Eres, Myla and Freya were sitting around a wooden table that had been polished to a shine. It was clear Myla’s parents took great pride in their shop and their house, even if Myla had snuck them in the back door and up to their dining room to avoid her parents' eyes.

The tomboyish blonde was currently staring at Eres, chewing on her lip slightly in thought.

“So. You’re a noble, then?” The words came out slowly, as if she was trying to work out how to make each syllable with her mouth before it actually reached the open air, “Like, a proper one?”

“Well… yeah. Kinda,” Eres sighed, fingertips playing with the edge of his shirt, “But not a very important one. My parents don’t really care, and I'm not going to inherit anything other than a name, but yeah I am. Sorry I lied, Myla. Just wanted a normal day in town, you know?”

Eres was the one chewing his lip now. He tasted blood, just a little, as his teeth tore through the skin. He hadn’t expected lying to Myla would twist him up as much as it had done. Maybe this was the original Eres, the thoughts of a ten year old desperate to make friends.

“Okay. Sure. Noble,” Myla was nodding along, and cast her gaze over to Freya, “You too?”

“No! Gods no, I am just his maid,” Freya waved her hands about in a panic at being considered a noble, until Eres cut in.

“Well, not just a maid, she's my friend too, and as you can tell by the fact my arm is still attached, one hell of a healer too,” Eres muttered, glaring at his friend, “though as you can see, she has a habit of being a little meek and putting herself down, so hopefully you can help her with that. I know I haven’t had any luck yet.”

Myla’s head whirled around at that point, staring at Eres with a startling degree of intensity.

“Wait. That means… You still want to be friends?” Myla strained her words out, but both Eres and Freya were surprised by her intensity.

“I mean, yeah?” Eres found himself rubbing the back of his head and fiddling with his hair tie again, “Obviously, only if you are comfortable with it? If you don’t want to be friends with me cause I am a noble I get it, but I figured I might as well ask, you know?

“Whatever you do though, no bowing or treating me differently, cause I really, really hate that.”

Myla’s gaze whipped between the two of them, seeing Freya shrug and nod, and Eres’ awkward fidgeting.

“But… you saw me kill that… thing right? Aren’t you… freaked out?”

“Oh, that?” Eres brightened up a bit, “That was awesome! Thanks again for saving me, but it was really cool! I guess it was some type of Knight Blessing, right? Why would we be freaked out, you helped us!”

It was only when tears started to gather in Myla’s eyes that Eres realised he might have put his foot in his mouth, gazing jumping across to Freya in a panic, but she just shrugged at him and went to rub Myla’s back and whisper to her. It was only a minute or two before she stopped crying. She looked around awkwardly, her gaze on the table in front of her most of the time.

“Okay, so, I haven’t got the most amount of experience talking to people, so forgive me if I am wrong,” Eres spoke softly, as if reassuring a scared animal, “but that didn’t seem like I just put my foot in my mouth, unlike usual. You want to talk about it, Myla?”

The tomboyish girl nearly jumped out of her skin at her name, but shook her head as if to dislodge a thought, before looking up and letting out a big sigh.

“A few months back, the priest came through and did the usual blessing ceremony. I turned 10 just after the last one, so I had been waiting a few months, and already knew some of what was going on,” Myla began with stilted speech, but as she spoke the words sped up, like she wanted to say everything she needed too before she couldn’t anymore or got too nervous, “I had noticed I was a little stronger and tougher than the other kids I was playing with, even the older ones. Turns out, as you said, it was to do with my Blessing.

“It ain’t a nice simple blessing like Swordsman or Mage or anything,” she blew all the air in her lungs out, her fluffy fringe blowing up out of her eyes as she made eye contact with Eres, as if challenging him to see his reaction, “It’s a hybrid Blessing, Shield and Knight, called Berserker. It helps with two handed weapons, strength and toughness. It doesn’t make me crazy or anything, but everyone heard the name and thought I would hurt them, so none of the other kids wanted to see me anymore. Even their parents are worried about it. Ma and Dad say it’s nothing to worry about, and that it makes me special, but I didn’t feel special.”

“So when you saved Eres, you figured we would be scared off too?” Freya questioned, her hand still rubbing circles on the other girl's back.

Myla nodded slowly, still staring at Eres face, that was still suspiciously blank, “He seems scared, or… he seems something anyway.”

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“Oh no dear, that is his thinking face, it shouldn’t take him long, he thinks fast,” Freya laughed sitting in the chair closest to Myla, “But I am very confident that fear isn’t even slightly on his mind.”

She was right. Fear hadn’t even entered into Eres' thought process, but his brain was flying at a million miles an hour as various trains of thought collided into twisted piles of scrap and burned ideas.

Should I tell her about being able to change your blessing if she hates hers so much? Eres thought, face still carefully schooled and blank, I have only known this girl for a few hours, but she has confided something pretty personal, and I feel bad giving her nothing in return, even if she isn’t expecting anything.

