A man who looked to be in his mid thirties stepped into a wooden platform that had been placed in front of the town hall, which was directly across from the road Connor had just run in on. The man had on comfortable looking but high quality clothes, black pants, a white shirt, suspenders, and a wide brimmed hat. Taking off his hat the man wiped some sweat off his forehead and then turned to the crowd to address them.

“Welcome fellow citizens of Eastlodge, now that we’ve all arrived the aptitude ceremony can finally begin.” He paused and then looked to the back of the crowd, everyone followed his gaze and found he was looking at two boys in the back both looking very guilty and ashamed. There was a quick wave of laughter before the man silenced them with a hand.

“As you all know, today is the most important day of the year, today is when dreams are made reality, today is when our children become cultivators!” There was a cheer from the crowd, the man waited a couple seconds before silencing the crowd knowing that this might be the only time some people will feel happy for the foreseeable future.

“As you all know, we live in a very dangerous world. Beasts and demons roam the land and the only ones capable of stopping them are cultivators like myself.” The man said and then sent a fist forward, a burst of flame flew out of his fist lighting up the crowd. As the residual heat and wind passed by the crowd was silent, and then they erupted into a deafening cheer.

“The mayor always does this at the aptitude ceremony but people act like it’s the first time he’s done it.” Eric whispered to Connor. He waited for him to reply but when he didn’t he turned to look at Connor only to see him looking on with a gleam in his eyes. “Damnit Connor , don’t be such a simpleton.”

“Uh huh, sure, yeah.” Connor said as he absent mindedly nodded along.

“To cultivate is to get in touch with the universe.” The Mayor said as he calmed the crowd. “Qi is the very essence of reality and can be used to commit feats of unimaginable power. We all have Qi in us but those able to feel it, control it, cultivate it, and use it are what we call Cultivators. Although it’s not as simple as that.” He said with an almost imperceptible sigh.

Looking back at the crowd he continued.”As you all can see I am a heat man, or a person who has an affinity for fire Qi. Everyone has their own elemental affinity, based on their soul and on the Qi they are surrounded by, but that is much less of a factor out here as the elemental Qi is quite sparse so the concentrations needed to effect the soul are not present.” He said these last parts with some bitterness.

Quickly returning a smile to his face he spoke.”There are 3, technically 4, things that make up aptitude for cultivation, 1. The body, 2. The mind, 3. The soul, and 4. Can you actually sense the damn stuff.” The crowd chuckled at the last part but everyone clearly felt uneasy when he said that.

“The first stage of the aptitude ceremony is to test if you can feel Qi, then we move on to testing the other aspects, and finally we test elemental affinity. Now that I’ve finished my preamble, what do you guys say to getting this show on the road?” The crowd cheered, excitement and energy returning.

“Ok, will all participants please form an orderly line to the right of the stage so we can begin promptly.” With that the Mayor turned his back on the crowd and walked off the platform. The crowd quickly turned into a chaotic jumble of movement as young people rushed to be first in line and everyone else rushed to get out of their way.

Eric waited, holding Connor back as well, knowing that they wouldn’t be able to make it to the front anyway so he might as well avoid the Chaos. “Let me go Eric, I need to make sure I get to the front so I can finally tell the world who I am.”

“Don’t be stupid, it won’t matter if we’re in the front or in the back, we all get tested just the same.” Eric said in annoyance.

“Yeah but..”

“No buts, it’s not like Mayor Bueacanon is going to run out of Qi or anything. Seriously, why do I even try with you?” Eric rebuked Connor, saying the last part with more exasperation than frustration.

After 5 minutes, the square cleared up and returned to order. All of the parents and children to young were on the periphery while the young people who qualified stood in an orderly line next to the wooden stage.

Joining the rest of the young people Eric and Connor stood, waiting to receive their destiny.

“Damn it, can’t Mayor Bueacanon hurry up. I can’t contain all the excitement in my body. I’m almost shaking.” Connor held up a hand to Eric to prove his point.

“Yeah, yeah whatever. Learn some patience will you.” Eric said in an annoyed tone, he then reached into his pocket and pulled out a book.

“What are you doing?” Connor asked incredulously.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Eric said without looking up. “I’m reading dumbass.”

“How can you read at a time like this.” Connor yelled.

Eric looked up, frustration evident. “Stop yelling, you’re drawing attention to us. Well not like that’s anything new, you always pull stunts like this.”

“Ok.” Connor said dejectedly. Head hanging down and book out, Connor and Eric waited for their destiny to be laid out before them.