Lukai created a rounded barrier without any hesitation; he knew the space very well—Si noticed.

  Whenever he thought about their past relationship, he felt a brief sting of jealousy. Though, for a moment. He, too, had his past, and there was nothing to overthink. There was no need; he always thought it was better to move forward.

  So, he shouldn’t pry into their past or think too much about it. He tried his best to focus on the present situation. Also. What was most important was their future.

  Si was worried about Luna’s safety. The moment she moved into Shadows’ territory, Si would finally breathe. Currently, he was hugely worried.

  It was not about Taj. Lukai here couldn’t agree with Si. Surely, the knowledge he had was significant; Si didn’t deny it.

  Taj was a person, not a device to be used whenever one wanted. He had his past; he had his problems. He surely had his doubts, too. Si thought to himself that knowing old inventions, knowing the designs of all the weapons that had been hidden because of how powerful they were—it had to be a burden.

  Lukai saw it differently.

  “Thank you, Lukai,” Taj said. He assessed the barrier quickly, then looked at Si, waiting for him to join him at the center spot of the training floor.

  Si slowly walked in, checked the barrier for himself, and nodded. An excellent one indeed; Lukai knew how to create it to be safe for fighting.

  Luna stayed outside.

  What did she bring with her? Snacks… Si glanced at Taj; he also noticed and had a very interesting expression.

  No wonder Taj called her shrimp. That was it, totally.

  Si smirked.

  “What I want to show are two of my projections, two versions of my past ‘me,’ where the difference between ‘me’ is my energies that I had then. I do not need any additional energy; my projections will be blurry, but this is not relevant. What I aim to show is my own internal energy, and this is still in Crystal. By this, what I am telling you is that all my energy is in Crystal. This is what makes my Crystal very difficult to destroy,” Taj said.

  “So, I apologize for interrupting, to be sure, though. From what I know from my mother, it was impossible to destroy you before, am I right?” Si asked.

  “Correct,” Taj answered.

  Si glanced at Lukai—he listened, focused.

  Luna was calmly eating her snacks, nodding to herself. She was aware. Good!

  “You also used a word in plural: energies. Do I understand correctly that you were different from us; you had more than one?” Si added.

  “Correct. Not only me, but it was not the usual back then either. I will explain,” Taj said, and he disappeared.

  A second later he was back again, but his looks—Si had to say—quite interesting.

  Taj looked mostly the same, blurry, his figure the same, or slimmer? He also had a ponytail. Clothes, quite unattended? Not dirty, but used, as if someone didn’t care. But his looks—what was different—were two details.

  One was a long, significantly big scar that went from under his right eye to the ear, through his cheek. The other thing was something to sense; it was easy to notice. Taj was full of anger.

  Si decided not to ask this time, waiting for Taj to tell more.

  “Luna, why the look? I know you don’t like this one; don’t panic, I won’t train you,” Taj said. He was slightly smiling.

  Still, it was not the most pleasant smile.

  “Right! I am not training with this you,” Luna snorted after saying this.

  It confirmed Si that it was a problematic projection.

  “This is me from my worst times in the City. And the best ones, when to look at it from my energy level perspective. Then I was an artificial energy user, Crystaler; I was fully loaded, and I finished a fight with two transformed people in the arena. I am angry; you certainly can spot it. These people were called ‘creatures;’ that is another story. I am angry and full of Crystal energy, as it was possible with old Crystals’ design. Si, attack me with energy only, let’s compare energies for a maximum of three minutes.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Si nodded. He didn’t need more words.

  Energy spars were not physical fights. The one to win was whose energy persisted longer; in this case, whoever lasted the full three minutes was to be named the winner.

  He released his Shadows’ stream; his energy clashed with Taj’s—he clearly had a lot of energy and how it worked: it had a bigger impact than Crystalers’ energy usually had these days.

  Taj lasted two minutes when clashing with full Si’s energy.

  “Not bad.” Si summarized.

  Lukai was impressed.

  When he learned about Si’s level, he was surprised for the first time. And he was now surprised that an old Crystaler could achieve such a level as well.

  Everybody currently thought that old Crystals were of poor quality. Visibly, they weren’t.

  “… But Taj, change, please, to your normal you!” Luna shouted; she had to really dislike this version.

  Taj disappeared. When he materialized again, his look was different.

  This time, Lukai silently gasped.

  Si did too.

  Taj was in a black dress, but not a girl’s dress. It looked like warriors’ clothes designed for fighting. Very fitted, very thick, looked more like armor. His ponytail was there, his face without scars. He was older, surely, but not aged.

  Not at all.

  Quite stunning.

  “O? I see, you didn’t know what the Sect’s robes looked like. This is it, the warriors’ robes. Very comfortable; truly, you should try,” Taj said.

