ASRIEL

I watch the battle play out from a distance as the Sandersonians and the Barbarians finish their bloody work. It's a little saddening seeing the waste of potential from all the deaths of people that haven't even tested heaven's mana yet, especially on the Barbarian side. If they could get proper training and control over the berserker they would make some of the most natural warriors on Gaia.

I watch the stupid magician who has just committed suicide be carried into the medics tents. Poor fool, she also had potential, but now if she survives at all she will most likely never touch magic again.

The battle continues for a little while longer as I send my spatial awareness questing around. Trying not to be discovered by any of the Awakened warriors as I peek at the Sandersonians.

The leaders seem preoccupied with the fight and not paying attention to anything else. I notice a few royal guards amongst the soldiers, distinguishable by their auras and open chakra points.

No other group in all of Sandoria pays attention to chakra. None of them notices me as I use a combination of spatial awareness and examination. The two paths of the third eye I have unlocked to assess the full strength of their camp.

I don't worry about the mages discovering me because chakra is not magic and cannot be detected by mana sense. Only other chakra users and those with special skills can detect chakra use amongst humans, at least as far as I'm aware.

Malachi, The Wanderer, instructed me to look for potential recruits. Does his map send me through these lands knowing the amount of potential I would find here?

These Barbarians are mostly isolated and ignored. Whoever this 'opposition' Malachi spoke of would have little to no presence here regardless of how 'insidious' they are.

As my 3rd eye moves back to the Barbarians for potential recruits I feel a spiritual probe into my intentions. To say I'm surprised that the Sandersonians have a sorcerer amongst them would be an understatement.

I send my intentions of travelling through the spiritual energy link left opened for such a purpose by the sorcerer. Even as I desperately try to find him or her.

Sorcery is an art the Sandersonians aren't supposed to have discovered yet. At least according to the brotherhood's information. Sandaria should still be dabbling in fae magic, soul magic, wizardry, divination and shamanism by our latest information.

All arts they have discovered in the last 200 years. Their combination of the different arts from different conquered peoples making them unequalled in their region of the world. A small region which is a large portion of this subcontinent.

The arts they already have access to lets them control a territory that totals nearly 2.9 million square miles. Paltry in comparison to the world, but almost 1/5 of this entire landmass.

If they had access to sorcery as well already, in another 100 years the entire continent will be speaking Sandersonians as a first tongue. But I shouldn't worry, Gaia is a beast world and humanity will never be able to match Ancestral Beasts in power and still remain in the world. At least as far as I'm aware.

I find the sorcerer by following her spiritual energy as it retracts from me. Seemingly occupied, I take the opportunity to examine her and what's distracting her.

She is definitely a strange one, heavily warded but not a Sandersonian by my guess. She also has a companion she has warded, a magician.

Examining what has her preoccupied my Sight falls upon the girl that just mutilated herself not 30 minutes ago. The girl is in a very complex circle. A combination of summoning, meditation, cultivation circle the likes of which I have never even heard off.

I can identify the pentacle, the mana channelling lines, the meditation sigils. After that I'm lost. Maybe the girl might survive after all.

I watch as the atrophying of her body stops, then starts to reverse. I physically move closer. The sentries will see me but I don't care. This is something I have got to properly witness.

No one here is my match anyways, maybe some of the magic users. But Sandersonian magic users haven't faced an Awakened Lord in 600 years. I doubt anyone that old would be in this group, so no one here should be able to handle me before I can either attack or retreat if need be.

"Halt! Who goes there?" A nervous sentry challenges as I walk seemingly out of nowhere, coming from a direction I should have been spotted miles away from.

Soon enough, one of the incognito royal guards shows up as I allow some of my chakra to leak out. Enough to let her know to take me seriously, but not enough to scare her.

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"I've come to help the girl," I say to the royal guard. Disregarding everyone else, even as a more 'senior' soldier arrives.

I can feel the arrows pointed at me from 'cover' by the killing intent of the archers.

There is so much that was lost after the coming of the Monkeys. Why conceal yourself, if you can't even conceal malicious intent? But I guess it works on most people.

"We have many girls here," the guard says threateningly. I may have broken her cover I notice as one of the senior soldiers looks at her strangely.

"The magic user. The one with the red hair." I say and watch the expressions of most of the soldiers darken. They all heard her heartbreaking screams, like a mother losing a child. No sound is as grating to the psyche.

"Come." The guard says without consulting with anyone. Yep, I've definitely blown her cover. With my awareness I spot a few other royal guards trying to keep as far from us possible. I give them the courtesy of pretending I don't notice.

We pass a few tents and get to one heavily crowded with soldiers.

"She saved my life with her wind."

"Never seen a mage sacrifice themself for one of us before."

