Chapter 13: Vested in the Sword
Gareth had to wake me in the morning as I hadn’t risen. My body was in full recovery mode. Callem had slipped out and was already in his fields, watering individual plants. He was wearing what I guessed to be a large oxen yoke, and two massive buckets hung on either end. As he walked the rows, he pulled a rope attached to each bucket, releasing water over each plant. He noticed us in the doorway gawking. “Don’t worry, boys, you will work yourselves up to this. Your breakfast is under the cover on the counter.” He returned to watering.
We removed the worn wooden cover on the counter to find an array of fresh fruit, muffin cakes, cold sliced ham, and hard-boiled eggs. A pitcher of sweet-smelling red juice was there with ice cubes floating in it. How in the hell did he prepare all this without waking either of us? After glancing at each other, we dug in and quickly vanquished our shared enemy of the prepared food. I was happy almost to match Gareth’s caloric intake this morning. I knew healing magic typically used body stores to heal, and I had had an awful lot of healing done yesterday. Satiated, we both sat near the bedrolls, holding our bellies.
I was dressed in oversized linens. The eagle and the blood completely ruined my other clothes. Apparently, the linens were from a prior trainee of Callem but would do for me until I could get clothes from home. They were only slightly baggy on me. My leather belt worked well to hold the linens to get a decent fit. I looked at Gareth, “Where do we go from here?” He looked a bit uncomfortable at my question.
“I want to stay here, Storme. I talked to my parents when I tried to explain my reason for heading out here for three days with you, and even though I fumbled the words I found in my heart, I want to be here. I want to learn as much as I can.” I was stunned, and before I could respond, Callem had returned to the house from the fields. He started talking with Gareth, and I tuned them out as I began to think. I didn’t want to invest my remaining youth swinging a sword around all day. Three days a week had been my self-assessed limit. I needed to have a serious talk with Gareth as it looked like we might be on different paths. But what could it hurt to spend some of my youth learning to fight with steel as I mastered my magic?
Callem was refilling the pitcher with the red drink that reminded me of a strong fruit punch but not overly sweet. I spoke, “Callem, has Gareth expressed his interest in moving out here to stay with you?” His confused look told me Gareth hadn’t asked yet.
I broke the ice, “We could help you full-time five days a week and return to Hen’s Hollow for two days to stay with our families.” I took a deep breath before continuing, “I am not nearly as committed as Gareth, but I will train with him for most of the day before focusing on my aetheric studies.” I was preempting Gareth’s request to control the situation and restrain Gareth’s expectations. I was pretty sure he would train every hour of every day if given the option.
Gareth was a little confused, and his face kept transforming, first happy, then contemplative, then a little bit unhappy. I couldn’t really worry about what was going through his mind right now. Personally, I was thinking of Freya; she might never forgive me for this and would see it as me abandoning her. Then there was my brother; he also probably wouldn’t forgive me. Father would support my decision as he always hoped his sons would aspire to a higher standing in the militaristic Skyholme Empire.
Callem slowly nodded. His tone was serious, “I do not think you should have hidden from your parents what happened to you with the eagle attack, Storme. But I have always thought you need to make your own decisions, regardless of age. However, if your parents ask, I will not lie to them.” This man was good, and I suddenly felt guilty. He was probably either trying to decide on my character or build my character.
“Callem, thank you. I will tell them what happened…but maybe not that I nearly died.” I replied respectfully. He nodded, which I assumed was approval.
“Good. You both can stay here and train. Before we get too far along, I need to assess you!” He started asking us both questions. He wanted to get a fair appraisal of our knowledge, math, writing, history, dungeon lore, bestiary lore, and politics. We had strong responses to his test questions for the first two subjects and did ok with the verbal history exam. We could barely answer any of his questions in the last three subjects. Well, the biggest animal threat on our island was the wild foxes, which controlled the rabbit population. Well, if you ventured too close to the edge of the island, something from below could get you—like a giant black shadow eagle.
His questioning lasted two hours, and we were mentally exhausted by the end and embarrassed by how few questions we could answer toward the end. Callem voiced his assessment of our knowledge. “Okay, normally you boys would get most of this knowledge in the academy. You are expected to know basic numbers and be able to read before the academy, and both of you far surpass that minimum.” Gareth beamed at the compliment.
I remained blank-faced, waiting for the ‘but.’ “Though you are still a little behind the children in the capital who have personal tutors as soon as they can walk.” He shifted his stance fluidly and started pacing. I knew this was what Callem had also wanted, to get his hands on Gareth full-time. From the outside, he seemed contemplative, but I suspected it was an act.
“You will stretch and work the farm with me in the morning. In the afternoon, we will focus on combat training. In the evening, we will spend two hours on books. I will purchase the required texts. You will have three hours after dinner to do what you will in your free time. If you had the mind to, you could make it to town each day and spend an hour with your family before returning. As Storme suggested, you will spend every 6th and 7th day with your families. I will feed you three full meals daily and pay you one gold per week—to split between you for your work.” He was trying to flip the script. He didn’t know money was not an obstacle for us. It was his final ‘lure’ attempt. Gareth didn’t need any extra incentive, and somehow, I had convinced myself to remain with Gareth. Who was following who now?
Gareth had a pleading look on his face, his best puppy dog eyes pleading for me to agree for both of us. Callem had made a compelling case, outlining a structured schedule that our parents would likely agree to, which would far exceed what kids our age could typically make. However, I couldn’t help but think that Callem was a bit out of touch with the poor people in Hen’s Hollow, as my share would probably surpass my mother and father’s income. I nodded to Gareth, and he yelled, “Agreed!” like a little kid, fearing it might just be a prank or that he would wake up from a perfect dream.
Well, the first day wasn’t as bad as I had thought. We stretched as a trio, weeded the fields, and continued clearing the obstacle course. Watering wasn’t required as the morning clouds had provided some rain. Usually, the island had a heavy mist in the morning that did a fair job soaking the earth. Only when the mist and rain were missing for two or more days did Callem water the fields.
In the afternoon, we focused on bows, but more specifically, on arrows. Callem emphasized the importance of archery, highlighting that it consists of two main components: the bow and the arrow. We spent hours sorting through six bundles of arrows, removing the defective ones and repairing those we could salvage under Callem''s guidance.
In the evening, we went to the spring to clean off and pull the splinters out of our hands and forearms. The food the first day was plentiful, and Callem muttered more than once he had erred in not considering the cost of food for two growing boys when he agreed to compensate us a gold a week. It was more Gareth than me, as he ate twice as much as Callem.
The evening found us having free time after we aced some math problems for Callem. Callem also stressed that we should call him Callem, not Captain Callem. I went and worked through my aether core exercises that evening. I managed to understand the first seven and put them into practice. Fortunately, the text was very good at explaining what needed to be done during each step of the exercises. I might fail a few times before getting it, but I have encountered no major problems.
