“Nothing weighs a man down like foolish pride.”

  -Rama the Rising Fist, Master of the third school of the Daishinrin

  “Hey Raz. Come here. I have something for you,” Hiro said.

  These words struggled to push their way through the haze that coated Raziel’s brain. It was still so early that the dawn light was just beginning to peel the black from the sky. Hoeru seemed as miserable to be up this early as Raziel felt. Miles didn’t look like he was in quite as much of a haze but he still moved and responded like his brain was half a second behind reality. Sumi on the other hand was as bright eyed as she ever was, squating close to Ichiro’s studiously tended cook-fire with her knees tucked in close to her chest and staring into the flames with wonder.

  Finally the signal wander across the last of the chain of neurons in Raziel’s brain and he wobbled to his feet and over to Hiro. Hiro looked no happier to be awake than Raziel. The bags beneath his eyes coupled with his oft-broken nose made it look like he’d been punch in the face recently. He wore the far more basic robes today. They were actually very similar to the blue trimmed white vest and similarly colored, loose shorts that were Raziel and the others daily uniform. The only real difference was that Hiro got to have pants and sleeves.

  And shoes. Raziel missed shoes.

  Hiro held lengths of thick, white cloth.

  “Hold out one of your hands,” Hiro instructed and once that message meandered through Raziel’s brain fog, he obeyed. There was a loop on one end that Hiro put over Raziel’s thumb. He then wrapped the cloth around Raziel’s wrist several times before moving on to his palm and the back of his hand. Finally he wrapped it around and in between each of Raziel’s fingers.

  The cloth was surprisingly cold and though it had the texture of ordinary cloth, it was slow to warm. Raziel was beginning to wonder how Hiro would tie it off as he was running out of cloth but when it was finished he just tucked an end beneath another fold of the cloth and moved on to Raziel’s other hand.

  While Hiro was working Raziel began to feel strange. His hand that was already wrapped was tingling but not like Hiro had wrapped it too tight and he was losing circulation. It wasn’t a pins and needles tingle but rather it felt like putting his hand into a stream and feeling the water flow past his fingers. It wasn’t a strong sensation but as Hiro worked on Raziel’s other hand and Raziel began to feel it there too he was certain that it wasn’t just a trick of his mind.

  “What are these?”

  “A part of your training.”

  Raziel took a moment to process that.

  “You’re not going to tell me what they do are you?”

  “Nope. Not only that,” he said, raising his voice, “I’m going to tell you not to ask Miles what they do either. Miles, do not tell Raziel what these hand-wraps do.”

  “Yes, sir,” Miles said stifling a yawn.

  “You’re going to feel a little strange with these on,” Hiro continued. “I don’t know exactly what you’ll feel but its nothing to worry about unless you start to get dizzy, lightheaded, or you have trouble breathing. If any of those things happens tell Ichiro or me immediately. Do you understand?”

  “Dizzy, lightheaded, can’t breathe bad. Tell someone tall.”

  “Yeah, that’ll work.”

  “What about cold? My hands are already really cold.”

  “That’s normal.”

  “Okay.”

  Raziel went back to sitting at the fire and at first he wondered what Ichiro had filled his bowl with. The bowl contained nothing but the same breakfast of thick rice porridge with slices of fruit for flavor he always gave them. And yet, the bowl was noticeably heavier. Even the spoon Raziel used seemed to weigh more than it used to.

  Once they were finished and began to go about the business of their morning stretches, things only got worse. Raziel’s arms felt strangely heavy, to the point that several times as they went through their morning routine, he fell over. Not just during the balance exercises that he normally did fairly well at, but bending over or even turning too fast made it feel like someone had tied an invisible string to his head and was dragging him to the ground.

  Thankfully, if any of his friends noticed they didn’t comment on Raziel’s new lack of balance. Maybe they just understood what was happening to him better than he did himself. That wasn’t really any better but either way Raziel hated for his friends to see him struggling with something so basic. Sumi was following along with the routine as best she could and she fell more often than Raziel did so at least he wasn’t the worst there. But she’d only been walking at all for a few weeks.

