by Justin Parks
Chapter 8
Getting up to Speed
Jin awoke to find himself surrounded by blackness. He got up slowly and looked around. “Where am I?” he said aloud to himself. Jin began walking around as his eyes slowly began to adjust. However, he still could not see anything around him. There were no walls—nothing.
Jin started walking, but he seemed to be going nowhere. Then he finally began to make out a person standing in the distance. “Hello?” Jin yelled to him. The man did not respond. He didn’t even move.
Jin began walking toward him. As he got closer to him, he began to get a strange feeling. A weight began to pull down on his body. It became hard to move and even harder to breathe. The man stood still in front of him.
Jin tried to call out to him once again, but he couldn’t speak. What’s going on? he thought, panicking. Jin looked up at the man. The man’s body was completely shrouded in black. The man turned to him with his eyes closed. He suddenly opened them and stared at Jin with two glowing red eyes.
Jin yelled as he jerked out of the dream. He was breathing hard, but after realizing it was a dream, he began to calm down. Jin looked around to see he was back in his room at the academy. He looked down at his body. His chest was covered in bandages.
“So you are alive,” a new voice said. Jin sat up to see someone sitting in the bed across from him reading a book.
Jin looked at him curiously. “Umm . . . are you Saga?”
He lowered his book and glared at him. “Yes, I am Saga Dimyo,” Saga said in a sarcastic tone. “Now if you don’t mind?” he said as he continued reading.
“But ahh . . . what . . .” Jin began but was cut off as Saga coughed loudly. Saga reached his hand up and pointed to Jin’s nightstand. Then he continued reading his book. Jin looked over to his nightstand to see a note and a set of instructions that had been left for him.
Jin,
When you are ready, get dressed and come find me. You’ll find your uniform in the dresser by your bed. See you soon.
Jin got up and walked over to the bathroom and closed the door. He started removing his bandages. He took them off to reveal the core that had now merged within him. He slowly reached down, touched it, and quickly pulled back his hand. Jin was shocked. He touched it again and felt around the edges. It was really part of him. Wow. This is so weird, he thought. He was shocked as he saw himself in the mirror. His eyes had changed colors. They were a deep red now.
Jin walked over to the dresser and looked at the clothes he had. There was an apprentice uniform that was composed of a white dress shirt, a black vest, slacks, and a pair of black dress shoes. He got changed and went into the hall. Jin followed the instructions and eventually found his way to the room where Khronus was waiting for him.
Jin knocked on the door. “Come in,” Khronus said. Jin opened the door and walked in to see him sitting there. “Hey,” he said. Jin smiled. Khronus sat at a desk and a chair was on the other side of it. The desk was covered in lots of paperwork and there was a wall filled with filing cabinets on the side of the room. A pot of tea was also on the table. Khronus poured himself a cup and then gestured for Jin to have one. Jin accepted and Khronus poured a second cup.
“Nice office,” Jin said, adding sugar to his tea.
“Oh this . . .? I just burrowed this office from one of the scribes,” Khronus said, looking around the room.
“Scribes?” Jin asked.
“Yes, the scribes are regular people who work for the academy. They keep track of all the records and apprentice information. They’re really the backbone of this place,” Khronus explained.
“Couldn’t you just use magic for that stuff?” Jin asked.
Khronus stared up from the desk with a confused look on his face. “Well, I think you may be confused between your idea of magic in your world and the magick in this world. Don’t be worried, though. You’ll get the hang of it,” he said. “Anyway, onto the reason I called you. Jin, you have inherited that core from your ancestral clan; thus, you have inherited their name. From this moment forward you will be known as Jin Kaizer,” Khronus explained.
Jin sat for a moment. Kaizer, he thought about what that name meant. It was his name. A name all his own. Yes, I am Jin Kaizer. He accepted it with a certain delight. Jin had been given names his whole life, but this one felt right. This was the one. “Oh, yeah, one more thing . . . why did my eyes change colors?”
“That’s probably from your core fusion. Magick can have many effects on the physical body. You’ll probably notice that most ayos have various uncommon hair and eye colors. It’s caused by the magick in their bodies,” Khronus explained. “Okay, now that’s settled; we need to begin your training. You may have already begun to feel the change in your body, a new type of energy or power inside you. I’m going to teach you how to control it,” Khronus instructed.
A shot of excitement went through Jin. “Ok I’m ready when you are,” he said in an enthusiastic tone.
