Heretics are particularly fond of people with special blood because if they harness their blood in their rituals to some Evil God stars away, they'll be able to cause devastation untold.
Inquisitor Daniel's words during the Harlem Heretic Hangings
---
During the time when the sun was still down and dawn was far away, Ren was subject to both anticipation and boredom in great amounts.
Anticipation from the thought that he would be able to cast magic, the power of the Noble class that he had only seen once in his lifetime during the 16th birthday of the Princess.
It was a beautiful sight that he was unable to forget.
And boredom from the wait.
There was literally nothing he could do but wait.
With the broken leg caused by Dip Lip's Magic empowered leg, Ren was thankful for the fact that soon enough, he would be able to walk normally again.
He wasn't so thankful about that fact when he was forcefully confined to his bed at the Doctor's words.
Especially when his only conversational partner Bell was kicked out of the room for bringing Tik Tik in.
It was terribly boring.
He was soon regretting that statement.
"And when you go out, make sure to take this medicine."
"Yes sir"
"Now what did I just say?."
"When I go out, I take the cane, take off the splint, put on new bandages, put on a new splint, take the medicine.
"Incorrect! First, you have to take the medicine and then take off the splint, put on new bandages, put on a new splint and then take the cane. You also have to-"
'You never said that~' Ren thought in a sing song, his hands balled into fists underneath the bed sheets as the Doctor continued to speak rapidly.
He nagged to much
And Ren had the distinct feeling that he was wasting his time on purpose at some point.
And it might have something to do with the face he made when Ren said that he wanted to go see the captain early.
'He looked reeeaaally annoyed when I said I wanted to go early.'
Glancing backwards to the medicinal hall where the Doctor continued to stare at him until he disappeared, Ren mimed Doctor Hillary's annoyed voice with his hand before eventually making his way to the Captain's quarters.
It was a big thing the captain's quarters.
Made out of stone instead of the common wood that was found all over the rest of the camp, the Captain's quarters was just as big if not bigger than the Kitchen's Ren had worked in briefly.
It wasn't as bad as Dip Lip had made it out to be, but the following bathroom duty was a lot worse.
'I wonder what type of punishment Dip Lip got?' Ren wondered 'Cause I didn't see him anywhere.'
With how the training camp was arranged, the medical facility was roughly in the middle of all the foot traffic for ease of access whenever someone inevitably got hurt.
And of everyone that had passed through his line of sight, none of them had a dip in their lip and a kick that could kill.
Maybe
Ren really didn't want to test how well the rest of the instructors could kick.
But nevertheless, as he glanced at the vaguely midday sun, Ren knocked on the door which opened to reveal a widely grinning Master Ramzan.
"Finally! Come in come in!" Master Ramzan gestured Ren in before closing the door behind him"I have so much to teach you!"
---
When Ren entered his quarters, he was brought straight through a series of rooms to a wide open room carved with several runes of unknown make.
He vaguely remembered that he saw a few of them at the school he went to, but outside of the rune for fire and earth, he didn't recognize any of the others.
"In the Southern Sands of Djinndia we call our magic Mantra." Master Ramzan explained as he busily ran around the wide open room placed roughly in the centre of where he lived.
"Pour this into that brazier over there for me."
Handing a bowl of something black to Ren, he pointed at a bronze brazier set to his right while he himself took another of the same bowl to the brazier opposite as he continued to explain.
"Mantra is the process of borrowing the power of the Spirits while magic is the process of borrowing the power of the seasons, two very similar things on paper."
"Despite its many similarities, the Magic of the central plains has its differences to the Mantras of the Southern Sands."
He snapped his fingers causing motes of flame to suddenly appear in the form of butterflies, their wings causing them to take flight and take shelter in several alcoves built into the wall.
"Like I just showed you, the Magic of the central plains is able to pull your power out of thin air. The Mantras of the Southern Sands requires a medium to draw power from. Pull that rope over there."
