《The Prince of Demons》 The World of Tenebrae Pt. 1 I lay staring at the ceiling. Five minutes twelve seconds left. My mouth was dry, not unusual for when I woke up. In five minutes three seconds I had to get out of bed. Was there supposed to be a feeling or motivation when I woke up? As I lay here, all that went through my mind was the dread of the day to come. The 24th job interview I had. Why was getting a job so hard? Why do you want this job? If I answered honestly, I was not a fan of starvation. I am also a large proponent of having a roof over my head. In another four minutes forty-seven seconds somehow I needed the power to get out of bed. I heard the muffled yelling of my parents in the other room. After waiting my remaining four minutes five seconds I dragged myself from my mattress. It wasn¡¯t all that comfortable, but at least it wasn¡¯t the day. I needed to get out of my house in the next twenty-three minutes or I would be late. I walked to the restroom, passing through the hall of ¡®family photos¡¯ that decorated them. Each was faker than the smile on my face. In the hall, my parents'' screaming match was louder and easier to determine what the yelling was about. As usual, I droned it out. I lost the ability to care or find it interesting when I was still in high school. I took a shower, which lasted six minutes seventeen seconds, about four seconds less than average. I dried myself and heard a loud impact sound. Wonder what my mother threw this time? It didn¡¯t sound like something broke, so it likely wasn¡¯t as fragile as the vase of three days ago. I put my suit on, struggled with the tie, which added a minute nine seconds to the three minutes fifty-one seconds it took me to put on the suit. I had allotted myself five minutes exactly anticipating this, so it was fine. Currently, I was on my determined pace, and was looking to leave early. Half my time had elapsed, and all I had left to do was grab breakfast, coffee, and leave. Walking to the kitchen, I left the small little enclave where my room and bathroom were. I grabbed myself a toaster pastry and grabbed the pot so I could pour my coffee into my mug. Today my father had brewed the morning blend. The sound as I poured my coffee was accented by him prattling off names my mother was, showing the same creativity he had shown two days ago. It had only taken me two minutes thirty-four seconds to secure breakfast and I was moving to leave the house. I passed a wall covered with awards, and a case filled with trophies I had obtained. I looked at them for a few moments. Nothing. Not a spark. Not a flicker of something. No joy. No sense of accomplishment. Even as I looked at them, they felt as hollow as when I had gotten them. Just emptiness when I looked at them. My parents had expected them out of me, it was only my job to make sure I got them. A lot of good they were currently doing me in this job search. A long sigh escaped my lungs as I continued to the door. I grabbed the backpack hung in the entry closet and left my parents¡¯ house. My morning routine with the break to gaze at the worthless metal had taken me seventeen minutes almost exactly. I unclipped my umbrella from my backpack and opened it. Today was dim, dreary, and depressing. The weather too. It was a freak storm that rolled in out of nowhere. Today was supposed to be sunny, but life was just full of disappointments. I arrived at the bus station and sat on the bench. From my backpack, I pulled out my headphones so I could listen to music as I waited. By my current estimate, it should be about three songs until the bus arrives. Now that I was free from the house, time wasn¡¯t as important. I let out a deep sigh as I started a random playlist; time never stops marching. As the fourth song started up, the bus had arrived. I closed my umbrella, hopped on, showed the driver my pass, and took a seat by the window. The bus was scheduled to reach my destination in thirty-seven minutes. The walk from the stop to the building was roughly seven minutes forty-five seconds. Time just kept slipping away. Is it going to be this way until I eventually die? Time feels like it is moving so much faster than when I was a kid. Time really never stops marching. It was suffocating. Time truly was a merciless master. But it was at least consistent. Keeping time was one of the few things that kept me sane, somehow knowing how much passed and how much longer always calmed me. As the bus entered the inner city, I saw the typical sights: an idiot getting mugged in an alley, drivers blasting horns like that was going to fix traffic, some teenagers getting on being all rowdy and noisy, people rushing along the sidewalk to work, and a few homeless people getting chased out of a spot by the police. I just felt this odd sense of loathing and disgust when I looked out at the people. Even when they did nothing to me, I just always got pissed off when I dealt with people. People just sucked. I couldn¡¯t even remember a time I interacted with people and thought, wow, this is fun! I honestly just wanted it to end. This world was crap to the core. I got off at my designated stop, opened my umbrella back up, and started walking to my destination. My phone started buzzing, so I pulled it out of my pocket and saw it was my mother trying to call me. I took off my headphones, unplugged them from my phone, and with a sigh I answered. ¡°Hello?¡± I asked, holding the ear a tentative distance from my ear, while turning to face the brick wall I was near to try and dampen out the background noise a bit. ¡°YOU LEFT WITHOUT SAYING GOODBYE THIS MORNING YOU INGR-¡± she started before I hung up the phone. Was not in the mood to deal with that. Immediately my phone began buzzing again. This time it was my father calling. There was just going to be no winning today, was there? I picked up the phone, again holding it at a distance from my ear. ¡°Hello?¡± I asked, my voice sounding robotic to even me. ¡°When your mom calls you, you answer. Is that so hard for you to grasp? I thought you were supposed to be smart.¡± he chided, as if that was somehow going to motivate me. ¡°I did answer. I just hung up.¡± I replied. I was not in the mood right now for their crap. ¡°WHY WOULD YOU HANG UP ON YOUR MOTHER WITH HOW MUCH WE DO FO-¡± my father started before I hung up. Turned my phone off. This was going to be a fun yelling match later. Free migraine included! I just sighed as I returned my phone to my pocket, just shaking my head. That was about two minutes of my life I was never getting back, and the yelling match was bound to last several hours. I just sighed heavily and began to turn around. As I began to turn around, all I heard was some screaming. Then came the pain as it felt like a train hit me through the wall. I was inside the building, vaguely aware of the massive hole in the wall I had led the charge for. The world was spinning, my entire body seemed broken. I didn¡¯t have time for this. Time just stop for me just this once, please I just need more time. I couldn¡¯t afford this. I tried moving but was met with excruciating agony. It was starting to feel quite cold. Something touching me was a warm liquid, but it couldn¡¯t be the rain. Rain wouldn¡¯t puddle like this was the last thought that went through my mind as all faded to black. * In what appeared to be an instant I was conscious again, but the world seemed so much larger. I opened my eyes, and I was very clearly in a brick room, being held by a giant. I looked around, and there were two other people. One had an immensely regal feel, looking on with a happy expression on his face. The other was congratulating him on a healthy baby boy. Baby? Boy? WHAT?! I remember reading when being held captive taking a few moments to gather your surroundings and being quiet could be immensely helpful, but I was so confused. I lifted my arm, which seemed to be the equivalent of lifting the world. What was in front of me was a tiny, pudgy little hand that was oddly pale. I was pale, but this was deathly pale, my skin looked like bone. It also looked almost, ceramic; human skin wasn''t supposed to look like that. I looked at the figures again; they all clearly had horns. I looked at the giant holding me, and there were clearly amber eyes looking at me with the joy of the world. The regal one had the same pale skin I did. Either I was reborn in a different world, or I am on the best drugs the hospital has to offer. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°He is not crying dear. Is something wrong?¡± the giant (my mother?) asked. It was strange, I didn¡¯t recognize the language, but I clearly understood what they were saying. ¡°That is strange. Try rubbing him more with the towel, and if that fails try a light pat on the back.¡± the third person instructed. This was such an odd dream. ¡°Hold up! What is going on?¡± I tried to ask, but it just came out as a cry. It was the only sound my poor control over my vocal cords could make. There was a collective sigh of relief when I made that pathetic cry. I sensed this odd sensation in the air around me as well, like it was part of me, but not physically part of me. The distinct feeling that this was not a hallucination came over me when I glanced outside; there was no way I could imagine that. There were two moons: one was blood red, the other was deep ocean blue. The stars absolutely covered the night; I had never seen a picture of the sky that clear. I tried reaching out, trying to pull myself to the window to see better, but my arm barely wiggled. I looked at what I presumed was my mother and tried beckoning to the window. ¡°Do you want to see the night sky?¡± she asked, sounding relieved I was making noise and moving. ¡°Yes please.¡± I tried to reply. All that came out was an unintelligible series of cries. ¡°Dear, can you show him? I feel a bit too weak to bring him close to the window.¡± my mother directed at who I presumed my father to be. He came over and cradled me in his arms. His regal aura was much more intense with him holding me; I could tell even as he gingerly held me, he was immensely strong. Unnaturally strong. Maybe it was because I was a baby but some part of me had a feeling that was not correct. He moved over to the window so I could look at the sky. I was clearly in a massive castle, made out of some black bricks that loomed over a large fantasy looking town that sprawled out around it. It was hard to make out more details as for the most part, I was staring up at the sky. It was breathtakingly clear. The purple light created by the moons had a mesmerizing beauty to it. ¡°Your Imperial Highnesses, what will you name him?¡± the third person in the room asked. Did he say Imperial Highnesses? ¡°We decided to name him after his grandfather Nil.¡± my mother replied as my father nodded in agreement. ¡°And Sathanas for his middle name to follow tradition as well.¡± my father added, which my mother seemed pretty happy about. Nil? As in nothing? What kind of name was that? It was after my grandfather? Sathanas? At least it was my middle name, Nil was better than that for sure. Was it some tradition to name people after their grandparents? What kind of naming convention was this? Now that I was thinking about it, looking at my mother and father, they were definitely not human. Obviously, they had horns which should have been a large clue. The odd weight around me wasn¡¯t going away either; it definitely wasn¡¯t my body being a baby. The sensation was odd, like the presence of something I could just feel but there was nothing it could be. By the window was getting chilly, so I looked at my mother. I tried doing the same motion with my hand trying to pull myself to her. I felt this sensation of a grip, or having anchored something, and tried to pull myself towards it. This time however, there was this odd surge. The world distorted, like it stretched out before I was in my mother''s arms; it lasted all of a brief second. What the hell was that? I thought as a wave of nausea slammed into me. My head felt like it was about to split in half. The odd feeling I felt was completely gone, just replaced by this odd emptiness. It hurt; my body just radiated pain. I tried asking what was happening, but only cries would leave my mouth. This is humiliating, this hurts so much. ¡°Did he just?!¡± my mother exclaimed in surprise while trying to comfort me. She lifted her hand and this odd, green light pulsed from her hand to me, easing my pain. What was that? What is she doing? How is she healing me? They have horns, there are two moons, unnatural coloration of eyes and skin, why wouldn¡¯t it be possible? Magic? Am I really in a land of magic? ¡°That¡¯s my boy!¡± my father proclaimed loudly which might as well have been nails on a chalkboard. Whatever my new mother was doing was making my body feel better but did little to put a dent on the headache. Wow this sensation was unpleasant. ¡°The Night of Fire and Ice truly does provide , my Imperial Highnesses. He seems to have inherited your Emperor Azzeck.¡± the third person in the room stated. Emperor? Does that mean I¡¯m a prince?! ¡°Aren¡¯t you supposed to make a or something by now Cesar?¡± my mother inquired, still maintaining the soothing green light. ¡°I am. I, Cesar Asmodeus Armstrong, make that today, on the Unified Year 1624, in the Month of the Moon, on the twenty eighth day, I announce to the world born of Emperor Azzeck Lucifer Crowthorne and Empress Senna Sathanas Crowthorne, Crown Prince of the Speranza Empire, Nil Sathanas Crowthorne!¡± Cesar boomed with a surprising amount of authority. His voice seemed to carry an immense weight and presence, clearly amplified by what I assumed to be magic, as a piece of paper seemed to materialize from thin air after he finished speaking. My father walked over and touched it with his finger which caused an immense surge of light burst forth, leaving an insignia on the paper. From what I could tell, were some form of magical documentation, probably similar to a birth certificate in this case. My head was feeling a lot clearer, and my body no longer had that odd emptiness to it. My body felt oddly full. I repeated Nil Sathanas Crowthrorne to myself over and over again. For some reason it made me, what was this feeling? Happy? I looked at my father, who seemed to be over the moon (moons?) at the moment. This is going to hurt, but there is only one way to find out. I thought to myself as I gestured towards my father. I felt the same thing as before; it was definitely like I anchored something, and pulled towards it. Like last time, the world seemed to invert and I was at my father, or more accurately, about two feet off my target outside the window. Uh oh. Gravity definitely worked. Before I moved more than a foot however, my father had already caught me. The same empty feeling and pain returned, even worse than last time. I¡¯d like to say I toughed it out, but that would be a lie. Maybe becoming a baby messed with me in some way. Look, it hurt. A lot. There was an odd and extremely uncomfortable sensation that accompanied the skull splitting headache, waves of nausea, and my body feeling like it had just been hooked up to a car battery. I bawled my eyes out. Azzeck carefully walked over to Senna and handed me to her, where she proceeded to produce that calming green light again. Azzeck sat next to her making little baby faces and noises at me. Note to self, don¡¯t test my ability to teleport with the intended destination being next to an open window. Would I be able to go through the window if it were closed? I am not testing that on this floor though. ¡°Twice in less than an hour since he was born. You have quite the troublemaker there, your Imperial Highnesses.¡± Cesar exclaimed, smiling a bit wide. ¡°I thought I felt him start to form into a again, so I was ready to catch Nil. I think the deflected off me unintentionally and was redirected unfortunately out the window.¡± Father explained, while trying to do little peek-a-boos with me. ¡°Lucky for you that you caught him. We are going to need a different maid to help look after him if he is already able to use ; there is no telling what mischief he can get into.¡± Mother snapped at him, sounding annoyed I took an unexpected trip. I was less than thirty minutes old and already branded a problem child. As the pain subsided, my body began to feel extremely heavy. I think I just needed to close my eyes for a minute. It will only be a nap. I thought to myself as I sank into my mothers¡¯ arms. The World of Tenebrae Pt. 2 When I woke, I was being cradled softly by my mother, who was rocking softly back and forth. I also was now in an expertly burrito folded blanket, so movement was nigh impossible. Who folded this cloth prison? Why was it folded so tight? Wait, I can wiggle my feet. Does that help me though? She was just looking down at me, her wolf eyes seeming to peer into my soul. Now that I was a bit more clear headed, I got a good look at her. Senna had two, black as obsidian, elegant gazelle like horns that started at the top of her forehead and went a little past the back of her head. Her skin seemed to be made out of porcelain. What race were we? My mother¡¯s hair was slightly curly, jet black, and down past her shoulders, to the point it draped over my tiny body. ¡°Look who finally woke back up. You must be hungry.¡± she whispered softly to me. As if on command, my stomach growled. A stark reality hit me as she shoved her breast in my face. Oh this was humiliating; it felt wrong, but if I didn¡¯t I would likely starve. I internally wept as I fed. It is necessary to survive. Look at it rationally. Babies needed food to survive and this was a source of food. After I was full I abruptly stopped. I need to get onto real food as soon as possible. Turns out, being a baby sucked; my control over my body was terrible, the best sounds I could make were unintelligible cries, and when my body needed to go it just simply went. It wasn¡¯t all bad as my mother sang lullabies to me. Her voice was oddly angelic; it had this calming, sing-song quality even as she spoke. After about an hour of listening to her sing, Senna undid my cloth prison to let me move around a little. There was a maid nearby as well as Cesar if I recalled his name correctly. They both looked extra alert once my arms were free. My mother carefully set me down and moved over about two feet away before looking at me and gesturing for me to go to her. ¡°Your Imperial Highness, are you sure it is a good idea to encourage the Crown Prince to use his ? The last time was a bit difficult to fix.¡± Cesar asked, his voice sounding a bit concerned, with this odd politeness to it. ¡°It¡¯ll be fine. I think it is better to let him do what he naturally wants or is prone to in a controlled way than stop him completely.¡± my mother retorted. A strange feeling welled up inside me. What was this? Mothers could be like this? I focused on her. Was the hand motion a necessary component to ? I focused on her, trying to get that anchor sensation. It was coming nowhere as quickly as when I used my hand. I focused a bit harder on a point right in front of her. After a few seconds I felt the anchor sensation from before, so I pulled myself towards it as the world twisted around me. I felt drained, just nowhere near as bad as before. ¡°That was great! Who is the best Prince?! What a great use of Nil!¡± my mom praised. It felt genuine; it felt a lot better than any of the awards I ever received. Why? I looked at her, then around a little; she looked happy as could be while the maid and Cesar were slack-jawed. I tried asking why did they look shocked, as per usual however, all that came out was unintelligible baby noise. I am going to keep trying to speak at least, eventually it will work. My mom copied me, responding to me when I made noise. She backed up a little more, about a foot and a half this time, and gestured at me again. The trick seemed to be aiming at a specific point when using . I again focused right in front of her and the anchoring sensation came much quicker than last time. The sensation overcame me, and I was there. I could tell that if I did one more the horrific nausea and pain was going to come back. My mom started playing peek-a-boo with me. I tried acting like a baby, but I honestly had no idea how well I imitated a baby. Don¡¯t appear strange. Please be close enough. I didn¡¯t want her to worry her child was off. Cesar and the maid looked on, watching me and her play. ¡°Your Imperial Highness, I hate to inform you, but there are duties you must attend to. The maid Helga will watch after the Crown Prince.¡± Cesar chimed. My mom shot him a look, like she clearly did not want to go, but knew he was probably right. ¡°I am assuming you vetted her thoroughly?¡± my mom pressed, sounding annoyed to have to leave. ¡°Helga is my sister, your Imperial Highness.¡± Cesar informed her while motioning to his sister. I could tell she looked more relieved. ¡°I will watch him with my life your Imperial Highness.¡± Helga tensely replied while formally bowing. Her form was right, and and so was her phrasing, though her nervousness was clearly showing. ¡°I order you to make sure he doesn¡¯t leave your sight.¡± my mom snapped, with a level of ferocity and authority she hadn¡¯t shown previously; Helga snapped up and shook her head vigorously. Cesar escorted my mom away to perform her duties while Helga walked over to me. She was clearly younger than my mom and Cesar. Helga had more ram-like horns, green hair which was tied tightly in a bun, burgundy eyes, and clay colored skin. She took a few deep breaths before sitting down next to me. Helga pulled a parchment out of her sleeve and reviewed it. ¡°Address Empress Senna as her Imperial Highness, check. When I bowed did I remember the left foot behind the right leg? Remain by Crown Prince Nil¡¯s side at all times, check. Her Imperial Highness fed him about an hour ago so it should be another hour until he is hungry. Why did I have to become the personal maid of the Imperial Prince?¡± she muttered to herself while reviewing the list. My parents rule an Empire, and this was the maid they went with? I thought to myself. Was this nepotism at its finest? She tried playing with me, while every so often she would shoot up and look around. I did notice the sound of other staff a ways off; whenever one made a sound she snapped to attention and looked around. How tightly wound is this lady? I thought to myself. I was not too familiar with customs and how the nobility act in this world, but shouldn¡¯t there be more staff? Or were they simply not allowed around me? I could definitely hear them. After thirty minutes of her being the worst playmate in the world, something moved in a nearby shadow. Without a second of hesitation Helga threw something at it in the blink of an eye, a barrier instantly formed around me, and she was between me and the shadow. Helga managed to produce a sword from absolute thin air looking ready to kill whatever made that move. ¡°Attacking his Imperial Highness? How bold.¡± my father¡¯s voice rang out from the shadow as he stepped out, clearly smirking. ¡°I am so sorry your Imperial Highness! I am sorry, please don¡¯t let this affect my brother!¡± Helga begged as she slammed to the ground. ¡°It is fine Helga, I should not have snuck in here like I did. It is good to see how quickly you leapt to protect my son.¡± my father apologized, trying to keep a straight face. ¡°I am not worthy of you having to apologize to me your Imperial Highness!¡± Helga replied quickly while remaining in the same prostrating position. ¡°Do not make me repeat myself. I apologized, and praised you defending my son. I am not one to say something I do not mean. Get off the ground.¡± he growled, which she immediately shot off the ground to an attention stance to. It didn¡¯t help that my father had an intense aura; he just exuded authority and power. Then again, I am pretty sure attacking him even if she was defending me might be punishable by death. Wasn¡¯t too sure about that, though it wouldn¡¯t surprise me. Then something hit me: Helga was making sure there weren¡¯t any assassins. That was a chilling thought. My father¡¯s stern exterior soon melted into a smile when he saw me. He picked me up and lightly tossed me in the air. Something gripped me as I went up and down that kept my head from flopping around and made the motion ridiculously fluid and gentle. ¡°Why is his supply so low?¡± my father inquired, looking a bit displeased. ¡°Her Imperial Highness encouraged him earlier to use . He did a of about three feet and one and a half feet, both with no gesturing.¡± Helga answered immediately. My father grimaced for a second, then lit up. He put a hand on my back, and I instantly felt that odd void that was slowly refilling was back up to the brim. Father took about two steps, sat down, and motioned at me. Now I looked at him clearly, Azzeck had the same bone white skin I did, with incredibly sharp features. His eyes were a vibrant purple, which was accented by his golden color hair which had the darkest color horns I have ever seen poking through. Unlike mom, his horns were more dragon like, that were more similar to daggers at the end with a much sharper point than any other being I had seen at this point. What am I now that I think about it? Clearly not a human, but I don¡¯t think I am a type of beast person. I sat with my pudgy baby body looking at him while he was sitting with his arms wide open motioning for me to go to him. Last time I did this I ended up outside a window; granted, he caught me, but I was still a bit hesitant to try this again. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°How long did it take him to cast without his hands last time?¡± my father checked with a concerned tone. ¡°Less than five seconds on his last one. He should have used by now your Imperial Highness.¡± Helga informed him. My father grimaced again as I just sat and made baby noises. I am not some dog who is going to come on command. I do really want to use more though; I need some semblance of pride though. I thought to myself. ¡°It¡¯s okay Nil. You won¡¯t go out a window this time. I promise.¡± Azzeck cooed. He was looking pretty desperate at this point; you could see the light in his eyes dying a little. Okay I held out long enough. I focused on him and felt the anchor almost immediately. I was gradually getting better at this. Kind of wish I knew how the mechanisms of it worked, because I doubted it was just focus on a point. Within a blink, I was there. His face was flooded with relief. Again, I felt a drain from that pool, just not as bad this time. He took a few steps back and waited again. Why did both of my parents like this so much? What was the big deal? Again, I used . ¡°What¡¯s the earliest you can test in a child?¡± my father asked. He looked so pleased with the I was using. While Helga clearly thought about it, he picked me up and did a few more light tosses. It was kind of fun, but the extreme gentle and fluid nature of it was unsettling. It didn¡¯t feel like I was going up and down but rather felt like I was being floated then cautiously brought down. There was nothing physically touching me though. There was definitely some at play here, but I wasn''t entirely sure how it worked. ¡°Accurately would be a year sir. It would require better instrumentation and a more experienced and skilled than a standard evaluation.