This is the darkest chapter yet and quite honestly was very hard for me to write some of the scenes. (If this is too much for you don’t worry, the story won’t get darker than this.)
Reader’s discretion advised.
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Volume 1-Memories
Chapter 4- Path Orb
The first thing Sorin’s mind registered was the pain on his chest. The pain spread across the left side and front of his chest. Sorin groaned in pain.
“So you’re awake,” said a monotone yet familiar voice.
Sorin slowly opened his eyes. He looked to the source of the voice. Elise, with a book in hand, sat on a chair to his left.
“Elise,” Sorin said with as much composure as he could muster.
“Sorin,” Elise said.
“W-where am I,” Sorin asked.
“You’re in the infirmary. You were attacked by Chrysos Jade. He tried to kill you because you killed his sister, Nefritis. I guess you’re little backstabbing ploy didn’t work as you hoped,” Elise made a slight smile at Sorin’s predicament.
Bitch, Sorin thought angrily. As Sorin looked at her smile he noticed the glint of fangs. What was she?
“If Chrysos attacked me then I should be dead,” Sorin questioned.
“Yes, right before Chrysos killed you, one of the teachers who were nearby stopped him. At which point you were brought into the medical floor and taken in to the infirmary and alas here we are.” Elise said.
Sorin nodded but then he remembered Matt.
“Was there another, someone else who was with me? He has brown hair, blue eyes; he’s tall, about six feet?” Sorin asked as he tried to stand up.
“Yes, there was another,” Elise said as she looked at her book, “His name is Matt, no last name as he is a commoner. He came in right after you. His wounds were less severe than yours; he has already left the infirmary.”
Sorin sighed in relief and then grunted in pain from his side.
“You shouldn’t try to stand up,” Elise said.
“Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?” Sorin replied irritated.
“Not my problem,” Elise said writing something down on her book, a ledger now that Sorin looked at it closer.
Elise looked at Sorin, “I came down here because the Headmaster Belendor told me to tell you that Chrysos Jade was placed into a cell for the next 6 months because of his crime. At which point he will be released and will resume his stay in the Tower.”
“I thought Belendor said that I would be kept safe from the Jade family as long as I’m in the Tower?”
“You are. That’s the only reason why the Jade family hasn’t sent assassins to kill you yet. However that protection doesn’t extend to the students of the Tower, including Jade family members.”
“So what you’re saying is that Chrysos Jade is a student here and that I can basically be attacked by any Jade family members that are students here?”
“To the first one, yes. Chrysos is a 4th year student of the Black Tower.”
“And what about my second question,” Sorin said asked.
Elise nodded, “Yes to that as well.”
“So that’s how it is,” Sorin sighed.
Elise closed her book and stood up, “That’s how it is. You better hope that the next time you’re attacked that a teacher is around to save you, if not, well then I believe I won’t be seeing you again.”
As she left the room she turned around, “It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” she paused, “Sorin.” And then she left.
Sorin smiled at Elise’s use of his greeting when they first met. She was interesting that was for sure.
A minute later a nurse walked in, “How are you doing Sir?”
“I’m fine, actually I feel better than I did just a few minutes ago.” Sorin said a bit surprised.
The nurse nodded, “Yes, the healing spells are finally taking full effect. You should be able to move just fine in a few minutes. Though there will be a scar on your side where the rock shard grazed you.”
“I understand. How long have I been out?” Sorin asked as he tentatively stood.
“8 hours about. I’m sorry that the healing took so long, I know if it had been your grandmother, Sola, the healing would have taken no more than an hour.” The nurse apologized.
Sorin looked at the nurse, “You know my grandmother?”
The nurse smiled, “Yes, she taught me a lot. I wouldn’t be half the healer I am now if it wasn’t for her.”
“You’re a spell caster then?”
“Yes, I’m of mage rank and my name is Beth.”
“I see,” Sorin thought she could prove to be useful. Sorin was glad that his grandmother’s influence was so large.
“Sir, the first day classes have already begun, but if you hurry you can make it to the last class. The path ceremony will take place later on tonight. Also if you need anything just ask, it’s the least I can do for all master Sola has done for me.”
“Just one thing,” Sorin said.
“Anything.”
“Do you have some gauze and alcohol?” Sorin asked.
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Sorin said his thanks and left the infirmary. Sorin didn’t need the introductory classes that were given the first day of school, but he did need to attend the path ceremony.
