Tale of Eldramir

Time seemed to pass fairly quickly for Ezekiel after returning home with his sisters and mother. They made dinner and spent the night in, waiting for Warren to come back from the Alkena’s manor.

After Warren got home, not much happened. He briefly mentioned that he would be arranging something to help with Ezekiel’s training, but that there wasn’t much to talk about right at that moment.

That was fine with Ezekiel, because after eating dinner, he really just wanted to go to bed. He was so tired that he forgot to ask about the gold that they had gotten from Gerome. He also failed to notice the additional stress and worry that his father seemed to be under.

It wasn’t until after Wendy and Ellen had also gone to bed that Evelyn confronted Warren about what had happened. He gave her a brief explanation, to which she brought up her worries regarding taking care of Ezekiel.

“I’ve set in motion some plans to see that he becomes strong enough to survive. But for now, we need to be more careful.” Warren told his wife as they sat together in the main room. They made sure to keep quiet so as not to wake Ezekiel. “The Reaching Spires are aware of us now. It’s possible they’ve been infiltrated by the Cult, so we have to be especially careful about who we trust.”

Warren held Evelyn close as he tried to comfort her as best as he could, her presence also relaxing him as he tried to destress from the day’s events.

“We also need to pick up our own training. By the time Ezekiel returns from his expedition, we both need to be Tier four, in full.” Warren told Evelyn with a voice filled with dread.

Evelyn stared up at him with a worried look on her face.

“If we do that, then... they... might decide we’re too valuable to lose. They’ll know that Theo and Reya are Tier four, and they may come after us.” Evelyn said with a quiet fear filled voice.

“We’ll have time to get things ready if that happens. We’re a continent away after all. They won’t find out for a few years yet.” Warren said to reassure Evelyn of this decision.

Evelyn didn’t say anything as they just continued to sit together on the cushioned seats. Taking comfort in each other's presence as they tried to ignore the inevitable that was to occur in three and a half weeks. Knowing full well that their peaceful days in Harkem were coming to an end.

After the events involving the Guilds at the Alkena manor, Ezekiel found himself returning the next day, much earlier than he’d intended as he was accompanied by Warren, as he also had business to attend to.

While not his normal routine when visiting, as he usually waited until around the time that Shari was returning from school, Ezekiel didn’t think it was too strange.

Being told to go see Shari in Allon’s study and seeing her crying on the sofa in the corner was extremely strange, and Ezekiel couldn’t help but feel both worried and angry at whatever it was that had made his friend break down into tears. That feeling changed into pure anger as he was given the same story that his father had been told the previous night.

Ezekiel ended up just sitting there with Sherra and Allon as they tried to take care of Shari, who had still held some hope that the kind, if distant, brother she remembered from before meeting Ezekiel would be returning after smartening up from a few years working on the road.

Warren quickly checked in with Allon before heading out and returning to his post amongst the City Guards. He knew that things were likely to pick up in regard to how much work he would be doing.

Eventually, after Shari finished crying, Sherra and Allon left the two kids alone as they attended to their own duties. A pair of guards stood outside the room to watch over them.

“What am I going to do?” Shari finally asked after sitting in silence for some time.

“What do you want to do?” Ezekiel asked.

“I want to hit something-NO!” Shari abruptly sat up. “I want to hit someone! I want to hit the person that destroyed my brother, as hard as I can, and make sure they can’t do something like this ever again!”

Ezekiel watched as Shari got up and started pacing around the room.

“Then we should probably start training seriously now.” Ezekiel told her. “We need to get you through those trials so you can bond with a Spirit of your own, so you can hit that bastard really, really, hard. Without worrying about getting brainwashed yourself.”

“Right!” Shari exclaimed as she ran out of the room, Ezekiel trailing behind her as they headed to the training room.

Asking one of the guards accompanying them to go to Sherra and ask if there were any guards that could be spared for training, the two began practicing in earnest. Ezekiel was no longer using the staff he’d used before, instead using the weighted training swords.

He still didn’t have any mana, but he’d be able to practice his meditation later. For now, they could practice their martial skills, and so long as it was just one-on-one, he’d be able to avoid her spells, for the most part.