¡± Helga said after a few moments. ¡°That is pretty easy to get. I would like a few moments with my son alone if you do not mind.¡± he ordered. Helga clearly looked uncomfortable. ¡°Um, your Imperial Highness, I was, uh, ordered to-¡± Helga stammered. ¡°Empress Senna ordered you to make sure he never left your sight I am guessing?¡± he asked as she nodded her head. So if the Emperor and Empress give conflicting orders it ties, or puts you in a lose-lose situation. My father snapped his fingers, and a cone materialized around us. What the hell? What was the point of this? Why did he feel this was necessary? I was a day old, at least physically speaking. He picked me up and cradled me before leaning his back against the cone. Azzeck let out a large sigh. ¡°Lords of Tenebrae being Emperor is so exhausting. Just want to spend some time with my son, see him use some but noooooo, that merciless taskmaster Cesar is all you have your duties your imperial highness. You got this meeting your imperial highness. Emperor Azzeck you need to go over these new policies that the Senate wants to implement. I JUST WANT A DAY OFF TO SPEND WITH MY SON!¡± he vented, sounding frustrated with the situation. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. I thought. I made some baby noises to see if that would cheer him up a little. ¡°Yes Nil, I do work hard. Thanks for agreeing with me.¡± he replied to my nonsense. I made some more noises and he seemed to love that. ¡°I am gonna level with you son, being part of the Crowthorne family isn¡¯t easy, we are the leaders of the Demonkin. We have to act proper and honorable whenever we are out, and we have a duty we must uphold. Of course I am rambling to a baby who has no idea what I am saying, but I do want you to be happy. And strong. Hopefully strong enough no one considers the idea of ¡®testing the borders¡¯, man do I hate that human king what¡¯s his face.¡± my father, the Emperor of Demonkin apparently, ranted. I just stared at him silently. I want you to be happy. I think that was the first time I ever heard those words. I was much more used to I expect you not to embarrass us or It was expected for you to win that trophy. That strange emotion from earlier came back up. What was it? ¡°I wonder how long I can hide here before that monster finds me with that infernal list of crap to do.¡± my dad wondered aloud. Maybe I could throw him a bone. I made some more terrible attempts at speaking, which he lit up again for. A few of the things he said did stick with me: I truly was a prince in this world. He said Lords of Tenebrae. Is Tenebrae this world? And he said Lords, is that referring to a power above him or perhaps some beings of religious significance? ¡°Alright let¡¯s see if you can behind you.¡± my dad excitedly declared as he set me down and walked from what I could tell, two steps behind me. There had to be something to this that made them want to test this. Aptitude? ? Clearly something was up with it. I tried sensing or making whatever that anchor was appear. Nothing. It was hard when I couldn¡¯t see. Where I could focus my gaze, no problem. I tried visualizing behind me. Nothing; the anchor would not appear. My was not forming in any way as I tried that. After a few minutes of my dad encouraging me, an idea hit me. I can feel my around me. What if I tried sending a feeler made of ? Getting it to cooperate was more challenging than I anticipated. After struggling for a few minutes I made what could only be described as a lump of slowly crawl behind me. It was exhausting, and extremely uncomfortable, like I was flexing a muscle I never used before. The oddest part was, I could sense and feel what was around the . As I got it near my dad I tried making that anchor appear. I felt the familiar sensation, and cast . In an instant, I was there, feeling completely drained. I felt large void in me again; no waves of nausea or pain though. So that was what must be, probably some punishment for using a spell that requires more than I possess at the time of casting. Given that the that triggered it were not much larger than the ones I did today, it must get pretty bad if you were severely short on . Then I noticed two more things. The cone was gone and my dad wasn¡¯t praising me. I couldn¡¯t exactly control my body enough to turn to face him better. Was something happening? ¡°-ur Imperial Highness, while I understand wanting to spend time with your son, you have duties that you are currently neglecting, not to mention the fact you tried making his maid disobey an order from the Empress herself. Such behavior is unbecoming of someone of your stature and position.¡± Cesar was lecturing before Helga coughed awkwardly to get his attention. ¡°Helga, you may be my sister, so you should know that you are not in a position to interrupt the conversation of the Emperor and his Chief Advisor.¡± Cesar snapped at her. ¡°I know it is not my place, but his Imperial Highness Crown Prince Nil just used rudimentary to cast directly behind his father.¡± Helga interjected, immediately following I heard my father and Cesar gasp. ¡°That is my son!¡± my dad exclaimed as he picked me up like I was some amazing trophy, holding me high above his head. ¡°What terrifying innate talent.¡± Cesar muttered. Talent? How was that talent? That was brute force and insanely draining. ¡°I was taking the time to help develop the next Emperor of Speranza by testing his ability to adapt his use of . As Emperor, it is my duty to see that my successor is properly trained and cultivated to the fullest capacity of his talent, which you neglected to include in the schedule.¡± my father retorted quickly. What a load of garbage, we both know you were spending time with me while shirking work. ¡°And the was to prevent outside ears from hearing the divine knowledge you were imparting onto your successor? Not to cover the fact you were ranting and rambling?¡± Cesar probed. His tone made it clear he knew my father was full of crap. ¡°That is correct. It is a Crowthorne family that cannot be heard by those outside of the family.¡± my father replied. I could hear Cesar¡¯s eyes roll. ¡°I will make sure to make room in the schedule for ¡®cultivating the talent of your successor¡¯ from tomorrow on as time provides. Should I also schedule it for the same time as the Empress¡¯s time slotted for ¡®ensuring the nourishment and instilling a sense of duty and honor into the future generation¡¯ or at a different time?¡± Cesar inquired after a long sigh. ¡°Overlap them halfway Cesar. Helga, that was an important discovery you noticed and shows great diligence in your work. Please continue with this level of dedication and sincerity.¡± my father instructed as he handed me to her and began to walk away after one final pat on my head. ¡°Yes maid Helga. Thanks to your astounding attentiveness we were able to properly document and notice a key stage in the ¡®development and cultivation of the future Emperor¡¯ and all of Speranza thanks you. Please continue the excellent work.¡± Cesar praised but his voice was monotone and completely deprived of any emotion, like a robot¡¯s. It was odd, both my parents were so busy but trying so hard to spend time with me. They had so many responsibilities that needed their attention, and they still made time for me. They even went out of their way to spend even a little more time with me. Is this how parents are supposed to be? Helga let out an immense sigh of relief once the two of them were clearly no longer within earshot. My stomach let out an audible growl which broke the silence. I was brought to my mother. Again, a breast was shoved in my face. This is necessary for survival; this is necessary for survival. I chanted in my head as I fed. I felt terrible. This is natural, I am physically a baby. I was quickly returned to my safe area after feeding. ¡°I attacked his Imperial Highness and got off without so much as a slap on the wrist. How many people could say that?¡± she stated, a look of amazement on her face. Helga seemed a lot calmer than earlier. After attacking the Emperor I guess there isn¡¯t much more you can step it up from there. Using exhausted my baby body. That was just not something I was used to doing. I settled down and closed my eyes, falling asleep almost immediately. The World of Tenebrae Pt. 3 I stirred from my slumber. It was darker than usual, but I could still see. Do I have night vision? I was probably the only one awake at the moment, so this was probably a good time to train. Was necessary to use somewhere I couldn¡¯t see, or was there an alternate method I just didn¡¯t think of? I tried anchoring two inches towards the top of the crib. Nothing. I tried anchoring where I could see a foot above where I was. The anchor was almost instantaneous. I used my incredibly inefficient to feel two inches towards the top of the crib, the anchor formed. Maybe required me to visualize the location? I thought about the room where I was born. In the distance, I felt the anchor form after a few seconds. If I cast now I think the would straight kill me; so the key was visualizing the location. For this baby body that¡¯s quite restrictive. Why did father think I could behind me? Did he simply forget that criterion? He might be too familiar with it to realize a baby would struggle with that. Are they called I wonder? seems more like a technique rather than a spell, whereas definitely feels like a stereotypical . My parents keep wanting me to practice , so I should probably practice something at this time. seems like a bad idea to practice without an adult around though. I thought to myself. From what I could tell, required me pouring into the surrounding area. There had to be a more practical way because if it required a constant stream of the technique would be near worthless. I took a few deep breaths (okay maybe just huffs because of the baby body) to try and clear my mind. When I used my available decreased sharply, then replenished on its own. So either I generated the or it came from somewhere. I would assume generating should require energy; my hunger doesn¡¯t seem to depend on how much I have exhausted though. If was ambient, it wouldn¡¯t be too surprising. It did raise a question though: how on Tenebrae (?) did I use through it? After struggling for what felt like hours, I gave up. My head felt like it was about to split open from all the exertion. I also depleted nearly all my trying to get a sense of how this worked. Throwing out random probes of was a long shot that most certainly did not yield much. I could say the probes started as basically slabs of and evolved into a sack of potatoes of by the end. Mentally exhausted, I fell back asleep. * My days sort of fell into a pattern. Daytime I spent some time with my parents, then was watched by Helga, occasionally they would try to imitate words and phrases with me, as well as have me use and . The distance and efficiency of each was getting better, but I still found way too taxing. At night I would try and improve to no avail. My was noticeably increasing as I could further than previously. By the first month, I could barely do a ten foot . One thought did constantly run in my mind: Can¡¯t these adults ever talk about how this stuff works around me?! I did learn a few things in this time. The world I was in was most certainly called Tenebrae, whether the Lords of Tenebrae was some religious pantheon or an expression still eluded me, and Cesar was a long time friend of my dad who earned the position of Chief Advisor on his own merits. My mom was definitely clingy and liked spending as much time as she could with me. She loved reading me stories and singing lullabies. When my dad tried singing however, I legitimately cried. How was it possible to be that bad of a singer? Nails on a chalkboard was a symphony in comparison. Whenever my dad was really being obstinate or truly not wanting to go through his schedule, Cesar would always threaten to tell my mom about a night in Rockhaven. This piece of information may come in handy one day; it must be a truly embarrassing story, or he cheated on her. From how he acted though I doubt it was the latter. I also gleaned from some of Cesar¡¯s more snide remarks that my father was certainly not an angel growing up and apparently was quite the problem child for a time. Helga was truly a klutz as a maid, but when it came to protecting or fighting for me she was more than qualified. She did accidentally drop me that one time, but thankfully for her I toughed it out as my mom might have actually killed her with how protective she tended to be. Maybe a little extreme, but Helga was nice and deserved to hide her mistake. Another topic often discussed was the development of my ; they always seemed concerned about my supply. Was it that lacking? They stuck to the basics of increasing the range and number of and my ability to use . They always praised me after, which felt nice. Are they just comforting me? Or praising me because I¡¯m their baby? They always discuss my with concern, is it lagging what a normal baby should? It definitely ate at me for some reason. At about 3 months, things changed slightly as I finally got a handle on how worked. As I lay exhausted in my crib, absolutely annoyed at my inability to grasp it, I just relaxed and took a few deep breaths. Just enjoyed the moment. I wasn¡¯t too tired yet so I just enjoyed the night a bit, kind of just relaxing in the moment. There was a gentle breeze coming from outside. Windows really weren¡¯t a thing on the upper floors of the castle from what I gathered. There was a faint glow of moonlight, a much more normal color than the night I was born. That purple light was a fond memory, something about it was so calming.I then noticed an odd sensation around me. The instant I tried cluing in on it, the sensation vanished. I went back to just enjoying the moment and after a few seconds the sensation returned. Ten minutes later I could start sensing around me. It was at most a foot around me, but it was definitely me sensing something. I tried focusing on it again and it immediately dissipated. What the hell? When I focus on it I lose the sensation? How does that work?! I tried relaxing and enjoying the moment again, but I was forcing it too hard. This needed some further research. Irritated, I let out a baby huff and went to sleep. * When I woke up, I was in a meeting room. My father was sitting at the head of the table, and several others were around the table discussing something. This was new. There were twelve other people excluding my father and I. One was Cesar, who was droning on and on. Man this guy can ramble. I just sort of zoned out after I realized they were discussing policies. Cesar was hitting some sort of fever pitch, or second wind, or something as he had been rambling for ten minutes straight since I woke up. I just decided to let my mind go blank and completely zone out. This was so boring. Dad was probably too busy today to peel away but still wanted to spend time with me. Curse being too awake to go back to sleep. Maybe I should onto the table and make things interesting. I don¡¯t think dad would like that though. I concluded to myself. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! After being zoned out for twenty two minutes, I noticed the sensation of last night, but on a substantially higher scale. I could sense the entire room. I felt like I could count the ridges on each of their horns. I tried focusing on other details, keeping my breathing steady and my mind open. Somehow, it worked. Even better: the radius got even larger until it hit a barrier that was around the room. I tried focusing on the feeling, and it started to waver. I relaxed and controlled my breathing, which caused the sensation to instantly return. Was it my, it couldn¡¯t be, it depends on my breathing? I focused on keeping my breathing steady as I began focusing on other details, and the sensation didn¡¯t change at all. It was so subtle I barely even noticed my breathing change when I started focusing. Best of all, my was barely being consumed to maintain this. Let¡¯s test this new out. I cast a small directly behind me, and my was barely consumed. My brain immediately started plotting what I could do with this newfound power and nearly immediately it started wavering. I focused back on the breathing and keeping my head kind of open. It was an odd sensation; it felt like I could open and close my mind to what was around it. It was also at this point, I noticed all the people in the room staring at me. Keep the breathing even. Stare them down. Don¡¯t lose this sensation especially now that I finally got it working. ¡°Is he? Did Nil just?¡± my dad asked the table. All of them had varying degrees of shock on their faces. ¡°I thought you said your brat was only three months old, Azzeck? How is he doing this already?¡± one on the opposite end of the table asked. His voice was quite unpleasant, it sounded like metal scraping metal, and was quite deep. ¡°That is Emperor Azzeck, General Railos. And Nil is only three months old. Cesar, how is this possible?¡± my dad immediately retorted. ¡°Excuse me, your Imperial Highness. I am just trying to comprehend a literal baby using to such a degree.¡± General Railos mocked him. ¡°Your Imperial Highness, with all my knowledge and experience I can definitively say, I have no idea.¡± Cesar replied, sighing as I clearly derailed the meeting. ¡°Magus Erli, would you be able to give an evaluation or idea of how this is possible?¡± my dad asked another member at the table. Was this that odd? The way they are phrasing this definitely makes me believe this is not normal. It took me months to get to this point and only reached it because Cesar was so boring. That man could put the dead to sleep. His extremely boring nature helped though. ¡°Your Imperial Highness, the only way I could explain this is an extreme level of innate talent with , and a natural ability to feel the ambient around him. Given he was born on the Night of Fire and Ice, it is quite possible he has a that is causing this quite frankly absurd level of growth.¡± a female voice chimed in. Her voice had a very proper tone, and she clearly enunciated her words. ¡°So those exercises you recommended to help get his to formulate better and start training him would not have caused this?¡± my dad checked, sounding a bit perplexed. ¡°Honestly your Imperial Highness, his growth vastly exceeds what it should be using those exercises.¡± Magus Erli admitted with a bit of a sigh. So she was the reason they always pushed me to in such oddly specific ways which changed to use to locate the ball and to it. One of the older gentlemen at the table just burst out laughing. Not like barely laughing, laughing to the point tears were strolling down his face. ¡°What is so funny, Elder Repte?¡± my dad inquired, confused as to what could possibly be so funny about this. ¡°I just remember back when your father was raising you, and the headaches you gave him with your early use of . Then when you got older and more mischievous thinking your was a great tool for pranks, and always wondering why your father eventually started saying, ¡®I hope you have a troublemaker just like yourself one day. Help you understand all these gray hairs you caused me¡¯ and thinking ¡®ah that would never happen to me.¡¯¡± Elder Repte laughed, clearly amused by the turn of events. Cesar then began laughing as well. It was almost maniacal, like a villain finally revealing his master stroke. The two of them laughed while the others just sighed and shrugged, like it didn¡¯t really matter to them. Or they just didn¡¯t find it as funny as those two did. ¡°My prayers have been answered! Crown Prince Nil, please torment your father as much as he used to torment me.¡± Cesar requested between chuckles. ¡°Hey! I did not torment you that much! We were having fun!¡± my father replied, clearly starting to lose his authority in this situation. ¡°You were such a problem child. I still remember when-¡± Elder Repte started before my dad cut him off with the wave of a hand. ¡°Let us get back to discussing the thrilling policy Cesar is to propose to the Senate.¡± my father ordered, which caused a slight groan to go through the people present. They left me in peace after that. I continued to practice my breathing throughout the meeting; I needed to be able to do this naturally. As the meeting ended, the documents simply vanished, and they did a check to make sure everything was secure. With a quick snap of the fingers, the barrier was gone. Which was not good for me. Apparently, during my practice, I had been building up while the barrier was containing it. I had built the pressure up and up and up. Once the barrier was gone, the radius spiked. It over tripled in length, absolutely overloading my senses. My breathing definitely shifted, and I instinctively closed my mind, but the damage was done. My brain felt as if it had been beat with a bat as a skull crushing headache quickly ensued. The most unpleasant sensation was when my felt like it had been ripped from my body. Waves of nausea overcame me as my body began to hurt; this was way worse than before. My body felt like it had been stretched out and partially ripped apart, but it wasn¡¯t my muscles or bones. It felt almost like nerves throughout my body and were stretched and partially torn. I immediately started crying. as this sensation was new, highly unpleasant, there was a lot of pain. Something went wrong. Why is this so much worse? What happened? I wondered as pain absolutely overwhelmed my baby body. ¡°What happened?!¡± my dad snapped, looking directly as Magus Erli. ¡°Quick assessment is he unknowingly extended which was being contained by the . When the was released it shot out farther and faster than he could retract it. This is likely the of trying to maintain a large radius for a brief moment.¡± she quickly explained. ¡°Do whatever you can to help him!¡± my dad ordered, sounding a bit distressed. She was immediately next to me using the similar type of to my mother. As if on cue, my mom appeared. She definitely heard the crying. I¡¯m sorry dad, you are toast. I thought as the pain began to subside.My mom rushed over and began assisting Magus Erli. The pain was rapidly reduced as I could feel my was being refilled. Mom shot dad a look that made even my blood turn to ice. I noticed Helga waiting outside and noticeably jumping at the look my mom was shooting at my dad. ¡°What happened to my baby?¡± Mom interrogated, her voice cold as ice. She held me close to herself while shooting out death beams from her eyes. ¡°Your Imperial Highness Senna, your son has yet again shown immense talent for to a degree that caught us off guard.¡± Magus Erli explained cautiously. ¡°What did he use that had such severe ?¡± she pressed, clearly not getting how I managed this. ¡° Empress Senna. He originally used it to fill the the meeting was in, and when it was removed, the radius of his over tripled in almost an instant.¡± Magus Erli replied, keeping a ridiculously polite tone as my dad shifted under the death rays. I clung to my mom. Even though they healed the , the sensation after was unpleasant at best. Healing did not seem to remove the pain. She patted my head and held me close, softly singing a little lullaby, which for some reason made me feel a lot better. I closed my eyes as I leaned into her, letting my exhaustion take over. The World of Tenebrae Pt. 4 Cesar ¡°Thank you Magus Erli. Now I have a different question, why is his growth rate so irregular?¡± Empress Senna asked after Crown Prince Nil was sound asleep. ¡°I suspect he has some that is causing his staggering growth. Crown Price Nil¡¯s growth rate can only be explained by him possessing a .¡± Magus Erli replied, looking a bit exhausted. I rubbed the ridge of my nose. Nil¡¯s growth rate was nothing short of prodigious; it was problematically fast. Part of me hoped he would grow up and give some karmic retribution to his father, but his growth was unprecedented. We were getting concerned that his would overwhelm his body and slowly shut it down at its current rate. Just last week, his growth rate seemed to bottleneck out of nowhere, which we had mixed reactions to. Typically, babies grew at a consistent, predictable rate. Not Nil; his rate only seemed to get faster and faster. Today had to take the cake of his just absurd growth. Normally, using the ambient in the air for took a lot of practice, and with some guidance and instruction, a talented person would learn how to in about six months. Nil was just over three months old. As a baby, he overcame what was normally the first hurdle encountered. It was mind boggling; there was something off about him. I swear sometimes when I look at his eyes there is something going on in that head. It¡¯s like he understands what¡¯s going on around him. Originally Azzeck wanted to have his son at the bare minimum of a year to start preparing teachers and gathering resources his son might need to grow, but now a lot of us were anxious to have him to try and figure out why he was so outside the norm. Senna would never admit it, but it clearly bothered her. I could only imagine how it was seeing such frightening talent mature in a baby. He easily could cast a or use a to such a degree it was lethal. The he used today had severe, but thankfully still classifiable as minor, . It was only a matter of time before he encountered the cruel world of what was categorized as major at his current pace. It is part of why they wanted to increase his , to reduce the chance of him hitting major . The kid currently caused me nothing but headaches as we were dedicating resources to try and figure out why he was growing so rapidly. By demonkin standards, his talent was prodigious. By beastkin or human standards, his talent was undefinable. Then having to constantly rework Azzeck and Senna¡¯s schedules to fit in time with their son. The instant I stopped watching one of them, they shot off to spend time with Nil. Is it hard to blame them? That kid is already a problem child and he¡¯s not even a year old. Is being problematic as a kid just a Crowthorne family ? Would I be like the Imperial Highnesses when my child was born? My wife and I were expecting in the next month or so our child would be born. I hoped they could take my position as Chief Advisor. Part of me wanted to keep my child as far away from Nil as possible. Growing up next to that level of talent could do a lot of damage to their self confidence. Training and being near Azzeck as a kid was soul crushing at times, and his son put his talent to shame from what we could tell. It was something that troubled me deeply. Azzeck and Senna always asked how my wife was doing and if there was anything they could do to help. Their kindness is suffocating at times. Why can¡¯t you two just be terrible people once in a while? Would make me feel a lot less guilty about my apprehension over our children meeting. I pitied any siblings Nil might get. Succeeding Azzeck was not guaranteed because Nil was the firstborn, but if his talent continued at its current pace however, surpassing him for the seat of the Emperor was an impossible task. The two combined all but guaranteed Nil being the next Emperor. Currently him being called Crown Prince Nil was due to him being an only child. The title Crown Prince/Princess was reserved for the current heir apparent; something I doubted Nil was going to ever lose. I pray for Tenebrae his temperament is good. I have been in my head long enough. Azzeck and Senna were doting on their son. Man I hated this part of my job, but they still had to rule. ¡°Your Imperial Highnesses, you have duties you must attend to. The maid Helga should watch over the Crown Prince now.