The Church of the Gods was built like a normal cathedral, except for the fact that it was made from a variety of unique materials. Theo was sure he hadn’t even seen half of them before. Yet somehow even with the bizarre materials, it looked like a brilliant work of art. It wasn’t as mesmerizing as the amulet, but it was still a sight to behold. As Theo admired the cathedral’s architecture his father began walking towards the interior. Theo was slightly disappointed, but he was excited to see the temple since he suspects that gods actually exist due to Metan being a reincarnation assistant. If there were, then magic existing was a real possibility. The amulet felt magical as he looked at it, so he was hoping that his intuition wasn’t tricking him. As they entered the cathedral Theo was greeted with the sight of hundreds of statues with dozens of different people attending to or praying at each one. Theo hadn’t expected the semi-large building that was only three stories tall to fit so many people if he was honest. As he was looking around he ended up looking at a reflective crystal shined to perfection. For the first time since his reincarnation, Theo was able to see his reflection. He was a baby boy with dark obsidian hair, pale blue skin, and adorable hazel eyes. He didn’t have any horns though, as expected since the twins didn’t have any either. While Theo was looking in his reflection his father was planning his route through the crowd around him. He found one and began making his way through it. He eventually made it to a human man wearing a white priest’s robe that looked as if it had just come out of a paintball war.
Kvical began speaking to the man in a genial manner, “Hey Ranim how are you doing today?”
The man in the robe turned slightly to see who was speaking to him. As soon as he saw Kvical his humble smile grew into a grin.
“Hi Kvical, I’m doing good! How are you today? I see you brought a little guest. Can I take it that this is your youngest?”
“I’m doing great man, and yes this is the newest addition to our family. I chose to come today because of him.”
“Oh really now and what could this little one do to cause the need to visit the cathedral?”
“Well yesterday he ended up somehow getting out of his crib, and when I woke up he was staring into my amulet like it was the most beautiful thing in the world,” Kvical said while gesturing at the amulet hanging around his neck.
“Well isn’t that interesting. Sometimes babies do have that reaction when they see the amulets, especially when they haven’t seen anything enchanted before. I’m assuming you don’t have many enchanted objects within sight of him?”
“No, all of our enchanted equipment is within our office at home. Thank you for clearing that up, also while we’re here do you think that we could get his affinities tested? He is incredibly calm and independent for his age and I was wondering if his affinities may be the reason why. “
“Sure, we can get his affinities checked. If he is showing oddities for children his age then now would be a perfect time.”
Theo was taken over to a giant pillar that had dozens of small pink crystal veins running through it. These veins occasionally jutted out into crystal shards that had been sanded and made smooth. Ranim had Kvical hold Theo up to one of these shards, which Theo immediately touched. As soon as he made contact with the crystal an array of colors blinded him. After a few seconds they dimmed and he could finally see the specific colors that were present, which snaked off into the crystal veins of the pillar. The largest vein had a kaleidoscope of color that seemed to be ever-changing. It reminded Theo of the door that he walked through during his reincarnation. The second largest vein was only slightly smaller and was filled with an ethereal-looking glow that seemed to take the shape of things reflected in the crystal. There was only one other vein that was even close to the size of the other two. It was probably three-quarters of the size of the largest vein that was glowing. It looked as if it was ringing back and forth, and Theo could have sworn that he heard a bell chime in the back of his mind. After the lights faded from the crystal Ranim started telling Kvical about his son’s affinities.
“Well, I think I may know why your son is so much calmer than other babies. His strongest affinity is with empathy.”
Kvical gave Ranim a questioning look as he replied, “That doesn’t make any sense, wouldn’t he be more emotional if that was the case?”
“In most cases, yes it would make him overly emotional. Rarely however it has the opposite effect. Sometimes this affinity can make a person calmer than normal to allow for better handling of other’s emotions.”
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“I mean I guess that makes sense, then what are his other major affinities?”
“His other two major affinities are illusion and echo, this means he will most likely be able to create extremely realistic illusions. Not only can he create visual illusions, he can make sounds to accompany them. If your son chooses to be a mage he will most definitely make it far.”
“Thank you for the information Ranim, this helps a lot and we know why he is so calm now.”
“No problem man, have a nice day with your family.”
“You too Ranim, you too.”
