“Hoca, how long did Kasim work for you?” Renier and Imam Akkaya sat in his library drinking tea. After not finding any trace of Amira or her “father”, he decided to see the Imam and warn him of their deceit.
“He had been with me a few months, but he had excellent references,” the Imam answered, lost in thought.
“I suspect he was working for you to get to the manuscript.”
“There’s an organization called the Yendeci. They have been after the manuscripts for years. We decided to divide them among us so that it would be harder to get them all,” explained the Imam, “they are very powerful. Their warriors have great strength and mystical powers.”
“The manuscript is a mystical object?” Renier probed.
“They say that when the seven are together, ancient wisdom can be discerned, but I have never seen it,” answered the Imam, “do you still have it?”
“I have hidden it in a safe place, hoca. Of course, I will deliver it to Ancyra as you asked. I only came to warn you about Kasim.”
Renier paused. “Hoca, do not be alarmed; please stay directly behind me,” he ordered as he got up and moved to face the door.
Renier went into his dragaha, and time slowed. The door opened in slow motion, and a clay jar was thrown in. Renier didn’t know what it was, but regardless he instaweaved a kinedisc and pushed it whence it came. Then he slipstreamed outside the library and closed the door.
The jar broke, and a heavy smoke started to form. The seven attackers, in disarray, began to retreat. Renier wanted to capture them, but it seemed the smoke was toxic. He quickly weaved an astralshroud around himself, but seven darts cleared the smoke and were mere centimeters from him as it was forming. He instaweaved six kinediscs and twisted his body backward, bending at the knees to let the seventh dart pass over him. Then, using his left hand, he pushed himself upright again. Amira and Kasim had left the inner courtyard. He fired etherbolts at the remaining five, but they hit a shield. ‘Do they sell these talismans at the bazaar?’ Five more were fired at the leg of the last man, breaking his shield and hitting him.
The imam was at the library door, his mouth agape, looking at Renier. “Wh… who… are you?”
“Hoca, get inside and close the door. This smoke is toxic,” yelled Renier as he ran to the downed man, but by the time he got to him, his mouth was foaming.
There was nothing of note on this body either. Renier stored it; then he returned to the library.
The Imam was sitting in his chair, drinking something a little stronger than tea.
“Hoca, like I said, I was trained by Gazi. In part, I’m here to avenge his death. I hope you can forget what you saw tonight.”
The Imam only stared at him.
They talked the rest of the night. Renier was as candid as possible without revealing the Sect or the actual extent of his powers.
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“Young Renier, these letters will help you on your journey. First is a letter to Captain Hazim. You can join one of his caravans as a guard, and it should allow you to travel safely,” the Iman explained as Renier put on his armor. He had taken out his old traveling equipment so as not to cause suspicion.
The Imam seemed to have grown accustomed to the wonders Renier constantly pulled. At one point during the night, he quoted Socrates, “I only know that I know nothing.”
“The second is for Imam Yusuf al-Ankari in Ancyra. Please deliver it with the manuscript. And the third is in case you get into any trouble. Go to any mosque and present it to the Imam, and they will help you.”
Renier took the letters and made as if he put them in his satchel, but in actuality, he stored them in his ring. Then he took out a small Lucene Spirite cube with intricate mandalas carved on all its surfaces.
“Hoca, please keep this item hidden and safe. It will allow us to communicate even at great distances. When you want to send me a message put your finger here while talking. When you are finished, stop touching it. If I send you a message, it will glow blue. You just need to touch it here to listen to my voice.” Renier pulled out a second cube, and they tested the process until the Imam understood.
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There was a group of armed men at the bazaar, and after the customary greeting, Renier said, "Are you Captain Hazim?” The man grunted in the affirmative, and Renier handed him the letter.
Captain Hazim looked him up and down, "you any good with that thing," pointing at the yataghan.
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"I can hold my own."
"We're going to Constantinople but will stop a few days in some cities. You'll be expected to guard in the cities also. It's one silver a day and extra hazard pay if there's an attack."
"I have business in Ancyra; if I can't conclude it before you leave, I may have to stay there. Otherwise, I'll be happy to continue to Constantinople, Captain."
"All right, Ohran. Wait there with the other guards," he said, pointing at the group of five men to the side as he wrote some information down on a ledger.
"You lot, follow me. We'll stay with the caravan tonight and leave at sunrise tomorrow. I'll assign you a wagon to travel on and guard," shouted the captain.
'A stage two, Ebon,' Renier noticed as his group walked past some loiterers by the northern gate. 'He seems to be looking for me,' he mused. He could feel his active use of a resonance weave, 'sloppy.' But Renier's concealment was beyond mastery, so he appeared as a normal human.
In his mid-forties, Osman was the driver of the wagon he got assigned. Renier walked around the camp, getting to know the faces of the other guards, 'don't want to kill the wrong people in case of trouble.' The Ebon were pulling out all the stops. A team of five traveled in the caravan, 'all stage two. There's going to be a lot of deserters during this trip.'
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At one in the morning, Renier extended his senses and found the Ebon by the gate still there. 'Time to get rid of another one.'
Without getting up, he skimmed to a nearby shadow and then jumped from shadow to shadow until he was behind the Ebon. He fired a bolt to the back of the head, but it was stopped. 'This guy also has a toy.' Five bolts, in rapid succession, cracked the shield with a loud boom, and a sixth ended him. He stored the body and skimmed before the gate guards even got up from their chairs.
'Sloppy. It seems everyone has these toys. I'll have to check from now on. The Keeper would have had a field day!' he could hear the admonishment, 'inattention and sloppiness will kill you faster than a sword.'
