aj nodded, both agreeing with Kit and urging Natalia to continue.
“I’m afraid that you were ranked the lowest on all metrics including maturity, progression and capacity. Now while that may be disparaging to hear Sovereign Darkseed, you are still a Sovereign and the Tiermon family would still love to have you join. Even the weakest sovereigns who are fit not to leave the strongholds of humanity still have a purpose.” Natalia said, her face full of empathy.
“What would be our, I mean my, role in the family?” Aj asked, staying in the stronghold didn’t sound that bad, but it really didn’t sound all that great either. He’d much rather be at home with Kit playing video games.
“You would bond to one of the many people of interest the family has waiting in the Overworld allowing them the durability and resilience needed to live a long life in the 1st ring. These people are engineers, artisans and even doctors who could greatly benefit the family and Rojasroc.” Natalia answered.
“What all does bonding entail?” Aj asked.
“Right,” Natalia nodded. “Bonding is the process in which you give another person a piece of your heart. They then become what is known as Bonded, which at a basic level allows them to adapt to the pressure of the Underworlds, which would cause severe heart failure at an early age to any who are not bonded of sovereigns”
“Yeah I knew about the bonding process, but I didn’t know that it was necessary to survive here long term, that’s wild” Kit said mentally.
“So everyone we saw today walking was a bonded or sovereign?” Aj asked Natalia out loud, trying to piece together this new information.
“No, the bulk of the inhabitants in the lower ring strongholds are common people who over many generations have adapted to the Underworlds” Natalia said matter-of-factly.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“So they aren’t affected then by the “pressure” of the underworlds?” Aj asked.
“Unfortunately no, even though they are resilient, they typically develop early stage heart failure and die at an early age.” Natalia said as if simply reading off a statistic “But please, let us stick to the matter at hand Sovereign, are you interested? You would have comfortable accommodations and would only have to carry out small duties for the family on a regular basis.”
“Could I have one moment to think?” Aj asked Natalia.
“Of course, please enjoy the food and wine and let me know when you are ready to accept.” Natalia said smiling. Aj gave her forced smile in response and began slowly picking away at the bread in front of him.
“What do you think?” He asked Kit mentally
“I’m not sure about the bonding process, I’m worried that the bondee might be able to tell something is different with you and me. Also isn’t it weird that we got the lowest scores?” Kit asked
“Well technically I got the lowest score, which I think makes sense, because I don’t have your heart.” Aj replied mentally “I agree too about the whole bonding thing, makes me worried that it would out us. I’ll try to politely decline”
“Natalia, thank you so much for these accommodations, but I think it’s best if I decline” Aj said
“Are you sure Mr. Darkseed?” Natalia asked, her face showing concern “I assure you the safest and most comfortable place for you in Rojasroc is with the Tiermon family”.
“Yes, thank you” Aj said, while not really sure how to end the conversation. He just kind of awkwardly smiled and nodded at Natalia while getting up out of his chair.
“Mr. Darkseed, if you change your mind in the next few days please come back and ask for me, you would be a valued member of the Tiermon family. Otherwise I wish you the best of luck in Rojasroc.” She said flashing a pitying smile, like someone looking at a diseased puppy.
Aj just nodded, smiled, and walked away into the garden outside the Tiermon Family Barracks. He passed multiple guards as he walked out who simply made way for him to leave as he exited.
“That was surprisingly easy” Aj said mentally to Kit.
“Yeah they really just let us walk out of there, after spending all that time and effort to bring us. I thought it’d be more of a hassle to get out” Kit replied “Maybe after the appraisal they really care as much if they snagged you”
“Eh you might be right” Aj said looking over his shoulder at the barracks as he walked away from the barracks into city streets.
“So where are we heading?” Kit asked Aj
“I’m really not sure man, do we try to find a job around town?” Aj asked
“I’m not really sure if anyone is gonna give us a quest man if we don’t have any equipment or notoriety” Kit replied.
“Quest? I meant more like a bartender or dishwasher when I said job” Aj said, cocking his eyebrows.
“Bro we need to get out there and explore the Underworlds, we don’t know what else is coming for us and that shadow guy told us that we have to make it to the 3rd ring” Kit responded, seeming like going out into the other Underworlds didn’t bother him at all.
“Yeah, but he didn’t really say a time limit though or even what he’d do to us if we failed” Aj replied trying to be the voice of reason. It felt too soon to go out and try to be a real sovereign out there amongst the underworlds. It felt much safer for him to get his bearings and then inch his toe in later.
“Aj, let's just go and try to find one of the entrances, I think they’re called yards, and we can just dip our toe, jusssst dip our toe in and see what's going on” Kit said, drawing out the word just to make it sound so simple.
“You don’t want to like look for a place to stay or anything first?” Aj asked.
“With what money, do they even take cash here?” Kit replied.
“Fine” Aj relented “We can look for one of these yards and check it out, but if we can’t find it or get in easy, we are gonna look for a job bussing tables or something so we don’t end up on the streets tonight.”
“Yessss” Kit said, celebrating his victory.
Aj spent the next 40 minutes searching around town sticking out like a sore thumb in his black t-shirt and sweatpants. A few times he felt like some of the people were not only staring at him but also very close to approaching him and asking him what the hell he was doing here.
Eventually they came across a similar tunnel that they had entered the town through, except after the narrow entrance this one opened up into a larger cavern. Inside there were two small stone buildings with several large training yards around them, full of training dummies and wooden weapons. Inside each of those training yards, Aj saw a group training at full force. On the left, a well oiled team of eight worked like a wolf pack. Each of them practicing on the same singular dummy taking their moment to attack before backing off and being replaced by another ally attacking. In the back a man leaned against the left dark stone building manipulating the stone dummy with a flick of his wrist, trying to fend off the eight attackers and offering .
As Aj turned his attention to the right, he saw a group of twelve individuals all training by themselves against separate dummies. One of the standouts among them was a rather slender, tall man punching into the dummy with jeweled gauntlets that sent shards of ruby into the dummy with every punch. Another standout was a shorter young man, wearing plain clothing and wielding a plain sword. Comparatively, the others in the yard were well equipped with finer armors and weapons. The young man practiced isolated from the others at the farthest dummy setup possible, but what really stood out was his swordsmanship. While Aj was no true judge of swordsmanship, he was struck by how fast and relentlessly he swung his sword at the dummy, hitting the same spots in rapid rotation. It gave Aj the impression of someone carrying out an action they had practiced and done over and over their entire life.
While Aj was debating on entering the yard and introducing himself, a commotion suddenly broke out in the right group. A crowd had suddenly erupted around the plain looking swordsman, the crystal pugilist had the plain man’s shirt gripped in his gauntlets and was yelling.
“YOU ARE SORELY MISTAKEN COMMONER, MY MOTHER IS NO-” The pugilist yelled loudly enough for even Aj to hear from so far away, until he was cut off by the impact of the swordsman's fist in his jaw. With that an all out brawl between the two of them broke out. The stone manipulating man from the left group ran over and tried in vain to break up the fight.
“We should just sit this out and find another yard” Aj said to Kit
“Nah nah nah nah nah” Kit said enjoying the drama “Let's at least wait and see how this plays out”. Kit was always a fan of guild drama, especially if it was another guild’s drama.
“Fine” Aj said “But we can wait around, but we are not going down there”
“For sure, for sure” Kit replied mischievously “I got money on the small one lets enjoy the show!”