Supposing our theory as to the origin of magic is correct, it is fairly easy to determine the idea that the inhabitants of the Savage Lands locked onto. Faced with the highest density of Cored and Fants on the continent, and therefore also the magical beasts with the highest stages, it is no surprise that the savages saw beasts as the source of power; that by killing the beasts, should they be able to steal the beasts’ power, they would become powerful too.

Excerpt: A History of Magic – Galen Cletus

As the door closed softly, Erin turned around and bowed, “Hello, Father.”

Turning around, Emyr Dawnblaze took his daughter in impassively, “Erin.”

“May I ask what brings you here, Father.”

“What brings be here, Daughter, is your inability to accomplish a simple task without messing it up. Any day, now, I was expecting to hear you were coming back home with the documents detailing the collaboration of the slavery camp and whoever is funding the camp, but instead I hear that you’re fighting against the servant of an insignificant Akantha boy, not on behalf of yourself but because someone else named you their champion. According to the servant downstairs, you didn’t even protest against being named the Volkarian’s champion.”

“Father, I-”

“No. You’ll be coming home, now. Clearly, your mother was wrong. You still have much to learn.” Emyr strolled slowly to the balcony door. “You’ll be travelling to Akantha city and using the portal there to return to the capital. I’ll send a replacement from the House of the Crescent Blade in the morning, and they’ll give you the money to come home.”

Erin, angry, mentally reached into the storage space inside her simple, rope hair tie and pulled out the sheaf of papers she’d stolen from the slave camp. Erin threw them down on the small table, and they landed with a loud slap. Emyr turned his head, even as he opened the doors, at the sharp sound, “What are those.”

“Those,” Erin pointed at the papers, “are the papers detailing the collaboration of the slave camp and the noble behind it.”

Emyr closed the door as he turned around. Picking up the papers, he stood and flicked through them all for a few minutes, Erin watching his expression carefully as he did so. Eventually, Emyr finished looking through all the papers; the financial accounts, progress reports, and correspondences with the nobility who was financing the camp. Nodding, Emyr pushed the sheaf of papers into his own spatial storage, a pouch on his waist that was made from the skin of a Seventh Stage Cored, “My apologies. It appears I was wrong, and your mother was right. This job is acceptably completed. I’ll send someone with the money for your trip home in the morning. Take some time before returning home. You will need to wait for the situation to calm down before returning, if you’re planning to use Akantha city to travel.”

Erin nodded her understanding, “Yes, Father.”

“But that still does not explain your collaboration with the Volkarian and Shinian outside the door, both of whom are listening into our conversation.” A small thump came from outside, and Sammath cursed. Erin fought off the urge to roll her eyes. Neither Sammath or Ashe truly understood just how much all aspects of an Inheritor’s body, be that hearing, smell, or physical strength, improved as they grew in power.

“Initially, I was forced to by Sammath.” Emyr raised his eyebrow at Erin, “The Volkarian. He has an extra sense that I cannot avoid and threatened to expose my mission in the slave camp if I didn’t help him rescue Ashe, who killed some guards and was being executed.”

“Executing a child?” Emyr growled, “Perhaps I should go and handle this camp myself.”

“With all due respect, father. They would have failed. Cababasi possesses him, and was the one that killed the guards.”

Emyr’s cool demeanour was finally betrayed by his face, his eyebrows raising and eyes widening. Emyr stroked his chin, “Cababasi, you say? What was the boy’s name, again?”

“Ashoka. Ashe for short.”

“And his family name?”

“I don’t know. It hasn’t come up.”

“Very well. I’ll see you at the manor soon, then?”

“Not yet, father. My mission is not over. I need to free the slaves before the camp has a chance to move, if they’re still even there.” Emyr nodded, his face stony, and opened the door to the balcony. Stepping out, he looked towards the ocean, and Erin knew that he was considering fighting the Cored. Emyr Dawnblaze was many things, but willing to let people die when he could have done something about it was not it. Erin knew what her father had decided when he turned his body to face the ocean. Emyr leapt up into the air, above even the roof of the house, and fire positively erupted from his hands, avoiding the buildings and streets below by virtue of Emyr’s skill and distance from the ground, quickly cycling from red, to blue, to blinding white.

