by J D Astra
The whistle blew, and I collapsed to the ground, as did every other student in the class. The grass was hot, soaked in my sweat, and barely a comfort, but I could’ve fallen asleep right in the yard if Li-Zigi hadn’t shouted to rouse us.
“Now you are primed for your next lesson. Class dismissed. You have thirty minutes. I advise you bathe and change.”
I gritted my teeth and forced myself up, then grabbed Cho and pulled him to standing. I bowed to Li-Zigi. “Thank you for the lesson, Master.”
She laughed. “You won’t be thanking me tomorrow.”
Cho bowed and mumbled a thanks, then we limped toward our lodge, leaving many of the other students behind in the grass.
“How are you doing this?” Cho asked with a whine.
“I want a shower before class.”
Cho gave one weak laugh. “But how are you still moving?”
“How are you?” I retorted.
“I’m just trying to keep up.”
I chuckled. So, I was his support. Good, we could push each other. I swallowed spit, trying to moisten my dry throat. “I’m trying to graduate.”
We were moving too slowly to get all the way to our lodge, shower, and make it back to the main pagoda for the next class. My legs felt like overcooked noodles, but I forced them to wobble along faster. Cho sobbed softly but picked up his pace.
The group showers were unnerving. I’d never been nude in front of so many people, but it was unavoidable. I needed to wash off, and so did the others. I scrubbed the icy water over my skin with a shiver that shot to my core, and suddenly I was awake. I pulled on the energy of the water, drinking a bit as I washed, and regained the strength I needed to dry off and dress.
Cho was dragging, but we only had five minutes to get to class. I wasn’t going to leave him behind, so I grabbed his arm and pulled as we jogged on trembling legs toward the main pagoda. I saw him to his room for En Manipulation I, then moved even faster as I made my way to Core Foundation.
The upperclassmen jeered as the first years wobbled around the halls in a daze, many of them unwashed, seeking their next class. I kept my focus on the map projecting up from my palm and the time it displayed. My legs were numb by the time I made it to my room, a second too late.
“Forgive my tardiness,” I said with a bow as I entered.
Woong-ji chuckled. “Well done, Jiyong. You may pick your seat.”
I stripped off my shoes and turned to the classroom to see it was empty. Colorful pillows sat in neat rows around the room, three feet apart, all empty. There were about fifty in total, and one at the front of the room, where my instructor sat patiently.
The door shook as another student arrived. “Forgive me,” came Hana’s rushed voice behind me. I looked back at the girl with hair in a tight, wet bun on top of her head and water dripping down her neck.
Woong-ji hummed with amusement. “Neither of you is late—that late. Pick your seats.”
I swallowed hard as I looked at Hana, and she looked at me with bewilderment. She stripped off her shoes, and I diverted my gaze to the seats. Front of the class was the only place for me. I wanted no distractions—especially not Hana—in my field of view.
I selected the center seat of the front row, crossed my legs, and sat on the comfortable pillow. The pillow next to me rustled as Hana sat directly to my right. My heart hammered, and my stomach squeezed until it was a tiny ball of nerves.
She kept her gaze straight ahead as she spoke. “Is it alright that I sit here?”
“Uh—yes. Fine.”
There was a tiny smile on her lips as she folded her hands in her lap and closed her eyes.
“You may meditate while we wait for the late arrivals,” Woong-ji said as she stood from her pillow and paced quietly at the front of the class.
I turned my head front and closed my eyes, but even as I tried to look inward, I felt the heat of Hana next to me. It was a distraction that was both welcome and completely unwelcome, which was the most confusing thought I’d ever had. Every time my mind’s eye came alive with the image of my core, I detected her next to me and saw her brilliant eyes instead.
This continued until students burst through the door, spouting apologies and excuses. Woong-ji pardoned them and directed them to their seats. The more students filled the room, the easier it was to block out Hana’s presence, and for that I was extremely grateful.
