Akashi's Will

by Kaden Reed

  As I was slipping on the set of shoes, it dawned on me that I hadn’t eaten or even slept since before the Trials. Stopping and thinking about it, I further realized that I hadn’t even felt the slightest bit tired or hungry either, “Jax, how come we haven’t eaten or slept in, how long has it been? A couple of days?”

  Jax was standing near the doorway and gestured for us to follow him. Thankfully, we were just walking at a normal pace this time, “you can ask Akashi for further details, but this is what we have figured out. Whenever a Hand is on combat patrol, they seem to be maintained with energy directly from the Dungeon. They can go days, even weeks in some cases, without eating, drinking or sleeping. Everything they need is provided by the Dungeon. However, when not on patrol, the usual needs come back. And depending on how long you have been sustained by the Dungeon, your needs might become increased for a short while. I assume it is to make up for lost energy.”

  “What do you mean by increased needs?” Glazmir asked skeptically.

  “I was on a patrol that ended up lasting over a week several years ago,” Jax replied thoughtfully, “we got caught behind a large group of monsters and had to fight our way out.” He paused and then shook himself before continuing, “anyways, when we inevitably died, we all came back with voracious appetites. I think I must have eaten three or more meals in one sitting. Then I slept nearly a thirty-six hours straight.”

  “Is that going to happen to us?” I asked curiously, just starting to feel the first pangs of hunger.

  “Eventually,” Jax waved his hand and another door slid open and he stepped inside, “probably not this time though.”

  We followed him into a large room that had several tables and chairs spread throughout. Metal counters were set along the wall, piled high with odd rectangular objects.

  Jax pointed at the various counters, “grab some food,” he pointed at a table of pitchers, “and some water then come back to this table.”

  We approached the nearest counter of what Jax called food. The things piled on top looked about the size of the average candy bar, but unlike chocolate, they were a pale beige color. I picked one up and held it to my nose. As far as I could tell, the thing didn’t have any odor at all, “this is food?”

  “That one is cod fillet,” a feminine voice answered from behind me. I turned to see Niko, dressed in similar clothes as mine, “the one next to it is fries. They go really well together.”

  Momentarily dumb struck, it took a couple of seconds for my wits to unscramble themselves, “this is food? How can you tell what flavor it is?”

  She walked up beside me and gestured with her hands.

  I looked at where she was pointing and saw a small sign next to the pile of bars that clearly indicated they were cod fillet. Face reddening in embarrassment, “well I guess Akashi could have made it bigger.”

  Acting like she hadn’t heard me, “Harper says Akashi absorbs all of the perishable goods that are delivered every day and turns them into these bars. I guess these never go bad and are enriched with mana to help us regain our power.”

  Looking down at the pile of bars in front of me I blinked into mana sight. The various piles lit up with different colors of mana. The cod in front of me were a light blue, with the fries she pointed out a light brown.

  “I’m in the mood for a cheeseburger though,” she walked down the line and grabbed a bar from another counter. She called behind her before leaving to rejoin her companions, “don’t forget to get a fry bar too.”

  Feeling the lump in my throat double in size as I watched her walk away, I absentmindedly grabbed two bars from random piles before following her to the table.

  Sitting down across from her, I took a tentative bite from one of the bars I had grabbed. As the flavor of the odorless object burst in my mouth, the ravenous hunger that I had not known was being suppressed clawed its way up and I started scarfing down food. Unable to slow, I quickly ate the first bar without stopping to appreciate the taste.

  Niko was watching me wide eyed, “you alright Crusty?”

  Picking up the second bar, I vowed to eat it more slowly, “it has been a long couple of days.”

  Nodding slowly, she said, “yeah I suppose it has.”

  We both ate in silence for a few minutes as the rest of the group arrived. I finished my second bar and was thinking about getting a couple more when Jax stood to address the table, “this is the first time the Fist has been reunited since the Trials,” he gestured at the six of us sitting together and then at Harper he said cheerfully, “all of our Kits have been blooded and some have even died again themselves.”

