Chapter Eleven

Aboard the icy freighter, the Gatekeeper set about his pre flight preparations. The process was well practiced; heat the thrusters, flush the fuel filters, power up the autopilot and kick the shield generator.

Once the delicate prep was done, he asked one of the younger Shyck to ensure that the hanger door would be open and return before takeoff. As the Shyck walked off a loud alarm sounded. Moments later a dim orange light glowed across the vast open third deck of 'Obossyran' like a distant star. Loud metallic clunking followed, the refineries had fired up.

Silently six new disciples lined up before the old freighter, awaiting their new life. Without standing on ceremony the Gatekeeper ushered them into the cargo hold, showing them a few worn down bunk beds that they could use, as well as a few dented crates of dried mystery meat and various simple drinks.

Once the young Shyck returned they set off.

It was an uneventful journey to Guthra, no pirates, no traders, no miners.

Nothing.

A few lightyears away from their destination, the disciples felt a sudden pressure on them, threatening insanity and death. Under the guidance of the Shyck adepts they endured it, each one of the Vah was determined to learn how to harness the Darkness that permanently held their known universe within it's veil.

Each of the Vah sat on the aged and scuffed floor. After a brief explanation of the method from the adept disciples, all the prospective disciples began to relax their minds, allowing the dark mist to slowly seep into them.

The new disciples had to slowly feel, gather and distribute the Darkness around and within them. As they allowed the Darkness to merge with them using the method shown to them by the adepts, a slight change to their bodies occurred.

Outwardly it seemed minor, just a slight darkening of their scales, skin and claws.

Inwardly, however, the changes were much more noticeable. Their flesh, organs, nervous system and blood had all been stained a grey-ish black with a peculiar sheen. More notably, a small pitch black bead had formed within all of the lizard-like Vahs' chests. The bead seemed less like a solid object and more like a well structured void, hungrily waiting to consume anything that got close enough.

The process was slow and extremely tiring, one by one the Vah underwent the changes once they had gathered a sufficient amount of the dark mist. The stronger Vah managed to drag themselves to the bunks, whilst the weaker ones simply collapsed on the floor.

None of the Vah noticed that beads of Darkness had formed inside of them, instead they noticed that dark mist was drawn to them in a weak but visible vortex.

Seeing that the new disciples had finished the first step on their journey, the Shyck relaxed somewhat. They had been on edge for the several cycles that the Vah had been absorbed in their training. Now that their core had been formed and they were naturally drawing in the ambient dark mist, the chances of them exploding or becoming violent abominations were quite low.

The dark mist had many names across time and space, depending on its many forms; Aether, The Darkness, Ether, Mana, Qi and Spirit Energy were some such names. Fundamentally they were all the same energy, but through various reactions and environments differed slightly which made certain methods work better with certain forms of the energy.

There were countless methods to manipulate it across the universe, ranging from external methods such as tools, chants, sigils, arrays, enchanting objects and many others. Internal methods were less diverse, absorbing energy to cultivate the body and spirit, storing energy in the body for later use, and using the body or spirit as a conduit for energy were the most common methods.

The Gatekeeper had spread a slow, steady cultivation method throughout his temples and devout, which relied on energy altered by living things, called Qi. The method was divided into four stages; forming a core, purifying and strengthening the body and spirit, manipulating Qi internally, and manipulating Qi externally.

The Gatekeepers' followers divided themselves according to their stage. An initiate needed to have a fully formed core, a novice would need to have purified and strengthened their body and spirit, an adept required the ability to control their internalised Qi, and a savant would need to be able to manipulate external Qi with tangible effects.