There was a commotion at the gate as guards searched for the source of the noise, but by then, Renier was in his bedroll, feinting sleep. He pulled out the shield talisman from one of the other Ebon to analyze. ‘It must be activating based on kinetic force.’ He would have to search for some type of signature before he broke the next one to make sure he could detect them beforehand.
That made killing the Ebon a lot more complicated. He had been lucky. If the group he had met on the road had these shields, he would have been hard-pressed to fire sixty-three bolts to kill all of them by surprise. 'Not two hours out of the Sect, and you're already making mistakes,' he berated himself. He'd have to do much better than that, or this would be the shortest revenge quest in history. His feeling of superiority when looking at the stage-two Ebon went down a notch. The Keeper would have been very disappointed.
In conclusion, fighting groups of Ebon by himself without knowing what devices they were carrying was something he would not repeat. His plan needed to be revised.
The over sixty wagons that comprised the caravan were on the road with the break of dawn. Osman turned out to be very friendly and talkative. Before noon, he had told Renier his whole life story and practically considered him his son-in-law. He had been a caravan driver for more than thirty years, starting as a kid with his father, who had been taught by his father. Three generations of caravan drivers, but Osman had only daughters. His family lived in Constantinople. He had three daughters; the oldest was twenty-six and not married. "She'll make a great wife," said Osman, not so subtly hinting at Renier. "Pretty, my girl, and a good obedient woman, and whoever marries her will inherit this wagon," he finished as if trying to seal the deal. Renier feinted non-understanding.
"You say you live in Constantinople," segues Renier, "How's the city? I've never been there."
"Oh, it's a wonderful city, Ohran. A good place to get married and raise a family," answered Osman, returning the conversation to his topic of interest. Mainly getting rid of that darn Leyla, whose character drove away every man she ever met. 'Allah help him! She was already twenty-six. Most girls married at fifteen,' he grumbled.
But Renier would not bite, "Too bad I have business in Ancyra and can't continue with you. It would have been nice to meet your family and visit a new city."
The wagon was silent after that statement. 'Turns out that Osman wasn't really talkative; he was just selling,' thought Renier as he watched the drab scenery.
Renier had the second watch that first night on the road, which ended at three in the morning. He was walking back to his wagon when he noticed the five Ebon approaching and smiled. 'Here they come. They just don't know who the hunter is,' he thought.
The big one blocked his way while the other four surrounded him, "you've been eyeing us. What do you want?"
"Ah, beyler, I was just admiring your beautiful pendants. Are you brothers, or belong to the same society? Is it hard to join? Those pendants remind me of a viper. I would love to get one," answered Renier with a sarcastic smirk. Then he pushed the big man back like he was a child and continued to his bedroll, ignoring them.
The large Ebon was flabbergasted, 'was that a coded message? Was this guy one of them? Maybe he was an Elder,' they all looked at each other and returned to their camp.
"Just keep an eye on that guy, but don't bother him. He moved me like I was a feather. He must be at least stage three," said the big guy once they were seated.
"Do you think he's an Elder sent to check on us?" asked a short young Ebon.
"Whatever he is, we'll report to Viper when we get to Ancyra. In the meantime, just do everything as normal. Any kid about seventeen that we come across, we check out."
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Crossing the winding paths across the Taurus Mountain range was slow, and the monotony made Renier doze. The creaking of the left wheel was the only thing that didn’t let him entirely fall asleep. ‘That stingy Osman could put some grease on it.’ This was the fifth day of travel, and the talk between him and Osman had died. Renier had made it clear that he was not looking to marry, and everything went downhill from there. So, most days, he rode on the back of the wagon and dozed.
Renier followed Ayg after breakfast to a part of the Sect Master’s compound he had never seen before. 'Ayg, what's here?' asked Renier, excited to see something new.
'This is the crown achievement of my grandfather and the Enclave's most guarded secret,' she answered. They stepped into the vast hall of a building. Mandalas covered all surfaces except for a narrow corridor that bisected the space and led to the back wall. On the wall was a mural of a peaceful-looking forest, and buildings in the distance were similar to what you could find in the sect.
'Faced with the ever-looming proximity of Penumbra, my grandfather looked for a way to train our disciples faster, and Aymbria was born. It's a pocket dimension that can support life and where our disciples can train. It has three benefits. The ambient Mu energy is about the same as level three of the tower so that you can grow your kendra core faster. Two, it has complete educational and training facilities where you can fight golems that look and act like warriors of all types or corrupted beasts without the peril of dying. And three, time runs at one-tenth the speed of the real world. You’ll be taught by the Keeper, an Elder who has trained generations of disciples,’ Ayg proudly proclaimed.
'It has some limitations. One is that it can only handle ten disciples at a time. The other is that the most a person can go in is twice, and the most they can stay is three hundred and sixty days each time,' Ayg cautioned. 'This gave us a great advantage over the other sects. We could train ten disciples to stage three in about two years.'
'Once you reach stage one, you'll go in and train. Then come out, wait two moon cycles, and go in again. If you train diligently, with your aptitude, you might reach stage five or at least mid-stage four by the end, and you'll only be seventeen. That will make you the youngest stage five in history,' Ayg beamed, proud of Renier.
He didn’t have his senses out very far for fear the Ebon might spot him, but something up ahead moved, breaking him out of his reverie. Renier’s was the third wagon. “Osman, stop!”
A large rock slid down the side of the narrow cliff, crushing the mules that pulled the first wagon. He turned as he heard the sound of falling rock far behind them. The pass was blocked. “Take cover!” He yelled. Arrows started to rain!