Is this magic?
The old man lead the way through the forest walking slowly and without hurry letting the children catch up or make up their mind.
Asking them to choose between staying or going was simply a formality, the sect had already decided to carry the weight of fate for them.
For six minutes the old man walked until a path made of stone lay under his feet, many others appeared to walk along this path as it was a major passageway that lead to important areas of the sect.
The old man motioned with his hand, the children formed a neat line against the side of the path taking care not to impede traffic.
Many a curious eyes looked toward the direction of the children while others simply gave a passing glance not caring for the newcomers.
A new batch of junior brother's and sister's was a little refreshing to see, even if it wasn't uncommon as of late.
"This is the inner residential area, if you look to your left you will see the path opens up to a small market, that's where you can find most goods; if you can't find it there then you will need to make personal inquiries and broaden your search" the market was a fair distance away that only a small portion of it could be seen, it was by far more crowded then their current location.
"You all reside in the outer part of the inner residential area, it is meant only for the first few years of your stay here after which you will be moved to the outer residential area like everyone else" the inner territory was only to be used by high ranking members of the sect, important gathering areas, and for children newly entered into the sect.
"To the right you can find the eastern territory that leads into the gardens, some of you may find it to be a useful place soon enough, we however will simply go straight north! Follow along now if you stray you will have to wait until I find you"
The old man acted as a tour guide giving each area passed a quick run down as to what it is or did.
The houses made of wood covered the nearby landscape densely, each house no more then twelve feet wide from the front while the length could vary between fifteen to thirty feet.
Red wood, oak, iron wood, blackwood, bamboo all sorts of wood grains gave the houses a distinct look, not accounting for the design of the house there was a feeling of life to them.
'Although these kids will probably never get to use most of these facilities, for these few years it is better to get them acclimated to the environment' he knew very well that it's best to seem as welcoming as possible to his new juniors, he had done this enough times to know of the issue's a feeling of not belonging could create.
He kept walking slowly to not tire the children and give them a moment to look at the sights. A tea built atop a couple of trees without a ladder in sight, small shops with paper windows that looked rustic yet refined, floating chairs with seemingly no owner, the occasional paper bird or flying dagger passed by above their heads, the houses seemed to get taller as they traveled deeper in reaching three to four floors high.
"Take care not to fall in, if you do, don't panic and wait for someone to let you out" the old man pointed.
A small stone waterway divided the inner residential area from the next zone, a wooden bridge three meters long being the only way across.
"We are almost at the central area, here we will find many administrative building's that handle everything related to the sect; for now we will head to the third building on the right, here you will find the sect registry among a few other things"
The buildings in this area were larger/wider with more space in-between each displaying a level of authority not found in other buildings so far.
Entering the building many young and old people sat behind desks organizing scrolls, books, and loose papers, at times writing something down before moving on to the next item.
Another old man noticed the newly arrived group and stood to greet the old man at the front.
"Protector Abbas welcome, are you here to register new arrivals?" the old man greeted amicably.
The old man leading the children simply nodded responding with a simple "I am"
"Then please follow me to the side and have the children stand in line" he walked to a nearby desk.
"You heard him make a line" Abbas looked toward the children with orders then followed the clerk.
The children followed behind him without problems but when it came to making a single straight line it took a little extra effort.
The boy was among this crowd looking at his surroundings with excitement.
Along the way he had seen all sorts of things, from flying blades to flying carpets, stones that hovered in the air to the simple trees and flowers along the path, all of it was new to him.
His soles had torn open at one point but due to all the walking no more blood came out as the dirt along the path had already clogged the wounds, if it was not blue and black that is.
The entire environment was new to him in more way's then one, he had never even seen stone buildings before let alone imagine that they could be made.
From his perspective anything other then wooden huts and shacks was rich, you could make a fence out of stone but here the stone was smooth and uniform.
Plus they sat one layer over the other, were they not afraid of it all falling down? How did they even stack the stones so high? Even the wooden houses were impressive but once they reached the fourth floor he was even scarred to walked below them, you never knew if a strong wind could tip them over!
"Name" the clerk asked a child up front
"Adil waf" a young boy answered
"Oh you have a second name do you, how old are you Adil?"
"five" the boy responded proudly
"Tell me Adil do you know how to read and write?"
"N-no? Not, no"
"Good, that will make it easier to teach you, place your hand on this tablet"
A small rectangular tablet made of wood was pushed slightly towards the child named Adil.
Adil slowly placed his hand on the tablet, a small light pierced through his palm forcing Adil to retract his hand from tablet.
"Good, we will take this blood and craft it into an identification token, come back tomorrow to pick it up. Move aside now let the next one come up"
Adil held his hand with a frown and walked to the side.
One after the other the children answered the questions and placed their hand on the tablet in apprehension.
While the pain was quick and left just as fast one could help but wince when it happened.
Soon it was the skinny boys turn.
"Name"
"...I"
"Just Ai?"
"I don't have name"
"Ah!, then lets name you... Bran. Bran Ai" Orphans without names being nothing new, the clerk didn't even think about it giving him a random name that he personally wouldn't get mixed up with others followed by the first word the child said.
"Age" He continued on
"I don't know"
"Right. lets see. four and three quarters, basically five" The clerk only gave the boy a passing glance and seemed to know about how old he was, a guess from others perspective but he simply inspected the boys bone age quickly.
