After handing out the badges and Identification documents, the group took another short walk towards the inner districts of Albalon. They finally stopped in front of a small cull de sac of tall apartment style buildings that sprouted from the busy central street. Atlan guided the group to the building on their left, one that resembled more of a commercial rental space than a residential building. Through the windows they saw large open communal spaces with several smaller rooms. Most of the first few floors were full of busy individuals performing tasks at several desks and tables in their communal spaces, Valen recognized a few of the trades and a few individuals that seemed like instructors.
Noticing Valen's gaze, Atlan felt the need to clarify. "This building is traditionally used as a rehabilitation center. Those who have had long term disabilities or complications that need help learning to live again after their accidents can be booked into a rehabilitation program." Atlan sighed looking through the windows on the third floor, "Healing Blessings can't regrow limbs, so many active duty individuals that are maimed often need help transitioning to other fields."
"Then why have we been allowed to use this facility?" Valen questioned, uncaring of Atlan's own emotional turmoil.
"Because you guys are refugees that need to be rehabilitated." Errin intervened candidly, "A majority of you can't speak the language, and by splitting you all up, you'd be prone to isolating. Albalon doesn't take refugees in just for them to take up space and food, they need to learn how to contribute. Your group will have some time to learn the language and to study, but you will eventually be asked to make some commitments based on your proficiencies."
"A very pragmatic approach." Valen nodded approvingly, "Do you have any suggestions? Just so we can be mentally prepared for our decision."
"We still don't know what all of you are good at yet." Atlan continued, "Captain wanted us to recommend you to the Historical Research Facilities or the Advanced Education Facility. He also recommended the Artisan Guild or the Silver Forges for the boy named Cairo. The rest look to be combatants of some sort, so either joining the White Hand or the Patrolmen would be best. That is if you don't want to join the Blood Reserve, which is the inactive army, or another belief's organization."
"Being lost people, if you meet the Violet's apprenticeship conditions, you will also have that as an option." Errin reminded them both, "Many don't meet their conditions, but your group is anything but normal. The Violet could choose to place your group in their own assignments around the city, or they could invite you to their inner circle. Albalonian's are rarely accepted for such things, so your group will have a much easier time."
'Interesting. The Violet will likely accept us due to our nature. If some of us end up on assignments, we can use that to keep an eye on important groups, while the ones in the inner circle can use it to help the group grow their abilities. That's assuming their abilities are compatible with ours. There are too many variables…' Valen lamented in his thoughts.
After reaching the sixth floor and final floor of the Rehabilitation Center, Atlan fished a set of identical keys out of the cloth bag, slipping one into the door's lock. One satisfying click later, the ebony stained wooden door gave way for the group, revealing a large common area.
Walnut colored wood flooring covered the room in a soft but rich shade of brown that contrasted the white slabs that covered the walls. Spaced out around a large burgundy rug were several sitting spaces covered in velvet upholstery and cotton throw pillows. Chalkboards lined the western wall, while kitchen facilities lined the eastern wall. A collage of doors covered the southern wall leading to various bedrooms, linen closets, and bathrooms. The decor was subtle and minimal, yet gave the impression that the place was a living space, and definitely not a holding facility.
After a quick tour of the place, guided by Atlan holding the floor plan, the two patrolmen took their leave after reminding Valen that they would be back with Captain Rallo the next afternoon. The group all split off into their rooms to situate themselves, knowing that they would be having a long discussion once they rejoined in the common area.
One by one, the group's hunger drew them out from their respite. Leading the group to a basket of bread that had been placed on the coffee table in the middle of the discussion circle furniture formation that had been left by the previous occupants. As the group gnawed through their food, awkwardly making eye contact occasionally, it was Akkod who broke the ice.
"Look, I know you all would prefer not to address the matter at hand, but I would prefer not to fail on the second conflict." Akkod stated, "So I hope that you guys know more about what to do here than I do."
Fleur and Larion looked at each other, but chose not to speak up just yet. It was Illua who took the lead in the conversation.
"First, we need to lay all our cards on the table." Illua looked into each member's eyes, landing on Valen's. "No matter how little we trust each other, there are too many anomalies already to treat this as a simple path. Second Conflicts are not the same as the First, we could very easily fail here.
"So, in order to help us work together, I'll teach you guys about 'Guiding Forces'."
