Najer was a sprawling city built into an enormous mountainside. The group passed smaller settlements and homes as they approached, and the road seemed to climb ever upward. When the city came into view, it was a great gray mountainside, with switchbacks climbing every way along its face, homes and buildings crawling up it, like moss on a gigantic boulder.

  They parked their bikes in a stable outside the city wall that was equipped to care for horses, and every sort of mount and vehicle. As they walked into the city, Tirren’s eyes kept traveling up the mountainside taking in details, and he knew that his mouth had the tendency to gape.

  “Disciple, please follow Severin’s lead.” Jef asked Tirren.

  He noticed the submissive way Severin followed Jef, and he quickly got back into position. They made their way through a city gate, and as he followed Jef, he kept hearing strange phrases coming from the man.

  “The Sunshine?... Star… Butterflies and punches…”

  Tirren was about to ask when he remembered his place.

  He opened his manasight and the city became interesting in a whole different aspect. Seidren walked the street in abundance. It seemed that everywhere he looked, Seidren were walking down the street, or even the roofs. He passed mortals, but they were outnumbered by at least four to one.

  Mana aspects were something that the Seidren Tirren had known had talked about much. He had heard of common aspects, but as he glanced covertly around, he saw a veritable barrage of different aspects. He recognized some, but others he could only guess at.

  Many of the seidren shone with multiple aspects, and the combinations sometimes formed even stranger aspects.

  He didn’t dare focus on any of the seidren to assess their Seidren Progression, but he had the idea that these Seidren were at least that of Cern, their would-be abductor, at Gravel to stations higher. They dropped Cern off unceremoniously at the doorstep of a clinic, and then set out to find lodgings.

  The group ended up at a quaint location called Snowdrift. It was built at the foothills, well into Najer, but at the beginning of the upward slope of the city. They dropped their packs off. They had a large suite of rooms that included a shared sleeping chamber for the three, but a small guest room, and a reinforced training dojo.

  Almost immediately after they arrived, Jefremov told them they were leaving again. However, before they left, Jefremov turned and addressed them again.

  “What we do next, I call the exchange of greeting blows. For as long as you are my disciples, I will help facilitate this. Come”

  They left Snowdrift, and began walking downhill. Jefremov seemed to be searching for something, and they hadn’t gone very far at all before they arrived at a compound with a gate, and he stopped. Written in fantastic letters over the entrance was the title:

  Shade of Cutting Leaf School of Seidren.

  Home of Diamond Seidren Guivern

  Jefremov called out. “The leader of the Sunflower Cult asks for admittance to your training grounds.” There was a pause, and after a few brief moments, a young woman wearing green and black robes came to the gate.

  “Hello, what do you want with our school?”

  Jefremov bowed very slightly as he said. “Hello young Seidren. I am Jefremov of the Sunflower Cult. I am seeking to exchange greeting blows with those who are willing. Would you please ask Seidren of a suitable rank if we may honor that tradition?”

  The girl was fighting back a smile at the mention of the Sunflower Cult, but she bowed and retreated into the school.

  “Sunflower Cult?” Tirren whispered. “You didn’t tell us you were the head of a cult. It sounds really lame. Wait… Is this what you were coming up with earlier?”

  Jef beamed. “It’s a very prodigious group. Honorable and grand and all of that.” He waved his fingers in a whimsical manner. “It’s also composed of you two. Look sharp.”

  With that he turned back, and soon an older man was walking forward, with an irritated look in his eyes.

  “What do you want? Tirren tried not to look at the man, but the presence his mana sense felt was similar to Jefremov. This was a pearl Seidren.

  “Greetings. I am Jefremov of the Sunflower cult. I seek to exchange greeting blows with your school, with all willing Seidren.”

  The man looked appraisingly at the group. “That is too bad, we require the forfeit of blows in this school.”

  Jefremov smiled, then reached into a pocket and produced several coins. They looked like gold. “I’ll pay in advance.”

  “We have no disciple suitable for your students. They haven’t hit sand yet.”

  Jefremov put the coins into the man’s hand and said. “We’ll follow tradition, and we’ll waive the usual. He’ll be fine with sand.”

  So it was that Tirren found himself in a dojo, one which seemed to be dimly lit, although nobody mentioned it. He stood in a circle, which was composed of a large rope, with a diameter of maybe 25 feet. A girl stood across from him, and she was barely five feet tall.

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  Jefremov stood on one side, and the teacher from the Shade of Cutting leaf stood on the other. Several people in similar green and black robes stood about curiously.

  Tirren bowed quickly. “Tirren Stjern, Tree Seidren.”

  The girl seemed surprised, but bowed back. She muttered a quick “Teira” by way of introduction.

  The School’s Teacher announced. “Loss by boundary, back, or bow out. Begin by my mark.”

  Jefremov had quickly explained that you won by pushing your opponent out of the circle, knocking them onto their back, or forcing them to quit.

  The teacher’s hand came down, and the girl’s forearms seemed to sprout dark vines of mana that twined around her forearms and onto her hands. She threw several small green projectiles of mana. Tirren dodged them as he put his hands together. He began gathering his mana together in his mana dart. The green missiles all missed Tirren, but when they hit the ground, ghostly vines of mana grew from them, and crawled across the ground rapidly towards Tirren. He noticed that, and began worriedly stepping away from them, but the small girl closed the distance and lashed out with a whip of green mana.

  Tirren yelled as it seared across his shoulder and head. He threw his mana dart, and it sailed toward the girl, but she dodged it. His feet were tripped up by the mana growing across the ground, and the girl, Teira, came again and hit him with her shadowy green mana attack. Tirren fell backwards and landed roughly on his back.

