The Beginning Ch. 23-24

A/N: To my new readers and old, thank you for joining me on my journey thus far. When I picked this book up again earlier this year, I didn't expect it to be received half as warmly or enthusiastically as it has been. Your votes, comments, and the fact that so many parts have been favorited have really helped motivate me to keep writing, even when my personal life was at a low point. Thank you so very much.

With that said, future chapters may be farther apart since I recently started a new job, after searching for over 1.5 years. I'm an Indian national trying to make my way in Europe, so it hasn't always been easy. After long last, things seem to be falling into place.

Rest assured that I will see this story due to completion. I'm as invested in hearing the rest of Chris' tale as all of you are, and I want to see it through. I just hope to have all of you there with me when we reach that final punctuation mark.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you again for all your support.

*****

Glossary

Agrayodhin: The Champion of the Indian Academy.

Dvitiya Skandhavara: The Second Division of the Indian Academy's army.

Rishi(ji): A Sanskrit term used to refer to a sage/saint, or someone perceived as being highly knowledgeable. Used here to refer to the Dean of the Indian Academy.

*****

Chapter 23- The Power of Red

13^th March, 2017
9:00 a.m.
Training Room 1

A week after the Proving began, the Academy had its top two-hundred-and-fifty Wielders. Rayka had been the first from within our group to make it through, which didn't really surprise any of us. What did take us aback, me most of all, was that I was the third, beating Mahala, Sylvia, and Auset, to break through into the next round of battles.

It had been a long week to say the least, but I'd managed to stay in the running, and had actually placed higher than anybody had anticipated.

"Chris, you did it!" Rayka had exclaimed, intercepting me as I hobbled out of my second round of battles in Training Room 7 on Thursday, cradling my broken arm. "You made it through!"

Her words hadn't registered at first, muddled as they were, thanks to both my eardrums being shattered. I wasn't exactly thinking straight either, probably owing to the fact that I definitely had a concussion.

I did manage to recognize her, and once she realized just how beaten up I was as I limped in her direction, she rushed me to the Healers. My ears had been the first to recover, which I instantly regretted, as Rayka all but screamed her congratulations into them. Rather than being thrilled and overjoyed at my victory, I was actually feeling rather hollow at that point.

It had just been four days, but the true nature of combat had started weighing down on me. I would be lying if I didn't say that I'd been having second thoughts about whether or not I was cut out to be a warrior. I'd kept my thoughts to myself, however, just smiling as Rayka as my injuries continued to heal.

An hour later, we had found ourselves sitting with Sneha, watching Mahala defend herself while facing down six different Wielders. Anybody who wanted to could watch certain Wielders as they fought their way through the rounds on small enchanted mirrors that were available in Training Room 2. A Wielder could easily power multiple mirrors by themselves, so more than one person could join in and they could all view events together.

For such a sweet and quiet person, Mahala could be brutal when she wanted to, a fact that was repeatedly hammered home as she used her spiked mace to bash away at people. She had no qualms leaving anybody who crossed her with broken bones, a fate that befell most of her attackers with alarming surety. Honestly, as someone who viewed her as a younger sister, Sneha couldn't have picked a better person to fall in love with.

The results of that battle had pushed Mahala into the next round as well, with the others following within the next two days. Since none of us had matches on Sunday, we'd decided to skip watching the final elimination rounds, and go unwind a bit, instead. Since all of us had been a little wrung out, we'd settled on spending the day on the shore of one of the many lakes within the Academy's pocket dimension.

It had been fun for a while, us lads horsing around and getting in trouble for using Water spells on the ladies, but the fun and games had died down a bit as the day wound down. Eventually, people started leaving, till Sneha and I were the last ones left. Rayka had seemed to pick up on the fact that something was weighing on my mind over the course of the day, and hadn't seemed too surprised when I'd told her to head on home without me.

It'd been a moonless night, but as always, the forest had provided enough illumination for everything to be bathed in a soft glow. Sneha and I had just sat there on the dock in companionable silence, looking out over the water, both of us lost in our own heads.

"You're wrong, you know?" she'd suddenly asked.

