“Well done, warrior.” He turned and left the arena, Mouro joining him. It was the last thing I saw as the world turned on its side and became black.
THE PAIRING
AFTER THE TRAINING event, Devin took measures to keep me focused. The fact that I had accessed the mirror and now manifested my chi meant my training became specialized. I rarely saw any of the other students since my training was almost exclusively with Devin. The sessions were getting increasingly frustrating. Apparently my focusing my chi was not supposed to happen for another few years. The fact that I did it without training meant I was more of a danger to myself and my fellow students.
Devin was also being sensitive to the “mole” problem. He felt I could be attacked or worse, for having these abilities, and had me moved to a different wing every week for my safety. It was getting aggravating. The only constant was the upcoming pairing. I wondered who my guardian would be. I knew Zen and I were a good team, but Devin kept telling me that it wasn’t that simple. The pairing linked the chi of the people involved. It created a bond that was only broken by death. And so the remaining month had been brutal in terms of my training. The only respite came at night, when I could have an hour to myself and then fall asleep. As each day passed, I became better at controlling my chi. By the third week of the second month, I was able to create my staff again without the anger. It felt different.
“When you manifest your chi from a point of calm, it will not drain you,” Devin explained. “Acute negative emotions like anger, hatred, and fear will also facilitate chi manifestation, but the downside is that it will siphon off your own chi.” As he spoke, a blue-white orb of energy began to take shape in front of him, floating in midair. I could feel the pressure in the center of my forehead and temples.
“Catch,” he said and smiled. I mentally “caught” the orb of energy and held it in space before me by creating a barrier of my will.
“Careful, I laced a detonation component into it. If you mishandle it, it will explode and there will be little bits of you all over.” He smiled. He was bluffing, wasn’t he? Sweat began to form on my brow as fear crept in. The sphere began to rotate a little faster, the blue becoming darker.
“Calm down, Dante, take deep breaths.” I did as he suggested and the sphere became light blue, almost white.
“There you go, see? Wasn’t that easy?” It was taking all I had just to keep the orb centered. My full focus was on the sphere of energy. I didn’t realize what Devin was doing until he said, with a malicious smile, “Catch.” We were sitting cross-legged from each other about twenty feet away. He smiled as another blue-white orb came floating towards me. Its muted glow illuminated the training floor as it floated towards me, a promise of destruction wrapped in warm light.
“Don’t let them touch,” he said. I willed the second orb to stop short of the first one by pushing my chi in between them, acting as a cushion.
“Catch,” he said once again, but this time he was serious. The third orb was coming slowly towards the other two.
“Dante, do not let them touch,” he said pointedly. It was like watching a train wreck. You knew what was going to happen but you couldn’t tear your eyes away. At the last moment I sent a strand of chi to stop it but it was too little, too late. The third orb came to a stop. I thought I had caught it in time, but it was still sliding forward and gently kissed the other two orbs. My ears popped as the pressure of the impact sent me flying across the floor, on my rear. I stopped sliding on the hardwood floor thirty feet away. Devin stood over me as I tried to regain my composure and hearing.
“At the pairing, they will be live, Dante.” His tone held every implication of what the outcome would be if I didn’t exercise the control and focus needed.
“Let’s start again,” he said as I took my place cross-legged away from him. I lost track of time as we practiced over and over. Each time I thought I had them under control, he would send one more orb and I would end up a human projectile, careening across the floor. I was at the point of exhaustion with four orbs in front of me when I saw him begin to form the fifth. I couldn’t move the four in front of me as part of the exercise, but I was tired and fed up with being sent across the floor like some oversized rag doll.
He sent the fifth orb over and in my head I saw myself flying back after the impact.
“No,” I said to myself, “no more.” Something in me snapped. I don’t know if it was from the exhaustion or just not wanting to be airborne again. I stopped the fifth orb midway in its trajectory. Devin arched an eyebrow but remained still. I sent the other four orbs at the one in the middle. Just before they touched, I drained them of their chi. As I drained them they became one large orb about the size of a beach ball. I was trembling with the exertion.
“Catch,” I said as I shoved it back at him. He merely sat and watched the orb glide toward him. He lifted a hand and the orb crashed into it. Once again my ears popped. His uniform fluttered but he remained where he was as the orb slowly vanished into his palm. I looked, dumbfounded and he just smiled. “You are almost ready, Dante. Let’s take a break.”
I was still silent, not finding the words to express my frustration or the unfairness of it all. What I wanted was to lie down and sleep but I knew that was hours away. “The pairing is in a few days,” he said as if reading my mind. “You will be rested for it, don’t worry.”
Anna came into the training area and approached Devin and bowed. Devin bowed.
“Yes, Anna?” Devin asked.
“Senpai Michael would like to speak to you privately, Senpai.” Monitors rarely used the honorific of senior, meaning this was a delicate matter of importance. Devin allowed a moment of concern to cross his face.
