Rising early, Arrin calmly made his bed and walked outside. The gentle breeze blowing the crisp night air fully woke him up as he quietly climbed up on top of the cabin. Perched on the peaked roof, he quietly gazed out upon the camp. It didn’t escape him how unfavorably placed his cabin was. The camp itself had been set up in a bend on the river Fyr, a rapid and dangerous body of water that snaked its way to the rock of The One itself. With the dangerous river protecting them on three sides, all that was left was to fill in one side. The Seeker’s had done this using a chain of ten cabins that formed a makeshift barricade. These cabins were the ones most likely to get destroyed by any raid, be it bandits or dark political maneuvers. Of course, his cabin was in the very center of the wall.
Snorting at the Seeker’s obvious prejudice, he turned south to look towards their destination. In the final battle of the second great war, where Meiko had attempted to strike down Arghan, The entirety of each race had been gathered to do battle. When the set foot upon the world, it had been completely cleansed of all the buildings and cities that the races had built upon it, leaving them to scramble to find a new homeland. Moving out from the Plains, the races had gone south east and west. The now forcibly reconciled dragons and angels, had gone into the far south and settled the floating mountains of moon and sun. Still to the south of the Plains but North of them, the Fae and Shades lived together in the foothills at the edge of the plains.To the West, the land fell into the great Ocean. The Mer had settled into the reefs and deep trenches here while the halflings built large cities on the coastline and the elves grew hidden holds in the forest. To the east, the dwarves, giants, and infernals had settled the volcanic mountain ranges. Finally, the weres and elementals had scattered, living nomadic lifestyles in all parts of the known world. That left only the humans.
With all other directions taken, the humans had been forced North into a beautiful yet brutal land. The ground was rocky and infertile, while numerous magic geysers caused huge numbers of magic beasts to be born. Often starving yet forced into massive wars against the hordes of brutish monsters, the humans had suffered greatly and were very low in numbers, only 400,000 to the millions that made up the other races. Luckily for Arrin, he had grown up in the southernmost city of the empire, Fyran, and had not had to deal with the near constant creatures that attacked the other human lands.
Gently pulling out his only keepsake, a small necklace with an oval locket, he pulled it open and gazed at a face not much unlike his own. Gently flowing long brown hair framing two inquisitive eyes and a small pert mouth, slightly upturned into a one-sided mischievous grin. His father had always said that his mother had been a beautiful woman, and from the small portrait, Arrin could see why many had thought that. After a few moments of reminiscing, he shook himself out of his small trance, and tucked the locket back under his shirt. Silently making his way back onto the ground, he walked over to the river to wash up and properly start the day.
After cleaning himself and his clothes in the shallows of the river, he sat down on a rock to dry himself in the light of the newly risen sun and meditate. While weaker in nearly every aspect, humans had one advantage over every other race: They had equal affinity for each element. Having been created from a mix of all elements, they could just as easily use any of them. The other races, except for rare occasions when a god’s champion was chosen from a different race, could only wield their God’s power. Unfortunately, even with this seeming advantage, humans could not stand up to other races in magic either. Whereas the other races could draw from the power source of their god, Humans had no Novum and could not. Nevertheless, Arrin continued to use up his limited mana pool every morning. Serving more as a calming exercise than anything actually effective, he used it as time to think about what he would accomplish that day.
It was about two week’s journey to reach the Rock of The One. In that time, Arrin knew he had to stay unnoticed by the highest ranked members of each race. They were trained from birth to be the most powerful, most intelligent, and as a side effect: most arrogant. Able to kill him without anyone batting an eye, he would rather not take the risk of trying to befriend them. Second, he had to cement his friendship with his cabin mates. Although, none of them were in any way likely to be chosen as a champion, having Berthran, Ert, and Oliadel the angel, would give him connections in three different academies, any of which he could be chosen for. A one out of four chance was far better than no chance to be with an ally. Third, he should try to ask the seekers about any other humans who had been potential champions. Although he could not say that he knew the full course of the past two centuries, he had not heard of anyone before him being chosen to receive even minor powers. Finally, fourth, he had to find out more about the Academies and the Blessed Mountain. As a human, his very survival around this many members of other races depended entirely on how prepared and unobtrusive he could be. Learning about the places he could potentially be living in for the next few decades would be a very important part of this.
Cementing his four objectives into his mind, he gently rose and made his way to the mess hall and picked up five portions of food. Carefully balancing the tray of gruel and eggs that the seekers served to common members of each race, he made his way back to his cabin. Setting the food down on the table, he began to slowly eat, pacing himself and making enough noise to wake up his new friends.
The first, unsurprisingly, was Ert. Wide awake, he mischievously remarks,” I know you humans are supposed to be stupid, but really? 5 bowls?” Sighing dramatically and setting himself, he inspires a chuckle from Arrin who gladly plays along.
