Kade had been exhausted when they first arrived, but had listened with grim fascination as Graves explained that the Calm was actually the result of an Elder, dead and buried somewhere deep underground. He further explained that there were few places in Iros that didn’t have countless dead, lost to millions of years of conflict. Digging into Iros was considered to be as dangerous as venturing into the Chaos, or worse. There were entire Kingdoms lost to time, and not all were empty; many contained living, sleeping Elders, or even Ancients, which was a distinction the group couldn’t quite convey yet through the apparent language barrier. If Graves wasn’t exaggerating–and he certainly didn’t seem the type–then it was genuinely harder to dig downward any significant distance and not find some lost civilization.
After Graves’ taciturn nature got the better of him and he declined to talk further, Kade had been preparing to sleep, so exhausted after the day, the battle, and the healing Graves had provided, that the uncovered ground seemed like a bed of clouds. Before Kade could collapse though, Edwin had approached with a gift. “Here, we had some more good luck,” he said, tossing a small, red vial into Kade’s hands. “Blood Fragment. It’ll help, trust me.”
Kade examined the small, glass container, with curiosity, “This will give me magic blood to match my magic bones?” he asked with some skepticism. Edwin considered a moment before answering.
“Sort of? Yes? Blood, organs, some of the chemicals in your brain…it’s vastly more complicated than even I understand. What I will say is that you should stop taking magic quite so literally; remember the words you hear are still just your Soul’s best guess as to what my Soul is trying to convey. I’m not even sure what you mean when I hear you say magic. I can tell there’s greater implications than what the word means to me, but also lesser somehow. When I hear you in the language of my home, it’s almost like you’re saying magic, which we all know isn’t real. But you have none of the nuance I try to communicate when I say [power–energy–planet blood–life–joy–pain–death].”
Kade blinked as he tried to process what Edwin said, before glancing at his bracer to see that it still simply translated as [Magic]. “I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to this,” Kade replied, indicating the bracer and its translation ability. Edwin shook his head dismissively.
“You’ll get used to it without even realizing it. In a few weeks your Soul will have become accustomed to the subtleties. Right now you’re just overwhelmed by all the new information.” Edwin seemed to remember something, and continued. “Soul, that was another one that doesn’t quite align. I can tell you associate the word with some kind of religious influence, but that’s not accurate. I think we have that concept if I’m understanding it correctly, but when I say Soul, I’m really saying [center–being–heart–chi–self–mind–power–key–weakness-strength].”
Knowing what he’d see if he checked the translation, Kade instead tried to focus on the word-salad that he’d heard Edwin’s voice speak. After a moment, he repeated the word Soul with those thoughts in mind, and when Edwin looked pleasantly surprised, he did the same with Magic, though he found it much harder to keep the sense of disbelief from his mind. Edwin replied simply, “Closer. Now drink your juice, you really don’t want to know how many monsters I needed to milk to get that.”
Kade nearly dropped the vial at Edwin’s words, “Did you just say you milked this from–” Edwin interrupted him with a rapid shake of his head, looking uncomfortable.
“Just more translation problems, best drink it quick and not to think about it too much,” he very pointedly avoided eye-contact with Kade as he said this. Kade looked back to the vial, then followed both pieces of advice, downing it as quickly as he could. This time, the largest impact he felt was that his exhaustion simply disappeared, and he felt as if he’d woken from a good night’s sleep.
Edwin nodded in satisfaction, then spoke once more, “Excellent. The Blood Bond is very convenient, especially for times like this. You shouldn’t feel hunger again–though I imagine being healed several times by Graves was already suppressing that for you. You’ll also heal and recover much, much faster, and you technically don’t need to sleep anymore, but trust me that you really, really should. We’ll give you some techniques to help you fall asleep when you can’t really get tired.”
“I take it that going too long without sleep still has some negative consequences then?”
