“I said I’m sorry, Parin. It was personal business, and I needed to go alone”, Vina said, as she looked up from her book. She was back at the Halos Family Library in one of the private sections, trying to make sense of Shan’s headstone. She was finding it difficult to focus with Parin’s vibrance all over the place. With her Blood Sense’s new passive ability to see everyone’s health, she was picking out something else as well. “Is it their mood?” she thought to herself.

“I completely understand, Asharaina”, Parin said. His face was completely unreadable as he continued his guard stance.

Vina felt the shiver of his blood far more than she heard his voice. His blood felt cold to her. “I know you’re upset with me. What can I do to fix this?”

As if prepared for the answer, he reached into his belt and removed a piece of paper. She took it and read the title.

Proper Procedure for Escort and Protection of Halos Family Members

She read the list and sighed, “It says twenty guards, but there’s a problem with that. I don’t think you can find that many people who will want to be around me.” She brought out her lantern and set it on the table. “Find me two other people who can tolerate being alone in a room with this for thirty minutes, and they can accompany me anywhere.” She switched it on and the red glow filled the private area of the library. The lantern was completely full now and had several days worth of charge from what Vina could tell.

She didn’t even want to look at Parin’s face, but had no choice in feeling his vibrance shifting from displeasure to disgust. “I don’t want to be alone Parin, but most people can’t stand what I do. There’s no one out there like me yet.”

“I will find them, ma’am”, Parin said firmly.

Vina looked up at him when she felt his vibrance switch from disgust to determination. She looked at the lantern and smiled, “I believe you will. Are you able to take a soul bound item? I don’t know how that works.” She momentarily considered her masterpiece. Anyone sitting before it for seven days could gain an appreciation for blood skills. Vina didn’t think it was right to force anyone to do that, however.

“I cannot explicitly take it from you. I can carry it, but only a certain distance from your person. Typically it’s only a few dozen feet. You’ll need to place it in a room. Just switch it on and I can start recruitment for your family guard.” Parin said.

Vina switched off the lantern and was about to respond, but stopped when she felt two more people about to enter the room. “I found something!” Eilin shouted as she walked in slowly and carefully. She pushed a table, on wheels, into the room with an ancient looking book on it. Behind her was Hakim, who had a very puzzled look on his face. “Vina, what happened? I heard you made a trip out of the city.”

Vina hesitated, not sure what she could share. Hakim must have noticed, “Vina, Eilin’s family has been the keepers of our knowledge for several generations. Parin’s family has also been protectors and caretakers for the city. Everyone in this room is dedicated to maintaining the safety of the city, our family, and to finding Trina. You can speak freely in front of these two. They already know more than you think.”

She took a deep breath, “I visited my father’s grave. One of the twelve was already waiting for me there. We fought and I managed to make him retreat. But then somehow Etana killed him. I found my father’s grave and it had words written on it I didn’t understand. When I touched the headstone, I accidentally activated a rune. I found this hidden inside.”

Vina pulled out the Aspect of Life from her backpack and held it out for them to see. Her paranoia didn’t allow her to set it down, however. There were far too many people who wanted to live forever. The room may have gone quiet, but to Vina the vibrances swirled. “Oh… you’re all sad”, she said.

Eilin spoke first, “I hoped the note you had was wrong. Trina and Shan are both legendary figures in our history. After we lost Trina, all we had was Shan and the hope he brought us. Now that he’s been proven dead…”, her voice trailed off.

“Where is Shan buried? I couldn’t read it from the note. There will be many people who wish to pay their respects”, Hakim asked.

“He’s buried in a graveyard at Ctomina”, Vina said, returning the aspect of life to her backpack. “The area is not safe for visitors. There were warning signs about The Darkness already destroying the town.” She paused in her story when she saw Eilin write down a note beside the book on the table.

“Which of the twelve did you and your sister kill?” Parin asked.

“He called himself Faer. He had the Aspect of Travel. He was quite upset that I was disabling the portals. Oh! That reminds me, I am really sorry about this book, Eilin.” Vina pulled the portal ring address book from her backpack and tried to hand it over to Eilin.

