The Heroes of The Elemental Academies Book 3 The Tides of War

Chapter 21: Revelations

Stratos
    "Oh calm down will you I'm here to pass on a message as well as a gift from your mother," He said exasperated at the fearful look Seth was directing at him. Really he was just here to escort the reinforcements through the portal and to deliver Seth a gift from his mother. But Rylee had berated him for the last hour about him not teaching Seth anything regarding Fey or gathering it. In answer to that he could only shrug. He hadn't had anything like the Fey gathering method when he had started using his abilities. He had learned by exploring and reaching his limits. Which is why he trained Seth in a similar manner.
     

    He knew that the Fey gathering method was far more effective and allowed you to gather and gage your strength better, but he still thought learning the hard way was more beneficial to learning yourself more and learning your limits. But the Fey gathering method made it much easier to learn advanced abilities like imbuement and detachment. Both were abilities that had taken him decades and in one case hundreds of years to complete.

   " The rest of you return to camp and receive your barrack assignments!" After a chorus of "sirs," the rest of Seth's squad disappeared into the tree line. He could tell what he had said to them had hit them pretty hard. But reality always had that effect on people.
"Do you really believe what you said?" Seth asked him. Strat reached to his left hand and pulled off his black glove before quickly doing the same for his right hand.
    " Do you even have to ask? Of course I do, and you should to?"
   "But why do we have to be the arms and legs?" Seth asked. Strat found himself sighing.
   "Let me ask you a question Seth... Do you like free will?" He could tell in an instant the question caught him off guard as Seth hesitated staring at him without blinking. Strat could almost feel the gears turning inside his head.

   "Of course I do. But what does that have to do with..."

   "Okay, and you do believe everyone should be able to dictate their own path with their actions?" Seth let out an exasperated sigh at the question and he raised an eyebrow at him as if trying to ask him, where are you going with this?
" Of course I do," he answered.
   "If God just solved all our problems for us and dictated everything in our life and in our world. Where would be the free will then? What would we learn?"
  He could almost see Seth's conflicting thoughts. It was in the way his eyebrows scrunched together and how he fixed his gaze on a specific spot of grass for a good minute before answering.
   "There wouldn't be any?" Seth answered, his voice almost a whisper.
   "Exactly!" He said turning to walk away. He didn't even bother looking back because he could feel Seth following him.
  "Even if God came down and peace was immediately brought to the whole world simultaneously. It would mean nothing to us. We'd have no incentive maintain it. Only peace achieved actually learning from our mistakes would mean anything."
   "So what you are saying is God is trying to teach us a lesson as well as trying to respect the free will of every living being regardless of whether or not their choices are right or wrong?" Seth inquired.
   "Now you get it!" They walked for a good while going back down the hill till they reached the newly constructed wooded gates of the base.
   The base was still being constructed even in the now fully darkened sky. Lights has sprung to life all over the base. Little balls of pure light Fey no bigger than a baseball, were dancing in the sky over the base. They were small but there were hundreds of them and they each gave off about as much light as two or three torches. So, the whole base was awash with light the moment they passed through the gate.
   

   "There is also a technique I'd like to pass on to you," he said as they continued down what was quickly becoming a Main Street. Stone and cloth tents were quickly going up everywhere he looked. Agents went about their business collecting wood for fires and building defenses. They passed by a massive tent with rows after rows of cots made of leather. And aura of light surrounded each cot only barely visible to him, the medical tent. Some of the cots were already occupied. He was sure it was the injured from the previous battle.
    They continued till they came across a collection of stone buildings that were arranged in a semicircle. There were five buildings all together once was massive. So big it could fit the other five buildings in it at once. There were no doors on this building and it was completely open inside. In the far back of Strat could see the agents in apron ma moving carrying crates of plates and sacks of grain.
   "That's a big Prayer Hall," he commented.
  "Yeah according to Rylee it will also be the place we all go to eat as well as engage in large meetings. We also will pray every Sunday." He could feel Seth's nervous energy behind him. Like a son showing his father where his friends live. He was looking for some type of approval even if he didn't know he was. He directed a smirk in Seth's direction amused at the boy's obvious behavior.
  "What are the other buildings for?" He asked Seth. He didn't ask the question because he didn't know. It was more to see the reaction he would show him.

