Ellake - Gifted - Chapter 157

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The weeks began to roll by as I fell into a rhythm at Songleaf. Study sessions with my fellow merchant scions filled the evenings as we met up in rooms set aside for just such gatherings in Heathbrook Hall. The rooms above were set aside for the older students, and they laid claim to many of the study areas, so some nights, we were forced to squeeze ourselves into Timothee and Heath’s common area as the Society of Threads boy played host.

At the end of my second week at Songleaf, I faced my first challenger for my Martial Studies rank. Unsurprisingly, it came from Garth, and just as unsurprisingly, I defeated him the same way I had the first time. Holding my position at fourth amongst the first years didn’t seem that challenging for now. However, I also had no opportunity to move up the ranking. I had no answer in my current toolkit to deal with Kalin or Priam, and I didn’t want to give Zain Mellides more information about me before I challenged him. Instead, I just focused on my training and my Paths.

Zain didn’t feel the same way, issuing his own challenge against Priam — though I suspected if he had been allowed to, he would have gone directly for Kalin. Challenges could be made every week, but you could only challenge up your current rank divided by five. For those of us in the top five that meant a single place per week, while someone in sixth like Garth could challenge up two positions. It made the shifts in the lower ranks far more dramatic.

Professor Vallone handed out merits at the end of each week for the rank you held, which saw me accumulating a few to my name. That gave me the opportunity to see just what you could spend your merits on, and I began to understand the draw Songleaf had for others besides Path progression. Beyond actual materials and ingredients extracted from the Echoing Depths — all of which started in the hundreds of merits — there were options to spend the merits to book private tutoring sessions with older students who had a Teaching Skill. Then there were aether-infused study rooms that could also enhance progress, alchemicals, enchanted weapons produced by the Crafting Department, or even young beasts that could be bonded by those with the appropriate Skill. Special dishes made from monsters killed in the Echoing Depths were another option.

For me, it was early days, but knowing that the merits I earned had value beyond a status symbol was good news.

Not everything was going quite so well though. In my third week at Songleaf, the rumour that I was the deceased Balino Grackia’s bastard son started circulating. I denied it, even giving my Path of Persuasion a workout as I — with Timo’s help — convinced my fellow merchants that it wasn’t true. Kalin had been far easier, only asking if I was certain before taking my word at face value. Or, at least he appeared too. The other noble students were not so kind, and beyond the sneers and snide comments, I found that I needed to remain in a group when leaving lessons as a red-headed noble from the third year appeared to be waiting nearby on more than one occasion with a few of her friends. Finding out that her name was Falina Grackia was childsplay since I just asked Timo. I couldn’t avoid the persistent third year forever, but for now, it didn’t seem worth getting into any issues with the older cohort.

As another two weeks passed, the notifications began to roll in. First came my Path of Swords.

You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of Swords II (92/50)

Reward: +1 Stamina, 2 Unallocated

Child Aether Knight Bonus: 1 Unallocated

Though I knew eventually I would need to start investing in my Advanced Aether attributes, I couldn’t bring myself to do so just yet. All three Unallocated went into Gifted.

Debating Aether concepts with Justin or arguing Meravian Law and History with Timo proved to be a useful way to continue working on my Path of Persuasion.  

You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of Persuasion VIII (2643/2500)

Reward: +1 Mental

Of course, those discussions had to be based on actual knowledge, and I had begun to make it a habit of mine to spend free time every day in the library. My limit for checking books out as a first year was one at a time — or more if I was willing to spend my merits, which I wasn’t. Even one extra book was enough to help me reach the finish line in my Reading Path. 

You have Completed your Path! Path of Reading - Helenian X (10000/10000)

Reward: 2 Unallocated

Once more, the Unallocated went to my Gifted attribute — the number creeping towards two-hundred-and-fifty. With a slot free, and my Path of Weapon Mastery gaining plenty of steps from the Martial Studies training, I decided to double dip in that area and slotted in the Path of the Bloody Axe as planned. Weekends with Nazim allowed me to get it to the first tier.

You have advanced the Tier of your Path! Path of the Bloody Axe I (11/10)

Reward: +1 Coordination, 2 Unallocated

With another two stats added to Gifted, I opened up my Status to review the growth I had achieved over the past four weeks. 

In addition to my Path progress, I had also finally learned to successfully cast the second-circle Life Spell — Lesser Vital Surge. My practical Life Magic course had us learning the cantrip Bruise Acceleration, which was a long name for a spell that just made bruises heal a little faster. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that the professors weren’t about to let a few first years heal anything important in their first month at Songleaf.

