Kade moved rapidly through the woods, a combination of Relentless Pursuit and chains driving him faster and faster. These long nights of practice were paying off, and he was getting better at using his momentum in creative ways. Chains would send him whipping between trees, over obstacles, and sometimes high into the air–just because he could. Every day the freedom of these moments became more important, as life on Iros grew more complex, and the realities of his new life increasingly weighed on him.

He felt like he was being pulled in too many directions. Trying to understand what it was to be a Keeper, the looming weight of the exam which was also an Elder hunt, and now the attention of the Bringers. The strangest part of it all was how quickly it had started to feel normal. Every time he embraced a new power, or threw himself headfirst into some kind of mad life or death encounter, he oddly felt more like himself. His old life had already felt like a dream, and now he was starting to wonder if everyone was right–maybe it all was some fever of Chaos Sickness.

He slid to a stop in a clearing he’d been using for training the past few nights. It hadn’t started as a clearing, but some liberal use of his chain’s offensive powers had left a large area of felled trees that Drake had helped him turn into a serviceable gym. He summoned the Aspect now, wanting the company. He tried to still his mind as silver chains formed into a pile next to him, the helmet looking at him expectantly.

“Well, buddy, no more putting this off,” he said while looking at his familiar, and considering the relationship they’d been slowly building over the past few weeks. He had realized early that he could send commands to the unusual being if he focused on him, but he was also increasingly aware that Drake had his own thoughts and personality, even if it was harder to express them. The protectiveness was part of it, but he also sensed curiosity, and even humor from the shifting pile of chains. He had long gotten used to simply talking to the Aspect as a sounding board of sorts, but now he realized he might need to go a step further.

“Drake, I need to try something, and I’m not sure how you might feel about it.” The helmet shifted around like the head of a snake, seeming to consider his words. “I don’t pretend to understand your origins, or what your relationship to this world is, but…are you aware of the Chaos?” Drake didn’t move for a moment, seeming to consider what Kade said. “I’ve never had to explain it to someone else; I barely understand it myself,” Kade continued. “I guess it’s like evil mana? All I really know is that it’s what the Elders use, and it terrifies everyone I know and trust. It’s also responsible for a lot of sickness and death. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

The Aspect shifted around, as it seemed to consider his words. At last it moved toward him and a delicate hand of chains formed, reaching out to rest on Kade’s chest. Kade looked from the chains to the expressionless helmet, and let out a long sigh. “Yeah, buddy. It’s inside me. Hell, I think it might be inside everyone, and I don’t know if they’re ready to hear that, but it’s different for me. For whatever reason, I know I’m meant to use the Chaos, just like I use mana. I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about that.” Drake’s chains slowly rose up into a rough facsimile of shoulders, that seemed to shrug before the hand once more reached out and touched his chest.

Kade laughed slightly, it wasn’t the first time the Aspect had tried to mimic human gestures, and he appreciated the effort. “Alright then, we’re in this together. Do me a favor and set up some targets? I need to do this before I change my mind.” Drake immediately began latching silver chains onto nearby fallen trees, understanding what his master would need. For Kade’s part, he let out a long breath, then looked down at his bracer.

Name: Kadeus (House unknown)

Race: Child of Korthos (Variant)

Soul Core: Chains of Fate

Rank: Ascended Awakened (Dual-Path)

Lifeforce: 100%

Mana: 98/98

Chaos: 143/143

Strength: 14

Speed: 11

Endurance: 9

Magic: 08

Energy: 19

Ancestral Totem 1: (Name and House Unknown)

Class: Chaos Energist

Creed: Mine is the will that shapes worlds. Mine is the power that ends them.

Ability 1: Chaos Energy Blast (Rank 4, 27%)

Ability 2: Energy Construct (Rank 2, 15%)

Ability 3: Sealed

Augmentations: Mentor’s Amulet

Ancestral Totem 2: (Name and House Unknown)

Class: Vanguard

Creed: Ever moving, ever forward, ever fighting.

Ability 1: Relentless Pursuit (Rank 3, 57%)

Ability 2: Challenger’s Might (Rank 1, 43%)

Ability 3: Aspect of Metallurgy (Rank 4, 23%)

Augmentations: None

Ancestral Totem 3: None

He smiled slightly at his slow, steady progress. He wasn’t entirely sure yet what individual ranks did for his powers, as speaking with other Awakened proved that this was yet another unique aspect to his unusual bracer. Even the specificity of his attributes was an oddity, and it turned out most Awakened just had to focus on their intuitive sense of how their strength was progressing. Kade was happy though, to see his considerable progress with his mana. He knew people like Salarus had an easier time with numerous abilities providing heavy, sudden drains, which strained your mana pathways a lot more than the continuous slow burn of Kade’s more passive abilities.

