Omen: 2, 18

‘What a good Omen,’ Adam thought, staring at the numbers. Omen, the one ability which he cherished above all. Though he knew magic, and how to wield any weapon out there, including his fists, it was Omen which had defined so many of his days.

Two dice were rolled every time he slept well, each a twenty sided die. Once they were rolled, they were gifted to Adam for him to use as he saw fit. He could replace any roll he made with one of the Omen dice, or he could replace another person’s roll who was nearby. It had allowed him to almost kill an Iyrman outright, something which had caused the Great Elders of the Iyr to ask him to relinquish his great weapon, Phantom.

‘Phantom, my poor Phantom,’ Adam thought, thinking about the axe he had enchanted. It was such a glorious axe, something with a greater bonus, and an enhanced enchantment. A greater bonus, meaning a +2 bonus, plus an enhanced enchantment, which included the charges it had possessed which allowed to him to deal additional damage on a whim, which he usually used on a critical hit. It also allowed him to heal, but he didn’t recall a time he had used the enchantment to heal. It recharged every morning, or when he spent some Mana.

‘Would she be mad if I went to enchant?’ Adam thought, his eyes slowly moving towards Sonarot, who was smiling at him. Once she caught the look on his face, her face became neutral, though it was more like a frown to Adam. ‘Yeah, she’ll be mad.’

Adam sighed, causing his chest to fall, and the baby atop him to sink with his breath. He looked down at the top of his sister’s head. Lanarot. Lana, of the Rot family, which was pronounced more like rowing a boat than it was the rot of society like a certain political party from his country.

The girl was not related to him by blood, for Adam was no Iyrman. He was the first Half Elf to become a Nephew of the Iyr, which was closer than a Guest, but not so close to consider him a fully fledged Iyrman. She was, however, related to him by Fate.

She was still small, though was perhaps chubbier than most babies her age. Adam, who had been dieting, had been stuffing her full of bread any chance he got. He brushed her dark hair away from her forehead, causing her to stir lightly as she sucked on her thumb. She looked up at him with her sleepy dark eyes, confused at first, before she babbled quietly.

“Yes, yes, good morning, Lanababy,” Adam said, leaning down to kiss her forehead. He surrendered the girl to her mother, before getting up to stretch.

The courtyard of the shared family estate welcomed him, the crisp air of dawnval causing him to shudder. The Iyr felt different today. Last month, the Twilight Month, in which apparently a Great Twilight had occurred, it had felt so different. Once again he felt safe within the Iyr, and there was a gentle aura about the Iyr.

‘Is it because it was the Twilight Month, or was it because it was a Great Twilight?’ Adam thought, but he let the thoughts slip away as he began his morning exercise.

He ran a total of fifty laps within the courtyard, all the while the other Iyrmen were beginning to awaken. Adam’s companions, those he had collected during his travels, also joined him midway through his routine. After his warm up, which also included some push ups and squats, he lifted up the sack in different positions, from dead lifts, to more squats, to pressing it overhead.

‘I really need dumbbells,’ Adam thought, wondering if they had managed to finish making them. He had introduced them last month, and he had assumed the Iyrmen would have been eager to introduce them throughout the Iyr since they were blood hungry savages.

Once he was sufficiently aching, deciding against sparring with the others, he dipped himself into the cool stream to rinse himself, quickly washing himself with the hard brick soap of the Iyr. ‘Seriously, I need to start making some nicer soap.’

Once he was done with his cool bath, he slipped into a set of clothing his Aunt had prepared for him, the design he had become used to seeing whilst in the Iyr. A top which wrapped over itself and required a sash around his waist to keep the clothing tied together. It also held a large pocket on the inside against his chest, though it flowed towards his side too. The trousers of the Iyr were fairly normal, as trousers ought to be, with pockets for both the men and the women.

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‘Right,’ Adam thought. ‘No enchanting today, so what should I do?’ He continued to think as he returned back to the shared family estate, seeing the children had properly awoken too, with the Ool adults cooking breakfast for all four families, as well as their Guests, which the Iyr always treated well.

“You’re joining us today too?” Adam asked, noting the appearance of White’s Grace, a group of travellers who had disguised themselves as Adventurers in order to deal with the curse which affected a Merman Princess.