  Harper had a grim smile when she spoke up, “since four Khanri is enough to handle most threats in our Dungeon, and we need to cover a very large area, the Hand is our most common patrol unit. The majority of our time in training will be with our respective Hand. But, as some of you have figured out, we occasionally face enemies that are far stronger than a Hand can handle alone. To ensure we are prepared for such scenarios, we will begin training as a Fist in the next couple of weeks.”

  “For now though, my Hand will eat and rest for today,” Jax gestured at the three of us, “tomorrow we are back on patrol.”

  “We have a couple of hours, but my Hand is summoned back to the training section this evening,” Harper gestured at the three people sitting next to her.

  Tail lashing the air behind her, Akira spoke up, “this is good. I like to hunt before I sleep.”

  Marty looked up at Jax and asked him, “why do we have to go on patrols all the time? Isn’t it possible you can set up some caster stones to monitor portions of the Dungeon and just signal to groups with com-stones where we need to go to fight any incursions?”

  Seeing that the question had snagged the attention of most of the people at the table, Jax set his bar down and addressed the group as a whole, “if we were able to get it to work like that, we definitely would have. However, the caster-stones don’t work like that down here. Up there,” he gestured at the city above us, “the signals are paired between the transmitter and caster-stones. There isn’t any way for someone to be able to pick up a transmission they aren’t supposed too. Down here though, the ambient mana is erratic and very dense, which screws with the way signals operate. Com-stones simply don’t work, and we don’t really know exactly how it happens, but it is possible that any visual signal we transmit can be picked up by any caster-stone that is within range. That includes any stones a civilian has. We have experimented with this sort of setup for a very long time and we have not found a way to ensure that some enterprising citizen working on their rune crafting is not able to pick up the signals coming from our Dungeon. Since we consider keeping the reality of our world from the general population to be of the highest importance, we have banned the use of transmitter stones within the Dungeon.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Marty said slowly.

  As idle talk broke out around the table, I headed to the counter and grabbed a couple more bars from random piles.

  As I walked back, I saw Bog sitting sullenly in between Harper and Akira. Steadily eating his food and drinking from his mug, he did not show any indications of acknowledging the conversations around him.

  When I resumed my seat, Niko raised a questioning eyebrow in my direction. I just shrugged and started eating one of the bars in front of me, “so what class did you get?” I figured I could use my mana sight and know without asking, but that felt like an invasion of privacy. Besides, the whole point of sitting next to a beautiful girl is to find a way to get her to notice you as more than something that just occupies space.

  “Berserker,” she proudly declared.

  I involuntarily flinched in my seat, remembering Thorn losing control and almost killing everyone in her apartment. Although she was actually a Reaver, part of her class was the black of Berserker. Trying to hide the fact that I had shied away from her announcement, I asked, “what is that?”

  “I have combat abilities that
allow me to shrug off wounds and pummel my enemies to death,” she enthusiastically gushed, “I’ve even been told that when I grow in power, I can develop an ability that uses the blood of my enemies to heal myself. Isn’t that cool?”

  Nodding reflexively at her obvious enthusiasm. I decided right then that Niko was not someone that I wanted to piss off, “yeah that sounds really cool.”

  “So, are you going to make me ask?” She inquired.

  “Harbinger,” I replied, “it is a mix of three classes. Basically, I can see and manipulate my own mana. Although I haven’t figured out how, I supposedly can do the same to other’s mana too. To a lesser extent anyways.”

  She was quiet for some time before I looked up at her and saw her eyes wide and studying me, “you are an Enigma?”

  Frowning, this wasn’t the sort of attention that I was shooting for, “that is what I’ve been told.”

  “Wow,” she picked up her mug and took a long drink, “I wish this was ale because we should be toasting to that!”

  Smiling, I grabbed my mug and held it up to her, “we can pretend at least.”

  She clinked her mug with mine and we both quaffed our drinks.

  “Akira, what class did you get?” Marty called to her.

