Phoenix sat excitedly at the edge of the room with her back against the wall. While she had already performed a couple Spirit Gem bonding rituals for Dazien to unlock his st Crystal Caste Css Abilities, she had never seen one done at higher Castes yet.

  While the Passive abilities would automatically gain a new effect upon ascending, the other two Cultivating abilities were locked at the first level until a Spirit Gem bonded to them and created a new effect based on the selected Spirit Gem, which Aspect that ability was bonded to, and various other factors of the person that were often difficult to quantify. Much like what abilities got unlocked in the first pce, the soul of the person helped shape what their powers cultivated into.

  Uriel was on her right as he watched calmly and Dazien sat on her left, grinning like a fool.

  Saiya was on Daze’s other side, oddly not touching anyone except the rge snowy Familiar sprawled in her p demanding belly rubs. She hoped Saiya would adjust soon, finding the ck of her hugging behavior so disconcerting. Then she refocused on observing the Emerald Caste ritualist perform the first Sapphire Caste Spirit Bonding ritual.

  Rayna seemed to be trying hard to contain the desire to bounce in pce as her fur almost vibrated, and Phoenix had to stifle a giggle at the sight. Paul gave her a slight smirk and then told Rayna, “Here we go. Remember not to step out of that center circle. Even if this starts to feel a little odd, it shouldn’t cause any pain.”

  Then he began to incant, “From the essence of the Primordials and the desires of the People, the spirit of the world echoes through the soul of the Caster to cultivate the gifts of magic made reality.” As the mana flowed into the runes at his feet near the edge of the circle, it quickly spread throughout the diagram. The bright shifting rainbow colors lighting up the lines of the diagram were beautiful, and it was fascinating to watch as the six Spirit Gems slowly rose into the air in unison. Suddenly, they appeared to begin fracturing and then completely shattered into hundreds of tiny glittering pieces.

  The shards began to swirl around the ritual circle, separating the Emerald Caster from the target at its center, and then seemed to slowly constrict inwards. Piece at a time, the swarm of Spirit Gem shards mixed together and melded with Rayna who had stopped fidgeting by this point as the ritual took hold and was infusing her with magic.

  Phoenix wasn’t sure if she would have been able to stay standing as it seemed like her friend was getting stung by hundreds of bees, and despite Paul saying it wouldn’t hurt, she wondered if it would be different for her. It always hurt when she used an Aspect or Spirit Gem, and she was already wincing from her imagination contempting six painful gems at once. Perhaps she should try doing her next one with a ritual, just to test the theory, and see if it was a Spirit Gems thing or her short-cutting talent causing the discomfort.

  The swarming stopped a moment ter, distracting Phoenix from her idle thoughts as she refocused on her friend.

  “Woah,” Rayna breathed out as she staggered only slightly, “That was a lot.”

  “Happy with the results?” Paul asked, smirking as if already knowing the answer.

  She turned to him with a vulpine grin and enthusiastically replied, “Oh, yeah! I am gonna mess some monsters up!”

  He chuckled, “Alright, let me just get this next one done for Saiya, and then we can go test them out in the other room.”

  “The warded one?” Dazien asked for crification.

  “Unless you’d rather take her on?” Paul asked with a raised brow as he began to redo the ritual circle.

  Daze gnced towards Rayna, who was grinning almost manically while cracking her knuckles, and he seemed to suddenly decide to live instead, “Uh, maybe once I ascend as well. The warded room will do nicely for today.”

  As Saiya stood to take her twin’s pce, Rayna moved with unnatural speed to Dazien’s side and threw an arm around his neck as she teased, “Aw, come on little lordling! We can test [Stand Your Ground] against my newly upgraded [Crystalline Distortion]!”

  “Isn’t that the zone one that interrupts my spells while dealing constant damage?” he pointed out with a ft look.

  Phoenix’s curiosity got the better of her and she asked, “What did it cultivate into?”