“Where is he?”
“He is with Senpai Mouro in the West Hall.” It would take Devin twenty minutes to get there and that was using the shortcuts.
As he turned to leave, he looked at Anna again.
“Did he say what this was about?” She bowed again.
“No Senpai, only that it was urgent and it concerned him.”
Devin pressed his lips together and looked at the both of us.
“Guard him with your life, Anna.”
She bowed, but said nothing. Satisfied, Devin left the training area.
“Hi there, Anna, how have you been?”
“Pretty good. I haven’t seen you around much.”
“Yeah, you know Devin’s pretty insane with the training, pairing coming up and all.”
Anna had walked over to take a protective stance near me and kept looking around as if someone might attack me.
“Really, Anna, that isn’t necessary. Who is going to attack us in here?”
She stood her ground to my right and just behind me. It was starting to creep me out.
“Anna, really. No need, okay?” As I turned, I saw the knife in her hand and then in my abdomen. The knife burned as it slid effortlessly into my midsection. She grabbed me, knife at my neck as the voice came through the door.
“Anna, I ran into Michael—” Devin stopped mid-sentence as he saw the scene. The air around him began to shimmer.
“You won’t get very far, Anna. Let him go and I promise you mercy.”
“Mercy!” she spat. “Where was your mercy when my sister begged for her life?” The look of confusion on Devin’s face was too authentic to fake.
“Your sister?” he asked.
“Sylk said you wouldn’t remember. He said to ask Owl. He would help you remember.” At the mention of Sylk’s name, Devin’s face darkened.
“Anna, you don’t want to do this.”
“Oh, but I do, Senpai,” the last word dripping with scorn and hate.
Devin took a step. Anna pulled me back, the blade of the knife biting into my neck, leaving a thin trail of blood. The knife is incredibly sharp, I caught myself thinking over the hum of noise in my ears.
“Where are you going to go? There is no way out Anna.”
“I think he and I wi
ll make a wonderful pair.” Anna smiled. She pushed her hand into the small of my back and I felt a small pinch. The training area started to go grey, and I thought it was an effect of the knife wound until I saw the look on Devin’s face. It was a mix of surprise, rage and disbelief.
“Retrievers?” I heard him yell as he sped to us faster than I had ever seen anyone move. It wasn’t fast enough. He moved right through us as if we were ghosts. Anna laughed at the look of rage and helplessness in his face and then we were gone.
PROPOSITION
“ARE YOU CERTAIN you used the sequence correctly?” The voice was low and slightly accented, though I couldn’t place it.
“Yes sir,” a female voice responded.
“Excellent,” said the male voice. “Look, he’s waking up.” I opened my eyes. I guessed they meant me. As I turned and swung my legs off the bed to take in my surroundings, a wave of nausea and vertigo slammed into me, making me pause. I remained still until the room slowly righted itself.
“It’s the effect of multiple retriever use. I’m afraid it was unavoidable, Dante.” My midsection lurched and burned simultaneously but no wound was evident. “Devin is a clever adversary so I had to take precautions. How is the old alma mater, by the way?”
I was in no condition to answer as the room slipped slightly off axis.
“Annika, bring something to settle his, um stomach.” And the man smiled.
Annika? I thought. Then it all came back in a flood. Anna stabbing me, becoming ghost-like, Devin trying to grab us and the hopping – we moved so many times until I was completely disoriented and nauseous.
When he saw that the realization was on my face, he smiled.
“Welcome Dante. My name is Sylk.”
He was a tall man with elegant features. His face was chiseled with a prominent jaw line that held strength. His eyes were a pale grey that burned with intelligence. He had a swimmer’s body, tall and thin. Wearing a pale white dress shirt and black slacks, he looked like a male model. His hair was a shocking white and was cut close and cropped on the sides. What caught my attention were his hands —they emanated power, it was the only way I could describe it. As I shifted to take in my surroundings, my midsection screamed at me. I winced and he noticed.
“What you are feeling is the effect of being stabbed or cut with a weapon of manifested chi.” He smiled.
I looked around, careful not to move too suddenly. I was in a loft space. The walls were exposed brick, painted white. The ceiling was a series of skylights that let in the natural light. In the center of the space was a raised training area, equipped with heavy bags, lifelike training dummies with pressure points delineated with red circles. A weapons rack stood on a far wall holding some weapons I recognized and many I didn’t. In the center of the area on the floor were circles etched into the wood. They were concentric and were of metal. The largest must have been at least thirty feet across. I saw that the living space and training area were clearly separated by a series of screens. He saw me take it all in and waited patiently for me to recognize the obvious. It took a while for me to notice, and then I realized there was no door. I saw no way to enter the space and —more importantly— to exit. I tried to stand and paused.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Disregarding him, I tried to stand anyway. The room shifted on its axis again and I felt the floor tilt away from me. I sat down again, sweat forming on my brow, my stomach doing somersaults. Anna or Annika came from the kitchen with a damp rag and went to place it on my forehead. I flinched. She smiled and placed the rag on my forehead then went to the other end of the floor.
