"The aftermath of the Great Transgression heralded ceaseless descent for the centuries to come. Indeed, at casting the mighty into darkness from above even the thunderhead clouds wept for the fallen, for time would inevitably wither away all witness before divine defiance all the same."

-Battle of Amur Tarabir, Fall of the First Herald - Volume IV.

"It happened again."

Her sharp fingernails slowly sliding on his skin, as they move up the boy's spine the hair all over his body rose. A natural reaction to her cold, rare touch. Her fingers gripped tightly, pulling on his clothed torso as if it was her last day in Ravnos. Her possessive manner however twisted was a moment of respite for Jin. The scratches and pulling of hair leaving on him a reminder of the fire he held dearly inside, only to share with the one beside him. This was a constant. Where the reason he sought to live met with the unbecoming future.

Graced by such a feeling, all his senses were focused on the fragrance coming from her long dark hair. With each breath, they filled his lungs intoxicating, perpetrating his darkest desires. And each time his insecurities and fears were briefly unbound from his being. For some reason unknown he felt regretful. Sentimental stab of a never seized embrace, unclaimed affection of something that never was.

"Hey Jin! We're getting late if you don't rise at this moment. "Said Vendrick, "What's wrong? You are sweating like there is no tomorrow, I believe you’d need all the sleep that you could get for the challenges ahead of you. "

"Huh?" The young man looked around, still disoriented with his dark black hair crowding his older brother. In front of him a grown man with golden eyes, his brow furrowing in concern.

"Anyways It's time for you to gear up, this your first day at Sanctum so we can't be late." He continued, "Go wash your face at the lake, I'll be waiting by the carriage."Jin staggered down to the lake. Cold water moistened his face, the thermal shock bringing him back to reality.

"It really happened again didn't It?" Jin whispered to himself again as he tried his hardest to recall what he had just experienced. However the longer he tried to think back on it, the faster those sensations went away.

"So are you ready?" asked Vendrick as Jin joined him inside the carriage.

"Well I'm very anxious." Jin paused, "I don't know what to expect."

"Don't worry brother, I have already spoken with the Elders beforehand and they allowed me to tag along on this one as an observer. Since I'm on my third year there, it shouldn't be an issue to be your guide until we meet them. But I must warn you the rumours you've heard, the brutality within Sanctum. Those will all come into play a part this evening."

Jim took comfort in Vendrick's words, although they were not blood brothers, the two had known each other since childhood. His father, Alaric had adopted Vendrick when Jin was only five. As he grew up, Jin needed to be reminded constantly by his father that the two were not tied by blood.

The point was that most of our memories are developed after the age of seven, at least that's what the townsfolk say. His life before Vendrick's arrival was a blur, a blur that could only be corrected when his dad, Alaric was at home refreshing his memory, telling tales and adventures he was too young to remember.

"I just wished that I could have said goodbye to father ..." grumbled Jin, his brown eyes admiring the landscape, great mountains on the horizon before him.

"You know how Alaric is. It must have been urgent for him to leave without a warning. Especially on Revelation day for his favorite child. "

"He parted to the Royal Capital, with seven hundred men and a letter of summon. Still, to not share a moment before departure was indeed strange."

"You know what I think about your old man. So I rather not comment on the subject. " Smiled Vendrick with his arms crossed.

"So anyways… Vendrick can you tell me about Sanctum? Everyone always seems to talk about it with high regards, but they never seem to go in detail."

"That is for a good reason. People shouldn't really be worried about things they aren't able to deal with. " Said Vendrick, a cautious expression on his face.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh my… How slow can you be Jin? Have you never wondered why me and your dad never let you go past the Hollow Forest?"

It was true—Jin was sixteen, and in all that time he had never left his village. All this time, pretending to be a knight in shining armor with a wooden broom or playing tag with the other children.

For those enveloped within the mysteries of Sanctum, those who had survived the initiation that was all he was, a child.

