Apprentice

by Nicholas Hale

  "There is more. There's something you need to know. The master wishes to capture the godling."

  "The godling? I wish him the best of luck then," said Lorian.

  He had never seen Amadeus fight, but from the fear Orcus and the Azhurai showed, he knew Amadeus was formidable. But Amadeus hadn't stood next to the godling in battle. It would certainly be an interesting bout.

  "Why would he want to do that?" asked Lorian.

  "The master has long been fascinated with the god essence that lies in the void. The core of the Lumen. It was that for which he first chose to enter the Lumen. And it was in order to subjugate the god essence that he carries out so many tests and experiments on essences of other creatures."

  "He wishes to subjugate it?"

  "He wishes to ascend."

  It took Lorian a few moments to fully understand the meaning of that statement. Ascension. Amadeus wished to ascend to the higher planes. The planes of the gods.

  "Impossible..."

  "It has been done before. In his early days, the master made a study of mortals that had ascended to gods. Most of them had ascended through noble deeds or through the embodiment of the values that a god stood for. Myria herself was once mortal before rising to the pantheon after embodying justice. But then there are those like the false prophet Malak who have achieved godhood through cunning and the theft of divine essences after betraying their gods."

  Lorian knew the tale of Malak. But for Amadeus to do such a thing.

  "But it's a dead god..."

  "A fragment to which you have given life. Sacrifice is a perspective that he has not considered. He wishes to study the godling further to understand how to recreate the connection that you have with the godling. From his latest notes, he believes that he can alter the flow of the essences. Right now, the godling assimilates your essence. The master wishes to siphon the god's essence and assimilate it into his own."

  "He has to beat it first. I doubt he would be capable of doing so..."

  "You are right in that it will take him effort to overwhelm the godling. If we can use the Azhurai to our advantage as well, it might keep him busy long enough for us to escape."

  "Escape where? This is something I haven't gotten from either you or the Azhurai. How do I leave this place?"

  "This castle is connected to simulacrum, and the simulacrum to the void. There is a connection from the void to Castle Norvind. You could think of the void as having two doorways. One from Norvind and one from this castle inside the simulacrum."

  "How do you know all this?"

  "The master dictates his thoughts to me. Or at least did until he got Auros. You're missing the point here. If he's kept busy by the godling and the Azhurai, we'll have time enough to escape into the void."

  "I'm not sure I really want to go into the void."

  "We'll still be within the influence of the simulacrum. There is a small portion of the void that the master has assimilated into this plane. We should be able to stay within that region and avoid getting sucked into the void."

  "Sounds incredibly dangerous…"

  "It's the only way. The only things keeping you trapped inside your body are the simulacrum, the godling and this castle. Once free of them, in the void, you should be able to leave at will."

  "What about you?"

  "I'm trapped in here by a similar mechanism. As is the master. The only way for all of us out of here is to enter the void region surrounding the castle."

  "Amadeus can escape through the void as well?" asked Lorian, a little concerned.

  "I'm not entirely sure he can. There are times when he has tried, but found himself unable. He believes it's because he has put far too much of his own essence into creating this castle. He has cast spell after spell binding this castle so deep into the simulacrum that it's entwined. It would probably kill him to leave the simulacrum. He is working on the necessary spells to break free of that binding. But I believe he's not in any hurry. He has a long, never-ending list of experiments to conduct before he believes himself ready."

  Lorian hoped Amadeus and his creations never made it out of the simulacrum. He shuddered to think what would happen if all of them made their way into Norvind.

  "There is another problem we need to deal with," said Orcus.

  "What is it?"

  "The godling is tied to you. You have given it form by sacrificing your own essence. It is drawn to you. The master wishes to use that connection to lure the godling into his trap."

  Lorian knew in the back of his head that this was coming. Lorian knew the simulacrum was protecting him from the godling. Amadeus knew how to manipulate it.

  "He means to remove the simulacrum's protection from me," said Lorian.

  "Yes. The godling will be drawn to the castle and will begin consuming your essence as soon as the protection is removed."

  "When does he plan to do this?"

  "Three days hence. He prepares as we speak."

  Great. Three days to pore over magic he had never even seen in his life. Lorian hoped the spells were easy enough to perform.

  "What are you waiting for? Get to work!" said Orcus.

  Chapter 49

  Azrael closed his eyes and focused on the edge of the blade in front of him.

  "Steady now... Do not lose focus on the edge of your blade," said a guiding voice.

  Olaf's voice was slowly beginning to drown out. His vision had blurred to a haze, but the edge of his blade was still prominently visible. Olaf had mentioned that focusing on the blade was important. In theory, any object would do, but the blade was the one most familiar to Rhial Knights, and it was that with which they practiced. Which made it perfect for Azrael.

  And then began the voices. The first step was complete.

  "Let the voices in. Listen to them and distinguish them from each other."

  It had taken him a good week to get over his instinctive fear of the voices that had been beaten into him as a child. The trick now was to pick out the right one. Olaf had told him that, but to Azrael it didn't really seem that complicated. He could easily hear one voice far louder than the rest.

