Tymo finished the last of his tea, sighed in deep appreciation, and stood. “The Hierophant has extended his wishes that each of you train with one of our brothers while you stay here at the monastery, with the exception of Master Faryn.” He smiled warmly at her. “You are free to pursue your own interests throughout the monastery’s gardens or in our library, if you choose. As for the rest of you, you’ll be given tailored training depending on your Augmentation level.”
“Where’s the Hierophant?” I asked.
“He consults the spirits as we speak,” Tymo informed me. “They guide him toward the best paths for the future of our monastery and for your training. Swordslinger, you will join me in the hall. Do you have any further questions?”
The others looked to me, and I shook my head. “That’s all.”
“Then see to the needs of your bellies, and we shall see to the needs of your learning.”
Tymo bowed to us and left the room in a sweeping whirl of scarlet robes.
We ate for a while longer in silence, until Kumi swept her gaze over the table and frowned.
“It’s a large table for a small number of monks, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kegohr agreed, around a mouthful of rice. “I’ve only seen 10 of them. Doesn’t make much sense for a place this big.”
“They have room enough for a hundred,” Vesma observed.
“Could there be others elsewhere?” I asked.
“No,” Mahrai said. “But there are more monks living here. Or at least there were until a few days ago.”
Everyone turned to look at her.
“How do you know that?” Faryn asked sharply.
“I picked the locks on some of the cells,” Mahrai said with a shrug. “Plenty of bedding, a few sets of sandals, and small mementos that you’d expect from a religious order. There were more monks here until very recently. Many more. Perhaps a hundred.”
“You picked the locks?” Faryn asked in disbelief.
Mahrai rolled her eyes. “I’ve been through my fair share of locked rooms looking for food in the aftermath of a war, Faryn. You learn a thing or two here and there.”
“So, that’s where you went after you left,” I said, recalling how Mahrai had left my room after we’d made love. “Any reason why you didn’t ask me to join?”
“I figured you needed your rest.” She jabbed me in the side. “After all, I would have left you exhausted.”
The other women chuckled, and I shook my head at how accepting they were of our arrangement.
“So, the monastery suddenly appears,” I said. “It opens its doors, scares Guildmaster Xilarion, and we’re sent here to train. But a majority of the monks are missing. Anyone else thinking that there’s something strange going on here?”
“They could be on pilgrimage,” Kumi suggested. “It was the role of the monks to travel and preach to believers. Perhaps they are reminding Wysaro City of their guardian spirits and the forgotten rituals of the gods.”
The conversation drifted off from there. I ate my fill, made sure to fortify my Vigor with as much of the thimbleleaf tea as I could, and excused myself from the table. I strolled down a few of the corridors and entered the main hall of the monastery. I brushed my fingers against the Sundered Heart as I approached the main altar.
“Are you awake?” I asked her.
“For you, my sweet man? Always. What do you require of me?”
“I want to know what you feel about the monastery.”
“It is a place of true power, and its inhabitants seek to teach you the paths to greater power. I feel no nefarious intentions within these hermits, Master. They will show you the key to great strength. It would be foolish of you to obstruct them in their task.”
“I appreciate the heads-up.”
“I will always be here to watch over you,” Nydarth purred.
Archpriest Tymo appeared from a side door and strode to the altar with a flowing step. He bowed to the graven images of the dragon and lion with the peculiar reverence of his order and turned to face me with a pleasant smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“The Hierophant might have been the one to train you initially,” he said, “but the burden now falls upon me. He’s regrettably occupied with running the monastery. I will instruct you until he returns to us. Unless you would prefer someone else?”
I leveled my gaze at him, and Tymo met it without flinching.
I shrugged. “You seem more conversational than he does.”
“Indeed, I am.” Tymo chuckled. “A fact I’m sure he finds irritating.”
“What does it mean when you talk about him ‘consulting the spirits’? It sounds as if he can actually talk to higher beings, who give him snatches of the future.”
“It is the greatest, and perhaps most dangerous, form of Augmentation,” Tymo said. “Physical and Environmental Augmentation are by no means simple, but to Augment one’s spirit through meditation is something else entirely. It does, however, provide answers to questions that are difficult to come by on this mortal plane.”
“Will you teach me Spiritual Augmentation?” I asked.
Tymo clicked his tongue in reply. “Ah, the impatience of the young. The Hierophant made it clear that I was to teach you Physical Augmentation before anything else.”
“Then let’s get started,” I said.
I settled into a routine over the next three weeks. Each day would begin with an early breakfast. My friends and I were forbidden from meeting with each other, and I took our training seriously, so I refused even Mahrai’s attempt at nocturnal visits. I saw them pass in the corridors, and they all looked exhausted. Nevertheless, we remained silent while we ate, devouring our food quickly so that we could get to our lessons faster.
I strengthened my newly formed fire pathways to boost my strength and durability to near-superhuman levels while I sparred against Tymo. The Archpriest had all of the Hierophant’s speed and none of his restraint. But with each match, my grasp on Physical