Sorin thought he had enough time for what he needed to do. He tried to be as inconspicuous as he could as he moved through the Tower. He first stopped at his room and grabbed his twin knives and after a second thought he also took the Jade hair pins. He steeled his resolve for what he was going to do next, then he went to the prison cells.
There were different kinds of cells in the Tower. Some were for student’s, like Chrysos. Others were for rogue spell casters, some were for slaves, and they even had some for monsters.
Sorin was heading to the slave cells. As he arrived at the floor for slave prisoners he was allowed entry by the prison guard. Sorin followed another guard, who took him to his slaves’ cell. He found both of them in the same cell, both of them had their arms and legs chained to the wall, their steel chokers were still on their necks.
The female slave looked to be 19 or 20 years old, the male slave looked to be around 40.
The guard let him in the cell, “I’ll wait for you at the entrance.”
“Did you unlock the cell next door as I requested.” Sorin asked. Sorin had paid to have a cell next door to be empty and to have some equipment.
“Yes sir I did.”
Sorin nodded that he heard and waited for the guard to leave. After he had left, Sorin walked up towards his slaves.
“Did you miss me?” Sorin asked.
The slaves looked scared.
“Did you think I would die?” Sorin pulled out his knives.
The female slave began to cry, she was cute with short brown hair and hazel eyes. She looked down as she cried in terror. The male slave had tears streaming down his face but he looked at Sorin, a look of resignation was on the slave’s face.
“Did you think you could just let me die?” Sorin shouted angrily.
The female slave continued to cry.
The male slave spoke slowly, “Do what you will; I will not live one more moment of my life as a slave. If these are to be my last moments then I would live them as a free man.”
Sorin sighed then he took his dagger and stabbed the man
in the stomach. The male slave screamed in agony, the female slave began to scream in terror.
Sorin looked at the female slave, “Do you wish to live as a slave?”
The female slave just continued screaming. Sorin grabbed her face and forced her to look at him, “Do you want to live the rest of your life free like him?” Sorin pointed at the male slave who was dying.
The female slave muttered between tears, “P-please s-stop.”
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Sorin nodded, he grabbed the dagger that was in the male slave’s stomach and pulled it out. The male slave screamed.
“He will now die of blood loss.” Sorin said coldly.
“N-no, please don’t!” The female slave shouted.
Sorin took the dagger and slit the male slave’s throat. The male slave’s shouts of pain were suddenly silenced.
“I will not let anyone stop me from obtaining power, especially not some slaves who think they can betray me!” Sorin shouted.
Sorin grabbed the female slave’s face once more, “Do you wish to live as a slave or not?”
The female slave could only cry. Sorin grabbed the girl’s left hand and sliced off the pinky.
The female slave screamed and screamed in pain. Sorin slapped her and forced her to look at him.
“I will ask you only one more time,” Sorin iterated, “Do you wish to live as a slave?”
The female slave slowly looked at Sorin, “Yes,” she whispered.
“Louder!” Sorin shouted.
“Yes, yes, yes! I will be your slave, just please don’t kill me!” The female slave screamed.
Sorin nodded, “From today on you will be called Dog. You will refer to yourself in third person. Do you understand, Dog?”
Dog nodded in pain, her face red and puffy with tears, “Yes, master,” she shivered in pain, “Dog understands.”
“Good, Dog.” Sorin grabbed Dog’s bleeding left hand. “Do you know why I cut your finger?”
Dog just cried in pain. Sorin looked at her and shouted, “Do you!”
“No, Dog doesn’t know master,” Dog cried.
“I did it because you tried to let me die,” Sorin said, “I’m doing this because of how many times I had to repeat myself.” Sorin then cut the ring finger from Dog’s left hand.
Dog screamed in agony. Sorin slapped her but she didn’t stop screaming, she finally stopped when Sorin pointed his dagger at Dog’s neck.
“Now stay still,” Sorin said as he applied the alcohol onto Dog’s bloody hand, then he wrapped her two stumps with gauze. Dog cried the whole time.
Sorin looked at Dog, “Now I’m going to take these chains off, you will follow me to the next cell do you understand?”
“Y-yes, master, Dog understands.”
Sorin took the chains off of Dog and walked out of the room, followed by a slave who was breaking. Sola had taught him the torture arts of how to break in a slave, it was difficult and tedious but after it was done, one would have a completely loyal slave. And Sorin would break in Dog.
Sorin walked into the other room with Dog. As Dog slowly entered the room, clutching her wounded hand, Sorin closed the door and then punched her in the gut. She fell to the ground moaning.