Emyr shot up into the air, his flames trailing behind him as he shot towards the ocean, likely heading for the battle between Count Trillden and the sea Cored. While the count could likely kill the beast even if it was at the fourth Stage and he was at the third, it would be a long battle, could cause a lot of collateral damage, and the outcome wasn’t guaranteed. If Emyr Dawnblaze went, the conclusion of the battle was foregone, and it could be finished in seconds.

Erin went back and opened the room’s door for Sammath and Ashe, finding them standing innocently outside the room. Erin sighed, “I know you were listening in. I don’t care, and neither does my father. If it had been an issue, he would have used a sound suppressing device.”

“Yeah, and your dad’s a bit of a dick.” Sammath puffed his chest out and clasped his hands behind his back, affecting a serious expression, “You disappoint me, Daughter. Life happened, and you were affected by it. I expect you to remain completely above this. You’re being replaced.”

Ashe gave a light smile, a small bit of amusement returning to him, “You have to admit, Erin. That’s a decent impression.” Erin’s flat glare did nothing to discourage Sammath, and he continued even as he walked into the room.

“Oh, you succeeded anyway? This is what I expected and is acceptable. Goodbye.”

“Finished?”

Sammath shook his head, “Not yet. I don’t know exactly how he left. Do you think you can demonstrate so I can copy it.”

Erin didn’t deign to respond, “I’m going out. I need to get some supplies for our trip to the camp, and I want to leave tomorrow. It will be hard enough to get anything as it is with most people taking the day off and hiding from the Cored alert.” There was a lot to do if they wanted to assault the slave camp, and neither Sammath nor Ashe could be trusted to get any of the gear.

“So, is that a no?” Sammath called out as Erin shut the door behind her.

As it turns out, getting gear had been much harder than Erin had anticipated, and, in the end, she resorted to breaking into a local gang’s warehouse to requisition their supplies so that she could complete her mission.

The next morning, Erin woke a little before dawn and went outside to replenish her supply of sunlight, which had nearly been exhausted, before waking the others up. Erin had already replaced what moonlight she’d used in her fight the night before, so she didn’t need to worry about running out of it. Unfurling her legs beneath her, Erin woke up both Sammath and Ashe and dragged them out of the Blue Sail Inn towards the city walls. While the walk took nearly an hour, considering the size of the city, it was a good way for them to wake up and they ended up buying some pastries for breakfast from a shop that Ashe had taken them to, much to Sammath’s delight.

Sammath had ended up tearing into the pastries with gusto, devouring the delicious treats in minutes and trying to swindle the other two out of their breakfast. As they reached the wall, the city was beginning to come to life and people were walking the streets to get to their jobs. A group of four guards was monitoring the ingress and egress of the city, inspecting carts and people going in and out of the city for any contraband. Waved through with little trouble, the trio were quickly on their way to the slave camp, moving down the road as quickly as they could. Soon enough, Ashe had to be picked up by Sammath as they began to pick up speed, Sammath using his concept to make carrying Ashe easier and also to run faster than what was possible by a normal human, jogging casually at speeds that would normally be considered a full sprint.

Erin kept up easily with a long, loping gait even as they made their way off the road and began to run across the plains surrounding the city, towards the forested mountains that surrounded the entire city. Only an hour later did the group arrive at the base of the mountains and begin climbing back into the wooded heights of the range. Soon enough, the group fell back into the same travel rhythm that they’d been using when escaping from the slave camp initially. Carried on Sammath’s back, Ashe would periodically practice his Runes when they stopped, this time managing to make up to six Runes a day in three batches of two after his advancement. When they stopped for the night, Erin would hunt for food, which was then supplemented by the supplies that she’d picked up in the city, and Sammath and Ashe would cook the food.

This time around, the food was much more tolerable as Sammath could actually incorporate spices in the cooking, and got quite proficient with them after a little bit of experimentation. After nearly a month of travel, when the leaves and pines of the mountainous trees were beginning to change colours and coat the ground in a carpet of reds, yellows, oranges, and browns, Erin could see smoke rising from the camp at night from the cookfires.

