They were the last to arrive and Oyzal couldn’t wrap his head around that.

Since entering the trial, he was overwhelmed with confidence to the point of considering the trial a formality. And now, it seemed like he had barely made it.

The stocky man had led them towards the mountain that peaked above the rest. In fact, the peak was layered with clouds and thus had a mystic air about it. The man had not spoken once and did not even react when Oyzal had tried a spiritual scan on him. He felt weaker than Master Shapou but to Oyzal, it was like the difference between an ocean and a river.

Oyzal and Izar now stood behind eight of the other trialists, the ones who had made it before them. A granite mountain loomed above them. They had been greeted with irritated, annoyed and bored faces. They probably were made to wait. But Oyzal was overwhelmed, especially by how strong he felt the rest of them were. They all had cores and he believed that the girl at the lead was an Expert. She had smirked when he had run his spiritual perception through her, her core felt twice the size of his. No wonder she was the first. The rest were novices like him, with the density of their cores proving to be the difference. But this was one aspect where Oyzal was ahead, his core was extremely well formed.

The stocky man cleared his throat, closed his eyes and puffed his cheeks. A look of intense concentration settled on his features. “The great poet Khosro once said ‘we must all persevere until we reach what we want to reach’.” Narrow eyes scanned all of them. “Here you are, you have persevered and now you are where you wanted to be. I am Elder Mozren and with me you shall enter the Outer Sect.”

With that, Elder Mozren turned and the mountain started opening.

At first a single white line stretched along the dark face of the mountain. There were gasps and shocked exclamations. Oyzal wasn’t sure whether or not his mouth was hanging open but his whole being was filled with excitement. He spared a glance for Izar, she was also looking on with excitement and interest. There was a rumbling sound that escaped from the mountain itself and slowly the white line started to grow till it appeared to be a few feet wide. And then, the two sides of the mountain moved. They opened akin to two doors being gently nudged and an intense white light filled the valley.

“Come,” said Elder Mozren.

They followed Elder Mozren into the blinding white light. Oyzal dared not to close his eyes, fearing he might miss out on whatever tiny secrets the mountain might hide. Desire and hunger simmered inside of him as he was in awe of the power being exhibited. Fists formed, one day he would wield power such as this he promised himself. He was forced to close his eyes due to the intensity of the light and then it faded.

It felt like they had been transported to another world.

On either side were granite walls that which gave the appearance of forming a cave mouth. But in front of them was a lush green valley with structures implanted on them. A circular patch of sand could be observed to the right while buildings with red beams were on the left. More clusters of different shaped buildings huddled on the plate of green.

“Beautiful, no?” Izar whispered.

“Aye.”

They travelled down stairs made of stone and Elder Mozren took them to the right.

And they walked, walked and walked. They walked for so long that the sun reacquainted with them, sweat covered their robes when they finally appeared in front of the circular patch of sand. It was a ring, flanked by more smaller rings to the side. Oyzal`s eyes gleamed.

“This is the Spar”, Elder Mozren announced. “All apprentices of the Outer Sect engage in physical combat here, when they want”, Elder Mozren added.

“Why are they empty?”

Asked a boy with a shaved head. His grey robes tightly wrapped around his lean figure.

“Today is an off day, thanks to the new members of the Outer Sect”, answered Elder Mozren and with that he started walking towards the left.

They walked for over half an hour before arriving at a building where brown doors were sealed with a spear. The rest of the building was made of a darker shade with high windows attached at the top.

Elder Mozren stood on the steps leading to the doors. “This is the Armory; new recruits will find weapons according to their ranks. It will be open to you from tomorrow”.

Next up, they stopped in front of a rectangular protrusion that reached at least ten feet into the air. The inside was hollow, dark but occasional flashes of light would reflect on the walls. The flashes of light revealed stairs that made their way towards the earth. And from those stairs wafted up various smells ranging from sweet to physically repugnant. The new recruits were not too eager to stand in front of this new structure and the elder was taking his time before moving on. The elder stood under the roof of the structure. Lights flashed, giving him an almost ethereal appearance.

“This is the Apothecary. All your potions, tablets and elixirs will be produced here.”

Elder Mozren walked away from the Apothecary to the relief of the rest.

They passed a large structure with green walls known as the Healing Chambers and passed by the mouth of the Scrolls. The Scrolls was the library, another underground chamber but less ominous looking. A huge area of green was under a shed made of white cloth. In its shadow were tables and chairs, neatly arranged to form a place where recruits took meals. It had no name and was the first time Oyzal caught a glimpse of other recruits. They were wearing green robes matching those worn by the elder and stared at them as the new recruits passed.

They arrived at a square courtyard where the grass was shaved off. On either side were five wooden huts with one singular larger hut sitting at the head.

Elder Mozren stood in front of the large hut and extended his hands to either side. “This is where you will stay.” He looked towards the right, “the boys”, pointed towards the left, “for the girls”.

“You will find robes inside and do notice your names have appeared on the top of your huts. “

And Oyzal did notice. Above the doorway of the third hut was a golden plate and his name was written in black ink. Identical golden plates were on all the huts.

The Elder cleared his throat. “And from now on, you are on your own apart from the daily tasks that you will be given. Eat when you want to, rest if it is your hearts desire or wander around the Spar. Go through the Scrolls or lend a hand to the institutions. You are not to fight amongst yourselves unless you want to be punished, we will dearly oblige.”

At this point, Oyzal was too tired to even react properly but the elder went on.

“The seventh day of the week is your own, no tasks on that day. At dawn, you shall head over to the treasury. Finding it is your first task for the Outer Sect.” Without another word, Elder Mozren turned and entered his hut.

Oyzal leaned over towards Izar. “I think I missed half the words he said.”

“Do you think there are baths inside of our huts?”

That was not something Oyzal had given any thought to but he smiled. “Only one way to find out!”

There indeed was a bath in an area cordoned off inside the hut. The hut was huge with a large bed on one side, a table and chair were situated beside the bed. There was a couch and closet. Green linen sheets covered the bed and on top rested the robe he had been promised. It was green with a white feather over the heart. The white feather symbolised the outer sect. But right now, it was time for a bath and Oyzal was ravenous.

On the cusp of midnight, Oyzal made his way to the roof of his hut. The whole Outer Sect was blanketed in a darkness that was not absolute. Motes of light blinked on the far western corners of the land, adding their glows to the nightly blue. And the moon was generous but not to a fault. So it was in comfort that Oyzal sat, bathed under what the night had to offer. A cool breeze helped thoughts flow. Thoughts of the days event, of events days ago. He had made it through the trial and a content smile appeared over his face.He thought about the past and more importantly, of the future. He was on the stairway to greatness. It was now up to him to reach the heights he wanted and the hard work would begin tomorrow. With these thoughts, Oyzal closed his eyes, surrendering himself to sleep.