Foundations: A Cultivation Academy Series (Bastion Academy Book 1) Read online

  Hana’s mother watched me with a piercing gaze that seemed to analyze my every thought. Perhaps I wouldn’t be good enough for Hana, but not for the reasons her mother believed. Hana deserved more than a boy who minimized her suffering because he felt his own more. She deserved better than someone who assumed she didn’t care when, in reality, she’d done everything in her power to help.

  I held my breath; it was the only way to hold my tongue. I’d allowed enough stupid words slip from my lips in the past weeks, I didn’t need a mistake that cost me more than I could afford.

  “Hana!” her mother yelled, her eyes still locked on mine. Hana approached in the periphery. I didn’t want to look away from her, to seem subservient. My wealth didn’t determine my stature. I’d earned my place in Bastion just as Hana had.

  Hana bowed to her mother, who tutted as she released my chin. “Tell this boy he’s nothing,” she ordered, and Hana gasped. When she didn’t speak, her mother turned to glare her down. “Tell him!”

  I looked to Hana, her sparkling purple eyes terrified. What could cause this much fear in a girl I knew to be so strong? Hana’s gaze shifted to me, and I nodded to her. She could tell me I was nothing if it meant whatever she feared so much right now wouldn’t befall her. She sucked in a deep breath and swallowed. The students fell silent.

  “You,” she started, her lower lip quivering, “are my friend.”

  My shriveled heart beat fast for the first time in weeks.

  “Hana!” her mother growled, and Hana squared her shoulders.

  Hana went on, “You give me strength. You’ve shown me that the world is a harder place than I could’ve ever known, and that I need to rise to meet my challenges, just as you do. I want to be there when you meet yours head on, just as you are here now to push me to meet mine.”

  “That’s enough. We’re leaving!” Mother Jun declared and spun away from me.

  Hana shook her head. “I’m not leaving, Scilla.”

  Her mother—Scilla—stopped in her tracks and spun slowly. “What?”

  “I’m staying at Bastion. I’m going to become a Zo Grandmaster and defend our home from the encroaching kingdom across the sea. I’m going to fight to protect what I love—you, father, my friends, and my home.”

  Scilla seethed with fury. “Your lifepath is already determined, and you will follow it.”

  “I will not,” Hana said, firming her stance.

  “Follow me home, now, or you will lose your inheritance, your home, and your family,” Scilla threatened, and the feral urge to defend Hana activated the stored zo in my core. My fists flared with black power, and the guards beside Scilla reacted in a blink, putting themselves between me and her.

  Mother Jun cackled madly. “You’re going to hurt me, little ganhan? Perhaps I was wrong about you. Perhaps you are worthy of my disloyal, disobedient, former daughter. What a pair you’ll make living on the streets of outer-city.”

  “You’re cruel,” I snarled at her, and the black flames licked up my arms to my chest.

  “Jiyong, stop or you’re suspended!” the instructor yelled, but the consequences of his demand couldn’t dissuade me. I couldn’t back down. I couldn’t let another rich pungbahn stomp all over me and what I loved just because they deemed me lower.

  “Jiyong,” Hana whispered and slid her hand over my shoulder. The flames in my heart died, and the zo retreated to my reservoir. How could I be so stupid to think that guard wouldn’t end my life here in the courtyard just because I was surrounded by students? I was not safe just because there was an instructor standing in my vicinity.

  Scilla tutted. “Enjoy your life, Bulbeob, Hana.”

  Like sparks in dry tinder, the fire in my chest reignited at her mother’s stripping of Hana’s family name. The zo reignited down my arms, and at that, Scilla’s guard rushed me. I put up my hands in a hurried block.

  “Mother stop him!” Hana screamed as her hand slipped from my shoulder. I backed away, fueling my muscles with zo as I blocked, dodged, and sidestepped the guard’s furious blows. This was hardly a time to marvel at my strength, but I was surprised by my own power against an elite guardian of a wealthy kingdomite.

  His fists flashed in toward my chest, and both landed with a solid smack. I gasped as I flew backwards onto my ass. The students stepped away with shouts for help as the guard charged in again. I hopped to my feet and cycled my breathing, deepening each pull of air.