That night, I made a stack of gold coins and had Gareth stash them in his pack. I still planned to take Freya to the city once a week and visit Wigand. I also needed 50 gold coins to complete the transaction with Wigand for our fictional benefactor.
The next two days were more of the same, except my strength had returned, and the intensity had ratcheted up. We spent just thirty minutes with bow practice before proceeding to sword forms in the afternoon. While I was mastering just one sword, Gareth was rotating through different blades, mastering the current sword form we were working on with each one. I settled on a saber as that was closer to a katana. A katana was thinner and lighter than a saber, but Callem didn’t have one for me. The saber was the blade I felt most comfortable with since it focused on slashing attacks instead of the piercing attacks of a gladius.
Well, truthfully, neither of us was ‘mastering’ the blade after a few days, but we gained confidence and comfort with the forms. Callem let us use a salve that helped form calluses on our hands quickly, for which we were both thankful. I learned 18 of the 23 exercises for working my aether core. Like my first sword form, snapping tortoise, I was far from mastery of the aether core exercises but was slowly becoming proficient. Being self-taught from a book was probably much more challenging than having an experienced mage teach me.
The next day, after a massive breakfast, we were released to go home. Callem told us he was going to the capital island to pick up some books and restock his pantry over the next two days. He said we should just stretch in the morning and relax with family on our ‘off’ days. I was going home to face Freya.
If we walked fast, we could get home in a little over thirty minutes. It was less than four miles, by my estimation, to the edge of town. As soon as we entered the town, Gareth went to see his parents to convince them to let him live and train on Callem’s farm. After a short search of my house, I found Freya out in the barn. She ran to me and hugged me. “Hiya Freya. Do you want to go to the city today? We have some things to talk about.”
“Yes! I was hoping you would say that! But it would help if you put on some actual clothes. You realize that you are wearing woman’s clothes?” Her statement had me stumble a bit as she giggled at my bewilderment. The oversized clothes Callem had given me were women’s clothes? “Yes, silly, the cut here and here is for breasts! And the sagginess around your waist is for larger hips!” She was laughing as she explained it to me. Well, at least no one saw me enter town.
I went into my room and found the bed neatly made and everything on my shelves organized. Freya was in the doorway shortly after and stumbled on her words, “I, uh, had nothing to do, so I, uh, cleaned up the room.”
I looked her seriously in the eyes and asked, “Did you dust underneath the bed?” She turned crimson.
“I am sorry, Storme. I was cleaning and came across the package and…I thought it was a pillow…yeah, and, so I…it is so pretty! I love it!” She came and hugged me again. “Can I wear it on my birthday? Gwen is going to be so jealous! I cannot wait! Oh, did you know a traveling troupe from the lowlands is coming to the city? They will be there on my birthday! They have a beast menagerie, acrobats, games, bards, and master sword duelists. Will you take me? It is two silver per person, according to the posters. Please…” She had the same puppy dog eyes Gareth gave me when Callem offered to train us five days a week.
“We can talk on the walk to the city. Can I change now?” Freya left and shut the door, but I could feel her waiting on the other side.
I got my best clothes on, which were quickly becoming mediocre in my mind. I planned to buy new clothes today. I seethed a little bit, wondering if Callem intentionally dressed me in girl’s clothes. I left the house with Freya in tow. We quickly found Gareth cutting wood. He was three days behind on his chores and hadn’t had the courage to ask his parents to move to Callem’s farm yet. Freya and I helped him finish his chores, and we all left for the city.
“So, Freya, I have some bad news.” I had had some time to think out my approach to breaking the news to her. “You know in our 17<sup>th</sup> year, we go to the academy and live in the old barracks building at the edge of town?”
She nodded, “I know Pascal is going next year.” She had a concerned look on her face, and she was bracing for the bad news, understanding my tone.
“Well, Gareth and I are sort of starting early. Next 1<sup>st</sup> day, we are going to go live with and learn from Captain Callem.” It was best to rip the band-aid right off. Then, give some news to soften the blow. Freya already looked crestfallen as she processed what I was saying. “We will come back every 6<sup>th</sup> and 7<sup>th</sup> day. And Gareth and I will spend one of those days entirely with you doing whatever you want.” Gareth’s eyebrow went up at that. It was a little get-back at Gareth for pulling me into weapon training for the next two years. I doubted he would mind as he saw Freya as much as a sister as I did.
Gareth, collected himself quickly, grinning as he announced, “Yeah, Storme and I talked about it, and we figured you would want to go to Sweet and Treats and Madam Margot’s Tailor shop. We are making decent coin and can get you a few things.”
Gareth was setting me up to spend coin on Freya. I couldn’t let him win this joust. The clothing store had expensive dresses and accessories for women and girls—supposedly the height of fashion from the capital.
“Yeah,” I said, giving him a sour look. “I’ll take you to Sweets and Treats, and Gareth can take you to the tailor shop every week.” Game set and match for Gareth! Freya was definitely going to spend much more time in the clothing shop.
Freya responded with excitement, “You said you would both hang out with me, so we all stay together in Sweets and Treats and at Margot’s Finery.” And the pass is intercepted by Freya and spiked in front of both of us. At least she wasn’t as upset as I thought she would be.
We entered the city, and I gave Gareth four large silvers after they dropped me off at Wigand’s. I found Wigand in the back and handed him 30 gold coins. Some of the coins had a shiny new appearance as I had not had time to age them. Wigand stared at them for a bit before depositing them in his lockbox. “So, I haven’t seen my patron recently, but I did have a note from her with the coins attached. She will return in a week to get me the rest of the funds. She went to the lowlands for something.” I didn’t rush my words this time while spewing the lie.
“Your patron must trust you implicitly to handle such a large sum on her part. Gold is the currency on the capital island but she may be testing your trustworthiness,” Wigand said with a note of warning.
I nodded in agreement, “I think she is more interested in Gareth than me. He will be an exceptional fighter.”
Wigand nodded in understanding, but looked a little sad, either at me devaluing myself or Gareth being tied to one of the nobles. He sighed, “Don’t discount yourself, Storme. Those who can imprint spells are just as valuable as those who wield blades. We wouldn’t have our Navy to protect us without our mages.”
I nodded at his advice. My aether core was becoming more malleable, and it had just been a few days of the exercises. I pressed forward with my request. “I was looking to get another spell if my patron allows. Can you get a copy of the mend flesh spell?” After nearly dying, I decided to learn some healing magic.
The mend flesh used the body’s own fuel, mostly fat stores, to knit flesh back together, accelerating healing in a sort of stasis field created by the invested aether. The spell was tier one, but the spell book was usually over 30 gold. Wigand looked thoughtful, “The mend flesh spell… complicated spell to learn. It would be of great use to your mentor if you are able to learn it. Have you already learned the cleanliness spell, Storme?” He asked with a wink.
