Bakbuk came to and instantly remembered where he was: trapped in Edwin’s personal swamp. The vines of these living plants still held him firmly, and struggling was useless. He tried Strength at Need, but the vines adjusted. Bakbuk reminded himself that he was dealing with someone who was pretty intelligent. Then again, they both had been trained by Blademaster Toa, a Yellow Tribesman and the first Head of their Order.

Like Bakbuk, Toa had but one name, which meant “The Way” in Easterner, his Tribe’s native language. The “oa” in it sounded like “ow”, as in the Albionic expression of pain. Given that fact plus Toa’s rigor as a teacher, some of his students playfully gave him the nickname “Disciple of Pain”. But they loved him, and they learned from him eagerly.

Bakbuk was only twelve when Toa told him the story of Edwin’s death. Edwin had been Toa’s eldest student and very gifted; and as part of his training, he had been paired with the Elemental known as Nicholas. This type of pairing was not uncommon; even Chris Alan was for a time paired with Amethyst, much later. Elementals were meant to help Adamim reach their full potential.

Toa constantly sorrowed over the fact his old pupil began to become more power-hungry and bitter; tired of being a pawn, he wanted to be a Master. The epithet he eventually chose for himself was testimony to how opposite his chosen path was to his calling; Light to Shadow, Child to Master. When he drank of the River of Bitter Waters, the Lightchild was dead and the Shadow Master was born. Toa was so upset he went into seclusion, vowing to never teach again; and so Bakbuk had lost his teacher.

At length, Bakbuk himself had gone into stasis (his Long Sleep, itself famous among Lightchildren and mortals alike) in Sledge’s otherspace closet, and awakened several thousand years later in a world much changed for the better. By then the Node Field had expanded to a radius of well over three thousand light-years, and the Adamim had colonized many star systems and befriended several other sentient species within it. But Nicholas and many other Elementals had been banished out-of-Sphere, and Toa was still in his guardian’s *n* dimensional closet. Bakbuk had to achieve his Grand Master status under teachers born long after he had been, but the task had taught him patience. It was a valuable ally in the state he was in right now.