The Heroes Fall -1- When War Calls

by Zy Rykoa

  ‘Where are we going?’ he asked.

  ‘To the Kaeshan Chamber,’ said Adonis, his voice deep and powerful, but without any threat or anger.

  ‘What for?’

  ‘You are to receive the essence endobrace.’

  ‘The essence?’ Jaden echoed.

  ‘Yes, the source of our power. Somehow, you have been exposed to great quantities, and now your body is shutting down. That is why Noviahn expects you are ill.’

  Noviahn, thought Jaden, that’s what they called his grandfather, like Tarsha had in Callibra. The different name made him feel his grandfather was not the man he had grown up to know. Perhaps he had not been completely honest with him. Jaden would learn the truth some day, but for now he wanted to know more about the Daijuar.

  ‘How will the endo-base help my illness?’

  ‘Endo-brace,’ Adonis corrected. ‘It is a brace that sits under your skin and attaches to your veins.’

  Adonis stopped and held out his hand so that Jaden did not walk into him. Three steps below, he still managed to stand only a little shorter than Jaden. He then lifted his hand so that his sleeve fell down around his elbow.

  ‘This is an endobrace,’ he said, his hand and wrist now coming alight with the same white glow that had come from Blair’s hand.

  Jaden studied the many dark lines under the man’s tanned skin. They looked to form a similar design to the loh-korah, except that they were below the skin as Adonis had said and could not be removed easily, if at all.

  ‘All Daijuar have been exposed to the essence beyond repair. We are now required to wear these so that we can release and store the essence as needed.’

  ‘What did the Daijuar do before the endobraces?’ asked Jaden.

  ‘Died,’ said Adonis bluntly, ‘as you will if we do not give them to you.’

  ‘Is that how you make the shields?’ asked Jaden.

  Adonis gave a slight nod and then continued walking. ‘Many of us store the essence if we know a battle is coming. Our shields will remain strong only as long as the essence is within us.’

  ‘What happens when it runs out?’

  ‘We retreat, and wait for it to replenish.’

  ‘That’s why you can’t fight in all the wars,’ Jaden observed, ‘and why you couldn’t save my village.’

  Adonis turned with his hand giving light once more, regarding him for a moment.

  ‘We couldn’t save your village because we didn’t know it was going to be attacked,’ he said calmly. ‘Presently Blair and I have enough essence stored to set up shields for several hours. We could not have saved your village alone, but we could have helped had we known.’

  ‘I saw one shield,’ said Jaden.

  Adonis nodded. ‘One would not have been enough,’ he said, and continued down the stairway once more. ‘Once you have the endobraces, you will train to be a Daijuarn sentinel. We will need more help in the coming years.’

  Jaden held his tongue. He had almost protested the idea of becoming a sentinel, as he had vowed to himself that he wanted nothing to do with the Daijuar, but remembered that Adonis would not have known of his intentions, or that his grandfather wished for him to remain inside the hollow for the coming years. And now that he had spoken with Adonis, he felt that he could have no gripe with the Daijuar for not saving his village. Perhaps his hate was misplaced. They were people, just like him. They were powerful, but still just ordinary people at heart. They couldn’t be everywhere. They couldn’t know everything. They couldn’t defeat entire armies alone. Maybe becoming part of the Daijuar wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

  ‘How did the essence cause my sickness?’ asked Jaden.

  ‘All life on Earth has evolved to accept the essence. That which rejects the essence will die sooner than other life. Your exposure is abnormal, so you have become ill and require assistance.’

  ‘So I will wear the endobrace. What happens when the essence runs out, how do you replenish the essence?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Adonis. ‘It simply happens. Some replenish gradually, others more quickly. It has been a topic of discussion among us for centuries.’

  ‘Even you do not understand the essence?’