¡± I informed them. I felt a few tiny daggers hit my heart as I saw their faces. * Nil When I woke, my entire body tingled as pins and needles seemed to fill me. So still required some of my when using ambient as the main source. I took a quick glance around and realized my mom fell asleep while holding me. She didn¡¯t have a blanket, nor was there a fire. I don¡¯t want her to catch a cold or something. Thankfully, we were in my room, so there were several blankets on standby. Except I am a baby with no way of grabbing one. My cloth prisons were a bit looser nowadays, but I still couldn¡¯t walk. The nearest blanket was at the edge of what I would currently consider a safe distance to . Who knew a large room could have downsides? Now that I was thinking about it, where was Dad? Or Helga? Maybe Cesar. Someone to get Mom a blanket. Wait, I could bring myself to locations I visualized. What about the other way around? Bring something at a location to myself? I looked at the blanket, and the familiar anchor sensation was near immediate now. I focused on my breathing, this time carefully limiting the range grew to. It fluctuated horribly around the length I wanted it to actually be. Just got to practice this more I guess. I could feel and sense all the details of the blanket; this was the really soft one that gets a little too warm. Perfect. Currently however, the felt like I was going to cast . What was I missing? Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. After a few seconds it hit me. Honestly, if I could slap myself, I would have. If the anchor is set to the blanket, why would it come to me? I tried envisioning myself. I felt the anchor sensation inside me. Wait, what if it goes literally inside me? I¡¯d die a pretty pathetic death. I imagined the anchor a foot above me. Now, how did I move the blanket to the anchor? I sat there, practicing my breathing as I pondered how to. Grab the blanket. Warp blanket to anchor. Mom gets covered by the blanket. That was the way the events needed to go, but now how to use to accomplish it? So far, seemed dictated by visualizing the effect, manifesting the necessary , then expending the to perform the desired effect. Maybe the anchor was me marking the location with some type of ? If I tried visualizing them both, and moving the blanket anchor to the anchor over my mom, would that work? Using , I envisioned the center of the blanket and at the same time envisioned the location of before. Nothing happened. seems to be much easier to use when I let it flow through me; that more blank state seems better suited for . After about a minute of trying while keeping myself more open, I felt two anchors form. It was taxing, trying to keep my mind clear while forming the as desired. I also had to keep track of because it seemed to grow all on its own if I didn¡¯t monitor it. My control definitely needed practice. I need to simply focus on the breathing and when trying to use it. Keep myself open to it. I was not sure if that is the proper way to do it though. Was it a crutch? I pulled the blanket anchor to the other anchor I had made. After a second, the blanket appeared and draped over us. I was a bit warm, but still able to breathe fine while a sense of exhaustion hit me. My was near empty after simply moving the blanket. That used more than . Is it lack of practice or just requires more ? I wondered as I fell back asleep. * I was woken up when my mom suddenly shook. The motion of her ripping the blanket off me was a lot rougher than she intended. My reserve felt nearly fully restored and my body was doing better overall. She looked around confused, and eyeing the blanket as her face seemed to be annoyed. Did I do something wrong? ¡°Who placed this blanket like that?¡± she growled to herself. She set me in my crib, and gently placed the blanket down on the nightstand in the room. I envisioned the anchors like I did last night, before draping her with the blanket. I don¡¯t know who she¡¯ll blame if I don¡¯t show it was me. Mom gets really protective. When the blanket went to drape her, a sword materialized out of nowhere as she sliced it in half. She let off an immense amount of killing intent and that was near suffocating; some sort of barrier was around me in the same instant. Helga burst through the door sword in hand, ready to help fend off whatever my mom was about to slaughter. ¡°Empress Senna, I don¡¯t sense any attackers. Where did they run off to?¡± Helga questioned while thoroughly scanning the room. ¡°I did not sense or see any either. Someone used on this blanket and put it over me. I assumed they were after either I or Nil.¡± Mom answered in a tense tone. ¡°What did they hope to gain from that? A blanket would barely slow you down your Imperial Highness.¡± Helga replied, clearly confused. ¡°That¡¯s what offsetting. When I woke up the blanket was haphazardly placed over me and Nil as well. Is it some sort of threat?¡± Mom inquired with a bit of confusion in her voice. ¡°I do not know Empress Senna.¡± Helga stated. The two of them relaxed slightly, but were still searching vigorously for the source of the blanket moving. So it¡¯s called . My mom walked over to me, undid the barrier, and tucked me close to her with her free hand. She still had the sword at the ready in the other. Let¡¯s try this again. I used on one of the blanket halves, this time aiming to drop it in front of her. As I activated yet again, I could feel my was near empty. Slightly less than last time; I definitely need to practice . She noticed the , then looked directly at me with an expression I didn¡¯t recognize. Is that, fear? ¡°Helga, you saw that?¡± Senna asked, with an odd tension to her normally sing-song voice. ¡°Yes your Imperial Highness. It looked like Crown Prince Nil was trying to cover you with the blanket.¡± Helga replied as my mom¡¯s face was twisting between a few different emotions. I couldn¡¯t recognize which ones. ¡°When did he learn ? Did anyone use in front of him?¡± Mom inquired, as the tension in her voice made me uneasy. ¡°Today as far as I am aware your Imperial Highness. To my knowledge, no one has used in his presence.¡± Helga answered with a similar tension in her voice. ¡°Go fetch Emperor Azzeck, Magus Erli, and Cesar. Tell them this is a summons from me and to meet me in Nil¡¯s Room.¡± Mom ordered as she sat back down. She rocked softly while singing to me. It was my normal feeding time, so that occurred as well. What did I do wrong? I felt oddly guilty, like I had done something horrible. It was a new feeling, something I don¡¯t really recall feeling in my previous life. Strange. I thought it over a bit as I fell asleep as being full and using up my tended to knock me out pretty well. The World of Tenebrae Pt. 5 Helga Brother, you said I would just have to defend and escort the kid; he is so much more work than that. I cursed as I sprinted through the castle looking for the Emperor and his Chief Advisor. That kid was a near bottomless source of worry for his mom. His was developing way too fast. Normally a baby developing their wasn¡¯t a problem, as the growth rate shouldn¡¯t come close to exceeding what the body could handle. level had small tolls on the body when consuming the necessary . and above all had larger tolls than a baby could realistically handle. Even the of when he expanded it too far almost fried his . A normal baby wasn¡¯t just going to randomly use or . More of masses of or the most simple, rudimentary version of them. Build up their than anything else. Not Crown Prince Nil. His control, , and known were increasing way beyond a normal baby. He could properly use two and a ; Crown Prince Nil seemed to be learning them all on his own. Originally his parents encouraged his growth, then switched to much harder tasks under the guise of games to try and slow down his growth a little. Instead, he not only succeeded, but started growing faster. His reserve was on par with that of a talented two year old. It was very likely his was about to exceed what his body could handle. It was a problem all faced. Training your body sucked at times, and things to toughen and strengthen your body as a whole as well as your channels was very time consuming, but it allowed one to use more advanced without worry of dying to the expended . Another concern was overloading the amount of your body could withstand and slowly suffocating from it, a terrible way to die. The rate his was increasing was perhaps more concerning because it had to be getting close to what the body of a baby could take. It wasn¡¯t limitless, even for demons. How Crown Prince Nil wasn¡¯t in near constant agony at this point from his use was baffling. There were two rapidly approaching ways he could die: using where he couldn¡¯t withstand the or die to . He does have some pain tolerance though; I should have realized when I accidentally dropped him. His ability to handle pain isn¡¯t normal for a baby either. I thought I might¡¯ve just bumped him less than I thought. I should have reported it and faced the consequences. That was so stupid. I chastised myself. I quickly reached the office of the Emperor. Hopefully Emperor Azzeck and my brother were in there. I barged in, throwing open the door. I did not have time for pretense. Empress Senna needed her husband yesterday. ¡°Maid Helga!¡± my brother snarled as he and Emperor Azzeck shot me the dirtiest glares I had ever seen. Both had already a weapon ready to smite whatever threw open the door. ¡°I have an urgent summon from Empress Senna. Please make your way immediately to Crown Prince Nil¡¯s room.¡± I blurted out before either of them could press further. Both of them immediately their weapons and began to move. ¡°What happened?¡± Emperor Azzeck asked as he stored all the papers they were discussing. ¡°Crown Prince Nil used three separate times we know of. I witnessed one of them. Brother, where is Magus Erli?¡± I quickly explained. My brother a ring onto his finger and snapped. In an instant, Magus Erli appeared from thin air. Emperor Azzeck motioned for her to follow him and we rushed back to Crown Prince Nil¡¯s Room. In total, it took us less than five minutes. Emperor Azzeck hurried to his wife¡¯s side to comfort her and check on his son. ¡°What happened?¡± Magus Erli inquired, feeling the tension in the air. ¡°Nil used ; he very clearly used . I suspect three times. I didn¡¯t see the first one, but I saw the second and third time.¡± Empress Senna answered, looking a bit stressed. ¡°Magus Erli, is there any way to the body of a baby?¡± Emperor Azzeck checked despite knowing the answer. No. ¡°Your Imperial Majesty, I am sure you are aware that it simply cannot be done. It requires focus and preparation a baby just simply is not mentally capable of.¡± Magus Erli informed him, looking like she hated having to say it. ¡°If I may contradict my colleague, in the case of Nil, I think it may be possible. In my observation, there does seem to be some intelligence and recognition in his eyes. He is able to understand concepts and seems to be quite intuitive for him.¡± Cesar interjected to our immense surprise. All eyes turned to Cesar. It was extremely rare for him to straight out contradict someone. While he was still quite tactful, Cesar was not one for direct disagreement. And to contradict an on the subject of regarding the Crown Prince? What is he thinking? ¡°What are you saying Cesar?¡± Emperor Azzeck asked, his eyes made it clear he believed his friend was lying to comfort him. ¡°When he used , what did he ?¡± Cesar probed with odd confidence. ¡°A blanket on me.¡± Empress Senna replied. You could see the gears turning in her head as she started to realize something. ¡°And do you not wrap him in a blanket whenever he is tired? Or when he is distressed? In a sense, the act putting a blanket on someone is a symbol of affection he could have been trying to mimic.¡± Cesar elaborated. A few things clicked in my mind. When I dropped him he didn¡¯t cry because he knew I would get in trouble. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°Are you proposing that a baby is capable of understanding such concepts? That is an incredibly risky gamble Cesar. It could be pure coincidence.¡± Magus Erli retorted, trying to be a voice of reason. ¡°I-I-If I may s-speak, I m-might ha-a-ave a story that may help.¡± I said sheepishly. I am about to confess. ¡°Speak Helga.¡± Emperor Azzeck ordered, not getting why I was so nervous. ¡°About a month ago I accidentally dropped the Crown Prince as I was swaddling him as I placed him too close to the edge. I thought he bumped his head before I caught him, but he didn¡¯t start crying. He fell maybe a foot and a half and I thought it was my nerves making me paranoid.¡± I confessed, dreading what was next. There were mixed reactions in the room. First of all, the Imperial Highnesses were quite angry. I am so going to be punished for that later. Then they realized what I was saying. It was a long shot he was able to grasp ideas like this, but it was a chance. It was better than their kid unknowingly approaching his own execution. ¡°It may be possible. Before I try and devise a method for a baby, I believe it would be prudent to test him. A simple test or two. One that requires concepts, or more accurately would demonstrate he is capable of grasping more abstract concepts.¡± Magus Erli proposed with a bit of a sigh. ¡°Having him find the ball with and to it demonstrates some ability to Magus Erli.¡± Cesar replied, and it was something we all saw him do. ¡°He likes the ball. It is a toy we are hiding and he is recovering. We need to know definitively he is able to grasp concepts enough to . Does he grab the ball because he wants it or because we ask him to? We should test if he knows the distinction on that first. We need to be absolutely sure because otherwise it is an incredibly reckless and dangerous idea. After we need to test can he understand abstract ideas.¡± Magus Erli retorted. ¡°What test should we do then?¡± Empress Senna asked in a bit of a defeated tone. ¡°I think I have one that might just do the trick.¡± Magus Erli replied with a smile. * Nil When I woke up, there were five very concerned looking adults around me: Magus Erli, Cesar, Helga, and my parents. My mom was sitting next to the crib holding something. I was definitely in my crib. I saw a few small objects pinned to the walls in my sight. What is happening? Why do they look so concerned? ¡°Nil, look at mommy.¡± my mom instructed. I turned to face her. Why do I have a sense of dread? The air in here is so tense. ¡°Can you get mommy this item?¡± she asked while holding a painting of sorts depicting an orange. This is odd. All words I had heard her say before, and an actual question. Usually she demonstrated the words she was saying, or shows me these pictures and told me their names. Should I show I know what she asked? Some voice in my head was screaming yes, like this was important that I did. I almost felt compelled to, but I didn¡¯t feel any , so why did I feel like I should? The adults were looking at me with such intensity it was stifling. I looked at my parents. I recognized that expression, it was one that decorated many of the faces of my classmates on days of exams: desperation. I used and brought the orange in front of us. ¡°That¡¯s great Nil! Can you get mommy this item?¡± mom requested, holding up a different painting. I had no idea what the picture was. I didn¡¯t recognize the item. It most certainly wasn¡¯t pinned to the walls. She always would demonstrate ¡®no¡¯ by shaking her head. Is that what she wants? A human baby my age wouldn¡¯t know how to do that. I¡¯ll just lay here I think is my best bet. I have no idea developmentally where a demon baby would be though. ¡°That¡¯s okay Nil. Can you get mommy this item?¡± she asked after about a minute. This time the painting was depicting a toy train on the wall, which I used to bring to her. My reserve was starting to get low. For some reason though, Mom and Dad looked like the world was slowly being lifted off their shoulders. ¡°We can confirm he understands being asked to retrieve an item and can match the painting to the item.¡± Magus Erli said, also sounding relieved. ¡°How do we test if he understands abstract ideas?¡¯ Dad inquired with a peculiar hopefulness in his voice. They seemed really concerned with the results of these tests. Am I behind developmentally? Or is it something else? They seem terribly concerned about something. Again, I just knew that I had to demonstrate this. Without a shadow of doubt in my mind. Why am I so overwhelmingly convinced that I need to demonstrate I understand them? Is this a they are using? I doubt that, but why are they so scared? They were keeping their tones happy, but there was clearly something stressing them. I was starting to feel quite uneasy. If only I could talk! I think we would both feel a lot better! ¡°Technically he doesn¡¯t have to understand them, just follow them. This is the key part he needs to somehow be able to do. Have you used any abstract words around him?¡± Magus Erli asked. The tension in the room was clearly rising. My parents looked desperate. Why is this so key? ¡°Love. I tell him I love him a lot.¡± Mom replied with the desperation returning. ¡°We will try that one first. Emperor Azzeck, refill his .¡± Magus Erli instructed. Then each person held up a painting of themselves. I understand Mom and Dad, but the others have paintings too? Unless there is a to make the paintings fast. ¡°Okay Nil, who do you love?¡± Mom checked. I used to grab her painting and immediately did the same to grab Dad¡¯s painting. My parent¡¯s eyes absolutely lit up. I am not sure if it is love I feel towards them, but I like them around, and it is definitely the answer they would expect. For some reason I was hit with a pang of guilt after I thought that. ¡°Has he ever heard the word hurt? Or have asked him after the ?¡± Magus Erli inquired as she was clearly trying to gauge something. I didn¡¯t wait though as I Helga¡¯s painting in front of her. The adults all looked at it dumbstruck, followed by laughter from Cesar and Magus Erli, tears of joy from my parents, and Helga turning beet red. My reserve was a bit low after that last but hopefully it proved the point. My dad refilled my before looking around, a mischievous glint in his eye. ¡°I think I have one more. Who drones on?¡± he asked. I Cesar¡¯s painting to him. His face looked absolutely ecstatic while Cesar scowled. ¡°The chances of that being coincidence are quite low. It looks like he possesses some sort of which helps with comprehension. It could also explain this ridiculous growth of his. It does give hope he might be able to his body. We should be able to stop him from suffocating from his own at least. He has some innate intuition of what not to cast.¡± Magus Erli proclaimed with a bit of laughter still in her voice. DID SHE JUST SAY I COULD SUFFOCATE FROM MY OWN ?! THAT¡¯S POSSIBLE?! NO WONDER MY PARENTS WERE STARTING TO LOOK WORRIED! I was definitely feeling a bit distressed. Okay, maybe a lot distressed. How close to the suffocating to death on my own was I?! My mom picked me up and cuddled me close. ¡°Thank the Lords of Tenebrae.¡± she whispered softly as she cried. Her holding me so close was oddly calming, and temporarily distracted me from the fact I had been unknowingly approaching my own demise. Fated Day Pt. 1 Nothing quenches the desire to use quite like knowing I am approaching an inevitable doom. There has got to be something to prevent this. It had been roughly a week since my parents tested my comprehension; my parents seemed quite upbeat the entire time. Dad had to take a trip somewhere for a day or so. Honestly, in the three months I had been alive here, I was a little shocked he didn¡¯t take trips a little more often, as he was an Emperor after all. Or did I just have the wrong idea about how being Emperor works? I could tell something was happening today, not sure what. Helga usually played little games for babies with me, and my mom liked telling me stories and singing to me. Plans were generally not discussed around me. I had been spending this last week trying to move. This baby body was going to get whipped into shape, not that I entirely neglected it. I was always trying to increase my control over my body, whether it was speaking or walking, it¡¯s just was way more fascinating to me so the other areas got a little neglected. Not now. And after a week of more active effort on my body, I could somewhat grip and move things. Granted, I already was able to open and close my hands, but this was a distinct improvement. I could move my arm, with my hand closed, holding a small object, somewhat as I wanted. Look out world, my abilities are improving! As my control got better, I liked to use to get near the window and look at the stars. The two moons were a more normal color each night. Only on my birthday were they that odd blue and red. You could tell which was which still, as each had a slight tint to it, but nowhere near the same vibrant shade as that night. I found one thing in this life kind of odd, or maybe something I am just too used to hearing. I am starting to think that was not as normal as I thought. I liked the quiet. The lack of yelling and objects being thrown felt odd at first, but it rapidly brought me this odd comfort. I heard movement and saw my mom entering my room. Helga bowed as she entered. That¡¯s odd, she normally comes later in the afternoon. Did she sneak away to spend some extra time with me? My mom picked me up, and began walking with me. Outside my room was my dad, Cesar, and Magus Erli. Okay, what is going on? The group of adults started to move to somewhere in the lower castle. Cesar and Helga had swords at the ready, whereas Magus Erli had a staff with a crystal on top at the ready. There was some barrier placed around us, probably by Magus Erli. We passed several servants, guards, and when we got lower, people who had business in the castle who all bowed or shot to attention as we passed. As I suspected, the entire castle was made from some black brick. There were paintings of demons that were probably ancestors of mine that decorated the halls. After about the midpoint, all the windows had glass in them. It was unnaturally clear glass, probably through some mystical production means or on them. When you thought demon Emperor castle, this was most certainly not it, other than the black bricks. We then exited the castle into a sleek, but elegant carriage made of some black metal and silver. I wonder what we are leaving the castle for? From my limited view point, the city was a very stereotypical fantasy city. Or more late Medieval, early Renaissance city might be more accurate. We traveled for about twenty minutes before the carriage came to a stop. We had arrived at what looked like a massive library. A similar formation was taken as we entered the library, where the adults relaxed once we entered. Inside was full of people of different races, with many portals with people entering and leaving. All who my parents passed bowed respectfully. My parents were met by a stewardess (not sure of her actual title) and escorted to a room in the back. All the weapons had vanished, but Helga, Cesar, and Magus Erli were scanning around looking alert. After five minutes had passed, an ancient looking gentleman walked into the room. He was clearly human, with a massive grey beard. This was no small beard, this one was for the record books as it almost touched the floor. He had an old, frail appearance, but there was this hum about him that led me to believe his appearance was quite misleading. His eyes were a deep azure, which contrasted his dark skin. Unlike everyone else so far, he did not bow when he greeted my parents. This man probably was in the history books, or wrote them. He was looking at me, and his gaze felt like it was looking into my soul. ¡°My, my. What an incredible amount of for a baby.¡± the old man mused. His voice sounded tired, and the way he talked was slow, but there was this authority when he spoke. ¡°Thank you for meeting with us Grand Archmagus Solomon. This is my son Nil we came to discuss.¡± Dad replied while indicating toward me. ¡°When you told me it was about a way to the body of a baby, I thought you were pulling my chain, but Magus Erli insisted it was a legitimate request. What a novel problem to have.¡± Grand Archmagus Solomon observed with a bit of amusement in his voice. ¡°We are aware of that. It is why we requested your help and expertise.¡± Mom replied coldly. Yea I think his previous comment struck a nerve. ¡°If Nil were a normal baby, this would be an impossible request. However, he is not normal. In fact, he is quite exceptional.¡± Grand Archmagus Solomon praised. Does he know I reincarnated here? ¡°What are you referring to?¡± Dad inquired. ¡°Your son has a known as . I cannot see all of what he has, but his is a potentially as well, though that is not very surprising given he is a Crowthorne.¡± Grand Archmagus Solomon explained, his eyes still glowing a bit. ¡°How did you determine that?¡± Magus Erli blurted out. I am wondering the same thing, but something tells me they are just going to glare at you. I was not wrong about the glaring. ¡°Because unlike you Magus Erli, I possess an , which I will use as a segue to explain what I think is the best course of action. I do not think simply his body will be sufficient without hindering his growth. Nil is a demon, like your Imperial Highnesses. Demon babies have an innate curiosity towards as I am sure you are aware. There is no guarantee he will continue to develop his until he is old enough to understand he needs to. I believe your best course is to start to him now and set aside time to have someone or yourselves develop his even if by a forceful means to help him, though such a method is as difficult as it is tiring, and I doubt it would be able to match his growth sufficiently. As a failsafe, can act as a sink for and can help keep it at a manageable level. As Nil is a baby, his curious nature for exploring around him would lead him to developing his naturally which in turn can be a failsafe for his growth should his be insufficient, which it may very likely be.