The Last of the Sages (Sage Trilogy, Book 1) (16 page)

“I’m not saying you should quit, James, although everyone wants to,” Arimus said, as if he was reading James’ mind.

“But…I am of Allay. This test doesn’t mean I can’t ever become a Sage.”

“There is one thing that may interest you.”

“What’s that?”

Arimus reached behind his cloak and revealed a broken dagger, only the hilt bearing what was left of it, and placed it firmly in James’ hand. James mulled it over, examining it carefully as his mentor spoke.

“It’s called a manumit. It forces your soul to come out of your body and fashion into a blade which then rests on the hilt here. Sort of like a knock off eidolon.”

“Why didn’t I get to use this earlier?” James perked up.

“Because if you use it, your soul will only stay on the blade for less than a minute, and then you will die.”

“What?!”

“You die. Forcing the soul to come out when it isn’t ready will ultimately result in death. A minute is actually the longest I’ve seen a manumit last. Most only stay a few seconds. They are primarily used as last ditch efforts, when a battle is about to be lost. The manumits are handed out to each soldier in the infantry for emergency situations. This will be yours if you survive the next test.”

James handed the manumit back to Arimus and noticed that the sword in the ground had stopped sinking. James smirked as Arimus raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“What’s so funny, James?”

“Who said anything about this test being over?” James laughed as he grabbed the fallen sword and sighed in relief it was back to normal. With one last burst of energy, he lunged at Dominic. The upperclassman, with eidolon still unsheathed, blocked the attack despite being caught off guard.

James reached out and grabbed the eidolon’s blade, ignoring the fine incision it made into the palm of his hand. He winced instinctively as he held the eidolon with all his might, refusing to look at Dominic who was yelling inaudibly in his ear. James thrust his sword forward, barely missing the side of Dominic’s torso as he just managed to dodge James’ attack, shuffling to the side. Dominic leaned forward with the eidolon in response, causing it to dig deeper into James’ palm. Crying out, James lost his focus, letting the eidolon slip out of his hand and Dominic wasted no time. He sped behind James and delivered one diagonal swipe across his back.

James was unconscious before he could cry out…

****

The note was lying on his face when he woke up. James moaned instinctively, despite the lack of pain coming from his back. He grabbed the note in annoyance and read it quickly.

Heard you got beat by Dominic yesterday. I left a pancake on the table by your bed to cheer you up…but it’s stale. Enjoy. Love, Kyran.

James chuckled for a moment and shook his head. Kyran sure had a weird sense of humor, but given the trauma he’s been through in the last couple of days, he needed a good laugh or two. Taking a moment to stretch his back, he was amazed by how great it felt.

Maybe it was only a superficial one…but I know I was definitely cut.

James rubbed his back and after being sure that he wasn’t crippled, he got dressed and strolled down the hallway, feeling like he was dreaming, as if nothing had changed. Forgetting about the stale pancake on the table, he went over to the cafeteria hoping to get some fresh ones.

Hearing a sudden girl laugh in the distance, Catherine came back to mind. How she would giggle whenever he pretty much spoke. Sighing, he burst through the cafeteria doors, noticing that no one looked up from the fluffy golden pancakes that stole their attention. James strolled over to the line where the lady in green awaited happily.

“You look chipper today,” she said happily as she began removing the tray of pancakes from the counter and replacing them with a pot of oatmeal. James raised an eyebrow at her and she laughed as she put the pancakes back.

“Just messing with you. I wouldn’t dare deny you those pancakes you enjoy so much.”

“Funny, since I haven’t had any since I’ve got here.”

“I wonder why that is,” she wondered, putting a finger to her chin and looking toward the ceiling. “Maybe it’s all one big conspiracy!”

“With Kyran at the head, no doubt.”

“Probably,” she laughed as she plopped the stalest pancake of the bunch onto his plate. James mumbled under his breath and grabbed a cup full of syrup that stood to the side.

“You know, you could ask for a better one,” the woman replied as he was preparing to look for Catherine. James turned around to see her sincere face.

“Then why give me a stale one?”

“Mainly to see your character.”

“How is giving me a stale pancake going to show you my character?”

She shrugged her shoulders as she handed him a new one.

“It shows me that you’re too timid to stand up for what you want.”

“It’s a pancake, not a million dollars.”

“Is it? Why does the principle change just because the reward does? What makes a pancake any better than a million dollars? Give a million dollars to someone in the desert on the brink of starvation and they’ll look at you like you’re insane. Throw a pancake in front of them and they’ll treat it like gold.”

“What’s your point?”

Geez. Now I’m getting words of wisdom from the lunch lady.

“Nothing,” she smiled warmly from ear to ear, closing her eyes in unison. “Only making conversation.”

“You’re weird.”

“Says you,” she smiled as she extended a hand. “My name’s Chloe. Nice to meet you - James, right?”

James reluctantly shook her hand. He hoped there wasn’t syrup on them.

“Yep. Nice to meet you too…sorta - catch you later!”

“Later, James!” she sang as he rolled his eyes. The cafeteria was buzzing with conversation, so much so that he couldn’t even catch a bit of what was said. Whatever was happening, people were getting excited.

“So what’s all the commotion about?” he asked a random student. She ignored him, continuing to talk to her friends at the table. James mouthed an “okay” and walked off with his tray. Seeing a table with only one recruit there, he decided to give him a shot. James sat down obnoxiously and eyed the recruit. He responded with barely a nod and continued munching down on his apple. His spiked, dyed red hair nearly matching the fruit itself. He ate quietly but voraciously, as if he was afraid the apple would run away at any given moment. James almost extended a hand of welcome when he realized he’d look a lot like Chloe. Disgusted, he retracted the idea and simply grunted and started bobbing his head for no reason, as if he was agreeing to a comment the recruit might have said.