  Hana shouted for the guard, Duke, to stop, but he kept coming. I parried his kick and shoved it away. He spun, putting more power into the next kick aimed at my chest. I caught him by the calf and jerked him in closer, landing a solid strike to his ribs. He sputtered and threw a wild punch that soared over my head. He pulled back, but I held strong, not letting his leg go as I let him have another punch to the gut.

  He blocked the strike, countering, and I dodged, but still didn’t release him. The students were screaming around us, and I heard Hana’s voice calling out for her mother’s other guards to stop him. Where was the instructor? Why wasn’t he doing something?

  Duke pulled back once more with much more effort, and I released him. The guard stumbled backwards with a snarl on his lips, then darted in, wild fury. I blocked and deflected his fists with lightning reaction as my muscles burned with the zo flame. He wanted to hit me, and my denial of that joy was infuriating him. I took an opening to give him a quick jab to the chin. The hit landed with a smack, and the guard stumbled back.

  “Perhaps you should get better guards if a first-year Bastion can fight them off,” I said as I glanced to Scilla.

  She glared me down with contempt but made no move to stop her guard as he threw himself at me. “You’ll never disrespect the Jun house again!” he shouted, fist pulled back for a haymaker to end the fight.

  “Jiyong, duck!” Yuri yelled behind me, and I dropped low.

  Shin-soo’s flying sidekick passed over my head, landing squarely on Duke’s cheek as his haymaker smashed into Shin-soo’s leg. The guard stumbled back and Shin-soo dropped to the ground in a limping fighting stance. I backed up several paces, getting Duke and Shin-soo in front of me.

  I darted into Shin-soo’s reach and slapped away his block, then hammered two punches to his ribs. He doubled over, and I smashed his nose with a knee, then slammed my joined fists into his back. Shin-soo crumpled to the ground with a woof, and Yuri shouted another warning.

  I turned to see the guard’s fist aimed for my eye. I leaned back just enough for his punch to fall short. I dropped low to avoid another strike and regain my balance, then slipped away from the corner the guard had pinned me into. Shin-soo groaned as he rose to his knees, and I took another step back keeping my focus on the guard.

  Sweat gathered on my brow and clung to my skin as Duke and I circled each other. He was trying to get my back to Shin-soo. I danced around, making sure to keep my eyes on both the targets as the students backed away further. Still, the instructor was nowhere to be seen in the crowd.

  Shin-soo shouted in bellowed anger and pain, his bloodied face making him look like a rabid dog as he charged. Duke swept his foot low, and I counter-kicked, but while my attention was on his feet, his hands were reaching for the collar of my dobok. Shin-soo aimed a kick at my back, cutting off my escape.

  I clamped onto Duke’s wrists as he grabbed two fistfuls of my shirt. I jumped, pulling my legs up and under me before launching a massive double-kick into Duke’s gut. I sailed backwards as the guard lost his grip. I flipped over Shin-soo’s kick and slammed my heel into the back of his stabilizing knee.

  Shin-soo dropped, and I followed through with a strike to his face, then another, and another. Red painted my aching fist as I delivered retribution for everything he’d ever done to me, to the other students, to everyone. He would pay in blood for all his crimes.

  “Enough!” the instructor shouted as he pulled me off Shin-soo.

  I wrenched myself out of the instructor’s grip. The students gathered around whispering, look
ing at someone over my shoulder. I turned back to see the Grandmaster, his arms crossed over his chest and an unreadable expression on his aged face.

  “Jiyong, my office.” He spoke with a commanding tone that couldn’t be ignored. He looked to Scilla and dipped his head. “My apologies for this incident, wansil-yu Jun.”

  I looked up at Scilla and Duke, both wearing smug expressions. The instructor done nothing about Scilla’s guard assaulting me, but suddenly, when I gave Shin-soo what was coming, I was being punished and their actions pardoned. More pungbahn favoritism, I was sure. Every Bastion teacher was on their side.

  I breathed deep through my nose as the fire of zo ate up the air in my lungs. I bowed to my instructor, then Min-hwan, but didn’t turn my back as I stepped toward the main door to the main pagoda. Hana and Yuri followed me with worry creasing their foreheads.

