“That’s sick. Vile even,” said Casimir.
“Now that’s heresy. I would not get too high and mighty, that same food source powers the Ascendancy’s system. Would you abandon it now just because you find the fuel distasteful?” Maksim said.
“…No. What is done is done, I cannot change what happened or stop it from happening in the future. All I can do is decide to benefit from it or not now.”
“Well, now you understand how most of your new order feels, I imagine.”
Something still bothered Casimir, itching at his mind, a question born of confusion more than ethics.
“Dad, do you know why we weren’t all taken? Why the ancestors were not consumed as well?” Casimir asked.
“I don’t know.” Maksim admitted.
“Oh.”
The mystery in that answer brought dread. Who knew what purpose their existence had now?
I would say that they wanted us to repopulate like cattle to begin another harvest, but we weren’t moved back to the surface. The amount of population growth beneath the earth is limited by the volume of the pillars and our food sources provided by the Academy. We will never reach back to Pre-Cataclysm’s numbers. Not ever. Casimir thought.
“You can go back to sleep if you like. We have both had some gains out of this.” Maksim decided.
“You’re not mad anymore?”
“I avoid holding onto things. Embracing new possibilities is always better. It should not be hard to use your new status as a reputation boost to our family. Bragging rights, you see.” Maksim said. His father the opportunist, as optimistic and conniving as ever. Casimir loved his dad, but he would be lying if he did not say that the man worried him. Maksim Shuisky, if he had been born into another time and place, would have seen the fallout of the apocalypse and have decided to invest in lead-lined umbrellas.
“And the issue of inheritance?” asked Casimir.
“One of your cousins will have to replace me. If they prove themselves worthy.” Maksim said. “Having you and your younger sister was expensive enough.”
“I’ll go and lie down.” Casimir lied, having no intention of sleeping at all. He was too awake to get anymore, and there were things he needed to do. First, he needed to figure out what Barasa was trying to tell him and get a way to walk around the proper way. Second, he needed to master as much of his powers as he could before walking back into the situation. And third? Third, he would have to go see his sister. His first sister.
Man up. You will have to face her sooner or later. She needs the good news. He thought to himself as he walked back in the direction of his bedroom. He had no plans of resting there, but it served well as a private place for planning. Or scheming. Casimir got so lost in thought that he walked right into another body.
“Ow!” groaned Niall as he stumbled back. “What was that for?”
“Wasn’t intentional. Sorry. Why are you out here, anyways? You were supposed to stay in your room.”
“I don’t remember you saying that.” Niall replied.
“Well, if I didn’t, I should have. And I am saying it now, stay in your room until I come to walk you back home.” Casimir said. He added a mental note to place an item number four on his list. That would have to wait for him to get his full vision back for the outside world.
“I got bored.” Niall said.
“Go back to sleep then. You can’t be bored if you’re unconscious.” Casimir said.
“I can’t, you said there were hidden guards and now I can’t sleep.”
“That was a lie, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t up to no good.” Casimir said, lying once more.
“Oh, I see! That was clever of you. I promise that I won’t do anything bad though.” Niall said.
Such an odd kid. Vulnerable, yet talented enough apparently to get in where so many others fail. The Academy chose this one?
“It’s interesting,” Casimir said slowly. “What one can see when they, ah, Observe human.”
Niall Brennan
-Description: Ward of the Academy. Assistant to the Biology Department’s Dean.
-Alliances: Allied with Casimir Shuisky.
-Origin: Harvest-09
“Don’t you mean observe a human.” Niall said, looking at Casimir quizzically.
“Yes, of course, I’m just tired.” He faked a yawn, the expression coming with ease.
So then. We’ve got ourselves another keeper of secrets. Someone hasn’t been telling the full truth. Ward of the Academy, huh? Assistant to a dean? Casimir thought as he directed Niall back to the room he had been assigned, and then left for his own. The Observation Skill was shaping up to be the best gift he had ever received. So much information, so many ways to see where others were being deceitful. Stopping by another portrait with pinholes in the eyes, Casimir listened to the heartbeat through the wall. Sight was not the only thing altered.
