Author's notes:
This is an Alternate Reality story, where Atlantis, which the inhabitants called Baylon, was real and inhabited by a powerful humanoid race called Baylons.
About half the story happens in the bronze age and I've researched a lot for this story. If you find anything that looks like a mistake in the story, please double check to be sure that you're correct and then PM me about it. :)
A note about the language and notation:
The Baylon language is a predecessor to Latin, which is why it looks like Latin at a glance.
Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"
Some warnings
:
This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.
It's a long story and I suggest that you read them continuously (At least for a first time read).
This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.
P.S. I haven't gotten an editor yet, so any mistakes are mine. Interested editors are welcome :) Just be warned that this is a LONG story :)
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Chapter 4 -- Flashback: Healing
Arcem Discendi in Lescare.
The castle's name was
Arcem Discendi
(Baylon: "Citadel of Learning") or rather it was the Baylon name for it. Unlike most other Baylon training castles, it wasn't located on the island of Baylon, but on a small oval shaped island far away, in an area we called Lescare.
The humans inhabiting Lescare was in general short, with dark hair and brown slanted eyes, and had formed a multitude of various sized kingdoms in the area. We traded with most of them, especially the Shang since that was one of the largest kingdoms and their ruler, Zi Zhao, wasn't scared of us, as some of the other rulers were.
The Lescarians called the castle, and the surrounding area, Mount Penglai, but as it was a training castle for Baylons and most of the students didn't speak Lescarian, almost everybody called it Arcem.
Except from holidays with my family, Arcem had been my home for most of ten years: My father had taken Kaeso Atilus Maximus up on the offer and when summer was over, I had entered Scholastics Mentalis at the Dominus Grande's personal recommendation.
Like all the other kids there, I spend five years learning the foundation of mathematics, languages, alchemy, physics and history, as well as getting the basic concept of Ars Mentalis, which is using your mind to create a desired effect on the world around you.
All this may sound boring, but Ars Mentalis teachers were masters of the mind, and they knew exactly how to make it entertaining. So, we solved funny puzzles with numbers and letters, sang children's songs about history and in general had a great time playing while learning.
Then, when I was ten, I discovered what the Dominus Grande had meant about 'personal recommendation': Instead of taking the next ten years at Schola Mentalis, a Mage showed up and transported me to Arcem Discendi, where I would train under the Dominus Grande himself along with nineteen other kids.
We still learned Ars Mentalis, math, physics, alchemy and all the other scholastic skills, but combat training was added along with many other teachings. Some easy and some difficult.
Meditation training was one of the studies that most people found extremely taxing, but as my mother had taught me that since I was four, it was easy for me along with the training in
Vis Vitae
that went with it.
Like mages drew from the power of magic, called Primal Essence, and Mentats drew power from the energy of the mind, users of Vis Vitae drew power from the energy of life.
While that sounds simple, it's actually rather complicated, since Vis is generated by both body and mind of all living beings. That means that a healthy body have more Vis than a sick body and a happy mind has more Vis than a sick mind.
The Lescarian regarded Vis Vitae as an almost holy force, but to me and the few other Baylons that have been trained in it, it was simply another force to be used.
Not that it's easy to use for most people, since using Vis Vitae required a special and fast form of meditation, that could be entered in a heartbeat and left again almost as fast, making Vis a useful tool in combat.
However, none of that mattered right now, as I was spending time for myself, and the castle garden has always been one of my favourite places when I need to relax. This time was no different and as always when I really needed to get my mind on something else, I was painting.
Mostly because I like to paint, but also because it's different from combat, Vis, Ars Mentalis and all the rest that we train every day and I fully understood both my mother and grandmothers need to do this. I hoped that I would be as good as they are one day.
The sound of footsteps on the gravel, made me look in the direction of the path and a moment later Verina Julia Serranus came into view. As always, she was dressed in a Lescarian kimono, complete with a fan and a golden headdress. However, with her white hair and pale blue round eyes, nobody would ever mistake her for a Lescarian.
It was like seeing double, because that was exactly what I was painting: Verina standing in that dress, with the Arcem Discendi in the background and some cherry blossom flowers drifting in the wind.
I watched as she walked towards me and remembered that another student once accused her of "going native", since she always dressed in kimono. Her reply was typical for Verina. "No, I just like the feel of silk against my body, the gentle sliding touch against my legs as I walk. It turns me on and that's a feeling that I like."
That shut the student up, which was a wise decision on his part, since Verina was one of the best martial artists in the school in general and the best when using her fans. They might look like ordinary fans, but they were made of coloured steel and the edge was razor sharp. She wouldn't use the edge on another student, but when the fans were closed, they made excellent clubs and she wasn't afraid to use them.
"Hello, Spectre." She greeted with a smile, using the nickname I had gotten at the school. "Fancy meeting you here."
"Yeah right." I replied with a grin, since she obviously had been looking for me and turned the canvas, so she couldn't see it.
She noticed the movement and her smile grew wider "Oh, a secret!"
"Don't!" I said, but it was too late. She disappeared from the path and reappeared ten feet behind me, where she could see the canvas.
For a moment, she stood there with an astonished look on her face, when she looked at herself on the painting.
I shrugged helplessly. "That's a good way to spoil a surprise."
Verina finally tore her eyes away from the painting and looked at me. "That's... beautiful, but why are you painting me? I thought you were painting some woman that I wasn't supposed to see."
"It's your birthday present." I said with a smile. "And it was supposed to be a surprise."
"Oh... Sorry about ruining it." She walked closer to the painting. "You're actually extremely good... Why haven't I seen more of your paintings?"
