A/N I'm starting to get into the flow of this story now, quite a lot of stuff will be coming up in the next 4 chapters. I hope to write and release around one chapter for day for a while. Thank you all for reading and extra thanks to those who followed and favourite, you guys are the best.
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Jeral took his first steps outside of his home since the labour had begun, in his hands was his daughter. She was just slightly bigger than one of his hands, she smiled up at him. "At the very least I can keep you happy heh?" Stroking her soft head he returned the smile.
The baby turned to look away from Jeral with the little strength its current body allowed it. 'So bright, much better than that last room. I wonder how big this village is, the houses all look like cottages with the standard being a stone frame and thatched roof along with a wooden door. What a nice little place, I could enjoy growing up here. So much information to process though, my mother died before I even saw her and what was all that business about demons? My status said human but demon too, it must be some sort of curse I guess.' Full of thought the young child parsed the lands in its immediate vicinity.
After gathering some much needed fresh air Jeral moved back into his home, bringing the child to a small room with little in it bar a small table, a low crib and an open window with light curtains fluttering from the breeze. 'I guess this is my room then, I like it.' "My precious little bundle of joy, I'll have to leave for now. I'll be back soon, don't run away while I'm gone!" Jeral said lovingly to his daughter as he put her down in the crib kissing her forehead. He left the room with much more morbid matters flooding his mind, if he had it his way he would have just stayed in that room forever.
'So I guess this is it now, I can't believe how quickly this just happend. Yesterday I was an old man living by himself and tired of life and now this! Seriously one of the most extreme life developments I've ever heard of. This world has magic it seems, although I haven't seen any the status message before did have something about that. Not just that but I'm a girl now, I don't know how I feel about it but I guess it's sort of fine, what's the worst that could happen? Nothing I can do for a while, I guess I'll just try to sleep.'
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In the center of the village a festival had begun, most of the folk who were not otherwise occupied were there, adding up to a crowd of nearly eighty. Men and women of all ages were there and ale was plentiful, most of the commotion was centered near a large house built of stone with intricate wooden frames as decoration and support. The evening was slowly coming into view as a myriad of torches, oil lamps and candles were lit. The twilight of the night was decending on the crowd and the moment they had all gathered for was about to come.
A middle aged man approached a hastily put together stand in front of the manor followed by a much younger woman holding a young child, still an infant. "Thank you all for coming to the naming ceremony of my first daughter! I'm sure you've all being counting this day by each night you were woken up in the middle of the night by our little troublemaker!" a chuckle could be heard in several places in the crowd. "Well then, onto it!" He took the child from his wife and held her to be in view of the crowd. "I decided on the name this morning and with the first sundown of her first year of life I proclaim her name to be Joan!" The man on stage was beaming as a thunderous cheer that could only be replicated by a half drunken, half angry at drunken partner crowd resounded through the village.
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In a world of white stood a series of large marble pillars which seemingly touching the infinitely high sky of light blue. They formed a path between two figuires, one of a very young baby which floated in the air and the other of an everchanging cloud of colours, the appearance of the cloud changed shape so often it never had a real form, an incomprehensible mess to the mind.
"Hello little one, I am Kaw'Keth. I have blessed you because I took interest in your unsual soul and mind. It is not common to find a fully functional consciousness trapped within the body of an infant and for it to have a soul torn in twain is another mystery to me. Not many things have caught my interest in the eons little one, you have accomplished that much. We are currently connected telepathically and I have a question for you, what are you?"
'What am I? I guess that depends on who is asking doesn't it. For now I think I'll be me, an infant with a wanderlust'
"Well I guess the times will tell then, little one. I'm glad I managed to stake first claim on you before the other gods noticed though. The amount of curiosities that surround you are very numerous little one. The most distinctive of them is that you seem to have an open soul, something like that only happens once in the lifespan of an empire and normally the individual in question would have to have gone through events so traumatic that their own soul divided. I've never seen anyone survive the process for long. Here you are though, an infant born like you should not have happend naturally, I am sure that there has been a lot of divine influence in your conception. That rises even further questions about why none of the other gods took interest in you though, so I'm awfully curious. I'll ask you another question little one, what do you want?"
'Magic, I want to try to use magic. I saw in that status window that there was something about it, I currently know nothing more than it likely exists here.'
