Emily had just finished regrowing her hand when Alex moved over to the control ward. They had gone quiet as Emily digested the new information. She was quite confused as to why Alex didn’t have more hatred towards Blood mages. By the sound of things, he should have a good reason to hate them. Yet he never showed any aversion to Emily's gifts, though whether it was because he now knew it wasn’t real blood magic or he’d just had time to get over the trauma he seemed completely fine with it.

Emily had given him some time before she launched into more questions about the future or his past.

“So, I’m assuming you’ve managed to make this trip before and reach your destination.”

Alex looked up from his work and nodded.

“I did make it back then, but don’t get me wrong, this journey will be just as dangerous. Things already are changing, and we’re only on the first leg. Even if I could remember how I acted last time, I’m not sure I’ll get the same outcome.”

Emily scratched the back of her head.

“What do you mean?”

Alex turned to face her now.

“Emily, I did all these things over thirty years ago. I can’t remember every detail or interaction I ever had with people. Just the general direction. As it is, I’m leaning heavily on a particular title to even recall all this.”

Emily’s eyes narrowed.

“Wait… did you come back with all your titles?”

Now it was Alex’s turn to scratch his head.

“...Not all of them.”

“Oh shit. Isn’t there like some super powerful one you could have picked?”

Alex rolled his eyes.

“Yes and no. I have a couple that would be strong but the issue is sticking out too much. Before I died, I had collected some of the most powerful titles I could get my hands on, but sticking out before you’re ready to defend yourself is a good way to get killed or enslaved. Another more immediate problem is that my body can’t currently handle them.”

Emily had been walking around the control ward as Alex worked, inspecting it, when she poked her head back around to look at him.

“What do you mean?”

“Hmm…remember how I said monikers take a lot of ranks to develop? If I tried to wield a title that my body couldn’t handle, it would probably hinder how fast my ranks could grow.”

Emily cocked her head, not really getting it.

“What rank are you now?”

Alex shot her stared that said ‘Really?’, but answered anyway.

“Last I checked I’m ranked thirty-eight.”

Emily drew a breath in through her nose. She thought she had been catching up, but this guy had pulled ahead of her in no time at all.

“No fair! How are power leveling!”

Alex shot her a confused look.

“I’m assuming you mean how are my ranks going up so fast? Well, that would be from my passive titles. The same restriction does not apply to passive slots. Currently, I’m using Mnemosynite. It accelerates my rank-ups every time I use my knowledge to solve a problem, along with a whole host of memory recollection features.”

Emily could see how that title would be useful to someone who had come back from the future, everything he did would be considered a recollection. This man had come back with power-leveling gear.

Emily wanted to pout, but she asked a question she knew she probably wouldn’t get an answer to.

“So if dying triggered your…’ reset’, how’d you die?”

Alex’s face got predictably more guarded.

“A beast of incredible strength killed me.”

Emily's brows shot up in surprise.

She was honestly more dumbfounded she’d gotten an answer. Alex may have been a tough nut to crack, but perhaps now that she knew one of his biggest secrets, he didn’t see these questions as invasive anymore.

“Okay, so that's why you need to get to the winter festival?”

“Sort of…”

Emily’s head fell to the side. She should have known.

“Hang on, I’ve almost got the door to the treasury.”

Emily stood up straighter.

“Wait. One last question. If you knew what was down here, then why did we come all this way?”

Suddenly a door at the back of the chamber hissed open as the flat surface slid aside to reveal a recess. The entire section of the wall had come out. When the door was closed, it blended seamlessly with every other wall in here. Forget about getting in, Emily wouldn’t have even known there was another room there if Alex had not unsealed it.

“Our Pathkeeper found this place last time, but seeing as though we’re early, why do I show you what we're here for.”

Emily stared at the opening but readily followed Alex as he stepped through the threshold. The room was completely free of dust and gave off a gentle humming sound as they entered. It reminded Emily of background machines at work, and yet there wasn’t a single piece of equipment in there.

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The walls were lined with runes, and in each one sat a metal tile Emily recognized. Alex had used a coin made from it to enter this place, and another piece of the ore to power the ward that hindered the Duke. The walls were covered in these small square tiles, each made from refined source.

Emily was fairly certain this room alone was a treasure trove, but in the center of it sat three glass cylinders.

The first one was empty, while the next contained an ancient breastplate. The piece of armor didn’t look like anything special, but it contained an aquamarine luster that was hard to ignore.

Alex pointed to the third and final cylinder.

“Kael will claim that armor, but what we're here for is that.”

Emily's eyes landed on the smallest cylinder containing a set of rings. They were welded together so that the wearer would have to place it over their index and middle fingers.

“It’s not a certainty, but I’m fairly sure that ring is the reason I came back.”

Emily squinted her eyes.

“So it wasn’t the ritual the Blood mages used that brought you back?”

Alex shrugged.

“They were part of it but that was the instigator.”

“That reminds me, the Blood mages seemed to be looking for you in particular, do you know why?”

Alex pressed his lips together.

“Yes, I do.”

When he didn’t offer anything more Emily rolled her eyes and stepped further into the room.

“So how do we get at it, You want me to break it?”

Alex shook his head and tapped on a nearby section of the wall, triggering some runes.

Both the empty case and the one with the rings in it lifted upwards, retracting into the ceiling.