“Many, though you likely wouldn’t experience the serious ones for weeks or even months. Still, it refreshes your mind and creates a natural cycle for your body that’s still quite beneficial, especially for recovering your strength and magic.” Kade nodded in understanding, enjoying the new sensations that came with just existing in this world. “I’d suggest you get that sleep now, but I remember how it felt when I received my own Blood Bond; you might want to burn off that energy with some practice, given what you’ve learned about your chains.” Kade nodded happily before heading off, already pulling fistfuls of chains from his belt.
****
Graves watched as the false-Child walked away from Houseless, one more fortune casually devoured as if it were nothing more than a side of bread at a feast. He considered the man, so full of lies that they slipped past his bracer’s translation almost entirely without a trace. He suspected the man–whose very name was a falsehood– must believe some of the lies himself, as even the Royal Spymaster would be hard-pressed to duplicate the feat amongst one of Graves’ power.
For the hundredth time he found himself guessing at what the man really was, knowing that he wouldn’t find any answers. Even as he had pulled the man’s unusual injuries into the void, unmaking the events that had created them, he had sensed that their cause was something that should not have been possible. That the man had channeled Chaos through his cardiovascular system was simple fact to Graves, who knew it implicitly the moment he’d begun his healing. This fact was difficult to accept, however, as it either belied everything their society had believed for thousands of years, or meant that the man was something truly unique. Frustration almost showed on his face when he considered that the truth could be both.
He wondered if the world might be better off if he was still embracing his previous role as Royal Executioner, simply killing the boy without hesitation or remorse, removing a potential threat to the Kingdom–or perhaps the very world. But that life was centuries behind him, and curiosity was a stronger force than loyalty to a dead King, at least for the moment. He saw Edwin speak with the other two Keepers as they prepared the campsite, then walked off a small distance, stopping at the crest of a hill where he could still see potential threats–and the false one as he played with his chains.
Graves approached him unhurriedly, curious what the wise, older man may have discovered from conversation that Graves might not have found with his arts. Edwin glanced at him long before he should have been able to sense him, nodding a quiet greeting. Those senses had always unnerved Graves, who still felt it was unfair that a simple woodsman was more capable of reading the currents of Calm than a priest of Karthas. They watched the false one for several minutes together before Graves felt compelled to speak, “First bone, now blood. I’ve known worthier souls that waited decades for a single Fragment, and you’ve given two to this…” His vows–burned deeply into his soul–wouldn’t allow him to even imply the true nature of the pretender.
Edwin merely nodded, not deigning to answer. Graves continued, “You must see something I don’t…or worse, you might see everything I do. Tell me why you protect this one. Our duty has never been to help victims as you put it. Our duty has no living victims, only casualties.” Edwin raised an eyebrow at the priest.
“You’re wrong, saving people was the founding purpose of the order. I was there. Calming the Elders became the most important way of doing that, but I understand my purpose in this. I am…more certain of that than usual.” His hand reached up to grip his pendant, symbol of his dedication to the Legend of Korthos. As a Priest of Karthas, he respected those who respected the Legends, but saw that there was something more going on here.
“The tenants of your faith include self-sacrifice and protecting those who can’t protect themselves, but I see more than here, far more. Tell me what drives you to this behavior, if only so I can stop worrying that his Chaos Sickness somehow migrated to you.” Edwin didn’t speak for a long moment, just held his pendant and stared. Finally he spoke up, sounding pained.
“I can’t tell you Graves, I don’t think I can tell anyone,” the words were clipped and barely intelligible, causing Graves to grip the man’s arm, his senses diving into the man for injuries.
“What’s happening, did I somehow miss a wound? And why can’t you tell me the truth, you know I’m completely incapable of sharing anyone’s secrets.”
Edwin wobbled on his feet for a moment, gently removing Graves’ hand from his arm. Finally he spoke, “I can’t tell you, Graves, because when I just tried, I felt my Soul Core crack.” Graves’ eyes widened in shock at the words. A cracked Soul Core was thought to only occur in the rarest of near-death injuries, and some never healed. Edwin tried to smile reassuringly, but his hand shook slightly on his pendant. “Don’t worry Graves, it will heal on its own…I think it was just a friendly warning.”
“A warning? The most devastating injury that any being can experience short of a full Core rupture, and it’s just a warning? Was it the boy, somehow? Is he already capable of this?” Edwin shook his head weakly.
