Ditus sent Alius to lap the arena, which was done with much reluctance. He then ran Alius through a series of stretches, which Alius did with substantially less grumbling. But he shut up once Ditus sat down on the ground and began to stretch his body with a practiced grace. When Ditus finished, he leapt up from the ground, leaving Alius to awkwardly try to pry his head from out under his leg.

Ditus dusted the bottom of his robes while Alius pulled his aching body to stand.

“That was relaxing, don’t you think so, Alius?”

Alius groaned. “No, it really wasn’t.”

Ditus ignored him and continued talking. “We’ve just met, and I don’t know you Alius, so I thought we could get to know each other. I think it’s called…an icebreaker?”

“What’s an icebreaker?”

“Well, it’s-” Ditus blinked a few times, shaking his head. The neutral expression on his face flickered to one of confusion, then to a gentle smile. “It’s just a way for us to get to know each other a little better.”

Alius squinted at Ditus. “Um, are you okay? You seemed a little confused there.”

Ditus swiped his chin with his thumb. “Yeah, yeah. I’m-” His mouth twitched a tiny bit as his eyes flickered an emerald green. “Fine?”

As Ditus stood still, Alius gave his surroundings another cursory glance. Just peeking over the edge of the walls was the tip of the green crystal spire he had seen earlier. Now that he was a little closer, Alius saw that the edges really were rimmed with gold. At the very tip, the crystal ended in a spiral pattern, with faint hints of gold trim inlaid within the swirl. Maybe it was the distance and the heat, but the swirled crystal was shimmering.

A crisp snap brought Alius back to the black-robed instructor, who cleared his throat.

“Anyways, I thought we could play a game of tag. I chase you, you run away. I hope you’re good at running.” Ditus smiled. “Given the age difference, you can go anywhere you want in our sect. Anything goes. And a 10 minute head start.”

Alius jumped up and down with a wide grin. “Yay! I like tag!”

“I know.”

Ditus gave a smile to himself and continued. “We’ll play until I catch you or you find a very specific object. Once you find this object, you have to hold onto it for five minutes. But in those five minutes, I’ll do everything I can to catch you. During the rest of the game, I’ll go slow.”

“Okay, but what am I looking for?”

“Fast learner, huh?” Ditus knelt and started to draw in the sand with a finger.

“You’re looking for a rock. But not just any rock.” His finger traced a three-sided shape in the sand, then added a smaller one behind it. “It has four sides, each one being a triangle.” Drawing an arrow, he wrote big letters in the sand. “It’s blue-ish green, and feels tingly to touch.” Ditus stood up and brushed the sand off his fingers.

“Now for the catch.”

Alius groaned.

“I got Elder Darius to tell everyone in the whole sect not to tell you where to get these. At least, they won’t tell you where to find it right away. It won’t be that easy. Instead, they’ll give you,” Ditus’s eyes sparkled with mirth. “-cryptic clues.”

Alius forced a stiff smile onto his face as Ditus clapped him on the shoulder. “Well, you had better get going, because your ten minutes starts in thirty seconds.

Alius jogged towards the sandpit entrance, internally regretting the choices that brought him here.

Adults are too complicated…

___

Alius stepped out of the sandy arena to find himself in an open square. In the middle was a fountain with distinctly green water floating around a statue of a woman holding a pot. All of the surrounding buildings were built with a dull green stone. Even the roads were made of stone streaked with green speckles.

In front of Alius, the road continued straight up into a pillared temple. The temple was one of the only buildings not monochrome green. Streaks of red wound their way around the pillars, and the double doors stood an ominous black. Alius turned around to see the arena, which sported bright yellow waves of crashing color across its walls.

Two similar roads curved left and right, both hugging the arena wall and disappearing behind it. Alius could see no difference in their construction compared to the one ahead of him. His mind turned to this particular game of tag, working with a practiced efficiency.

First, Ditus or whatever-his-name-was said anything goes. That means hiding is both allowed and a priority, because it’s far more efficient than trying to outrun an adult who could probably teleport straight to me. I hope Ditus doesn’t cheat and just fly like Elder Darius can. Brrr.

Second, I need to find a rock-thingie. Moreover, if Ditus got Darius to tell everybody who lives here not to tell me where to find it, then I need to either find someone who will tell me everything, or I need to find a lot of people.

And so far, I haven’t even seen one.

Alius immediately took off, pumping his legs as hard as he could to run towards the green-red temple.

That temple has a color other than green, which means it’s important, as that looks pretty rare around here. Moreover, it gives me a place to hide. After I get there, I’ll still have about five minutes to figure out what to do from there.

Alius’s eyes occasionally flickered from side to side, noting that some of the dull green buildings on either side had a rectangular spot distinctly greener than the rest of the walls.

Racing up the steps, Alius shoved hard on the doors, but they refused to budge. Looking up, he realized why.

“Oh laugh while you can, door. When I finish this, I’m going to have you replaced.”

A foot above Alius’s head was a handle that had its end curved upwards. A beautiful design choice, but it made it hard for Alius to reach and pull back.

Alius tried jumping, but the handle was just out of grabbing range, with his fingers making it halfway up the curve. Luckily, the door was set into the wall, allowing Alius to jump up and firmly plant his foot on the side of the wall, then leap for the handle.

The curved design did allow Alius to slide in and use the other door to push off of, pulling the left side open. The moment his legs fully extended, Alius dropped to the ground and jammed his foot into the door, then turning sideways and struggling to squeeze into the crack while keeping the door open.

Alius yanked his foot out of the way before the door closed with a menacing boom. The inside of the temple was built more like a banquet hall than a religious place. Longer than it was wide, with the far end having two stairways that went up and down to different floors.

“Hey! No one’s allowed to be in here right now!”