Artista

1 month later.

During this time, Phesx Caolia has learned to do every bit he was supposed to. At first, it was difficult, especially when he attended Bael's lessons. The number of strikes his body received per spot was more or less the same, but in the 2nd week that finally changed. Even Bael was surprised, as the young boy went from being a slow idiot in the subject to do it in one go.

The Instructor almost believed he was being played, and that Phesx actually knew how to do the job but was just wasting his time. Almost. Phesx Caolia continued proving he could learn what he ought to do, and soon, without Bael’s guidance, the time needed for Phesx to become engrossed in focusing on any part of his body shortened.

Overall, the time spent to become skilled was on the regular, but the abruptness of his improvement wasn’t. Nevertheless, Bael began teaching him something else— to do the same, but to others.

At first, it was just another person standing in front of him. For this, Phesx Caolia was presented with a chained individual whose eyes could tell he was nearly going mad. A prisoner of sorts, maybe a criminal caught somewhere.

That wasn’t enough to feel good about slavering a person. For all Phesx managed to understand from this secret world, the person Bael had him practice on could have just stolen some food from a store or a device from an electronic store.

Still, not caring, Phesx placed his palm on the spot Bael hit on his body. He was to focus on the man’s body this time. The first time, he almost didn’t make it, having to imagine someone else’s spot was less… intuitive as just figuring oneself in one’s mind.

Nevertheless, just as he felt his back about to be hit again, Phesx Caolia simply let go of the complications of his mind, imagining whatever his head could. He was unable to perceive it, beyond a peculiar sensation akin to his body twisting and shrinking from fear, but just a sensation nonetheless.

Phesx Caolia employed a rather superficial, foreign notion with his mind. He simply imagined himself as that other person. Every inch of the man’s body was himself, and Phesx felt himself looking over the man’s shoulder. Then, the spot he was supposed to focus on his mind appeared.

He could swear he felt something warm, exactly at the spot he was focusing on, but it also felt like a simple misconception. The first day was purely experimentation. Phesx Caolia had no idea what he was doing, so he continued to try and try.

Naturally, after managing to find the hang of it, he seemed unstoppable. Phesx underwent Bael’s lessons smoothly, like countless hot needles passing through roasted, cooker meat. At some point, he also began feeling he was ‘seeing into’ the man’s skin and penetrating, something that reminded him when he was treated by that medic.

But then, when Bael saw Phesx needed no more guidance to understand what he was doing, he brought another Artista to help the young boy. This time, Phesx had to do the same, only with his eyes, and while they moved.

It was trickier because of that. Bael would hit Phesx whenever he couldn’t focus at least once in the Artista’s body as they moved. He had endless opportunities, but as long as he did it once during the allocated time, he could pass on to the next.

What’s worse, Bael only used 2 Artistas, but they were a male and female, interchanging any day Bael wanted to use one or the other. When Phesx felt he was figuring out one of them, and getting used to their body, not just a male or female type, Bael would change them the next day.

At last, during the mid-days of the 10th month’s 1st week, Phesx thought of something. He has imagined every inch of his body from within, enhancing his skin sensitivity, and gaining a strange, weird sensation of feeling his insides.

The same happened with the chained man he experimented the same with. Were all of these images fake? Just a fiction of the mind? Were they just to help understand the human body and better his upcoming training to temper his…? Or were they real?

When Phesx Caolia became more pensive and less practical, trying to get used to the bodies moving before him no more, just like Bael had seen before, the young boy focused on every spot at once. On the first try. With the time needed reduced each day.

At first, when he first experimented it on himself, Phesx Caolia might have taken from minutes to a minute and a half. After trying it out in another living being, it might have been reduced to barely a minute and a little less, in intervals.

But during the last few days, his time became stuck in a solid 15 seconds time. Phesx still had a way to go to get to the next step, but he was already on the right track. Compared to the others, except for José’s lessons, Bael’s lessons were calm and peaceful, not involving much pain or too much of a detrimental mentality.

With Cala, it was a painful, but more tiring and exhausting for the body than the mind. Phesx Caolia’s body stretched in ways that proved not too difficult, but he struggled with each.

There was a point he started breaking or dislocating his bones. Of course, Cala was ready for it, with ointment, pills, and colored syringes ready to mend the damage. The ointment was not meant for the pain, but to pour it on his bones after Cala cut his skin open. Enough attention and the right position would amend any broken bones, as long as it wasn’t major.