“No, it wasn’t him, it came from a much higher authority,” he gestured upward with his eyes.
“That’s absurd. You’re trying to tell me this was some kind of divine intervention? I’ve read more of the Legends than even you may have heard of, and I can promise that sleeping Ancients don’t attack our souls.” Edwin sighed, then replied slowly, as if carefully choosing his words.
“My Legend spoke to me Graves. I can tell you that, likely because no one will ever believe it. But it happened, and the consequences of not listening have been made painfully clear. My duty is to protect that boy, and bring him every ounce of power I can possibly find. Bankrupting myself for a few Power Fragments is the least I’ll do.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
****
Edwin left a contemplative Graves to his quiet thoughts, unable to recall the last time the man had spoken so long, or with such emotion. He had more to consider as well. Despite his long years, nothing had prepared him for being the subject of divine attention. There were some who worshiped more active Legends, those few that still took a direct role in the testing and preparing of the next generation of Keepers and Bringers. But Korthos was as far from that as it was possible to be while still considered to be a Living Legend.
It was a bit of a friendly, running joke that Korthos-followers were often so devout, while they could never be in the direct presence of their patron. True believers didn’t feel this way, of course; Edwin felt Korothos’ benevolent presence every day. But the real reason that Korthos attracted so many, was that his Ideals lined up so well with the Keepers. Protecting others, self-sacrifice, the greater good, feeling that they were following the path of one of the greatest of the Ancients helped many of those new to the cause to feel they were on the right path, a righteous path, even.
But no one ever expected direct intervention from the Quiet One, as he was sometimes called; of all the living Legends, his role was the most crucial by far. As such, Edwin was not only shocked to his very being by the attention of his patron, he was also conflicted. Some, like Graves, chose their patron expecting to serve in some capacity, and being favored with direct contact would have been the greatest honor of their lives. This wasn’t so for Edwin, who had never even known such service was a possibility, let alone one he had no real say in–his fractured Soul Core being more than enough evidence of that. What had truly earned his commitment though, hadn’t been the threat, but the unexpected tone of the simple message: Please, help him.
And so Edwin would help the boy, suspecting his patron knew precisely why he would. As he approached the newly Awakened, he took note of the progress Kade was making with his unusual Soul Manifestation. Killing the two cavern reapers had been impressive, if only by the special standard Kade needed to be judged by–lost and confused in a way no one else could truly understand. Then given a weapon to help him survive in this unfathomably hostile world, only for it to be one of the least practical Edwin had encountered. He suspected the boy would be granted numerous complementary abilities if given a chance to choose his Ancestral Path; many of those with the more exotic Soul Manifestations found their awakened abilities followed a much stricter path than most, but ultimately left them surprisingly well-balanced.
Edwin was the opposite end of the spectrum, of course. His soul knew that he would be a simple woodsman no matter where life took him, be it the forests of his home where he had hewed through the Skyreacher trees, or a crevice where he hewed through any monster fool-enough to come before him. Edwin was endlessly content just swinging his ax, and thus far his abilities seemed to share that contentment, granting strength and stamina and little else. Kade would be different, Edwin was certain of that, the man had the calling, even if he didn’t understand that yet.
Kade was currently spinning a length of chain in either hand, then releasing each to send them piercing forward into a nearby tree, the ends transformed into vicious looking blades. At a light tug, the chains returned, and Kade duplicated the feat, this time with chains wrapping around the tree, each ending in a dangerous looking grappling hook. That all but confirmed that Kade was destined to be a metallurgist. He’d likely find numerous more abilities that allowed him to manipulate metal like a living thing, but Edwin had to admit that he was surprised. Most metallurgists became craftspeople, creating everything from the cities they lived in, to the armor that protected them. But few were suited to combat, at least compared to the more traditional Awakened.