"I heard she did it to save the general's son. Rumour is they are lovers."

"Isn't he to be wed to that beauty from the Detroit House?"

"The Detroit’s may be the wealthiest family in Sydney but they have no mages, no Awakened at all."

The whispering quietens as my guide flanked by two other soldiers get within the crowd. It parts to let us through until we reach a few junior mages at the entrance.

"What is your business here?" One asks.

"Let him through," a voice says from the inside.

Inside are three people. Two master magicians and a sorceress. The magicians are feeding mana into the half naked girl inside the circle. The sorceress is maintaining the circle itself.

The air is thick with incense smoke as the ritual continues. The girl seems to have been stabilized by a spirit possessing her body. Unfamiliar glyphs have been drawn all over her skin.

"How can you help?" The white haired magician asks.

I look at them, and try to study the situation with examine. It is as I thought. The spirit wants to possess the girl's body, and the sorceress is fighting to contain it.

Spirits are beings of energy and ether. But through them sorcerers can convert that ether to mana. A sorcerer is basically person that forms a contract with a spirit. But such things are not without risks.

"I can take her with me." I say.

The magician gives me an angry glare. A glare that is backed by a very dangerous aura that would have anyone else on their knees.

"Right now the sorceress is fighting a battle with the spirit for control of the girl's body. A battle that will need to be continuously fought for at least 40 years. Long enough for the girl to naturally build up new meridians.

"I can teach her to fend the spirit off herself for now. And I know people that can teach her to eventually use her disability as an asset. With you she will stay a cripple. Constantly needing you to subdue the spirit for her.

"No one who has managed to Awakened can endure that shame of being mundane for 40 years amongst your society." That's a gamble to say but I'll risk it for the potential here.

"Who are you?" The other magician with the most soothing aura I have ever felt outside of the Hidden Valley asks.

"I am Asriel. A brother of the Order in Tiba."

Silence reigns for a few heartbeats, then the older magician starts cursing under his breath.

The girl finally stabilizes and the sorceress slumps down. The old man checks on the sorcerer as the other magician checks on the girl. Then comes to check me out.

"I have heard of your cult. A secretive lot that is made up of the survivors of the coming of the Monkeys."

"You could say that," I say and smile charmingly at her. She snorts, unimpressed.

"Why would you help the girl?" The old man asks, looking into my eyes and casting magic. Truth casting probably. Part of the divination arts.

"I saw her fight. She has potential; I thought it a waste if she died so pointlessly."

"She saved my son's life; I think her life has had a great point." A young handsome man says as he enters. A man at the cusp of Awakening. Relatively young at least. Probably in his 50's.

"I will take the girl as soon as she is healthy enough to travel." I say, looking around.

"You will do no such thing." He says confidently. "Mira is a contracted servant of my House and is to be my vassal for the remainder of her life."

"Then it will be a short life," I say casually.

"Boy!" The old mage says in a low pitched dangerous voice. His aura slowly getting dangerous again.

"The star of your House is only rising, and you still have many decades of life in you. Centuries if you Awaken. You do not need the girl, and as her Teacher, I have a responsibility to her greater than the responsibility I have to your family."

Silence reigns again. It seems these people don't know what this girl will become if she learns to control her curse/gift. Or they just don't know that a mana contract cannot bind a mana sink such that whatever contract she may have signed she can now ignore.

I remain silent as well, trying to decipher what type of spirit the sorceress used.

The general grunts. "What are you even doing here Uncle Zhen? I didn't know you were amongst the camp followers."

The atmosphere defrosts to manageable levels again. The old man shrugs.

"You are my godson's child. I wouldn't let you fight the Barbarian Savages without at least an examination of their capabilities."

The general nods. "I release Mira from her contract, I release Mira from her contract, I release Mira from her contract" he says three times. Her face loosens slightly. Like a burden has been removed.

"How long did the battle last before we retreated?" The healer magician asks. Probably to change the topic.

The general sighs. "About 65 minutes."

"Not an hour then." She says. "So no spiritual weapon?"

"Probably not." He says as he looks at, the girl again. Then at me.

"Will she recover if she goes with you?" He asks. I didn't see it before but it seems the general cares for the girl? Maybe.

"In 40 years or so maybe she might use magic again. It could be shorter it could be longer it could be never." I say straight away. All the magic users in the tent wince. To touch heaven and have it taken away. An unAwakened wouldn't understand.

"Very well. Let's go," the general says to the two young men who entered the tent with him.

"I'm staying with her." One immediately says.

"Me too." The other follows. They keep their eyes forward. Not daring to look at their father in the eye. That's who he is I realize as I notice the resemblance.

"Suit yourselves," he finally says. "And you, bald man. Come to my tent when you are done here."