Over the course of the next five years, until I was old enough to go to the cloisters, Slaith and I trained as hard as we could. My own martial prowess developed well. We both even got quite skilled with the projectile weapons, Standt brought to us. I liked the ones that projected an energy beam the best, but Standt insisted that the ones that projected a small metal “slug,” as he called it, would be the most common and should be our focus. Arrows were fun, but their speed was not impressive to me.

Slaith got quite good with arrows, spears, and the projectile devices that Standt called guns. I did best with the guns, but arrows and spears were not to my liking. I did exceptionally well with the energy weapons.

One day, three years into my preparation for the Cloisters, I stumbled upon a hidden room in the house. There was a marking in that special ultraviolet marking that was in the form of my grandfather’s personal symbol. The marking was faded badly. I found it behind a tapestry. I spent days looking for the hidden mechanism to open the room.

In that room, I found a library. The books were all written in my grandfather’s flowing script using the ultraviolet ink.

On a small and simple bookstand, I found an older volume that was not in my grandfather’s handwriting. It was a basic instructional manual on what I came to realize was the ancient language used by the Arkanumh. My grandfather had written all of the books using this language.

During the previous three years, my electrical discharges had become both more frequent and more powerful. After learning much of the language, I was able to find a book that spoke of this issue. It seems that many of the Arkanumh had the same issue. I was able to find a passage that instructed me on how to make a device for siphoning and storing the power. There were strict warnings about keeping within the safe charging limits for the units. I was unsure of what the word in the warning was. It had a prefix that indicated heat and a postfix that was similar to the word for sudden force. I kept this in mind for later exploration.

I spent much of my limited free time learning from the books in the secret room and building the storage devices. The devices were small enough to fit three in my hand. They were spherical and would glow with gentle blue radiance when charged. When full, they glowed a gentle purple. If charged more than they could hold, they glowed a harsh yellow. Whatever the effect of overcharging would happen about 1.5 breaths after it turned yellow. I later found the definition of the strange word. It made sense. Anything that contained lithium and magnesium as well as a bit of sodium metal and potassium metal, would have a tendency to be volatile.

There was more information about building what were called circuits to control strange components that could be built from common and rare minerals and plant extracts. These circuits could be powered by the spheres. They would power the circuits if placed a short distance from the induction plate. I learned to make a conductive thread that allowed me to power a heating system for my winter coat and power it with the spheres. I soon learned a method for programming small organisms to lay down conductive and resistive residues on cloth, leather, and other materials. I found dormant samples of several kinds of the organisms in a storage container. They were easy to propagate and robust. Some of the organisms were the size of medium sized bacteria. They were sensitized to my own brain waves and controlled through those same waves. At first, the whole thing seemed to be a waste of time. However, soon, I was able to spray the bacteria onto a surface and have them spend a few hours crafting the patterns I focused on.

The books called this “writing a glyph” on an object. If I focused on the pattern I wanted hard enough, the bacteria would work unsupervised for up to a full day building the circuit I designed.

It was hard not to share my discoveries with my new brother and my favorite teacher, his father, but I knew all of this fell into the category of secrets I needed to protect from even people I trusted. The books backed this up with documented cases where people with an understanding of this technology were enslaved and even killed for access to their work. People who lacked the information about the control of the bacteria could also be scared by learning about it. Only he and the writer of the books, his grandfather, were able to control the bacteria.

Placing the organisms in shatter resistant, compact spray bottles in my uniform pockets for easy access was simple enough as well.

During this period, Standt made sure to teach us about concealing our combat skills.

“Even if you have to take some injuries, being underestimated is an important advantage that you can not get back once you lose it!” he kept saying.

By that time, I had only one task left on the list in my head. Standt and my other teachers kept telling me that we must choose a god from the pantheon of our culture. I had no idea why there was suck a focus on it, but it was made clear that nobody in our society would trust us if we did not have a declared faith.

Slaith declared his faith early on. His worship was for the battle god Chothg. He was a god of dominating and destroying enemies. There was limited respect for cunning while focusing on strength.

I, on the other hand, did not settle on a faith until just seven days before we were to leave for the Cloisters.

---===+++===---

I managed to shake Slaith off of my tail, but the two security slaves that Standt had escorting me were less easily disposed of. I had a goal of reaching a specific temple. It was in a less savory part of town.

