TBATE - Not Bound By Fate

Part 46

Arthur Leywin

After spending the night trying to figure out how to deal with the sudden lessons in aether manipulation thrown at me yesterday, I could see the night sky start to turn brighter. What I ultimately concluded was that the best course of action was to keep my abilities as hidden as possible or pretend they have more restrictions on the way I use them.

Getting ready for the day ahead, I waited for a maid or someone to come and call me since Kezess didn't really specify where I should be going for his class. It didn't take long for Windsom to show up at the door to my room to guide me, saying the place he was taking me was only accessible for a handful of Asuras.

As he guided me through the castle I noticed how the number of both residents and staff began shrinking and at some point I stopped feeling any type of presence around us. It was a sensation that put me on edge, despite being able to feel the mana around me completely fine, the usual weight it held due to the aura of having several Asuras in the vicinity was completely gone.

But those thoughts were soon pushed to the back of my mind when we arrived where my aether lessons were to take place. The room, or chamber for a better description, was heavy with aether in the air as if someone was constantly pouring more inside of it. The walls, while white in color, had this amethyst sheen to them that upon closer inspection was revealed to be runes inscribed upon the said walls. There must have been tens of thousands of them, if not more, carved in these walls.

"You're here." Kezess' voice broke me out of my thoughts. "You may return to your task now Windsom". The galaxy eyed Asura bowed and left me and Kezess alone in the room.

After a few moments had passed Kezess began his class by explaining if I was even aware of aether existence in the first place, proceeded by the same explanation Myre gave of the three paths one could walk, though he didn't make any mention of the water and cup metaphor his wife had used to explain to me the nature aether.

"... and that should be enough to cover the most basics of basics. With that in mind we need to see which of the three edicts you have an affinity for. The will my daughter has left you with shall give us the answer, so activate it."

I did as told and activated realmheart and tried not to let it forcefully trigger it's Godrune counterpart, unfortunately that doesn't seem to be something I can control. Not exactly something good when in front of the most powerful being in the world who happens to have genocidal tendencies.

"Fascinating, I have read records about such a thing happening to one individual before." Kezess muttered as he circled around, examining me.

Hearing his words did raise a question in me. What dragon had a similar realmheart physique and how did he or she accomplish such a thing? A question I would keep at the back of my mind to try and get an answer for at a later date.

"Taking the anomaly aside, it seems that you have an affinity for spatium. You can deactivate it now."

Letting go of my hold on realmheart and watching as runes dimmed out of existence I asked. "What now?"

"I will demonstrate one of the first arts any aether user learns and you will try to recreate it using the ambient aether, not the one around your core."

So he doesn't know that I have an aether core. Either that or he did notice it and is playing dumb about it. Considering how he has been keeping an eye on me lately, I'll go with the latter.

Shoving my suspicions aside for the moment I nodded to Kezess and observed how he used mana to guide the ambient aether into forming something like a small barrier. Looking at it closely, it didn't give the impression of being particularly strong. Deciding to test whether that was the case or not, I shot a small fireball at it. The barrier shook a little, which was concerning considering I used the same amount of strength as a dark yellow core mage, but ultimately held.

Reaching for the ambient aether, I started to pull it towards me and shape it in a similar way to what Kezess did, only to realize there was something I was missing as the aether didn't hold the shape I wanted for more than a few seconds.

I spent the next few hours trying to understand what I was doing wrong with advice from the old dragon every now and again. With each try the barrier lasted a little longer or became a bit more resilient. By the end of the day I was able to maintain it for a decent amount of time but the strength still left much to be desired.

It was only by the end of the day that I realized Kezess was observing not my attempts at recreating the barrier, but the way I was manipulating the aether. Unlike the dragons, I didn't need to use mana to move aether, only my will. It was then it clicked to me why he was teaching me personally, he was evaluating if I could be a threat or a source for him to develop his abilities even further.

"You have done adequately today Arthur. Now that you have grasped the methods of influencing aether we can begin training the abilities Sylvia has left you with starting tomorrow. You may return to your room for today."

I nodded and left thinking of the small blunder I made today, not that it could be helped really as I never used aether in the same way as the dragons. I'll just move forward with the assumption that Kezess has at least a suspicion of me having an aether core. It's not like I know how to hide from others' perceptions, hell even gramps noticed all the aether inside me when he inspected my mana core.

Maybe it's for the best that I reveal the extent of abilities willingly to gain trust, not of all of it, that would be stupid. But then comes the problem of how to explain why I am capable in the first place. After thinking about it for a while on the way back to my room I decided to talk with Sylvie about it and see what she thinks. For now I'll just focus on how to make the most out of these little lessons Kezess is giving me.