Eilin gave her a squeamish look when she saw it was covered in blood. “Oh, I can fix the blood stains at least. Hold on.” Vina quickly pulled the blood out into a globe and fed it to her lantern. Unfortunately the rips and tears remained, but Eilin took it from her willingly.

“Wasn’t Keyne bonded to the Aspect of Travel?” Hakim asked Parin.

“Yes. Faer must be a replacement. They are experiencing more trouble with The Darkness than we thought. Asharaina, do they still have the Aspect of Travel?” Parin asked.

“I don’t know. After we fought over the book, the portal he was using closed and severed his hand”, Vina said.

Eilin looked down at the portal book in her hands, “Actually Vina, why don’t you just keep this. I have more copies.” She handed it back and Vina took it with a smile.

“After that he didn’t return. I received a notification a moment later that Etana had killed him. I can’t make sense of it. If Etana is working for the Twelve like I was, why would she kill Faer? And if she isn’t, then how was she in a position to finish him off to begin with?”

Hakim shook his head, “It’s impossible to know. Portal travel has often led to confusing situations like this. The one thing we can still trust is that your sister is fighting The Twelve, wherever she is.”

Eilin wiped her hands on a cloth, but she spoke up after she finished, “That just leaves us with the headstone’s meaning. Vina, you thought that the words might be a story or poem from our world.” Vina nodded her agreement and Eilin continued, “I did not find anything with all of those words all together in any single story. I did find a fragment contained in a single sentence however in this book.”

Eilin gestured to the old book in front of her. “This is one of Shan’s biographies of Trina. He did not add a title to any of his books, choosing only to let the dates stand for themselves. This one is dated 28th Day of Minar 14746.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Wait. Hold on. When was The Severing exactly?” Vina asked, realizing she had no idea when Trina vanished.

“The exact day is lost to us, but the year was 14761. So this book was written just fifteen years before the severing”, Eilin said.

“And our current year is…” She closed her eyes in embarrassment.

“Today is the 8th day of Semnar 15477”, Eilin said without hesitation.

They all waited a moment for Vina as she considered. “On his gravestone it said he died in 15461. So my father died when I was just two years old.” She sighed, “Okay, what was my dad up to in the 14700s?”

Eilin leaned over the book and began to read aloud.

On the 28th day of Minar 14746, Trina walked the southern shores of the Indel River about three miles south of the town of Rimele. In her necklace she wore seventy-six gems. This is a drop of six from the day before. She visited the trees and plants as she often does, enjoying the fruits of Palitern. It was about midday, when the sun was warmest in the sky that she began to walk in the shallow waters, cooling her feet. Up to this point in time, Trina had not spoken a word all day, seemingly content to enjoy the moment and the location.

Following lunch, Trina rose abruptly and walked away with such haste I was unable to pack. I abandoned our gear and ran after her. I quickly lost sight of her, however, and was forced to use my tracking skill to follow her. So subtle was her trail and so light were her footprints, I felt I may not find her.

Only through luck alone did I discover her in a clearing. In her arms she hugged a man. For the first time that day she spoke to me, “Shan, remain here and I will return.” She traveled and returned forty-six minutes later.

“What happened?” I asked upon her arrival, and to my surprise she answered.

“The man was lost and far from home. He is safe now, reunited with his family.”

I did not want to allow this opportunity to pass so I pressed, “How did you know he was here or in need of help?”

Trina turned my question back to me, “How did you know where I was when you could no longer see me?”

“I used the tracking skill”, I said.

“It is through the same skill that I found the man as well”, she answered.

“But Trina, my skill did not detect him and could barely find you. Surely, you are doing something in addition to tracking”, I responded.

Trina frowned at me and said, “With your head down, you saw my footprints, but you did not see where I went. You missed my light that went before you and, so quickly, you lost hope of ever finding me again.”

Trina did not speak again for the remainder of the day. We did not move from the clearing where she sat until the next morning.

