'H-how could this be? The ancient rulers' origin of power?' Wisteria's mind was a total mess.
Wisteria was a direct descendant of one of the Titania, a title given to Faerie queens. However, Wisteria's family has not been of pure Faerie blood. Wisteria was descended from the child that Titania had with a Human through a peace treaty long ago. Therefore, as a changeling, her family has long been separated from the royal line due to the Oberon's - Titania's husband's desire to raise the child as a henchman instead of allowing him to live in peace as a citizen of Faerie lands.
After a series of dramatic ploys, the two rulers came to an agreement. The changeling child was to be granted the powers of transformation that royalty had. This allowed the changeling child to wield the strengths of any Faerie denomination that they transform into. They were to change into any Faerie race to blend amongst the people and only be called when situations were at their direst.
When the changeling made a family with one of Oberon's illegitimate children, Titania and Oberon gave the changeling's family a scroll of their history so as to remind them of their royal ancestry and duty. Furthermore, the scroll had a binding that forced the changeling's family to only have offspring through inbreeding. The scroll was enchanted with very similar runes to the ones that floated in front of Braiten. They reacted with each other in such a way that the scroll was in harmony with its surroundings constantly, preventing the scroll from perishing by any means.
Wisteria had gone over the scroll over and over multiple times due to her fascination with Faerie history and her lineage. She enjoyed the radiation of power that came from the scroll. It was deep, strong, calming and primal. Over time, the royal line had long forgotten about Wisteria's lineage and family, but the scroll had Wisteria's family constantly on their toes in case they were ever called upon.
The royal family did not just forget about Wisteria's family, however. They had also forgotten about their origin of power. Wisteria had openly taken out the scroll to scan through in front of a passing royal in the Faerie capital's great library. However, the royal member did not seem to feel any of the power that was emitted from the scroll to Wisteria's dismay.
Wisteria organized her mind and regained her wits as she noticed the runes fading before her eyes. She suddenly had a resolute gaze and leaned closer to Braiten's ear.
"Changeling..." She whispered as she places her hand on Braiten's shoulder.
Although slight, she could feel Braiten stiffen. Then, she turned around to face her brethren.
"I'm sorry, I was just so fascinated when I saw the beauty of <
Knowing that Wisteria was an avid reader and the fact that no Non-Human could practice <
As Braiten was trying to sort out is emotions and thoughts, memories flashed through his mind. A single tear flowed down his cheek. Without noticing anything going on with Braiten, Wisteria flew back towards her colleagues and began discussing something.
The three Faeries had a strange look on their faces. Daisy and Hibiscus were trying to appeal to Wisteria while Gladiolus lost himself in thought.
When Braiten came back from his stupor, he saw that the four Faeries had come to some sort of agreement and had settled down. The four Faeries, satisfied, flew to a nearby tree and got ready to sleep.
Braiten had many things to question Wisteria about, but held himself back. The fact that Wisteria whispered in his ear meant that it was a secret meant for the two of them. He could not think of a way to separate Wisteria from the other three as well.
Helpless to his predicament, Braiten had no choice but to resume his cultivation and continue studying the mana runes. There was no need to conceal the mana runes from Wisteria as she had already found out. Furthermore, she clearly did not tell the other thee Faeries since they did not question Braiten.
As Braiten cultivated, he could not help but think of the time when he sensed the four Faeries' presences. Wisteria's was the faintest out of the four. Braiten thought that most likely, Wiseria was a changeling. Therefore, she had greater subconscious control over surrounding mana. However, with the Faeries unable to sense mana, how could Wisteria see the runes? Clearly, the famed Faerie's mana sight was not present in this qi-filled world.
***
Night passed quickly and dawn came. Out of the four Faeries, it was apparent that only Wisteria did not have a restful sleep. She flew slightly sluggishly and had slightly tired, red eyes. However, her normally expressionless face had one that was of excitement and eagerness.
Braiten had long since concluded his cultivation. He was immersing himself in the peace of the sanctuary. Something that he always did after cultivating in each sanctuary. His slightly disordered mind had already calmed down. Seeing the four Faeries approach him, he got from his place and went over.
