Renier took out a reserve cube and pressed it to his left palm. Immediately, the Mu energy started to flow into the talisman embedded into his aakash gate. Shields and bolts didn’t use much energy, but they started adding up when you weaved hundreds of them.
There was no easy way to measure Mu energy, but the Enclave had decided to use volumetric units based on the spherical nature of a kendra core. According to the formula, a stage four kendra could hold two hundred and sixty-eight units of Mu energy. But with the unique embedded talisman reserves, the Enclave disciples could hold an astonishing seven thousand additional units.
Regardless, at eight units for each kinedisc and four for each bolt, the numbers started to add up, and if there was one thing Renier had learned the hard way was to ‘never, ever run out of energy in a fight,’ he could hear the Keeper yelling.
So he replenished his energy while blocking anything that might harm the horses, Osman, or himself and firing the occasional bolt to kill some enemies. He had to be creative because the distinct holes the bolts left could not be easily explained, and he worried about the Ebon. Well, not really worried, but more like he wanted to avoid suspicion, and etherbolt was also unique to the Enclave.
‘There are four advantages that the Enclave had over all the other Sects: we train stronger disciples because of Aymbria, we have unique combat weaves, the embedded talisman reserves, and the dagraha mental space,’ he remembered Ayg explaining when she first started training him, ’back to the present, idiot!’
The arrows kept on raining, and “miraculously” - while others had been wounded or killed - Osman, the horses, and he had not even been grazed.
Finally, the arrows ended. Fifty or so bandits had climbed down the cliff, and their comrades above now feared hitting them. Renier could have killed all of them in minutes, but he needed to avoid notice.
Captain Hazim yelled, “guard your wagons!” But Renier figured it was a losing battle. They only had seventy guards to begin with, and surely, some had been killed by the arrows.
But he couldn’t think of a good way to escape notice. Luckily, the Ebon provided it themselves. As a team, they engaged the bandits, and while they were distracted, Renier attacked with his yataghan.
Actually, he cheated. It had been over two decades since he used a yataghan, preferring the longer ether-shaped Jian that Ayg had left him. That one he could forceinflux, and it would cut through steel like it was butter. He would use the yataghan to thrust at his enemies and mask the bolt he fired. He almost lost himself in the dance as the bodies piled up. Oops, before he noticed, he had killed fifteen bandits. ‘Well, I was lucky!’ That would be his explanation.
The Ebon quintet had killed about twenty, and the tables turned. But then, more arrows started to rain. It would be a long day of killing.
Three times, the bandits tried to storm the caravan, and three times, they suffered heavy losses. Of course, the guards also. They were down to thirty guards. Most of them with wounds. When the bandits finally relented.
Renier and the Ebons were unscathed, but the other guards were bleeding.
“Looks like Gazi Akkaya trained you well,” commented the Captain as he limped by Renier while checking all the wagons.
“Just luck, Captain. This part of the caravan wasn’t hit as much,” Renier tried to explain away his lack of wounds. But the number of bodies told another story.
“Rest up! We’ll have to clear the way, but that’ll be tomorrow,” he said as he walked back to the middle of the train.
“Thank you, Orhan!” Osman was very grateful.
About an hour later, “All able guards come to my wagon,” yelled the captain.
After everyone assembled, “We need to dig a trench for the bodies. There are over two hundred dead, and the smell will start to attract predators. Orhan, Yavuz, Tahir, Selim, Kadir, and Nihat start digging,” sure enough, the Captain assigned Renier and the Ebon to dig.
They silently started, and he lost himself in his memories as he worked.
'Visualize that you are standing in the middle of an open field that goes on for kilometers without encumbrances: no trees, shrubbery, nothing but grass. Feel the cool air and the sun's warmth as you stand there. Going through the middle of the field, there's a cobblestone road. All the stones are leveled and uniform, giving off a shimmering glow. The side of the road has shallow gutters for the water to run off. The road stretches to the horizon in both directions.
Above the road, floating serenely, are seven circles. Each is filled with intricate patterns and symbols painted in white, representing a stage in the growth of your Samvid Nexus.
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The first circle has patterns of lotus flowers in the center. There, the rune Mula enclosed in a square,' as Ayg mentioned the character, the image appeared in Renier's mind.
She continued, ' The second circle is filled with billowing clouds and has the rune Pravaha in the middle.' Renier didn't understand how, but as she spoke, he started to see the image as she described it.
'The third circle is filled with waves and has the rune Taranga at its center,' again, the circle appeared in Renier's mind.
Ayg described the seven circles that represented his future path. She explained, 'I helped you visualize your dagraha; now you must memorize each piece until you can recall it without conscious thought. You will develop this mental space and gain greater abilities throughout your journey. This technique is one of the four advantages that made the Enclave disciples unbeatable.’
“Elder Ohran, Elder!”
“Huh?” Renier looked up to the Ebon, who was calling him. ‘He had lost himself, and they had now confirmed he was a Sangami. Merde!’ Three hours later, they had dug a two-meter deep and ten-meter-long trench. Well, mostly Renier.
“Do not call me that!” Renier growled, keeping up appearances.
“Yes, Eld… Ohran!”
‘What brought that memory of the dagraha?’ He quickly entered the mental space, and to his surprise, the fourth circle was now halfway filled. ‘I reached mid-stage four! It must have been all the fighting.’ One benefit of the Ebon thinking he was one of them was that he could now use his sense at maximum.
