by Philip Read
I’ve learnt all these things and more the four months I’ve been coming here but I have been the only one unable to summon even the simplest of ghost spirits using only sigils, Images, will and words. So one day an old man all the masters bowed respectfully to showed me the summoning dance after taking one look at me and giggling excessively.
We spent two days in the minor summoning hall me, him, Master Hyde and Master Forster. They learnt the dance with me and their ignorance of this way of summoning increased my determination to learn it. We danced and danced and dance for nearly 200 hours straight but then an elven young man showed up and bowed to the old man and waited by the door.
“It seems my time with all of you is at an end, I have other responsibilities.” He said to everyone then took me aside.
“You have great potential but you will not be a summoner of spirits because another spirit already has a claim on you and is preventing all others from coming to your call.” He says to me with an arm around me neck in a familiar gesture, I thought about his words for a moment and remembered the blessing from the deity of knowledge I had also allowed my children to receive.
“Is it dangerous?” I ask, kicking myself for messing with shit I don’t understand.
“It could be but it isn’t with the deity you chose, she will prevent most other spirits from interfering with you but she will be no help to you against physical threats.”
I nod acknowledging this and the relief I feel within my chest is immense. I don’t know why I trust this man so much but like I did Asriel when we travelled I believe everything he says as though spoken in godspeak.
“If I cannot summon a spirit why have you been teaching me this summoning dance?” I ask as we stop before the handsome young man dressed like a hunter a dagger on his waist but otherwise unarmed. Okey, the man isn’t handsome he’s actually beautiful but I have since coming here gotten used to the androgynous nature of elves.
“Though you may both be able to summon spirits, you my syphon spiritual energy through summoning. Try it once you’ve mastered the moves.” He says that turns even as I bow to him.
“This is my grandson Israel, Israel this young man is…”
He looks up in thought slightly but I haven’t told him my name even once since we’ve been here training-
“Sachihiro.” He says as though he blucked my name from the space above my head. “Interesting name for one of your people, anyways so long.”
We continued training in that summoning ritual after a rest for more hours until we perfected it. Learning something new along with your teachers is very encouraging and gets rid of the cloak of infallibility a lot of teachers try to convey to their students. We did everything the same except my Image wasn’t on summoning a spirit but summoning spirit air I guess I could call it.
*
And here I am after pouring as much of my will and spiritual energy behind that Imagine throughout the dance yet nothing has happened. I stand up straight in the middle of the huge sigil permanently etched on the floor with a sigh. Both Master Hyde and Forester have been able to use the summoning dance without issue, but I have failed again.
I wipe the sweat and hair from my face and look up and see the pity on some faces and the mirth on others and even wonder on some that enjoyed the dance for the sheer joy of enjoying the dance. I can feel that my beautiful monster is pleased with me in the satin wrappings I’ve been carrying it around in since I came here.
I don’t like those looks, any of them and I turn my back to them but the room is circular with multiple circles etched into the floor in a pattern. I step out of the circle heading straight towards my monster so I can retreat from all these eyes but I don’t get far.
As soon as I’m fully out of the summoning circle I’m knocked off my feet as a pressure like an overpowered punch to the gut but from inside my guts floors me. I quickly manage to get on one knee but that’s all I manage before I feel something sipping into me both soothingly and extremely painfully and I do as my trainers advise us all to do when in pain, I scream.
When being tortured or in extreme pain don’t hold it in if you don’t have to. Don’t try not to feel it or endure it needlessly, that will drive you mad. Scream, clench your fists, cry, sob, weep, shit yourself, your teeth or whatever else you need to do as an outlet so that that pain is slightly more bearable. Most women in childbirth scream through the pain and the screaming allows them to release some of the psychic pressure that extreme pain causes.
That is the lesson given to us at the Academy by Master Thoman, and so I scream through the pain of nothing pure and something not entering through me from the inside. Its like being parched in a desert and only having access to water with sharp glass crystals within it. Your thirst is quenched but your throat is wrecked and so with me as whatever the spirits breath there flows into me in an unfiltered state because it was summoned in it’s pure form, not filtered for the mortal realm like it should be.
I don’t know when it starts happening but I start to notice that I have my nodachi in hand unsheathed humming pleasantly with blood on the blade and on the floor. Everyone is standing far off and I’m cordoned in by 6 guards of the Conclave Proelium, the fighters with shields and swords out to keep me where I am. Shit, I must have gone into the Rage but how I got my nodachi in hand I don’t know I was across the room on the personal weapon’s rack.
I sigh and stand up straight flinching the blood off my blade before sheathing it. My sheathed is also as much a part of me as any other of my artifacts so I always have sense of where it is. Master Hyde lifts a hand to keep everyone back and walks confidently towards me. He may seem like a regular 165cm tall and lean human being in robes more fit for an academic than a warrior but I’ve learnt not to underestimate because of appearances.
“Did I kill anyone?” I ask as he stands in front of me looking up at my face.
