Azyl Academy (Elemental Gatherers Book 1)

by Chris Vines

  “I’m not Aiden,” I said gently as she set me down. “My name is Caleb.”

  She leaned back, still not letting me go, and questioned, “What do you mean?”

  I thought about lying again just then, but said aloud, “I’m not going to lie and pretend to be your son. I believe he has passed on. When I died on my world, somehow my spirit moved here. I remember a vast voice, offering me a chance to help people again. When I said yes, I woke up here,” I said, leaning against Elena as my legs had given out. “I am so sorry, but I am not Aiden. Lying to you was just not right. I’m sorry,” I said, tearing up at the pain I see in her face, the denial forming all over again.

  For a moment, when she had been holding me, I was experiencing everything I had dreamed of as a child. My mother had abandoned me and I grew up in an uncaring system. I felt the love of this woman for her son, and then I took it away again. I looked over at the father, and the look on his face told me I was right in what I had done.

  “Welcome, Cal-led? Is that your name?”

  “Cay-leb” I enunciated it slowly.

  “Caleb. Thank you. I’m sure we would have figured it out soon enough. The hurt that would have caused would have been greater than we could deal with. What are your plans now?”

  “I haven’t thought much. I only woke up about ten minutes ago. If my presence is too much, I can leave. I’ll make my way somehow, I’ve been an orphan before and can do it again. I’d like to stay here. Learn about your world and how I can fit in here. I know nothing about where I am.” I said, looking down and then at Elena, before looking at my feet again.

  “You’ve been an orphan?” Elena asked, her tone fluctuating from hurt to questioning.

  “My family left me when I was young. My father probably didn’t even know he had a son, and I grew up in an orphanage as my birth mom was unable to care for me. To change my lot, I worked hard and was accepted into a military academy, where I was engaged to an amazing woman. I died saving a girl from a car, a runaway carriage … I died,” I whispered, sinking to my knees as the enormity of what happened hit me. I’ll never see my friends again. I’m never going to hold Jasmine again. I died! At least I don’t remember the pain, I thought as I broke down, sobbing into my hands. As I cried, I felt arms encircle me and a hand pat my shoulder. I looked up, seeing Jordan looking at me with sympathy as Elena hugged me to her.

  Jordan looked at me and asked “How old were you? Aiden was only fourteen years old.”

  “I was twenty-two.” I whispered, still crying. The comfort they were giving me, even while I stole their dead son’s body, exclaimed louder than words that these were good people.

  “Of course you will stay here.” Elena declared. “ We can’t have someone looking like our Aiden wandering the city lost and confused. We’d become a laughingstock, and you’d be drug back here anyway.”

  Jordan asked “Do you remember anything from Aiden?” with hope in his eyes.

  “No, unfortunately not, though I can somehow speak your language. I can tell it is different from what I used to speak, but it is translating itself as I speak. If you’d allow it, I can be a family cousin, or I can be Aiden to everyone else. I would just tell others lost my memory due to Aiden’s,..I mean my … sickness?” I ended my statement with a question.

  “Yes, Aiden got very sick. The best Healers and concoctions we could afford were unable to help him. We tried everything, sold everything from the store at discount prices to pay for it, and nothing worked. Except it somehow brought you here. What did you say about speaking with a god?”

  “When I died, I awoke in darkness. A being who called themselves Darkness asked me if I was willing to go to a world where I would be the difference between salvation and destruction. I have no idea what that means, but I wanted to help people. Hopefully, I can figure out how to be that pivot point.” I replied, still not sure that I wasn’t crazy.

  “Well, I have no idea either, but we would be remiss in not helping Darkness’s chosen. What do you think Elena, can you handle letting Caleb here stand in for Aiden?” Jordan asked Elena gently.

