Galaxy… ooh! This… I really… no… nope… gotta focus on the monsters…

“There was a traitor… we know she was a traitor… my … I do not know her… this is so, so, so long ago. It is only stories now, told to my clan. A very old clan… long dead.”

Joe interrupted, forcing in good cheer, “ Well… I’ll make sure that clan is resurrected… we’ll get you back up, OK?”

Garnedell remained silent for a time before chuckling back, “I believe you can do it, Joe.”

Joe grinned, feeling a soft relief at Garnedell’s faith. Must be doing OK then… heh.

“But my clan is… gone. I am of the Sylnarvion clan,” Garnedell spoke this softly, almost with some trepidation before he began chuckling, laughing with a manic edge before continuing, “You are likely the only being I could ever reveal such to…” Garnedell ended with weary laughter.

Joe remained silent for a bit before continuing, distracted by a rather scary monster that seemed to think the best way to take out Joe was just to rise up and fall on top of him. He grunted and quickly dispatched the monster.

“Why, huh… sorry… heavy monster here. Why is that?”

Garnedell huffed, “Absence. You are from absence. How could you know?”

Joe shook his head, “I couldn’t.”

“Exactly,” Garnedell exhaled a long deep breath before chuckling, “exactly.”

The two fell into a silence for a time before Garnedell continued, “You cannot speak of this with any other.”

Joe stabbed another beast before leaping back to dodge a swipe, “Why?”

“My clan… and the Karnagur clan… we are not well loved by any.”

“Why is that?”

“We stood against the emperor’s favored.”

Joe frowned, “Hmm… doesn’t seem like too much?”

Garnedell laughed, “We stole her Library.”

“You have a library?”

“A Library of all she had and was… it is lost now, but she … her clan now… they do not have it.”

Joe frowned, taking a moment to dodge another chomp then stepping back in to kill it. He really wanted more information on the library as they seemed rather oddly important but paused his questioning as Garnedell continued.

“Taglisea. She was a traitor. For who? From where? We do not know. We only know that the emperor was not her master, though she claimed him to be. And my clan Patriarch, Sylnarvion, as well as Karnagur, Aelthron, and Loki... some few others… they fought beside the Emperor and brought the galaxy under heel. After the consolidation of the Emperor’s power, the heroes formed their clans, growing into power and were great defenders … the greatest defenders of the Emperor. Until… Taglisea… she was … strange. Sylnarvion, Karnagur, and all of them… all of them… they began to grow suspicious.

“I know nothing else of it, but that somehow, Taglisea grew into her power sometime long after the Emperor and his friends gained control. She…” Garnedell trailed off in a huffing long sigh and Joe realized he was growing tired.

“Hey. We can do this later. It’s fine, Garnedell.”

Garnedell chuckled, “I’m fine… and a bit bored. Just my butt is sore!”

Joe calmed at that, laughing and shaking his head slightly as his spun his spear to slam the butt of it down on a monster trying to take out his feet, bouncing it off its head to whip the blade back around and stabbed it into a larger monster behind it. A foot finished off the small one and the spear thrust took out the larger. Joe grunted as he replied.

“Sore butts… the bane of all living beings.”

Garnedell chuckled again and continued, “I don’t know… you must understand that all this is ancient history… history going back so many great cycles into the past it is now all rumor and myth but the greatest heroes of the emperor, almost all, fought against Taglisea but somehow, Taglisea was able to defend herself and convince the Emperor of her innocence. She even turned the Emperor and the galaxy against them. The Karnagur and Sylnarvion clan were hunted down. They were killed or banished or… I don’t know… my family… I… am the last of the Sylnarvion and the Karnagur… well… I’m not Karnagur… but I am the last of their legacy,” Garnedell huffed, then continued, “Or at least that is what my parents told me.”

Joe remained silent for a time, grunting as he thrust his spear in and killed a good three or four monsters before he spoke again, “I’m so sorry, Garnedell. You… had a very hard life.”

Garnedell began laughing at that, finding Joe’s statement absolutely humorous before continuing, “Yours will be much worse.”

Joe didn’t reply to that, finding the rabbit trail odd so wasn’t sure how to respond. After a time, Garnedell continued.

“The heroes became anathema… great villains of the galaxy, and hated by all. Their clans were sought out and destroyed. And… I am the last of mine.”

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Joe found the statement macabre and joked back with an optimistic hope, “Nope. You’ll find an amazing wife and rebuild your clan. I’ll make sure to be there and help!”

Garnedell softly chuckled back at that, “Maybe… maybe.”

They fell silent again for a time as Joe pondered the tale. He didn’t think too deeply on it as he was simply too focused fighting monster after monster. Joe didn’t know how long this pause lasted. He began to lose all meaning of time, especially once his system stamina dropped out and he found himself slowing dipping into personal reserves. Joe worried he would struggle to recover or be able to last, and began considering a repeat of using his Presence as he’d done before. When his sweat grew a bit heavy, he grimaced and decided it might be a good idea, and roared as he had before, sending out his Presence in a wave out from himself.

His Presence sped outwards from him in a spherical wave, washing over the beasts and Joe began to pant under the strain. Relief mitigated the effort but soon was replaced with some anxiousness as the monsters did not freeze this time. Some of the smaller and weaker ones shivered in fear, but the strong ones seemed to push through, continuing to come on albeit much more slowly. Even as Joe felt his mind struggling under the effort of pressing his Presence out, his breathing evened out and he felt a sense of calm. Doesn’t matter… moving too slow. Can definitely take a bit of time to rest.

