Tutorial

Chapter 2: Tutorial

 

 Nine’s fights with the other children weren’t anything unusual, though over the months he had been facing children bigger and older than himself. He thought that Huum was testing him, pitting him against stronger children to see how good he really was. Any child Nine saw, was a child he must kill.

 For as long as Nine could remember, he had lived down here struggling to survive. Every now and then Huum would tutor Nine about the gods and Nine had become quite adept to their ways. Huum had taught him of Rah, the overseer, God of Redemption and Light, and of Rah’s sibling, Sin, God of Darkness and Conviction. The story goes that Rah had banished Sin for planting seeds in the souls of newborns, these seeds would sprout and Sin would have full control of the people of Earth. According to Huum, Nine was born with a seed of Sin. Though he was cleansed at birth, Rah had washed away Sin’s evil. Since then Nine had been under Huum’s care, if it could be called that.

 Nine sat opposite his priest. The ageing man turned the pages of the Book. Though it was only a copy of the original, the book in Huum’s possession was old and fragile. The stained and withered pages turned stiffly, the bind was brown leather, though worn neither scratch nor mark ever harmed the surface.

 “And Rah spoke to his minors, and his minors spoke to the mortals,” Huum read in the background.

 Nine paid no attention; he had heard this story many a time. His focus was elsewhere, he wanted to ask Huum a question, but couldn’t figure out how to word it.

 “Priest Huum?” Nine spoke quietly, almost whispered for the attention of the old man.

 “Yes my child,” Huum looked up from the stories of the gods and into the innocent eyes of Nine. The torchlight was brighter than usual in Nine’s small cave.

 “W-why am I winning more stronger people?”

 “Why are you fighting stronger children?”

 Nine nodded at Huum’s correction, though he felt a small ball of shame in his stomach for not being able to talk properly.

 “It’s ok my child, go on.”

 “Why are I fighting stronger children?” Nine pointed to himself at the word ‘I’ and continued at Huum’s nod.

 “Because you can.”

 “Why do I fight?”

 “Haven’t we been through this before, Nine?”

 Nine nodded, they had indeed talked about this subject on many occasions and Huum always gave the same answer.

 “Because we need you to be strong if you are to be a strong soldier.”

 That was it; all Nine could get out of the old man.

 “D-do I have to?”

 Huum nodded, “Yes my child, and some day you are going to be stronger than all.”

 “Yes, Priest Huum.”

 

 The tutorial lesson continued. Nine was taught nothing to do without the outside world, only to listen to how Rah and Sin had fought. How Rah had banished Sin from Thera for nothing more than trying to appease his father. If anything Rah was the rebel.

 That night, Nine slept like a raging ocean. Images of the gods and their appearance flashed across his dreams, of himself attempting to pull the two apart in a pit of fire and ash with hot wind swirling around them, and Nine, being as small as a rodent next to two elephants could do nothing to keep them apart.

 Their fight must have been epic.

 He was never allowed to handle Huum’s Book but he was allowed to look, and the priest had talked of Rah’s fiery eye and its silver counterpart, never were they seen watching the earth at once. Sin’s appearance wasn’t displayed by picture, rather by word and sound. Smoke and darkness, lies and deceit, his scripture was written by demons and is hidden from the world, but it still exists and will never be destroyed. Humans understand that without Sin, there would be no Rah, and Sin’s story, however ugly, must be preserved, if not for an example of how evil the creature truly was.

 Nine was awoken with the slightest of noises, a footstep somewhere in his cave. Nine’s cave was smaller than most he had fought in, it was neither tall nor deep. But his cave did have one positive, a pillar, a stretch of rock from stalagmite to stalactite. The torchlight had almost gone; the only light that remained came from the tunnel torches outside.

 Once again Nine had to fight, and he had to win.

 Once he had beaten Fifteen, Nine sat by his cage door and waited.

 Two priests came in and took Fifteen’s body away. Huum had come and offered a few words of praise to the victor and was accompanied by another, a man of roughly the same age as Nine’s priest but he had an air of importance about him. His robes weren’t the crimson red of Huum’s, they were black but he still had a white scarf. He looked as if he had smelled something rank, and probably had considering where he was. He looked down his crooked nose as he held his head high. The important priest looked at Nine with a burning intensity, then they left.

 Nine stayed by his iron barred door. In the tunnel, their voices could be heard.

 “He’s the best?” Nine didn’t recognise this voice, it was low and gravelled.

 “Yes, not ready of course he’s only ten years old but still he’s been the best so far. He was asleep before he killed this one.”

 Nine’s curiosity took him, he leant closer to the bars and turned slightly to try and see the two priests.

 “Hmm... try phase three, and try it with Six.”

 “Six?” Exclaimed Huum, “Are you sure?”

 “Yes, you say he’s the best, let him prove it.”

 “Very well High Priest Galeo.”

 The two walked away from Nine’s earshot and left the boy to contemplate his future. He didn’t know what phase three was, he didn’t even know there were phases. However, that small ball of shame from his speech shrunk a little and was replaced by a swelling of pride. Huum thought he was the best and that made him happy.