So as a couple of Cavern Mage guards arrived for the sole purpose of helping Shari with her training, it was to their surprise that they found Ezekiel giving her advice and instructions. Hearing what he was saying, they found Ezekiel’s words to be not dissimilar to what they themselves would also have advised.

“I’m just quoting some of the books I’ve read. I’m noticing some of the same issues I’ve read about when sparring with Shari, so I’m just giving the advice that was written in the books to help her overcome those problems.” Ezekiel explained when asked how he learned these things.

It was only after a couple of hours that the two decided to take a break, having swapped between fighting each other and fighting with the guards so they could take moments to get advice while sparring.

Shari learned a few tricks to make handling larger stones easier for her, and her area of affect had improved by a lot. Something that impressed Ezekiel, as that would make fighting her much more difficult as they went back to sparring after her reserves refilled themselves.

Thinking back to another Cavern Mage he had fought in the past, Ezekiel couldn’t help but compare Shari to Alys, the Mage he fought when he was five.

It was different, of course, since he was actually fighting back, but he could help but think that Alys was nowhere near as capable as Shari currently is, even though she was thirteen at the time, while Shari is only ten.

He’d briefly wondered what could’ve been different, but figured it was likely due to the fact that Shari had actual friends, no sycophants that just tried to make her look good, and the fact that Shari herself was not a follower, like Alys had been.

The fact that she sparred much more regularly than Alys was also likely something that helped Shari grow stronger faster. As Alys wouldn’t have had such an extensive number of guards under her family’s employ to have them spar with her for hours at a time every day.

Ezekiel was also there to help her with her school work, so she had time to grow stronger without interruptions.

With all these things combined, on top of the emotional turmoil that she was working to overcome, it was only slightly surprising when, during their meditations, Ezekiel was nearly forced to exit his own trance early as he felt a strange pulse seemingly travel past him as he was pulling mana into himself.

Figuring something might be wrong, he quickly finished up as fast as he could, gathering a mere six mote of mana, as opposed to the ten he was hoping for, before using his technique to expel the rest. Lamenting the missed opportunities.

Turning towards where he had felt the pulse coming from, Ezekiel was shocked to see Shari jumping up and down in joy. She had apparently made a small breakthrough, having successfully expanded her core by a minor step within Tier one. Something that she wasn’t sure she would do before the trials began.

This officially put her in the lead when it came to the quantity of mana available to her group of friends.

“Congratulations! That makes you Step six now, right?” Ezekiel said as he approached Shari.

“Yep! That puts me right up there with those rich snobs from school.” Shari told him. “Ha! This’ll teach them that I don’t need any stupid mana crystals to advance my Tier faster. Stupid nobles, teasing others just because they spend their parent’s money to get strong. Well, it’s not like they’ll get into an Academy if they use mana crystals.”

Ezekiel chose not to bring up the hypocrisy of using rich parent’s money. Even though they weren’t high nobles, the Alkena’s were still considered nobles by most circles, and were amongst the upper ranks when it came to wealth.

“Are you planning on entering an Academy? I thought you wanted to start working for the Auction House as soon as you finished school.” Ezekiel asked.

“Well, maybe. If I can get into the Academy here in Harkem then I probably will.” Shari said. “Even though I’m not interested in progressing the fields of magic, and working for the Church, or going into battle at the Empire's borders, or joining a Guild, I’m sure I can get some great experience before I start working for my family.”

“Well, you’ve got three more years to work things out. I’m sure you’ll break through to tier two by then.” Ezekiel said to encourage Shari. “I just with that non-Tiered Mages like me had steps like you do. Then it would be easier for me to break through myself.”

Now that he didn’t have to hide his successful mana gathering, Ezekiel could voice his complaints about the unfairness of his situation. Mostly in jest, but some of it was real.

“Yeah, having an increasing baseline whenever you increase your mana pool by the same amount as the minimum for a given Chakra is great!” Shari said with a teasing voice.

Tch- “Just you wait. When I break through to Tier one, I’ll both catch up and leave you in the dust with how fast I can accumulate mana.” Ezekiel said. “If it wasn’t for the fact that I kept losing mana whenever I gathered it, and the fact that I’ve practically emptied my core of mana from the small pool I had, I would’ve broken through a few times now. If I could just get to a hundred...”

