“Karim.” Korina called out, smiling. The two were having their usual lunch, this time in the garden, a tradition she thought best to continue since it would not be long now before her son left for the Academy.

“Hmm...” responded Karim, reading a book he had found in the castle library about spirit beasts, he was particularly interested in the flame elephant.

“Today’s the first day of your lessons with the old master, aren’t you excited?” she asked, pouring herself some spirit fruit juice.

Pausing his reading for a second, he looked up and replied, “A little.” He then lowered his head to continue his research.

Sighing Korina sipped her drink and asked, “What’s so interesting that you can’t even spare a few minutes to talk to me?”

“Aura and pressure of spirit Beasts.” He said, putting the book down. “Sorry, it’s just something to do with my training.”

“It’s alright, tell me about it as you eat.” She spoke.

“I’ll pass on the food, I’m already eating ten times a day.” Karim said, slightly frowning in displeasure.

“Oh, never mind then. Tell me what you learned.” Despite already knowing about the aura and pressure of spirit beasts being the daughter of a spirit Alchemist she was still happy to listen.

“It’s nothing really, Lark just took out a device during yesterday’s training that made it so that I couldn’t move my body as well as I wanted, it felt like I was moving through mud and even breathing was hard. He said it was a spirit tool made to mimic the aura and pressure released by the flame elephant, a level four beast. So I found this book…”

“Hold on, were you…were you able to withstand the pressure?” Korina asked, trying her best to feign calmness but the change in her tone of voice made this attempt unsuccessful.

“I was only able to hold on for half an hour while training.” Replied Karim, hanging his head in disappointment unable to see the look of pure shock mixed with wild joy on Korina’s face.

However, she soon composed herself. “Ehem, that’s quite good already. Keep working hard.” She said, clearing her throat.

“Only spirit beasts above the third level have an aura that they can release outwards in the form of pressure, for you to be able to last that long is something to be proud of considering you can only digest level two spirit food.” Korina said, trying not to lay on too much praise that he started to get complacent.

“Mm.” replied Karim, reaching for the jade jug to pour himself some juice.

However, he had barely filled half his glass when Salma called out, “Madam, the old master is calling for young master. He says he has another engagement in the afternoon and requests the young master report for his lesson now.”

Karim looked to his mother for permission who immediately said, “Go, don’t keep the old master waiting and remember to stay respectful at all times. Understand?”

“Understood.” Karim affirmed before following Salma’s lead to meet the old master.

……….

“The old master is waiting for you.” Said Sherry pointing to a black door that had strands of shadowy energy circling it. “Just go through and you’ll arrive at the old master’s chamber at the top of the tower.”

The two were currently nowhere near the tower that housed the old master’s chambers, let alone the top of it and yet walking through that door would bring him all the way there. Karim’s eyes widened just thinking of the possibilities of this ability and the fact that his grandfather was the one who wielded it made him anticipate one day being able to do the same.

His mind occupied with such thoughts, Karim braced himself and walked through the door. Shadows quickly enveloped his being for a split second and before he could blink, he had arrived at his destination. Looking back behind him, the door was gone.

“You’re here.” Said the old master, walking towards Karim. Much like the last time they met, he was dressed in the Noble attire of House Night except this time he donned a black overcoat and, on his waist, hung a sheathed blade.

“The shadow door frightens some people the first time they walk through one, but you’ll get used it the more you go through them, and we just happen to be going on a short trip.” He said, smiling, the slight wrinkles on his face stretching out to give what some would call a threatening look. Karim thankfully was not frightened, more curious than anything.

“Where are we going?” He asked.

“To teach you about our duties as Nobles. While I could do that here, it’s be better to show you.” He said, snapping his fingers to form a shadow door beside him.

“I’ll be right behind you.” He said, motioning Karim to go through first.

Unafraid, he boldly walked through the door however, what awaited was not what he could have predicted.

Standing hundreds of feet in the air, supported by a shadowy cloud under his feet, Karim could not believe what he was seeing.

The wind at this height was terrifying causing him to crouch down and attempt to grab onto the shadowy cloud for support but to no avail as it had no form. He immediately closed his eyes as he was too afraid, firstly because he couldn’t bring himself to look down again at what looked like a gigantic rain forest that went on as far as the eye could see and secondly, because the force within him was giving off danger signals like never before.

There was guaranteed peril awaiting him in every direction according to the force inside him. This was not it conveying threatening intentions from would be threats to him, no, this was the force for the first time actively notifying him that there was danger all around him. A first, that had never happened until now but Karim was too busy trembling in fear to think about what this meant.

“Haha, I apologize. My father did the same thing to me a long time ago, so it’s become a bit of a ritual of ours.” The amused voice of his grandfather suddenly sounded out and with it came the disappearance of the scary wind. The danger signals from the force within him also dissipating as a protector had arrived.

