Over the next few days everything settled into a routine of cultivation, research, and sparring with Therus. It was odd that Therus only seemed to step outside of the library for their spars, but then again, Seth spent a lot of time there himself. He found books on various interesting constitutions that seemed powerful, but had some pretty nasty downsides. The extreme fire constitution was particularly horrific, as it basically burned the person alive from the inside before they turned twelve. Well, unless they had special ingredients; then they had extreme levels of control over and resistance to fire.

  He also started to become used to reading the language. Either that, or he had simply become used to the pain that came with their translation method. Whatever it was, he was just happy that reading no longer hurt.

  One day, two weeks after they started their new life, he was eating alone in the cafeteria. Most initiates had formed small groups, though there were a fair number that were just as solitary as he was. Everyone was on edge, with violence rising in the sect. While the sect prohibited killing, everything else seemed to be fair game. To Seth, it made a perverse sort of sense; why compete when it was far less risky just to take your opponents out of the competition.

  While he was thinking, a smaller kid came over. He didn't look any older than 14 or 15, with pale skin dotted with purple freckles. His eyes darted between looking at Seth and scanning the room. Seth didn't stop eating, and just looked at the kid, waiting for him to start speaking.

  "So, um, what family are you from, sir?" the kid asked, so quiet Seth wondered if he were hearing things for a second.

  Seth turned the question over in his mind before answering. "None you'd have heard of. You?" he asked, trying to "do as the Romans do," or so his daughter kept telling him.

  "Nuth...I mean, none of any import, sir." the kid said, his voice still barely audible.

  They dropped into an uncomfortable silence, and Seth continued eating while the kid looked like he had just gotten caught stealing.

  "So, why did you ask about my family?" asked Seth.

  "Because you seem like you are edu..edu..learned, sir."

  "What about any of the last couple weeks has taught you anything about my education?" Seth asked, trying to get more information out of this kid. He was still dangerously uninformed about the unspoken social rules here, and didn't want to piss off the wrong person.

  "Not talking about this edu...edu...education. Talking about cultivation."

  "Oh. So, are you going up to everyone who finished training early?"

  "Well, most of us could figure which families the others were from. Not so much you, so if you could tell me..."

  "I'm not from a family any of you would find important," Seth didn't see the point in trying to claim he was from an important family. It seemed like a dangerous thing to lie about. Unfortunately, the kid didn't seem to believe him.

  "If you, I mean, if sir says it to be true, who am I to argue?"

  "Perkins is the family name. Not an important family at all. Anything else?"

  The boy fell silent, finally eating his food, and Seth did the same.

  The next day was routine until lunch time. Seth sat down to enjoy his meal, which was some kind of vegetable broth that was cool and refreshing after a grueling training session. Three people approached his table with a confidence that made people move out of their way. The man in front had shoulder-length brown hair that was bound in a pony tail. His face looked young, but the kind of young that wouldn't be out of place on someone in their thirties, if they had great genetics. The two initiates with him were larger and hung back. The leader sat down gracefully, maintaining perfect posture the entire time.

  "Greetings. I am Johan of house Thrisbane, wardens of the worlds of Atreus. You are Seth, I presume?" asked the man who kept a friendly smile plastered on his face.

  "That's me. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

  "Well, I've been hearing silly rumors that you have been proclaiming yourself of a noble lineage, and came to verify firsthand." he said, laughing. The other two had more forced laughs.

  "That would be silly. Reminds me of a conversation I had yesterday, except the way I remember it, I denied being a member of an important family." Seth replied.

  "And yet, you proclaimed yourself to be a member of the Perkins family, did you not?" Johan said, a smile still plastered on his face, but his eyes were becoming less friendly.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "I see where the misunderstanding came from. Where I am from, family names are not reserved for the nobility."

  With that, Johan's expression became friendlier, "You must be from a remote area indeed, but no harm done, I guess. At least you are not one of these upstarts from the frontier worlds. Seriously, naming themselves nobility just because their betters have...well, better things to do."

  "Well, I'm not a noble of any sort. My family isn't even that well off," said Seth, trying to keep his annoyance out of his tone. Johan spent a few more minutes ranting very politely about the inferiority of the border nobles, even pointing a few of them out to Seth. He patiently listened as Johan worked it out of his system, and then sat down at the table with Seth.

  "That does leave the question, though. If you are not from a noble house, and you claim your family is not wealthy. How is it that you are already trained?"

  "It's, um, a constitution thing, and..." Seth stumbled.