Sylk sat in one of the lounges opposite the bed, and crossed his legs as he took me in.
“Being stabbed by a chi weapon disrupts the natural flow of chi in your body.”
“So my chi is what, blocked?”
He stood with an economy of motion that demonstrated grace, power and strength as he walked over to me. It was like watching a tiger stalk prey —beautiful and deadly.
“In simple terms, yes. Chi weapons introduce disruption to your chi field or flow. While the wound itself leaves no physical trace, the blockage or interruption can cause a multitude of physical ailments. Some are fatal. Of course all it needs is to be released and the flow is reestablished.” He grabbed my right elbow and pressed hard in my forearm, causing blinding pain. I tried to pull away but his grip was like steel. I felt like I was caught in a vise. After about thirty seconds of agony, he let go.
“Stand up.”
I hesitated, not wanting my world to twist and flip again.
“Go ahead, it should be fine.”
As I stood, I suddenly felt much better.
“There,” he said. “Good as new.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to make you an offer —a proposition of sorts.”
“What sort of offer?”
“What would you say if I could prove to you that I’m not the villain I’m being portrayed as by your teachers at the school?”
“I would say why do you need to prove anything to me?”
He appraised me with his grey eyes and remained silent as if considering what to say next.
“You are correct, I have nothing to prove to you nor do I need to, except for one thing.”
“What?”
“I want you to join me in my mission.”
“And what mission is that?”
“We need to prepare for a greater enemy than we have ever faced.”
“You mean greater than you?”
He laughed then. “I am not the enemy, Dante. I am merely the catalyst for greater transformation. The enemy I speak of has immeasurable power, enough to wipe out every warrior from this and every other plane of existence.”
“From what I understand, you are public enemy number one, the reason every warrior is preparing and training.”
He looked at me expectantly.
It dawned on me slowly. “That is what you want?”
“Yes, by becoming the common enemy, there is a slim chance they will be ready when the real threat emerges.”
“That is quite the long game you are playing and you are killing warriors,” I said slowly.
He walked over to the kitchen area and brought back two mugs. “Dante, this is a war. I regret the lives that have been lost, but when you get to my age, all you see is the long game,” he said, handing me a mug. The tea was a combination of ginger, lemon and some ingredient I couldn’t place, giving it a distinct sweetness followed by the sharp bite of ginger and calmed by the tartness of the lemon. It was delicious. He must have seen my reaction.
“It is my own creation and it is a medicinal remedy as well.” He lifted his mug and took a sip, basking in the steam.”
“It is very good,” I said, meaning it.
“Thank you.”
“How are you justifying killing warriors and monitors?”
He looked away for a moment, pensive. He turned to me, his grey eyes piercing me.
“Let me tell you a story, Dante.” He rose and walked/glided over to a far wall covered entirely in books. I followed him and saw that many of the books were classics, and if they were authentic, the collection was priceless. I walked over to where he stood, facing a section of books whose spines I couldn’t decipher. He ran his finger along a few of them almost caressing them. I looked at him and wondered how old he was. There was no real way to tell just by looking.
“About three hundred years ago, a group of warriors joined together to form a society dedicated to protecting the planes from evil. When we started, there were twenty-six of us. We were still in Europe then, England to be precise.”
“We?” I looked incredulously at him.
“Are you saying you’re three hundred years old?”
“I’ll be four hundred and ten this December.” So I was standing here with a man, if he was a man, that was over four centuries old.
“My age is irrelevant, Dante.”
Li
ke hell it was.
“Pay attention.” The way he uttered those words snapped me out of my reverie. Either he was over four centuries old or he was insane. I wasn’t sure which yet, so I listened.
“What you know as the Warriors of the Way was known by a different name back then. Throughout history we have been in every group and so-called secret society. We were Templars, Free Masons, Rosicrucian. We belonged to every religion practiced in the world. We were part of these groups and yet transcended them. Our calling knew no race, religion, creed, or belief system. I won’t be so cliché as to say we shaped history.”
“What calling was that?” I was beginning to lean towards the insane side of my evaluation. I sipped some more of the delicious tea.
“We were tasked with preventing the destruction of the planes of existence.”
“Meaning there are others?”
He looked at me as if I were a simple child.
“Yes, Dante, there are others. I’m sure by now even you have been exposed to the Mirror?”
I debated telling him of my short and unremembered journey there, but figured I had nothing to lose and said, “They told me I went there when I was injured.”
“Really?” He looked genuinely interested.
“Do you have any recollection of your time there?”
I shook my head and he nodded. “The first time is usually like that, especially if injury was the catalyst.”
Warriors of the Way-Pentalogy Page 5