  She looked at him with fire in her eyes. “I’m not porcelain, Jordan. I am the stronger of us two physically, and I can be strong enough for this. You will stay with us, Cay-led, and outside this place or around others you will be Aiden. We will explain that you lost your memories due to all the treatments and teach you how to live here. You’ll work in the store and get your affinity tested in six months like Aiden would have. Hopefully that is enough time to teach you how to mostly blend in. You can tell us more about your world at the same time.” She finished her declaration by drawing me to my feet.

  I looked her in the eyes and simply said, “Thank you.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Elena moved me over to the couch, which was surprisingly comfortable for something that appeared to be stuffed with straw. She put on tea while Jordan made me a bowl of the soup they had been eating. They flinched a little every time they looked at me again, though it was slowly getting better. I devoured the soup, and two more bowls after that. We spent the next hour talking about Earth and my life there. They were amazed at my descriptions of cars, plastic, and television. They weren’t amazed by running water, which made me very happy. I don’t think I could take long term usage of chamber pots, I laughed to myself.

  They started telling me about their world, Zemia. We were in a city named Azyl in the kingdom of Craesti. Azyl was the third largest city in the Kingdom. Craesti was surrounded on three sides by water and cut off from the neighboring country Toprak by a mountain range that spanned from sea to sea.

  They pulled out a small map which surprised me. I hadn’t expected them to have a map. It only showed Craesti, which was a full two hundred miles wide from sea to sea and almost seven hundred from sea to mountains. This was significantly larger than expected from the description. The map showed the city we were in to be southeast from the capital of Craesti, cunningly named Craesti too, along a river. Craesti city was on the coast of the Dividing Sea, which I likened to the Mediterranean from Earth. Though apparently the center wasn’t explored much and was marked with a line that said, “Beyond here are Beasts.”

  “What does that mean, beyond there are Beasts?” I ask Jordan, who was pointing out cities and major features on the map. It wasn’t too detailed, but it did show roads between many cities.

  “The water there gets deep enough that Kraken, Tizheruk, and Leviathans can attack ships, thus preventing most commerce from going across the Sea. The Water and Wood Gatherers of the Trade Union have been working on ways to prevent attacks, but so far no success has worked on all three major threats. Each trip is a significant risk, but we do have some trade across the Sea.”

  “Kraken, Leviathan, and Tizheruk? You have actual giant monsters in your oceans?”

  “Of course, many Water Elemental Beasts can grow to enormous sizes, feeding mostly on Aether and other Beasts. Did you not have any in your world?”

  “Well, we have whales and sharks, but they don’t attack ships. They can be big, but never really had much impact on ships unless people fell off them. Um, what do you mean by Aether?”

  “What about Aether?”

  “What is it? Our world used to think there was something called ether that let light propagate, but we disproved its existence over a hundred years before… uh, my time. It sounded like you meant something different though. What do you mean by Elemental Beasts?”

  “You don’t know what Aether is? Aether is… um… an energy that exists all around us. Every person is able to gather this energy into themselves, slowly increasing their capabilities. Aether has ten elements, though people can only gather eight of them. Hold on.” Jordan explained while he walked down the hallway. He entered the room next to the one I came out of and walked out with a small book. He opened it and walked over.

  “Here is the basic diagram explaining the elements.” He pointed to what looked like a compass rose. North was labeled Air, n
ortheast was Lightning, east was Fire, southeast was Metal, south was Earth, southwest was Wood, west was Water, and northwest was Ice. The center was labeled Light, and a circle labeled Darkness enclosed the whole thing. “Gathering Aether is the process of absorbing Aether from the world around us, flowing it through your meridians and gathering it into your center. From there it will circulate throughout your body, slowly strengthening it and letting you perform magical feats. Everyone is capable of it to some extent, though most have a talent level of only one or two and five, so they won’t ever be able to condense a Core. Everyone also has an element that they are linked with, allowing them to more easily gather and Channel that element. I am an Earth Gatherer, and Elena is Metal linked.”

  I knew it, Japanese light novel protagonist. “Wow. That’s amazing. We had nothing like that on Earth. How do you know what your talent level and element is?”

