Kal stepped out of the tent and was quickly intercepted by Leo. The man looked confused.
“Kalum, are you feeling ok?”
Kal shrugged, smiling, “Yeah I feel fine, better than fine actually. Look, I'm gonna go ask Melisia some questions before this morning's training starts.” He started walking. Leo looked like he was about to speak again but he just shook his head and followed.
On his way through the camp to Melisia’s tent, Kal noticed that all soldiers looked incredibly on edge. Many of them were fidgeting with their weapons, and when they looked at him many moved away from back into tents or suddenly needed to perform some task. It was very strange. But Kal stopped worrying about that, his priority was ensuring his ascension. Anything else was secondary. Kal didn’t storm straight into the tent since he didn’t normally go to her tent this early so the guard announced his arrival and Kal heard Melisia’s voice and she sounded a little surprised. Kal walked in to see Melisia already sitting at a small desk with an assortment of tomes in front of her.
“Good morning Kalum, I’m surprised to see you up already,” she said as stood from her chair.
Why didn’t everyone seem so strange today? They seemed so… Meek. Kal thought to himself before he responded.
Kal shrugged, “I’m fine, better than fine really but I don’t have long before this morning training so I was hoping you could tell me what you know of manipulation Health and Stamina. “
“Wait a minute Kal. I think we should talk about last night first.”
Kal would really rather talk about his vital energy, but Melisia looked pretty intense, he wasn’t going to get his way.
They spent the next few minutes discussing what Kal had gone through the night before. Of course, Melisia summoned her magic journal and started taking notes immediately. She took particular interest in the notifications Kal received during the final moments before his core was cleansed and destroyed. She was also a little worried about the Defier of Dhinir title he had received.
After some more clarifying questions and copying down his title descriptions she looked up from her journal, “So you are unaware of the aura you released last night during your cleansing?”
“Wait aura? What do you mean by that?”
“You released a domineering aura powered by your birthright, it was quite honestly terrifying.”
Kal really had no idea, he didn’t do it on purpose but when he thought of his moments of rage through his “meditation” he would have been surprised if something wasn’t detectable by Melisia.
Kal shrugged, “Well it can’t have been that powerful right? It was probably-”
“No Kal, it was very powerful, terrifyingly so,” she frowned. “Did you not see the camp on your way here? Everyone is on edge believing it was some kind of psychic attack. We are lucky that a cultist scout was spotted at the same time, otherwise, the soldiers would be much more suspicious of those inside the camp.”
Leo nodded in agreement, “Yes it appears all suspicion has been placed on that scout, at least for now,” he crossed his arms. “But I must also stress that yes Kal, it was very potent. Not all were affected but most were.”
Kal was shocked by the apparent power of his birthright’s aura. He wondered why no one noticed until last night but he quickly guessed it was because of whatever Dhinir did to him.
“Do you think it is related to what Dhinir had done to my core? I think it was suppressing my birthright somehow. Either that or my birthright was overwhelmed defending what was left of my core.”
Melisia nodded, smiling, “Yes, that was my assumption as well. I saw it during our first few attempts at divining your core.”
A thought came to Kal, “Wait, is that why you were acting so strange? You saw it and were afraid!” he said, his eyes wide in astonishment.
Melisia’s face reddened, “Yes Kal, I see now that it was foolish but my upbringing has instilled some things that concerned me deeply when I saw your birthright.”
Kal wasn’t even sure what having a birthright meant but it clearly had an effect on Leo and Melisia. “Are birthrights really that bad?” Kal asked, looking between the two of them, “Mine seems to have done nothing but help me considering the state of my core.”
Melisia sighed, her blush fading,” Bad isn’t the right word, birthrights have been documented as being great boons for the person who has one. But they all have their costs, I believe yours may have something to do with your emotional state,” she eyed him carefully, “I think we should keep the presence of your birthright a secret for now,” her face a careful neutral, ”It is unlikely anyone will detect it here, but I don’t believe it would be wise to allow the Prophet to hear of it.”
“Well ok, but why would anyone care about it? I had never heard of one before last night,” Kal asked, a bad feeling starting to creep up on him.