"Quite to the point little one, someone who had a different set of morals to me might think you have some ulterior motives. You are right though, magic is present in this world but normally someone would have to train atleast a year to be able to chant the basic spells, only a small percentage in this world ever end up learning it. Since your body is incapable of the complex speech that would be needed to chant the spells it would normally be completely out the question for one of your age to learn magic. With your unique soul though I think I could patch your mana flow to your open soul and mind, this would allow you to cast without chanting at all, the downside being you would have to learn magic from the ground up, instead of relying on chants to guide you through the motions you would have to use imagination and logic."
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
'You think you could? I don't know if I should let a jumble of multicoloured gas mess around with my soul and my mind on a theory.' "Heh, little one have some trust, I am a deity afterall. What do you say, want to use magic sooner than later?" 'Alright I'll do it, what could possibly go wrong?'
'PAIN! SO MUCH PAIN! ARGH! MY BODY IS BURNING FROM THE INSIDE AND SWORDS ARE STABBING MY MIND! ARGH AHHHH! ~internal screams~' The newly born child awoke crying up a storm, outside the windows a crowd could be heard cheering. It was dark inside the infants room and the moonlight was starting to shine through a still open window, the curtains still softly swaying in the air.
Jeral heard the cries of his baby from the kitchen where he sat head down and his face twisted by somber thoughts. Rising from his chair he walked over to the room opposite to his current and gazed into the crib to see a squirming infant, eyes sore from tears. "Scared in your new room huh? I guess that makes two of us. Maybe your hungry too." The rejuvenated Jeral gently picked up his screaming daughter and tried to comfort her by humming and rocking her in his arms. After a while he walked towards the kitchen and retrieved a bottle he had recently procured from the local alchemist. He placed the bottle on the side and put a soft cloth on the kitchen table, laying the bundled child on top of it.
'Oh thank the fates it stopped, Kaw'Keth you asshole! You could have warned me that it would hurt more than being pushed through a set a rusted serrated hot knives while drowning in a vaccum causing your skin to boil'. The childs mind continued to go through strangely exact scenarios of painful encounters for a little while before she realised she had been moved.
'Huh I guess Jeral must have brought me here when I was crying. Is this the kitchen? Now that I think about it I am actually quite hungry.' Now that a smile had been achieved on his daughters face he proceeded to change the cloth that had surrounded her with the one he had placed underneath her. After unraveling the cloth he stepped back, mouth gaping and eyes shaking. Jeral had expected to see the start of a small tail and nothing more, no this was wrong. So wrong.
Her hands each had a black gem rooted into their palms, the tops of her feet were the same and a large crimson gem was dug deep into her chest, they all seemed to have fused seamlessly with her skin and flesh and each had a thin line of twisting black and white connecting them to the gem in her chest. The tail was also present, it was only the length of her tiny hand but it was there, it ended with an arrowhead shape. All of this contrasted with her little tanned supple skin and smiling face.
Jeral knocked over the bottle he had placed in the table as he stumbled back, it shattered into many small glass fragments and a milky residue spread across the stone floor, the noise snapped him back into reality. "What is this?! Status Check".
TITLE : N/A NAME N/A LEVEL 1 RACE Human SUBRACE Demon HEALTH 110/110 MANA 100/100 ----------------------------------------------------- INTELLIGENCE 1 STRENGTH 1 WISDOM 2 AGILITY 1 DEXTERITY 1 CONSTITUTION 2 CHARISMA 1 ENDURANCE 1 ----------------------------------------------------- MAGICAL AFFINITY FIRE 0% WATER 0% EARTH 0% AIR 5% LIGHT 5% DARK 0% ORDER 0% CHAOS 15% ----------------------------------------------------- STATUS EFFECTS
Curse of the Split Soul : Born with a soul torn, allowing for multiple primary magical affinities. The mother of a child born with a torn soul will always die during the birth of the child.
Greater Blessing of Kaw'Keth : The God of chaos has blessed this one with a great boon, the soul of this one has been fused with Kaw'Keth's energy.
"What is this? I never heard of this god before yesterday and now this. What does it want with my daughter? Is this its sick idea of a blessing, warping her body with freakish additions?! This day just keeps getting worse. Wait how has an infant managed to raise two stats? Is that even possible?"
'hoho, look at that. A new wisdom and constitution point, my health went up too, I guess that must relate to my constitution level. I wonder what faith can be used for in this world, I hope it has a better use here than it did in the last.'
Jarel grabbed his hair and pulled, this day is just about to make him go mad, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I have to clean up this mess.." As he went about picking up the shards and mopping the floor his daughter stayed still staring at her status window, excited beyond words. After ten or so minutes past Jeral got back to the task of feeding his daughter with a second bottle, she drank it but her first taste was the last thing on her mind.