Chapter 31: Begging forgiveness

Chapter 31: Begging forgiveness

“It being less difficult to obtain forgiveness for it after it was done, than permission for doing it.”

Earl of Peterborough

After a short explanation of what had happened down by the shore and a quick demonstration of my two skills Ignite and Boil, Grandfather was as equally astonished as my sister, but a great deal more furious about it all. We were both soon begging forgiveness for our foolishness down by the lake. Aleera more than me as I was still somewhat shielded by my age, assumed innocence, and ignorance but it was driven home fiercely that this was not . . . to ever . . . happen again!

. . .

“And that is precisely why we are all out here!” he admonished ending his rather long lecture on why we were on Ash Island and how we were to keep our magic hidden at all times from now on. It could be boiled down to three rules.

1. No magic unsupervised

2. No magic unless hidden

3. No magic not vetted by and practiced with an adult first.

No way I was following all of those rules but that wasn’t to be the end of restrictions to my freedom.

Having calmed a little after his fairly furious and lengthy outburst he continued, “We wouldn’t normally start this training till you were at least 5 years old but you seem to be far too intelligent not too. In fact, I’ve never seen a pair of smarter fools. There is no point in being sophisticated about your use of mana if you are completely lacking in common sense and wisdom the both of you. Besides having awoken your magic stat and displayed some level of talent in it, it is imperative that we start now.” He wasn’t quite pulling his hair out but still certainly unimpressed with the two of us.

He then went on to detail our itinerary, “Listen up Aleera and Kai, tomorrow we will start to learn you your reading, writing, and arithmetic. Aleera can teach you these while I am out with these." He pointed at a small pile of books set off to the side. “Once she has taught you those and you understand them we can move onto other subjects such as geography, history, trade, and languages of the Compass Kingdoms, which I might as well teach you both.”

“Then when I return we can start with a light run, swim, and climb before knife work.” Looking pointedly at Aleera, “Aleera you have been practicing your knife skills, haven’t you?” Grandfather questioned, already unconvinced of what her answer was going to be.

“Um, yes.” Mumbled Aleera, clearly guilty of every child’s mistake. . .

. . . Not doing their homework!

“Right. Well, after that we can look at your magical development. Aleera you have been practicing what I have taught you so far at least?” he questioned,

“Yes, Grandfather.” She replied a little more upbeat and honestly for once.

“Now, for Kai to have any skills at all is impressive but your application of mana is heavy-handed at best and what is worst is that it is dangerously obvious to anyone looking. If you are going to use mana in front of others or even near them you have to pretend it is a system-given skill of the world. The only way you can do that, to pretend it is a skill, is for it to be carefully controlled in order for it to be hidden. You have not been careful. You are not controlled. So that is what we will focus on first.”

Not being allowed a word in edgewise I was relegated to listening and nodding my head as the diatribe continued. How he expected me to understand all of this I do not know. But he seemed to be talking to Aleera as much as me going into great detail about how she would have to facilitate my training and supervision. It was difficult to tell if he was proud of my prodigious progress or vexed by it. Clearly, it was unexpected and unplanned. The lack of planning for it seemed to be the most frustrating aspect of it to my grandfather and what he was evidently trying to rectify right this second with an overabundance of planning. Even if no plan survives contact with the enemy which he seemed to be implying everyone other than family was. Even there, it seemed that anyone outside of our immediate circle was also one risk too many.

“We are all in agreement, then.” He paused here as if expecting us to agree fully when this was clearly a dictatorial relationship.

“Right, off to bed. I only have one spare roll so you will have to share, top and tail. Off you go and sort yourselves out.” Pointing we headed out of the room, tired and overwhelmed by the events of the day. The food was left cold on the table our first punishment for failing to follow the three rules.

Hungry we went to bed.

“Sorry,” I whispered as we lay down to go to sleep.

“Not your fault, Kai.” She replied. “Sleep, training tomorrow.” She said as she rolled onto her side.

Lying on my back looking up at another bare ceiling I pondered my mistakes.

Had I pushed too hard to hit the milestones before age 1?

Maybe, but they were clearly worth it.

Ultimately, I would do it again.

Perhaps, not tonight though.

Hungry, I closed my eyes and delved deeper into my body taking a break from my super senses. I opened my eyes to the world I had built in my head, my mind fortress. My false stats shone in the stone wall and sat above my hidden trapdoor entrance. As far as I can tell no one seems to have looked at or commented on my stats and skills but if they can see them one day it needed another update after today’s explosive developments and revelations.

Sophistical Status

Level: 5

Name: Kai

Experience: (900/3200)

Health: 300/300 Stamina: 163/163 Mana: 300/300

Vitality: 30

Endurance:12

Strength: 12

Mentally exhausted from the mental remodeling of my mind fortress I returned to my body but not before taking a last look at my status. Surprised at the increase in experience over only a few hours tonight. It seemed to break down to the Mind Fortress, Ignite, Freeze, Boil, and Mana Sense skills leveling during the last day.

True Status

Level: 10 Name: Kai

Experience: 54,000/ 204,800

Age: 13 months, 1 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours

Health: 1100/1100 Stamina: 513/513 Mana: 1000/1000 Psi: 1070/1070

Trait: Long Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana,

Vitality: 110

Endurance: 22

Strength: 22

Dexterity: 23

Senses: 109

Mind: 107

Clarity: 38

Magic: 100

Free Points: 20

Skills:

Tier 1: Time sense (LV 22) Listening (LV 26) Meditation (LV 31) Swimming (LV 23)

Humming (Lv 20) Sneak (Lv 21) Whistling (Lv 20) Singing (Lv 20) and Drumming (Lv 20)

Running (Lv 10), Acting (15), English (Lv 15), Spanish (Lv 15), Japanese (Lv 15),

German (Lv 10), French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 1) Breath Control (Lv 1) Sight (Lv 11)

Scent (Lv 11) Detect (Lv 11) Taste (Lv 11) Bulosa (Lv 1) Draw (Lv 1)

Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 30) Eavesdrop (LV 22) Memorisation (LV 20) Composition (Lv 20)

Recall (Lv20) Pain tolerance (Lv 8) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20), Trombone (Lv 20),

Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 15) Translation (Lv 15) Stealth (Lv 10) Quick reflexes (Lv 1)

Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 23) Expel Mana (Lv 29) Absorb Mana (Lv 29)

Mana Manipulation (Lv 12) Ignite (Lv 12) Freeze (Lv 3) Boil (Lv 2)

Tier 4: Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 11)

Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 16)

Skill experience: 4200

Origin experience: 0

Combat experience: 0

Crafting experience: 0

It's been a busy day.

Life is full of surprises,

I just have to accept that I cannot plan for them all.

I wonder what life will be like here with Grandfather and Aleera.