Knight of Endrell Book One: The Red Empire

Chapter Seven

Chapter 7

Every day Kinai was tested anew with questions, council, and the likes of creatures and warriors of the unseen, for twelve months until he had learned much of their ways and lost all fear of them. He had often trained and conversed with some of the old knights of Endrell that followed Chorus out into the reach, and learned for himself the true nature of the siege of Endrell back in 1560,78, based on their personal accounts of the war. He also learned some new secrets about the city and things about Eberrin that he did not know before, as well as some tactics and principles that Eberrin never had the opportunity to share with Kinai and his friends before he died. Kinai spent about an hour with the knights every day; sometimes two hours. He greatly valued the opportunity to commune with them.

Kinai also took the liberty of conducting training sessions of his own for the children that were rescued from Dolmorthreol, to further enhance what Chorus, Linga, and the knights had taught them already. He was finally able to do so freely without having to hide and worry for their health and their safety.

At times Kinai would go to a private sanctum, a spacious chapel with nought but a few chairs, a desk and a couch. There he would spend time by himself to further consider and understand who he was; often to meditate and see if he could recall anything peculiar about his life that would shed some light on why he was so different and what that could mean. He remembered instances of being around hundreds of sick throughout his life without ever being affected. He remembered getting cuts and bruises that healed in a matter of minutes, and being able to lift up long and heavy wooden beams at eight years old.

He also recalled memories of a great shadow of a hulking beast appearing in his dreams to enter his room and try to kill him but without ever being able to touch him. Sometimes in meditation his memories would be interrupted by visions of strange individuals fighting wars in other lands, or of the lives of other watchmen without any idea as to a given time period or location. Kinai found it odd that these visions would occur just as he was remembering something peculiar about his childhood.

Beyond that, he would test the limits of his physical strength, usually by lifting some old bricks laying around the chapel that were roughly one and a half feet in length, one foot wide, and eight inches thick. He discovered that every time he would lift the brick it felt a little lighter than before. Kinai was also able to spend more time perfecting his sculpting practices, which allowed him to be at peace, and often to think more clearly aside from meditation.

Back in the Halses field once again, Chorus and Kinai prepared themselves to fight yet another time. Snowflakes fell upon the field and melted on the way down because of the heat coming from the ground. There was absolute silence for but a few seconds. Then, they began. Chorus started off with quick fumbling attacks, Kinai countered all of them. They moved back, forward and around one another in a dance of evasive sword tricks until Kinai broke the cycle with a hard smash against Chorus's guard. He was direct and sharp in his movement; his feet gracing the floor like wild fire across a dry hay field.

"All of this, your training such as Eberrin would have conducted, has been to reaffirm and refine what he taught you," said Chorus. "He died before he could teach you of the things that were hidden from your eyes – undetected organisms and microorganisms that scour your lands freely to antagonize your people, and how to deal with the unnatural foes that are greater and stronger than the soldiers that now patrol the streets of Endrell.

When they had their fill of the sword they tested each other with their fists. In an awesome display of stamina they knocked each other across the field back and forth. Then in several variations of hand swiveling motion they caught each other, fist and arm, with defensive combat masked as offensive combat using every attack to defend and repel the other's offense, each to give himself the advantage. In moments Kinai began to catch Chorus's every move while guarding his blind spots and pressure points.