Edwin considered Alara, contrasting her skillset to the man now tying dozens of knots with his chains for some reason. Alara had awoken Star, and if one discounted the need to survive such an encounter, she was likely capable of killing dozens of monsters with her very first ability. That she had chosen to follow the Path of the Elementalist on top of it was practically overkill, a new mastery of fire complimenting her more horrific Star powers. If gathering power was as essential as Edwin believed it to be for Kade, he hoped the man would find some level of aptitude beyond metal manipulation. Single-Paths were rare, but it did happen, and Edwin wasn’t sure he’d be capable of satisfying his duty if Kade was so-limited.
When the young man finally took a rest, Edwin walked forward. “Is that a new technique you’re developing? I understand the blades and the grapples, but the knots are beyond me.”
“I’m just thinking far ahead,” Kade replied with that same half-smile Edwin had seen so often, the one that seemed to somehow convey disbelief. “I’m still not certain I understand the Soul Manifestation thing, so I just keep trying things to see if they’re an ability or not. That’s how I figured out Bind and the…well the other thing.” Edwin nodded in understanding; as a woodsman, he appreciated the way Kade had managed to use his chains as some kind of saw, but he understood that the brutality of it may have been too much for the uninitiated. Not meaning to start a conversation of this nature, he nevertheless realized he still needed to correct some false assumptions if he was to be of real help to Kade.
“That’s not quite how Soul powers work, though I can see where the confusion came from. I follow the Path of the Warrior, it’s the gift I received in the Trials of Karthas,” he held up a hand to forestall the dozens of questions he could see in the man’s eyes. “I’ll explain everything, give me time. As I was saying, I’m a Warrior, which means I can gain access to specific abilities tied to that path. For instance, I have a common ability called Ancient Might, which effectively lets me channel more mana into my strength. But Soul powers, and Soul Manifestations, work differently.” He walked forward, and his soul called out for an ax, a familiar long-handled one from his youth appeared in his hands.
“Where Path Abilities are limited but highly reliable, Soul powers tend to be dynamic, and shaped by our own creativity and understanding of our Soul. When I awoke Ax, I could immediately conjure any type of ax I could think of. As someone who felled trees all day, it was as intuitive as it was practical.” Kade stopped him with a look of shock.
“You were a lumberjack?” he asked incredulously, with the word just barely making it past his bracer’s translation.
“I still consider myself to be, even after all this time. Sometimes other things just need to be axed,” they shared a smile at that. “We’re getting off topic though. My point was that conjuring axes was all I could do, that is–until I needed an ax for something else. When I finally faced something other than a tree, I began to use my powers differently,” as he finished, axes began hovering in the air, spinning as they had in the battle of the crevice, before firing into the same tree Kade had been practicing on, obliterating it as thoroughly as Graves might have.
“The Magic Bond helps, of course,” he acknowledged, curious how such a bond would affect Kade. “Soul powers aren’t limited in the same way as Path abilities, though, and it’ll largely be up to you to find ways that metallurgist chains can be made effective. As I said, it’s a matter of creativity and imagination. Something I sadly lack. Thus, axes,” he punctuated his point by sending a dozen axes violently into the nearby trees. He looked back at Kade, practically hopping from foot to foot like a small child. Edwin smiled indulgently, “Okay, a few questions, then bed.”
“Path of the Warrior, Trials of Karthas, metallurgist.” Kade waited expectantly, and Edwin found himself laughing.
“Okay, I respect the focus. Graves would respect the brevity,” he considered where to start. “When we get to Karthas, you’ll be given the choice to become a Keeper of the Calm–we all just say Keeper. That’s what the four of us,” he gestured vaguely at his team, “have chosen to dedicate ourselves to. Though I expect Alara won’t be satisfied until the Bringers finally come for her,” he saw Kade trying not to talk, and smiled. “Bringers of Calm. Context probably gave you most of what you need; Keepers cull any Manifestations of Chaos–monsters–that come near a populated areas, and do what we did today; Calm any of nearby Elders who are starting to revert–spitting out Chaos instead of Calm.