¡± Grand Archmagus Solomon lectured. Finally, some form of explanation. My parents both grimaced. Why are they grimacing? His logic sounded solid and I have this feeling he was not lying. Now that I think about it, where do these sensations come from? Is it from being a demon? I pondered. There was something at play here I did not understand. ¡°I have a few concerns. are not only extremely rare, but once obtained and cannot be changed. It could limit his long term growth if we gave him one now. Furthermore, while we understand what you are saying and know you would not lie, what can we use as a to his that does not limit his long term growth?¡± Mom asked, with my father nodding in agreement. ¡°Luckily for you two, once Magus Erli insisted it was a legitimate request not out of some arrogance or parents thinking their child was in more danger than they actually were, I pulled something from my personal that would be a more than suitable which I am sure we can come to an agreement on a fair trade. As for the , Emperor Azzeck and Empress Senna, I do have two suggestions, one you will not like but I think is worth the gamble, and one that is a safer, albeit likely to be weaker option.¡± Grand Archmagus Solomon explained, with a strong conviction in his voice. Stolen story; please report. ¡°We will discuss the trade in a minute. How are you sure you know what will work? And what are your two suggestions?¡± Dad probed with some obvious skepticism creeping into his voice. ¡°As I am a scholar, I did spend some time researching was it possible to begin a baby, to develop stronger and better for the future, and there is one undeniable fact and limitation: the baby must possess a high tier comprehension type or they are doomed to die to the process. Even then, if the talent was formidable enough, getting a baby willingly to would be impossible until they understand the need, so it is possible for the talent to exceed the . As such, I developed methods for another individual, which are wildly impractical and very inefficient, so some failsafe had to be made. Thankfully, as I am sure you are aware, are given to exceptional students who have a hard time but have immense reserves of to keep them safe and alive as they act as great sinks for when being developed. Now as for my suggestions, the other restriction is the has to be one with a low . Given his lineage, usage of , and other limited information I got from my , there are only two viable options as I am quite sure his is almost . The one that I think will be weaker is using a for the , but is a guaranteed result. I believe your better bet is to use a , which is an obvious gamble.¡± the Grand Archmagus expounded. I wish I understood more of what he said. ¡°You think an for his would be weaker than a ?¡± Dad asked immediately, his voice possessing a sense of incredulousness to it. ¡°Yes, I think in the case of your son Nil, a will vastly exceed an .¡± Grand Archmagus Solomon replied calmly. What was the difference between those two? What was a ? What was ? What did an do? Could one of these adults explain? I would like to know! This is my body! My future! I would like to weigh in! This baby understands what you are saying! Stop with this adult talk and speak to me! My parents looked at each other, and it was like they were having some sort of mental conversation. ¡°What guarantees do we have if we follow your recommendation and you are wrong?¡± Mom checked. Her gaze was like steel. ¡°Let us move onto the negotiation then. I have in my possession a I am willing to part with.¡± Great Archmagus Solomon said, which was met by a collective gasp by the others. ¡°Grand Archmagus Solomon, I am by no means a poor man, and Speranza has a wealth of resources, but I do not think even I would be capable of a trade for a even if it is for my son who will likely be the next Emperor.¡± Dad replied. How expensive was it then? I mean, I''d always heard of priceless treasures, but I thought that was more of an expression than something that could actually exist. ¡°I am well aware even the vast and mighty Speranza would struggle at pricing a fair trade for this. Today just seems to be as if itself dictated it. As I cannot use it, I intended on giving it to one of the next Grand Archmagus as a hidden gift, but realistically they will in all likelihood have an . So I needed to think of a way to part with it that wouldn¡¯t cause an incident. Frankly speaking, even for a demon your son¡¯s innate talent is staggering. A alone would not account for the growth he has demonstrated. I am a vain man with a lot of pride, and while I have accomplished much, I still want more. I want your son to be my final apprentice, that way no matter what happens, I will be able to be credited to training one of the greatest to ever walk Tenebrae. I am also aware that the Crowthorne family is in possession of several large , and would like one. The final thing I would like is simple, I would like Speranza to publicly acknowledge and support the new Mage Freedom Act, which has been making its rounds throughout Tenebrae. Those three things are my price.¡± Grand Archmagus Solomon demanded. Something tells me what he asked for is a lot more than it sounds like. My father looked between Cesar and my mom, again like they were having a mental conversation. This is definitely a . This is not some random glancing, but what on Tenebrae is a that makes it so valuable? I have heard the term Lords of Tenebrae several times now. Who are they? Some deities perhaps? I have so many questions. ¡°I would like to clarify a few things in your terms. Him becoming your apprentice does not exclude him or commit him to anything other than being your apprentice. If Nil chooses, he could still become Emperor of Speranza. Second, yes, I do have several sealed away in my possession. The time to retrieve one for you I fear exceeds the time Nil has until he needs these items, but I am willing to give you my word it will be retrieved as fast as possible without compromising the safety of where it is located for you. Third, I am willing to publicly announce our support for the Mage Freedom Act, and that alone. Speranza¡¯s other endorsements stand, but if the Mages do something akin to an act of war, our support will abruptly end.¡± Dad countered with a surprisingly respectful tone. ¡°That is all acceptable and close to what I anticipated. become apprentice at thirteen. Normally, one is an apprentice for three years, so I look forward to then. I believe we have a deal.¡± Grand Archmagus Solomon said with a smile as he stretched out his hand. My dad and Grand Archmagus Solomon shook hands, and there was this ominous surge of . I mean, I guess someone with the title of Grand Archmagus is probably pretty strong, and knowing I have a teacher isn¡¯t all bad. I wish I at least had a say, but something tells me three years of being his apprentice is nothing for acquiring this . ¡°That does not explain what guarantees we have following your recommendation for his and being wrong.¡± Mom interjected with serious irritation in her voice. ¡°Empress Senna, I am not going to give someone a , essentially reserve them becoming my apprentice, and put my name and the value of my research on the line with someone as public and well known as your son, to simply lower his long term potential. It would be like blasting my own foot off with when trying to go down as one of the greatest . Your son becoming a truly legendary figure is key to my legacy surviving the tests of time.¡± Grand Archmagus Solomon replied. He does have an ego, but I don''t think he is being malicious here. I get this sense he does not have any children, or many apprentices left alive. My mom stared him down for a solid minute before diverting her gaze to my dad. ¡°I feel we should trust him. He is not one to lie, Senna.¡± Dad stated with a bit of apprehension in his voice. ¡°You better be right.¡± Mom threatened the two of them. The two of them shuddered; she was definitely terrifying at times. ¡°Let¡¯s get started right away then.¡± Grand Archmagus Solomon snapped, ushering us to get moving. The group of adults moved through the library to a chamber, with a large, intricate circle drawn on the ground. Inside was a massive statue, carved out of something I did not recognize. It looked like a goddess, weeping, holding her hands out against the world. There was a small altar at the base of the statue. My mom uneasily set me down on the statue, while Solomon got closer. ¡°Great Lord of Fate, we ask for you to cry a tear on this day, so please sing your song.¡± he bellowed. That¡¯s a bit odd. I thought as the goddess began to sing. It was a pleasant melody with this angelic hymn to it. I lay there, enjoying the song. What were my parents worried about? This is actually quite nice; I did find it a little unsettling to hear a statue sing though. I don¡¯t understand a word this statue is singing though. The song made me feel sad though, like the statue was lonely. It resonated with me in a way I couldn''t describe. I continued to lay, listening to the song. After five minutes, I was growing a bit worried. How long is this song? Why hasn¡¯t it stopped? The statue continued to sing, with the song was becoming louder and louder as time went on, but it didn¡¯t bug me. In fact, the louder it got, the more comfortable I felt. The song shifted at the ten minute mark, which had this dark and foreboding sense to it, and still the statue sang. Every ten minutes, the song would shift. Joy. Sadness. Pride. Despair. Triumph. Loss. Finality. Through it all, I was oddly calm, like I knew it was all going to be alright. After ten minutes of the song feeling like finality the song finally came to an end. The statue let out a single tear, a brilliant white, that shined with its own radiance. I looked around, and the only three in the room were my parents and Solomon, all of who were sweating heavily. Where were Cesar, Helga, and Magus Erli? The brilliant white tear floated above me. So this was a ? It possessed and ethereal beauty as its radiance filled the chamber with ease. It eventually reached my hand. When I touched it, something in me clicked. That song is the . How do I know that? It was hauntingly beautiful. The tear was hard, and dense; I had never felt something like it. I did not mean like it felt kind of hard or was a little dense; it felt like I was holding a diamond with the weight of a black hole. So this is physically what a is. What was its purpose? Fated Day Pt. 2 My mom staggered over to me and picked me up, hugging me tight as she mumbled something. Solomon cast a which hid the before my parents and Solomon left the statue room, where Helga, Cesar, and Magus Erli were waiting outside. The group moved through the library towards a different room. I couldn¡¯t tell if this was efficient, having different rooms for each thing or is this just a poor layout? Maybe there is a reason due to for this? It was at that point I made a different observation: this place was much larger inside than it was outside. What type of allowed this? Was this some type of ? We reached a plain room with a simple barrier around it. Upon closer inspection, the room had panels with intricate designs on them covering the walls. Whatever the design was, it almost looked like a plain panel because of how dense and intricate it was. ¡°I hate how each room is designed for one specific thing. Always have to change rooms when switching activities.¡± Cesar muttered under his breath. ¡°You may hate it Cesar, but it allows for the rooms to be much more efficient at their purpose.¡± Solomon chided without looking at him. Solomon instructed my mom to set me in the middle of the room. He twisted his neck to let out a large pop and began rolling his shoulders. How did that help him do ? Maybe it was a mental thing? Or like a little ritual he does perhaps? I don¡¯t know why, but the fact a Grand Archmagus had such a small, little ritual before performing what was probably some super basic to him was interesting to me. Or maybe the method was more difficult than I realized. ¡°Emperor Azzeck, pay close attention. I will help your son his to begin his . As has an incredibly low there should be a very low chance of . The for helping or forcing one to I will demonstrate, and I believe you will have an easier time than Empress Senna replicating it because it appears he has your . We will have to start to the for him, so be ready. If he does not naturally replicate the process, it will kill him.¡± Solomon explained. My parents nodded with grim faces. My dad walked over, sat behind me, and placed his hand on my back. Solomon sat in front of me, took the , and stabbed it into my heart. Some was shot into my heart, which seemed to make a bridge, immediately after it felt like my nerves were on fire. My skin felt like it was melting off my body. Then I felt a surge. My was being forcefully cycled through my body, which felt like waves of ice rushing over it, cooling the burning sensation. Then another wave of heat emitted from my heart followed by my was forcefully cycled through my body again. So this is what is. Most babies probably wouldn¡¯t be able to replicate the flow because they wouldn¡¯t grasp what was happening. I could already see the sweat forming on Solomon. The third pulse of heat was way worse than the previous one, and the following cycle of felt as if it was trying to crush the as it cooled my body. It was compressing it into my heart. The cycle repeated again; the third pulse was by far the worst each time. So the released something that made my body burn while I use my to cool and counteract it. On the third pulse I try to compress the into my heart. I didn¡¯t need to understand why at this moment but let¡¯s see if I can replicate this. I looked at Solomon, who was definitely sweating profusely. I steadied my breathing, then opened my mind. I felt the within me absolutely surge, and unfortunately, so did the . Solomon let out a gasp as he clearly tried to put the brakes on this. A pulse of heat went out, and I surged my through my body much faster than Solomon had. On the third pulse, I took the surging and forced it into my heart. The cycle continued. After the third iteration of me in control, my dad and Solomon took their hands off me. This process continued for thirty minutes until on a compression I felt a massive click, or maybe more like a gate being opened. Immediately preceding, a surge of something coursed through my body. It didn¡¯t hurt. It felt amazing. It was like jumping into a pool on a blistering hot summer day as the cycles stopped. I flexed my hand, and it felt different. I moved my arms a little, and there was this sensation there. What happened to my body? Is this what happened when you ? I surged through my body again, and when it reached my heart it felt like it brushed against something. I surged again, this time slamming my against it. Immediately a wave of heat pulsed through my body. I immediately cycled my again, trying to slam it back into whatever it was. After a few times of forcing my as hard as I could against it, the burning pulses stopped. So that process was . What part was ? Was that the bridge sensation? ¡°I will personally perform an on Nil when he turns one, as long as you provide the materials, free of charge.¡± Solomon told my parents. ¡°Why so generous?¡± Dad asked clearly a bit caught off guard. ¡°Well he is to be my apprentice, and I am curious as to what he possesses. I want to make sure it is done right.¡± Solomon replied. I got the feeling he was just curious. ¡°Now for the you promised.¡± Mom reminded Solomon. ¡°I am just admiring your son. I am a man of my word.¡± Solomon snapped back, pulling a plain black case from his robes. ¡°Now, to warn your Imperial Highnesses, do have a chance for , especially the stronger ones, like the . I will try to combat that and help him them, and it should all be pretty smooth. Usually are easy to , but I am just warning you.¡± Solomon warned. He did seem to enjoy covering his bases. ¡°Do you think something might happen?¡± Mom checked, her eyes narrowing. ¡° are mythically rare. Documentation and research on them is non-existent. I am just saying there is a chance for something to happen, and I am not sure how much. Do you accept the risk?¡± Solomon explained. M\y parents nodded and he walked over to me. He opened the case, and pulled out two eyes made out of glass. I could feel their power as the room was just filled with their authority. It was similar to when my dad got tense, except these weren¡¯t holding back for my sake. Solomon took a deep breath, grabbed my head, and forced them into where my eyes were. What the hell are you doing old man?! I screamed which came out as mildly distressed baby noises as the glass was forced into my sockets. Oddly enough, it didn¡¯t hurt. Or change my vision. They seemed to meld with my eyes. Solomon unleashed some immensely complicated at my eyes where whatever bridge he formed in my heart was pretty easy to brush off, and was barely noticeable as he did it, the same could not be said for my eyes. It was indescribable how uncomfortable the sensation was. The best I can compare it to is my eyes became a liquid and resolidified with the glass inside them. He weaved some delicate , creating a bond between my eyes and the , and as soon as he finished, an immense surge of power exploded from them. How my skull didn¡¯t explode was beyond me. This power was hostile, it was angry, and it was domineering. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. WHO DARES TRY TO TAKE ME AS THEIR OWN? A voice blasted in my head. Or maybe yelled in the room. I couldn¡¯t tell, it was quite loud, and just oozed a level of I had never felt before. My vision was getting extremely blurry. Can you turn down the volume please. My head can only take so much. I thought toward the boom. A BABY?! SOMEONE IS TRYING TO BOND MY WITH A BABY?! The voice snarled in shock. Hey this baby can understand you. I snapped back. My vision was all but gone at this point. What? How is a baby forming such coherent thoughts? The voice snapped at me, as I felt my brain get forcefully searched through. Can you stop that, it is quite unpleasant. I requested as it was just dark around me. Hello interloper. I am Kron, Lord of Fate. What is your name? Kron asked. Their voice was quite hard to tell if it belonged to a man or a woman. Nil Sathanas Crowthorne. Nice to meet you. I am so glad to be able to finally talk to someone. I replied, feeling happy I could actually talk to another being. I meant your previous name. Kron pressed in an unamused tone. No. I am Nil Sathanas Crowthorne. That is the me of now, and for the hopefully long future. I retorted. So what are your intentions in this world? Kron asked calmly. No idea, live I guess. Currently looking like I am going to succeed my dad as Emperor which is kind of cool. So what is a Lord? What powers over Fate do you have? I inquired. Finally, someone who could answer my questions. So you have no plan? Just go with the flow of things? Kron checked sounding quite skeptical. I answered your question so you should answer mine. And yes, I have not seen much of this world so I don¡¯t have much of a plan. I like this world so far. Currently infinitely better than my previous one. Now answer my questions. I demanded. Please answer at least one. Infinite? What is ¡®infinitely¡¯? As for your question, we Lords created Tenebrae. We are that formed this world and gave it life. I am called the Lord of Fate as I can see what outcomes are possible, the branching paths, things that may come to be or will never happen. I can peer into the future, and see how time flows. Kron explained with a bit of amusement. That¡¯s pretty cool. Infinite is a mathematical concept of a number that is so large it has no defined size, a number that never ends. What I stated previously can also be phrased I like this world more than my previous one by an amount that cannot be measured. I answered. I missed being able to actually talk. You are awfully casual and familiar in how you are talking to me. Kron groaned. So are you actually here in the or is this some projection? I asked them. Curious one, aren¡¯t you? This is a , as my body and presence have long since passed from Tenebrae. Would it kill you to have some reverence towards a Lord? Kron stated, sounding a tad annoyed at me. I am sorry, your most esteemed Lord. You are so highly venerated, of such high and noble standing that it temporarily made me lose my sense. If you could forgive that one of such low birth and standing as I addressed you in an improper and informal manner, it would be a blessing and gift I would carry with pride for my entire life. Please oh great Lord, if you could enlighten my mortal mind with the reason as to why I am being graced with your presence? I replied with the utmost sincerity. Listen here you little punk, you realize I could kill you with a thought right now? Kron threatened. My most gracious and esteemed Lord, what have I done that you could take offense to? I am addressing you as desired, with immense reverence of such divine stature. I am aware my life is but a speck in the grand cosmos of your life, but please be merciful. I soothed, again, as sincere as I could possibly be. Go back to how you were speaking originally. Kron sighed. Ha ha ha ha. Why thank you. Now why am I able to hear and talk with you? I probed. What was allowing this? Kron said , but what was that? Because you are trying to the left by my passing. Each contains our . We left it to judge who is inheriting it, and keep it out of the hands of those we deem either unworthy or will do nothing but harm with it. Now you are a much more curious case and I am still deciding whether to smite you or let you keep them. Kron informed me. To argue my case, I would greatly appreciate not dying. Now you don¡¯t have a lot of actions in this world to judge me on, but I can honestly say I am really enjoying this life. I pleaded. His threat was not as hollow as I thought. Your personality is not bad, which is good for you. You are also from another world, which is a wildcard I do not like. I can see your , which is at a whopping zero, which isn¡¯t surprising given you are only three months old. You honestly don¡¯t have any plans in this world, which is another factor that makes you hard to judge. You seem to just want to live your life and let the cards land where they may. You have been training your because it is cool and different rather than out of a desire to be strong. It makes it hard to judge what you will do. Kron rambled, sounding annoyed. You could say it is, Fate, we met like this if that helps. I joked with Kron. Another pun like that and I will end your life with zero hesitation. Kron snapped at me. Sheesh, no need to hate on the pun. No appreciation for the craft. I pouted as Kron mulled over what to do. I am determining whether you live or die. You would think you would be trying to butter me up or something. Kron suggested to me. That¡¯s not how I like to do things. How long do you have to decide? I asked. I hoped the answer wasn''t as long as Kron felt like. About another five minutes then the timer expires. Stupid rules. It was more to keep us from holding someone in limbo forever as we determined if we wanted them to inherit our . The rule may have been instated as some of us are a bit indecisive. It does default in your favor if I don¡¯t decide. Kron answered. This was getting better. So I just got to stall. So, Kron, how¡¯s life? What do you think of your parents? Is there someone you don¡¯t like and would like to vent your frustrations about? Even a powerful and magnificent being as yourself is bound to have had to deal with people you didn¡¯t like. I interrogated them. Such petty tricks are not going to work on me mortal. Kron replied with a chuckle. What petty tricks? I would not try and pull a trick on a Lord. That would be heretical. I retorted, to which Kron laughed. I am curious, your body is barely . What did you use as a ? Kron asked me. How could a tell all of this? A . The singing was quite beautiful. I informed Kron. What color was the tear? Kron continued, seeming interested in the answer. Brilliant white. It seemed to radiate light all on its own. It was very pretty. I explained, recalling the light that cascaded off it. Kid, I guess Fate is on your side. Live your best life. Enjoy my gifts. And thanks for making my last conversation interesting. Kron replied as I felt their presence fade away. A barrier lifted; something changed as it felt like my eyes had just opened. That¡¯s when I realized I had been severed from everything. Kron completely severed me from existence while they thought about my fate. My brain finally registered what my eyes were seeing. The exact same thing as before, but my parents looked immensely distraught. Solomon was barking orders around. Helga, Cesar, and Magus Erli looked on with a gloomy silence. I took a breath, and could feel the circulate around me. I took another breath as it felt like my soul reconnected to my body. I took another breath, and this time, my stretched out from my body as it usually did to form my normal . I circulated a little through my body, and felt something was being exerted. Everyone looked at me with a strained expression. What did this even do? Everything felt the same. Just an odd little exertion from my eyes which probably the feeling of circulating that I was still getting used to. Fated Day Pt. 3 Helga After the had begun to be , Crown Prince Nil¡¯s body went limp as Grand Archmagus Solomon was launched across the room. Crown Prince Nil¡¯s soul appeared to have completely left his body. It was something completely unprecedented. took many forms, but this was something I certainly didn¡¯t understand. Whenever one of us got close to Nil, a way beyond his ability propelled us back. Whatever it was, Grand Archmagus Solomon ordered us to not try again and that was not something to be tested. Emperor Azzeck and Empress Senna were understandably quite distraught. Grand Archmagus Solomon ordered as many available and to the room as soon as possible. It took less than fifteen minutes to scramble an impressive array of . It took them another five to set up an incredible array of barriers, investigative spells, and protection for the room as well as to see what was happening to Crown Prince Nil. Then Crown Prince Nil took a breath. We all felt it. The in the room just seemed to bend to his will. Then came the second breath and the light returned to his fierce amber eyes as the air seemed to leave the room. We all were feeling it. What is happening? Was this the power of his ? Crown Prince Nil¡¯s third breath brought me to my knees. All the previous effects were amplified, and the in the room contained traces of his. That wasn¡¯t right. The ambient in the air felt like it was kneeling down before his, that it was serving his bidding. We were entities that were simply in its way. This power was absolutely suffocating. ¡°Nil!