Had anyone in her new life truly known Malwine, there would have certainly been cause for concern in her family. Granted, Bernadette did give her a glance or two, but all things considered, Malwine was almost surprised.

Against all that she held sacred, she was taking her time to make a decision—she was pretty sure that if the widow had spent this much time on contemplation, people would have started cowering in fear of the storm to come.

Fine, maybe I’m being a bit dramatic…Malwine sighed to herself as the door once again closed. She had to pay some token amount of attention to Bernadette’s reading lessons still—and she could not deny their usefulness—but her mind was mostly elsewhere.

A Trait, to be generated based on the Skill and its Aspect.

Three Skills were ruled out right off the bat—[Write Anywhere] and [Cool Head on Your Shoulders] for already having a Trait, and [Meditation] for not having an Aspect.

Time and time again, Malwine had gone over the others. Today was no different. I know I’ve got it narrowed it down to two or three or four or—Fine!

She went over her options again, reviewing her Skills and their Aspects in the same order the system sorted them in, that to sequence.

[Home Sweet Home] is teleportation back home, to a specific room. [Homeward Roads] tells me how to get home if I’m away from it, though I haven’t seen how that works yet.

What would a Trait whose creation was influenced by both be like? Awareness of the teleportation route or something? Awareness of the wards that could block [Home Sweet Home]?

Malwine knew the Trait wouldn’t be an exact blend of the Skill and Aspect—probably—but trying to guess what their combination would yield awarded her a headache and a half. How does the system even do it? Is this why even Skills sometimes seem open to interpretation?

[Once and Forever] tells me why it fails. In the barest of details, but still. So maybe [Home Sweet Home] would warn me about wards on its own. Unless it just teleports me to the edge of the wards or something…Would it?

How I wish I could test all this…

But there was absolutely no way for her to sneak away as it was. She hadn’t even seen the outside of the family home in over a year. In recent times, she’d gotten to wander the halls a time or two while flexing her walking skills—though Bernadette had rudely disapproved of her running—but not once had she gotten close to any doors.

It sucked. How was she supposed to test this Skill? Not to mention, her attempts at figuring out where all the books were stored had, at best, led her to a couple possible doors. Someday, I’ll have my chance…

[Unpacifiable]: I’m always aware of threats to my wellbeing, though there’s clearly some threshold that needs to be met…Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever felt like something’s gonna give me a negative status effect?

To Malwine, it was undeniable that this Skill allowed her to live with far less concerns than she figured she normally would—if the Skill would warn her about particularly bad decisions, she had no reason to live in constant fear.

Quite an improvement from the widow’s life, really. Though she had to admit, what she remembered told her that those later years of life had been selective distrust and ‘if it happens, it happens’ in equal parts.

[Implacable]: I don’t have to eat, drink, sleep, anything as often as I should—though it doesn’t seem to penalize me if I do. And I’m pretty sure I could hibernate.

A Trait born of those two would have potential. This was the survival Skill as far as Malwine was concerned. Awareness plus self-sustainability equaled what, then? Maybe it could be something to keep her aware of how to best fulfill her physical needs—which sounder underwhelming to her picky self—or preferably, something about self-sustaining wellbeing! Now that would be a good Trait.

As if things ever go that well…

Maybe it was personal preference, maybe practicality, but Malwine also wanted to discard [The Plurilingual Psyche] plus [Understanding] immediately. The vague marginal gains from the Aspect there could be a promising factor, but anything that came from them would be related to languages—and frankly, the Skill was enough for Malwine.

Though this Token would yield a Trait influenced by the Skill and Aspect, something told Malwine that didn’t always have to be the case. [Identify] had been influenced by [Expressed Reversal]—not by [Cool Head on Your Shoulders], despite the warning—so there had to be a way to get a Trait in there that would only rely on [Understanding]. Hopefully without having to reroll the Aspect.

[Learning by Reading] gives me what, unlimited book access? And [Remote Reading] is almost just an extension of that. It’s similar to Plurilingual, I don’t see this being worthwhile unless I wanted to just double down on what the Skill and Aspect already do.

And I love [Once and Forever], it has done well by me. [Mana Reclaimer] is probably powerful, or it could be if I could actually use it on anyone who didn’t just have {Foresight}, but still…A combination of those two would likely do wonders. But of what sort?