His father had covered and protected his most precious treasure from the darkness and evil that wandered in that accursed world. And the revelation was upon him, soon he would break the veil that blinded his reality as many had warned him before.

"We arrived." Said Vendrick as he pointed to the window. Following where his finger was pointing towards, Jin saw dozens of hooded figures staring at his carriage as if they had been waiting for them.

“Come on, there are some people you have to meet,” Vendrick said tapping the back of the carriage with the back of his hand.

Dozens of looks fixed on Jin's carriage, some filled with curiosity while others with envy.

In the Kingdom of Elba carriages were a very rare occurrence. In most cases, when a family-owned a carriage with so many ornaments, it meant power and wealth. However, in the case of Jin and Vendrick, these speculations could not be more wrong. The carriage had been a gift given to his father Alaric after being the king's right hand for over a decade.

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"Perhaps that is the common etiquette of the nobility, making gifts rain to those who deserve a reward instead of bothering to show affection by putting their ego on the line." Jin thought to himself, a mental attempt at responding to those alert gazes surrounding him.

“I’m glad you both arrived safely” announced a low voice.

"Welcome to Sanctum." He continued by pulling the hood back and showing his face. A bearded man, looking between forty and fifty years old.

His forehead wrinkled easily as if much of his life had been accompanied by worry, and it was only now after a long time that his facial features had finally looked natural.

"I am High Elder Orion, Holder of the Second Seat and The Keeper of Flame," the man said proudly.

Although introductions are common everywhere, Jin had never heard such a title accompanied by a name. Except for the nobles who used to present themselves with the surname of their House of birth, Jin was almost certain that no family name alluded to the elements of nature.

With the confused expression on Jin's face being evident to everyone with the bare minimum of social skills, Vendrick was forced to intercede.

“I'm sorry Master Orion, I should have said it earlier…This is Jin, he is the son of Alaric from Kambar Village," the old man raised his right hand to his chin, stroking his long beard with a thoughtful expression.

“It seems Alaric has kept his promise… The amount of purists that have joined Sanctum in this decade alone is greater than the last two centuries combined. Concluded the Sage.

"Purists?" Since he got out of the carriage, nothing that this bearded man talked about made sense to Jin.

What made Jin even more uncomfortable was the fact that Vendrick rolled his eyes every time he showed an ounce of confusion on his face. This silent anguish was becoming guilt.

He was guilty. During all the years growing up, Jin had had experiences in which his reality was challenged. Alaric, his father was a diligent follower of a unique philosophy of which Jin was a victim.

He used to say…How was it again?

“For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, the more knowledge, the more grief. And so, the key to happiness is ignorance.”

No, Jin was not a victim. The reality was that Jin was an accomplice to his father's vision, as from time to time the opportunity arose to break free. Every time he heard strange noises coming from his bedroom window, Jin pulled the covers up to his head to hide his thin body.

Every time he tasted a strange taste in the lunch meat, Jin masked it with the bitter taste of the wine that accompanied his meal. Every time he noticed bruises spread across his father's body when he returned from hunting in the dark of the night, Jin pretended that they were nothing more than scratches and that everything would be fine.

But that would end today. Jin concluded, his heart skipping a beat with enthusiasm to finally leave the past behind. Taking a deep breath once more, he insisted.

"Why are you calling me a purist?" The old man exchanged glances with Vendrick before answering, a smile wanting to emerge on half of his face.

“I'm surprised you're not familiar with the term. Purists are humans raised by relatives who want to buy their children time to enjoy their childhood. It is a practice prohibited in most kingdoms and frowned upon by many for producing spoiled and useless warriors. However, the return of this practice was already expected. After all the Divine War was only eleven years ago,” said the thoughtful elder.

“Your father, Alaric was never the same after that. Humans are a very fragile race due to their obsessive love; purists are the living proof of that.” Father had never commented in detail about the Divine War. A war veteran personally decorated by the King of Elba himself. All of these adventures and details were never shared by his father, who avoided any questions on the subject. What Jin knew was that Vendrick's adoption would have been sometime near the ending of this so-called Divine War.