"Ok move to the side, the last question self answers"
The skinny boy, now named Bran Ai did as asked.
Bran Ai looked at the other children and tried to remember their names when asked.
Looking around he was probably the worst off of everyone in this group, some kids may be dirty with ripped clothes, others may only be wearing what looked like an animal's pelt yet those animal pelts probably cost a fortune.
He couldn't help but put distance between himself and the other children while trying to hide away, it was simply to big a difference and from his personal experience such differences can't be overcome with words, not his anyway.
He didn't even have to try to avoid the others, they naturally avoided him.
He looked dirty, had injuries all over his body making him look diseased, and his lack of any body fat all combined to make him look rather repulsive.
Children are honest creatures, they act at the same time they think with no regards to another's feelings at times.
Soon another group of children arrived led by another guide, likewise that group was still better off then him.
"Protector Abbas that's the last one, you can go choose from the basic cultivation manuals now" the clerk handed a bronze silver token to Abbas.
Abbas simply nodded.
"Follow me" he looked to the kids under his care and once more they navigated the surrounding buildings finding themselves at a tall and skinny stone building.
"This here is the scripture hall, it is where you will find most cultivating techniques, spells, historical records and cartography charts that you will need or might need. There are other areas you can find such items but for the most part this will be the place to go"
The children listened attentively, the script hall was basically a school library holding all the relative material needed for learning to cultivate and some in depth knowledge but anything more critical, theoretical or dangerous wouldn't be found here.
Most the kids had no knowledge about any of these topics, the words alone confused them.
The few that understood had previous knowledge given to them before hand or were from the more affluent side of life granting them access to similar areas in the past.
"Junior brother, help me gather the basics of cultivation 30 sets, Basic Qi gathering technique first volume 30 sets as well, letters and speech basics and a sect directory, thirty sets of each" Abbas spoke to the nearby scripture hall attendant.
"We have already prepared all the items required, they have all been sorted here" the attendant gestured to a nearby bookshelf that was only just above an adults knees holding hundreds of packed hemp bags, clearly made for the children.
"Ah good good, kids grab one bag and follow me"
The kids hurriedly picked one bag and followed the old man, some children had a bit of courtesy bowing to the attendant or saying thank you in their own way.
Abbas made his way up a set of stairs at the back of the room and into a room with the number 34 inscribed on it.
"Find a mat and sit down, hurry up" he motioned them inside.
In the room fifty mats lay on the floor two feet apart, each mat large enough to hold the children inside with their legs crossed with some leeway.
Each child found a mat and sat down quickly, each sat in their own way.
"Now then, I am not one to waste time. I will be unlocking your cultivation potential so you can start basic Qi cultivation right away, after which you will use the sect directory in your bag to make your way back to your rooms on your own"
Abbas waved his hand and small white-blue stones appeared in front of each child.
"Grab the stone in-between your palms, that stone contains the energy that will soon be coursing throughout your body allowing you to use magic"
Bran ai looked at the stone floating in front of him, grabbing it in his hand he felt a warm energy exuding from it.
"Feel it? The warmth of the stone, feel the energy within and imagine that warmth entering your body" Abbas instructed them in the most simple way.
The children simply did as told, even if someone wanted to question this they somehow felt compelled to follow Abbas's instructions.
Abbas then grabbed a disk to his side, placing a larger stone in the center.
"Concentrate, simply focus on the energy entering your body"
Above the children a circular diagram with many symbols dimly lit up.
'Good this should allow all of them to enter the first stage of Qi condensation even if they are complete wastes, I should go find all the stragglers I left behind along the way while they focus here'
Indeed, from the initial 50 kids under his charge only 30 made it this far, many took too long to follow initially and others got curious wandering off in other directions, he simply let it happen since this also tested a child's character.
Bran Ai did not notice the protector leave, his eyes had closed on their own as he felt the energy inside the stone enter his body slowly.
Even if he wanted to open his eyes he felt compelled to keep going as if something was luring him in.
The diagram in the ceiling slowly revolved opening up channels inside Brans body gently allowing for the stones energy to enter his body and surround it.
Bran Ai felt the energy radiating from the stone, it passed through his arms and entered his abdomen slowly making its way down to his pelvis.
'It's warm, if feels as if I'm being submerged in water'
His body kept getting hotter and hotter the longer this process took until finally the stone in his palm dissipated and his entire body from head to toe felt hot.
Under the increasing heat he felt the need to breath out from within to let the heat out.
This wasn't the quite the same as breathing out, his lungs weren't directly involved.
Bran Ai felt a bubble of energy build up in his abdomen, this bubble forced it's way up phasing through his organs and forcing bran to release a breath of energy.
This breath came out as a hot steam and along with it the heat in bran Ai's body disappeared.
Bran Ai felt refreshed, his body felt like he had just consumed a meal allowing him to regain some strength.
Bran Ai looked up to wait for instructions only to notice that few children remained in the room with him.
Looking around he found that most of these kids weren't with them in the group, these were the stragglers that Abbas had gone to find.
'Ah that's right, we were told to go back on our own'
Bran Ai took a stretch and searched through the hemp bag for the sect directory the old man told them about.
'...'
He couldn't read.