“Bringers are the elite, and need to be staggeringly powerful. They venture out into the True Chaos, well beyond the effect of Karthas or any other significant source of Calm. They found cities, fight wars we’ll never hear about, and they don’t take applications; they’ll find you if you can be an asset to them.” He noticed Kade’s eyes had gone unfocused, his entire countenance changed; Edwin had noticed it a few times since meeting the man, and he didn’t think the boy was aware when it happened. He spoke gently, on instinct, “Kade, do you want to be a Bringer?”
When Kade spoke, his voice was flat, and Edwin’s translator seemed to react oddly, “I need to go into the True Chaos.” Edwin waited for more words, but Kade just stared.
“Well then…you’ll need to amass a great deal of power, very quickly. And you have to be a Keeper first, it’s the only way you’re likely to find priests willing to let you undertake the Trials,” at the mention of the Trials, Kade’s eyes snapped back into focus, and he watched Edwin expectantly. “I’ll let the priests of Karthas explain the Trials, technically I’m not even allowed to speak of them–though it’s an open secret. What you can know is that there are ways to petition Elders, who can grant you a boon if you satisfy them. The most common boon is to connect a person with the power of their Ancestors.”
“You mentioned that before,” Kade jumped in. “Ancestors, I mean. That I was on a Path of the Ancestors when I started using those Fragments.” Edwin nodded, then continued.
“It’s the first step beyond what the Children of Korthos have become. No one is certain why, but we’re somehow…lesser, than those that came before. None of these complexities used to be necessary; Children would be born with some singular power, and it simply grew, with time and use. We don’t know much more than that, but we have discovered workarounds. The Power Fragments are the first. They contain the actual power of the Ancients, and once you’ve Bonded with all of them, your physiology will–supposedly–be identical to those that came before. But the rest is much more involved.” Edwin considered how much Kade needed to know, and how much would just bring unnecessary confusion at this point.
“We have our Soul Cores, but we’ve lost something else–no one is certain what, regardless of what they might tell you. The result is that we need to tap into something else–the knowledge and abilities of our ancestors. Somewhere down the line, I had a great-great-something or other that had abilities we classify as the Path of the Warrior. That ancestor figured out how to channel mana into strength, and now I can too.”
Kade was clearly intrigued, “So you can do everything this ancestor could do?”
“No, certainly not. Path abilities are extremely limited, and you aren’t likely to get more than a handful from a single Path. It’s also why they’re so specific, compared to Soul powers–perhaps my ancestor could have made a thousand variations of what we call Ancestor’s Might, but what I have amounts to a single memory of it.” Kade nodded slowly, clearly trying to process it all, then his eyes snapped back up.
“Wait, you said from a single Path, can someone follow more than one?”
Edwin took a breath, preparing for another lecture when his bracer started beeping. He indicated to Kade that he needed a moment, before reading the message from a fellow Keeper. His eyes widened, then he glanced back to Kade, considering. Finally he keyed in a response, committing. “It looks like we have business in the morning, so we’re going to have to cut this short,” he held up his hand for patience once more. “I’ll finish what I was saying then the rest will have to wait–you’ll have actual demonstrations tomorrow that will teach a lot better than words.
“Here’s the short version: your ancestry determines what Paths you can follow, and the abilities you can learn, and no one can change that. If you don’t have any Elementalists in your family tree, you’ll simply never be one. The other half is your Soul Core, each one is only capable of supporting a set number of paths–I’m a dual path, which is the most common. It means I’ll be able to take another path some day, though my options are extremely limited because of my ancestry. Triple paths are relatively common as well, and those with the best chance of reaching the kind of power that the Bringers take notice of. Single paths are the least common, but it happens. When we get to Karthas, the priests will measure your aptitudes and potential paths.”
Kade picked up the thread, “And one of these paths could be a…metallurgist?”
“It’s uncommon, but not exactly rare. They’re metal manipulators. Their abilities all revolved around changing metal from one shape to another, or just creating metal from nothing. Like your chains, but with a great deal more flexibility. It’s fairly common for a Soul power or Manifestation to be related to a path with which you have great aptitude. But that’s where we stop for tonight, I wasn’t kidding that we have business in the morning.”
“What kind of business?” Kade asked of Edwin’s retreating back. Edwin turned back with a grim smile.
“We need to kill an Elder.”