"Old Jack!" Eosira shouted.
When he heard the voice, his age drooping eyes went wide. "E... Eosira?" he turned, catching sight if the filthy little thing where it stood, so filthy she was that he almost didn't recognize her. "Dear child..." he pitifully cried. "We heard you ran away."
Tiling her head in confusion, "Why would Eosira run away?" She asked, "Papa said he would come back for me."
Suddenly stuck by the realization, old jack's bones went weak, "Y-y-you..." He forced an ugly smile, feeling his heart shatter at the young girl's condition. 'She looks so thin... so so thin' he thought as he slid his gaze to the young child beside her. His back all but stiffened. He knew a lording when he met one.
From the way he stood to that air of authority that swelled around him, old man jack felt it all press heavily on his weak heart.
"M'lord," he mustered a low bow.
Veythar nodded, "Are you the mayor of this village?" he asked as he looked around. "If so, then I would like to ask you a few questions."
"Eh? you're a lord?" Eosira asked, tilting her head. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Technically, a young master," Veythar answered, motioning for her to be quiet. Focusing his silver eyes on old jack, he asked "I'd like to know what planet I'm on."
"What planet?" Old jack repeated, confused. "I'm sorry my lord I do not quite understand."
That had not been the answer had been expecting, frowning he asked "Then can you explain the process with which one absorbs Arcana in this realm?"
"Of course, right away my lord." Old Jack hurriedly replied, quick to pick up on the impatience in the young lord's voice. He leaned in on his cane even harder, finding it difficult to stand. "To absorb Arcana from the true source, one requires a spirit to seize it. By projecting the spirit into the the realm we are able to absorb the arcana into our pores to be cycled and refine it. The method of refinement is different for everyone. Some carry specific formulas, and some use bloodline techniques to refine it. Even in our Concave village, we have our own formulae. When the Arcana is absorbed it is cycled through the twelve gates and taken to the heart to be- "
"Wait the heart? not the dantain?" Veythar questioned. The Dantain was a small ethereal organ used to hold QI and a plethora of other energies in the twelve realms.
Old Jack stumbled back to his chair, heavy in breath. "You speak in tounges m'lord" He took in a deep breath "may I ask you what a dantain is?"
"It will do you no good. Seeing it's useless now." Veythar mused, shaking his head. 'maybe if I use my heart instead of a dantain I can create my own qi separate from the Qi of heaven and earth. ' he smiled at the thought. "Can I see the method you use for cultivation?"
"It's not a secret." Old jack said welcomingly, taking a deep breath, he stood back up before motioning for them to come in. When he saw Veythar made no move to do so, he went inside before returning with a sweaty brow and a parchment that he offered the young boy.
Veythar looked it over, frowning nodding and some times letting out a hum. After he finished, he offered it back to old jack, "Thank you for your assistance." He said before turning to leave.
"What about Eosira?" Old Jack asked to which he received no response from the boy.
Veythar didn't see a need to respond. If he had truly been worried, he would have offered her a place to stay. Old Jack was old and when he eventually passed, Eosira would be right back where she was now. Veythar thought.
"Well that was rude," Eosira said to the young boy as they were walking.
"Was I? I couldn't tell," Veythar responded and to tell the truth, he didn't quite care. Old Jack had outlived his usefulness. "Then next time, you should be the one to talk, you were as quiet as a mouse."
"Eosira isn't a mouse, she is a lion!"
"Lioness," Veythar corrected with a smirk. "It is the female version of a lion if you didn't know."
She did not, "Yeah that! Eosira morningstar is a lioness!" The young girl proudly exclaimed, puffing out her chest and lifting her chin.
"So what next, big brother?"
"What next huh?" Veythar responded turning his head to the cloacked figures with the emblem of a golden owl engraved on their chests. Draped in black and white robes, they entered the village with a hard look in their eyes. "We're going to meet your family."
