About a week had passed since I escaped my crib. Nothing about my life had really changed, apart from me now having an actual, small bed next to mom.

Of course that was ignoring my new toys. While we visited the carpenter, and he talked to mom, his apprentice, or son, or whatever was forced to entertain me. I had pitied him a little at the time and decided not to be too difficult. Something that turned out to be a great idea as he entertained me by carving some simple wooden toys to distract me.

They were made out of leftover wood, so the carpenter just added them to the bed without any upcost.

Playing with these toys - just two vaguely human figurines - brought me far more joy than I ever thought it could, or should. Especially considering my actual age. I wouldn't complain anyhow, having something novel to do made my day.

The door snapped open with a loud bang. My head shot upwards, my small eyes glaring at the guy that made the noise.

I contemplated crying, but decided against it. Part of that was my mother anxiously shooting a look towards me before kowtowing toward this person. The other part were his looks. He wore an expense looking dress, rich in color and make. Apart from the strange choice of clothing its state made me hesitate.

The dress was ripped in a few dozen places, worn down by travel, and full of dust and blood. As I wondered what a mad murderer was doing in my mom's shop he spoke up.

"Behold the mighty Brayden." His eyes focused on mom, as I struggled to contain my laughter.

"You seamstress, have been chosen to fix my robe. I have been told you're the best seamstress in town. If you impress me I might even remunerate you." He intoned.

Mom's shoulders dropped, her eyes focused on the ground submissively and her feet shuffled nervously.

"Someone must have played a trick on you master, I am by no means talented, nor do I have the materials needed to repair a robe as splendid as yours." She answered.

The man looked taken aback for a moment, his shoulder slumped a little, before he noticed his posture and straightened again, an arrogant expression returning to his face.

"I am sure you will find a way. Give me your best robe, I will return in an hour." He answered.

Randomly choosing one of the 'robes' (most definitely a dress) from the shelf and changing into it, dropping his dress on moms worktable and marching out.

The encounter had been brief, and so strange I had not made a single sound during it. Surprisingly mom picked me up moments later, my toys still clutched in my hands.

"Momma is so proud of you baby." She cried. "Go play in the back. And be silent please." She added seriously.

I blankly stared at her for a moment, before nodding jerkly.

"Ok mommy." I answered.

Mom deposited me in our living slash bedroom, before returning to the workroom. I felt at a loss, what just happened here? Why did mom let the young guy roll over her like that? Was he noble or something?

So many questions, yet no answers. I stood up, toys forgotten on the ground, and sat down on my new bed.

Let's start from the beginning then, what did I notice?

His dress was high quality, if one ignored the tears and dust. It even had a color! He held himself like someone who thought he was better than others, so probably a noble or priest. He looked pretty roughed up though, even though I saw no visible wounds.

He didn't seem to have any guards either. Furthermore considering the hurry he must have been in, stealing clothing from mom and all, and leaving his stuff behind, he must be fleeing from someone or something.

I did not know from what, his own family or their enemies, but I definitely knew neither mom nor me wanted anything to do with him or his ilk.

Wait.

Names.

I did not have a name. And excluding the arrogant guy just now I didn't know anyone's names. Or if they even had one! My mother and her customers only addressed each other by profession at the very least, and before today I had yet to hear a single person mutter a name. Strange. Very strange.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Thinking about names now made me wonder why I never noticed, even though I already knew why. Mom was responsible. It simply never came up, and mom always used pet names to address me, so I never noticed. Luckily the new 'customer' gave me the perfect excuse to ask, after all his name was a word I never heard, and I always asked mom about words I didn't know. Always!

I shuddered a little. What if only a select few had names? Like only nobles or some similar unreasonably selected group? Everyone else would just be part of an unimportant statistic, lacking the most basic and simple of individual identifiers.

It would elevate the few with names far above anyone else, increase the gap between those powerful and those less fortunate by a significant margin.

Or the guy was just an idiot, yelling his name out for all to hear. It wouldn't be hard for any pursuers to find him. 

