The Fellowship of Tears

The Banwar School of Martial Arts

At Master Tszarek’s office Blink found the bundle. It was held together and wrapped around by a blue cloth. He tied the bundle to the end of his quarter staff together with all his other stuff, which he bundled up with a brown cloth.

As he had no time to scrutinize the bundle, Blink didn’t bother. A short sword laid on top of it.

The double-edged sword had a forty-centimeter blade with a base width of six centimeters that progressively expanded to nine centimeters before the two edges converged to a sharp pointed tip. It was sheathed in a black wooden scabbard that was held on each end by bronze clamps. On one side of the scabbard were ancient characters that represented honor, justice and integrity. They were the same characters that were inscribed on their uniforms. On the other side are the three characters that represented the motto of the Banwar School of Martial Arts: “Evil must be vanquished.”

Master Tszarek was the seventh and last direct disciple of Grandmaster Banwar, a martial arts cultivator of great renown. Thus, the Ragha Martial Arts Academy was a branch of the Banwar School of Martial Arts.

Grandmaster Banwar was the last surviving descendant of the legendary Qat’l Banwar who was said to have developed the Demon Subduing Fist, the foundational and core technique of every martial arts disciple affiliated with the Banwar school. Qat’l Banwar was one of the four great heroes who, according to legends, purged the world of every demon lord. Ragha oral tradition set the period of this great war between man and demon at five millennia ago.

While Qat’l Banwar did have a legendary renown in unarmed fighting, it was with both the sword and the spear that he was most famous for. He was that rare genius who excelled in everything he wanted to do.

Qat’l Banwar being a master of the sword and spear of course meant that every disciple of the Banwar School of Martial Arts and its affiliates would eventually have to master either the sword or the spear. Regretfully, the legendary hero had three sons who all reached around the level of their father with the sword, but could only advance to either the Expert or the Profound stages with the spear.

There were seven stages of mastery for martial arts practitioners in the Janae continent: Foundation, Novice, Adept, Expert, Profound, Legendary and Godly.

Those in the Foundation stage could execute the moves with the proper form while maintaining balance. When they could already perform the moves more gracefully and with more power, they could be said to have reached the Novice level. They were already at the Adept stage if they could add the element of speed and were able to slip their attacks through their opponent’s defense. By the time they reach the Expert stage, they should already be able to execute the different moves of the technique into one smooth-flowing sequence that not only looked natural but also effortless. For the past several centuries, the Profound stage had been the ultimate achievement among martial artists. At this stage, the practitioner’s moves become illusory and impossible to predict.

Nobody had any idea what the Legendary stage of mastery entailed, much less the more incomparable godly stage. Qat’l Banwar and his sons, and several of their direct descendants, were said to have a Legendary mastery with the sword. The great hero’s spear mastery was said to have reached the Godly stage towards the end of the war, but whatever that meant was already lost among the succeeding generations of martial artists through the millenia.

Blink’s mastery of several fist and leg techniques were already at or around the Expert stage. He was the most advanced among the junior disciples of the Ragha Martial Arts Academy. However, his cultivation was the least promising. While everyone had awakened their martial spirits over a year ago, with some doing it much earlier than that, his had yet to emerge. And he was already well past the age when a martial artist was supposed to be cultivating the techniques suited for their martial spirit.

One only became a cultivator by awakening his martial spirit.

This problem with his martial spirit was the primary reason Blink was being sent out of the academy.

Shaking such bitter thoughts out of his mind, Blink looked at the sword with a mix of awe and puzzlement.

 “Why did Master include this sword?” he wondered. Although they were training with their quarter staves to eventually learn to wield a sword, Blink never held a sword before, thus he could not understand what the sword was for.

Judging from the shape of the bundle, Blink could tell that there was a book in it. He hanged the bundle on his quarter-staff, together with the bundle he had carried from his room.

Blink looked around at the familiar office of his master as if taking in every detail: the type of wood used on every piece of furniture, the simple and unadorned lampstand on top of the drawer, the old wooden floors… Everything in the small office spoke to the man’s character.

Master Tszarek lived a frugal existence. This despite the fact that he had hundreds of disciples in and out of the academy. He had simple tastes and delighted at little pleasures while frowning at the slightest extravagance. Many a time disciples from rich families tried to give him some precious gifts only to be regarded with extreme displeasure by the master. After a while everybody had got the idea that Master Tszarek hated any attempt at currying favor from him and no one tried since then. He was even more wrathful towards flattery.

It was a good thing that Master Tszarek was like that. Life at the academy would have been like hell for poor disciples like Blink if the disciples from rich families would have been able to flaunt their families’ wealth. Blink was sure Berge and Flip would not have survived a year.

It wasn’t that Master Tszarek did not want to play favorites. Blink was very much aware how much the master had always favored him without his fellow disciples noticing it. In fact, they all thought Master Tszarek actually had an issue with Blink who realized early on that every harsh word he received contained within them the master’s greatest hopes.

Blink recalled his conversation with him the previous night. He recalled Master Tszarek’s reply when he asked if the master’s notebook could bring him back.

“In a way, yes.”

Those words gave Blink the greatest hope he could hang on to at this point when he was going through the saddest moment in his life.

“I shall return,” he quietly promised to the empty room. It was all he could do to keep up his spirit. He turned around and walked out the door to re-join his girlfriend and his bestfriend at the back of the building.

Blink could hear them arguing, and Berge was getting louder by the minute.

“What! Are you accusing me of promiscuous conduct? Say it, I dare you!”