"Huh?" Eosira who had been staring at the cloaked figures, turned to Veythar, "W-w-why? No I can't not like this..." she responded, looking at her ragged figure. Never before had she been more embarased. "Father won't even be able to recognize me..." she said, heat rising in her cheeks turning them bright red. "Can't you just teach me hunting and magic? Like that Zephyr's grace thing, y-you said it was Transmutation right?"
The figures, who had been walking to the Mayor's house, suddenly stopped , turning to the two children.
Veythar gave them a long look before turning to leave before trouble ensued. 'Maybe they'll think it's children batter' he mused to himself as Eosira nagged at him.
By the time they had gotten out of the village, it had not been noon, yet on more than one occasion, he had heard Eosira stomach growl with hunger. Annoyed, Veythar wondered if this was how his mother had felt when the cooks at the castle refused to feed them.
The previous night, she had nearly eaten all the deer, gnawing through bone as if she were a Hyena. Veythar had barely managed a thin slice of meat, so disgusted at the food that lacked something as basic as salt.
"Let's go hunting... I've got to find some herbs anyway." He remarked, putting the idea of meeting Eosira's parents on hold. Maybe he'd try when those strangers left the village.
They strutted into the forest, and this time, Veythar had Eosira do the hunting. She had been a little green at first, but over the span of a few hours, she had mastered the art of tracking. It was not long that they came across a small brown bear munching on a vine of grapes in a bright clearing.
"... I quite like this place." Veythar muttered, surveying his surroundings as he approached the bear. And much like the previous deer, it did not register death's icy grip. It died to a vicious sword thrust through the head, exploding out the back with a gory spray of blood.
Eosira watched, still not understanding why the bear not so much as moved. It was as if he didn't seem to exist, yet there he was, she saw him.
Trying to wrack her head around it, she watched on curiously as he skinned and bled it. Preserving the fur. He moved with the grace of a veteran.
"Who taught you how to hunt?" She asked him.
"Who taught me?" He almost smiled, "I'm self taught. In the castle..." he stopped, then turned to face her. "Come here"
Waddling over, Veythar handed her his sword then started instilling in her the basics of swordsmanship. Starting with the feel. Slashing through flesh had a unique feeling to it, especially when it was warm.
He showed her how to correctly hold a sword, how to cut and where to cut before he took back his blade. When they were done, the bear was nothing more than chunks of meat with a good amount of fat stuck to it.
"We are going to build a cottage here." he said to Eosira, again looking at the lush clearing, lined with thick vines of green grapes. It was not too far from the stream, a few minutes at most and close enough to the village if they wanted to trade.
"Here?" Eosira looked around with a wide smile.
"But before any of that," Veythar turned to the young girl "You need to take a fucking bath, I'm not going to smell you any longer!"
***
"So you don't know his name?" asked initiate Willard.
Old-Jack gave a long winded response from on top of his rocking chair. "No... it was my first time meeting him."
"And you're sure he's a nobleman?"
"As sure as you were once a commoner like me," old jack responded ,wheezing as he coughed into his palm. He stared at Willard, eying his callus palms, his windburnt face and his all-around gaunt figure. "The boy... is undoubtedly a nobleman."
"And why is he here?" asked Willard. "Is he lost?"
"If he is, he sure didn't look it." replied Lawrence Crane beside the door. "But that is not why we're here. What can you tell us about the lightning that fell?"
'A nobleman,' old Jack thought, looking at his handsome features, his baby smooth palms and milky skin. Old jack coughed, "When it struck, be it dog, cat, sheep or mare, all began to squeal, breaking out of their stables to flee. The ground shook for nearly five days as if remembering the horrid power that descended. The water tasted like iron... like... ash and... soot for seven days."
"Like sulfur?" Lawrence asked.
"Why yes! Like sulfur," old Jack replied. "What does that mean?"
"Why hells if I know." replied Lawrence, "But we'll inform the professor of this, come along initiate."