BA3 - Chapter 3

Deep navy munje swirled from my core in my mind’s eye and flowed up my chest. The magic tingled as it surged up my neck and engulfed my skull. I breathed through my nose and cycled another round of energy. The raw power surged through the ry block on the second band, down to the zo block on the first, and then into the core crystal.

My third band was started, but due to our intense training this summer, I hadn’t made as much progress on it as I’d wanted. Most of the spells we were learning required two munje’s, and they’d been complicated to master… especially the mental shield_TK.

The dark blue munje flowed up my spine and reinforced the barrier already started around my skull. This much would last at least ten hours. I would have to reinforce it again after dinner. Maintaining the mental shield_TK at all times was one of requirements from Min-hwan to pass his training. Thanks to Hana, I’d been able to master it at the end of the last week of training.

“And you have your jacket?” Mother asked, pulling me from my cyclical breathing.

“Yes, Mother, I have it,” Eun-bi said with a grating heat.

I grimaced at her short temper. Had I been that moody?

“Probably first day jitters,” Mae said to just me. “Though, you’ve been worse than this before.”

I scowled. ‘Yes… thank you. It was a rhetorical question to just me.’

Mother smiled as she handed us each a wrapped bento box. “I better see you for rest day,” she warned with a wag of her finger, mostly at Eun-bi.

“Okay, thank you Mom.” Eun-bi opened the door and Mother grabbed her arm to pull her back.

“Goodbye, Eun-bi. I love you. Have a good first week of school.”

Eun-bi’s cheeks reddened and her jaw muscles flexed. She took a deep breath. “I love you too. Thanks. Goodbye.”

“You didn’t wish me a good first week of school.” I remarked with a playful raised eyebrow. Mother rolled her eyes as I passed her out the door. Eun-bi groaned behind me. Mother hugged her tightly, planting kisses on her forehead.

“I’m so proud of you!” Mother exclaimed as she finally released Eun-bi.

My chest ached with envy. Mother had been so sick when I was accepted to Bastion, she hardly had the energy to fight me on the matter. It wasn’t just her physical health that had improved. She was so much happier now, too. Everything looked brighter for our future… if we ignored my looming trip to Kokyu.

Eun-bi finally escaped Mother’s grasp and we were on our way to the train. She was quiet on the ride down the elevator, but she bounced her knees up and down.

“You okay?” I asked her with a nudge of my elbow.

She grimaced. “I don’t know why I’m so angry. I didn’t want to be that way with Mom.”

I patted her on the back. “Just apologize when you get home on rest day. She’ll understand.”

“Yeah,” she mumbled, not seeming convinced.

We met Cho on the morning train, though he’d already been on it for an hour before us. Another benefit of living so close to Bastion; much shorter commute time. If Eun-bi wasn’t a first-year, she could go home in the evenings for an hour or two before the gates would close. I knew the rules were becoming stricter for all the students, but younger and more vulnerable ones especially.

“So,” Cho started as he beamed at Eun-bi, “are you excited for your first day?”

“Not really. It’s no big deal,” she replied, nonchalantly.

I shrugged. “Yeah, the first day isn’t a big deal. Just picking your lodging for the rest of the year… hope you don’t get stuck with a girl who snores non-stop.” I patted her hard on the back and we disembarked at the Bastion stop.

Eun-bi’s eyes bulged. “There’s no transferring rooms?”

Cho and I laughed.

“That was mean, Jiyong,” Mae admonished. “She’s already so nervous.”

‘She’ll be fine. She’ll make friends.’

I breathed in the warm morning air as I stepped down onto the street in front of the gates. The students were lined like usual, crowding their way towards the entrance. I wondered what was for lunch and my stomach rumbled hungrily.

It was hard work keeping the mental shield_TK in place. I made my way through the line and presented my papers to the guard, who welcomed me back. I stepped through and waited for Cho and Eun-bi.

“Another one?” The guard said behind me and I turned to look at him. “I don’t know if we can handle two Laws here,” the guard said and handed Eun-bi her papers back.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be here long.” I said with a chuckle and beckoned Eun-bi to come in. She looked as if she was scared to step over the threshold, like it was some barrier that once she passed, she couldn’t turn back.

We headed toward the main pagoda to get all the usual class schedules and ID cards. The first-year stations were still outside in the yard—since there were so many students to accommodate. I let Eun-bi know I’d finder her for lunch and look over her schedule with her, which seemed to assuage her fears. She pulled up her backpack and marched toward the long line to get her school things. That was the Eun-bi I knew.

The Kokyu Exchange students had their own much shorter line to gather their things, which were many. On top of the schedule we would use for the first five weeks at Bastion, and the ID card, we received a disc thick with forms for us to fill out for the program.

“Sorry, but what is all this?” I asked Sung-ki as he handed a disc to Cho.

