The Pass by Zion Kistler (books to read romance TXT) 📖

were controlled, he explored that floor, didn’t find anything, and decided to go to the next, didn’t find anything, and went on like this until he reached the top floor. There was no noise there, but one could here faint sounds below from all the banging and other noises.
The area up there wasn’t very crowded either. But he went around a bit in there and he soon found a person who he saw only from the back of a chair. Aha. He walked over to him.
“Hello.”
The man turned around in a flash, the chair squeaking from the unexpected movement.
“He-lo,” he said, his face calming. Jeeze.
“What do you make in this factory?” The man looked partially shocked at how quickly he was bursting into the subject, no introduction and flattery here, oh no.
“What is your name first of all?” The man said and cleared his throat in a little ahem.
“Treaf Willowbe, of the army here.”
“What army here? The Second Society? I’ve never seen you before.” Oh Jeeze.
“No, the army that’s coming here from the other city up north in The Jaragon. We’re fighting Mourgorth, and after the recent attack we were almost slaughtered until I came in and helped. Never heard of us?”
“No, not that I recall…” he looked thoughtful, and Treaf wondered why he was looking at him so curiously.
“So you are a Doat?”
“Yah.”
“And you are in the army? How curious.” Treaf took this in stride and didn’t say anything because he knew if he did he wouldn’t find anything out because he would probably be kicked out first.
“Anyway, as I was saying, what do you make in this factory of yours? Steal? Bronze? Iron? Platinum?”
“We are actually an experimental factory.”
“I see.”
“We are experimenting with oils right now. If you took a tour of the building you would see cauldrons of boiling oil.”
“And what exactly do oils do when they are heated?”
“We are testing that.”
“And how long will it take you till you get an answer?”
“About another week.” Would that work? Are we staying for another week? I think so.
“Are you mixing different oils? Using magic of any kind?”
“Magic…haha! Why would we use magic exactly…?”
“Just asking.”
“Of course.” He doesn’t seem very suspicious. But all I need to know is what happens when you heat oils? Do they form something else? What was the material for the Homunculi? The material had seemed to be basically a replica of a human…there had been blood and veins and such things…
“Okay, well I’ll see you next week. I definitely want to know what happens when you heat oils and mix them.” He said good-bye and then left that floor through the door in the side of the wall. He walked down about five stairs and decided to go and see these ‘cauldrons’ of boiling oil.
He looked around the floor second from the top and saw that there were indeed these oil tanks, black, bubbling liquids that looked a little like mud, and that had small and big bubbles. Kinda looked disgusting, but then he looked into another cauldron and he saw that it was clearer, with a yellow-brownish taint. It looks like their purifying it somehow…maybe heating it does that? Well anyway, I’ll see next week, I guess, so it doesn’t matter till then. However, he realized that he and the Elder also needed to do the curse to test the Homunculi, so doing all that in one week seemed a bit rushed…
Soon he was out of the building and walking back to the city. He supposed that the Elder should know, he would probably help Treaf, but never mind that, Treaf still needed to read more on the Death Bonds. But of course he was almost done with the paper Noedar had given him. Ah yes, what ever happened to my training? Treaf wondered, and smirked, then kicked a stone and it caught the lip of his boot, then shot up and almost hit a window.
Soon he was out of the ‘factory area’ of the city and back in the cramped streets. Now it was about midday, and without anything else to do, he headed towards the guest house for lunch.
Once he was inside he sat down at the first table to the door, which had a lot of food on it, today quite a bit of meat. Sloyd, Mildo, Hibned, and Adrain were sitting there, and it looked like Sloyd was eating as much as Treaf would have eaten if he was starving. Well, not to blame, since Sloyd was about as giant as one could get without falling over and having various diseases.
“So what’s happening, Treaf?” Sloyd asked. Treaf explained how he visited the factory at the edge of town, but not much else. It looked like Sloyd expected he was fighting another someone, but sorry, Treaf thought, hopefully that wasn’t going to be the case.