¡± Empress Senna called out. His eyes snapped to her, and he used a much faster and cleaner than his previous ones to go in front of her. The sensation stopped. There was a stunned silence in the room. You could hear a cotton ball drop it was so quiet. What finally broke the silence was a loud growl from Nil¡¯s stomach. He was motioning at his mom like he was hungry. Emperor Azzeck just started to laugh; Grand Archmagus Solomon joined in. The rest of us did not want to move or make a sound. How on Tenebrae did a baby do that? ¡°I will feed you in a second Nil. I am just glad you are okay.¡± Empress Senna cried as she hugged her baby close. Emperor Azzeck was next to her, petting his son¡¯s head. ¡°Your Imperial Highnesses, I am not sure what happened, but as you can clearly see, he has successfully the . I believe that has been enough excitement for today; I will be expecting the payment as we discussed.¡± Grand Archmagus announced. ¡°Grand Archmagus Solomon, I know as a supporter of the Mage Freedom Act I cannot order these Mages to forget what they just witnessed, or compel them to keep it a secret. Can I ask for you to please use your discretion to keep this under wraps.¡± Emperor Azzeck asked. A few of the Mages in the room looked surprised at the announcement. ¡°I understand your concerns Emperor Azzeck, for such a promising talent should be carefully hidden and protected. As he is to become my apprentice, I order all Mages in this room to forget what they have just witnessed, make no official reports, and not to breathe or record a word of what has happened here even in private. Anyone who disobeys this order, or the intents of this order, shall be punished to the highest degree.¡± Grand Archmagus Solomon declared with a smile. ¡°Thank you Grand Archmagus Solomon. Come, Cesar, Helga, Magus Erli, it is time for us to leave.¡± Empress Senna ordered. I quickly followed the Imperial Highnesses along with my brother and Magus Erli back to the carriage. We quickly left the Institution of Mages. Once inside, Empress Senna began to feed Crown Prince Nil. She and Emperor Azzeck were beaming with pride as they looked after their son. Lords of Tenebrae I pitied any siblings he may have. How do you compete with that? I got the distinct feeling my time watching Nil was going to become much more challenging. Just wait till he can walk and talk. He already was sitting upright; once he became more mobile this was going to be hell. The oddest part was, despite all that had transpired, Crown Prince Nil looked exactly the same. His eyes were the same shade of amber as Empress Senna, his skin was still that bone white of his father¡¯s. His face seemed to take after Emperor Azzeck, but he had his mother¡¯s pitch black hair. Crown Prince Nil¡¯s horns were still little stubs so it was hard to tell which parent¡¯s they would look like. Out of nowhere, the in the carriage became tense again as Crown Prince Nil¡¯s eyes appeared to be glowing slightly. It was nowhere near as terrifying as before. This time was more of an awkward pressure than the kneel before your supreme ruler presence from before. Why was it different? I was not too familiar with so I wasn''t sure if this was normal. ¡°Do not worry your Imperial Highnesses, it is normal for an to emit closer to its full effect upon being and further use depends on the Mage¡¯s skill and familiarity with the .¡± Magus Erli quickly explained. It was obvious from the lackluster response of Empress Senna and Emperor Azzeck they clearly already knew that. They did seem to appreciate her trying to inform them just in case so they didn¡¯t panic. I did find his innate strength and talent quite comforting. Emperor Azzeck would be succeeded by someone just as if not stronger which was good for all of Speranza. On the other hand, I did pity my brother. He and Cleo had just had a healthy baby boy. It obviously distressed him on whether or not to allow his son near Crown Prince Nil. I can only imagine parents want their child to grow up strong and successful, and believe their child is truly gifted. I could only imagine what Cesar was feeling, especially given he had seen Crown Prince Nil and what he already has achieved. I had no idea how Cesar balanced it, or kept it from eating him up inside. * If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Nil BOW BEFORE MY SUPREME POWER! KNEEL IN FRONT OF MY UNPARALLELED STRENGTH! YOUR DAYS OF PEACE ARE OVER FOOLISH MORTALS! I thought internally as I finally got this baby body to take a step. I am walking finally! Nine months and I can finally walk! Well technically ten months in Tenebrae. I had learned a bit more about Tenebrae in the time that had passed. First, it used a thirteen month calendar, where each month was exactly twenty eight days. But the length of time is the same on Tenebrae, which was convenient to not have to relearn. It was also interesting as there was a Day of Reflections that didn¡¯t belong to any month, and it was after my birthday but before the new year. I still don¡¯t know all the months. Another thing I learned was the written language was completely different. So did I have something converting what they are saying for me or is the spoken language the same? Because of there was no way for me to tell. I also learned Cesar has a son that¡¯s slightly younger than me, but so far I was not able to figure out what his name was. I wasn¡¯t sure what to think about him. Maybe meeting a new person won¡¯t be so bad? That was to be decided later. Whenever Cesar wanted to slip away and spend some time with his son, my dad loved giving him grief about responsibilities and how he must keep doing his duties. Cesar usually retorted about a certain night in Rockhaven and how Empress Senna would be most keen to learn the details; it took seconds for my dad to cave after that threat. It usually ended up with my dad slacking and spending more time with me, which I wasn¡¯t going to complain about. My mom would join us once she knew Cesar was gone. Cesar was out of luck if he wanted to slip away with my mom though because she was definitely holding a grudge for the times he pulled her away from me. He had nothing to hold over her head. My dad swept me off the ground, spinning around while holding me above his head, excited I had just taken my first few steps. Just you wait, I can finally start exploring this castle. The last six months had been a cycle of me , practicing with my , and improving my in my free (alone) time while doing a little of each and trying to move my body when adults were around. For the longest while I could not tell what the was doing; I did it out of the not wanting to choke to death on my own . About a month ago I tried stabbing myself with a small sliver of wood I found to see if my body was changing in a way I just didn¡¯t know. To my pleasant surprise no matter how hard I tried, the wood couldn¡¯t pierce my skin. It also could be because I am a demon, but for now I was assuming made my body a bit stronger. Another reason I thought that was I didn¡¯t get as tired after depleting my ; the physical toll just was not as severe. I could now around a bit, but if I couldn¡¯t get back to my crib my parents would definitely increase their surveillance of me. Now that I thought about it, there was no way my room was unguarded at night. Who watched me at night? As for my , it was a sink as far as I could tell. It did nothing. No matter how hard I tried to use it, there was just this sensation of exertion from my eyes. There was no visible effect of whatever it was doing. Even when I first used it, nothing. Kron was the Lord of Fate so I thought it would do something cool. All it did was eat my . The best I had gotten recently from it was the vague sensation that sometime in the next month I might see a bird. I honestly wasn''t sure it even was from using the or how I thought it was weird I hadn¡¯t really seen any birds. I was not going to neglect it though, as it had to do something. But now, now was the time for walking. I made some slightly better noises using my throat that almost resembled words now. My dad set me down, and I took a few more steps. Slow and steady. I shall soon have mobility. Currently it was step, step, fall. My crawling was good, so alternating between the two gave me some nice mobility. Hopefully I would get the coordination down of this baby body and be able to speak, but not speak so well my parents got suspicious. That is going to be a pain to try and get the balance right. Best part was the falls were like I could feel the impact happening, but that was it. There was no pain. was quite convenient if this is what it does. Logically speaking it would make sense, but I had no way of knowing for sure. These adults aren¡¯t exactly explaining this stuff to me. At least in a few nights I would finally be able to explore the castle a bit more. Maybe figure out who watches me at night. I haven¡¯t detected anyone with but there was probably a way to hide from it. I smiled and made some syllables for my parents. When they seemed delighted it made me quite happy for some reason. I have got to stop zoning out sometimes. * Nox Abaddon Crowthorne I sat in the corner watching my nephew. Brother, having me watch this kid is so beneath me. Like an absolute buffoon, I told my brother I wanted an easy, laid back job for a while since there wasn¡¯t a lot of need for my main profession at the moment. So what does he do? Nighttime baby-sitter for his little brat which had very little time off. One of the few times I did have a night off, the little turd figured out how to use . Why didn¡¯t you tell us he was starting to form ? Because that was news to me! The kid had a natural desire to get stronger as without fail every night when he thought he was alone he would train something. Originally it resulted in absurd levels of growth, but with him alternating between , his , , and his each was growing at a less alarming pace. It also meant he was not likely to accidentally kill himself which was a worry there for a bit. Of course my easy nights of just watching a baby develop its changed once the punk could walk. The first three nights I was extra vigilant, making sure he didn¡¯t escape the room. It was odd, as each night he strictly used and his . Nothing else. On night four the little problem child launched his plan into motion. Nil performed another scan of his room and the immediate area. We were the only two on the floor, and there was no way he would be able to detect me. Once he was satisfied that no one was nearby, he to the door so fast and smooth I barely noticed. He is getting pretty good at his . Another and he was off using his odd alternating crawl walk. Whenever something made noise, he would instantly to a pillar which was something I noticed Helga did when she was near him in case there was a clumsy attacker after the Crown Prince¡¯s life. I knew there was something going on in that head; he was a natural born schemer. Nil would launch the occasional to make sure the area was clear. Nil explored a good chunk around the floor. His baby frame and body definitely did slow him down, but it was funny to mess with him. I would throw a stone off in the distance, and he would instantly and then proceed to use in response. I conjured a few breezes in the halls to see how he would react. Sadly, there was no visible reaction. How would he react to a stranger? That might be fun to test. And with that thought, I descended upon my scheming baby nephew. Fated Day Pt. 4 Nil My exploration was going great. There was an occasional noise, but whatever caused them was outside the range of my . This castle was a lot breezier at night than the day which was weird. Why were there so many random drafts of air? Right as I was about to head back, a shadowy figure descended. It was wearing armor and a cloak that covered its entire body. An assassin. Oh no. Not like this! I immediately cast back to my crib. It was a long distance, but I should be fine. I was back in my crib. Someone please help! I don¡¯t want to die! The shadowy figure entered the room with ease. I didn¡¯t have enough magic to out; I barely had enough for a . The figure walked slowly towards me, emitting a menacing aura. I began to cry as loud as I could. Someone hear me! Mom! Dad! Please make it in time! The figure just chuckled. I noticed a cone around us. It was some form of silence . I am doomed. I was not going to go down so easily; I had a little bit of left that could cast . There was nothing heavy I could drop on him. The figure walked closer, taking its sweet time. Focus Nil. There has to be something. That is when I noticed the figure had nothing to defend himself against me. I just knew he wasn¡¯t expecting an attack. The best thing I had at my disposal was . Wait, doesn¡¯t have to be used on inanimate objects does it? What if I tried to grab something like his heart? Well, only one way to find out. I tried to the figure''s heart into my hand. I was guessing the anatomy of a demon wasn¡¯t too far off from humans; from what I could tell it wasn¡¯t drastically different. The figure lurched awkwardly, then spat out a cloud of blood. But there was no heart in my hand. I am so dead. The figure roared in agony. I was out of , that was my only shot. The cone around us vanished, so I immediately began screaming and crying. Please hear me mom. Dad. One of you two. Please. My parents descended upon the figure in an instant, who was writhing in pain on the ground. The figure was clutching its chest, swearing like a sailor. The language was so foul it was unreal. My mom immediately picked me up as my dad burst out laughing. What? Me almost dying is funny? ¡°So brother, what happened here?¡± Dad asked with a wide grin on his face. ¡°Heal me. He tried to my heart. I barely severed his in time.¡± the figure gasped. ¡°And why is he crying Nox? You didn¡¯t chase him did you? His is extremely low.¡± Mom interrogated with an irritated voice. ¡°Senna, this is not the time. Please heal me.¡± Nox wheezed, sounding desperate. ¡°Nox Abaddon Crowthorne. Elite assassin done in by my ten-month-old son. It was a valiant fight as Nox struggled to sneak up on a baby and got hit by a powerful as Nil defended himself. I can see your tombstone now. Speranza thanks you for your service, if only we could have made it in time.¡± Dad teased. This monster is my uncle? ¡°I am not dead! Can you please heal me Senna?¡± Nox spat with a cloud of blood coming from his mouth. My mom relented and healed him. My uncle sat rubbing his chest, glaring at me. That¡¯s what you get! I thought I was going to die! She was holding me close. I held onto her tightly. Someone was shaking. Might have been me. Not saying I lost control of my baby body, but there was a slight smell. ¡°So why is Nil so scared Nox?¡± my mom pressed. Her voice was like ice. ¡°The kid was exploring, so I scared him a little. He used to get back here. I followed him. At that point he really started to freak out so I put a around us, and I cut my to try and get him to calm down. That didn¡¯t work. While I was trying to figure out how to calm him down Nil tried to use on my heart. Luckily, he is a baby and his aim was a little off.¡± Nox explained desperately. ¡°So you terrorized my son and almost got sent to the Lords of Tenebrae by him.¡± Dad clarified, struggling to keep a straight face. ¡°I had no idea he would freak out so bad.¡± Nox retorted. ¡°A stranger, at night, who generally has a menacing aura, and you wondered why a baby would find that scary?¡± Mom inquired while my uncle looked like he wanted to vanish. ¡°I may not have thought through how he would react. The way he reacted it was like he thought his life was on the line.¡± my uncle replied. Because I did think my life was on the line. You are quite a scary person! My mom was clearly judging him silently while she changed my garments. I was beginning to feel better when my mom picked me back up. Uncle Nox I am going to use the strongest weapon at my disposal; you deserve this. I hit my mom with the best baby eyes I could, which I immediately followed with a little whimper and snuggled into her. I wasn¡¯t looking up, but even I could feel the avalanche hit the room. My uncle''s desperation was palpable. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Empress Senna, I swear I am not lying. I have no idea why he is so scared!¡± Nox pleaded like he was on trial. ¡°Oh really?¡± Mom snarled. Her voice was so cold my spine tingled. ¡°Honey, I am sure my idiot brother did not mean to terrify Nil.¡± Dad interjected, clearly trying to calm my mom down. ¡°So you are taking his side?¡± Mom checked with my dad which only added to the palpable discomfort in the room. ¡°My wife is right Nox! How dare you scare my son to such a degree!¡± Dad barked at him. And the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, all through the town. ¡°What do you think is an appropriate punishment, Nox?¡± Mom questioned him, her voice still terrifying. ¡°I am sure Empress Senna in her infinite generosity can forgive such a small mistake.¡± my uncle replied foolishly. I hit my mom with the snuggle in deeper as he finished his sentence. Not a chance Uncle Nox; I am going to lay it on extra thick; try digging yourself out of this one. I could feel his despair. It was delicious as I put my little baby hands on Mom. ¡°Brother, your kid is a natural schemer. He set me up. I swear what I did should have only mildly startled him!¡± Nox begged his brother. ¡°Oh yes, my ten-month-old son, the devious mastermind who has clearly prepped and made your destruction, has sprung forth his master plan.¡± Dad mocked him. Mwahahahaha. ¡°Nox, you are looking quite sad. Please accept your punishment with grace.¡± Mom instructed him as I could almost feel his soul leave his body. ¡°As punishment, when Nil comes of age, you will have to train him how to fight. It is only fair for traumatizing him so much you teach him to properly defend himself.¡± Dad declared with an odd joy to his voice. ¡°What?! Why do I have to teach your brat to fight! That will take years!¡± Uncle Nox shouted back at him. ¡°It¡¯s not like you have a lover or friends, what is the problem of waiting around a few years?¡± Mom retorted. I think my uncle just died. ¡°It¡¯s settled then. I think you can have the rest of the night off to reflect on your actions as we will be taking Nil back to our bedroom. Senna, I will join you shortly.¡± Dad announced with what I imagined was a grin. My mom quickly left the room with me. I could see my uncle looking defeated on the ground so I stuck my tongue out at him. Wait, do I really want this idiot teaching me to fight? Couldn¡¯t you do a little better? I thought as my exhaustion caught up with me. * Nox I could have sworn the little troublemaker stuck his tongue out at me as his mom left with him. That kid was not normal; there was a devious fire in his eyes. Brother, you are going to be in for a world of torment once he gets older. Nil did panic way more than I anticipated; I have no idea why he freaked out to such a degree. Unless his ability to detect and feel the of others was sharper than I realized. Still, how on Tenebrae did a baby come so close to using on my heart? His aim was almost dead on. I felt his at the last second and abruptly cut it off. Master assassin nearly killed by a baby. I had completely let my guard down as I tried to figure out how to calm my problematic nephew; I was taking this shame to my grave. And Senna was super pissed because it was like that hellion intentionally laid it on as thick as possible. She and I didn¡¯t get along on our best days. Once his parents were there to protect him, it¡¯s like his only goal was to screw me over. ¡°Seriously brother, you can tell me, Senna is gone. What happened?¡± Azzeck probed. You traitor. Siding with your wife. Granted, you were probably getting no chances at making another child for at least a year if you didn¡¯t. ¡°I only meant to startle him. He was investigating this floor of the castle. Originally, I was only throwing stones in the distance and making drafts appear on him. I wanted to see how he would react to a stranger and he absolutely lost it. It was like he was terrified he was about to die.¡± I explained to him. ¡°He does have a and has always been in tune with quite well. He probably sensed more of your and than you realized.¡± Azzeck replied, chuckling a little. ¡°Probably. I am telling you though, he was not struggling to move around the floor. That kid even waited a few days while checking for guards or people watching him before he made his move. Your son is going to be devious.¡± I warned him. I was convinced he was more cognizant than we realized. ¡°Cesar and Elder Repte keep telling me that. Now you are joining them too. Does he seriously have such a devious look in his eye?¡± Azzeck asked, clearly only seeing a sweet little angel in his son. ¡°Honestly it might just be a Crowthorne family trait to have that kind of glint in the eye. Now was making me have to train him to fight necessary?¡± I whined back. ¡°If I left it to Senna she might have honestly executed you. Plus, you wanted to take it slow for a while and are an excellent fighter. My main options are you and General Railos, but I think between the two of you, the better fighter is most certainly you.¡± Azzeck informed me. ¡°Thanks. Now I get to train him while holding back so I don¡¯t accidentally hurt him too much for Senna¡¯s sake.¡± I groaned. That was going to be so tedious. ¡°Not exactly. Senna is aware of how Princes are typically trained and is fully on board with it. She would rather him get hurt and learn now then get a costly lesson later.¡± Azzeck told me. ¡°That¡¯s surprising. Did she have to bring up my being single? That was such a low blow, like my chops did not need to be busted that bad.¡± I whined to him. ¡°You scared her precious little baby. That one¡¯s on you. Plus, you will have plenty of free time to look for someone now.¡± Azzeck shot back with a smirk. ¡°Thanks for your overwhelming support. Really makes me feel loved, you know?¡± I snapped at him. ¡°Anytime brother.¡± Azzeck said with a chuckle. Fated Day Pt. 5 Nil I woke up in the morning, nestled between my parents. My sleep schedule had gotten a lot more consistent, which was nice. I just lay there, enjoying the moment. So my uncle was the one watching me. I did not like my uncle, terrifying me like that while claiming it was an accident. Laughing. Maybe it was nervous laughter as I reacted in a way he didn¡¯t expect? Nope, still going to mess with him. But how? I was limited in this baby body. My mom woke up a few minutes later. She woke my dad, got dressed, picked me up, and carried me with her to the dining room. It was a good size room with a table sized for a family in it. Definitely a private dining room not for entertaining guests. Now the breastfeeding was lessening to about four to five times a day, and I was eating this world''s equivalent of baby food. A few minutes later my dad joined us. It was nice eating as a family. Strange to me, but I found myself enjoying this time immensely. Then my uncle walked in. I will get you somehow, Iust need to find a way. Mom was already giving him a death stare, which was a promising start. ¡°What are you doing here, Nox? Isn¡¯t this normally when you cry yourself to sleep?¡± she asked with venom in her voice. ¡°Well, if I am going to be staying a while, might as well be part of the family. Give me a chance to bond with my nephew and spend some quality time with my dear brother and his wife.¡± Uncle Nox retorted. He and mom don¡¯t get along; this is going to be too easy. He took another step closer and I flinched. Then quickly tucked into my mom who was still holding me. I could feel her tense, and her anger became palpable. Am I a terrible person for doing this? I think if I do it only today I am fine. I took a glance at my uncle, whose eyes were shooting between me and my dad. ¡°Okay Nox you might have a point.¡± Dad stated, looking at Mom and I. ¡°And what would that point be dear?¡± Mom inquired. Abort dad! Run! Save yourself! I should not have riled mom to punish Uncle Nox! ¡°That our son is gifted and might be a bit devious. As in he is annoyed at Nox for scaring him and is using you to punish Nox.¡± Dad explained carefully. Traitor. Time for the big guns. I looked at my mom with the best big baby eyes I could muster as she was looking intently at me. I raised my arms a bit to try and grab at her. I even threw in trying to say mama. It was do or die. I needed to be convincing. My pride be damned, I need this to work. Dig in deep Nil. You got this. We need to do better than that pathetic attempt at the word. ¡°Mama.¡± I said aloud. It was rough, but it was undeniably the word: mama. I looked intensely at my mom. Please have worked. Please believe I am your sweet innocent little son who would never do what he is accusing me of. She looked like she had melted. My uncle and father were slack jawed. I definitely need to not do this anymore; it will only cause trouble. ¡°He just said mama!¡± Mom exclaimed with joy. Mission success. ¡°He just said his first word!¡± Dad proclaimed as he happily rushed over. ¡°You have got to be kidding me.¡± my uncle muttered beneath his breath. ¡°Can you say it again Nil?¡± Mom requested, sounding over the moon. ¡°How about papa?¡± Dad suggested, still beaming. ¡°Mama.¡± I repeated. It was definitely rough; needs improvement on the most generous of grading. The rest of breakfast was me repeatedly saying the word mama much to my mom¡¯s delight. I tried saying papa a few times, but it sounded more like baba than anything to me. My dad still considered it a win. Temporary distractions for the win. After about twelve minutes my uncle sighed and went to go sleep. Cesar came and fetched my parents for their daily duties as rulers, and I was handed to Helga. I hated this part of the day; my parents always looked so sad. After Helga began carrying me up a few flights of stairs to the floor I was generally kept to, I heard a sound. More accurately, a chime. What was that? I looked around and saw nothing. Helga didn¡¯t react to it. Am I crazy? I heard the chiming sound again. Again, Helga didn¡¯t react. Why can I hear it? I quickly started checking what I was doing making sure to get proper breathing for . Lightly circulating in my body. Relaxed. Using my . Wait. It couldn¡¯t be. How could an help me hear something? The chiming sound continued as we arrived at the floor, and clear as day in the middle of the hall was, was, a, it was a, it clearly was a, I had absolutely no idea. The creature appeared to be made entirely out of light. It let off a faint glow and was jumping around. Each time it landed, the little chiming sound echoed throughout the room. Whatever this thing was, it was small. Like the size of a house cat. It had two ears which were long and narrow like blades of grass, little nubs for horns, tufts above each of its diamond eyes, and a face akin to that of a mouse for its head. Whatever this thing was, it alternated easily between being on all fours and on only its hind legs. The hind legs were shaped similar to a rabbit¡¯s but had three tiny raptor claws on each foot. The creature possessed two fox tails with black tips and a slender torso which was reminiscent of a cat¡¯s. The front legs were similar to a raccoon¡¯s, except the paws were stouter than long, and like the back feet, there were three fingers, each with a tiny claw. What was this thing? Why could I see it and not Helga? Better yet, why could I hear it and not Helga? I pointed at it, to try and get Helga to notice. She looked directly at it and then back at me. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°There is nothing there, Crown Prince Nil.¡± she replied. Is it my ? But why can I hear it and she can¡¯t? Unfortunately, the creature realized I could see it; whatever it was, it wouldn¡¯t take its eyes off me. On the bright side, it did not seem hostile, just curious. We reached my room, where the chiming creature followed. Helga sat me down in my room and did her normal sweep of the room. The creature walked cautiously towards me on all fours. I sat completely still. Animals usually responded better when you let them investigate on their terms from what I remember. The bizarre light creature came up to me tentatively, sniffing the air. It darted back a few times, but eventually got close enough I could actually smell it. The creature smelled like nothing; tot that it did not possess a smell, all the earthy scents of the castle vanished once it got close. How peculiar. After a few seconds of sniffing me, it shot down, covered its eyes, and began twitching its tails. I think it is trying to play. What game though? The creature peeked out of its paws, then made a motion like it wanted me to move, then resumed the position. Hide and seek maybe? I immediately used to leave the room, much to Helga¡¯s annoyance. I did my awkward crawl walk until I got close to my desired corner and used to get up on the ledge, making me difficult to see unless you got close. Exactly thirty seconds after the creature covered its eyes, I heard the chime sound. In the distance, I heard it hopping and moving around, looking for me. I also heard Helga looking for me, calling out to me. I am not losing this game so easily Helga. It took the creature five minutes to find me, doing a little hop in joy once I was found and did a little poke as if to tag me when I was found. The creature and I returned to my room, where Helga noticed I had returned to. I covered my eyes, and I heard the creature run off to hide. I was trying to keep track of its chiming to see where it went. The creature was quieter as it went to hide, but I had a decent idea where it went thanks to the chimes. After thirty seconds had passed, I went on the hunt. I quickly probed around with to see if I could find it that way. Not surprisingly, I did not detect it. I did my crawl walk out of the room in pursuit. Helga was following me, absolutely confused. The creature went left out of the room; what made this part easy was my room was centrally located on the floor. I did the crawl walk along the brick and passed several paintings and sculptures that decorated the hall. I noticed a large sculpture the little creature easily could be on top of. I used to reach the top, and sure enough, my new playmate was there. I poked it, tagging it as it. The creature was remarkably soft to the touch, feeling like I stroked a cloud. I used to reach the bottom, but the creature was at the base waiting for me. What? I didn¡¯t even hear it move this time. The creature and I continued to play hide and seek for two hours. Whatever this thing was, it was incredibly clever because it seemed to be learning each time and was getting better at hiding which caused us to gradually take longer to find each other. It somehow knew to stay on this floor as well, or guessed that as I wasn¡¯t leaving this floor. The creature was also making less noise as it moved around. However, at the end of two hours of moving and using , I had reached my limit. I needed a nap. Thankfully, the creature let out a yawn a little bit before I did. On our last trip to my room, I used to get into my crib, where the creature followed me, and curled up next to me as I fell asleep. * Helga Crown Prince Nil was officially freaking me out. He was wandering around the floor for no apparent reason, then returning to his room. Every other time he would sit still and cover his eyes for a bit, then proceed to go and hunt something. It was like he was playing with something, but I could not detect or see whatever it was. The Imperial Highnesses instructed me to let him wander around the floor to help him build his coordination, but this was unsettling. Crown Prince Nil had finally exhausted himself and was sleeping in his crib. It was a little early for his nap, but all the moving and using his exhausted him. He was able to use much more than before, showing signs he had been taking his seriously. I looked in the crib, and it was just Crown Prince Nil in the crib. I used the I was given to summon his other guardian, Imperial Prince Nox. I had no idea what was going on, but the way Crown Prince Nil was acting, there was something I could not see or detect. After about five seconds, Imperial Prince Nox arrived. ¡°What did my problem child of a nephew do now?¡± he yawned, clearly annoyed at having been woken up. ¡°I do not know. He is playing around like there is something, but I cannot see or detect it.¡± I explained. Was I crazy? ¡°Like an imaginary friend? Gee, declare an emergency. A baby is playing with his imaginary friend.¡± Imperial Prince Nox mocked. ¡°It was like he was playing hide and seek, which is why I am concerned. It lasted for roughly two hours.¡± I replied. Imperial Prince Nox was a royal pain at times. ¡°I will check around to be safe. Where is he now?¡± Imperial Prince Nox moaned as I pointed at the crib. Imperial Prince Nox walked over to the crib, and his eyes went wide. He smirked and then looked at me. Could he see something? Can he just tell me? There was something Crown Prince Nil was playing with was what his face told me. ¡°What do you see, Imperial Prince Nox?¡± I asked, wondering how I couldn''t see it. ¡°Good news for you, he was actually playing with something. Just keep an eye on him and it¡¯ll be fine, it is nothing dangerous as long as he doesn¡¯t provoke it.¡± Imperial Prince Nox stated nonchalantly. ¡°Why am I unable to see it? Could you please inform me of what it is Imperial Prince Nox?¡± I pressed hating him dodging my questions. ¡°It is a , a baby like him. You are unable to see it as you do not have an like Nil here nor did you train your to a degree to be able to see and interact with a of this caliber. You should train it more in your free time. While there are very few people on Tenebrae capable of reaching this level of , being able to detect them to protect my nephew is a skill you should possess.¡± Imperial Prince Nox lectured. Very few, I am talking to one of them, Ghost of Speranza. ¡°Is it wise to leave a feral next to the Crown Prince?¡± I inquired, not liking the idea. ¡°Let me make this clear, if that thing¡¯s mother is anywhere nearby, attacking or harming it will be way worse than anything that baby can do. That is a fight I would rather avoid, especially if the baby is playing with him. Chances are it got separated from its mother, saw the castle, and decided to climb and play in it. That or it is slightly older and is venturing off on its own. Either way, if it is not doing any harm, leaving it alone is the best course of action.¡± Imperial Prince Nox explained. I nodded my head in understanding as Imperial Prince Nox simply vanished. It was unsettling, as I could see him, but did not sense him at all for a split second before he was gone. No puff of smoke, no sensation of . Imperial Prince Nox simply ceased to exist after a second. Fated Day Pt. 6 Nox My nephew seemed to be an unending source of headaches. How on Tenebrae did he find something so problematic? Thankfully, it was a baby and not fully grown as those things were known for being incredibly territorial once they got older. Where did it even come from? I mean, they can use over incredibly long distances. Or use to move incredibly fast and cover large distances on foot in the blink of an eye. I better tell one of his parents just to be safe. Unfortunately for me, Senna was the one that would be less of a headache to reach at the moment. Azzeck was in meetings all day today involving new policies and what to do with that obnoxious human king. I let out a deep sigh and used to reach Senna in an instant. She was currently reviewing documents for the tax code to help simplify it for farmers and merchants. Man, talk about boring. Hopefully she will take the interruption kindly. I knocked on the door before unveiling myself. Senna immediately used to see who it was, her nose twitching and face grimaced for a second. ¡°What is it Nox?¡± she asked in an annoyed tone. I revealed myself, and she did not bother to look up from the documents in front of her. ¡°I came for two things. First, I am sorry for startling Crown Prince Nil as badly as I did. Second, I figured you should know about his new playmate.¡± I informed her. ¡°New playmate? What do you mean?¡± Senna checked as her amber eyes were boring holes into my head. ¡°Somehow, a baby found its way into the castle. It and Nil were apparently playing.¡± I explained. All the color drained from her face. Not the best thing to hear, your child playing with a baby . Let alone as one as dangerous as a . If that thing¡¯s mother was anywhere nearby and mistook us as being hostile, the damage would be severe if it was in a good mood. ¡°AND YOU LEFT IT WITH HIM?!¡± Senna exclaimed, as she rapidly stored the documents on her desk. ¡°Well, it was curled up sleeping with him, so I figured best not to disturb its rest. From what Helga said, the two were playing for a bit before they crashed.¡± I replied. Senna looked like she was about to explode like a volcano. Before she had a chance, we felt an immense surge of ; that would be mama . The just kept increasing. Lords of Tenebrae, how strong was the mother? I grabbed Senna and immediately used to reach where it was which unfortunately was in Crown Prince Nil¡¯s room. All the , , and crumpled like paper to the mother as it effortlessly bypassed them into the castle. That is probably not a good sign. In less than a second, we were in the Crown Prince¡¯s room, where Helga all but passed out from the sheer presence of the . It was next to the crib, glaring in. There is no way I can cut between her and the crib. It turned to face us once we entered the room. Currently, the mother was a bit larger than the crib. It was definitely hiding its full appearance, but there were easily ten tails, all down its front arms, and were three visibly floating behind its shoulders. That is not a we want to fight in this room. I should have moved the child earlier. I definitely should have moved the child away from Nil. Then again, touching the child might have made it cry for its mother, which I was trying to avoid. ¡°My child.¡± it growled, pointing at its kid. Senna was clearly trying to maintain her composure. If that thing got mad, there was nothing we could do to stop it from killing Nil. ¡°We noticed it playing with my nephew and let it be as we did not want to harm it.¡± I stated calmly. At least are one of the few smart enough to talk and understand what you are saying. It glared intensely at me. I am telling the truth, so we should be fine. The mother gently picked up its child, which woke up. It immediately jumped down and woke up Nil, tails wagging. That baby is going to get Nil killed. The mother let out a growl, which the baby ignored, rousing Nil from his slumber. The mother let out a deeper growl, which the baby looked up, then pointed at Nil. ¡°What did your child do to mine?!¡± the mother roared. Her hair was standing up, the were glowing, the halos were spinning, and she was showing her teeth. She was gearing up to fight. ¡°He is a baby. He doesn¡¯t know how to do anything. They played together, that is all.¡± I replied, keeping my composure. Senna looked like she was about to lose it. I am sure the is aware if that child dies, she and her child will be in immense danger. That was not a helpful thought, as Senna was clearly trying not to panic. I could feel my palms were getting a bit sweaty. As if at the worst possible moment, Nil used his ; it was probably out of pure reflex at seeing such a terrifying . The mother shot her gaze to Nil. There was a sun in each of the mother¡¯s diamond eyes, which quickly dissipated as she glared at Nil. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Ah.¡± the mother quipped as she immediately curled up and plopped down on the floor. What? What did Nil just do? ¡°What just happened?¡± Senna inquired, her voice barely remaining calm and even. ¡°I have no idea.¡± I confessed, wondering why the mother suddenly was calm. ¡°.¡± the mother confessed like it clarified everything. What did the Lord of Fate have to do with anything? Wait a second, Nil had an . I could feel a few things click in my head. You mean to tell me, he has a ? A title held by all is the Guardians of Fate. That, or Nil had a from the Lord of Fate. Perhaps both. It would also explain why a would randomly appear; it sensed him. At this point, Azzeck appeared, saw the , and went pale. He looked at Senna and I to try and get some idea of what was going on. Currently, the mother was calm which was good. We needed to figure out what to do and fast. Azzeck quickly used to seal the floor off from anyone else entering. ¡°I am sorry for being late. Dearest , why have you come to grace us with your presence?¡± Azzeck checked, keeping his gaze fixed on the . ¡°My child. Your child. .¡± the answered. Her child and Nil were currently having a staring contest. ¡°Our children were playing dear, and she came here to reclaim her child, but Nil has so she is remaining.¡± Senna clarified, a little less tense as the mother was relaxed. ¡°I am sure we can come to an arrangement where we would both be happy.¡± Azzeck offered to the . My brother was probably capable of cutting between her and his son. He might be an idiot at times, but there was a reason he was Emperor and I was not. The same look was on his face that Nil had this morning; he was plotting something. Hopefully it would resolve this situation with Nil completely intact. ¡°My child stay with your child.¡± the retorted. We all looked between ourselves. What was the after? Why did that appeal to her so much? ¡°Do you mean become his ?¡± Azzeck asked, trying to clarify what she meant. The mother glared at him. were fiercely independent. Not a lot of information was known about them, so it was a definite gamble to ask that. Certain did not take kindly to the idea of being . We had no way of knowing how she was going to react to that, but it sounded like what she was saying. ¡°Yes.¡± the mother replied. Her voice was tense, and her gaze made it clear this was not for debate. What was her goal? Why does she want that so bad? On one side, we had no reason to refuse. A as a , even though it was a baby, was almost impossible to resist. On the other, we were all super uneasy. rarely willingly became , especially intelligent ones. There was an angle at play we were not seeing. And a mother offering her child like this? Something was off. What do we say? I have no idea what she is after, but a with such potential for Nil is hard to refuse. Azzeck spoke to us using . This entire situation could have been avoided if you moved the child earlier Nox. Senna snapped at me. And risked pissing off the mother? I figured it was safer this way. Azzeck, I have no idea what she is after. She calmed down immensely after Nil used his . Something about that she likes. I informed him. Senna, I think the move is to agree to her terms. What do you think? Azzeck checked, still trying to gauge what the mother wanted. I am wary of what she gets out of this. This deal appears to be too good. Senna retorted. It was bugging all of us what her gain from this was. ¡°What do you gain out of this?¡± Azzeck asked the mother directly. ¡°My brood repay Kron.¡± the mother said calmly with a smile. Kron again. Something about that Lord holds meaning to her. There is a legend that certain were either made by or served under the Lords or Tenebrae depending on the interpretation. Which was which has long since been lost to history, but it is possible served Kron. I hypothesized to my brother. I hate to agree with Nox, but he might be right. Nil did use a for his and does possess a which might easily be the one associated with Kron. I think that is what the mother is after. The honor of one her children being the one to protect the one with , thereby repaying the Lord of Tenebrae. Senna agreed. It was the only thing that made any semblance of sense. ¡°We accept those terms.¡± Azzeck agreed. The mother lifted her child by the scruff of their neck and set them on the ground. She made a large, intricate on the ground. Senna carefully walked over and picked up Nil. We all gazed at the . An equal parts contract. Either of them dies, so does the other. It created an unbreakable link between the two; Senna and Azzeck looked at each other. Not a surprising catch. I told both of them. Senna set Nil down, and the mother mimicked the action. Nil and the child touched, and an immense surge of came from the circle. It branded itself onto the back of Nil¡¯s hand, and the child glowed. Wait, how is Nil going to name it? have to be named. That realization hit Senna and Azzeck as well, as the two of them visibly looked nervous. ¡°Lux.¡± Nil proclaimed. An oddly fitting name. How did a baby think of it? Wait, Lux was also in the . Did the contract simply convert him thinking of the word light to the name? I mean, that was not exactly impossible, given how intricate the was. ¡°Lux!¡± Nil repeated, and Lux jumped happily. It was nowhere near as clean or crisp as before. Nil repeated it a few more times, none anywhere close to the first. We all let out a collective sigh of relief as the mother licked Lux one last time before vanishing. Innovation and Variation Pt. 1 Nil I woke up, Lux curled up next to me. Lux was oddly soft and warm when I touched him? Her? I was not sure which Lux was. I grabbed one of Lux¡¯s back legs and checked. So Lux was a she. Lux let out a long yawn and arched her back like a cat. Play? A bell like voice asked in my head. The word sounded more like blay but it was close enough. My was full. I opened my eyes and felt the odd sensation when I locked eyes with Lux¡¯s mother. Something happened with my , but I could not tell what. For some reason, her presence was oddly calming. I used to escape my crib while Lux flipped over the edge, landing on all fours. Before I could say a word Lux rammed me at full speed. To specify, Lux appeared to vanish before reappearing with her shoulder in me. How fast was that? I picked myself up, several feet from where I started. I was trying to catch my breath as Lux began her next attack, barely ducking in time as her back legs soared over my head. I used to get some distance, but unfortunately, Lux was not easily shaken off. She relentlessly closed the gap and slapped me with one of her front paws. It felt like Lux slapped me at the speed of light. How is this playing? I mean, this might be playing to her. Regardless, I did not plan on being her punching bag which was a nice thought going through my mind as her feet went into my face. Did she just drop kick me? Something cracked as there was red in the air accompanied by an iron smell which filled my nose. There had to be a way to get myself some room to breathe. As expected, Lux was not relenting. I tried to Lux to a side so she would miss, which was when I learned an important fact about how worked. It does not change the momentum of the object; simply moves the object towards the desired location, and if you tried to something in motion, it was like you just pushed it to that direction. Lux curved to where I shifted her, sprung off the impact point, and kicked me across the head. My body did not have the coordination or mobility to match Lux. I needed to use somehow to turn the tide against Lux. I am also going to keep developing my as these attacks are not as hurting as much as I think they should. I steadied my breathing and braced for the onslaught of Lux. She was merciless as I channeled my inner punching bag. was not going to work unless I tried grabbing her heart or something; Lux was also hard to target as she only slowed down for a split second as she either turned or connected. I had , , and that I could use. I had no way of actually attacking Lux with and there was no way I would be able to land a blow as Lux continued her assault. She was mixing in swipes, kicks, and ramming into me causing my body to hurt all over. I tried to Lux to a side, only for her to kick off again and plant her feet directly into my stomach. I used to get some space again. Lux pursued as expected. I tried to Lux up; she went flying into the air. Lux fell at a normal pace. Wait. She can¡¯t move in the air. I her into the air even further. I could keep her off the ground. How can I use this? Lux was not teleporting between the points, it was more like a rapid move once Lux was solely under the influence of my . So if Lux is moving on her own I just push her to the side of where I am trying to , when I am causing it she moves to where I want directly, but it seems to dissipate the speed all on its own when there is only gravity and . How did this work? Thankfully Lux was light, so repeatedly using barely dented my reserve. Lux was flailing, but could not escape the drop loop I was making. Stop. Dizzy. Lux pleaded. It wasn¡¯t the words being said, like an impression, but somehow I completely understood what Lux was after. I used to gently set Lux on the ground. Does repeatedly using on someone cause nausea? I need to find some way to actually fight back. Repeatedly floating and dropping Lux is only going to work temporarily if we play this ¡®game¡¯ more. I then noticed a warm liquid dripping down my face. I tried moving my body, but it difficult to move because of how much it hurt. Lux did a real number on me. How do I heal? How does that work? I looked over at Lux, who I noticed was bleeding a bit from her paws. My uncle melted out of the shadows, with a smirk on his face. He totally witnessed that. Why was he smirking? I was still bitter about scaring the daylights out of me. Uncle Nox produced two red vials from his bag, popped the lid off one, and poured it down Lux¡¯s throat. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Poison! Taste bad! My tongue! Lux screamed into my head. She might have hated the taste, but the bleeding stopped. ¡°Here Nil. This will make you feel better.¡± my uncle said, in a voice that was trying to be soothing. He poured the mysterious red liquid into my mouth; I almost spit it out. How could something taste so bad? Rotten eggs mixed into sour milk would have been preferable to this as the taste was horrifically bitter and tart. It made my tongue recoil in horror from the taste. I choked the liquid down and the pain seemed to evaporate. Healing potions. This really is a fantasy world. I recoiled from the taste as it was utterly foul; I never want to drink one of those again. ¡°Now I got to get you out of that bloody shirt. Your mom would freak out and kill me if she saw that. How dare you let my baby get hurt.¡± my uncle muttered to himself. Skin hard. Lux moaned in my head. She was looking at her newly healed paws and testing to see if she could put weight on them. While my uncle was changing my shirt I was replaying the game in my head; Lux completely overwhelmed me in speed and strength. My baby body wasn¡¯t going to stand much of a chance either. For now, I needed a solution based in as Lux would definitely not be stopped by a loop for long. According to the adults, I likely had . So I could fling meteors at Lux? That seemed messy at best. What could I do? Lux was fast enough to rotate and stop herself from ramming full force into walls. Make a black hole appear? If the didn¡¯t kill me, the black hole probably would. Lux and I switched to playing hide and seek for a bit while my uncle watched us from the room. Uncle probably has the same as Dad assuming it is genetic. Every once in a while my uncle would mess with us by throwing a stone that would startle us because he would always throw it near where we were hiding. Uncle Nox, you are such a jerk. It was definitely annoying as he was giving away our positions. I glared at him, plotting some revenge for ruining our game. He threw another stone, except he never touched it. The stone levitated up to a height he desired, held it there for a few seconds, then he flung it. It wasn¡¯t . moved things from point to point, this seemed to give it some velocity and let go. It seemed kind of pointless, maybe decent for messing with us, but that was about it. As my uncle kept ruining hide and seek, Lux wanted to switch games. Race! Lux exclaimed. I was going to need if this was going to be any sort of competition. Lux was simply much faster than me. Is allowed? I asked. Lux shook her head yes, then drew a square on the ground. This floor is pretty square, so I guess it works well. We lined up at the rug in front of my room. My uncle threw another stone and we were off. I used to instantly reach the first corner. Lux was hot on my tail though. Why is she so dang fast? I was teleporting and she was barely behind me. I used on the long side, feeling my reserve take a hit. The relationship between the distance and consumed is most certainly not linear. I completed the remaining three and beat Lux by a fraction of an inch. I pumped my arm victoriously. My was drained, but Lux seemed fine. Lux¡¯s stomach let out a massive growls so my uncle produced a large black crystal from nowhere and launched it towards Lux, who jumped up and caught it. Lux began to devour the crystal. What is that crystal? Lux seems to love it. Something clicked. Lux caught the crystal. Has my uncle been giving me hints over and over? Objects imbued with could hit Lux. I mean, part of me feels bad about thinking about ways I can harm Lux, but that thrashing is not something I want to take everyday. I tried lifting one of the nearby pebbles with . Nothing. I could feel the anchor form on the pebble, but it wasn¡¯t budging. If I formed another anchor, I would use instead. I tried moving through the anchor. In an instant, the pebble was launched into the ceiling. There was a thud sound when it launched into the stone above. I looked up, seeing the stone several inches into the brick as a good dose of smacked me; it was different than before. It had been awhile since I got hit by . I remember a feeling of tingling and burning, along with an overwhelming amount of nausea. This time, there was this uncomfortable pressure all over my body. Instead of nausea, it felt like I had been spun around too many times. I tried to orient myself as the world needed to stop the spinning. Lux grabbed me, stopping me from eating the brick. I was carefully set down by Lux. My uncle walked over casually, and picked me up. He returned me to my crib, where Lux climbed up and curled around me. Maybe my uncle isn¡¯t so bad. I thought as I began to drift off. Innovation and Variation Pt. 2 I woke up in the morning, with Lux ready for another wrestling match. My mom was in the room, so I shook my head, to which Lux pouted slightly. I was taken to the dining room, and Lux followed. I was given a mix of baby food and being breastfed. Lux was given some crystals and meat to eat, where Lux dug in with pleasure. My uncle was at the table, eating some breakfast (dinner to him I guess?). The air between him and my mom was tense. Now I feel bad. Can I fix this? I look around. Mom likes when I say mama, and when I use my to do a few tricks she loved. Maybe if I use the new my uncle showed me would help? I looked at what I could try to move. There was really nothing. Then I set my eyes on a table ornament between them, about three feet in front of my dad. This would hopefully work as I felt the anchor form, and tried to gently flow through it, like trickle into it. There was good news and bad news. Good news: it didn¡¯t launch at the ceiling like a racecar. Bad news: I still launched it into the ceiling shattering it. Everyone turned to see the falling shards. My control definitely needed some work for sure. My had taken a hit, but it was much more controlled than before. ¡°Did he just? I liked that table ornament.