  “There is a testing ceremony held every three years at the Azyl Academy that everyone from fourteen to sixteen years old may attend. They will evaluate your talent and Elemental Affinity and determine the fee to be trained there if you desired. The higher the talent and the more elements you have a high Affinity with, the lower the fee since their renown grows through the accomplishments of their students. They want talented people and will pay for them. Talented people will be able to accomplish more and earn more for the Academy. The next testing will be in six months, as Elena mentioned earlier.”

  “Is there a way to start… gathering… before being tested?” I asked with a questioning look in the middle.

  “Yes, it is recommended that you start gathering before being tested. The test is more accurate if you have done so. Your center develops to being able to gather Aether usually sometime between your thirteenth and fourteenth year, hence the age limit on the test. The Academy and the City Lord publishes this book,” he waved the book with the elemental drawing “that is free to every family with a child to start teaching them. Without knowing your element, though, it is impossible to condense Aether into a liquid, which is the first step to forming a Core. A healthy body is required to start, though, so Aiden had not been able to start yet. You probably shouldn’t start until you regain your health either.”

  “Yeah, that makes sense,” I said, my head drooping in exhaustion. “If just talking is taking this much out of me, I shouldn’t do much else.” I looked out the window in the room, and saw a sunset, or sunrise, out of it. “Is it late or early?” I asked

  “The sun is just setting. Why don’t you go rest? Elena and I will tidy up the area and reopen the store. With three of us again, we’ll have to recover.” Jordan helped me up and to the room I woke up in. I collapsed into bed, asleep as I hit the pillow.

  I woke early the next morning, consumed with a burning desire to pee. I got up and hobbled to the door, then stopped. “Um, where is un baño?” I shrugged and walked to the room to my left, trying the door. It opened onto a small room with a bathtub, a toilet, and a sink. They do have plumbing! Hooray! The toilet was only a circular pedestal that was just over knee height. The seat was attached, and it was just next to the wall. Looking inside, it was empty of water, but a lever was connected to a pipe into the side. I pulled the lever, and a valve opened, allowing water to flow.

  I relieved myself and looked at the sink. A bar of harsh castile-type soap was next to another pipe with a lever attached. After washing my hands, I dried them on my clothes. That probably wasn’t sanitary. I’m still wearing the clothes I died in. Well that’s a weird thought. I stumbled back to the bedroom and found some clothes in a closet. I chose a long tunic and some loose pants and changed before collapsing into bed again. When I woke again, the room had grown fairly stuffy. I walked over to the window shutters and opened them, looking out through an opening at the city.

  It looked like it was mid-morning, there were people walking down the alley the window looked upon. I could see a couple of people dressed similarly to me, though in brown instead of green. They were leading a wagon pulled by an ox with strange horns. They almost looked like they were made of wood. Two of the people were armed, one with a bow and another with a spear. So weapons are old school, pre-firearm. But they have a type of magic, though that seems more like the Chinese concept of Ki than normal fantasy magic.

  The building across the alley was built of stone, as was nearly every building I could see. The roofs were magenta slate tiles. Looking to the right, it looked like the alley intersected a major street a couple of shops or houses down. A stream of people and animals moved up and down the road. I saw a person on a tiger leap down the road. Wow! That tiger was as big as a horse!

  My stomach rumbled. “Yes master,” I said to it in a fake evil minion voice. I staggered to the door and down the hall to the living area, leaning against the wall the whole way.

  “May Light guide your way today.” Elena said to me as I walked in.

  “Um, you too.” I said, confused.

  “Oh, you never did get an explanation for why we called you Darkness’ chosen yesterday, did you? You appeared on Darkness day, the last day of the month, and said you had spoken to Him. Today is Light day since Light always follows the Darkness and is the first day of the new month. This is the third month of the ten-month year.”

  “How many days in a month? Um, who is Darkness?”

