3 Chapter 3

By the time Sezha finally made it to the base of the rocky slope, the fleshy parts of his hands were raw with blisters; it had been a long, strenuous descent.

Sezha glanced down at his battered palms and sighed. His hands looked to have aged a decade. If Mother saw him now, she'd give him an earful on the proper appearances of a noble. Or would she even care anymore? It was hard to tell sometimes, with her empty eyes always looking around for Yunan.

He shook himself out of his thoughts. Thoughts of his family could come after he managed to escape the artificial world.

The landscape here looked virtually the same as above, except for the leafless, coral-like branches growing out from the tiny crevices in the earth. Sezha paused to stare at one. The tips of its branches seemed to sway rhythmically back and forth. He knelt down to touch it, but the strange shrub drew back from his fingers before retreating into its crevice.

"The way you are now, you don't stand a chance," a melodious voice said. "I suppose you could run from the Hunter. Shoot straight for the exit if you can find it. But better men have tried, and failed, for that matter."

Sezha glanced up at the beautiful woman standing over him. Somehow, her appearing out of thin air wasn't so strange anymore.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Sezha asked, picking himself up from the ground.

"Isn't it obvious? You'll have to get stronger. Strong enough to end the miserable existence of that beast. And fortunately, I'm offering you my guidance."

"Is there a catch?" Sezha asked, suspicion flashing across his dark eyes.

"Naturally," she replied, folding her arms. "There's always a catch. I'll help you slay the Hunter, then you'll help me leave this heaven-forsaken realm. A mutually beneficial exchange."

Sezha frowned. "You can train me? I don't mean to offend, but you don't seem very—"

"The first rule of the Divine Path," the Prime interrupted, "is to never judge a tiger by the size of its fangs. Appearances lie. I've known children half your age and size who can easily break your spine with a single punch. What will it be, boy?"

"I don't have any talent," Sezha muttered, casting his gaze down at his shoes. "The tutors said it wasn't possible for me."

"You must be in love with the sound of your excuses," she huffed. "Whatever third-rate tutors you've met in the past can't even hold a candle to me. Years ago, at the wave of my hand, thousands would line up to beg me for tutelage. You should consider yourself fortunate."

"Fine," Sezha said, brushing the dust off his sleeves. "if you're so confident in your ability to teach, then make me strong. I'll put my trust in you."

"That's quite the fine spirit you got there. But we'll see how long it lasts. Steel yourself because I won't take it easy on you. If you want a decent chance at beating the Hunter, you'll have to work for it." The Prime touched her lips thoughtfully. "But before all that, we need to get the Hunter off your trail."

"The Hunter?"

"I'll tell you more about him once you're ready." The Prime sighed. "Only the heavens know when that'll be. Now onwards, disciple! Your safe haven awaits!" With a broad grin on her face, she started marching away from the slope of boulders.

Sezha stared at her incredulously. "More walking?" he asked, his heart sinking. "I thought we were done with all that."

The Prime scoffed. "Cease with the complaints," she demanded with not even so much as a glance back at him. "You're not sleeping in silk sheets anymore, boy. You're my disciple now. Get over yourself and start walking."

Muttering a variety of foul, colorful curses under his breath, Sezha followed after her. What other choice did he have?

. . .

Sezha studied the ring of tall iron bars that converged upwards at a single point. It was a massive birdcage, he realized. But what was it supposed to be holding? The gaps in between the bars were wide enough for Sezha to easily slip through them.

"Welcome to my grand abode," the Prime announced, brushing a loose strand of hair from her forehead. "Although at this point, I've started to consider this entire realm my home. Not much for me to do here but wander aimlessly." In a smaller, grimmer voice, she added, "I must've circumnavigated this damned place a million times over, and all on foot too."

Sezha looked around the giant cage and frowned. "How does someone even survive here?" he asked. "Where do you sleep? Can you find food here? Where does your water come from?"

"You'll see soon enough," the Prime said. She gestured to the center of the cage. A shriveled corpse sat curled up in a ball there, a sword shoved in the crook of his arms. He wore the faded garments of a soldier, along with a dented steel skullcap at his feet. "Greet your predecessor, boy."

"Predecessor?" Sezha asked, studying the corpse thoughtfully. His leather tunic had been pierced by something. But not by a blade. "What do you mean?"

"You are not the first to consider fighting back. And if you perish here, you will not be the last. I suppose this is my punishment."

"Punishment for what?"

The Prime froze, and for the briefest of moments, she looked vulnerable, unsure of herself. Then, her face reassumed the mask of noble arrogance. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with," she said. "Now pick the blade up. We do not have much time. Although the Hunter generally avoids this region, I'd rather not put it to the test."

Careful as to not touch the corpse, Sezha lifted the sword up by the hilt with a grimace.

"Give it a try."

Sezha scowled at her. "I've never used one of these before." He held up the sword to examine. The blade was sharp on both edges, and it was nothing like the crude iron Sezha had seen in the hands of wandering mercenaries and his father's guards. Even Moji's sword, forged by the finest smith in Cheng-Kai, didn't seem as impressive anymore. The hilt was without any engravings or embellishments, but it only added to its rustic charm.

"At the very least, you can recognize quality," the Prime said. "It was forged by the very person that locked me away in it."