“Birthrights are an ancient phenomenon that happens so rarely it has only been recorded twice in the last five hundred years,” she walked over to her bookshelf collected two thin books, and passed them to Kal, “I suggest you read these yourself while we travel. They describe the documented birthrights. They are incredibly old so they may be hard to read.” Kal took them and used Identify.
The Healer [Rare]
This book describes the journey and trials of He who brings life or otherwise known as The Life Bringer. May he come again.
The Forger [Rare]
This book describes the journey and trials of the genius inventor known as Larus Steelbinder and his origin in Ainanaven.
“The risk here Kal is not truly that you have a birthright,” she paused for a moment, “It is the fact that I believe that you are one the cultists are looking for.”
Kal frowned, “Why the hell would the cultists be looking for me? And how do you know they are looking for anyone?” Melisia was clearly hiding something, Kal had ignored it for a while now but it was starting to get on his nerves.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I was hoping to leave this talk for after he had returned from the raid but with things as they are I believe it is necessary that I tell you now,” she took a breath before continuing, “Before I became a member of the Seventh Tower I was once a member of the Order of the Red Dawn, the very order we have been tracking for the last week.”
Kal's jaw dropped at the admission, and before he had a chance to comment she continued.
“You must understand I did not join the order by choice, like the smith’s boy and hundreds like him. I was abducted from my home when I was seven years old before I had ascended,” she looked withdrawn, her eyes distant.
Dammit, now he felt like a prick. Sure he was kind of concerned that she was apparently an ex-cultist, but judging by her face she clearly didn’t enjoy her time there. He nodded awkwardly, “Ok, I know very little about the cult besides what you have told me so don’t worry about your history risking anything between us,” both Melisia and Leo looked relieved at his response. He shrugged, “But either way, why would they be looking for someone like me?”
“The reason is complicated but they have been searching for a particular birthright for almost twenty years. A birthright of wrath, one that I believe you have.”
“What? So they have been kidnapping children for years just to try and find a birthright?” It disgusted Kal to think that hundreds or maybe even thousands of families had been destroyed in search of something that may not have even existed. Disgusted, he started pacing through the tent, suddenly feeling the urge to move.
“Yes Kal, they believe it is so important you are brought into their care that they are willing to destroy families all over the Empire to see it done.”
“So you believe that if the commander or Prophet became aware of me it would be dangerous?”
“They would likely imprison you to ensure that the Order never got their hands on you, but with your new title I suspect they would do far worse than that,” she said evenly.
Well great it looked like he was going to need to be more careful, the last thing he needed was to be hunted down by the Empire as well as the cultists. “Then what do you suggest? Because I do not plan on slowing down my attempts at finally ascending.”
“Oh, no neither do I. No, I am simply suggesting that you remain aware of your actions for the remainder of the journey, and try to refrain from antagonizing the Prophet. We do not want him looking into you for any reason if we can help it.”
Kal obviously had no qualms with that but he seemed to piss off the Prophet just by being nearby. "Fine, sounds good to me. No can we please talk about vital energy?"
Melisia smiled, "Of course," then she turned back to her books and took a seat at her small writing desk.
Leo chuckled, "You have twenty minutes then this morning training will begin and after last night I suspect we will be moving very quickly after that," then he strode from the tent in the direction of the training space.
Kal then spent the next twenty minutes getting as much information out of Melisia as he could. She explained that most mortal races had three main resources, those being, vital energy, physical energy, and mystic energy. The first two all mortals are born with, while mystic energy only begins to manifest once the mortal has ascended. Beasts on the other hand may gain their mystic energy earlier or further down their paths depending on their evolutions. When it came to actually manipulating those energies it all came down to perception. You need to be able to perceive the energies first to manipulate them. Luckily it wasn’t too hard to do so but it did take practice. Melisia mentioned that the best way to first perceive any of the energies was to use skills with a resource cost. Kal was out of luck there, Identify didn’t have a cost to use and Soul Forge seemed to use some abstract mental energy that just left him mentally tired with strenuous use. So all that Kal could do was try to drain himself of his resources and hopefully notice something as he recovered. What better way was there to drain his resources than to get beaten half to death by Leo Brightwing?
