Chapter 4: Chapter 3: The Heavenly Path

CHAPTER

3

The Heavenly Path

I

On the following day, Ryen heard a knock on his door early in the morning. Opening it, he found Myra on the other side.

“I see you are already awake, Master Rhodry.”

Ryen shrugged, running his hand through his hair before stifling a yawn before. He waved her into the room. “I’m an early riser. You’re here to take me to the lecture, right?”

“Yes. There is still about half an hour before it starts, however. I was under the impression I would have to wake up you and wait for you to get ready.”

“Hmmm.” Ryen glanced down at his robes. They were mostly free of wrinkles. “I believe I look presentable enough. What do you think?”

Myra looked him over. “There aren’t any problems,” she eventually said. “Would you like for me to return in a short while to guide you there?”

“Actually, I’d rather get going already, if you don’t mind.”

“Let us be on our way, then.”

Myra then walked out of the room, and Ryen followed. They walked at a steady, comfortable pace. At one point, they passed by an open gateway leading outside. On the other side was a large open area filled with flowerbeds. Running through its center was a wide pathway that disappeared into a small grove.

Eventually, they came to a stop before a large courtyard. On the grass, there were multiple rows of cushions arranged in front of a stone platform. Some of the cushions were occupied by other initiates. Even earlier risers, it seemed.

After explaining that an elder would be here shortly to give the lecture, Myra instructed Ryen to sit anywhere he wanted before leaving.

Ryen stood at the edge of the courtyard for a few moments, as if deciding where to sit, before making his way to the last row and taking the second cushion from the left. To his left, on the first cushion, was a blond-haired girl sitting, her eyes closed.

“I’m Ryen,” he said.

The girl opened her eyes, turning toward him. For a moment she just wordlessly stared at him, stone-faced. Finally, she said, “Gwyn.”

Before he could say anything, she closed her eyes again.

Gwyn, it seemed, wasn’t particularly interested in talking. Ryen, however, didn’t particularly care. He struck up a conversation with her regardless, making small talk as he waited for the lecture to begin. Initially, Gwyn remained silent, as if he’d go away if she ignored him long enough, but when that didn’t seem to bear any fruit, she finally started speaking, keeping her answers concise.

Ultimately, Gwyn contributed as little as possible to the conversation and asked no questions of her own. All Ryen managed to learn was that she was a mundaneborn, that she had been scouted from the Amber Springs Sect, and that she had just recently turned fifteen years old.

One by one, more initiates arrived until all of the cushions had been occupied. A short while later, a Bahrazian woman in the black robes of an inner elder arrived. She made her way over to the stone platform, where she then stood overlooking the initiates gathered before her. Like all the other inner elders Ryen had met so far, she looked like she was in her twenties.

“My name is Jileh Ahrezou,” the woman said. She was speaking Myrthyran fluently, but Ryen recognized in her voice a faint Ehsitian lilt. She quickly finished her introduction, explaining that she would be the lecturing elder today, then promptly started the lecture, without any fuss or delay.

II

“Cultivation is the act of cultivating yourself—your power, your strength, and your abilities,” Elder Ahrezou said. “All magical beings have four aspects: one physical, one spiritual, one mental, and one ethereal. They are your body, your soul, your mind, and your halidom. When you cultivate, all four aspects are cultivated, but what you’re directly cultivating is only your ethereal aspect, your halidom. Your body, mind, and soul, are only empowered as a consequence of your halidom growing stronger.”

It had already been an hour since the lecture started. At first, Elder Ahrezou had talked about Khenthor and the magical world as a whole, at one point listing all Khenthoran archsuzerains. Eventually, however, she had changed the topic to cultivation, which was what she was lecturing about now.

“The halidom, as an ethereal body, cannot be seen, touched, or otherwise perceived using your five physical senses. That does not mean, however, that it’s something formless. On the contrary, it’s spherical and roughly the size of a head, and it’s located at the center of your chest, overlapping with the heart physically. The halidom is what allows you to absorb and manipulate ethereal essence. Ethereal essence can be found all around us, and it’s what powers magical powers and phenomena. Like the halidom, ethereal essence is invisible and intangible, but it can be sensed through your ethereal sense.”

