John endured the Trials for a month, unraveling threads of fire, ice, water, wind, darkness, light, sound, earth, wood, lightning, time and space. The tower tested only these elements and John soon began to gain basic proficiency in their weaves. He was tortured endlessly, hurting from one failure and another. He persevered and finished his mission with a few hours to spare.

“Do I get a reward?” John asked the artifact spirit expectantly.

“The experience is a reward.” That was some bullshit. John sat on the ground and began to grow bored.

“What’s it like being an artifact spirit?”

“Lonely and boring,” the spirit replied. “Challengers come too infrequently.”

“I know how that feels,” John sighed, as he thought back to the first eight years of his life. “How many years have you been here? Do you really not remember?”

“Too long to remember. What do the numbers matter?”

“They don’t matter at all when you’re alone, I guess,” murmured John. “Well, we’ve had a fun month anyway.”

“Thirty standard days and twenty two hours to be exact.”

“I thought the numbers didn’t matter,” John muttered. “What was Astari civilization like?”

“Much like any other civilization. They took a hundreds of thousands of years to ascend which is quite slow. The precursor civilizations did it in far lesser time.”

“What does it mean, to ascend?”

“To break the barriers of this dimension and pass higher. Traveling to equivalent dimensions is easy. The Astari did that when their civilization was still in its infancy. They called this dimensional plane the First Fold. This was their home dimension. There are different energy states in different dimensions and the Laws are different as a result. The Astari utilized this difference to create enough energy to ascend. I do not understand the specifics of it. I’m a mere tower after all.”

“How do you get your information. Are you connected to other towers?”

“You ask too many questions,” the spirit complained.

“You said you were lonely. I thought you’d like to talk.”

The spirit said nothing after that. Perhaps it had grown too used to the quiet. John sat down and meditated near the entrance. Relar soon came in his red speeder.

“How was it?” he asked. It had been hell.

“I’ve understood a lot of things.”

“That’s good. Teacher will be glad to hear it. The situation on Adan has taken a turn for the worse. Teacher will have to go there in person. Adan is within reach of the root way so we won’t be out of contact.”

“What happened?”

Adan was a recently discovered planet, lying in the no man’s land between the elven systems and the three great human empires. They had discovered many Astari artifacts on Adan which was why the major powers were colonizing it with great speed. The elves were outnumbered and outgunned but held a territorial advantage, Adan being much closer to them. Aether travel also ensured that the elves could keep up supply lines without hassle. The hyperspatial tunnels of the humans, on the other hand, was much slower and deadlier. About one third of their supply ships never made it to their destination. John had heard they had recently improved on the technology and ensured a safety rate of eighty percent, but the technology was very expensive.

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“They recently discovered a tower on Adan, near elven territory. That tower is much like the Tower of Trials. There are obstacles to overcome and rewards if one performs well. Even the lowliest artifact of the Bright Ones is worth a fortune.”

“My holocube,” John said despondently.

“Yes, teacher told me about that. You would have been able to buy whole planets if you had sold it.” He could have bought a fleet of explorers.

“So, did everyone start fighting over the tower?”

“Yes. Each power is trying to claim it for themselves. There was lots of firing, a few incursions, some lost territory and now a truce.”

“Why do they want Sor Al?”

“She’s a diplomat, among other things. The Council of Thirteen always want her to take charge of these sort of tricky situations.”

“Do you think there will be war?”

“Not likely,” Relar said, as he steered the speeder east.

“Why aren’t we heading to the city?” John asked, looking at his coordinates through his chip.

“Teacher has sent us to her island retreat. Sister Sariel is waiting for us.”

The island was big, with a volcano at the center, thick forest beneath, surrounded by sandy beaches. A mansion was built on a cliff overlooking the Emerald Sea. It was made out of the same stone as the cliff, and seemed more like a natural formation than anything man made. Relar landed the speeder on a grass clearing by the mansion and grinned. “Welcome to Alluine Island.”

John spent the next few days relaxing. He lounged on the beach, with a glass of watermelon juice and enjoyed his time in the sun. He felt he deserved a few days R&R. He’d spent a hectic month in the tower after all, with hardly any sleep and only nutrikits to eat. His power hadn’t improved by much, but his understanding had skyrocketed. He felt he would improve quickly in the days to come. He summoned some wind to experiment with, carefully weaving the patterns in the air above the sand. Eventually he created a small whirlwind and let it loose towards the water. Sand and spray collided, the impact of water collapsing the whirlwind. John began creating stronger and stronger whirlwinds of sand and sending them towards the sea. He hadn’t had this much fun for a while.

All of a sudden, a small tornado formed on the beach and sucked up all of John’s little whirlwinds. How had that happened, wondered John, perceiving the tornado. Just as he’d guessed someone was controlling the wind around it. He looked around and found Relar grinning at him.

“Took you long enough,” Relar said. “Do you want to play spinning tops?”

“What’s spinning tops?”

“A wind battle royale. Wait! I’ll call Sariel.”

John had seen very little of his senior apprentice sister till then. She didn’t seem like the type who would have fun flinging sand on one another. To John’s surprise, Relar convinced her to play. They spent the next three hours sending whirlwinds of sand and water at each other. Relar and Sariel had handicapped themselves so that they would be on the same level as John...which worked out pretty well for him. Fresh from the tower, he unraveled their weaves with ease. In the end, he had the least amount of sand and water on his body.

“Your fine control is a pleasure to behold,” said Sariel. “Teacher said you were special.”

Relar nodded, “with more mastery of the elements you might end up becoming a realm master before any of us.”

“Really?” John wondered what it would be like to have his own realm. It wouldn’t just be phasing out of reality like an arbiter of the balance, but moving in and out of his own created reality. He was not immortal like the elves and wondered if that day would ever come.

“Are there human immortals?” he asked Relar.

“There are. There are two types. There are those who gain immortality through aura mastery and others who gain immortality through what is known as martial arts. One is external, the other is internal. We elves cannot cultivate our internal energy.”

“Aura is better anyway,” said Sariel.

“Don’t say that. There are martial artists who can give teacher a fair fight,” Relar shook his head at Sariel. “Ovin for instance.”

“How strong is Sor Al exactly?” asked John.

“Let’s just say that even stars would not dare do anything against her.”

“Then why did she lose to the God King?”

“Perhaps the God King was stronger,” said Relar.

“He wasn’t strong enough to destroy a star. If he was, he wouldn’t have been lured by the arbiters so easily. He would have destroyed them all before they had a chance.”

Sariel turned to Relar, “Jehun is right. Ever since the teacher came back I have sensed something amiss. It is like she is missing a part of herself.”

“I will ask her about it when I get a chance,” Relar walked back to the house, looking worried.