I sat in an open air pavilion that looked like a fancy eastern-styled gazebo. I leaned up against the cushioned bench and reached out to a steaming cup that sat in the center of a round wooden table. The table had large chunks carved out of it and replaced with hardened amber. Various smaller creatures were drowned in the yellowed depths.
Placed on the table atop the yellow seas were a pair of steaming cups. Inside was a light green liquid. A stem floated lazily atop the green lake like a tiny boat.
I reached over and took the cup in my hands. A small dosage slipped through my lips and down my tongue washing it in a neutral flavor that tasted of little. If anything, it tasted like hot water with the slightest hint of something herbal floating around within it.
“This is the first time we’ve talked in my abode,” Senior Brother said with the same tone as someone who was hosting the neighbor they hated at a cookout. “As host, I am obligated to say, welcome.”
“Yes, you were screaming atop the mountain the last two times we spoke,” I replied with a self-satisfied smile. “Thank you for having me. I wasn’t quite sure that you had a home.”
Senior Brother clicked his tongue. His demeanor, not wholly changed, but restrained greatly after Grendel’s report that I finished my training in quick order. Perhaps, harnessing the Grand Master’s energy was the hammer that broke away the last of his plausible defenses he could use while still appearing subservient to the Grand Master. A terse invitation more akin to an order is what brought us together.
“It is only right that I properly greet my legitimate Junior Brother,” Senior Brother said through a clenched jaw. “Grand Master said that it is cause for celebration. So, celebrate we shall.”
Senior Brother picked up his own cup. He brushed his paper charm slightly up to allow the tea to drain into his rotted mouth without staining anything green.
He set it down to deafening silence. I looked over the mountainside while he tapped an impatient tune on the floor. There was nothing to speak of between the two of us; a pair that needed the other dead to fulfill their objectives. If there wasn’t any sort of silent rule dictating how long one of these celebrations had to be, I’m sure I would have been shuffled out of this place immediately.
“It’s a nice view,” I complimented.
Through the windows of the pavilion, I could see the valley below. There was no day-night cycle, leaving the valley constantly awash in midday light. Of course, it lacked the romance that a sunset would provide, but there was some level of beauty in the mundanity of midday. I was able to see the entirety of the region and whatever beasts were large enough to have their silhouette visible from a distance.
“I trained on a mountain in life,” Senior Brother replied. “Master did as well. It was secluded, unmarred by the political world below. Their schemes and false smiles held no warm welcomes upon our peaks. The ways of Kings was only a distraction in the pursuit for Nirvana. A pursuit that I failed miserably at.”
The retort that I had planned stayed in my throat. I was no better.
“I was not expecting such openness from you,” I commented. The tea in my cup had refilled on its own and I took another drink. “I did not spend much time in the mountains.”
“Did you not have them where you lived?”
“We had mountains,” I answered. “It was just that the mountains in my area were short. They were more like large hills than mountains. My employer liked to ski and talked often about his homes out west, but I never had a job over there.”
Senior Brother nodded along with my story.
“It has lost its majesty after seeing it every day for so long,” He said plainly. “I never really understood whether it was the intention to become numb to that beauty for it is an attachment or to maintain that wonder every day. Oh well, it doesn’t matter anymore does it? I won’t suddenly ascend after a realization, so why realize it at all?”
“Move it somewhere else then,” I suggested.
Senior Brother’s head snapped in my direction. I could feel hostile energy swirl about him. The skin on his body reddened and the charm on his face billowed with an aggressive exhale. But, as he rose from his seat, a rumble over the mountain caused him to relax again.
“Master wants it here, it will be here,” Senior Brother retorted. “Unless it is your intent to question the Master's will.”
“It isn’t.” I said with my hands up harmlessly.
I snorted some steam out of my nose and returned to watching out of the window. For a second, he seemed like a normal person, but, anything that even tangentially had to do with his master suddenly got him in a fit. I bet that there were a myriad of reasons why he was here and not with his master personally, but I thought better of antagonizing him at the moment. I could say my piece once I extracted everything of value from him.
“By the way,” I began, getting to the point of why I would want to spend time with him at all. “When are we going to begin training with each other?”
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“Training?” Senior Brother asked, surprised that the conversation continued so soon.
“You told Grendel that once I learned from him, then I would begin to learn from you,” I reminded. “Is there something that I can only learn from you that I cannot learn from Grendel?”
Senior Brother paced away from his seat and moved towards the entrance. He placed a calloused hand on the doorframe and looked out over his school.
“I’m not sure if you’re ready for that,” Senior Brother said. “You learned too quickly, your body isn’t acclimated to the energy yet, your foundation is too small and unstable. Anything I teach you will only be to your detriment.”
“Is there not a special method that will help me acclimate to the process?” I pressed. “Some sort of mediation or special training that I could employ to catch up? I’m sure that someone as special to the Master as you are probably has some sort of secret that you used to become powerful.”
