“Congratulations everyone, you’ve completed your pretest!” Arnold proclaims. The rooms return to normal and the doors open up to release the victorious combatants. Kiyan steps into the river of people all trying to leave at once.
“Yo Sof, where are you?!” he asks. The people move around him as if he were a boulder in the middle of a river.
“I’m still in my booth, and don’t stand in the middle of a crowd” Sofia flatly responds.
“It’s fine” he replies before grunting his way through the crowds, “see? Easy.” Kiyan glances to his left and sees two unconscious bodies piled on top another. “ I see you didn’t have much issue here.”
Sofia rises from her seat as if just stirring awake from a gentle nap. “ Well these guys weren’t anything special, they mostly just reinforced their bodies and used physical attacks.”
“Really? Me and Cade had to deal with a big bone guy and a....actually I don’t know what he was all about.”
“A big bone guy?” Sofia asks with obvious confusion in her voice.
“Well he could use his bones to attack and made a huge club with his bone, but then Cade took out a toothpick and-oh right.” Kiyan stops himself and gestures over to Cade. “ Hey, how come you’re still over there?”
“You didn’t tell me what you were doing so I stayed put” says Cade. He crosses the now empty hallway and enters the booth. “ Wow, are these guys dead?”
“Geez Cade, no they aren’t dead. Sofia isn’t a killer” Kiyan remarks. “ Besides, they are clearly breathing.”
Cade lets out a small laugh. “ Oh, of course! I just saw where they were hit and those spots are really dangerous, if you applied anymore force there…”
“You’re Cade? I’m Sofia, nice to meet you.” Sofia extends her hand towards Cade, “ I hope Kiyan wasn’t too much of a burden on you.”
“Oh not at all, he was really pleasant and we had sandwiches together!” He ruffles through his bag and pulls out another wrapped meal. “ Would you also like some sandwiches? I packed quite a bit.”
“I’m ok but thank you.” Sofia walks into the hallway and looks around. “ We should probably be heading out, we’re the last ones here and the next test is gonna start soon. The trio make their way through the scores of booths, quickly glancing at the splayed bodies inside.
“Damn, these guys are brutal” Kiyan remarks as he stares at a particularly gruesome sight; a facedown body with its arms so twisted and mangled that biceps are located where the triceps should be.
“Yes, it appears as if we have some real monsters in this selection” Cade replies. “It’s a good thing the two guys in our booth weren’t so vicious.”
“Oh that reminds me, there were only two guys in your booth Sof?” Kiyan asks as he steps out into the new station. If he had the time to explore, he’d notice the gothic inspired vaulted ceilings and how they form into a giant golden hawk, he would be particularly interested in how the entire structure is covered in mollis, making it a scriptor of massive proportions. Of course a place so official as this would be adorn with the colors of Cambria; a sea of black flooring broken up by golden columns that support the entire structure.
“Well,” she says in her corrective tone, “ there was another guy but he went to the bathroom before it all went down.”
“Oh speaking of bathrooms, it appears I have a great need for one” interjects Cade.
“Ok, don’t know why you made an announcement but I’m sure we can find you one before we go.”
Cade slyly glances at the train before smiling at Kiyan. “ No need for that, I’ll go by myself.” He turns to Sofia and nods before walking away from the pair. “I’ll catch up with you guys at the next test.”
“Man, that guy is really weird” Kiyan says softly as Cade gets farther away. “He is right though, the next test is gonna start soon.”
Sofia cannot help but lather her words in suspicion. “That Cade person, where are they from?”
“No idea. He said he’s from outside Cambria but that’s all I know.”
“Interesting, I didn’t know that non-Cambrians could join the Stewards.”
The wariness in her voice triggers a thought in Kiyan’s mind, it is strange that a person outside of the kingdom would know about this, unless…
“It’s possible he was recruited by a Steward” Sofia says as if she were reading Kiyan’s thoughts. “ I mean, that was one of the ways to get into the Selection.”
“See, so stop being so suspicious of him. I admit he’s weird, but in a cool way” Kiyan remarks. He places his hands in his pockets and crosses his legs before sitting on the floor. He always finds the most dramatic ways to sit when he’s beginning to lose his patience, though we would challenge the use of dramatic and substitute it with ‘coolest’. “ So when is this test even supposed to begin? We’ve been walking around this place and all I see are the other passengers.”
“Who knows?” Sofia replies before also coming to a rest, opting to rest on her knees and enter a meditative state. “ You should use this time to get some grounding in, you never know when-”
“Can you hear me all ok? Just kidding! I know you can because I’m transmitting on a Schrodinger class band.” Arnold’s voice comes through to all the participants with incredible clarity, as if he were communicating to them via telepathy.
