Caster's thought process was rather simple in picking Moonveil.
The Seven Song sisters: Hel, Revel, Moonveil, Beastmaster, Lonesome Howl, Seishan and Silent Stalker.
Out of them, the ones that were completely out of the question for him were Silent Stalker, Lonesome Howl and Hel.
Reason being, Neither of them are exceptionally strong among the saints, middle tier at best, and that they wouldn't end up being useful to him. Hel has revalation type aspect however... Caster has Cassie. And Silent Stalker barely ever speaks. It would just be nightmare fuel to be married to someone like that. And Lonesome Howl... he doesn't know anything about. He didn't want to gamble with that.
The next four, he considered a lot. Seishan, Beastmaster, Moonveil and Revel.
Because each of them is a top tier saint, and each one has aspects that would be useful to him in the future.
Seishan and Revel are both exceptionally good as well, however, by far, the most important aspect of them all was Moonveil's.
If Caster hadn't got the grazing ability as his second aspect ability... he'd have considered Beastmaster much more, but with a soul-like attack, he hasn't tested it yet but probably, he doesn't need Beastmaster's aspect as much now.
It was a completely pragmatic decision to choose Moonveil, with basically no personal feelings involved.
After he decided upon it, he went and forwarded his decision to Ki Song.
"Have you decided on which one to wed, boy?"
Caster nodded respectfully.
"Yes I have... I'd like to wed Princess Moonveil."
Ki Song nodded back.
"Okay, good. I'll mention it to her, you should be able to meet with her soon... Anything else you'd like or want to say?"
"If I may ask for one more thing... can I bring over my subordinates from the shore to here?"
Ki Song's face visibly lit up.
"Why, of course! Song would love to have them!"
Caster coughed and interjected.
"Not as part of the Song... I do not wish for them to have the same responsibility as the members of the clan. I wish for them to be under me, and me only."
Orlan and Ki Song both looked slightly surprised. Ki Song perceptively replied afterwards.
"So you wish for your people to not be under us, the song, but recieve good treatment and benefits from the song?"
Caster chuckled nervously.
"That is correct."
Ki Song smirked and rested her face on her hand.
"That's pretty selfish of you. Exploiting Clan Song..."
Caster was pretty terrified by now, but he wasn't out of his wits. He couldn't be. He had the fourth wall after all.
"Well sure, we'll treat your guys as a vassal clan and help them if its not unreasonable."
Caster was happy to hear that.
"Thank you for the grace, Raven Queen."
"Then I will assume you have said all you wished to say."
"No, I have one more favour to ask. Please don't kill Nephis."
Ki song was intrigued by that request. It didn't seem like she was too proactive about killing Nephis, but at least wanted to play the card of someone who wished to kill her. But more than that, she wished to know how the Han Li Clan knew her intentions.
After all, the clan she issued to attempt Nephis' assassination wasn't the Han Li Clan.
"How do you know I wished to kill her?"
Caster had already prepared an answer for this question.
"The sword domain... issued that command to us. We accepted not knowing it was from the sword domain. However, in doing so we found out that the Song Domain also issued an assassination."
Saint Orlan, who heard this was surprised. He didn't know the order was from the sword domain either. He was enraged at how he had been manipulated and fooled.
Ki Song nodded. She bought that explaination.
Because it was true.
Han Li Clan belonged to the Song Domain, however the order issued to them was by the Sword Domain.
It was simply a mistake on Han Li clan's patriarch to accept it.
The sword domain did so to not be made suspects of the assassination in case it fails.
It was not like they couldn't handle the repercussions, rather there would barely be any resistance. But they did it simply for the fact that it's better to be careful.
Who knew what kind of mess it could evolve into.
"Fine, I'll accept your request."
Caster inwardly let out a sigh of relief.
'It seems I've recieved an amnesty... thankfully.'
Soon, after the talks with Ki Song were over, Ki Song mentioned Caster to remain at the Jade Palace for now.
He was provided a complex at the palace, a much better one than the one he lived at in the Bright Castle.
He would also be provided with any kind of memory he wishes to get, with just an order, and would also get private instructors for essence control whenever he wished to.
For now, he was ordered to rest after the long and arduous journey he had at the forgotten shore.
But of course, Caster couldn't just stay still.
Saint Orlan had to leave soon, he had work at his citadel after all.
"So, do you mind telling me what your awakened ability is?"
Caster nodded.
He didn't wish to tell him his ability was grazing, it would make everyone distrustful of him. Or so he believed.
Who would completely trust someone who had the power to take away your power in greed?
Caster wouldn't.
And hence he believed that the other's wouldn't either.
Luckily, Caster had an aspect legacy.
The walls.
So he had a great excuse.
"My second aspect ability isn't something that improves my battle power substantially..."
Caster's father, Saint Orlan, interjected.
"How is that possible? Aren't you a divine aspect holder?!"
Caster moved his arm in front of him, motioning his father to calm down.
"Let me finish. The ability is truely worthy of being divine. My second aspect ability allows me to get nearly complete resistance to mind and soul attacks... and probably corruption as well. Though, I've not yet experienced corruption to know."