Finally, I was able to cycle energy through my core and regain enough zo in my reservoir to support the muscles in my tired back, legs, and shoulders. My heart slowed and my mind focused. I poured more and more energy through my core, some of it from the heat of the students around me—Hana’s heat. This realization jarred me out of meditation yet again, but the last student arrived just in time to save me from more uncomfortable, obsessive thoughts.
It was Shin-soo.
Chapter 10
SHIN-SOO PINNED ME with a deadly gaze as his eyes flickered between me and Hana. He stormed to the back of the class without an apology, or an excuse, and sat himself down.
Woong-ji didn’t open her eyes when she spoke. “Let it be known that tardiness will not be accepted in the future. You will arrive on time, because my lessons are critical to your success and you need every moment we have together.
“Now, close your eyes and breathe. In through your nose, out through your mouth. Let energy enter through your nose, and the impurities in your body leave through your mouth. Watch as the pain of this morning is pulled to your lungs and expelled in your hot breath.”
I pictured my seated body in my mind and imagined the breath through my nose was white light. It swirled through my lungs and spread to my heart, up to my head, down my arms and legs, until my entire body was white. The light faded as thick gray goop corrupted it. I exhaled hard, and the goop surged, up my body and into my lungs, then out my mouth in a dense cloud of dark pain.
“Pay attention to the tightness in your body. Use your breath to relax the muscles. Get all of the negative, corrupted, used-up munje from your body.”
We meditated like this for many minutes until the breath I released was a medium gray instead of the nearly black it had been at the start.
“Good.” Woong-ji roused us, and I opened my eyes. “We may not all be cleansed yet, but due to our late start, it is time to begin. Now, someone tell me what it is we just did.”
Hana’s hand shot up, and Woong-ji nodded to her with a smile. “As you said, we were clearing the used munje from our body. Most of us used a considerable amount of zo in the physical training this morning. Without cleansing, that used munje clogs up our bodies and prevents us from casting spells effectively.”
Woong-ji smiled. “Very good, Hana. This is exactly correct. When we use munje, any munje, it can become trapped inside us when the energy of it is expended. Zo munje is always more present because we use it to fuel our physical efforts, but en, ry, li, and ma can all become trapped in our systems.
“Each trapped munje can have different effects on the body, so it is important to cleanse yourself often. Trapped zo may cause fever, loss of motor functions, and sometimes death. Trapped ry may cause hallucinations or loss of memory. There are many different effects, and to progress to the levels of a Bastion, you must learn to prevent them.
“Fortunately, many of you do this without thinking, as it was taught to you in Primary school, but when we make a conscious effort, we become much more potent than if we do not. Clearing your body of impurities is necessary to build your core. Because your core requires all five munje to be built, we need the pathways to be clean and your mind clear. Now, we are in a place to begin.”
Woong-ji closed her eyes and breathed as her arm traced lines through the air with practiced, deliberate movements. Golden light leaked from her fingers as she moved and the object—her core—took shape.
It was a solid bronze sphere at the center, her crystal a diamond poking out from the center, but what interested me were the seven bands that wrapped around and around, gr
owing larger with each loop. The bands were all one interlocking mechanism that swooped in and out of one another, but never touched, yet somehow connected. It was an infinity loop.
She opened her eyes when she was finished and smiled at us. I glanced left and right to see similar stunned expressions on my classmates faces. She twisted her fingers through the core projection in front of her, and the bands spun, then locked with four overlapping blocks pointed at the crystal.
“This design is your key to becoming a Bastion. Many of you have built your cores incorrectly, through no fault of your own. It is our goal in this class to break those designs down and recreate them. Your cores will not all look like mine when we have finished, but the structure will all be the same. You need a center to protect your crystal, and you need bands to direct the flow of energy. The exact shape you create will be up to you, but this is your only path forward.
“Now, let us discuss core breakdown.”
