Chapter 6

The Chief

As Silent followed the servant towards the far end of the massive house, he passed by at least a dozen more servants, some cleaning, some caring dishes, some carrying freshly tanned leather armor. There was one in particular he notice merely waiting on four beautiful and scantily clad women. None of which looked any older than he had before his untimely demise in his previous life. Their breasts were bare and they only had on a small amount of cloth covering their feet and nether regions. Sai stared nearly the entire time at them, his face bright red with embarrassment as he made a twenty foot walk through their room toward the room the Chief was in.

As Sai passed the threshold of the exit of the room the ladies were in, he heard them snickering in hushed tones. Sai continued to make my way to the Chief's room led by the servant, up the stone stairs and finally stopping at a door near the center of the hall. “Boy, knock on the door, introduce yourself, then do what our Chief tells you to do. Only at the end can you ask permission to learn the clan’s wind or earth arts.”

After he said what he felt necessary, the servant left Sai standing in front of the stone door. He knew that the chief was on the other side, and Sai was certain he knew Sai was there. Sai knocked on the door and awaited a greeting. “Come in,” the Chief said, his tone was cruel and filed with disgust. Sai reach up to the door knob and twist it with all my might, a small click sounds off in the mechanism. Sai began to push, harder and harder, he just couldn't budge the door. “Can't open it, can you?” The Chief asked.

“It seems that I'm not strong enough, I beg your pardon Great Leader, but it seems I need help.” Sai begged the leader. The way I see it, the more abilities a can control, the less likely I will ever be put in a situation I cannot survive.

“Fine.” Sai heard from the other side of the door as it slowly pushed itself open. Sai stared blankly as the door itself shrinks and is unhinged from the wall then moves inwards, as if it's hinges were on backwards. He hesitantly stepped through the opening and see a large man sitting on a stone chair staring at him, thunder swimming through his violet eyes. “Come over here child, take a seat,” He said as the stone stool that was originally the same height as Silent slowly became half his height. Sai hurriedly scuttled up to sit on the chair, remembering to thank the Chief before taking his seat. “What's your name, boy?” The Chief asked, even though Sai knew that he knew the answer.

“My name is Silent Black Great Leader, I'm the son of Lavits and Lilith,” Sai answered the redundant question succinctly.

“Good, you aren't an idiot. Do you know why we generally wait before giving out our elemental abilities?” The chief asked, this time the question wasn't as unhelpful.

“Because children are poorly disciplined and cannot be trusted with powers that could destroy our tribe. Of course, there are always extenuating circumstances.” Sai replied, his last sentence did nothing to waver the Chief’s thunder eyes.

“And, that is why you are here? In the hopes of learning how to control an element?” Another redundant question from the chief that Silent of course assented to. “What do you know about elemental magic?”

“Elemental magic allows you to control the elements at the cost of some energy.” This was the only answer Sai could muster up since he didn't know much more than that.

“For the most part, you aren't wrong. In order to use elemental energy, you have to expend the energy of heaven and earth. After absorbing some into your body naturally you can spend it. After gaining basic insight into these elemental abilities you can be considered elementary ranked. After sufficient ability is seen, you will rank up till you reach the second large rank, novice. There are ten sub ranks to elementary elemental magic and each takes a toll on your body as will as provides many benefits. The reason I'm telling you this is because if you reach too high a rank, your body won't be able to hold the energy inside but it would instead destroy you. If I were to give you this cultivation technique before your body could physically handle the energy, you would die, and I would be out a potential soldier.” the Chief explained. “Until you can open that door relying on your own strength, you cannot be allowed this ability. Now go.”

“So, all I have to do is open the door?” Silent asked, sauntering towards it. He reached up to the handle, pulling his whole body up with it, his legs in a squatting position on the stone. Sai pulled with all his might, his shoulders were strained, he pushed with his legs until he felt cramping. In the end the door still didn't move. Sai fell straight to the floor. The Chief then told Sai to keep it down, ignoring his inability to leave.

At the end of the day, Silent was laying on the ground in front of the door the Chief gets up, the door shrinks a small amount, no more than a hair's breadth, he swings it open forcefully and walks out, the door returning to its original size. It look as if I'll be locked in here over night. Sai look throughout the room, at the few books that his small tribe has he opened one up that had a symbol on the cover that represented a rock. The book was made entirely out of stone, it wasn't too heavy however. After opening it up, Sai realized it was too dark to see. He lit a small fire at the top of his finger and begin to read. The book was actually rather short. Only twelve pages. He read through the book several times before understanding any bit of the intricacies of the earth element. But he used what he already knew about energy manipulation in order to discover the bare minimum of manipulating earth.