  “There are forty-two days in a month, divided into five weeks of eight days each plus Light and Darkness on either end. As for Darkness himself, there were originally ten gods of this world. Legends say sometime in the distant past, at least a thousand years; eight of the ten gods sacrificed themselves to save this world from a terrible catastrophe, leaving only Light and Darkness, who were both weakened considerably. In a couple months will be the annual festival to celebrate this sacrifice, on the Day of Light. It is thought that Light and Darkness now don’t interact much with people anymore, leaving most thought of them to only four events every year and the first and last day of the months. Light is celebrated on the longest day of the year in midsummer, and Darkness on the longest night. Darkness and Light are celebrated together on the days of equal night and day during fall and spring.”

  “Is Darkness a good god? In the mythologies of my world, most deities whose domains included darkness were usually evil,” I asked.

  “No, none of our gods were evil. Darkness does rule over death, but all life has death, so why would that be evil? There is the occasional rumor of death cults or demon worshipers, but they usually do not espouse Darkness.”

  “That’s interesting, and good. I’m glad he isn’t evil. So your year has four hundred and twenty days? The year on my old planet was only three hundred and sixty-five days. Is the worship of Light and Darkness the only religion?”

  “Four hundred and twenty-two days. The Day of Light and the Night of Darkness are separate even from the months. Uh, if your year was shorter, that would mean you would only be nineteen or so in our years. In the Kingdom there is no other religion that is followed openly. The Topraks worship something else, though I don’t know what. There are some other beliefs from other countries, though they also worship Light and Darkness, I think,” she said as she stood up. Now, let’s get you some food,” she said as she started preparing something.

  “Great, I am super hungry right now. I’m probably going to need more food than I would normally to recover.” I said

  “That’s probably right,” she said as she cooked. After a couple minutes, she set down what looked like a meat crepe. It was delicious, flavorful meat combined with an almost sweet bread. She also handed me a steaming glass of tea. After downing the food and several cups of tea, I was drooping again.

  “Thank you for breakfast. It was delicious. I’m going to go to sleep again. I am still terribly weak.” She helped me up and to bed.

  “Rest well. We’ll talk more of your world, and ours tomorrow. Do not push yourself too hard, you don’t want to hurt yourself more,” she admonished me. I agreed as I collapsed, quickly falling
asleep again.

  CHAPTER THREE

  I woke up a couple hours later, feeling slightly better than I did earlier. My stomach growled in anger at being empty again as I sat up. I’d guess I’m healing and growing towards normal faster than I would on Earth. Not sure how much faster though. I got out of bed and decided to do a squat to see how fast I was healing. I slowly bent my knees, working to maintain good form, before collapsing onto my bottom. Ow! “Well, I guess no working out yet. I’ll go see if I can make lunch, help out with chores or something at least.”

  I stumbled to the door and out into the hallway. Jordan was walking down the hallway holding a couple books. “Whoa there!” Jordan exclaimed as I nearly ran into him. “Still stumbling around. Would a cane help?” He balanced the books on one arm and helped steady me with the other.

  “Probably not. My arms are as weak as my legs. Hopefully this will get better soon. Can I help with anything?” I asked.

  “Not yet, once you’re steadier we can have you help out in the store a bit.” He helped me over to the table in the living area, where I sat gratefully. I hate being weak! He set the books down and walked over to the pantry. I noticed a moderately sized box in the pantry when he opened the door.

  “What’s that box?” I asked.

  “That’s our cold box; it keeps the meat and vegetables fresher if we keep them cold. It has an Ice Inscription on it that maintains the cold temperature, though one of us has to add Aether every couple of days.” Wow, it’s a fridge! He pulled out some bread and cheese from the pantry, then handed me a hunk of both. The bread was thick, filling, and one of the best breads I’d ever had. This is real bread, the kind people could almost subsist on alone. After finishing the food, I made puppy eyes at Jordan until he gave me part of his bread, which I also scarfed down.