  Rayna held out a furred hand and Phoenix conjured her [Guide Book] for her to touch and pass on the information.

  Css Ability: Crystalline Distortion

  Type: Spell (zone, elemental, gem)

  Cost: Severe mana.

  Cooldown: 10 minutes.

  Current Caste: Sapphire 1 (0%)

  Crystal Effect: Create a Zone of vibrating gem pilrs that cause mana in the area to become disrupted and inflict ongoing low Gem damage. In the Zone, Spells cost more and have an increased chance of failure or backsh.

  Sapphire Effect: Any Spells already being cast are interrupted, dealing backsh damage to their Caster. Magic Constructs in the Zone are heavily damaged upon construction.

  “Absolutely not!” Dazien excimed after reading the information, “That’ll likely destroy my sword and cause almost a third of my abilities to backsh on me.”

  “Is that the same as when my rituals fail?” Phoenix asked to make sure they were talking about the same thing.

  “Exactly,” Rayna replied with a grin, “Excellent for taking care of pesky mages.”

  “Hey, now,” came the deep voice from the other side of Phoenix, “That doesn’t stipute enemies, which means it’ll affect this pesky mage too,” Uriel said dryly.

  “Efficiency,” they all heard Saiya say from the center of the room and turned in confusion before realizing that she was calling out her gems for Paul to write down as she quickly added, “Empower, Elements, Refund, and Bolster.”

  Paul nodded and wrote them down one after the other, and Phoenix remembered that at Emerald Caste her mentor’s mind likely didn’t forget very much and didn’t need to pause like he had with Rayna.

  A few minutes ter, Saiya was also infused with new powers and they would both be able to cultivate a half dozen abilities again. Phoenix couldn’t wait to hit Sapphire and join her friends.

  “So, why did you want to come back here?” Phoenix asked as she and Paul both entered his study once more.

  “I know we got a bit sidetracked earlier with the rituals and then having an impromptu training session to try out the twins’ new abilities,” Paul began as she plopped down into the plush chair she normally cimed when visiting, feeling completely exhausted, as he continued, “But I wanted to ask a few things starting with how your missions went?”

  “Good,” she said with a slight groan as she stretched, her gaze roaming the wall to her left, which was filled with leather-bound books, before focusing on the [Guide Book] conjured into her p to double-check her profile, “Even managed to get [Meteor Shower] and [Supernova] up to Crystal 3. Those early levels go pretty fast.”

  Paul raised an eyebrow in her direction as he tapped a Mana Bit to a rune on the kettle at his drinking cabinet. The Mundane currency melted into it and he asked, “Exactly how much damage did you do to the tundra?”

  “Let’s just say that next Spring there will be some lovely kes for people to visit in the southwest,” she said with a cheeky grin. Then she frowned and asked, “Actually, does the tundra even get Spring?”

  “No,” he said with a ft look. He then moved the quickly heating kettle with him and sat down at his desk across from her seat, “We get about three months of summer when there’s enough sunlight that the snow melts and gets some sparse pnt growth in a few areas. If it wasn’t for the Reality Rift below us and the Cultivator’s Citadel, I doubt there’d be a city here at all.”

  “Your family must be really important then, with their ties to said deity,” she observed, leaning further back into the chair and contempting napping right there.

  “It is,” he confirmed, then pushed forward a thick stack of papers. He tapped the edge of it that was nearest to her and added, “And if you sign your name right here, it’ll be your family too.”

  Phoenix leaned forward, suddenly very alert and interested as she asked, “Seriously? I half expected you to change your mind after I blew myself up in Tulisuda, and exposed my secret to the party, and almost got caught by the AOA Director, too. She was not happy that our party bailed right after the raid without so much as a goodbye.”

  Paul grimaced slightly, “Yes, well… you weren’t the only one she decided to berate. Agatha even threatened to make me an Inquisitor.”

  She scrunched her nose at the title that gave her some particurly negative imagery as she asked, “What’s that?”

