by Jarod Meyer
“Knew you had it in ya, little guy.”
The next hour passed just as quickly as the last, and William had to tell Juarez to stop thanking him numerous times. The group spotted the captain over at the sparring circles, surrounded by a growing crowd of people. They shared a look, and made their way in that direction.
“Welcome to the third test, initiates. This will gauge your martial technique. William of Archonia, why don’t you go first,” the captain said, ushering him into the circle.
William was confident in this test, possibly more so than the previous one. He’d learned advanced hand-to-hand combat in the U.S. military, and so far in initiate’s training had been more than a match against his peers, save for Katrina, whose speed caused some serious problems.
This particular test had attracted onlookers. The other tests he had either not noticed them or they hadn’t come to the training grounds that early. There were now a good fifty soldiers surrounding the pit in which they would be testing.
As he hopped in to the circle over the small fence which he had closely encountered on his first day in Valhalla, he sized up the man waiting for him in the pit. He was a smaller man dressed in the sentinel garb with a flowing blue cape. As the man’s head hit the dirt the crowd surrounding the training grounds erupted into raucous cheers. A smile broke over William’s face. A warmth blossomed inside him in that moment, and for the first time, he felt accepted.
I am a warrior, he thought, pounding a fist against his chest.
“Juarez did surprisingly well. William watched the smaller man dip and weave, using what looked like shaolin martial arts to block, counter, and bend around the sentinel’s aggressive barrage of attacks. In a graceful move, the former spiritual leader caught the sentinel’s kick with his right leg, snapped a driving punch into the man’s stomach, before driving him off his feet with a snap kick to the face. William was clapping before the sentinel hit the ground.”
Katrina was more of a brawler, overtaking her sparring partner with speed and brute force. She knocked the man off the ground and completed a simple, but effective submission. The test captain overseeing had to actually pull her off before she broke the man’s arm.
The day wore on, the sun spanning in its relatively lazy arc across the sky. The Guardian captain awaited them at the next test.
“Endurance,” he said.
William followed Katrina and Juarez to the next ground, where they found tall pedestals with large round stones balanced on top of them. The trainer demonstrated this task. Evidently they would have to scale the pedestal, and maintain their balance while holding the stone above their heads for an allotted time.
“This time there will be no helping one another. Should you help a fellow initiate in any way other than verbally you will fail and so will the initiate who has breached the rules.”
William laughed.
“The atlas stone is easily ten times larger than these,” he whispered to Katrina.
They watched the others jump up and grip the edge of the narrow pedestals, before trying to heft the stones above their heads. The pillars looked to be about two stories high, which William could gap with relative ease. He jumped into the air, feeling the warm air rush over his skin, and grabbed the edge of the stone with one hand, while pushing the stone with the other. The stone was large and awkward, but once he found the center of gravity, it lifted easily. He slowed his breathing, finding balance and stood perfectly still, hoisting the rock above his head with a single arm.
His companions chose two arms, but this made the weight shift unevenly for most of the test. William simply switched arms when one began to burn too much, and used his free arm to maintain balance. Katrina stood on the pedestal next to him, and at about three quarters of the way through the test she began to lose control of her stone. Luckily, she began falling towards William, who quickly shifted all the weight to one foot and leaned out with his right arm and shoved the stone back up above her. She gained control quickly, steadying herself before the test officer walked by and looked up. She sighed heavily and shook her head. That was close, she seemed to say.
After the Captain rang the bell they got down. William turned just as Katrina ran into him, enveloping him in a strong hug. Nothing needed to be said.
The endurance test really took it out of William. And after looking around at the others, realized he wasn’t alone. They were shaking and sweaty. But there was only one test left. The secret one.
“Seek out your captain, Chang Fei. He will oversee your final test, and well done initiates you have all shown true strength and Character and I hope to see you around the Guardian Barracks,” the Guardian captain stated.
They found Chang Fei not far away, on a barren part of the training ground, near a huge mound at the edge of the valley. Several large urns sat along the bottom of the mound. They looked either very old, or poorly made, crumbling to pieces, but Chang Fei gave no time to ponder what the test was going to be.
“The final test requires each of you to project your Archonian energies. Use it to destroy the three urns that are designated in your own range,” he stated.
Chang Fei, as usual, was a man of few words.
William instantly felt his heart sink. Despite their extensive training, no one had taught him how to project. His speed and strength had improved, but those mattered little in this test. There was no way he was going to pass this test. His hands began to shake and he saw Meredox’ face snickering in the back of his mind.
“Captain, I have never been shown how to project.”
Chang Fei spoke quietly, “find your inner energy, and push it forth. He who has not destroyed his urns by the time I return tonight will be cut from the path of the Guardian. You may only use your Archonian energy to destroy the urns, you may not cross the lines, and you mays not help another destroy their urns.”
He vanished in a cloud of dust, launching into the sky. William was beyond words, but staunched his frustration, replacing it with determination instead. He walked up to the makeshift shooting range, stopping at a line laid out in stone. He looked around, and watched as others tried futilely to push their essence forth.
