The Great War

     An hour had passed before Siped returned to the courtyard. Panting hard from the exertion of fighting, Treasa hadn't been able to break through the defense of the well trained man. All of her strikes had been deflected with almost no damage done to his wooden replica sword. Only two of the recruits managed to kill their opponent. 

     Each of those men had shown great experience handling a weapon, and their strength made it nearly impossible to defend against. The larger of the two men had cuts running up his arm from the nails of the female trainee he strangled to death only minutes into the fight. 

     Siped moved through the room an analyzed what had happened while he was gone. Of the two kills only one of them seemed to please the strict man. Continuing to look the room over he nodded at a couple of Trainees and shook his head at others, willingly showing his thoughts on the battle.

     Moving to the center of the room, where he had been standing before, he ordered two watchers to remove the dead bodies. Waiting for them to be done with their task, he looked over at Treasa and chuckled to himself. At least her complete failure put him in a better mood.

     "It is clear that some of you understand what it takes to become a Reaper. Others of you will most likely die before your assessment." His eyes never left Treasa's. Two of the recruits looked at each other questionably, the more handsome of them shrugged his shoulders, clearly unconcerned with the meaning behind the threat.

     Of the fifty recruits Treasa was clearly the youngest. The closest to her age was a boy who looked to be a young teenager. Everybody else had nearly a decade of experience on her, and just as much time with a sword in their hands. 

     "Trainees, you have completed the final test before your assessment. Please return to your rooms and rest until tomorrow morning. By sunrise be ready to leave for the test." Leaving the room in an orderly line the only people left were the first day trainees. Only one of the trainees looked back over her shoulder to the waiting recruits. When their eyes met a deep sorrow rested within them. As she walked out of the room and disappeared, Treasa could only remember her unspoken apology for the young girl.

     Turning his attention to those remaining in the room he motioned for them to drop their weapons and circle around him. One by one they began to sit in the grass until Siped was the only one left standing. Pointing towards a large map on a nearby wall he took one of the swords and started pointing towards marked points.

     "This is our planet. Over the centuries our explorers have managed to create this, a full view of the very earth we walk on." Moving the tip of the sword across the map he stopped it just above the eastern most mass of land. "This section of land is known as the Great Expanse. It consists of three of the six great nations. Ental lies to the north of the continent, while Rornin is to the south. Fatir lies here, in between both. As you can imagine this has created a great deal of stress between the empires at times, but within the last few decades things have been fairly docile."

     "The Ental elementalist base their powers off the earth and ground. When engaging one you need to remember that their attacks can come from any place and at any moment. Strength is the only thing that will defend you from their attacks. You have to be more powerful than they are. Their master also has the ability to heal wounds.

     "We have been given a gift in the fact that Rornin use Lightning as their elemental base. They are by far the most powerful shifters alive, with their attacks being the only one we have not been able to come up with a legitimate defense against. The reason we are lucky is because lightning is a rare phenomena and can only be drawn from the storms that often travel their lands. Following these storms for defense, the Rornin have developed into a nomadic people, but do not ever underestimate them.

     Moving the sword further to the right he stopped above a large formation of islands running along the entire center of the map. "This is Wanve, similar to Rornin they do not have large built up cities, but live in small tribes along these island masses. It would be impossible for us to have shown you how many islands are actually there since many are only a few miles wide, but there are over twenty thousand islands between the Great Expanse and the Lesser Expanse.

     Continuing on with his speech, he pointed towards the western continent. "This is the Lesser Expanse. Wanve acts as our bridge to this part of the world. The western most section of the continent belongs to Iicle and their Ice elementalist. Though they do have a wide array of offensive strikes, ice has been primarily used for defense, creating walls and other shields to house their men." Placing his sword on the ground Siped looked at the last country on the map.

     "I saved this one for last because it's the most important. This is Duzee, and this is where the final battle of the Great War took place. Still new to the battle field, the Fare Tilwin Reath proved they had an essential part to play in the struggle.

     Treasa raised her hand politely, not sure if she should ask any questions. Siped's eyes narrowed in frustration but he waited for the question. "What happened during that last battle?" Many of the others looked annoyed with the question, almost as if this was common knowledge among everyone in the room.

     "Over one hundred years ago, the final resistance to the Fatir, and Duzee alliance ambushed the current masters and their escort just outside of the capital city, Nivged. Catching the force off guard, the rebels managed to cause catastrophic casualties among the alliance. During a pivotal moment in the battle, the Fare Tilwin Reath began to force them into back, and not long after into full retreat. From that day forward we were considered the pride of Fatir, and our most prized weapon."

     Motioning for them to get to their feet, the group stood. Another sizable group began to enter into the courtyard. Unlike the trainees these men wore beautiful white coats, on top of long green tunics and black pants, but what made them stand out was their blind white eyes. Each of them carried a sword similar to the one given to Treasa.

     "That was the last time you will rest until you return as full trainees, ready to partake in your assessment. Everyday, you will meet with the Diatorn, Reapers tasked to teach our ways to the young. Listen to them, follow their guidance, and you might survive to become one of us." Leaving the room Siped left them to begin their training.