I flushed red. No, in truth, I had given up on that until I could master the aether core exercises. Then, I could progress to learning the spell imprinting process from the other book rather than proceeding mostly blind. “I’m getting close,” was my reply.
Wigand nodded and went to the massive index. After a short time, he responded. “I have a line on two versions of the spell. The first is 35 gold, the generic spell book you can get at any mage academy. The second is an older spell book recovered from a wrecked Sadian skyship. Apparently, it was the ship’s chief healer’s personal spellbook of the mend flesh spell and had copious handwritten notes. It is 42 gold. But it has been posted for over a year. If it is still available, I should be able to get it for 40 gold if you are interested?” He studied me, judging my mannerisms and response like a true merchant.
I made my best sad face. “I will have to check with my patron as she hadn’t mentioned any new payments to us, but I would like the costlier version if you can confirm its availability. I will know next week. We have to finish our current tasks for her.” Ugh, I was terrible at lying, at it turned my stomach a little.
I left the shop and then traveled to the clothes shop nearby that specialized in boy’s clothes. I quickly selected six comfortable outfits, three for working the farm and three for combat training and running the obstacle course. I added two heavy pairs of boots as well. I wasn’t looking forward to breaking them in. Maybe the salve we used for our hands would help with that? When I left, I had a large wrapped package of clothes, boots, and 18 quality socks.
The only thing in the package for Gareth was half the socks. His feet were extremely unsanitary, and sleeping next to him on the floor in Callem’s living room made me appreciate the fresh air outdoors all the much more. I had been thrifty, only spending 13 large silver on everything, half the sum was the boots. They were pricy because most of the leather in Skyholme came from dungeon creatures. The sum would have drawn attention in Hen’s Hollow, but in Solaris City, the merchant didn’t even give them a second look as he stored them.
Gareth and Freya were still in Sweets and Treats when I found them, and she had a big bag of candy. Gareth paid for the candy, and we went to a restaurant in town for lunch, and I paid for us. We then took the road home and went swimming. I spent my time focused on my exercises and tanning my upper body while other locals were swimming. I noticed Brianne was with Edward, a boy her age and the son of the stone mason in town. I found it humorous that Gareth kept glancing at the pair, clearly jealous, when I thought he rejected Brianne.
My one mistake was displaying my scar as I had my shirt off. Freya thought it was a tattoo when she briefly spotted it from a distance and promised to keep my secret from our parents. Oh well, it was a good day, and my body needed rest. I knew Callem would soon be cranking up the training intensity, so I would enjoy this moment. I fell asleep in the sun, enjoying my second chance at youth.
Chapter 14: Settling Into a Routine
Waking up in my own bed was nice, especially on a mattress and not a hard floor. I needed to confront the parents today. I could already hear Freya talking to my mother at the other end of the house. Shit. I forgot to tell her I was going to that myself at breakfast. I remained in my room as the house came to life and breakfast was prepared. Even if they said no, I would still be going. Hoping it will go well, I left my room to face the music.
I entered the kitchen. Breakfast was on the table, with buckwheat porridge and candied nuts to mask the heavy blandness. The nuts were local and common but had a bitter aftertaste that the candying did not mask well. Ok, the day was not starting well. Mother asked, “So Freya said you have a big announcement?” Well, she hadn’t broken the news yet, at least. Father stopped spooning the porridge into his mouth and looked at me. Pascal took the opportunity to pour half the remaining nuts into his bowl and then stopped to look as well.
“Yes, um. You know I was working for Callem, I mean Captain Callem, the last few days. The reason why is Gareth and I were attacked by a shadow eagle, and I was healing.” Before they could become shocked, I rambled on, “Well, Callem sort of recruited, no, um, asked us if we…that is Gareth and me, well mostly Gareth, if we wanted to work his farm and train on his farm,” My speech went from halting to fast-paced suddenly, “It would just be for five days a week. I would be back for the 6<sup>th</sup> and 7<sup>th</sup> days. And we will learn more than just fighting and tending his fields. And he is paying us and feeding us. It is ok, right?” I breathed deeply, unsure how I had become winded from those few words, but my pulse raced, and my aether core hummed and burned, responding to my anxiety.
Father was the first to speak, and apparently, the shadow eagle attack was the furthest thing from his mind. “Captain Callem is going to train you himself?” The words were cold and questioning, sounding doubtful. I just nodded, thinking he was upset, but then his face broke into the biggest-toothed smile I had ever seen from the man. “Alurha, we are going to have a master swordsman for a son!” He was soon up and hugging me, a rare occurrence.
In my father embrace, I was keenly paying attention to everyone to gauge their reaction, Freya was smiling, and my mother had a small grin, but that was apparently at seeing father happy as she was eying him more than me. Pascal had stormy, resentful eyes and a darker facial expression. Well, 3 out of 4 was good, right?
Instead of going to work today, my mother started helping me pack. She put everything in my bedroom except one set of clothes in a crate and asked if I needed anything else. I said pillows and explained how it was hard to sleep when my body was so sore. I didn’t feel self-conscious at all, whining a bit about the rigors of training to my Mother. She went out and bought me nine new super fluffy feather pillows! She explained that since she didn’t have to feed me, she would have extra coin, and spending it a little early on me was just common sense.
She also gave me a drying rack for clothes, detergent, three newish towels, some old dishes and pots, two of my dad’s old jackets, a needle and thread, and six sweet rolls wrapped in paper. I could see she was both proud and worried about me. Freya confirmed that I would be back for her birthday and to take her to see the traveling show in the city on her special day. Pascal was nowhere to be seen, clearly jealous I was training with Callem. I made sure my mother never saw my collection of mage books. My aether core was not something I wanted to reveal yet.
Eventually, I had two large crates outside, storing most of my worldly possessions inside them, and I found Gareth with a single overstuffed backpack walking toward me later in the day. His eyebrow rose in question at the crates, and I just shrugged with a mischievous smile.
“Gareth, you remember when I said I would buy a cart so you could pull me? Well, that time has come!” I laughed my most evil supervillain laugh, and he actually edged away from me. Well, it ended up just being an oversized, two-wheeled wheelbarrow. Gareth did, in fact, push it most of the way, and the one time I jumped in, he just stopped until I paid him a large silver, then he pushed me a few hundred feet before demanding another. I started walking, exclaiming, “Good and honest help is hard to find in these woods!”
It was late in the day when we got to Callem’s farm, and we were shocked to find a new building opposite the training yard from the farmhouse. It was not very big, just 15 feet by 30 feet. It was stone, and we entered to find a common room and kitchen with ladders on each side leading up to sleeping lofts. The kitchen was fully furnished, and the common room had two plush chairs and a small dining table with four chairs. I could already imagine relaxing in one of those plush chairs after a hard day in the fields and weapons training.
We investigated both of the doors. One led to a tiny washroom, and the other had stairs down to a fully stocked larder. The larder was very cold, and I noticed the runic markings on a stone in the center. Looking around, there was enough food to feed us for a year! Callem descended the stairs as we gawked at all the food on the stone shelves.
