Asher looked at both his hands in utter shock, he couldn’t feel nor conjure up any iota of essence at all.
Wilson stared at him with one of his eyebrows raised in question but decided to say nothing.
"As I said before, the both of you would have been in the way. You would possibly have been taken hostage by him and that would put me in a precarious situation." Wilson explained.
Anna stared at Asher in fear and anxiety, he stood there staring at the ground with a depressing aura around him.
"What pathway do you follow sir?" Anna asked Wilson who surprisingly smiled at her question and then his countenance became serious all of a sudden.
"The Gravekeeper pathway." Wilson replied calmly.
"And what stage?" Anna asked again.
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"Red. I’m at the Red Stage."
Asher suddenly walked out of the room and went to the back, Anna and Wilson stared at him with surprise. Wilson smiled and then dropped two keys on the table.
"Give one to him and use the other one to open the door to your room. The rooms are the first two door on your left." Wilson explained and then went behind the counter and took a drink for himself.
Anna walked towards the door that led to the inner chambers of the bar.
"Goodnight." She said in a calm and soothing voice.
He raised his bottle of beer to her, acknowledging her words. She turned and walked through the door locking it behind her.
She walked through the dimly lit passage and saw Asher seated on the floor with his head between his knees.
Anna’s heart sank at the sight. Her countenance which was already at the lowest it had ever been in her life, dropped even further.
She walked towards his position and sat down beside him. She looked at him and felt tenderness towards him. She put her hand on his shoulder.
"Asher, what’s wrong?" She asked.
"It was him wasn’t it?!" Asher screamed as he shot up from where he had previously sat. "I’m sure it was!"
"What are you talking about?" She asked, becoming increasingly worried about his condition.
"It was Radkiel." Asher said without any remorse.
"He’s the reason I can’t use essence! He’s the reason I’ve lost all my powers! And he’s also the reason why I feel this powerless!"
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she saw his reaction. "Asher don’t say that. I’m sure there’s some reasonable explanation for this, even I have losty powers as well but you don’t see me crying about it."
"There is no other reasonable explanation for this other than the one I just gave! And you’re not crying about it because there’s literally no difference between you with those powers or without it!" He replied with tears in his eyes.
She was suddenly overcome by anger and flared up. "If that’s what you want to think then fine!"
Clank!
She tossed the key to his room door on the floor by his feet and walked briskly away from him.
Slam!
He heard a door being slammed a little further into the passage. He came to the conclusion that it was the door to Anna’s room.
His thought about her reaction and saw everything wrong with it.
Why was she trying to defend Radkiel? Someone who abandoned her till he came and took her out. The same person who hid what happened with the Jardels in the Djinn kingdom in his hundredth life.
She knows all this, she knows what Radkiel had done and still she chose to believe that something else was the reason the both of them lost their powers.
This is all bullshit. He thought as he picked up the key from beside his foot walked towards the direction he had heard the sound of a door slamming.
He rubbed his fingers on the first door and could hear Anna’s tears from within. It broke his heart to hear her cry like that but maybe it was better for her, so she would sleep on what he said and realise that Radkiel isn’t a good guy.
He walked to the other room and put the key in the lock, he turned it and walked in.
...
Anna sat on her bed with her head buried within a pillow.
The bed was incredibly well furnished as it had proper bedding and two pillows as well as a mirror and a make-up table. And it also has a built-in bathroom as well.
Seems like Wilson already knew what was in the rooms, maybe that’s why he picked this one for me. She thought and then her mind flew back to Asher’s words.
"Why did he say something like that?" The tears fell from her eyes the way water rushes from a tap.
She cried until she fell asleep.
...
Asher opened his eyes due to the fact that the sun’s rays were on his eyes. He woke up and then held his head.
"Ouch." His head banged like bongos. "A headache? After just one day?"
He got up from bed and walked to the bathroom in the room allocated to him. He sat down on the floor and poured water from a bucket on his head which spread around his enter body.
His hair fell and covered his eyes, water dripping from the tips.
The fact that he had lost all the abilities he had trained and mastered in the past one year were all gone.
His hard work was gone like the wind and lost forever.
His eyes suddenly snapped open in realisation. Wilson mentioned something about Ascenders last night.
He got up from the floor of the bathroom and walked out. He put on his working clothes and then opened the front door of his room.
At the exact same time, Anna opened her door and both their eyes met.
Slam!
Anna immediately shut her door angrily and then turned the key to lock it. She put the key in her apron and walked towards the front.
