"Duel me."
"What?"
Kael was just stepping out of the bathroom. Steam rose behind him as he closed the door.
"Duel. Me. One more time."
It had been two days since the two boys had seen one another. Jein's hands were full of little knicks and cuts, wrapped in strips of gauze to stop his sweat from burning them. The Boy had finished enchanting his fifth twig the following night, and rushed to tell the High Priest about it: running through the stone halls rather loudly, and disturbing the meditations of the youngest acolytes as they tried to learn the incantation for the cantrip candlelight. The High Priest was in the octagonal room once more: praying at the altar on the far side of the wall.
"Aurrior! I enchanted five!"
"Jein…boy, please do not disrupt my prayers…"
"Sorry."
"It is alright, boy. Tomorrow afternoon, I shall send word to Gillium that he is to teach you how to do alchemy. Until then, rest."
"Yes, sir…After I learn alchemy, can I learn some spells?"
"We shall see."
Now there were a few scant hours before Gillium would begin his instructions, and he would no doubt be locked inside his rooms for hours. He wanted to show up the arrogant Kael while he still had a chance.
"Okay," Kael said. "Meet me in the sparring circle. I need to get some clothes on."
"Hurry up so I can beat you."
Kael smirked and left, and Jein retraced the steps through the temple he had been shown a few days prior. As he was walking by the rooms, he stopped to peek in a few. A library, with shelves of countless books stretching to the high ceilings, a room with candles sat on top of tables, and pillows in front of them to help with learning by candlelight. A kitchen, where scullery maids and chefs worked in tandem to make that morning's breakfast for the acolytes to learn their place within the Order.
One he stopped to peek into was a hospital ward. He heard a familiar voice coming from it, and he pushed the door open. It wasn't very well lit. No windows lined the walls, and the only light came from a series of lanterns hanging from above, casting dull orange glows on the floor. The shadows were long and heavy here, and it was within these shadows that Jein crept. Past the wooden partitions that segregated the beds from one another, until he came across the source of the voice.
Leith and Gillium were engaged in a bit of conversation. Leith sat on the edge of his bed, with his arms folded in his lap in front of him. From his vantage, Jein could see bandages wrapped around his left shoulder. Gillium stood in front of him; a green light shone as his eyes left his brother, to the young boy hidden in the shade.
"Jein? What are you doing here?"
"Ah, Kael and I were going to duel, and I heard your voice."
"Kael and y— is he with you?"
Jein shook his head.
Leith glanced over his shoulder: heavy black bags sat under his own green eyes. His blonde curls were drenched in sweat and clung to his forehead; a glass vial sat on the bed next to him.
"I need to talk to that boy if you're going to duel again. He very nearly could have ended your life the other day."
"Was it that bad?"
Leith looked to his brother.
"It was."
"How are you doing, Leith?" Jein asked.
"As well as I could be." The man said.
His left shoulder twitched for a moment before his right hand raised and brushed the curls out of his face. Jein stepped out of the shadow and into the light; it was only then that he saw that, from the elbow down, Leith's left arm had been removed. He looked at it briefly before yanking his head away.
"I'm sorry," Jein said.
"Sorry? What for? Did you summon that demon?"
"No, but because of me…"
"Jein." Gillium snapped. "It's not because of you, alright? You were born the way you were born; you had no fault in this at all. All the fault lies within the Cult."
"But if I had…"
"If you had, what?"
"If I weren't here, he would still have his."
"Jein; don't start thinking that way," Leith said as he turned his body to The Boy. " We did this because this is what we must do. We were born to be Paladins of the Seven and One. It was written upon our backs, the same as your destiny was written on yours."
Jein nodded.
So it was the Gods' fault, is what he wanted to say, but he knew if he uttered such words in his current place, it would only lead to accusations of apostasy, and this was perhaps the worst place for those accusations to start flying. As they were speaking, they were joined by Kael, who approached in much the same manner as Jein.
"Kael!" Gillium snapped as soon as he spotted the boy within the shadows.