Sorin looked around the room; it had all the torture equipment needed to break his slave. First thing was first, Sorin thought as he looked at Dog on the floor.
Sorin pulled Dog’s hair, “This will be the first lesson. Pain will be your best friend. You will be spending a long time together and you will learn to love pain. Do you understand?”
Dog whimpered, “Yes, Dog understands.”
“Second rule,” Sorin said, “Whenever I give you pain you will thank me.” Sorin slapped Dog’s face. “What do you say?”
“T-thank you, master.” Dog said her mind already at its breaking point.
This was going better than expected Sorin thought. Once Dog was broken her persona could be reformed to his liking. Dog was close to breaking, all she needed was one more push.
“Third lesson,” Sorin said as he began to rip off Dog’s clothes. “Pain.” Then Sorin began to torture Dog.
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Matt listened to the teacher explain the basics of mana and spell casting. Matt didn’t pay much attention though, Sorin had explained the basics to Matt on their way to the Tower.
Matt worried for Sorin. The last time he saw him was in the infirmary, unconscious. The nurse said that Sorin would wake up soon and he would head to class right after Matt. But Matt had been waiting in class and Sorin still had not shown up, he worried for him.
Matt listened to the teacher talk, the basics were quite simple.
Mana was an energy source that if used correctly could practically do anything. But only certain humans were born with mana. These humans could channel mana in a certain way to create spells, these humans were known as spell casters. Spells was an expression of mana that could be done by any spell caster as long as they had the skill, the talent, and the mana to cast it.
Monsters however were a different story. Every monster had mana, their bodies naturally used mana to create certain abilities, such as a dragon breathing fire or an elf being able to talk to trees. Monsters could not cast spells though, only humans could. Monsters were limited to the abilities of their own race. Just the same, humans didn’t have natural abilities to use mana, they only had spells.
Mana was invisible to the naked eye but could be sensed by beings that had mana. Not all mana was the same however, human’s mana was different from a mermaid’s mana. And though mana from the same race would be the same type the mana would still have slight differences between each other. Each person had their own distinct kind of mana and this was called an aura.
Human’s had a way of ranking spell casters in terms of strength. The weakest was an apprentice which was what all tower students were. Then on from the weakest to strongest was low mage, mage, high mage, arch mage, and grand arch mage. By the time they graduated Matt and everyone would have become low mages.
Most spell casters eventually reached mage rank by the end of their lives, the talented however could reach far higher ranks. The higher rank though the fewer there were.
There were only 8 arch mages in all of the kingdom of Zance and only one grand arch mage.
Matt was happy when class finally ended and he was able to go find Sorin. Matt looked everywhere for Sorin but couldn’t find him. Eventually it was time for the path ceremony so Matt reluctantly headed towards it without having found Sorin.
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Sorin left Dog tied up to the wall. Sorin hurried to the path ceremony, he couldn’t afford to be late.
The path ceremony was where all the 1st year students would get their mana sensed by a spell orb, similar to the sensing test they all took to come to the Tower. The only difference was that the path orb was 10 feet in diameter and though it normally looked like a black stone when it sensed mana it would change colors. The color would determine where your talent in spell casting was. For example if the orb glowed red and orange then your talent lied in the path of fire spells.
As Sorin arrived at the path ceremony he noticed that the 1st years were already taking checking out which path was theirs. Half of the 1st years had already gone. Sorin spotted Matt in the crowd.
“Hey, Matt did you see your path already?” Sorin asked as Matt walked up to him.
Matt grinned, “Yeah, I got the path of the warrior. Which I think means that I’ll be able to learn physical enhancement spells.”
Sorin was surprised, path of the warrior was rare and like Matt said it allowed the spell caster to become basically superhuman which was great because most spell casters were very weak in close range and their bodies were not fit for hand to hand combat.
“Nice, Matt. I’m happy for you,” Sorin said.
“Thanks, Sorin. Hey I bet you’ll get an awesome path as well.”
Sorin nodded and went to the path orb. He hoped he would get something like the lightning path, or maybe the void path, that was a rare one and a powerful one too.
As Sorin stood in front of the path orb the nearby instructor told him to place his hand on the orb.
Sorin did just that and then he injected his mana into the orb. The path orb began to glow and swirled through all the colors imaginable then it finally settled into a hue of bright blues and soft purples. Sorin didn’t recognize this color scheme.
“What is it?” Sorin asked slightly nervous.
The instructor walked up, “Ah, yes. That’s the path of monster tamer.”
Sorin stared at the orb, “Fuck.”