Chapter 34 The Passive Crucible

Chapter 34 The Passive Crucible
If Davan at least had the right to choose what he wanted from the people he adored, he would jump on it without thinking. But the people he adored had a way of pushing him to the risky end. They had their way of making him do what he didn’t want to do, and all he wanted, apart from his exceptional skills, was freedom. 

He wanted to be free like Jorren. He knew what he had to do, but he was scared of doing it.

Now, because he didn’t want to, he had to follow Jorren back to the Soulwell. 

Not on the Keeper’s orders, but on Sel Voras.

Voras didn’t know about the encounter at the Soulwell yet. Davan Rell didn’t trust her enough to tell her. Though he adored Sel Voras, he was quite aware that Sel Voras was loyal to the system. He may be anything, but he wasn’t stupid. Though he may not agree with Jorren Thale on many things, he did agree that the system didn’t help matters for him.

The boy had been a failure all his life until the day of his trial, and Davan believed that the least the system could do was to make life easy for him. He viewed the system as a vehicle of redemption. But after three years, he wasn’t sure what to make of the system anymore.

He followed Jorren Thale down to the lower tier two, cursing under his breath. Jorren wasn’t even kind enough to use the cliffside by the gates of tier five that he had shown him the other day. Davan thought that he was used to suffering. He didn’t conclude, but he felt like Jorren enjoyed making things hard for himself.

Jorren Thale moved with the efficiency of a shadow, navigating the tier two market before heading into the woods that led to the labyrinth.  Jorren followed him, noting his posture, and for a moment, he admired his determination. He thought of all Jorren could achieve if he had an intact architecture.

Jorren would be unstoppable, he thought. He would be outright exceptional. He would be his challenger, and for once in his life, he’d be existing just to prove that he was worth more than a challenge. What he didn’t know was that Jorren had become the challenge. Jorren wouldn’t just be his resistance. He would be the negative energy that slammed the odds against all he stood for. All he lived for.

When he got to the mouth of the cave that led to the scattered fields, he was almost unwilling to move on. Jorren had headed into the cave, disappearing from sight. He thought about the other day, how the energy of the scattered fields had clearly knocked him out. He didn’t know how Jorren managed to go through, but he sure didn’t want to experience that pain again. But he had a report to give the Keeper. 

“Damn the system,” he cursed under his breath and walked into the labyrinth. 

He conjured a small light on his palm, the equivalent of a tongue of fire on a candle wick. It was enough to lighten his path, but not bright enough to alert the boy he was following. That wasn’t his mission. The boy wasn’t supposed to know.

Something amazed him, though. Jorren didn’t need light to navigate the dark. He was perfect without it. He’d seen him operate without light during the Midwinter festival. There was a relationship he had noticed that Jorren had with the darkness, but he couldn’t explain it.

When Jorren arrived at the scattered fields, he started across the meadow, drawing in all the energy around him that seemed to strengthen him more than usual. The glow of the moon cast its silver light over the meadow, turning the environment into a night beauty that even Jorren couldn’t deny.

His tactical intelligence had sensed that positive energy was following him. He wasn’t keen on finding out who the energy was. He was banking on the fact that whatever positive essence it was wouldn’t be able to stand the energy of the scattered fields.

If anything, the energy would be subdued by the energy of the scattered field. He had seen it consume Davan Rell firsthand. If Davan Rell almost died on his way through the scattered field despite his exception, and he had to carry him back, who else would be able to make it?

He walked into the soulwell, and this time, he walked down the path and made a turn. Ahead of him stood a chamber. For a moment, he looked at the raised stone in the middle, then walked towards him.

He stared at it for a moment. Then, pulling the darkness from his core, he laid his hand on the stone and waited. 

Nothing happened at first.

Then the air around him rippled for a moment before the energy slammed him away. He staggered backwards, nearly falling.

Pouring his negative energy into the Soulwell didn’t work, and he knew why. If he was going to access the stagnant essence in the soulwell, he must address it like a positive resonance. And for him, that was going to be difficult. 

He drew in a breath and then pushed his energy out, hoping that the essence he had consumed before now would be enough to help him. He pushed his energy into the Soulwell and closed his eyes. His vision was replaced with a grey space holding his soul's architecture. The healed gaps glowed with brilliant golden-yellow energy, but the fractured gaps stretched with a pull that Jorren thought might shatter the fractures into a big hole. 

He could feel the strain on his chest literally. It felt as if his heart was overlaboured, like he was running a marathon at a fast speed, his chest tightening in a way that he’d want to stop but couldn’t. 

The energy around him grew charged, and for a moment, Jorren thought he would die.