  ‘Correct,’ said Adonis as he reached the bottom of the stairway. He then led Jaden through a room that was almost as dark as the stairway had been, lit by the same blue glow from the rock but also with a luminous white mist that hovered at their ankles. Jaden could feel the polished stone underneath his feet as he walked, but it was the only smooth surface around him as the walls and roof were all jagged rock.

  ‘This is the Kaeshan chamber,’ Jaden guessed out loud.

  Adonis did not correct him.

  They stopped walking as they reached an opening in the wall ahead of them. It was darkest here. Even the blue glow was almost too faint to see. There was a ledge that they stood against as they looked over a smooth, hard substance just below Jaden’s chest.

  ‘Take off the loh-korah. Make sure your clothing is not touching your feet and put your arms here,’ instructed Adonis, standing to Jaden’s left. Jaden did as requested. ‘Rest your elbows on the side. When I tell you to, let your hands go under the surface. I will then tell you to walk up the steps that are on your right. You will then repeat the process with your feet. Do you understand?’

  Jaden nodded, his eyes still fixed ahead of him.

  Adonis put his own hands up on the substance after rolling his sleeves back. ‘This will hurt,’ he said, and Jaden turned to him questioningly as a fiery glow appeared under the Daijuarn’s hands.

  The opening was revealed in the light, seeming endless as it stretched far beneath the mountain. Jaden could now see the steps next to him, but quickly looked back to the smooth surface. It appeared gold, and felt to be loosening beneath his fingertips. The smooth surface was becoming molten, heated by the energy being released into it by Adonis.

  ‘Now, let your hands sink.’

  Jaden reluctantly pushed his hands beneath the surface, feeling strangely cool underneath, but as the energy continued to pour into the pool, it became even colder, and soon felt as if it were freezing his lower arms.

  ‘Keep them there!’ said Adonis as he realised Jaden had begun to pull away.

  The pain was becoming too intense. It felt as if sharp shards of ice were now slicing into his skin. He thought to back away, to stop the process of getting the endobraces. This was a mistake, a terrible mistake. He started to wish he had never agreed to allow the Daijuar to help him. The sickness seemed a better choice now. Anything was better than leaving his hands in the golden substance. The pain was becoming worse with each second that passed.

  ‘Take them out, now,’ said Adonis finally, and Jaden quickly pulled his arms away from the pool, cowering low to the ground as he allowed his hands to dry in the air.

  ‘Now your feet.’

  Jaden held his hands in front of his eyes, watching as the molten gold melted into his skin. He looked in disbelief at Adonis, as if he had to have been crazy to expect him to now put his feet into the pool, but Adonis was unflinching, and waited patiently for Jaden to do as he wished.

  ‘Shouldn’t I wash them first?’ asked Jaden, hoping for an excuse to return above.

  ‘This won’t take long,’ Adonis comforted, as if seeing straight through Jaden’s words. ‘The pain only lasts while it sets.’

  ‘How long will that take?’ asked Jaden.

  ‘It depends on how long you take to complete the dipping.’

  With a horrified look, Jaden made his way slowly up the steps and then moved his left foot toward the pool.

  ‘Only the soles of your feet,’ said Adonis. ‘That is all you need. There is a ledge for you to sit on. You will not be able to stand afterward.’

  Jaden sat down on the ledge and moved both feet to the pool. ‘Why do I need to put my feet in?’ he asked.

  ‘Our feet are what connect us to the Earth, there is more essence there than the air. Do not be afraid. We
have all had to do this.’

  Jaden closed his eyes, bracing himself for what he was about to feel, and with a deep breath, he put both feet onto the surface. It felt warm on top as before, but cold as it was broken. He tried to escape from his mind, to be away from the pain he knew was coming. But it was no use. He could not escape. The feeling of sharp shards slicing into his skin was too much to bear, and he almost screamed out to release the pain, but before he could, Adonis told him to take his feet away from the pool. The dipping of his feet had been much faster than his wrists.

  ‘We are done,’ he said. ‘Now you must wait. Do not try to walk.’

