Chapter Nine

Altair began to read aloud the mantra he had translated from the first couple of pages.

"Chaos leads to Order. Order is achieved through sacrifice. Through great strength I will achieve True power. True power leads to victory. Only with Victory can we break the chains of our oppressors and truly set ourselves free."

Altair heard the sound of the lock on his door click open and he finally understood the purpose of the assignment. He had a feeling that the rest of the book would be necessary to his time here so he took care to put it in his robe for safe keeping, knowing that it wasn't safe anywhere but on his person. If he died, he would no longer need it, but if it was stolen, he would be in bad shape. Or so his thoughts told him.

Putting the rest of his materials away, he put his small dagger in his boot and quietly pushed the door open to look into the hallway. He didn't realize it yet, but he was the first Acolyte to finish the test. Understanding that he would have to look for the next open door, he quickly made his way down the hallway and kept his eyes open for any threats that might suddenly appear.

The hallway took him back out to the main foyer with the gigantic red glowing pit in the center. Steering clear of the pit, he noticed a door open on the other side of the room, about 200 feet away. Skirting around the pit, he made his way to the door and noticed it opened into another hallway.

The hallway lead to another open door that opened into a mess hall of some sort. He imagined he'd be eating his meals here from now on, but as of yet had no way to calculate the time. Luckily, the place was self serve with a utilitarian looking drop box where one would presumably get their food. After pressing a button on the holo screen, a tray was served with some sort of steaming meat and a side dish he had never seen before and didn't know how to describe. He took the food and sat down at the solid black basalt long table made to sit forty or more people and started to eat.

Twenty minutes later he was greeted by the first Acolyte he had seen in this place. She had a striking figure that the robes couldn't quite hide. Walking into the room cautiously with her 5 foot frame and long raven black hair, she was a welcome sight to Altair. Her eyes spoke of her great intelligence, looking right through him to his very soul when she noticed his presence. Her skin was an alabaster white, obviously not getting much sun in her short years of life. But that wasn't out of the ordinary for more well off familys in the galaxy. Preferring to do activities inside, there was almost no reason to spend time in the sun unless you had to do manual labor to make ends meet.

She pursed her full lips and walked over to him without a word and sat down. Altair looked at her and offered her a hand, the universal greeting in the galaxy. She took the hand and quickly twisted it around, almost pulling Altair out of his seat with the sudden movement.

"Wait!" cried Altair, pulling his hand back and working out his arm. "I mean you no harm, I was just trying to say hi."

She looked at him with a callous expression on her face and replied "We do not make friends in this place. We are tools, and expendable tools at that. Have you not learned already? Did you not have to take a life to even make it this far?"

"I did" replied Altair. "But that doesn't mean we have to kill each other here."

"You're too soft" said the Acolyte. "You will die by my hand or one of the others if they pass the trial. You will not make it through the training."

"I will make it through. The Palentar have my brother, I am doing this to get him back and get my revenge." said Altair with a resolved look on his face.

"A noble goal, but one you will undoubtedly fail. The Palentar have been the Galactic Federation's diplomats and emissaries for centuries. You would have to bring down the whole government to extract your revenge, and one lone Acolyte will never achieve that." said the Acolyte with a look of incredulity.

"Never underestimate an opponent." said Altair. This is the path that I walk, and until It's completed, I will not rest. Anybody in my way will be eliminated."

"Remember those words" Said the female Acolyte as the scowl from her face finally turned into something resembling a smile. "I'm sure all the Acolytes have a reason for being here. Some want power, some want revenge. Me? I want to take the lives of those that took my family's and smile as I watch them burn. I will also not rest until this deed is done. Don't get in my way or be prepared to face the consequences."

She got up after that to grab some food and returned. All attention now given to the food in front of her as she quickly wolfed everything down. After, she got up and walked out of the room.

Altair watched her alluring figure as she walked out of sight and wondered what had transpired to turn this fragile beautiful woman into a hardened killer. Listening to her talk made the hair raise on the back of his neck. He would watch this one closely and do his best to avoid anything that would cause a fight between the two as she obviously had melee training. Sometimes that was worth a lot more than the pure strength Altair wielded. His thoughts turned back to the book and he hoped there was something in there that could help him close the gap and get an upper hand. As it stood, there was no way he would beat her in a fight with the knowledge gap.

If there is one thing he had learned in his lifetime, knowledge is power and that's something he was desperately in need of. He resigned himself to get back to the translation of the book in the hopes it had some sort of instructional guide to increase his combat prowess.