Four years ago

Within a church of the Purity near the center of the city, young men and women gathered with their expectations high. They gather in this room full of chairs facing towards the stage in front, surrounded by nearly a thousand of their peers, for an opportunity to gain gold and glory for their families and to master the new technology that is the talk of the empire.

They watch as the archbishop walks onto the stage, silencing the louder conversations and replacing them with anxious whispers.

“Welcome everyone. You have all come here today, whether it be by aptitude or recommendation, in order to join our ranks. If you are to become a priest of the Purity, you must understand our tenants”.

Oswald, a young man sitting in the crowd is taken out of the moment as he hears a yawn next to him. He turns to see the brunette individual beside him lazily covering his mouth.

Alwin notices the blonde baby-faced boy staring at him and comments, “Boring isn’t it?”

Oswald focuses in on what the archbishop is saying for a second, and realizes that it is just a bunch of trash, but because of his penchant to follow the rules and not wanting to ruin this opportunity to provide for his family he responds, “Aren’t we supposed to be paying attention?”

“What? To this crap? You can’t seriously tell me you are buying the exclusionary garbage this guy is spitting out?” Alwin dismisses that idea immediately, not keen to listen to such drivel.

Oswald’s voice becomes hushed, not wanting to be overheard, “No… but aren’t supposed to pretend like we do?”

Alwin shrugs, “Cool, and nah, but it looks like we might be some of the only ones”.

Oswald takes a look around and sees that most people are looking up towards the archbishop wide-eyed, with slight smiles on their faces.

“If you’re not like all these people, then why are you here?” Alwin asks, taking an interest in the person who just so happened to end up sitting next to him.

Oswald explains what brought him here, “My family needs the gold, I saw the posters around town, took the aptitude test, and passed, so here I am. What about you?”

“I was forced to be here because of my family. They are royals and I did not fit into their perfect little family, so they shipped me off here in order to get rid of me,” Alwin yawns again.

“I am Alwin by the way,” he introduces himself to his new acquaintance.

“Oswald,” Oswald responds, giving his own name.

“Well, Oswald, looks like we have similar outlooks, how about being friends?” Alwin offers.

“Yeah…” Oswald starts to agree before he notices Alwin start to fall asleep right next to him. Not wanting to start a scene he just sits there for a second before poking Alwin’s face.

Alwin awakens from the soft prods to his cheek. He notices Oswald is the one doing the poking, “Oh, hey man, what’s up?”

“You shouldn’t be falling asleep right now,” Oswald tells him frantically, not wanting his new friend to be thrown out for falling asleep.

“Why not?” Alwin starts to yawn again clearly with the aim of drifting off again.

“But if someone sees you…”

“They’ll what? Kick me out? Sounds good to me… wait no… hold on, I do want to be here for this,” Alwin starts to sit up, his attention now finally on the stage.

Oswald turns his head to look back upfront.

“Now, getting to what I know most of you are eager to see. You may not have heard, but we within the Purity have access to technology that allows us to instantaneously switch one object with another. Today we will have a demonstration of that ability, and some of you, one day, might be lucky enough to do it yourselves,” the archbishop starts to explain.

Whispers start to break out from a couple of girls on the other side of Oswald as a young man with light brown hair and cold blue eyes walks onto the stage. As they realize exactly who it is, one of them starts to squeal, a sound echoed in other areas within the auditorium.

“Who the hell is that guy?” Alwin asks, not particularly happy about the attention he is getting.

The girl on the other side of Oswald overhears Alwin’s question, “You don’t know? He’s Xander! He’s only the most gifted priest with space manipulation”.

“I wonder if he is dating anyone,” she sighs longingly.

The girl next to her jumps in on the gossip, “I heard he was dating another priest his age”.

“No, that’s not right, apparently the word is he doesn’t care about women; he just ignores them,” another from behind them doesn’t hesitate to join the conversation.

“Wait, do you think he could be gay?” The first girl asks.

“Could be,” the second notes, thinking that is the only reason he isn’t with anyone.

“You three know he is a priest right, and the three of you are also here to be priests... meaning that sort of thing is not supposed to happen. Maybe the guy is just following his faith,” Alwin collectively bursts all of their bubbles.