Phesx was just stretching, not lifting things a few times heavier than him. The breaking of bones was minimal, but still dangerous. This was the usual procedure for any Neophytes. But this, and whenever Phesx dislocated his bones, to be rearranged by Instructor Cala, only helped the young boy.

It served well to help Phesx realize his body’s current limits. It was pretty tough at first, since he had limitations everywhere, and suffered the most trying to even know his body. He might have studied a little with Sofia and in the Ojazul school, but he had no detailed and experienced knowledge of the human body.

Slowly, as he learned how much twisting, to which angle, and force his elbows, arms, hands, fingers, and toes needed to break or dislocate, the same happened with his muscles, nerves, and joints. He could feel them move, screech in his body, and… become better.

They weren’t growing stronger. It would be bizarre and strange if they did become stronger. Phesx would develop tumor-looking decorations under his skin, becoming a spectacle for any eyes. But no, his body wasn’t gaining force, it was growing resistant and pervious, allowing for more movement, sudden force, and treatable.

Phesx Caolia was going through a stable path to complete the first steps of his training.

With Instructor Mel, he had to endure the stabbing of needles on his body, time and again. She had an ointment for those stab wounds. It wasn’t as simple as before, though. Phesx Caolia went from being asked questions to being told curiosities about the body. Each time Mel finished saying another fact, Phesx Caolia would get it.

He was free to move around, but the needles always got to him. Be it the front, back, or the sides of the hall, Phesx Caolia was helpless. All he could do was move his body to try protecting his body from the same stab wounds.

The more needles came at him, hitting spots that had already been stabbed, the more the next needle pierced deeper into his body. Some would remain inserted, whereas he had to pull them out himself.

Phesx was maybe a bit too helpless for half a month, but he learned how to move, and not when, to avoid those needles stabbing the same places too many times. By the time the first month ended, and he was finishing his first steps with Cala, Phesx had a couple of needles raze his clothes instead of poking holes in them.

Of course, Mel’s next training step would be not as terrible for his mental fortitude as this month has been, but he still had to get there.

As for Instructor José, Phesx Caolia would sit cross-legged, lie down, or however he wanted to sit and breathe. Relaxing, spending 4 hours with the Instructor not leaving his side, and feeling serene. Phesx Caolia thought his patience would’ve worn off soon.

However, the more days he spent like that after suffering twice in a row with Cala and Mel’s training, he became more engrossed in the breathing sessions with José. What’s more, José would remain sitting before him until time was up.

In these last 2 weeks, Phesx could feel the movements around him without opening his eyes. Just like his mind calculates his surroundings, what he has already seen, as if he looked at everything at the same time. Yet, this time it was more practical and not something he just seemed able to do, it was something he ‘gained’ via this breathing.

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At some point, he could see José moving whenever the time was up, following him with this ‘gaze’, just his senses, before he walked out the hall after the daily 4 hours. Phesx Caolia’s time in the Riverlye headquarters were well-spent, and he was slowly integrated into this world.

… On the other hand, his lifestyle outside the headquarters, which were indeed in the center of Sargonde, where he goes 3 times a week, was plain and ‘wealthy’ for a young boy like him.

After paying 4,000 credits to the landlady for the apartment, Roberta, Phesx had only 1,000 credits for food. He had to pay for the bills next month, courtesy of the landlady, and the fact it was illegal to make him pay that during the first month. Either way, before his first week of payment, Phesx Caolia used those 1,000 credits to buy enough food for a couple of weeks.

He wasn’t eating enough, at least not as much when he was still living under the Ruvas’ mansion, but he wasn’t in the mood to even try. Nonetheless, the first week passed.

Phesx visited the old man at the farm and helped with the tractor before moving to the city to help move things around in that tall building. He only had clothes he kept from his stay with the Ruvas, allowing him to at least look like an errand boy in the company.

Then, he went to the pizzeria, where he could just go to bed atop their rooftop once he was done working. Nothing happened, although some customers wondered why there was a young boy watching the entrance, just a few steps into the pizzeria.

