In surprisingly short order, Alex found himself enjoying a scrumptious repast of roasted vegetables, chutney covered pita bread, and perfectly grilled spirit beast meat. If this was the quality of creature he could find in the western rift, he’d happily hunt them for the meat alone, Alex thought with a smile.

“Isn’t this wonderful, Alex? Five hundred Silver Sands credits, for each of us, and you get to stay with us in the Ruidian lodgings free of charge for the next week!”

Alex couldn’t help but grin at Linnea’s cheerful demeanor, eyes positively twinkling as she recounted their perilous delve for the benefit of the small handful of Ruidians also staying at the academy and choosing to eat at the rather late hour. All of them oohed and ah’d at the appropriate places, winced sympathetically at all the perils that had come so close to costing them their lives, and pounded the table in shared triumph with their Silver-tier kills.

At first, Alex was thrown off by the odd flow of give and take in Linnea’s performance as she took on a bard’s role and recounted their accomplishments and kills, her words slipping into an ever more guttural format, almost a chant with a very deliberate meter and rhyme.

Poetry, of a sort, employing multiple mnemonic aids representing an oral tradition as well.

Though Alex wasn’t at all surprised by Hanz quietly eating and listening to the entire recounting with polite interest, what was unexpected was how even Lieberman gracefully held his peace through the whole recounting, even if his eyes and lips had tightened a time or two.

“My, what an exciting delve you had, ruby sister!” gushed the Ruidian woman by the name of Leena who looked like she was about thirty summers, serving as the mouthpiece for her cohort of four with a green emerald twinkling almost hypnotically upon her brow. Her companions, a pair of identical twins wearing sapphire gems near identical to Hanz’s own, nodded in perfect sync, as did the teenager with a ruby gem who looked like a younger version of Leena. Alex guessed he was her son.

All of them wore matching attire of silken tunics, slippers, and hose of bright flashy colors, much like what a refreshed Linnea and her kin were presently wearing as well, after having taken full advantage of the hot baths the academy provided to their elite guests, students, and of course, their Ruidian guests, Alex shamelessly having taken advantage as the facilities well, and it had been a fight not to doze off right then and there.

“Our clan dares only the western rift, for obvious reasons,” Leena said, kissing her suddenly embarrassed-looking son’s brow.

She then gave Linnea a coy smile. “You’re rather young yourself, are you not? eighteen summers, perhaps? And I note as well that your clan name has no relation to our own.”

“I’m Twenty-two!” Linnea declared with a certain amount of pride. “And I’m already level six!"

“All the more impressive! To have achieved such power so young, and to look even younger than you truly are. Your elders were wise indeed, forging your bloodlines.”

Linnea’s enthusiastic grin faded. She furrowed her brow and looked away. “It was my own efforts that forged me. Not the machinations of my elders.” Her words invited an uncomfortable silence, broken only by Leena’s awkward laughter.

“Of course, child. Of course! You forged yourself into a pristine elementalist by your own efforts as well. Sadly, however, my clan lacks flame adepts, my former husband having ties to another clan,” she declared with a regretful shake of her head, earning a sympathetic nod from Hanz.

Linnea’s displeased expression faded into sympathy, as she gazed at the boy now blushing and lowering his gaze. “That must make things challenging.”

“It does, I’m sorry to say,” Leena said with what Alex thought was a slightly overdone sigh. “That’s why I was wondering if, perhaps, well, you wouldn’t mind taking Joshua and I on your next run?”

Linnea blinked, while Leena spoke in a rush, both of them ignoring a suddenly spluttering Lieberman.

“I myself am well versed in entrapping and binding, and can create barriers for defense, even a shelter, should you wish it. And my son and I would ask for no more than a single share between us… though if you would grace my son with individualized lessons… we would happily join you for free! So long as it’s not the Eastern Rift, you understand,” she said with an apologetic but very firm smile.

The freckled boy in the awkward stage of growth that had given him a man’s height but not his width or muscle, quickly nodded his head. “I’ll work hard, Fire Mistress, to learn all that you would be willing to teach me, and I will honor you as my mentor as my legend grows.”

Linnea’s hard, mercenary frown softened into a smile. “Looking to become a legend already, are you?”

Joshua gave an enthusiastic nod, eyes twinkling. “I’ve memorized all the stories, read all the accounts. I dream about fire, almost every night! Ever since the jewel bloomed upon my brow, I understood my path. Now?” He licked his lips a bit nervously, but still resolute. “Now I just need a good teacher and I’ll bring honor to both her tribe and mine, and give her no cause to ever regret taking me on!”

