Prince of Salvation

"Not sure if I told you but you have a senior, her name is Zahra. She is currently not here but she will be back tomorrow after her penance. Oh yeah, first, let's rest up and then we can talk later. Make yourselves at home and feel free to choose your respective rooms. I don't believe in employing maids or hands, so we will be splitting work." Noor said as she waved her hand and went upstairs.

Aside from Luene , the others were surprised by the sheer size of the house; Luene was already aware how high of a rank Crowned was and knew how amazing Madam Noor was. As for the other three, it was a pleasant surprise.

They took time to just look at the house from the doorway before Luene headed in nonchalantly and signaled the rest in. From the door, one was met with mahogany flooring that covered a small hall. On the left was a large open area filled with couches and a small coffee table in the middle. Further ahead, the house opened up into a long corridor with an open kitchen on the left, a bathroom on the right and a dining room further ahead. On their right was a marble staircase that rose up into another floor covered in rich gulf carpetry. On each side of the hallway above, were rooms each paired with it's own bathroom. At the ends of the hallway were two rooms, one that obviously seemed to be their master's from the sheer grandness of the double door. The other had a note attached to it that read 'Zahra'. Overall, the house was different from the brutalist architecture of the town. It was located in a residential area in the west of the city.

Azrael eventually settled on a room close to Zahra's, well settled wasn't right. It was all he had left to him after the others had already chosen.

Azrael only had his bag full of belongings and a small journal he occasionally sketched in, and thus quickly settled in as he gazed at his room. The light shining in through the curtain almost seemed ethereal, it painted the room a beautiful morning glow. He had a sizeable bed close to the only window at the end of the room, a desk on the right and a fully furnished bathroom just before his desk. Next to the bed was a small closet.

Content with his room, Azrael soon fell asleep in the atmosphere.

Azrael work up with a start, he had heard something. His eyes swept across the room that was now much darker and painted orange in the dusk. There next to his bed was Noor, an almost evil smile plastered on her face. Azrael almost panicked before he calmed his nerves and patiently stood up.

" Yes Master?" 

" You look like an angel when asleep...hehe...anyway wake up sleeping beauty. It's time for class, I wish I could let you sleep but we are on a tight schedule my boy. Meet the others in the open area downstairs, I'm coming down."

Downstairs, Azrael found the cohort seated on the couches in different wear, Luene's looked the most comfortable, a silk gown while Orion and Bilach had very plain clothes on, just a shirt and a pair of shorts for both of them. The others chuckled a bit when they saw Azrael, who was still in his ceremonial clothes but now filled with wrinkles; he still looked groggy.

"You slept well..." Luene giggled as she said.

" Of course our Sleeping beauty did...heh..." Bilach said.

" Oh no, Master Noor already got to you too...please don't.." Azrael said to the amusement of his friends as he put on a frustrated act. 

The four shared their thoughts on their late lesson and also noted the humour in their master's eccentric behaviour and messy way of doing things. They were all in the middle of laughing at another jibe Bilach had prodded Orion with, when their master joined them, a stern look unlike herself on her face. They instinctively sat alert.

" Okay my babies, I am going to need you to pay attention now. I heard you rascals by the way and you are right about me being a bit...eh messy in my communication. But this is very important and I will need you to pay attention as I try my best. 

Now going over the basics, Blessings are as you know, the gifts we've gotten from the different deities of Justice, War, Love, Wisdom and Craft. They, since as far as recorded human history is concerned, chose champions known as apostles and blessed them in their different domains of the Sun, Void Sea, Earth, Moon and Stars respectively. We call these, the schools of thoughts or paths . 

For our school, we use the solar essence known as Taqa, this essence was how other apostles were able to notice you and pick you out from your peers. Verily, I used the same basis when selecting you guys. I would like you guys to recall times when you seemed to taste something from your smell or smell something via your hearing. That is the best description I could give you now. It is a different sense separate from the rest as I'm sure Azrael and Luene gathered. Now for the untrained, it is usually hard to tap into this power with only a bit of your taqa revealing itself when it is lost to the outside . You may have noticed people around you looking up to you or even finding yourself drawn to certain people. This charisma and gravitation is as a result of our taqa. Many use this trait to influence people....uhm..the path of the sun is known to be one that is gentle and charismatic.

Our school believes that there is an infinite amount of taqa, it does not reside in our bodies nor does it reside in our world. There seems to be a boundless energy source that exists on a plane higher than ours, some believe that is the realm of the deities. Now this does not mean we are all powerful beings...we can only access a little bit of this power but even then if you over use it you will get sensory overload and black out at best. "

Noor looked around to check on her students, they were still paying attention and did not seem overwhelmed.

"Good, good, I love your attentiveness. Now if you recall, each school seems to possess different ways of living and I remember I said Zahra is doing her penance. I will explain all this. This is the nature of taqa. See once you've awoken to taqa, you will first have to choose between any of the 3 available routes of solar priest, solar mage or solar warrior. As one advances and becomes proficient in their field, they gain the stability or are able to incorporate another route. This usually follows a set pattern...oh right the ranks....Uhm...see we have ranks that are used to denote levels in the world of apostles:

Apostles, Ascetics, Saints, Crowned, Tyrants and eventually the Winged. Now usually one takes in another route once they advance by 2 levels. This isn't completely right..uhm; you normally acquire your next 'job' when you advance to a Saint, then the other at the tyrant level where you can now consolidate your skills. Of course this is wholly dependent on talent, the better you are the earlier you get to branch out your skills.

Now about penance and way of life..." Noor was about to continue before Azrael cut her off.

" Excuse me master but how do you advance in levels?"

"Oh yes, good question, that is part of what I was about to tell you. See there are two things worth noting when it comes to blessings. There is your proficiency in your class such as a solar priest and the other is your connection to the heavens. The more proficient you are, the more you are able to freely utilise your powers. Now this is a classic case of creativity and general training. You train yourself to be free with your taqa and utilise your route's particular traits. You fight using your own creativity too.

Although most routes share common powers in the same school, it is very common for individuals to have their own unique...takes?.... I guess....on these powers. Say two solar priests might have completely different healing and buff spells, and this is wholly decided at birth, one can try to imitate them but ultimately it won't come close to the other solar priest's spell.

Now, your connection to the heavens is in regards to how much taqa you can call upon via your thread of fate. Their is only one way of furthering this; penance. You must live in a certain way that we believe embodies your school in a bid to impress the Lord that rules over that school and gain more favour. Some people are more favoured and progress faster. Schools set up and teach general ways of living and rules that have proven to show the best results. For us for example, it is mainly servitude and general benevolence. The Void sea for example mainly fight. I think you get the point. 

Still some people have been shown to progress fast by following their own codes of conduct. It is all about discovery about what works best for you and keeping it in the bounds of what the Lord will be pleased with, in my opinion. I think that is basically it. "

Noor finally heaved a sigh of relief. It was getting dark out, she was tired from talking but very happy her students were very attentive and seemed to be understanding.

Noor spent more time clarifying things for her students and then went and whipped up a simple supper to the surprise of her students. Everyone was worn out and retired early in preparation of getting to use their blessings the following day.

Azrael thought about a lot that night.

'Taqa huh...so that is what you are..' he thought as he played with a flame dancing on his finger before he succumbed to sleep.