After discovering his affinities and seeing the light show that occurred before him Theo was incredibly excited. He had finally confirmed that he would be able to perform magic in this world. Now he may not be able to throw fireballs, but he could sense people’s emotions and create detailed illusions. It was an interesting combination if nothing else. Kvical walked home thinking of the interesting combination of affinities his son had. Personally, Kvical had a higher-than-average number of affinities he was proficient in using. It was the reason he ended up being a tutor for the local magic tower. It allowed him to help a wider variety of students with in-depth discussions on their affinities. His son however had three major affinities that neither he nor Elara were very proficient in. They both had absolutely zero affinity with empathy as that was a rather uncommon magic. Elara didn’t have any affinity with Theo’s magics, and he only had a small affinity with illusions and echo magic. Their youngest son was most likely going to have a slightly hard time learning his magics unless they got him a tutor when he was older. When Kvical came to this conclusion Theo was already asleep in his arms and he was at his front door. Kvical went inside and began to tell the family about how it went.
“I went and told Ranim about how he acted when he saw the amulet. It turns out that is completely normal and is nothing to worry about.”
Elara let out a sigh as Maeve began asking a question.
“Did you end up asking what his affinities are? You seemed to be on the fence about that when you left.”
“Yes, I did end up asking to see his affinities. They are not what I was expecting. The reason he is so calm is due to his largest affinity.”
Elara perked up at this and asked, “Well, what is it?”
Kvical just grinned at his wife’s curiosity and said, “His largest affinity is empathy.”
Aegira who was listening in asked, “What is that?”
Kvical thought about it for a moment and said, “It’s when someone can feel what others feel easier than we can.”
Aegira didn’t seem to get it but nodded her head anyway.
After a slight pause, Wolc said in a quiet tone, “That doesn’t make sense.”
Elara laughed as she tried to explain in simpler terms.
“When Theo gets older he is gonna be able to tell if you feel sad or happy easier than the rest of us.”
Wolc seemed to understand after that. However, by that time Aegira was already on the other side of the room. Maeve thought for a moment and asked a question of her own.
“If he has empathy why is he so calm and independent instead of overly emotional and clingy?”
Kvical smiled and patted her on the back as he said, “I said the same thing. Ranim told me that rarely, instead of empathy users being overly emotional they instead become calm in order to more easily handle the emotions of others.”
Maeve thought about that for a moment and figured it made sense. Not all people’s personalities are even affected by their affinities, so why couldn't an affinity also affect someone differently than others? When Maeve looked to Theo she smiled slightly. She was glad to finally have an answer as to why her youngest brother was different compared to the twins. Theo was asleep throughout this entire conversation, and completely unaware of the lucky misunderstanding that was occurring around him. A few hours after this conversation Theo woke up wrapped in a blanket like a burrito. He couldn't really move around unless you counted rocking side to side.
His father was asleep next to him with a book lying on his stomach. Theo spent the next few minutes trying and somehow successfully escaping his prison of comfort. He crawled over to his father and looked at the cover of the book. It had several ethereal-looking humanoids standing against a purple gaseous cloud with a malevolent grin. It looked like the cover of a generic fantasy novel from his old world. While Theo had learned many spoken words, he had still not learned how to read the language. He wished he was able to, as it would allow him to be less bored during these months of being a baby. Sadly, it is very hard to learn a written language without anyone teaching you. After looking at the cover for a little while longer Theo decided to crawl onto his father to wake him up. Kvical woke up and looked at his son in confusion. He knew for a fact that he had wrapped Theo up in a way that he shouldn't have been able to escape. If it weren't for already checking his affinities, then Kvical would have assumed that one of them had to do with escaping. His youngest son just seemed so different from his other children. All children are different, but he hadn't been worried about his other children getting away and hurting themselves at this age. Theo was just way too good at scaring not only Kvical but everyone in the family. Even before finding him out of his crib early in the morning, he had scared his mother countless times. One time he had squirmed his way out of her arms while she was asleep on the couch and scared her half to death when she woke up and he was gone. He was later found behind the couch with a small smile on his face. Maeve had also been scared a few times by him, but after the fifth time in two weeks had stopped being scared and just looked in his most common hiding spots. His youngest son was a handful, but at least they knew the reason now.