This Is The Way

<<You may heal if you wish.>>

I braced myself against those piercing eyes to no avail. They opened in a flash, peering into my soul to take a look around before they retreated to gaze at a point just above my head.

<<What, no training today?>> Amun asked playfully. The first words he had spoken in days, while still at death's door.

<<No.>> I gestured to the end of the hall, eliciting a nod of understanding from Amun. But he said nothing more, despite being taken aback once we entered the Hall of Meditation.

'We could not be more different.' I mused once inside. The bioluminescent fungal garden was a common sight throughout the Mortal Plane's Underground. The only difference was the abundant Ki concentrated within, but Amun seemed enamored by it all, exploring every surface, corner, and crevasse with his senses, despite remaining by my side as we meandered to a vacant ring.

<<I must commend you,>> I began, though his senses still wandered. <<As does Abbot Eiriol. She says your human children are highly skilled. They have earned their yellow sashes already. Just as you have. More importantly, you have surpassed my standards and have mastered the tasks associated with obtaining your class, Monastic Defense and Monastic Movement. All while… debilitated. And in a mere nineteen days no less.>>

<<Thank you.>> Amun bowed. I was unsure if he was mocking me or if he was genuine. At least until he stood, laughing like a child. <<I had fun!>>

It was genuine all right. But my mind flew past that and latched onto the rows of sharp teeth filling his maw, cradling a disturbingly thin tongue.

<<What in the Hells are you?>> I blurted- in a murmur, but it may as well have been a scream. Still, Amun paid me little mind. He just rocked back and laughed harder until he wound down, stared at my gape expression until he grew bored, then went back to exploring the Hall with his senses after giving a careless shrug.

A bit embarrassed, I cleared my throat, acting as if I said nothing. <<You have reached the first step of your monastic way by refining your body to a point where it can use Ki without a detrimental effect. You have now awakened this power. Yet, your hold over it is wild and unrefined.

<<Therein lies the purpose for this Hall.>> I gestured around us. <<This and those like it are chambers of concentrated Ki. Ki, being the radiative energy that results from the cyclic absorption and emission of mana in all living things. Or, in your case, dead things.

<<Meditation, practice, and experience. These are the tools needed to build your first Ki Pond. The end of your training will see to it that eight of such Ponds will have formed, opened, and been linked together to make an incomplete circuit. Half of them will be imbued with your Necrotic Ki. However, the first to form will be one of the remaining four Natural Ki Ponds.

<<It is Natural Ki that is used for the Monastic Arts. Skills that you shall practice within these halls until your first Pond has formed. Now, drink.>> I gestured to a nearby stand, wherein a large bowl waited patiently.

Amun drank it without delay, and its taste seemed to elicit the first hints of emotion since his arrival.

Curiosity and amusement.

<<It tastes like onions and bananas.>> He commented mildly.

<<Those are the main ingredients, yes.>> I nodded placidly, then slowly took to the center of the ring. <<Now, watch closely.>>

With a deep breath, I let the Ki within me flow and, once again, his eyes snapped up just as the incorporeal fists of my true self took up their positions by my sides. I pushed the sight out of my mind quickly, willing the Ki to flow through my legs before I darted aside.

<<Skip with the Wind.>> I shouted between footholds. <<Empowered movement through the use of Ki.>> A single, swift movement later, and I was just behind the Champion, my leg arcing dangerously towards his ear.

His senses, however, were sharp. With an even quicker movement, an elbow was placed in the path of my leg, blocking my kick. But not what came after.

<<Furious Blows!>> I chanted once the drumroll of my fists ceased, and then I leaped back to take up a defensive posture with my back to him. The fires of Ki within me, however, burned brighter than any light.

From those fires, I sensed him approaching with the intent to kick low. A feint, but I did not react. I held my ground even after he spun backward into a round kick. I waited until the fires began to burn. Then I ducked, pivoted, and lunged my knee into the chin of the wide-eyed half-breed.

I felt a sick crunch radiate through my knee before the force sent him bouncing over the sand. But he only laughed while I started to continue my lesson, only for a billowing fire of blue to steal the air from my lungs.

I found myself taking an unconscious step back as I looked upon the dragon-eyed drow covered in ethereal blue flames, but then quickly steeled myself. He was only cycling Ki through his body, I reminded myself. But then again, cycling in response to such a blow was unheard of.

"What the fuck was that?"

Confused, by the sudden shift in language paired with Amun's amazed yet bemused expression, I could only shake my head for several moments before uttering. "Ki."

"No." He moved his gaze to that point above my head again. "That st- spirit of yours. The one shrouding you. It… fused its knee with yours. I've never seen an astral projection do that. Much less look like a… sphinx-man. That's not your soul. What is it?"

I was utterly frozen. Shocked. Nearly comatose. There was an answer, of course. After the Ki Ponds were linked, the traditional monastic skills took on aspects of the Monk's tradition. But… "I… i- it. It is my True Self. I am a Monk of the Astral Way. But… how can you see it? You saw it earlier, no? That was why you kept looking above my head."

"I see all types of shit." He casually waved the matter aside. "Ghosts, spirits, souls. The list goes on."