She stopped reading and the room was quiet for a moment. Hakim seemed to gather himself first, “Thank you Eilin. I take it this addresses just a fragment of what Vina found.”

Eilin nodded, “I could not find anything containing all of the words that Vina says were on the headstone. This is the smallest fragment that still seemed relevant to me. This day has been discussed in detail by many people, and the consensus is Trina is telling Shan that the severing would happen fifteen years before it did. Trina references her light and we believe that that is representative of the good she does in the world. Once she is gone we will miss the her and lose hope of her ever coming back.”

Vina rubbed her forehead, “With all respect, I think that interpretation is wrong. I think Trina meant it literally. I know what light Trina is talking about. I call it vibrance. No one else sees it, and I had to give it a name.” Vina paused again when she saw Eilin start to scribble notes.

“Please continue Vina. Eilin is just documenting”, Hakim said.

“Well all of you are basically a massive bright light to me. Some of you are really bright.” She paused to gesture at Hakim. “While others are less bright.” She nodded toward Eilin. “Sometimes you are bright enough to cause me headaches. I started to see it after I gained the Blood Sense skill. I suspected it had something to do with a person’s level or how much blood you have in your body, but I don’t really know. It could be your vitality attribute too…” her voice trailed off as she squinted at their health bars. She saw Hakim’s health was at one thousand, four hundred and eighty, which was far above her own 220 health. “Hakim’s is the highest here it looks like, so that kind of tracks.”

Hakim looked at her in surprise, “You can see our vitality?”

“I can see your health pool, and I’m just guessing at your vitality from that”, Vina answered.

Eilin looked up from her notes, “Your mother led you to your father’s grave only to drop the barest of hints to this passage. For what?”

Vina shook her head, “For someone who isn't familiar with blood skills, I could see Trina’s words as cryptic, but they make sense to me. I wonder how my mother figured them out. It’s clear to me she is telling me to track Trina using her vibrance."

Parin stepped forward, “Do you know Trina’s vibrance?”

“Yes. Inside the Aspect of Life is Trina’s blood. I am able to see her vibrance in it”, Vina said.

Hakim moved closer to her, “Can you try tracking Trina right now through her vibrance?”

“I have the tracking skill, but I don’t know if it can do vibrance specifically. Could it be a separate skill? I could practice on someone first. Any volunteers?” She slipped a blood knife out through her palm. “I don’t know if I need your blood since I can see your vibrance, but it would probably help.”

Vina saw Parin pale slightly, but he raised a hand. “Yes, but can we use my knife?”

She looked at her knife. Vina could sense the hemophages crystalized inside. She nodded to Parin and dissolved her knife back into her body. She still had no idea if that would affect her allies. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’m ready whenever you are.”

Parin took a long slice across his palm and held it up. As he bled, Vina gathered it into a ball in front of her. “You didn’t need to make that big of a cut. Here, let me try something.” Holding Parin’s ball of blood beside her, she reached and took his hand. She tried to order her hemophagic cells away from her hand and then let some of her blood flow over his. She allowed their blood to mix before activating her Blood Aid skill. Their blood moved into the cut, and it immediately dried into a flexible scab.

"That’s impressive. There’s no pain either”, Parin said when he flexed his hand.

“Yeah. It’s my first time using it on someone else. I’m also impressed. Better than a bandage, I promise. I was worried it would be quite nasty to look at. You uh… don’t have any disease notifications right?” Vina asked, slight concern coming across her voice.

Parin gave her a grave look, but Vina put on a smile. “So I’ll give you a thirty minute head start and then find you?” Vina asked.

He gave her a sidelong look, but he made his way out of the room without a word. As he left, Vina held his globe of blood close to her eyes. The vibrancy of the blood globe matched Parin’s. To her surprise, she saw his vibrance was hanging in the air like a cloud of light. After a moment a line connected to the one that hovered near her face.

“Are we actually going to be able to find Trina like this?” Eilin asked. Her voice was filled with excitement and joy was filling her vibrance.

“We’re going to try”, Vina said, with a smile.

New Personal Quest: Find Trina.