"You're locked away in the sword?" Sezha asked, awkwardly slashing away at the air. "How is that possible, Prime Nara?"

The Prime gave him an unreadable look, then an exact replica of the sword formed in her hands. "Now, watch closely," she ordered. "This is your first lesson."

She held the sword upright in one hand, the other held behind her back. Sezha cocked his head. He had never seen the stance before, granted he was hardly well versed in swordsmanship.

"The foundation of any half-decent swordsman is their stance," The Prime said, lunging forward by pushing off her back foot. "Too many rely on abusing their techniques without any regard to the basics. Amateurs like them will never make it far on the Path." She clicked her tongue at Sezha. "Don't just stand there. Mirror me."

Sezha sighed and imitated her stance.

"Lunge," she called.

"Isn't this a little too basic?" Sezha muttered, pushing off the ground just as she had done. "Even a child can do something like this."

The Prime shrugged. "You asked for my guidance," she said. "No more complaints out of you. Or do I need to treat you like a child? Now, give me a hundred more lunges back and forth."

If I'm recalling correctly, you're the one who offered, Sezha grumbled inwardly. But not wanting to appear ungrateful, he reluctantly did as she asked.

After some considerable time lunging back and forth, the Prime had set Sezha on a series of exercises, lunge, strike, parry, repeat. And for a person like Sezha, who was never physically gifted, every moment of it was torture on his already ragged body.

But that was the point of it, his strict mentor had explained. His body was like an old, rusty sword. To properly reforge it, he needed to melt it all down.

"You're hardly the best student I've had," the Prime said. "But we'll make a proper swordsman out of you, yet."

"So, what exactly is the Hunter?" Sezha asked, crouched down in the battle stance he had been taught, trails of sweat running down his bare chest. He lunged forward, thrusting the tip of his blade upwards. "If I'm going to have to kill him, I should at least know the details beforehand."

"Well, to start, the Hunter is probably unlike anything you've seen before." the Prime said, leaning against an iron bar. "It'd be easier to just show you, but unfortunately for us, that's not an option right now. The most important thing to remember when facing that beast is to not freeze up. Stick to what I teach you. And most importantly, don't let him catch you. Be agile, be swift." She clicked her tongue. "Enough talk. It's time to move on."

Sezha nodded grimly, straightening up. "What's next?"

The Prime smirked wryly. "Are you up for more climbing?"

. . .

Sezha glanced down at the seemingly endless cave with a grimace. It had been hidden underneath a rock shelf. Without the Prime's assistance, Sezha would've never noticed its existence. "You're jesting. I'm ready to train more. How is this supposed to help me fight the Hunter?"

"Unfortunately, I'm not," the Prime said, her pretty face deadpan. She looked down at him from the rock shelf, sitting with her legs to the side. "How long do you expect to go without sustenance? Have you even considered you might need to replace all the fluid you've been losing? All this work to fall dead from starvation? That would be quite the absurd end."

"There can't possibly be food down there," Sezha grumbled.

"Stop simply looking with your eyes, and start seeing the world with your mind," the Prime said scornfully, jumping down from the shelf. "There's food everywhere if you know where to look for it." She gestured to one of the strange leafless shrubs growing out of the ground. "The Tulwood Shrub. Did you know their roots can grow up to hundreds of meters? Now, why would that be?"

Sezha put his finger to his chin, his brows furrowed in thought. "Because they get their water from underground?"

The Prime brought her hand up to her cheek and sighed. "See how the world opens up when you just think?"

But she hadn't been finished with just that.

For the next several hours, the Prime dragged him all over the artificial world. And more than that, she taught him how to survive. Where the edible lichens grew, and how to harvest them. Which regions the Hunter patrolled and which he avoided.

Finally, the Prime allowed him to rest his feet underneath the shade of a large rock formation. Sezha looked up at the sky, his back against the blissfully cool stone. It seemed no matter how much time passed in the artificial world, the night never came.

"Say," Sezha asked out loud, wiping his brow. "Do you think me a fool?"

He was met by silence. The Prime seemed to have a habit of wandering off when he wasn't looking.

"I dragged innocent men into this," Sezha continued. "I don't know if they're outside waiting for me or if they were warped here as well. That fraud of a sage knew this would happen. I was naive."

With a soft groan, he picked himself up from the ground and stretched his arms out to the sky. No use dwelling on it now. Focus on what you can do.

"Done dawdling?" The Prime appeared from around the rock.

"I wish you'd stop doing that," Sezha muttered. He slung his sword over his shoulder. "How do you even do that, anyway? Warping all over the place like a phantom."

The Prime shrugged innocently. "I'm merely a projection. Like I said earlier, my physical body is locked away within that sword. What you're seeing is just light that has been tampered with. But that's not important." She pursed her lips into a thin line. "Do I think you a fool? Yes, but I suppose, in a way, I'm the bigger fool for having to depend on one."

Sezha took a deep breath. He despised his current situation—he despised the sage that had tricked him— and most of all, he despised himself for being so naive. "What else do you have to teach me?" he asked the Prime. "I'm sick of this place. The sooner I kill that damn thing hunting me, the sooner I can go back to sleeping in my silk sheets, right? I'm sure you have things to do outside as well."

"As a matter of fact, I do." The Prime placed her hands on her hips. "Very well. Give me a hundred lunges, then we'll work through the sword forms."