Asclepius & Rex

We arrived at the spacious sanctuary at noon next day.

The waters and grounds were clean and well-maintained for such an ancient construction. Clearly, it hasn’t been forgotten to the passage of time.

People must still visit it occasionally to pay respects to the god, Asclepius, I thought to myself.

There were tall marble columns surrounding the waters, a statue dedicated to the deity and a striking rock sculpture, carved in a way to depict his deeds.

It was a beautiful place.

“Alright, let’s not waste time needlessly,” said Gyorn, “since we’re all here, might as well all take a dip.”

“Anna, you go first, then us three,” said Braun.

“Okay,” she replied.

While she was doing that, the three of us gathered near the columns, and kept a lookout for unwanted guests.

“Good weather today. Pretty much the only benefit of living on the surface,” said Gyorn, stretching his arms.

“Yeah, it truly is,” said Braun, hearing only the first part.

The sky was a beautiful azure shade, with not a single cloud in sight. Its condition was truly enchanting; one could look at it for hours…

“You’ve been staring at the sky for quite some time kid,” said Gyorn.

“…it’s very… calming when its this clear…” I said, “…I like this type of weather the most.”

“Hmmm…”

“You can probably lose yourself in it for a while. It would be a blessing to be able to see this every day…” said Braun. “All your worries would seem far away, too,” he said with a ruminative expression.

“Well, lets not get lost in thought and fixated on the sky too much,” said Gyorn, “how are your wounds doing, kid?”

“…they are all healed, I think…” I answered as I took off my shirt to check.

“That’s a lot of scars for your age,” muttered Gyorn, “makes you look like a true warrior.”

“…do you have any?” I asked, as my curiosity got the better of me.

“Sure do,” said Gyorn, “a rather vile one if you ask me,” he added as he pulled up his shirt, revealing such a horrifying sight, that I wasn’t sure how he was still alive.

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t hit by a cannon or anything,” he murmured, “just the aftereffect of burning the wound to stop the bleeding. Would’ve been long dead if I hadn’t done it…”

“…what happened?” I asked worryingly, looking at the gruesome scar.

“Was ambushed by a bunch of idiots,” he said, “didn’t know who they were at the time, but now it’s obvious. All from Zepsis. They pretended to be the kingdom’s envoys in the beginning.”

“…what happened later?” I asked for details, “…how did you get away?”

He looked at me unwaveringly, “Who knows? Got lucky, I guess.”

Somehow, I wasn’t convinced. I could tell he was hiding something from me, but I chose not to pry any further. If he didn’t explain it, then he didn’t want me to know.

Grandpa used to tell me not to stick my nose into someone else’s business, so I am going to do just that.

While we were waiting around the pillars, Braun was acting uneasy the entire time, something was bothering him.

“Gyorn, are you feeling what I am feeling?” asked Braun seriously.

“Yeah I can sense them nearby too,” Gyorn answered sternly.

“…what’s going on?” I asked them, raising my guard.

“Don’t worry kid, there are people not far away from here, but it seems they are just passing by,” said Gyorn.

“…who are they and what are they doing all the way out here in the forest?” I asked.

“Could be anyone. Random travelers, adventurers, cultists, or something I’d rather not say out loud. I don’t want to jinx us,” said Braun.

An ominous sensation was spreading in the air.

“…how can you guys tell they are out there?” I asked.

“It’s a skill Gyorn taught me…” said Braun turning to face me, “The principle is that you ‘clear your mind’ so that you can sense the life energy of living things around you. He never gave it a name, so I called it rex.”

“Us humans have a distinct rex, very similar to each other,” explained Gyorn, “but, there are exceptions… evil or mental health issues. Sometimes you sense them from a mile away, sometimes you can’t. Too random and troublesome to predict,” he said yawning.

“…how did you learn it?” I asked him in amazement.

“I meditate every day in the mornings. Have been doing it for the last 20 years,” he explained, “it’s very similar to meditation, but you have to… spread your consciousness into — into the— uhm… what a pain in the ass to explain…” he growled.

“…can you teach me?” I requested.

“It takes a lot of time and focus, you should wait until we’re back in—” he caught a glimpse of my disappointed face, “…ahhhhhh, seriously… what am I going to do with you kid…” he exhaled.

While Anna was still bathing in the sacred waters, we began practicing the skill.

“Alright, what I like to do is to imagine a wheat field,” said Gyorn, “…clear your mind and become one with nature, let peace flow through your body… oh, right, assimilate with the wind and air around you too...”

He made it sound easy, but that was a very vague explanation.

I tried my best, but it seemed that my mind was incompatible with assimilation...

“…its not working…” I said frustratingly.

“Zenzo, try deep breaths to let the air course through you. Picture yourself as the source of all life,” said Braun.

Another vague explanation. What does he mean, source of all life… that’s impossible…

Success, there was not.

No matter how hard I imagined the wheat fields or let the air course through me, there were no effects.

I took my own approach.

I envisioned an open, blue sky and began diving into its depths.

After a couple seconds, everything turned black.

Was it actually working?

I could faintly sense Braun’s, Gyorn’s, and Anna’s energy, which all had their own color.

