Youngest to ever pass the Trials they said, peerless among her age, destined for greatness. It was no secret the strange gazes the adults gave her during her younger years as an Initiate, the pedestal placed at her feet before she even knew where she was standing. After all she was the envy of all, the one upon which just about every resource the Sect could spare was poured onto, to have achieved the Mutant Realm before even reaching majority and still readily overpowering cultivators twice her age.
But that was the thing wasn’t it? Twice her age, she never knew what it was like to have someone around her age that wasn’t a mortal that would tremble at the sight of her, let alone anyone who could even be considered as existing on the same playing field. True children of cultivators were exceedingly rare, a fact hammered into her skull over and over, but was it such a sin to have wished cousin Alexander was found a few decades later than he was? That Aunt Cinnabar had adopted a child of her own that would understand? When she realized that finally she had reached the age where she was of comparable age to the newest batch of initiates, and indeed was older than the heir apparent of Uncle Aurelium it took her whole will not to proclaim her excitement on the spot! Indeed for the past half hour or so she was using her camouflage to hide her presence behind a large bookshelf in the archives desperately running through ways she could perhaps introduce herself to the duo without coming off as once more that unapproachable presence everyone already assumed she was.
Of course none of her plans took into account the possibility the closest thing she had to peers in the whole kracking Sect were apparently idiot pyros!
Shimmering out of the camouflage she blocked the little spark before her mind even caught up with the actions of her body, and immediately turned her attention to the culprits. So incensed was she in fact that she barely registered the words that came out of her own mouth, until she was shaken from her rambling stupor by a couple of poorly chosen words.
“Co- Lady Phagos?” The Aurelium boy exclaimed, and for a moment she almost saw something familiar in those star shaped pupils that gave her pause. Most Sect members never even asked for her name prior to a formal introduction, even if he was told who she was by his adopted clan to attempt to address her so casually on their first true meeting? Was this… normal? She never knew normal her entire life, but it certainly didn’t feel that way.
“Do I… know you?” she asked quizzically, tilting her head to one side. The boy made a face, recognition, confused emotions, a hint of disappointment. Strange, she never recalled seeing him in any of her rare expeditions to the outside world, but surely he at least recognised her beyond just the petty fame garnered by her position.
“Ahem.” The other boy in the room coughed conspicuously to get the attention of the duo, half of his many eyes rolling while the other half were fixed on her with wary calculation. “I thought you were just reading when I saw your body heat from behind the bookshelf, but I couldn’t help but notice the shimmer as you dropped the camouflage. How long exactly were you watching us for Lady Phagos?”
“What! No? I did no such thing! Foolish assumptions!” She hastily defended herself, a bit too quickly, feeling a very rare drop of sweat fall from her scaled brow.
Seeing both boys raise an eyebrow at her she sighed and slumped over in defeat. “Fine, I… wanted to introduce myself but wasn’t sure how to.”
“Huh, I didn’t think you would- nevermind…” The Aurelium boy muttered to himself, flaring her suspicions once more, but pushing that down for now she continued.
“My father told me ‘you should never mingle with those below your station’” She explained with her best impression of her father’s voice. “But it is… difficult to talk with people double your age… so I wanted to uh…”
The spider eyed boy just stared in shock and burst into laughter. “Really is that it? Ha! The proud Young Mistress bravely defying the tyranny of her father by daring to talk with us lowly dirt-people? They would stone me to death for such a terrible joke in the Gutter!”
She glared at the rude boy. “Well if you are going to be like that then I shouldn’t have bothered in the first place!”
“Magni’s like that with everyone, you get used to it.” The Aurelium boy explained for his rude friend.
“Fine! Well since I am here already I am Cobalt Phagos, of the Lead Cave!” She introduced herself.
“Magni as my friend already said, just Magni.” The irritating pale one introduced himself, not taking his many eyed wary gaze off her.
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“John Zhou of Aurelium, I suppose that should make me John Aurelium but I prefer to remember where I uh… came from…” Said the Aurelium boy.
That was familiar somehow… but could it be…
She looked at the twisted mass of steel and flesh on his right side, the gauntness of his face and the various lines of lightning-bolt scar tissue from below the shaggy mane of unkempt hair to exposed patches of skin between old bandage wraps at his ankles and somehow beneath it all she thought she might have actually seen him before
…
Surely she would have remembered someone so recklessly stupid.
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John was not sure what to make of Cobalt. Besides the somewhat painful reminder that what was to him a pivotal moment that drove him to truly obsess over the power and glory of being a cultivator was to her most likely an uneventful, unmemorable day well… to put it politely he didn’t know what to make of her now. There was this image he built up in his head of her, powerful, immovable, graceful and well most likely unrealistically flawless. In the span of a single very awkward conversation such expectations were shattered and ground into dust.