Crouching in the higher boughs of a tree, Erin was surveilling the camp. Even though Erin and the others had escaped earlier, the security outside the camp seemed lax, and the only indication that anything had happened was that security on the walls had increased substantially. Despite their increased presence, however, no guard was able to spot Erin, perched silently in branch in the cover of trees. Slipping away quietly, Erin slunk back to Ashe and Sammath.

“We need to advance.”

Sammath raised his eyebrow, “Well hello, Erin. How’d your surveillance of the camp go?”

Erin glanced at Sammath, “As it is, if we free the prisoners, we could probably overwhelm the guards with sheer numbers, even without taking action ourselves. Especially within the confines of the camp, where powers are restricted. If we’re just fighting by ourselves, we might be able to beat the guards, but we’d need to fight somewhere extremely advantageous to ourselves. With Ashe practically being out of the fight, I don’t think that we can take on that many guards under any circumstances we can get here.”

Sammath nodded, “Hence the need to increase our abilities by advancing.”

Erin pointed at Sammath, “Exactly.”

Sammath stood up, groaning lightly as he did so, “Well, then. Since you came back to us, I’m guessing you have a workable plan. If not, you better pull one out of your ass soon ‘cause all I’ve got are shitty ones.”

Erin smiled, a predatory grin that made Sammath shiver and Ashe look at her worriedly, “That grin is exactly how it feels when Cab sees someone breaking the law.”

“Well, I don’t plan to go around breaking the law, but I’m certainly going to push you to your limits.”

Sammath groaned, “No. Please. No more training. Please, kill me now. End my suffering.”

Erin gave him a flat look, “Stop being so melodramatic. I won’t actually be doing any weapons training with you until you’ve reached Cognizance.” Sammath sagged in relief, “But I will be pushing you to make the revelation required to get to that stage.”

Sammath opened his mouth, raising his finger, and then thought better of what he was going to say. Putting his hand to his chin, he spoke, “You know. I think I can deal with that.”

Erin glanced over to Ashe, who nodded, “I already know that I need to get stronger.”

“Good. It’s time to get to work.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Sammath sat, his legs crossed beneath him, and his eyes closed. Erin’s voice was soft as she spoke, circling around him, “Reaching the next stage in your Concept requires a revelation.” Erin let the fact settle into Sammath’s mind, already knowing that he was aware of the fact. “In order to reach the Essence stage, you needed to see what Motion was. I don’t know exactly what revelation you had, but you probably realised that Motion is movement. Motion is change. The world around us is in a constant state of Motion. This revelation allowed you to see the Motion of the world as it is; where things have been, where they are, and where they’re going.” Erin’s flat hand flashed out as she circled Sammath, smacking him solidly in the back of his head.

“Owww.” Sammath complained, rubbing the back of his head, “What was that for?”

“You opened your eye.”

“I did not open my eye.” Erin’s silence communicated her disbelief more strongly than any words, “Which eye did I open?”

“Your right eye.”

Both of Sammath’s eyes opened that time, Erin able to hear the faintest sound as Sammath’s eyelids opened. Erin’s hand once more shot out, whacking the back of Sammath’s hand. Sammath immediately closed both eyes as he rubbed at his head, “Alright, alright… I may have opened my eyes.” Erin heard the slight fluttering of Sammath’s eyebrows as they closed. Sammath reset his posture, straightening back up after being hit in the back of his head, “How did you know that I opened my eyes?”

“I heard them.”

Sammath frowned, “Well that’s unfair.”

“Get back to work.” Erin told him, not letting Sammath get too far off topic, “Now, having seen what your Concept actually is, you need to figure out what your Concept means to you.”

“I’m aware of what I need to figure out to advance, Erin. I’m not a child.”

“Stop interrupting me, Sammath. I’m aware you know what you need, but cementing it doesn’t hurt. And if you want to stop being treated like a child, then you’d stop acting like one.” Sammath frowned deeper before taking a deep breath and straightening his face out, “Good. Relax. Now, what does Motion mean to you, Sammath.”

“Motion is exactly what you described. It’s movement and change. Motion is where everything has been, where it is, and where everything will be. Motion is everywhere, in everything.”