  "Say no more," said Johan. "I can see why the sect wanted to get their hands on you. Cultivators with special constitutions are quite rare, especially ones that have survived as long as you have. If it's not too forward of me, may I ask what your constitution is called?"

  "It's called cancer. It's not well known; can't even find any references to it in the library."

  "I have not heard of this constitution" Johan said, and with a glint in his eye that reminded Seth of a used car salesman closing a deal, continued, "however, I can keep my ears open and ask around."

  "That would be great, but why go through the trouble? Not to say I'm not grateful, but this seems to only benefit me..."

  "Simple. You have a unique constitution, and you're not stupid. If you survive this initiation, we may be able to work out a beneficial relationship."

  "You sound confident. In surviving this, that is" Seth said.

  "Of course. My family prepared me for this event. Didn't yours?"

  "Like I said, we're not an important family. They had no way to prepare me."

  Johan had a thoughtful look, before saying, "Ah, then your family found your constitution a burden and sent you here to get rid of you? Well, then as a show of goodwill, I'll let you in on a little known fact. It depends on the needs of the sect, of course, but typically only about 20 people survive these initiations."

  Seth's blood ran cold as the news sank in. There were thousands of initiates at this compound. And some of them have been specifically prepared to survive this event. Seth tried to keep his expression neutral as the conversation drifted to more mundane topics. After another thirty minutes or so, they parted ways.

  The rest of the month was a rush of research and training. His research on his "constitution" was going nowhere. The closest he found were tales of certain spirits that sucked the life force out of the victim. Even that story was short on details and long on the "evils of sorcery." His training continued, and his frequent sparring with Therus forced him to get the hang of using qi to move and defend his body quickly. He still wasn't natural at it, but he found he was better at fine-grained control of qi. By the end of the month, he still felt behind, just not hopelessly so.

  The last day of the month, they assembled in one of the many small training halls in the sect. They had received a telepathic message the night that made it clear they must attend. They didn't spell out the consequences, but Seth would have bet on death or maiming. Bacchus had an orb with him that was the size of a basketball, filled with a pulsating rainbow cloud. The outside had markings that reminded Seth of the markings on a thermometer. Even when Bacchus turned the ball, the markings Seth saw did not move. Once everyone had arrived, Bacchus started speaking.

  "Today will be your first testing. There will be no culling this time. This is a tool for measuring how close you are to breaking through from qi condensation into foundation establishment. Let me demonstrate how it works."

  Bacchus held the orb and focused. The rainbow cloud started condensing, soon passing the first set of markings. A minute later, the rainbow cloud had become a white mote of light. The mote of light lasted for ten breaths before reverting to the rainbow colored gas.

  "A few warnings before we begin. First, when testing, the compression must be held for ten breaths. My breaths, not yours. Second, stop compressing if you feel pain in your meridians and restart. Failure to do so can rupture your meridians," said Bacchus. After a pause, he continued, "which has no known treatment."

  With that, he called everyone up one at a time for testing. Some initiates almost managed to compress the gas to the first set of markings, while others failed to move the gas at all. Seth found using his qi to compress the gas was both easier and harder than expected. He managed to exert maximum pressure within moments, feeling no pressure on his meridians. And while he was able to make the gas move, he didn't make it anywhere near the first set of markings. Cursing his condition, he finished the test, bowed to Bacchus, and returned to waiting.

  The testing took about two hours. One initiate had not paid attention to the warnings, and compressed too hard. Their forearm erupted in a shower of blood. Bacchus quickly placed a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, but the initiate was a dead man walking. Seth was torn between feeling bad for the guy and being glad one competitor was out of the way. Most of them would be dead before this was all over, and he would have his hands full trying to make sure it wasn't him.

  Eventually, the long day of testing ended, and Bacchus addressed them, "From today on, you are responsible for your own practice. The sect library is open for you. Fighting there is forbidden, and..."

  "Let me guess, death?" interrupted an initiate with short cropped red hair and a long, horse-like face. Bacchus chuckled before lazily waving his hand. A loud slapping sound rung out, and the initiate flew across the room, slamming into the wall.

  "As I was saying, punishment will be dealt out by the librarians. After the wards in the library have stopped you." With those words, Bacchus quickly walked away.

  As Seth snuck back to his room, he could already hear fighting through the roads in the compound. On his way, he heard someone crying for help. Sneaking to where the noise came from, he saw a young man with a broken leg lying in the road. Staying hidden in an empty building, someone else soon came along to try and help. That was when the man crying for help grabbed his savior, and four people jumped out of nearby alleyways to break their new prey. Seth snuck past during the chaos, not even looking back.