• Training and Truce

A loud banging on his door dragged him away from his sleep. Spheris rolled over, his body feeling extremely weak and his head aching dreadfully.

Trying to get up, he realized that he was lying on the floor. 'Ugh!' he groaned in his thoughts. 'I finally get a good bed to lie on and I still fall asleep on the floor.'

He looked around the room, confused. 'How did I fall asleep anyway?'

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The noise on his door came again but before he could get up to reply, his door swung open.

"Avatar!" Ardion yelled as he stuck his head into Spheris's room. "It's six thirty bright. Take a wash and come downstairs for your sessions. There is a uniform in that drawer to your left. That is what you will wear."

"Okay," Spheris mumbled as he got to his feet.

Ardion watched him for a second. "Why were you on the floor?" he asked.

"I uh... I roll a lot."

The guard narrowed his eyes at him. "Is that so?"

"Yeah," Spheris replied unconvincingly.

"I see," the guard nodded. "Thirty minutes!" He slammed the door hard and left.

'Gosh, what a character.' Spheris sighed, pulling out the drawer and taking a look at the uniform. It was a simple plain gray shirt and trousers.

"Ugh," he groaned as his head ached harder. Why did it feel like he was forgetting something? Something important?

He gave up with a sigh, flung the uniform on his bed and proceeded to take his bath.

- ☯ -

Day 1 - First Session - Understanding Essence

The five Avatars were lined up before Grengo in their gray training uniforms. It was a cold morning, just like every other morning in Endswatch.

Leaves fell constantly from the tall bergvel tree, decorating the ground in its green and yellow. The wind was in excess, the atmosphere was humid and yet the tension was high.

Grengo had with him a large book and a quill as he stood with his hands in the back, like judge and executioner. Ardion, who was wearing the shiny helmet once again, stood by his side.

"As there are three levels attainable to a Mage, there are also five levels for a Bearer." Grengo began. "The Novice Bearer, code name NVC is the stage every single one of you is in right now. An NVC only has basic control over their powers and can manipulate it in the simplest forms.

"The stronger your Essence gets, the more Influences you unlock, and by unlocking these Influences, your rank as a Bearer increases."

Ardion walked up to the Avatars and started sharing a round metallic object with the symbol of a pentagram and stars.

Spheris gave his a long hard gaze, trying to decipher what it was.

"The object in your hand right now is a glyph. It measures your power in Influence Points and gives you a rank according to the results," Grengo revealed. "Hold it over your chest so you can be registered into its ranking system."

Spheris carefully held it over his chest as instructed. He heard a whirring sound from the glyph and a red magical light blared on his chest as the object continued to whir.

[Registration Complete] The glyph announced. [Power - Umbrage Manipulation]

[Power Level - 10ip]

[Power Rank - Novice Bearer]

[Influences Unlocked - Zero]

[Power Potential - Undetermined]

Spheris frowned. He didn't need to be told that his assessment wasn't that impressive, especially when he heard Snow-Hair's glyph rank him at 40ip and Thorin's rank him at a 45.

He didn't hear what Blondie and Quiet Girl's levels were but he could tell by the looks that everyone gave him that his was definitely the lowest.

Not that it mattered. They were all ranked Novice in that end.

"Fifth Wing Representative, step forward!" Grengo ordered.

Snow-Hair advanced to the center of everyone, standing proud and ready to carry on whatever was needed of him in this session.

"You are Celestial Glacius's Temple, Representative of his Wing. What powers were you granted by the Celestial?" Grengo questioned.

"Ice Manipulation," he replied.

"A highly functional, formidable and deadly power," Grengo explained. "Give me a demonstration of what you can do with it so far."

Ardion placed a human shaped punching bag in front of Snow-Hair who took deep breaths as he readied himself. Spheris watched scornfully with his arms folded.

Snow-Hair took a balanced and grounded position. His feet were shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent as he took one final deep breath. Then he struck the punching bag with a careful yet strong force.

The bag only shook a little in response to the force. Spheris raised a brow. 'So all of that was for nothing?'

But then a blue force ejected from Snow-Hair's fist and struck the bag with speed and force, sending it flying and crashing to the wall. Spheris's eyes widened. That was exactly what had happened to him yesterday. It was the exact same move Snow-Hair had done to throw him against the bookshelf.

Nero grinned proudly. "I call that Late To The Party."

"Interesting," Grengo approved. "Using the force of ice as a delayed strike to compliment your hits. Quite effective. You should refrain on using it against your fellow humans though."

Snow-Hair glanced at Spheris, realizing what the Mage was referring to.

"The heart is very vulnerable to cold."