“Close but not quite.”
“Good, I’d like to be excused, is there anything else?”
“You summoned an element from the spirits realm, not uncommon amongst our circles but certainly very rare and almost always fatal if it’s summoned in it’s unfiltered state.
“You’re alive because of the greed of all the spirit familiars and summoned spirits in the room that almost immediately tried to feed off the spirit element you summoned.
“Summoning your blade like that was a good way of preventing yourself from being sucked dry of spiritual energy. I didn’t know a spiritual weapon could be summoned like that.”
Neither did I, “this one is a spacial case.”
He snorts at my careful response. “I know a soul weapon when I see one boy, why have you been hiding it?”
I remain quiet under his glare but I’m aware of the armed people around meet sheathing their blades and the spectacle already being gossiped about.
“Well, in any case, it would be safer to only do that again with your weapon on you. It also seems to be able to feed on that spirit element so you don’t take the brunt of it next time.”
“Yes Master Hyde, thank you, sir,” I say with a bow and walk smoothly towards the exits. I have a lot of thinking to do.
Chapter 53
Sachihiro
I spend the day in secluded meditation with my nodachi, Razor and Kata while circulating spiritual energy through them, I think they may actually really getting stronger with my increased strength. Master Black finds me I assume after hearing what happened, he doesn’t say anything which I’m grateful for because I don’t have the energy to resist his voice right now.
A few of the other friends I’ve made since being accepted to the compound come see me in drips and drabs. Gaia, Asger and Caden with Gonium and Chlomidomonas, Syria and Articus, Ava with Om in tow, Volvox not far behind lurking in the shadows like his grandfather does. Creepy bugger but good swordsman, we no longer have to follow each other around but Om sort of likes the guy now so they hang out together more often.
I invite everyone to my r
ooms as they come and we share refreshments with while I’m reassuring everyone I’m fine with my presence. They don’t actually ask how I am just hang around till they are satisfied I’m fine before leaving, its touching really. Until Ava, Om and Volvox show up though.
“I heard you had a bitch fit.” Ava says coming into my apartment and helping herself to my whiskey, she has a taste for it.
“I did not have a bitch fit,” I say with a frown as I see the other two in.
“Well since both you and Om can control your Rages better than the rest of us with only regular artifacts I assumed you just had a bitch fit.” She says throwing herself onto one of my bigger floor pillows and getting as comfortable as she can.
“I’m sure you will hear all about it soon enough, the gossiping that takes place here is extreme,” I say sitting cross legged on a floor pillow and indicating for my guests to do so.
Om sits gracefully, more gracefully that I have evern seen him sit before and gets comfortable. He is used to sitting this way from his time with the Hito when we went to fetch my kids.
“Why is your blade bare?” He asks, almost always going straight to the point when he speaks. I can see the interest Volvox has looking at my beautiful nodachi with fascination.
“I was just talking to her, where is your hammer?” I ask because unlike me Om has to always have his weapon close because he doesn’t have the benefit of accelerated recovery from the soul wounds he incurred during the forging.
“Outside your door, I’m trying to develop a good distance with it before I need to pick it up. Its slow but there is some progress so far.”
I nod, whatever works for him. We talk about training, about home about Master Black, about the Tribesmen and others still at the Academy that we came down with.
Teà is still there and so are many others, Dustin goes out to visit her twice every ten-day but I worry about the distance I notice developing between them. Ava spends the most time with Teà so we get her input into all of this.
“Look, all these different people and cultures we’re exposed to are messing up with Teà‘s head. Back home it is expected that every woman give birth to at least one child even if she’s a warrior to help keep the tribes alive but a lot of the people here don’t have to.
“She likes Dustin more than most obviously but she didn’t really want a mate to begin with. She doesn’t even want to be a true warrior as her main pursuit and she misses her kid so she will be heading back to the Tundra with the next group.” Ava says waving her arms around.
I can see that she’s a little upset but she understands. I also want to head home, I miss my family, my new mate, my children, Mira, ma, da..
“I think I should also return home for this next season but I will only stay a year or so, I miss my family,” I say to no one in particular but get an affirmative grunt from Om.
“It’s settled then, I’ll ask the others if they want to come.” Om says his shoulders slightly rexaling more than they were a moment ago.
“Can I come?” A voice that has been quiet the whole time asks.
We look at each other, I look at Om and indicate that it’s up to him. He nods “You can come.” He says to Volvox.
“Think I can get myself a soul weapon this time around?” Ava asks with a big grin.
“Already tired of the artifact poleaxe?” Om ask rhetorically, we all know how much she loves that thing. She even takes it into bed with her and of course, a spirit bound weapon doesn’t accidentally cut it’s wielder.
“I love it, but I need to increase my arsenal. Master Arnold is in charge of the axe wielders in Proelium and he says the poleaxe isn’t very good one on one in a duel.” She says with a scowl.
We all snort at that, we’ve been telling her that for years now but I suppose Volvox snorts ‘cause that’s an obvious conclusion. The poleaxe is for the battlefield or fighting outnumbered exactly like my own nodachi is, but I’m developing a style that keeps me mobile and offsets its disadvantages.
“When will our trip home be?” I ask so I can get my shit in order.
“Three months,” Ava says already having knowledge from talking to Teà.
We talk a bit more and they leave to go talk to Asger, Caden and Gaia. It’s going to be a busy three months.
* *
The next day I’m back at the Spiritus learning the theory with everyone else like nothing has happened, from there I go to the unarmed combat class with Pleodorina, the only female amongst the triplets. She’s good, really good but I’m quickly catching up, fighting is in my blood.
After spending two hours there its off to a hunt with my friends, we occasionally go out on hunts before nightfall. Nightfall is when we all meet in our battle groups to hunt nightwalkers, a type of hive-minded underworld creatures that are very tricky to fight because of their excellent teamwork and ambush abilities. But they are relatively easy to kill and provide soul energy almost comparable to that of a powerful animal.
After the night hunts its usually meditation for me, yoga for Ava, personal lessons with Black for Om, Asger and Caden either do nothing or work on their blade work. Everyone in the conclave must have a primary and secondary weapon of speciality, its mandated. Just like everyone within the conclave eventually goes through the most basic of training at least.
After meditation, it’s the baths for me and sometimes I bed one of the ever willing women all over the compound, especially the baths, but mostly I just go to my rooms with a book from the library.
*
The next day I join the Proelium in their dawn jog with backbreakers packs on our backs. Backbreakers are the gravity packs we wear that get heavier the longer we take on the runs as they are programmed.
From there we do some unit drills where we are in shield walls as the dwarves did when we were fighting them. I do a number of drills with them then we break for a light snack before it’s melee training.
After that I head over to the Spiritus and practice my Images and will enforcement over spirits and using their powers even though I don’t have a spirit and I’ve learnt I probably never will.
After finishing with the class I join Master Forester in practicing the summoning dance but I do it outside the circle and with my nodachi sheathed on my back. The moves are familiar but every time is slightly different, if even a little. I will my Image where I want it within myself and push it there as my spirit flares and I increase my pressure.
I finish the dance with a flourish and feel the spirit element burst into me from within but I’m ready this time and my nodachi is more that happy to take in all that spiritual element, leaving me more than I know what to do with but definitely taking the lions share of it gleefully.
I feel powerful, the spirit pressure around me has never been as dense or as oppressive. Even Master Forester gives me a nod of acknowledgement before summoning a spirit in the form of one of those legless water dragons that floats through the air like fish in water.
It roars a silent roar and then phases into nothingness leaving a roaring Forester behind whose breath bushes me 5m back even with my spirit pressure stronger than it’s ever been. He spins and I think I see the dragon opening a maw with sharp glistering teeth before I notice it’s just his open palm strike going for the wall.
The is a reverberating boom that shakes the ground I’m standing on even before his palm hits the wall and he stops it inches away, the wards that had flared up on the wall slowly fading even as the Proelium giards stationed here arrive with Sorcerer Augusta in tow.
She looks around and I can feel her spirits tasting the air before she shakes her head and just leaves us to whatever we are doing without a word.
*
Next time I dedicate to sword fighting with my Razor and nodachi. The sword masters here are always eager to fight especially with someone with an exotic style. Though they have access to katan styled swords they aren’t actually forged in the Valley or by the Hito Underworld clans so they aren’t genuine, even if master
fully made. And though the types of peoples and creatures here are diverse, I’m yet to meet a Hito outside of Sandaria.
Razor is an o-katana, the same as any katana one would expect but slightly longer and thicher at the blade without sacrificing its exquisite razor sharp cutting edge. It just needs a bit more energy to cut through an object a regular katana would flow through.
I practice my moves on opponent after opponent, winning most of my duels but not all. Still a reminder that there is always someone better around the corner, always.
From the duelling grounds its to the construction workers to spend some time with Om, he’s always here without Volvox at this time of day ever third day of a ten-day.
I mostly talk or just hang around while he and the other do all the work, well I do some bricklaying as directed but never corners or anything complicated. From there we have a meal and go our separate ways, me towards the library, him usually towards Ava’s rooms.
At night we’re in different battlegroups hunting down nightwalkers, learning to work as a unit against the perfect foes.
*
The next day I’m off to a jog with the Proelium and then join them for drills for a few hours. It’s exhausting but I always feel like it was worth it at the end.
Today I join some of the axe wielders with a practice axe in hand because first and foremost I’m a Barbarian after all. The axe was always my go-to weapon during battle before I went off with Mira and Asriel to the Hito and their obsession with swords that infected me.
From bashing a few skulls and breaking a few bones its to the healers to get my own injuries seen to before heading to the baths and obviously bedding one of the women I’ve gotten acquainted with that’s willing or eager.
My days take on a routine as I count down to the day I will begin my journey back home.