“It’s the new customs documentation Kokyu requires of everyone entering their borders. It started just this year. I’m sure it’s a bureaucratic nightmare,” he replied, shaking his head.

I used a bit of ma munje to activate the device and scroll through the lists. My typing skills had improved only marginally since first-year. A question caught my eye and I stopped scrolling, then went back.

“What is the family name of your father?”

My blood pumped faster. “Sung-ki, they’re asking some interestingquestions,” I said as I held the device out to him.

Sung-ki groaned. “Yes, I’m sure someone wants to know exactly who is coming in.”

I got the message. Dokun wanted to know exactly who of us were coming, and to which school we would be going. I wondered if he had used the mass potion poison event in Busa-nan to push this idea forward. Up front he would have a great reason, something like, “To ensure no unsavory people will be entering. People with a history of radical thinking, or family members who fought in the war.”

But Dokun’s true motive was to find me.

“Oh, and we’ll need those back by the end of the first week,” Sung-ki said before I turned away. “We have to ship those back to Kokyu so they can evaluate them in advance.”

So, Dokun would know before I even got there. It was a stroke of genius that would put us at a disadvantage immediately. Dokun would have plenty of time to talk to the instructors of our transfer school, or rig traps into my dorm room.

“Hey,” Hana’s familiar voice eased my frustration. She was getting her supplies from Woong-ji, and looking stunning in the process. I didn’t understand how she made the Bastion uniform look so good.

“Hi,” I smiled.

“Hey Jiyong! So glad to see you after so long,” Yuri said with unnecessary emphasis. Sung-ki glared her down. Our training hadn’t been public knowledge, or else every wansil parent of a Bastion student would demand summer classes with Min-hwan. It was also to keep our mission a secret.

If anyone knew we’d trained with one of the most highly skilled Grandmaster in Busa-nan when we were going to Kokyu in a few months, some heads would turn, and information would leak. There was no doubt that Dokun had his own agents planted within the kingdom, always watching and reporting.

“What’s this?” Hana asked of Woong-ji when she received the Kokyu visiting documentation disc.

My heart sank. Hana was going to find that question just the same as I did, and she’ll have the same exact thought. I knew she was going to use it against me, to convince me not to go. This information could put our information at risk, it was true. Dokun might not yet know everyone who was involved…

Unless Ko-nah has already told him everything. He knew our inner circle well, and would be able to describe us, or even share his memories of us in a ry scry. That was my argument against her, then. We all had to submit this information, and the only one who could slip past unnoticed would be Hana.

Hana Boksu.

She had finished her name change over the summer, though it’d taken her all year collaborating with Mae and Yuri to find something that fit her just right. She would of course run every possible idea she liked past me for my approval. I’d told her to pick whatever made her happy, but she didn’t seem satisfied with that answer.

“What are you smiling about?” Hana asked, curious.

I shook my head. “Nothing. Let’s go find out rooms.”

Hana, Cho, Yuri and I headed out to the resident village, passing Shin-soo down the stairs. I gave him only a slight dip of my head. A sign of respect, but nothing that others around us would note as too friendly.

There was a special section on the top floor of the boy’s third-year building for the exchange students—five to a room. We passed others rooms on our way up to see there were three, or sometimes even two beds to a room. Well, this was going to be a problem.

Cho, Shin-soo, and I needed to talk strategy and plans if we were going to get anything planned before departure. There were still two pieces of tech I hadn’t completed, though neither of them were mission critical.

We set out our belongings and I placed the picture of my family in a prominent spot on the desk next to my bed. I ran my finger down the frame, feeling its complexity. This was the most essential piece of equipment I had created.

It was so well camouflaged that I could hardly believe it myself. On the outside it looked like a metal frame to protect my new, expensive photograph. Even with a trickle of ma, or a revealing ry spell, this frame wouldn’t spill its secret. The nanite history had been wiped clean—thanks to Min-hwan—and so no amount of scrying would show any of its more devious uses.

We had planned thoroughly, so why did I feel like there was still so much more we needed to do?

“Because of the unknowns,” Mae remarked to me. “You’re not alone. I feel the same way, but my rational sense tells me we’ve done everything we can to prepare within our limitations.”

‘Thanks, I’ll try to relax.’

The usual “Welcome” message from Min-hwan blared over the speakers in our room as Shin-soo and two more transfer students filed in. When the announcement was over, we got to talking like normal students who were excited to see the Kokyu machina, eat new foods, and see pretty, foreign girls.

Lee, a good-natured boy with a close shaved head, cleared his throat and looked at me when our natural conversation died down. “So,” he started, nervously, “about last year…”

He trailed off and the other boy, Jiho, dawned a similarly anxious expression. I had some idea of what he wanted to ask, but had no intention of divulging what had happened, or how we’d foiled the plot. The silence dragged on uncomfortably, but I maintained my blank stare at Lee.

