1 Painful Departure

24th day of Tukruk (4th month of the Janaea Calendar)

Year 991

Kingdom of Ragha

With heavy steps and a heavy heart, Blink plodded along the dusty pathway towards the mountain.

He heard the threatening hiss of a desert serpent. It was hiding under a bush about two meters from the well-beaten path.

Blink wondered why a serpent should be out at daybreak.

Blink sauntered towards it. With his mind broken by indescribable sadness, the young martial arts disciple momentarily lost all will to go on.

"Perhaps this deadly serpent can take me out of my misery," he mumbled to himself.

However, as Blink approached the bush, the serpent seemed to lose its belligerence. When he stood right in front of the snake, it laid quietly at his feet.

"Poor thing," Blink uttered. "Must be broken hearted, too."

Blink turned towards the Ragha Martial Academy. He was about five hundred meters away from its gate. The young man could not help but to release the overwhelming sadness he was trying so hard to supress in front of the two persons who, like him, had considered the academy as their home.

For the first time the sixteen-year old felt the intensity of his loss. The tears streamed down his cheeks. He tried to suppress a moan but ended up wailing instead. He held his knees, wanting to kneel on the dusty ground but controlled the urge.

The two most important people in his life were still standing by the gate. He didn't want them to sense his anguish. He was quite sure Flip and Berge would be out of sorts for a while and only the fact that he seemed to take it well was keeping them from totally losing their self-control.

Flip waived his hand to him. Berge wanted to waive her hand, too, but suddenly withdrew it as she covered her face with both hands, her shoulders bobbing up and down. Meanwhile, Flip was furiously wiping his eyes with the sleeves of his training robe.

Blink scanned the academy once more. His eyes settled on a small but elegantly designed wooden building behind the training grounds. It was their master's office and residence.

"Master, what's to become of me now?" he wailed. He wanted nothing more than to see his master come out and call him back.

"I'll gladly be everyone's punching bag. I really don't care. Just let me stay, Master. I don't want to go, Master."

He wasn't screaming like someone turned mad by sadness. But it did not mean his pain was any less. Right then his heart was being crushed and pricked at the same time. He could also feel his chest compressing, choking the breath out of him.

For Blink, dying didn't sound so bad.

He was regarded as an outstanding martial arts genius who casually beat older practitioners who had begun their training two years ahead of him. Then, their instructors were constantly befuddled by his unmatched prowess in sparring sessions. However, their master had somehow suspected something after realizing that Blink wasn't getting faster or stronger. This was during his fifth year in the academy. He was 14 at the time.

After carefully observing every sparring session for close to a month, Headmaster Tszarek saw through Blink's secret. He wasn't a talented martial artist but rather a master of deduction. What sets him apart as a fighter was his peerless intelligence and unerring calculation. After the boost he received from entering adolescence, his strength and agility had stagnated while everyone else kept improving. He could still win in a fight against his schoolmates, but with increasing difficulty. Pretty soon, his disadvantages in strength and speed would simply be too much even for his god-like anticipation and brilliant fighting mind.

Blink knew that the headmaster had found him out. It was obvious from the way he looked his way with the utmost concern. He had also figured that Master Tszarek's constant disparagement of him was just the headmaster's way of telling him to work harder in training and be more careful in combat.

One day, his master ordered Blink to spar against the top five students of the academy. He won against all of them. However, there was a moment when he had to dig really deep against the last fighter and even then he only won after risking it all on a forward punch that somehow connected ahead of his opponent's spinning reverse heel kick.

Their master lauded the performance clapping vigorously. But in his heart, he felt a deep sorrow.

After saying a few words to his disciples in which he praised Blink in front of them many times, the master dismissed everyone but asked Blink to follow him to his office.

The other disciples all felt confused.

"Why is master asking Blink to follow him?" said one.

"He probably wants to lecture him alone."

"That doesn't make sense. He has always criticized Blink in front of us."

"Yeah, it gets so you'd think winning against all of us is a bad thing."

"I noticed that too. Master is always patient with us but would never let Blink off with the slightest mistake. Makes me wonder if Master has a secret grudge with someone from Blink's family."

"Oh, yes! You remember when Blink lured Larq by retreating and wincing at every attack he managed to block such that Larq thought he had got Blink in trouble?"

"And he suddenly spun while crouching down then crushed Larq's ribcage with an upward elbow strike. Who could ever forget that? That was a classic. I wish I could use that same technique on an enemy on the battlefield someday."

"That Blink sure is one sly fellow," Larq said rubbing the part where he took Blink's elbow."

"You gotta admit it was one sweet move."

"But do you guys remember what Master said that time?"

"How can I forget? He said, 'Do you intend to bet on your luck all the time?' Whew! Even I thought Master was being harsh."

"Do you also remember what Master said when Blink…"

And just like that the disciples talked about the various times over the past several years when their master scolded Blink for doing something they all wished they could have thought of.

After the disciples have all exhausted their recollections of Blink's feats in their sparring sessions, the place they were standing on seemed to have transformed into hallowed grounds. They all looked at the retreating figure of their favorite fellow disciple.

They could all sense something off this time. For some reason they had become misty-eyed without knowing why.

"Why did Master keep praising Blink today?" Larq broke the silence. He sounded like someone grieving.

"I wish I knew," some of the others replied. They all sounded like they were about to lose something important.

Before reaching the headmaster's office, Blink stopped and turned his gaze towards them. His eyes fell on the one person who had kept him going throughout the toughest moments of his life as a martial arts disciple. It was for her that he could endure the years after knowing his talent for martial arts had exhausted itself.

Berge.

As their gazes locked onto each other, Blink smiled but his eyes betrayed his sadness. Having mutual feelings for each other, Berge felt her heart getting crushed by that lonely look from the boy with whom she had shared her hopes and dreams for a future filled with love and great expectations.

Tears started gushing out of Berge's eyes. She abruptly turned away and ran before the others noticed her.

The chattering disciples were startled upon noticing Berge run away.

"Can someone please explain to me what happened just now between those two lovebirds?" Snap, the weakest among the five disciples who just sparred with Blink, scratched his head.

For once the rowdy group of vocal, highly-opinionated martial artists had nothing to say.

As the red afterglow from the sun gave way to dusk, everybody headed towards their dormitories. The training ground looked desolate at that moment except for some dust that got stirred by some random breeze.