  She was settling her bar back on her plate, “a warrior should hunt and eat her prey. Not this-” she gestured disdainfully at her plate, “thing.”

  Marty had to ask her a couple more times before she acknowledged that he was speaking, too absorbed with insulting the food options, “I was given the Shade class little gnome.”

  “Just like Shino,” Marty nodded sagely.

  “Of course,” Akira wrinkled her white nose and her tail swished languidly through the air behind her, “we will be mated.” Nodding to herself she proclaimed to the room, “it is known.”

  Hiding a smile behind my mug, I quickly took another bite then called to the orc, “Bog, what class did you get?”

  Without lifting his eyes from his food, he replied, “Skyguard.”

  Marty perked up, “that is the same class as Kayper, the Khanri from the Amorak Dungeon in the Championships. That is really cool Bog. She was a bad ass.”

  Bog grunted then nodded slightly before resuming eating his food in silence.

  As we ate, Marty and Glazmir told the group about their classes and we answered any questions directed our way about how the new classes worked and I explained what I had been able to figure out about the ranking system. The conversation inevitably turned to the enemies we had already faced and how we defeated them.

  “So the damn wolf was about the size of a horse and covered in these quills about four feet long,” Glazmir was enthusiastically recounting his contributions to the fight, “so I’d push it back with me shield and swing my hammer at its nose. But the damn thing kept dodging!”

  “It was big and fast,” Marty interjected, nodding.

  “Aye, it was that,” Glazmir continued, “so Jax there hits it with a spell, not sure which one it was. About half a dozen white balls slammed into it, anyone know which one?” Looking around at the blank stares of the rest of us Kits, “bah, anyways. He hit it with a spell, and it seemed to notice Marty and him for the first time. So, it got down, grunted a bit and shot the damn quills from its arse, straight at Marty and Jax.” He slammed his fist onto the table, “laid them out flat.”

  I watched as Akira was leaning forward in her seat, hanging on every word of the recounting. Even Bog seemed to not be as sullen as usual while hearing the tale.

  “So, with Afton stuck fast by a few hundred quills-” Glaz was waving his hands in the air.

  “More like a dozen or so,” I interjected.

  “You shut yer mouth lad, if I said it was a hundred, it was a hundred,” Glazmir glanced between me and Niko and then winked at me, “now, knowing I was the only hope for the party left, I fought that wolf as best as I could, but it not be enough.” Glazmir sighed, “eventually me arm gave out and the wolf got passed me shield. It was all over for the Hand after that.”

  The sight of the dwarf’s eyes as the light faded from them swam back into my mind. Shaking my head, I raised my mug, “to Glazmir, may his hammer find that wolf and beat him to death!”

  The group cheered their appreciation of the story and we all toasted the dwarf.

  Niko looked at me afterward, “so you spent the entire fight impaled on the quills of a giant wolf?”

  Sighing, “yeah. I guess I won’t ever live that one down either.”

  “I wish I was there to see it,” she started giggling.

  I watched as her cheeks flushed a warm scarlet that gradually darkened to match the red of her hair, “you didn’t miss much. Besides, I’m sure we will have plenty of stories over the years.”

  Harper stood up at the head of the table and got everyone’s attention, “while we are all here, I need to go over some details about Khanri that you don’t already know.” Looking around to make sure she had everyone’s attention, “as you all know, when you die you are reborn here in the Dungeon. What you don’t know is that when you leave the boundaries of Akashi, he is only able to maintain a weak connection with you. That means, when a Khanri is killed outside of their home Dungeon and that connection is disrupted, they can’t be reborn.”

  Silence reigned in the room at the pronouncement, “so we can be truly killed then?”

  “Yes,” she continued, “that is also why we only fight a defensive war within the boundaries of our Dungeon.” She paused while scanning the faces turned towards her, “it has been almost four centuries since the last time we went on the offensive. Back then the Khanri were caught in a trap and just shy of two hundred were slaughtered. Only one returned from that campaign.”

