Zeph Kaizen's Arc

Chapter 16 of 51

Zeph sat in the center of the hall and tried to find Zento again. He set his breath. He opened Refusal and Stillness together the way he had learned. He held both doors for thirty counts, then chained short bursts, the way the ancestor had taught him. Nothing came. The chamber stayed empty. The carved fighters on the walls were only stone. He pressed his palms harder against his knees. The first payment was made. The Saiyan had died on the step. He had felt the door move. But now the room felt hollow, like a bell with no clapper. He needed Zento to tell him what came next. Without that voice, he did not know where to put his hands. He stood and walked the length of the hall. He searched for something he had missed. A mark in the floor. A second chamber behind the fighters. He found dust and cold stone. He sat again and tried a third time. He named what he would not accept. He would not accept being stuck. He would not accept dying here without the form. The air did not answer. Then a boot scraped behind him. Zeph turned fast, hand up. A man stood inside the hall. He had not come through the door. He wore a red robe stitched with gold. A stone the color of shallow water hung at his chest. His locks fell past his shoulders. His eyes were yellow and steady. He looked at Zeph the way an older brother looks at a younger one who has broken something. "You are calling the wrong name," the man said. Zeph did not lower his hand. "Who are you." "Kaine. Same blood as you. Same blood as the one you keep asking for." He stepped closer. His feet made no sound. "Zento taught you the doors. He cannot teach you the next part. That is my work." "Why now." "Because you paid the coin at the step. The hall opened to me when it did." Kaine crouched across from him. "Stop reaching outward. The focal point is not in this room. It is the face of someone you love. Hold it. Then refuse it." Zeph's throat closed. "Keji." "Him. The tiger. Anyone. Bring the face up whole. Do not soften it. Then close the door on it." Zeph shut his eyes. He built Keji in his mind. The gray beard. The wound under the ribs. The hand that had pushed him east. He held the face until it hurt. Then he said no to it. He said no again. He kept saying it. The pressure under his ribs bloomed. Heat climbed his spine. His hair lifted on his scalp. He opened his eyes. Kaine was watching him. "Good," Kaine said. "Now you can begin." The gold form was not open. But Zeph had a teacher again, and a method. The hollow in the hall was gone.