¡± Dad proclaimed. My mom shot him a look. ¡°Way to go Nil!¡± Mom praised. Come on. Please help. ¡°Better than his first attempt. Control needs some improvement.¡± my uncle evaluated. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Mom asked, her voice a little icy. Not as cold as before! Please bring it home Uncle. ¡°He was trying to wrestle around and play with Lux, but he didn¡¯t have any suited to the task. I gave him some hints and he picked up the general form. Nil needs a bit more time for getting the control right.¡± my uncle explained. Good lie, or bending of the truth. Makes it sound like it wasn¡¯t Lux wailing on me. ¡°Oh.¡± Mom replied. Is she at a loss for words? Is this improvement? I am not sure? Is this how adults start to mend things? Something inside me felt like it died; that realization hit me hard. My dad was looking on in shock. Clearly this was a step in the right direction. I think. There was an awkward silence at the table. ¡°So he was playing with his and you showed him a to help him play with Lux better?¡± Mom checked. I think she is giving him a lifeline. So Lux is called a . Wondered if it was a pet, or something. I remember that contract that states if one of us dies, we both do. I noted to myself. ¡°Yes. Nil with a bit of practice should be able to play just fine with Lux.¡± my uncle elaborated. Wait, I just realized, he was giving me hints. ¡°Thank, you.¡± Mom quipped; it came out gritted and sounded forced. I think this is an improvement. My dad looked stunned. ¡°Do you think Cesar will be able to find a way to get that ornament replaced with a similar one?¡± Dad inquired, looking a bit sad. ¡°Your son just used an incredibly rough version of , and you are concerned about replacing the ornament he shattered with ?¡± my uncle questioned. ¡°I really liked that ornament.¡± Dad replied pathetically. I sympathized with him. I am sorry dad. I will work on making papa sound right! ¡°Nox is right. Nil just used and you want to replace the ornament he broke?¡± Mom lectured with an irritated tone. ¡°That one was part of the set my mom gifted us on our wedding day.¡± Dad explained, somewhat dejectedly. Dad, I AM SORRY! I DID NOT KNOW! My mom quickly looked away as did my uncle. I might have fixed one problem by creating another. Now that I thought about it, I did not recall seeing any of my grandparents. I hoped they were alive. The rest of breakfast was awkward, and not much else was said. Before my uncle left to sleep, or maybe find love, he produced a small, black ball. ¡°Nil, play with this ball.¡± he instructed as he set it down near me. I tried to lift it with my hand. What was this ball made out of? It was maybe the size of a baseball, but it felt like it weighed a ton. I tried lifting it with . The ball lifted maybe an inch before I lost control and it slammed back down with a thud. The ball was definitely not something I was going to launch. My dad grabbed me and the ball. So I am spending today with my dad. I was happy, as he was usually too busy to spend much time with me. He tried to make time whenever he could, but being Emperor did have its downsides. Dad took me to his office while Lux followed behind. The first thing I noticed though, was the lack of papers on his desk. So that¡¯s what the top of his desk looks like. I then noticed no Cesar. ¡°Cesar¡¯s son is sick and I finished enough of my work where I can spend all day with my son!¡± Dad exclaimed happily once we were in his office. My dad set me down in the center with the ball, and Lux came up next to me. He cast several around the room. I wonder what he wanted to do? His office was quite large, and I got the distinct feeling we were confined to the office until later if he wanted to pretend to work today. ¡°Okay Nil, can you say, pa-pa.¡± Dad instructed; his eyes looked awfully desperate. I guess I did say mama first. ¡°Ba-ba.¡± I replied, trying to say papa. ¡°It is pa-pa. Pa.¡± he explained, emphasizing the mouth movement to get the pa sound instead of ba. It is a lot harder than you think! He coached me for over 20 minutes before I finally got pretty close to pronouncing it correctly. When I finally did, he did a little victory dance. Clearly the stakes were higher than I was giving them credit. ¡°Okay. Now let¡¯s try a sentence. Papa is the best.¡± he enunciated, making sure to say each word clearly. ¡°Papa itha bets.¡± I tried. Not bad. I do need to actually get better at speaking so I guess practicing with my dad isn¡¯t the worst thing in the world. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°Is the. Is, thee.¡± my dad pressed, again emphasizing the mouth motion slowly to try and make it clear. I know what the words are, these vocal cords don¡¯t exactly cooperate. ¡°Papa iss tha bets.¡± I attempted. It was closer. Again, my dad did not relent until I got the sentence down. He wanted to make sure I could repeatedly repeat it without making a mistake. Is he that jealous I said mama before papa? After I was able to accurately say the sentence he did another mini celebration. Dad seemed incredibly determined for me to be able to say the sentence. I wondered what motivated it. ¡°Yes. Now I get him to repeat it at dinner. His first word was mama, he must love me more. I will show you Senna!¡± Dad proclaimed like he was an evil mastermind. ¡°Mama is the best.¡± I said aloud. My dad whipped around on a dime and faced me. ¡°No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Papa is the best.¡± Dad desperately tried to correct with the most agonized look in the world in his eyes. Okay I won¡¯t mess with you like that. ¡°Papa is the best!¡± I corrected myself. He let out a sigh of relief. Lux was looking on, clearly bored. ¡°Now that we got it down, do you two want to fly?¡± Dad asked. Fly? How? From what I can tell demons don¡¯t have wings. Lux and I gave him a confused look, which he took as a yes. I could feel grab my body delicately and I began to float. It had the same sensation of when he would lightly toss me up and down. He was using right now. So it can be used on living objects. I got the distinct feeling though, with how fast Lux was, my attempts would be in vain. My dad started moving us in gentle circles around his office. It was actually pretty fun getting to fly like a hero. We fly! Lux said excitedly. She seemed to be enjoying this much more than being repeatedly. I was so going to master and make it so I could fly. I lost track of time as my dad started doing more complex paths, adding in small loop-the-loops in and slightly harsher turns. It was like a tiny little roller coaster. Eventually, my dad took a break and set us back down in the middle of the office. My dad pushed the ball towards me. Meanwhile, a small cage appeared around Lux. ¡°Now time to work on !¡± he declared. Is he trying to mix in some form of training while playing with us? Lux attacked the bars with a strong kick, then immediately started grasping her foot. My dad used to get in front of the cage, then used it again to go away. Lux¡¯s eyes narrowed at him. Me. Out. Lux ordered him. I think you need to use or something similar to get out. I informed her. Lux just pouted in response while I tried moving the ball with . At the end of an hour, neither of us were overly successful. Not sure because Lux was not trying, or Lux just didn¡¯t grasp how to use what her version of would be. I on the other hand, struggled with control. I could not get that ball anywhere near where I wanted it. I could somewhat lift it, and hold it. Unfortunately it would start to spin and kind of fall off of where I was trying to hold it all on it''s own. I stopped before I was completely out of ; I had just enough to do some but that was it. Once Lux was free from the cage, she tried to attack my dad. He easily intercepted her mid-air and lightly swatted her on the head, sending her to the ground. ¡°Want to ¡®wrestle¡¯ as Nox called it, Lux?¡± Dad inquired with a snarky smile on his face. He knows Lux whooped my butt at first. Lux nodded furiously and tried again. My dad the instant she moved lifted her into the air with , followed by the same loop I put her in. He made it look effortless. After a few minutes she gave up; she was simply no match for my dad. My dad let out a laugh as he proceeded to pick me up. Lux curled into a ball and pouted. My dad walked to the window to show me a majestic view. His office could see over the entire city, or at least the half on the side of his office window. ¡°This is one of my favorite views, Nil. Someday, you hopefully will have this office. I hope you and your siblings get along. Of course, I hope you have siblings. On the other hand, everyone keeps saying you are going to be a problem child.¡± Dad told me. Who is calling me a problem child? Why am I a problem child? I wondered. I had a distinct feeling Cesar was one of the ones calling me a problem child to be. ¡°I mean, I guess you won¡¯t necessarily become Emperor. Being firstborn doesn¡¯t guarantee that. It is whoever is most suited; it is hard to say what will happen. I doubt any siblings you do have will have your innate talent with though. I do hope you all get along, I don¡¯t want to see my family fight over who inherits my position. I am looking forward to your in a few months though.¡± Dad continued. I wasn''t sure how I felt hearing him talk to me. What is this feeling? I didn¡¯t recognize it. I definitely enjoyed it, but i didn''t know why. It did feel like he was rambling a bit, yet I didn¡¯t mind. It was oddly comforting. ¡°I guess I am rambling a bit much. Let¡¯s do some together!¡± Dad exclaimed, sounding happy to spend time with me. ¡°Papa is the best!¡± I added as he set me down in the center of the floor, taking a seat behind me. I didn¡¯t see his face, but I could sense he was happy as he began helping me . * Cesar I had the distinct feeling Azzeck was not going to get any work done in my absence. Not that I cared, as Julius was ¡®sick¡¯ today. I definitely did fake my son being sick to get a day off to spend with him and Cleo. ¡°Cesar, you are zoning out again.¡± Cleo lectured. I looked at her, and she was exceptionally beautiful today. Her sand colored skin seemed absolutely radiant today while her emerald eyes danced in the morning light. Cleo¡¯s elegant oryx like horns gently came through her jade green hair. ¡°Sorry dear, I just am not used to having a lot of free time. Is Julius still asleep?¡± I asked. ¡°His schedule has been getting better. He should wake up in the next thirty minutes or so.¡± Cleo informed me. ¡°Okay. How is his developing?¡± I checked. What was I hoping for? ¡°Stop asking about that, he will develop at his own pace. It¡¯s normal for it to take around six months for them to start using level .¡± Cleo snapped at me. ¡°I am sorry Cleo. I am just worried.¡± I confessed. ¡°Just relax Cesar. It¡¯s your day off. Julius is going to grow up big and strong just like his dad.¡± Cleo comforted me. I needed to remember that Nil was the one off scale. I¡¯d be lying if I didn¡¯t secretly hope my son would have that level of talent. Everyday he grew more and more; now he had a as well. It was hard seeing such overwhelming talent. Today is my day off, I have to let this go. I let out a deep sigh. Why did this bug me so much? My son let out a small little cry. ¡°Someone¡¯s hungry.¡± Cleo chimed as she began to feed our son, looking absolutely stunning as she did it too. Once Julius was fed, we began playing games with him. Cleo and I were waiting to get Julius . Thankfully, between our salaries we could comfortably afford to have it done once Julius turned one. Cleo and I were hoping that Julius inherited my . Not the most spectacular or rare , but a good one that left a lot of doors open. After about an hour of playing with him, Julius looked like he was tiring. Cleo picked him up, yelped, and immediately dropped him. With dad level reflexes I caught him, and received a painful shock for my efforts. I grit my teeth and set him down carefully. ¡°!¡± Cleo exclaimed.We excitedly hugged each other. ! Thank the Lords of Tenebrae! ¡°A rare . A top tier too!¡± I cried in joy. Such a powerful ! Second highest level of ! Not like Nil¡¯s, but much better than my and Cleo¡¯s level; a . I could feel Cleo shaking in my arms. It was a dream come true. He can become strong, get a well paying job, and support his family. He has access to so many futures! Innovation and Variation Pt. 3 Nil My progress with the infernal ball was definitely not good; this ball was beginning to taunt me. There was laughter emanating from it. Okay, maybe Lux, but still. It had been a week since Lux started using me as a morning punching bag, and it felt like I had barely made any progress. I could somewhat lift the ball now. It was by no means steady, but I could lift it and keep it in the air for a solid two seconds. Improvement. was proving to be quite tricky as I had tried using it in the imperfect form I currently could use on Lux. Turns out, moving a living, speeding, and for absolutely no apparent reason angry creature was way harder than moving the ball. I was currently to increase how hard my body was. It¡¯s minor but it¡¯s something. As long as I kept it up, at least Lux hurt her paws on my face. Take that Lux. My mom entered the room and took me to the dining room for breakfast. ¡°You always look so dirty in the mornings. You and Lux must roll around a lot.¡± Mom chided. Yes, that¡¯s why. No other explanation. Thankfully, Uncle Nox kept potions handy each morning. The taste of potions was not something I think I would ever get used to. I think the taste was starting to give me nightmares; I shuddered just thinking about it. Why did they taste so bad? You think you¡¯d get used to it, but they tasted just as bad each time. At the breakfast table, my dad was eating a piece of toast, looking like a zombie. I guess I never have said, ¡®papa is the best!¡¯ out loud at the table yet. He looked like he could use it today. My mom set me down in my chair and began feeding me. My Uncle took his seat next to my dad with a large smile on his face. What had him so cheery? ¡°You look chipper this morning.¡± Dad groaned at Nox. ¡°I met someone the other day, and I think we are off to a fantastic start.¡± Nox replied excitedly. ¡°How did you manage that?¡± Dad probed, which got some side-eye from Nox. ¡°Who are they?¡± Mom asked while giving me a spoonful of what I think was broccoli. ¡°For the last time, I am not telling you two anything.¡± Nox retorted. My parents just shrugged. ¡°Way to go brother!¡± Dad chimed. He sounded dead inside as the words left his mouth. ¡°Papa is best!¡± I exclaimed. My mom whipped around, shooting my dad a death glare. On the other hand, my dad¡¯s face absolutely lit up. ¡°That¡¯s my boy!¡± my dad exclaimed with all the life back in him. ¡°You taught him that phrase! You coached him, didn¡¯t you?!¡± Mom snapped at him. ¡°When would I have had time to? He must have gleaned from context.¡± Dad retorted. My mom¡¯s eyes got really narrow; she seemed to be trying to melt his brain through his eyes. ¡°Come on Nil, can you say, ¡®mama is best¡¯. I know you can.¡± Mom requested. ¡°Mama is best!¡± I repeated. She seemed really happy with that. ¡°Can you say Nox is best?¡± my uncle checked. ¡°Nox is worst!¡± I replied. His eyes seemed to bore holes into my soul. I really should be nicer to my uncle; it¡¯s just so fun to mess with him. ¡°And before I try to assault a baby, I am off.¡± my uncle announced, simply vanishing from existence. Breakfast ended seven minutes later, and I was under the care of Helga. I was trying to use on this blasted ball. You will move the way I want you yet! Again, I got the anchor to form on the ball; this step was becoming easy to me in general. I imagined this anchor sensation was in a lot of . Was it the reference point? Maybe what I am using my on? I don¡¯t know, I wish I had more formal training with . What was I doing wrong? The breathing for keeping my stable was becoming second hand to me, and I was focused on it, trying to enter some focused state. Nothing as I expected. I felt the issue was in how I was using my . I mean, duh, the is not working as intended. When I used , it felt like waves I was emitting, kind of like sonar that I was using to feel and sense around. What did I need to do? Visualize the shape? I tried feeling my , to no avail. Maybe my could shed some light. I still haven¡¯t seen a bird, so that sensation was not right yet. I flowed my into using my which I could feel the strain that accompanied it activating. My vision sharpened a bit, and the odd sense of exertion that followed. I tried forming my again, and a black blob slowly emitted from my hand. It was malformed, oddly shaped, and frankly like I made a club of . My eyes were starting to feel quite strained. Helga lunged over towards me. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°NIL! STOP NOW!¡± she yelled at the top of her lungs. I stopped immediately, just looking at her confused. Helga quickly produced a ring, put it on, and snapped her fingers. Magus Erli materialized in an instant. She took a quick look at me, and immediately began inspecting my eyes. They felt fine, so why were they so concerned? Being a baby is so inconvenient at times. ¡° from using his . Good thing you stopped him. I would try to heal it, but eyes are quite tricky and beyond what I can fix without risk. Thankfully, you stopped it before he did any real damage.¡± Magus Erli replied. My mom burst into the room. Mama bear sense was definitely tingling, or she heard Helga scream. Actually, knowing her, she probably has some keeping an eye on me. ¡°WHY ARE HIS EYES SO CRIMSON?¡± Mom pressed as she rushed over, again inspecting my eyes. Lux let out a groan in the corner, showing her displeasure at the loud noises. ¡°Empress Senna, he strained his eyes from using his . There is no serious damage other than his eyes will be a bit bloodshot as they heal.¡± Magus Erli informed her. My mom looked at them and seemed to let it go with a sigh. She picked me up and hugged me close. Maybe it is not my that is the problem, it was probably I had no idea how to use it. And apparently the is a bit more than I realized. My mom rocked me softly as I thought it over. It did give me some insight onto my problem though: my control absolutely sucked. That was a malformed mass at best. I tried to form my again, trying to form it in something more streamlined. I had no idea how I was doing. How was I supposed to learn when they wouldn¡¯t really teach me? Guess and check was my current method; wish I had a better one. I could kind of sense around my at the moment. Wait, I can sense around it. I tried narrowing what I was sensing. It slowly narrowed which was awkward and mentally taxing to say the least. After struggling for over an hour, I was beginning to get the hang of it, but it felt like my head was about to split in half. Why does using in new ways cause such mind melting headaches? After the world started to appear to be twisting around the edges of my vision, I stopped using . What was something I could do in the meantime? My supply was quite full still despite the fact I had been practicing. always seemed to be a good idea. I began circulating my through my body as usual. It was normal, until it reached my eyes. Lemon juice mixed with hot sauce would have been less painful, but my did not stop. It felt like my was trying to make my eyes explode. I quickly circulated it away, which made the pain subside. Unfortunately, it went to my heart, where it felt like my body was revolting. In all honesty, it felt like my heart seized. I quickly compressed my , trying to quell it. Something cracked, and instead of the usual wave of heat, this was pure magma. What is happening? I quickly circulated my through my body; I needed to power through the pain. Once it reached my eyes again, I about passed out. Why was this so painful? What did I do wrong? At this point, I noticed Helga and Magus Erli probably having panic attacks behind me. I could hear Lux growling at them as they got close. The cycle alternated between flaming agony in my eyes and what felt like my body melting. I pushed my through my body desperately to combat this. It hit my eyes again, so I tried compressing my in my eyes, similar to how I did it in my heart. Please subside the pain. It had an effect. Definitely not one I desired. I thought the pain before was bad, this was so much worse. It felt like I strapped a car battery to my optic nerve. But I couldn¡¯t stop it. If anything, it was getting worse, until a large crack reverberated through my body. Words could not describe the pain that followed as my body seemed to revolt against itself. I felt a massive fluctuation of . My eyes were best described as having a hot poker coated in lemon juice and hot sauce, while a car battery flowed current through it, slowly twisted into my eyes. The magma from my heart just flooded into my eyes. My was being forcefully circulated between the two, cooling, compressing, and exploding from each. My was absolutely out of control. I think I heard Grand Archmagus Solomon. Desperate, I tried to force my out of my body. Oh boy was that a next level bad idea. Once it reached my skin, the surged along my skin, giving the sensation I was on fire. The pain was overwhelming; this was not going well to say the least. I forcefully drew the back in, and the heat only increased. Why is this so painful? What is causing this? I wanted to rip out my own eyes. After a minute of the heart to eye hell cycle, my eyes made a pop sound as all the pain subsided. I opened my eyes, making sure I could still see. Then my eyes felt like they got hit with a sledgehammer; my senses felt they were being overwhelmed. I closed them and the sensation died down. I felt my mom pick me up and cry out my name. I couldn¡¯t muster any strength to respond; my body felt like an empty husk. I heard my dad calling out my name as well before I finally succumbed to the pain my body was in and passed out. Innovation and Variation Pt. 4 Nox I was enjoying a nice croissant with Nez when I could feel the sensation of Senna¡¯s desperately trying to summon me. This can¡¯t be good. I let out a heavy sigh, unfortunately interrupting Nez¡¯s story. ¡°I am sorry to interrupt, but I am being summoned for something probably urgent. Can we meet again tomorrow here at the same time?¡± I asked. ¡°No problem. I¡¯m getting the rest of your croissant though as payment.¡± Nez replied. I left my croissant and used to where Senna was. The tension in the air was intense. What the hell? All the in the vicinity seemed to be revolting against the very space we were in. I saw my brother and Senna panicking, trying to get near Nil, but Lux was standing in their way growling and baring her teeth. That¡¯s when I noticed the surging off of Nil. An absolute maelstrom of was going rampant in his body. What did he do? ¡°What is happening?¡± I checked, trying to gauge the situation. ¡°We don¡¯t know and Lux is in the way.¡± Azzeck snapped quickly. I mean, Lux is not exactly a threat to us, we could force her out of our way. ¡°Need me to move her?¡± I probed. I mean, yes this wasn¡¯t good, but I didn¡¯t see why they needed me. ¡°We need you to go fetch Grand Archmagus Solomon as fast as you can.¡± Azzeck explained. Ah. I am definitely faster than my brother. I chained to the Institution of Mages. I burst into the place, which put a lot of the Magus inside on edge. Unfortunately, I did not have the time to be polite. Solomon is supposed to take Nil as an apprentice, so he should be vested in keeping that punk alive until then from what I understand. It was a thought at least. ¡°I need Grand Archmagus Solomon immediately! It is an emergency!¡± I roared to the Magus. ¡°He isn¡¯t here.¡± one shot back. ¡°I need to get a hold of him now. Where is he?¡± I retorted. The Magus simply huffed at me, and shot me a wouldn¡¯t you like to know look. One kick later his smugness was unconscious on the ground. ¡°I do not want to repeat myself a third time! Where is Grand Archmagus Solomon? I come with an urgent message from the Emperor of Speranza!¡± I yelled, looking for someone competent. The next Magus was a lot more cooperative and produced a special and began using it to contact Grand Archmagus Solomon. I was getting a lot of dirty looks from knocking out the first idiot. Not my problem. ¡°This better be important.¡± Grand Archmagus Solomon snarled. ¡°Hello Solomon. Nil is in trouble and your help is needed.¡± I snapped at him. Solomon glared through the crystal, then realized who I was and what I said. Grand Archmagus Solomon materialized next to me. I grabbed him and chained back to Nil¡¯s room. Solomon¡¯s eyes went wide the instant we appeared in the room. He looked around confused then settled his eyes on Nil. ¡°Why is there a baby in the room? What happened right before his started doing this?¡± Solomon inquired, seeming to grasp what happened. ¡°That is his . He used his and caused a bit of eye strain. He then started to and out of nowhere this happened.¡± my brother explained. Senna at this point was all but losing her mind. It clearly was taking all the control my brother had to remain calm and keep her from acting too rashly. I hardly blame her though. Solomon casually walked up to Lux and made her fall asleep with the snap of his fingers. He began examining Nil. ¡°My my. What powerful fluctuations. I knew he was talented, but this is unexpected.¡± Solomon replied calmly. ¡°What is happening to him?¡± Senna cried out. ¡°First of all, relax. Nil is not in much danger, even though he probably does not know it. Interrupting him will likely cause a lot of damage which is why his was trying to defend him.