"Anyhow we must proceed with The Trial." Said Orion gesturing for Vendrick and Jin to follow him.

The place was huge, Sanctum was a fortification in which more than two thousand humans trained their elemental ways. All wore adorned cloaks that varied, green, red, yellow, and several other shades. Not only that, but they also varied in what they carried. Some had bows, spears, and staffs while others carried long swords, sabres, axes, and daggers. Walking down several wide corridors and following the High Elder Orion, everyone moved with the ease that they seemed to live in the Sanctum.The bad spatial memory that Jin had when coupled with the fact that he was perplexed by the infrastructure on which he walked made him feel like a mouse in a maze. There were rare occasions when Jin exercised. Although he was not overweight, he expected his feet would be starting to throb any minute now as they descended endless flights of stairs.

But this time it was different. The pain was suppressed by all the anxiety of the unknown. Down consecutive flights of stairs to the lowest level of Sanctum. He couldn't wait to go back to the village and tell the people, especially the boys who always walked with him about the existence of Sanctum. He thanked himself mentally for being accompanied by his brother Vendrick and Orion, Holder of The Second Seat, and The Keeper of Flame.

“Whatever that meant.”

"This is It, please come inside." Said Orion charismatically pulling Jin who was easily seduced by the girls waving at the end of the corridor to Vendrick, who was just behind him.

A huge hall with massive stone pillars supporting the weight of the fortress existed there. Slowly running his fingers on the ancient surface of it, the dust that stuck to Jin's fingertips made him think that the Hall of Trial had been there for at least a millennium blessing humans with the elemental gift. Ahead of him stood nine statues, each representing a different Elemental God, all positioned in a circular, geometric arrangement around the center of the hall. Each living being could have been blessed by one of these nine deities, providing different powers and protections depending on which one would choose it.

Everburied 'Widow of Norkrus' Gaia, forsaken beneath the soil to a deranged delusion of grandeaur in a realm beyond the reaches of mortals.

Ignis, eldermost amongst the Elemental pantheon and First Ascendant of Fire whom made the sun his dearest treasure.

'Herald of the Storm' Fulgur, the only god that wept in Amur Tarabir.

Dragonlord Genos, Elemental God of Wind and Change who was said to have brought downfall to House Barcana.

Lix 'Maiden of Ice' fatally wounded by her own two sisters in their desperate attempt for ascension.

Calamis 'Of the Third Eye', Elemental Goddess of Shadow and last ascendant of her kin.

Sanguis, the cunning God of Blood and all things mysterious.

Founder of the Five Covens and First Matriarch Aurora–the Elemental Goddess of Light.

And finally, Nekros 'Chosen of Xann' and master of Undeath.

Jin moved away from Vendrick and Orion, and headed to the center of the room along with three other unfamiliar faces. While they were all strangers to him, he had the impression that they knew what they were doing much more than him. And so he felt compelled to follow in their steps. Copying the movements of the girl beside him, Jin opens a cut into his finger and so blood drips onto the large wooden plate in the center of the room. His blood and of three others fill the bottom of the pot. The dense liquid enters the scriptures present on the surface of the material and in an unusual way and begins to fill every corner of the object. Signs begin to take shape and a drawing is made on the inside forming a symbol that Jin has never seen before. As if reacting to the gushed blood, the pot was now beginning to tune in with every soul of those there participating in the ritual.

And then silence.

Sharing gazes amongst each other, Jin and the other young initiates had the same look in their faces giving glimpses of anxiety and incertainty.

"So did it not work?" The blonde girl with blue eyes broke the silence.

And then, in succession, each of the statues answered it: One by one, starting with Ignis. Blue flames were born in the eyes of each of the gods, as if consciousness had finally been reclaimed deep within their marble beauty. The divine ones stared at their burdens, seemingly reading into their deepest hopes and insurmountable fears.

And then brought forth judgement upon them.