Resh stared into the endless blackness of the blade in his hand. It was some of the most beautiful work he’d ever seen. Honestly it reminded him of a metallic version of something Baba would… That’s right. Baba would never make anything for anyone again until his soul returned from the Mantra. The episode of screaming and crying however long ago helped significantly with stresses of the day but nothing could truly remove the toll of losing so much at once. His heart would be heavy with loss for many days to come.

Resh banished these thoughts from his head to refocus on the blade before him. He wasn’t sure how long he had slept, but the blade before him was proof that Deva, old and new, had not forsaken him completely. Any other week of his life, this would be a day for celebration. He was now an Exalted. In Masbai and in most other parts of the world the only way for people to be free from the fate of their caste was to be chosen. Resh’s heart sank as he thought of the way he had behaved in his dream before what most certainly must have been the deva. He supposed that in a way he should be thankful for the worst day of life. Had it not occurred he would surely have bowed his head in deference before the deva, been found unworthy, and moved on with his life. What was it that made them choose…

A knock at the door startled Resh so much he dropped the sword and it fell blade first into the ground. It slid through the stone like nothing all the way up to the hilt before making a clunking sound and transforming back into a simple silver flute.

“Sir Reshaan? Are you well?”

Resh let out a sigh as he grabbed for his flute. It was Hilda checking in on him.

“Uhhm, Yes yes I’m fine thank you. Just dropped something off the bed.”

Resh wasn’t quite sure whether he wanted to tell Alice and Hilda about his new elevation in status to the warrior caste yet. Thus far, besides their initial meeting, Alice had given him no reason to mistrust her and Hilda had been nothing but courteous since he’d met her, but he just didn’t feel comfortable revealing such a personal triumph yet. He tucked his flute away into his sash and went to open the door.

There at the threshold of the room he had taken was Hilda towering over him with a broad smile positively radiating joy. By the Deva this woman was tall! Resh was no giant but he certainly wasn’t short. In fact, he was the second tallest of all the young men in his neighborhood. And yet he found himself craning his neck to look this woman in the eyes.

Hilda coughed into her hand once before taking a slight step back, likely so she could bow without hitting her head on the doorframe, and lowered her head before speaking.

“In accordance with your blood pact with the Mistress von Sigurd, we wish to show you the four Mudra.”

Hilda raised her head and turned to the side and outstretched her hand invitingly toward a table filled with fresh fruits, warm loaves of bread, and various juices.

“Right after breakfast!”

Resh’s mouth began to water. He smiled and bowed slightly as he hurried to the table to a waiting Alice. He bowed to her as well before sitting and eating as quickly, yet politely as possible.

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Resh and Alice both let out sighs of contentment after finishing the lovely meal. Hilda came by and cleared the table humming a cheerful tune and Resh got up to begin helping.

“Tut, tut, tut! Sir Reshaan, you sit! You are a guest of House Sigurd. I will clear the table. Please go through the door or the right to the cycling room and the Mistress and I shall meet you there shortly.”

Resh started to argue but a single glance at the unwavering smile of absolute hospitality that Hilda wore told him that it would be futile. He complied, thanked her for the lovely meal, bowed to both women and went towards the aforementioned door. What lay behind was a room filled with cultivation materials Resh had never imagined he’d live long enough to see. Cases full of elixirs and pills, intricate inscriptions on the floor to create high density Pranic spaces, and at least a dozen or so talismans which did who knows what. Resh had seen the wealth of nobles many times before growing up in Masbai, but this was something else entirely. Who were these people? Who was Alice to be walking through the streets by herself? If she had access to this kind of wealth, surely she could have been escorted by armed guards at all times. Resh decided to store that bit of inquiry in the back of his mind for later. It didn’t matter who she was so long as she was going to help him get the power to save his family. And with his new found power as an Exalted, he was starting to like his odds.

Resh took a seat at one end of what looked to be a prana focusing circle formation just as Hilda and Alice strode into the room.

“Ahh, I see you have found the formation. Perfect! Now before we begin Sir Reshaan, please tell us everything you know of cultivation.”

Reshaan took a deep breath and began to speak as if reciting from a book.

