Landon had been right, and Seth was amazed. He hadn’t thought the ghost was lying exactly, but in his education at the temple, few lessons had the straightforward truths that this Genes, Evolution, and Natural Selection textbook did. His whole life, anything he had wanted to learn more about had eventually run into the inherently shifting and philosophical nature of the essence that underlay whatever it was. His comprehension of the principles of genetics was growing, though the nature of Deoxyribonucleic Acid or ‘DNA’ and the unimaginably small scale at which it controlled genes was less clear.

Seth understood it enough to get the general idea of how genes worked on the simplest possible level, which was enough for now. He was far more interested in how the principles of Mendelian inheritance applied to birthrights, or rather, didn’t.

“Are gifts all from the same gene?” Seth groused. “The birthright inheritance resembles the way that individual alleles work, but only if gifts are the same gene doing very different things. The randomness of what the child is born with from a given parent could reflect the uncertainty of the mitotic spindle in separating chromosomes during gamete formation.”

“But only if each allele is also able to randomly start being expressed in a totally different way later in life.” Landon replied. “Which isn’t necessarily impossible, genetics can be a black box even with our understanding, but that range of function belies methylation or anything else related to the epigenome.”

“It could be a similar gene on another chromosome, or another part of the same chromosome.” Seth said. “Like you taught me, exposure to the same thing over time or specific hardships can affect methyl groups, histone acetylation, and more. Also, I don’t care how many times you say genetics is ‘inconsistent,’ compared to essence, it’s as straightforward as a clear sky.”

They both glanced up at the clouds, which were nearly omnipresent in the jungle. Seth was hit in the eye with a large raindrop as it started to rain again. While he was blinking and rubbing his eye, Landon pulled his travel umbrella from one of the outside pockets of his backpack, opened it, and handed it to Seth. They’d found that other people could use the things that Landon had died with as long as the objects stayed relatively close to him.

“You’re leaning too hard into the principles again.” Landon admonished, resisting the urge to bang his head on the tree behind him. “From a molecular standpoint, there is simply no way to explain these magical abilities with DNA making RNA making proteins. Different protein folding can’t make someone specifically better at singing, much less heal people with a touch or even frickin taunt monsters somehow.”

Seth watched Landon stiffen slightly, and glance around. He was making sure that Mrs. Tibbons didn’t hear him almost swear. Seth didn’t say anything and glanced at Sheldon. When he had explained what the guard could do to draw the attention of foes, Landon had insisted that such an ability was called ‘taunting’ in reference to games that he played. In the weeks they’d been waiting for the Sin Priest to arrive, Sheldon had demonstrated the ability twice against boars that came into the clearing.

“There’s probably essence involved, sure.” Seth said when Landon settled down. “But just because the gene is making essence instead of protein doesn’t mean it isn’t a gene.”

“You told me that when you use your essence magic, it comes from your soul.” Landon said. “With all the magic involved, the abilities probably come packaged in there, and one gets passed onto the child’s soul from the parent’s. I like genetics as much as you, but this place, er, archipelago clearly has some different rules. What is a soul, anyway? Even in the fiction where I come from, it’s pretty nebulous.”

“It's kinda unclear, I’m just an acolyte.” Seth mused. “Apparently, the soul can’t be destroyed, or affected much at all really. It’s like the core of what we are other than the more physical essences. If a creature can think, it has a soul. Without one, you can have essence and unusual properties, but not true abilities. I think. Like I said, unclear.”

“If you’re not even sure what the soul is,” Landon asked. “Then why do you insist that it follows the same rules as molecular genetics? These abilities sound Lamarkian, which is a common theme in stories I’ve read. People develop the powers that they need in the moment, or that destiny thinks they need, or something.”

“Because it mostly fits!” Seth insisted. “Other than the way abilities can randomly show up. Or get heightened. Or be learned…”

Landon raised an eyebrow at Seth, who scowled.

“Ok, fine.” Seth conceded. “Gifts probably aren’t genetic. I guess the idea of the soul following a model of mixed inheritance and adaptation within and between generations doesn’t completely inv-ughh!”

