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J ai followed the Speaker, leaning against Winter as they travelled a serpentine trail that curled around the tall spar that made the Yaltai Mountains’ highest peak. He used hummingbird breaths as he staggered, sucking in what mana he could to warm feet he could no longer feel.

The path was flanked by members of the Caelite, their figures statuesque, each settled upon stone plinths, soulbreathing or in deep trance. Despite the apparent paucity of mana in this area, here they were, lightly garbed against the freezing winds, a thin layer of snow frosting their bodies like a soft shroud. A closer examination revealed rough bands of cloth around many of their torsos, and Jai realised some of them were women. The pervasive baldness of most, reminiscent of the Speaker, seemed like a mark of age or seniority, while a few younger ones still sported hair.

It seemed an eternity before they reached the summit. The plateau at the mountain’s zenith appeared almost unnaturally flat, as though a celestial hand had cleaved the tip for some grand purpose. All that marred the tableau’s flatness was a series of perforations at its heart, among which sat a dozen people in contemplation.

In his half-trance, the world unfolded with heightened clarity for Jai. For now he knew where all the mana from the fungal forest went.

Here.

The mountaintop was awash with mana. It was like a swirling aureate fog, bursting through the small holes in a torrent of light, before dissipating high above their heads, becoming lost in the swirling eddies of the skies.

It was a great siphon, concentrating the golden dust that emerged from the fungal gardens into one lonely patch at the top of the world.

A man with jet-black skin towered above the others sitting amid the rushing mana, clearly hailing from the sun-soaked southern Sabine subjugated state of Shambalai. His presence debunked Jai’s earlier notion of the Caelite being an exclusive sect of Sithians. They were, as Jai now realised, a tapestry of cultures and lineages from across the known world. Eagerly he looked at the others...

His heart leaped. For there, radiant amid the shimmering mana, was Erica. Her eyes closed, her oval face serene, ethereal in the glow, her hair a halo about her head. He wanted her to open her deep blue eyes, to see how far he had travelled to reach her. To see her smile. To hear her say his name.

Instead, he let the Speaker’s grip upon his arm hold him in place, and watched as the man skilfully navigated around the seated soulbreathers. As the dark-skinned man rose at the Speaker’s touch, he stood firm with an aura of regal command, and his penetrating gaze settled upon Jai, dissecting him.

In that gaze, Jai felt stripped bare, as exposed as he was to the unyielding chill of the mountaintop. The weight of the scrutiny was such that Winter, ever his protector, pressed closer, her snout seeking comfort in the crook of his shoulder. It was a small consolation, for the planar landscape provided no true shelter against the biting cold. With each heartbeat, the last remnants of Jai’s mana threatened to evaporate, leaving him helpless. He dared not allow more than a minuscule trickle from his core, just enough to stave off the cold’s embrace, if shuddering and numb.

Yet while he suffered the cold, Winter was in her element, taking well after her namesake. He could sense she longed for the freedom to soar amid the gusts and flurries, a desire Jai could feel simmering at the edge of her thoughts. And yet, despite her own wishes, she selflessly funnelled her reservoir of mana to him, a lifeline preventing him from succumbing entirely to the elements.

As the dark-skinned man approached, details emerged from the silhouette. Now Jai could see clearly the frosted sweat upon his chest, dusting enormous slabs of hard muscle. Yet he walked with a pardine grace that belied his great size and stature. His head, bald like the rest, looked almost small in comparison to the rest of his body.

The Speaker, in quiet reverence, trailed the giant with a bowed head.

The large man leaned forward, his breath hot in Jai’s ear. A hot hand clamped upon the back of Jai’s neck, and he shuddered awkwardly at the unnatural warmth.

He was drawn into a sitting position, his head still clamped beside the man’s own, and Jai’s ear was warmed as the man whispered.

‘Jai, son of Rohan.’

The weight of his own name hung in the cold air, filling the space with a gravity that held him breathless.

‘Yes,’ Jai finally responded, his voice barely more than a sigh.

