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

“Aye. It helps with potential thievery as well.” Wulfsun chuckled. “It’s hard to be sneaky when every door slams with the subtlety of a dragon’s fat ass pounding into a town broadside, although Vaust and a few others have found a way.” He frowned slightly but gestured with his hand. “Anyway, this door is one of the heaviest in the castle. Each side is one thousand, seven hundred and fifty pounds, totaling three thousand five hundred pounds.”

“By the Astrals, what?” Devol gawked and studied them more closely. “So my test is…”

“To make it through,” the Templar declared and held three fingers up. “You seem hesitant so I’ll give you a hint. Only a handful of the strongest men in the world such as yours truly can open these doors naturally, so don’t think about it like that. There are three ways you can accomplish your task. The test is to get through, and I’ll leave the rest to you.” He folded his arms again. “Still wanna start right now? As I said, you can have a few days to think it over.”

Devol responded by removing his pack. He stared at the man for a moment with determination in his eyes before he stepped closer to the doors and studied them. He had options, he thought cautiously and assumed that pushing them was the simplest, which meant using Vis. That triggered an idea and he paused to consider it.

There were three ways to open them and three uses of Mana in the trinity. If he was right, there was not only a way to accomplish it Vis but with Vita and Vello as well. He examined the metal more closely. How was that possible? His gaze settled on a large keyhole between each door just before the Templar insignia. He traced it with his fingers and discerned the faint presence of Mana.

Wulfsun had not said anything about a key so maybe he could open it with his Mana? That would be using Vello so it was an option, but Vita? He stepped back again, took a deep breath, and summoned his Anima around him before he focused on his eyes.

The Templar noticed this with great interest. Vaust had mentioned that the boy had only learned Anima the night before. It seemed the young Magi had a knack for it as he barely felt it flare. He almost chuckled at the irony. The boy approached this cautiously, but if he was already familiar with Anima, he was making this harder than it needed to be.

Devol stared at the door and studied the inverted eye of the Templar insignia, which seemed to look directly at him. Some type of rune or ward was traced in Mana above the eye and it latched onto him somehow, but he felt no malicious intent.

If he had to guess, it was a tracking rune of some kind and perhaps measured his Mana. That would be a measure of Vita if he was right. So to even start the tests properly, he concluded, he had to show that he had learned the basics. He began to realize that Vaust’s prodding and coaching might have been to determine if he could get past this point. A little ruefully, he acknowledged that he should have been more thankful when he had the time with him.

He let his Anima subside and exhaled slowly as the silver-and-white light faded around him. How should he approach this? Should he perhaps simply use Vis and test his theory? He was not sure he could open it with Vis alone, however. Maybe part of the way, but he had yet to see how strong he was with the aid of Anima, so it was potentially possible.

The boy straightened with his arms at his sides and let his Mana flow through him. As it built, he closed his eyes to focus better. If he intended to try Vis, he needed to harness as much Mana as he had available.

His concentration was broken, however, when he heard the shriek of metal. He opened his eyes and narrowed them on the eye of the Templar insignia. It glowed and the doors began to move apart.

Wulfsun clapped loudly behind him. “There you go, boy! You found the solution in no time at all.”

“Wait. I had only begun to build my Mana up—” Devol protested but stopped himself. He had used Vita to do it and had somehow summoned enough Mana to empower the door to open. It had been successful, even if not as planned.

“Ready for the next part, then?” the commander asked and waited for him to step through, but he caught the man’s arm to hold him back. The Templar looked curiously at him.

“If you don’t mind,” he said with a glance at the doors, “I want to see if I can open them the other two ways.”

Surprised, the giant raised an eyebrow. He had not heard the request before and most were satisfied to have simply opened the doors. But if the boy wanted to make the attempt, why stop him? He grasped the handles of the large doors and closed them easily. He ran a hand over the eye to deactivate the ward and stepped back. “I like to see spirit like that. Try to your heart’s content.”

Devol nodded and approached the keyhole. If he had enough Mana to get through with Vita, then Vis would probably work with no issues. Vello was his weakest discipline in the trinity, so that would be the next one he would try. He peered inside the keyhole and noticed small, glowing blue spikes in the darkness—cobalt? So was he supposed to use his Mana to activate those?

It seemed like a more complicated way to display his flow of Mana, and he had already done that. He straightened with a frown. There must be something more, but he couldn’t even begin to guess and would simply have to try and see if it worked. He extended his hand