Seth made a strange noise, his eyes rolling around wildly as he keeled over. An immense pressure descended over the clearing, though only Landon, Sheldon, and some insects that suddenly fell out of the air were visibly affected. Landon’s blue-white form flickered, while Sheldon staggered back. He seemed to be straining against the phenomenon as veins popped out on his neck, but Sheldon scanned the area then picked up Seth’s catatonic form and left the clearing at a decisive pace, his eyes bloodshot.

The effect had diminished by the time Sheldon reached Lith, and Seth now simply appeared to be asleep. Sheldon made a beeline for the temple, and was met in front of the main building by Priest Joe, who swiftly led him to a healing chamber off the narthex. Joe thanked Sheldon, healed his burst veins, and asked him to go.

An hour or so later, Seth woke up to the single worst headache he had ever felt. It was like there was silent screaming all around him, and especially right next to him. When his eyes finally began to focus, he saw his father, mother, and Priest Joe all in the room with him. He tried to focus on his mom. The soundless noise wasn’t as loud when he looked at her for some reason.

Levi’s mouth was moving, but Seth couldn’t hear him over the inaudible tones. He pressed his hands over his ears, but it didn’t help. It only took the other three a minute to figure out that he couldn’t hear them. Seth didn’t know what they were talking about, and gestured for his dad and Priest Joe to leave. The quiet din was louder from them. Confused, they stepped outside and closed the door.

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“THEY’RE STILL RIGHT OUTSIDE!” Seth yelled over the mute clamor, making his mom wince.

Outside the door, Joe and Levi exchanged a look and walked away.

“Hearing loss?” Levi asked. “Or maybe a hearing ability?”

“His ears are fine.” Joe said. “We both checked. I’m leaning toward an ability, but why send just us away and not your wife?”

“Seth doesn’t know what’s happening.” Levi suggested. “If he’s overwhelmed, he probably wants someone with him. With two fewer people in the room, perhaps he can manage it.”

“Good point.” Joe nodded, then frowned. “It seems unlikely that he would develop a simple hearing enhancement, at least this quickly. If he’d been going out for a decade maybe, but not now. It seems more likely that it’s an ability that does something else, but manifests as an auditory signal.”

“Maybe he can hear how healthy someone is?” Levi said. “Both of us are in good health, but Lola’s condition is declining again. She might be quieter to such an ability.”

“For now, let’s try to keep that area of the temple empty. That’ll help either way,” Joe said.

____________________________________________

Once Joe and his dad were farther away, Seth was less overwhelmed. The unsound from his mom wasn’t as loud, and he could make out what she was saying when she spoke up.

“Is this any better?!” She asked. “Can you tell me what’s wrong?!”

“I HEAR RINGING TONES FROM EVERYWHERE!” Seth said. “AND DAD AND JOE WERE REALLY LOUD WHEN THEY WERE RIGHT NEXT TO ME!”

“And I’m not?!” Lola said.

“YOU’RE LESS LOUD!” Seth clarified.

“Did something happen in the jungle?!” She asked.

“NO!” Seth replied. “I WAS JUST WORKING ON FIGURING OUT, UH, PLANTS AND VIRTUE AND ALL THAT WHEN IT WAS LIKE SOMEONE HIT ME! I WOKE UP HERE WITH ALL THESE TONES!”

His mom moved from beside Seth’s bed to the furthest point in the room, dragging a chair with her. The unsound diminished somewhat, and Seth could hear better.

“Alright Seth, can you hear me?” She asked, barely audible. “I need you to stop trying to talk over the noises you’re hearing, you’re being very loud.”

“Like this?!” Seth asked loudly, no longer yelling.

“Better.” Lola said. “Bring it down a bit more, but that’s better. Now, it sounds like you’re actually hearing something from me if moving away helps. The only thing I can think of is that you developed an ability. The jungle is dangerous, so a sensory ability could make sense even if this is too soon for that to happen.”

“I’m not just hearing better, the sound is coming from just you.” Seth tried to match her volume.

