The Echoes Of Souls

Chapter 4

Morning had already arrived in Veyrith, and Aurelis hung high above the city, casting a pale blue-white light across the training grounds.

Everett was on the ground doing another set of crunches while Darian watched him closely.

It had been a month since Everett had left the dungeon, and for almost every morning and evening since then, Darian had trained him. The rest of the day was rarely free either. Whenever they were not fighting or exercising, Darian was teaching him about Valdoria, its history, its people, and the things Everett needed to understand about the world he had somehow forgotten.

In some ways, the routine reminded Everett of the life he had lived before everything changed.

He used to wake up and go to school every morning.

Now he woke up to physical training.

There were no classrooms waiting for him, only long hours of exhausting exercises, sword practice, and lessons that often left his head just as tired as his body. Still, there was something strangely satisfying about it. The more he trained, the more Everett felt that he was slowly becoming the kind of person he had once only read about in books and watched in movies.

At first, Darian had shown little patience with him.

The commander had treated every mistake seriously and rarely praised him, no matter how hard Everett tried. But that began to change when Everett started completing the training without giving up.

Day after day, he endured the exercises.

He fell, got back up, and continued.

He failed with the sword, learned from the mistake, and tried again.

Eventually, Darian began to see him differently.

The two men became closer as the weeks passed, and what had started as a strict teacher-and-student relationship slowly turned into a friendship.

Darian's house was not far from the castle. It was not particularly large either, but the wide yard behind it had been turned into a personal training ground.

The first floor was simple, with everything arranged for practical living. The second floor was completely different.

It was filled with Darian's past.

Medals and trophies occupied shelves and tables, while several rooms had been turned into libraries. Some of the books were about Valdoria's history, while others covered science, warfare, different regions of the world, and subjects Everett had never heard of.

Whenever they were not training, Everett and Darian often spent time there.

Sometimes they read.

Sometimes they played chess.

But even those moments were part of Everett's training.

Darian wanted him to understand the world around him, especially since Everett could remember almost nothing about his own past.

Everett learned quickly.

His memory was still unreliable when it came to his past, but when it came to new information, he understood things faster than Darian expected. He asked questions when something did not make sense and often remembered details after hearing them only once.

Darian had come to admire that about him.

“Come on. Keep going,” Darian called.

Everett gritted his teeth and continued.

“A few more and you're done with the morning workout.”

His arms were beginning to ache, but he refused to stop.

“Three.”

Everett pushed himself up.

“Two.”

Another repetition.

“One.”

Everett completed the final crunch and dropped back onto the ground.

“That’s it.”

He breathed heavily for a moment before sitting up.

Every morning ended the same way.

Once the physical training was finished, Everett had to spar with Darian.

The two-handed sword was still difficult for him. He had become stronger over the past month, but the weapon remained heavy enough to slow his movements and punish every mistake.

Still, he was no longer the helpless man who had dropped his sword in the throne room.

He could raise it now.

He could defend himself.

And, if Darian gave him enough room, Everett could even attack.

“Ready?”

Darian smiled as he raised his wooden sword.

Everett barely had time to answer before Darian moved toward him.

He quickly brought his sword up to defend himself, and the two exchanged several blows. For the first few seconds, Everett managed to keep up, his movements far better than they had been when he first started training.

Then Darian found an opening.

With one clean movement, he knocked Everett’s sword from his hands.

The weapon landed on the ground.

Everett stared at it before letting out a tired sigh.

“Sometimes I really wonder if there’s any point in trying.”

“There is,” Darian said with a short laugh. “You lasted more than five seconds today. That is progress.”

Everett shook his head.

“That is a very generous definition of progress.”

Darian laughed.

They continued sparring for another thirty minutes. By the time they finished, Everett was exhausted, while Darian barely looked tired.

Darian returned his wooden sword to the weapon stand and gestured for Everett to follow him inside.

“Come on. Chess.”

Everett looked at him.

“After that?”

“You need to train your mind too.”

They went upstairs to the library.

Books filled the shelves around the room, covering subjects ranging from history and science to warfare and strategy. In the middle of it all stood a chess table with two chairs waiting on opposite sides.

Darian had deliberately painted one chair black and the other white.

He looked at Everett.

“Which one today? Black or white?”

“You attacked me more today,” Everett replied as he lowered himself into the black chair. “I'll take black. Your move.”

Darian smiled and sat opposite him.

Chess had become one of the parts of training Everett actually looked forward to.

On the training ground, Darian was clearly superior. No matter how hard Everett tried, the difference between them was still enormous. But chess was different.

