Rise Of The Celestials

Chapter 16

"Switch weapons!!"

"The King has said that you will be going to the library today. We are ending this morning session an hour early as a result but you will go through just as many weapon revisions as you always have, so get going already.

Aiden passed out the weapons in his section, gathered up the rest, and quickly left the field.

The training session was quite different this time. For one, there was Prince Adrian and some other Princess, one he did not recognize who was watching the whole thing. Secondly, and more importantly, Princess Diane was nowhere to be found.

A happy outcome for Aiden but when he thought about it, he felt that to some of the boys in the group, it was real anger. 

Aiden watched them fight like it was the end of days until he felt an additional eye on him. There was a weight to this gaze that separated it from the normal glances he usually got.

He knew what direction it came from but he refused to look over to confirm who it was immediately. This refusal lasted only a few seconds before he turned to look around and he saw that it was Princess Caitlyn who was staring at him.

Her eyes were hardly the nice and sweet they looked a moment ago. It was not cold or icy but it felt like all his secrets were laid bare before her.

It was a feeling that left almost anyone in a state of unbalance and Aiden did not recover from it quickly.

She did not have any ill intent in her eyes but that gaze felt heavy. Aiden understood that everyone had their own unique traits and he just happened to be one of them.

It was not like he got beaten or anything but now his thoughts were quickly sifted through and he face himself with a reality check.

"Switch weapons"

Aiden got to work immediately and started handing out new weapons as picked off the used weapons.

Time passed slowly and the trainees now had weariness all over their faces. Their weapons no longer hit as hard and the middle-aged man who was the main instructor was almost beating them up to fight harder.

A half-hour later, the session finally came to an end. At some point during the session, Prince Adrian and the Princess had left the training area.

"You are to report to The Royal Library an hour from now. No lateness will be tolerated. You're dismissed"

The sun was high in the sky at ten o'clock that morning when they were dismissed. Aiden was already moving to clean up the field when he heard his name called.

"Aiden Tarren"

"Sir", Aiden answered the call immediately. It had been instinctual. Having grown up with a General for a father, it was an instinct he had created unknowingly.

"Come here"

Aiden walked over to the middle-aged man who had called him.

"Yes sir"

"You'll be going with them. The King has given you a pass, so get yourself in order. As I said, lateness won't be tolerated. You're dismissed"

Aiden was puzzled by this. Why would The King specifically give him a pass to the library? Nevertheless, he was grateful for it. Now he didn't have to wait for days just to get his appointed time for entry.

"Thank you, sir"

He bowed his head slightly before he walked back to quickly finish his job. He needed breakfast before it was time to visit the library.

The rest of the workers looked at Aiden, puzzled as to why the middle-aged man called him over.

Aiden felt the stares but he couldn't be bothered by them as he quickly sped up his work.

 ...

An hour later, Aiden was standing before The Royal Library. There were a lot of people around the library than there was the first time he was there.

He found it amusing and despite the expressionless look on his face, he was ready to enter the library.

To the side were the trainees who had been given the no lateness policy as well. They were waiting for the instructor in a huge group that had little divisions that whispered and murmured their words to each other.

The library entrance was filled with a lot of people, so the trainees and their little talks did not make as much of a raucous as you would expect.

Five minutes later, he arrived and quickly corralled the group as he opened a way to the front of the crowd. Aiden followed them.

"Elder Friesian"

"By the king's order"

"You may enter, elder"

Elder Friesian, the middle-aged instructor turned to the two hundred or so trainees behind him and said, "find something useful. You remember the king's words, don't you? Now go".

The trainees were excited as they all quickly made their way into the library.

Aiden followed them and walked out to the Elder and greeted him.

"Go"

Aiden also made his way into the library quickly when the Elder told him that.

The trainees had not gone far, so some of them saw this interaction. Some of them glared while most of the others frowned at this sight.

Aiden couldn't be bothered with them and simply followed them into the library.

The moment he entered, he felt something sweep past him. It was like a barely noticeable draft but it gave Sam chills.

He was still going over things in his mind when he heard a voice call out to him.

"I don't know what you did to have gotten the King to notice you but I can promise that you won't last long if you reach beyond your level"

Aiden was confused by this and cocked his head to the side a little as he took a good looking at the guy who was talking to him.

Clearly, this person was from a noble family based on the flashiness of his outfit. He could also see that he was most likely a willful person who wouldn't tolerate anyone who became an eyesore to him. The reason for this judgment would not need to make much sense before he dealt with whomever it was.

He had dark blue hair that fell past his ears, smoothened to look like strands of shiny hair. The dark blue in his hair was brought out as a tint due to this, forming a nice gradient.

