Nil

I was scared to open my eyes. My body felt a lot better, but I was fearful of what would happen when I opened my eyes. I cracked one of my eyes open, just a little. It seemed fine. I opened it slowly until I was sure there was not going to be a sense of overwhelming pain. My vision seemed sharper than before. I opened my other eye. It was odd, my vision had gotten noticeably better. Not like it was bad before, it was now everything seemed so sharp and defined, even from farther away I was noticing small details I really hadn’t before. Then I realized something else that was off. There were a bunch of floating little lights in the air. What are these? I stretched a chubby little hand for one, and it passed right through. I had no idea what they were. Lux stretched and yawned next to me, still a bit sleepy. I saw the ball I had been practicing with, and figured this was a good time to practice. I formed an anchor, and this odd gray light seemed to fix on the ball. What? This is new. I went to flow through it, and this fat blob of black light snaked over to the grey light. The blob pushed the ball up, very unevenly. Little blobs would bubble out, trying to stabilize the ball. After a few seconds, the blobs would start to swirl around the ball, which would cause it to shake and fall. The lights were ! Why does this feel so much easier than before to see it?

Wait a second, why did my start to swirl? I looked around the room, and saw a pillow nearby. Let’s try on this. I formed the anchor, and the same blob of formed to lift the pillow. Unlike with the ball however, my didn’t suddenly start to swirl. I tried a few other objects in the room, and while the motion was not the cleanest, I was at least maintaining it with little effort. The ball did something once was flowed through it. Why would Uncle Nox give me a ball like that to test on? Unless it is to help increase my control as the ball is intentionally made to dissipate . Probably focusing on making my not a blob should be step one. Step two should be getting a sense of my without using my . I would just have to endure being a punching bag to Lux for a while longer. Now that I thought about it, how was I maintaining my so easily now? Maybe there was an upside to all that pain earlier after all.

*

The next three months fell into a pretty easy rhythm. In the morning, I had breakfast following which Lux would ‘play’ with me; I was looking forward to getting my revenge on her. We played other games too which I would be able to win at a few, but the ‘wrestling’ was the one that irritated me the most. My progress at developing my control was hard for me to gauge. It no longer resembled blobs, but was nowhere near as fine as I wanted it to be. Shouldn’t I be able to make threads of ? That was my goal, but currently it is as thick as rope. My ability to feel and sense my own improved vastly as well. I hadn’t tried playing with the ball in the three months I was developing my control; maybe I should give it a try soon.

At this point I could walk pretty well. I still stumbled a little, but at this point crawling was a thing of the past. My speech was a bit better, as I could manage three word sentences. I was afraid of seeming unnaturally smart, so I kept them simple. Parent is best and Nox is worst were my go to sentences. My uncle seemed to be in a better mood overall for some reason, not sure why. Lux had grown slightly bigger, and had small starting on her shoulders. I was excited for today though as it was my birthday! It couldn’t possibly suck as much as it did back on Earth! I might actually get cake! Lux was looking smug after our morning match. Just you wait. Soon, you shall know what defeat is. My parents came in excitedly this morning to get me. My dad picked me up and launched me lightly into the air before catching me.

“We are getting you today Nil!” Dad stated excitedly.

My parents rushed off to the dining room for breakfast. I was eating almost pure baby food at this point, which was great. Today there was someone new with us. Whoever she was, she was kind of pretty. They were sitting next to Nox, and the two of them were talking during breakfast. My mom and dad kept looking over from me to them.

“Nil, this is Nez.” Mom introduced us.

“Shouldn’t I introduce my boyfriend to him?” Nox replied. WHAT?! THAT’S A GUY?! HE LOOKS LIKE A WOMAN!

“Nox is worst!” I chimed in. Nox looked over with an irritated look in his eye as Nez started laughing.

“It isn’t funny! He says that every morning!” Nox snapped, clearly annoyed I had a several month chain going.

“Depends on your perspective.” Nez laughed. His voice was soft and had a bell like property to it.

Nez’s skin looked like it was made out of pearls. His face was incredibly feminine, which was not helped by his long black hair which was tied back in a ponytail. Nez had noticeably long lashes which accented his golden eyes. Two slender blackish gray horns similar to an antelope gracefully adorned his head. Even through the Magus robes, I could tell Nez was quite slender and thin. He could easily pass as a girl if he wanted to. The adults had some boring chit chat discussing my upcoming . Solomon was apparently doing it personally, but I didn’t care. Maybe it was a bigger deal than I am thinking? That happens a lot in this world, I need to be more cautious. From what I could tell in the conversation, Nez was fairly nice. Too good for Uncle Nox.

“Nez is best!” I chimed. Uncle Nox looked like his soul left his body. Mwahahahahaha. My mom and dad exploded in laughter.

“It is okay Nox, I am sure he will stop saying you're the worst as he gets older.” Nez comforted him. I wouldn't bet on that.

“What did I ever do to you Nil?” my uncle cried at me. I used to try and toss the evil ball at him.