“Boys, good to see you are back. Called in a favor.” Callem winked at me, “From an earth mage to get this outbuilding done while you were gone. We can’t have you two sleeping on the floor with the type of training we will be doing. The furnishings I retrieved from my storage unit in the capital.” He muttered under his breath, “I haven’t visited those memories in a while.” He recomposed himself, “The larder down here,” he hesitated, thinking what to say, “...well, you two need to learn how to cook your own food. I said I would feed you, not cook for you.”
Gareth excitedly butted in, “Storme is the best cook in Hen’s Hollow…” his voice died as I gave him a death stare. The last thing I wanted to be doing after working myself to exhaustion every day was to cook for three hungry men.
“Is that so?” Callem responded with a smirk and eyed me deviously. I swear he could read minds. “Well, I will prepare breakfast every morning, and you will eat in the house with me. Mid-day meal will be from the larder here, prepared by both of you. The evening meal will be a hearty stew that I will put on in the morning to cook all day and will be eaten here as well. You will clean all the dishes from each meal here.” Yeah, I already knew I would be preparing the mid-day meal by myself as Gareth was a terrible cook. He could make a baked potato taste awful. I surveyed the larder, making mental notes and putting together meals in my head.
“Now, boys, come to the house, and I will show you the new library!” Callem sounded excited and seemed much younger today by his enthusiasm.
The ‘library’ had two copies of twenty-one texts, each thick with pages. They covered beasts, dungeons, politics, law, culture, and trade. All the books were old, and Callem conceded he got them from the Naval academies’ storage units. They were supposed to be handed down to lesser academies when the Naval Academy got the newest copies, but had been packaged in crates and put into storage instead. Callem told us he had purchased them for a few coins since he knew the logistics officer in charge of the academy.
After all the changes were noted and explained, Callem produced his stew for the evening. It was a bit mushy, and when I asked how he made it and offered suggestions to improve it, I was named the new stew chef. Callem, the sly fox, had been waiting for me to criticize his cooking. So, from now on, after breakfast and stretching in the morning I would be given an hour to prepare the dinner meal. At least I wouldn’t have to work the fields during that time. It wouldn’t have been so bad if not for Gareth openly laughing at my error. You should never insult a man’s cooking by saying you can do better!
The plush chairs in our new bunkhouse were well-worn, well-made, and extremely comfortable. There were lanterns fitted with soft aether light stones. I marveled at the time, effort, and expense Callem had put into making us comfortable—well in counterpoint, he was going to do his best to make us very uncomfortable during the day, I surmised.
The upper lofts were very comfortable as well. There was a loft on each side measuring 5’ by 15’, and each loft had two narrow beds, three chests under each bed, a long shelf over each bed, and two armoires. The beds were in the center of the lofts, end to end. So Callem could host four students here. Something must have happened, or at least I was predicting Cilia would be coming with someone else. Gareth and I selected opposite sides of the loft, and I unpacked, hauling my stuff up the ladder. I knew all these pillows would be a godsend starting tomorrow night. I spent some time working on my aether core before falling asleep.
We had cold roasted pork, soft cheese, and a thick applesauce in the morning—no fruit juice this morning, just water. We stretched together, and they went to the fields while I went to the house to set up dinner.
I prepared lamb stew with potatoes, carrots, and red wine for the stew. After coating them in flour, I braised the lamb cubes to hold them together and seal in the juices while the stew simmered. I accessed Callem’s larder in the house and found a decent-sized distillery in the basement and dozens of full oak casks marked vodka with different dates on them. His larder matched the size of the one under the bunkhouse. There was no way we were going hungry.
He had twenty-two large casks of the fruit juice too, and three were empty when I taped on them. He didn’t have an extensive selection of wine, though, just 37 bottles; all were local vintages from Hen’s Hollow. There was no stigma in regard to kids drinking wine in the Skyholme, and I had my fair share. Most wines had very little alcohol and were very fruity.
After the stew was simmering over coals, I joined them in the fields, and then we began the real work…
Five days had passed, and not a single inch of my body did not hurt. Callem knew how to push us without quite breaking us. My favorite part of the day? It was falling face first into the cold spring we used to bathe a quarter mile from the farm. The cold water shocked me enough to forget the muscle pain. This morning was the absolute worst day so far. We learned there were actually 23 stretches.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!
The five we hadn’t learned were because they were for acrobatics. Callem didn’t seem to care, and so we started to force ourselves into being able to do a split. When we struggled, we asked him if he could do a split, and he did so without hesitating. How could a man as square as him splay his legs and get his pelvis to the earth? I shuddered, thinking about how far I still had to go to match that feat of mobility. My only solace was that Gareth had also struggled but he had put forth a painful effort to try and not disappoint Callem.
Gareth splashed into the water a few seconds after me. It had been a productive week, as I reflected. I let the cold water numb my poor body. The bend in the stream here was shaded, and the natural sandy-bottomed pool here was perfect for us to lounge on. It was actually the only place deep enough to submerge in the nearby stream. We returned to eat with Callem after getting our bodies sufficiently numb.
Tonight’s stew was a meat and bean chili with roasted sweet peppers. It was the second time I had made it this week at Callem’s request. Callem had eaten over half of the first batch himself. The man loved my cooking, and I couldn’t believe how much he ate. I had already scaled up portions of my stew twice. I was now using the biggest pot Callem had in his kitchen. One good thing that came from cooking dinner and preparing lunch was I didn’t have to do the dishes! Callem and Gareth did all the day’s dishes together while discussing sword mastery after dinner. Gareth was outpacing me in learning the art of combat. It seemed I would only master one blade to his 23, but I was fine with that.
I was actually a decent archer when Callem had us practice with the bows. Callem used the bows to teach us patience, steadiness, and how to anticipate our opponent’s moves. Gareth was better, of course, but only by a slight margin, and Callem could usually find and correct my faults. Just a few comments from him made me improve swiftly. We have been working with smaller bows with low draw weights for now.
Callem also had us making our own arrows as well. I was actually better than Gareth at fletching. It had absolutely nothing to do with me using my metal shaping skill to fit the arrowheads. Yep, that had nothing to do with it. Gareth wasn’t training us to be fletchers just to be competent enough to make arrows if we needed to.
The obstacle course, or the “Course of Ultimate Pain” as I liked to call it, was fun at first. Then Callem added weighted vests, shot arrows capped with leather balls at us, had moving obstacles on pendulums, and secretly changed the obstacles during the night to trip us up, and I mean literally trip us up. He said it was the first phase of teaching a soldier to be aware of everything in combat and expect the unexpected. He was definitely having more fun than us. Gareth was having fun because he seemed to recover three times as fast as me. Callem withheld salves and potions, saying we needed to train my body’s healing processes. Yeah, at least the cold water felt good as it sapped away the heat from my muscles.