  “These I like; I have one!” Luna exclaimed.

  Si smirked. She was behaving as if she were watching a show.

  Taj slightly smiled.

  “Correct. Luna has a set. This is me from the day I was about to pass Elders’ exam. I do not have Crystal anymore; I am full of Ability. I passed the exam half an hour later. Si, try again.”

  It was curious; what could be the difference? Si released his Shadows’ energy the same way as before.

  … And a second later, he was on the ground.

  “Wow!” he exclaimed. He was excited because, how?

  Ability of that power?

  “What level is it?” Si asked.

  “I was then twice your level. Later, I had more. To pass the Elders’ exam, was needed more than you currently have, Si, but not much. You are quite close,” Taj replied.

  Si stood up slowly and took a look.

  Luna was not impressed.

  Lukai, though… Si noted that Lukai was undoubtedly overly interested.

  No wonder—he was Abilitier. Because of artificial energy collisions, Abilitiers were weaker than Shadows. But this proved it could be different; it also proved why the Sect was back then so esteemed.

  They were powerful.

  “All right, now I need to explain; it will be just a second,” Taj said, and that made Luna do what?

  She sat on the floor.

  Si laughed. It was pleasant to see they had a warm relationship. It looked promising; Taj could be approached, and he was not too pompous. He was human.

  “Thank you, Luna, for this silent comment. Indeed, you all can sit. Si, first a question for you. You hide your energy in what way?” Taj asked.

  “So, I switch it off,” Si said.

  It made Lukai stare.

  Interesting, Si thought. He assumed that Abilitiers knew that turning it off was possible.

  “Good, then you will grasp what I am saying. I also did it like this. When I had artificial energy, I was activating and deactivating my Crystal. I didn’t know back then what I did was unusual; I was saving energy. Others, many others, didn’t. This had two consequences for me. First, my Crystal was painful to wear and often disconnected. I needed to switch it on by using a quite drastic energy balancing technique—”

  Taj here was interrupted by Lukai.

  “Do you mean by drowning yourself?” he asked.

  “Correct. You know it from Anders’s papers?” Taj asked.

  Lukai nodded; Taj continued then.

  “The other consequence was that interruptions in the artificial energy flow kept my Ability in my body. I had two energies for all my life; one was dominating the other. Later, they started to collide; it was problematic, so Lan invented the rubbers, which Luna also uses. The design was based on the old Crystals’ embeddings; it was separating energies. It took me a few months to move artificial energy in my body to only one part of it. I spent quite some time in the Deserts—” Taj stopped and looked around.

  “All clear, Taj,” Si confirmed, waved his hand in a way to show to continue.

  “I had two energies, and when I resigned from the artificial one, even if I managed to restore my Ability in full, as you saw, in my body some remains of the other one were still present. My situation was not the same as the duals encounter, just a side note. Something similar happened to my friend, Rowan. She didn’t have any energy for many years—a long story. Then she received the double amount. Rowan generated, after a very unfortunate and also drastic situation, the other split. Shadows’ split. Song learned it later—”

  “So, sorry for the interruptions, to have it clear. About Rowan being the first Shadow, I am aware, but I am not sure—Lukai, are you?” Si had to ask.

  “In Elder Anders’s notes, it was mentioned that there was this Elder, although I do not recollect the name. Apologies. I suppose it is it, isn’t it?” Lukai asked.

  “Yes, Elder Bao, it was Rowan. And Elder Song, Commander. He had learned Shadows’ split because he wanted to help me, and also—he could; he was hiding his energy like you, Si. Commander had interrupted energy flow, and it later proved to be very useful—” Taj again didn’t finish, as Si interrupted.

  “Why did the Sect’s Commander hide his energy? Out of curiosity, similarly to me, or other reasons?” Si asked.

  “As you, he didn’t want to alarm others with his level,” Taj answered.

  “What level did Commander have?” Lukai asked.

  He was excited, Si noticed.

  “Around three times more than I did,” Taj replied.

  He clearly didn’t want to name the number. But even without that, what Taj had said suggested tremendous energy.

  “… Commander needed to discharge his energy often,” Taj added.

  Luna snorted when Taj spoke his last words, which made him look at her again with quite a strange expression.

  “I almost finished my speech; be patient. It is important to know, there were only four people in the Sect then that had interruptions in their energy flow, and could master more than one energy by this. They, what was also significant, passed the Elders’ exam.” Taj explained.

  “So, was it about the energy level to be able to master energies?” Si was curious.

  What he had asked was clearly also what Lukai wanted to know.

  “Correct, the bigger the energy level, the better the chances. Though Elders’ exam I mentioned because of another reason. What I mean is, to pass the exam, one had to learn how to split his body—” Taj didn’t finish.

  “… And consciousness!” Si exclaimed.