Woong-ji explained how we take apart our cores using ma munje, and that we should start by trying to create one band that loops around it. “For those few of you who already have this design started, I advise you start working on a second band. You will encounter problems, I’m sure, with connecting them in ways that do not block one another, but this practice will put you far ahead in the standing at Bastion.”
I thought back to my assessment and the way Woong-ji had looked at me when I showed her my core, something I thought was not a boon, but a flaw. My core was not thick or dense or full of rotating mechanisms like so many others. My Primary teachers had been frustrated at the shape of my core and its bands, but Woong-ji saw exactly what she wanted to see in it.
Whispers of my father’s praise floated through my mind as I recalled my meditations sessions with him and my mother. Who was my father? A young refugee from across the sea in the time just after the war. A foreigner. What had he learned over there that made him choose this shape for me to learn? In Primary, my spell casting had always been slower than others with the blocky designs, but somehow this band creation was the right path?
How could it be that this slower design was the key to success?
A gentle chime rang out, and Woong-ji clapped. “That’s all for today class. Get a good meal in you—and please, some of you need to bathe before your next class.”
The group chuckled absently as we rose on weak legs. My muscles ached already, and I knew tomorrow would be worse, but the zo I had cultivated served as a crutch to keep me moving.
We walked orderly through the door, but as soon as I was on the other side of the threshold, I felt a hand grip the back of my dobok. I turned and batted away the offending arm only to be met with Shin-soo’s angry, wrinkled up face.
“I told you to stay away from her,” He growled the words and grabbed the front of my dobok. I let him, not wanting to instigate a hallway scuffle and risk expulsion.
“She sat next to me,” I replied evenly.
His lip curled back in a feral snarl. “Then you should’ve moved.”
“Why do you care? What is Hana to you?” I scowled. He was older than us, and I assumed a second try at first year. How did he know her, and why did it matter who I talked to?
“Outer-city scum like you wouldn’t understand. We protect our own in the kingdom, unlike you savages.”
Students were forming a circle around us. I kept my hands still at my side as Shin-soo balled his hands to fists on my shirt, pulling more and more of it up into his grip.
“You think you’re protecting her from me?” I asked with a laugh. What was it that I could do to her? What would I do? I didn’t even know her.
He pulled me so close I could smell what he’d had for breakfast. “I’m sure you’ve got one thing running through that little pea-brain, and it isn’t going to happen, not while I’m here to keep her safe.”
“Do you want to be expelled?” I asked, keeping my voice steady though I felt the hot anger bouncing from my throat down to the pit of my stomach. I didn’t want his hands on me, and his accusation was even worse, but I didn’t want to look like a punching bag either.
He grinned and bared his teeth as he leaned in. He’d skipped a shower, and it was obvious. “I challenge you to a duel, then.”
The students around us whooped with excitement, and Woong-ji pushed through the circle. “What’s this?” she asked.
“He’s challenged me,” I said flatly though my stomach was tight with worry. I was weak from the morning’s exercise and in no shape to duel. My hands were shaking at my sides from hunger, but I felt a sharpness in my mind, and maybe that was all I needed to best him.
“We will need another instructor,” Woong-ji said absently as she scanned the growing crowd. “Ah, Pung-sah, we have a duel.”
A tall man with a round face stepped through the crowd and stood beside Woong-ji. “Before lunch?” he asked as he looked to me, then Shin-soo. “Very well. What do you pick, young man?” he asked of Shin-soo.
“Zo,” Shin-soo grinned maliciously. He must not have pushed himself to exhaustion as I had, or perhaps thought an outer-city boy would be weak. He would soon discover otherwise.
“And you?” Pung-sah asked me.
“Ma,” I replied confidently.
“For the third?” Woong-ji asked the crowd.
“Ry!” Hana shouted first, and the group joined her. Shin-soo didn’t look pleased with this selection. At least she hadn’t screamed out li, which surely would’ve sealed my fate.
