Chapter 5: Books and Lessons

“Do you ever wonder what causes day and night?”

“No.” As the six-year-old me looked up at the giant light in the sky that was blocking off my view of the southern part of the Western Continent above us, Shaar reached out with his right hand and pushed my head down so I would stop looking at it, potentially damaging my eyes, all while still reading one of the books taken from my father’s library. “According to those who’ve done research on the nature of our dimension, the Yin-Yang Sphere is a natural creation of light and darkness mana located at the very center of the world. It emits light from one half of itself and absorbs light from the other. And it rotates at a constant rate, the time of each rotation what we call a day.”

“Oh.” I looked over at the northern part of the Western Continent and then the southern and middle parts of the Eastern Continent in the other direction, my little brain marveling at just how big the world was. “Then do you ever wonder what would happen if you dug down into the earth and just kept digging?”

“No.” This time Shaar, who was also six, two days younger than me in fact, audibly sighed. “If you dig down to the height of an average mountain, you’ll end up on the direct opposite side of the world.

“While the world seems like it’s a perfect sphere, with all the land and oceans on the inside, you have to account for the spatial element of the dimension. Still, if you go down to those depths, you’ll be crushed by the gravitational and spatial forces near the dimensional wall, so it is even less recommended than looking at the yang side of the Yin-Yang Sphere.”

This, for the two of us at the time, was a rather normal conversation.

Shaar, practically from the moment he learned how to read, liked to learn from books. I think it was mostly a way for him to avoid other people. Meanwhile, I was a gregarious little creature who liked to learn by finding people I thought might know something I was interested in and asking them endless questions.

As a result, I tended to get on Shaar’s nerves.

But, due to the fact Shaar’s father was in the employ of mine, and my often literally dragging him along with me, resulting in him being near me whenever I decided to do anything particularly stupid, he also took on the role of my protector, keeping me from accidentally getting myself seriously injured, such as by staring at the world’s primary source of light.

Still, this meant he ended up doing some dangerous things with me. And this was why we were both five stories up, me wearing a blue sundress and him dark pants and a green long-sleeved shirt, sitting on the edge of the stone roof of my father’s palatial complex’s library.

“Are you nervous?”

Shaar actually looked up from his book at my words, his head turning to me with an expression of confusion. “Why would I be?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged and scooted back from the edge, bringing my knees up under my chin as I hugged my legs. “Entering on the path of soul beast cultivation just seems like a big change.

“And what if my affinities are terrible? Or what if they don’t match the elements of the beast that woman prepared for me?”

Shaar rolled his eyes as he looked back down at his book. “Your affinities with all twelve elements will be exactly the same, Kyla. That’s a famous hidden trait of your mother’s family. And, judging by how little you seem to need sleep, they should be quite high.”

I didn’t fully understand at the time, but having high average affinities for the twelve elements of fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, metal, light, darkness, life, destruction, time, and space generally resulted in children with higher levels of energy and a lower requirement for recharging their brains and bodies via sleep.

“But what if your elements don’t match up with the beast your mother prepared, Shaar, and you explode?”

Shaar again looked up from his book, and again looked at me with an expression showing confusion. “First, elemental affinities generally run in families, so my mother likely prepared a beast with elements she herself is strong with, elements I should then be strong with as well. Second, I need almost as little sleep as you do, so my affinities should also be very high. Finally, third, bonding with a soul beast that’s too strong wouldn’t make an adept explode. It would make them wither up into a husk as their energies are drained until they die.”

Shaar shook his head in minor annoyance and turned back to his book. And I, rather freaked out by what he’d just told me, started rocking back and forth in not so minor panic.

And, probably to Shaar’s enjoyment, I then didn’t say anything for a while.

“So, this is where you two little gremlins ran off to.” After about half an hour, my dad, wearing a comfortable light-blue battle robe that matched his hair, snuck up behind us, having reached the roof through a spatial portal without either of us noticing. Then he picked us up by the backs of our clothing, causing both of us to start screaming. “You had seven different people running around the palace looking for you. So, you need to be punished.”

