Following her through the misty water's surface he asked, "Acustes? I don't know what that means. Is that like a famous clan that I should know about or something?"
Looking back over her shoulder at him she smiled and said:
"No, I suppose not really... You are of a different origin after all. You remind me of... Nevermind.
"Hey, can I assume you're another one of Solace's siblings?" Altha asked.
Giggling to herself she answered, "Huh? No, not a sibling. Have another guess."
"Ok... You're... Their Cousin?" Altha asked.
She shook her head, "I'll afford you one more guess."
"Uhh, well, my intuition is screaming, aunt. So are you their aunt?" He asked.
Looking over her shoulder she nodded and said in her soothing voice:
"Good intuition, you should listen to it more."
Altha nodded and said, "Mmph"
As they talked, the two were quickly gaining on land, and Altha couldn't help but look into the mists now and again. Noticing, Cecily shot him a smile and said:
"Careful, one shouldn't look into the abyss so deeply; you don't know what might be staring back at you."
Suppressing a smile, Altha said, "It is my parent, born and raised. I know it all too well."
The two reached land not long after, and as he left the waters of the lake, Altha felt his mind spin as the world around him unravelled, and he could see things that were previously obscured by some thin veil of reality.
Sumi and the others were there wearing sleek, form-fitting attire, including padded gloves and shin protection. They all mostly wore black with traces of white accents.
"Training gear? What is this?" Altha thought to himself. "Am I expected to fight these guys or something?"
"So then, as you may know, Altha, your Somniate Trial isn't all that far from now. The trial will be harrowing and will require a lot out of you if you hope to make it back alive." Cecily stated as she approached the group.
Seth spoke:
"You may not know this, but ever since you got here, you've been on trial, our trial. We apologize for the secrecy but we needed the most genuine performance out of you."
Isolde placed a familiar coloured cube down on the floor and said:
"Here are your results. You made it through the forest in 18 seconds, with a constant velocity of 25.9 m/s for a total of 12 seconds split between before and after the golem."
"So I was being watched the whole time, predictable. How do they have such precise measurements though?" Altha thought to himself.
"For the golem, you chose stealth over fighting. With that in mind, we've deduced your possible combative strengths to be: infiltration, ambush tactics, assassination, and diplomacy." Isolde said as a holographic screen appeared, projecting from the cube.
"Next was the cube to confirm your strength, of which you were only expected to last a total of 1 minute instead of the full allotted period, so congratulations on that," Isolde stated.
"Yeah, you should have seen their faces when you got to the second-minute mark until the fifth, pure gold, I tell you," Seth stated as he struggled to hold back a laugh.
"Don't pretend like you weren't taken a little by surprise too. I read your face." Isolde stated playfully.
Cassilyth approached Altha and gently grabbed his arm to examine it, "Such slender hands you have, Altha; I wonder, where you get all that strength from?"
Sumi approached as well and said:
"Cassilyth, ask before touching someone. Don't just jump straight into it."
"Oh right, sorry Altha. I may have let my curiosity get the better of me there." Cassilyth said apologetically.
"It's no problem really," Altha said quietly.
"Also, strength isn't determined by muscle size alone; more important is one's ratio of muscle fibre types," Sumi added.
"Ooh is that so? Well, thank you for the info, Doc. You are truly knowledgeable beyond your years." Cassilyth said playfully.
Crossing her hands and dramatically lifting her chin, Sumi said:
"Indeed, and don't you soon forget it."
Clearing her throat, Isolde called everyone's attention to the holographic screen.
"Anyway, for now, he's been able to lift a total of 2400 KG worth of mass equating to-"
"22,520 Newtons of weight." Altha thought to himself.
"22,520 Newtons of weight." Isolde stated.
"Nice work, Altha!" Solace said as he extended his hand for a fist bump.
Altha happily obliged. Smiling Cecily stated:
"You've done exceptionally well so far, Altha. Now all that's left is an evaluation of your Aspects and your fighting style then we'll begin your training tomorrow."
In her palm crimson strings gathered and coalesced into a cube of an indeterminable colour. Placing the cube on the ground she then walked 4 metres over to Altha.
"Ok, Altha, so like before, you'll be lifting that cube, but this time, I've removed its immutable enchantment so you can use your Aspects on it more easily," Cecily said flatly, trying to dull her curiosity.
"Immutable enchantment?" Altha asked in a whispered voice.
"That's a lesson for tomorrow, for now, focus. Try to lift that cube for as long as you can. The weight of it will increase over time. Are you ready?" Cecily asked.
Slowly nodding Altha took in a deep breath and put one hand in his pocket while he made an upward gesture with the other, causing the cube to slowly lift and levitate 1.5 metres off the ground.
Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes turned to mind-numbing strain for Altha. Then, after some time, the cube started to slowly descend, despite his efforts to keep it stationary.
"You have lasted seven minutes and forty-two seconds; your total mass lifted was 6895 KG with a total weight of 67571 Newtons."
Collapsing to his knees with beads of sweat trailing down his face, Altha felt exhausted, Rushing over, Solace and Sumi helped him onto his feet.
"That was amazing, kid! You're the strongest non-astral that I've met yet." Solace said excitedly.
"Are you ok? Do you need to take a break?" Sumi asked her voice cracking as she did.
"Amazing Altha, simply splendid. One more trial left. Are you able to keep on going?" Cecily asked.
"I think he needs a minute or two." Solace answered.
Walking over to them, she manifested in her hand a glass bottle full of a glowing yellow liquid. Telling Altha to open his mouth, she poured a drop of the liquid into his mouth, and a sudden burst of energy rushed through his body.
"That should hold you over for long enough to finish this last trial," Cecily stated.
Steeling himself, Altha resolved to end this as quickly as possible.
Shooting him a smile, Cecily parted some mist from the lake and watched as from it slowly floated out a monstrous crablike creature with three clawed tentacles that resembled vertebral columns, hovering above the misty waters.
Looking at the creature, Altha thought to himself, "Well, forget about the Somniate Trial. I'm about to die right here." Turning his sights to Cecily, he looked at her, and she smiled.
Taking his hand she put a golden bracelet with a runic insignia on it. As soon as she did Altha noticed the creature turn to look directly at him.
"Good luck, Altha; we'll be watching closely, so give it everything you've got or at least don't die." Snapping her finger she disappeared along with the rest of them.
Altha frowned as he noticed the creature hovering toward him, "Yep, seems about right. I guess this is where we die self. You know, somehow, the circumstances of our death seem predictable." He thought to himself, "Don't you give me that; I know we have a plan. Stop fooling around and get to enacting." His thoughts responded.
Sighing, he looked at the golden bracelet, paying attention to the design and form of the insignia as he kept track of the giant crablike entity and slowly backed up into the forest. Waiting for it to reach land, and once it did, he telekinetically pulled the cube into his hand noticing its weight had reset and dashed into the forest.