The best part of the last five days was my aether core training. I had gotten all 23 exercises down and practiced them each night until I passed out from fatigue. I also never forgot to add to my growing horde of gold coins. To my surprise, the number of gold coins had increased to 14. I also felt, no, I knew, I was extremely close to being able to make just a single gold coin at a time which would mean I was close to making my first platinum.
“Stormy?” Gareth asked to see if I was paying attention.
“Yeah, bud, what’s cooking in your head tonight?” The cold water soaks had served as a time of reflection for us, but we usually relaxed and just talked nonsense. “You have a meal request?”
He let out a sigh, “No, I was just thinking I wanted to become an adventurer.” I was quiet, so he continued. “I want to see more than just Skyholme. I actually don’t think I want to live here, in Skyholme, that is.” This was Callem’s fault. In our nightly lessons, he had revealed the corruption of politics within the capital. A fairly na?ve boy like Gareth had not taken it well, but he worshiped Callem, so Gareth took everything he said literally during lessons.
“Gareth, we are only 15.” I said emphatically, “It is too early to think about these things. Can we revisit this conversation after our first year of Academy?” I hadn’t soured on spending my life in Skyholme. I was sure I would find the old adage, ‘power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely’ would hold true anywhere I went within the Sphere.
The mood mellowed, and soon we were walking back to the house, a little gimpy but clean. We talked about going home tomorrow and planning what to do for Freya’s birthday. Basically, we planned to escort her to all the various acts from the traveling troupe coming to the city.
At dinner, Callem devoured an astonishing amount of an extremely spicy chili. It was my poor attempt to get a modicum of revenge for the pain he was inflicting on me daily. I found it hard to believe he wasn’t going to burst from the volume he consumed. Feeling guilty, I offered him a slice of cheddar cheese and a warm, buttered piece of bread, to help temper the fiery spices I had used, but he completely dismissed me. Instead, he relished every mouthful of the steaming, spicy chili, his eyes were a mix of delight and discomfort. Gareth was suffering as he ate but also refused the cheese-topped bread to show his willpower to Callem. I just shook my head at my foolish friend.
That night lying in my bed, something amazing happened. After my exercises and getting close to falling asleep, I decided to take another shot at making platinum before making the gold coins. I made two platinum coins and half of a third!
Chapter 15: Abilities, Traits, and Affinities
Unfortunately, my excitement kept me up most of the night. I had made 250 gold worth of platinum! That was unfathomable to me. I had only seen platinum and felt on the skyship manual in Wigand’s shop. I would have to check and see if there was something unique about platinum coins used in Skyholme. Short periods of sleep had my dreams wandering again. This time, I was dreaming mostly of traveling the skies of the Sphere in my own skyship and shooting down giant black eagles with aether cannon in petty revenge. It was a pleasant dream.
On waking, Gareth dragged me to an early breakfast. Breakfast was rosemary bread with hard cheese baked into the loaf. The sliced bread was slathered with butter and a potato and egg salad. Callem had also brought out the expensive fruit juice this morning to celebrate the end of the week of training. He also had ten large silvers on the table for us. I almost wanted to tell him he could keep the coin but Gareth’s eyes were fixed on our pay so I held my tongue.
“Boys, it was a fine week. Next week, I want to build that new drying shed, so I will be getting some dried lumber in town. I will get more of those spices and various peppers for the chili while I am in town.” Gareth moaned softly as his night had not been pleasant. Callem ignored him and continued, “Weird name for a food, chili. It burns as much going in and it does going out and isn’t cold at all.” He laughed at his joke, and we ignored the quip. I had used the spiciest peppers I could find when I cooked the last batch in hopes of turning Callem off to the chili stew, but it only heightened his passion for it. The man had a cast iron digestive system, something neither Gareth nor I shared.
Callem had become livelier every day as Gareth had made quick progress. I attributed his liveliness partially to enjoying the new ‘delicacies’ I had been making. He was also more passionate about his tobacco fields. He said he was trying to improve the quality of the leaves to earn more money to pay for the prodigious amounts of food we were consuming. I almost noted he was eating the same as Gareth and I combined.
I thought of something, “Have you ever used Edel to dry your tobacco leaves? She does that service for the town’s herbalist all the time.” Callem looked at me, confused momentarily, while I explained her ability to evaporate water from clothes and dry out herbs. I told Callem that she worked in the bathhouse during the day, and he was immediately interested in meeting her today.
“Hmm, I think I will walk with you boys to town this morning to meet this ‘Edel.’” He looked at us and decided we were not thrilled at the prospect of an escort, “Well, maybe I will wait till after lunch to go to town. There were leftovers from a few nights ago I should finish.”
As I had used an enormous bird, a good amount of barbeque-pulled chicken was left from a prior meal. I had been planning to use that as a pizza topping, but Callem had quite the appetite, and none would be left after his lunch today. When we trained, he worked twice as hard as we did, and I think the old man was leaning out even with his increased food consumption.
Our walk to town was without Callem, and I had the opportunity to show Gareth the coins. His jaw dropped when I told him what they were. “Platinum, Storme! There is a Princesses ransom right here, well maybe enough for a princess’s handmaiden.” He was still looking at the two coins.
I expressed my concern at their similarity to silver to him, “Yeah, I don’t know how Skyholme denotes it from silver. I can feel the difference with my metal shaping skill, but they look very similar on a quick inspection.”
Gareth flipped one of the coins in the air and caught it, “It is definitely heavier than silver, though. Do you think we can spend it in the city? Are you going to try to use it at Wigand’s?” I thought for a while while we walked, unsure what I would do.
Finally, I told Gareth, “Why don’t you sew one of them into your shoe? I will remove the imaging on the faces to make it a blank coin. It can replace the gold you have there as your emergency fund.” That gold had been upgraded from silver just a few days ago at Gareth’s request.
While pocketing the coin, Gareth said, “Nah, I will just put it in my other shoe.” I just shook my head as my friend grinned at his own cleverness. I had been drilling into him the importance of keeping a low profile, and I think he was more cognizant now of his actions and spending. Maybe I should take my own advice? Maybe it was time for my mystery benefactor to leave Skyholme.
We found Freya waiting anxiously at the edge of town. She must have been waiting all morning for us. Since we were not around to escort her, mother wouldn’t allow her to leave the town. She ran to us smiling. “Are we off to the city?” She bounced around excitedly.
“Yes, Freya, we will go today. I just want to drop off some butter and herb bread I baked at home. Gareth wants to go see his mother, too.” I said, smiling, happy to see my excitable sister as well.
My mother was busy completing a large order, engraving 36 sword scabbards for a branch of the city’s constables, but she was happy to see me. We chatted briefly about my training, and she asked me how serious the shadow eagle attack had been. I thought I had escaped her scrutiny on the attack. I considered showing her my scar, but I knew it would only make her worry, so I downplayed the encounter instead.
