Tests of Importance

Sana and Kenta continued spending time together for hours until they were interrupted by one of the guards, who reminded her that it was time to return to the mansion.

She left after hugging him one more time and hurried home. Her parents made sure she was prepared for the test by making her take another bath and helping her dress in the appropriate formal wear. Just half an hour after completing the preparations her uncle called for them.

Striding through the familiar halls should have calmed her down but it didn't seem to be able to set her at ease. Only when she thought of her friend's confident smile did she finally manage to calm down.

Eventually, they arrived in front of a large wooden gate with intricate carvings depicting a mountain, the top obscured by clouds. Two guards were positioned on either side of the gate, and from her lessons, Sana knew both were Martial Knights. Even her clan didn't have many Martial Knights, which showcased the importance of the room or, more precisely, the object within.

The guards bowed to her parents and opened the doors without hesitation. She entered after her parents and the guards shut the doors behind them.

The room had no windows, just a white circle in the ceiling that gave off a gentle uniform glow. Her uncle stood at the end of the room before a strange apparatus set low against the wall. She hurried after her parents who never lost their stride.

"Good, you have arrived," her uncle began. He stepped aside and showed the object behind him. It looked like five glass spheres connected with each other in a circle with an additional bigger sphere in the middle connected to the smaller five. On each if the spheres was etched a different symbol she couldn't read. She only recognized the symbol on the middle sphere as the character for "Qi" in the Immortal Script because Kenta wouldn't stop showing her his research into Immortals.

In front of the contraption lay a mat made of a strange plant-matter she dimly recalled as bamboo from her lessons. All in all, everything in this room seemed strange compared to the rest of their compound.

Her uncle, noticing her examination of the room was finished, continued, "This tool was given to us by the Cloudsea Sect in order for us to find those among us who can protect this city from the dangers outside the walls. And even those few who can join them into becoming Immortals themselves."

Her uncle seemed even colder than usual and no expression could be seen on his face as he pointed towards the bamboo mat. "You will sit on this mat and put both of your hands on the center node. Afterwards, I will guide you further." With that he stopped talking and instead simply watched her in silence.

Sana awoke from her temporary daze by the feeling of a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at her parents to see her father smiling at her and nodding towards the mat. Her mother was looking at the strange contraption as curious as herself. Centering herself for a moment she walked up to the contraption and sat herself down on the mat.

She reached forward and boldly pressed both palms against the glass. It was cold and smooth and didn't seem to get warmer despite touching it for a while.

"Now, close your eyes and focus on the cold." The voice of her uncle reminded her to concentrate and she shut her eyes.

At first, she didn't know what was supposed to happen, but the more she concentrated on the cold, the colder her hands seemed to get. Strangely, despite it getting colder and colder she didn't feel any pain or even any discomfort.

Slowly, she lost feeling in her hands until she couldn't tell apart the glass and her hands, not from the temperature or the texture. Her uncle's voice turned softer, and he muttered something unintelligible to her.

Suddenly, she felt a stream of cold enter through her left hand and up her arm. It didn't feel strange at all, instead wherever the cold went it soothed her body, from skin to muscles to even what she felt to be her bones. It slowly made its way up her arm through her shoulder and eventually reached her heart.

The stream from the orb cut off and the cold energy gathered inside what felt like her heart. Slowly, the energy seemed to heat up inside herself, more and more, until it felt like a fire was lit right inside her. Again, it didn't hurt at all, but it also didn't seem to soothe anything.

The now scorching energy started moving all at once towards her stomach. It finally settled again slightly below her navel. There, the energy seemed to unravel and separately traveled through her body in strange pathways. It flowed through her legs and then up again, up her torso into her head and down her arms and then back to the space beneath her navel.

When it had gathered again, it quickly started cooling again and traveled up, this time not through her heart, but through her right arm back into the sphere.

A sudden bright light shining on her face made her flinch back and slowly squint open her eyes. The middle sphere shined with a bright white light. The light churned and swirled like a liquid which slowly traveled through the connections to the other spheres and filled them up until the center was empty. The shining liquid started rotating clockwise through the five outer spheres, filling and emptying them again and again.

Very quickly, the liquid accumulated in just two spheres right next to each other and started glowing red and yellow, respectively. The red liquid shined especially bright, easily overcoming the light coming from the ceiling, tinting the rest of the room red.

When Sana managed to turn away her eyes from the tool she looked towards her uncle and saw his eyes opened wide in a very rare show of surprise. She looked up to see her father, slack-jawed, and her mother glancing at the two brothers with confusion.

Her uncle gathered himself and slowly let out a breath. "Well, I can certainly say that nobody expected that. It seems the heavens bless our clan with another upcoming Immortal and someone with a double affinity at that." He continued with a small curl of his lip towards Sana, "And congratulations are in order for you, young Sana. It seems you'll even surpass your parents."

Sana for a while simply stared uncomprehending at her uncle until his words registered in her mind. Her face broke into a face splitting smile and could almost not stop herself from breaking out in laughter. Her father didn't seem to have that hesitation and rushed over to her laughing uproariously. He picked her up, spun her around and eventually pulled her into a crushing hug, her mother quickly joining.

After letting the family celebrate for a while Lord Tekiel finally interjected, "We will need to discuss additional matters following young Sana's unexpected result, so it would be best if we could reconvene in my study." With those final words, he turned around, knocked on the heavy doors, and strode out when the guards opened the doors.

Sana just then realized that the tool had reverted back to normal as if nothing happened at all. She turned towards her mother and excitedly asked, "Does that mean I can finally..."

Her mother simply smiled and responded, "Yes, now we can finally train you how to fight. How to become a real Martial Warrior... If you want to of course. Considering your results, you can just wait two years and enter the sect," She said thoughtfully.

"No! I want you to train me. I want to be just like you and Father." Sana quickly replied. She blushed under the visible amusement of her parents. But, after chuckling one last time, they agreed and headed in the direction Lord Tekiel left.