“Most of the birthrights that you’ve learned about are fairly straightforward,” his mom explained. “Just improving skill or physical ability. There are some abilities that are more complicated, giving someone the ability to pick up on things that they normally couldn’t. Sometimes those abilities are like completely new senses, but usually they come through a sense we already have.”

“I don’t understand.” Seth said, a bit confused. The temple personnel all had relatively simple abilities, and while there were plenty of guards, soldiers, and wanderers that had developed multiple gifts, abilities gained from danger tended to be purely physical.

“I’ll give you two examples that I’ve heard about.” Lola offered. “There are Priests of Sin who feel lies told in their presence as a physical pain. Even someone choosing not to mention details would hurt slightly. The most famous example I know is the ability to see essence in the world around you as colors. People with that ability are valuable and wouldn’t be assigned somewhere like Lith.”

“Dad can tell if someone’s lying, why would you need someone to feel it like pain?” Seth asked. “That just seems worse.”

“I don’t understand Virtue that much, so you would have to ask him.” She said, “But I know his sense isn’t as detailed as a Sin Priest’s ability. Your dad picks up on how people feel, not if they lie. Direct essence use abilities often allow people to understand new things that the essence applies to.”

____________________________________________

Seth stayed in the healing chamber for another day, getting used to the unsound. They determined that he wasn’t hearing essence itself, which his parents had suggested. Priest Joe seemed disappointed that it wasn’t such a sought after ability, but encouraged Seth to pay attention to people’s unsound to narrow down what he was hearing. By the time Seth left the chamber, the unsound had faded into the background even when near people unless he focused on hearing it.

Joe excused Seth from temple duties to let him work on deciphering his new ability, but agreed to let him return to the jungle. While Seth knew he was undeniably dragging out the process of getting rid of all the Chaos in the foliage, he doubted he would be finished by now even if he didn’t spend half the time with Landon. He was finding plants with Chaos less often, but that only made the ones that were left more difficult to stumble across.

“Are you ok?” Landon asked Seth with concern later that day. “I wasn’t sure what happened, but you didn’t look so good when the big fellow carried you off the other day.”

“I developed a new ability, apparently.” Seth said with a slight smile. “Just when we were arguing about if that was really possible no less!”

“Oh? Congratulations!” The ghost exclaimed, giving Seth a chilling ‘high five.’ “What can you do now? Did you celebrate? Do people usually celebrate?”

“It mostly gives me a headache at the moment.” Seth said wryly. “It’s not really something people celebrate, but that’s mostly because they usually don’t realize they’ve developed an ability at first.”

Landon was doing something on his laptop, looking excited. After a minute, he turned it toward Seth. The drawing was far less detailed than usual and seemed to have an odd cube theme.

“Let’s celebrate anyway, I’ve been waiting to show you this at the right moment!” Landon said happily. “This is something called a video game, I have several on here!”

“What do ‘video games’ do?” Seth asked with interest. “Videos are those sequential drawings right?”

____________________________________________

Caleb grit his teeth as he stood on the deck of the riverboat. In the month that he had been stuck on it, his patience had been ground down by the large number of people around him constantly. He valued his personal space, and this boat did not care to accommodate. In the first week, the captain had tried to make Caleb stay below deck with everyone else who wasn’t part of the crew. When his mounting frustration had ‘involuntarily’ caused Sin essence to start leaking out around him, the man had quickly changed his mind.

The captain had told the others something about a Judge’s presence warding off monsters or some nonsense, and now Caleb had as much personal space as the boat allowed. Which wasn’t nearly enough. The already intolerably slow journey upriver had become even worse as they finally finished their stops at other towns and approached Lith. The riverboat moored to the bank during the day and only traveled forward at night to avoid being noticed by the Ain.

Finally, Caleb felt something in the distance. There was so much Sin it felt like a prison, but he knew it meant they were close. Few good people were assigned to the most dangerous place in Cruwar. Caleb crossed his arm and looked up the river in better spirits. Helping some Healer’s wife would certainly be a change of pace, and if the outpost happened to need an executioner…

A passing midshipman standing guard outside the captain’s quarters nearly dropped his dagger when the silent red-robed figure standing by the railing suddenly let out a throaty chuckle.