  "Most of the voices you hear are from lost essences in the void. Of all the ones that speak to you, one is stronger than the rest. The Rhial temple calls it the Transcendent. One simply knows the right voice to pick. It is something that cannot be taught, and something even scholars of the temple do not completely understand. Listen to voice and repeat the phrases it speaks."

  Azrael slowly repeated the same phrases that the voice spoke. Olaf had told him it was important to not pay attention to the meaning as much as the tone and pitch. He didn't need to vocalize them, but it would help initially he had said.

  "Resonate with the voice."

  As Azrael synchronized his voice with the one in his mind, it became louder than the rest, drowning them out. His vision became a black wall with a silver line through the middle representing the blade. His body began shaking as both the voices—his own and his mind's—grew louder. It was time for the release.

  "Now!" yelled Olaf.

  Olaf had shared with him the simplest of the physical Rhial cants. As soon as he completed the phrase, he felt his body explode with energy. He saw the thin silver line as he readied his blade for a strike.

  In one single instant, vision returned to him as his eyes opened wide. He felt as if every one of his senses were five times sharper. He found his body dashing forward at an inhuman speed. His sword met a large block of stone that they had set up as a target. The rational part of his mind screamed that the sword wouldn't cut through, but his body ignored it and he saw sparks fly as the metal grazed rough stone.

  It stopped as soon as it had started. Azrael fell to his knees gasping for breath. The sword had cut half way through the stone and was stuck inside it. In a single flash Azrael had covered the thirty-foot gap between him and the block. It was too exhausting though. Azrael fell down on his back and continued gasping.

  "You resonated far too
much..." said Olaf. "If you keep doing that, you'll damage your own body. The goal was to simply cover the distance and land a single strike. Not to try and cut the block in half."

  "I would think that cutting the block would have been better."

  "You're a trained swordsman. I don't think I need to relate to you the importance of precision over brute force."

  That was true, thought Azrael. Before Olaf had begun teaching him how to use and control the voice, he expected that the exercises would be more metaphysical in nature. He didn't expect such direct results in the form of combat benefits. And so soon at that.

  Azrael knew that using a smaller amount of energy while maintaining more control of his own body would be a better combat tactic, but he was tempted to see just how much energy he could draw in at once. Quite a lot, apparently, he thought, as he looked at the sword buried into the stone.

  Three weeks ago, when they had first started, Olaf had stated that the only way to control the voice was to 'resonate' with it frequently. Much of the details were still murky, and only a select few scholars knew the true nature of the voice, but one thing all the research at the temple agreed on was that a small amount of resonating would quiet all the voices.

  The bodies of certain humans were more in tune to listening to voices from the void than others. The origin of all these voices was the Transcendent voice that tried to communicate with the human. The rest of the voices, it seemed, were simply stragglers. Once the energy was drawn in and then diffused, the human body would distance itself from the void.

  Diffusing the energy, however, was no simple task. Resonating with the Transcendent voice ended with a phase that the knights called 'possession.' During this phase, the source of the Transcendent voice was completely in tune with the body of the caller, and if not immediately released, would cause the caller to temporarily lose control of his body. This, Azrael realized, was the blackness that he saw, and the reason why maintaining mental focus on an object was so important. The scholars, however, discovered that certain phrases had in them the power to manifest the stored energy physically. This was the core of the combat techniques of the Rhial Knights.

  Scholars at the temple spent hundreds of years researching the phrases and many of them were a closely guarded secret that existed only in the temple's vaults. Mastery of Rhial combat was comprised of effectively using phrases to release the energy provided by the Transcendent voice without blacking out or fainting.

  The cant that Olaf had taught him was a command to rush forward in the direction he was facing. It was apparently the first thing that many Rhial Knights learned—the simple release of stored energy to move the body in a desired direction. The knights used it in combat to close the distance to an opponent, and sometimes, as Azrael had just done, to increase the strength of their physical strike. Olaf had mentioned before they began that the stored energy could be released in many forms rather than just raw physical force. There were cants for healing oneself, as Olaf had done when Azrael amputated his leg. There were also cants that could infuse this energy to be stored up in weapons and armor, strengthening their properties.

  As a warrior, Azrael was naturally curious about these cants, but for now he was simply glad to know that there was a way other than his medicinal herbs with which to quell the voice. A healthier way at that. He didn't mention it to Olaf, but he strongly suspected that this was one of the reasons why taking up the sword was so calming to him. Perhaps it was a form of resonating that Azrael had been performing all these years when he practiced swordplay.

  "That should be enough practice for today," said Olaf. "That goes for you, as well, young girl."

  Brie was off in a corner by herself, also practicing with a small wooden stick. Azrael was surprised to see her darting about on the terrace on her own. When Azrael was still learning how to connect with the voice, it had frustrated him to no end seeing her use the technique so masterfully.

  "There are some exercises that the two of you can try together."