“Cultivation is the gift that the Great Mother gave to mankind to help heal the hole in our souls and become whole and divine like her brothers and sisters who still live in the heavenly realm. The prana of the Mantra flows throughout the world slowly being absorbed by all living things and reinforcing them. Humans like us must do this process manually. Through meditation one learns to gather the prana in the air, take it in, and trap it inside oneself. At this point you can begin cultivation by cycling that power through your body, making it your own. While taking in this power through meditation and cycling it is important to keep one's hands in the position of the mudra to lower the amount of corruption taken in along with the pure power.”

Hilda slowly clapped her hands and smiled at Resh’s explanation.

“That is mostly correct. Do you know about the three realms?”

“Vaguely. I know there is a Mortal, Earth, and Heaven realm of power and that each has different stages and methods of cultivation but that’s about it. I think I’m in what’s called the Mortal realm. I do know that there are 5 stages and that I’m in the first.”

This time it was Alice that chimed in.

“Both you and I are the Mortal Realm of Cultivation although I have reached a higher stage than you. The Mortal Realm is about the perfection of the Mortal form to prepare it to exceed these limits as you grow into your spiritual power. There are 5 stages that copy the names of the 5 mudra you need to achieve them. Each stage grants another distinctive physical feature as proof of completion. Technically speaking you have enough prana in your body to be at the fifth stage already, but the corruption in your body is preventing you from bringing that power to bear.”

Hilda beamed at her Mistress.

“It would appear that my lessons have not gone to waste, young Mistress. These five stages are as follows: Pranaya the awareness, Apana the strength, Udana the words, Samana the self, Vyana the will. From your meditation position I see you already know the Mudra for Pranaya. Unfortunately, you have gathered so much corruption in your time cultivating that you will likely have to expel two stages worth of power before you can begin receiving the benefits.”

Resh let out a heavy sigh. It was common knowledge that there was a way to cultivate without accumulating corruption, but the method was a well kept secret of the nobility and warrior castes to prevent uprising and control the population in Masbai. It seems that this journey to power would be a long one. Alice began again.

“What you were incorrect about or should I say not aware of is the way to pass between stages. In the Mortal Realm, during your cycling and absorption of prana you can eliminate all corruption by slowly moving your hands through 5 mudra positions. Continuing to do so this way is all that is needed to progress to the 5th stage of the Mortal Realm. Watch my hands, then copy me.”

Alice put her hands in the Pranaya mudra position, arms resting on her knees in a cross legged sitting position with both her middle fingers touching the tips of her thumbs. She began to breathe in the prana around her and cycle it through her body. She slowly but smoothly lifted her middle fingers and replaced them with her index fingers. Seamlessly she moved her arms inward and her hands toward the center of her chest as she lifted her index fingers up and bent her ring finger to the base of her thumb. She pulled her hands closer to her chest so they were almost touching it while removing her ring finger and touching her pinky to the tip of her thumbs. Finally she lowered her hands into her lap and replaced her pinky with her ring finger before flowing back into the first position and repeating the process again.

Hilda smiled while watching her Mistress and began to speak.

“It can be tricky at first to get all the positions and transitions in the right order so do not be…”

Resh already had his eyes closed as he was flawlessly performing the exact same motions he had seen Alice do only moments before. He finished his first cycle and felt trickles of power in his body stir. His mind drifted into a calm state, like when he had called upon the power of that great master. He finished another cycle of the positions and felt a dull spiritual pain. As though his soul had been sitting in an uncomfortable position for too long and had to shake out the pins and needles. On his third pass through the positions, something about his body had changed. He may have been sweating but his senses were too intensely trained on his spirit now. By the fourth cycle he was on autopilot.

He was drifting inside his mind enjoying the peace of a clean soul when a voice spoke to him. It was familiar. It was almost like the voice that had told him to yield in his dream in the same way that the hiss of a kitten is almost like the roar of a lion. It was barely audible, but with nothing else to focus on he could hear it clearly enough to understand. And it was giving him a lecture.

“Pranaya, the awareness. With this we gain the mortal mind and spiritual sight. No memory within shall allude you when you call for it and your sight now pierces the veil of the spirit. Apana, the strength. The mortal frailty to the heat of the sun and bite of the cold winds flees from you. Your body shall be as wood, strong and pliable. Udana, the words. Those who walk the path of enlightenment, should they wish it, need not speak to one another to understand intention. Samana, the self. That which afflicts you can not hide from your senses. You shall for all time have the knowledge of what burdens your body so. Vyana, the will. Though you have just begun your journey, you need not kneel before the might of those farther on the path unless you wish it.”