He then grabbed the door handle and willed the entire door to shrink just a hair. Sai tried once more to open the door, pulling on it the same way as before. It began to move. Sai easily pulled open the large door albeit, not completely with his own strength, but enough to be able to go home and give it a try again in the morning. He followed the same route he took to get to the Chief's study. Down the stairs, past the hall with the mostly nude women, and finally to the foyer where he met once again with the servant that brought me to the Chief.

“So, you opened the door?” The servant asked rhetorically. Sai answered anyway, still with the utmost respect, even the Chief's servants were held higher up than him on the social ladder.

“Yes, I did manage to move the door enough to slip out, but not enough to change our Great Leader's mind.”

“I see, I am to take you home now. You can try again as often as you would like, but it is suggested to be a bit older and stronger first,” the servant explained. “Why don't you show me how you moved the door upstairs by opening this one?”

“Of course, forgive me if I can't though, I am rather tired.” Sai could open the door rather easily if he used my minute mastery over earth magic, but it seemed as if the doors are all too large for their stone casing to be pushed or pulled without shrinking them first. Sai once more put all of his power into pushing the door, it of course wouldn't budge without the application of earth magic.

Sai knew that if he were to show that he studied earth magic without the Chief's consent though that he would be in trouble. So, the options were limited to hiding the truth, or getting caught. As someone who has experienced death before, Sai was not wanting to get caught.

“Hmm, It looks as if you found a second way to exit the study, sheer willpower. Never mind that it would take more force than your father can exert just to move this door.” The servant said sarcastically, “You need to open it. Now.” After he explained this to Sai, he realized. That he already knew Sai could manipulate earth, so Sai naturally shrunk down the door and pulled it open. His tiny body being more than enough to move the door somehow. “Come along boy,” The servant said walking through the door toward my house.

I'm not in trouble? Sai thought to himself as the servant walked next to him towards Sai’s house, it is now night time out, one of the moons hung hung high in the sky, the other could barely be seen in the distance. “You were actually rather quick. It took your father nearly a week to open each door,” the servant claimed. Dao then realized that what he had done was exactly as planned by the chief. “I'm particularly surprised that it only took you a few hours, and you could see the difference in size”

“So it is a test?” Sai asked.

“Of course. It is required to learn basic skill in earth magic before any other magic so as to form a more cohesive team on the battlefield. The Chief thinks very highly of you since he let you take the trial at such a young age.” Claimed the servant. “The Chief is even escorting you home.” The servant, or now revealed Chief claimed, “if I didn't expect great things from you, I would have turned you away at my door.”

Things took a definite unexpected turn at this point. “Wait, you're our Great Leader?” Sai asked.

“Well, of course. You think that big oaf could take care of our small village? He took twenty years just to learn my lightning magic. He does do well to listen to my orders and follow them to the letter, so I can't berate him too much. He told you about energy expenditure, yes?”

“Uh, yeah.” Sai said, still hesitant as to some kind of trick. What does he have to gain by lying to me? Sai thought.

“Oh, I gain nothing, I'm divulging the truth to you like I do everyone who passes my earth trial,” the man said, obviously hearing Sai’s thoughts. “You would do well to learn some ability in hiding your thoughts. After you learn wind magic from your father seek me out again. At your rate of progress I will expect you in about a three months. At which point, I will teach you some important information that very few in our clan know.”

At this point Sai began to get excited. Also confused. The Chief didn't seem to be some kind of warmonger. It seemed like he genuinely cared about the people in his tribe and their ability. I'm not even a part of his lineage and he doesn't seem to mind, he is offering to be my master either way, Sai thought, ignoring the fact that the Chief could hear him.

In the next month, Sai had learned all there was to know from his father about wind magic, even his ability to control a gale. It all still felt very basic though, even to him who had barely scratched the surface. After learning about wind, Sai subsequently spent three more weeks learning earth magic. With no one to teach me more than the most basic of basic information regarding it, Sai grabbed a book on it that was in his house like every other person's house and began to practice it too. By the end of the third week, Sai had enough magic energy reserved to create his own house before running out, being as young as he was and as talented as he was though, Sai had to keep it hidden until he could truly protect himself and his family. Sai made a vow that very day, I wouldn't go through losing anyone I cared about again, ever again.