  Adonis allowed the pool to return to its previous hardened state before walking over to Jaden.

  ‘Try to relax,’ he said. ‘I will do what I can to ease the pain.’

  Jaden nodded with his teeth clenched, and Adonis stood next to him, a white glow with golden flares coming from his hands and floating into Jaden’s lower arms. As the glow increased, Jaden could see the strange substance draining away underneath his skin, and hugging tightly against his veins, moulding itself to fit around them as if somehow drawn to them through the tissue.

  ‘So I’m of the Daijuar now,’ said Jaden.

  ‘Soon,’ said Adonis. ‘When you learn of our ways, you will be one of us.’

  ‘How long will we be here?’

  ‘As long as it takes for your body to accept the Kaeshan gold,’ said Adonis.

  Jaden winced from the pain but said no more. Now he would have to wait as Adonis had said, and in the coming hours, the endobraces would be formed, and he would begin his life as one ruled by the Daijuarn code.

  Chapter Sixteen

  What inspires more than necessity?

  January 22, 997 R.E.

  ‘Feel the energy flow through you and into your wrists, concentrate it there, and then release it. It will return to you in a circular motion; the energy is attracted to itself and its host, this is how the shields are formed. The endobraces will do the rest,’ Vennoss instructed, gesturing with his hands to show how it was done.

  Jaden was concentrating as hard as he could. For the previous two days he had been training almost every minute of every hour he was awake. His arms and feet had healed completely with Daijuarn help, but he was exhausted, and had only been able to make the endobraces give off a little light.

  Vennoss was standing anxiously at the other end of the shrine they used for these tests; a safe distance from Jaden’s target, as he had done for most of the training—shouting suggestions of posture, movement, breathing and attention whenever he saw an error, which seemed like every time Jaden tried to do anything.

  ‘It’s hard, Grandfather,’ said Jaden out of frustration. ‘If you had them you would understand.’

  Vennoss shook his head. ‘I have seen many people trained. It should not take you this long to learn. Now, do it again.’

  ‘Maybe I’m not meant to be Daijuarn, then,’ Jaden shot back angrily.

  ‘Your clothing looks fine,’ Vennoss teased. ‘Come on, one more time!’

  Jaden rolled his eyes. Daijuarn garments had been provided for him, white like those that Adonis and Blair wore, but ever since he had elected to wear only the open vest and trousers, Vennoss felt it was his duty to insult him, saying it looked ridiculous to begin with, before finally resorting to sarcasm later.

  Jaden refused to wear the entire set, no matter what was said. He did not want to believe that he was of the Daijuar yet. He would wear only what was needed, and had only agreed to change at all because they assured him any other clothing would burn on contact with the energy. He consoled himself in knowing that looking as an Alliance soldier was far worse than a Daijuarn sentinel, and even though he would not admit it openly, he liked his new clothes this way. The vest he wore was pure white, with many folds of material between his shoulder and neck on each side, and connected with a thin but large hood on the back. His arms and part of his chest and stomach were exposed, giving him perfect freedom in his movement, while the trousers he wore were loose on his legs, but were weighed down by the many folds on the outer sides. A wide dark blue belt, veined with gold, held them in place. The pattern of the gold seemed the same as his forearms now looked, except in the centre there was the symbol of the Daijuar.

  He had been marked by them, branded as one of their own. And now he had to learn to use what they had given him.

  Jaden looked ahead at the large stones. They were piled up on top of one another to be just taller than he was. It was impossible to push them over, he thought, especially if all he could manage was light. The broken gray stones around him told another story though. This shrine had been the training ground for many before him. Unlike the others that were made of smooth dark tiles, this was of oddly shaped, jagged rocks, smashed and carved by the many different tests the Daijuarn sentinels were put through.

  ‘Trust yourself, young master!’ encouraged Tarsha, behind him. She had claimed the smoothest stone at the shrine as her own personal sitting place to watch Jaden’s progress. ‘Know you can do it!’