  It had been about a week since they had all decided to stay at the school and things hadn’t gotten any easier for him. He still ended each day exhausted and desperate for sleep, his whole body aching and his battered feet throbbing. But even though the burden hadn’t gotten any lighter, he was beginning to acclimatize to it. So, of course, it was time for Hiro to throw another load on his back.

  Once they finished with the stretching routine, it became evident that things were only going to get worse. It wasn’t just Raziel’s arms that felt weighed down. The weight was spreading through the rest of his body. It moved through shoulders into his chest and legs. Raziel felt like someone had turned his bones to iron. While Ichiro ran them through a series of basic exercises to get them ready for the morning run Raziel tried to hide his growing panic. He was already barely getting through it all each day. How on earth was he going to keep up with any of the others now?

  The answer was simple; he wasn’t.

  None of them had been able to keep up with Ichiro all week. Once it became clear that they knew the route to follow to complete Ichiro’s course, Ichiro had stopped even the pretense of leading them. Once the run started, Ichiro took off like he’d been shot from a cannon, hurtling down from the school like a falling boulder.

  Hoeru had stayed close to Miles and Raziel during that first week but now he seemed sure that Raziel wasn’t going to pass out or die without him. Sumi didn’t join them on the runs and Hoeru was more concerned with getting back to her than in staying near Raziel. He disappeared ahead, sprinting at near the same speed as Ichiro.

  Miles had become Raziel’s goal. He refused to fall behind Miles. He simply couldn’t allow himself to be outpaced by the gangly bespectacled boy. And yet, with every step his body grew heavier and heavier and it took more and more of himself to keep up with Miles’ long strides.

  They were still going downhill when Raziel fell. He wasn’t sure if he stepped on something loose or if his foot just refused to carry the new weight of his body. Either way, the ground was not forgiving. He tried to tuck and roll with the fall but his body didn’t respond in time. Instead he went face first into the dirt.

  “Raz? Are you okay?” Miles said, skidding to a stop and hurrying back to him.

  Raziel punched the ground. It didn’t do anything except send a shiver of pain up his arm but he didn’t care. He already had a hundred pains in his body. What was one more?

  “I hate this!” The words ripped their way out of his throat, the frustration that had been building since the first day that Raziel’s magic hadn’t worked tearing its way free. “I can’t stand it, I’m not like this. I’m not this weak.”

  “Raz-“

  “I’m fine,” Raziel snarled. “I’m fine. I’m not hurt. I didn’t break anything. I just shouldn’t be stuck back here with you.”

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  Even in the depths of his frustration, Raziel saw the way that Miles stiffened at that.

  “What do you mean stuck with me?”

  “I’m faster than this. I’m not this weak. I can do better than this,” Raziel said, sweeping his hand through the dirt.

  “And you think I can’t.”

  “What?”

  “I’m glad you’re okay. I’ll see you back at the school,” Miles said and turned and walked away. Raziel called after him but Miles was already running. And running much faster than Raziel could. Raziel got to his feet, tried to catch up with him but it only took him seconds to realize that even if he hadn’t been wearing the handwraps, Miles would have completely outpaced him.

  Raziel went as fast as he could getting back to the school. For all his determination he couldn’t make his legs move fast enough to run and fell into something between a bouncy walk and a slow jog. His mouth gaped open and he panted like a dog the entire time while sweat poured off his body. And still the entire way he couldn’t think of anything except the betrayed tone in Miles last words to him.

  By the time he’d dragged himself through the school gate, Raziel had rehearsed what he was going to say to Miles dozens of times. But it wasn’t Miles who met him at the gate. It was Hiro.

  “Hey. Come with me,” the master said.

  “But-“ Raziel started but Hiro held up a hand.

  “No buts. Come on.”

  “What about… Miles and Hoeru?” Raziel rasped through his dry throat.

  “I’ve given them some specialized training. You’re going to do some as well.”

  “With you?”

  “Yeah. Is that so surprising?”

  “Kinda,” Raziel coughed. He tried to work enough saliva into his mouth to say a full sentence. “You haven’t really done any training with us yet.”