Alex smiled, admiring the boy’s enthusiasm. “I have no doubt that you will. And it was a pleasure to meet you all,” he commended, before politely excusing himself from the dining table.

“Alex, where are you going?” Linnea asked with an unexpected note of alarm in her voice.

Alex chuckled. “It’s less than two glasses before dawn. Some of us have class tomorrow, and I have maybe three and a half glasses before I need to get up, so I’ll be calling it a night.”

Linnea bit her lip. “Um… do you need help finding your room?”

Hanz snorted at that while Lieberman’s eyes widened with alarm. “No, I forbid it!” he hissed.

Leena frowned, her gaze instantly transforming from concerned mother to sharp tactician, now reading the room and far more into things than Alex would like.

“I have never seen a blond Ruidian before. What are the strengths of his tribe?” Leena asked, her voice now more that of a tribal leader than a casual adventurer.

“None!” Lieberman hissed with a certain amount of satisfaction, glaring Alex’s way. “He lacks any jewel upon his brow at all!”

Leena’s expression flickered rapidly from surprise, relief, calculation then mimed concern. Her son was far less complicated, so green with suppressed envy that Alex thought he’d be better suited wearing his mother’s jewel.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Really. How… unfortunate. No jewel at all. That means it will be generations before his progeny can ever wear a jewel.”

Alex smirked, the implications not lost at him at all, though Linnea glared her uncle’s way.

“Don’t you dare act as if he has no worth, uncle. His skills alone are the only reason why we’re her today! Elements? You want to talk about elements? He can summon a prismatic shield conjoining all the elements!” She lifted her chin, flinging her shoulders back in pride with the surprised looks this earned her, most especially by her uncle’s clear irritation. “That’s right! What need does he have of a single jewel when he embraces the power of diamond? The power of them all!”

Alex felt his cheeks flush, all the more so with Hanz’s sympathetic grimace, as if to say that this was par for the course with his cousin, who could clearly hold secrets for as long as she could hold a single thought in her head, which was about 2 minutes, unless they were actively hunting, in which case she was as single-minded as any wolf on the hunt.

But certainly not now.

Alex cleared his throat. “Leena and company, it was a pleasure to meet you all. But as I am a cultivator, not a jewel master or elementalist, I have classes to attend on the morrow, and I have no desire to be late on my first official day. So if you will all excuse me… I really need to get to sleep.”

“Well then, let me take you to your room!” Linnea clasped his hand and gently dragged him behind her before he could get a word of half-hearted protest out. But since she was taking him exactly where he wanted to go, mostly away from the dissecting stares of too many Ruidians now far too curious about him… he decided he was okay with that.

What he wasn’t expecting was to find himself sinking into a sinfully soft bed clearly lined with spirit beast furs a heartbeat before the door was locked and a very warm and very naked girl was suddenly next to him smelling of wine, grilled meat, and hunger.

Alex had only a heartbeat to wonder if he had unknowingly triggered some unspoken Ruidian mating custom… but soft warm lips locking upon his own with such hunger soon burned those thoughts away save for needs of his own he had repressed for far, far too long.

It was only the memory of the beautiful princess who had so fiercely claimed his heart, and the mischievous kitsune girl who was such a perfect echo of his first wife that broke his kiss off with a single pained gasp.

That and the sudden awful lurch in his Dantian, pulling him free of his sleepy haze to full crystalline awareness.

He pulled back with a gasp, surprised by the pained gasp from Linnea.

He winced, cheeks flushing with shame and passion denied. “I’m sorry,” he said in a husky apologetic voice, wincing in genuine regret when he saw the bruise on her arm.

“Alex?” Hurt, alarm, and just a little bit of fear, resonated from her voice. He pretended he didn’t see her jewel flashing with sudden wild heat, barely having held back from a spell that might have spelled tragedy. Or, with his draconic blood and Vitality, done almost nothing at all.

He flashed an apologetic grimace. “I’m dying on my feet, it’s been days since I last slept, and until a second ago, I wasn’t sure if this was real or a dream...”

Linnea’s hurt gaze turned to a relieved smile. “That’s right. You did say you hadn’t slept for two days, but that your Vitality had you covered! Ha. See? High Vitality doesn’t make you immortal.”

“Depends how high your Vitality is,” Alex said with a bemused twinkle, before sighing. “Still, I bruised your arms because I forgot my own strength in a moment of alarm. I’m sorry about that, Linnea. I really am.”