Erin nodded; Sammath’s issue was exactly what she’d thought. Sammath was so caught up on his previous revelation about Motion that it was all he could see Motion to be. In order to reach the second stage of power, Cognizance, in a Concept, you had to figure out your emotional link to your Concept; what the Concept embodies to you based on your unique experiences and perspective. One person may see Motion as their drive; they felt the need to constantly be in Motion, another may see Motion as the solution to their problems, their saviour; they believed that their issues could be solved by moving things around, and even more may feel that Motion gave them a sense of comfort; they felt reassured that things moved and changed. Emotional connections were unique to everyone, and could be nearly anything, so long as they were rooted in emotions and feeling. The largest bottleneck that people faced when trying to figure out their connection was getting focussed on the revelation they’d already had and only being able to see what they’d already seen, an issue Sammath was facing.

Erin needed a new approach and, thankfully, her distance from the power of Concepts afford her the ability to change her approach, “Sammath, channel your Concept through you. Don’t try to control it, interact with it, or even try to see it. Immerse yourself in your Concept and just let it flow.”

Erin could tell that Sammath was following her advice when he began to relax further, the muscles in his face and body loosening, even as they were activated enough to keep him sitting. Sammath’s body then began to sway slightly as a breeze ran through the clearing, something that Sammath was probably unaware of, to match the small currents of wind. Sammath wasn’t yet able to feel his Concept in the world around him, but just letting the Motion of the world flow through him was something that he was definitely able to achieve.

Just sitting there, immersed in his Concept, Sammath looked more at peace than anyone Erin had ever seen. That contentment that Volkarians gained when they found their Concept was the reason their society was able to function with socialism. No other power or people of the world were as content with what they had as the Volkarians, and so only Volkarians could remain happy by virtue of the fact that they were alive, let alone be able to give everything to their neighbours with a genuine smile on their face.

“How do you feel, Sammath? What does it feel like to have your Concept running through you?”

“It… it feels like running through a field with a breeze against my face. It feels like sailing on the ocean with a breeze always at my back. Like laying still and drifting on the currents, but still ending up exactly where I want to go. I feel… I feel free.” Sammath mumbled, “My Concept feels like freedom.”

Sammath’s eyes snapped open, and a gust of wind immediately blew in from somewhere beyond the clearing, swirling around Sammath and buffeting Erin’s clothing, pushing her away from Sammath. Fingers of air tore at Sammath’s clothes as he looked all around himself. Instinctively, Erin knew that Sammath wasn’t actually seeing anything and that the gesture was more of a reaction to gaining the ability to sense his Concept in the world around him, at least in a small area around his body. Sammath closed his eyes, moving to his feet gracefully, and immediately began to gesture with his hands. Wind pushed at Erin and swirled around Sammath as he began to control Motion in ways he’d never been able to before, not just pushing and pulling at the Motion of objects but actually directing the Motion.

Leaves rustled in the trees and Sammath switched his attention away from the air, letting the wind dissipate without his control. A branch bent down slightly, and a few leaves popped off of the branch as Sammath pulled on them. Whipping back into place, the branch was stilled immediately by Sammath, who purged it of its Motion, and Sammath took control of the leaves, sending the browning vegetation spiralling and dancing around both Erin and Sammath under Sammath’s control.

After a few minutes, Sammath let go and watched the leaves drift to the ground. Sammath turned to Erin with a big grin on his face, “Thank you.”

Erin nodded at him, her face as impassive as always, “You’re welcome.”

Sammath spread his arms and began running at Erin. Immediately knowing what was coming, Erin began to back away, but she felt herself pulled in the other direction by her clothes, which Sammath latched onto with his Concept, “You aren’t getting away that easily.”

“No, no, no, no, no. Sammath. No hugs.” Erin protested, but Sammath ignored her, scooping her up in a massive embrace to express his gratitude. Squirming uncomfortably, Erin didn’t want to hurt Sammath so she was forced to remain in his embrace rather than pull herself out of the older boy’s arms. Eventually, Sammath set Erin down and she adjusted her clothes, pulling them back into place on her body. “You did not need to hug me to express your gratitude, Sammath.”

“What do you mean? Of course I did. Actions speak louder than words, and I am extremely grateful.”

Erin, still adjusting her clothes, looked at Sammath, “A simple handshake would have sufficed.”