  Hiro snorted at that but didn’t respond. Raziel wanted to go and apologize to Miles right now, to straighten things out, but Hiro wasn’t taking no for an answer.

  As Hiro led him away from the usual training area that Ichiro used, Raziel focused on getting oxygen into his lungs. His overtaxed system begged for more air and even dragging air into his lungs seemed harder than it had been.

  But for all that Raziel had to wonder what special training they were going to do. Did Hiro have a secret technique to pass on to him? Or perhaps some sort of magical machine that might help Raziel grow rapidly stronger? A terrible creature to fight?

  The veil that the school’s tree put over the buildings was beginning to part for Raziel. Sometimes he thought he could see the hazy pieces of the buildings, as though the empty air was not real, but a fog that the sun was beginning to burn away. The strangest part of it all was the way that he could be standing on an empty hilltop, take a single step, and suddenly be inside a building. This time at least, Raziel had some small warning. It was still really disconcerting to step up onto thin air though.

  Hiro disappeared inside and Raziel was careful to count the number of step the master took up before he vanished. He’d learned to do that after missing steps more than once. Raziel took a deep breath, steadying himself for the plunge and followed. One moment, he was walking up invisible steps on an open, sunny hilltop. The next he was inside a wooden building, with a set of long halls going in opposite directions.

  There were windows on one side of the hall, letting in the golden morning sunlight. On the other wall, a series of plaques hung on little hooks. Each plaque was about the size of Raziel’s hand and each section of wall had dozens of them. He followed behind Hiro looking at the markings on each one. Words had been burned onto most of the pieces of wood but they were in elvish and Raziel couldn’t even tell where one character ended and another began, much less find out what they said.

  “What are these?” he asked.

  “Hm?” Hiro asked and glanced over his shoulder to see what Raziel was talking about. “Oh, those? They’re the names of students who’ve studied at the school.”

  Raziel followed in silence for a few more moments before a second question occurred to him.

  “Why are some of them blank.”

  “They’re not. They’ve been turned around. The name faces the wall.”

  “Okay. But why?”

  “Because not every student uses what he is taught with wisdom.”

  There was something in Hiro’s tone, a distance, that silenced any further questions Raziel had on the matter. It seemed a sensitive issue.

  Finally they came to a door. It was a kind Raziel had never seen before coming to the school, but seemed to be the only kind there was here. The door was a sliding piece of the wall with a thick paper in place of a wall.

  Through it there was a short stairway that lead down to another hall. Along both sides of the hall were statues, spaced so that there were three statues, and then a step down. After each step down the hall curved inwards so that it spiraled down deeper into the hill. There were lanterns between the statues t hat gave off a warm light like a candle or a small torch. Beside the first statue there was a bucket and a cloth and Raziel instantly had a suspicion about what, exactly, his training was going to entail.

  “You’re going to wash every one of these statues.”

  “I thought you were going to say that,” Raziel said.

  “Make sure to get behind the ears. I’ll be checking,“ Hiro said with a merry smile.

  “Is this really training?”

  “In your state, you probably can’t do a lot more than this. But you need to keep moving. I’m guessing it’ll be close to lunch by the time you’re finished. We’ll see if you can do it faster tomorrow.”

  “I have to do this every day?”

  “Wouldn’t want them to gather dust,” Hiro said with a grin. “Wouldn’t be respectful.”

  “Who are they?” Raziel asked. Hiro’s tone suggested that being respectful was a bit of a joke but Raziel didn’t think that it was because they didn’t deserve it. It was something else.

  “Teachers who’ve lead this school in the past,” Hiro said and a genuinely fond expression came over his face as he looked down the hall.

  “How far down does it go? If I run out of clean water what-”

  “I have every confidence that you can manage,” Hiro interrupted. “Besides, it’s water from the pond. It’ll stay clean. It’s magic,” he said, waggling his fingers.

  That only raised further questions but before Raziel could ask them Hiro turned away, something else clearly on his mind as he left. Raziel sighed and dipped the rag into the water and looked at the first statue in the hallway.

  “Is this you?” he called.

