Nessa, Ayo, Haywood, Aoife and even Karim had given Jem advice on picking from his bloodline options but when he’d asked about the trial itself they’d only come back with cryptic answers like, ‘Anticipate everything, expect nothing.’ and ‘Look inside yourself and see.’ They were pulling his leg, of course, but from the information he’d dragged up, it appeared that everyone’s trials were different anyway. There was no helping it.

Jem stood outside the archway leading to the high temple. Barring the brief moment he'd been dragged through one on his way to the capital, it would be his first time going into a religious building in years.

The last time had been with his family in a church for a Christingle service. He didn’t remember much about it beyond the numb sensation in his bum from sitting down on solid pews for far too long, boring hymns being sung painfully out of tune and the vicious discovery that only kids got to have marshmallows on their Christingles.

The warm spiced mulled wine had been no consolation either because it was far from enough to get drunk.

Jem marshallled himself and strode in.

A few steps inside, the stone of the entryway transitioned into a soft carpet that seemed to emanate an artificial cosiness. It was like walking into a shop and the smell of baked bread slamming into you. Pleasant, but it made you hungry.

His impression didn’t change with the priest that walked up to him.

“Welcome to the temple, are you perhaps here to devote some Kol to a god? Or if that’s not the case…”

They sounded like the sort of greeter you’d find at Lush, really friendly, but only because their boss would dismember them if they behaved otherwise. Jem thought back to Aoife and wondered if they truly felt the way they were acting. Jem let them talk for a while longer but saw his chance when they stopped for a breath.

Jem took down his hood. “Hello. I’m Jem Asterion. Here for my bloodline trial.”

The priest’s eyes went wide. “Oh. Of course. Right this way. We have a chamber prepared.”

– – – – –

Fifteen minutes later Jem had passed through the labyrinthine corridors and was staring at the Kol input sigil of the ritual array.

“And I’m just supposed to input Kol into this?” Why is the array so big?

“That’s right. When at least three of those gems are lit up it should be ready, though more is also good. If you have the patience for it, I’d recommend doing that.” The priest moved over to another sigil on the floor. “And when you’re done with that you can push Kol into this sigil here. That will start the trial.”

The priest walked over to the door. “Oh and if you need anyone, or if you finish the trial there’ll be someone in that office at the end of the hall.” They pointed to the right and flashed Jem a smile. “Don’t hesitate to ask for help if you need it I’m sure Faith would be happy to help out.”

Jem almost made a joke about the name, but it was just a happy coincidence, the same sounds as the word faith in english, but presumably with an entirely different meaning. He sighed, he didn’t have enough time for jokes anyway.

Jem started straight away or tried to at least. No one had thought to teach him how you actually charge an array. The obvious first step was using his mimicked version of Kol manipulation. It wasn’t truly a skill in its own right just yet, but it still worked. Most of the time.

Jem just wasn’t sure if it would work for this. Jem pushed the Kol out of his body and pictured it flowing into the sigil. Nothing happened. Jem tried touching it with his hand willing the Kol to move. Again, nothing happened.

Aoife had told him not to, but what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. How hard can it be?

Flow

Flow into

Flow like a raging river

Fast and

Jem took a steadying breath and recentered his hand in the sigil. Then he formulated an image in his mind, a continuous flow of Kol rushing down his arm and into the sigil. He locked it in, pushing all of his faith and belief into it, and spoke his incantation.

Kol rage Kol rush, do not wait do not hush.

Down my arm you flow, to make the sigil glow.

The Kol rushed down his arm like a tidal wave squeezing into a small grate. Jem had just enough time to realise what a colossal idiot he’d been before the world went black.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

– – – – –

Jem awoke, he couldn’t feel anything but his brain felt like someone had squeezed it out and used it as a trampoline. What’s going on? Groaning he opened his eyes. The room was bright. There was an Aoife in front of him, looking equally like she wanted to wrap him in a hug and wrap her hands around his neck.

“Talk.”

