As the long column of Darians spent the days sluggishly making its way toward the mines, Arran spent his nights studying the set of movements Muna had taught him .
He soon discovered that although the techniques were simple, learning them properly was more difficult than he'd initially thought . The insights that were hidden within them were hard to uncover, buried deep beneath layers of movements .
He understood the purpose of this, of course . For children and youths, the extraneous movements would be helpful, gently guiding them toward the complex insights step by step .
Yet for Arran, this gentle guidance was an obstacle more than anything . He didn't have decades to study the techniques, and what he needed was a more rapid path to the treasures they contained .
Here, the Knight's help proved invaluable .
She took Arran through the movements again and again, guiding him in his studies with care and patience . And with her help, it only took a few nights before he began to recognize the underlying insights in earnest .
There were many of them, though not so many as Arran had expected . As Muna explained it, the foundation focused mainly on those insights that students could build upon in the future — ones like speed, power, movement, and about two dozen other ones .
Only when students entered one of the Imperium's war colleges would they be shown the path to gaining the more subtle and abstract insights .
Arran tried repeatedly to convince Muna to show him a glimpse of the techniques to learn these insights, but his pleas had little effect .
Eager though the Knight might be to help Arran, her kindness didn't go so far that she would break the Imperium's laws for his sake .
But Arran knew that even the help she gave him was already enough to cause raised eyebrows among the other Darians . He regularly caught the soldiers giving him envious stares, while the church guards looked at him with outright hostility .
It was easy to tell that although he had become a citizen, the Darians still very much considered him an outsider .
The one exception to this, of course, was Muna . And with each passing day, Arran became more convinced that the captain had been right — that her interest in him was more than just friendliness .
It was an interest that Arran did not share . While she was undeniably beautiful, with a personality to match her good looks, he had not forgotten his purpose in coming to the Imperium .
In the end, the Darians were his enemies . And nothing he'd seen in the Imperium had given him cause to doubt that .
If anything, being in the Imperium had made him even more certain that war was inevitable — and that it must be won at any cost .
The Darians' power had shocked him, but he'd been equally taken aback by the way they treated outsiders . With many, it seemed like they only barely considered outsiders human .
If a people like that conquered the Ninth Valley, he had no doubt that it would be a massacre . They'd show the mages no mercy whatsoever, and everyone Arran had come to know in the Valley would die .
That was an outcome he could not accept . And if leading on a Darian Knight could help him prevent it, he had no qualms about doing that — not with his friends' lives in the balance .
Rather than making it clear that he wasn't interested, he returned Muna's friendliness in kind, spending hours talking with her even when she wasn't helping him train .
Often, he would join her at the front of the column of soldiers, keeping her company as they slowly made their way through the Imperium's endless green hills .
The landscape was undoubtedly beautiful, and as they walked, Muna would tell him tales of the Imperium's long history . Some of these he had already heard from the captain, and while he suspected that many of them were exaggerations, the Darians certainly appeared to believe they were true .
"Before the Blight," Muna said, reverence in her voice, "the Imperium covered half the world . Can you imagine that? A single peaceful land, stretching for thousands of miles, without either war or banditry . "
Arran gave her a suitably impressed look, then asked, "Speaking of war… What about the conflict with the mages? In the borderlands, most people were convinced that war could break out at any moment . "
Muna smiled and shook her head . "The mages pose no real threat to us . We'll face them again eventually, but I'd be surprised if it takes less than a decade . There's no need for you to worry about it — by then, you'll be strong enough to face any mage without fear . "
"That long?" Arran asked, surprise in his eyes . "I'd heard it was only a matter of years . "
Again, she shook her head . "We have no reason to attack just yet . With thousands of refugees arriving each day, the Imperium grows stronger by the month . As long as that remains true, there's no point in taking our attention off the Blight . "
Arran narrowed his eyes . "What would happen if you defeated the Blight?"
She gave a small laugh at the question, the corners of her full lips turning up in amusement . "Defeat the Blight?" From the look in her eyes, it seemed she believed the very thought of it absurd . "The Blight cannot be defeated . It can only be held back . "
"So it's a losing fight?" Arran asked, frowning in wonder how she could look amused even while discussing such a prospect .
Yet she responded with a warm smile, then answered, "Not at all . The Blight is like the sea — it cannot be defeated, but it can be held back . The Imperium has the strength to do so . "
Arran had never seen a sea, but he understood the point she was making . "So the war will continue forever, then?"
Muna nodded firmly, a hint of pride in her dark eyes . "The Blight will continue to push, but the Imperium will remain an unshakable bulwark, stopping it from advancing even a single step . With the gods' blessing, we can resist anything . "
"The gods' blessing?" Arran looked at her in wonder . "I didn't know you were so pious . From the way you dealt with that priest…" He didn't finish the sentence, instead giving her a meaningful look .
"Whatever they might tell you," Muna replied, "the priests don't represent the gods . They've been tasked with guarding the gods' blessings, but that is the extent of it . Their words aren't the gods' words, no matter what they might believe . "
Arran nodded, carefully memorizing what she told him . Even if he could see no direct use for it, he knew that anything he learned about the Imperium might one day end up helping him .
Still, despite what Muna told him, he could not help but wonder whether she was correct about the Blight and the Imperium's strength to resist it .
He'd given the Blight plenty of thought since Kaleesh had told him about it, and although he'd feigned ignorance back then, he had several thoughts about the nature of the Blight .
His first thought had been that the abominations the captain had told him about were some form of Remnants — the magic-infused creatures he'd met in the Ninth Valley's mountains and in the Shadow Realm .
This idea, however, he'd rejected almost immediately . While Remnants were terrifyingly powerful, they were also utterly mindless, blindly devouring Essence where they found it with no thought for anything else .
Even the titanic monsters he'd seen in the Shadow Realm were like that — almost like gargantuan cows, dumbly grazing on the dense Shadow Essence that lay beyond the portal .
Dangerous though they might be, they lacked the intelligence to wage a war — especially one that lasted for thousands of years . If anything, they were more likely to attack each other than Darian warriors who completely lacked Essence .
Instead, he thought the Blight was more likely to be related to the other creatures he'd encountered near the Ninth Valley — what Brightblade had called Demons .
Unlike the Remnants, these Demons had clearly been intelligent . And if they were weaker than the Remnants, he suspected they had the numbers to make up for that .
Yet Brightblade had told him little about the creatures . While she'd clearly been surprised at their numbers, she'd said little about their origins, and even less about their nature .
But even so, Arran was convinced that they posed a far bigger threat than Remnants . From what he had seen of the Remnants, he thought they were an effect rather than a cause — a consequence of too much Essence gathered in a single place for too long a time .
The Demons, however, had intelligence . And if they had intelligence, they were sure to have goals and purpose, as well .
Yet he understood that whatever suspicions he might have, he still knew too little for certain to know what he would face in the Desolation .
And either way, he would be better off focusing his thoughts on training .
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login