Huh?

Where they supposed to have colors?

They never mentioned any of this to me…

Gyorn’s was purple. Braun’s was green. Anna’s was light blue.

It was pretty simple when I got the hang of it.

There was another one…

A filthy, revolting, blood red, which I could sense from a big distance.

It was coming from the direction of Acolatum’s border.

I didn’t want to perceive it any longer…

I returned to my normal self.

They were waiting there silently, Gyorn polishing his gear, and Braun fidgeting with his pocketknife, looking out into the forest’s depths.

“…did you guys sense the presence from our neighboring country?” I asked.

They turned around to me, confused. They probably weren’t expecting me to get the hang of the skill this quickly.

Well, it was surprisingly easy.

“What are you talking about?” asked Gyorn, “there’s no way you can sense anything from that far away. Did you at least perceive our energy?”

“…what?” I asked, missing most of what he had said. I was still troubled by that life force emanating from the distance, “oh… yes… I did. It’s weird, you all had your own colors…”

The two exchanged glances again.

“Kid… did you eat any suspicious-looking mushrooms on our way here?” Gyorn asked dubiously, “You are supposed to see… uhm… what was it again — Braun help me out…” he gave up.

“The fluctuations in our rex… that’s how it normally works at least... what did you sense, Zenzo?” asked Gyorn, slightly concerned.

“I didn’t sense anything, I saw the color of… I don’t know… your energy… or souls?” I hypothesized.

“Hmmm... And what colors did we have?” asked Braun.

“…Gyorn had purple, you had green, and Anna had light blue…” I recalled, “… meanwhile the… disgusting… existence I felt from the border, had blood red…”

“I see. Well, if you are right and that thing is far away from here, then nothing to worry about I guess,” concluded Braun.

“What are you guys talking about?” asked Anna. She was already finished with her bath.

“Oh… nothing of importance,” said Braun, “just manly talk.”

“Ehhhh? What’s that supposed to mean… are you leaving me out of it?” she complained.

This was going to be a tough one to get out of.

“Do you also want to learn Rex?” asked Gyorn.

I looked at him, bewildered. Is he really going to teach her?

“Huh? What the hell is that?” she asked.

“Nothing worth being intimidated by, it is an intensified exercise designated to —”

“Alright, alright… you can stop there… seriously, all of you are the same…” she said uninterestedly, “the bath is yours,” she motioned behind herself.

I couldn’t believe it worked.

We undressed to our underwear and began approaching the waters.

Gyorn’s scar was clearly visible now.

Surprisingly, Braun had a strong physique, but his muscles weren’t as defined as Gyorn’s. It suddenly made sense how they were mining those cave areas by themselves.

In comparison, I looked like an extremely thin twig on a leafless tree…

As we got in, I felt prickling all over my body. The water was a little too cold for my liking.

I would stay quiet and take it like a man, but they seemed too comfortable.

“It’s quite cold,” I said.

“What?” asked Gyorn, confused. “It’s hot for me.”

We both looked at each other, perplexed, then turned to Braun.

“Warm,” he said.

“…why do we all feel different temperatures?” I asked.

“Maybe our mental and physical conditions?” theorized Gyorn.

“Probably,” said Braun, “maybe the worse you feel, the colder it seems?”

“I can understand the kid, but what happened to you?” asked Gyorn skeptically.

There was a short pause, while Braun was thinking.

“The Zepsis behavior has been bugging me for a while now,” said Braun. “I sometimes have… uh… trouble sleeping at night because I feel someone watching me…”

Gyorn instantly exiled any sort of amusement from his face, “even in the hideout?” he asked.

“Especially in the hideout…” answered Braun.

Gyorn stood up urgently.

“I thought I was paranoid,” said Gyorn, “we need to get back as soon as possible.”

“What? You’re saying…? We were actually…?” Braun struggled to get a sentence out.

“When both of us experience it, it’s not a coincidence. Then there’s Xax who hasn’t slept normally in weeks…” Gyorn said, “I’ve scoured the place repeatedly, but haven’t found anything.”

“That’s… that’s why he always seemed so tired…?” Braun asked terrifyingly.

I was at a loss for words.

I saw it happen too. Xax always seemed like he hadn’t slept in months…

At that moment, a troubling realization occurred to all of us at the same time – they could have been waiting for the perfect moment.

We got out of the bath and got dressed.

“Huh? Wha— did you guys finish already?” asked Anna with a puzzled look.

“Yeah. We had to cut it short,” answered Gyorn, “we need to get back, now.”

Afraid at the sudden urgency, she asked, “what happened…?”

“Nothing,” said Braun, “this is just a precaution.”

...

We started walking at an increased pace.

We were crossing the distance at an unbelievable speed. It seemed like walking to the sacred waters took us 10 times longer than it was currently taking us to get back.

Within 4 hours, we arrived to the place where we previously stayed the night.

But the situation was different.

We weren’t making any stops along the way.

Everyone walked in silence.

The realization of looming danger didn’t permit anyone to waste energy on pointless talk.

After a couple more hours, we arrived on top of the cliff where the palace ruins lay overlooking the city.

As soon as we stepped out into the open, we were surrounded.