While opening his eyes, the child speaks torpidly, " Uh, Dad? Wh-Why did you wake me so ear-" Now the child has his eyes open fully, and can now see the figure, "Ahhh!" The child quickly bursts in surprise.
The figure jumps back in surprise of the sudden outburst, hitting a wall then hitting a shade blocking the light of the sun from the room, knocking it off its support and crashing to the floor. As the shade falls to the floor, light floods the room and the room is fully visible, and the child takes this moment to see what this creature was, the child looks up to witness…
"Oh, Honorable Monk, I am so sorry for the abrupt outcry, I had forgotten during my rest of the transition which had occurred during the day which had passed. Are you hurt?"
Now standing up, still in somewhat of a shock, the shock quite apparent on the monks face as he speaks to the child, "Oh no, I am fine. Do not worry yourself over me, I am the one who should apologize for their own actions, I should not have snuck up on you like that."
The child, now off his bed, help starts helping the monk up as he speaks, "You are too kind, but I surely should be the one to apologize, I even knocked you back with my sudden outburst."
The monk, now on his feet, his face is starting to grimace in his attempt to take the blame, he continues on, "But child, had I not been sneaking around and come so close as to scare you with such a sudden realization, you would not of made such a reaction and the events which occurred would not have come about."
The child, obviously somewhat annoyed, yet trying to put up a calm front argues, "Yes, you are correct in what you had said, but that does not excuse my unwarranted cry, had I thought logically of the situation, I would have come to and not of made such a reaction."
The monk, now taking upon himself somewhat of a more serious voice, confronts, "Yes, you too are correct, but that also does not excuse my blatant dishonor for your greatness by not going by other means of waking you, this was not only a dishonor to you, but a dishonor to the monastery."
The child, now filled with deep sympathy, goes to comfort the man, "There there, if my acceptance of your apology is that important to you, I accept your apology. Also, this is not as bad as you perceive it to be, this is a simple mistake, do not be so hard on yourself."
The monk sniffling as he speaks, "Y-You really mean it?"
The child, now seeing what he means to the monk, replies in a serious voice, "Yes, I really mean it."
The monk suddenly stops and puts a smile on his face, "Ha Ha! I really didn't mean all of that, we all thought that we should do something for you, to get you to lighten up and be in high spirits for your teachings and for your life in the monastery, when you woke in such a way, I couldn't resist. It wasn't that great of a problem, I am still sorry for waking you in such a way, so I apologize."
The child, a little annoyed, replies, "Was that really called for?"
The monk, now seeing that the plan didn't really work out too well, starts to get uncomfortable and embarrassed at the result of his theatrics, "Um… Uh, well… I am sorry, I thought that would cheer you up, I am sorry Holy One. How might I repay you for such a model of disrespect?"
The child turns around, his face unseen to the monk, the child looks like he is crying, "I thought that I might enjoy this place, father told me of the great monks in the monastery since I was old enough to understand his words… He told me of how much fun he would have talking and playing with the monks, how fun they were, I spent so long looking forward to this… but when I finally receive the honor of coming to be maged and trained in the monastery, I find the they are just jerks."
The monk is struck with overwhelming guilt from his terrible actions, he gets to his knees and begs, "Oh, please Holy One, please forgive me!"
The child then starts speaking in broken Celtish, "I- I don't know what to think anymore…" The child starts to turn around, "…I just know one thing…" The child then spins completely to face the monk, revealing that the child had not been crying, he had been laughing, "…If one is to make a joke of a person, one must expect to become a joke themselves."
The monk gets up, inhaling a tremendous breath of air, a great air of relief is strewn about him, though he still contains a small strain of guilt subconsciously, he speaks in great wonder and calmness to the child, "Holy One, you truly are magnificent in many respects, one of such an age as yourself would never be so wise as to be able to enthrall me with such grand performing."
The child, with a now calm and now tired voice, asks, "Now that we have that out of the way, might I ask why you have awoken me so early?"
The monk, now getting into a teacher-like mood, replies, "Well, we like to establish a sort of schedule, though not too strict. We basically want to get up early because the first thing you must do every day is to confess any and all sins which you have committed before the confessional."
The child, extremely surprised by this statement speaks, "ALL of them! I can't remember the sins I committed past one week ago!"
The monk, ready for this reaction, explains, "Yes, all of them, from the time you were maged until this point. We need to teach a being as pure and Holy as possible or we will not be fulfilling Gods' mission to full potential, and if we find more that we can do, while humanly possible, we will attempt it."
"That is understandable, but why is it that we should get up so early to confess?"