“The boy I came with, watch him closely. Don’t hurt him or remove him, he’s a very valuable guest, but watch him like he’s a high priority visitor.” Casimir whispered to the portrait.
The man was trained to say nothing in return, to never give any sign that would alert of the guard rotation’s existence in the walls, but the watcher would get the message. Casimir knew for sure of that now. Certainty. That was what the System offered. Those glowing blue letters and numbers on his right arm filled him with such a sense of pride. Maybe there was something to the idea that access was addictive, but perhaps it was not in the sense of liquor. His father did not know everything, after all, anything that came through Maksim Shuisky was at best well sourced hearsay. Perhaps it was just that no one who had known this sense of purpose and control could bear to give it up. Why would you? If there were harvested souls behind that soft sky blue, burning up to give off holy light, they were not visible to the naked eye.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
There’s a thought. He shut the door behind him, climbed back into bed, and then spoke. “Observe symbols.”
POP!
The sound of it was like one of the rare lightbulbs shattering, the sensation of his optic nerves being charbroiled on a hot grill. Arms and legs thrashed like fish hooked on a line, blood ran from his nose and tears streamed from his eyes. It had knocked him on his back. Green eyes wide, blond hair sweaty and disheveled, Casimir stared blindly at the ceiling. Each breath came in icy cold and left in a wet heat.
“Gods, I wish...” He panted. “I want a drink.” Not even finishing the bottle could have given him a hangover half as terrible as what he had just experienced.
“Well then, no more looking straight in or doing any of that kind again.” Casimir said. “Point noted, I will not ask the Skills to look at the damn glowing numbers.”
Why did experimenting have to be so painful? Could it not have been something with more safety features built in? Should he wait before looking again? What if he had somehow strained the Skill? Or if he had damaged his internal organs? For all he knew, he could be one more look away from having his brain fried. The agony was fading fast though. Blinking his eyes and staring hard at one part of the room provoked no more pain, and when he wiped his nose Casimir found the blood had already stopped. It was like there had not even been a blood vessel that had burst in his nose at all. Only the liquid that had leaked out existed as proof.
No other signs remained. Good enough. There was more to be done and resting was for the weak.
“Something simple.” He decided, pulling a sock off his foot and burying his right arm under the sheets to prevent even a sliver of its shine from getting caught in his sight.
“Observe sock.”
The response back was as standard, a report on its qualities and origination.
“Observe clothing.”
The System’s silent words came unchanged to his mind. There was a slight stain on part of it, some dirt worked into the sock’s outside.
“Observe dirt.” He ordered.
Assorted Soil Residue
-Description: Mixed composition of calcite, silt, and body sweat.
Casimir wrinkled his nose at that last part. Gross. It was confirmed now though that there was not some lasting damage that would cause pain every time he tried examining an object or subject of inquiry.
“I wonder, why did you leave out the origin this time?” He said thoughtfully.
“Observe dirt.” Casimir repeated.
Only the title and the description came back to him.
“Observe sock.”
Three items, and not just two.
It is not just the scanner dropping off repeat information then, it is just not giving me the full information. Casimir thought, pondering the matter. Too unimportant? Or too small in mass to get a reading?
It deserved more testing. A larger sample size. The sock was slipped back on and some warmer clothes added for warmth. His shoes, fine ratskin leather, were put on after and he crept out of his room carefully, looking both ways for any sign of Niall following and causing him trouble. The coast was clear, the house was silent. With everyone in their rooms but his father and the guard posts inside the walls, there should be nothing in his way to distract him from the purpose of scientific research. Through the hallways and down the stairwell he went, stopping in the kitchen first before going outside to do some amateur excavation.