“Holy crap they have a Schrodinger?” Kiyan exclaims gleefully. Sofia stares at Kiyan in anticipation, waiting for him to remove her confusion. “ It’s a type of scriptor used to transmit audiovisual data. The cool thing is no matter how far the target it is, once it’s designated the data goes through.”
“So basically it sends information wherever it wants” Sofia flatly replies.
“Ok I feel like you’re vastly understating how awesome that is…” Kiyan would have gladly explained the ins and outs of the tech behind the system, but Arnold was not finished with his statement.
“As many of you may be realizing, you were not given a location for the next test...because that is the next test. You will have one hour to locate the testing grounds, failure to do so will result in your immediate disqualification.”
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“I mean that part goes without saying right?” Kiyan asks Sofia.
“Yeah, If you don’t pass...you fail, not a concept I thought would need explaining” she replies.
Arnold resumes, “I almost forgot, you’ll need to be able to keep track of the time...so if you’ll look at your scriptors.” Sofia and Kiyan take out their orbs and see that the surface now says ‘1:00’ in gold lettering. “The test will begin at the end of this transmission, good luck.” The crowds begin to murmur as Arnold’s self described velvety voice recedes, but quickly fall silent as the walls of the station begin to rise into the ceiling. Everyone reflexively brace themselves in anticipation of the unknown but quickly loosen up as they stare into rows of large tunnels so dark they could be mistaken for a doorway into a black hole.
Sofia runs into the second most right tunnel but is just half a step slower than her unknown challenger; a girl of similar age. Her hair immediately stands out; a pale yellow that runs to her shoulders, punctuated with a fiery orange at the tips. She has on a red, short sleeved jacket that appears to be made of some exotic cloth, definitely not a material of Cambrian origin. Underneath it all she has on a rather simple outfit, just a black sleeveless shirt, black pants and black shoes with red sash and arm sleeves to break up the monotony. Of course all of this information is gleaned by Sofia with the use of her Divine Sight, to everyone else all that they see is a blur of red and yellow disappear into a void.
“You really shouldn’t stand around, we only have 59 minutes after all.” Kiyan jerks to his right and catches the green eyes of Cade. He wants to tell him to not sneak up like that but Cade moves faster than his words can travel. “I’ll see you at the next test, oh and I apologize!” He enters the left most tunnel, and like Sofia before him, disappears within moments.
Kiyan has no time to decipher Cade’s statement as he sees each occupied tunnel seal itself off. Panic begins to blossom within the minds of the remaining participants, though Kiyan wouldn’t say he’s panicking, in fact, he calls it accelerated thinking. Ok, Sofia and that girl ran for the first tunnel and no one followed. Now Cade entered his tunnel...why isn’t everyone just going into a tunnel? A quick analysis of the room causes something inside Kiyan to click. Wait, there are way more tunnels than there are participants, and we are at a train station. We could be anywhere else, but we are at a train station...signal! Train stations make announcements before departing right? So what kind of announcement is being made to tell us where to go? Kiyan squints his eyes, he doesn’t need to but he does so reflexively whenever he focuses with Divine Sight. His hunch pays off. The once dark tunnels are now filled with imagery of various landscapes; a thick forest, a rushing waterfall, a decaying building. Each tunnel only offers a sliver of what it holds but that isn’t enough, it can’t be enough for someone like Sofia to charge headfirst into. No, she’s more cautious than that, no one knows that better than Kiyan. He looks at his orb, 55 minutes remaining.
The pool of participants begins to dwindle, either they’ve figured out the trick behind the test or are willing to take a risk. “This is stupid” Kiyan says under his breath. He is overthinking things, he knows this. It’s not like him to worry so much, especially now that he has a better grasp on divine force. This new surge of confidence floods his body, drowning out all sense of doubt and worry. He strides confidently towards the tunnel, eyes locked onto the waterfall, but as he gets closer towards his goal he feels his body change directions. It’s as if he’s a passenger in his own body, merely watching as...something...takes control. Maybe it’s impulse, intuition, a mechanical malfunction, whatever the case it has passed and Kiyan now sees the back of a purple haired boy rapidly approaching. His white cape jostles slightly with his leisurely pace and stops just past his middle back. He has perfectly coiffed hair to match his pristine clothes; a long sleeved navy blue silk shirt with his white vest, pants and shoes trimmed with Cambrian gold.
A soothing, yet familiar sensation travels through Kiyan’s body; he’s immobilized. His breathing hasn’t been restricted...and neither has his ability to use divine force, he can still feel it flowing throughout himself.