He extended his perception - now able to cover two kilometers - and saw three riders on the other side of the blocked passage. ‘Amira and Kasim are following,’ he thought in a happy tone, ‘I won’t have to look for them!’
“We’ll be here a week at least,” the Captain announced. He had gathered all the guards again once the bodies had been buried and started assigning duties. “You six will take four-hour shifts up on the cliff. In case those bandits come back. The rest will be digging. We must clear the path quickly and get out of here.”
Renier was on the cliff. His senses outstretched, watching Amira and Kasim looking for a way over the rubble. ‘I’ll pay them a visit tonight.’ Then, a group of about twenty riders moving on a trail through the mountain coming toward them entered his perception. He concentrated, ‘Merde! Shielded.’ He had figured out how to detect the talisman shields a couple of days ago by sensing the Ebon.
Twenty shielded men would pose a problem. ‘These must be Yendeci coming to help Kasim and Amira,’ deduced Renier. He had been about to shout to the Captain but thought better. Taking care of this group before they reached the caravan would avoid exposing his abilities.
For the millionth time, he thanked Ayg for giving him umbraskim. He hopped from shadow to shadow until about one hundred meters in front of the group. There, he waited in a shadow phased. Phasing took a lot of energy, but his reserves were full.
When the group had reached him, he materialized and started to fire etherbolts: five bolts to break the shield and a sixth one to kill. The first boom made by the shield breaking took the riders by surprise, but after the second, they scattered.
This was the problem. The effective range of his bolts was about thirty meters. Kinediscs stopped the crossbow bolts fired at him. He had been spotted, so he skimmed to another shadow and killed a third man.
Efficiently, he hunted the Yendeci but was starting to get a headache. Constant weaving created mental fatigue; he had done over a thousand weaves in the last day. He imbued Ayg’s sword and used it to kill the last man - he would need rest before he could weave again. Luckily, the talisman shields were no match for the sword’s power. ‘When you are about to reach fatigue, imbue all your weapons so you can continue fighting even if you can no longer weave,’ he remembered the Keepers training.
He quickly searched the bodies, but the only thing he found of note was an old, worn, leather-bound traveler’s journal, tucked in the breast of the one that looked like the leader, which he stuffed in his satchel.
The Captain and one of the Ebon were just coming up when he returned.
“Were where you?” Yelled Hazim, annoyed.
“I went to investigate the noise. It was just a rock slide.”
“Don’t leave your post without my orders. Since you have so much energy, you can help dig. You take his post,” he said, pointing to the guard who accompanied him.
As he lay resting on his bedroll that night, he took out the journal. The leather covering was well-oiled, and the securing straps were in good condition.
He opened it to find that on the inside of the cover, there was a scene with a crescent moon. Below was a tree that cast a shadow, and in the shadow sat a man. It had thick pages of sheepskin parchment. The later part was blank but the first part had pages and pages of Arabic numerals.
“What was this?’ He thought as he read the pages, trying to see something. “Organizations use codes and ciphers to keep their information secret,’ he remembered the Keeper saying during his training. ‘Look for repeating patterns and concentrate on deciphering those.’
He scanned the pages, noting each one ended in 65 146 76, but as he looked further, he found that fifty-six numbers repeated at the end of every entry.
152 16 146 76 89 47 52 24 236 38 207 54 52 24 225 64 113 98 256 65 225 85 256 65 12 54 89 47 52 24 236 38 177 30 125 96 236 38 207 54 177 30 236 38 146 76 89 47 98 39 256 65 256 65 146 76
His headache finally made him put the book away, and he started to meditate and cycle his Mu to regain his mental clarity.
The next morning, he first sent a message to the Imam about the Yendeci. Then, as he was walking to the cliff to take his shift, a merchant from another wagon approached, “you’re Ohran, right?“
“Yes!”
“Have you had your breakfast? Come sit with us!” The man said as he took him by the arm and dragged him to a fire pit by a group of wagons.
“I have a shift,” Renier protested, trying to disengage from the man.
“Have some strong black tea to keep you alert, and we have some delicious yufka bread and beyaz peynir with olives. Eat. Say, Ohran, do you have a wife?”
‘Did all these merchants have daughters?’
Apparently, he was now a hero of the caravan, and merchants with eligible daughters were always on the lookout for a good son-in-law.
It took him several minutes to disengage from the “marriage cadre”, and he climbed the cliff for his watch. Fortunately, the same Ebon that had taken his post the day before was there.
‘If they think I’m an Elder, I might as well play the part,’ he mused.
“You! Cover for me,” he ordered as he ran toward the dead Yendeci.
A group of vultures surrounded their bodies, but an etherbolt scared them, and they flew off as Renier approached. He searched them again. This time, he took the talismans and weapons. He had hoped for a clue to decipher the book but found nothing else. The horses had run off before he could search them.
“Tell your brothers that I killed a group of men yesterday. They had talisman shields,” he was about to tell him about Amira and Kasim and have the Ebon kill them, but as he extended his perception, they were no longer there. He had decided to pit the Ebon against the Yendeci and kill whoever survived.
“There were three following the caravan. I don’t know where they have gone, and I don’t know if they are from a sect or helping the kid. Stay alert!”
“Yes, Elder,” answered the Ebon respectfully.