Snow-Hair bowed. "Yes, Meister."

"No need to bow to me, I am not a god." the Mage said. "Next! Forth Wing Representative, step forward!"

Throughout the session, Spheris learnt a lot of new things concerning his fellow Avatars. Snow-Hair was from the Fifth Wing, his father was the Duke, and the Celestial of the Fifth Wing was Glacius whose Essence was inside him. His powers were Ice Manipulation.

Quiet Girl was from the Fourth Wing, her father was the Duke of the Wing and the Celestial who owned the Fourth Wing was Atomos. His Essence gave her the powers of Force Manipulation.

Same thing applied for Blondie and Thorin who were children of the Dukes of the Third and Second Wing respectively. Blondie's Celestial was Atlant and Thorin's was Helios. They both had powers of Water Manipulation and Fire Manipulation respectively.

Each of them had an interesting style of sampling their powers. Just like Snow-Hair's Delayed Strike, Quiet Girl had lifted a rock from the ground with a red mystical force, Thorin had roasted a stick of marshmallows which everyone except Spheris thought was funny, and Blondie had simply compelled water out of a flagon.

They weren't the most flamboyant or impressive usage of power if you asked Spheris, but what could he do? He had no idea how Umbrage Manipulation could even work.

"My apologies," Meister Grengo said to him after he had stood there for a shameful considerable amount of time. "I forgot that you were only introduced to all of this yesterday. The other Avatars have been training for this their entire lives."

Spheris sighed inwardly. He suspected the Mage had done it on purpose, as some kind of lesson or something.

"I will give you a day to come up with something, so at least I can know you can manipulate your given element."

Spheris cocked his head. "You're giving me a day? These guys had their entire lives to prepare for this yet all they can do is roast marshmallows, and you're giving me a day?"

"The Convergence Ceremony is in two days, lad," Grengo replied. "I understand your frustration, but we do not have any time to spare. Don't you forget, you brought this upon yourself."

Spheris's gaze fell defeatedly.

"Session is adjourned for today!" The Mage announced. "Enjoy the rest of your day."

The Mage vanished into thin air once again, leaving an annoyed Spheris in front of the entire Avatars and the guard.

Spheris glanced back at them, catching Snow-Hair chuckling, he grunted and stomped back inside the mansion.

An overwhelming sense of anger and confusion wanted to swallow him. What was going on? How did he end up in this situation? Completely surrounded by the people he hated the most; learning that there is a power of a Celestial inside of him; a quest into a deadly realm where likelihood of death is extremely high.

"Ugh!" he punched the door, surprisingly not feeling any pain. He cursed the night Dunnam appeared with that heist proposition, he cursed the Gorgolith, Nephta, every single thing that led to him being in this strange place.

Most importantly, he missed his mother.

Spheris sat on the last step of the creaky stairs, hands on his face in frustration. Umbrage Manipulation, huh? Umbrage meant darkness didn't it? How can he manipulate umbrage when it's morning!?

"Hey!"

Spheris removed his hands from his face and lifted his gaze. To his surprise, Blondie was standing in front of him, hands on her hip as she looked down at him stoically. Thorin was with her.

"What do you want?" Spheris asked.

"Thorin told you my name, did he not?" she said. "Do you remember it?"

Spheris narrowed his eyes at the question. "Yes, Cerene."

She cocked her head in approval. "Okay, well Thorin and I were talking, and we realized that you are right. Either you trust all of us or none of us."

Spheris slowly got up to his feet, staring her down like a target to kill. "You are the reason that I'm here in the first place."

Cerene rolled her eyes. "You attacked me in my room."

"I did no such thing, you attacked me."

"What else did you exp—"

"Cerene?" Thorin cautioned her. She glanced at him and then sighed, calming herself.

"Look, we don't have to like each other, but at least we should learn to work together," she said. "We have to put our differences aside if we want to survive The Abyss."

"And what does working together entail?" Spheris asked in his usually calmer tone. "That I do whatever it is you Royal Gentlefolks ask?"

"No, that we are a team," she asserted. "Me, Thorin, Akemi, Nero, and you. A team. Right, guys?"

Cerene turned to Akemi, who simply shrugged. "Okay." Her voice was so tiny, Spheris understood why she didn't talk a lot.

Then Cerene turned to Nero, who looked as disputable as ever. Seeing Cerene's gaze, he sighed. "Look, if you guys want to work together with the Heathian, fine by me. But let's not get this confused, we're not friends."

"Well, I guess that's good enough," Cerene decided. "Now it's up to you, are you with us or not?"

Spheris folded his arms and gazed at the Avatars, it felt like that night in the alley all over again.