Reborn: High Strung | ONC2024

Chapter 1

The wondrous blue sky hangs over one of the lush forests of Sanctum, radiating light through the trees and creating the few shadows there always are in this sunless land. Though no sun dances in the sky, light is abundant from the heavens. Though no wind ever blows or weather changes, the land remains in its ever-peaceful state, like it has all been frozen in time.

Zev walks behind his older brother Simon through the greenery that sits still against the ground and hangs pleasantly above, only a single branch swaying as a small rodent-like creature stands on it. Simon takes in a deep breath as his eyes scan around them, searching for a nice, clear area to train in. Energy lightly glows a pale red in the whites of his eyes as he feels around them with the energy, making sure no one else other than the birds will bother them.

Zev walks closely behind, looking from side to side and taking in the beauty of their local forest as usual on training days like today, though before he knows it, his face bumps right into his brother's back.

Simon stands tall and unmoving, his head turning back to smile at his little brother as he speaks with a cheerful tone, "I think this is as good a place as any to start our training for today, Zev."

"Really? We can finally get started!" Zev barks out like a dog finally getting its treat; he is a fit sixteen-year-old boy with medium-length slicked-back black hair and deep emerald eyes that can almost always get him out of trouble. Those eyes are now staring up at Simon with enough excitement to make him let out a soft laugh himself.

"Did you bring your sethra-enhancing glove? I really think we can find your type today." Simon looks down at his younger brother with hope; he stands just a bit taller and quite a bit more broad than Zev, just a few years older, but in terms of skill at controlling sethra, the energy that flows through all living things, they might as well be decades apart. Even so, Zev pulls the glove from his backpack with a look of determination in his eyes, even if his brother is a prodigy and he is a... whatever the opposite of that is, it isn't going to stop him from giving it his all every day.

"and your soulkindler's manual?" Simon continues going down a mental checklist with him.

"When have I ever not, Simon, can we skip this part? I really have a good feeling about today."

Simon shakes his head with a bit of a giddy smirk. "Honestly? Me too, little brother. You're going to show them all what you can do soon," he says as he looks back towards town, his smirk fading a bit. "I can feel it."

Zev puts his maroon glove on and clenches his fist a few times, looking at it closely. "Even if I only have a little sethra," he clenches his fist and keeps it that way firmly, "as long as it's a good type."

"It will be, Zev. Now let's sit and meditate for a bit. I want you to look inward and place your hand out just like last time. Try to feel the sethra inside yourself."

"Right. Got it." He nods his head and quickly sits down, crossing his legs and holding his maroon gloved hand forward, his palm facing the sky. They have done this dozens of times this year alone.

Zev would close his eyes, trying to focus on the sethra inside himself, and try to push it into the glove to get a response from it. Children years younger than him use these gloves and find out their type of sethra every day; if only his would just work, what was he doing wrong? Was he not feeling hard enough? All he did was feel, this was ridicul-

"Focus, Zev. Stop thinking so much; I can see it on your face." Simon chimes in, not getting a response from Zev, just a long, drawn-out sigh of frustration. "Breathe, Zev," he adds quickly, like Zev would suffocate without him.

"You always make it look and sound so easy." Zev stops thinking so much and remembers the way his brother described it. Make your mind absolutely blank until all you can see is darkness, then you need to See yourself without seeing yourself. What did that even mean?