Woong-ji pulled a cylindrical disc from her hanbok, much like the one containing our maps and schedules. With a trickle of gold munje from her palm, it came to life with blue light. She made a few gestures, and the light flickered, bringing up text I couldn’t read from my angle.
Woong-ji cleared her throat. “First challenge. Ry, persuasion. The challengers must convince one another to perform an act that will be held in secret by each instructor. You may use any tactic you like, but you may not touch your opponent. The first person to perform the act will lose the challenge. Jiyong, I will hold the knowledge of the act for your opponent. Shin-soo, you’re with Pung-sah.”
Shin-soo released my dobok, and I took a breath of fresh air for the first time in what felt like ages. I stepped to Woong-ji’s side, my leg bouncing as I thought of what to make him do. Something simple, easy, natural. Something he would want to do anyway.
I glanced at Shin-soo as he whispered to Pung-sah, who scowled. Easy, simple. He didn’t shower. His skin must be irritated from the sweat clinging to it... I leaned down and whispered to Woong-ji, “I’ll make him scratch all over his body.”
Woong-ji nodded. “This is acceptable.”
“Ready?” Pung-sah asked, and I turned to face off with Shin-soo.
The crowd was quiet, watching us both carefully. Shin-soo had a devilish grin on his face that made me grit my teeth. No. I wouldn’t hate him. I would expose him for what he was, just a bully so small he picks fights to feel big. He would not reign over me, or anyone else at Bastion. I would make sure of that here and now.
Chapter 11
“BEGIN!” WOONG-JI DECLARED, and I closed my eyes. I breathed in the energy of the crowd and pulled it into my band, then rotated my tiny ry block over the core. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as Shin-soo’s ry munje pressed down on me.
The sensation trickled down my spine like cold rain and settled in my lower belly as an uncomfortable pressure in my bladder. He was trying to get me to piss myself? Infantile. I wished I’d selected something a bit more embarrassing than scratching himself.
I had ignored the sensation to urinate before while working for hours at the arborum. This was no different. I ran one round of energy through the core and stored the ry in my reservoir. I needed a fair amount for everything I was going to do.
The pressure intensified, and my mind’s eye wandered to images of waterfalls, rushing streams—
No. Focus.
Shin-soo’s arrogant grin was audible in his tone. �
�Need to pee, ganhan? It’s been a while since you’ve used the restroom, and you drank so much after that workout.”
I filled my chest all the way down to my belly with air and focused on extracting the energy. After the third round, I had more than enough. I released the purple munje from my reservoir and let it drift down my arm, out my fingers, and across the distance between us.
I opened my eyes and sent another stream of ry up to my mouth as I cast my voice spell. “Didn’t you skip a shower, Shin-soo? I bet it’s sweaty under that heavy, itchy dobok.” I scratched the back of my neck as my words, aided by ry munje spell, traveled to Shin-soo’s ears. He winced, his finger twitching at his side.
I scratched all up and down my neck. “Ah, it feels so good.”
The need to urinate intensified twice over. He must’ve dumped the rest of his ry in an effort to break me. I tightened my muscles and focused on the scrape of my nails over my skin. I moved down my arms and across my back. “This is really hitting the spot.”
Shin-soo’s hand shot up to his neck, but he didn’t scratch. He bared his teeth and crossed his arms tight over his chest. I took calming breaths through my nose and focused my attention on my fingernails scraping my bare skin. “You must really be itchy by now. You would feel so much better with just one little scratch. Your neck is so irritated from the tickling collar, you must want to scratch it.”
“And you must want to pee so bad your bladder might burst!” Shin-soo yelled through gritted teeth. I smiled. The pressure was so intense that lances of pain shot out through my pelvis, but I kept my composure, kept smiling.
“Just one scratch would really do—”
Shin-soo screamed, his hands flying up to his face and neck. He clawed at his skin, and the need to urinate left me all at once. I sighed with relief and relaxed the muscles.