Chapter 263 - A Difficult Trial

After two hours of wandering aimlessly through the woods, the ten year old boy was at his limit. The trees were all the same, with no distinctive markings, the mist obscured his vision. He had tried backtracking at one point, but found that after going back a bit his footsteps were replaced by pristine white snow.

“Why is it so far?” He moaned, tears of frustration coming to his eyes.

Even after all this time he had not noticed the subtle tricks that the forest was playing on him.

He was cold and exhausted. His breathing was heavy with emotion, a mixture of helplessness and frustration.

From the strings, Yuzu could see that Nilya wouldn’t discover the secret of the forest any time soon.

Based on Yuzu’s observations she knew that the forest naturally fooled the five regular senses to keep a person inside walking in endless circles. Since oji weren’t allowed any hints or instruction, this meant that the answer had to lie outside of regular means. 

Of course, Yuzu could see fate strings, which allowed her to pierce through the illusion. However this was a trial for Exalted Candidates, it couldn’t be anything too complicated. Most of the changes that a Candidate experienced had to do with their physical abilities and senses. For example, body domain Candidates like Nilya typically had increased strength, faster healing and resistance to heat and flames. Char Char as a Chaos domain pathway had described that she felt more agile and could sense people’s intentions and special items on their bodies. And of course, her string had become difficult to read and predict. Yuzu had only briefly been a Candidate. She hadn’t received any physical changes that she could tell, but she could see and touch the golden strings and gained a sense of precognition.

Since this was a trial, there had to be a straightforward solution that tested the Candidate’s qualifications. It had to be something deliberate, that wouldn’t be solved simply by blindly choosing a direction and getting lucky. It would have to weed out anyone who wandered in who did not meet the most basic qualifications. 

Furthermore, it was a trial for body domain Exalted, the heirs to the inheritance of the deceased God of Body, the Sun God. They didn’t have powers related to fate strings and the like.

Based on all these pieces, Yuzu came to a simple conclusion. The secret to leaving the misty forest was based on spiritual intuition.

Nilya was so wrapped up in the strange environment that he had forgotten the lessons and training he had received from the guru-chi prior to taking this trial.

“Let’s just give him a tiny hint…” Yuzu made a decision, reaching out and plucking his thread, careful not to directly touch the guru-chi’s strand which twisted around it.

In the pocket dimension Nilya drew in a sharp breath, blinking as he looked around. His heart beat faster as he turned in place, ears straining in the muted silence, but there was no one around him.

He had felt something just now, a slight tug on his soul. Soft strands of long white hair waved in the periphery of his vision as he felt the inexplicable feeling that someone was watching him.

He stopped, growing still as he tried to sense the mysterious presence, but it was gone.

In the silence and stillness he became aware of a different sensation. A prickling of his skin, an inexplicable feeling that there was something in the distance beyond the trees.

He recalled one of the guru-chi’s lessons, where he closed his eyes and had to discern the location of an object with his sixth sense.

It was his spiritual intuition!

Nilya’s eyes lit up as he headed toward the object beyond the trees. As he walked, he noticed the forest start to shift. The trees began moving strangely. His tracks behind him showed him making tight turns and walking in circles. Using his eyes he felt like he was definitely going in the wrong direction.

However his spiritual intuition pointed him forward toward a single stationary reference point.

As he walked toward it the mists grew deeper and deeper. He lost all sense of direction, but his conviction was stronger than ever.

After half an hour he was so deep in the mists that he couldn’t see past his outstretched arm.

Then the mist began thinning. The snow beneath his feet became shallower with rocks poking up from below. The trees were spaced farther out and stopped shifting in place.

As he reached the last tree Nilya found himself on the top of a cliff overlooking a breathtaking view.

A glittering field of stars covered the heavens above, shining down silver light over a dramatic vista of sheer cliffs and rocky snow covered terrain. Nilya was at the top of a mountain whose cliffs descended into a void of darkness.

A narrow path lead slightly down from Nilya’s spot, to another cliff edge where he could see two objects side by side. Without a doubt his spiritual intuition was leading him straight towards them.

With renewed vigour he scrambled down the path, quickly running up to the objects.

At the center of the path there was a white marble basin. It was fastened on a pedestal that was embedded into the rock, with elegant curves and fine runes engraved along the brim. It was a meter in height and width, with a smooth inner bowl that was covered in a soft dusting of snow. 

Without a doubt, this stone basin was the object that his spiritual intuition had sensed from within the forest.

To the right of the bowl was a strange stone statue, just barely taller than the  basin, approximately Nilya’s height. It was carved from the same grey, striated rock that made up the mountain they were on. It was a statue of a child dressed in an ornate robe, but with the head of a hawk and wings instead of hands.

Its polished eyes stared down the path toward Nilya, as if it were expecting him. Its beak was curved and sharp. As Nilya approached he couldn’t help but stare at the statue, feeling like it was watching him.