I actually had to clear my throat before responding; it'd been a while since I had spoken. "About what?"

"You've been wondering whether you're really the right type of person to be a warrior, haven't you?" she'd clarified, astutely.

"How did you know?"

"I didn't. Rayka figured it out."

"She did?" I'd asked, taken aback. "She hasn't said anything about it."

"She wanted to give you your space to figure things out, Chris. That doesn't mean she isn't worried about you. In fact, that's what we were discussing when you decided to dump ice-cold water all over us!"

"Sorry about that," I'd apologized, with a chuckle.

"It's grand," she'd responded, waving it away with a cheeky grin. I could never quite place when it'd begun, but the other had taken to playfully mocking my usage of the word "grand".

I just smiled wearily at her, unable to muster up the energy to wade through the waves of emotions rushing over me.

"Are you thinking about the night of your Emergence?" she'd asked softly, after a while.

"I am," I'd whispered back, unable to push my thoughts away any longer.

For a while before that, I'd been beset by flashes of that night while training, and most recently, in battle. It had led to me dropping my guard and being hit by attacks that I could have blocked or dodged, so I'd been trying to push it all away even harder. Her question brought it all to the forefront, shining a harsh light on the events of that evening.

"I'm a monster," I'd whispered, my voice cracking a little as tears welled up in my eyes.

Sneha punched me hard enough to send me flying into the water.

"What the fuck?!" I'd sputtered and exclaimed as I resurfaced, coughing to get the water out of my lungs.

"You're an idiot!" Sneha had screamed at me, her body stiff with rage, her voice filled with emotion. "You think you're a monster for fighting back against Dark Wielders? The same people who murdered your parents right in front of you?"

"But—"

"No buts! Were you brutal? Fuck yes! Did they deserve it? Every fucking second of it. Even rending Nicolas apart atom by atom was too kind a fate for the likes of him!"

"But I killed them!" I'd screamed back at her from inside the lake, splashing a hand into the water as hard as I could. "I killed them! Do you get it? Even if they were murderers, how does that make me any better than them?! And now, I'm basically trying to get the chance to kill someone again! How do I justify that?"

"Be—"

"How do I justify what I did to Liz? Even if you argue that she's a Dark Wielder and deserved what I did to her, how do I justify what I've been doing every single day during this past week?!"

"I—"

"I swore to protect the Academy," I'd continued, unwilling to let her cut me off. "How does repeatedly hurting my comrades accomplish that?! How am I better than a Dark Wielder if I'm willing to kill, just to get my way?!"

"Because you don't enjoy it," Rayka had cut in, walking out from behind a tree.

"I—" I'd tried to say, but she'd cut me off.

"Sneha, you should go home," she'd told her, and after a quick confirmatory glance, Sneha had turned around and left the clearing.

"Rayka—"

"No, Chris," she'd said calmly, her voice carrying through the clearing, even though she was speaking quietly, "you've had your say. Now, you're going to listen."

She'd started walking towards the lake, talking the whole way.

"I hear what you're saying. And yes, you did kill the Dark Wielders that attacked you four years ago. But you're wrong, you're nothing like them."

She'd started wading into the water, close enough for me to see the intense look of worry tinged with anger on her face. That seemed to drive her such that she didn't even notice how cold the water was.

"For starters, when you Emerged, you weren't in full control of yourself. You know this. The Power had taken hold of you, and if you hadn't let it out, you might have hurt yourself."

"Yes—"

"Worse still, your inaction that night might have led all of you dying. Chris, do you realize just how outmatched all of you were at that time? The others had fucking Inhibitor Cuffs on. Untrained though you might have been, you were the only one there who could have done what you did."

I couldn't look away as she came to a stop in front of me, her intense expression freezing my rebuttal in my throat. She brought her hands up to cup my cheeks, fixing me with a stare that I can't quite describe.

"The difference between you and the fucking Darks is that you only take lives to save people. To protect them. And if doing so requires you to rip them apart and bathe in their fucking blood, then so be it!"

The venom in her voice shocked me, to say the least. I'd never seen her face twisted into a snarl like that before, even in the throes of battle.