“What do you know?” One of the girls snipes back at him.

“Yeah, plus forbidden love is all the more exciting,” another agrees. Oswald squints up at Xander. Either way, he doesn’t like this guy.

The archbishop introduces Xander who just joined him on stage, “This is one of our more promising young priests, he will now demonstrate our special technology”. On stage with them are two boulders; one of them is painted completely white while the other is plain.

Xander stands between them and then suddenly the two switch places.

“I don’t see what’s so great about that?” Alwin downplays what he just saw.

“The word is, he is the only one that can switch things that are bigger than stuff you can hold in your hand,” one of the girls explains.

“I guess that is impressive then, if all anyone else can do is switch smaller things,” Oswald admits, thinking about the sheer size difference between a boulder and say an apple.

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“What, are you going to fangirl over this guy now too?” Alwin asks, thinking Oswald was on his side.

“No, I just admire his abilities,” Oswald defends himself, not wanting to be lumped in with the girls around them.

Alwin starts squinting at Oswald, “You know what? Now that I’m getting a better look at you, you kind of look like that guy”.

“What? No way,” Oswald dismisses it taking another look up at Xander before deciding against it.

The girl sitting next to him looks at Oswald, “No your friend is totally right! So… what are you doing after this?”

“I have to get back home. My younger siblings are there by themselves right now, so I need to get back to them as soon as possible,” Oswald explains, oblivious to the fact that this girl is coming onto him.

The introductory ceremony ends and the prospective priests are led outside, forming a line towards a facility a couple buildings over. They enter one at a time, emerging with either a green sheet, indicating they have move on to the next phase, or a red sheet, indicating they are not compatible with the technology and no longer have a chance of joining the church.

Oswald, who already passed the aptitude test, comes out with a green paper, waiting in line just as a formality. He waits, spotting Alwin come out also holding a green sheet.

“Congratulations,” Oswald tells him upon seeing he passed.

“Nah man, this sucks. I wanted to fail out here, but now I’m stuck,” Alwin retorts, not pleased with the results.

“Well it’s good for me, at least now I have a friend going through this with me,” Oswald comments.

Alwin smirks up at him, “I guess there is a bright side after all”. The two of them head off to the next tests they have to go through in order to join the Purity.

Back in the church, Xander heads backstage after his demonstration in front of all of the potential recruits.

“I bet you loved it when everyone was swooning over you,” a jealous and pissed off Godric snipes at Xander when he enters.

Xander turns to look at the guy who just attempting to insult him, “I’m sorry? Who are you again?”

“You fucking bastard, you know who I am,” Godric retorts, not knowing that Xander genuinely doesn’t pay attention to others at all.

Xander’s furious eyes focus on the insignificant worm that just deigned to call him such a word, “You should choose your words more carefully”.

“What? You aren’t going to do anything to me. And for your information I’m Godric, the person right behind you when it comes to the space manipulators,” Godric proudly informs him.

“Right behind me? I thought everyone else was still trying to switch loaves of bread,” Xander recalls, not thinking there was anyone near where he was.

“I moved onto cinder blocks,” Godric mumbles ashamedly.

“Yeah, I guess that would put you right behind me,” Xander comments sarcastically, continuing to walk through the room.

Juliana, who is in the room with Godric and Xander, waves at him when he passes by. He makes eye contact with her but does nothing else to acknowledge she is there.

“Come back here you piece of shit!” Godric yells at him, screaming at Xanders back as he grows ever more distant.

“Stop it Godric, just let him go,” Juliana tries to keep him from chasing Xander out of the room.

“Why do you favor him so much? He’s not like us, he looks down on us and it pisses me off,” Godric asks once Xander is gone.

“I… I…” Juliana is unable to answer.

“It doesn’t matter, he is never going to pay attention to people like us, he is too busy training and mingling with the higher-ups. Too bad for him he’s never going to advance up the ladder,” Godric smiles, knowing he still has one over on Xander in that regard.

“What do you mean?” Juliana hadn’t heard anything on why Xander couldn’t make his way up to archbishop one day.

Godric is more than happy to enlighten her, “He doesn’t come from a great family like I do. All the people at the top are put there because they come from families the king knows he can trust. Someone like him will never be accepted, he is just an outcast that an old fool picked up off the street”.

