Free The Rising Sun: Episode 4 by J Hawk

ahead, scowling. “I remember him talking about an earlier
student of his. And it made him rather … well, emotional.”
     
    “An earlier student?” asked Ion. “Where is he
now?”
     
    “He isn’t one of the Nyon, obviously” Qyro
said, folding his arms.
     
    “He was trained by Mantra, but he isn’t one
of us?”
     
    “Unlike me and Qyro, not all the students
trained here stay here after the training, Ion.” Vestra informed
him. “The masters can only train the students. But the students
have the choice as to whether or not to then carry on and serve our
brotherhood … or to leave. Most of the students that are trained by
the masters decide not to join us. If that wasn’t so, if all of
them stay behind and help the Nyon, then we’d have ten times the
members we’ve got now.”
     
    Qyro ran his eyes over the grassy ground, in
search of something. Hopping two feet away, he bent down and picked
up a small flat stone. He spent a few seconds to examine the stone,
looking at it intently.
     
    “Most of them believe they’re safer without
joining us.” he said, still examining the stone. “They think the
Nyon are more trouble than the already troubled life of a mystic
needs.” Looking up at Ion, he gave a shrug. “Well, guess they’re
right. Half of our number’s been either tracked down and killed by
the masters, or died from missions to the inner spectrum.”
     
    He held the stone it clenched in his hand and
shook his wrist heavily, before sending the stone flying across the
lake’s surface. Ion followed it as it skipped one, two, and three …
seven times over the water, before sinking. Ripples burst out
across the water surface, distorting the serenity of the lake.
     
    “I’ve been living a lot in the inner spectrum
in the last few months.” Ion said, still watching as the seven
waves of ripples slowly spread out across the lake’s surface.
     
    The two of them looked at him, the same
surprise reflecting in both their expression.
     
    “Well, you’re pretty lucky to be breathing,
in that case.” said Vestra.
     
    “How’d you manage it?” asked Qyro.
     
    Ion flashed back to those days, the days
coming after Jedius’s training. Where he had vowed to tear down
countless infamous crime organisations, terror groups … and do his
part in amending the evil of his past with good.
     
    “It wasn’t easy, I’ll guarantee that.” he
said finally, heaving a deep breath. “And yeah, there were a dozen
or more times where I’d been found and chased by the Naxim. But I
kept moving from cluster to cluster. I travelled in the shadiest
public transport systems, where they’d have almost zero
security.”
     
    Qyro bent and scooped up another small rock,
examining it for a second, before looking up at Ion.
     
    “I made sure to keep my tracks hidden as best
as I could.” Ion paused, his tone now falling a shade darker.
“Because I knew what I had to do … and if I died doing it,” He
shrugged. “I figured it was hardly very far from what I’d
deserved.”
     
    The two of them continued to quietly look at
him for a few seconds.
     
    Sighing, Qyro turned, shook his wrist and
tossed the second stone across the lake. Ion watched as it skipped
nine times, almost reaching the very other side of the lake.
     
    Vestra’s eyes lingered on him, and Ion felt
the same tenderness reflect within her deep black eyes as that day
two years back, when they had met.
     
    “You’re making up for it, Ion.” she said
softly. “And I that, in the end, is what I believe counts.”
     
    “If there was a true reason to hate who you
are now,” Qyro said. “we would have killed you.”
     
    Smiling, he thumped Ion on the back.
     
    Ion nodded absently.
     
    Qyro walked back up, and picked up a third
rock. Ion wasn’t watching how many times this one skipped. Inside,
he felt a glow of true happiness unlike very many instances in his
life. This was a moment where he had discovered something he had
been