6 The Trigram of Light

King Ronan invited Arielle to leave the Frostberry tree.

"Do you want to see the Cathedral?" Ronan offered.

Arielle looked back at the delicious Frostberries. She wanted to continue eating those fruits, but King Ronan stopped her. Arielle nodded.

Ronan stretched out his hand, which Arielle then accepted. The girl wrapped her thick coat more tightly as the wind blew harder.

The Cathedral in Northendell Palace looked very different from the Cathedral in Nieverdell. Nieverdell Cathedral was intended for prayer and other blessing activities. Because of how it is used for occasional activities, the Nieverdell Cathedral building was only small in size.

It was also rarely visited by the royal family. Only once a year during the blessings of the king's birthday. In contrast to Northendell Cathedral, which was very spacious. The size of the Cathedral itself was almost as large as other palace buildings.

At Northendell, Cathedral became a center for prayers as well as research. Priests were responsible for training future priests. In addition to being God's hand to bless mankind, priests were taught to harness the energy of nature.

Northendells could survive for hundreds of years in these cold temperatures because they were protected by natural energy. Although the sun never appeared in the north, the priests could use the light to warm the entire kingdom.

Arielle looked at one of the students, who was wearing a robe and a white hat, and stretched out his arms, then slowly a trigram sphere appeared above his hand.

"What is he doing?" asked Arielle.

"He is training to form trigrams of light."

"Trigram of light?"

Ronan invited Arielle to walked deeper into the cathedral. In a hall-shaped room, five people sat watching the trigram sphere float to the middle of the room. The trigram ball was large, emitting a light that formed a picture of the royal lands above the Foresham continent.

"The trigram goes around the globe. Then the little red circle is the sun."

Arielle raised her head to see a smaller sphere flying over the Kingdom in the East.

The priests who were guarding the trigram of the globe were surprised by King Ronan's sudden appearance. Priest Elis approached him to pay his respects. Priest Elis was one of the main priests in charge of the Cathedral of the world trigram division.

"Princess Arielle wants to see the world's Trigrams," said Ronan.

"Then allow me to explain, Your Majesty."

Ronan permitted Elis to go ahead of him. Then, Ronan and Arielle listened to the explanation from Priest Elis regarding the bending of light using trigrams.

"The sunlight has not touched the northern plains for two hundred years. When the globe is evolving, and in time the sun is over Northendell, we never get to see it. It was as if there was an invisible layer that kept the sun out of our region. And when the earth rotates during the day, we only get a dim light, no matter how clear the sky is."

"As Your Highness sees now, at noon, the sky looks clear, there are no clouds at all. However, Northendell's sky still looks grey. That's why we manipulate the flow of light to increase the intensity of the light we get."

"Is it… magic?"

Ronan couldn't help but smile when he saw Priest Elis' surprised face.

"Ah… we call it science, Your Highness." The priest explained with a smile. "The position of the trigram does not only consist of scribbles of letters, numbers, or images. "

He added, "The body of every human being has hidden mana. When successfully released, the mana can be used to form a trigram. While each trigram curve will reflect light in its own way. What the Princess is seeing right now is a trigram of light."

Priest Elis rubbed his hands, and a small trigram appeared on his wrist. Then, a bright light emerged from his palm.

"Well… then besides light, what other trigrams are there?"

"Everything in the world. We harness the power of nature. Geothermal, for example. If Your Highness saw a fountain near the palace, perhaps you would wonder why the water was warm? It was because a priest was working to warm them up. Also the wind, water, and fire…."

Arielle turned to Ronan quickly. "Can I see everything?"

"Unfortunately, in the north, we are only able to manipulate light and geothermal. The mana in our body adapts to the environment. Northendell is a dark and cold place, so our bodies naturally adapt to create their own heat and seek out the light."

Ronan added, "In Thebis, a kingdom full of deserts, the natural conditions forced the bodies of the inhabitants there to generate water mana. It is following the calling of nature in each place."

"Then why is there no priest in Nieverdell who has mastered the Trigram science?"

"Because Nieverdell has it all. You have abundant natural resources. There are no extreme conditions that force them to open the flow of mana in the body. The priests there still study trigrams but only in theory…."

Arielle still felt dissatisfied. For some reason, she felt very interested in studying the trigram, but she knew her mana flow wasn't open yet. She looked at her palms curiously.

"One day, will my mana stream get released too?" she wondered.

A hand cupped her hand. Ronan then placed his index finger on Arielle's palm, making the girl stunned.

"Opening a mana stream is not something that happens easily. Only a few special people who have passed through extreme conditions can activate it. Priest Elis had experienced being buried in the snow for a long time, causing him to suffer from hypothermia for weeks. In the end, the mana flow in his body opened and produced light to warm his own body."

Arielle's body shuddered to hear it. She tightened his coat, feeling that she would not be as strong as Priest Elis. The cold made her feel uncomfortable.

"Your Majesty… can we see the chapel or prayer hall?" asked Arielle.

"With pleasure."

Before leaving the trigram hall, Arielle touched Priest Elis' hand.

"Priest Elis, thank you for your hard work so far. "

Elis looked at his hand that was touched by Arielle. His eyes widened in astonishment, and there was a flash of disbelief in them. His body felt much warmer as if he got energized by a new power.

The priest felt refreshed as he looked at Arielle in confusion. The man opened the trigram in his hand again. His eyes suddenly widened in disbelief when he saw a much brighter light emitting from his palm.

***