That’s not to say he couldn’t recognise the same person from that initial meeting in her, and there was that same indescribable spark of admiration that drew him in the first time, that had to be reconciled by the fact she apparently had all the social wiles of a Carrigrub. She had a hint of that same confidence from the last time they actually interacted but now it felt dulled, all of a sudden his inspiration was a person not much older or more mature than himself. Suffice it to say, he wasn’t sure what to feel.
Magni on the other hand had no such complicated feelings.
“What a pampered lizrat! Being part of an ‘important’ family must rot your mind, or perhaps she is too used to bossing around her lessers to know how to behave like a normal person!” The albino loudly declared once she presumably left earshot.
“Wouldn’t that include me now?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.
Magni gave a derisive snort. “Maybe, but I know gutter trash when I see one, and no matter what fancy titles or strange metal that you got grafted onto you that won’t change for shit!”
“That’s… reassuring?”
“Bah it’s not like it matters, her royal highness isn’t likely to want to grace us with her presence very often, and I doubt we will have to work with her again!” Magni declared confidently.
“That sounds like a great way to make sure exactly that will happen.” John pointed out.
“I know both of us have spent the past while practically living in the archives, but you really have read too much nonsense.”
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“Hello John, I hope your progress through the archives is going well.” The large form of Elder Aurelium spoke warmly through an unseen mouth. Between his duties in the Sect and the distance between him and his new heir their relationship could never be the same as between John and Alexander, but it was clear the old man was trying.
“I wish I could say so but we found nothing but old paper and dust.” He sighed. “Really is there even a point if I cannot go to the restricted section anyway?”
“That is what I was about to discuss young John, I am not yet willing to break the rules outright… but I am willing to somewhat bend them.” Elder Aurelium half spoke, half telepathically broadcast. “Normally one would require significant experience to prove themselves worthy of becoming an Inner Disiple, but with your status as my eventual successor and the lack of manpower plaguing the Sect as of late such a process can be accelerated by performing a worthy feat.”
“And what sort of worthy feat do you mean?”
“There have been reports of mass Dox killings in the south, a few weeks journey from here for a mortal but probably only a few days for people around your level. Normally I would chalk up these reports as a pack of Chupacabra, but the way these killings were conducted with the livestock cut in half suggests otherwise. I suspect it is a Mauler, enough of a trophy to justify your accelerated progression in the sect.” Elder Aurelium conspiratorially whispered.
“You think I am ready?” John asked eagerly.
The elder Aurelium chuckled. “Certainly, but of course you aren’t going alone. You may choose who you desire to accompany you and I will have a Core Disciple join you just in case things get out of hand. Not that it would take away from your achievement of course, but you can never be too careful when dealing with a beast at least of the Third Tier!”
John felt a spark of electricity jolt down his spine as the disappointment took away from the tension within. Still, even if he was being babysat it was something better to do than pour over the archives again, and he could feel ARTOS literally itching for a fight from the tips of his fingers to the eyes scattered over the engorged limb.
“When do we start?”
“Whenever you are ready, boy.”
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“Washington’s prayer be upon you for offering to take me with you! One more book would have actually killed me!” Magni rejoiced. His language had become a lot more colorful ever since he devoured half a dozen holy books in his quest to become literate. Even John wasn’t quite sure what exactly invoking the prayer of an Imperial Spirit meant, but he was more than happy to just assume it meant thank you and move on.
“For all your… you-ness I do feel like you are the one who actually respects me the most here. Everyone else seems to think I am some kid out of his depth or a potential tool to get closer to Elder Aurelium.”
“Wow, that’s actually really sad. Well, it works out in my favor! After all, better to ride the Currents of the Mississippi than drown yeah?” Magni mocked.
“I am almost certain you are using that wrong…” John groaned, not bothering to hide the small smile on his face.
Waiting just beyond the gates with a somewhat modified Dox-drawn cart in tow was the multi eyed mass of Elder Aurelium sheltered from the sun with a large set of black robes. Now with his own inconvenient extra set of eyes stuck unblinkingly facing towards the unforgiving sun he felt a newfound sense of camaraderie with his adoptive grandfather.
“My apologies, you will have to wait somewhat before your departure, after all your escort hasn’t arrived yet. She is quite capable, but unfortunately she appears to take after her father in tardiness.” He explained.
Before either of them had time to put two and two together a blur of speed whizzed past as the familiar form of Cobalt manifested before them.
“Of fucking course…” He heard Mangi mutter.
“What is that supposed to mean!” Came the predictable reply.
It was going to be a long few days…