The ability to get the Skills and Traits of her late relatives, combined with the ability to get Affinities from anyone who could consider her an heir—the lack of direct ancestry as a requirement on either’s description wasn’t lost to her—would likely be something to behold, but Malwine struggled to imagine what the possibilities could be.

Just what else could I get from ancestors? It enticed her, sure, but she couldn’t theorize anything specific. And that bothered her. Could it maybe combine the Aspect’s conditions with the Skill’s results? That’s the only thing I can think of, and that would be great, actually.

There would be no guarantees, but…Still, Malwine soldiered on—she’d promised herself she’d review all of her options, and she meant to keep that promise.

Not for the first time, Malwine hesitated at the sight of her single, unredeemed Skill. [Nosy Old Lady]—the name alone was irritating, and was clearly a personal attack, if you asked Malwine. That said, [Purpose] was a heavy word, to say the least. Lots of potential connotations…I…

Malwine frankly intended to ignore that Skill forever anyway.

But what if the Trait could have been a good one, and I miss it for not having the Skill out of pettiness? Ugh…

With a frown of displeasure, Malwine exhaled through her teeth and brought it forth. You better be worth it…

You have gained [Nosy Old Lady]

Not even death could convince you to just let what is actually dead rest, so perhaps this might persuade you that living, breathing people can be interesting too. You may feel any living target’s current Affinities without needing access to their core. This Skill may be enhanced by your Perception and affected by your target's Presence, but relies on your actual capacity to sense and differentiate Affinities.

Trait: None

Aspect: [Purpose]. Any and all Skills are thrice as effective when used for the benefit of somebody else.

[Nosy Old Lady] defaults to max level 50 but may never evolve!

You have reached Level 56!

…Really?

Her newfound lack of banked levels distracted her for a moment. With a shake of her head, Malwine refocused. This Skill was sort of in line with her other ‘premade’ Skill, she figured. Knowing—or at least having the ability to know of—other people’s Affinities probably had a lot of applications.

Wonder if I could use this to boost [Mana Reclaimer]’s chances of stealing shit from Kristian or something. He’s the highest level around. I’ve never gotten the impression that he has an Affinity but who knows, maybe I just didn’t have the right Skill.

It probably wouldn’t work, but Malwine had to convince herself this had been the right choice, somehow.

Though the nearly intangible tension that lifted from her shoulders might have achieved that on its own. Malwine found herself reflexively examining her surroundings, looking around. She felt more centered, to the point it was bizarre. A part of her wanted to dismiss it as something to examine later, but…

My Class…Malwine triggered [Meditation] without visualizing the widow’s beach, instead just focusing on the dimming sensation. That nagging sense of unbalance, the one that’d been bugging her at the randomest of times, was gone. Only through its absence did Malwine get an inkling as to what it could have been. Is imbalance possible in this world?

She suddenly wanted to pat herself in the back for keeping her attributes balanced, but the desire passed quickly. It didn’t feel quite right. It’s about Classes? Is that it?

Malwine focused on that thought, thinking of her unforged Classes not by themselves but as connected to each other. Something that distantly reminded her of the interdependent warning—or perhaps mere notice—[The Plurilingual Psyche]’s description included.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

There was indeed a tension to be found, if she went out of her way to look for it. She couldn't be entirely certain, as she'd neglected to truly examine the sensation before—in my defense, I couldn't figure out what it was!—but the imbalance existed.

In particular, between and . The latter outweighed the former. Not as much as she now thought had formerly outweighed , but it was relatively close. The next after it was versus , though that pressure was somewhat lesser.

still had…an edge over , but it was nothing compared to before. And the difference between and was negligible, almost too faint. Malwine doubted she’d have noticed superseded at all if she weren’t comparing them intentionally.

What does this even mean?

Her first instinct was that it had something to do with how many Skills she had in each Class category. The pressure had eased specifically after redeeming [Nosy Old Lady], making both and have 3 Skills each. But they still weren't equal. Is it because [Write Anywhere] has a Trait?

Malwine turned her attention to how compared to both and . The gap between it and was negligible, despite only having two Skills to 's three. Yet against , the difference was the highest between all her Classes.