So there he was once again flying through the air from a kick to the chest by the armored man, his health dropping by ten percent by the blow. Of course, it was incredibly hard to pay attention to anything happening internally while being hounded by Leo but he tried anyway causing him to take a few additional hits that he would normally avoid.
Kal backward somersaulted back to his feet raising a pair of shortswords to block a downward strike from Leo’s blunted blade. It made Kal’s arms ache from the impact but the blade was stopped and Kal spun, throwing his leg outwards in an attempt to sweep Leo off his feet. It failed. His kick landed but still, he was unable to budge the man at all. Kal was starting to suspect Leo was using a bit more strength than he suggested but the failure didn’t stop him from evading Leo's counter, a hammer strike from Leo sailed by Kal’s head as he rolled away.
The fight hadn’t gone for long and Kal’s stamina was already flagging, Leo’s intensity had definitely increased. Again Leo was on top of him swinging his blade in diagonal arcs, a constant smile across his face. He loves this…Kal thought as he sidestepped a strike and tried to throw in a counter with his off-hand, but Leo pivoted and his sword came down hard on the middle of Kal’s forearm. An audible snap rang throughout the training area.
Kal couldn’t help but let out a groan as he lost feeling in his fingers. Kal knew that if he stood down now Leo would stop the bout, but Kal didn’t want to stop now he thought he felt something as his forearm snapped. He was about to ignore the pain and continue but the sensation he felt began to fade so he instead concentrated on the injury while he moved in.
Leo raised an eyebrow as Kal’s next attack came with little delay, he parried it with little effort but was caught off guard when Kal's head-butted him. Leo grunted probably not from actual pain due to his level even with artificially lowered attributes it didn’t make him any less durable but Kal knew that he had surprised him, using the few moments he had gained Kal concentrated on his wound.
His vision darkened slightly as his perception shifted. It was almost like when he meditated but much shallower but throughout it all he could hear the beating of his heart clearly, and that same guiding force pulling him along. It was his birthright, it was much clearer now but felt subdued compared to when he last felt its influence last night.
Leo had begun to move again after his short surprise and leveled a kick towards Kal’s chest, it was clear that it was beginning to become one of Leo’s favorite moves against Kal. Kal’s current state didn’t seem to impede him as he moved to the side just in time to take the blow on his side while the whole time he felt himself perceiving more of his injury. He could see the bones rubbing together at the break, the inflammation growing, and the blood moving through his veins. But amongst it all was an energy its form slowly coming into focus as Kal was forced to block another strike. The shock of the blow made Kal grunt again as his bones ached from the impact but with every small injury he took the energy came more into focus.
A vibrant red flashed through his entire body as another blow came down. It continued to grow brighter with every additional blow, so Kal traced the light back to its source. It was his heart pulsed with waves of red light that bathed his body in its light though curiously it seemed to avoid certain places within his body. Kal smiled as failed to block another strike, taking this one hard against the ribs. He grunted as a few of his ribs cracked, his perception doing nothing to dull the pain but his smile quickly returned as he instantly saw the vibrant red energy flood the area around his broken ribs. Kal lay on his back as he watched his vital energy attempt to heal his wounded body. It wouldn't do much since his vitality was far too low to grant him any kind of regeneration yet but he could still see what it was trying to do.
Kal was surprised he had found it so easily, perhaps most people weren’t as willing to take as much damage as he was since they could simply use skills that affected their health in some way but Kal suspected it was his birthright that allowed him to so easily grasp these concepts.
“Are you alright Kalum? Your stamina isn’t zero yet.” Leo said leaning over Kal resting on his training weapon.
Kal laughed,” Yeah, I just found my vital energy so I’m just going to watch it for a minute if that's alright,” he couldn’t help but keep smiling even with the pain the improvements always felt worth it.
Leo smirked, “Of course, but drink this before the others get here. Better not show too many cards to your opponents,” he chuckled, setting down a health potion next to Kal’s good arm.
Confused, Kal replied, “What cards, I didn’t think I had any?”
“Oh it's one the best cards of all,” he laughed, ”you're addicted to punishment.”