Murim Recurve

"Halt! Do you have a permit to enter the city?" A soldier inclined his spear sideways, blocking entry as he noticed the approach of Re'Kha.

"I don't have an entry permit." Re'Kha shook her head. An entry permit was a document that allowed a native of the city to enter and exit the city without any restrictions. After all, most of the people have to move daily due to their work or other reasons.

But, only those that had been registered in the city—those that had been born in it—had an entry permit. As Re'Kha didn't have that, she couldn't enter. The soldier gazed at her face, focusing on her forehead, seeing the bright blue glow of the gem embedded on her Tikka jewellery.

"That would be 1 RuQi, my lady." For a moment, he shuddered, fearing his actions might offend the other party. There had been instances where a guard was executed just because his actions were rude towards a nobleman. So, the guard regretted asking for the toll, even though it was his job.

"Sure," Re'Kha fished out a 1 RuQi coin from a small pouch hung on her hips and flicked it towards the soldier. The soldier caught it in a hurry, afraid he would drop it and cause it to roll away. It was money that would buy him a meal in the city.

The soldier watched Re'Kha stride through the city's entrance with poise, all along focusing on gem glowing with a blue radiance. The moment she moved away from the audible range, he muttered towards the other soldier, "That was one powerful Harmoniser."

"Yeah, do you have any idea as to who she was?"

"No," The soldier shook his head, "Very few Harmonisers from the Re Clan pass through here, so I don't know the names of many. And, the ladies never leave their name in our registry."

"Oh yeah, why didn't you ask her name? We can't just leave her name blank in our registry?" The other soldier chided.

"Are you mad or what?" The soldier cursed, "I don't want to die. Let's just put a random name in her place. It's not like they verify the names daily."

"Yeah," The other soldier sighed, "I only hope nothing happens that they need to verify our registry."

"Just put the name Cha there. There are hundreds with that name in our city, so no one will find it suspicious." The soldier snickered.

"You're smart." The other soldier too snickered and proceeded to put the name, Cha in the registry.

Re'Kha walked through the entrance, touching her Tikka jewellery once, 'Thankfully for this, I don't need anything else to enter a city.'

Tikka jewellery; it was an ornament everyone in their race wore on their foreheads. It was a threaded necklace with an oval gem embedded in the centre. The jewellery was specially manufactured in their capital and distributed throughout their land.

Every citizen was given one, irrespective of their status. It had both a cultural significance and importance towards their well-being. When it was created, a Tikka jewellery would be crystalline and transparent, showing that it wasn't used.

The moment it was worn on a person, it would change colour, binding itself to the person for all life. Its threaded form would adjust itself accordingly to the nature and disposition of the person while the gem would light up with the colour of the element they were inclined towards.

The brightness of the gem displayed the person's talent to the respective element. It was red for fire, black for metal, blue for water, and violet for lightning. For Harmonisers, the gem on their Tikka jewellery would only display one colour, the colour their wielded.

For Harmonisers that were capable of harnessing two or more elements, the gem would only show the colour of the base element they wielded. It would change colours when they enter an excited state and use another element.

The Tikka Jewellery would sport a crack on its gem when worn by anyone other than its owner, so it served as an identification of sorts. It prevented anyone from a foreign race from disguising themselves as a Kalki and infiltrating their cities.

As for a citizen that wasn't a Harmoniser, the threaded portion of the Tikka jewellery would only consist of a single string while their gem would display the colours of the four elements. The area occupied by each colour varied accordingly to their alignment to the respective element.

The threaded design of every Harmoniser was unique, and since it was mandatory for everyone to wear one, the soldiers only saw her Tikka jewellery, took the toll and gave her entry. They weren't concerned with whether the individual had any criminal history.

After all, they had already memorised the faces of everyone to look after, so as long as the face didn't match with one of the wanted posters, it meant he/she was a normal, law-abiding citizen and was given entry.

The reason everyone wore the Tikka jewellery even without the rules being enforced was because of only one reason: it slowed down the creation of the Sha and protected them against negative influences.

A Sha was created through negative emotions that linger and are absorbed into the object that became the target of said emotions over time. The Tikka jewellery dispersed such thoughts and largely prevented the development of the Sha.

After all, if they weren't protected by the Tikka jewellery, thanks to the difficult lives people led, a Sha would be produced everywhere every day and would cause their country to soon collapse. Moreover, the Tikka jewellery was worn on their forehead to protect their third eye, their most powerful and most sensitive organ.

It was still raining as Re'Kha walked on the wide road past the city's south-western gate, gazing at the side of the road, noticing drivers sitting in their cycle rickshaws and chatting about idly. Re'Kha walked towards them, waving towards the closest one, "Where's the nearest inn?"

The rickshaw driver immediately took his position, motioning for her to sit, "I'll swiftly take you there."