  Adonis and Blair were standing on either side of the area between Jaden and the stones, erecting energy shields each time he made an attempt to push the column over.

  ‘When you are ready,’ said Adonis.

  Jaden nodded, and two shields of transparent white were put in place. They hummed the low familiar tone of Daijuarn shields, allowing Jaden to relax to their steady rhythm as he imagined the energy rising up through his body and into his wrists another time. His hands moved from his waist to his chest, palms flat and always facing his target, and then with a deep breath, he sent a quick burst of energy to his hands to ignite the endobraces with a flash of white, and then pushed as much of the energy forward as he could. There was a high-pitched ringing as his energy came forth, and then a muffled sound as the light disappeared, and the energy fizzled out.

  He heard Tarsha sigh. ‘You’ll get it!’ she said.

  ‘We would hope so!’ retorted Vennoss. He came forward to speak with Jaden, causing the Daijuarn shields to disappear as he passed. He picked up Jaden’s arms from his sides and slapped the underside of them just in front of his biceps. ‘Here,’ he said, ‘and here. That is where you must feel the energy build. Emotion is the key to using the power. Your ancestors before you have used fear and hate, and even love to know how to use their energy. This is no different. Master your emotion, master your mind, and then you will master the use of the essence. Feel something, child, anything, and then let it out through the endobraces!’

  Vennoss walked briskly back to his place near the target. ‘Now,’ he called out, ‘thinking of something that has harmed you, feel, and then release. Understand?’

  Jaden bowed his head slightly and repositioned his feet so that he was standing side on to his target. He began to think of what he could feel. There was anger from being pushed so hard to train to be something he didn’t even want to be, but it didn’t seem enough. He knew if they were going to let him rest, he would need something more powerful, something that caused absolute hatred within, and there was only one thing he could think of that could work. He had relived the memory too many times already, but he had to try. He had to think of the attack once more, just to put an end to the constant hounding by his grandfather to learn how to use the endobraces.

  Slowly, the memories floated by, jabbing at his mind and bringing the pain he needed. He saw the faces of the people who had died, and the merciless execution of the old and gentle man, Don. He saw the fort over the Tennagen field, the soldiers guarding his sacred place, and then he remembered his family and how their lives were taken.

  He looked up, his eyes red as the tears threatened to surface, and then repeated the motions he had been taught. He felt the energy build inside him and focused it into the parts of his arms his grandfather had slapped. He imagined the rocks as if they were soldiers coming toward him and ignited the endobraces in white light. As he imagined them beginning to fire
upon him, he released the building energy and pushed his hands forward.

  The Daijuarn shields ignited, and he felt his success. The light coming from the endobraces was too bright to look upon. He closed his eyes as he continued to push the energy through his arms. But he heard no sound in the coming seconds; no stone falling, nothing burning, not even the hum of the Daijuarn shields was alive anymore.

  Vennoss alerted him to his failure by calling out again. ‘They’re still standing, you can open your eyes,’ he said, looking up and down the target.

  Jaden thought hard. He had failed. How? He had done everything they had told him and nothing had happened. Why couldn’t he do it?

  ‘You’ll never become a sentinel with that sort of effort,’ said Vennoss.

  With a second blinding flash and a sound that was almost as an explosion, Jaden’s arms had risen in an instant, sending a wave of fiery energy racing forward from them. Vennoss quickly ducked out of the way while the two Daijuarn shields were erected once more, but they had not come fast enough, and all three had fallen to the ground along with the stacked stones.

  Vennoss turned, gasping in shock as he peered through the dust and smoke at Jaden. But Jaden was no longer there. He had left them. His arms throbbing with the same ache as his mind, he had walked quickly away, not knowing where he would go or what he would do, just that he wanted to be alone, away from the Daijuar, away from his grandfather, and away from the training.