Chapter 6: Chapter 5: The Realmheart Wars

CHAPTER

5

The Realmheart Wars

I

Late in the evening, Ryen stepped out of his room into the corridor. As he did so, he saw someone else doing the same, a few doors down. Ryen stopped, watching as the boy walked down the corridor, before making his way over and tapping him on the shoulder.

The boy looked back. Dark hair, dark eyes, and pale skin. The only Kunyuan among the current initiates. “Hello?”

“Hey,” Ryen said. “You’re going to the library, right?”

Looking slightly confused, the boy nodded. “I am. You are…?”

“Ryen Rhodry,” Ryen said, extending his hand, a smile on his face.

The boy shook his hand, though he still looked a little bemused. “Ellys Tamryn.”

A Myrthyran name, despite the boy’s tribe. At the very least, Ellys had been born in Myrthyr. Myrthyr didn’t share a border with any Kunyuan kingdoms, but Ehsit and Rhisiert, which shared a border with Myrthyr, did.

“So, the library,” Ryen said. “Do you mind if I tag along?”

It had already been a week since the initiates arrived at the Mistling Hall, and Ryen had been spending most of his time in either the library or his room after attending the morning lecture, though he’d occasionally go for a walk in the gardens. He had seen Ellys a couple of times in morning lectures as well as in the library, but this was his first time approaching the boy.

“Err … you can come, I guess.”

That was all Ryen needed. He set off, and after a moment’s hesitation, Ellys followed.

“So,” Ryen said, slowing down his pace slightly to move beside Ellys, “what do you think of the Mistling Hall so far?”

“It’s fine, I guess,” Ellys said, shrugging. Ryen said nothing, only looking at him expectantly, so Ellys added after thinking for a moment, “The lectures are a bit tiring, though.”

From what Ryen had seen so far, most of the initiates kept to themselves, seldom interacting with others. Ellys was one such initiate. Ryen had yet to see the boy having a conversation with anyone so far.

“Definitely,” Ryen said. “Thankfully we’ve only had Elder Ahrezou twice so far. The other elders aren’t nearly as bad. The first day was the worst.”

“It was,” Ellys agreed. “But I like Elder Ahrezou’s lectures. She’s … thorough.”

“Hmmm. I can’t say you’re wrong. Her lectures are about as exhaustive as they’re exhausting.”

“That’s one way to put it, I guess,” Ellys said, smiling a bit.

They kept talking as they made their way to the library, mostly sharing their thoughts about the elders, the lectures, and the topics that had been taught so far. The longer their conversation went on, the more comfortable Ellys seemed to become, his initial confusion at being suddenly approached gradually disappearing, and before long he was asking questions of his own and sharing his thoughts in greater detail.

Upon arriving at the library, Ellys picked up an ethertear about cultivation, whereas Ryen picked one about history. Ryen delayed a little in choosing his, waiting until Ellys had sat down, before walking over and taking the cushion beside his.

II

It had been about an hour since they arrived at the library, and Ryen was just about done with his ethertear. Ryen cut off the trickle flow of ethereal essence into his ethertear and opened his eyes, then saw that Ellys had done the same.

“Taking a rest?” Ryen asked.

“Yeah,” Ellys said, looking over. “I’m still getting used to this visualization thing.”

“I take it you’re mundaneborn?”

Ellys nodded. “You?”

“Also one,” Ryen said. He then motioned toward the ethertear in Ellys’s hand. “What are you studying?”

“Heavenly skills, mostly,” Ellys said. “The elder mentioned them in the last lecture, but didn’t go into detail, so I was curious as to what exactly they were. What about you?”

“The Realmheart Wars.”

Ellys seemed to consider it for a moment, before shaking his head. “I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard of them.”

“I only started studying them yesterday myself. There are a couple of ethertears about them, so I got curious.” Ryen seemed to hesitate before adding, “What I’ve seen so far is pretty shocking, to say the least.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember yesterday’s lecture?”

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“Yes,” Ellys said. “Though I’m still having a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around it.”

The lecture in question had been about realmworlds. The lecturing elder had explained how reality was split into realmworlds, which were best described as self-contained pockets of reality, and revealed that Khenthor was a type of realmworld called a realmplanet, which was a realmworld that contained a single planet and a starry sky with a sun and a moon, both of which revolved around the planet.

The elder had then explained how Khenthor was inside a realmsystem, which was a realmworld created to contain other realmworld inside it. The realmsystem Khenthor was in was named Ankhet, and it had two realmplanets, the other one being Hasiris.

“Apparently, there used to be another realmplanet in Ankhet,” Ryen said. “There also used to be other realmsystems besides Ankhet, each with three realmplanets. And they were all destroyed in the Realmheart Wars, about six hundred years ago.”

Ellys gave him a blank look. Then, realizing that Ryen was serious, his expression became one of shock. “That’s … terrifying,” Ellys said, stunned. “How … how exactly does that work? How do you even destroy something like a realmworld?”

“By stealing its realmheart,” Ryen said. “That’s why the Realmheart Wars are called that way—because they were fought over realmhearts.”

“Realmheart?” Ellys asked. Judging by his frown, he didn’t seem familiar with the term.

“This is probably something that will be explained in a future lecture,” Ryen said, “but from what I’ve read, a realmheart is something that every realmworld needs to exist. It’s also what generates the ambient ethereal essence of a realmworld. According to the ethertear I just read, the realmheart of a realmplanet is located at the core of the planet, deep within beneath the ground.”

“And when you remove a realmheart from a realmworld…” Ellys trailed off.