“No, Erin,” Sammath’s voice turned a little more serious, “it wouldn’t have. I don’t think you understand just how much I’ve struggled with moving forward from the Essence Stage to the Cognizance Stage, let alone all of the other Volkarians in history. It is harder than moving from the Cognizance Stage to the Embodiment Stage, at least according to most.”

Erin shrugged, “No. I don’t know. It just seemed logical, though. Essence is about observing what is happening, and Cognizance is about forming an empathetic connection with your Concept, so why do you try to see the connection when you could feel it instead?”

Sammath’s grin widened again, “You know, Erin. I don’t know why you were born an Arikaran. You could have been the greatest Volkarian of us all; so dazzling that even I would’ve seemed pale by comparison. You could have been a fucking sage. Instead, your potential has been wasted on Bloodline powers.”

“No thank you, Sammath. I don’t think I’d want to be a ‘fucking sage’.”

Sammath froze, staring at Erin like she’d grown a second head before erupting in laughter.

“Why are you laughing so hard?” Erin raised an eyebrow at Sammath, “It was not particularly funny.”

“No.” Sammath finally wheezed out, “The funny thing is that you actually made a joke.” Erin immediately scoured her memories, thinking of all the time she’d spent training, all of the time she’d sat in dinners with her family without speaking, all of the time she’d spent in functions and in private tutoring. Those memories eclipsed all others, her extremely good memory making sure that she remembered nearly everything. Like Sammath had said, making a joke was out of character for her.

But then Erin’s mind went past those memories. Erin’s mind strayed to all the times she’d spent time with Kayden and his siblings, a fun activity that even Emyr Dawnblaze couldn’t replace with more training, useful as it was to build rapport and trust with the royal family. The times Erin had spent with her family, particularly Lu and her uncle, during her rare days off, had been fun and Erin had found herself fitting in naturally with them, laughing and making jokes. Perhaps… perhaps making jokes wasn’t so out of character, after all. But that didn’t matter. Not right now, at least, “Don’t get used to it, Sammath, because the easy part’s over. Now, you need to be able to use your powers to an acceptable level, and that means training.”

Sammath’s groan had Erin smiling internally; she was looking forward to this.

Ashe shuddered, sweating, as he pushed Ink out of his finger, forming his fourth Rune in a row. In just three days, Erin had made sure to force him beyond all of his previous limits, making him become far more economical with his use of his Ink. All of Ashe’s past attempts at forming four Runes with his full Inkwell had failed, but this time felt different to Erin. Erin had carefully gauged the amount of Ink had in his Inkwell, and this time she knew that there was enough left to complete the Rune, if Ashe was able to push and complete it, at least. Groaning as he pushed the last dregs of Ink out of his body, Ashe collapsed right as the last stroke of the Rune was finished with a flick of his finger.

Immediately, without any Ink to maintain the Rune in the air, it absorbed the energy of the world around it and Erin felt a burst of heat on her face as the fire Rune emitted a small spurt of flame before collapsing, the fabric of reality moving back into position.

Erin nodded in approval; Ashe’s Enchanting had improved massively. Erin believed that Ashe could probably write up to five Runes at once, if he had the time to optimise his Ink usage, but they wouldn’t have the time to get him to that level. As it was, Erin thought that they could only afford to wait another few days before attacking the camp. Any longer was just asking to get caught.

Ashe’s body unfolded itself from the floor, eyes glowing red with black streaks, like a marionette lifting their puppet. Erin glanced over to Sammath, her eyes easily finding the boy as he moved around with a blindfold over his head, practicing with his Motion Sense. Satisfied that he wasn’t going to overhear her conversation with Cab, not trusting that he wouldn’t tell Ashe about it, Erin spoke, “How long until Ashe could use the Core?”

Cab’s voice, at least when using Ashe’s body, was deeper than Ashe’s voice. Despite that, it could only be as menacing as Ashe’s twelve year old, something that Ashe had confirmed, vocal chords allowed, “Maybe two weeks if you push him as hard as you have been.”

“Thank you.” Cab let go of Ashe’s body and Erin caught him easily, the small boy weighing nothing to her enhanced strength.

Ashe woke up with a groan, “Did I do it?”

Erin nodded and smiled gently, “You did.”

Ashe half-heartedly raised a fist in the air, “Yay.” Ashe grimaced, putting his hand to his head, “I’m tired now, and my head hurts. Do you think I can sleep?”