Ekros said I should wait until I could defend myself to let people know about my blessing, but it's a Defender blessing, surely having some close friends to defend would be the best thing? I just don't feel good to know all about her blessing and her to have no idea about mine. Not to mention Freya has helped me so much and she is still in the dark…

“Eurgh, nope, fuck it, too much thinking,” Eres suddenly blurted out, and then scowled at Freya’s expression, “And don’t look at me like that, you swore earlier too, so I’m not going to bother moderating my language around you now, deal with it.”

He stuck his tongue out at the older girl, but nearly burst out laughing at her shocked face, as she turned to Myla and said, “See I told you it wouldn’t take long,” and turned back to wait for whatever revelation Eres had come too.

“Okay, so, where to start…” Eres paused as he thought about what to say, feeling his head burn with ideas and thoughts, before deciding just to wing it, “Alright, first off Myla, I am absolutely in no way scared of you. Having a hybrid Blessing is powerful and great in and of itself, plus you used it literally to save my life, I would be quite the ungrateful sod if I just ignored that, wouldn’t I?

“Second… Alright both of you need to promise to keep this quiet, okay? And I mean an actual promise not just a half-hearted “I probably won't say anything” promise.” Only once both girl's nodded and promised did he continue speaking, “Myla, do you hate your blessing? Or do you just hate how people are treating you about it? Cause while I can’t do anything about how people are treating you, if you just want something that you think fits you better, there is maybe a way around that… Maybe.”

Both of them looked at him in shock for a long few minutes. Myla shook herself out of the stupor first.

“What do you mean? Blessing’s are what they are, Eres. I got this and that’s that. I need to suck it up, that’s all,” Myla sounded a little forceful, like she was annoyed at Eres for bringing it up.

He ran his hands over his youthful face, wishing he was a little older so what he was saying sounded more reasonable.

“Well, not exactly. You know how if you get really good at the thing your Blessing wants you too, some people get stronger right, and they go and get it checked and the Gods have given them better Blessings?” Blank stares with slow nods followed his words, but Eres kept on forward, “Well, apparently it’s actually simpler than that. Apparently it's all to do with our hard work and our natural talents. What I am saying is if you really don’t want a Berserker Blessing, then I am sure I can get someone out here to teach you Magic until you get a Mage Blessing or something. Obviously you can’t easily get it re-identified, and the people in town won’t know, so it won’t help how they treat you, it is more about what you want.”

Eres was panting a little after all the words rushed out at once, but he noticed that both Freya and Myla were looking at him like he was more than a little crazy.

“Look, I know it goes against common sense, but it’s true,” Eres exclaimed, before turning to Freya, “Freya, you have seen how much research I have done on Blessings and Mana and all of that. I can swear to you on whatever oath you want that I fully believe this is how Blessings work.”

“So… does that mean if you train fighting with Master Brom for long enough without training magic, you would stop having a Mind blessing?” Freya asked after a long pause.

“Master Brom?” Myla muttered confused.

“He is my teacher for combat and eventually magic,” Eres explained before answering, “Kind of? I am a bit of a special case, but if a Mage trained in weapons for long enough they might get a Hybrid or even eventually a full Knight Blessing, yeah.”

“Why are you a special case?” Myla asked, still peering at Eres with a slightly hurt and confused look. Eres let out a long groan as he bit through his lip again. The taste of copper on his tongue brought him back to reality as he decided just to get it over with. He gave Freya a slightly apologetic glance.

“Sorry Freya, I would have told you if you asked, but you are learning now, so forgive me, alright? And this is another one of those secrets,” Eres murmured before spitting the next lot of words out, “So technically I don’t have a Mage Blessing like I told everyone. My Blessing does help me manipulate Mana and it makes certain spells easier, but it isn’t a Mind Blessing, it is a Support Blessing, one of the weird ones that aren’t about direct combat. It’s called a Defender Blessing.”

Once the words left his lips, he felt his shoulders sag. It was like a weight had been forcing him down, and now he could finally relax. Eres hadn’t realised how much he needed to tell someone, anyone, about what was going on, just for the sake of his own sanity if nothing else. It felt good to say it out loud.

“Defender?” Freya murmured, “I haven’t heard of that one. Is it a rare Blessing like a Sword Saint or an Elementalist?”

“Oh oh!” Myla jumped up, “Those are Blessing’s that those high ranked adventurers who saved the port last year had, right! Ma told me about that, said that their Blessings were super rare and had set them on a path for Glory from the moment they were Blessed.”

“Um, well, kind of,” Eres winced, “Actually, it might be a little rarer than that even. As in… I got told I am the only one who has this Blessing right now, from what I got told.

“Also, if it matters Myla, I reckon they probably had Blessings just like yours and progressed to those ones, I reckon most people who rely on their Blessings to live probably know about evolving them and all of that, maybe they even-”

“Eres,” Freya cut him off with a sharp word and a glare, “What do you mean you are the only one who has the Blessing.”