It was only in the first day of the week’s 1st day he worked, and before he went to his ‘house’, that Phesx was asked to fix an air conditioner. It wasn’t one of those ancient boxes. The pizzeria had long gotten rid of those. It was a panel underneath the floor that kept the storage room fresh. Where cold temperatures weren’t needed, but hot ones were dangerous for their maintenance, that he had to fix.

The panel was alright, but some of its circuits were infested with dust and cockroaches. Using gauntlets, in case they sucked blood from some disgusting fluids elsewhere, Phesx Caolia killed them and cleaned the panel before rearranging the circuits. They were mostly untouched, so Phesx saved the owners a few tens of thousands of credits for a replacement.

Thus, Phesx Caolia finished his first week getting paid 6,500 credits. It was a hard work considering he had to move a lot around the city, even though it wasn’t as tedious as 2 hours-long trips back and forth to the center of Sargonde.

Either way, Phesx Caolia had money! He first went for some shoes. He hadn’t spent his time with the Ruvas exercising or hardworking, so his pretty shoes weren’t helpful. Furthermore, he wanted more full biker gear for his Myertha, but they costed thousands.

Thus, he decided to keep some and use the rest to buy a mattress, order internet, and food if he felt like it. The sensation of eating some junk dishes or from other supercontinents was still there, no matter how bland food had become. Of course, he needed a fridge to keep the oranges he’d buy fresh for weeks without end, but they were costly… And he didn’t want a baby fridge.

Phesx had no trouble with fuel, thanks to his ‘plans’ from before. While he never planned to resell his fuel barrels, it was good to be warned about things.

At nights, some nights, he wondered how the Ruvas were doing, among other things. He would go on and on, thinking until feeling like he was tired enough to try sleeping. Then, 4 or 6 hours later, he’d wake up to either go to the old farmer’s land or Riverlye headquarters.

Today, the 6th day of the month’s first week, Phesx Caolia only had to help the old man bring a cow to the city. They rode on horses, something Phesx was simply unaware of how to, but the animal was gentle. A rope was pulled by both horses on the strong, brown cow’s head piece to not pull her neck, even though it would be butchered.

The old man could wait a few months before bringing all his sellable livestock and crops to someone in the city. There was business with them after some reforms from the last 8 years, or so does the old man sometime says.

He gains more by bringing a few livestock of great fed and care every week, making those looking on the side thoughtful, and his buyers salivate each tome, more and more. Phesx had nothing to say, but he understood. The old man might not have knowledge of details like he was taught, but he was refined and well-versed in selling and gaining more than what he invests on.

“You don’t really like the sun, eh? You also don’t look up when we return,” the old man said. Phesx Caolia lifted his head to stare ahead, but they were facing west. Being still too early, the sun wasn’t set, so they were everywhere.

“I can see the road, and the cow, which is now limping.” Phesx Caolia said. His voice was unlike the old man’s manly voice, but the latter seemed used to it by now. The old man groaned and looked back. He clicked his mouth, making the horses stop. The cow unceremoniously lied on the ground, blowing from its nostrils as it caressed its head on the soft yet hard dirt path.

The man stepped down his horse and placed a canteen between the head piece from the horse’s hanging pouches. As the cow happily drank, bobbing its head, the man returned to the horse and caressed its back. Moving his head to Phesx, he frowned slightly.

“It’s a pity her lifespan is short. 1 year more and her body would start deteriorating. She’s very emotional. She understands many human words. Hell, she even knew I was sending her to the city soon…” The old man looked down, his frown easing. “She became lonely.”

“Are your scanners working well? I’m not a genius in something like that, but if it’s something simple, I might fix it for you.” Phesx Caolia said after a few seconds. The old man looked up at him before looking elsewhere, nodding. “I can let you check them later. They’re a bit old. But I checked with her before with another friend. She will be a goner.”

“…” Phesx Caolia just nodded. The old man questioned as he hopped onto his horse, “How much would you charge for now repairing my stuff?”

Phesx shrugged. The old man asked again, checking the cow as it rose to its feet. “You repair somewhere else?”

“I’m paid 1,500 to be a guard and repairman in a restaurant.” Phesx Caolia shrugged again. The old man fell pensive and looked back, flopping the reigns to get the horse going. “I’ll increase it to 1,000 credits after you show me your worth, kid.”

“Aight,” Phesx Caolia mimicked his actions and got the gentle horse to walk forward.