Katrina had lived here quite a while, and William watched her struggle. Her best efforts were a mere shadow in comparison to the one Gabriel produced on Earth. William’s confidence dwindled. Even Samuel, and Ulifrig, who had been in Guardian training before, was struggling. They at least showed signs of projection, although it lacked shape and substance. The two men shouted and strained, holding faint glowing auras that shot off waves of heat in every direction.
William focused. He looked down range, staring at his three urns. They were a reddish brown, and although they looked fragile and crumbling before, now they seemed all but indestructible. William focused. He tried to feel what Chang Fei had described as his inner energy.
Before William could begin to unravel what that meant, there was a shrill sound and light erupted next to him, demolishing a giant urn down range. They all turned, startled to see Juarez standing, his palm extended. He felt his eyes go wide as two more brilliant balls of light shoot from his hand, and blow two more urns to dust. Katrina howled with joy.
“Juarez, you have been holding out on us!” she shouted, running over and embracing him.
“Well, I have been at this for a long time,” he responded with a small smile.
“You have to teach us!” she exclaimed.
He smiled and said, “It seems so simple now. I don’t know where to begin. I have never made it this far in the Guardian training. Chang Fei is right. You must learn to feel the energy inside you. Your Archonian essence is an almost unlimited pool of energy. You simply need to learn how to tap into it, push it out, and use it to create or destroy.”
Juarez proceeded to work with all of them, helping each student to produce small projections. Katrina even managed to knock one of her urns over. William, however, stared at his urns, and every so often he felt a twinge in his body. When he did,
he would grunt and strain to push it forth, but nothing would happen.
The first hour passed and William was positive he was done for. The words kept echoing in his mind about him being obliterated. But Chang Fei did not return.
Night began to fall. Nobody seemed to be able to tell William when this test would end or when Chang Fei would return, which drove him and everyone else to work desperately at the task. Venice became so angry that she couldn’t project that she picked up a stone and hurled it at one of her pots with such a force that the pottery exploded, showering everyone in sand and jagged shards.
“NO!” Juarez shouted, but it was too late.
“There. I have destroyed one,” she said triumphantly.
A blinding flash split the air and the pieces of the broken pot shot back together again. They all looked up to where the blinding light had come from, and found Chang Fei floating in the air a couple hundred yards above their heads. Venice cursed under her breath, a look of dread in her eyes. He descended, landing slowly in front of her, and simply pointed towards the castle. Venice scowled, and limped slowly away making her solemn walk of shame into the night.
And then there were five.
Juarez stood with Chang Fei a few meters away, talking and gesturing animatedly. They spoke briefly, and then the Chinese warlord took off into the sky again. Juarez strolled back to the group, his eyes pointed at the ground.
“We have until morning to complete the task,” he said sullenly.
“How long till sunrise?” Katrina asked.
Samuel said, “Ten more hours.”
They all went back to work with renewed vigor. William watched Chang Fei float above the group. He hung in the night sky, like a black speck against an impossibly large, orange planet.
Juarez hovered near William, while the rest of the group were able to damage or destroy their targets in relatively short order. Samuel projected in a wide bubble, which Juarez stated was a shield. He expanded the bubble until it knocked over his three pots, shattering them.
“Focus,” Juarez said softly, jarring William’s attention back to his own urns.
“I am focusing,” William said gruffly. “I have been for the past day and night.”
William hadn’t even managed to project a single wisp of smoke. His frustration had grown beyond simple anger, and simmered on the verge of rage. He looked between his urns, which were still intact, and the rest down the line. Every single one was broken, save for his. Just like life. It always came easier for some. Privilege, wealth, or opportunity. It never came down to skill. His rage festered, feeding itself.
He started to shake, feeling something build along with the anger inside of him. But it wasn’t where he expected. It was in his head. There was a pulse thrumming somewhere beyond his thoughts.
His desperate hope told him that this was the energy he was looking for. Juarez was the only one still standing by, remaining behind to encourage him as William had done for him so many times before. Katrina couldn’t face the thought of him being destroyed and took off as tears formed him her eyes. He figured the others had returned to meditate, but even they came back just before the sun broke over the mound, the first light of day breaking William slumped to the ground as Chang Fei descended from his perch in the clouds.
He spoke quietly, but sternly. “Those of you who completed this task, I congratulate. All of your discipline has become fruitful. I hereby declare you to be Guardian recruits.”
Samuel and Ulifrig rejoiced, but Katrina and Juarez remained silent. They looked at William with somber faces. The captain continued.
“You will report to the hall of the Guardians immediately to prepare yourselves for your new life. The tempering process will begin in the morning.
“William you will remain here to be taken into custody,” Chang Fei stated.
“This is a pile of horses shit!” Katrina shouted flailing her arms in the air. Juarez grabbed her quickly and tried to contain the outburst.
“Recruits! Dismissed!” Chang Fei growled.
