Red-Haired Beauty

Jax guided his master to the cave where he had found the blue crystals.

Descending once again, Jax saw the blue glowing crystals above the underground lake. Just as serene as before.

Ivo stood behind him and let out a small whistle.

"This is extremely pure Blue Laridrite," Ivo admired. "Good! This will be the perfect place not only for testing your aptitudes but also for my recovery."

Jax looked over in confusion.

"What do you mean by that?" Jax asked.

"Well you see boy, Blue Laridrite is just its scientific name, it actually has a more common name for us casters. Want to guess what it is?" Ivo teased.

"How could I guess that?" Jax thought, rolling his eyes.

He had never seen Blue Laridrite before coming to Mitte, how was he supposed to know what it was called?

"Blue Laridrite is also known also as, get this, Mana Crystals!" Ivo declared. "These crystals contain pure mana, and they only form in locations of high mana. This will be the perfect supplement to my healing and your training."

The blue crystals glimmered overhead, illuminating the dark cave, and reflecting a blue glow off of the water below.

Ivo began moving his hands again in various signs before speaking the same strange language. This time, rather than a bolt of lightning, a path of stone rose from the lake, leading to a circular platform in the center. Ivo led Jax towards the center, indicating for him to lay down.

"Let me explain the aptitude test briefly. You will lay here in a trance while I test various aspects of your body and soul. This will help me tell what path to guide you on, as well as what your strong suits and weaknesses are. It is very long and frankly, I will be exhausted after, but these crystals will help mitigate the power burden. As for the trance..." Ivo trailed off.

He looked lightly distressed, as if in pain.

"Well in the trance you will see various things. Happy and sad memories, painful experiences, good friends, and.... loved ones."

A sad look appeared this time in Ivo's eyes. He sat like this for a moment, before returning to his usual self.

"There's also the possibility you will see things that you have never experienced. Visions of the past and future. There have even been instances where casters in training spoke to others over vast distances." Ivo said.

"Now lay down, relax your mind and body, and I will enter you into the trance. Don't be afraid, but you will not be able to awake until the process is done... actually go use the bathroom beforehand, I don't want to clean up if you cause a mess during this test."

It seemed that Ivo had seen others soil themselves during the aptitude test, and didn't want to experience that for himself. Neither did Jax.

...

After making all preparations, Jax laid down on the stone floor and closed his eyes. He slowed his breathing and relaxed as much as he could.

"I will now begin. See you on the other side boy," Ivo said.

Jax lay waiting until he felt as though he was falling asleep.

Waking up, Jax saw nothing but darkness around him.

Almost.

He could visibly see his own body as if there was light shining on it, but nothing but a black expanse surrounded him in every direction. Jax also felt as though he was floating, but not in the same way as being in space. He was affixed to one location but felt no weight coming from gravity. The sensation made Jax feel slightly nauseous.

After a while of floating in the dark, the surroundings around Jax changed.

Suddenly he was back on the cargo ship he used to work on. Except he was watching himself from above, as a bird would its prey. Soon the ship's alarm went off, just as it had done the day of the raid. Jax followed his body, watching the chaos again. This time he actually managed to see Alec swept away by the crowd towards the escape pods. He could faintly hear Alec calling his name, growing quieter in the distance.

"So he must have been swept away into the escape pods..." Jax muttered.

His closest friend had perished in the raid. Jax wanted to confirm Alec's death, but he was stuck watching his own body, laying there from the pain of being trampled by his coworkers.

Soon the scene continued much the same as before, leading to the point where Jax hid in the container of grain.

This time he got a good look at the fat man and scruffy man, whose voices he had heard at the time.

The fat man, had teal blue skin, with large yellow eyes, similar in style to a cat. The strangest part about him was the large afro he wore on his head. His whole look was strange, especially with how he jostled as he moved.

As for the scruffy man, he wore a pair of large goggles, as if he was about to go scuba diving. He also had a small goatee on his chin and walked slightly hunched over. Other than that, he seemed like a regular human.

Jax made sure to burn their images into his head. He would try and find them after he got off Mitte, and he swore to pay them back tenfold for the pain he went through.

Finally, after the scene played out a while longer, the boss of the pirates came forward. Jax remembered the boss sounded like a beautiful woman, and his guess was dead on. With bright wavy red hair hanging down to her shoulders and pale white skin, the pirate boss had a gorgeous figure. Jax would have believed if someone claimed she was a supermodel. She wore a dark gray leathery jacket with white fur around the collar. The jacket was unbuttoned, revealing a white shirt below, and a golden necklace peeking out around her neck. She also wore baggy black cargo pants, topped with equally black combat boots. The only other notable feature was a silver-colored pauldron on her left shoulder, seemingly attached to the jacket. The woman looked young, most likely somewhere in her mid-twenties.

"Ahem, well maybe I can be a little lenient towards the pirates when I find them. Maybe only twofold the pain I suffered" Jax said blushing.

Beautiful women were always a weakness for Jax. He just believed men should be chivalrous around such pretty women.

Jax watched as the pirates once again loaded him into the airlock with other containers, before launching him out again to space. The anger he felt watching this again, made Jax promise to hunt down these bastards the moment he could.

...

Of course, except for the red-haired beauty, she was the only exception.