  “Best of luck with your next school, ganhan,” Scilla sneered.

  I gritted my teeth as I turned away from the scene. I knew how this would go, despite all the witnesses. Scilla would say I provoked her guard or made an advance, and someone with the title of wansil-yu would be believed over the poor ganhan from outer-city. I would be expelled... but at least I had stopped Hana from dropping out.

  Steam rose from my dobok, and the snow melted around me as I walked. My head felt light and ached from the heat. White blossoms of light burst in my vision as my heart pounded. I swallowed, trying to wet my arid throat and slow my breathing.

  “Jiyong,” Mae spoke in my head, and I jumped at her presence. “You have to stop zo cycling and focus on heat conversion. You’re burning up.”

  I panted as I focused on shutting off my zo cycling. My core appeared in my mind’s eye, but when I ordered the band to rotate, it didn’t budge. The fat zo block stayed locked in place over the crystal and with every breath, energy flowed through the band.

  I shifted my attention to the small lightning rods coming from the bottom of my reservoir. I willed them to collect the thick blue zaps that arced from the center to the band. The heat slipped out, landing hits against my band that turned it red-hot.

  “I can’t,” I whispered. My vision faded, and my legs felt weak.

  “Catch him,” Min-hwan said, and a second later I felt hands on me. My knees hurt as they hit something solid, then I felt my feet dragging.

  “To the infirmary!” Min-hwan’s shouted, and my arms were hoisted over others’ shoulders.

  “Jiyong, what’s wrong?” Hana’s voice sounded far away as a fever burned across my face and down my back. Words came to mind as the inferno raged in my body, something about boiling my brain. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need it to do my work at the arborum...

  Chapter 36

  “COME ON, JIYONG, WAKE up. Wake up,” Mae whispered, and I groaned.

  “It’s too early,” I said as I rolled to the side, not wanting to get up for Zo Strengthening I.

  Wait. What day was it?

  My eyes shot open, and I sat up in a familiar place that was not my room. It was the infirmary. The sky outside the window was dark, but pinkish red hues were on the horizon.

  “It’s only been eleven hours. It’s gauntlet day,” Mae said through the speaker on my chest.

  “Tungpah,” I sighed.

  “What would your mother say?” Mae asked with a playful tone, and I smiled.

  “She’d say what a stupid idiot son of mine.”

  Mae hummed. “I think she would say watch your language, you smart, kind son of mine.”

  I breathed slowly as I leaned back onto the pillows of my medical bed. “Would she really think I’m kind and smart after everything I’ve said and done? Mae...” I struggled to find the right words. Nothing seemed enough. No apology was deep, remorseful, or respectful enough for what I’d said and how I’d treated her. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

  “I forgive you,” she replied immediately.

  “How can you forgive me? I told you to shut down. I told you to stop existing in the only place you could exist. I was horrible to you, Hana, Cho, and Yuri. I’ve been the worst friend.”

  “I wouldn’t say the worst.” She giggled.

  “Damn close.” I rubbed my hand over my face as I relived all the vitriol I’d spewed the past weeks, all the pain I’d caused. For what? Because I was in pain? Because my life was hard? Hana had lost everything...

  I swallowed back the lump in my throat and whispered, “I’ve never been so ashamed of myself.”

  “What about the one time your dobok was too loose and the pants fell off while you were running in Primary?” Mae asked, and I smiled as I recalled the awkward moment.

  “That was just embarrassing. This is different. How can I fix this? Not just my friends, but what I did to Shin-soo...”

  “I kinda think he deserved it. He attacked you when your back was turned,” Mae remarked, and I shook my head.

  “He didn’t deserve what I did to him in anger. I didn’t behave honorably last night.”

  “Neither did he,” she retorted as she materialized on my windowsill with crossed arms.

  I took catalogue of everything that had happened. Shin-soo had challenged me on the first day, but it wasn’t about me at all. It was about what I stood for. I was an outer-city boy looking at a kingdom girl. I was a threat to his way of life.

  “No, he didn’t. He hasn’t. But I believe he can.”

