Chapter 8 - Part 2

["For what?" Tasgal asked, standing in the doorway with his hair dry and a new white shirt and a coat on. He sniffed the air a few times and raised his eyebrows in realisations. "Oh! Sorry, sometimes I forget to open the window and my training attire kinda catches a funk. Thanks for airing my room." Haiden was relieved that that's what he thought he did.

"Yeah, no problem." He laughed it off. "Now, let's get something to eat, I'm starving!"]

Unlike the Wielder dining hall, the Ashen canteen, as they called it, was a lot more simpler. The lack of lavish decorations, flowers, busts, and wall embellishments made for a humble yet crowded room. It had long benches and tables to save space, broken by two rows that lead to the food filled tables. The cadets, mostly men with few women among them, were a rowdy bunch, that displayed behaviours quite the opposite of the polite and quiet conversations that were being had in the Wielding dining hall. The only thing that gave the room any sort of character was the ceiling shelf that went around the entire room, displaying all sorts of shining trophies. A special section was displayed above the double door entrance of the room, just in front of Haiden. These trophies seem to cast their own light as they emanated with radiance. Haiden was certain that there was a spell cast on them, as he felt a slight prickle that set his senses on fire when we walked in. Jumpy as he already is, he kept stealing glances of the trophies in the hopes of making sure that there was nothing more to it, like, let's say, the spirit of a lost friend.

"Haiden?" Tasgal waves his hand in front of Haiden's face. "You there, bud?" he asked. He snapped out of it and his attention was back at the man and table now laid with food in front of him.

"Yeah. Sorry I spaced out." said Haiden, eyeing the food.

"Right. Well, dig in." he said, inviting Haiden to eat. "It's probably not as good as the food at your dining hall," he said rolling his eyes. "but it's not bad either. I, myself, quite like it." said Tasgal as he took a bite out of his sweet bun. Haiden looked down at his big plate, much like Tasgal's, that had a couple of fire roasted Chikhogs legs that sat on top of a red stew with chunks of mysterious meat and chopped roots.

"I don't know what you're talking about. It looks delicious. All I've had in the dining hall are dainty looking foods that couldn't satisfy a toddler." he said laughing then digging into the delicious meat. Tasgal's summery sky blues lit up as he smiled, he was relieved that the luxury of a Wielder's life at the Academy did not got to his head.

"Slow down, it's like you've never seen food before." Tasgal said with a soft rumble in his chest. Haiden never really noticed this before, but his voice was much deeper than his own. It reverberated the air around him in a comfortable atmosphere.

"It's just good food." He replied. "So, what do you do here?" He asked between mouthfulls.

"Do here? I'm having lunch. With you?" At the latter Tasgal seemed to tense up a bit, and straighten his back while finding something interesting with one of his Chikhog legs.

"No, Creators. I mean, what do you do at the Academy besides not paying attention and getting stabbed?" he said pointing at him with a fork. This made Tasgal burst into laughter.

"Well, I don't get stabbed that often. Yes, it happens every now and again, but only when i get distracted." He replied, his boyish crooked smile revealing one of his dimples. "If you really want to know, we do learn a lot of other things, asides fighting."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Handling finances, history, a couple of different languages, how to beat you," he said nonchalantly pointing at Haiden.

"Beat a Wielder? That's impossible, your swords won't even come within fifty feet." he scoffed.

"We'll see about that in the Trial of the Three Sisters." He said, his lips twitching in a smug smile. He saw Haiden's confused face and quickly remembered he lacked any memory and he was an outsider to Elo'yn to boot, so he didn't have any knowladge of tradition. Haiden opened his mouth to ask what in Creator's name the Trials of the Three Sisters were but Tasgal beat him to it. "The Academy organizes multiple separate events where cadets and Wielders can put in practice what they learn, but once per year there is the Trial of the Three Sisters where cadets and Wielders can face each other in combat." he explained.

"There's no way any Ashen would win against any Wielder. We can practically do anything we want."