"Then... Isn't Magic better than Mantras?" Ren asked with a tilt of his head, placing the piece of paper into his cane wielding hand as he pulled the rope.
The room shifted with a groan, water beginning to pour out from the small alcoves that the butterflies had disappeared into, funneling into the numerous channels on the ground that Ren only noticed just now.
Arranged strangely, Ren noticed that they were much like the maze puzzles his mom gave him sometimes.
Drawing the map in his head, Master Ramzan took back his attention
"Ah now you're asking the right questions!" He snapped his fingers. "But no, Magic is definitely more convenient then Mantra, cheaper as well, allowing it to be implemented into a city structure, it is significantly more mana inefficient. Which reminds me, you need to drink something."
Hurrying over to the other side of the room where a small shelf overflowing with strange looking herbs that he couldn't name, Ren watched as his master shifted past a skull shaped root to pull out a bright blue bottle.
"Here we are! Hold this for now then drink it when I tell you to okay?"
"Okay, but what... Is this?"
"An Aether concentrate, it's gonna fill your blood flush with Aether."
"Aether?"
"The power that flows through everything everywhere and at everytime." He briefly explained, pushing Ren to the center of the room. "Get ready to drink it soon."
Ren shifted uneasily in place. "Um... Master Ramzan?"
"Yes my apprentice?"
Ren felt his heart beat a tad faster. "What are we doing right now?"
"Ah! I never told you what we're doing." Master Ramzan grabbed something long and white from the shelf before hiding it, their brown skinned face turning to look at Ren as he took in a deep breath.
"To put it simply, do you recall what I said about how Magic can manifest out of thin air?"
Ren nodded his head.
"There's a bit more to it than that." Master Ramzan pulled a rope, shifting the ropes connected to the two braziers, allowing them to tip over and pour the black liquid into the water channels spread out in front of them.
"Magic doesn't require a Medium, but what it does require is a connection."
Swiftly spreading like dust in a glass of water. Master Ramzan breathed heavily as he snapped his hand again to form two butterflies of fire.
"What we are doing right now is forging a connection between you and the Season that you are most akin to."
Master Ramzan's smile turned strangely... dangerous as he finished his words.
But it all seemed to make sense...
Gulping down his saliva and trying to ignore the dangerous atmosphere, Master Ramzan hurriedly took out the brown bowl that they were hiding behind them.
'Wait, wasn't he hiding something white?'
Glancing into the wooden bowl and seeing that it was empty, he looked questioningly at Master Ramzan.
"Pour the Aether Concentrate into the bowl" He elaborated impatiently, Ren following his words, albeit hesitantly.
"Why can't I drink it out of the bottle?"
"Just do it!" Master Ramzan snapped before hurriedly reining in his voice. "I mean, its because the wooden bowl is made out of a special type of wood that will enhance the Aether Concentrates effects."
Cowed by the sudden shout made by Master Ramzan, he hesitantly poured the blue liquid into the bowl.
"Now drink it." He said impatiently, Ren hesitantly following his words.
Drinking the tasteless liquid run down his throat with a cool feeling, Ren stared at his surroundings.
The black liquid had already seeped into every channel and every crevice, the lines circling around Ren as the two butterflies slowly lowered.
Feeling an unknown tension press against his heart, Ren gulped down his saliva as he held the empty bowl in the middle of the strangely menacing atmosphere.
And because he was occupied with watching his surroundings, he was completely caught unawares of the fact that Master Ramzan had pulled out the white object.
Not until two large pyres suddenly appeared from where the butterflies touched the black liquid.
Flinching from the sudden heat as the flames crawled along the black lines, Ren flinched again as something cracked right next to his ear.
*Crack!
"Wha- Master!?"
Ren shouted in surprise as he turned around to see a white knife carved out of bone stabbed into a translucent white dome around him.
"What the? Dammit!" Ren flinched as Master Ramzan's(?) voice crawled out of his throat in a deep growl.