The reminder of the number of times he’d nearly reached the necessary amount to open his first Chakra but couldn’t because fate seemed to want him to suffer made him frustrated for a moment before he shook it off and tried to look on the bright side.

“But at the same time, I might not have figured out the few tricks I’ve got if I’d done that.” Ezekiel said as he threw on a smile. “Do you think you can keep sparring with the guards for now? I’d like to try meditating in another spot. I think I’ve gathered most of the mana from that area of the room now.”

Shari just waved him off before heading to another corner of the room. Entering his meditative trance once again, Ezekiel tried to gather as much mana as possible, but it seemed like there just wasn’t as much ambient mana floating around today.

It likely had to do with the fact that Shari had gathered a large amount of Cavern mana, meaning that he’d lost a source of mana for himself, as he could now only gather Flame and Glacial mana. But as neither of those was particularly abundant, without a fire or a large body of water nearby, it made his progress fairly slow.

By the time he finally reached his limits when it came to his meditation, he’d only been able to gather enough mana to accumulate a dozen mana total before he had to stop.

Shari and Ezekiel spent the day like this. Intensifying their training as Riley, Yennifrey, and Drew eventually showed up to get involved in the training.

Drew and Riley asked if Ezekiel would be willing to train using his mana, but he told them no. As he needed to gather as much as he could to try and break through before he had to leave on the expedition. Given the fact that he wasn’t sure how quickly the ambient mana in both his house and the training room at the Alkena manor would refill to a sufficiently large enough quantity for him to train in, he needed to save as much mana as he could, unless he could get his hands on a pure crystal. But he didn’t think that that was likely.

Ultimately, they all agreed that they would focus on trying to get the ones that were going to be taking the trials as much training as possible, as there was at least a bit of time before Ezekiel would need to leave on the expedition.

This continued for the rest of the week, until finally, the trials for the Guild had arrived.

Ezekiel couldn’t take the trials, as he was not officially a Mage, having not opened his first Chakra, but he able to at least accompany his friends to the Guild District of the city, where he would be able to learn more about them and wish his friends good luck

Seeing the number of people headed to the trials, Ezekiel was shocked as he realized that these trials were open to anyone who had opened their first Chakra and was a student at the Church’s schools.

Ezekiel was aware that there were other schools supported by the Church throughout the city, as Harkem was too large to not have more than one if they were teaching the basics to all the children in the city but given that he’d only visited the cathedral and saw the school his friends went to from a far, he hadn’t understood the full scope of how many students would be attending.

There were at least a few thousand kids gathered into different areas in the Guild District. Many of them, Ezekiel included, were from other districts and were looking around in shock and awe as they saw all the large buildings and open spaces.

There were roughly a dozen Guilds that called Harkem home. The top three were the most important, but the rest still had some influence when it came to matters pertaining to the various Ruins found and explored within safe traveling distance to Harkem.

Ezekiel stood with his mother and Sherra. Off to the side of the large area where the students taking the trials stood, as they accompanied him to witness the first day of the trials. They waited as a Tier three Guild representative from a Tier three Guild stepped onto a raised platform to address the students standing in the courtyard in front of him. A blue toad sat on his head, matching his hair and eyes.

“Hello students. My name is... unimportant for you to know.” The man said as he began his speech. “All you need to know right now are the rules for the trials.”

Waving his hand, a wall of ice appeared behind him, facing the students. A number of different activities and tests were displayed in simple human shaped figures.

“Given that you are all Tier one, and have no bonded Spirits, the trials will be simple. For today and tomorrow, you will be tested on how fit you are, taking turns according to lots drawn.” The representative waved his hand and several Tier two Guild members began walking around with boxes for the students to draw lots from. “The lots have numbers that will indicate what order you will be coming up here to test different physical attributes.”

“Test will involve individual limb strength,” he said as mana was used to highlight different images on the ice wall, “and physical endurance in different environments.” More images lit up on the wall.

“Tomorrow, we will be doing a number of mock battle trials where you will need to fight both individually, and in groups of up to five. The groups will be chosen at random. No exceptions.” The rep continued. “As well, none of the tests taken today or tomorrow will permit the use of magic in any form. If you use magic, you will have failed, and will be out of the trials.”

There was a bit of outrage among the students, at least those that were nobles or who had only focused on their magical abilities rather than their physical ones.