After spending time with my mother, I took my impatient sister to the general store in town and bought a few things with the fifty silver coins I had earned. It felt good to spend the silver I had worked hard for while helping Callem. My wages were exceptionally high compared to what my parents and most people in Hen’s Hollow earned. A typical farmhand might make no more than five silver coins a week, which usually included room and board. We didn’t know how much Callem earned from his tobacco sales, but it must have been significant. I also suspected that Callem was unaware of the substantial amount he was paying us.
I bought 40 pieces of paper, an ink well, and two simple fountain pens in the general store. I wanted to start working on my spell soon, and one of the ways to imprint it was by copying the spell forms over and over on paper. I also traded in my backpack for a bigger and much better-made one. This cost me four large silver coins even after the trade since it had a simple durability rune sewn into it with silver thread.
I hemmed and hawed with the proprietor about the investment to act like the coins were substantial for me. I also bought twenty-two small sacks as well. Callem had shown us a few edible plants we could harvest, and I planned to add them to our diet and season our food. I also added two glass bottles. One would be for garlic-infused olive oil and the other for vinegar. We needed more veggies in our diet, and salads were in our future!
I dropped everything off in my room at home and found Gareth doing chores. Gareth was an only child, so with him gone, more had fallen to his parents. I helped him, as Freya had mysteriously disappeared at the general store. When Freya did make an appearance, she helped as well. When we finished Gareth’s chores, we headed for the city together. Freya bombarded us with questions as we walked, and we took turns answering her. She mainly wanted to know what we were doing to become master swordsmen so she could brag to her friends.
We eventually reached the city and went straight to the candy store. Today at Sweets and Treats, she was very restrained, spending just two large coppers of my coins. At Margot’s Finery, she got a blue scarf and hair ribbons, all to match the dress I was giving her on her birthday. We did see numerous postings in town for the coming troupe. I was surprised our small city had drawn them. I think the last time we had a traveling troupe was five years ago, and it was not this extravagant. My parents hadn’t brought us to town to see it, so this would be my first experience.
We went to a relatively pricy restaurant, and I volunteered Gareth to pay with some of his large silvers we earned from Callem, as we had each taken five. The food was only average for the price. I had the pheasant stuffed with herb-infused rice. Gareth had a dungeon steak and lemon-butter-coated vegetables. Freya just had three desserts.
As Freya worked on the second dessert, she commented, “Storme, you have gotten taller.” I thought she was just being nice, but Gareth nodded in agreement. I would have to confirm that myself, as I was desperately waiting for a growth spurt. “I started doing your deliveries in town, too.”
“That is fantastic! Are you buying lunch then?” Freya froze, concern on her face. I laughed, “I will pay.” I thought taking over my enterprise would teach her responsibility and allow her to save some coins on her own. “I am proud of you,” I said patting her back.
Gareth grinned, “Guess you can pay your own way at Sweets and Treats next time.” Freya gave him a dirty look. Ha! Gareth would be on her naughty list for that jab. The walk home was pleasant, with Freya zipping around us, burning off her sugar rush.
I did check when I got home, and I had grown a bit! This put me in a fantastic mood, and I put together a nice dinner for the family of braised pork loin with an apple chutney sauce and red wine vinegar cucumbers. Pascal was still quite upset with me by his expression and treatment of me at dinner. He had asked our father incessantly, pleading that he should join us for the training with Callem. Father gave me a chance to capitulate, but I didn’t. Fortunately, my father didn’t press me further, not wanting to risk upsetting Callem or me.
That night, I created gold coins, almost 15 in total were made from my aether. I was happy my aether pool was growing steadily. I also spent time on my aether core exercises and began focusing on imprinting a spell, copying the lines from the spell book over and over until my eyes burned and I needed sleep. When we returned to Callem’s, I would continue the process, but I would hopefully soon have a second spell.
I had a heavy and restful sleep with no powerful dreams. I was up and stretching with Gareth in the morning before we returned to the city. Gareth wanted new boots, and I needed to get to Wigand’s bookstore. We parted in front of the bookstore, and Gareth said I should wait for him to return. I hadn’t noticed anyone following us, but after he pointed out two teenage boys, I changed my mind and was certain we were being watched. I told Gareth jokingly but seriously, “I will definitely be waiting for you to be my escort home.”
Wigand looked up as I entered, and his face showed something I hadn’t seen there before. His forehead was creased in concentration as it looked like he was trying to puzzle me out. It soon evaporated to his normal salesman’s smile. “Storme, it is so good to see you! What news do you have for me in regard to your fortunes?”
“Wigand, it has been a fruitful week, and I have seen my patron. She has given me the coin for her book and some extra as well. It was an advancement on her part for a long list of tasks I have yet to complete, though.” Wigand closed his eyes momentarily as if looking inward for the proper question. I interrupted his contemplation, “I do have a request. I have never seen a platinum coin. Do you have any I could look at? Someone said they look just like silver coins.” My question seemed to sidetrack what he had been preparing to say.
“Platinum? I have two in my vault in the back…” he paused, looked frightened for the briefest second, then smiled again. I was definitely not a criminal and wouldn’t be stealing from him. He started to his backroom before pausing. Then waved me to follow. His back room was as I remembered it. The model ships, tables, benches with books he was repairing, and shelves with neatly ordered books. “Storme, the platinum coins in my lockbox are not actually mine. They are a down payment on a book I am procuring for a client.” He went to the vault.
It looked like a robust steel safe but with a key lock. He pulled out the key and opened it. Inside was an ordered stack of books, three trays of coins, a handful of rings, and a bunch of rolled-up scrolls. “Here,” he said, handing me a coin he plucked out while I had been focused on trying to read the titles of the books inside. His visage turned hawk-like on me as I studied the coin.
The coin had the same markings except that the center of the coin was punched out and replaced with a small circle of gold. I reached out with my metal shaping to get a clear picture of the coin and returned it to him after I was confident I had gleaned everything I could. The coin had a fair amount of silver in it too. I wondered if it was counterfeit. I estimated it was 80% platinum, 10% gold, and 10% silver.
“Thank you. I just wanted to make sure the coin my patron had given me was really a platinum coin.” His eyes bulged at my statement, and he carefully put the valuable coin away. I could see he was checking on the other platinum coin he had before closing his vault. During this time, I reached into my pocket, pretending to fish around. As I did, I added the gold to the center of my platinum, and matched the coin to the one I had just held. I added the some silver as well.
I handed the new shiny coin to Wigand, and he studied it for a good while before saying, “I don’t see many platinum myself. Newly minted like yours sure makes them look pretty, though. Where did you say your patron exchanged her coins?” Wigand prompted. Was he testing my story?