Elder Ahrezou then asked all initiates who didn’t already know how to use their ethereal sense to remain behind after the lecture. Ethereal sense was a magical ability that humans gained the moment they underwent ethereal awakening. It was a sense just like the five physical senses, except more subtle and abstract, so much so that it took practice to properly use it.

Resuming the lecture, Elder Ahrezou spent some more time talking about ethereal essence, revealing that it could be found in the ambient, in which case it was called ambient ethereal essence, and that magicals could attune ambient ethereal essence, bonding it to their halidom and making it theirs. After that, she talked about etherite, which was ethereal essence that had undergone spontaneous physicalization, turning into physical crystals.

What followed next was an overview of the two systems of cultivation: the Earthly Zenith and the Heavenly Path. Elder Ahrezou first went through the basic terminology, explaining that cultivators who sought the Earthly Zenith were called zenithseekers, whereas those who walked the Heavenly Path were called pathwalkers, before talking about the details of both systems.

“Both the Heavenly Path and the Earthly Zenith are divided into steps and stages,” she said. “There are a total of three steps, and they are named according to their order: the First Step, the Second Step, and the Third Step. Each step is further divided into four stages: the nascent stage, the lesser stage, the greater stage, and the peak stage. A specific stage of a certain step is called a level…”

Ryen turned his head toward the end of the second row, and his pale blue eyes met the dark green ones of a blond-haired boy. The boy started at being caught staring, and Ryen smirked at him. In turn, the boy gave a flustered, unsure smile, then turned his head back toward the front. Glancing left, Ryen noticed that Gwyn had been observing their interaction. Gwyn first looked at the boy in the second row and then glanced at Ryen before wordlessly returning her attention to the lecture. Ryen did the same.

“… and corresponding to each cultivation level is a special magical symbol known as a halidom mark,” Elder Ahrezou was saying. “To advance to the next level, cultivators must form these symbols on the outside of their halidom. Like cultivation, halidom marks are also divided into steps.

“The halidom marks pathwalkers form are called pathmarks, whereas the halidom marks zenithseekers form are called zenithmarks. Halidom marks can be further divided into halidom runes and halidom sigils—pathrunes and pathsigils for pathwalkers, and zenithrunes and zenithsigils for zenithseekers. When advancing to the next stage of the same step, cultivators form a halidom rune; when advancing to the nascent stage of the next step, cultivators form a halidom sigil by merging the three halidom runes of the previous step.”

There was an exception to that rule, however, as Elder Ahrezou went on to explain. “The first-step halidom sigil is unique because, unlike the other halidom sigils, it’s not formed by merging three halidom runes of the previous step, as there’s no such thing as a Zeroth Step. Instead, when your halidom is awakened, the first-step zenithsigil manifests on your halidom on its own, making you a first-step zenithseeker. As for the first-step pathsigil, it’s acquired through the magical ritual that bonds you to a heavenly art, transforming your first-step zenithsigil into a first-step pathsigil.”

Ryen took a moment to look around, studying the other initiates. Judging by their strained expressions, most of them were getting overwhelmed by all the information. As first-steps, their mental stamina was much higher than that of a mundane, and it was only because of that that they could still manage to maintain their focus, even if they were already nearing their limit. Elder Ahrezou didn’t appear to care, however, continuing to lecture without giving them time to properly assimilate the information.

“Heavenly arts are divided into chapters, each chapter being a different pathmark, essentially making them nothing more than compilations of pathmarks, with each heavenly art having different pathmarks. Pathmarks are magical symbols, and as such, they have magical properties. When you first see a pathmark, it’ll appear blurry and indistinct, as if you’re seeing it from behind a foggy window. The longer you spend focusing on it, however, the clearer it’ll become, and you’re considered to have comprehended a pathmark once you’re able to perfectly visualize it. This also applies to first-step pathsigils. Even though they’re acquired through a ritual, you must still have comprehended the first-step pathsigil of the heavenly art you’re bonding to for the ritual to work.

“After comprehension comes inscription, which is the easiest and fastest part of heavenly cultivation. Once you have comprehended a pathmark, you’ll easily be able to replicate it, and as long as you have enough ethereal essence available to do so, you’ll be able to inscribe the pathmark in a matter of seconds. Comprehension, on the other hand, is much more time-consuming, and it can take a cultivator hundreds of years to comprehend a single pathmark.

