11.

Jax trudged through the forest, Lynne and three other boys in tow.

It was nighttime so visibility was reduced, but Lynne’s shaking arms on his back were enough for him to imagine her cowering pose clearly. That, and the tiny oil lantern he was carrying to light the way.

‘Do we really have to go back there?’ Lynne whimpered.

‘Can you shut up?’ Rafael, a bald initiate carrying a greatsword, said.

Though he frowned, Jax kept his eyes in front of him.

While most rejects had chosen to support him on the field, his status among them was still too dicey. Twice already had others tried to drag his image and take his spot as face of the rejects. Son’s not-so-silent support was the sole reason it hadn’t.

Jax stole a glance at Rafael, whose irritated gaze was just now leaving Lynne. The three boys Son lent him—and Son had made sure to put emphasis on that word—were rejects. But there was something off about them. And not in a bad way.

They are a problem, he thought. And they weren’t his own. He would need a way to deal with them if Son turned on him during the test.

Raising his lantern, the warm light crossed the dark seas, shadows making way for light. In the undergrowth, Jax saw dried spots of red. Remnants of blood, spilled on the day he nearly lost his life.

He squeezed Lynne’s arms.

‘It’ll be over soon.’

12.

The forest could make one uneasy. The nerves started small, insignificant, like the hint of lemon in flavoured water. But they grew with every rustle. Churned with every branch that broke unexplained.

Behind which shadow hid a beast? Which unassuming noise was the approach of predator that could kill them all? There was just one way to know.

Jax breathed in, then snatched a thick branch to the side. Ahead of him, revealed through courage, he found pools of dried blood.

‘It’s here,’ he said.

The others, who had split to make the search go faster, eagerly returned.

Stepping through the underbrush and marching forward, Jax ran his hand along the bark of a certain tree. The imprints of four paws would stay with this tree for the rest of its lifespan.

Rafael stopped next to him.

‘You said their corpses would be here for us to loot.’

Lynne, who hadn’t left Jax’s side the entire time, cast chaotic glances around them. Her breathing was hard, too. So, Jax put his hand on her shoulder. The trembling lessened right away.

‘They must’ve been moved,’ Jax said. ‘Another predator.’

Which meant they’d spent hours in vain tonight. If they wanted to salvage this, they would need to dive deeper. But he didn’t want to risk getting lost and finding himself outside the gate.

Lynne wouldn’t make it far, either.

‘It was always a long shot,’ Jax said. ‘Let’s go back.’

Rafael looked past Jax’s. Lynne shied away from his dead gaze, and Rafael shook his head.

‘Why did she even come here,’ he said.

He motioned the other two, and they settled into a formation to make the trip back.

‘I was about to ask the same thing.’

The four boys stilled, and Lynne stifled a scream. That voice had not been one of their own.

A void settled in his stomach as Jax turned to his immediate left.

Leaves parted, revealing a hooded figure, and all of them drew their weapons.

‘Stay right there!’ Rafael yelled, and the edge of his greatsword screamed with him.

Jax’s lips pulled. Too loud. Doesn’t he have any sense of where we are?

But his command was followed. Arms went up, and the newcomer stopped.

Jax peered. His lantern couldn’t find the right angle due to the hood. But he thought those stubbles on the person’s chin were facial hair.

‘You,’ Jax said. ‘You’re an older student, aren’t you?’

Lynne breathed out sharply.

‘So, they are here,’ she whispered.

They’d been looking for them. According to his father, a boy named King could help him greatly. Kite knew where one of King’s hideouts was (the whole reason Jax took the retainer with him in the first place). Of course, that turned out worthless when he died before sharing the information.

Jax focused on the older initiate. Inspect.

[]

His soles dug deeper into the earth. No data? How was that possible? Even if they were hiding their true status, it should still show something.

The older student smiled.

‘No need to be so on edge. I’m here to talk, that’s all.’

Rafael’s head roved over the treeline behind the mystery figure.

‘That so? You brought plenty of manpower for someone who only wants to talk.’

Jax past the same darkness Rafael had seen. But he couldn’t discern a thing.

The smile widened.

‘That you notice them at all is proof of my intentions.’

Rafael scoffed.

‘So, what? They’re too skilled for us to sense? Don’t make me laugh.’

Those were his words, but the bald boy was taking minute steps backward whilst he spoke together with the two other boys in their group.

The older student’s gaze lingered on the floor, but he didn’t comment. He turned to Jax instead.

‘There’s a man you work for. His name is…’ He stroked his stubble beard. ‘What was it again?’

‘Son,’ Jax said. ‘Son Gaef.’

Jax didn’t know if Son would begrudge hm for sharing his name. Neither did he care at the moment. Best we do what they say.

‘Ah, yes. Him,’ the older student said. ‘We’ve been trying to contact him. But he’s tough to get a hold of…we’re starting to think he’s avoiding us.’

Laughter snaked across the bloodied forest floor.

‘He’s too smart of a man for that, isn’t he?’

