It had been a few weeks since Edwin and Van had come to stay at their brother Wallace’s place. A few weeks of exchanging pleasantries. A few weeks of getting to know their city-bound kin. A few weeks of taking in the sights and seeing a fair amount of what Vignale had to offer.

Eventually though, as things wore on, they would naturally remember that they weren’t there as tourists. They were supposed to be getting settled, starting whatever life they could start in the city together, and fulfilling certain obligations that still stood between them and their family back in Otmar.

So it was that on  a certain morning while the two vis-Oddmund brother’s happened to be in one of the lodging house’s shared restrooms, doing their morning toilette. Standing side by side, both of them broad shouldered, both of them more than eight feet in height. Both of them green skinned, green haired with the distinctive Oddmund-Oedheim unicorn horn, one brother looked to the other and said,

“So...when is it exactly that I’m gonna start working with you guys?”

Wallace froze, his toothbrush held just a few inches from his face. His expression in the mirror turning complicated. First looking a little guilty, and then becoming resolved. He spat and rinsed his mouth out with a handful of water. Gargling while he came up with an appropriate answer.

If it was before a few weeks ago... If it was before he’d received the pill and the injection, that confirmed every sneaking suspicion that he’d ever had concerning his brother, and revealed that even those had been an underestimation of the boy’s possible prospects he might have just given an easy answer like “Next Thursday.”  

Which was the next time that the little Mercenary Group that Wallace worked for, would be doing anything of note.

Or more likely,  he’d have chosen an earlier day so he could bring the youth around the office to introduce him to the employer who’d already more or less agreed to hire him with no interview necessary. As part of a long standing agreement between that person and Jarek, the boys’ father.

Unfortunately, that could no longer be the case, in Wallace’s eyes to waste his brother potential on escort mission and the occasional brigandry during the leaner seasons would have been a sin. A travesty of the highest level, and prodigal squandering of the family’s wealth.

In just a few days time, after clarifying what had happened when his siblings finally left Rus and seeing what his brother was capable of, Wallace and Jarek too, how he’d frequently discussed this matter with, believed that the boy was meant for greater things. Why else would they have let him and Van dither, doing nothing, as they had, were it not for this?

The vis-Oddmunds were going to put their hopes on their youngest son. He was a boy, who as far as they could understand, or reason, seemed to have been born blessed with a legacy, an inborn inheritance that could make emperors and kings go mad.

A legacy so valuable that they couldn’t dare speak of it to anyone that wasn’t related by blood,  lest great calamity befall their little family. With even the normally clueless Edwin himself, seeming to be aware that even the main clan and other branch families, couldn’t be trusted with this information.

Such a treasure was like a precious seed dropped from the world tree’s branches. If allowed to grow, only heaven could say what kind of mighty tree would sprout. If the tree was properly attended to, perhaps even the gods would be astounded by the fruit that would be born from it.

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This was something that needed to be carefully and diligently attended to. Something that needed to be cultivated for all its benefits to be fully taken advantage of.

While they were just a little branch family from the sticks with no resources for serious cultivation of any kind, that didn’t mean that there weren’t other ways for them to see that the boy’s prospects were properly attended to.

Wallace spat a final time wiping his face with a towel.

“Hey, Eddy…”

“Yeah?”

“If you had to guess, what stage would you be on essence-wise?” said Wallace. Giving his brother a curious side-long look.

He’d never really been able to tell. Wallace now understand that one consequence of having the elements that now ran through the blood of the entire vis-Oddmund family, was that their auras, the manifestation of their essence, were almost always suppressed.

The peculiar nature of their constitutions also doubling as some manner of strange stealth technique.

Erasing footsteps, breaths, and energy signatures. Erasing heart-rates, erasing killing intent, slowly eroding their presence to make them almost eerily ghost-like. Unless one made a conscious, slightly taxing effort not to hide these things.

Which perhaps explained some of the boy’s uncanniness from during his youth. Explaining why he’d always seemed to not be there when he really was.  

The effect dramatic enough, that Wallace might have perhaps asked why his brother hadn’t warned them at the time he was giving them the treatments.

However considering his field of work, it wasn’t necessarily a weakness, or something that would have made him balk at what his brother was offering.

Their everyday life didn’t seem to be too affected by these issues, and knowing his own curiosity, Wallace knew that even if he’d been forewarned,   he’d have likely still taken the shot and the pill anyway.

For his part, Edwin seemed to turn thoughtful, face scrunching up as he looked into his inner-self and the energy that was circulating within his body.

“Elite Ranked...I guess.”

Wallace jolted, as if struck, he looked at his brother with an expression of faint complaint. Then he looked at his own reflection with just the slightest bit of reproach. He briefly imagined what his own prospects would have been had he backed his sister’s claims when they were younger. Pushing the revelations forward sooner.

This new physique of his was much stronger than the old one. It healed faster. Tired less and most unbelievable of all, it seemed to cultivate on its own. Truly a heaven defying constitution.

It was like they were monsters. It was as if they’d become creatures possessing legendary bloodlines.

Simply by eating, sleeping and remaining alive, they could eventually trample over all the world with only a little bit of effort on their part.

He banished the thoughts as he remembered that in all likelihood, a revelation of the boy’s unique traits back in Rus, would have almost certainly gotten back to the main family. Especially if it was before the period when relations between the Oddmunds and the vis-Oddmunds began to cool.

Which meant that soon the McBriars and all the other clans of Otmar would know. Which meant that at the very least the high palace of Palmas would have learned of it.

Wallace sighed, issuing out a long slow breath. Greed and haste could destroy like a fire. It was good enough that Wallace’s own future progress was assured, even if he’d have to stay a “mere mortal” for a bit longer. Doing  a mortal warrior’s work. It was certainly better than the eventual stagnation that others in his position had to deal with.

It looked as if, without intending to, the scheming McBriars had helped their little family by pushing the boy out of the main family’s reach.

Wallace nodded, making up his mind and confirming his choice. Meeting his own eye in the mirror and seeing the familiar twinkle of mischief there.

“Nh...Well done, little brother. In that case there’s a place I want to show you in a few days and some people I’d like you to meet.”

Edwin, not being privy to his brother thoughts, but familiar enough to know that the man was probably up to something, simply shrugged.

“Okie-doke.”

They’d been brothers from since before they both were young, and Edwin trusted that this older sibling wouldn’t do anything to harm him.

After all, Wallace had been the one most vehement on making sure that Edwin understood that his capabilities had to be kept a secret once he saw the ship and walked through its endless expenses. Wearing a look of dumbstruck awe upon his face as he walked through his younger brother’s strange construct.