“You should get that checked out,” the recruit stated as he loudly crunched into the apple. James stopped bobbing as their eyes met and embarrassed, he glanced down at the pancake that suddenly didn’t appear so appetizing.

“I was trying to think of a way to make conversation.”

“You could say hello. That usually works.”

“Are you going to be snide with me too?” James snapped.

“Not really,” he muttered. “Just joking.”

“Ah.”

They ate in silence for a little while.

“So I’m James, 10th cl –uh, I started a little while back.” It was only then that James realized that Dominic had given him his designation and not an actual teacher...what was his class? Arimus had said he would know by now…didn’t he?

“I’m Achan. Infantry, 5th class,” the recruit replied.

“That’s kind of up there. Are you in charge of your own squad?”

“Sometimes. We never went beyond the forest though. Plus, I’ve only been in the academy a few weeks.”

“And you’re already that high? Wow, the academy must really have low standards…” James shut his mouth too late. He winced and started apologizing. “That didn’t come out right.”

“It’s okay, 10
th
class. I know what you’re saying. The academy has people going up in rank at ridiculous rates. Mainly because people are dying all the time.”

“Seriously? Are we at war?”

“Not exactly,” he said, brushing a hand through his spikes.  “By the third week, most recruits are going for their infantry exam and they usually don’t come back.”

“Is it that hard?”

“One could say that. You are allowed to quit the Academy, even during the exam, though there’s plenty of rumors going on saying that quitters are executed. You know, so no sensitive information doesn’t get leaked. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Why would there be such a ridiculous rule like that? Why would we kill our own people?” James still hadn’t decided if he was quitting the Academy or not, but this did complicate things.

“I can understand the purpose of the rule, though I may not agree. If a man is unable to stick it out with his team and deserts them, he’s nothing but a coward, and there is no room for cowards in Allay. Fear only breeds more fear.”

“That still doesn’t mean a person should be killed for it.”

“A child is usually the splitting image of his or her parents. Imagine an individual, able to leave the Academy and start a family. More than likely, those values would be passed on to the children and so on and so on. Eventually, our Kingdom would be full of weak men and then where would we be? The siege of 88 all over again.”

He took another massive bite of his apple.

“The Kingdom is already full of weak men,” James said. “I was weak…still am on some accounts, but I’ve grown. You can’t give up on someone who can’t take the heat right away.”

“Yes, but you also haven’t quit.”

“Well, in any case, I didn’t know the infantry exam could scare people like that. I thought being an infantryman is like being a watchman in the town square. You know, the fat ones that have the uniform but can’t really chase down anyone when a robbery goes down.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” Achan laughed. “When I was younger, me and some of the village children would be on a roof above him and drop apples onto his head, yelling how he needed more fiber in his diet.”

“What do kids know about fiber?”

Achan stopped laughing and cleared his throat.

“Well, we did. Parents made sure we were healthy.”

“I wish my father actually took the time to teach me a few things. Then again, I don’t blame him. He was busy…and it’s not like I went out of my way to learn. Still, looking back over all the things I could’ve accomplished…”

“We all do that,” Achan lamented as he placed his apple core on James’ tray. “But it’s what we do now that matters. The past is past…so what test are you on, 10
th
class?”

“My third.”

“Oh good, then you’ll be taking the infantry test next. You might even end up in my group. I am leading one of the next batches into the forest.”

“That will be fun,” James muttered as Achan studied his face.

“Bummed about the Sage test, huh?”

“Definitely.”

“Don’t worry about it. So what if you can’t become some warrior of grandeur. I’m sure it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. I mean, just think about the siege of 88. Not one Sage back then survived. Know who did? The infantry. Not many, mind you, but at least they were able to go home to their families. Without the infantry, the village wouldn’t have been rebuilt properly. With the infantry around, there was moral support. There was sense of security and order, even if deep down the villagers all knew we wouldn’t stand a chance in a second attack. But so what? At least we were there to ease the pain. If the infantry were made up of only Sages, we’d all be dead right now. We might as well just sit back and let the Langorans kill us all.”

“The Langorans?”

“A bunch of lazy fools taking up our air. That’s all they are.”

“Okay,” James trailed off deciding not to dig any further. He didn’t want to get Achan too stirred up. People were beginning to watch from the other tables.

“We can still make a difference, even if we’re not Sages. You don’t have to be Sage of Allay to matter in this world.”

“Hey,” James blurted, eager to change the subject of Sages. “You know Catherine, the princess, right?”

“Of course,” Achan said cautiously.

“Do you know where she is? I haven’t seen her around.”

“Why do you need to know?”

“That doesn’t matter. Do you know where she is or not?”

“I believe she’s with Arimus preparing for her final test. It’s not the infantry one though. Something else.”

“What is the final test exactly?”

“Not sure. It’s different for everyone and in case you’re wondering, I haven’t even taken my fourth yet. You have to ask to take the last two. I think they’re in order to become a general or teacher. Something like that. They give you all this mumbo jumbo about it being really hard and will cause a lot of stress and quite frankly, I’m not ready for all that yet. I like being where I am.”

“But you’re ready to go into a dark forest full of creatures?”

“It’s practically a party in there.”

“So Catherine won’t be around for awhile?”