The Convergence Point
Ray
Slowly, the shining white structure with a bright red hue across its name came into view. Covering all the upper floors with fine sheets of glass, the visible interior was intentionally capturing the view of anyone crossing the facility.
“Seven Blades”, I said aloud, cross-checking the name of the store with a piece of paper in my hand. This was my last destination of the day, and so, I folded the paper in half and drifted it inside my pocket. It was already past dusk. The street was now covered with bright yellow lighting across both sides. The vibrant view of this avenue of street lights at night was captivating. Small shops were still open here and there. Some selling ornaments, some showcasing fresh food products, while others forcing children to beg or pull their parents by selling set of popular figurines, toys and candies. Overall, the street was quite lively. I would have never even cared to imagine the odds of an existence beyond our existence, but here I was, experiencing it.
I started walking ahead, it’s been about half a month since I was brought here by Ken. He introduced me to all the major places nearby within a few days. Since then, I have been assigned the task to go around at designated places and come back home myself, as an exercise for my rather idle schedule. I have been lost at times, but Ken used to somehow instantly appear when I have wretched myself with all possible ways and guide me back home. Even so, my memory is barely clinging to these routes. I never asked him how he managed to pinpoint my location, was he following me all along? Or maybe, some sort of enhanced device of this world that can tell where a specific person is? Or maybe he predicted where I would be at a particular time? I would rather not go with this one.
There were lots of questions, mostly related to this new world Introduced to me not long ago, some fueled by my curiosity, others by my non-existing knowledge. But, I decided, none of them mattered cause I knew I won’t be able to decode these answers myself anyway. I pushed away any other thoughts at the back of my mind as I tried to figure out the correct path from the diverging streets in front of me. Walking the one my memory trusted the most, I reiterated the information I gathered about this world.
The place I am currently present is called Rodon city, a popular city of the Glyden kingdom. People here have all sorts of magical powers, providing them inhuman abilities, and they call it mana. With core as a special organ in a human body, they are able to store, refine and manipulate mana according to their will. Not only are they able to use mana, they even have established a considerable amount of research on it, making new technologies such as imbued mana weapons, armours, self-controlled mana-powered machines, pseudo-artifacts and the list goes on. Not everyone has the privilege of manifesting a core within them, but most have in today’s era.
Mana seems to be some sort of inherent nature of this world since it has not only affected humans but all living existences, which broadly includes animals and plants as well. And thus, mana beasts came into existence, beasts with the capabilities to manipulate mana up to some extent of their will with their mana core. As for plants, they have usually shown mutation using mana, but are still deemed far from producing their own mana core. There is also a belief in this world that the power to manipulate mana can only be achieved after an entity develops a certain level of consciousness to control it. Others hypothesize a certain level of mana in an entity can give rise to consciousness itself. But all these are just theories waiting to be proved. Other than animals and plants, stones and ores have also been observed with the uncommon behaviour of storing mana within them but lacks the necessary life process to perform anything with it.
Looking up at the dark night, I continued.
Then there are hunters, a group of mana users specialized in fighting mana beasts. Hunters make it possible to collect mana stones and other resources from areas where the density of mana is high, usually around larger mana beasts, in turn also keeping beasts under check, thus being a considerable part of kingdoms' research, development and protection. Glyden also has its own military, a force responsible for maintaining law and order, and —if necessary— to fight off any threat the kingdom faces. Hunters are treated second to military officials, above them are nobles. The Royal family holds the highest order in this kingdom. As for nobles, every noble is responsible for handling a piece of land and making sure the orders and regulations from the Imperial palace —the residence and operating epicentre of the Royal family— are implemented without any issues. The currency in this country is gold, silver, and bronze coins. With 1 gold being equal to 10 silvers, 100 bronze coins and two whole sacks of rice.
Time slipped by quickly as I saw a group of large installations come into view. The place where Ken and I were living. It was a set of 5 small buildings built around each other, coloured in shades of light blue and indigo named Five Skies.
Was I too late? I thought. Crossing the main gate I turned towards block B and continued my march. Climbing up to the second floor and passing a somewhat empty hall, I walked straight through the left corridor to the third last room on my right. The rooms of this establishment were spacious and somewhat luxurious too, they were equipped with pretty-much every basic need. The most surprising thing was, some people used to deliver meals three times a day to us at our doorsteps. The expense of the room was around 40 gold coins a month, but Ken was the one arranging for it.
Seeing a plate on top of the gate stating B208, I twisted the noob to my left. It was open, and inside was a boy around my age. Wait, a boy?
“Welcome, Young master” He said with a straight face. I cross-checked the room number just in case I intruded in some other room. But, I was in the right place.
“May I know who might you be?” I asked. He doesn’t seem to be a thief, or someone dangerous. Now that I look him carefully, he had golden-yellow hair and bold eyes, a deterministic and serious look was persisting on his face, he gave off the vibes of someone mature compared to his bluffing age.
“I am Shaun. Shaun Vincen. Lord Ken has ordered me for your safety and protection while he is away on an urgent business”
“Ken left?” No doubt, If Ken has appointed him, he sure must be a skilled warrior. Realizing this, I closed the door behind me and went towards the centre of the room where a long couch was waiting for me. Before I could continue my conversation, I was presented with a long black box and a letter in front of me. I picked up the letter first and my eyeballs started to shift from left to right.
“Ray, Today marks the end of your exercise. There is something urgent I need to take care of, therefore I am leaving Shaun with you. The box in front is a present for you, I wanted to hand it over personally but time restricts me.
Take care, Ken”
So, Ken really left. I kept the letter down and looked back at Shaun. Pulling my hand out, I spoke
“Ray, nice to meet you”. He hesitated for a moment, then slowed grabbed my hand without uttering a word.
It was time, I lifted the lid of the box resting next to me on the table. Inside was a pitch-black long sword. Straight in shape. The shorter and sharper end of the blade was a shining silver colour, while the longer side and the hilt were pitch-black. On the lower end of the blade were red unknown inscriptions, going all the way down to the bottom. They looked skillfully carved. On the right was the casing of this blade, made again of shades of silver and black to match that of the sword. The set looked majestic, not only from its surface but from all of its existence.
“Woah..., This is… amazing”. I couldn’t help but utter the obvious. Shaun doesn’t seem to be surprised at all. Maybe he already had a look while I was away?
“How is it. What do you think?”
“It’s a fine sword”
“Only fine?” I said sarcastically.
“I didn’t mean fine as in…”
“Don’t worry, I was just joking”. I started giggling. But ended up realizing I am the only one doing it since Shaun had no reaction to my not-so-funny joke.
I would have been more than happy to try the sword this instance but my fatigue won over the feeling, I closed the lid of the box with a sigh.
“I will go take a shower… What about you? Wanna join?” I joked again.
“No, young master”
“Drop this young master stuff. Just call me Ray”. I gave a casual smile. He thought for a while before nodding in acceptance.
I rushed to the bathroom in hopes that a cold shower would be able to wash away my fatigue. Stripping my clothes, I turned on the valve and let the water flow through my whole body. This place has always been one where I have asked many questions, mostly to myself. Maybe it was because of my reflection on the mirror standing in front of me.
The same set of questions repeated every time, only to be met with desolation, same as today. We both kept staring each other until our fingers started to drift towards our sternum. Where a different skin twice the size of my fist rested over a circular region. Covering a hole in the chest. It looked as if someone intentionally stitched a skin here. I had a feeling that the presence over here could have helped to guide me through this turmoil. But every time I ran my hand across the plain, I was only met with dead silence.
Because there was no beating… just emptiness.