Joe stepped back towards Garendell, although he did take a bit of time to look over the defensive wall, checking it carefully before turning to Garnedell. He wanted to dedicate most of the time to checking out his wound and making sure Garnedell was comfortable and doing better.

He used all his current mana to heal Garnedell before carefully checking him out, still finding him pale and sweating. Joe frowned and turned to the bag before pulling out a cloak and laying it across Garnedell. Don’t give up! You can do this, Garnedell. Garnedell seemed to notice Joe’s concern and his smile grew, a soft chuckle coming.

“Don’t worry, Joe. You are doing fine.”

Joe’s grin grew at that, turning a bit sardonic, “Yeah… I’m worried about you!”

Garnedell chuckled again and shook his head, “I really am doing well.”

Joe searched Garnedell’s face for a time, his eyes trying to dive in and know the truth before finally nodding his head and huffing his own chuckle, “Alright. I’ll believe you.”

Garnedell reached a hand up and slapped it on Joe’s shoulder, “Wish I could help you!”

Joe huffed, “Don’t you dare. Sit and rest.”

Joe nodded the turned his focus back on the monsters only to find one of the stronger beasts already coming into the gap and Joe returned to his position, immediately killing the beast, its corpse dropping to the floor before fading into nothingness as all dungeon made beasts did. He carefully studied the monsters still trying to come in and found all decently cowed so he sat down and calmed himself as much as possible. His stamina still flashed a deep red zero but he waited patiently and after several moments, it finally began recovering, if a bit too slowly given their current situation. He maintained his position, resting as much as possible. Soon, his head began to ache once again and Joe frowned. Not going to fully recover… looks like, but… not too bad? Get back to about seventy… eight percent? Should be good for another chunk of time? Maybe?

Joe’s headache grew and he finally grunted and stood, his stamina not quite making it to seventy percent. Garnedell breathed softly beside him but remained silent, giving Joe his meditation until the pain of pushing his Presence out grew too great and he stood, turning to face the monsters. He retrieved his Presence and once again began wiping out monster after monster.

“So… why tell me all this, Garnedell?”

Garnedell shifted, “I’m bored… and I have time… and you need to know this. It would be very odd if you did not know this if other’s spoke about or said these names.”

Joe nodded at that, “Ah. OK. Yeah… so I should be really angry or pissed off when I hear these names?”

“Or afraid.”

“Ah… yeah, the boogey man.”

“Boogey ma…” Garnedell trailed off when the mana condensed the blasted outward, blowing through him. Garnedell grunted then chuckled.

“Ah… boogey man… yes. They would be an excellent examples of my people’s boogey men.”

They fell silent for a bit and once Joe got back into his rhythm, Garnedell began again, “Do you know how to gift or release mana points?”

Joe replied quickly as he was between monsters for the moment, “Nope. How?”

“Release them.”

Joe huffed, laughing even as he thrust another, “Just release them, eh? Seems easy.”

Garnedell chuffed back himself, finding the humor, “It helps to say ‘I release these points’ if you want. Sometimes having gifted points isn’t really a good thing.”

“Gifted?”

“Points given to you… Only those who have claim to them can gift them but they sometimes don’t have the right to pass them on. The points aren’t there’s. I don’t know who gifted you yours, but you should cling to those well and truly. Gifted points are a … great boon.”

Joe frowned at that as he stabbed two more small fast monsters then had a moment to reply, “I thought you claimed points… by shooting mana at them or something?”

Garnedell chuckled again, “Yup. Those are not gifted, however. You borrow them from their owner.”

“Hmm. Owner?”

“The cradle.”

Joe had a moment there, his mind racing as he struggled to deal with those ramifications while simultaneously keeping his focus on the monsters swarming him. Garnedell didn’t seem to notice and continued on.

“The Sylnarvion clan did some great service to a cradle in the past. It decided to gift my ancestor some points.”

Joe blinked, and pulled himself back to the conversation, “The same one who fought Taglisea?”

“Yes. It was a great boon of power. But they are only for me and my clan.”

“Ah,” Joe replied, realizing where Garnedell was going with this, “Well… don’t give them to me. I got my own. I’m doing just fine. And I can get more pretty easily as well, if you haven’t noticed.”

Garnedell laughed loudly at that, then shuffled on his cloak chair, “A cheater. Seeing points is such a cheat.”

Joe grinned at that, “Well. You have all these… don’t even know how many points but you got them all, so donno who the cheater is here, Garnedell.”

Garnedell laughed, shaking his head, “Can’t even use them… no training yet.”

Joe laughed himself, “You think I can?”

Garnedell’s laughter renewed, “True. The young master of the Sylnarvion clan and the first ever monster from Absence… with the only points in Aelthron’s cradle… and we cannot use them.”

Joe frowned at that, “Only mana points?”

Garnedell sighed, “Not important… not important. Gifted points are a great boon, but as I said, certain mana points are for only certain people, or… in the greatest circumstance, for a family line. As I said, my gifted points are only for the Sylnarvion.”

Joe’s confusion began to grow, “And?”

“They are a curse for any other. Sometimes… some of my more… despicable ancestors cursed others this way. It is a waste of points as they are lost, but… the curse is profound. The cradle wants its back.”

Joe frowned, “Interesting. Why this story?”

“I’ll explain, but there is one more thing.”

“OK?” Joe asked, tamping his confusion and worry down, wanting to turn to look back at Garnedell but currently hard pressed by a fresh wave of monsters.

Garnedell continued, “My clan, with the help of the Karnagur clan… they were able to duplicate only a small portion… a small capability of Taglisea’s library. We could not read it… there is nothing of it and it is lost… but we were able to make our own libraries. The Karnagur clan library and the Sylnarvion clan library.”