Emperors War

Aker had been instructed by Vance to stay locked away for the next couple of days while the people from the Venicular Planet completed their work. Vance didn"t want to risk any situation where Aker"s presence could accidently be exposed. For the next few days Vance would have Cap, Mavis and Sampson go and keep Aker company and bring him his food and other necessities. He would still be able to practice his various skills with each of his teachers albeit in an extremely limited capacity in his room. He would probably spend the next few days discussing theory and different ideas about cooking, forging and ship functions.

Aker who after being locked away in The Pit for a couple of years was slightly upset and a little apprehensive about not being able to leave the confines of his room however it wasn"t worth dwelling on. Firstly, Aker trusted Vance implicitly and believed whole heartily that Vance would make decisions for Aker that were only beneficial for him. Secondly, in theory he should still be locked away in the depths of The Pit and as such having to be locked away for a couple of days wasn"t too large a sacrifice.

Sitting in his room Aker contemplated on what he should practice. After all of the intensive fighting he had done he didn"t feel the need or want to pick up his weapon. While he had accepted his new path, he still found that he wanted to find an outlet to free his mind from the struggle of the battles.

Aker had found while living in The Pit that working in the medic station, the forge and the kitchen didn"t just allow him to develop new skills, it also allowed his mind to put down the burden of the intensive training and life and death battle. He discovered that when it was time to train with a weapon or when he was headed to battle, he needed to exert himself fully and delve into it completely mind, body and soul.
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Initially, before he discovered the joy of the other skills, he found himself exhausted and tired mentally and physically. After he started practicing his other skills it had the opposite effect on his battle skills that he thought it would. He was under the impression that when he diverted his attention from swinging the sword, throwing the darts and using the knife his combat ability would suffer, but that simply wasn"t the case. While he didn"t spend nearly the amount of time in combat practice as he did initially because he was practicing the new skills, the time he spent in combat training was much more focused, and allowed for cleaner and better development.

So, sitting here he realized that he wanted to put down the burdens that he had just shouldered with the pirates and put his mind, body and soul into a non-combat exercise. Normally he would walk over to the kitchen or the forge and spend a few hours there, both of which were an excellent source of fulfillment in regards to creativity and personal satisfaction.

Aker enjoyed both aspects of his life and found that both combat practice and skill practice brought him vast enjoyment for different reasons.

While combat was important there was a distinct difference between the two. The goal of combat was to tear down the object in front of you to its most basic form. Battling was about destruction with the intent to leave everything in your wake destroyed.

Aker"s other skills were the opposite, they were about creating. The goal of medicine, forging and cooking was to restore and build up something that didn"t exist before. Aker found that through this creating and building he was able to calm his mind, focus and truly find enjoyment.

As Aker looked around the room, he noticed that it was primarily set up to support his battle practice. This made sense as they couldn"t install a forge or kitchen in his room. His eyes glanced through all objects and finally rested on the dizi sitting next to his bed.

Aker did practice for a couple of minutes every day with his dizi but he hadn"t made any real headway. Aker had discovered that in the six holed dizi that based on the number of holes he covered as well as the amount of air he blew in he would get a different pitched sound. As he used his fingers to close more holes, he would get a deeper sound and as he removed his fingers from holes the sound would get higher pitched.

He also learned that if he covered and uncovered a hole over and over again, he would make an ostinato sound. Aker wouldn"t practice anything in particular he was just practicing to try and find sounds at octets he found enjoyable and then memorized the sound and finger combination.

Aker not having anything else to do walked over and picked up his dizi and began practicing by blowing in and just randomly covering holes and raising his finger. He would cover four holes, blow and while blowing raise two random fingers. He continued this process countless times through dozens and dozens of variations each day.

Aker who developed the divine ear while cooking had learned how to apply it to his forging. In this case Aker would apply his divine ear and listen to each note as he played to determine how well it sounded. Just as he did with cooking and in the forge, Aker would try a note and determine if it sounded right to him. So far, he had felt that he had tried every variation possible with his dizi and discovered both great and awful sound combinations and was now ready to try and play a tune.

Aker who had never played a tune before thought back to his journey for the last two years, lifted the dizi to his lips and began playing. He had never seen a music sheet, never held an instrument and never had anyone instruct him even on the most basic of sounds and was playing with only what he had grasped through trial and error.