With four weeks of growth and my first glimpse of academy life under my belt, I had been promptly picked up by my aunt’s carriage — a permanent purchase now since she had others to ferry about.  

The ride home was uneventful as I was alone inside the vehicle with Thomas silently driving. Arriving at my grandaunt’s manor, I found Gramps and Nazim waiting for me with the doors to the building flung open wide. Yellow candlelight spilled around the pair as I exited the carriage and headed over to join them.

After agreeing to their plan for me to slip into the upcoming Guild tournament, I had made sure they included Mum in what was going on. Mum hadn’t had any issues with the idea, but in turn, she had also pushed us to include my grandaunt. Agnes didn’t take issue with it either, only lamenting that she didn’t have enough liquidity to participate. Blake, on the other hand, had a tidy sum and told me he would be betting as well. Somehow, our little plan for me to score an easy Achievement while making some more aether coins seemed to be turning into an almost criminal endeavour. That thought had me worried about the fallout, but as long as most of the blame landed on Gramps’ friend, I figured we would be fine.

As for me, I was starting to feel like I might actually need some more aether coins to fund my connections and burgeoning social life at Songleaf. Timothee, true to his word, had put it to the group to see if the following weekend we could gather for dinner and a show. We would, of course, be chaperoned, as a bunch of ten-year-olds on the Academy grounds was vastly different to those same ten-year olds let loose in Helenica. The city was wonderful, beautiful, but still dangerous — a fact I knew from personal experience.

“Welcome home,” Gramps said as I approached. “Have a good week?”

“Yes, how is the young master?” Nazim added with a teasing smile that looked like a snarl on the wolfkin.

I tried to punch my friend, but he playfully swatted my arm away with ease.

“It was good, Gramps,” I replied after my failed payback attempt against Nazim.

“The rumours dying down?”

I shook my head, unconsciously running a hand through my red hair. A habit that had started to form after the first whispers of my bastard status reached my ears and the gaze of my classmates began to drift to my copper locks rather than my eyes.

“Still the same,” I grumbled.

“They’ll lose interest once the next scandal drops,” Gramps said as he grasped my shoulder reassuringly.

“If Countess Delaney being caught having an affair with the Baron Sunhild didn’t shift the focus, I doubt whatever is next will.”

Gramps glanced at Nazim before he looked back to me. “I wouldn’t be so sure…”

My eyes narrowed. The old codger knew something, and he was trying to distract me from my annoyance by making me tease it out of him — and by the hells it was working.

“What?” I demanded.

Gramps’ ran his fingers over his well-trimmed beard. “Convince me to share.”

Maybe I was a bit tired from the week, or maybe I was just irritable because some of the noble scions were utter assholes. Either way, I directed a very annoyed look at Gramps as I provided my argument for telling me what was going on.

“Tell me or I won’t fight tomorrow.”

Gramps threw up his hands. “I said convince me, not threaten me! Fine, fine. Nazim and I saw three Royal Navy war ships limp into port this morning. One of them was Admiral Joyce Kallea’s flag ship — which means she has almost certainly lost against the pirate kings that have taken control of Horatio’s Strait.”

I nodded along, drinking up his words while the little I had learned at Songleaf merged with my lessons from Aunt Agnes and Mother. Horatio’s Strait was the thinner stretch of the Thyric Ocean that separated Helenica from the southern continent city of El Basaad. It was also the site of the Dungeon that had formed from the comet I had seen when I was five. In the five years since then, the pirates that had once annoyed the shipping lanes from Helenica across Horatio’s Strait, glutted on the new Dungeon, had seized control of the Strait and squeezed it to the point of choking.

Trade still happened across the Strait, but the merchants paid a hefty toll to use the waters the pirates controlled. Many couldn’t afford it, their margins too tight, and instead took the longer route from Thessavar. Peravia fared no better than Helenica, their shipping route to Caelport and Ajinport similarly harassed to the point that some merchants had found it less risky to attempt the crossing from Caelport to Saatlubad on the Southern Continent.

King Dominic Athaneas had spent the past five years slowly trying to build up the Meravian Royal Navy to retake the Strait. With growing unrest in the streets as commodities from the southern continent and Ajinar to the east dried up or were priced so highly that even some of the nobility were beginning to flounder, House Athaneas credibility was at an all time low.

I looked at Gramps. “You think the King will replace the Admiral?”

Gramps shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine, but after another loss, the blame will have to land somewhere, and the King isn’t likely to wear it himself. Come on in though, we can talk more inside.”

I followed the old codger into the Manor with Nazim by my side. I wondered how the changes would affect me at Songleaf while sparing a few thoughts for the Guild tournament I would be fighting in on the following day. Fate, it seemed, was intent on keeping things interesting.