Erin nodded, picking the boy up and hoisting him onto her shoulder without any effort, “Sure, Ashe. Get some rest. You won’t be ready to use the Core before the attack, but I’ll try to make sure you’re as prepared as possible.”

“Thanks, Erin.” Ashe mumbled as his head lolled down, his eyelids drooping and his hands and legs losing tension. Ashe’s head swayed back and forth gently as Erin walked him back to his sleeping roll, one of the supplies Erin had made sure to pick up, and laying him out to rest.

Ashe was still sleeping after successfully managing to pump out four Runes, and the sun was beginning to set over the horizon. Sammath had packed up for the day, finishing his movement and sensory training with the blindfold, and eaten some cold rations that Erin had given to him. While he’d initially complained about the lack of hot food, Erin’s reasonable argument that the camp might see the smoke had quieted him for the time being. Erin was seated on a tree branch, high in the air with little foliage obstructing her view of the sky.

As the edge of the sun touched the horizon, Erin felt her Bloodline tell her when the moon began to appear above the horizon on the other side of the sky. It’s time, Erin thought. Surprisingly, she felt no nervousness, only certainty at the fact that she was ready. Erin had been ready for a long time, scouring her Bloodline for each tiny, tiny imperfection and, now, Erin believed that she’d identified the very last one. Erin’s mind retreated into her body, taking in the glowing, white light of her Bloodline. Wrapped and tangled in an intricate pattern, it seemed to occupy a space larger than her body, while still being contained to her physical form. Now, Erin would only make it larger.

Erin’s mind homed in on the very last imperfection in her Bloodline, a small scratch of the faintest grey she’d ever seen, a blemish that had taken her three days of intense, tireless searching to find, and she began to simultaneously burn it with the heat of her Dawnblaze fire and freeze it with the icy cold of her Sarin moonsteel. If Erin was being honest, she didn’t need to do this. Erin was close enough to the Viscount Stage that she could push herself into it without any issue. Erin could feel the pressure of her Bloodline, which wanted to raise itself to the Viscount Stage, constantly nagging at the edges of her mind, but she ignored it. While a blemish as small as this would effectively do nothing to stifle Erin’s future advancements, nothing less than perfection was what her father required of her, and nothing less than perfection was Erin, herself, willing to accept when it came to her Bloodline.

Slowly but surely, the grey began to fade, and the pressure of Erin’s Bloodline began to increase. As soon as all the grey had been scoured away, and the mental pressure of Erin’s had been increased by just the tiniest fraction, it all seemed to release. Erin’s Bloodline felt like a dam bursting, suddenly expanding rapidly in both diameter and length, the coils of her Bloodline rapidly shifting and falling into a different design as her Bloodline went from the Baron Stage to the Viscount Stage.

Rather than painful, the shift was almost euphoric, and the rush of power that followed was something that Erin knew some people became addicted to. Power thrummed in Erin’s body as she began to rapidly absorb sunlight and moonlight, mildly darkening the world around her. Erin couldn’t see it from inside the bubble of darkness, but she knew that the twilight of the world would look like deep shadow around her; not like the dark of the night because she wasn’t quite powerful enough to do that, like Liu. Despite that, her body was absorbing more sunlight and moonlight than ever before and Erin could feel the power running through her body.

As her Bloodline slowly began to calm down, Erin focussed on her Bloodline and began to analyse it after her breakthrough. With over twice the diameter as the Baron stage, Erin’s Bloodline would be able to output significantly more power. Not only that, but the length of Erin’s Bloodline was, again, over twice the length it was before. With that, Erin’s Bloodline had more than eight times the capacity for sunlight and moonlight than ever before. Unfortunately, that increased capacity for both output and storage came at a cost. Erin’s Bloodline had gained a significant number of impurities when it had expanded and, with more than four times the surface area of her previous Bloodline coils, this number was four times greater than the number of blemishes that Erin had needed to fix to reach the Viscount Stage. Erin sighed slightly; the grind never truly ended.

Deciding to stay in her position, Erin began to absorb moonlight faster than she ever had before, beginning the process of filling her moonlight stores to capacity and, slowly but surely, beginning to grind away at the grey blemishes that covered her Bloodline.