“I have no such thing,” Senior Brother replied sharply, slicing off my last couple syllables with his own like a scythe through grain. “You will have to continue to build up your strength and wait. Ask me again in two decades when you are strong enough to handle it.”
“Is that what the Master said you should do?”
Senior Brother and I exchanged glances. It seemed clear to the other that we both were keeping certain facts close to our chests. But, for reasons that neither could control, our palpable animosity would not boil over.
“If you doubt me, ask him yourself,” Senior Brother said definitively. “I think that we’ve enjoyed each other’s company for long enough. Go speak with Grendel, I have left him in charge of your tasking while we wait for your power to stabilize. So long, Junior Brother. Congratulations on your breakthrough.”
“Thank you, Senior Brother,” I said as I brushed past the zombie and descended from the pavilion.
I moved through a mana barrier that deposited me from Senior Brother’s home and out near the summit. The sound of the school returned as I heard regimented shouts below directing the training of those that have yet to reach their breakthrough.
Grendel was inside of his own home. He sat upon a mat far too small for him and sat in a meditative position. One step inside the room was enough to terminate his tranquil and open his craggy eyes.
“How was your celebration?” Grendel asked. “It must have been well enough that you are unharmed and I heard no sounds of commotion.”
“I am dealing with an only child that doesn’t want to have a new sibling,” I joked in response. “You are to train me until I am truly ready. Two decades, but we both know that he will have more excuses and I don’t have the patience to remain here for so long.”
“What is patience in a life that does not end?” Grendel wondered as he forced his body to rise. “Is the guaranteed victory not superior to the potential one? You should meditate. Go on the missions I assign. Grow your strength and end him on the terms that fit you best. Charles and the client will not care if you complete it tomorrow or in one hundred years.”
“I care.”
The words that came from Grendel’s mouth directly conflicted with my pre-existing knowledge of Charles. If he was fine with a wait to his objectives, then he was either lying or the delay suited him. I recalled several punishments delivered to payment collectors that were last to bring their contributions. Sometimes, if they were continuous poor performers, I would be the one to administer the punishment.
Either way, delaying would only give Charles the time or the pretenses to accomplish more. Generosity was a word that had little meaning to Charles as a human and appeared to mean even less as a demon.
Grendel just watched me with a lazy gaze as I paced from wall to wall, trying to make sense of what machinations were being set up around me. There had to be some faster way forward.
“I do not see a feasible way for you to capture the Grand Master’s martial enlightenment more quickly than through repetition and practice. You cannot make his martial arts your own until you have walked his paths many times.”
I stopped in place, stricken by the unintentional brilliance hidden in Grendel’s words. My teeth flashed out of my gums, causing the troll to furrowed his brow in consternation.
“Why are you looking at me so hungrily,” he asked warily.
“You have the right of it, Grendel,” I complimented. “The Grand Master’s greatest achievement comes from the fact that he created his own abilities through personal enlightenment. His punches became something more through his skills.”
“I’m glad that you see it that way,” Grendel said with a smile.
“But, are his teachings truly how to follow precisely in his footsteps?”
Grendel gave me a blank stare in response as though I were a child asking an unexpected question to a weary parent. He tilted his head to the side and gave me some more serious consideration.
“How else does a teacher teach than to do things their own way?”
“You can take lessons to do exactly what he did, motion by motion,” I replied. “But I am going to take a different lesson from him. I am going to learn how he created his own path. I am going to learn how to make my own fighting style, unique to me and to me alone. That way, I will never be inferior to Senior Brother and I will never be inferior to the Grand Master.”
“I understand that you are not a true follower,” Grendel ceded with a sigh. “But, I at least believed that you felt gratitude for the grace that you had been shown.
image [https://i.imgur.com/OW4d6q4.jpeg]
Quest
Untrodden Footsteps
It is clear to the Fist of Hunan, Master of the Wayward Hand, his newest disciple has come to a fascinating conclusion. He wishes to create the circumstances required to create that change. Find the lake on the mountainside without looking for it to replicate the first step of the journey.
Reward: Nothing, for enlightenment cannot be promised. Only offered.
I was struck with a bizarre feeling when I read the words that burned themselves to my eyeballs. I had only felt reverence to one being during my life, a man that had died for me thousands of years prior for the sole reason that I was loved unconditionally in a world that felt devoid of it.
There was no love hidden in this offer, only opportunity. I was challenged to be given the same starting point as someone who is incalculably stronger than I am. He knew that I had no loyalty towards him. He knew that I arrived with the intent of murdering his disciples and dismantling his school for nothing more than money. He must have. Yet, he has done nothing but offer ways for me to grow to the point to accomplish it.
If that was not worthy of my respect, then there would be no demon in existence that would be worthy of it.
So, in a way that I did not anticipate ever doing and in a way that surprised even Grendel, I offered a bow towards the window and the sky that resided above it.
“I cannot follow your plans for the moment. There is something that the Grand Master showed me that I must do.”