Raising his hand upwards before slamming it down again and again and again, Ren froze in place long enough for the flames crawling along the black channels to suddenly morph into walls.
Eyes wide as he took it all in, he belatedly began to try and escape the suddenly maddened Master only to be stopped by trails of flame.
"Ugh!"
Grunting as the flames charred Ren's hand in an instant the moment he touched it, he instinctively stepped forwards even as the madman continued to swing his arm.
"Why! As your master I command you to die for me!"
"No you crazy old fart!?"
The barrier around Ren trembled, the knife made out of bone gleaming dangerously as Ren's eyes hurriedly searched for a way out of here.
Understanding why the hell Master Ramzan suddenly turned into a madman desperate for his death could come later, first he needed to survive.
Staying still wasn't an option as the Madman continued to widen the initial hole that he had made.
And braving the flames wasn't an option either as stepping over them allowed the flames inside to toast his back the same way his Dad would toast bread.
Black as char.
Gnawing on his lip, Ren's eye glimmered with a faint bit of hope as he spotted a portion of the flaming walls around him disappeared.
'The channels! There were gaps between them weren't there?!' Ren suddenly recalled, his body instinctively darting towards the gap.
"Trying to escape!? Hah! This is a maze that you won't be escaping from Ren!" Ramzan goaded, his mouth grinning menacingly as his hand gripped the bone knife so hard that his knuckles turned white.
'Okay, calm down Ren, think, think, Think!' He hurriedly thought, feeling the heat all around him as the light of flame continued to stream into his eyes, the sound of cracking growing louder and louder by the second.
Recalling the mental placement of all the lines interconnected with each other, Ren bit his lip with desperation as he grasped at the dove that was near him at all times.
Darting through the tight maze held within the confines of the large building, Ren had an inkling of an idea as to why it was so large as he continued to run.
'There's a left here, right, right, left, second left, third right, straight, left, right, then another second right and finally a left!'
Ren's breathed in jitteringly as Ramzan shouted in shock. "How!?"
Having built the entire place by himself and having memorized the path out, Ramzan was still cognizant enough to understand that the path Ren was taking was the way out.
And that just made him greedier.
"If I offer that mind of yours with your blood, what would they even give me!? I want to see it!"
Swinging the blade faster and faster as the barrier around Ren continued to have the initial crack widen, Ren finally stepped out of the flaming maze.
And in the same instant that he did, Ren heard a crack echo against his ear closer than before.
Feeling a chill rise up from the base of his spine, Ren instinctively turned around and raised the stick up, a knife falling closer to his face.
Stopping it only through sheer luck, Ren fell down onto the ground and felt the air leave his lungs as the knife continued to near his head.
Ramzan's body pressed down on the barrier surrounding Ren as a glow continued to surround his body.
Slowly forcing more and more of the knife into the barrier, Ramzan's face gained a terrifying sheen to it as he laughed maniacally.
"HAHAHA"
Trying but failing to hold back the slowly approaching knife, Ren's hands grew sweaty as they tried to push back the Serrated edge of the knife with the blunt body of the cane.
Pushing down some more, Ren watched with terrified eyes as Ramzan's eyes glimmered with a desire so sticky and dark that he felt sick just by looking into those eyes of his.
The Knife neared.
Ren felt his heart beat rapidly against his chest, like a prisoner banging on the bars begging to be released.
The Knife Neared
Bone white became the only thing that he was able to see as the serrated edge remained illuminated by the pillar of flame remained as a backdrop to the madman.
The Knife Neared
It cut.
Slowly
Deeply
Darkly.
"Agh, Ugh. AGGGHHHHH!!!"
Ren screamed in pain as his eye was slowly cut out of him.
"AAAAAAGGGHH."
Nerves, blood, white viscera, Ren felt it all slowly get severed as he roared in pain.
"ARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!"
Then he roared with anger, his limbs filled with a brand new explosive strength as his eye glimmered with rage.
Then everything turned white.
+++
TREE