She started visualizing the widow’s scene, thinking of how she might have compared branches in her past life to see which might need more work. Four blank panels materialized in front of her, connecting into one, almost like a table. Distantly, she could have sworn she felt [Blank Panel] itself grow confused as to whether that counted as one or four panels.

Whether or not comparing them all would yield answers was irrelevant, because she just knew this would haunt her if she didn’t examine it further.

Once she’d listed each Skill, whether or not they had a Trait or Aspect, and their rarity on her panel—panels?—she tried her best to compare them.

no trait = no skill here, just text padding! = no aspect

no trait = [Home Sweet Home] = ASPECT

no trait = [Unpacifiable] = ASPECT no trait = [The Plurilingual Psyche] = ASPECT

TRAIT = [Cool Head on Your Shoulders] = ASPECT

no trait = [Learning by Reading] = ASPECT no trait = [Meditation] = no aspect

no trait = [Once and Forever] = ASPECT

no trait = [Nosy Old Lady] = ASPECT TRAIT = [Write Anywhere] = no aspect

no trait = [Situational Autopilot] = ASPECT

no trait = [Close to my Chest] = ASPECT

Two things grew clear almost simultaneously—first that though she'd have loved to blame that empty space for it, trying to narrow down the source of this imbalance pointed her towards [Cool Head on Your Shoulders]. Individually, it both looked and felt like the most, say, complete of her Skills. And the heaviest.

Second, [Meditation] was close to weightless. Not in comparison to [Cool Head on Your Shoulders] and it’s Trait plus Aspect combo, no. It felt close to the absolutely empty spot above her two Skills.

The worst of it appeared to be her Class as a whole not measuring up to the combined weight of her Skills, but this was still most definitely cause for concern. Could this worsen? For now, Malwine figured she'd have to play it safe with distributing her Skills and Traits, if she could, though she refused to let this influence her choice on how to use the Token. The imbalance was there, but it clearly wasn't at a point in which it would affect her. Nothing terrible had happened when and had been worse off, after all.

She gave the panel(s) one last glance before moving to dismiss them, and froze.

Shit. Is it the rarity?

Both [The Plurilingual Psyche] and [Write Anywhere] were of Epic rarity, one with an Aspect and the other with a Trait. Trying to compare them directly gave her...unclear results. She wasn't sure. It was as though the mere presence of [Cool Head on Your Shoulders] muddled the waters. The gap between and versus the gap between and might have been a better indicator. It was small but...the more she thought of it, the more certain she grew.

In the grand scheme of things, [Meditation] was weak. It was arguably her most-used Skill, and it was weak.

Malwine’s expression was practically stuck in a grimace as she opened her eyes. To be fair, I can hardly feel it. Maybe it’s not a big deal…!

Besides, Older-Beryl had only had those two Epic skills, and the woman had presumably been fine. This all probably meant something, but Malwine figured it was unlikely to be something drastic. She got dangerously close to dismissing the entire exercise to avoid thinking too much into it…

Where had I been? Malwine tried to recall whatever she’d been focusing on before she sent herself down this confusing balance rabbit hole. Right, [Nosy Old Lady]. Well, the answer there is ‘no’.

[Purpose] would join [Home Sweet Home] and [Homeward Roads] on her ‘I need to test this sometime’ pile, but honestly? This wasn’t worth using the Token on. Knowledge of Affinities and an ambiguous altruism bonus didn’t sound like they’d combine into something she particularly wanted. That Aspect’s gonna be such a pain to get a knack for, isn’t it…?

Malwine glanced at the descriptions for [Situational Autopilot] and [True Autopilot], the duo that had only ever worsened any situation she’d tried to use them on so far.

She blinked.

Yeah, no.

[Close to my Chest] hid her Affinities and Skills while its [Reveal Nothing] Aspect hid her level, core stage, and whatever ‘other details’ stood for. As with [Learning by Reading] and [Remote Reading], it felt to Malwine like picking this one would only be doubling down on what it already did, perhaps pointlessly.

So it’s down to either [Unpacifiable] or [Once and Forever] as possibilities. I hate this.