From afar Yuzu watched as two silver strings materialized in her vision, their fates intersecting with Nilya’s. Hovering her fingers over the strings, one was for the basin and the other was for the statue. As she observed the statue’s thick string she quickly realized that it wasn’t a statue at all.

Her mind flickered back to a lesson that the guru-chi had given on Exalted creatures. Across the world there were many different kinds of exalted life forms. There were wild monsters that took many varied shapes and forms. There were plants and parasites and insects that carried Exalted essence in their bodies.

The world was full of strange, fantastical and dangerous places that formed the habitats for exalted life. These places were influenced and warped by exalted energies which naturally gathered in the world. Places rich in Order domain energy tended to be structured and predictable. Places rich in Nature domain energy tended towards harmony and balance of the elements. Body domain areas were rocky, Life domain areas were jungles, Chaos domain areas were fiery.

These were not hard rules, but when a place was particularly attuned to a specific energy it took on the characteristics of that energy. Furthermore, the creatures in the area would also display characteristics and traits according to their alignment to exalted energies. This was the basis of Exalted materials which were used in spiritual items and potions.

Among the exalted creatures, there was a special class called beastmen. Beastmen were intelligent, capable of learning and speech. They had monstrous or animalistic features, but more often than not they also had a human-like appearance such as having hands or walking on two feet. In Kumin and the surrounding lands there were no beastmen, but in other parts of the world they ranged from rare to uncommon, to being the majority of a population in an area.

There were even regions such as the Cracked Lands where beastmen were not only dominant, but they actively prevented humans from entering.

There were two main differences between beastmen and humans. The first was that beastmen were born with their exalted attunement. This both made them stronger but limited their growth and abilities. The second was that beastmen could not use catalysts or rituals to raise their powers, but instead developed them naturally. This meant that even within the same race of beastmen there were classes based on their natural potential and growth.

Seeing the thick, silver string coming out from the statue, Yuzu understood that it wasn’t just a spiritual charged object but a living creature. Thus she wasn’t surprised when the statue shifted, raising its wings in front of it as if it were hugging something at head level. It bowed reverently to Nilya, speaking in a bright, chirping voice.

“Esteemed Oji-sen, this guide welcomes your auspicious arrival. Chirp!”

Nilya was taken completely aback, letting out a startled yelp as he hopped backwards, raising his hands defensively. The stone hawk didn’t seem to mind as it kept its arms raised and eyes lowered.

“W-what are you?” Nilya couldn’t help but ask.

“This guide is a basalt hawk, esteemed one.” The guide didn’t show any sign of being offended or surprised by the question as it continued to refer to itself in third person, “Esteemed one good, comes out Wanderwood forest. This guide helps esteemed one on Trial of Requirement.”

“O—kay.” Nilya said slowly, recovering his composure. The respectful, meek nature of the hawk quickly soothed Nilya’s nerves as he put his hands together and bowed, “Please help me, mr. Hawk. I am looking for something called a hollow ember.”

“Hollow embers. Heat eggs of Grand basalt hawks.” The guide said, “Many grand basalt hawk nests on cliff sides. Esteemed one finds ember, bring it back here.”

The bird fluffed its neck feathers and chirped. It dropped its wings and turned, walked up to the basin in a lopsided manner reminiscent of a normal bird’s gait. It walked around the pedestal then peeked its nose over the bowl’s edge, gazing into the bottom of the bowl.

Nilya followed, standing on the opposite side as he looked into the bowl at the same time.

At the bottom of the smoothly polished basin a circular receptacle had been carved into the stone, into which a three dimensional rune had been engraved into the base, like a complicated drain.

“Before sun rises, bring hollow ember here. Runs send esteemed one back to esteemed one’s body. Ember is prize.”

“What if I don’t get it in time?” Nilya asked.

“Then failure. Esteemed one’s spirit will be trapped here, forever.” The guide said cheerfully.

Nilya nodded, his eyes filling with determination. Unlike being lost in the forest, Nilya had a simple and direct goal in front of him. This was something he could manage quite confidently.

He nodded, “Can you show me where the nests are?”

The bird chirped an affirmation as it turned waddled over to the cliff edge, peering down the sheer vertical cliff. Nilya came up beside it and looked down.

The cliff extended into a dark abyss where the thin silver light from the stars  did not reach. Partway down the uneven cliffside below was a rocky outcrop formed from what looked like black rock crystals growing out of the cliff.

“Old grand basalt hawk nest there. No hawk there anymore, esteemed one.” The guide said, “Esteemed one must search the cliffs, find nest with egg and ember.”

“Okay.” Nilya nodded, feeling a bit queasy from the steep drop, repeating to himself “Okay, I can do that.” 

“But, this guide has bad news.” The guide chirped, “Other oji-sen come recently. Find ember quickly. Then destroy all embers on this mountain.”

“No more hollow embers for esteemed one to gather.”