Chapter 95: Out of the mouths of infants

Chapter 95: Out of the mouths of infants

“Even as wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes, so does it often come from the mouths of old people. The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and experience, no matter from where it comes.”

Mahatma Gandhi

“That would be me?” she repeated, seemingly fascinated by the fact that I could talk.Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.

“Yes,” I replied simply. I was tempted to repeat, ‘That would be me, not you.’ But I was unsure how she would take my attempt at humour. This whole situation depended on her reactions in more ways than one. How would she respond to the revelation that I was more than I seemed?

“You the infant brother?” she repeated looking at the rest of my family to see if we were pulling her leg. However, their serious faces and nods of confirmation seemed to reassure her that this was the reality of the situation.

“Yes,” I confirmed once more alongside my family’s silent affirmation.

“And you received the other half of the stats?” She reached for clarification confirming her belief that Aleera had not gained all of them. Pushing past the initial shock that she was after all conversing with an infant. Maybe elves matured young?

“Yes.” Again, I answered.

“Yet, you are younger than her. Somehow you can see your stats?” she seemed to be extrapolating possible answers from my responses.

I nodded, tired of repeating myself.

“Do you have skills as well as stats?” She probed.

“Yes, I can see my stats and skills,” I added.

“Since when?” she seemed to be reaching for my limits or finding out how deep my foundations were.

“My stats or my skills?” I asked

“Both, either?” she ignored my flippant response and focused on the details.

“As far back as I can remember, I’ve always seen them.” That might be stretching the truth a little I had after all been able to see them before my eyes had physically developed enough to open.

“Which came first?” she asked. Which seemed a weird question.

“Why does that matter?” Aleera asked.

“It doesn’t really in the end matter but much like the chicken and the egg it is a question often asked. When children normally first gain access to their status, after the age of 5, they always have the common six stats as well as at least one basic skill. It could be singing, sailing, running anything really but they all start at level 1 with the experience of their first level. The question is which comes first their status or the skill? Can you have a skill without a status or a status without a skill? I admit it is not immediately relevant to the matter at hand, but I have always wondered myself which came first.

“Status then skills,” I revealed.

“So did you truly start at Level 0 then without a skill?” happy to have put that conundrum to rest.

“Yes, I did,” I remembered back to the first moment I had awoken. Without something to do, some skill to learn and practice, I thought I might have very well gone mad or at least learned how to hibernate within the womb.

“The paper I could write on this.” She smiled to herself before adding, “Although most would doubt my findings. Even come and inspect you for themselves to verify my claims, which would be quite counter to your family’s request for confidentiality, which I will of course honour.” She turned to my parents to reassure them that she was worthy of the trust we had been forced by circumstance to place in her.

“If you would indulge my curiosity further. What about your stats? Did they grow from 0 as well?” She seemed absorbed by the intellectual theories my existence proved and disproved rather than me as an individual myself. I guessed that opportunities to talk to infants were far and few between. At least those who could remember gaining a status before a skill.

“Two years and four months.” The fewer years you had made those months all the more important. Two years and four months sounded older than two and a quarter to me at least.

“Not even 3 and you can count, talk and see your stats. Why not head for the capital with him?” she asked the hall the question open to all.

“I’m sure you can imagine why,” Grandfather answered for us all. “I’m sure you can imagine the feeding frenzy fighting over him. Those who could not have him or control him would simply try to kill him. Where would that leave us, his family? The more who know about him the less safe it becomes.”

“Yes, but nearly 3 years lost. Think of what he could have learned in that time with the correct tuition.” She argued, acknowledging Grandfather’s point and then ignoring it.

“I’ve hardly been standing still,” I defended myself.

“Would he have been allowed to learn or would he have been bound to one cause or another? He was and is safer here away from the politics. Besides we have taught him well enough.” He added. I coughed at that. ‘Well enough’ was a subjective rather than objective opinion. Personally, having lived through his version of training, I thought it could have been done better.

Ignoring Grandfather, she excitedly inquired, “What else can you do?”

“I think that is enough for now.” Grandfather intervened.

“Oh, come now. This is the child of the century imagine what he will be capable of given time. You cannot expect me not to be curious when meeting him for the first time. Think of what he could accomplish. Think of what we could achieve.”

“You’ve met him before.” Highlighting the fact that she had not noticed at first, “Given time, I’m sure he will be capable of a lot.” Grandfather as always advocating the position, speak less and frown more.

“Given time, exactly. Give me the time. Callen must join Aleera in her training. We can keep their lessons separate from the cousins if you still wish to keep your wider family and the public unaware of his abilities but to fail to educate the infant, nay boy would be a crime against history.” She seemed passionate about her appeal. I hoped that Lady Acacia’s sudden enthusiasm for tutoring me compared to when she arrived to tutor my sister, did not damage my relationship with my sister.

“Hardly a crime, he is happy as he is.” Grandfather grumpily asserted my opinion for me, not that he was wrong. Life had been good and any change could be for the better or for the worse.

“Are you happy?” she asked me directly ignoring Grandfather.

Looking around at my family, my father, my mother, my sister even my Grandfather, “Yes.” I answered.

“I could make you a hero,” she whispered her words somehow mine alone to hear judging by how my family failed to react to them, her lips never moving.

“I’m happy singing with my mother, sailing with my father and making money with my sister . . .” I paused teasing my Grandfather with my silence before relenting and adding, “even fighting with Grandfather.”

“I could make your son more than a man I could make him a legend.” She instead tried to convince my parents.

“At what cost?” Grandfather objected.

“Fame and fortune favour the bold there is a risk to everything yes. However, every legend started somewhere and those who have achieved it without exceptional circumstances all had exceptional stats. A child who has been able to see his stats since he was born, a child who has been able to gain skills, and a child who has been able to gain levels for ten years before allocation instead of 5 simply must have exceptional stats. Let me give him exceptional circumstances and he will blossom.” She added an impassioned plea.

It was difficult to tell why she was so enthralled by the idea of teaching me. What was the opportunity she saw that I was missing?

“He has learned all the skills you have taught me so far. What more could you teach him?” Aleera asked.

"All the skills?" she queried raising an eyebrow.

"All the skills you've taught me so far." She repeated, proud of her own ability to impart them to me. "What else could you teach him that you haven't taught me?"

“My magic.” She answered.