  "How so?" asked Azrael, still looking at Brie. The girl seemed to be enjoying herself, even humming while rushing about wildly.

  "The Reverberations I told you about. Forced Reverberations. Knights at the temple are divided into squads of around ten knights each. One of the exercises they perform is to get in tune with the Transcendent voices of their fellow knights."

  "I have trouble enough with my own voice..."

  "Rhial cants released by the squad leader can affect both himself as well as the squad members. This allows for great tactical benefits. It allows the group to communicate better and perform as a single organism. In fact, commanding ten Transcendent voices at once is a prerequisite to becoming a squad leader."

  "It sounds like the squad members are entrusting their lives completely to the leader..."

  "They are, in a sense. They are allowing their own actions to be dictated completely by their leaders. It also works the other way. Absorbing. Strong Rhial Knights can make use of a weaker squad members voice to bolster their own abilities. This reinforcement from both sides, more than anything else is what makes the Rhial Knights such an effective force to compete against in battle. Even the paladins of Myria do not achieve the levels of efficiency that the Rhial Knights do when working as a team. The paladins can do so through the intervention of a priest of Myria, but that's another story..."

  Azrael himself had commanded troops before and there were many times when he was frustrated by the inefficiencies and lack of proper communication between his troops and the commanders. He wondered what it would be like to be a Rhial squad leader.

  "I still don't understand. The Transcendent voice..."

  "Ah. All fledgling Rhial Knights question its true nature. The answer, I'm afraid, is locked away in the temple vaults, or so I'm told. But I have it on good authority that many even on the council are not aware of its true nature. We know that the void contains essences, so we have good reason to believe the Transcendent voice belongs to one of the essences."

  "It sounds a lot like my own voice," said Azrael.

  He looked as Olaf's face registered genuine surprise.

  "I must say it's impressive to be able to discern the voice to such an extent in such a short while."

  "I hear a girl's voice," interrupted Brie, still dashing around. "But it sounds old. And upset..."

  "The void contains essences of dead things, right?" asked Azrael. "So if I'm alive..."

  "That question has no answer, I'm afraid. The council does push for research in these matters, but most of the efforts are focused on more...tangible results. The council is happier to discover a new cant to enhance combat, or a new potion to limit the mental effects of invoking Rhial cants."

  That made it sound less like a temple, thought Azrael.

  "We do know that the essence is unique to the human, though. And as curious as you are, I would advise under the strictest terms not to try and resonate too much. You saw the energy build up inside you the last time. If you try holding on to the Transcendent voice to try and make sense of the words it speaks, you could very well risk temporary bouts of insanity. The possession phase is not to be taken lightly."

  Azrael had no intention of doing so, however curious he was. He had tried listening to the voices before.

  One physician back in Aegis had suggested he write down the words he was hearing. That had easily been the single worst night of Azrael's life. The servants found him lying naked in a room full of writings and drawings. Not just on the papers provided to him, but the walls, the bed and even his own body. Not one of the words made any sense at all. There were even strange letters that were indiscernible. It had taken him three days to mentally recover from that.

  "Is there a limit to how much strength you can draw from a Rhial cant?" asked Azrael changing the topic.

  Olaf thought for a few moments before he spoke.

  "It varies from person to person. But some people have been able to cross the lines of what we consider normal
in the temple for brief periods of time. Most council knights can call upon the voice to a much larger extent than knights of lower rank can. You can think of the Rhial cants as made for the common knight. As I mentioned, each voice is completely unique, so several knights of the temple invest time in trying to determine what works best for them."

  "Those council knights must be something else..."

  He recollected a particular tale of the man Kladuron—the man reputed to have singlehandedly slain a dozen members of the citadel of warlocks.

  "It was a council knight that slew Rufus," said Olaf.

  "My apologies to have stirred such unpleasant memories."

  "None necessary."

  "M'lord Llothran..."

  Azrael turned to see Jamaal. Despite his initial apprehensions, the man had indeed adjusted well to Marduk.

  "There are some people waiting to see you," he said.

  "I should take my leave now," Azrael said, addressing Olaf, who nodded.

  "People? I thought it was just Brock that I was meeting..." said Azrael, wondering who else the young slave would have brought with him.

  "It's not the miner, m'lord. Gerzahn and Captain Yvain are there to see you. They're in your chambers right now."

  Damn them, thought Azrael. He knew what both the men wanted to see him about. Gerzahn was a mild-mannered man, and Azrael wouldn't have given him another thought except that Doyen had already warned Azrael about him. He was Rennar's man through and through. As was Yvain, but while the former at least affected a polite tone, the latter was boorish, outspoken and loud.

  Azrael had been at odds with him since the day he started looking into the affairs of the mine. It didn't take too long for Azrael to see that the soldiers at Marduk were idlers who spent most of their time with drink and dice. They did a superficial job at the most in guarding the slaves. Some of them hadn't even been inside the mines, let alone gone on a patrol. Azrael put a stop to that by personally ensuring that they set up a regular patrol schedule and rotations to include every single guard.