With that, he jumped off the roof, not slowing down at all as we fell, and I seriously thought we were going to die when a portal finally appeared on the ground below us, moving us back to a height of five stories, where dad then flew us down to the ground.

Then, when we landed, I fell to the grass, forcibly stopping myself from throwing up, while Shaar held onto his book like a lifeline as he took deep breath after deep breath.

Dad then looked up at the library’s roof.  “How did you guys get up there anyway?”

Made mostly of smooth marble, with tall columns and high windows, the building wasn’t really climbable, but I pointed to one of the large trees that grew near it. “I went up that.”

“And I didn’t.” Shaar dropped down onto his butt on the ground, still breathing hard. “One of the roof cleaners left a ladder up on the other side while on a break, and only took it down after I used it to go up.”

“Hmm. Smart.” Dad then looked down at the book Shaar was holding, A Mathematical Guide To Multi-Dimensional Calculus And The Use Of The Space Element, and shook his head. “Aren’t you six? Shouldn’t you be reading stories about powerful adepts filled with war and adventure?

“I swear last week I saw you reading a book about indoor plumbing.”

“Yeah.” Shaar’s eyes lit up as he turned to look at the library, standing back up, his breathing back under control. “That one was awesome. The way gravity and pipe diameter variation are used to move around water is just so cool.”

Dad, who by this point was in his late twenties but already king of the island nation of Sisipha, the previous ruler having chosen to retire, reached out his hand to Shaar, palm raised. “You do you, little man.”

And, as was normal for them, Shaar gave him a high five.

Then dad turned to me, his expression instantly morphing into one of stern anger. “Kyla, what are the three things you did wrong?”

In response, I immediately looked down at the ground, not daring to meet his eyes.

“I put myself in danger. And I didn’t tell people where I was going.” I took several seconds to think about my answer a bit more, still looking down. “I don’t know the third thing.”

“You didn’t listen to good advice from your subordinate.”

I looked up at him then, seeing his calm and mildly amused expression. “But Shaar didn’t say anything about not going up to the roof.”

Shaar took out his book and started reading again. Then Dad looked between the two of us and started laughing.

“Okay, first, I wanted to test your feelings on the matter there. But don’t treat Shaar as a subordinate.

“Yes, his father works for me, but that’s only because I was born into a position of power while Mr. Adamas was not. Keeping someone that talented in my employ is a blessing, and if I ever treat him as someone below me, he could easily go work for someone else. So, I should never do that.

“Remember this, my daughter. Treat everyone around you with respect, and you’ll often get that respect back in return.”

He picked me up, his hands under my armpits, and held me out in front of him. “Do you think Shaar respects you?”

I turned my head to look at Shaar, who was ignoring us completely, far more interested in his book. “No.”

“Then why do you think he follows you around?”

“He said it was the path of least resistance.”

Dad burst out laughing again, hugging me close before placing me back down on the ground. Then he flicked my forehead. “It’s because he thinks of you as a friend, silly.

“And I want you to remember that a pure friendship like what you have with him is rare, so you shouldn’t mess it up.

“Try doing things he likes sometimes, instead of just what you want. Maybe you’ll enjoy it.”

He reached down and grabbed my hand with his left while grabbing Shaar’s with his right. Then, with Shaar still reading, he started walking us towards the palace complex’s main building, where his throne room was located.

“Back to my original point, though, Kyla. What was Shaar’s reaction when you decided to climb up a five story tall tree?”

I looked back toward the library, then back up at my dad. “He sighed and then went and found another way up.”

“And why do you think he didn’t follow you in climbing?”

I looked at Shaar’s book. “He wouldn’t be able to bring the book up if he went that way.”

“Fair point.” Dad smiled again as he nodded. “But there was also probably a safety concern there. And you completely ignored that non-verbal cue from your friend.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I noticed it. I acknowledged it. And then I completely disregarded it.”

My dad tried to keep a stern expression on his face, but he failed and again burst out laughing.