Illua's word brought her a reproachful gaze from Larion, and a relieved look from Fleur. While the rest of the group only looked at her confused.
"Guiding Forces?" Valen asked, judging the visual responses from each member of the group. "Do you mean how veteran pathfinders call upon the golden line of their path for direction and for inferring information?"
"Yes and No." Illua responded with no expression. "Guiding forces are for what you stated, but they are also more than just that. Guiding forces also include your own Pathway Abilities, seeing as they have influence over your path. Which means that you can also use the golden line to infer information about yourself.
"Seeing as we have weak and undeveloped Guiding Forces, there isn't much we can infer about our path or our pathway abilities. However, we should be able to receive some type of enlightenment about our abilities' name.
"As an example, my first ability's name is 'Poet's Lost Tongue'. I received it by accidentally reciting an ancient script aloud during my first conflict. I don't know what it can do yet, but I should be able to infer more information based on the name the pathway gave it."
"Some sort of Speech ability?" Valen pondered aloud, "Does it require a specific language to activate? Perhaps there is a different activation method, or perhaps it's a format instead of an activation method. Using Poetry and a Language together for a certain effect?"
"Possibly." Illua cut him off, unwilling to listen to him theorize her limits and abilities. "The method is simple: grasp the golden line and enter a meditative state. The Path should give you inspiration if you isolate the foreign feeling in your mind."
Valen didn't immediately make an attempt, choosing to observe the others make their attempt first. Unsurprisingly, Fleur and Larion didn't make an attempt, garnering more spite from the first generation pathfinders.
While Cairo struggled to calm his nerves enough to enter a meditative state, Akkod nearly fell asleep on his first attempt. As Akkod sat with his legs crossed and eyes closed, almost slumping over in his seat and falling asleep, his right hand suddenly shot out grabbing his golden line. While the rest couldn't see it, Valen could; He saw the two golden lines protruding from the chests of the two young men slowly converge into the same thicker line. After a few moments, and curious gazes, Akkod spoke like he was giving an automated response.
"Confidence or Coincidence. Strength and Luck belong only to the bold." Akkod's voice spilled out of his mouth while he was in a strange trance, a golden light flickered in his eyes. It only stopped after several blinks later as Akkod's conscience emerged from its deep trance. "That was weird. What was that strange voice that spoke to me? I thought it was supposed to be an inspiration, that was rather direct…"
It was only then that he noticed the three astonished faces staring at him, along with an unsettling interest piercing through Valen's veil.
"That shouldn't be possible! How can he have such a synchronization with his pathway to have direct communion?!" Larion roared, outraged by his own observation.
"Have you completely resigned to your fate?" Fleur asked Akkod with trembling hands.
"Resigned to my fate? No. I just don't believe that fate is some predetermined thing. Fate is whatever you make of it." Akkod answered bluntly.
"How could that possibly be? Paths are literally manifested by your own fate, how can you deny that it's predetermined when you walk its path?"
"It's simple." Akkod shrugged, "Just walk in the direction you want. Everything that comes after is determined by your own decisions. Don't push the consequences of your actions onto some amorphous concept like fate. Take accountability and press onward."
"Interesting." Valen intervened, "Your mentality seems to be highly integrated even into your own guiding forces, so much so that your manifested ability even follows its logic. Remarkable."
"What do you mean?" Cairo asked, waiting for the current commotion to be over to have enough silence to make his attempt.
"I mean that his mentality likely caused his first ability to manifest without something happening in his first conflict." Valen clarified, "'Confidence or Coincidence' likely implies that his decision making has supernatural effects. 'Strength and Luck belong only to the bold' would imply that if he makes bold decisions and actions, his strength and luck would be amplified. However, it means that he is weak when he is questioning himself or doubting himself. His own confidence turns coincidences into certainties."
"Wow!" Cairo roughly understood the implications of Valen's words, but rejoiced nonetheless. "Is it a form of reality manipulation?"
"We'd need to test its limits." Valen responded candidly.
"Congrat's Akkod, that's a pretty cool ability!" Cairo congratulated.
"Thanks, I guess." Akkod nodded in response, unfazed by Valen's words. He turned back to Fleur and Larion, "What about you two? What are your abilities?"
Larion flinched at the question, while Fleur glanced at Larion, worried to see his reaction. Larion's teeth clenched with the look of wishing to kill all those present, that was until he met Fleur's eyes and lowered his head in shame and nodded. Receiving his unwilling permission to share, Fleur began to share their story.