Everett was intelligent, patient, and quick to recognize patterns.

Darian had already realized that Everett's mind was far more dangerous than his body.

The game lasted nearly an hour.

When it finally ended, Darian stared at the board for several seconds.

He had lost.

Everett leaned back in his chair, a small smile appearing on his face.

Darian laughed.

“You know why you have a better chance of beating me at chess?”

Everett raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

Darian looked at him across the board.

“Because you have time to think.”

He tapped one of the pieces on the board.

“Here, you can see the situation, consider your options, and decide what to do before making a move.”

Everett listened.

“But a real fight doesn't give you that much time,” Darian continued. “Your mind can move faster than your body right now. If you could make your body react as quickly as your brain thinks, you might actually have a chance against me.”

Darian still had a smile on his face.

He genuinely enjoyed a difficult challenge, and watching Everett struggle through their chess games seemed to give him almost as much satisfaction as winning a fight.

Everett, on the other hand, considered Darian’s defeat at chess a small form of revenge.

By the time night arrived, it was time for their second workout of the day.

Veyrith looked different at night.

The city stretched around the castle in a wide circle, with mountains rising beyond its outer edges. Behind the castle, enormous waterfalls poured down from the mountains, feeding the lakes that ran alongside the city's walls.

The area around the lakes had been turned into a large training ground.

There were different kinds of equipment spread across the grounds, most of them far better than the simpler equipment Darian kept at home. There were also several long tracks where Darian and Everett ran every evening.

Fifteen laps came first.

Then came the rest of the workout.

Everett had already learned that Darian had no interest in making the routine easier simply because he was tired from the morning session.

The nights in Valdoria were also different from what Everett remembered about Earth.

Aurelis did not disappear completely.

Instead, its blue-white light gradually weakened until the world was covered in a softer glow. It was not as bright as daytime, but it was still far brighter than the nights Everett remembered.

They trained until Aurelis had dimmed almost completely.

Only then did Darian finally call it a day.

They returned home, bathed, ate, and rested. Some evenings they read in the library. Other times they played chess, talked about whatever came to mind, or simply went to sleep.

Despite everything Everett had been learning, one thing continued to bother him.

Darian still had not properly taught him how to fight.

They sparred almost every day, but Darian had never sat him down to teach him specific techniques. There were no detailed lessons on sword movements, no throws, no grabs, and no carefully explained combinations.

Everett simply fought.

Darian watched.

Then he corrected him when he made a mistake.

It frustrated Everett more than he wanted to admit.

There were also times during the day when Darian left the house without explaining where he was going.

At first, Everett wondered about it, but eventually he stopped paying much attention.

It's probably none of my business anyway.

Whenever Darian was away, Everett found ways to keep himself occupied.

He read.

He studied the books in Darian's library.

And sometimes, when there was nothing else to do, he sat quietly and thought about Earth.

Those moments were often the strangest.

The more Everett learned about Valdoria and the world beyond Veyrith, the more he realized how much he still did not understand. There were entire regions that had barely been explored, and even the maps available in Darian's library contained large areas marked with little or no information.

One afternoon, Everett was reading through a book about the geography of the world when something caught his attention.

He frowned at the page.

“Why does this country have two names?”

He read the passage again, then continued through the following pages.

It took him a while to understand the explanation.

The name he had first seen referred to the larger region, while Valdoria was the name of the kingdom itself.

Everett leaned back in his chair.

“So even the geography here is confusing.”

He returned to the book and continued reading. 

The more Everett learned about the history of this world, the more frustrated he became.

According to the books in Darian's library, two great continents had been locked in conflict for generations. Their people had fought for so long that no one could remember exactly how the war had started. Neither side had ever managed to completely conquer the other, and what had once been a struggle over territory had slowly become something closer to tradition.

Everett closed the book and stared at the ceiling.

“So they're just going to keep fighting forever?”

He shook his head.

“It’s like yin and yang. Two sides trapped in an endless struggle, each one convinced the other is the enemy. It's almost like good and evil.”

He paused, thinking about it.

“But which one is good, and which one is evil?”

The sound of the front door opening interrupted him.

Everett turned and saw Darian entering the house with several bags in his hands.

“What?” Darian asked, amused. “Are you talking to yourself now?”

Everett looked at him.

“It seems so. I didn't have anyone interesting enough to talk to until now.”

Darian laughed.

“Well, thank you. Now come on. It's time to go.”

Everett frowned.

“Go where?”

Darian stared at him as though the answer should have been obvious.

“To train. Where else would we be going?”

He dropped the bags he had brought from the market onto the table and headed toward the door.