Prince's Master (Calluvia's Royalty 4)

They had already left the school’s building and were walking toward the Inner Districts of Hronthar.

Eridan frowned, confused and curious in equal measure. In all his years of living in Hronthar, he’d never been to the Inner Districts. The initiates and younger children all lived and studied in the town’s Outer District, or District O, as they called it. Immediately after District O, there was the largest district, District One, where the servicing department of the Order was located. The other four districts were for actual members of the High Hronthar Order: Masters, Master Acolytes, and their apprentices. The apprentices lived in District Two, with Masters living in the more central districts. District Five, or simply High Hronthar, was the castle located on the hill in the center of the town, inhabited only by the Grandmaster of the Order.

Eridan stared at Master Ferev’s back, wondering if he should ask where they were going.

A burst of wind made Eridan shiver and cross his arms over his chest, trying to ward off the chill coming from the surrounding mountains. Although Calluvia’s climate was artificially controlled and kept warm all year round, it didn’t feel like it, not up here. Eridan had left Hronthar only a few times in his life, and each time he was amazed how warm the rest of the planet was.

It was beautiful up here, though. Hronthar was located in a highland valley surrounded by mountains and forests. The scenery was breathtaking. The sun filtering through the ancient trees made Eridan smile a little.

“I wouldn’t be smiling if I were you, Eridan,” Master Ferev said.

Eridan snapped his gaze to him. “What do you mean, Master?”

Master Ferev sighed. He was a man around thirty—pretty young for a Master Acolyte—so he wasn’t as intimidating as most Masters were.

“What do you think you just did to your fellow initiate?” Master Ferev said.

Eridan frowned. “I guess I did some form of telekinesis, right?”

Master Ferev laughed.

Eridan stared at him. “Did I say something amusing?” he said in a bewildered voice.

“Do you know that only one percent of telepaths can do any form of telekinesis?” Master Ferev said, without looking at him.

They were passing through District Two, and Eridan looked around curiously. There were all sorts of houses and apartment buildings in here, ranging in size and luxury. Eridan wondered how the apprentices were assigned their living accommodations. The rumor said that it depended on how high-ranking their Master was, but some claimed that it all depended on how much the Master actually liked their apprentice.

“And?” Eridan said, unsure where Master Ferev was going with this.

“Out of that small number of telepaths capable of telekinesis, only a fraction can affect the object for more than a few moments. Sustaining the pressure like you did with your classmate is…” Master Ferev shook his head. “It is unheard of, even for a Class 5 telepath like yourself.”

Eridan frowned, not understanding. “I thought it was well known that high-level telepaths could physically hurt a person?”

Master Ferev got into the t-chamber, gesturing for Eridan to follow him in. “You are confusing two different things, but it’s not my place to explain it to you. And frankly, I’m not qualified to deal with this. District Four,” he told the computer and the transport started moving.

Eridan looked around curiously. The few times he’d used t-chambers in the past had happened during his excursions to the mainland of Calluvia. In his understanding, Hronthar’s t-chambers were a little different. Normal t-chambers couldn’t function in Hronthar, because the korviu deposits in the mountains caused too much magnetic disturbance to receive a teleporting chamber from the other parts of Calluvia. Hronthar’s t-chambers had special modifications that allowed them to jump between the local addresses of the town, but they couldn’t teleport to the mainland of Calluvia, either.

Hronthar was effectively an autonomous world within Calluvia. Not that the rest of the planet had any clue about the town’s existence. As far as Calluvians were concerned, the High Hronthar was a small order of monks that inhabited a monastery in the middle of a desert, which, technically, was true, Eridan supposed. The ancient monastery in the Araal desert in the foothills of the Kavalchi Mountains was part of the High Hronthar, just a very small part that the outsiders were allowed to see. A front. The tip of a giant iceberg. Other Calluvians had no idea that the Order’s main settlement was located high in the impassable region of the Kavalchi Mountains. The korviu deposits prevented satellites from scanning the region and discovering the town.

“Are you sure we’re supposed to be here?” Eridan said as they arrived. He got out of the t-chamber and looked around curiously. He’d never been to District Four: the Masters’ district. The atmosphere here was completely different from the outer districts. The buildings were spaced out, and most of them were big enough to be called mansions. High above the district, Eridan could see the spires of High Hronthar, though the clouds obscured the view of the castle.