Chapter Thirteen: Rite of Passage

After Coral had read that part he'd closed the book and shoved it under his bed staring and focusing on Magus who was sprawled on the bed snoring peacefully. He only picked the book two days later. The book didn't contain any more important info except for the order zeros of all the tiers. The Orders were the stages one can reach within a tier. A magician can only choose just one tier as his path, and the more they study and practice, they get connected to the magical force and would be able to use it to achieve abilities listed in the certain tier and its corresponding order.

He was a Sorcerer and his Order Zero was named druid and was described to have a vast connection to plants and animals and also life in general depending on the talent of the practitioner. He seemed to be more inclined with the plants and earth. His first skill was called stone identification and he was easily able to identify soils and different kinds of stone with it as regards whatever they were used for. He seemed to currently be a library of soils and rocks.

It wasn't until yesterday he started studying to become an actual druid. Of course they held classes in school, but for some reason, he gained next to nothing in the classes. It was either because he was always too busy surfing Ag and getting to know more of her abilities or nothing, he was always surfing Ag in class.

"Coral?" A hand waved in front of him. He blinked and then turned to Aduke.

"What were you thinking about?"

"You," he teased.

She raised her eyebrows. "Interesting, so what about me?"

"If I wanted to tell you what I was thinking, I wouldn't do it silently."

The girl expected that sort of reply and a close jab came for his ribs. He faked an ouch and found himself laughing before Magus ruined it.

"You don't laugh when going to a funeral. It is disrespectful to the dead." he said with a straight face.

They all kept silent after that and they reached the funeral in silence. The funeral was held at the school's graveyard. It had a series of Grave stones arranged in a distinct order, neat and tidy with an awry sense of quietness that seemed to emit from the graves themselves. It reminded Coral of an earthly phrase. 'Dead Men Tell no Tales.'

Other students were already present by the time they arrived and few staff. They all stood in groups, all of them holding gloomy countenance. At the far edge of the cemetery stood Alcove and a group of guys whom he guessed to be the harvesters. After their first encounter, Magus had told him to be careful of them. They belonged to one of the biggest cult in all of Loggia. The Harvesters. A cult of sorcerers or believers in the Convergence.

The name of the magical god of sorcerers. They called him the Convergence Almighty. The Spellsweaver's god was called the Authority Artisan and the Diviners held the name Ubiquitous. The Impure gods' names were hidden and not really placed into texts, but Magus claimed the god of the corruption invoker was named Atrocity. Coral didn't give much thought to this; he'd never believed in gods.

The Alcove guy on the other hand had been trying to recruit Coral for the past two weeks, it wasn't until three days ago when he told him off that he'd stopped.

"Hail the Horrors!" a voice rang out of the crowd as the priest that had saved him from the logged relic walked into the cemetery with a convoy of other priests.

"Fear the Divine!" Everyone except Coral replied in unison.

Gbonka started a chant as everyone converged on Faith's grave. "The unity of the three gods!" he said out loud.

"Be our strength!" they replied.

"The Mysterious Enigma!"

"Guide our ways!"

"The Arcane!"

"Cast evil from us!"

"Horror of Horrors!"

"Remain at rest!"

"Ashes to Ashes!"

"Dust to Dust,"

"May the Horrors watch over the departed,"

"And through the mercy of the divine rest in peace."

"May her soul rest,"

"In the peace of the everlasting Force!"

Throughout this chants and prayers. Coral just stared blankly and uninterested. In fact he was disgusted. The prayer sessions ended and the priest did a little preaching and finally the funeral was over and now the people could chat with each other in happiness to signify that they knew the soul was at rest.

"You didn't seem to like the funeral." Aduke said.

"There is nothing to like about a funeral," he replied.

They both sat down on a pile of rocks at the base of a tree. Everyone else had done the same thing, they had selected themselves into groups and were chatting lively and happily. Magus had gone off to meet some friends.

"Why? We are helping the soul get rest." she said. "It's not much but it's my last respect..."

"It's nonsense." Coral said.

"Huh?"

"See them, everyone of them, do you think they liked or knew her? No. They had all just come to save face." he said. "Listen, try as much as possible not to die at least untimely, cause when you do that's the end, all your pain, and sorrows, your joy, and happiness. All your plans, they all fade away. You stop hearing, stop speaking. You see all these, it doesn't matter to the dead. What's gone is gone. There is no solace in death, only emptiness, a silence that can never be peace. A void of incompleteness, of wanting. The dead can't be saved, they are already at the end of their line."

"So you are saying the funeral is a sham. The prayers don't reach. The gods don't answer? That there is no afterlife?"

"Afterlife? What is after life is death. The funeral is for the living. A way to give ourselves solace. A lie of comfort will tell ourselves. That the dead will rest and one day we will meet again. The truth is we will never meet. Do you know what awaits the dead? Nothing! No pain, no thoughts. Nothing. An existence that ceased!" he raised his voice a bit.