For a moment, when she’d started this latest review of her options, Malwine had been close to certainty that her choice would be [Unpacifiable]. It was her survival Skill, the combination with [Implacable] just had to be good. It might make her feel even safer.

But [Once and Forever]…Oh, her uncertainty absolutely remained.

[Mana Reclaimer] would absolutely work on Adelheid if she knew what her little aunt’s Affinity was. She knew Adelheid had an Affinity, it simply felt obvious to her, yet…

Oh.

For once, Adelheid was in her bed, already asleep. Malwine didn’t have to call out to find her. Taking a deep breath, she focused on [Nosy Old Lady].

Huh. No notification? Literally ‘no notifications, just vibes’?

Still, her suspicions were instantly confirmed. There was something there. Something with a duality to it, like…no. She was feeling two different things.

Wow. I’m not special, Malwine thought, but found she didn’t actually mind. If all of her new family members truly lacked Affinities, she would have been quite confused. And this wasn’t {Foresight}.

What she got off Adelheid grew blurrier by the second, however, almost as if it were darkening and losing shape. A few seconds later, it cut off completely. Stunned, Malwine called [Nosy Old Lady] back up. The Skill was working—it was just no longer getting any results.

She found herself rereading the description—her capacity, her Perception, and her target’s Presence.

Should I just dump the +2500 into Perception? Malwine’s mind wandered to when she’d asked Adelheid about her attributes, months ago. Whatever her little aunt’s Presence was, had to be relatively high, at least compared to Malwine’s debuffed Perception. Its current effective value was still 23. If I actually had my 2.3k Perception…

In the end, what convinced her against pushing Perception to what would ultimately be just 48, was that it probably still wouldn’t matter—even if Malwine could see the Affinities again, she hadn’t felt anywhere near close to identifying them the first time around, before their disappearance.

Sighing, she returned to the Token. Do I want power or safety?

Malwine would be lying if she denied the appeal of using the Token on [Once and Forever]. She didn’t have enough Skills. The matter of imbalance nagged her, though she pushed it away again.

And maybe, if this helps me get more Skills…more power in general…[Unpacifiable] and [Implacable] could get me additional protection somehow, but power could also get me that. Not to mention it’d likely be a one-time or static change. Meanwhile, more Skills and Traits, more Affinities even—if it goes well, it’d be potential for growth rather than a single boost.

Definitely not just trying to convince myself…!

So she went ahead and did it, before she could tell herself to review her options for the hundredth time this month.

You have consumed Trait Creation Token

[Once and Forever] has gained the [Imitation Beyond Filiality] Trait.

[Once and Forever]

No action is ever truly irrelevant, and nothing ever wants to be truly forgotten. Likelihood of Affinities lost to precursors reemerging greatly increased. You may claim Skills and Traits from any you may have right to inherit from, providing they are too long gone for resurrection and your desired Skill/Trait has not already passed on to somebody else.

Trait: [Imitation Beyond Filiality]. The best form of flattery. You may copy a small amount of attribute points, relative to their total value, from anyone who you could inherit from by proving your worth. Upon failure, this is repeatable once per ten months per target. The trials required will differ by target. Carries a minuscule chance of copying anything else.

Aspect: [Mana Reclaimer]. If you can prove within reason that someone you could inherit an Affinity for a Mana Source from possessed a specific Mana Source, you may make the Affinity your own. Affinities from famous ancestors of a rarity higher than cannot be obtained.

There was nothing left for Malwine to do but laugh. This was perfect. She couldn’t wait to start firing this off at her family members, to find out what ‘anything else’ meant. And it won’t block me from Katrina, for example, right?

Or even from…Mom?

Before she could hesitate, Malwine refocused on those weights she’d been sensing and promptly ignoring—only to notice they had shifted. outweighed now, almost as much as did. It was, however, a bigger difference than how outweighed , or even how outweighed too, now that the tables were seemingly turned. They kept shifting, though slightly.

I think I might lose my mind if I don’t figure out how to quantify this, it’s there, but it’s so strange…

Malwine summoned a new panel.

Body < Mind

Mind > Word

Word < Soul

Soul > Body

Yeah, looks about right. Whatever this means!

The panel disappeared. Malwine shuddered then suppressed the sensation.

Back to ignoring this!

Besides, Malwine had attribute points to copy.