Orlan was stunned. It was an indeed an incredible ability. It lacked in versatility, but it completely cleared not just one, but two weakness that nearly every awakened has.
Mind and Soul powers are the most terrifying powers of them all.
Without ever finding out about it, you could die.
Resistance from that, and that too to a near complete degree, is incredible.
"That's a great power, son."
Caster nodded.
"Thank you, father."
'That's just my aspect legacy, and you're already stunned.'
Afterwards, Saint Orlan left. Not wanting to delay his work further.
And now... Caster was stuck at the Jade Palace for a while.
It was unfortunate that he couldn't even leave the dream realm. Since he entered through a saint's gate, his real body travelled through the realms. He'll need a saint to leave the dream realm.
Luckily he is going to get a saint wife pretty soon, but it will still take a while.
For now, Caster was going to prepare for the future.
Caster started thinking everything he needs to do.
The top priority among that is to somehow learning how to weave.
Ever since he got his lineage attribute, [Apostle of Eternity], he's been able to see the weaves.
He was also able to see the inner tapestry of the spell when he went through the citadel in the forgotten shore as well.
So he concluded that it was his lineage attribute that made the difference.
But he didn't need to learn it like Sunny did. Why should he choose the hard way?
He has the [Book of Books] after all. It can provide him any information he needed.
Yes, he used this effect of it the least, he almost always used it for attacking.
But the near infinite pool of knowledge it had... it'd be best to make use of that, no?
But to get into that, he first needed to learn how to wield essence.
And Caster immediately dived into that.
He had read about Sunny doing some sort of cycles with the essence.
The first thing he noticed was that the essence seemed to move to his will, obviously, but it seemed to escape his will if not done properly.
And so he started making the essence flow, from one place to another.
Caster seemed to innately knwo how to enhance his physical attributes by expending it, but wasn't really efficient with how he did it.
It was rather crude.
That was how all young Awakened used it.
True masters, however, were much more intricate in their control of essence. They could isolate every muscle, every nerve, every bone in their body and only enhance those parts of it that they needed to perform an action. Their expenditure of essence was more akin to a trickle than a torrent, but achieved the same result.
That's why between two Awakened with similar soul core capacity, one could be able to fight at his peak physical prowess for much longer.
And that's what Caster was aiming to reach. Not instantly, but as fast as he can.
He spent a lot of time meditating as he controlled the flow of the essence through his body, at all times. Even when he slept, even when he moved.
It was incredibly draining on him.
During this time, Caster had analysed all his awakening had to offer.
First of all, all his attributes had gotten much more powerful. Especially [Stormsong]. It seemed that the potency of his essence increased immensely. But that wasn't all. Caster could now manifest the essence into a physical form, as well as an energy form.
At the moment though, the most he could do was form a thin string in the name of physical manifestation, and an energy blast that blasted only Caster.
He needs a lot more control to truly make this new aspect of combat his own.
Proper essence control would give him so much more of an advantage against others.
For now though, his essence control was not nearly good enough to start weaving.
None the less, he wished to find out about weaving, and thus he asked the book of books about it.
'Tell me the basics of how to start weaving.'
He saw that it consumed a ton of his shards, it pained him slightly but it was going to be worth it.
For a while, Caster kept reading it, over and over again until he remembered it all.
He foud out two things. First is that one doesn't need to see the weaves to weave, as long as one knows the specific method of creating weaves and has decent visual memory to remember the weaves being taught to them, they can learn to weave.
Luckily, Caster could now look at the weaves due to the [Apostle of Eternity].
***
A week later.
Nearly everyone from the Gold Reapers were now anchored at the different citadels of raverheart.
Most of them were keeping to themselves for the moment, as Caster hadn't called them in. Not for now.
Caster's lieutenants had reached the places they wished to go to as well.
Sunny, despite saying that he'd join him, went to Chained Isles for research, the same place Caster aims to go to.
And Nephis, went with him.
The rest, all came to ravenheart, including Kai and Effie.
Caster wanted to meet with them, but he wasn't exactly allowed to leave until the official matters settle, including the engagement of Caster and Moonveil.
There's probably going to be a lavish party later on, however... it'd be many years in the future according to his estimates. At least after he becomes a master.
Anything less than that, would be unbefitting of Moonveil.
In the meanwhile...
Caster kept studying essence control and weaving by himself, continuously.
And then he noticed something in his runes change.
Attribute: [Sorcerer] --> [Weave Sorcerer].
Description: The weaves recognize you as a weaver. You will have talent in weave sorcery.
Caster was pleasantly surprised for a while.
He had been wondering what his sorcerer attribute would do... it seems it helps you get into one particular sorcery, and give you talent for it.
This doesn't mean that talent for the other sorcery are taken away, it just means that the talent for the other sorcery will be what it would have been without the sorcerer attribute.
He wasn't going to become someone with a million different sorceries.
He'd just be good at one of them.
And that would be enough.
Caster was immensely excited... Excited to start weaving in the near future.
However he was also dreading someone...
Mordret.