Smiling, Zetsa said. “Good. So for now you are in punishment and tomorrow you’ll apologize to the other kids and on Friday I’ll come to get you to my place and we will start your training”.
“Ah?!” Zax was dumbfounded. What just happened?
“Remember that we have a deal”. Zetsa overwhelmed him with her gaze before he could protest and Zax calmed down. “Do your homework or read a book, little Zi”. She suggested before she left the room.
Today.
“Ere’ar, Ere’ar, Lianor, She’ega, Aje”.
Yellow patterns and diverse symbols shone brightly on the four walls, floor and ceiling of Zetsa one-room apartment, making it look as if everything is made out from gold.
The Inner Spirit formation was unique even among the B class formations, a high level illusionary formation. To any Mist User above the level of Mist Master this formation will not pose a threat, but to anyone else below that level… from losing one’s life to becoming brain-dead and even worse, getting caught in it could mean a fatal mistake.
The knowledge of what this formation could do to him, a nine years old boy that has not received an Earth’s Core yet, passed shivers through Zax’s spine. “Big sis truly is amazing”. He respected her more and more every time he sat on the mattress and imagined that this might be how it feels inside a Sun Stone. “I read that a Mist User needs to be a level above the formation’s to be able to alter it”. He lingered. The formation was suspended and to actually activate it, there are two additional words, two additional key words he must say. Two words that accompany a ridiculous amount of indescribable pain, and that is just the tip of an altered Inner Spirit formation!
“Biuua..” Zax’s lips moved to slow for the word to come out right. He grabbed his knees to balance his structure and tried again. “Biur, Nephesh”.
In this windowless room, in an instant the temperature dropped and out of nowhere a sudden cold breeze struck Zax in the face. His eyes opened wide from the shock, and the icy air felt as if it could pierce them. He closed his eyes and remained sited with his hands on the knees as things were about to get terribly agonizing.
“I can’t hold on anymore!” Zax yelped after two minutes. He held his breath as long as he could, terrify of the pain that will follow if he let this frosty air in. But as usual, he had a limit and the pain was unavoidable.
“Knifes, it’s like knifes and needles!” Even to an average mid-level Earth’s Core Holder it is not an easy feat to protect the soft and warm internals with the mist energy. The moment the cold air entered his body, Zax’s respiratory organs tingled, then in the span of two seconds they, the muscles, tendons, blood vessels, and nerves all completely froze. Next, the tips of his fingers become numb and started to lose its colors, one by one each finger turned pale, then blue, purple and finally black. An extreme case of frostbite that continued to spread from his hands throughout his arms. The same thing happened to his legs, stomach and eyes. Unable to move, Zax reluctantly remained aware to the slow process that was turning his body into a block of ice. He could no longer breathe. What sustained him was the sole belief in him and in his big sister.
She evaluated Zax’s limits and found that he reached his first threshold when she tested him last Saturday. Per her results, she chose to remove a miniscule portion of the altered Inner Spirit formation’s restrictions to help him attain a breakthrough.
“Big sister Zetsa, mommy, daddy…” Zax wept. He regretted ever asking his big sister to train him. He even wished he had not left his house and stayed to do his homework. But even a nine years old should think before he acts. Now, a throbbing headache was the only thing he could feel and each throb was an explosion of agony.
Crack!
His left arm broke apart from the shoulder.
Crack!
His spine collapsed like a blade of grass under a rock.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Pieces of Zax’s ice cold body detached and fell on the mattress. “Hah… Hah…” His mind became blank under the severe pain. Unable to bare anymore, Zax’s determination to stay alive faded as the last “Crack!” separated his head from his neck.
As Zax ceased to resist the formidable formation he suddenly felt it, a warm touch on his crooked chest, like the tip of a slender finger. A surge of flames scattered across his broken body from that small spot, gradually melting the frost coating all over it and restoring its proper body temperature.
Although a few centimeters away from its appropriate place, when the thin layer of ice at the center of his forehead shed the first drop of water, Zax’s pupils began to move under the veil of his eyelids, as if he regained a second chance in life and now was trying to wake up from a bad dream.
“Eh?” The yellow patterns and symbols of the Inner Spirit formation disappeared before Zax’s open eyes and darkness returned to the one room apartment. Feeling the softness of the mattress with his bottom, the knees under the palms of his hands, the beating heart beneath his chin, his body whole and the air still, Zax was astonished, fearful, exited, sad and many other things.
“I failed”. After a minute of silence Zax found his center and admitted. “It’s like that first time eight months ago. No, it was far worse”. Zax’s was sure after he went through everything that happened when he activated the formation. “And big sis wasn’t here to guide me. How in the name of our lord and ruler did I survive?” While lost in thoughts, unintentionally, his right hand reached to his chest and touched the place where the wave of warmth originated. That which saved him was the only thing Zax could not remember. Even when he scratched through his shirt that small spot with his index finger until his skin began to redden the action did not arouse suspicion.
“I wonder what time it is”. Zax decided to go outside and check since his cheap wristwatch did not have a lighting command and his parents could not afford the monthly fee of a fourth Caller.
“No way!” Zax was flabbergasted. “How could it be?!”
Watching from the corridor’s window, up above, the cave’s Nightly Cover formation has already been activated. To Zax’s surprise, it was around ten o’clock. His mom should be on her way home!
Zax left the door to the apartment open and leapt from the first floor. BAM! He hit the ground and his bones were shaking. The Inner Spirit formation affected more than just his spirit, as its name suggested. The more he strained his body, the more it ached. The muscles in his legs tightened and made it impossible to run back home at even half his speed.
“Mom will kill me if she’ll discover that I was out all day. I truly wish for big sis to be here right now to explain me what went wrong. First, I couldn’t handle at all with the formation’s assault, in spite of how much I progressed this past eight months. And when it finally was over, instead of the usual few minutes, hours have passed!” Thoughts ran through his head.
When the apartment building was in his field of vision, Zax’s breath was shallow and he reeked of sweat. Light flickered from the living room’s window. He hoped it was his dad, Marco Zel, watching the Screen, and that his mom did not arrive yet.
As to what exactly was the “Screen”? Basically a device that was based on the ancient Television. Like any screen in this day and age, it worked with a combination of formations and technology, charged by a tiny Sun Stone and a tinier piece of Peral metal that formed the connection, packed inside a plastic housing.
Fortunately his dad was the only one at home. Zax found him sleeping on the sofa in his uniforms, a blue overall with the symbol of the Department of Water, twenty five drops circling the department’s name.
A cooking show played on the Screen and on the stove was a pot that delicious smell came out of it. Zax was too tired to fix himself whatever his dad made. Besides, it was past his bed time and he still had to take a shower. If his mother would come and see that he is awake, he will have to provide explanations.
After a quick shower Zax went to bed. He lay on the mattress sorry for not seeing his mom the all day or not talking to his dad, but the risk level to his free time was too high.
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