Tarun Acmonides 1 - Annealing (part 1)
- Location
- England
Chapter 1 – Annealing (part 1) [Tarun]
The bright midday sunshine reflected gloriously off the vibrant colors that decorated the city of Cyclopsis. Just over a century old, it was impossible to tell that this was once territory soaked in the blood of innocents to feed the cultivation of Old Cannibal and his twisted Demon sect. Now the only red in this town were the large banners and flags going around.
While the Acmonides was far from the biggest or grandest family in the clan, the place where they punched above their weight class was in throwing family celebrations. You haven't partied until you've been to an Acmonides celebration. And no bigger celebration was held than when one of the members became of cultivation age.
Everyone in the family was setting up banners, preparing spices for the food, tuning their instruments, practicing their poems to both praise and humble the young cultivator to be. Even if the young individual never grew as a cultivator beyond the first few ranks, that didn't matter to the family. Family was strength, and for them, everyone of their seeds was a Good Seed.
Most importantly of all, Granny would come out to oversee the events. Despite her lack of cultivation, Granny was beloved by everyone in the family, but none more so than the one-eyed patriarch Arges Acmonides. He may oversee the territory to protect the family, but she oversaw the hearts of the family. She was essential to it, and that's why he had invested in life-expanding treasure to keep her alive even after 100 years. In her advanced age she rarely left her home, so all looked at her expectantly as she stepped onto the stage that had been made for this event. Everyone waiting to hear the wise gentle words of this paragon of love in the family.
"Where in the nine hells is Tarun hiding?" She shouted, shaking the family to the core. This was his special day of cultivation, but no one had seen him all day.
Tarun, the young man in question, wasn't hiding so much as he'd been whisked away. The 16 year old was short in height, only about 5'4 in feet, with a small pot belly of baby fat that had never gone away which would often get rubbed by others "for good luck". He stood out from most of the Gold Devils for his dark black hair and dark brown skin, unlike anyone but Granny. He always considered this a gift, even as others in the clan outside the Acmonides associated these physical traits with the 5th Sea. It was why he was always accompanied by other family members when outside of town in Gold Devil areas, on the off chance an angered cultivator might take revenge from the trials on the young mortal.
However, his current state of kidnapping wasn't done out of revenge by a Trial survivor, but instead out of familial affection. An odd display no doubt, but Tarun had learnt not to question the eccentricity of his uncles, even when they told him to jump in the bamboo box and not make any noise. He could feel himself get tossed around like in a storm, and the sounds of his uncles giggling through the box, but he kept as still as he could even as he rolled his eyes.
The things you do for family. He thought to himself, as the box finally stopped it's movements after what felt like hours. The door to the box opened to reveal intense sunlight, causing Tarun to cover his eyes, as he saw his grinning uncle's smiles looked down at him.
"Happy cultivation day little seed!" His Uncle Brontes' massive worn hands pulled the young man out of the box like he weighed less than a shovel from the forge, but placed him delicately on the ground.
"Straighten out your hair, can't be looking unkempt on your special day!" Uncle Steropes dipped his ever present quill on his tongue before using it to straighten Tarun's hair, much to the youngster's chagrin.
"Gratitude uncles," He said as politely as he could through gritted teeth. "I appreciate you choosing to spend your valuable time with me on my day, but I would be even more grateful to know where exactly we are." He looked around his surroundings for the first time, and his eyes widened.
They were by a vast building built into the earth itself, covered with runic arrays of many kinds, where dozens of powerful cultivators flitted in and out on various important errands. This was an important location and clearly one far from the Acmonides territory.
"Yes my boy you're eyes are not deceiving you!" Steropes said with a smirk. "This is a Gold Devil Special research laboratory. Specifically Lab Alpha Nineteen Seven-"
"The numbers aren't the important thing brother!" Brontes slaps the smaller Steropes affectionately on the back, which would have caused a lesser cultivator to break in pain, but only caused Steropes to grimace. "The important thing is why we are bringing you here."
Tarun desperately wanted to know why he was here. He was so excited to have gone this far from home for the first time in his life. But this was his cultivation day-he needed to be firm. Mature. But his eyes belayed his pent up enthusiasm and caused his uncles to laugh.
"We have brought you here to meet a very special person young seed." Steropes leads the young cultivator to be into the building. "A woman who is going to give you the push you need to grow into something great."
"Who knows?" Brontes says with a smile. "She might even say you're a good seed! You come from good stock after all!" He laughs, and Tarun smiles with hope.
"Why'd you bring me this chaff?" Master of Disciples Destasia Duca looked down at the small Tarun who immediately felt disenheartened. "I thought I was getting something substantial to test, this thing looks like it's got less blood in it than my test tube."
"Master Duca apologies please," Both uncles were bowing deeply to her as Steropes spoke. "Yes Tarun may be small for his age, but he has potential to grow. And today is his cultivation day, so-"
"This clan is large and has many becoming cultivators today." Duca interjected dismissively. "I do not see why this one is worth the special treatment."
"The Acmonides line is a strong one Master." Brontes noted. "Our brother, his great grandfather Patriarch Arges Acmonides almost reached Core if not for his wounds from the Devil Bee. We think with the right push Tarun-"
"Everyone thinks their child is something special, every child has some distant legendary ancestor. But few do become legends and this one," She points a finger at Tarun. "Does not give any indication that he's better than the rest. He. Is. Chaff."
The brothers were horrified, their eyes too low to meet the Master. They were beginning to move to go, and Tarun could feel pain deep within him, emotions welling up, pressure building that could not be contained.
"YOU ARE WRONG!" Tarun shouted at the Master, stunning everyone in the lab. A test tube was dropped as they saw this tiny, not even a cultivator speak up to Duca. This was an unspeakable impropriety at the least, but Tarun couldn't stop himself. In for a penny.
"I am not chaff! There is something special in me, and I will prove it to you, with or without your stupid herbal remedies or animal blood or whatever you wanted to do. And if you can't see that then…then maybe you don't-" Before he could finish the sentence, Duca casually stuck him with the palm of her fist sending him flying across the room, landing on a gurney, his nerves frozen from the strike.
Everyone in the room was horrified, unable to move, as paralyzed as Tarun was. She put on some gloves and got out a syringe, turning to the brothers expressionlessly.
"This one is not like Agnes." She said simply as she walked to Tarun. "This one has fire in him." She smirked before pulling out an extra large syringe, filled with a red liquid. "Let's hope it's not all just hot air." And then she injected the Ascention Blood directly into Tarun's heart.
Truly he wished he'd died from the pain. Because it turns out, passing out from it was the last happy memory he would have for a very long time.
1422 words. I'd like to have an LST, and be assigned to the Secrets of the Underworld mission. Thank you in advance!
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