Chapter 89
Arran read the letter in his hands, then tossed it aside . It held an invitation from a novice named Zehava, but it contained no time or other details, just mentioning the name and an address .
Although Arran thought he could probably afford to ignore it, there was little point in offending a novice he didn't yet know . He would pay the novice a visit the next morning, he decided .
After he got into bed, it took him some time to fall asleep, and as he lay awake, he thought about his forbidden Realm . Well over two years had passed since Master Zhao had sealed it, and still, the seal remained in place .
Partly, this was a testament to Master Zhao's extraordinary skill . Although the lesser seals on Arran's Wind and Fire Realms had been torn away when Arran took ten Realm Opening Pills at once, the seal on Arran's forbidden Realm remained as strong as the day it was created .
Yet the greater part of the story was that Arran had been lazy in trying to open it . During the past two years, his attention had been focused almost entirely on Body Refinement and spells using Wind and Force Essence . What little time he had spent on Shadow seals, he had spent learning to form lesser seals .
That he had all but ignored the seal on his forbidden Realm was not just due to laziness, however . Perhaps more importantly, he was glad just to be rid of it, and as long as the seal remained in place, it was easy to pretend that the Realm simply did not exist .
Yet it did exist, and even if he would rather dismiss it, neither the danger nor the power it held could be ignored . Whatever power the forbidden Realm held, he was currently unable to touch or even study, and if the seal somehow failed, he had no way to restore it — not without learning how it worked, first .
Decision made, he began to study the seal .
Once more, he found himself awed by the thousands upon thousands of strands of Shadow Essence from which the seal had been crafted, woven together in a pattern so intricate that just trying to study it left him lightheaded .
He continued regardless, knowing that this was just the first step in a journey that could take years . Perhaps if he spent all his time studying the seal it could be undone faster, but he simply did not have that luxury .
Instead, he would have to use what little free time he had to work on the seal, and he would have to do so without neglecting his training . Just the thought of it filled him with weariness .
Forcing himself to continue, he spent some hours studying the seal, carefully analyzing the ways in which it resembled and differed from the lesser seals he already knew .
It was tiring work, and at some point during the night, sleep overtook him even as he studied . The sleep that followed was troubled, filled with dreams of shadows twisted in impossible patterns .
When he awoke, much of the morning had already passed, yet he felt little more rested than he had the previous night .
After a quick breakfast, the first thing he tried to do was find Darkfire . With the tournament only days away there was much they needed to discuss, but ever since they had arrived at the Governor's palace, Darkfire had barely shown his face .
He asked one of the Governor's servants where Darkfire was, and was unsurprised to hear that Darkfire had gone out to some social function with the Governor's daughter . Briefly, he considered waiting until his friend returned, but he soon decided he had neither the time nor the patience for that .
Instead, he would visit the novice who had invited him . He would have to go sooner or later, and perhaps he would be able to glean some new information .
He left the palace without delay, asking the guards for directions to the address that had been in the letter . To his relief, it wasn't far, barely half an hour's walk from the palace .
The address in the letter was in one of the wealthier areas of the city, but when he found it, he saw that the mansion itself was neither lavish nor excessively large . Built out of bare stone and three stories high, it looked sturdy and sober, seemingly built with little care for appearances .
He knocked on the large wooden door, and it opened a moment later, revealing a broad-shouldered man with several facial scars, short hair, and a sword at his side .
The man did not speak . Instead, he merely looked at Arran, indifferently waiting for the visitor to introduce himself .
"I was invited," Arran said . "By a novice named Zehava . "
The man nodded . "Come," he said .
Arran entered the doorway, following behind the scarred man . As he looked around, he saw that the interior of the mansion was much the same as the exterior — sober and functional, without even the slightest bit of decoration . It resembled a barracks more than a mansion, he thought .
The man led Arran through several hallways, and he saw that there were more people inside — a few dozen, at least, all of them with the appearance of battle-hardened soldiers and mercenaries .
Finally, they arrived at a closed wooden door . The scarred man opened the door without knocking, then turned to Arran and said, "Enter . "
Arran did as the man said, and beyond the doorway, he found a large but bare room . On the side of the room stood a plain bed, and in the corner were several wooden chairs, stood around a small table .
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