“Zenithseekers are capable of practicing the comprehension part of heavenly cultivation. Inscription, on the other hand, is beyond them because of the presence of the first-step zenithsigil on their halidom.”

The lecture came to an end shortly afterward, and Elder Ahrezou allowed the initiates to ask questions. Nobody said anything, however, as most of them were likely too exhausted, didn’t want to draw attention to themselves, or both. Elder Ahrezou, seeing that no questions were coming, gave the initiates who could already use their ethereal sense permission to leave.

At that, together with about two-thirds of the initiates—most of them magicalborn, though among them there were likely a couple of mundaneborns—Ryen stood up. Gwyn, the girl to his left, remained sitting, and she stole a glance at him as he was getting up. Ryen pretended not to notice.

III

Kyna was on corridor duty when she saw a group of initiates coming from the direction of the lecture courtyard. Seeing the state they were in, which ranged from slightly tired to outright exhausted, she couldn’t help but sympathize with them. She remembered her first lecture as an initiate, although hers hadn’t taken the entire morning. Considering who the lecturing elder today was, though, she wasn’t all that surprised. She had learned to dread Elder Ahrezou’s lectures, and she pitied the current initiates for having her give the first lecture.

You are reading story Warped Wildcards at novel35.com

Among the group of initiates was Ryen, and to her surprise, he didn’t appear to be that tired, only slightly worn out. She had yet to decide what she thought of him. On the one hand, he seemed nice enough, and she hadn’t talked with anyone as much as she had talked with him yesterday in a long time. On the other hand, she was more than a little confused. Who, exactly, was he? And why, of all things, would he—

“Good morning.”

Kyna started, realizing that Ryen had at some point walked over, and was now standing right in front of her. Quickly composing herself, she greeted him back, and he fell into step with her so naturally she almost didn’t notice it.

“So, where are you heading right now?” Ryen asked.

“Nowhere specific. I’m on corridor duty,” Kyna said. Seeing his confused look, she explained, “That means that I just have to walk around the corridors, ready to help the initiates if they need help with anything.”

Ryen smirked. “Well, in that case,”

Kyna had to stop herself from staring at Ryen. She had been awkward and uncomfortable almost her entire time as an initiate—and even now those feelings of inadequacy and lack of belonging hadn’t faded away—but Ryen acted like he owned the place. She couldn’t have imagined herself asking her assigned servant for directions, let alone pulling one of the unassigned servants aside for a talk and asking them to guide them around the Mistling Hall on her first day, then doing so again on the second day—and certainly not in such a flippant manner.

Even clanborns didn’t take to the Mistling Hall nearly as well as Ryen, and they grew up in magical organizations. She’d have thought Ryen was one if it weren’t for his lack of condescension and aloofness she had come to expect from clanborns and most magicalborns. The fact that she was a servant was enough reason for people like that to look down on her, and her being mundaneborn only aggravated it.

She then realized what exactly he had asked for.

“The library? After a lesson with Elder Ahrezou?” She didn’t think she’d have been able to think straight—let alone go to the library to study—after a lecture by Elder Ahrezou. Even for a first-step, Elder Ahrezou’s lectures were an ordeal and a half to go through.

“Ah. I’m guessing she was also a lecturer last year?”

“Unfortunately,” Kyna said. “Again, I find it hard to believe you’re in the mood for reading.”

“I’ve always been a quick learner,” Ryen said. “The lecture was a bit tiring, sure, but I’m still fine for a couple more hours at least.”

Kyna could tell he wasn’t lying. She didn’t how that was possible, but she trusted her instincts. Well, if that was what he wanted…

“Follow me, then.”

Kyna started leading the way, and like when she led him to the baths yesterday, they kept talking, though this time the topic was the lectures. In particular, Ryen was curious about what topics she liked and which ones she had found most difficult, as well as what she thought of the lecturing elders.

Once again, Kyna found herself enjoying his company. If nothing else, Ryen was clearly interested in her, and this was a rather novel experience for her. She knew that wasn’t all there was to it, however.

