The rain on Mortrum didn't just soak you; it burned if you stayed in it too long. Ash watched the rain sheet down the temple windows and measured the walk home by how long two stubborn kids could survive it without complaining or worse, hurting themselves.
Ash was tall, already taller than his mother at sixteen; he had inherited her wheat-coloured hair, cut short and left unruly, with strands pushed upward and outward, and a small, ungroomed patch of facial hair had started to grow on his chin and above his lips. His face was roughened and uneven, marked by grime and fatigue.
He had faint hollows set beneath piercing blue eyes, his mother had told him, just like his father's.
And because no one knew the man, everyone invented him: sovereign's bastard, priest's mistake, Inquisitor's "favour."
Most didn't even bother whispering. The things said about Ash and his mother were never meant to be quiet.
Rain said the ambiguity kept them alive.
Ash would never question his mother, but he loathed the insults; he couldn't handle anyone badmouthing her.
He wore the red hooded robes of the temple apprentices; they were made of a polymer fabric intended to be both practical and resistant to the extreme climate of Mortrum, which hung loosely on his frame.
"Big brother Ash!" an excited voice chimed from the doorway to the small classroom. Ash looked over to find the familiar faces of Spark, another boy with blonde hair and a puffy, ashen face, and Miru, a mild-mannered, thin little girl with brown hair; she was the one who had called his name.
"Welcome back. Which one of you made it? My bet's on Miru, Spark can't write to save his life."
Spark stuck his tongue out at him, "In your face, Ash, we both passed."
Miru shook her head, "He means thank you Big Brother. And… the Head-priest wants to see you."
"Ok I'll go meet him, you both better wrap yourself up nice, the temple is about to close, and we will have to leave in the rain soon."
Spark and Miru didn't look too pleased about that, but they just nodded. Ash walked out of the room into a hallway, made entirely of black materials, with an inlaid Orange LED stretching the length of the hall in the roof.
He knocked on the Head-priest's room, the door opened itself, allowing him to enter. The room was too full for Ash's liking; there was too much to take in. Wall furnishings, wooden containers with shelves that held more objects, lined the entire wall; there was a mat with strange patterns on the floor, and very little free space to move around that wasn't occupied with something. To Ash, it looked excessive.
Ash walked to where he was expected to stand and waited to be acknowledged by the High Priest.
Ash waited in silence for what felt like a few minutes before a voice broke the silence.
"You are 16, yes?"
"16 and 6 months, your Worship."
"So you've reached working age. Have you decided how you'll serve? Your performance has been… acceptable. The Flame has carried you farther than your blood deserved. Now you will repay it. You have already apprenticed for the Ember-Forged, the Flamebound and the Flame Scholars."
"Yes, your Worship."
"Your knowledge is too… rudimentary to be of use to the flame scholars. I think you will have better luck with either the tech-priests or the Flamebound knights, although the latter is filled with the sovereign family children, of the highest standing, they won't stand for you."
Ash didn't know what rudimentary meant, but he knew an insult when he heard one.
The priest had listed paths: tech-priest, flambound, or a scholar... Flame knew how many years it would be before he had any absolute authority.
None of those would save Spark or Miru from danger; they would allow him to help his mother even less.
"Your guidance honors me… but I want to test for the Red Mandate."
The High Priest levelled him with a pointed stare. " Any person in the empire would want to become an Inquisitor. Very few have the talent or skill for the red mandate. You may have come far, for your lacking lineage, but do you forget the benevolence that allows you to live and study here?"
"No your Worship, I…"
"Enough, I have honoured the Inquisitor's curious request for leniency toward your mother's little settlement and given you more opportunities than most; if he thinks you fit for the red-mandate, he may come fetch you for it himself; I, however, do not!"
The high priest let his words hang in the air for a moment before continuing,
"The two you brought, although older than the apprentices we take on, have passed the initial test and will begin their apprenticeships from tomorrow. You may take them and leave. Inform the Forge-Magister or the Knight-Warden of your decision by the end of this week."
"Yes, your Worship, thank you."
Ash walked backwards till he reached the door, and walked out. The High Priest's presence still suffocated him in a way the rest of the temple no longer did.
He swallowed the bitterness before it reached his face. Spark and Miru didn't need it.
When he returned to the kids, they were heavily wrapped in synthetic materials meant to keep out the rain, but their shabby defences against it were dead giveaways of their relation to the slave settlements of Mortrum. That gave anyone from the cities the license to harass them.
Thankfully, the rain would keep most people off the street, and the temple was near the city gates. Still, it would take them at least 2 hours to walk back to the slave settlement. The three slowly made their way to the gates.
"I think your mother's holding another meeting tonight," Spark said.
"And a new stream from the Silver Princess," Miru added, brightening.
"Yeah," Ash murmured, but his eyes weren't on them; they were tracking the guards at the checkpoint.
"Of course, Brother Ash is excited," Spark grinned. "He never blinks when her stream's on." Spark cackled.
Ash made a soft punching gesture at Spark, which he avoided while laughing. Well, he couldn't be angry at the kid. He often caught himself eagerly waiting for the Silver princess's streams every month.
"Oh, really? Like how you stare at Miru sometimes?" Ash casually whispered, only loud enough for Spark. He didn't need to look at the boy to know he had turned red. "I so do not."
"I hope I can be like her someday," Miru said, oblivious to the boys' conversation.
They had reached the checkpoint. Ash looked at the guards on duty today.
By the flame, not him!