Alex moved forward and pocketed the rings without any ceremony. He then turned to Emily.

“Okay, there's one last thing we need to do. Kael will try and lay claim to everything in here, but he doesn’t need to know we already got what we came for. Would you help me by removing the blood from this?”

Emily looked down and saw that at some point Alex must have picked up the crystal sword and scabbard. She blinked but then saw where he was going with this. Smiling Emily ran to the other room to pick up the scepter. Pulling the blood off both they deposited both into the cylinders. Alex nodded and resealed the room.

He then went about unlocking the stone door out of here.

When he finally managed, Emily was already waiting near it. She could feel Cupcake waiting on the other side. So when the doors finally groaned open she saw Kael, Oscar, Nox, and Cupcake waiting in a dark corridor. They all looked a little worse for wear but Emily noticed Mist was not there. The she-wolf bounded into the room almost as quickly as Kael, who began to take in the scene.

“Excellent job you two!” The man brushed past Emily and began to explore the final tomb. There wasn’t much there but Emily turned to Nox.

“Where’s Jonnathan's partner?”

Nox looked at Emily and bit his lip.

“Mist is hurt badly. We gave him a tonic but we couldn’t move him. If Gerade is still alive he should be able to help.”

Emily nodded and guided the group to the back room.

Kael moved over to inspect the Prince’s corpse before the rest of them could even say a word.

He rummaged around on the corpse and pulled the title stone from the wreck. It had probably once been a brilliant cube of gold, but now, barely any color remained as a dull grey floated through the stone.

Regardless, Kael looked ecstatic and pocketed the thing.

“How did you guys escape this thing? I’m certain it was royalty by the amount of energy coming off it.”

Explaining how it had happened. Emily was very clear that had Alex not powered it down, she wouldn’t have won. Even though she was fairly certain she had already had victory in the bag. It never hurt to be cautious.

Alex later heard that Mist was not doing so well, so he went to check up on him. When he returned he looked concerned. It turned out that while the tonic’s dosage was not enough for the Rime wolf, it had stabilized the beast.

Mist had cracked bone in its leg. It wasn’t in any immediate danger, but it couldn’t move easily.

After that, Kael had Alex lead Mist into the last chamber and had him close the door behind them. They wanted to get back to the main group but Kael was adamant they rest, even if it was just for a couple of hours. Emily wouldn't say no to that and curled up against Cupcake. She nodded off to dreamland shortly afterward.

The moment she did, her stars lit up the night sky behind her eyes, as they burned off the lethargy they had been suffering from for the last while. They then rapidly thinned down and caused an itch to lodge itself between her shoulder blades.

It only got worse as time moved on but Emily ignored it in favor of watching the stars dance and eventually organize themselves.

Rank twenty-five achieved, opening the second bridge.

Title mantle expanded - You may don 1 additional passive.

Gathering the deeds of Emily Hughes…

You have been cursed by a Source!

Compiling selection…

Titles added to selection: Charmer, Verminbane, Runic Adept, Sovereign devourer.

Innocent, Void plagued, Scarlet sister, Explorer, Performer, Swordswoman, Godstriken, Cyclum touched.

You may now alter your existing active titles or continue to advance down the Scarlet sister’s path

Charmer

Active: Access to the Charmer’s skill tree

Passive: increase learning speed when engaged with individuals to understand their desires and use them to your advantage.

Verminbane

Active: Access to the Verminbane’s skill tree

Passive: increase learning speed when removing pest infestations from environments.

Runic Adept

Active: Access to Runic lettering as well as the adept skill tree.

Passive: increase learning speed of runes, simple wards, and a handful of composite wards.

Sovereign Devourer

Active: Sovereign devourer has no skill tree, instead, gain access to all the skills usurper from royalty while donning this title.

Passive: The usurper will always be able to hide from royal or noble lineages. The usurper is immune to Royal decrees and detection skills. This includes those originating from their subjects.

Emily looked at her list of choices and had to say the others were fairly simple but it was the last one that caught her eye. From what Alex had told her every title had specific requirements to unlock them.

For example, Verminbane was probably when she had killed so many Blightstingers at once. And Runic Adept was probably from trying to learn runes. But Sovereign Devourer was a little worrying. She got that it was probably from feeding off the Prince, and thankful this title hid itself. Because she had a feeling this one was another blacklisted path.

While it was interesting, Emily didn’t feel much drawn to it or any of her new titles.

When it came down to it, Scarlet sister still matched her far better than any of the others. Though Void plagued did catch her eye again, but binned the idea in the end.

The moment Emily told the stars she was happy with her current title, they began to rearrange themselves.

‘26 - third threshold released at rank 50’

Skill threshold released!

New features have been unlocked!

Blood price:

Form a connection with a willing ally to share the blood mage’s life source with the intention of cooperation.

Warning: power can be exchanged freely in this network

And

Crimson Chains

Chains appear near a target's feet and immobilize them, draining life source and feeding it to the blood mage. Skills used while restrained by these chains are half as effective.

Curse in effect!

Result: The feature Crimson Chains has been destroyed.

Emily scowled, she was really starting to hate this curse. Maybe she should try and find a ‘willing’ religious person to explain how to remove it. By then the itching had stopped and Emily was able to sink into a dreamless slumber.

Blood points: 155