“QUIET!” the rep yelled, forcing the students to flinch and cover their ears at the volume. “For those of you who do understand why we’re doing this, let me ask you a simple question: do you intend to meditate when you are in the middle of a battle?”

None of the students answered, knowing full well that doing so would be a death wish, but not wanting to accept the truth.

“These tests will let us know who has the highest chance of surviving if forced to use their magic to the limit and can no longer do so. I, myself, have had to fight, and flee from a fight, several times without using magic because I ran out of mana. Either because of a stupid mistake, or because of an ambush by the monsters out in the wild, or by other Guilds who wanted to take my spoils and rewards for themselves.” The representative's voice was cold and hard as he explained the truth to the kids in front of him. “I’ve also seen friends and fellow Guild mates die, because they couldn’t run away fast enough when they ran out of mana.”

The kids all fell silent, a few had a hard glint in their eyes, mostly kids with Guild member parents. A few more grew scared and seemed like they were having second thoughts.

“If you want to back out now, then do so. If not, then get in line according to your numbers. The grounds have been divided into different sections to split you all up properly.” The rep continued. “There will be breaks periodically throughout the day for food and rest, but if you choose not to rest while the other groups are being tested then that’s your fault. We’ll be here for a few hours at least, but if we get through this early, then that means you’ll get to go home early as well. So, let’s get started.”

Knowing that there wasn’t much they could do at this point, Ezekiel and Evelyn decided that they would head off. Sherra said goodbye, but also told them that the thing Warren had paid for had arrived, and that they should go and try to use it as soon as possible, so that the next three weeks weren’t a waste. Sherra also gave them a small coin pouch which Evelyn tried and failed to refuse.

Evelyn looked resigned, but thankful, while Ezekiel was just a bit confused. But he figured he could wait until they were at the manor before asking anything.

Heading straight to the Alkena Auction House, Ezekiel and his mother ended up taking a relatively long and convoluted path to return to their home district, taking carriages here and there, but never just taking one all the way to the Alkena’s manor.

Ezekiel was confused at first, but then he saw that Reya was nowhere to be seen, and that his mother seemed oddly focused on something or other.

It was then that he realized that Reya was likely scouting a path for them through the city. One that had as few people as possible, or at least as few issues as possible for them to run into.

Ezekiel couldn’t help but feel frustrated at this as they finally reached the Alkena manor. It seemed like his very existence was causing problems for him and his family and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He only hoped that things might start changing after he returned from the expedition in a few months.

As Ezekiel and Evelyn made their way into the manor, they passed through the public areas and straight into the private areas where they met Allon in a room that Ezekiel had never been to before. It was a very spartan room, with only a meditation mat in the center little else.

“Ah, you're here. Good.” Allon said as he walked up to them with a box in hand. “This is all I could get on such short notice, but there’s more than enough to do what he needs to do. I’m sorry I couldn’t get them any cheaper, but I was told to get as much as I could by yesterday. I’m already a day late.”

“It’s fine, Allon. This is already more than enough. I know you likely had to burn a few favors to get these.” Evelyn reassured Allon that everything was alright. “I’ll take it from here. Thank you.”

Allon just nodded his head before exiting the room, shutting the door behind him.

“Mom, what’s going on? What did dad buy?” Ezekiel asked as he sat down with his mother in the center of the room.

Evelyn opened the box, and Ezekiel saw that inside were a number of pure mana crystals. He didn’t know how many gold coins worth of crystals were in there, but it had to be at least a few thousand at least.

“This is what you will be using to break through to Tier one, today.” Evelyn told her son. “They were bought with the money left over from what Gerome paid us. No doubt he assumed we’d use that money for this reason. We’d be foolish not to, unless we wanted you to die on this expedition.”

Ezekiel was shocked as he looked at the crystals sitting in the box. A part of him had always wished that he would be able to use crystals to break through, as it would be so much easier, but he knew that even the lowest quality pure crystals were as far too expensive for his family to afford. Another part of him desperately wanted to use his meditation method to break through as well, as he wanted to break through on his own.

“I’ll use these to fill me up to nearly maximum, but I need to at least try to take that final step on my own.” Ezekiel said, knowing there was little reason or way to refuse these crystals.

