They dueled five more times. Jein kept changing his weapon — an axe, a hatchet, a sword and shield again, and then swapped out the sword for the spear, while Kael kept with his small wooden knife. Each time, it would end before Jein could get a second swing in. During the last duel, he swore that Jein vanished for a second before appearing behind him with the blunt edge of the knife pressed against the back of his neck.
"Are you finished now?" Kael asked, exasperated. Both his and the boy's shoulders rose and fell with every exhausted breath they took. "I need to attend my liturgy class."
Jein sighed and stared at the sky. The clouds swirled above him in that small, cloistered out section of the city. The din of the market somehow made its way over the walls that stood on the very edge of the Divine Hill. Birds soared above, and Jein's muscles all seemed to scream at the boy, calling him an idiot at the same time.
His body stank of sweat, and dust covered his clothes. Aster was on the sidelines waving him over, so Jein agreed.
"Tomorrow morning?" He asked Kael.
"Sure," Kael said after some time had passed as he wrestled with whether or not he should teach the boy.
Jein, who at that point had been lying on his back against the stone mosaic to catch his breath, hopped to his feet.
"Alright! I'm in the room with the rose-stained glass window in it! At the top of the stairs near the bathroom."
Kael slapped the middle of Jein's back, and he nearly stumbled forward due to the sheer force of it. Aster rushed over to the two of them.
"The High Priest was looking for you." He whispered to Jein. "He said to hurry back to your room."
Jein nodded and waved goodbye to Kael before following after Aster. The attendant walked at a quick pace, slipping between groups of people without them noticing. When Jein finally caught up right outside of the door to his room, he was out of breath; yet Aster remained as placid as always."
"What is your Destiny?" Jein asked.
"It's rude to ask someone that," Aster said. "But I'm meant to be an Agent. Just like Kael. Though my Flow is higher, the High Priest is going to send me to a chapel in Alkand to learn from them for a time before bringing me back to do my duties. We're just waiting on a transport."
"Really? The home of the Beastkin?"
Aster nodded with a broad smile on his face.
"So we're in the same boat, huh?"
"No. I'm meant to serve the church. You're not." His attendant corrected. "So I have to follow its edicts more closely…now, if you'll excuse me, I actually have other duties to attend to."
Aster bowed his head and quickly left the area. By the time that Jein had turned around to watch him leave, Aster was already pivoting into the hall at the bottom of the flight of stairs. Jein pushed his door open.
Aurrior was in there already. He was leaning on a cane that Jein wasn't sure he needed. In the middle of the table where he had been seated the evening before carving letters into oak twigs, was a crate with a cloth covering the top.
"I watched your first sparring match with Kael earlier. Forgive me; you are not quite made for fighting like that."
"I think I can learn," Jein said stubbornly.
Aurrior chuckled.
"In two weeks — a week or so before the representative of the Conclave is supposed to arrive from Mortama, there is to be a training expedition with the newcomers to scour the tunnels that run underneath the town. Would you like to join them?*
"Yes!"
The word came out before he could even think about it. It would be his first real adventure: his first real step into the world he would have to travel, no doubt. It would be the first time he would test his mettle in actual combat, where life and death hung in the balance.
"If you learn alchemy in time, I'll teach you an offensive spell to help you out."
"Which one?"
The High Priest held the cane up and aimed it at the wall.
"The Father's light first pierced the deepest dark; now let it pierce those before me."
As the old man spoke, all the ambient light in the room — the yellows, green and red shards that bled through the stained glass windowed visage of the Mother's Rose that looked out over the Chapel of the Mother, that light that bled out from the lantern that hung on the rafters by iron chains, and that light that bled in from the space between the door and the wooden floor; all of it danced around the head of the cane until it combined together into a bright white arrow. Once the incantation finished, it shot out and struck the wall, and the air in the room hummed loudly as the light faded and returned to its proper place.
Gillium rushed into the room. His eyes shot from Aurrior, standing with the cane extended at the wall, and the arrow of light still crackling against the scorched and cracked stone.
"Is everything okay?" He asked.
"Yes, I was just showing young Jein here a spell," Aurrior stated proudly.
"Scared the hell out of me." Gillium sighed, his eyes left the High Priest and traveled to the crate in the middle of the table. "Are those the supplies for my lesson with the boy?"
"Indeed, they are. Teach him the basics of alchemy, if you will."
With that said, Aurrior bowed his bushy head and left the two in the room.