This makes a frown appear on Juliana’s face.

“Don’t look so sad Juliana. Maybe when he realizes there is no way to move up he will finally start paying more attention to you,” Godric tries to give her a little hope.

“I wouldn’t want that,” Juliana protests, liking Xander for not only his looks, but also his ambition.

“Sure you wouldn’t,” Godric calls her bluff, knowing at this point to her it wouldn’t matter as long as she had him. She looks down, knowing he is right.

Just then the door opens, Oswald and Alwin entering the room.

“What are you two doing here? Recruits aren’t supposed to be back here,” Godric asks, his tone rather harsh.

“Sorry, we’ll leave,” Oswald immediately responds.

“See I told you this wasn’t where the next test was,” he mutters to Alwin.

“Seemed right to me,” Alwin shrugs; pretty sure it was the right place.

“Hold on… you remind me of him,” Godric stops Oswald.

“I’m sorry, who?” Oswald asks, confused as to what he means.

The way he responded reminds Godric of Xander, causing him to walk forward and aggressively grasp Oswald’s arm, “Why you!”

He readies his fist to hit Oswald in place of Xander. He feels a tugging on the free arm that is about to strike Oswald.

He turns to see Juliana holding it back, “Don’t, he’s just some kid”.

Godric looks forwards again, just in time to see Alwin push him off of Oswald, “Come off it man, I don’t know what Oswald did to you, but you need to chill. Maybe take a nap or something, rest it off”.

“You know what, maybe I’ll take a nap actually,” Alwin adds, yawning again.

“No we need to go,” Oswald drags Alwin out of there.

“What was that?” Juliana asks Godric due to his outburst.

“Nothing,” Godric rips his arm out of Juliana’s grasp.

A few hours later Alwin and Oswald wrap up their tests for the day.

“Thank god that’s over,” Alwin stretches his arms glad to be done for the day.

“Yeah,” Oswald agrees half-heartedly.

“Well, I’m going to sleep, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Alwin tells him before lying down in the middle of the street right where he was standing.

“You can’t sleep here, just go home first,” Oswald points out, not wanting him to sleep out in the open like this.

“Can’t go home, they don’t want me there and I don’t want to be there. Plus, sleeping so close will cut down on the walking distance tomorrow; it’s a win-win,” Alwin shoos him away, adamant to sleep right here.

Oswald rolls his eyes at how ridiculous his statement is. He starts to pull Alwin off the ground.

“Stop it, man, let me sleep,” Alwin wiggles his arms free not wanting to move.

Oswald strains harder to try and lift him up. Alwin once again wriggles free causing Oswald to begin to fall backwards from pulling so hard. Instead of landing on his behind, he collides with someone walking behind him, eventually landing on top of her. He turns his head to see a woman with ashy brown hair and matching brown eyes glaring back up at him.

“I am so sorry,” Oswald gets up and immediately apologizes to the now fuming woman.

“You two shouldn’t be horsing around in the streets you are nearly adults!” She starts to lecture them.

“Give the two of them a break Avesa,” they hear an older man who was walking along with the young woman state.

“But commander, they…” the woman named Avesa starts to protest before the man cuts her off, “But nothing, you two boys have a pleasant evening”.

“Wasn’t that commander Volkov? The leader of the military?” Oswald points out as he and Alwin watch the two of them walk off in the distance.

“Yeah, it was. Never mind him though, the girl with him was fine,” Alwin sorts out his priorities.

“There goes your chance for a good first impression,” Oswald quips, knowing Alwin has zero chance with her after what just happened.

“Doesn’t matter, she only got a good look at you so my chances aren’t hindered at all,” Alwin points out.

“Sure, good luck with that,” Oswald still doubts Alwin could handle a woman like that.

“Dude, trust me I have my ways,” Alwin assures him.

“Whatever, back to the subject of where you are sleeping, I’ve come up with a compromise. You see that bench over there, why not at least sleep there instead of in the street?” Oswald suggests.

“Oh yeah, that would be way comfier,” Alwin agrees without any push back.

“You know what Oswald, I’m really starting to like you,” he adds with a grin.