If looks could kill, there would’ve been a massacre happening in the council room. The elders of Marcher tribe had convened to discuss the current situation with training the younger generation for war. Their neighboring tribes had started to encroach their territories in the forest and this led to a few skirmishes. Though, it seemed like the Marcher tribe held its ground, their enemies were just testing the waters and it had become obvious that their younger generation was not ready for war. It was at this time, that one of the elders of the tribe, Alexis Lyon, had done something radical.
“Congratulations Lyon!”, Marcus Lycan said sarcastically, “You’ve single handedly brought calamity to our tribe! Now the whole tribe will have to pay for your selfishness.”
“Alex did nothing wrong! In fact, his proactive actions might’ve saved us from annihilation in the upcoming war.”, said Robert Gray. He was one of the elders who was siding with Alexis Lyon.
“Proactive? Is that how you choose to see this? Then why do we even need a council if every member can take decisions on their own? His actions are seditious and have put the tribe in great danger!”, said Carson Baxter unabashedly.
“Seditious? You spineless bastards might as well go hide in a ditch. We are already in danger.”, retorted Claudia Peck.
The council once again erupted into chaos and started hurling abuses at one another. The interim chieftain, Gracie Hart, was clutching her forehead, looking at the mess in front of her. She was one of the most proficient users of the essences in the tribe and was being groomed to take the position of chieftain in the future. Given more time, she could’ve formed more political connections and entered into the third stage of cultivation, cementing her position as the new chieftain. However, the sudden disappearance of their current chieftain had put her in an awkward situation. She neither had the power nor the connections to rein in the bickering elders of the tribe.
Finally running out of patience, she used the essences of Still and Flow simultaneously to create a vacuum effect and drowned all their noises. Such delicate manipulation of essences was enough to reassert her strength as a peak second stage cultivator. The elders in the room could easily tear apart this vacuum but they decided to take a step back.
Gracie finally spoke, “We have too many youngsters in the tribe that haven’t awakened yet despite the harsh training conditions. If we had to face just a single tribe as our opponent, we could’ve won with our tenacity but right now, all our neighboring tribes are viewing us an easy prey. Given the gravity of the situation, I believe Alexis did the right thing by abducting a researcher from Griffin. We can use him to awaken our younger generation more easily.”
Alexis and a few others became happy at this decision. The other side didn’t look happy at all.
Gracie added, “However, that just means we have switched a smaller threat for a bigger one. Griffin city will be furious with us if they find out and we are in no position to face their forces. Their Hybrid Strain is much superior to our Therian Strain and they will wipe the floor with us if we ever fight.”
This was the reality of the age they lived in. At the end of twenty first century, when the essences suddenly made their existence known to the universe, there was a lot of war and bloodshed. Countless governments were toppled and rebellions were commonplace. People who were tired of dictators, politicians who were salty about their opposition, criminals who felt it was their time to shine and religions that wanted to prove their supremacy; everyone fought against one another and the whole world was in chaos. Adding oil to the fire, even some species of wildlife started to use the essences, challenging the authority of humans as the rulers of the planet.
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Only after the Strains were created, the status quo had returned. Civilization, which almost came to ruin in the Age of rebellion, slowly started to mend itself. The strains became the new pillars of civilization and those who created it earlier had a head start in forming their own states. So they kept the secrets of their strains to themselves. It wasn’t as if no one tried to steal the secrets. People had used several deadly technological means to abduct and imprison practitioners with awakened strains and spent countless resources to replicate the strain. But the end result was always the same. The replicated strain would kill everyone it was used on.
The conclusion was that people were able to awaken their strains only through three ways. One is through hereditary means. The children of a practitioner could awaken their strain by stretching their limits in a battle. The second way is to guide an awakening by using the essence of Experience. For example, a third stage practitioner of the Therian Strain could guide others to awaken the Therian Strain in them. The newly awakened practitioners would take longer to master their strain but they would have an easier time in using the strain. This method was one of the reasons why people had a tribalistic attitude of sticking to their own tribe with similar strains.
The last way was to guide an awakening by using the essence of Curiosity. This was the method that was originally used to develop strains. However, essence of Curiosity is very difficult to handle and people would often dedicate their whole lives trying to master it. These people worked as researchers and they would often work on improving existing strains. Completely understanding a strain was akin to memorizing a million books so no researcher could replicate the original strain on their own. But every time a researcher of a nation was captured, there would be a higher chance of developing that strain by others. So every nation tightly guarded its researchers.
Alexis chimed in at this moment, “Technically, I didn't abduct him. I only helped him in his escape. You know how the people of Griffin are about their Hybrid Strain. They had given up on their human forms for the sake of power. Trying to get back to the human form is blasphemy in their eyes so they were very upset with the research Micheal was doing. He was sentenced to die. So when I approached him, he gladly accepted to help us in our situation in order to escape his death sentence. I left no clues, so as far as Griffin is concerned, it could very well be their neighboring state, Nagin, that helped Micheal escape.”
“That’s wishful thinking.”, remarked Gracie Hart, “I just wish that his proficiency in using the essence of Curiosity does not betray our expectations.”
“How can we allow an outsider to guide the awakening of our younger generation?”, asked Marcus Lycan. He continued, “I agree that the Therian Strain is one of the simplest and widespread strains in the world but it has several variations. If he makes a simple mistake or has malicious intent, it could mean crippling of an entire generation. Our tribe doesn’t exist to provide lab rats for an eccentric researcher!”
“My son will be the first to be awakened by him.”, replied Alexis resolutely. “I see no other way our younger generation can survive this war.”
Gracie Hart spoke up, “Our neighboring tribes had already begun to escalate their skirmishes. We may have two weeks at most to get the younger generation battle ready before the big war. So I’m giving you all ten days. If the younger generation is still unable to awaken their strains, they’ll have to accept a guided awakening. We have no other choice!”