  Jax stood up beside her, “every Khanri is taught of those events so you all can be informed. The Aku try to take captive Khanri from their home Dungeon and bring them to whatever thing they have that can sever the bond with their Dungeon. Hundreds of Khanri have been lost over the years due to their raids. This is extremely important - if faced with an Aku and you think you will be captured, kill yourself immediately.”

  Swallowing at his words, we all nodded our acceptance.

  I asked quietly, “is there a way for us to kill ourselves easily?”

  Jax looked at me steadily before breaking his gaze to look at each of the other Kits, “you all are in the business of death now. Finding a way to kill yourselves shouldn’t be that difficult.”

  Sobering at his words, the jovial atmosphere of the reunion of the Fist was broken. We quickly finished eating and rose silently to make our way out into the hallway. There Harper called for her Hand to follow her and they started jogging down the hallway in the direction of the training section.

  I stood and watched them for some time before they were too small for me to make out any details. Turning from them, I saw Marty waiting for me.

  I joined him and we walked together to our quarters, “this is a lot different than I thought it would be.”

  Walking in silence for a few more steps, Marty eventually answered, “yeah, it definitely is.”

  Seeing no need to fill the void with empty words, we continued our trek in companionable silence. I couldn’t imagine having to face all of this without my friend beside me. At the thought, I suddenly felt a pang of sorrow for Glazmir and the Kits in the other group. They were all alone. After a few more steps though I thought I might have it all wrong, maybe they were far stronger because they were capable of doing this alone.

  Reaching our quarters, I palmed the door open and walked inside. Glazmir and Jax were already stretched out on their beds. One of them was already snoring loudly, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t the white-haired human.

  Bumping fists with my friend, we separated and walked to our own areas. It was time that I kept my promise and let my parents know that I was safe, and since I wasn’t sure if Marty would get around to it in the next couple of weeks, I would ask that they pass along the news to his f
amily too. Since we just received the news that com-stones don’t work down here, I rummaged around the chest next to my bed and pulled out a piece of parchment and pen.

  I sat staring at the blank paper in front of me for a long time, replaying all the events that had happened in the last few days. For the first time, I felt the separation between my past and my present. It was as if dying to start the Trials really had killed the old me. Whatever I had become, there was no way I could return to that naive innocence again.

  I struggled with the sense of loss that overcame me. I wanted to pour my heart out onto the parchment, to try to build a bridge over the gulf that separated me from my family, but how could I tell my mom and dad that I had fought, killed and was killed in return? Shaking my head as I considered it fully, I slowly came to the realization that this knowledge was something that I couldn’t burden my family with. This was something that could only be shared by those that already carry the same burden.

  I folded the completed letter, full of well-meaning white-lies and half-truths so my family could rest easy that their son was still alive and well. Leaving it to rest on the chest until I could figure out how to mail it tomorrow, I climbed into bed to finally get some long-needed rest.

  “You died,” the feeling of warmth returning to my core filled me.

  “I’ve been told it happens a lot,” I said distractedly as I reclined in my bed.

  Akashi sighed, “too often lately.”

  A thought formed in my mind that I wanted an answer too, “I’ve been meaning to ask you,” I spoke to Akashi, “with my mana sight, I see all sorts of different colored mana. What do the different colors represent?”

  “They represent the different affinities,” he took on an instructional tone, “the basic affinities are red for fire, green for air, and brown for earth. Then you get to the advanced affinities such as yellow for light, purple for dark, gold for life, black for death and violet for the mind.”

  “What about water and whatever my white mana is?” I asked.

  “Those two are where it gets tricky,” Akashi continued, “since water can be found naturally in abundance in all three primary states of matter, ice as a solid, water as a liquid, and steam as a vapor, it is considered a malleable affinity. Therefore, the blue mana you see can be enhanced with almost every basic affinity. That is why a Magus as a water affinity, is capable of casting a fireball. In addition, only a Magus with a dual affinity with an advanced mana type can cast spells that mix basic and advanced mana.”