4. The beauty would bring tears in your eyes

Three months of training had rewarded well. Andrey could now hold the two-handed sword without dropping it easily. This was actually only the beginning of his real training.

It was early morning. Time for training. Nyadzel opened the door as if thunder went inside Andrey's room. Then he stared at him for a while.

"Morning training time. I'm ready, are we going?" Andrey asked, feeling the silence awkward as he stretched his jaw to the side.

"Yeah. We're going, but not the usual place. Follow me!" Nyadzel replied harshly, and they both walked out of the house.

Andrey thought they were starting training at the lakes today, but turned out not. They went in a completely different direction.

Princepsius was full of people this early in the morning. Everybody had a job or just had some errands to run. This grabbed Andrey's attention. He hadn't been going out much. After all, he was like under custody throughout these three months. Training, studying, training, studying. This time it felt like he was out for a walk. After all, this actually was his first time going out and not going to train at the lakes or jog around the city.

Andrey remembered that on the Earth people rarely actually smiled or anything when you see them on the street. Everybody seemed to be somewhat upset. It's a different story here, though. Everyone seemed kind of inspired and passionate about what they are out there to do. It kind of just built up the atmosphere that way. Maybe it was from the good reign of the King? 

Looking at Philius "As if this star affects people... Well, after all, it does emit my favorite color." Andrey said to himself and chuckled a bit.

"Okay, I can't take it anymore–where are we going?" He then asked his mentor.

"To the king." Simply replied Nyadzel as he pulled off that satisfactory smile of his.

The young boy noticed something different in his master. Somehow angry? No, it was more like he was proud. Proud of something. Of what?

"I hope you're not going to humiliate me in a duel in front of him again, are you?" Andrey joked, and they both laughed.

"No. We're going there so you can continue your training."

"What? The king himself is going to train me?"

"No, no. It's just that for this stage of your training we will need allowance from his Highness."

"That sounds fun. Should I ask?"

"Don't. You'll find out"

They managed to pass through the huge crowd of people, and not long after they went by the valley of statues. The guards honorably greeted Nyadzel along the way. It was easy to notice how big of a reputation he had.

The guards let the warrior and his disciple through and closed the king's gates behind them. "The king's hall." Andrey mumbled, being stunned by this beauty for the second time.

"What do I owe your visit, kind ones?" King Goodlie asked with a big smile widening on his face. "Ah, and I almost forgot, this time, please don't bow at all!" he added and laughed.

"I see he loves joking around." Andrey whispered in his master's ear, who replied with a cold, even a little frightening stare.

"My king, Andrey, has developed a superb physique. He needs to go to the next level, but for that, I would need your permission." The loyal warrior requested. 

Goodlie fell into his thoughts for a while and put on his serious face. Then Nyadzel continued, "I want you to allow him to go to Mage-Mountain and continue his training in the forest. There, where the spirits and energy of our ancestors sleep."

The king kept quiet for a long time. Nyadzel's face much reminded of the stone figures outside., as he didn't take eyes off the king, nor did he tremble or move a muscle. Andrey felt awkward in this one minute of silence. Did time freeze? What was Mage-mountain? It sounded kind of scary. After all, he did read a lot about nature and on theory; he knew what he could meet in a mountain, but he never expected any of this. Never expected that he would have to use what he read and partially learned in books so quickly.

The silence was broken.

 "Nyadzel, you are my right hand, your judgment and advice have the same strength as my words. I believe in that which you say and I know that you are confident in your endeavors." Short silence followed. 

After these words, Philius reached the perfect spot. The timing was right. A ray of light fell through the center of the King's hall and was reflected from what seemed to be a strange small object. Blue light rays dispersed inside the whole hall. 

From the small object to the top of the hall where it was reflected back again. It was the most marvelous sight. The engineering genius behind this probably should have been paid at least a country for this.

             

(- Visual by Desislava Kopcheva)

"Andrey, please step outside for a minute" Goodlie asked.

"Yes, sir!" the young man replied, looked for a second at his master, and headed out. A moment before going out, the light in the hall suddenly as if disappeared. The beautiful event had ended.

The gate just closed. Andrey felt something wet on his cheek. He touched with his right hand. The guard standing next to the gate laughed at the completely shocked young man.

"It was just that time of day, right?" the guard asked "The king's hall is meant to make people cry. From joy or despair." 

Andrey then looked at the guard still shocked and the guard explained, "This hall is built to make you cry. In your case, my boy, it's from joy." 

Then the guard quoted "thou who are bestowed with thy sight shall have tears in thy eyes caused by eternal beauty". 

The guard said no more as Andrey walked towards the nearby bench.

"I just cried from the beauty of this spectacle. This is crazy!" Andrey said, hardly finding words to describe what just happened. "This is magical. This is sorcery." He repeated.

A while after, he regained himself from the sight and started to think about the conversation going on inside. What was Mage-mountain? Seemed important, as the king completely changed his attitude. Nyadzel said that the training will continue, but as a cast out? Andrey couldn't wait to find out more about what is going.

Time passed, and Nyadzel finally came out of the hall. Andrey tried to peek behind Nyadzel to see if the beauty was still there, but he realized the hall got darker behind his back as he walked out. Philius had moved and the greatest attraction to ever see had passed. Now he needed to know what happened.

"What comes now, Nyadzel?"

"I have two pieces of news. One good and one bad. Which do you want first?" the master offered calmly.

"Tell me the bad one. Once it hits me in the ground, the good one will pick me up." Andrey smiled.

"Okay. The bad news is that in this training you will be all alone and it will differ greatly from anything we have done so far." A little worried, Nyadzel continued explaining, "You will go to Mage-Mountain which is behind the waterfalls of the city. Remember? The ones which fill the lakes around the city. You will stay there until you feel you are ready to return. You will see a sign. I can't tell you what this sign is or when it will appear, you will know when the time comes."

"Okay... this sounds kind of scary. Especially as I haven't lived in your world, I don't know it. Maybe this is the purpose of the training?" Andrey asked. It actually scared him that something like this would eventually happen.

"Well... kind of. I will guide you to the mountain. But once I show you the path, you will continue alone. You will walk on it. You will walk until when you turn around you don't see neither the path, nor the city, and then you will continue even deeper. You must go so deep in the forest that you wouldn't have a chance going back in a day's walk."

"Okay, I agree. Seems kind of harsh to me, but if it must be–it'll be." He sighed and asked, "you said there's good news. What is it?"

Nyadzel took a second to reply, but smiled and replied, "That you are allowed to continue your training!"

They both laughed, but Andrey could feel something inside. Was it building fear and insecurity? Not long though, and they both got serious. They went home and Nyadzel helped the young man pack what he would need for what seemed to be a dangerous adventure.