“All right follow me,” Khronus instructed. The two got up and left the room. They walked around the building until they came to a long hall. “These are the training rooms.” He walked up to one of the doors and pulled out a card. He swiped it through the reader and the door unlocked. They walked into the empty room. There was a computer panel on the wall by the door. “Thoth designed these rooms. In fact, he’s responsible for a lot of the technology we use here,” Khronus explained as he scrolled through the computer menu. Suddenly, the room began to change. Two small square stone platforms rose up in the middle of the room. Jin stared in awe. “Yes, Thoth is a genius. These rooms will change to suit whatever type of training you are doing.” Khronus walked up and sat down cross-legged on one of the stones. He motioned for Jin to take a seat across from him.
“The first thing you must learn is how to control your magick, and I’ll show you how,” Khronus explained as he cupped his hands and placed them close together in his lap. A light began to emit from his hands as a small ball of pale blue energy formed. “The two basic steps are gathering and stabilization. Sounds simple, but this is the most important thing you must learn. Everything you build must be placed on stable ground, and this is the ground in magick,” he explained.
“Okay, now you try,” Khronus insisted.
Jin mimicked Khronus and sat as he did. He tried to create a ball of energy, but nothing came. Jin began to grunt. “Don’t force it. Here close your eyes and breathe. Feel the flow of energy. Don’t try to control it; just try to redirect it,” Khronus explained. Jin did as he said, but it still didn’t work.
After an hour later Jin had began to give up hope. “I don’t get it. Why isn’t it working?”
“I was afraid of this. Ayos are born with their power so they have years to learn how to access and control that power.” Khronus explained.
“Years?” Jin asked disheartened.
Khronus reached into his pocket and pulled out two small crystals one was clear and the other was blue. “These are focus crystals. They are very rare, but I think they can help us.”
Khronus handed Jin the clear crystal. Jin held it in his hands. “How does it work?”
“Ok just close your eyes and focus.” Khronus explained.
After a few moments Jin opened his eyes. “I don’t think this is… working.” Jin said confused as he realized he wasn’t in the room anymore. He was in a dark space. He looked around he saw nothing, but a large door in the distance. “Where am I?”
“This is the plane of your mind.” Khronus said.
Jin turned to see him. “How are you here?”
“I used my crystal to follow you in. Using these crystals can be dangerous. It’s easy to get lost in ones mind, but as long as I’m here I can prevent that.” Khronus explained.
Jin looked around. There was nothing around except for the door. “What’s that door over there?” He asked pointing to it. Suddenly, a light shined over it making it clear to see. It was a large set of metal double doors
. They stood within no wall and were covered in strange symbols and engravings.
Khronus looked over at the doors. “I’m not exactly sure.” He said in an uncertain tone. “You need to focus. There shouldn’t be anything here.”
Jin took a deep breath and the door faded back into the darkness. Khronus smiled. “Good. Now you’re learning.”
A small child ran out in between the two. “Yes I did it! This is awesome!”
Khronus smacked his forehead. “This is going to be more difficult than I thought.”
“Who is that!?” Jin said in shock.
“Your emotions have a tendency to manifest here… If I had to guess I’d say that’s excitement.” Khronus explained.
Jin studied the child. He realized that it was him as a kid. The kid looked up at him with a big smile. “We’re gunna learn magic!” He said as he began to strike random karate poses and pretended to fire blasts while making the corresponding sound effects.
Another version of Jin appeared. He was wearing a suit of black dragon armor and sunglasses. “This is so uncool…”
Khronus was shocked. “What’s that!?” He asked pointing to the new manifestation.
More and more manifestations began to appear. Each of them were speaking over each other. Nothing was distinguishable. It was pure chaos.
Jin was jerked back to reality with a slap to the face. He found himself back in the training room. “Hmm…”
“I told you. You need to pay attention in there. Keep your thoughts and emotions under control,” Khronus explained. “Ok are you ready to try again?” The two reentered Jin’s mind. The space was empty. “All right now Jin you need to focus. Feel the energy flowing through you.”
Jin breathing slowed as he began to concentrate. He started to feel a pull from deep inside then. Glowing red veins of energy grew through the dark space. Khronus smirked. “You’ve accessed you power. Now you need to take control.”
Jin gazed around amazed. Perhaps it was instinct, but he knew what to do next. He walked up to a large vein of energy and reached out into it. Energy began to rush into him. It was an amazing feeling, but he was quickly being overwhelmed by it. He pulled back and the veins disappeared. Jin opened his eyes and he was once again in the real world. He looked down as a tiny red light began to flicker in his hands.
ToC
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