They continued onward until arriving in the city before moving into a butcher’s store. There, he met with a family owning a food stall, a notorious and big one in the city. They made tacos, tortas ahogadas, flautas, anything the belly could want with grease.

After making a deal, of which the other party was ecstatically contented with the cow, the old man and Phesx returned. It was still quite a bit early to go to the tall building, so Phesx Caolia accompanied the old man. When arriving at his stable back at his farm, when Phesx stepped down the horse, and the old man walked to him.

“Where do you work?” The old man said before guiding Phesx Caolia to check one of his barns where he kept the tech stuff. Phesx answered while on the way there before kneeling to check the panel of a large equipment the size of a fourth of his apartment.

“A pizzeria.” The old man jumped his eyebrows before Phesx continued, “It’s a little famous. Makes 3 times your weekly gains, I think. Every day… They don’t need much repairing, but they’re generous. Although it might be because I’m a pariah, as they say.”

“Show me your scars, and I’ll believe it,” the old man unceremoniously said, looking at Phesx Caolia as if to see through him. Not because of lies, but spiritually, perhaps. After all, this is the only time they’ve spoken to each other so much.

Phesx Caolia stood up, looked at the old man whose gaze wouldn’t move or tremble, and lifted his shirt from the right a little. Once upon a time, claws played up and down with his bones and veins. Now, like a bizarre canyon, all that remained was gunshots and healing flesh.

The old man frowned, eyes reflecting disbelief, and let Phesx Caolia keep checking one of his machines, walking slightly away. While Phesx checked the thing, the old man spoke with a low volume, feeling in low spirits in Phesx’s ears and mind, in his senses. “I had a son, once upon a time. He was tired and preoccupied, until he wasn’t.”

“I didn’t care,” the old man said, looking up at the rising sun, “Until he wasn’t around anymore.”

“Sigh…” Phesx Caolia stood up after his revision, slightly sighing after the effort put in his work. He looked down at the machine, but he wasn’t staring at it. He felt something heavy in his throat, but not the need to cry or pity. Just a heavy… cloud of air. Nothing. But it was heavy.

“You don’t seem preoccupied, or hoping for something. You never know… If there’s something, don’t question it… I have learned it’s… do or die, sometimes…” The old man offered a few words, which sounded nice in Phesx’s ears. Thus, he silently thanked them.

“You work in a pizzeria, right? Hah, I think that’s where my daughter goes to with his fiancé. Maybe you could give them a discount someday. I do offer you some supplies, some days.” The old man chuckled, lifting his lowered head with a darkened face, and looked back.

Phesx was looking at him, serenely. After a few seconds, Phesx pointed at the first machine, “This one’s fine, but some places are ‘loose’. You’ll need replacements in a few years at best, few months at worst. I’ll check the others.”

Phesx Caolia saw the old man nod before continuing on his quick check before going to the city again.

. . .

Year 1,023, 10th month, 2nd week, 2nd day. Riverlye headquarters. 4:45 AM.

Today, Phesx Caolia arrived at the headquarters a few minutes earlier than most, but there were still dozens of others who came at this hour. Were they also with nothing else in their lives? Too dedicated? Or bored today and just decided to come earlier?

Phesx Caolia could only wonder as he frowned. He was on his way to wait for Cala in his hall, when he met a familiar face when he was near the workshop where he was treated by that medic and the redhead. The latter was just opening the door to the workshop, when she noticed him somehow and looked at him with her side eyes, darting from below to up.

She passed a delicate keycard in front of the door and lifted her chin, pulling her head a little backwards before staring at him with slightly knitted eyebrows, when Phesx heard a voice from his left.

“You boy, come here.”

It came from a long corridor leading to a gate, similar to the Head’s study. Phesx knew those places were either storage rooms or smaller studies for certain people in the org. Looking at the person inside it, Phesx Caolia was a little astounded by his appearance.

It was a very old man with light brown skin, sharp, very long sword eyebrows that went past his temples. He was very slender, but also very tall. His thin-short white hair was crazed, and he had a sort of white goatee beard. It was all bright white, not even gray or just white. Only he himself knew how old he was.

His crazed hairstyle and appearance, looking like a beggar with loose, dull brown robes, only made Phesx Caolia curious and cautious in Riverlye.

…