  “Huh? Oh. Yeah,” Hiro said, reflexively from outside the hall Raziel wasn’t sure but it sounded like he was going a little more quickly all of a sudden.

  With another sigh, Raziel looked up at the dusty statue and got to work and tried to think of the best thing to say to Miles.

  Hiro turned out to be right about the water. No matter how many times Raziel rinsed the dusty cloth in it, the water never grew any less clear. It was also shockingly chilly and clung to the wraps on his hands, numbing his fingers. Though the day was colder than most had been so far, that didn’t explain how the water stayed so cold for so long. It made Raziel wonder what they would do once it became winter, if they’d get new uniforms. Even just some sleeves would be nice.

  By the time the sun was high in the noon sky Raziel was exhausted. He hated it but it was true all the same. The feeling of growing steadily heavier had finally stopped but it hadn’t receded at all. It seemed like his weight had doubled or maybe even tripled. He’d begun to dread lifting his arms above his head to wash the statues faces and dragging the bucket the few feet to the next group of statues.

  The hall of statues seemed utterly endless. Raziel wondered how many teachers had lead the school. It must have been more than a hundred. And most of them were elves who could’ve lived for centuries so how far back in time must this school go? He knew he had to be deep inside the hill by now. Magical torches flared to life as he came close but the darkness beyond their light might as well have been a bottomless pit. It made it seem as if the rest of the world didn’t exist, just Raziel, the six masters, and the shades of their masters and followers in the darkness to either side.

  His stomach was growling like a wild animal as he cleaned dust from the final statue of a smiling elf with an eyepatch. Raziel didn’t know how he was going to drag the bucket back up all those steps. He considered just dumping the water but the hall ended in a wall of stone. There would be nowhere for it to go. He dragged the bucket over to the stair and prepared to put his whole body into the effort of raising it up over the next step.

  And then he saw a light from farther up. Someone was coming down to him. Miles stepped into view.

  Instantly the bucket seemed to grow a hundred times heavier. All the things Raziel had thought to say during his long trek back to the school and while he cleaned the statues seemed to get caught in his throat at once so that nothing would come out. Miles’ uniform was dirty and he looked like he’d been sweating. He didn’t meet Raziel’s eyes for more than a moment.

  “Lunch is ready,” he said, and turned to leave.

  “Miles, wait,” Raziel said and to his great relief Miles stopped. He didn’t turn around though. And again, Raziel couldn’t figure out what he wanted to say. Miles waited for a long moment before speaking himself.

  “Don’t tell me I’m weak,” he said.

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” Raziel said, the words popping forth like a cork from a bottle. “I’m sorry. Nothing feels right now. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I wasn’t thinking about you when I said what I did.”

  “That’s your problem Raz. You don’t think.”

  The silence between them was terrible. But after a long, tense moment, it eased. Miles half turned towards him. Raziel could see that he was still hurt, in the set of his jaw and in his eyes behind his glasses.

  “Come on, lets go eat.”

  Raziel nodded and tried to lift the bucket. He tried not to let the struggle of it show, but it was just too heavy. Miles waited patiently for him to lift it the over the step. Raziel got it up and dragged it over to the next step before heaving it up to the landing where Miles stood. Just bringing it that far left him gasping for air and set his heart pounding in his chest.

  Miles watched this with a blank face. There was neither pity nor concern in his eyes. Then he offered to take the bucket.

  It was just a motion of his hand, turning it over and reaching out. And Raziel understood exactly what Miles was doing.

  Raziel ached to play his struggle off, to say ‘it’s fine, I’ve got it.’ It galled him to his core to admit he needed help carrying a water bucket. A part of him wanted to dump it here and let it pool at the back of the hall first. Or just dump it on Miles feet. Handing the bucket over felt like grabbing a handful of his own flesh, tearing it off and giving that to Miles. But he swallowed his bitter pride and pulled the bucket as close to Miles hand as he could. He wanted to put the handle in Miles’ hand but he just didn’t have the strength.

  Miles lifted the bucket easily and nodded to him. The tension was still there between them but it eased as they continued, Miles walking slowly so that Raziel could keep up.