A New Light (The Astral Wanderer Book 1) by D'Artagnan Rey (best romance ebooks txt) 📗

that someone is looking for us—like ringing a bell. Most guilds that use rifts do something like this. Otherwise, how would potential clients and recruits make contact? It’s not an easy feat to open an anchor.” He clicked his tongue in thought. “So how did you get here, then? Did he eventually take pity on ya?”

Devol shook his head and pointed at his blade. “No, I eventually worked it out. I had to use my sword.”

“Your majestic?” Wulfsun asked and raised an eyebrow. “You used your majestic to open the portal?”

“That’s right.” He smiled. “I feel a little embarrassed that it took me so long to discover it. Mr. Lebatt even demonstrated how to do it.”

The commander was intrigued. Opening an anchor had nothing to do with a majestic. While some had abilities that affected portals, that wasn’t the norm. Was this boy’s power something like that? That would be a hell of a find. He was quite thankful that Vaust saw fit to bring him there. It could be a dangerous thing for others to find out.

“I see. It’s something to think about,” Wulfsun mused.

“What’s that?” he asked.

After a moment, the man turned and approached another pair of doors in the lobby that led to the west wing of the castle. “Nothing for now. Come along.”

“Where to?” He ran behind the Templar, who held them open. The two slipped inside and the doors shut with a loud clang behind them. Now that he thought of it, almost all of them made the same sound when they shut.

“I’m gonna show you the training hall,” Wulfsun stated. “It’s the closest thing we got to an academy here.”

“There is a Templar academy?” he asked. He had never heard of such a thing and might have gone there first if he had known.

“Not an official one,” his guide admitted as they walked down a narrow hall with many doors on either side. “We haven’t had one of those in more than a couple of centuries.”

Devol nodded and glanced at the man. “Oh yeah, I wanted to ask—what does a Templar do, exactly?”

The giant stopped in his tracks. He was a few steps ahead of the man before he did as well and looked over his shoulder. Wulfsun caught him by the back of his coat and lifted him so they were eye to eye. “You came here knowing nothing about the Templars?”

“Um…not really,” he admitted. “I know my father respects you and that Templars are skilled Magi warriors. But compared to other Magi guilds like hunters, knights, and sorcerers, I can’t say I know much. I don’t think I ever met a Templar before you and Mr. Lebatt.”

Silence followed for a short moment while the man considered that. Finally, he nodded, put him down, and patted his shoulder. “You’re a trusting lad, I’ll give you that. I’m not sure I would ever go to a place I didn’t know anything about, much less search it out.”

“As I said, my father respects you,” the boy repeated. “And both my parents said this would be the best place to learn about my new weapon. That’s all I need.”

“Is that right?” Wulfsun’s frown turned to a smile as he continued to walk. “Best not let your pappy and mummy down then. In here.” They reached another set of doors, these etched with a sword on one and a fist on the other. “Most of those other rooms are for individual training and meditation, but this is where many of us get real work done.” He pushed them open.

Inside was a massive open domed area that contained about a dozen round arenas, each themed differently. Some contained large trees and shrubbery akin to a forest. Another had rockier terrain with cliffsides and spikes on the ground. One was filled with water and a platform in the middle was only a few inches above the surface. The water flowed around it like it was an ocean tide and splashed onto it periodically.

“This is incredible,” Devol said as he studied the area in awe. Long walkways led to each arena and bronzed archways above them were roofed to block the sunlight. About thirty men and women either walked around or sparred with one another. Both human and wildkin were present, along with another mori like Vaust, although he was black with red eyes and a few white marks. He chatted to another realmer with pale golden eyes and smoother features who looked less haunting and more gentle than his companion did. Was he a mori too?

Another humanoid appeared to be female and stood almost as tall as Wulfsun with deep-red skin. Coarse gray hair almost like straw flowed down her back. She had large glowing red eyes and curved horns and was dressed in dark armor with the Templar crest in the center of the chest plate. She was in conversation with another humanoid with sleek light-purple skin and large, round black eyes, fish-like in appearance. Devol could see webbed hands and some kind of device around its neck that flowed with water. He was dressed in blue robes with the Templar insignia on the left of his chest.

“More realmers,” he whispered, enchanted. “That’s a daemoni and tsuna, right?”

“Indeed.” Wulfsun nodded. “Our order welcomes people from all realms and ways of life as long as they hold to our values.” He pointed to an arena in the distance. “There are a few more.”

The boy narrowed his eyes and studied a slim figure dressed in leather with scaly green skin and large round eyes that could move in every direction and a large fin on its head. He was in a battle with two others, a shorter, stocky figure that looked a little like Wulfsun but with fiery, short, and well-kept red hair instead of blond and a braided beard.

When the man smiled, he revealed stone-like teeth and he held two large axes aloft, one in each hand. The third figure—who observed the other two—had bronze-colored flesh, a slanted