CHAPTER 1

That morning as Jace woke up in his small room and looked around at the blank grey windowless walls and small alarm clock on a small dresser next to his small closet, he thought about how he wanted to go somewhere with his life, and how he wanted to get beyond this phase of it. The training was excellent here in the King�s Guard but he felt like he was called to something higher than just being a solider. He felt like some one had given him some inner gift, unknown to him, and expected him to search down deep and find it.

To find it, now that was a concept! Who but the most insane of riddlers would ever give you something that you might never find. A good riddler would give you a riddle which was achievable to you and which would help you to find some guidance in life.

Some guidance in life... another interesting concept. A concept which for him had never come true, which for him had always been a desire of his heart but seemed unattainable. Why was no one ever willing to train, teach, disciple, or otherwise speak into his life in a personal and meaningful way. Sure he got lots of physical training in the Ratan, he was educated through out his youth up until now on his eighteenth year, he had always been taught the ways of the Dwanian just as every other individual had. That wasn�t what he needed though, he needed a mentor, someone to help him learn the truths in life.

As he walked out into the cold winter air, and looked up at the bright sky, he wandered again about this odd dimension that he lived in. No one else ever thought it was odd but for some reason he had always felt that it was. The way it was set up just didn�t seem to work right. He had learned that originally there was only one Island. A beautiful lush Island.

Unlike an island in a body of water, an island in the Six Dims is the equivalent of a planet in earth's solar system. Except that it is a little bit smaller with one perfectly round base. It is the exact shape of a coin, with a flat underside and an upper side covered with regular wild life, landscapes, and environments and all of that was covered by the dome shaped atmosphere which allowed life to flourish. This entire Island is set in a place called the Nothingness, that exists, (or doesn't exist) in a dimension. This Nothingness is not black, and not white, but rather it is clear or simply not there. In a sense, you could describe a Dim as being set up in the fashion of earth's solar system, except that instead of a black Space, there is a completely blank or clear Space, and instead of planets revolving around a sun, there are stationary Islands spread all across the clear space.

From what the Dwanians, the religious order of the Six Dims, had taught him about history he had learned that the entire Six Dims had all started with only that single Island in just one single Dim. With only five main races, namely the Humans, the Dwarves, the Elves, the Dragons, and the Quetza (the Quetza are an odd water bound race who are usually a tall, thin, and blue skinned humanoid race who are known for their grace and beauty). Those five races had originally unified in a search for truth and reality and for three generations were committed to one another in unity and love, but many of the fourth generation offspring rebelled against their predecessors. The younglings claimed that their parents were closed-minded and that they themselves could not cooperate with the strict older generation. Those who chose to do so of the younglings left to fend for themselves.

The younglings became perverted, slowly degrading until they were in complete anarchy and involved in all sorts of evil. And although the Pure Blood, or as you know them, the predecessors, developed and grew in technology and number, the once younglings simply stopped advancing, becoming more and more bitter towards the Pure Blood. The Pure Blood itself, developed religious doctrines and beliefs, guarded and maintained by the Dwanians, who are sacred keepers of the law. These Dwanians spend there entire lives in a search for knowledge and wisdom and through that search they learn to channel the energy that runs through their own bodies. Some of the eldest Dwanians are even capable of manipulating the energy in the elements around them. After discovering these talents and disciplines they became a priest-hood, continually recruiting those with the Inner-Gift, and continually learning and teaching and growing.

Many, many generations later, the Pure Blood developed technology to leave the Island, to create other Islands, and to colonize them. However, the Dark Ones stole some of the technology and used it to get off of the first Island and escape into the F-Dim (the F-Dim was the only other dimension at the time, which was used to travel through from one Island to another because the F-Dim, or fast dimention, is different from other dimentions in its essence. No Islands can be created there because anything that goes into the F-Dim is carried away at high speeds by the currents running through it. Thus it could be said to be the river-rapids of the Six Dims).

All this Jace knew and yet still, he questioned it. If there was really some genius behind it all, or some creator like the Dwanians claimed, then it just had to make more sense. At that time Jace heard a quiet beeping on his forearm where his wrist watch was telling him that he was late for the first class of the day.

"Damnit," He whispered in frustration, "If I don't straighten up their gonna kick me out of the Ratan for sure." He said, like it really mattered to him, but as he thought about it, he wasn't really sure weather it would be a bad thing. Sometimes he just wanted to let go of all the social and religious standards and just go out and screw up. He just wanted to feel something, and if it meant completely destroying his life...well...who needed one anyways. And yet, he wasn�t quite sure, he was never quite sure. Many times he only wanted to screw up, to fail, to let go of his good intentions and trade them in for other, darker things. But at the same time he felt a strong need to just hold on a little bit longer, to stay in the light. Jace debated this moral, ethical, religious, pertaining to life thing that was crawling under his skin like a Mantiparis all the way to his first class.

