Tbate-The Reincarnates

Duality

From Caera Denoir's point of view

I swung my leg over the steep edge of the roof, leaning back against the crenellated wall and letting my attention wander across the Xyrus Academy campus.

It was still early in the morning and the campus was mostly dark, with a hint of pink and orange highlighting the distant horizon. Despite the hour, students were already active on campus, exercising or training. Occasional flashes of magic lit up the campus like fireworks.

"I met a little friend of yours Caera." Seris's scythe voice sounded from the dual communication scroll.

"Really? Who was it?" I asked curiously.

"Lancelot Winey, what do you know about him?"

Several questions went through my head, my mind worked to find a time when the two could meet in person, but no specific moment crossed my mind.

"Honestly," I let out a sigh, "I don't know much, Lancelot isn't the type to talk about his personal life."

"I understood."

"What did you two talk about?" I asked, trying to keep my curiosity from leaking into my voice.

"Conversations about the future..." The scythe paused briefly, to give her time to carefully choose her own words, "which seems to be treading a path of adversity and tragedy."

I wanted to argue, but her words rang true.

Dicathen itself was a regular topic of conversation between the Named Bloods and the High Bloods, everyone talking about this mysterious continent and the sorts of things it might achieve if they gained dominion over these lands.

According to Scythe Seris, Agrona started preparing for war with Dicathen almost 15 years ago, I knew the High Sovereign's expansion to Dicathen was selfish at best and not benefiting the people of Alacrya, nobility or not.

I never craved the kind of glory that war brings. I had no interest in killing those who had never harmed me, regardless of where they were born or to whom they swore allegiance.

But here I was a spy sent by Agrona, whatever curiosity or doubt my peers or teachers might have about me, they were unlikely to suspect that I was an Alacryan spy. There were a number of simpler explanations for any mistake I might make, and the rich and powerful would always assume that any mystery fit their own domestic intrigue.

My only purpose in Dicathen was to capture, and take the rest of the reincarnated to Alacrya.

Despite reminding myself of this startling fact at least a hundred times, I still hadn't been able to accept it. Who would have thought there were other worlds? And that you could... be reborn into one.

I forced myself to focus on the treetops and the birds singing around me, pushing away any thoughts of my future. There was no benefit in thinking about all this now.

"I have to hang up now, Caera, as things are very hectic around here."

"OK."

"One last thing, don't get attached to these people, it will be the best for you, live as if you could leave at any moment," my mentor said in a serious voice, "I hope you didn't take your entire collection of plush dolls with you."

I gaped at his last line, so I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms. "Just so you know, I only brought one, and it would be an insult to call him a mere 'plush doll' considering how fierce he looks."

The pearl-haired Vritra let out a melodic laugh, a sound few had the honor to hear, before she ended our short call.

I tilted my head back and looked up at the blue-black sky, and I began to think about, my life, my duty as an Alacryan citizen.

A familiar sensation escaped my core as a fine but imposing particle of soul fire began to burn on the tip of my index finger.

Each house that had traces of Vritra blood in its lineage is recorded so that the descendants of those houses are immediately tested at birth. If a newborn's blood contains traces of the High Sovereign's lineage, they are immediately removed from that house and placed in a High Blood house capable of raising and training the baby to become a distinct figure, because of the Vritra blood that flows. in my veins, I should be raised, educated, and trained in the safest of conditions, because if anything happened to me, the sovereigns would strip the Denoirs, the family that had the "honor" of taking me in in the hope that the Vritra blood in me to manifest which is quite rare. Of his nobility and lands, at the very least, or, in the most extreme of circumstances, even kill the whole blood.

I undid the little flame and held the pendant that hid my horns in my palm, I stared at the crystal blue relic, studying the etheric runes that seemed to have been etched into the translucent gem by the djinns themselves, making it an object with an priceless.

A gust of wind hit the roof of the tower and stirred the pendant, forcing me to close my hand tightly around it. It was a strange and troubling thought, to realize that this mighty gem that contained traces of aether, the energy capable of shaping the world to its will, could be destroyed in an instant, leaving nothing behind.

I looked around at the empty roof and the idle streets below. Snow-capped mountains rose purple in the distance. The unknown stars above were fading, absorbed by the sunrise.

My pampered life of nobility, my efforts to be a powerful mage, even the reality that I was a born Vritra whose blood had manifested, all seemed completely unimportant in the face of whatever innovations my future would bring me, the mana. told me that.

A small smile played on my lips as I remembered a conversation I had with Sevren, the only person I could truly consider my family, a long time ago. We were wrestling in the gardens with wooden swords each engraved with the ether symbol, of course the duel intensified until I accidentally smacked his knuckles hard enough that he screamed in pain.

Embarrassed, I teased him that he had bowed to the power of my ether magic, but instead of getting angry, he simply sat on the grass and opened and closed his hands with a thoughtful expression.

"One day, I'm going to be an ascendant, sister. I'm going to enter the Relictombs and learn about all this for real." I still clearly remembered how his eyes sparkled as he looked at me from the floor, and his face was way too serious for a boy who wasn't even 12 yet. "Then no one will have to fight anymore, ever again. We could turn the world into whatever we wanted."

I laughed. "Can you make it rain caramel for us then? Lenora told the cooks they couldn't make more after I snuck some."

But Sevren didn't even smile. "The first thing I would do is make sure no one takes you away from our family. I would create a world where you would be safe from the Vritra clan."

"I wonder if there is anyone who can make that dream come true." I spoke nostalgically letting those words fly through the air, so that maybe someone who had the power to change the world could hear them.

'I wonder how Sevren is? Is he already clearing the Relictombs.'

Letting out a slow, steady breath, I watched the sunrise.

"The winter snow and the rays of that summer sun will compose a beautiful dance."