"Right," I said, not convinced in the slightest. However…<<We have no time for talk.>> I waved the slaves in with a sigh and stepped outside the ring. <<You are to practice these skills, Skip with the Wind, Furious Blows, Ki Sense, which I just showed you, and the skill our… distraction, prevented from being demonstrated, Quarrel Counter.

<<So, allow us a test of your learning aptitude!>> I shouted through the cavern- if only to divert any unseen and unwanted eyes away from me. <<You will use Ki Sense to either deflect or snatch projectiles from their flight. You may even send them back from whence they came, should you prove skillful enough.>>

Although he bowed in earnest, he seemed reluctant to face off against the waves of slaves. That was another oddity. He always seemed reluctant to fight them. Not fearful. Almost… remorseful. He would bow to them as well. And he would mutter some offering or prayer to them before they battled.

Yet, he showed them no mercy.

Orcs, goblins, humans, dwarves, duergars, elves. Any creature that met his eyes in that ring received two things from him. A few words and a gruesome death. Except for Minotaur, of course. Those seemed to always give him a run for his gold. As they did everyone.

However, there was another thing.

Perhaps it was born from an ego, unyielding confidence, or something else, but he insisted they use magic, manipulation, or whatever other abilities they had. Even going as far as to offer the removal of the Negstone chips embedded under their skin. But even if the matrons agreed, he killed them all without hesitation.

For two days, he meditated, drank porridge, and fought against the endless waves until, at last, his Ki Well formed. But it did not come easy. He struggled and struggled, taking the punishment for failure in battle stoically. As it only served to strengthen him.

***

Abbot Eiriol.

***

I believed I was done with children. After raising the last one, I never wanted anything to do with them. At least the young ones. The older ones could be educated and raised to become better, all without the… annoyances, that came with the little ones.

Of course, the young at the Bodhi Tree were hardly any older. But they at least had maturity. Most of them, anyway. But children. Young children. They were unruly. Disgusting. Vile. Rude. Utterly lacking in discipline. And most of all, useless.

It went without saying, but Amun was none of those things. Nor was he anything like his peers, the Bodhi Tree's Young. He was Telin's Champion. And among everyone in these caverns, only five knew what that truly meant.

I knew Amun, Telin's Champion, was infinitely more mature, intelligent, cunning, and wise than the so-called ever-wise Matron Mothers of Zimysta Falls. Much less the young at the Tree. He was composed, the epitome of discipline. Enlightened beyond compare. Polite unless provoked. Cunningly devious. Exceptionally elegant.

He was anything but useless. But more than anything else, he was unpredictable.

To come to my Monastery with four human children was certainly unexpected. To find them somewhat respectful, knowledgeable, and capable of focus was surely unexpected. So I took them under my wing anyway, for I knew; to be under Amun's care meant they were truly special. And special they were.

They took to fighting like vampires took to blood. They were agile. They were strong. They had endurance and strong constitutions. They had indomitable wills and sharp wits, hints of Amun's intelligence and seeds of his power flowing within them.

Especially the little stone-shattering monster. Iris Cole. An innocent-looking human child with brown skin and curly hair, dressed in a tunic that matched her sapphire eyes perfectly. She seemed to have boundless energy, being the first to approach me for lessons and being the last to leave, all but demanding to tell her stories of war and strategy. Yet, she slept still. Only to wake up stronger, somehow.

And then there was the Gerdian. Two years older than the little monster, she was, but her stature was that of someone twice her age. That alone was a hint of her divine ancestry. But the crimson hair, emerald eyes, and orange-tanned skin all but shouted her lineage at me. Unlike the Gerdian tales of old, though, she dressed in the formal slacks and jackets of the humans. And her name was Blude.

However, she still looked all the part of the arcane thieves native to Maru. Only, she was far from the desert. She was a quiet learner. An observer who wasn't afraid to ask questions, mostly about how the monastery was structured and operated. About healing and business or finance.

Quite interestingly, I learned she was a leader. Sam, the slender, tan-skinned girl with black hair was a culinary artist who took a liking to drow cuisine to an almost obsessive degree. That, and short blades. Redd had slightly darker skin than Sam, with a build somewhere between her and Blude. Her obsession lay within the architecture and machinations within the monastery, and little else.

Even as Amun's chosen, they exceeded my expectations by leaps and bounds, thus I gave them no coddling during their training and raised my expectations higher.

Day in and day out, I harnessed their abundant energy, infusing it with the ages of teaching experience I had accrued to perfect each movement, each step, each breath. I tempered their budding minds within the arcane libraries of the Halls, giving them knowledge no human other than the Necro King and the Iron Magus have set their eyes upon. I planted the seeds of pragmatic discipline present in the minds of all drow by merging meditation with practical exercises, supplanting impetuousness with vigilance in the span of two tendays.

Conversely, I made sure not to dampen their childish joy and innocence, no matter how annoying it was. Even without that haunting glare Amun gave me, I would not have dared, for his decision to allow them to remain as children was all the reasoning I needed. I made certain no one, not a single drow from the city below made it into this Hall. I ensured I left nothing unsaid. From the basic practices of martial arts to Amun's renown as Telin's Champion, I told them all.

For, no matter how selfish it may have been, I refused to allow anything but utter perfection to have such close ties to the Champion. Not if I had the power to do anything about it.

After all, I had already made that decision seventeen years before.