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Morning greetings were exchanged and the matter quickly moved on to what the Faeries had talked about last night. Apparently, before the Faeries slept, they had a discussion about Wisteria wanting to follow Braiten on his travels.
Wisteria made the excuse of seeing the outside world for herself as books could only tell her so much. It was followed by another excuse of aiding a Celestine, adhering to a duty of repaying the Celestine ancestors for helping the Faeries in the past. Wisteria also constantly promoted herself to be the one to follow Braiten. The zeal in which she showed cowed the other three Faeries.
With the whole situation concluded without Braiten's consent, Wisteria landed on his shoulder and tucked herself beside his neck. All Braiten could conclude about this sudden turn of events was that he was glad that he would have the chance to talk to Wisteria.
***
Braiten spent a couple more days in the sanctuary to cultivate and allow Wisteria to spend time with her brethren before the departure. He was much more at ease knowing that his questions may be answered in the upcoming trip.
On the night before the departure, Braiten contemplated over the runes in front of him. Combined with the atmosphere of the sanctuary, he felt that he was on the verge of knowing something important. He observed the mana interacting with one another. How they were attracted, how they were repelled. Attract. Repel. Attract... Repel...
Suddenly, it was as if a dam broke in his head. Braiten looked around at the sanctuary. Everything within was in harmony, but what about outside of it? There was a fine line between the forces inside and outside the sanctuary. They were constantly clashing. The brutal, wild nature of forces outside was constantly pressing in on the unified forces within the sanctuary. The unified forces constantly repelled the forces trying to break them apart and spread its unity. Both forces tried to outdo each other, yet existed together in balance. Harmony and disharmony existed in balance with each other in the same space. This was what Braiten had been noticing subconsciously.
With the sudden realization, Braiten delved in the newfound insights. Soon, as Braiten began to understand more, his cultivation surged. His cultivation rose from the first level and quickly entered the second.
Braiten began making use of the enlightenment to try to connect it to what he had previously learned. As he did so, his cultivation speed increased even more. Soon, Braiten was at the twelfth level of advanced cultivation and his cultivation slowed once again.
Braiten sighed as he finished up this cultivation session. He was only able to make a few connections. Having only known harmony and complementary natures of the laws along with the elemements that naturally consumed one another, this state of harmony and disharmony was still nee to him. He needed more time to ponder over this.
The Faeries did not wake up in the midst of his breakthroughs. A trait that <
***
The sky brightened as the sun slowly rose. Braiten and Wisteria waves in farewell to the three Faeries at the sanctuary.
There was some hubbub when the Faeries awoke and found Braiten eleven levels higher, but that had passed with some explanations. After that, the Human-Faerie duo were on their way.
After an hour of travel, Braiten looked towards Wisteria.
He asked a strange question, "do you believe in reincarnation?"
Wisteria had been anticipating questions but was caught off-guard by this unrelated question.
"I don't know what you're trying to get at..." She replied confusedly.
"I believe that reincarnation exists. In my past life, I had a child with Titania Chrysanthemum. My name in that past life... was Gwydion," Braiten said softly, so softly that Wisteria could just barely catch all that.
Wisteria's face turned to astonishment as she heard that. She stared hard at Braiten before she transformed into her original form.
Wisteria grew from her extremely small height to slightly shorter than Braiten. This time, it was Braiten's turn to be stunned.
Wisteria was extremely beautiful. As a changeling, she did not possess any wings in her original form. However, she radiated an aura befitting one of royal Faerie blood. Wisteria's hair was a gleaming silver. A trait that was dominant in Gwydion's family...
===
Author's notes:
Well guys, I lied. My internet's still down, but i pitied you guys for leaving a cliffhanger for the previous ending. So, I'm presenting to you a new cliffha- *cough cough* chapter. I stayed up to 2:45am to transfer all this. I hope you're happy.
Again, thanks for all the support you guys have shown. I greatly appreciate it. This time, I really will wait for my internet to come back up. My poor thumbs... *sniff sniff*