Evelyn said nothing, just nodding and letting him take the lead on his own as Ezekiel held two of the crystals in his hands.

Immediately, Ezekiel entered into a trance and looked at the mana floating around him. Halting his visualizations to examine how much mana he had to make his own Void mana with, he saw that he’d be able to make seven motes given the amount of mana that was available in the room.

Focusing on the crystals in his hands, Ezekiel absorbed enough mana to get him all the way to ninety-six motes of mana. The largest amount he had ever had at once before. He then immediately left his meditation and put the crystals back in the box, having strained very little of his mind to do this.

He then attempted to use his technique to take those final steps. His heart racing as he focuses on absorbing the mana necessary for forming Void mana, choosing to take in Tempest and Cavern first, and nearly stopping as he was unable to absorb more than four more motes into his body.

Stuck with ninety-six motes of Void mana, three motes of Cavern mana, and one mote of Tempest mana, he mixed together the Tempest and Cavern mana to for a ninety-seventh mote of Void mana, but was still stuck with two Cavern mote, and he could only absorb one mote of Tempest.

He couldn’t gather more than one hundred motes of mana in his body at once.

Almost panicking at this point, Ezekiel focuses on combining the mana inside him again. He formed a ninety-eighth mote of Void mana, and then gathered another mote of Tempest and formed his ninety-ninth mote of Void mana. But, when he tried to form his one-hundredth mote of Void mana, using Glacial and Flame mana, he couldn’t absorb the two motes of opposing mana that he needed to form the last Void mote.

Expelling the single mote of Glacial mana that he had absorbed, and leaving him at ninety-nine motes of Void mana, Ezekiel fell out of his trance. He slumped over, tears threatening to form at the corners of his eyes as he thought about everything, he might be able to do to get past this hurdle.

Nothing came to mind. He couldn’t think of anything he could do to get that one extra mote of mana that he needed to make his one-hundredth mote of Void mana.

Seeing Ezekiel suddenly filled with despair, Evelyn, and Reya, both rushed forward to check what was wrong.

“Ezekiel, what’s wrong?” Evelyn asked as she held Ezekiel close to him as he started to cry.

“I can’t do it.” He said, his voice filled with despair. “I can’t absorb enough mana to make the final mote I need to open my Chakra. I need two motes to make one Void mote. But my body can’t hold more than a hundred motes of mana. I’m stuck at ninety-nine.”

Evelyn’s eyes widened in realization. She and everyone else had just thought that Ezekiel's meditation methods were so new and amazing, considering all the discoveries they were making, and the fact that there was actually a method for Void mages to accumulate mana, that none of them had thought about something as simple as math.

Everyone who had opened their Chakra knew that there was a limit to how much mana a person’s body could contain before they opened their next Chakra. It wasn’t possible to go beyond these limits, and after opening the first Chakra and entering Tier one, opening the next Chakras wasn’t as simple as reaching the limits on focusing it inward, toward one’s core to open their chakra. Each subsequent Chakra had to be discovered within the seemingly endless pathways within their soul.

That was why Hunters were so helpful in breaking through. They could separately search their bonded human’s soul to find the next Chakra when the Hunter in question reached Step nine of their Tier. With each Step being an amount of mana added to their core equal to the limit of their previous Tier.

So, for Tier one, the nine Steps were each denoted by one hundred mana. For Tier two, the Steps were denoted by one thousand mana, and so on. Only for Tier four were the requirements different, as there was something extra that was required to break through to Tier four. Something that those without a bonded Spirit just didn’t have, and just couldn’t figure out to reach Tier four.

Of course, Ezekiel knew all this, for the most part. It was just something that he had overlooked because it was an issue that he had never faced before, as he had never reached his limits, and it was likely that everyone else either assumed that they would figure something out, or that it wouldn’t be an issue due to the unique properties of Void mana.

However, regardless of the reasons for this oversight, this was something that made Ezekiel’s world come crashing down. His method that he was so proud of, the trials and tribulations he had overcome to get to this point. All of it was worthless.

Just like those before him, he would be required to use a pure mana crystal to break through to Tier one. His method wouldn’t allow it due to natural limitations that everyone, not just Void Mages, ultimately had.

Just like every Void Mage before him, he wouldn’t be able to break through naturally. For Tier one, or any of the other subsequent Tiers.