Chapter 3: This World’s Heroes
"I have ordered for your summoning because of an imminent threat to the Way."
A forced quietude overcame Rowan's body, any attempted movements rendered null as the inhabitants of the room laid completely still and the previous life the guardsmen had been giving to the atmosphere vanished.
The air clinging to his throat whisked away the moisture, eliciting an instinctual gulp from Rowan.
"Sorry, perhaps I should explain the ways of this world, first."
The king put his hand forth; his palm faced towards the ceiling. Rowan's skin began to tingle as the same warmth he'd felt when Corien healed him surged throughout the room.
At the same time, seven orbs shot out from the king's hand, some translucent and clear, others bright.
Without warning, Rowan's hair began to sway in the air despite being relatively short, the source of the storm the now revolving orbs that began to form their own after-images, too fast to track by the naked eye.
The back of Rowan's hand covered his face, his eyes half-closed. Stepping back to make sense of what was happening, he looked on as the orbs raised into the air and slammed into one, turning into a bright purple ball of pure energy.
It was then that light shot out from the top of the ball as it formed into a crystallized myriad of tiny prisms, the fractals forming one cohesive projection.
Words flung onto the center of the screen, reading 'The Seven Arts of the Ways.'
"In this world, we channel what we call the Way. In essence, the Way allows us to perform Arcana, which are expressions of the Aether."