"I keep forgetting how new you are to all this, Chris. You weren't brought up with stories of what the Darks do; of what they've done to Wielder and Mundane alike, in the past. Did you know that my grandmother was a prisoner during the last war?"

"No," I'd responded softly, as her gaze shifted and she seemed to be staring at something I could never see.

"Mom was the one to rescue her. And when she found her, they'd had Gramama for nine days. And during that time, they'd tortured her physically and sexually. Groups of them having their way with her, inside her, hacking parts of her off... sometimes all at once. Nine days, Chris. And they enjoyed every minute of it.

"When Mom broke into the cell, three of them were raping Gramama while one was peeling off her skin, strip by strip, with a blunt knife. And they were fucking laughing as she cried and begged for mercy.

"Gramama was a Healer, Chris. She wasn't even in a single battle. She hadn't hurt any of the Darks. They captured her while she was trying to save one of them, because she was naïve enough to believe that every person deserved some help.

"She died right after that, Chris. Right after they brought her back. That is the last memory my mother has of her mother. Can you imagine how that must feel?!"

I had no choice but to pull her into a tight hug as tears ran down her face.

"I'm not done," she'd sniffled, pulling away and looking into my eyes again, though her arms stayed wrapped around me. "Those are the people you're comparing yourself to, Chris. Not soldiers following an opposing General's orders; not misled souls who could be saved; you're comparing yourself to savage beasts who will stop at nothing to corrupt and destroy every single thing they touch."

I could only nod, all my arguments seeming childish in the face of what she'd just told me.

"I'm not saying you should torture or kill them," she'd continued. "But if you're in a situation where it's you or them, you take them down. You decimate them.

"Your first course of action should always, always be to capture them, but if you find yourself with your back against the wall, don't you dare think twice about wiping another shit stain off the Earth. Do you hear me?"

"I do," I'd answered, sighing heavily. "But Rayka, that won't stop me from regretting what I did. Good or bad, I still took lives. That's on me. On my soul."

"And I wouldn't have it any other way," she'd said, resting her head on my shoulder. "That is what makes you good, Chris. That is what tells you that you're still on the right side of all this. The day the deaths stop weighing on your soul is the day you turn to the Dark."

"But how do I do that?" I'd sobbed, tears that had remained unshed for years finally flowing freely. "How do I go on, day after day, with those deaths hanging over my soul?"

"Think of what would happen if you didn't," she'd responded, her arms tightening around me. "Think of what would have happened if you'd been captured that night. If Vaishnavi had been captured. If Randal or Mathias had been captured.

"Think of what might happen if I am captured in the future."

"Never," I'd rumbled, rage flaring inside me as I pulled her tighter against me. "I'd rather die than think of you being subjected to any of that."

"Use that," she'd stated, simply. "Use that rage to offset the guilt. Every Dark you fight, every one you capture or kill, is one Dark less that might subject someone you know to what they do. Don't fight for yourself. Fight for them."

"For the Academy," I'd mumbled.

"Yes, for the Academy."

We'd waded out onto the shore then, just lying there and looking up at the night sky. The constellations within the pocket dimension were different from those on Earth; not that it'd have mattered, anyway, because I always sucked at finding them.

"But what about everything we're doing during the Proving? We're fighting each other, hurting each other!" I'd asked, turning my head to look at her.

"Has anybody held a grudge so far?" she'd countered, without even looking at me.

"Not that I've seen."

"You went up against Idris on Tuesday. And unlike Auset and Mahala, the two of you actually battled it out. You won. Did he treat you any differently today?"

"No, but—"

"Do you and I not have a pact, out of respect, to go all out against each other, if we were to be face-to-face."

"Yes, but—"

"Does that make you love me any less?" she'd asked, finally turning her head to face me.

"Never."

"Again, Chris, I forget that you weren't raised within the Academy. Anybody who signs up to be a warrior knows what they're getting into. Giving it your all to beat somebody is the highest display of respect within our culture. Cuts and broken bones can be healed. Pulling your punches or holding back so you don't hurt someone— that's what really hurts here.