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Might as well test how far I’ve come. I formed an anchor, launched a rope of at the ball, and lifted it, much more stable than before. I could feel my starting to swirl at the end so I reinforced it with another rope while I was getting the aim down. How do I throw it? I guess feed into it in line with where I want it to go? I tried that, and the ball launched in a graceful arc towards my uncle. Nowhere near as out of control as before, but definitely wobbled and had an awkward spin once it was in the air. Still nowhere near as smooth as his or dad’s though. He caught the ball with ease, and was just staring at it. The adults looked back from the ball to me. Their jaws slack, eyes shooting between me and that cursed ball. My control was definitely a lot better than it was three months ago, but it still needed to be improved however I looked at it.

“Did he just? Nil did just throw that ball with right?” Mom asked, like she didn't believe her own eyes.

“Yes dear. He definitely just did that.” Dad confirmed.

“So you gave your nephew a to learn and hone on and wonder why he calls you the worst?” Nez lectured my uncle.

“Um, it was to slow down his growth and improve his control is why I gave it to him. He does spar a bit with his and his control and were nowhere near the point to be effective against Lux.” Nox replied, looking at the ball dumbfounded.

“His control definitely improved. He now has that and effective control over it. Way to go.” Nez teased him.

“I did not think his control would reach where it currently is when I gave it to him!" Nox defended himself.

Nez just laughed in response. My mom and dad were doing their baby voices and saying how proud of their little they were; I guess my control is better than I realized. It felt good when they praised me. My lips were definitely curling up on their own while Lux was giving me the stink eye. Let’s see how our little spar tomorrow goes Lux. The adults finished breakfast, my parents grabbed me, and we headed in the direction to leave the castle. Helga and Cesar joined the entourage as we left the dining room. It was as before, where we headed to the library full of Magus. This time Nez was teasing Nox nearly the entire ride over. It was enjoyable to watch. Mom joined in a little and Nez immediately stopped. Lux was curled up on the ground of the carriage eyeballing Nez. She was still on the fence about him.

We arrived at the giant library building and were greeted by Solomon. I was kind of excited for some reason as Solomon escorted us to a room I hadn’t seen before. Again, there were intricate all over the room. My dad set me down on a pedestal in the center. Solomon began doing some chanting, and there was a massive surge of . He condensed it onto some small plate in front of him. Then it was over. That’s it? I was imagining something a lot more, I don’t know, spectacular. My excitement seemed grossly misplaced if that's all it was.

“Grand Archmagus Solomon, what are the results?” my parents excitedly asked in unison. My uncle and Nez were waiting patiently at the edge of the room.

“A lot of things make sense now, especially his incredible growth.” Solomon replied as he looked at the plate.

“Does he have any other than ? What is his ?” Dad checked.

“How pure is his ?” Mom inquired.

“Surprising no one, he has . His is completely pure, there is not a drop of any other . His is incredibly pure as well. There are no impurities or other elements present. I honestly was not aware it was possible to have and this pure.” Solomon explained, looking a bit surprised.

“What do you mean?” Mom probed.

“He will never have to try to purify his or his . It is not just somewhat pure, or he is a bit more pure than average, we are talking not a drop has shifted them. The purity is actually a bit problematic.” Solomon elaborated.

“How is a high purity a problem?” Dad asked, not following.

“Nez, I believe it is best for you to explain, as you have done more research in this field than I have. Here is the .” Solomon requested. Nez’s eyes went wide when he looked at the

“Normally, has some impurities in it, we have no natural for. As you are aware, most people learn two . A and . is the result of having a diverse . More accurately, is a measure of how much you align with a particular which can be increased through certain methods and help strengthen your . A perfectly pure means you are completely aligned to an with no alignment to other . If you have trained a non , completely purifying your is impossible, as you will have trace amounts of another . This further applies to your . Ambient generally contains a variety of , and if you take your reserve and build it with aligned with the of your , your as a whole becomes more potent. Crown Prince Nil naturally has only , and his is only made of . It means any he would want to learn or be taught needs to be completely . It has to be a compatible with his and no alignment towards any . That is an incredibly short list.” Nez explained fairly quickly.

“I do not see how that is a bad thing.” Dad replied, still not grasping their point. I didn't either to be fair.

“It just means he will only be able to learn and one from an incredibly short list of . The easy way of phrasing it is he is limited to a select few , but all the ones he is limited to are quite potent and strong but correspondingly not practiced by many due to difficulty or the high purity needed to practice them.” Nez clarified.

“So what can he learn?” Mom asked.

“I am not sure on the complete list, but is something he can learn.” Nez informed her. Nez is pushing hard for me to learn . It sounds cool being honest.

“I can compose a list of the suitable for Crown Prince Nil. But Nez is correct, it is not going to be a very long list. There will probably be around three on that list if I am being honest.” Solomon chimed in.

“We will discuss that later. What about ? Does Nil have any other than ?” Dad inquired.

“He has four. and explain his incredible growth with . Crown Prince Nil also possesses and , which I believe stem from his and respectively.” Solomon replied. My mom and dad looked overjoyed.

“You have the !” they said excitedly in unison as my mom picked me up. What do any of the last three mean? I am pretty confident the first is a result of me reincarnating here.

Of course no one really explained it to baby me; they all knew what it meant. I am guessing has something to do with my being naturally pure? Or helping with that? I understood the words they said, but not what they meant. The adults were excitedly talking back and forth except Solomon, whose eyes were fixated on that . I wonder what he saw?