Although she hadn’t been certain of it when she first saw him, back when Elder Tynwen welcomed the newly arrived initiates in the courtyard, she was sure of it now: when she looked at him, she felt something warm inside her. She felt herself drawn to him, under the influence of a faint, vague instinct to get closer to him, to help him.

That aside, Kyna wondered when Ryen would lose interest in her. That always happened eventually, after all. It was only a matter of time before he decided that she wasn’t worth his time anymore.

IV

Ryen was just about to say something when Myra appeared on the end of the other end of the corridor, coming to a stop at the sight of them walking together.

“Kyna? Master Rhodry?”

Ryen glanced at Kyna, seeing her cringe. Before she could say anything, he stepped forward, partially shielding her from view, almost protectively. “I was having Kyna show me the way to the library,” he said, meeting Myra’s eyes.

Myra glanced at Kyna, then at Ryen, before slowly nodding. “I see. Well, I shall show you the rest of the way there, then. Kyna, you may go.”

Kyna hurriedly nodded her head, gave Ryen a strained smile, then turned around and left. With that, Myra took over Kyna’s position as his guide, leading him the rest of the way to the library in silence.

As it turned out, the library of the Mistling Hall was located near the residential wing, and after guiding him there and confirming that Ryen had no other requests, Myra left.

Inside the library, lightcrystals were embedded in both the ceiling and the walls, providing even lightning. The library wasn’t particularly big, with only a couple of bookcases, which were filled with ethertears instead of books.

Occupying most of the library was a carpeted area with cushions on the floor. According to the rules of the Mistling Hall, initiates weren’t allowed to take ethertears out of the library. There were enough cushions for all initiates to be reading at the same time, however, so a lack of space would never be an issue.

Ryen walked over to the bookcases. The ethertears on them were neatly arranged next to each other on the shelves, with a small plaque in front of each one with its title. After a moment of consideration, Ryen grabbed an ethertear about the Viridian Mist Sect before sitting down on one of the cushions. Closing his eyes, he visualized its contents and started reading them. He kept at it until he was interrupted by a voice about two hours later.

“Umm … Excuse me?”

Opening his eyes, Ryen saw a blond boy on the cushion next to his. There was nobody else in the library besides the two of them.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” the boy said, rather hesitantly. “Erm, my name is Mardyn.”

Ryen introduced himself, then said, “I believe we … noticed each other during the lecture.”

“Ah, yes,” Mardyn said, frowning in embarrassment. “I’m sorry about that. You see, you look really similar to a cousin of mine, so I was a bit surprised.”

Ryen waved it off, and they talked some more, mostly about what they thought of Elder Ahrezou’s lecture. Mardyn, as it turned out, hadn’t been as overwhelmed by the lecture as the other initiates because of his upbringing.

“My parents were scholars,” Mardyn explained. “So although it was bad, I’ve had worse.” He then gave Ryen an inquisitive look. “What about you? You look like you’ve been here for a while and you don’t appear all that tired. I also think I saw you leaving with the initiates who already knew how to use their ethereal sense. Are you magicalborn?”

“Just a mundaneborn, I’m afraid.” Ryen shook his head. “It’s just that my parents were merchants, and they wanted me to have the most complete education possible, so they’d often supplement the lessons taught in the kingdom school with more lessons at home. Our circumstances are rather similar, actually.”

Mardyn blinked, then nodded in agreement. “What about using your ethereal sense? Who taught you that?”

“The suzerain legate who scouted me. It took a while for the inner elder to arrive, so I asked him if there was anything he could teach me. I think he had nothing to do, so he decided to teach me to tap into my ethereal sense.”

“I think you got lucky, then,” Mardyn said, looking rather rueful. “The legate who scouted me didn’t seem particularly interested in talking to me, and I pretty much spent the entire time in the temporary accommodations until the inner elder arrived.”

They talked some more, though eventually Ryen bid Mardyn goodbye and left the library, Mardyn staying behind.

As Ryen made his way back to his room, he couldn’t help but smirk. He’d say he had had a fairly productive day, overall.

You can find story with these keywords: Warped Wildcards, Read Warped Wildcards, Warped Wildcards novel, Warped Wildcards book, Warped Wildcards story, Warped Wildcards full, Warped Wildcards Latest Chapter