"As for the Proving, you know why it's necessary. You've fought Darks. Imagine if somebody who wasn't ready to really go toe-to-toe with them was thrown into battle. Imagine if Rahul and Sneha were. What would happen?"

I'd merely nodded my understanding, unable to find a flaw in her responses. What she'd said made sense. And yes, while I'd never be okay with killing somebody, if that was the only option on the table, I knew I had to take it.

The two of us had lay there for a while longer, before heading home together. We'd fallen asleep in each other's arms, our bond somehow strengthened by the events of the evening. To say that a weight had been lifted off my shoulders would be an understatement; I had never been as focused and as determined to do what needed to be done to keep the people I loved safe.

***

The Training Room was mostly full by the time we got there this morning, so we had to make our way through a throng of people to get to the front, where the rest of the Wielders who'd made it into the next round were. As we broke through to the front, closer to the stage, I was surprised to see that Swati, Senga, and Byrav were up there as well, alongside the rest of the Sapt Senapati, next to Rishiji, Vaishnavi, and Ronald.

Just as I was about to ask Rayka if she knew what was going on, Vaishnavi stepped forward and started to speak.

"This past week has been a difficult one," she started, "and to those of you who fought and secured yourselves a place in the top two-hundred-and-fifty, well done!"

A thunderous round of applause filled the room, and a smile snuck its way onto my face.

"Those of you who didn't make it through, try not to despair. You will all still play important roles in the battles to come. Even if you don't get to join the fight, you will help us win!"

The applause this time was even louder, and I joined in enthusiastically as well.

"With that said," Vaishnavi continued, raising a hand for silence, "we shall now kick off the final sets of battles for this Proving, the one-on-one matches. As all of you know, it is customary for the standing Champion, at this point, to extend an invitation to all eligible Wielders to challenge them for the title.

"I, Agrayodhin Vaishnavi Vashisthputri-Lanka, now issue this invitation. Will anybody here challenge me for the title of Agrayodhin?"

"I will," Swati intoned, a wave of murmurs rushing across the room as she did.

I looked at Rayka, bewildered, only to find her sharing the same expression. From what I'd just heard, I'd assumed that the invitation was merely customary and ceremonial. I'd never expected to see someone accept it, least of all Swati.

But going by how Vaishnavi didn't seem surprised, I guessed that she'd known it was coming.

"Who are you to issue this challenge?" she asked Swati, turning to face her.

"I am Swati Varunai, Dvitiya Skandhavara Senapati," Swati said, jutting her chin forward as she stated her title.

"I accept your challenge," Vaishnavi nodded, before turning to face the rest of the Academy again. "Are there any more challengers here today?"

Her question was met with silence this time around, and she just nodded, before looking over to Rishiji, who continued for her.

"The very first match will be between Vaishnavi Vashisthputri-Lanka, Agrayodhin, and Swati Varunai, Dvitiya Skandhavara Senapati," he declared. "The match will end when one of them admits defeat or one of them is simply unable to battle further. The Proving shall resume in the afternoon, if their match has ended by then. May the stronger warrior prevail!"

Swati and Vaishnavi bowed to the crowd, a gesture that was received with another round of applause. The Wielders on the stage made their way off after that, and the crowd started dispersing as well, all of us heading to Training Room 3, where Vaishnavi and Swati would face off against each other.

The layouts within the Training Rooms had changed to incorporate audience seating as well, each room now resembling a small-scale colosseum. Teams of Wielders had worked through the night to enchant invisible shields that surrounded the seating area, which allowed combatants to go all-out without hurting any of the onlookers.

Impossible as it may have seemed, the stands were full for this match, and though Rayka and I found ourselves seats, there were literally thousands of Wielders who were standing wherever they could find the room, while others decided it'd be best to view the battle via the mirrors in Training Room 2. A hushed silence descended over the crowd as Vaishnavi and Swati entered the arena.

Both of them had their Armor on; sleek black suits that encased them from the neck down, stylized belts that depicted their Companions, and helms with clear faceplates. Both their suits had a thick red line running down their left arm and leg. Swati's had two thick white lines running down her right arm, while Vaishnavi's entire right arm was clad in white.