Passing through an intersection packed tight with vehicles, their metal and organic bodies protecting the delicate nobles in their often opulent compartments, I got my chance. There was a woman with striking red hair who bumped into my security detail while watching a particularly impressive vehicle. As they apologized to her, knowing she had to be a noble by her jewelry, I ducked past another vehicle to cross the street and down a side street without being seen. This side street was dilapidated, and all of the observation organics had not been maintained. Being plant based, they were fairly robust, but they rarely survived without their nutrient tanks filled.

I managed to keep to the side streets in similar condition. Only a few violent altercations interfered with my progress. My assailants were taking advantage of the same blind spot in the surveillance system I was, but they underestimated me, terminally.

Upon reaching the temple of the mistress of life and luck, I entered slowly. A priest came up to me as I entered. His robes were tattered and worn. He had cobbled them together from scraps by the look of it.

“Sir! Are you here as a celebrant, or is it more of a business transaction you seek?” he inquired with a look of hope in his eyes.

“I come as a celebrant of the mistress.”

“Are you sure you would not also like to partake of our other options? I have some lovely biologicals. Only the most stringent of testing can detect them. They also clear out of the system in one day. Minimal side effects of course…”

I replied with a tolerant smile, I didn’t mean, “No thank you. I am here for enlightenment, not an illicit substance.”

The priest seemed to grow smaller in his shabby robes. “I see. There is a minimum donation of four gold ingots or equivalent gems to join the rolls of her worshipers officially. Are you certain I cannot offer you something to brighten your day?”

“No. I do not touch those things.”

“Very well. Place your contribution on the altar at the back of the sanctuary, and place your hand on the panel in front of it. The token of your faith will be deposited in the slot below the place your hand rests.”

As I walked the path to the altar, I saw examples of the other type on ‘customers’ that visited the temple. Some were passed out or staring vacuously in dirty rags of clothing. Others were in different varieties of finery in various stages of soiling and decay. I chose this temple partially as a way to rebel against what I saw as a silly requirement. I also chose it to create more underestimation of me. It was well known that this sort of drug traffic plagued this place. Many temples had some of it, but this one was well known and reviled for it.

When I bowed at the altar and placed my sacrifice on top, the ingots made the panel under them lower into the interior and a new one slid into place neatly. I bowed my head and put my hand where the priest had told me to. There was a sound of something rattling below the place where I had put my hand. I looked down at the slot to see two brilliant blue dice. They were the same type I had seen the house slaves using to gamble their meager funds in hopes of a windfall. Theirs had been wooden most times. I had also seen the richer servants use ones of common stone or bone. Metal ones were often displayed in jewelry store windows, but these sapphire blue ones were unique. I quickly put them away in a concealed pocket.

As I made my way out to the street a few minutes later, the shabby priest asked, “Did the lady give you a token? If she gave you stone, they can be sold at the corner to the left. Wooden ones are worthless, but metal ones are sought out by many.”

“I think I will keep the stone ones I was given. I hear that her blessing of luck will follow me if I do.”

“Suit yourself. If you change your mind about the biologicals, you can come back any time. We also have dice games in the back rooms after midnight. Maybe your luck from the lady will serve you well,” he replied, obviously trying to talk me into anything that might transfer some of my obvious wealth to his own pockets.

“I will keep that in mind. Have a good day.” I said as I turned away from his disappointed gaze. When he turned back to the temple, a filthy man stepped from a doorway while studiously acting like he did not notice I would be passing by his position. As he lunged at me when I passed him, I jammed the blade of a small dagger into his chest and broke the blade off at the base. He slumped back into the doorway with a sigh that nobody noticed. The body would be stripped and dumped quickly as soon as I was out of sight.

At the exit of my route to the temple, the woman with the red hair was relaxing against the corner of the nearest building. “Hi, stranger. How was your errand?” she asked.

I looked closely at this woman. “Do I know you? How did you know I had an errand to complete, and why did you distract my guards?”

 “Let’s call it intuition,” she said as she showed a lovely bracelet that sported two brilliantly shining dice of clear crystal. “I just got the idea you could use a distraction.”

As I began to walk past her, she smoothly started to walk with me in perfect synchrony. “If you donated more than one ingot, you were robbed. Keep the dice safe. They will have a hole you can use to put them on a chain or a leather thong. Have a nice day!” she advised and then was cone without a trace when I looked over to her again.

I collected my security detail at the nearest bar and promised I would not tell anyone they lost me if they did not tell anyone I went off on my own.

We arrived home without anything else interesting happening, as far as I know.