His face was well defined and could easily be described as good-looking when he wasn't glaring.

The guy had three others with him and two of them were dressed nicely, a lot less flashy compared to this guy but still well above any normal person as well as one who was less nicely dressed compared to the two.

Dealing with anything noble was something that would end up problematic and Aiden sought to avoid that as best as he could, so he answered politely.

"I'll keep that in mind"

He did not wait for a response before he turned in another direction and walked away. 

From behind him, he heard Elder Friesian's voice calling out quietly to every one of the trainees, "go look for something worthwhile. You have two hours for today".

Aiden didn't turn around and only smiled to himself as he walked away. A plan he could get behind.

As he walked through the library, he saw shelves filled with different lengths of scrolls, tomes, maps, and even objects.

He took glances at most of them as he explored quietly. In his mind, contrary to the image he portrayed in his actions, he was basically screaming.

"Darwyn, I was dragged here. Help me find something good"

He did not get a response for about ten minutes and it was only when he felt that small draft of air he had felt when he entered the library blow past him again, did he get a response.

[" Can you not scream?! I heard and noticed you since you entered the library, screaming won't help"]

"How was I supposed to know that? I thought you were shunning me, busy or something"

There was a pause before Darwyn asked a question.

[” Did you feel it?"]

"Do you mean the small wind that swept past me twice? That's the weirdest thing I have encountered since I entered the library"

["You're lucky, not everyone can sense what you just did"]

"Does this mean, the old keeper is the one who caused it or what?"

[” Pretty much correct. That was his senses that swept past you and when it swept up to you and away from you was when you felt the small wind pass"]

"So he had been monitoring me until just a moment ago?"

["You are not too stupid so let's get started"]

"I am not bringing you away from here today. Not with things still so crazy in here"

["Who asked you to? What I meant was to find out what your elemental affinity is"]

"Oh... Let's get going already"

[” Walk down to the end of this corridor and take a right turn. I'll let you know where to go"]

"Okay"

Aiden began tracing his steps according to Darwyn's instructions. He picked a book off the shelf now and then to keep up the ruse that was a lack of knowledge with regards to the library.

With his slow steps and inquisitive expression, as well as Darwyn's instructions on which books to check and what he would find interesting, Aiden continued like this for fifteen minutes until he came to a small arch leading into a small room.

He walked in with careful steps. Even though he believed that Darwyn was the library spirit, he still chose to be careful.

["Can you pick up the pace or would you prefer that the keeper notices you snooping around"]

"It's always good to be careful even when we believe we are safe, so calm down already"

Darwyn said nothing more until Aiden was standing in front of an orb made of glass, and was propped up on a stand that was spotless even though it was cut from stone. It had a smooth finish just like the pedestal it was placed on.

The orb had a small smoke-like ball of gas floating in it. It was sitting at rest with nothing to its existence.

[” Place your hand on it and try to connect your mind to the aether as you did during your awakening"]

Aiden took a deep breath before placing his hand on the orb and closing his eyes.

In less than a second after he closed his eyes, the orb's interior was filled with a grey gas that filled it to the brim. It was like a dark cloud and it roiled and turned, expanding so much that it began pushing against the orb's interior.

Aiden knew none of what was happening and Darwyn was silent.

In the orb, the grey gas was getting even more chaotic when suddenly a gaseous substance that seemed like the steam off of hot water, spread out from the middle of the grey gas and enveloped it.

You could see that the steam-like substance had no properties one could point out but it was undoubtedly there.

Aiden felt things weren't going too well when he heard Darwyn's voice.

["That's enough"]

Aiden opened his eyes to see the white gas sitting at rest as if nothing happened.

"I couldn't get the connection"

["We should leave this place and talk later"]

"Okay"

In the depths of Aiden's eyes was a bit of disappointment but ultimately it was covered by a look of determination. You could sense the disappointment as it vanished and was replaced by a hard edge.

["Hey, you need to calm down. I love the determination but I never said you failed or anything. You just need a lot of work"]

They were getting back to the familiar territory when Darwyn said this, jolting Aiden from his chaotic thoughts and making him pause in his steps.

"Wait... what do you mean that?"

["Keep walking... Turn right..."]

Aiden refrained from asking questions as he followed Darwyn's directions.

["Pick that book with a grey cover"]

Aiden picked out the book and opened it to see that it was a book on Alchemy and its first page, there was a plant's name.

”Will you explain to me now?”

[” You remember that I mentioned that at the start of the world there was the void which was filled with the aether and in it, there was the chaos"]

"Yes...?"