Jem gulped, he tried to speak but all that came out was a crackly mumble and then a groan. Aoife handed him a glass of water and he gulped it down greedily, gasping when he finished. Why was his mouth so dry? Why was his head pounding? Had he been drinking? Where was he?

Aoife handed him another two glasses and he drank them just as quickly.

“What happened?” Jem asked as he looked around. He saw the ritual array and six lit gems. It all came rushing back. Jem gave Aoife a guilty look.

She pulled him up into a hug. “You idiot, you’d better start talking.” And held him out at arms length.

“I couldn’t figure out how to fill the ritual with Kol so I tried an incantation.”

“What was it?” Aoife gave him a stern look.

Jem recited his incantation and when prompted supplied his mental image.

“You’ve been here two days. Do you know why that happened?”

Jem shook his head, he didn’t know.

“You made an incantation that sucked all but a tiny bit of Kol out of your body, feeding it into the ritual. We couldn’t disrupt it until you filled up the whole array. Enough Kol to keep it flowing into you, not enough to keep you conscious.”

Jem had a thought. “But the light incantation used all of my Kol.”

“They are different incantations. But this is because of your image, if you didn– Why didn’t you just use a stylus to fill the ritual? One of the priests would have definitely leant you one.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

Aoife pulled out her stylus and brandished it in Jem’s face.

“Oh. That stylus. I don’t know how that works either.”

Aoife tried to pass it over to Jem. “You might as well learn now. You still need to do the ritual after all.”

Jem felt awareness of his body come back to him all at once. There was a burning pressure and Jem ran for the door.

“Hold that thought.” He got outside only to stick his head back through a moment later. “Where’s the bathroom?”

“Take a left, then a right and it's the third door.”

You could put out a fire with this. Jem tucked himself back in, lamenting the lack of twenty first century underwear and washed his hands in a small sink that somehow used magic as an automatic sensor. He supposed it wasn't that strange.

Before he left he splashed his face with cool water and wiped the sleep from his eyes. He needed a shave.

He returned to Aoife, feeling relieved, refreshed and a little cleaner.

“Okay so how do I use that thing?”

Aoife grinned, either she was relieved he was okay, or…

“Very simple, just press down into the glyph on the side and it will deal with the Kol itself.”

Jem took the proffered stylus and touched his thumb to the glyph. Nothing happened so he pushed harder. There was a tiny pinprick on his thumb and he felt a small current of Kol flow out.

Jem’s mouth gaped open in outrage.

“–What?”

“You should have asked for help. Not specially designed an incantation that would suck you dry. Jem what do you think would have happened if you hadn’t gotten levels before you pulled that stunt?"

“I–”

“I’ll tell you what. You’d still be stuck with only the tiniest drop of Kol, unable to wake up. You might have been like that for two months. You’re just lucky that you were channelling your Kol through the spell, so your pool was growing and that wisdom functionally makes your pool larger.”

Jem looked inwards and Aoife was right. His pool had grown by a ton. It was still empty, but it was filling and it was like it went from the size of a raindrop to a swimming pool.

“Wait so does this mean that was a good way to grow my Kol pool?”

It was Aoife’s turn to gape.

“No, it absolutely is not. Do not do anything like that unless you are somewhere secure and whatever you’re charging isn’t large.”

Wrinkles seemed to sprout on her face. “Do not do this again. There are better ways to grow your Kol pool. You want to have large throughput not just a large amount over time.”

Jem filed it away, so maybe a smaller thing to charge. Something that would take just about all of his Kol. Or maybe a set of somethings.

“You’re planning something. Stop. Don’t stress me out any further. I’m going to leave the room and wait. You’re going to use the stylus on the activation sigil.” I don’t give it away so easily, that was on a totally separate thread. Does she just know me well enough to guess? Jem shuddered at the thought.

Aoife left Jem in the room with the stylus and the glowing ritual.

Jem pushed Kol into the activation sigil. Everything went black again but this time his arm didn’t feel like it wanted to explode.