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“Oh but there are Five of us: Me, you, Oliadel, Berthran, and Berthran’s stomach!” As the two continue their merry banter, the other two occupants of the cabin wake up. Oliadel nods and silently takes his food while Berthran heartily bellows and practically leaps forward to inhale his food.
After breakfast, the five of them each carried their plate back to the cantina. Afterwards, the many dwarven and giant Seekers would start the caravan moving. The dwarves gently made the ground rise as the giants carefully sped up or slowed the metal wheels of the caravan to dash across the land at a frantic pace. Staring out the cabin’s window at the land dashing past, Arrin was left agape as he pondered the speed they were going at. He had assumed the wagon train was pulled by horses and had based his calculations along the slow pace set by burdened carriages. With this speed they could get their much sooner.
“We shall arrive tonight after resting at 3 hours past midday. We shall be tested as the sun sets and the moon rises. ” Oliadel’s calm voice rings out, confirming Arrin’s suspicions. Nodding his thanks, Arrin returns to his room. Sitting down on his bed, he once more begins to meditate. Letting the hours pass by, he merely cycles his mana around, striving to improve his efficiency while not actually burning away his mana. Sensing the trailers slow to a stop, Arrin exits his room.
Seeing Ert alone in the common room, he asks him,” Hey Ert! Care to go for a jog around the camp? We’re probably going to have to get into better shape at the academies anyways.” Nodding brightly Ert joins him as they quickly make their way around the edge of the camp. Breaching the real point of this jog directly, Ert bluntly asks,” Are you a leader or a follower Arrin?”
Arrin had seen Ert glancing at him with slight suspicion on many occasions. The jog was just a pretense to get the halfling alone and clear the waters. “ Don’t worry Ert, I’m neither. I was a consultant bookkeeper and scribe if you understand me.” Relaxing slightly, Ert nods, accepting the explanation.
Gangs on the streets always had a legitimate business or two to fall back upon if the season was bad or as a home base. Unfortunately, to be legitimate, these had to have the right paperwork and bribery delivered to the city officials. While many tried to make do, others hired the services of Consultants: bookkeepers who would gladly cook said books, for a price of course. While they could occasionally run gangs of their own, many viewed that as simply too much work and simply stuck to what they do best: being shadows that simply worked and got payed.
With the simple discussion concluded, the two finished their lap and made their way to the cantina to collect their early dinner. Sitting down together at a table, they eat the poorly cooked meal together. As the two quietly eat, the rest of the cantina burst into mocking whispers.
“Haa a Human! Look how tiny it is!”
“It’s so ugly too!”
“Look at it’s mana! It could barely budge a toddler with that kind of power.”
“Look at that halfling too! He’s probably straight from the streets!”
“Ha fitting! Two pieces of trash naturally come together.
Ignoring the taunts, Arrin and Ert quickly finish their meal and return to their cabin as stealthily as possible. Closing themselves inside once more, they stay in the common room with Berthran and Oliadel. Merrily playing cards, they each eventually peel off and return to their rooms to prepare however they may for the testing. For the non humans this would be simple: pray fervently to their Novum and send as much mana with that prayer as they could. Arrin however, was left clueless. None of the Novum had ever helped either him or his people. It didn’t quite feel right to specifically pray to them and grant them strength when they had given him nothing. Instead, he simply chose to lie down and get as much rest as he could.
“Arrin, quickly! Get up we’re here!” Arrin was shaken awake by the enthusiastic Berthran.
“Alright, alright I’m up.” he replies as he stands up and stretches with a slight yawn, he exits his room while gently scratching his head. Joining his friends at the window, he looked out upon the center of the plains of desolation. Twelve academies could be seen forming a distinct semicircle around the place where Arrin presumed the Rock was located. Rising behind them, the Blessed mountain provided an imposing backdrop to the individual schools. Passing under an arch connecting the schools of light of light and darkness, the convoy makes its way down into the crater the surrounds the rock itself.
Once the caravan reached a stop, the candidates all pour out, a sea of various creatures formed into convenient racial blocks as the young naturally clustered together with others of their own kind. Standing at the very back of the crowd, Arrin and his friends were part of the forty “odd-men-out”. Rejected by their own people, they clustered together forming a thirteenth group. The entire crowd is halted by the seekers, as an ancient dragon lumbers up to a podium in his drakonid form to address this year’s candidates.
“Greetings young ones! This year, it is my honor as one of the twelve headmasters to welcome you to the Rock of the One. Every year, you all shall return to this very spot and compete in a tournament for the glory of your Novum! Be merry for today your life is changing! After this night you will not be the same being! No, you will be a chosen of , for a lucky few, a champion! Go, young ones! Go and meet your gods!
With a gesture from the elder, the gate in the wall surrounding the Rock opens and the young beings, Arrin included, Rush in to receive their blessings.
P.O.V. ?????
Ha ha ha! It's finally time... I can't wait to see the look on their faces...