“The realmworld collapses into itself, destroying everything inside it,” Ryen said grimly. “That’s how the other realmplanets and realmsystems were destroyed. The archsuzerains of each planet formed alliances, and they started attacking other realmplanets to steal their realmheart, ending up in multiple wars between realmplanets.”

“I don’t think I can imagine what a realmworld collapsing would be like,” Ellys said. “Just imagining Khenthor being destroyed…” Ellys shook his head. “How did the Realmheart Wars end?”

“You remember when Elder Ahrezou talked about Khenthor’s archsuzerain organizations, back in the first lecture? It has to do with one of them, the Howling Wind Palace. Its founder was the leader of the Khenthoran Alliance, and he managed to get the Hasirian Alliance to sign the Khenthoran Pact—a peace treaty that effectively brought an end to the wars, as they were the only two realmplanets left.”

“What about the stolen realmhearts? What happened to them?’

“I haven’t found anything about that yet,” Ryen said. “Still, I’m assuming that they ended up being split up between the Khenthoran and Hasirian organizations.”

Ellys nodded his head. Then, as if he had just thought of something, he asked, “Do you think that the sect has one?”

“Probably. If I’m right, and the realmhearts were split up after the Khenthoran Pact, then the Viridian Mist Sect, as an archsuzerain, probably got one.”

“But … do you think that the sect participated in the wars? Do you think it went out and helped destroy other realmplanets?”

“I don’t know,” Ryen said, shaking his head, “and I’m not sure whether any of the ethertears here will have the answer to that. I mean, the Viridian Mist Sect is a righteous organization, so if they did something like that, I don’t think that’s something they would want to be common knowledge. Having a hand in the destruction of realmplanets is the same as being involved in the annihilation of billions, if not trillions, of lives, and that probably wouldn't be good for their image.” He paused, as if he had just thought of something. “Also … considering the Realmheart Wars ended less than a thousand years ago, many of the elders of the sect probably lived through the Realmheart Wars, and I’m not sure they’d want their dirty laundry to be aired.”

Ellys's eyes widened, then narrowed. “Do you think that any of the Mistling Hall elders…”

“Maybe.” Ryen shrugged. “Most of the elders stationed here are also inner elders, making them all third-steps. They could all be over two thousand years old, for all we know. That’d mean they were already ancient before the Realmheart Wars even started, and if the Khenthoran Alliance destroyed any realmplanets … I reckon they’d have been involved.”

Magicals didn’t age the same way mundanes did. Not only did they have much longer lifespans, triple that of a mundane at the very least, but when magicals reached their physical prime, they’d remain on it until they were nearing the end of their lifespan, at which point they’d quickly start aging.  

To be an inner elder of the Viridian Mist Sect, you had to be a third-step cultivator, and that meant you’d have a lifespan of almost three thousand years. Consequently, you’d stop growing older physically upon reaching your mid-twenties, your physical prime, and only resume aging again when you only had a hundred years or so left to live. A third-step could be twenty-three years old or two thousand and three hundred years old, and their appearance would be the same.

“Huh.” For a moment, Ellys looked thoughtful, if not apprehensive. Eventually, however, he sighed and shook his head. “I guess that it doesn’t really matter. I mean, we’re just initiates. This isn’t the kind of thing we need to worry about, right?”

“Yeah,” Ryen said. “It’s just that wars … I don’t know, they used to be something abstract. An idea, a concept. I don’t think there’s ever been a mundane war, and I never heard of magical wars before I joined the sect, so finding out that there were nine other realmplanets just like Khenthor, and that now they’re gone because of war because of greed… I wanted to know more about it. The idea that something this massive happened and I had no idea about it didn’t sit well with me.”

“I can see what you mean,” Ellys said, then gave him a rather strained smile. “But I think I’ll stick to reading about cultivation for now.”

“Right.” Ryen welcomed the change of subject. “You’re looking into heavenly skills, right? I haven’t looked into them yet. Found anything interesting?”

At that, Ellys smiled, the previously gloomy mood quickly forgotten. “Yeah. Apparently, like heavenly arts, heavenly skills also have…”

Ellys shared what he had learned about heavenly skills so far while Ryen listened. He was enthusiastic about it, and as far as Ryen could see, the boy was wholly enamored with the idea of cultivation.

While he listened to Ellys, Ryen’s gaze landed a girl sitting on the other side of the reading area. She had her eyes closed and her hand closed over an ethertear. Ryen recognized her as the initiate who had arrived in the Mistling Hall shortly after him: the pretty fair-skinned girl with brown hair.

Suddenly, the girl opened her eyes, and because she was sitting almost opposite him, she immediately saw him. Caught staring, instead of looking away, Ryen winked at her. The girl blinked, stunned, then blushed, looking away.

“Ryen?” Ellys said, realizing that Ryen had his attention elsewhere.

“Sorry,” Ryen said, focusing back on him. “I got distracted for a moment. You were saying heavenly skills were also divided into steps?”

Ellys looked at him suspiciously, then glanced at the girl Ryen had been staring at, who had closed her eyes, returning to her ethertear, though her cheeks were still slightly reddened. For a moment, he looked confused, but then he shrugged, returning his attention to Ryen. “Yeah,” Ellys said, resuming his explanation. “And you can only bond to nine heavenly skills, regardless of their step…”

They kept talking for a while. Eventually, Ellys said that he wanted to return to his room to cultivate, and Ryen decided to do the same. They left the library and headed to their rooms together, talking a little more on the way, and finally bid each other goodnight after agreeing to study together again in the evening tomorrow.

All things considered, this had been another fairly productive day, Ryen decided as he entered his room. Sitting down on his chair, he looked out the window and smiled to himself, satisfied.

He had been having plenty of productive days as of late.

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