¡± Solomon explained. ¡°What is happening?¡± Senna asked again. A little calmer, but clearly still distraught. ¡°From what I can tell, he simultaneously hit two . One with his and one with his . His was probably close and when he started it was pushed over the edge. Once his went over the edge, the influx of pushed his over the edge. This is his body rapidly learning to adjust to the he unknowingly absorbed as the two are reaching the next level. It is undoubtedly going to be excruciating for him, but as long as he succeeds there will be no lasting damage. We can¡¯t interrupt him, and the period to be able to help is long passed. It is good to see he has been practicing and using them pretty steadily over the last fews months.¡± Solomon lectured with a not much to do tone. Solomon woke up Lux, and calmly walked over by us. Lux was shooting daggers at Solomon. Good luck little girl, any of the four adults still in the room are way out of your league. She pouted as usual and checked on Nil, who looked like he was most certainly not enjoying his at the moment. His eyes shot open, and it felt like the in the air attacked all of us. He immediately shut them and began clutching his head. Senna rushed over and picked him up, petting his head and calling his name, but Nil was out cold. Solomon walked over, did a quick check, and gave the all clear. ¡°Thank you for getting me. I definitely don¡¯t want my apprentice-to-be dying. By the way, as you requested Emperor Azzeck, I think I found a suitable teacher for Crown Prince Nil. Who is his combat teacher so the two can start planning lessons and how to help develop his talent if you approve of my recommendation?¡± Solomon announced. ¡°I am the one teaching him to fight once he is old enough.¡± I chimed in. Solomon shook his head approvingly. ¡°Who did you have in mind?¡± Azzeck checked. ¡°An incredibly skilled Archmagus. His is and I would say he is arguably the best at it. His natural is .¡± Solomon began stating. This description was reminding me of someone. No way. Not possible. Tenebrae is not that small. I thought. Azzeck and Senna were nodding approvingly. How could they not? An Archmagus with a and could teach their son if he desired? ¡°I know you two care more for competency than race, but he is a demon which you might prefer, and he is currently in the capital. Originally he was traveling around but said he found something interesting he might be investigating for a while, so I did discuss if he was open to being a teacher for the Crown Prince and would gladly accept if you desired.¡± Solomon continued. No. No way. ¡°We would like to review his file and meet them before agreeing, but they sound incredibly promising.¡± Senna replied. ¡°I agree with my wife. What is his name?¡± Azzeck asked. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°Nez Beelze Phoenen.¡± Solomon replied. Oh this might get awkward. ¡°If possible I would like you to meet him as well Nox, see if you two can work well together.¡± my brother said. Oh we do, just probably not in the way you¡¯re intending. ¡°I can summon him here if you are all free now.¡± Solomon offered. Hey Nez, this is my family! Surprise! Please say no, please say no, please say no. ¡°I think our schedules are free. Cesar! Do we have time in our schedules to interview a potential teacher for Nil?!¡± Senna roared. Cesar, I know I call you a wimp. I know I say Cleo keeps your sac in her satchel, but for the love of the Lords of Tenebrae say they are too busy. ¡°Your Imperial Highnesses, today was supposed to be a rather light day so I can easily rearrange to fit in meeting a potential teacher for the Crown Prince.¡± Cesar responded from the hallway. I am going to slice your throat in your sleep. ¡°What about you Prince Nox?¡± Solomon asked. They know I work at night. I am clearly healthy. WHAT LIE CAN I SAY?! ¡°I, um, would like some time to prepare and get some notes together before meeting them.¡± I answered. Stall for time. ¡°It is just a preliminary interview and meeting. I think you¡¯ll be fine.¡± Solomon replied. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Before I could utter a protest, Solomon placed a on his finger and snapped them. Nez materialized a second later, and unlike earlier, was in his more formal attire. I was still in my casual clothes. I at least look presentable. Nez saw me and lit up. ¡°Nox!¡± he exclaimed happily dashing over and hugging me, completely oblivious to what was around us. ¡°Um Nez-¡± I started. ¡°Summoning me so suddenly after you left breakfast. You are such a needy guy sometimes!¡± Nez teased, still unaware of who was around us. ¡°I am not the one who summoned you.¡± I informed him. His normally pearl colored skin turned crimson as he shot around in a bow as he quickly remembered which called for him. ¡°I am sorry I did not notice. Grand Archmagus Solomon, how may I help you?¡± Nez spurted out, crimson all the way to his ears. ¡°So you¡¯re the one Nox has been seeing.¡± Senna said calmly, a devious smile across her face. Oh Lords, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don¡¯t tell her a thing. She will remember it all for life. Nez looked around confused. His eyes were darting between Solomon, Senna, Azzeck, Nil, Lux, and then back to me. I could see the gears in his head turning as the realization of where he was smacked him. Yea, can circumvent certain with the right permissions. You are where you think you are. ¡°My most sincere apologies! I am Nez Beelze Phoenen your Imperial Highnesses.¡± Nez quickly snapped with another deep bow. I wanted to take him and out of this situation. ¡°So you are already acquainted with my brother. That should make things easier.¡± my brother teased. Lords of Tenebrae, strike me down now please. ¡°Brother?¡± Nez checked. The gears were clicking as he realized what that would make me. ¡°You¡¯re a prince?!¡± Nez asked, whipping his head around to look at me. I sheepishly shrugged my shoulders back. ¡°Surprise.¡± I replied weakly. Oh Senna and Azzeck were going to enjoy this. Their hyena like smiles told me everything I needed to know. They can smell the blood in the water. Solomon was standing there awkwardly. Please salvage this. Come on Solomon. You are my last life line. He was clearly processing what he just saw, right before he burst into laughter. And any chance to avoid this just left. ¡°So, as you two can tell, Archmagus Nez is already acquainted with Prince Nox. I think this might make it easier for them to be on the same page with teaching the Crown Prince.¡± Solomon said calmly. ¡°Oh we can tell. So, how long have you two been seeing each other?¡± Senna asked with an innocent smile on her face. It is a trap Nez! Abort! ¡°We started about a month ago. Is the Crown Prince Nil in your arms? He is adorable!¡± Nez replied, ogling over the baby Nil. On second thought, CHARM THE HELL OUT OF THEM! YOU GOT THIS! IT IS THE ONLY WAY! ¡°What are your qualifications as a teacher? Grand Archmagus Solomon definitely discussed your abilities as an Archmagus but did not go over as a teacher.¡± My brother inquired, temporarily remaining professional. ¡°I regularly lecture at the Institution of Mages on a variety of topics. I also have written several books for developing , , purifying your , and for helping parents with their child and the starting steps towards learning . I can provide them if you would like.¡± Nez answered while trying to get a good peak at Nil. My brother nodded approvingly. Senna was boring holes into Nez, clearly conflicted on asking him about our dating life and his qualifications. She shook her head, obviously deciding her son was definitely more important than getting embarrassing info on me. ¡°How would you try to cultivate Nil¡¯s talent and help him grow as a ?¡± Senna asked. Nez paused for a second, then looked deeply at Nil, clearly evaluating him for a solid minute. ¡°From what I can tell, his innate talent and sense for are prodigious. His is already at the . I think he also has an but am not sure. His channels seemed to be slightly wider than normal, and for his age, his reserve is quite large. I have not seen him use personally, but from the fact it was necessary to apply Grand Archmagus Solomon¡¯s method for a baby, I would assume he is adept in at least a few . Am I correct before I continue?¡± Nex explained. The other three eyes shot to me. I shook my head, signaling I did not tell him a thing about Nil. I didn¡¯t tell him I was a Prince, do you think I talked about my ridiculously talented nephew? We talked about things, but definitely not our families. ¡°That is correct so far.¡± Azzeck answered. ¡°That is tricky to answer. Seeing as he is the Crown Prince, I would do a split focus. First, a solid foundation in as I believe his use is based more off of instinct and feel. Knowing would help someone understand how and why his works as it does, and might give him ideas or at least the path for developing his own unique . Additionally, I would focus on the practical use of for fighting and defending himself. Probably alternating between a section of and then how it can be used practically.¡± Nez finished. That¡¯s a solid answer. You are killing this Nez! The other three nodded. It was a solid plan, and would probably be a good one for my problematic nephew. Azzeck and Senna were looking at each other, with a devious glint in their eyes. No, remain professional you two! I know what you two are dying to ask! ¡°What if he wants to learn a different other than ?¡± Senna asked. Nez looked like he had been hit by a dragon. ¡°Why would he not want to learn ? His incredible talent is suited for a more difficult and accents his natural quite well! But if he absolutely insisted on learning a different one, I have an understanding of numerous and am confident in my ability to teach them even if I myself do not practice them. If I became too lacking for his talent, I would assist in finding someone suited to teaching him whichever he desired.¡± Nez replied, sounding a little hurt. He does love to talk about his theories and developing new for it a lot. They are quite fun to listen to even if I struggle to follow sometimes, and he is so passionate about them as he speaks. Azzeck and Senna locked eyes again, nodding in agreement. They asked him several other questions, gauging his ability and how well he could teach. Nez absolutely crushed it. He clearly knew what he was talking about and had a wealth of experience teaching and lecturing. Azzeck and Senna had another mental conversation with each other real quick, and looked back at the rest of us. ¡°Grand Archmagus Solomon, thank you for showing us this delightful man. We will be in contact if we decide to hire him. We have some more questions, but I do not want you to feel obligated to stay if you are busy.¡± Senna declared. ¡°Thank you Empress Senna. I will be taking my leave then.¡± Solomon stated with a nod, before vanishing into nothing. Azzeck and Senna¡¯s heads snapped over to Nez, like two lions eyeing their prey. ¡°So, Nez, let¡¯s go have some tea, or do you prefer coffee? We would like to ask you so many questions about you and my brother. He hasn¡¯t told us a thing! And frankly, my wife and I are hurt.¡± my brother offered. Nez thankfully finally realized these two were going to hound him for information mercilessly. We can escape as long as you don¡¯t take up that offer! I thought internally. He looked at me, and I was trying to keep my face normal, while silently pleading for him to run while he could. ¡°I do not believe it is professional to discuss my personal life with people looking to hire me, even if it is the Emperor and Empress of Speranza. I do think I should be going now.¡± Nez stated with a respectful bow before walking over to me. I gave him a goodbye kiss and he smiled before vanishing. Azzeck and Senna looked like they were about to start pouting. Plans thwarted! You are not getting any information today you two! The two let out a small sigh of disappointment before getting more serious looks on their faces. ¡°Nox, what do you think of working with him? Do you see you two together for a long time? We honestly think he would be an excellent teacher for Nil, but if you are uncomfortable with it, or do not think it will last, we will find someone else.¡± Azzeck checked, keeping himself from pouting as Nez didn''t take the bait. ¡°I am not sure. I think I need some time to think about it.¡± I confessed. I honestly didn¡¯t know. I would like to work with him, and I was beginning to think it would be nice to have him around forever, but I did not want to pressure him or rush anything. I definitely needed time to think. ¡°Just let us know when you can.¡± Senna replied before she and Azzeck left with Nil. Innovation and Variation Pt. 5 Nil I was scared to open my eyes. My body felt a lot better, but I was fearful of what would happen when I opened my eyes. I cracked one of my eyes open, just a little. It seemed fine. I opened it slowly until I was sure there was not going to be a sense of overwhelming pain. My vision seemed sharper than before. I opened my other eye. It was odd, my vision had gotten noticeably better. Not like it was bad before, it was now everything seemed so sharp and defined, even from farther away I was noticing small details I really hadn¡¯t before. Then I realized something else that was off. There were a bunch of floating little lights in the air. What are these? I stretched a chubby little hand for one, and it passed right through. I had no idea what they were. Lux stretched and yawned next to me, still a bit sleepy. I saw the ball I had been practicing with, and figured this was a good time to practice. I formed an anchor, and this odd gray light seemed to fix on the ball. What? This is new. I went to flow through it, and this fat blob of black light snaked over to the grey light. The blob pushed the ball up, very unevenly. Little blobs would bubble out, trying to stabilize the ball. After a few seconds, the blobs would start to swirl around the ball, which would cause it to shake and fall. The lights were ! Why does this feel so much easier than before to see it? Wait a second, why did my start to swirl? I looked around the room, and saw a pillow nearby. Let¡¯s try on this. I formed the anchor, and the same blob of formed to lift the pillow. Unlike with the ball however, my didn¡¯t suddenly start to swirl. I tried a few other objects in the room, and while the motion was not the cleanest, I was at least maintaining it with little effort. The ball did something once was flowed through it. Why would Uncle Nox give me a ball like that to test on? Unless it is to help increase my control as the ball is intentionally made to dissipate . Probably focusing on making my not a blob should be step one. Step two should be getting a sense of my without using my . I would just have to endure being a punching bag to Lux for a while longer. Now that I thought about it, how was I maintaining my so easily now? Maybe there was an upside to all that pain earlier after all. * The next three months fell into a pretty easy rhythm. In the morning, I had breakfast following which Lux would ¡®play¡¯ with me; I was looking forward to getting my revenge on her. We played other games too which I would be able to win at a few, but the ¡®wrestling¡¯ was the one that irritated me the most. My progress at developing my control was hard for me to gauge. It no longer resembled blobs, but was nowhere near as fine as I wanted it to be. Shouldn¡¯t I be able to make threads of ? That was my goal, but currently it is as thick as rope. My ability to feel and sense my own improved vastly as well. I hadn¡¯t tried playing with the ball in the three months I was developing my control; maybe I should give it a try soon. At this point I could walk pretty well. I still stumbled a little, but at this point crawling was a thing of the past. My speech was a bit better, as I could manage three word sentences. I was afraid of seeming unnaturally smart, so I kept them simple. Parent is best and Nox is worst were my go to sentences. My uncle seemed to be in a better mood overall for some reason, not sure why. Lux had grown slightly bigger, and had small starting on her shoulders. I was excited for today though as it was my birthday! It couldn¡¯t possibly suck as much as it did back on Earth! I might actually get cake! Lux was looking smug after our morning match. Just you wait. Soon, you shall know what defeat is. My parents came in excitedly this morning to get me. My dad picked me up and launched me lightly into the air before catching me. ¡°We are getting you today Nil!¡± Dad stated excitedly. My parents rushed off to the dining room for breakfast. I was eating almost pure baby food at this point, which was great. Today there was someone new with us. Whoever she was, she was kind of pretty. They were sitting next to Nox, and the two of them were talking during breakfast. My mom and dad kept looking over from me to them. ¡°Nil, this is Nez.¡± Mom introduced us. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t I introduce my boyfriend to him?¡± Nox replied. WHAT?! THAT¡¯S A GUY?! HE LOOKS LIKE A WOMAN! ¡°Nox is worst!¡± I chimed in. Nox looked over with an irritated look in his eye as Nez started laughing. ¡°It isn¡¯t funny! He says that every morning!¡± Nox snapped, clearly annoyed I had a several month chain going. ¡°Depends on your perspective.¡± Nez laughed. His voice was soft and had a bell like property to it. Nez¡¯s skin looked like it was made out of pearls. His face was incredibly feminine, which was not helped by his long black hair which was tied back in a ponytail. Nez had noticeably long lashes which accented his golden eyes. Two slender blackish gray horns similar to an antelope gracefully adorned his head. Even through the Magus robes, I could tell Nez was quite slender and thin. He could easily pass as a girl if he wanted to. The adults had some boring chit chat discussing my upcoming . Solomon was apparently doing it personally, but I didn¡¯t care. Maybe it was a bigger deal than I am thinking? That happens a lot in this world, I need to be more cautious. From what I could tell in the conversation, Nez was fairly nice. Too good for Uncle Nox. ¡°Nez is best!¡± I chimed. Uncle Nox looked like his soul left his body. Mwahahahahaha. My mom and dad exploded in laughter. ¡°It is okay Nox, I am sure he will stop saying you''re the worst as he gets older.¡± Nez comforted him. I wouldn''t bet on that. ¡°What did I ever do to you Nil?¡± my uncle cried at me. I used to try and toss the evil ball at him. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Might as well test how far I¡¯ve come. I formed an anchor, launched a rope of at the ball, and lifted it, much more stable than before. I could feel my starting to swirl at the end so I reinforced it with another rope while I was getting the aim down. How do I throw it? I guess feed into it in line with where I want it to go? I tried that, and the ball launched in a graceful arc towards my uncle. Nowhere near as out of control as before, but definitely wobbled and had an awkward spin once it was in the air. Still nowhere near as smooth as his or dad¡¯s though. He caught the ball with ease, and was just staring at it. The adults looked back from the ball to me. Their jaws slack, eyes shooting between me and that cursed ball. My control was definitely a lot better than it was three months ago, but it still needed to be improved however I looked at it. ¡°Did he just? Nil did just throw that ball with right?¡± Mom asked, like she didn''t believe her own eyes. ¡°Yes dear. He definitely just did that.¡± Dad confirmed. ¡°So you gave your nephew a to learn and hone on and wonder why he calls you the worst?¡± Nez lectured my uncle. ¡°Um, it was to slow down his growth and improve his control is why I gave it to him. He does spar a bit with his and his control and were nowhere near the point to be effective against Lux.¡± Nox replied, looking at the ball dumbfounded. ¡°His control definitely improved. He now has that and effective control over it. Way to go.¡± Nez teased him. ¡°I did not think his control would reach where it currently is when I gave it to him!" Nox defended himself. Nez just laughed in response. My mom and dad were doing their baby voices and saying how proud of their little they were; I guess my control is better than I realized. It felt good when they praised me. My lips were definitely curling up on their own while Lux was giving me the stink eye. Let¡¯s see how our little spar tomorrow goes Lux. The adults finished breakfast, my parents grabbed me, and we headed in the direction to leave the castle. Helga and Cesar joined the entourage as we left the dining room. It was as before, where we headed to the library full of Magus. This time Nez was teasing Nox nearly the entire ride over. It was enjoyable to watch. Mom joined in a little and Nez immediately stopped. Lux was curled up on the ground of the carriage eyeballing Nez. She was still on the fence about him. We arrived at the giant library building and were greeted by Solomon. I was kind of excited for some reason as Solomon escorted us to a room I hadn¡¯t seen before. Again, there were intricate all over the room. My dad set me down on a pedestal in the center. Solomon began doing some chanting, and there was a massive surge of . He condensed it onto some small plate in front of him. Then it was over. That¡¯s it? I was imagining something a lot more, I don¡¯t know, spectacular. My excitement seemed grossly misplaced if that''s all it was. ¡°Grand Archmagus Solomon, what are the results?¡± my parents excitedly asked in unison. My uncle and Nez were waiting patiently at the edge of the room. ¡°A lot of things make sense now, especially his incredible growth.¡± Solomon replied as he looked at the plate. ¡°Does he have any other than ? What is his ?¡± Dad checked. ¡°How pure is his ?¡± Mom inquired. ¡°Surprising no one, he has . His is completely pure, there is not a drop of any other . His is incredibly pure as well. There are no impurities or other elements present. I honestly was not aware it was possible to have and this pure.¡± Solomon explained, looking a bit surprised. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Mom probed. ¡°He will never have to try to purify his or his . It is not just somewhat pure, or he is a bit more pure than average, we are talking not a drop has shifted them. The purity is actually a bit problematic.¡± Solomon elaborated. ¡°How is a high purity a problem?¡± Dad asked, not following. ¡°Nez, I believe it is best for you to explain, as you have done more research in this field than I have. Here is the .¡± Solomon requested. Nez¡¯s eyes went wide when he looked at the ¡°Normally, has some impurities in it, we have no natural for. As you are aware, most people learn two . A and . is the result of having a diverse . More accurately, is a measure of how much you align with a particular which can be increased through certain methods and help strengthen your . A perfectly pure means you are completely aligned to an with no alignment to other . If you have trained a non , completely purifying your is impossible, as you will have trace amounts of another . This further applies to your . Ambient generally contains a variety of , and if you take your reserve and build it with aligned with the of your , your as a whole becomes more potent. Crown Prince Nil naturally has only , and his is only made of . It means any he would want to learn or be taught needs to be completely . It has to be a compatible with his and no alignment towards any . That is an incredibly short list.¡± Nez explained fairly quickly. ¡°I do not see how that is a bad thing.¡± Dad replied, still not grasping their point. I didn''t either to be fair. ¡°It just means he will only be able to learn and one from an incredibly short list of . The easy way of phrasing it is he is limited to a select few , but all the ones he is limited to are quite potent and strong but correspondingly not practiced by many due to difficulty or the high purity needed to practice them.¡± Nez clarified. ¡°So what can he learn?¡± Mom asked. ¡°I am not sure on the complete list, but is something he can learn.¡± Nez informed her. Nez is pushing hard for me to learn . It sounds cool being honest. ¡°I can compose a list of the suitable for Crown Prince Nil. But Nez is correct, it is not going to be a very long list. There will probably be around three on that list if I am being honest.¡± Solomon chimed in. ¡°We will discuss that later. What about ? Does Nil have any other than ?¡± Dad inquired. ¡°He has four. and explain his incredible growth with . Crown Prince Nil also possesses and , which I believe stem from his and respectively.¡± Solomon replied. My mom and dad looked overjoyed. ¡°You have the !¡± they said excitedly in unison as my mom picked me up. What do any of the last three mean? I am pretty confident the first is a result of me reincarnating here. Of course no one really explained it to baby me; they all knew what it meant. I am guessing has something to do with my being naturally pure? Or helping with that? I understood the words they said, but not what they meant. The adults were excitedly talking back and forth except Solomon, whose eyes were fixated on that . I wonder what he saw? Innovation and Variation Pt. 6 Solomon Amber eyes bore into my soul. Those eyes were cold, ruthless. I looked around, not recognizing a thing. I was in the , now I was somewhere else. I used my to gaze into Nil¡¯s future, then I was brought here. His was in my hand, showing his four and . What was happening? All around me was black; a null space. This was some . I couldn¡¯t even sense who cast this . Emperor Azzeck was skilled with , but nowhere near what was needed to do this. ¡°Who are you? What do you want?¡± I called out. There was no response. Then it hit. . Pressure. The presence was absolute. I noticed two amber eyes appear, boring holes into me. I could not breathe. How strong is this person? Who is this? I am a Grand Archmagus! How is someone this powerful? ¡°Hello Solomon.¡± the voice said calmly. It was deep, radiating with . ¡°Who are you? What are you after?¡± I asked. This voice was too powerful. ¡°It does not matter who I am. What matters is what you are going to do for me.¡± the voice threatened. ¡°I am a Grand Archmagus! I will not roll over for anyone!¡± I bellowed back. The eyes just laughed. ¡°So stubborn Solomon, I am not asking you to roll over. I am requesting you do a favor for me.¡± the eyes replied calmly. ¡°Who are you?¡± I asked again. The eyes just laughed. To so calmly threaten a Grand Archmagus. What a terrifying existence. ¡°Solomon, why are you so tense? Relax. You are going to want to do this favor for me anyway.¡± the voice said, ignoring the question. ¡°What do you want?¡± I checked, dreading the answer. ¡°When the Crowthornes leave, they will be attacked by a group of assassins sent to kill Nil. Poor Nez will valiantly sacrifice himself to save the baby. I want you to prevent Nez¡¯s death. More accurately, the death of anyone in the entourage.¡± the voice explained.