“Master Shuisky,” One of their chefs said in surprise. “I did not realize that you were awake. Would you like me to bring you something to eat? Breakfast, perhaps? Some tvorozhniki pancakes or some porridge?”
“That’s alright, Mikhail. I’ll eat later. What I do need from you is some items.” Casimir said.
“The young master would like to do some baking of his own?” smiled Mikhail.
“More like a little science experiment. Could you get me a cup, a large spoon that won’t bend easily, and a set of measuring teaspoons, please? I would appreciate it greatly.” Casimir requested.
Mikhail rustled through the cupboards to look for them, forks and knives jingling together. “I’ll be getting these back, I hope.”
“All in one piece. Spotless.” Casimir said. Maybe not the large spoon in perfect condition. Maybe I will try baking something as repentance.
“Oh, and steel for the spoon, not silver.”
The chef raised an eyebrow but returned to searching, humming a tune under his breath.
“Here you go, young sir.” Mikhail said finally.
“Many thanks,” replied Casimir, taking them into his eager hands. The measuring instruments and spoon fitting into the offered glass. It was time to get started on those samples. Casimir opened his front door to unveil complete darkness, the terrible blindness that laughed at his attempts thus far to conquer it. Creeping outside in a low crouch and with his shirt pulled up over his face, Casimir scanned the bioluminescent garden. What was necessary was a bare patch of stone ground or a natural formation. Not something that had been added to the estate by Shuisky wallets and hired hands.
There.
Just past a mushroom with a wide cap and before a snaking ivy bed of mycelium tendrils. He hurried to it and took a seat. With the spoon, he scraped away at the stone to rake up particles of dust. Pinch by pinch, a little pile grew in the cup.
Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.
Slow work, but the stone was not very hard either. The main issue was not wearing down the spoon and adding in tons of metal slivers into the mineral mixture. The goal was to get it as close as possible to the kind of dirt that had gotten onto his socks over the course of the day. When the pile reached the rough volume of the teaspoon, Casimir called it quits.
Should I do it out here or go back inside? Here is more convenient, but inside I replicate more of the same conditions as before. Impatience got to him first as he decided that the exact location probably didn’t matter. First, he beheld the entire sum.
“Observe dirt.” Casimir said.
Collected Soil
-Description: Mixed composition of calcite, silt, and iron-alloy fragments.
-Origin: Indeterminate.
“Indeterminate?” he said with a frown. “How can the origin it came from be undetermined?”
The spoon? Maybe his father had brought more than coins from other worlds?
“Observe spoon.” He commanded the System.
Stainless Steel Spoon
-Description: Eating utensil made from an alloy of iron, carbon, chromium, and nickel. Designed to resist rusting.
-Origin: Garrison-12
That made three total worlds he knew the names of.
“Harvest-09, Wager-03, and Garrison-12.” Said Casimir, rolling the words around in his mouth. One day he would walk on all of their lands, he was sure of it. Know them as he knew this world, understand them until nothing was beyond his grasp. A feeling was burning up inside him, something he had not felt in a long time. The desire to accomplish great deeds not in service of repenting for Ekaterina nor for exalting his father and the bloodline, but for himself. To seize strength, to run until he had reached his limits. He would fix his sister, fulfill the debt he would owe to Barasa, serve whatever role the Ascendancy required, but after that he would go as far as there was to go.
To be mortal was to be destined to die. To be wise was to recognize and accept it. To be glorious was to look at what remained of your lifespan and make it into a chalkboard to scrawl your triumphs on.
Skill level up! Your Observation skill has gone up by one!
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Casimir Maksimovich Shuisky
Stats: (Unallocated)
-STR:0
-VIT:0
-CHA:0
-PER:0
-FOR:0
-DEX:0
Skills:
-Observe Lvl 3
Traits: Shuisky Heir, Inverted Human
Allegiances: Shuisky Family, Cult of the Delving Wyrm, The Ascendancy
+10 Obedience Points for Allocation. (Incoming Priority Warning)