William’s new friends retreated slowly in defeat. There was nothing more they could do.
With an entire day of trying to focus his inner energy, which he swore was not there, he found that he didn’t even have the energy to shout, or even get upset, so he simply sat and watched the sunrise.
He thought about everything he had gone through to get to this point in his training. Hadn’t he worked every bit as hard as the others? He had outshone many of them in the training. He felt betrayed.
I overcame more than anyone, he thought.
He deserved to pass. He thought about the pots, and felt the pulse build inside his head again. He startled, and took a breath.
He looked down the range at the pots looming in the fading light. This bane would not stand in his way. He wouldn’t simply give up like he had in his previous life. Even if it was too late to late and they planned on executing him, he would overcome this obstacle. He crouched into a fighting stance, and focused on that small pulse buzzing in his head. It grew as he closed his eyes, his rage building. Then he could feel it in his chest. He pictured Chang Fei’s face as he disregarded his many weeks of training, all over a simple test.
William let loose a roar more terrifying than he had ever heard. He felt this anger rip forth out of his chest in a wave of energy. It was hot like fire, but did not burn. It felt invigorating, and enlivening. A wave of light burst from his body, so broad that it not only consumed the three urns, but it plowed a massive ravine into the mound of sand behind.
Sand, dust, and rock exploded in a violent shower. When it subsided, William stood breathing heavily, smoke rising off of his body. The sand from the mound glowed in the fading light, the blast melting it instantly into glass.
“There is your stupid test, Chang,” he said angrily.
Just then there were bright flashes around him and he felt strong hands force his arms behind his back. He jerked in response to the abrupt restraint, but could not break free. Two much older Adjudicators forced him to his knees. William looked up and locked eyes with Meredox.
“William of Archonia, you are under arrest for your crimes on the mortal plane. You are hereby sentenced to an immediate obliteration.”
“Burn in Hell, you bastard,” William said, spitting on the ground at Meredox’ feet.
“We don’t know what comes after this life, tainted one, but for you it will surely be damnation,” Meredox replied acidly.
“I passed all the stupid tests. I outshone most of the other recruits. I’m more committed than any of them. So go ahead and kill me. My conscience is clean.”
Meredox’s face twitched in annoyance, but then he pulled a long, slender sword from a loop at his side.
“You have been judged. Let the execution commence!”
Chapter Eleven
The Garden
William wasn’t scared. He stared straight at his executioner as he held his sword aloft slowly. He breathed evenly, he had already died once.
How hard could it be to do it again?
He had always thought his life was supposed to flash before his eyes at the time of death, but his had not either time. He began to wonder what the next life would hold as he waited for the blow to be struck. A thundering crack issued through the sky at that moment and William looked up to see Meredox staring over top of him at someone else.
“Grand master Achilles, have you come to watch the execution?” Meredox asked, lowering his sword slightly.
William craned his neck, trying to catch a glimpse of the great warrior.
“I am afraid there will be no execution today, Grand Justicar.”
Meredox nodded to one of his adjudicators, who immediately released William, while the other took hold of both of his arms. The soldier quickly produced a scroll, likely the same scroll they had shown Chang Fei the day before.
“I have here a decree…”
“I am aware of your feeble paper, Grand Justicar, but this initiate has
not failed the tests. He will be a guardian.”
“My adjudicators were just informed that this tainted soul has failed the final test,” Meredox said calmly and evenly.
“I will keep my own council on who has passed or failed the initiates test,” Achilles stated flatly.”
William’s entire body shook, either from joy or relief, he wasn’t sure. He glanced up at Meredox, who was now scowling. Meredox said nothing so Achilles spoke again.
“Release my recruit, or would you like me to provide you with a paper first?”
Meredox scoffed at the obvious mockery. “Nay, your word is Law in the Guardian Corps, Commander. Justicars release this man, you are dismissed.”
William’s arms were released, hand prints smashed into his skin where they had been gripping him so fiercely. The three Adjudicators departed without another word. William quietly wondered if they would appeal to the Synod again, or whether they had finally given up trying to kill him. He rubbed his arms, and stood up, slowly turning.
“Commander!” William said, snapping him a salute.
Achilles touched his chest lightly, acknowledging the salute, and spoke.
“The Archon believes there is something special inside of you, tainted one, but I am troubled by the way in which you completed the last test,” Achilles said, pointing to the hole William’s wave of energy made. “I will only allow you to become a Guardian if you can project once more tonight. Follow me, I have something to show you,” he said, lifting off from the ground and soaring through the air.
William’s mind went mad with joy and confusion, but Achilles had already taken off, flying low and fast to the north, so William took off, trying to keep up. He was getting faster, but he was still relatively slow. He strained, using every ounce of his remaining will to keep up, and after many miles, Achilles finally stopped in front of a beautiful stone archway that stood in a large stone wall. William was gasping for air and his muscles screamed by the time he reached the arch. Achilles looked calm and collected. He hadn’t even broken a sweat.
