Transcendence, page 1
part #6 of The Beginning After The End Series
The Beginning After The End
Transcendence
TurtleMe
Contents
The Beginning After The End
1. Warring Premonitions
2. Ultimatum
3. What War Means For Everyone
4. Unexpectedly
5. Numbers Behind Age
6. Invaluable Allies
7. From The Balcony
8. Speech and Statement
9. Role
10. First Assignment
11. A Simple Cook
12. Rumination
13. Morning After
14. Way of Magic
15. A Normal Soldier
16. Changing Tides
17. Why I’m Here
18. A Lance’s Battle
19. Pinnacle’s Height
20. Covert
21. Down Within
22. Healing Procedure
23. Why Are You Crying?
24. Intermission
25. From Lance to Brother
26. Old Face
27. Center of Attention
28. Meaning
29. The Confidence To
30. View from the Sky
31. A Dwarven Night
32. Old Roots
33. Inside the Tavern
34. Inside the Tavern II
35. Conducting Business
36. Mother Earth's Embrace
37. Appeared
38. The First Scythe
39. Greying Glimpse
40. Strategic Conduct
41. Landship
42. Alacryan Glimpse
43. Gadgets and Magic
44. Elders’ Assessment
45. Measuring Magic
46. Aspect of Unpredictability
47. Guest Teacher
48. Beauty in Magic
49. Offensive Mindset
50. Dragon Steps
51. Inside the Vault
52. Solitary Mindframe
53. Magical Percentile
54. Eat, Drink, Be Merry
55. Broken Seal
56. Man Behind the Veil
Also by TurtleMe
The Beginning After The End
Book 6 Transcendence
By: TurtleMe
Chapter 1
Warring Premonitions
GREY
“You’re clear, Nico. Hurry!” I whispered, looking over my shoulder in case someone passed by. Two adolescent boys huddled up in front of a house door could only spell trouble.
“Just stay on guard, Grey. I’ve almost got it,” my dark-haired companion hissed back as he worked on the doorknob.
I watched doubtfully as Nico fumbled with the hairpins he had stolen from one of the older girls. “Are you sure you can open it?”
“Picking locks,” he said through gritted teeth, “is a lot harder than that guy in the alleyway made it seem.”
Suddenly, the doorknob clicked and both our eyes brightened. “You did it!” I exclaimed in a loud whisper.
“Bow down to my powers!” Nico held a colorful hairpin high in the hair.
I smacked him on the shoulder and pressed my finger to my lips. Nico shoved the hairpins back in his zippered pocket and nodded at me, then we tiptoed in through the wooden door.
“You made sure the owners are out today, right?” I asked again, scanning the meticulously furnished house.
“I scanned this house last week. Both the husband and wife go out every week at this time and don’t come back for at least an hour. We have plenty of time to grab a few things and go,” Nico answered, already looking for anything of value that we could stuff into a bag.
Letting out a deep breath, I reasoned to myself that it was necessary. Stealing from someone—however rich they were—didn’t sit right with me, but I had overheard the conversation between the orphanage’s headmaster and those government people. I’d only caught a few comments, but it seemed our orphanage was in danger because we didn’t have enough money.
“This should be enough,” Nico said with a nod, looking at the contents of the backpack we had brought.
Peering over his shoulder, I asked, “Now what? How are we going to get money for this? We can’t exactly just give Headmaster Wilbeck all this jewelry.”
“Way ahead of you,” he smirked. “I found a guy willing to pay cash for anything he finds interesting.”
“And this ‘guy’ is okay buying off two twelve-year-olds?”
“He doesn’t ask questions, I don’t ask questions. Simple as that,” Nico shrugged as we headed out the door.
Taking the back route toward the far end of the city, we blended in with the crowd of people walking along the cracked sidewalk. Keeping our heads low and paces brisk, we veered left into an alleyway. Weaving through the piles of trash and stacked boxes of who knew what, we stopped in front of a faded red door, protected behind another gated metal door.
“We’re here,” Nico said, motioning for the bag. I slipped it off my shoulders and handed it to him, and my friend knocked on the door in an unfamiliar rhythm.
Slicking back his black hair and puffing his chest out, he coughed a few times and narrowed his eyes to appear more intimidating—as intimidating as any scrawny twelve-year-old can be, anyway.
After a few seconds, a rangy old man in a worn suit opened the red door. He stared down at us from behind the metal gate with a scrutinizing eye.
“Ah, the rather persistent child. I see you brought a friend,” he said, but made no move to open the gate.
Nico coughed again and deepened his voice. “I’ve brought some items you might be interested in.” My friend’s unusually deep tone didn’t sound fake, surprisingly. He opened the drawstring bag in his hands to give the lanky, narrow-eyed man a peek at some of the jewelry we had just stolen.
Raising a brow, the man unhinged the lock on the gate, and it gave a shrill creak as he opened it slightly. He scanned the area around us, then bent down to examine the bag. “Not a bad collection. Did you steal this from your mother, perhaps?”
“No questions, remember?” Nico reminded, tightening the string to close the bag. “Now can we come in and discuss prices?”