With every word from the voice, Resh could feel the truth to it in himself. He could feel his mind expand as all the memories long forgotten became his again. He felt stronger, and tougher. He could see that he had gotten a couple scrapes and scratches from yesterday’s excitement but they were already healing up nicely. He could feel an invisible weight imposed by the machinations of the world lift from him as he was now free to disobey those whose power would have crushed him with a mere glance. He reveled in the feeling of strength. The voice began to speak to him again but he couldn’t hear it. It was muffled and distant now.

It grew farther and farther away until Resh felt himself slip back into awareness of his body. It was filthy. He was covered in a layer of dried sweat so putrid it made him gag and open his eyes. Whilst in the middle of his coughing fit Resh looked up to see Hilda and Alice staring at him wide eyed. He stared back at them blankly. After about a minute of silence he dared to speak in that nasally tone that comes from holding one’s nose.

“Uhhm… Can I have a towel please?”

Hilda jumped slightly as if startled back to her senses by Resh’s voice. She bowed slightly while grasping Alice’s hand to turn before speaking hurriedly.

“Ahh, oh.. uhhm , yes of course one moment.”

Hilda pulled Alice behind her as she left the room and closed the door firmly behind her. Resh wasn’t sure what that was about, but he couldn’t be bothered right now to give it too much thought. He was distracted by the overwhelming sense of power that seemed to radiate from his body. It was as if he had woken up as an entirely new man. No that wasn’t it. He still felt like his old self, just an objectively better verison. His muscles were toned and tight, his breathing was a rhythmic thing that he could synchronize with his heartbeat. It was as if he had become the version of himself that had spent his entire life dedicating himself to perfecting his body's ability to express his will.

He briefly wondered if this was what all cultivators went through when ascending a stage or if this feeling was some unique perk granted by his new status as an Exalted. Closing his eyes again, he noticed his senses were sharper as well. He could somehow feel the amount of humidity in the air much more acutely than he had previously. This enhancement would explain why he had smelled so vile to himself upon waking. No one enjoyed the smell of sweaty men, and refining the sensitivity of the nose to near superhuman levels would certainly make for an unpleasant experience. It’s not as if Resh was a particularly dirty person previously, but he knew he would now have to make hygiene an even higher priority than it had been previously.

Resh opened his eyes and looked down again to examine his arms and legs more thoroughly. They were covered in a fine layer of stinky sludge which reminded him of the fact that Alice and Hilda had been gone for a relatively long time. He knew there were towels close to the room he was in so what could possibly be taking so long. Just as he considered getting up to go hunt for them, or better yet just getting the towel himself, the door opened. Hilda walked in with a solemn but hollow smile on her face. She tossed the towel to Resh who wiped the layer of sticky sludge from his face and arms before standing up.

Hilda held out a hand reluctantly, gesturing for Resh not to come any closer.

“How do you feel Sir Reshaan?”

Resh took a good look at his arms and legs for the first time. His body was laden with dense muscle tissue that looked like it had been chiseled from marble. This was not the body of a merchant, but a warrior. Resh mused on this fact for a second before answering. He WAS a warrior now.

“Great. Better than I’ve ever felt.”

Hilda gave him a weary smile.

“That’s fantastic. Would you please wash up in your room and meet the young Mistress and I in the central chamber? We have something we’d like to discuss with you.”

Resh didn’t like the sound of that at all. This was the part of the story that would lead to him being presented with some sort of surprising revelation about the people he’d chosen to cower in a shelter with that would test him. He was NOT looking forward to having to pretend that cannibalism was a perfectly normal family ritual or ending up as a pawn of some strange political game that would end in him being assasinated. Maybe this was just his storyteller’s imagination acting up. The world was a strange place but realistically what's the worst….

“Sir Reshaan?”

“Oh yes absolutely. I’ll be right out.”

Hilda smiled at him and gracefully exited the room. Reshaan took a deep breath and held his towel closely.

“And so the plot thickens.”