"Yes, Advent!" Kael snapped to attention from his crouching position.
"I hear the two of you are going to duel: don't leave him as you did before! Stop the duel when he is obviously defeated."
"Yes…Advent." Kael sneered.
"Fix your attitude, and Jein."
"Yeah?"
Kael shot him a nasty look.
"I'm to teach you alchemy later. Be back at your room by noon."
"Okay."
Kael growled.
"Alright, go do your little duel."
Jein nodded and walked away, and Kael followed after him.
"Why do you talk like that to the Advent?" Kael asked as they left the hospital.
"To Gillium?"
"That's Advent Ferra, to you."
"Is that their last name?"
"Yes. Who was he speaking to?" He looked back. "The man on the bed?"
"That was his brother."
"That was Paladin Ferra? What happened?"
Jein supposed the news about the demon attack in the town had been suppressed from the general population of the Cathedral.
"He was hurt." Was all Jein said.
"Well, obviously." Kael snorted. "Anyway, watch your tone when you speak to them. They're our superiors."
"They're your superiors." Jein corrected. "I am to join the Conclave; they just have me here until a representative can arrive."
"The Conclave?" Kael asked out loud. "Isn't that, like, the group that runs the magic schools and the towers?"
"I guess."
"What's your Destiny supposed to be? A professor? A researcher?"
"A Great Archmage."
Kael scoffed.
"Yeah, yeah, and I'm supposed to be a Superior High Paladin."
"Are you?"
"No. I'm meant to be an Agent with the Cathedral." He said. "When I'm finished training, they're going to send me out into the world to scout for Anomalies so the church can send groups to cleanse them." Kael puffed out his chest, which, by itself, was almost as wide as Jein's entire body. " I have a Flow of 6!" Kael stated proudly, "And a Body of 7."
"I have a Depth of 12," Jein stated in a low whisper. 'And a Heart of 8."
"Uh huh." Kael looked at him skeptically. "You lie a lot."
"I'm not lying!"
"Uh huh…whenever you become a Great Archmage, I suppose I'll be able to brag that I beat you in a duel."
"One duel. I'll win from here on."
Jein clenched his fist as they walked.
"No, you won't."
Jein scowled and hurried his steps. It wasn't long before they were in the middle of the sparring circle again. Once more, Kael picked up a wooden knife from the table. This time, Jein picked a spear. He needed more range. That was the problem.
"Are you ready?"
"Light. All is light. You breathe as I breathe, and grow as I grow. Light, come to me."
Candlelight danced to life beside Jein's head.
"Ready!"
Kael muttered the church's version of the spell, and his came to life around him as well.
"Okay!" Kael called.
Jein slipped a piece of glass hidden within the folds of the gauze wrapped around his fingers and palms, and as Kael began to mutter, so did Jein.
"Glass, lend me your glare."
Simultaneously, both phantasmal candles shot a beam of white light at one another. Both boys were blinded and had to wait for the blinding to be over as they rubbed the dancing colors out of their eyes. The people on the sidelines, acolytes, advents, gardeners, and food growers, chuckled as both of them stumbled around blindly in the stone circle.
Jein's was the first to fade. His higher Sight allowed him to recover quicker. He rushed toward the larger boy and stabbed forward. Kael's sight returned just in time to see the point of Jein's wooden spear thrusting in a line aimed at his chest. He shifted the grip on the knife and parried the edge of the spear. He slid the wooden blade along the wooden shaft and struck at Jein's fingers, gripping it tightly. Jein couldn't pull away in time, as the sudden shot of pain forced his fingers to open.
Kael took that opportunity to wrest control of the spear out of his grasp and disarm the boy with a solid downward blow of his forearm that wrenched Jein's other hand free. Jein fell forward as he tried to maintain hold of the spear. All Kael had to do was point the faux-point at Jein's face. The wooden point only needed to move a few centimeters forward to blind The Boy for life
"I win." The larger boy smirked.
Jein growled a low and guttural sound of discontent.
"Again!" He barked.
"What?"
"Again!"