"Oh yeah? Look at those?" he said pointing his thumb over his shoulder towards the trophies above the entrance. "See those?" Haiden nodded. "Five years in a row. Undefeated."

"No way!"

"Yes, way." He smirked triumphantly.

"How? Do you have some crazy secret powers?" Haiden put down the Chikhof leg and Tasgal laughed.

"No. Just this." He flexed his biceps which bulged even through the thick layers of his coat. Haiden controlled his desire to reach out over the table and touch it, but couldn't keep his jaw closed. "Impressive. I know." Tasgal noticed and smirked. Haiden instantly recovered thanks to his blatant smugness and cockyness.

"It takes more than a bit of muscle to go against a wielder." He contested.

"Maybe, maybe so." Tasgal admitted.

"So, there is more!"

Tasgal leaned over the table closer to Haiden and pretended to whisper. "It's an Ashen secret, but I guess I can trust you. Can I? He asked, his blues drilling straight into Haiden's ambers. Haiden nodded, his heart pounding in his chest. His face was so close he could hear his Tasgal's breath. "The Ashen armor and weapons have something that can slice right through your shields. It can stop a force blast just like that." Tasgal snapped his fingers.

Haiden was about to ask what on E'a was this incredible thing that could stop a Wielder from using Fios, but he was interrupted by a sword dropping on their table with a loud clunk. Haiden jumped back as some stew splashed on him.

"Hey! Fucking watching it will ya'?" Haiden snapped. There were three men standing at the end of the table on their left. A huge hunk of muscle stood flanked by two others, his creased eyebrows showing his rage towards Haiden. He looked familiar but he couldn't place a name to his face. Haiden was certain he saw him somewhere else before. The other two didn't care much about Haiden's presence, one was indifferent and looked anywhere but, and the other one just mindlessly smiled, both of them well built and tall just like Tasgal. He started to believe he should have become an Ashen if it will turn you into a paragon of male beauty through what seemed like to be an impossible training schedule, as the three handsome men stood beside him.

"What? This small fry doesn't know about Ashen Stones?" The one in the middle asked, ignoring Haiden.

"I was just about to tell him, Vick. Now, can you guys kindly fuck off, we're having a private conversation." Tasgal replied.

"Private conv..." Vick's face flared in fury. He pinned Haiden down with his steady gaze. This made him retreat into himself and remain quiet. There was definitely something about Vick that was familiar to Haiden.

"Come on Tas, we're your best palls. Make some room." Said the one on the left with stark long blond hair pinned to the back in a dull voice just as his dark eyes.

"Yea, what Mav said." The man on the right said with juvenile tone and sat next to Haiden without waiting for an invitation, earning himself a death stare from Tasgal.

"Beat it, Kip. Or I'll beat you." Tasgal warned.

"That's no way to treat your friends, Tas." said Vick, now sporting a malicious grind. "So he wants to learn about the Ashen Stones, does he?" He sat on Tasgal's left while Mav went right.

"I was just about to explain them to him." Tasgal cleared his throat. "As I was saying before a bunch of Mrulaps interrupted me." He looked at his three friends as he referenced the hairy creatures that are known for not being the most intelligent. "The Ashen armor has something called, as Vick said, Ashen Stones." Tasgal made a flourish with his hands trying to look cool and to increase the mystery behind the secret weapon the Ashen had against the Wielders, but failed miserably in Haiden's opinion. He looked like a goofball, and to him, that was even more attractive. "Just like the light stones, these stones don't absorb but dissipate Fios, annulling any spell a Wielder would cast just by touching it. Istrek told us that these are an Empire secret..."

Haiden could close his eyes and listen to him all day long, but then he would miss how bright his eyes lit. He imagined how it would be like to lay in his arms with his hand on his chest as he talked, vibrating along with the rumble of his cadence. Blood started flowing towards his lower region. He had to squash these thoughts immediately before someone noticed. The laugh of Tasgal's friends broke him out of his daze and he laughed along nervously. He took a deep breath and tried to focus on what they were actually saying instead of bawdy thoughts.

