They faced the other across the stage,

Each eager to break his cage.

A crow with a golden coat,

Against the peacock with a collared throat.

~Tam the Bard, The Rise of the Emperor Reborn

‘Hello, ladies and gentlemen, this is Tam, Bard extraordinaire and your host for today’s event,’ thought Tamriel Hawthorne as he watched the yearly Knight Tourney in Peacock City, which was famed as one of the few entertainments in these parts. It was his habit to have a running commentary of events in his mind.

The adulation of the crowd washed over the boy… Brian, wasn’t it?... as he took centre stage after dispatching his last opponent. Golden haired and blue eyed, with a domineering presence that won him half the fight even before blows were exchanged, he was all a bard could ask for in a protagonist. Too bad, they would be composing a tragedy.’

A young man in a black martial attire walked up to the stage and the crowd fell silent.

“I am Cyn Pavone, the second born of the Lord of Peacock City. I have Awakened as a martial warrior and I contest your claim to Knighthood, as is my right.” So, a rigged match. Hmm… they seemed to be carving an impetuous persona for the boy. Given his propensity for immersing himself in his research all year round, his appeal to the more martial masses was a bit low. This was probably an attempt to humanize the machine, build him up to be an all-rounder. A scholar-soldier as it was being called in popular works. If they could manage to announce an engagement with someone above his status… Perfect, a bestseller was in the making.

“I, Brian, second in command of the first division of the City Watch accept your challenge.”

Both boys faced off against each other, the young noble mirroring Brian’s stance. Given that the boy had just turned sixteen, it couldn’t have been long since his awakening. There was no way he could win in ordinary circumstances, this performance had to be choreographed. Maybe, they had been practising this for weeks.

They circled each other around the stage, looking for a flaw. Fighting continuously against several opponents had exhausted Brian’s Aura reserves until it was on par with the noble boy’s… what was his name again? Shin… Sin… no, right, Cyn. Despite that, the disparity in their battle experience would have led to an easy win for Brian, yet there they were, performing their exquisite routine on stage, Cyn mirroring every action of his opponent’s.

As Brian passed in front of the stands holding the celebrities, Baron Pavone and two of the neighbouring Barons: Baron Corvus and Baron Strix, along with their bodyguards, he shot a meaningful glance at Baron Corvus, who nodded back.

What was this? Interesting, interesting. If what he thought was going to happen happened, then this was a huge scandal.

Brian suddenly stopped circling and stamped the ground explosively, shooting towards Cyn at blistering speeds. Reaching the boy, he whipped out his leg laden with enough concentrated Aura to shatter his diffuse Theca on contact. If that connected, the damage wouldn’t just stop at a few broken bones. Given their limited Aura, a one-shot showdown was the best choice. Tam ignored the obvious results of their clash and stubbornly stared at the facial expressions of the two Barons involved with his unique ability Analyse invoked. It was an ability which used all his senses to gather information and parse the inputs rapidly, vastly improving his perception. He had chosen to keep it unfettered by Precepts as versatility was the selling point of this ability.

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He watched Baron Pavone’s expression cycle through surprise, anger, surprise again and then self-satisfaction while Baron Corvus went through self-satisfaction, anticipation, surprise and then his face grew pale with a mix of anger, regret and unwillingness. The tumultuous cheers of the crowd broke his concentration and he looked at the stage again. To his shock, Cyn stood there without a scratch while Brian was slowly staggering up from where he had been thrown. Out of the bounds of the stage.

Asking around, he came to know that Cyn had channelled the impact of Brian’s kick through his body, into the floor while grabbing his leg, pivoting and throwing the boy out of the stage with his own momentum.

Just as the golden-haired boy staggered up with an intense frustration on his face, a throwing knife streaked across the sky from the celebrity stands. On the stage, Cyn’s form blurred. Blood spattered on Brian’s face as he stared incredulously at the figure of the boy in front of him with his palm inches from his forehead. A knife remained embedded in the palm, the tip of its blade touching his skin causing a thin stream of blood to upwell from the wound, running down his nose and mixing with the noble’s blood already there.

Suddenly, five tyrannical Auras exploded outwards, making it difficult for the people to even breathe. Baron Pavone faced down Baron Corvus who had a knife similar to the one thrown in his hands while a ravishing blonde woman was sitting leisurely on the banister across from Baron Strix, who was nervously adjusting his glasses which had the sigil of an owl on its bridge, his Aura was restrained and his A ranked mercenary bodyguard was severely outmatched in this confrontation. The strangest was the disembodied arm that was holding a knife to the Corvus family butler’s throat. Even with Analyze, Tam’s eyes kept sliding off the general area where the person was supposed to be.

Baron Pavone’s voice thundered across the area, “Old Crow, I need an explanation. What do you mean by attacking my men on my soil? Do you plan to be the evil guest? Hmm?!”

Baron Corvus’ seemed to have chewed an entire lemon, “Misunderstanding, misunderstanding. I was just enraged by how that ungrateful wretch of a city guard attempted to bite the hand that fed him and attacked young Cyn with the intent to maim. I was just upholding justice… I apologize for overstepping my bounds.”

Tam was secretly praising the thickness of the facial skin of the greying Baron. Silencing the witness of a crime and asking to be praised for it. Really… as they say in Daemonium, the old ginger is spicy.

Suddenly a youthful voice cut across the abating tension in the square. “You owe me a life. All I require in return is the truth, publicly spoken.”

Brian looked at the young boy in front of him with a complex vision. When his gaze touched the bleeding wound on Cyn’s palm left by the dissipating dagger, his eyes lit up with resolution. Kneeling on one knee, he slashed a long scar into his forearm with his fingernails. Clenching his fist to let the blood flow, he pledged, “A life for a life, blood for blood, I pledge to serve the Pavone clan as long as you still walk the world. I so Vow. May my blood boil in my veins if I go astray.” The air stilled as the weight of the Vow settled on the shoulders of the young man, his wound healing rapidly due the ebullition of his Aura, the blood he had spilt, lost permanently to fuel his Vow.

“This one was blinded by his greed and agreed to harm Young Lord in exchange for Knighthood in the Corvus domain. This one asks for leniency for his aged mother who is unaware of and uninvolved with this one’s sins.” He knocked his head on the ground, the sound clearly audible in the silent square.

“Stand. I name you Avarita, to remind you of your sin. To atone, you will serve as my retinue and your mother will be safe in Peacock City.”

As the cheers from the crowd blotted out the sky, Tam sidled out of the square, eager to be the first to get the story out. He could predict more or less what would happen next, Baron Corvus would be denounced and maliciously butchered financially while Brian, no Avarita would follow his young liege to the Academy in the Capital.

But, what he was the most curious about was how a newly awakened boy could defeat a martial warrior with two more years of experience and intercept a Baron’s attack. How talented did he have to be in the bodily Aspect to pull it off. He was talented in the mental Aspect as well as he had been summoned to the Academy’s research division. Really… a protagonist in the making. Sadly, no engagements were in sight.

The reaction of Baron Pavone was even more intriguing. Why was he surprised by his own son’s talent? Could it be that this was the legendary case of the suppressed second son hiding his talent and erupting all at once to displace his cruel elder brother. Yes... he could work on that angle. He could feel his journalistic blood boil with excitement.

Was this how it felt to finally find a muse to stalk… ahem, follow throughout his journey to greatness, rising as he rose?

It looked like a trip to the Capital was in order. He-he.