A pause. The laughter crawled up the bark and into the treetops, where the leaves swayed in a spectator’s joy.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

‘Master Son didn’t mention anything,’ Rafael said, his facial features entirely lax. ‘Your message must’ve been lost in transit.’

A rookie mistake, that, Jax thought. He wasn’t sure what this was about. But keeping your face slack was enough of an answer for an observant opponent.

‘Right?’ the older student said, beaming. ‘That’s what we thought, too.’

The boy’s feet shuffled as he rotated towards Jax, and a wavering presence behind Jax crawled in on itself.

‘Which why we want you to forward a message to him, Jax Verdan.’

Jax’s name was said though he’d never introduced himself.

That meant he was already two cars behind them on a one-way street. In situations like that, there was but a single way to pass your opponents up. And Jax wasn’t liking his odds.

‘Surely,’ the boy said, ‘if you send the message, it should be impossible to get lost. However, should there still be no response, then…’

He trailed off and didn’t finish speaking.

Jax glanced at Rafael. The bald boy caught his gaze, and his chin moved up and down.

‘Speak and consider it delivered,’ Jax said.

The older initiate’s smile widened.

‘Perfect.’

13.

I wanted to examine the locus as quick as possible, so May and I left for the forest in the hours the next morning.

‘Of course, you’re also a worm besides being a shrimp.’ May’s voice echoed between the tall trees. ‘I should’ve predicted that.’

‘It was late, alright! Get off my case,’ I said.

I’d fallen asleep while reading (I didn’t remember a single word). So, when May tried drag me out of bed, she found me hiding underneath my blanket, the black tome spread over my face.

‘Whatever,’ she said. ‘Why’d you even visit the library for a fiction book?’

May started shaking her head, denouncing me in her head—

‘There’s a reason, okay!’ I said defensively.

She listened, and I explained my meeting with Son.

The deadpan stare May gave me after I finished heated my cheeks.

‘What?’ I said. ‘You think I’m wrong?’

‘I think you got played.’

‘How? He wouldn’t give me the name of the book for no reason, May.’

A fallen branch crunched underneath May’s boots.

‘That I’m certain of. His first appearance was enough to convince us he’s crafty.’

‘Then what?’ I said.

She tapped the side of her head with her nails.

‘He’s just messing with your head, shrimp.’

I frowned.

‘He gave me the locator. He’s not out to get me.’

Well. Unless he was planning on ambushing us somehow.

She rolled her eyes as if to say “you’re smarter than this.”

‘You said it yourself: Son is a snake. He plays both sides. Why wouldn’t he send you on a wild-goose chase and waste your time after giving you a boon?’

I bit my lips. That was a solid point. Especially because, at the end of the day, the Black Thirteen was a fiction novel. What good could that be?

‘The way he said it though…’ I complained.

It truly felt like a warning.

‘Don’t get me wrong, shrimp,’ May said. ‘The hint he gave you is probably not nothing. That would leave a bad rep. My guess is that it’ll be just enough to keep you interested and waste more of your time.’

I let my head down.

‘Maybe you’re right.’

Still, if it was a genuine hint and I ignored it, it could screw us over. Two hours isn’t much, I convinced myself. I could split it effectively over a couple of my days. Twenty minutes here and there should do. During lunch, perhaps.

‘We’ll see after I read the book,’ I said, final.

May shrugged.

‘You go do that. Now, concentrate on the road. We’re stronger, not invincible.’

And how true that was. The forest could still kill us in the blink of an eye if it wanted to. Luckily, we weren’t going anywhere near as deep as on the first day.

I could tell because, though the mist was heavy and the sun was nowhere to be seen, a sensory pull at the forefront of my brain lead the way.

The location on a locus locator could be installed into your chip, apparently, after which the system would act as a map. Downloading the location depleted one “charge” of the number of uses on the locator, though.

But the system sure is handy. If the reminder I set myself hadn’t already, this certainly convinced me to fiddle with the chip more to see what it could do. But—gosh—where was I going to find the time to explore it?!

‘Shrimp,’ May warned sharply.

‘Yes, yes, sorry.’

No more daydreaming. I paid close attention as we walked, careful to avoid another notice from my overlord.

My map guided us along a slow river—one that would require two or three steps for me to cross its width. The banks were slightly eroded, and in places the river fell outside its bounds, making a dent into the muddy earth surrounding it before returning to its trajectory.

Yet, for all its manoeuvres, the river was quiet. It wasn’t running or rushing like some of its cousins. Just walking. Inching along.

Further on, the river widened, becoming five steps wide instead of three, and reached a drop. The drop in the earth was casual. So was the fall of the water, because the plunge was soundless. If I wasn’t descending myself, I wouldn’t have thought the water was falling at all.

The pulling sensation in my head suddenly stopped, so I came to a rest in the middle of the slope.

May surveyed the place.

‘This is it?’ May said.

‘I don’t know...’

It looked like just any other part of the river. Closing my eyes and quickly getting a sense for the maura density didn’t reveal any clues either. If anything, the maura in the air had the taste of earth.

