Repressed Emotions and Results

Jax sat floating for a while longer. The horrible scene from before kept flashing in his mind. Giant orange beams and thousands of ships blowing into small bits. The strange man and the creepy smile, just barely visible from beneath his hood.

These images bounced around in Jax's mind for quite some time as he waited for the next scene.

After waiting for what felt like hours, Jax suddenly felt drowsy. His eyelids fell and a deep sleep seemed to take over him. When he awoke, Jax was laying in the small cave just as before. The stone platform jutting out into the water remained the same as before and all seemed serene.

Well... except for his master.

Ivo was panting heavily and was drenched in sweat. His breathing sounded weak and there was a slight wheeze at the back of his throat.

Jax quickly sat up, rushing to his master's side.

"Don't... worry," Ivo hoarsely whispered. "I am... just... much weaker... *cough* than I thought."

Ivo then closed his eyes, giving away to exhaustion. The old man had over-exerted himself. His already weakened body seemed even frailer than before.

Jax sat with Ivo for a long time, waiting for the old man to recover from his exhaustion and wake up. During this time, Jax tried to organize his thoughts. He was excited about the results of the test.

What would he have an aptitude for? Jax's mind was racing at the possibilities. Would he be able to shoot bolts of lightning? Or summon creatures to fight for him? Maybe he could even curse people! These thoughts helped distract Jax from the scenes he had seen before, as well as his concern for his master.

Ivo began coughing quietly, trying to get Jax's attention, as he had just woken up. Once the two made eye contact, Ivo breathlessly pointed towards the water. Jax quickly ran over to the clear underground lake water, before filling his gourd. Once he returned to Ivo, he pour the fluid into his master's mouth. Ivo swallowed, let out a deep sigh, and then began to speak softly.

"Boy, I barely finished the test. I'm much weaker than I thought, and the crystals only helped mitigate the burden slightly. We'll go over the results later, once I'm stronger. But first, tell me what you saw. It will be important for your future growth."

Jax recounted the scenes he had experienced. Firstly, the events leading up to his fall on Mitte, including the appearances of the pirates. Ivo seemed uninterested until he heard about the red-headed woman.

Ivo held his jaw with closed eyes. He looked seriously at Jax.

"Boy, you must forgive her... maybe you can get lucky," Ivo said with a goofy look on his face.

Jax almost smacked the old man but held back seeing how weak Ivo was.

Continuing on, Jax recounted his parent's funeral, managing to hold back tears. Ivo remained silent, simply nodding along to the story.

It wasn't until Jax described the space battle and the terrifying display of power that the muscular man showed. Ivo's face darkened hearing of the man's strength.

"The strange thing was, it felt like he could see me. In fact, I think he directly spoke to me. He said 'See you soon Jax'."

Ivo was instantly bewildered.

"No one should have been able to see you, except maybe powerful masters. Boy, whoever that man was, avoid him." Ivo spoke seriously. "In fact, describe him again, just in case I run into him."

Jax described the man's muscular body, the creepy grin and hearty laugh, and the sickly orange beams that he shot out. He told Ivo about the words that the man had said again, as well as any details he could remember, including the barren planet below.

"I don't remember a man such as that, nor such a barren planet... although the latter of those is extremely common. What about insignias? Were any of the ships branded or openly show their allegiance?" Ivo asked.

Jax shook his head.

"I couldn't see anything like that, it was just so much all at once."

Ivo paused for a while, holding his chin while thinking about Jax's visions. Finally, he shakily stood up.

"Well, nothing we can do about that now. Come boy, it is late and I want to eat some food." Ivo said.

"Wait master, what abou-" Jax began before trailing off, seeing that Ivo was far away now.

Ivo briskly walked away, whistling to himself on his way out of the cave. Jax stood stunned for a moment. What about the test results? What about his aptitude? Jax raced after the old man, making sure not to get left behind. Once he caught up, Jax tried to ask again about the test, just for Ivo to cut him off, talking about nonsense.