“May I ask what it is you’re doing?” This voice, a gentle yet commanding voice, belongs to a man standing to his left, several years older than Kiyan, though his physical appearance wouldn’t lead one to believe so. He sports a crew cut and a thick mustache, both a faded black, that have been meticulously groomed; not out of vanity but from old habits. He gives Kiyan the same vibe he gets from Eren when he’s particularly serious. A Steward? Maybe former? Kiyan shifts his eyes towards the man, since that’s about all he can do, and before his lips can separate the man speaks. “I’ll ask you again, what are you doing here?”He abandons the gentleness this time, opting to take a more aggressive route.
“I was entering a tunnel but I..uh made a mistake and ended up here. By the way, thanks for stopping me, I almost knocked that guy down.” The man seems to be put at ease by Kiyan’s words, as if he said the right combination to get him off high alert. Kiyan stumbles slightly as tension returns to his body. “Say, you got any idea where we are?”
“We-”
“Just how long do you plan on talking with the rabble?!” The boy snaps, “ I chose this tunnel specifically so that I didn’t have to intermingle with them, stop wasting my time!” The man lowers his head, either out of reverence or duty, before kneeling on the dirt floor.
“My apologies, young master.” The way the boy interacts with the man doesn’t sit right with Kiyan. It reminds him of how Baron Vallis treats the 83rd; objects that exist to be used at his discretion.
“Hey lay off of him, I just asked him where we were.” Kiyan walks over to the still kneeling man and places his hand on his shoulder. “Sorry for putting you in a bad spot” he says softly before making his way past the boy. The boy of course has a name, a name that anyone who cared to follow the politics of the kingdom would know; Idrick Kelsworth. The youngest of the esteemed Kelsworth Family, one of the 10 noble houses of Cambria and rulers of the 10th District. This information would do little to change the current situation as Kiyan is not one to be impressed by titles; however, it may have prepared him for what happens next.
“A commoner feels he not only has the right to address me directly, but also step in front of me?” The years of nobility training come into play. Idrick’s face remains still, the sort of still you would expect when you’re forced to feign politeness around people you cannot stand. But his words are the true attack, chosen as carefully as an assassin picks their poison. He has honed his craft, able to get under the skin of complete strangers from simply engaging with them once.
Kiyan turns back and faces Idrick. His purple eyes gaze past Kiyan as if he were transparent, but that’s not what bothers him. “Commoner?” The way that Idrick said it felt intentionally loaded, as if he were some god being forced to walk with lowly humans...if he even considers Kiyan human at all. “You talk big for a guy that needs a babysitter just to go on walks.” Kiyan presses on, “ I would say that he probably dressed you too, but I don’t wanna insult that guys style. I mean a cape? Really?”
A surprisingly calm smile flashes on Idrick’s face.
“Young master, wait!” urges the man as he gets off the ground, but his words go unheeded. A purple aura rushes forth from Idrick and instantly surrounds Kiyan. It’s heavy, like trying to move through a swamp. The shapeless, purple energy continues to coalesce around Kiyan until it entraps him.
“Disappear from my sight” Idrick coldly utters before violently tossing Kiyan aside with a swipe of his hand. Suddenly Idrick and his helper shrink in size, becoming nothing more than smudges on the horizon. The dirt road gives way to rolling green hills, which unfortunately house the ruins of a bygone society that seemed rather fond of constructing large structures. It’s not all bad for Kiyan, well he is hurdling at tremendous speeds towards a skyscraper that has been reclaimed by nature, but he has experienced a version of this attack before. He closes his eyes briefly and inhales deeply. As he exhales sharply a surge of blue energy outlines his body and begins pushing against the purple, engaging in a tug-o-war of energies. He grunts slightly as he exerts more effort, burning away at his cage.
“C’mon” he mutters to himself as the skyscraper takes up more and more of his vision. The last remnants of Idricks attack fade and Kiyan quickly reinforces his body as he rifles through the structure and lands on the ground behind it. He takes in his surroundings. Nature has had its way with this city, he assumes its a city because the buildings and roads kind of remind him of the Runoffs; maybe because it’s not in the greatest of shapes or perhaps due to that being his only reference point. “ Well, now I’m definitely lost...but the terrain here doesn’t like that different from the dirt road. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but thank god Eren left me alone in the wilderness.” He looks up at the hole he made and uses his Divine Sight. It takes a bit more of his energy to use this time since he only recently discovered he could do this, but it’s worth it. A faint purple trail marks the trajectory of his flight. “ Good, looks like his signature hasn’t completely vanished.” Kiyan slams his fist into his hand, “ when I get back, I’m gonna kick that guy’s ass!” He pulls out his orb and looks at the time.
40 minutes remaining.