Taking a few moments to breathe and compose himself, Karim then very slowly opened his eyes only to find his grandfather beside him, suspended in the air, with nothing below him.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be able to do it too one day.” Said the old master, smiling.

“Where…are we?” Karim asked, still not confident enough to stand up yet.

“This is a part of the House’s, our territory, but that’s not the answer to your question.” Said the old master.

“A Noble’s duty. Once you understand that, then you’ll truly know where we are.”

“What is a Noble’s duty?” Karim asked, his grandfather’s calm demeanor giving him confidence.

“Patience. First, I want to show you something.” Waving his hand as he said that the cloud carrying Karim started to descend, following the old master into the forest below.

As they got lower and eventually entered the forest only then did Karim understand the difference in sense of scale. The trees were massive, towering above him and standing like silent unmoving guards. Huge boulders lay sleeping on the earthy forest floor as moss grew over them like a giant soft green blanket. Amongst the thick tangle of branches, long vines hung down loosely making natural rope bridges between the trees.

The air within the forest was warm and filled with the orchestra of a thousand colorful birds and insects who went into hiding beneath the umbrella-like leaves as soon as they sensed the old master’s approach.

One of the birds, however, did not go into hiding. It instead glared at the old master, wariness in its eyes. It was big in size, standing at about a story high, but in comparison to the trees, it was still too small. The bird resembled a parrot but with rainbow-colored feathers and eagle like talons. It was also releasing a rather threatening pressure from its body.

‘A spirit beast. One above the fourth level.’ Karim deduced, noticing how much more overbearing the pressure this parrot released was compared to the flame elephant spirit tool. Luckily, the old master was shielding him from the pressure.

“I guess this’ll do.” Said, the old master unbothered by the spirit beast’s gaze. “Karim, this is a fifth level King parrot. It is one step away from stepping into the sixth level, thereby gaining true intelligence and becoming an upper lifeform. Who knows? It might even be recruited by the Spirit beast Empire after that.” Instructed the old master.

“But in the end, like all of them it is merely livestock.” He said, his gaze turning emotionless and with a snap of his fingers, shadowy flames instantly engulfed the bird burning it until all that was left was a collection of thin, weak wisps of shadowy energy.

This sequence of events took only a second but left a huge impact on Karim. The bird did not even have the time to struggle, he questioned if it even felt pain.

The old master then controlled those wisps of shadowy energy, absorbing them into his body.

“When you’re strong enough it takes but a thought to absorb the energy of livestock.” He then turned to face Karim. “You must be wondering why I’m showing this to you?”

“Well, what you just saw, I could do to every living thing on this planet. I alone, a single Hayawani can devour everything Binguni has to offer and convert it to energy to make myself stronger. The other Noble Houses have people just like me and yet, we don’t. Do you want to know why?”

The old master then stretched his arms wide, “Because this forest and beyond is our farm. If I did that, there would be no hope for our race, there would be no you, and if those before me did it there would have been no me.”

Sighing, the old master shook his head, “I know you must be confused so allow me to start by saying that Binguni is not what it seems. It is not so much a world as it is a sanctuary for our people, an ark prepared long, long ago. It keeps us safe ensuring our survival as long as we don’t leave, and if we do leave, there’s no coming back. All the spirit beasts, plants and organisms that exist here were brought here from different places in the Universe by our Ancestors to create an environment that would allow us to grow and retain some modicum of strength.”

Pausing for a moment, the old master looked to the sky taking some time to gather his thoughts. “Keep us safe from who? Why did our Ancestors do this? Such questions and I’m sure many more are running through your mind right about now but for the moment all I can tell you is that the Hayawani you know now is not indicative of who we once were. According to what I have read and been told we were once rulers, a powerful force to be reckoned with in the Universe until a terrifying race emerged, they called themselves Humans.”

There was a short silence that seemed like an eternity after that, but Karim was too shocked to break it.

“Originally, you should know little to none of this until you’ve succeeded your father but even in this joke of a world we live in, ambition, greed and ego still reign supreme and there are people who wish to see the balance broken. A balance we Nobles exist to retain, there can be no shake up as any disequilibrium can lead to the destruction of our race, which is why we have many rules and taboos in place.”

Taking all this in, Karim was at a loss as to how to react. The world he knew had suddenly changed in a matter of minutes.

“One of those taboos is that people at my level of power can never grow stronger at the expense of our people, however, should the thirst for strength be too strong then one can always take the risk and leave Binguni. The other taboo is that there can only be one Royal family and four Noble Houses, the Royals have the light element, the Nobles have air, water, earth and fire. But as you already know, this taboo was broken by us many, many years ago. It being one of the rare cases where the balance was not affected.”

The old master suddenly scoffed, “House Night, the only non-Original House. Few people alive know the true story of how we came to be, but I think I’ve told enough stories for one day. Let us head back.”