There was a whiff of water maura—but it wasn’t enough to call it a locus. Even an E ranked locus should have more than this.

Were we tricked? I discretely glanced around me. Was it a plot from Son after all? Did he have a way to follow us?

‘A locator cannot be tracked,’ May said. ‘Not with the tools we have at the academy, at least.’

Students had tools outside of the academy, though. Kite’s shield was one of them, and I still wasn’t sure how he got it.

That said, the locus had to be here. Somewhere.

‘Guess we just have to scour every inch of the forest floor,’ I said, mindlessly kicking a clump of dirt away.

We did exactly that. We even went on our hands and knees and dug holes to see if there was a hidden door somewhere. No luck.

‘Where can this entrance be?’ I said a little out of breath.

I stared angrily at the water, cussing it out. Which was when I had a thought. A simple one that should’ve been quite obvious from the start.

It was a water locus, wasn’t it?

My feet carried me to the edge of the river bank. The water was muddy, not allowing me to see all the way down, and all I noticed were some rocks that glistened despite the lack of natural light.

Not much at all. But there was a nudge in my head. So, I started removing my shoes and robes, leaving me in nothing but my underwear.

‘I’m going in.’

I glanced back. May still stood fully clothed, arms crossed and with a look on her face that said “don’t look at me”.

‘I’ll be on the lookout.’

‘Thanks.’

Instead of trying to jump on one of the rocks to keep myself dry, I stepped directly in the water. My leg jumped at the sudden shot of cold. But as I wade in further, the chill quickly became welcoming.

The water appeared nearly motionless from the surface. But where my soles dug into the soft soil of the river, it spiralled around my feet with the excitement of a dog seeing its owner.

Standing at my full height, the water didn’t reach past my belly button. I knelt so it covered more of me until it was just my head above water. I took a deep breath, then submerged completely.

I prepared to look hard for an entrance since visibility was low, but there was no need. The surface was dry but within the river was overflowing with maura.

The flow originated from directly ahead of me.

Spreading my spiritual senses, I called on my water striding and glided through the river like an eel—not a shrimp!

I reached a wall within moments. I couldn’t see, but this must be the drop in the river. My hands grabbed around and caught nothing but water a little below me. There was a hole in the wall.

The maura is also growing thicker.

I popped out of the water. May, who was sitting a against a tree, practising her shaping, looked up.

‘There’s an entrance in the water,’ I said. ‘Big enough for a person to fit through.’

She nodded.

‘You don’t need me, right?’

Her silent thoughts whispered: Please.

I smiled.

‘The waters are my turf. I’ll be fine.’

My senses weren’t picking up any other creatures either.

I ducked under before she could mouth her favourite term for me.

In a moment of true ingenuity and general want to preserve my life, I first explored the hole with one of my feet. To my surprise, the sensation of water surrounding my skin vanished instantly, and I touched a hard surface.

Was there an air pocket on the other side?

Having no other way to know but to get my head through, I slipped inside. The muddy waters cleared, and I was able to draw breath. My eyes opened on instinct, and I noticed a light source ahead of me.

A life form that had saved our lives before had returned.

Moss lighted the tunnel I was in. The tunnel wasn’t tall enough to kneel in, but it was spacious enough for me to lay horizontally if I wanted to.

Ahead of me was another drop. I crawled over and peeked over the edge.

‘Wow.’

A tiny grotto is what the cave ended in. It was around twice the size of our dorm room, with the sides of the wall all covered in the light-giving plant. There was a pool in the centre, which went quite deep at a glance, and a giant, circular rock sat in the middle, poking a little out of the water so it could be used as a seat.

My heart sped up. The drop in the tunnel was small enough I could lean over the edge, and I let myself go.

I stood still for a moment to appreciate the scene. And inhaled deep. The air was pure. Purer than on the surface. A pleasant sound also played in the space perpetually.

Drip. Drop, it went.

I looked up. The ceiling wasn’t that far above me. So, I saw clearly how water droplets gathered in several places in the roof. They were like soldiers—they would build up, gathering courage, until they reached a breaking point and crashed to the ground, shouting as they attacked.

One of the fighters was overhead the stone in the pool. But every warrior it mustered met the same fate—splattered on the firmer exterior of the rock and getting blasted into pieces.

‘Water versus rock, huh.’

Water truly lacks offence, I thought. Something I would need to find my way around soon enough.

I stepped up towards the pool. Contrary to the river, this water was clear and allowed me to see all the way to the bottom.

Every locus had an element that made it special, that turned the space into a true den of energy. That’s why I wasn’t surprise to see the large flower anchored into the wall of the pool.

Inspect.

[Name: Blue Ancestral Shade - Grade : E]

Shade. How perfect a description. The Blue Ancestral Shade didn’t stick out of the wall to sneakily reach for the sun, which didn’t reach here. Instead, its leaves and roots were nothing but a shadow plastered on the wall, a network of drawn lines, all blue.

I cast another look around the space, seeing nothing else of note, and made my way back. May would get worried if I stayed away for too long.

But I was definitely going to spend plenty of time here in the coming weeks.