"Well, I think it would be best to start by explaining our first conflict and the matters leading up to it." Fleur said with a deep breath to calm her nerves. "First things first, as you all know Larion is a member of the Darege family, and I am a member of the Arstice family, a vassal family of the Darege. With Larion not being the first in the line of succession, he had to take one of the alternate paths for his family, and as a vassal I was chosen to accompany him.
"What you may not know is that the Darege family is known for their shared technique, the Sword Spirit Technique. It's a technique that can only be found and learned in a specific otherworld, and the Darege have a complete monopoly on its paths which all originate in the north of the Heartlands.
"All members of the family choose a path that contains a method of receiving the technique. The Sword Spirit is their trademark and what all their training is prepared for, and our path was supposed to be no different.
"The Path was supposed to be a simple escort mission, a merchant caravan with a secret VIP, an adopted son of a Sword Spirit practitioner. Besides the mundane bandits, there was only one primary target, a Vampire Lord. The planned method for the path was to hunt the Vampire, receive his Origin Blood, and deliver the VIP to the practitioner to receive the technique's unique training method. However our encounter all went wrong when our guiding forces went astray in the lead up to the merging paths.
"The plan to counter-ambush the vampire failed when we were suddenly interrupted by the anomaly. The fight devolved from an assassination into a blood bath. Larion was attempting to cover for the VIP to escape when the Vampire tricked us into letting the boy loose. From there things went even further off the rails…"
"The boy's death left me with his memento." Larion muttered under his breath, barely audible. "It unknowingly gave me my ability, Pickpocket's Trickery. The boy was a street rat that the practitioner adopted, and he was very talented with sleight of hand and diverting attention. Which when manifested into my ability, caused things to go from bad to worse.
"When the Vampire was lunging for me, with Fleur on his tail to pin him from both sides, I took my eyes away from the vampire and looked at Fleur, unknowingly triggering my ability. The Vampire's attention was diverted from me to Fleur, and he one-eighty'd and impaled Fleur on his arm."
"Thankfully, he didn't get the chance to kill me." Fleur took back the reins, "We were ripped out of the path and brought into the merged path, just outside the forest. There my ability manifested, Blood Thrall."
"I see." Valen nodded solemnly, as if her pain was his own. "Surviving an infected strike from a Vampire triggered your body to turn into a blood thrall, the least desirable of the known vampiric abilities."
"Indeed." Fleur's voice was pained as she agreed with Valen's observation. "I was supposed to use the Origin Blood to hold an ascension ritual to become a blood witch, or in the worst case, consume it and become a Vampire. Seeing as the Vampire wasn't a progenitor, even a bite or a wound wouldn't be capable of turning me, so it was never part of the plan. Maybe if we had enough time to kill him, I could have used the blood to turn and save myself, but we will never know."
The room went quiet, while there were various reactions to their unfortunate story. Cairo was empathetic to their sadness and was quite solemn, Akkod was indifferent, Illua was understanding of their pain but wasn't willing to pity a pair of pathtakers, while Valen was lost in remorse due to feeling like he had lost a potentially powerful asset.
"What were the names of your respective abilities?" Akkod asked, missing the atmosphere in the room.
"Pickpocket's Trickery" Larion mumbled.
"Blood Fiend" Fleur stated, attempting to keep a straight face as she winced at the thought of her conversion.
"What do you think those names imply?" Akkod turned to Valen, disregarding the opinions of those involved.
"Hm. Considering their recollection of events, I think there are at least two layers to their abilities." Valen spoke his conjecture with no remorse for their suffering. "'Pickpocket's Trickery' is likely composed of 'Redirection' and 'Theft'. Redirection allows him to change the target of an attack, while Theft should have its own manifestation that we haven't seen yet.
"'Blood Fiend' is likely related to her current status as a Blood Thrall. Either it's an evolution of Thrallism, or it's supplementary. Blood Thralls are still thralls, they don't tend to exist with the absence of a master. So, including the normal abnormalities of a thrall like regeneration and infected blood, it likely expands or adds supporting abilities to the thrall abnormalities. My bet is some sort of blood related ability that supports the expendable nature of thralls."
"Interesting. Well that makes four." Akkod stretched his legs out from his criss-crossed position, kicking his feet up on the coffee table. "That just leaves the last two."