The Merman Princess, Mina, whose real name was far longer, reached up with her webbed, ocean coloured hands, causing Adam to pick her up. “Good morning, Princess Mina. Did you sleep well?”

“Ashasha!” she replied, smiling with her sharp teeth, before squealing with joy.

“We have heard that several birthday celebrations were to occur,” Lady Elowen, the leader of White’s Grace, replied. Her disguise had been of a Human, but she was far prettier in her Half Elvish form, with her slightly tan skin and her short red hair, which was as brilliant as a ruby.

“Oh yeah?” Adam replied, smiling. “Whose birthday.”

The surrounding people around paused upon hearing Adam’s words, throwing him looks. Half of them believed him to be joking, since they knew him well enough to know that he joked often. The other half knew he wasn’t joking, since they knew him well enough to know that he was quite queer.

“It is your birthday,” Katool finally said, the young girl of the Ool family pointing up at him, with a confused smile on her face. Her hair had been recently cut into a bob again, which she seemed to prefer.

“Oh!” Adam replied, having forgotten. He had been so preoccupied thinking about the Eldritch threat which had not yet appeared, that he had forgotten that this was the day he had been reborn into the world as a fully fledged adult for the second time, though he recalled the first time he had been reborn it was also on the first day of the year. “Isn’t it also Sir Vonda’s birthday?”

“Yes,” Vonda replied, smiling at him from behind the scarf which covered the burnt lower half of her face. “Let us hope many more years accompany us.” She was a Priest who had accompanied him for some time, apparently from the East of Aldland.

“Happy birthday, Sir Vonda,” Adam said, shaking her forearm, before recalling the gift he had for her. “Oh, just a moment.” He left quickly to find what he had prepared, grabbing it from the blanket he had wrapped around it, before returning.

In the Half Elf’s hand was a mace, the entirety made of metal. It was quite short, as maces were often, with an elongated cuboid which had been rounded, with four blunt pieces of metal which protruded out. The handle was wrapped with leather, which Adam only just realised was probably quite offensive to a Priest of Life.

“Here,” Adam said, handing it to her tentatively.

“You forged this mace for me?” Vonda asked, taking the weapon from him, holding it to feel how hefty it was. It felt quite sturdy in hand, and was quite thin, though considering he had used ore found in the Iyr, it would be durable.

“Yep,” Adam replied. “Right in the middle of Twilight Month. If I was allowed to enchant during the month, I would have enchanted it too.”

“I am not sure I could accept an enchanted mace, Adam,” Vonda replied. “Thank you so much for the gift.”

“It doesn’t matter if you want to accept it, you’re going to,” Adam replied. “I’m going to enchant it during this month since I won’t die enchanting during dawnval.” ‘Then there’s Jurot’s axe, and my own since I lost my poor Phantom.’

“Adam, I can’t accept,” Vonda replied, firmly.

“You should give up,” Dunes, the dark skinned, Aswadian Priest said. “You know how he is. His tongue is venomous and so seductive.”

“I’d feel bad that Dunes has perhaps the second or third greatest weapon I’ve ever made, but Sir Vonda, who is a great Priest of Life, will have just a mundane mace,” Adam said.

Sir Vonda stared at Adam, who had far more he could have mentioned. The fact that pretty much everyone around him who he trusted wielded magical weapons he had enchanted probably would have caused her more stress if she continued to refuse. “Thank you, Adam. I have made you something too.”

“Oh yeah?” Adam replied, trying to hide his surprise. He realised how rude it would have been if he had seemed surprised that Vonda was nice to him. “I mean, what is it?”

It was Sonarot who brought something within a wooden cover. It had taken only a moment for Adam to guess what it was, seeing how thin it was, though it was tall and wide. As the Iyrman undid the cover, Adam smiled.

He accepted the frame of the painting, and held it in his hands. “I didn’t expect you to be so good at painting, too. How can anyone be so talented?” Adam frowned at the woman.

“I do not want to hear that from you,” Vonda replied. ‘Enchanting. Smithing. Alchemy.’ She tried not to sigh, wondering how Adam had managed to become so talented in so many different skills.

Adam stared at the painting for a long while. It was a painting of a group of children, two of whom were still babies, and had no doubt struggled to remain still during the sketch and painting.

“It’s a wonderful gift,” Adam said, smiling at the Priest of Life. “However, I need to ask. Who are the children in the middle?”