The thin man looked around once more with suspicion in his eyes, but after a moment he let us in. “Close the door behind you.”
As we entered the dainty shop, a thick layer of smoke greeted us. From the other side of the room, two men, each with a cigarette between their fingers, were puffing out clouds of smoke. While the dense cloud of grey covered much of their facial features, I could at least distinguish their general shapes. One of the men was burly—muscles clearly displayed underneath his tank top. The other man was much rounder, but with thick, firm limbs that showed he wasn’t any weaker than the first man.
“Come, children. Let’s get this over with,” the thin man said as he scratched his unshaven cheeks.
Nico and I exchanged glances, then he went up to the counter. I hung back, looking around at the various books and gadgets displayed on the shelves. My gaze fell on a thin, tattered book. From the few words I could make out from the spine of the book, it seemed to be an old instruction manual on ki. Gingerly removing it from the shelf, I saw that half of the front cover had been ripped off.
My first instinct was to put it back; after all, the orphanage had books in much better condition on core development for ki use. However, my fingers seemed to move on their own as they flipped through the pages. Inside it were pictures and diagrams of a person in different poses with arrows and other lines around the figure. I wanted to take it with me, and was half tempted to ask for the price, but I held myself back. This book was a luxury when we needed the money to save our home.
I continued trying to make out the vague instructions, but soon lost interest. My eyes kept returning to the two men playing cards on the folding table, who kept taking glances at Nico as he and the shop owner did business. I buried my face in the old book, taking a peek from behind the pages. I wasn’t sure what they were up to, but I didn’t want to stay long enough to find out.
Fortunately, Nico soon finished his transaction and approached me, flashing a quick smile before putting his stoic face back on.
“Did you find something interesting?” he asked, eyeing the book in my hand.
“It’s nothing,” I said, putting the thin, coverless book back on the shelf.
“You can take it if you want,” the rangy store owner said, leaning his elbow on the front counter. “No one knows how to read it and it’s just been collecting dust here.”
“Really?” I asked, my suspicion showing on my face.
He revealed abnormally white teeth in something akin to a smile as he nodded.
Without another word, I quickly tucked the book in the bag and murmured a thanks to him. Nico and I left the store, and my friend unzipped his jacket and showed me the wad of crinkled cash.
“See, I told you it’d all work out,” he beamed.
“I guess so,” I replied, still skeptical about this whole endeavor. I felt bad for the couple we had stolen from, but comforted myself in the fact that we didn’t take much of their jewelry. Nico had explained that, while taking a few items might make them suspicious, they’d be hesitant to call the authorities and report the theft. After all, the couple were both well past retirement age, so the cops would most likely assume that they had just forgotten or misplaced the items.
I sighed with relief as we began heading back to the orphanage. The further away we got from the scene of the crime, the better I felt.
“What did I even come along for, Nico?” I asked, dodging people as we walked down the street. “Feels like you did this all on your own.”
“Hey, you got a free book out of it, right?” Nico nudged me with his shoulder. “Besides, it’s more fun—”
“We’re being followed,” I whispered, cutting him off. I kept my eyes straight ahead. I had felt two pairs of eyes practically boring a hole in my back almost as soon as we’d left the shop, but I hadn’t wanted to assume. But I’d caught a glimpse of one of the guys, and I instantly recognized him as one of the smokers from the shop. They were still behind us after two turns, and I no longer had any doubt.
“This way,” Nico ordered in a hushed tone.
As we reached the outskirts of the city, we took a right into an alleyway, hopping on top of a trashcan to reach the other side of the locked fence.
I landed nimbly on my feet, and Nico clawed at the fence to keep from losing his balance as he tumbled over. We raced down the old alley, which smelled like a mixture of rat turds and rotten eggs, and was darkened by the tall buildings on either side of us. Hiding behind a particularly large pile of trash, we waited.
Soon we heard two pairs of footsteps, growing louder as they approached.
“Little rats made it easy for us,” a hoarse voice snickered.
“A fitting grave for them,” came the gravelly reply.
Nico darted his head out to take a peek. “It’s the men from the shop.” He cursed as he quickly hid behind the trash again.
“I know.” I was already scanning for anything I could use as a weapon.
“They’re either here to get the shop owner’s money back, or they’re going to steal it for themselves.” Nico clutched the money in his jacket tightly.
Suddenly, a dark figure leaped up from the other side of the pile of trash we were hiding behind, casting a giant shadow over us.
“Surprise!” the barrel-chested thug exclaimed with a sinister grin.
“Run!” I screamed at Nico, giving him a shove.
He wasted no breath on a retort as he rushed down the narrow alleyway.
The muscular man swung his beefy hand, and I stepped back out of reach. A gust of air from the force of his swing tickled my nose as I swung the broken plank I had plucked from the ground toward his ribs.
The burly man buckled, more from surprise than pain. I took the opportunity to bolt toward Nico, who was being chased by the burly thug’s round companion. But before I could get there, the man smacked Nico to the ground, knocking the wind out of my friend.
Nico gasped for breath, and the pumpkin-bodied goon raised his leg over my friend’s body.