‘Do you seek to join the Caelite, as your father did?’

A moment of hesitation clouded Jai’s thoughts, the weight of his destiny pressing upon him. But the Speaker’s earlier words echoed in his mind, leaving no room for dissent. This was a non-negotiable.

‘Yes,’ he affirmed once more, the word become a bond.

The towering figure pulled back, examining Jai with a gaze that seemed to pierce through the facade of his very soul. But just as swiftly, he leaned in once more, their foreheads nearly touching, the words shared between them a sacred covenant.

‘Will you pledge to honour our code, abide by our tenets and accept the justice meted should you falter?’

The finality of the vow pressed upon Jai’s tongue, yet he found the resolve to answer.

‘Yes.’

Jai fell back, released from the iron grip. A moment of stillness lingered, and the man’s gaze turned contemplative, as if glimpsing memories long past.

‘I grant you the privilege of proving yourself.’

Jai rubbed the back of his neck. It had been like being pinched by steel tongs, the touch unyielding and hard.

The man’s gaze then turned to Winter, meeting the dragon’s eyes with strange understanding, and he reached out a hand. Jai had half expected Winter to snap at it, yet to his surprise, she instead lowered her head, and allowed him to run a hand along her brow. Even let him lift a lip to examine her teeth.

She trusted him... and feared him. Through her, Jai could sense a deep, simmering power behind his intense brown eyes. Like a dam, holding back a flood.

In an effortless motion, the man was on his feet, pulling Jai upright with him. He turned with a swift gesture to the Speaker, who ushered Jai back, the way they had come. Jai stood against the Speaker’s pressures for a moment longer, watching Erica’s pale face, willing her to open her eyes.

But soon the Speaker’s grip turned steely, forcing Jai to follow. Back down the spiral path, past the seated soulbreathers, to the ravined path. They descended the winding trail, bypassing the meditative forms of the soulbreathers. The mountainside beckoned, not into its cavernous heart, but along its sheer face.

There, nestled among the craggy rocks, was an unassuming alcove, a humble indentation hardly spacious enough to shelter a man. There were dozens more beside it, though the place was so barren it was impossible to tell if they were occupied or not.

The Speaker motioned at Jai to enter, and Jai did so, leaving Winter to crouch in the snow outside.

‘This is your place,’ he said.

He went to leave, but Jai seized him by the wrist. Such was the man’s strength, he nearly yanked Jai back out, hardly noticing the weight, but stopped and stared at Jai’s hand.

‘What about food?’ Jai demanded, refusing to let him go. ‘What about a bed, or a fire. How about just a door?’

He was angry. These people told him nothing, and spoke in riddles. The Speaker shrugged.

‘We have no need of such trifles,’ he said, prying Jai’s fingers from his wrist with a force Jai could not even slow. ‘Be patient, and keep your voice down. Speaking is my privilege, not yours.’

And with that, he turned, and leaped. A blur of wing and feather swooped, making Winter duck and growl in protest. The Speaker was borne away, leaving Jai sitting in a cold hollow, staring through a jagged, circular hole into blue sky.

Winter’s head soon blocked his view, and she slid her sinuous neck through, plugging the gap from the cold of the wind.

‘Trifles, huh,’ Jai said bitterly. ‘What am I supposed to live on, mana alone?’

And then, Jai realised, that was exactly what they expected. For he knew it could be done. Mana had kept him going, in those first days with Winter, traipsing through the forest.

But to do that... Jai would need a lot of it. And Rufus had told him that only powerful soulbound could live on mana alone. As one so early on the path, having only recently ascended no less, he would be hard-pressed to do so.

As fatigue and disappointment weighed him down, he found solace in the prospect of rest. But as he lay, his gaze was drawn to etchings overhead. Names, perhaps of predecessors or other aspirants, marred the stone. Many were crossed out, perhaps souls who couldn’t meet the Caelite’s exacting standards. One name, however, held his gaze, scratched deep, both in the rock and in Jai’s heart.

Rohan.