My heart suddenly raced a bit as some anxiety in his voice accompanied his inquiry. Then my anxiety kicked in and caused me to rush my fabricated words again, “Oh, I don’t think it is a new coin. She has the cleanliness spell. I think she has been visiting the other islands, even the smaller ones.” Wigand was waiting for more, but I clammed up after that, not wanting to build a fragile web of lies.
He studied me, but he let it drop. “Just give me a moment to confirm the coin’s authenticity.” He went to a desk, pulled out a rack of tubes, and placed a drop on the coin. A little surprised, he said, “Huh, it is genuine. Ok, Storme,” He studied me again. “Tell me the truth.” I braced myself. “Your benefactor is from one of the ruling families, no?” Unsure of what to do, I nodded slowly, confirming his guess.
“Oh, Storme!” he shook his head. “You are probably being prepped to be some pawn in their machinations. Did she promise to pay your way through one of the Academies in the capital?” I was still in shock at Wigand’s guessing, so I nodded affirmatively. He sighed heavily and sat down behind his counter. “You shouldn’t have revealed your aether core to her, or did she find you by another means? Wait! Don’t tell me. I probably know too much already. Be careful, Storme. The games of houses are not safe. Be wary of anything she asks of you and Gareth. That is all the advice I will give.”
Wigand was lost in thought as his face pitied me but returned to the present, his sweaty face now dry. He had been worried about me, and his look showed that he was still worried about me. I wondered what had happened to him in the past but decided not to ask.
“I have your spell book over there. I procured it two days ago, trusting you would be back. Don’t look surprised. If you hadn’t shown up, I had another buyer lined up. So that is 40 gold plus 20 gold for the book on aether creationism. That means I owe you four large gold. Is there anything else you need before I get your change? Another spell? Is your patron seeking another specific book?” I felt a little uncomfortable, and Wigand’s normal smile felt like it was now pitying me for my predicament.
“None of the tasks I have assigned by her are regarding books,” I sputtered out. “If I do need another text, I will come directly to you.” He was appraising me. I think he wanted to say something but held it back. The air was getting heavy in the backroom as Wigand finally retrieved the four large gold from his vault and handed them to me. I took them and my new spell book and quickly left the store. Yeah, and I had been telling Gareth to be careful, and now Wigand thought I was the pawn of some powerful and wealthy noble from the capital island. Well, maybe it was not a bad thing. It did explain the shiny coins.
“I will have the creation book in three days, Storme.” I heard Wigand say in crisp words as the door was closing. I was self-aware enough not to wander from the entrance of the bookstore and awaited Gareth’s return. He came by thirty minutes later with a cocky grin on his face. His two old boots are under his arm, and a pair of new dark brown boots were on his feet.
I started walking, and he quickened his pace to fall beside me. “Nice boots,” I said, knowing he wanted the praise. We had a good amount of back-and-forth as I retold my recent interactions with Wigand. And yes, he did call me out on the hypocrisy I had been preaching to him about being reserved in our spending, and I had just spent a platinum coin.
Gareth was intrigued by the idea of making our mysterious patron some noblewoman from the capital, a beautiful young noblewoman like in the stories. We both decided to head back to Callem’s today, after getting a massive meal at a tavern we liked, The Maid’s Folly. It had good, prodigious amounts of food for a reasonable price. They even served cheeseburgers. Gareth beat me by consuming five medium cheeseburgers to my four and a half, but I claimed victory based on body weight.
With full stomachs, we headed back to Hen''s Hollow. Along the way, we spotted the kids from town playing near the gates. The red-haired leader was among them and gave me an intimidating stare from a distance. He looked confident in his perceived superiority, but with Gareth beside me, the group quickly dispersed when he took a step toward them. Gareth laughed as they scattered, and I was grateful to have him on my side.
Gareth and I decided that after taking Freya next week to see the carnival, we would try to avoid the city going forward. It wasn’t that we were intimidated by the local teens, but it was best to avoid a confrontation that could get messy. Now that we had the funds, we discussed the possibility of getting airship tickets to visit one of the three other cities on Titan’s Shield or even another city on another island.
We said our goodbyes to our families and gathered our things back in town. We could be back at Callem’s farm in a few hours and still have time before making dinner.
The small farmhouse was alive with loud conversation when we approached the farm. We looked at each other, confused. Callem had female company? My first thought was he had convinced Edel to come out here to dry his tobacco leaves. We slowly ventured to the door and knocked. Callem’s voice boomed, “Boys, if that is you come in!”
We entered and saw an older woman and a middle-aged woman at the table with Callem, with a spread of meats, cheeses, and sliced bread between them. A pitcher of red fruit juice was there as well. “What luck you are back tonight instead of in the early morning, boys!” He stood and made a half-bow to introduce the two women, “This is Master Reader Wynna and her daughter, Master Reader Ennet.” Not sure what to do, I bowed and elbowed Gareth to do the same.
Callem smiled, so I guess it was the right thing to do. “They are visiting Hen’s Hollow on Holiday and are in incognito.” He said as if it was a well-known joke, and the women smiled. “Well, sit boys, there is much to talk about and much to do so these women can be on their way.”
The older woman with silver-aged hair spoke first, “I am Wynna. Master Callem spoke with us a few days back about two exceptional boys he would like us to read. We were so intrigued that we found time to leave the capital and come here, hoping to meet these boys. So, I pushed up your scheduled reading and decided to visit you.” The younger woman with dark brown hair and blue eyes scoffed.
“Yes, mother, it had nothing to do with Lord Garay sending his servants for the tenth time this month to recruit me to his household,” the younger woman said with icy humor in her tone.
“Well, if you want to marry his third son, daughter, you have my blessing.” The slightly comedic exchange ended as they both smiled at what seemed like normal banter.
The older woman locked eyes on us. “Ok, down to business. Callem has paid our price, and we are here for a reading. Boys, do you know what a reading is?” The older woman asked nicely. We both shook our heads uncertainly. She turned and gave Callem a disapproving look. He just shrugged in response. The woman got us seated and comfortable at the table, and we started picking at the food while she spoke.
“Well, readers are capable of reading a person’s soul imprint. What is written on the soul, to be exact. Some readers can only gleam tidbits of information, and some can read a person like a book. What can they read, you are asking yourself? Many things, depending on their aptitudes. Some things include how long they will live, their strength, fitness, intellect, fortitude, reasoning, what abilities they have been blessed with, the size of their aether core, what traits they have, what skill affinities they have, what skill competencies they have, where their passions lay and many other things.”
She took a breath to continue, “Callem has asked us to read your abilities, traits, and skill affinities to help you in your training. Abilities are what you are born with and are formed from your connection to the aether. If you were born outside the Sphere, you would most likely not have any abilities as they are reliant on the aether generated here. Traits are also aether linked but revolve around your bloodline derived from your race and ancestry. Finally, we will read your skill affinities: your ability to learn certain things faster. Some people are more effective at performing those skills beyond what should be possible. Some say skill affinities are residual advantages gained from past lives, but I digress. We can read other things, but that is all we are doing today.” She looked pointedly at Callem.