He looked back to his bracer to see the real reason for his improved mana.

Mentor’s Amulet: Special Objectives!

Objective (1): Create 8/10 Energy Engrams!

Objective (2): Construct 247/1000 Energy Weapon Constructs!

Creating energy weapons was easy enough, but very draining on his mana. He could only create a few before emptying his reserves almost entirely, though thankfully mana replenished very quickly near Karthas. He was able to do a few dozen constructs a day, but the one thousand required for his amulet was clearly meant to take considerable time. He’d also found that the quest was working–each construct he made felt a little easier, and it seemed that he needed to rely on the Engrams less and less. He could also make increasingly complex shapes on his own, and he had numerous plans for how they could improve his combat prowess in the future.

For now, though, he needed to focus on this reluctant goal. It was time to truly embrace being a Chaos Energist. He looked at the dozens of targets Drake had managed to set up in impressive time, and nodded his thanks at the Aspect, which tried to give a thumbs up in response, shifting almost half his mass of chains to do so. Kade chuckled, and turned his focus to what he needed to do. It wasn’t that using this particular ability was any more difficult than his others–the reality was that it was actually too easy. He always felt he had to summon up mana from inside him, but Chaos was the opposite–he felt like he was constantly holding it in, and it was like keeping a muscle continuously tensed.

At last he raised up a hand before him, and simply let go. Light flashed and the entire clearing was illuminated for a split second before the trunk of a tree exploded, sending shards of wood everywhere. A wall of silver suddenly sprang up in front of him, blocking the debris. He nodded his thanks at Drake, and the wall receded. Kade felt enormous relief as the Chaos left him, as if he’d been holding his breath for a month. He wisely walked a lot further back before continuing, but he was grateful to notice that there didn’t seem to be any lingering effects from channeling the Chaos.

Part of him had been worried he’d still be blackening his veins, or somehow corrupting his body if he risked using this ability again, but the truth was that Chaos had been flowing through continuously, and his normal mana pathways had long-since adapted. That didn’t stop him from feeling somewhat sullied by the experience, though, as the general outlook on Chaos that everyone in Karthas held had certainly affected him. He’d even visited the Chaos Sickness wards in the lower city once, and had been horrified by the number of people barely alive, their bodies corrupted and slowly being destroyed from the inside out.

His unusual nature once more sent his thoughts in frightening directions, but forced himself to put that aside–he had already made his choice. He went back to his experimentation, having already set numerous goals for himself that he was determined to complete tonight. The first was simply the hurdle of his own reluctance, and to overcome that he reached out with both hands, and sent blast after blast into one tree after another, until the whole area was littered in debris. He made himself do this several times, practicing with his energy constructs while he waited for his Chaos to refill.

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He had already heard that his mana would refill more slowly the farther he moved from the center of Karthas’ Calm, but he was interested to learn that his Chaos had an inverse reaction, where it filled more slowly as he moved closer to Karthas. He figured this out when he took a break to hunt some wolfren who had been prowling around his training arena. When the chase took him nearly a half hour back toward the Calm, he noticed his Chaos had restored more slowly than when he’d simply sat down in the clearing. Provided he was able to safely channel Chaos near other Keepers, this might become a significant advantage for him; if he grew stronger as the others grew weaker, he’d be a true asset to the team.

It was nearly the middle of the night when he felt that he’d almost normalized the use of the wild energies inside him, though he recognized it would be a long time before he thought of this other power as anything resembling benign. Regardless, he was ready to move on to the next phase of his experimentation. The description his bracer provided for the ability had noted that the size and shape of the blast was controllable, but thus far he’d only managed to force more Chaos into the attacks, not use any kind of shaping. His increased Energy attribute and long hours practicing with Energy Construct, however, had opened new avenues to him.

He tried small, dense blasts, wider area attacks, as well as sustained blasts where he continuously released the Chaos within. It took more concentration than he’d have liked, and he recognized that it would be some time before the fancier tactics would make sense in combat, but he was still excited by the possibilities. He made a couple of particularly interesting discoveries that he felt were more feasible in the short term, however. The first was something he’d only assumed was true, which was that his hands were altogether unnecessary for the ability, and that his mana pathways were capable of channeling the Chaos virtually anywhere on his body.