  Shin-soo wasn’t weak, and he wasn’t stupid, but he was narrow-minded. Could I change that? Could I fix things for him?

  “You can’t change his mind. He must change it,” Mae said as she paced across the windowsill with the sunrise in the background.

  “But perhaps I could be the catalyst.”

  Mae threw her hands up. “Why do you want to save him? He’s going to be expelled, and then you won’t have to worry about him.”

  I thought about the goons in the alley and Duke and the kingdom across the sea. “There will always be Shin-soo’s. There will always be someone bigger, stronger, and meaner than me. If I can recruit some of the big, strong, mean ones to be on my side, when I meet the biggest and the strongest, maybe the others will be there for me.”

  Mae was quiet for a long time, then said, “You’re thinking four moves ahead now.”

  “What?” I asked, looking at her image with a pinched brow.

  “It’s a chess thing. Something I remember from my old days. A scientist with a white beard who used to play chess with me said to always think four moves ahead, then you won’t get trapped.”

  I sighed and looked out the window. Mae sat with her feet dangling off the sill and watched the sky change with me. The pink on the horizon deepened to orange, and I knew it was time to get moving. There were a lot of apologies to make before my gauntlet fight.

  I dressed in my blood-splattered dobok and splashed water on my face from the basin at the end of my bed. The mirror showed a reflection I knew but wasn’t proud of—yet. I was going to fix that.

  “You’re awake,” a woman in a green trimmed robe said, and I contained my surprise.

  I’d been talking out loud with Mae. Had this woman been hiding in the room somewhere, or just arrived while I was washing my face?

  “I am,” I said, trying not to sound suspicious.

  She smiled, revealing a chipped tooth on her bottom row. “Your luck just keeps holding. You should thank Jigu you’re not dead.”

  Not dead... but was I expelled?

  I cleared my throat. “I will. Uh, but do you know if I’m still a student here?”

  She chuckled as she worked, collecting the used sheets in a basket. “I don’t know the details, though rumors fly quickly, but it seems Grandmaster Min-hwan couldn’t decide who was at fault, and docked you both five ranks. Saw the score board this morning.”

  “Thank you, Miss...”

  “Koida,” she said with a shallow bow. So, she was from the kingdom across the sea and a low-ranking attendant. She was probably a refugee, like my father had been.

 
“Thank you, Koida.” I bowed in return, then set my sights back on my goal: making my reflection someone I was proud of.

  Breakfast would be in full swing in the next hour, and since Shin-soo wasn’t in the infirmary with me, there was a good chance he’d be there. I excused myself with a nod and ran to my lodge. I jumped in a cold shower that snapped me awake, then dressed in a fresh dobok as Cho roused.

  “Hey, you’re alive,” he remarked with a sleepy smile.

  I was, more than ever. I stepped up to his bedside, and he face shifted from sleepy to concerned. I smiled to allay his worry. “I’m sorry. I would never want to undo my life. I will keep moving forward, with the best friends ever.”

  Cho smirked. “You were a real jerk a few times. You’re lucky you have a friend as nice as me to keep sitting with you at lunch.”

  I shook my head but couldn’t contain my grin. “Get over yourself.”

  “You first.” He tapped his knuckles on his sternum and then held them out for a bump. I mimicked the gesture as he beamed.

  “Today’s the day, right?” he asked as he jumped out of bed.

  I nodded. “I’m hoping my modifications to Tuko will be good enough.”

  Mae piped up in my head. “You get ten minutes between each round, that’s enough time to reload and repair one critical bit of damage. Just make sure to bring spare parts with you.”

  It was so nice to have her back.

  “Aww, thanks,” she said, and little blue hearts floated up through my vision I knew only I could see.

  ‘That’s new,’ I remarked as I watched them float by.

  “I realized I wasn’t using my power to access your visual center to its fullest potential. Expect more.”

  Cho got dressed, and we headed to breakfast. I kept my eyes on the line until I found Shin-soo. He looked like hell, even through the glimmer. I wondered what excuse he’d given Min-hwan to not get expelled? Perhaps someone had covered for him and said he was only defending himself? Or he’d lied and said he was trying to help? Whichever it was, it didn’t matter. He was still here, and so was I.