HavenGuarde

Chapter 50 - Destiny

Chapter 50

Destiny

- And a starlight appeared, falling from the battlements -

"Fifteen seconds remaining", spoke the flat female voice of the automaton over the assembled host. A single bead of perspiration trickled down the boy's forehead as he peered out across the bleak and barren landscape and the single black path that ran across it in the distance. This was a male host. Hosts were either male or female. There were no hosts of mixed gender. It was one or the other. The instructors had made sure that the sexes were kept separate from the start so as to prevent any potential for emotional attachment. Love and romance were forbidden. Each young pupil was selected and designated to a host by the instructors to comprise groups of young boys and girls. This host comprised a group of boys that had been placed together by none other than Biron Malcus himself. They ate together, slept in the same area but in separate rooms, and trained and learned together. However, there were mixed sessions where different hosts or hosts of different gender would train or compete against each other.

The automaton hovered in the air just above them, near the dark red and black banner that marked the starting position of the black road that stretched into the distance, leading up into the mountains, disappearing into the frosty pine trees and white slopes of snow. The banner flopped idily in the cold mountain wind. On it was a sigil of a crest. The crest had, imprinted on it, a black shield wrapped with silver chains. Striking through and across the shield, in symmetrical diagonals were several weapons. Through the right tip of the shield, a sword, through the left tip of the shield, a staff, through the bottow right, a longbow, and through the bottom left, a strange looking pair of gloves could be seen.

A dreadful sense of anticipation filled the air. In the distance, dark rain clouds could be seen approaching and the mood was grim. The boys stood in front of the banner in a line. Some were nervous, eyes darting around, some shook visibly in eager anticipation. Yet, a few of them, though seemingly tense, had looks of determination on their faces, staring grimly into the distance, flexing their muscles and stretching their legs, picturing the road they would take. Only one boy hanged back behind the line. He stood on the gravel, hands on hips, slowly rotating the tip of his toe around in the ground. Clockwise then anti-clockwise. His ankles clicked with each complete rotation and his rotations created small circular imprints in the sand and dirt. He tested his shoes and stubbed his toe into the ground to test the friction and contact with the surface of the ground. It will be difficult today, he thought. Rain makes everything worse. But this did not perturb the dark-eyed boy. All seemed fine. Yet, the boy's thoughts were a jumble. Even as he went through his routine preparations, he was already in the course, moving constantly, his body weaving into flux of complex postures and forms, bending, kneeling, sliding, skidding, jumping, twirling, running, leaping high into the sky. This was his tenth attempt. He had passed the course on his second attempt. No one passes on their first. But that was not the issue. The issue was that he needed to be faster. He wanted to be faster. He considered the strategy in his mind again. He would need to keep moving. This time, he would not stop.

The host had first started with simple exercises. But as the days and months went by, the exercises increased in difficulty. The tasks set before them increased not only in terms of physical difficulty but also in terms of mental and psychological difficulty. In one task, the boy had to tread water with his legs tied to each other for an hour and then was made to swim into in a contained area where there was no space to breathe and where complete darkness reigned. After the door to the contained area had shut behind him, the boy had barely minutes to search about in the darkness for a small ring and a rope at the bottom of the contained area which he would have to use to tie a knot. Following this, he then had to change into a different attire under water. He could not open his eyes for the water contained a high percentage of salt and his eyes would burn. He had completed the task set before him on his first try. Individuals were allowed as many as five times. A failure to complete any of these tasks would mean being assigned a non-combat role at sanctum or at worse, leaving sanctum and the order. These tasks were meant to sift the weak from the strong. A few boys had returned home. But these were a handful. The rest of the host were strong and determined to succeed.