The two hiked out of the cave, back down the mountain, and to the edge of the large lake where they spent the prior morning. The sun was now hanging low, and most of the day had passed already.

Careful as to not bring up the results, Jax made small talk with Ivo, occasionally trying to pry information out of the stubborn old man.

"You know I thought that the test would take a lot longer than it did, but looks like we made it back in time for dinner," Jax said.

Ivo gave Jax a strange look, before sighing to himself.

"Boy, how long do you think that aptitude test took?" Ivo asked.

"Uhhh, I'm not too sure, maybe a few hours? Like three or four hours?" Jax responded cautiously.

Ivo began to break out into a massive laughing fit, holding his sides while laughing at Jax. This continued until the laughs turned into coughs, all the while Jax's face turned a bright red.

"Boy, it is just a coincidence that the sun is lower than when we started. In reality, you were in those visions for three days!" Ivo said, stifling another round of laughing.

Three days...

Jax then noticed his stomach was rumbling heavily. He had not eaten for over three days. The excitement of the test had completely distracted him from the growing hunger and thirst he had. In fact, Jax now noticed just how fatigued he felt, despite just laying down for three days.

A shocked look appeared on Jax's face. He hadn't noticed in the slightest.

"Boy, you can be really slow sometimes," Ivo said. "It took you this long to realize that you hadn't eaten anything?"

Ivo began laughing again, although this time was much less energetic, most likely due to Ivo's own fatigue.

"You know boy, I was very impressed how calm and collected you were about this whole situation," Ivo said. "But now I realize you hadn't even realized what you've gone through."

Jax looked up at Ivo, with cheeks still blushed red with embarrassment.

"What do you mean?" Jax asked.

"Well think about everything leading up to now. You get caught in a pirate raid, all your coworkers and any friends you had on board die, you get jettisoned into space, and hell even survive a fall from orbit. And you're just a regular human, not even enhanced or anything."

Jax froze. He had been pushing it to the back of his mind. Every event that led up to now had been repressed to the very depths of his mind.

"Not only that, you encounter and barely survive a beast attack, scavenge for fruit and nuts to survive, and you have no knowledge of survival to begin with. What if the fruits were poisonous? Or if the water you drank was toxic? Not only this, but you willingly and without fear explore a hidden facility, obey some AI you never met before, and unseal a stasis unit holding who knows what! And then you have the gall to insult the very thing you unsealed! HA!" Ivo said before giggling to himself.

Jax turned his head to look out across the water. The emotions he had been holding back began to burst out. His face began to pale as his emotions caught up to him.

Everyone he knew on board had died...

Jax felt like vomiting now as he remembered the dead floating lifelessly in space.

Alec, his best friend, had died...

Tears began to silently fall from Jax's face.

He had been angry when he was launched off the ship. He had been fearful when he was falling from orbit. Terrified when that winged beast attacked. Nervous when he ran out of food. But most of all, Jax felt like crying.

Why did it have to happen to him? Why couldn't he just die quickly like the others? But he didn't want to die.

Tears first fell silently, then Jax began to sob, before wailing at the top of his lungs.

Ivo had calmed down by now, and seriously comforted Jax during his anguish, putting his hand on the boy's shoulder as they sat by the lake.

It took quite a while until Jax had calmed down, looking out across the clear blue lake. Why was his surrounding always so beautiful and serene when he was crying his heart out?

Finally, Jax wiped his eyes clear, before looking at Ivo again.

"I-I, uh," Jax said attempting to put his words together.

"It's fine boy, we all do things to survive," Ivo said seriously. "But it is important that you face reality and not repress those emotions. Take this as your first lesson, from master to student."

Jax smiled faintly. Ivo, while sometimes a rude and weird old man, was actually trying to help him. Maybe the old man wasn't so bad after all.

"Now that we got that out of the way, I suppose I should go over your results," Ivo said.

Jax quickly brightened up, watching Ivo expectantly for what the aptitude tests said. This would decide the path he would follow as a caster!

"Well, the thing is boy...." Ivo said before letting out a sigh.

"You have no aptitude for being a caster"

Huh?