   The  first building on the left are a containment building for disciplinary actions against agents. The other one on the left contains the war meeting rooms and map rooms. The first building on the right is a storage building for the food supplies and medical supplies and the other building is the armory. As you know we don't have a lot of weapons but for the younger agents and the less powerful we carry plenty of every type, of course."
   "Of course," Strat answered. He wanted to laugh at the overly serious answer Seth had just given him but he didn't.
     "Let's go we still have much to talk about before I return so let's head to your tent."
     "I don't have a tent yet but I'll create a stone one when we get somewhere that is unoccupied."
Strat said nothing as they continued onward for about a good two minutes passing by row after row of stone and white cloth tents. Until finally Strat led Seth to a patch of open ground. He gestured with his left hand.
   "Here, this should do," he said. Strat stayed still as Seth walked past him to survey they land. He could see him scanning the land for any abnormalities. He then bent down and touched his hand to the ground. For a moment silence completely overtook the area and even the bustling base of agents behind them seemed far away.
   

    Strat said nothing opting to let Seth focus. It didn't take long. The ground started shaking lightly at first and then with more force as massive box of compact dirt and stone rose from the ground. The box was easily as big as some taverns he had seen. After it rose to about the height of a small pine tree the shaking stopped. It was flat on the top and unadorned. It was simply a dirt box. Seth motioned with his hand for him to follow and then turned to head to the nearest wall. He waited as again Seth lightly pressed his hand against the wall and a small section the size of normal door sunk back into the ground revealing a raised floor not made of dirt but some kind of light grey stone. Seth went inside and he quickly followed him.
  It was dark inside but he had no problem seeing well enough it was just a basic large room with two small separated areas one was probably for sleeping the other for bathing. With a wave of his hand little balls of light flared into existence around them. The light was blinding for only a few seconds before his eyes adjusted. It brightly lit up the smooth seemingly polished grey floor.
    

   But he wasn't here to stare. Strat had to get back to the Academy by the morning. As he would start the rather long journey to the dwarves capitol. Since losing contact with them and the portal gate being offline he was being sent as an envoy to the dwarves to both find out what was going on and to see if they would join their growing allied army.
   It was a big deal and Strat was absolutely dreading it. He had always hated politics. That's why he let Samson run the Lightforce Academy. 

  "First things first i've got something for you," He stated. From his Dem Pocket he produced a wrapped plate that was still hot to the touch. Katie had baked fresh chocolate cookies for her son but he wasn't going to tell Seth that.

   "Don't open this until i'm gone or it will be a hassle."

   "How the heck did you just pull this out of your pocket?" Seth said staring Strat down like he had just seen something scary. He waved his hand at Seth dismissing it.

   "Even if I told you now you would not be able to understand it," He replied. And he meant it if he told Seth that the pocket was made from manipulating light to bend space into a tiny dimension it was doubtful he could understand it. After all, it had taken Stratos almost a hundred years to figure out this application of light and only he was capable of making this... pocket dimension or as he had named it Dem Pocket. Seth nodded seemingly to accept what He had told him. 

   "I'm too tired to argue anyway," He stated. "So what was this technique you wanted to show me?" 

  He didn't answer right away instead he moved to the middle of the room.

   "Watch Carefully, I'll show you. But first I'll warn you, whatever you see next just think about it carefully." Seth cocked an eyebrow at him clearly not understanding what he meant. Stratos took a deep breath steadying his mind and body and called on something he hadn't called on in more than a thousand years. He summoned the Element of Darkness.