"This right here, is an Ashen sword." Vick pointed to the sword on the table. He grabbed it and took it out of its hilt. It resembled a lot like the one Tasgal first used when he saved Haiden from those thugs. The sword glistened in the light like liquid metal. It had a ridge on the middle of the blade that went right to the tip. Along the ridge small smooth clear crystals were inlaid in a perfect line. "Go ahead, send a force blast, Wielder. Vick taunted.

"Vick, that's not a good idea. Haiden, don't listen to him." Tasgal urged. As much as he wanted to ignore the annoying and rude handsome brute in front of him, he wanted to see how the Ashen Stones worked. Going against Tasgal's warning, Haiden nodded.

"Alright." He said, then turned to Tasgal. "It's going to be fine, trust me." As usual, Haiden went through his routine. Checked for the door in his mind, making sure it's under lock and key, then gently pulling on his Fios. Static flowed into his hands and created a barrier around them to make sure no harm came to anyone. Then, he focused on a small force blast that would gently shove the sword back and sent that towards it, making sure he's aware of the blast with all of his senses. He saw the air shimmer with his amber eyes and mind's eye as well as feel the force blast's energy travel to the sword. When the force blast touched the sword it instantly vanished creating a small gust of air from the released pressure. It brushed Haiden's black hair as his jaw dropped. "Incredible." he mumbled.

"This year we'll definitely win again." Vick said with a laugh, looking at Haiden's frazzled state.

"Of course, I'm going to compete." Tasgal said, trying to lessen the tension in the air. For some reason Vick didn't seem to like Haiden that much and he kept giving him glares whenever he could.

"We all are, just for good measure." Kip added.

"Sure are." said Mav. "Should we get some food?" he asked the other two. "I'm starving." Both of them nodded and bid their goodbyes to Tasgal, while only two said goodbye to Haiden. Once they were out of ear range Tasgal looked at Haiden with his slightly raised upturned eyebrows and sighed.

"I'm so sorry about them. I promise they're not as bad as they seemed." He apologized for his friends.

"I'm sure big Vick over there," Haiden jerked his head towards the food table where Tasgal's friends were. "likes to be cwaddled and bwabied when no one's watching." Haiden said in a mock voice. Both of them burst into laughter.

"You're probably right, he's too uptight for his own good sometimes." After the laughed toned down Haiden got quiet and his gaze locked onto the unfinished food. It was too much for him to eat, but he felt bad for the food being wasted and something more.

"I'm really sorry about avoiding you, Tas." Haiden finally admitted slowly raising his gaze to meet Tasgal for a hundredth time today, and for a hundredth times it felt static. As if the air itself was charged with Fios. Using his nickname made Haide's heart skip a beat, he said with such sincerity his ears and cheeks blazed in the chilly air of the room. The racket of the room died out in a slight murmur, and all Haiden could hear and see was Tasgal, right in front of him. This was it. It was time to be honest, as much as he could, of course.

"Don't sweat it. I was just worried, that's all. I'm glad you're alright and I'm ever more happy about you actually wanting to be friends. I was really worried about that." He confessed. He seemed genuine and it made Haiden's swell up with a swirl of emotions that settled down into his stomach. He was quite unsure why Tasgal wanted to be friends with him, but at that time, he did not want to question whatever Creators had in store for him, all he knew was that it would mean Haiden could be next to the man he longed for, even if it's just friendship.

The matter of Regor's spirit soon overtook his mind and a chill covered his heart. He looked back at the trophies and then over his shoulder to make sure there's nothing there watching him. For a moment, he completely forgot about Regor. He had to tell Tasgal about him, he needed someone to talk with otherwise he'd go insane. He took a deep breath and locked eyes with Tasgal. The chill faded in an instant.

"I'm so relieved you still want to be friends with me, Tas." Once more, he looked over his shoulder, but this time to make sure that Vick, Kip, and Mav were nowhere near close, but he quickly spotted them sitting at another table with other people. Haide pulled a bit of Fios and raised a barrier around them to block the sound. Tasgal noticed it and his eyebrows creased. "There's something I need to tell you."