  “Match” came the voices of Jef and the other watcher.

  Tirren lay stunned for a minute, his skin stinging vociferously where he had been struck by the attacks.

  “Is that quite enough?” Called the smug voice of the School’s teacher.

  “I’ll pay again, if you have any willing disciples.” Jef announced loudly and cheerily.

  A student stepped forward eagerly. Tirren would later learn that successful victors received a portion of a forfeit of blows.

  Tirren got to his feet, amid the disappearing green vines that had carpeted the floor. He stood up and shook his shoulder out again. He had spent four years in a fighting dojo, learning to fight with his hands and the rest of this body. He could fight these Seidren. Tirren introduced himself, and the boy introduced himself as Doenj. Tirren felt his demon stirring, but shoved it down easily.

  LET ME...

  The elder Siedren called the start of the match.

  Tirren didn’t bother with his mana dart this time, rushing into close combat. The boy was surprised, and between his hands, a dark orb tinted green formed. Tirren threw unformed mana at it as he closed the distance, and it hit the forming projectile. It wavered, and the boy shoved it towards Tirren. Tirren threw up a mana shield which exploded when it was hit by the ball of mana, but it slowed it enough to dodge.

  Tirren was then there, and he threw a punch. It hit hard, and the boy was winded, but as the boy was Sand Seidren, it was not nearly as debilitating as Tirren would have hoped. He threw several more punches, and with his momentum managed to shove the boy over.

  His opponent twisted as he fell, landed on his hands, then he sprung up again, and whirled with a bar of growth mana which he used to lance across Tirren’s body. He blacked out only momentarily, between when he landed hard, and when he rolled to a stop outside the circle. Pain seemed to assault him from every direction, but his shoulder he landed on was the most distracting.

  He lay there for a second before his mind caught up to reality.

  Doenj grunted thanks to Tirren’s prone form as he bowed to Jef and his teacher.

  Nine more Sand-Seidren students volunteered to fight Tirren.

  The tenth and penultimate fight was the fastest, and Ivarmarktarius had acted up, trying to take control. Tirren had been fighting to stay upright, and so the fight was quick.

  He stood across from the eleventh student, and he was breathing hard. It was a tall girl, with a supremely confident smile. Tirren forced his name out, and she didn’t bother with a response.

  The match was called, and Tirren’s demon roared. Tirren’s grip on the reins of his limbs slipped. He watched as a passenger in his own body as he leapt forward with a snarl.

  The girl raised a hand, and a shadowy thornbush erupted in front of her in a shield. Tirren released a focused mana dart which struck near the base of the bush, and the spiked bush of mana broke. The girl who had been preparing an attack behind it was forced to release her attack early, but Tirren’s body, with control of mana as never before, warded the attack when it would have struck him.

  He watched horrified as he throat-punched the girl. She took a shocked step back, but was quick to begin stringing together another attack. Tirren leapt forward, and hit her lightly on the forehead, right where her manasight originated. He felt Ivarmarktarius shove mana into that space, and the girl cried out. Tirren hadn’t realized that was possible.

  Quick blows continued to rain down on the girl, and as she tried to form each attack, Tirren-Ivar would strike either the mana or the wrist forming the attack. Tirren realized with horror that Ivarmarktarius was toying with her, and the strikes were effective, but dealt mostly in dealing pain, and not submission.

  The girl was beaten backwards, and each step Tirren dealt painful attacks. Finally, she tried to use her superior mana-strengthened body and she lashed out with a closed hand. Tirren caught the hand, pulled her off balance, then twisted her arm behind her, and leveraged her to the floor with her arm.

  She landed roughly, and Tirren encircled her throat with his other arm, choking her out. Tirren raged again for control, and finally managed to regain his agency, but as he did, strong arms were pulling him roughly from the girl, who was sobbing and gasping on the ground.

  Tirren was being pulled away, and he was also beginning to form tears. He gasped apologies, but they fell on deaf ears.

  There was a shocked silence in the room.

  Jef stood up from where he had been checking on the girl who was picking herself up off the floor.

  “The Sunflower Cult thanks you for the exchange. We may yet again call on you. Here are your profits from the day. I’ve taken your loss and the up front payment from the winnings.”

  The Shadow of Cutting Leaf teacher stepped forward, anger clearly on his face.

  “This was dishonorable. I saw the way he fought. He may be a rager, but this is outrageous!”

  Jef turned to him and asked quietly, with a danger so tangible it pierced Tirren’s fugue. “Would you like to exchange greeting blows with me?”

  The man looked at Jef’s eyes, but after seeing something there, he lowered his eyes and held out his hand, to which Jef put the money in. With that, he led Severin and Tirren out of the campus and back towards the inn. The day was quickly ending.

  Severin quietly spoke to Tirren. “There it was again, Tirren. You fought the last Seidren with such power. I understand now, you are a rager. You have to lose control to gain your power.”

  Tirren had been walking numbly behind Jef, but he answered Severin softly in the evening air.

  “No. I don’t need that power. I am going to become so strong, I never need that power, just you wait.” However, as he said that, he heard sinister laughter from his mind in a deep bass voice.

  When they reached Snowdrift, Jef turned and flipped a gold coin to Tirren.

  “I think you are exactly right. Seek your own power. Learn from every source, every loss. A Seidren’s progression is about pushing past your limits. Go rest, I need some time with Severin in the Dojo.”

  Tirren stumbled to bed, the gold coin held tightly in his hand.