Two days by horse, East of the city Arzick, stands an abandoned monastery. Five meter tall and three meter thick stone walls surround four buildings, a lighthouse and a central courtyard. For nearly a hundred years the monastery stood silent in the blue glow of its many enchanted lanterns. The blue glow was cast upon every wall, in every room, upon every stone within the monastery. There was magic entwined within that blue glow that helped to preserve and protect the monastery.

  Of the four buildings the largest was the three story dormitory. A single basement level housed a training area much like the dojo’s described within Petra’s favorite warrior princess romance novel. Old Man Thane had explained that each of the dormitory levels could house twenty five individuals comfortably and after a quick inspection it was clear that many training supplies remained in usable condition. One set of training gear was a weighted leather suit. Heavy flat stones placed in pockets throughout the suit covering legs, torso and arms.

  Before leaving the dojo Thane made a suggestion that Zeek should immediately begin to wear the suit at all times. On first thought, Petra found this a ridiculous idea. However, this gave her an opportunity to test out her abilities. She called Zeek over and asked if she could place her mark on him. Zeek nodded without hesitation. Moments later and Petra’s gut clearly signaled her that having Zeek wearing the absurd outfit would be the right decision.

  “Zeek, I know it may seem to serve no purpose but I have a feeling that Thane is right. Would you please wear this, and I hate to ask but could you wear it as much as possible and add weights if it ever begins to feel light?” Petra asked, staring up into her brother's eyes. Zeek again nodded without hesitation.

  “You can stop at any time, but let me know okay” Petra added, Zeek merely shrugged his shoulders and began to don the weighted outfit. It fit surprisingly well in most areas, however Zeek's thick calves required a bit of work before all was snuggly in place. With Zeek slowly following they continued their tour of the monastery. Petra, was actually quite amused as her brother reminded her of an image of a starfish drawn within her least favorite book The Lazy Daisy of the Sea.

  The second largest building was a single story stone building with very high ceilings. Thane called it the refectory and included only three rooms: a large eating hall, a kitchen, and a supply room. Many of the wooden tables had worn and crumbled but a handful still seemed usable. Thane explained that the kitchen likely could serve forty in a single setting but seemed designed for three rotations of twenty five if one considered the size of the dormitory.

  The smallest of the buildings turned out to be Petra’s favorite. Thane described showers and running water that swiftly took away the spoils of your morning stool. Thane called this building the balneary and noted that it was unusual to house both the showers and toilets in one building. However, it did make sense with the showers on the upstream side and the toilets on the downstream near the other end of the building. The water was magically pumped from below.

  Outside the Balneary and near the wall with the showers was a small communal fountain. It had no pumping mechanism nor a bucket, the water streamed with enough pressure to shoot water two feet into the air before it flowed down three levels until it pooled in a shallow pond. It did seem that this somehow feed back below ground and towards the showers and toilets.

  The last of the buildings was attached to what Petra assumed was the watch tower. However, Thane explained that it was actually a lighthouse. The Order of the Edge, invested in enchanted lights that could repel many low level foes. They were known to place light houses to both signal a safe haven for their members and allies as well as deter those that would seek them harm. The building portion turned out to be the library of sorts. A building nearly the size of the refectory but housing many smaller rooms used for logistics and management gave way to a large set of stairs heading down into a two level basement. Petra found this the best part of the tour as Zeek nearly stumbled but ultimately had to keep one hand on the wall in order to descend the stairs. Both levels of the basement library were full of books, scripts, and etched stone tablets. Over half of the books were in good condition, however Petra found that many books were in languages she was unfamiliar with. Zeek did not find anything of interest in the library and immediately started heading back up the stairs once he saw Petra lose interest in continuing the tour.

  Thane joined Zeek outside and slowly the two made their way to the courtyard and the remains of a wooden stable. “Ah, so not everything was preserved well it seems. Perhaps an addition without enchantments or does the light not hit this area well enough” Thane said aloud, Zeek merely shrugged but the suit prevented much of his movement from being noticed.

  “Zeek, dearest of friends, would you nod along if I get any of this right. I’d like to understand how you gained the Order of the Edge's pendant. Will you play along?” Thane asked as he looked over at the boy.

  Zeek nodded his affirmative.

  “Good, good. Was the pendant a gift?” asked Thane, Zeek nodded again.

  “Hmm. Did your father give it to you?” Zeek shook his head no.

  “Did you have it on you before you entered the monastery?” Zeek again shook his head no.

  “Did it appear around your neck the moment you stepped through the threshold?” asked Thane, Zeek nodded yes.

  “Oh, I see. So I assume you were being watched and whoever was watching found an opportune time to give you that necklace.” Thane wasn’t really asking at this point more, mumbling to himself, still Zeek shrugged his shoulders in response.

  “One more question, Do you have any more?” Thane asked and was shocked when Zeek unstrapped a chicken sized leather bag from his side and opened it to reveal hundreds of similar pendants.

  “Oh boy, you may have the pendants of every Edge member that went missing on this continent. Well those that never made it to the ports to flee the Griffins. I’ll warn you boy keep that pendant hidden if you ever see a Griffin flying in the sky. Though they likely won’t have been around a hundred years ago. Griffins are prideful and have a language all their own. They may very well still harbor hate for being forced into servitude by the Order of the Edge.” Thane said with a stern look, Zeek simply nodded and closed the leather sack.

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  “Now how about we get some weight training in and conquer the stairs up the lighthouse. I think that your sister will be lost in those books for some time. While we are at it we should light the thing, I doubt you and your sister are the only ones in need of a refuge.” Thane said as he started back towards the stone stairs that wrapped around the circular building. Zeek followed but with all the weight he quickly fell behind.

  Nearly an hour later and almost completely out of breath Zeek reached the top of the lighthouse. “Well, did you bring a large blue crystal lantern? Or did you expect an old man such as myself to do all the work?” Thane asked. Zeek, still taking in deep breaths, had his brow furled as the words finally hit home, looking up at Thane, he glared at the old man with fury. Zeek slowly turned and began his journey down the stairs much slower than when he had gone up them. Two hours later Zeek hauled the largest of blue lanterns up onto a pedestal at the top of the lighthouse.

  Thane pressed a few rune tablets at the top of the lighthouse and a wave of blue light pulsed outward. Zeek watched in amazement as the blue pedestal began to slowly spin and the large blue lantern focused into a cone beam brighter than any other lantern he had seen. “And now we have signaled our friends and foes. Hey we are here.” Thane said with a short chuckle before a stern look covered his face “I am serious this will likely help many but you must get strong if you wish to protect that big sister of yours” Zeek simply nodded.

  That night when Petra made her way out of the library and back towards the dormitory room they had claimed as their own she carried with her six books. Two were for her own romantic and educational needs while the remaining four held what her gut told her was of some importance to both herself and her brother. The four books she was most interested in included; Pioneering the Many Paths, Loylel’s Collected Truths, Hands of the Woodland Scouts, and Attributes for The Dull Minded.

  When Petra made her way into the dorm room she found Thane placing a small blanket over her sleeping brother. Thane did so as he hummed a tune that eerily had Petra imagining a grandfather clock ticking away the seconds. Her brother on the other hand had the weighted training suit still on and odor from his stained pits reached out and slapped her face. She turned around immediately and chose to sleep in another room where she could more easily digest her books. Tomorrow morning she would ask Thane about helping unlock a core class for Zeek.