“So you other guys are training with the Second Society?” Treaf asked, slurping loudly on a drink that tasted like spinach, but was strangely satisfying.
“Ya….” He seemed a little un-sure.
“Something wrong?” Treaf continued drinking the liquid.
“Well, the Second Society are quite powerful, as we know, and they’re pretty much kicking our butts.”
“Hmmmmmmm…they teaching you any magic?”
“Nope.” Well no wonder they’re kicking our butts then.
“Well are they using magic?” This time Mildo answered.
“Ya, but not too much, only a little bit once in a while.”
“Well that’s good.” The conversation ended there as Treaf concentrated on eating his food. Since I don’t have anything else to do I think I’ll train with them… he finished his drink, stood up, and stretched. He felt tired. But no matter, training would get him alive…
He walked out of the building before the others and started heading out to the training fields. Once he reached them, he had forgotten that they were so big. And then he remembered the skill of Letin Noedar. That quickly left his mind. He had probably been training his whole life anyway. Treaf had only had less than a year.
Leaning on a fence post, he turned his head absent-mindedly as the wind picked up and swung his hair over his face, what a nuisance, but through the strands he saw the others approaching, with the Second Society in the lead. It would be a help to have them in our ‘army,’ Treaf realized, and couldn’t help comparing them to the Rangers. The Rangers were better, after a second of thought, Treaf realized.
After a few minutes all of them reached Treaf. When they did Treaf greeted them, but not long after Letin Noedar said to all of them: “Everyone go out into the field at the same time. We will warm up by fighting each other, and then we will begin the training.” Treaf obeyed and hopped over the fence with one hand resting on the top bar. He wondered if he would be able to use magic, and then thinking about magic he realized that he had hardly spoken with the Second Society since they had given him the Ten Death Bonds paper. And since then he had been learning them and inscribing them on his armor…when were they going to train him on actually using them?
Anyway he started walking through the field with everyone else, and soon, when all of them were in the field, without even thinking, Treaf saw Sloyd and began to fight him. However, he did not start with his sword, instead he leapt over to him and kicked, the top of his body resting on the ground. Sloyd took the blow with his chest, which Treaf could tell it still affected him. So then he leapt back up and attacked his face with several blows from his fists, and then, when Sloyd began to slash at him, Treaf stepped backward and drew his sword quickly. When he did this his sword met with Sloyd’s and a clang echoed. Then Treaf drew back his elbow and used the pommel to strike Sloyd’s wrist, and he dropped his sword. After this Treaf kicked his back and Sloyd fell forward. Then Treaf held his sword to Sloyd’s neck. He won.
After Treaf had ‘killed’ Sloyd he moved on, searching for an opponent, and soon he saw someone he didn’t recognize, so he guessed that he had come from the Second Society.
Before the man could do anything Treaf, not wanting to injure him, elbowed him in the back, and right when he turned he put his sword to the man’s chest…another win.
But then he saw a sword whip out in front of his face, and he turned around in a flash. Before he could really do anything, the sword was slashing again, this time at his ankles, Treaf jumped—then he ducked and turned his head up and looked at the sword bearer. It was Mildo. Aha. Treaf kicked out at his knees, and Mildo stepped backward, so Treaf slashed at his chest, he moved to the side. Then he began to slash at Treaf’s neck, and Treaf barely blocked it with his gauntlet. Hmmmmmmm, I could always use a curse on him… Treaf thought evilly for a second. He then realized that this would have probably killed both of them. So he didn’t do it.
After a second of consideration Treaf thrust his sword at Mildo’s chest, but Mildo was too smart and he did what he done before—he stabbed at the same time, and Treaf, not knowing what to do, curled his sword around to a vertical position and pushed, tossing Mildo’s sword to the side. Mildo did not let it drop as Treaf had hoped, but instead it faltered in the air for a second before Mildo grabbed it with both hands and drilled it towards Treaf. Again Treaf blocked it with his gauntlet, realizing the importance of his armor for one of the first times in a while.