Pffff
He didn’t understand her attitude. He thought that she would have going by it overnight.
"I guess I was wrong." He locked his door and then walked to the front as well.
"Hahahaha." As he walked further forward he could hear Anna’s laugh and that of someone else.
But judging by the fact that it was so early no one would walk in and request a drink he denoted that the other person laughing with her was Wilson.
"Good morning." Asher greeted the both of them.
"Morning." Both of them replied in unison and then went on with their chat completely removing Asher from the equation at that point in time.
The day went on rather smoothly, business was almost perfect except for the sole incident of a drunk trying to hit on Anna which made Wilson have to intervene.
At the end of the day, Asher locked up. When he turned around, he saw Anna and Wilson seated talking about something in muffled tones.
"Um, I have a question to ask you." Asher began as he pulled a chair from the table beside them and sat down close to Wilson.
"How does one become an Ascender?"
Wilson raised both his eyebrows in surprise. He looked at the two people on each of his sides.
Damn it, why was she thinking about what I was thinking? Asher thought through the dilemma in his head.
How was he thinking about what I was thinking? Is he psychic? Anna asked herself numerous questions.
"Hahahahaha!"
But both their thoughts were interrupted by Wilson’s unnerving laughter.
"So the both of you want to become Ascenders eh?" Wilson asked, clearly interested.
"Yh, I do." Asher replied.
"I do too." Anna added on.
"Hmm. Are you sure you have what it takes to be an Ascender? You basically risk being corrupted, losing yourself, losing your freedom and dying a horrific death."
"I’m sure I’ll be able to handle it. There’s nothing special about my life anyways so why not just use it for something." Anna replied.
"No love, there’s multiple good things about your life you just don’t know it yet." Wilson replied with a warm smile.
Asher stayed quiet for a while, Wilson studied his face for a long time and was about to speak up.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Asher rapped his fingers on the wooden table, seeing as he got Wilson’s attention he sat back and relaxed more.
"I want to become an Ascender as well." Those were the only words that came out of his mouth. Wilson stared at him and then smirked.
He’s determined. I like that. Wilson smiled.
"Now, I have all black stage potions for all nine pathways already brewed." Wilson revealed.
"What are the names of the Pathways anyway?" Anna asked.
"As I’ve already told you previously we have the Omniscient Eye pathway and the Gravekeeper pathway." Wilson began.
"The other seven are Thief Of Truth, Archivist Key, Star, Gravekeeper, Broken Throne, Veiled Sirenn and Binding Oath."
"Star." Anna began. "The Star pathway sounds nice, I choose the Star Pathway."
Wilson eyes widened for an instant but he retained his composure almost immediately.
Asher thought over the names of the pathways. He didn’t know what abilities he would gain nor what he would be able to do with any of them but he made up his mind.
"I pick the Shattered Mask pathway." Asher stated.
Wilson smiled. "You sure you want to go down The Shattered Mask?" He asked.
"Yes, I am."
"Now, follow me." Wilson got up from his chair and beckoned for them to follow.
He led them through the dimly lit passage once again but this time opened a door that was immediately by the right side of the entrance.
Creak!
When he opened, it revealed a flight of stairs spiraling downward.
With Wilson leading the way, the three of them walked down the stairs. When the got to the bottom, Wilson turned on the lights which revealed tables, shelves filled with books and a rather ominous chest.
Wilson walked up to the chest and then pulled out two vials. He dropped both vials one in front of each of them.
"Drink the one in front of you." Wilson nodded at them.
Anna picked up the vial in front of her, when she opened it the liquid inside was clear like water but it smelt like nothing she had ever known.
Asher opened his own vial and his was blue, with smoke seemingly coming out of it.
"That one evaporates if you don’t drink it quickly." Wilson warned.
Asher put the vial to his lips and drank it’s contents.
Anna, seeing that Asher had drank his own vial drank her’s as well.
A cool and smooth feeling quickly filled their oral cavities.
It then flowed through their throats and into their stomachs.
The blue liquid which Asher had drunk seemed to grow out thin and long vines, bringing stimulation and coldness to every cell in Asher’s body.
He could not help but convulse as his vision rapidly went into a blur
All colors seemed to become clearer. The reds were redder, the blues were bluer, and the blacks were blacker.
The rich colors blended like an impressionist painting.
He felt dizzy, he held his head trying to keep himself steady.
Anna on the other hand sat down, her entire body embraced the cool feeling the potion brought to it.
And then her eyes started glowing with bright light as the potion spread through all parts of her body.
"Now both of you, stay calm."
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