“Over here, pig!” I roared, hoping the provocation would make him turn.
“What did you say?” the thug snarled, turning around to face me.
I bolted past the heavy thug just as he lurched toward me, his fat fingers clawing in the air. He might have caught me, but his muscular companion careened into him an instant later, and I heard both men grunt from behind me. My mind whirled, thinking of possible ways to get out of this hopeless-seeming situation, and my eyes darted left and right. Then I spotted a long, bent nail protruding from the brick wall of a nearby building, about three yards off the ground.
Cursing under my breath, I feinted to my right just as the musclehead behind me grabbed at me. Sidestepping without even glancing back, I leaped up, hoping to reach the nail.
As my body launched upward, everything around me seemed to fall silent. It felt like the world had slowed, and I could hear my heart thumping erratically, as if every other noise had been tuned out.
Behind me, I could sense the grasping hands ready to drag me to the ground, but I was surprisingly calm. My peripheral vision all came into focus, as if I were able to see everything around me all at once. The muscled thug had tripped and was crashing to the ground just behind me. Wedging a toe into a deep crack in one of the lower bricks for leverage, I sprang upward, reaching for the rusted nail. The iron nail felt rough and cold as I snagged it between my index and middle finger. I had it. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was something. As I pulled the nail free of the crumbling brick, I pushed off the wall with my feet to accelerate towards the hefty thug, who had only narrowly avoided tripping over his partner and was moments from catching me. I watched the man’s expression change from surprise to grim concentration. His right shoulder twitched, and I realized clearly that he was about to intercept my attack somehow.
I used my free hand to vault off of his right arm as it arced toward me. In that same instant, I jabbed the nail in my hand directly into his eye. I felt the sensation of iron passing through soft tissue, watching as his face shifted from concentration to surprise, and then to agony.
At his shrill howl, the world resumed its normal pace. I tumbled gracelessly into a pile of old boxes as my opponent frantically clawed at his face, too afraid to go near the nail in his left eye.
“Come on,” I urged, pulling a stunned Nico back to his feet. I looked back once more and saw the muscular thug rushing to his friend’s aid. We ducked out of the alleyway and bolted, running for our lives.
Out of breath and sweating from every pore in my body, I collapsed next to Nico behind a convenience store just outside the city.
We leaned against the wall, too tired to care about how many drunks and homeless people had vomited and peed here. Nico ripped off his jacket and lifted up his shirt to cool himself off.
“That is what you came here for,” he panted, smacking my thigh. “Oh man, you should’ve seen yourself, Grey! You flew around like those kings fighting in duels!”
I shook my head, still trying to catch my breath. “I don’t know what I did. Everything just started moving really slow.”
“I knew you had it in you. Remember that time Pavia dropped all those dishes next to you?”
“Yeah, why?”
“You caught them. You caught three plates and two bowls, Grey!” Nico exclaimed. “And you hadn’t even been paying attention.”
“I admit, that was an impressive catch, but it has nothing to do with fighting,” I argued, sagging further down against the wall.
“You’ll realize soon,” he replied, seeming too tired to argue. “Now let’s go, I don’t want to get extra chores for being out past sundown.”
xxx
We arrived at the old two-story house that served as the orphanage just a bit before dinner—plenty of time to wash up and be on time so we wouldn’t look suspicious. Nico slowly opened the back door, wincing at the creaking of the old hinge. Keeping the lights off, we tiptoed down the unlit hallway, but just before we reached our rooms, the clear voice of the orphanage's headmaster called out from the living room.
“Grey, Nico. Can you come here for a moment?” she said in a quiet yet frighteningly stern voice.
Nico and I traded glances, fear evident on both of our faces. Nico quickly threw his jacket and the drawstring bag into his room and closed the door.
“Do you think she already found out?” I whispered.
“I’d normally say it’d be impossible, but it’s the Sorceress we’re talking about,” Nico replied, his normally confident demeanor shadowed by dread.
We arrived in the brightly-lit living room, our clothes and faces dirty and our hair disheveled.
Sitting on the couch, her posture perfectly erect, was our Headmaster Wilbeck, the elderly woman we all called the Sorceress. Standing next to her was a girl about our age with dusty brown hair that fell over her shoulders and a creamy complexion. She wore a luxurious red dress that not even the money we had just acquired could have purchased.
The headmaster regarded us with a raised brow but didn’t question our untidy state. We approached cautiously, and when the brown-haired girl lifted her gaze to meet mine, I shivered at her cold, emotionless eyes.
“Grey. Nico.” The headmaster nudged the girl softly. “I’d like you two to meet Cecilia. You three are the same age, so I hope you can show her around and become friends.”
ARTHUR LEYWIN
My eyes opened as if I had just blinked, yet it felt like I had been sleeping for days. I sat up in my bed, a mixture of feelings weighing on my shoulders.
Why was this memory coming to me again after so long? My insides twisted in guilt at the thought of Nico and Cecilia.
‘Is everything all right?’ Sylvie asked from the foot of my bed, where she was curled up in her miniature form.