… Ohh no, oh no he didn't. Did he? For me it looked like he expected someone else to hear his proclamation, otherwise there was no reason to declare his name that loudly. At least none I could think of.

My heart started beating faster, and for the first time since my birth I felt scared, what could mom or me do against the rich? One was a seamstress and the other a small, helpless toddler.

With nothing to do I decided I might as well hide under the bed. That small, dark space seemed awfully tempting right now. I took my blanket and crawled under the bed, right until I hit the wall. And packed myself in, rolling into a small ball.

With nothing better to do, and no interest in further thinking I started cultivating, the act of drawing in new energy never failed to calm me before, and didn't fail me now. I had wanted to increase the time I spend cultivating daily for some time now anyways, but always found an excuse so far.

I was startled out of my cultivation when the weirdly dressed guy returned, once again loudly announcing his presence. I did a double take, he actually returned?

Well, now I knew it was his family that wanted to get rid of him, no powerful or rich people would want a moron like that tainting their name! The rest of the conversation took place at a more reasonable volume though, so I didn't hear what mom and the noble talked about.

Luckily he left without any problems, and mom soon came into the back. I crawled out from under the bed after making sure it was her, and checked her over. She looked unharmed, hell she looked kinda ecstatic, like she had recieved a grand gift. Mom only had a small booklet in her hands, so I assumed it to be related or responsible for her expression.

I didn't know what it was about, and didn't have to. I smiled at my mother, hiding the fear that drained out of me, seeing her alive and well.

"Mommy, is the evil man gone? Did you repair his dress?" I asked.

Mom's expression morphed from the blissful smile into quick grin, before she managed to compose herself and return to her normal, calm face once again. She lay the booklet on the table, and moved to pick me up.

"Let's not call him that, the exalted cultivator bestowed a grand gift upon us after all." She contradicted.

"But he didn't say he's a cultivator. He's a Brayden." I stated with a pout.

"That's not a job, that's his name." She explained.

"What's a name?" I asked.

As my heart started beating a little faster.

"Names are the privilege of cultivators, like tall houses or wearing robes. You are allowed to add one syllable per realm reached." She explained.

"What's mommy's name?" I asked.

I ignored the second word for now, I could always ask about it later. Mom looked at me, a contemplating look on her face, before shaking her head, as if to herself.

"I'm no cultivator, so I don't have a name, like most of the world." She finally answered.

I looked at her, that answer seemed highly suspicious, especially because she hesitated before answering. I hoped she would tell me if it was important, or I was older.

"Aww. What did he give you?" I asked.

"A very basic cultivation manual. It will bestow the knowledge of cultivating upon its first reader." She explained.

Why didn't he use it then? And how did she know? Well, mom wasn't yet finished, so I decided to wait for her words.

"I don't know where he got it, but he told me it only contains significant knowledge about the first realm, and basic knowledge about the second and third realm." She said.

That did indeed sound interesting, but I was already cultivating, and mom wasn't.

"Mommy take it then." I said.

Mom shook her head, looking a little sad.

"I'm too old to start cultivating sweety. Barring several fortuitous encounters at least. Encounters that I would have to leave you for and that could very well be fatal." She answered. "No, I want my baby to have the best possible future, and will teach you how to read just to read that treasure."

My eyes lit up. Reading! Sure we didn't have much in the way of books, only the ledger mom used for bookkeeping really, but I reading was an essential skill for anyone to have. I still remembered my surprise when I saw mom writing, reading and writing seemed like strange skills for a seamstress to have in times like this. Mom broke me out of my thoughts.

"If you are a good girl." She said, laughter in her eyes.

"I'm always good." I pouted at her.

"You are." Mom agreed, before adding, "Most of the time. Mommy has to return to work now. Be good and don't make a ruckus should someone come. Ok?" She asked, daring me to do so.

I nodded, and squirmed my way out of her arms, retrieving my blanket and moving under the table. I had to cultivate to get a name, and reach some kind of 'realm' whatever that was, so I best get started now. I wanted one!

I could ask mom about 'realms' this evening, the terminology was secondary after all. Actions counted.