He couldn’t help himself and wasted nearly an hour eye-beaming different targets, though he was forced to admit that it wasn’t particularly effective, as glancing in any direction would cause the blasts to go wildly off-target. It did mean he could still use the ability freely while his hands were occupied, however, and it ultimately led to testing some new techniques where he would gather Chaos around his hands or feet, then allow the energy to ignite when he punched or kicked a target. The first half-dozen attempts definitely harmed him as much as the trees, but he gradually figured out how to make the energy only explode away from his body. It certainly made Cerano’s suggestion of learning some form of martial arts far more enticing.

The other discovery had far more intriguing implications, and it came from further consideration of what the Bringer had said about the nature of abilities. Evidently he’d taken Chaos Energy Blast too literally. He had been thinking of it only as some kind of projection outward from his body–but that may have been the most limited possible view. The reality was that the ability gave him broad access to Chaotic energy, and everything he’d done with it–shaping it, projecting it, causing it to explode, or delaying its explosion–was all possible after the energy had left his body. He first discovered this when using a sustained blast, realizing that he could still feel the energy that was connected to him, even when it was halfway across the clearing.

From there it had only taken some forceful concentration to will the energy in a new direction, blasting into a second target. He could see many applications for this using his basic attacks, and managed a few tricks like splitting an attack to hit several targets at once, and sending a blast around one tree to hit another. Again he could tell this would be a more advanced technique he’d need to develop over time, but it led to another technique that took his Energy Construct ability to a whole new level.

Since he’d begun using constructs, he’d been certain the ability had far more versatility than just creating weapons or stationary objects. He’d found a few applications that had promise, but ultimately were more trouble than they were worth. He started with the most basic application, just making a solid wall of energy. The problem was that it took an enormous amount of mana to make it strong enough to withstand any significant attack, and worse–it would simply get knocked over. That was the key issue with his constructs–while he could effectively conjure them anywhere his body could reach, meaning he could make a large shield seemingly hovering over his head, as soon as he completed the construct it would be subject to gravity, and would simply fall on him.

Energy Blast had the power to change this. While it took some precise control, he realized he could attach a charge of Chaotic energy to a construct, and then use that charge as a propellant. The applications for this almost had him drooling, but it was by the far the most complex use of his powers he’d ever attempted, and he suspected he could be perfecting it for years to come. For now though, it was certainly possible to use the most basic version of the technique, and he grinned in satisfaction as a self-propelled lance of energy went hurtling into a nearby target, slicing cleanly through it in a spray of wood chips.

Korthos was rising into the sky as a dozen smaller energy blades soared across the clearing, and Kade was drained in a way he hadn’t experienced since first leaving Altera. He’d lost count of how many times he’d run through his Chaos reserves, and he knew that he needed rest. He’d already come much farther than he expected to in a single night, and felt that his Mentor’s Amulet must have been somehow preparing him for using this ability as well. At last he glanced around the clearing, which looked like a lumber mill had exploded around him, and knew it was time to go visit Lumbria, the village barely an hour outside the woods that had become his training ground.

***

Kade was surprised when he finally spotted the small village, as he’d expected a rough collection of a few huts, and maybe a hundred cowering villagers. The reality made vastly more sense as soon as he considered it. A thick stone wall surrounded an orderly collection of buildings that must have easily housed several thousand people. Kade inwardly mocked his own foolishness, as he considered a world of monsters didn’t lend itself to poorly defended huts, and a village on the edge of the Chaos wouldn’t have lasted a month without some kind of fortifications.

Kade smiled to himself as Drake reformed into gauntlets and necklace, and strode toward the gate closest to the edge of the forest. He noticed the main road as he got closer to the wall, and considered it would likely be a much quicker, and safer route home after he’d explored for a while. As he neared the gate, he was surprised to find it undefended, and though it was only several times his height, he didn’t think he’d be making a good impression if he simply scaled it. Without much alternative, he banged a fist noisily against the steel, and waited. After a moment he also withdrew his chains and brushed off some dirt and wood chips, hoping to make a better first impression.

It wasn’t a long wait before a small viewport was opened and a sleepy eye looked out, “No deliveries scheduled for today, who are you?” the man asked in a deep, irritated voice.

“My name is Kade, I’m a Keeper in training and I’m just touring the local villages. Would you let me in, please?” The moment the word ‘Keeper’ was uttered, the small, dirty man looked panicked, bordering on terrified, and he quickly sputtered an apology while hastily opening the large gate.

“I’m sorry, Master Keeper, we weren’t warned of your coming and have no proper reception prepared. Please, please come in. I’ll fetch the Village head immediately.” Kade tried to interrupt the man to reassure him, but he literally sprinted away the moment the gate was closed again, calling back that the wait wouldn’t be long. Kade actually found himself made more than a little nervous by the reception. He did mention he was just in training, but the man had acted like the High Abbot Lothros himself had strolled in.