She winced, shaking her head. “You did.” Her eyes twinkled with a hunger renewed all the more, as fear of his strength became excitement of another sort, her finger tips gently running down the length of his naked chest, waking goosebumps with her touch. “But there’s a way you can make it up to me, if you want...” she said, with a hitched breath and a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

Alex flashed a rueful grin. “Yeah, there’s just one problem with that.”

“And that would be?”

“I walk what some would consider a crooked path. Really, though, its more of a streamlined path. It’s what allowed me to cast that prismatic shield that saved our lives from Silver tier abominations and that you weren’t supposed to tell your friends about, remember?”

Linnea winced, cheeks flushing prettily. “I… you’re right. I sort of forget myself, sometimes.”

Alex nodded solemnly. “I know. I’m glad you shared it only with a Ruidian who was far more interested in hooking you up with her son than giving a rat’s ass about powers unheard of in cultivation circles. I doubt she or her friends were even paying attention. We were lucky, so I’m totally forgiving your slip of the tongue.”

Her eyes widened with alarm. “Wait, you don’t seriously...” she shuddered. “He’s so slender and frail. Almost sickly. I’ll bet there are all sorts of sores that his fine silk shirt was covering, even if his clan’s creams hide it on his hands and face well enough.”

She shook her head as Alex blinked in surprise, thinking maybe he had missed something. Then again, he attention hadn’t really been on the boy.

“You just know that his mother will have him putting points into Vitality, whether he wants to or not! I can tell just by looking at him that he’s borderline inbred.” Linnea’s cheeks flushed. “And sometimes I think I might be as well...”

Alex gently squeezed her hand. “You’re an intelligent, talented, beautiful woman. And we all have our quirks and eccentricities. Don’t worry, Linnea. When you find the right man, a man who cherishes you for you and doesn’t have a drop of Ruidian blood in his veins… at least no more than the general population does, I’m sure you’ll have a home full of happy, healthy children that fill you with joy, without any need for jewels at all.” He grinned. “I also know for a fact that mixed Ruidian children are just as talented in the garden as their parents ever were, and some of the best farmers to be found anywhere come from those unions.”

She gave him an arch look. “And how exactly how do you know what?”

Alex opened his mouth to answer, before realizing he had none to give. Just the weight of heavy memories he was too exhausted to glimpse yet again.

She snorted. “You look adorably silly, with your mouth hanging open like that.”

She turned in the direction of the dining hall, shaking her head at the closed door. “Ever since I leveled tonight, I feel more clear-headed than I have in a very long time. But even at my worst, I would never have consented to any relationship with Leena’s boy. He’s too young, and he’s just such a scrawny thing. I doubt he’s even eighteen. Because if he was, then that means that Leena’s clan bred her at a monstrously young age.” Her cheeks flushed. “And I can tell… no matter what his mother says, that we share far too much of the same blood. Just smelling him makes me uncomfortable.”

Alex flashed her an encouraging smile. “I think investing those points in Perception and Vitality was really good for you. And if you were to invest even just one more level-up in yourself by putting more points into Willpower, Scholarship, and Perception, I’m betting that a great many things will snap into focus for you, and we can discuss that another time. For now, just please understand that no one will be sharing my bed for the foreseeable future… even if I wished it were otherwise.”

Linnea’s smile faltered. “Are you um… sure?” She flashed a sheepish smile. “Because when I smell you… all I feel is happiness.”

Alex chuckled at that. “I’m glad that my presence makes you happy, Linnea. But I can’t divert my life force from any path save my own pristine cultivation. Not until I break through to Bronze… or whatever’s next for me.”

Linnea blinked. “By divert your life force you mean...”

“Even kissing you is putting pressure on my Dantian.”

Linnea gazed at Alex for long moments, before slowly getting up and approaching the doorway. Her breath hitched. She looked on the verge of saying something but just squeezed her hands in obvious frustration, then opened the door.

Though not before turning around and bowing at the waste. “Thank you for saving this foolish girl’s life, honored cultivator. This Ruidian is grateful.”

Before Alex could think of a response to that, Linnea had closed the door and vanished like a ghost. And before he could fully puzzle what exactly had happened, he was already fast asleep, sinking so deeply into the plush beast-pelt lined mattress that by the time he finally woke up, it was already closer to midday than sunrise, and Alex had the sinking feeling that his absence had not gone unnoticed.