"Well, the monks usually get up quite early as well, and if one doesn't hurry, one might need to wait for about an hour or so to go through the line of monks."
Disturbed by this, Brian replies, "May I ask what the monks do during the day?"
"Well, we basically pray and meditate to cleanse our souls for most of the day, and the rest is just mainly going about personal affairs of enjoyment, most of the monks, like myself, find enjoyment in reading and learning about historical events and other things, we have many books as you may have seen on the way to the naming yesterday."
Rather enjoyed having heard each passing word, Brian, too, liked to learn, to think about many things, "Ah, I see, I feel I will rather enjoy living here the years I will be about."
"That is good to hear, now, let us go to the confessional, we should leave as soon as we can, so please get dressed, I will be outside the room once you are ready, I will lead you there."
So the child, after all this commotion, get dressed and was lead to the confessional, where they luckily got there before most of the other monks. The child took a while to confess, for he did not know what his exact sins were, so he vaguely went about naming off random things he had dreamt of and did… some times he named things off that were not really sins, but that wasn't too great of a problem, at the end, the child got sort of frustrated with all of the things that would be declared as sin. With this frustration, he decided to try his hardest to not do that which is of sin, though he did try before then, he wasn't so motivated as he was today. Finally, he was able to leave the confessional, he had confessed to all that he could possibly confess to which would be necessary for the procedures… and more… He lead out of the room by the same monk, now telling him what is to happen next.
"Okay child, with that over, you are now ready for your daily teachings. These will go over many things, mainly our practices and our religion, and sometimes he will go over what you might encounter when you leave and how to go about handling it."
"Yes, I understand, this sounds easy, and I rather enjoy what I can learn about our religion. Father used to become irked by my requests to be taught more when I was younger, he knew that it would be the best for me to learn this, but I asked him to teach me for many hours at a time…" His face now showing embarrassment, "…He couldn't get to the housework he needed to get done, the meals we needed, and such… How annoying that must have been when I was younger."
The monk puts a smile on his face, "Ha ha, I see, when you are young, you are the center of the universe, or at least you think so, and you ask for anything you want whenever you want it without regard to what the people are doing or thinking. Don't be embarrassed, actually… I was worse, ha ha ha."
The two are now going up the many flights of stairs, going to the top floor where Brian will learn about that which will help him in his future.
"So, Brain, you seem to be taking the transition pretty well, very well indeed. Is there anything you would like to ask before we get there?"
"Oh, no, I can't really think of anything, thanks for asking."
"Very well then, we are almost there anyway, you have been great company, see you later."
After the many flights of stairs, they finally make it to the top floor after those words were spoken, and the monk opens the door.
The monk lowers his head to the Grand Abbot at the end of the room, behind a large table with 2 chairs, one in front of himself, and one on the direct other side, facing away from the door. As the child takes a few steps forward, the monk walks away, "So long Honorable Monk!"
The monk turns around, "See you later, Holy One, and you may cal me by my name, Gelis." Gelis walks away, and the child walks up to the chair.
"May I take this seat, Grand Abbot?"
"You may, Brain, thank you for asking."
Brain takes his seat across from the Grand Abbot along the narrow side of the table.
"Okay, now child, let us begin by first discussing the basics of free spirits, which are the spirit's a spirit tamer can see floating about. Do you know the basics about the spirits of enemies?"
"Yes, when you defeat an enemy, you, in turn, earn the wisdom of that enemies spirit, which was forcibly given to them, when they were once innocent creatures."