Kade didn’t want to add rudeness to his already unusual arrival, so he resisted the urge to explore the village on his own. He contented himself to staring at the solidly built homes lining Lumbria’s main street, and smiled as he saw the normal routine of the day slowly beginning, with people shuffling into the street on some business or another.

Kade didn’t have to wait long, as he noted with some alarm that the man was returning nearly as quickly as he left, this time practically pulling along a man who looked…old. Kade had to stop himself from doing a double-take, as he hadn’t seen anyone who appeared past middle aged since he’d arrived. He hadn’t even been sure it was possible until this moment, though even this man still had some black mixed in with the gray of his hair. It was his countenance that marked his age as much as his appearance, as he seemed wary and tired, looking as if he’d been doing an impossible job for far too long. He still bowed politely when he arrived, his tone utterly respectful.

“My Lord Keeper, you honor Lumbria with your presence. I am Festus, Village head, and we are at your disposal–though I presume you wish to wait for your comrades in the Keeper House?” Kade raised an eyebrow at that.

“I actually wasn’t aware that there were local Keepers here. As I mentioned to this good man who let me through the gate, I’m merely a Keeper in training, and I’m only visiting to get a better sense of my responsibilities to those on the frontier.” Both men exchanged confused glances at that, before Festus spoke once more.

“Unfortunately our village is not in a position to support any more–,” he cleared his throat awkwardly, “local Keepers. Perhaps you can arrange something with the others?” Kade could sense something was going on he couldn’t entirely understand, and figured it might be best to speak to the locals as suggested.

“When are the local Keepers expected to return? I could use some rest and it sounds like the Keeper House might be a good fit for that.” Both men seemed overjoyed to hear this for some reason, and immediately began to lead him through the narrow streets of Lumbria. Kade let himself drink in the sights and sounds of the small village, feeling so different from Karthas. He noted that many villagers watched him with suspicion, but he figured that might be as simple as having a stranger in their midst, especially as he didn’t have anything identifying him as a Keeper of any sort.

At last they arrived at a mid-sized stone building in good repair, which had the emblem of the Keepers–leaves on a field–emblazoned above the door. “Your comrades are expected in the late afternoon, so I’m afraid you’ll have a wait ahead of you. Could I have some refreshments brought over?” Kade was still getting used to not needing food, but he didn’t want to take anything from the villagers he’d come to help.

“Perhaps just something simple to drink? My mouth tastes like dust and some water would go a long way.” The men nodded, and Festus indicated where he could be found if Kade needed anything further, though it was clear that both men were desperate to be off. Kade thanked them and hurried inside, exhausted and already growing tired of the strangely awkward social situation. He was fighting his normally cavalier attitude a great deal to try to respect the gravitas that he’d seen most Keepers display, but he immediately regretted it. Maybe the villagers would have been put more at ease if they knew he didn’t take himself so seriously.

As the door shut behind him he took in the comfortable home he’d found himself in, and realized it wasn’t anything like the austere barracks he’d expected. Instead it was warmly lit by bright orange glow-stones like most homesteads, and appeared to be nothing more than a normal living area for several people at most. Kade saw nothing that would distinguish the house as clearly belonging to Keepers, and after quickly checking upstairs found that there were only three beds, all appearing well-used.

He had just settled himself on an old but serviceable couch when there was a soft knock at the door, and he tiredly heaved himself back up. He was surprised to be greeted by a girl around his own age, rather than either of the two men he’d met, and she had both a pitcher of something to drink, and a basket of fruits he didn’t recognize. “My Lord Keeper, I am Nella, and I was sent to see to your needs.” He tried to smile and put her at ease, but she was staring so intently at the floor that she didn’t notice. She had brown hair and tanned skin, and was quite pretty from what he could see.

“I’m Kade, and as I keep saying, I’m only a Keeper in training. Please come in.” He stepped back and made a welcoming gesture, but noticed she seemed strangely upset by his actions, though she obediently shuffled in. Growing tired of the odd behavior, Kade just gestured to a small table in front of the couch, and Nella hastily placed the food and drink down, before staring at the floor once more.

Kade thanked her, and quickly poured himself some water, downing it in a hurry. When he noticed the young woman still awkwardly standing near the couch, he realized she must be waiting to be dismissed or something. Once more he tried to smile at her reassuringly, but she still refused to make eye contact. “I’m sorry,” he began, “I’m not really sure how this normally goes.” She took a sharp intake of breath, then finally spoke.

“I know my duty, Lord Keeper,” then she began to undress.