“What about last year?” Shin-soo asked aggressively.

Lee shook his head like he’d been snapped from a trance. “Forget it.”

Perhaps having Shin-soo around would be a good thing. Few questions asked, even fewer answered.

“Let’s go meet Yuri and Hana,” Cho offered to get us out of the awkward tension.

Shin-soo didn’t follow as Cho and I stepped to the door.

“Are you coming?” I asked.

Shin-soo looked up from his personal effects. For a moment, my former school-yard enemy looked embarrassed. His eyes bulged as if he was not expecting our invitation. “Me?”

“Yes,” I replied, trying to keep my tone friendly.

He looked back to his things laid out on the bed, then decided to leave them as they were. Shin-soo didn’t seem to fear his things being pilfered, or scrutinized. He was either very confident in the persona he kept, or completely uncaring of what others did to his property.

“See you later,” I said with a friendly smile for Lee and Jiho, making it clear the invite did not extend to them.

Hana and Yuri waited next to the fountain at the center of the resident village, chatting avidly about something in quiet voices.

“Lunch?” Cho asked the girls with a winning smile.

Yuri nodded down the rows of pagodas. “We’re waiting for Eun-bi.”

Yuri’s brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed, and that’s when I heard it. The grating sneer of a kingdomite.

“Watch where you’re going, ganhan.”

I spun on me heel, fiery anger burning in my chest. There was Eun-bi, on her ass with her glowing schedule in hand.

Two older girls towered over her, jeering. “Her skin is so tanned she looks like leather.”

“How much do you think we could get for her hide?”

The fire raged to an inferno, and I marched toward the gathering group of students.

“Jiyong, wait,” Mae said to me.

I nearly snapped at her aloud, then collected myself. ‘For what? For them to skin her alive?’

“If you protect her now, she’ll only be safe as long as you’re around.”

I gritted my teeth. Mae was right. I’d be in Kokyu soon for the rest of the semester, and there would be no one to defend Eun-bi but herself. If she didn’t make a stand now, she wasn’t going to make it through her first year.

Hana passed me, moving toward the action and I caught her arm. “We can’t,” I whispered. Hana’s eyes blazed with the same fury I felt in my chest, but she heeded my statement and fell back to my side.

A tall girl with short black hair and a thick brow pulled Eun-bi from the ground, then stared down the antagonizing girls. “Let’s go, Euni.”

Eun-bi’s face was red, and tears glistened in her eyes. My stomach ached at the sight of her, and I cursed myself. I hadn’t been there for her. I hadn’t done my duty as an older brother. But it was what’s best for her.

Eun-bi and the tall girl left the ring of students behind expediently.

“Are you alright?” I asked as the two drew nearer.

Eun-bi pressed her lips together into a fine line, then muttered, “Just fine.”

I followed after her. “Eun-bi wait—"

My sister spun on me, the space between her eyebrows pinched with anger. “You’re right. We don’t need you anymore.”

“Eun-bi,” Hana snapped angrily.

My heart stopped, throat tightened, and mouth went dry.

Eun-bi’s lip curled back in an angry snarl like a frightened wild animal. “I heard all about his plan for if he doesn’t come back—"

“Enough!” I boomed.

Tears spilled down Eun-bi’s cheeks and her lip trembled. It was as if someone cast a ry dampening spell on my ears. Blood rushed away from my head and I took a deep breath. I needed to stay calm, or my mental shield_TK could fail.

“Eun-bi,” I whispered.

She turned without another word, led away by her new friend. My ears picked up the murmurs of the students around us and I turned to see that we had collected an audience of our own.

This wasn’t how I wanted her first day to go.

“Let’s get some food,” Shin-soo said a little too loudly.

The crowd dispersed without any spectacle to watch, and we headed into the main pagoda. The lines were long, and Shin-soo employed some of the older student privilege, cutting off a couple of first-years. The rest of us waited at the back. There were more than enough older students willing to pull rank and cut the first-years off to keep the Bastion culture alive.

Min-hwan gave his customary speech, as did Woong-ji. Visions of Eun-bi cowering on the ground, looking at me for help, flooded my mind. We finished our meals in relative quiet as the other students welcomed each other back and chatted avidly.

When night fell, I was eager to return to my lodging for some rest. The next day would bring physical training for three and half hours. All the exchange students were on the same, modified program, since it would be discontinued in a matter of weeks. Physical training every morning for three and a half hours. It would provide the distraction I needed from the anguish of guilt that twisted my guts.

The evening class was a combination of language, history, and culture refreshers from our summer materials. It would be repetitive, but I would throw myself into nonetheless. There was no space in my head for family matters. We had a mission to carry out, and our preparation for that was all that mattered now.