In a somewhat raspy Wiseman's voice, the Grand Abbot lectures, "Yes, you are correct. Now, I will be able to teach you about the basics of free spirits with greater detail. Okay, as you just stated, common enemies are simply innocent souls bent and distorted to go by the will of the Unholy God. Since the souls were of their own will to begin with, the innocent creature is not completely taken by the Unholy God, though it is mostly taken, the spirit wisdom you acquire is not very large due to the conflicting battle in the minds of the creature and of the Unholy God. It is quite sad really, we must destroy that which the Unholy God manipulated out of hate, knowing that the creature is still there trying to stop it… but it is impossible from what we know, a creature has never broken the grip of the Unholy God, and God has left messages to many prophets that destroying them is the only way. We know, however, that when a spirit is free of its body, God will purify the spirit and allow it entrance into Isamis, a grand place where a spirit can spend an eternity in great peace. But some spirits don't go to Isamis, or even the Unholy Gods' Sinas, a place of eternal unpeace… but they stay in ultimate neutrality in Celtland. The sphere were live upon is a complete neutrality, a balance between the grand power of Holy, and the terrible power of Sin, but the ultimate truth is that without Sin, there is no Holy. Our God knows that we need neutrality, or the sphere we live upon would fall apart with the terrible fury of an unbalanced distribution of the four elements, the sphere would be thrown into utter chaos. The Unholy God knows this, but He is a being that thrives on destruction, hate, and chaos, so he tries to unbalance this power with a growing army of Unholy creatures. This planet holds free spirits because of this terrible war between the Gods. Why? What purpose do they serve? They neither go to Isamis nor Sinas, this is because, as I stated before, this is a neutral place. They are spirits that haven't been touched by either God, and they have grown so intelligent, so they need logical reasons to be a on the side of either God. God hides these spirits from the Unholy God and most other creators because they might be convinced toward the side of Sin, and you must realize the power of a free spirit, as a spirits power lies in intellect and wisdom. At a later date, I will teach you the art of spirit speaking, but that is not the lesson right now… Anyway, much like when you destroy the enemy creators, their spirit floats into the distance and is purified and sent to Isamis, and when you do so, you earn the wisdom of that spirit, which makes you quite a bit more magically adept than destroying a common enemy. This is the basic idea behind a free spirit and its power, do you have any questions?"
Brian, now with a slight smile on his face, happily replies, "No sir, I understood all of that… Thank you for teaching me so much, I am truly happy for this."
With a look of cheer in his face, the Grand Abbot speaks, "I am glad I didn't bore you with such details, you are not your father in that respect, he couldn't sit still. Ha ha…"
With a sound of interest in his voice, "Huh, that's interesting, but do you have anything else you'd like to teach before we talk?"
"Ah, I see, this is like business, you want to work before you get your play, that is a good thing… Sometimes… If you get too preoccupied with work, you will end up getting overworked. Take it easy, you will do fine, and anyway… That is all I had planned for today, I hadn't expected you know that much already, and really never expected you to understand this so quickly."
"I see, then… May I ask what my father was like?"
For the next hour or so, they talked about Brians father, training, life, and love… Brian and the Grand Abbot were having enjoying their conversation. When about an hour passed, they were over with their schedule, and Brian decided to leave.
"So long Grand Abbot!" Brian yelled across the room as he turned away from the doorway and went downstairs.
Brian met up with Gelis in the library, and asked if he could be lead to the courtyard, where the monks primarily spent their time. He was lead down the stairs, and eventually made it to the courtyard after some short-talk, and bid Gelis a good day.
As Brian walked into the room, he felt a sting of nervousness come about him as a monk notices him. The monk stands up and the other monks see this a look for why he stood from his sit to see Brian, as they all saw Brian as a grand figure of greatness, Brian himself was scared… Wait, weren't these the same guys that wanted Brian to loosen up? The room of 4 monks came to Brian, when one of the coming monks decided to speak up, "Holy One, welcome to the Melrode Monastery, I trust you have been guided around enough to know where to go now, correct?"
"Y- Yes sir." Brian speaks as he reaches his hand out for a greeting.
The monk reaches out and shakes Brians hand, "Holy One, what is it that you have come down here for?"
"I simply wanted to introduce myself, in which case, I am Brain, and it is nice to meet all of you."
"You are very kind Holy One, thank you for taking the time to visit us, you can come to talk to us whenever we aren't at service. You must be busy on your first day here with your teachings and such, so we won't keep you any longer, thank you again Holy One."
"Um, well, I am actually done with my teachings, so I have time to talk and be around."
"Wow, you are done already!" He then clears his throat, "Anyway, um, how are you doing here so far?"
"Well, thank you for asking, I am doing quite well… Though… I do miss father, I miss him a lot."
"I am very sorry about that, but I have an idea that may help, do you know how to meditate?"
"No, why?"
"Well, when one meditates, they are at great peace, because they are not tethered by the worries of the day, they are purging beasts of sin from their spirit, would you like to learn how to meditate?"
"Sure, Thank you for offering."
The other monks are now sitting in a circle in the middle of the courtyard, as the child and the monk go to join them. For a few hours, Brian is taught the mastery of meditation, and before too long, Brian finally gets it and sits in a great peace, a cleared mind… and a cleared soul.
After a long while of meditation, Brian is summoned from his meditation by one of the monks, "Holy One, it is nearly time you should go into rest, you were very deep into meditation, you took to it quite well." And with a smile on his face, the monk walks out of the courtyard.
Brian gets up from his meditation and walks out of the room, ready to sleep after his first day at the monastery.