Callem muttered something about how they wanted all his gold. The older woman had finished and waited for us to digest everything she had said. We both knew about abilities, traits, and affinities. We had spent days fantasizing about what we would have when we reached puberty. There were books talking about hundreds of affinities and traits. All the books only listed tier 1 and tier 2 abilities, nothing higher.
I asked, “Can you gain new abilities, traits, and affinities after you are born?” The woman arched an eyebrow at Callem, which I took as a sign that I had asked a very introspective question.
“That is a very interesting question, and the answer is yes. The wealthy pay large sums to do so. Sometimes they succeed, and sometimes they do not. While failures can be significant, they are usually not catastrophic,” she finished.
“In terms of adding new abilities, imagine your soul to be a beautiful painting of a landscape with a lake, trees, and mountain. Every time you try to add something new to the painting, the colors can run and ruin the image. This could damage the current abilities the person already has or even erase them completely from the painting. Everyone generally has two free attempts to add something new to their soul, but after that, you are playing Death’s Dice.”
Death’s Dice was a game if you rolled doubles of any number, you would lose all your points up to that point in the game. She continued, “The safest way to add abilities is with a dungeon elixir. Imbibing a dungeon elixir with an ability would be like painting a beautiful swan upon that lake in the painting without disturbing the painting at all. Of course, the Triumvirate confiscates all dungeon essences, so put it out of your minds of gaining power that way.” She added the last sentence with hardness.
“Regarding adding traits, races, and beasts have different traits for a reason. You can add them via strong aetheric magic or dungeon elixirs as well, but your body will change too, add cat’s grace, and you might grow a tail and whiskers, for example.” She looked at us sternly and warningly, “And most likely, you will never be able to have children. 90% of those who have changed thus can never conceive or contribute to conceiving a child.” She waited for her warning to sink in before continuing, “What is last, oh yes, skill affinities! That is the easiest to gain with memory crystals, but each person’s soul can only hold so many affinities. Memory crystals can only be used once and rare in the islands. A person can have three, perhaps four affinities at most. Forcing more will scramble your mind.” She stopped to take a long pull of the juice.
“Now Callem has paid for us to read both of you. We are doing abilities, traits, and skill affinities today. That will be all. This is typically a private matter of the individual.” Without being told to, Callem rose and left the house. Wynna nodded appreciatively as the door closed. Gareth and I stared at each for a moment and nodded.
“We have no secrets between us,” I said. The women smiled at us.
The younger woman, Ennet, picked up the conversation, “So we will be doing a blood reading on each of you. How this will work is one at a time, we will cover our hands over yours above an enchanted parchment to collect the blood. We will activate our abilities to read your soul, and you will bleed onto the parchment below, and everything will be written out for you to read in a script you are familiar with. It is a bit of a messy method, but it is how our ability works best.” Neither of us was squeamish as we had to bleed many times under Callem’s tutelage, so we nodded in consent.
Gareth went first, and the woman prepared as they had mentioned but also put a small blanket over the clasped hands so they could not see what was written in his blood. The process ended up taking about three minutes. Gareth’s blood dripped onto the parchment in a steady cadence before Ennet announced it was finished. Both women smiled at Gareth as he secreted away his parchment.
I was up next, and the experience was unpleasant. It did feel like someone was crawling through my soul and reading it. My palm burned briefly, and I felt my blood being pressed out of my skin. The sound of it dripping on the enchanted paper was more disturbing than I had thought it would be. It took no longer than Gareth’s reading, and the older woman did cock one eyebrow in surprise for the briefest instant. She had definitely caught something about me during the reading. I stored my paper in my pocket without looking at it, and my angst rose slightly.
“Boy, Storme, correct? Come talk with me.” The older woman, Wynna, said. We went off to a corner of the kitchen, and I thought my secrets had been exposed. Before I could plan to deal with the repercussions, she said, “Caught my surprise, did you? I have been doing this for years and can feel a person’s strength during a reading. My daughter has not reached that understanding yet. What I felt, Storme was something stronger than I have ever felt before,” she pointed at my paper. “I have felt tier 4 powers before, so I know what is written on that paper is probably tier 5. Whatever it is, I suggest you keep it secret no matter how useless or powerful that ability is.” She waited till I nodded. The woman looked tired from doing the readings. Callem returned, we all ate a little, but Gareth and I were anxious to read our papers.
As if he enjoyed the torture, Callem watched us while the socialization continued. Finally, Callem smirked, “Boys, you can go. And boys, you have no obligation to share anything on those papers with me. After you burn the text into your mind, I suggest you burn the parchment. Understood?” We both nodded and rushed out to the bunkhouse.
We sat in our living room in the comfy chairs, looking at each other and seeing who would break first. “Fine!” Gareth yelled fairly quickly, “I will go first.” He opened his parchment and read, and his eyes bulged. Soon his grin split his face before he handed me the paper. I took it slowly, realizing the trust my best friend was putting in me.
<u>Abilities</u>
Giant’s Constitution, Tier 3
Vestibular Movement Sense, Tier 2
<u>Traits</u>
Adaptive, Tier 1
Charismatic Attraction, Tier 1
<u>Skill Affinities</u>
Melee Weapons, Tier 4
Riding, Tier 1
It was probably everything Gareth wanted, with a cherry on top. I was shocked at how close Callem was to pick out his abilities just by watching him that first afternoon! The movement ability was a step from the generic balance skill we read about. Both of the traits were well-known and common. The adaptive trait basically meant a person could get comfortable in new environments and learn slightly better than the average person.
The charismatic attraction meant he had a strong natural charm for others of his race. He was going to be a ladies’ man for sure. His first skill affinity of melee weapons was a bit unfair, to me at least. EVERY melee weapon, I mean, come on! The second was new, as neither of us had ever ridden any animal. Looks like I would be buying Gareth a horse—no, a pony.
It was my turn, and it’s not like there would be any surprises for me, so when I read through the paper once, twice, and then a third time very slowly, Gareth got impatient and swiped it.
<u>Abilities</u>
Aetheric Conversion to Metal, Tier 7
Greater Aether Core, Tier 4
Metal Sculpting, Tier 4
<u>Traits</u>
Past Life Knowledge, Tier 1
<u>Skill Affinities</u>
Healing Magic, Tier 4
Lightning Magic, Tier 2
Cooking Tier 4
There were two affinities I wasn’t expecting. The lightning magic was one, but the other was my past knowledge being revealed. I didn’t realize it was a racial trait. I figured I remembered maybe 5% of my past life clearly and another 20% foggily, so it was not a strong ability.
Gareth finally spoke after reading it, “What the hell, Storme! We need to talk!”
? Copyrighted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne
No Permission is given to translate, copy, repost or alter to an audio format of this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon, RoyalRoad.com, or Scribblehub.com, it has been stolen without my permission and violates DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA.