by NAK Baldron
"That's a—" A woman placed a hand on Ren's shoulder, and nearly made him jump. "Apologies. I didn't mean to startle you."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Hekima the Emperor's advisor. He asked that I look after you and the other pupils who pass."
Realizing Ren was present, the twins stopped staring at the artwork and joined him and Hekima.
"Amazing, no?" Adaku asked.
"Yes," Ren said. "Or did you mean the trial?"
Abaze laughed. "Both."
Two guards clicked their heels as they allowed three servants to enter carrying platters. The first held three pitchers and two stacks of silver cups. Wine, water, and dark ale for them to choose from. The second platter was nearly overflowing with broiled fish, fresh oysters, and buttered prawns. The third platter carried their plates and utensils, along with dessert—a pudding of red, white, and black.
"Please enjoy," Hekima said. "I'll return shortly to discuss the next steps."
The servants left with her, leaving Ren alone with the twins—them and ten guards, that is.
For several minutes the three of them ate in silence, stopping only long enough to offer each other giant grins of joy. Ren was ravenous, and it appeared the twins were too. None of them remembered their manners, instead tearing into the food as fast as possible. Ren couldn't remember feeling this hungry before, not even on the mornings after missing dinner, back at the orphanage.
"Must be a side effect of the trial," Abaze said between mouthfuls.
"Yeah." Ren swallowed his second helping of pudding. A wonderful blend of cherry, vanilla, and chocolate. "Where do you think the sphere was?"
"What sphere?" Adaku asked.
"From your trial," Ren said, but realized they both didn't understand what he was talking about. "When you were on stage, did you not go somewhere else?"
"Oh yes," Abaze said. "I was back on the grass plains outside my father's city, but it was odd because I didn't see the city. Only a sea of grass."
"I was floating in the clouds," Adaku said. "But it didn't make sense, because I saw the source-light disappear beyond the horizon, and then return. I don't understand. How could I have been gone for a whole day?"
"When I was in the sphere, I couldn't tell exactly how much time passed, but it felt like hours."
"What are you two talking about?" Abaze asked. "I was only on the plains long enough for the sorcerers to question me. No more than five minutes."
"That's the craziest part," Ren said. "I watched you two on stage, and you were only there for less than five minutes. You took your places, stepped forward, summoned spheres of magic. They danced around you, and then sorcerers led you off stage."
"We have no memory of the stage," Adaku said.
"We remember being called forward," Abaze said. "And then we were in here. You were brought in less than ten minutes after us."
The metal of a guard's boots clicked against the stone hallway, and two men led a sorcerer Ren hadn't seen before, along with . . .
"Shaya!" Ren hopped to his feet, sending his empty plate sliding across the stone floor with a loud wobbly sound like a drum roll.
"She can't hear you," the sorcerer said.
Ren recognized her voice as the ancient woman in white from his trial. She lowered Shaya onto a cushion next to Ren.
He dropped to his knees to check on her, and before he could look up to ask another question, the sorcerer was gone.
"It took you at least ten minutes to come out of it." Adaku placed a hand on Ren's shoulder.
"It looks worse than it is," Abaze said. "You looked worse than she does, and you came out of it okay."
Ren knew they spoke the truth, but it didn't make it any easier to watch her suffering. He held her hand in his and waited while she made her way back—wrapping up her own trial.
* * *
"Get a Sorcerer now!" Ren yelled at one of the guards, who pointed his sword at Ren's chest. "Look at her, you bastard!"
Thirty minutes had passed with Shaya's skin slowly turning blue. Ren had pointed it out ten minutes in. But the twins had brushed it off as him being overly protective as they continued eating everything in sight. After twenty minutes, her skin had a faint hue of the sky, and they joined him in asking the guards for help. They hadn't moved or acknowledged them. The three of them had been forced to yell for Hekima to return, but their throats had grown hoarse from yelling.
Now Shaya's skin was closer to that of ocean waters in Shinzo's bays.
Ren took a step back from the guard, and he sheathed his sword.
Where's Akio?
From the courtyard he heard a loud thundering applause. "Is it over?" Ren asked.
"I think so," the twins answered together.
"It's done." Ren pointed to the hall behind the guard. "Now go get one of the sorcerers."
The guard's face remained unchanged, showing no sign of recognition that Ren had even spoken—as it had the whole time, a true face of stone.
"He's not going to respond," Hekima said.
Ren turned on the spot to find she had entered from the hallway behind him.
"These are palace guards. They have no emotion, no feelings, no desires, no thoughts, other than those I or the Emperor command."
"Draw swords."
Every guard drew their swords in unison.
"Step forward."
They each took one step forward.
"Retake your positions."
They stepped back and sheathed their swords in one motion.
"See," Hekima said. "These are the finest guards in all of Fencura. Now, what is your problem?"
"Look at her!" Ren yelled.
Shaya's skin had darkened more and began to look like that of the deep oceans.
"Ah, yes," Hekima said. "Kaito-Tanken Shaya. Looks like she's going to die."
"What?" Abaze asked. "Why?"
"Not every pupil survives the examination," Hekima said. "It's no major loss. The Emperor will be pleased to hear there is one less Thief Lord."
She spat next to Shaya, and Ren saw the reflection of wet saliva on the stone floor.
Hekima looked to the platters and said, "I'll have more food sent."
With that she left them to watch Shaya die before their eyes.
"Send a sorcerer!" Ren called after her.
"There's nothing to be done," Hekima called back without turning and then disappeared down the hall behind a hanging curtain.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Texas, Earth
Monday, September 26th
Kandice's alarm sounded at 7:45 AM. She laid out her one Sunday church outfit that still fit and then got into the shower.
When she was locking up her front door, her upstairs neighbor was on the stairs again.
"We've got to quit meeting like this," he said.
Kandice locked her door and turned around to face him on the stairs so he could see her eyes roll. "Yeah." The guy's stare gave her a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
She walked into the parking lot, keeping an eye on him as he followed.
"Where are you headed?"
Kandice turned around and faced him dead-on, dropping her leg back into a fight stance out of instinct.
"I'm not interested. You need to leave me alone."
"I'm just trying to be nice." He kept walking toward her.
Kandice regretted wearing heels even if they were short ones. She dropped her tone into the most forceful octave possible.
"You need to back off, or I'm going to hurt you."
"I'm not trying to hurt you. I've just seen you around, and I wanted to see if you wanted to get lunch sometime."
"No," Kandice said, keeping her leave-me-the-fuck-alone tone.
He reached for her arm.
Pure instinct from years of training took over. In the moment between breaths, she grabbed hold of his wrist with both hands, pivoted her body weight, and tossed him over her shoulder. In a fraction of a second, she had his cheek pressed to th
e pavement while she used her heel to apply pressure to his armpit.
He screamed in pain, and she could see blood from where the pavement had scraped the skin on his cheek.
"I don't know who the fuck you think you are. But when a woman says no, it means no."
She kicked him with all her might in the ribs.
"If you ever try to touch me again, I'll put you in the hospital. This is Texas. No jury will convict me. Now, fuck off."
She applied pressure on his wrist, right up the point where it would break, before letting go.
"Immobilize, not kill, is the goal." Master Monroe's words echoed in her mind.
The neighbor rolled himself into a ball and cried in pain. She didn't look back as she got on her moped and drove away.
Technically it was a crime to attack him, but he'd been in the wrong. No jury would convict, so it didn't matter. The pervert deserved it. The average man in Texas would think the guy was lucky they weren't there, and women would congratulate her for standing up for herself.
* * *
When she arrived at Lance's house in the evening, Blake's moped was already there but not Lance's SUV. Slava opened the door to greet her before she got to the front step.
"Come in," he said. "Lance and Blake are out buying credit cards."
Kandice followed him into the living room. "How long have they been gone?"
"About an hour," he said. "Lance wanted to buy the cards from several locations. He figured if Blake helped, they could cut the time in half."
Slava opened a new bottle of vodka and offered Kandice a drink. She only took a small sip.
"When did you get back?"
"Maybe two hours ago," he said. "I left early. I drove up to Waco and worked my way back down."
They drank in silence for a few minutes until Slava spoke. "Do you feel ready to infiltrate the mayor's compound?"
"I think so," she said. "I'm stronger than Lance, but he still wins most of our sparring matches."
"He has years of experience. You should be proud that you can win any of your matches."
"Yeah." She thought back to their last sparring match. "He pushed me to my limit last time. I nearly passed out."
"Did he tell you about when I trained him?"
"Not really."
"Lance was stubborn. He was much faster than me, but I was always a move ahead of him. It took almost six months before he beat me the first time. My abilities allowed me to know where he would be before he got there. He had to learn how to fake his intentions.
"If you learn how your opponent thinks, you can know what they will do. Then you will never lose."
Kandice already knew that from Master Monroe drilling it into her, but it didn't work with Lance. She couldn't figure out what he planned to do. The few times she did, Lance was too quick, and would change mid-attack.
About thirty minutes later, Lance and Blake came back.
"I've never seen so much money," Blake said.
"I still have my cash," she said. "I got fourteen thousand dollars. It made me nervous carrying around so much."
"I know what you mean," Blake said. "When I finished selling the gold, I sat down with the cash and just looked at it. I only got twelve thousand dollars though."
"Use the cards to pay your hackers," Lance said. "We've got enough cash left to buy you the car, Kandice."
Lance handed Slava a stack of cards, along with a large stack of cash. "That should be enough for a few months. We'll need to get money orders for rent."
Blake clicked away on his computer, and after about twenty minutes he got the other's attention. "I've paid the guy his Bitcoins. He said it will take him a few days. He'll send me a message when he's done."
"Excellent," Lance said. "Let's celebrate. Tomorrow, we'll buy your car, Kandice."
"Are you sure?" Kandice asked. "It's a lot of money."
"Don't worry about it," Lance said. "Besides, we've been over this. You need a car that can go fast."
Everyone helped make dinner and drank quite a bit.
When they were finishing up with dinner, Lance told Blake and Kandice they could stay the night. They both agreed. Neither of them was in any condition to drive. They were on the cusp of devolving into sloppy drunks.
It was hilarious to see Slava and Lance drunk. With all they drank this was still the first time they reached that point in front of her. They started singing Russian drinking songs. Lance tried to teach Blake and her how to sing them, but the words were too much, and Lance's slurring speech didn't help.
It was past 2:00 AM when they called it a night.
Slava had staggered off to bed after midnight, and Blake passed out on the couch. Lance told Kandice goodnight and gave her a kiss on the cheek before stumbling up the stairs to bed. Kandice laid down on the other end of the couch with her head next to Blake's. The stale liquor on his breath lingered in the air. It only took a few moments, and she was out cold.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Sapphire Nation, Fencura
Ren's stomach turned sour as he watched Shaya's skin darken into a deeper shade of blue, while his own flushed.
If she dies, I'll see to it they pay.
A weak promise. What could he manage on his own? Regardless he meant every word and knew he'd find a way—any way—to avenge her death. Shaya was his first true friend, and he realized he'd rather die than lose her.
"It's a known risk we all took," Abaze said from over Ren's shoulder.
Ren spun around on the stone floor to face him. "Fuck you!" He rose to his feet and found Abaze stood a head taller than him, and his shoulders were nearly twice as wide. Abaze reached at his waist, but found his dagger was gone. The guards had ensured they were all unarmed, not that Ren had been carrying any weapons.
"Goat fucker!" Abaze cried out as he threw a wide hook at Ren's head.
Ren leaned back just far enough for the blow to graze his eyebrow and avoid major injury. Abaze may have been young, but his body was that of a full-grown man and a skilled warrior used to fighting. Ren was outmatched, and he knew it. His only hope was magic—regardless of the consequences. Either it was magic or a broken bone—or worse.
Instinct took over the last time Ren faced danger, and his magic protected him without conscious control. But he needed to channel his energy and focus. Knowing himself capable of magic gave him confidence, but it did nothing toward instructing him on how to channel it.
Another blow whizzed past his head, and a third caught his shoulder, knocking Ren to the stone floor. A sudden tingle of numbness shot out of his right elbow up to his shoulder. It had been foolish to stop his fall with his arm, but instincts weren't easily overcome.
Ren tried to use his right arm to push himself up, but it gave out, and he caught a boot to the ribs from Abaze.
"Stop. Please, stop!" Adaku pleaded with her brother, but Abaze wasn't listening.
Instead he kept kicking Ren's ribs.
On the fourth kick, Ren used the momentum and his left arm to push himself up into a crouched position. The next kick caught his cheek, but it was better than having the same ribs kicked again. Ren couldn't be sure, but it felt like one was already cracked. Abaze's sixty extra pounds of pure muscle meant his kicks felt like a battering ram.
The next blow was a front kick. Starting from Abaze's hip straight into Ren's face where heel caught forehead. Ren was knocked to the ground. Ren felt his head bounce off the stone floor, a bright orange light flashed before his eyes, and then blackness.
* * *
Ren was back inside the void, and the familiar state of nothingness—being conscious without sensory sensations. Weightless wasn't exactly correct since he didn't have a body in which to feel. Nor was he cold. Instead, Ren was his pure form. What he suspected the priests and monks referred to, when they spoke of a soul. He'd become his soul.
"Shaya!"
He needed to find her—nothing was more important. She was suffering and probably dying. He needed to save her, but where
to look? How to locate her? There wasn't a direction he could go—he wasn't sure he could go anywhere.
"Shaya!
"Kaito-Tanken Shaya, your humble servant Ren Balton calls to you!"
Still nothing. He could hear his voice, but he didn't feel it emerged from his gut, or through his throat. In fact, he wasn't breathing at all, which gave him the sensation of his skin itching, though he had no skin.
A sudden flash of a vision struck Ren. He was lying on a stone floor being kicked by a broad man who could have snapped him in half if so inclined. His twin sister—only apparent because of their shared face—stood behind him pulling his arm to keep him away. He attempted to shake her off his arm in the way you shake off a child who's trying to stay connected to your foot. In the end, you allow the child to have their way, just as the massive man allowed his sister—half his size—to pull him away from Ren.
The void returned.
"Shaya!"
This time his call was answered with a whisper of "swear" though he couldn't know who spoke. The faintest pinpoint of light emerged in the void, and it expanded into a sea of light.
Then Ren found himself in a stone square. After a few moments he recognized the Bloody Square.
"Shaya?"
He found her in the center of five sorcerer's—each wearing a different colored robe.
"Death before dishonor." Shaya spoke with a calm finality of a person who knows they'll die and is ready. "That is my choice."
"If you will but swear to—" The old woman in white was cut off.
"Never. I am Kaito-Tanken Shaya, and I can take no other oaths. An honorable death is the only option."
The sorcerers switched positions with Shaya, and she stood a foot in front of Ren while they discussed amongst themselves.
"Shaya," Ren whispered.