Jace' first class was Dou-wan-to, or the Way of the Dwanian, which taught the martial arts developed since the beginning of the Six Dims by the Dwanian order. This class was an advanced military training course and because of its complexity and difficulty, there were only five students including Jace. When Jace walked in it was quite obvious that he was ten minutes late.

"Jace," said a small elderly man with a highly disapproving frown, "Why are you late?"

"I apologize Master, but I lost track of the time," replied Jace.

"I forgive you, but this is the third time this week Jace. It is not fair to your fellow peers the you are continually arriving late because you are lost in thought or have lost track of time. You are here in the Ratan now, you are an adult and must begin being responsible."

Jace thought that since there were four students in the class besides himself and this class always worked in pairs that it was kind of silly for Master to say that it wasn't fair to his other class mates. After all they were all in a little click together, or was it that Jace simply continually alienated himself from everyone else. They didn't like him anyways though except for his sister Ryla.

"Of course master, I will attempt to be more responsible as a member of the kings Ratan."

"Very well," said the old man with an evaluating look. Give me one hundred push-ups, thirty pull-ups, and one hundred sit-ups."

As the old man turned and walked toward the other students, Jace was left standing stock still with a gaping mouth. He wasn't a weak man, but that list of physical exercises was beyond him. Jace was about 5 feet 10 inches, well toned, with very little body fat. Jace had always been known for his luck with girls but the funny thing about that was that he never took advantage of an opportunity to have a relationship with a girl because he always felt that he would be taking advantage of her, and that defied his nature.

He was quite handsome, with shiny almost glowing green eyes and medium-length gel-spiked dark blue hair. He had trained in martial arts all of his life but was only now beginning to really learn and apply and mature at those sports. Having done so much in the way of combat training was an advantage to him, but also a disadvantage because he took much of what he learned for granted. And although he was very talented, he very rarely had the motivation or determination to push himself and work hard at improving his skill level.

As Jace watched his masters retreating back, he looked around for another option, but only seeing Ryla his sister's sympathy filled eyes and of course the mock-filled eyes of his other mostly male class mates, he finally accepted the punishment and got started.

By the time he had finished, class was over and his Master walked over to talk with him. Even though Jace didn't particularly want to talk at that moment, he did enjoy talking to his Master usually, so he gave it a chance.

"Hello Jace, do you mind if I sit down?" Master asked him sincerely even though he had the authority to pretty much do whatever he wanted up to taking over all of the Six Dims.

"No Master, not at all," replied Jace.

"What's going on Jace? What is getting into you?" The man looked sincerely interested.

"Nothing Master, what do you mean?"

"I mean, what has been troubling you lately?"

For a moment Jace thought that lying would be the best course of action, but after debating it for a couple seconds realized that this man was only trying to help in anyway he could. "Master, have you ever felt that you have something special to give, but you can't give it because you don't know what it is or who to give it to?"

After a brief thoughtful pause the Master said, "Jace, you have a very very special gift. I do not know all the details of it nor would I tell you if I did, but I will tell you that somehow, you need to train with the Dwanians-"

"But Master that�s impossible," Jace interrupted, "The Dwanians checked me when I was ten years old. I do not have the Inner-Gift and even if I do, it is so small that-" Jace was silenced by the Masters upraised hand.

"Hear me Jace, you do not have the Inner-Gift of the Dwanians, but you do have a gift. Thus they were not able to identify your talent. However, I would ask that you become my disciple so that I can help you train physically, as well as mentally and hopefully, give you a clue of how your gift operates. What do you say Jace..." The Master sat and watched Jace' reaction, calmly taking in the subtle hints of emotion.

"Master, that would be such a high honor and although I would be forever grateful you said that I needed to train with the Dwanians and you aren't-"

"If you choose to accept," the Master interrupted, �then remember that it will not be easy, in fact it will be incredibly hard. It will take all of your extra time and energy, but in return I will give you all that I know."

At that time there were a series of loud crashes outside of the Dojo. The Master remained calm though so Jace did the same.

"Yes, I accept."

"Very good, then call me Shii because it is my name and be here tomorrow at 1600 hours. Now go outside and defend the king's Ratan."

At the last comment, Jace was slightly displaced because he did not understand at first what was going on, but soon he heard the screaming outside and realized that it was war.

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