In fact, Aker couldn"t even be confident that he created his dizi correctly as he had designed and built it based on a picture. Since Aker only had a forge to make the dizi his dizi was a dark black flute made of midnight metal. Most wind instruments were made of wood and as such Aker"s dizi had a slightly different sound than any typical dizi would. Due to the weight and density of the metal his dizi sounded lower in tone which gave it a more masculine and heavy feeling as one listened to it.

As Aker thought about the moment he was taken from his mom, experimented on and thrown in The Pit he began to play. His fingers just moved as his thoughts reminisced, there was no thought or pattern to the movement of his hands.

Slowly the grief filled notes escaped the dizi and gave an overwhelming sense of loss and fear. Cap, Mavis and Sampson had all come to visit with Aker as they were all fully aware of the fact that he was feeling upset about being locked away.

As the three walked in to Aker"s room they heard Aker as he was practicing his notes and Sampson tried to escape immediately. It was Cap that grabbed him and whispered into his ear reminding him of why the three of them were there. Sampson who loved art, lived for art could not stand the butchery of Aker"s as he practiced with that d.a.m.nable instrument. Sampson felt that the midnight black matched perfectly with the evil that this instrument unleashed on the world. So, seeing Aker practice with the dizi he felt an overwhelming need to leave, it was as though his soul was screaming out in agony.

As Cap and Sampson were arguing and Sampson was still trying to escape Aker began playing and the three of them stopped immediately. Sampson who had been trying to escape a moment ago was instantly and completely enthralled by Aker"s emotions unraveled in musical form.

As the three felt their hearts breaking and being ripped from their chest Aker suddenly and dramatically changed the pace. He suddenly thought of his first battle with that first Kulga and the fear, danger and narrow escape from the clutches of death.

The tones began to liven up as Aker began to ponder on his time in the medic station, forge and the kitchen and the time he spent with Kara. The notes began to feel the freedom and self-determination that Aker felt as he fought in the arena standing up to the whole world. As he contemplated on all the different lives he was able to live in The Pit from the Little Life Doctor to the Novice Blacksmith and Novice Cook there was a tone of pride and accomplishment.

Cap, Mavis and Sampson were completely entranced with the sound of the flute and the whole world seemed to stop existing and at the same time the whole world seemed to develop color and life. They could see and feel the different emotions that Aker had over time.

Suddenly the three"s hearts were beating and they felt anger and rage as Aker thought of Alex. There was a slight murderous intent that filled the three"s hearts and their blood began to boil.

Just as they felt they were reaching the breaking point and wouldn"t be able to contain themselves the tone became free and alive. Suddenly they were escaping into the unknown, they could feel the immense excitement and the slight fear of the mysterious.

Finally, Aker thought back to his battle with the pirates. A feeling of indecision and conflict spread through the room. It was as if the feeling of never understanding what decision they should make would consume them. They felt shame and loathing, they were suddenly disgusted with themselves. As this mood of loathing and shame was consuming them a sudden moment of enlightenment spread out and it was though they were breaking free from a coc.o.o.n. The color of the world was restored and all of the doubts, self-hating and disgust were replaced with a new understanding of themselves and the world.

Finally, Aker removed the dizi from his lips and stared into nothingness. The three who had been listening the entire time were covered in sweat, they felt their bodies, minds and souls were exhausted. All three had gone through so many emotions from wanting to fall to the floor in tears and giving up on the world to jubilant elation. From self-loathing and disgust to finally acceptance and freedom. None of the three were sure how long they had been entranced by Aker"s song but all three had tears in their eyes.

Sampson who wanted to run away anytime he heard Aker play called out with tears in his eyes "Little Boy, that was the most magnificent masterpiece this one has ever had the joy of hearing. While the sound can certainly be improved the feeling that you expressed was capable of consuming me and drawing me in. For the rest of my life I believe I will base all other music art based on what I just heard. I may hear better tunes and I may hear worse tunes but yours will forever be the piece that all other music is judged by."

There was no higher complement for Sampson than for him to declare that anything was the basis for comparison. Aker who had just played his first music piece was obviously not perfect as he played. However, in this case it was not the sound of the music that touched the three but the emotions and journey that Aker took them on.

Aker who didn"t know that the three were in the room turned around and was embarra.s.sed to see them standing there. As Aker didn"t have a teacher and really had no idea what he was doing he didn"t want others to hear him as he played his dizi for the first time.

For Cap, Mavis and Sampson after listening to Aker play for the first time they felt they had a true understanding of this boy who had wormed his way into their world. They understood his desperation, his hope, his fears and his hesitation. Cap who had thought it so many times couldn"t help but think again "he"s a genius at everything he touches".