  “One of the rarer titles that can be bestowed on Adventurers,” he began to expin for her as he pulled a teacup out of one of the desk drawers. She declined his questioning gesture for one, and he continued expounding, “She made me an Emissary when I arrived back in Tulimeir mainly because I’m the lord of a noble House and know how to deal in politics.”

  He pulled out his green Alliance of Adventurers’ license to show her the runes, each wrapped in a circle, that was engraved upon it, “It means I can be assigned any missions that might deal with the aristocracy.” Then he pointed at the symbol beside the first, “Then she made me a Delegate once I became a Padin again, which works the same way but for temple missions.”

  Paul pced the stone card back into his belt pouch before adding, “While those are uncommon, they’re not exactly rare or have any extra duties. An Inquisitor, however, is the one who handles the missions that target other Adventurers.”

  He grimaced once more at the thought, “Dealing with traitors or conflicts between parties… It’s not a pleasant position to hold.”

  She chuckled, “I bet. Let me guess; it causes all the other Adventurers to either be too afraid to work with you or completely despise you as some kind of internal spy?”

  “Basically,” he confirmed, “Most people don’t st long in the position, and those that do are usually not the friendly type.”

  “Actually, on second thought, are you sure you don’t want it?” Phoenix asked, giving a cheeky grin, “Doesn’t that give you an excuse not to have to deal with others unless absolutely necessary?”

  He gave her an amused look and said, “That is a fair point, but I fear it would reflect poorly upon your own party. Agatha knows this too, which is why she used it as a threat.”

  “Wait, so she threatened the position not because you would hate it but because it might make others hate me?” she asked, slightly baffled at the idea.

  “Welcome to politics. It’s something you’ll have to get used to, unfortunately,” he grumbled, then watched her closely as he prodded, “Unless you’re the one who’s changed their mind?”

  Her face scrunched up but she shook her head, “No. I might not like the politics, but I want to go ahead with this. You’ve done so much for me, and everyone agreed that it will help me in the future. Besides, you said I wouldn’t have to deal with the political side of things that much.”

  “True…” her mentor said slowly in a way that made his hesitation obvious.

  Her eyes narrowed at him and she crified with emphasis, “I won’t have to, right, Paul?”

  He gnced down at the desk suddenly as he fiddled with a few more papers, taking the moment to also pour the now-hot water from the kettle into his cup, and Phoenix pressed him further, “Right, Paul?”

  “Well, there might be a few things that you may perceive as political, but I wasn’t about to tell her ‘no’ again,” he said in an evasive defensive maneuver.

  “Tell who ‘no’? And ‘no’ to what?” Phoenix asked suspiciously.

  “Well, you see,” Paul began, and tapped the stack of papers once more to make her attention focus on the task rather than the man himself as he expined, “This will legally make you my heir. The sole inheritor of not just my physical holdings but also my title… and the responsibilities that go with it.”

  He paused for a moment as if to make sure she was following along and she nodded, still gring at him with suspicion, so he continued, “Since I am the Lord of House Waynd that would make you next in line automatically since I haven’t decred another. This gives you much protection in most regards but will make you a target in other very specific cases.”

  “Like when an AOA Director who is lower Caste than you wants to exert some form of authority… or threat?” Phoenix hedged with a frown, finally starting to see the potential ramifications.

  “Exactly so,” he confirmed, steeping what looked like a round metal jingle bell that she knew had tea leaves within in the hot water, then added, “Now, I currently pn to pass that title over to my sister once the blood moon has ended. Pati believes that, if I remain as the lord during this time, it will not only help make the House look even stronger but give hope to the people who have pced their trust in our family.

  “When Pati becomes the Lady of the House, then her oldest child, Patric, will become the next heir. This means that once I abdicate, then the focus around you will lessen but not vanish. You will be a Waynd from this moment forward, with all the privilege, attention, and responsibility that entails.”

  Phoenix mulled over his words for a few moments, while he tentatively sipped at the bitter concoction. Then she leaned forward and took the pen he had id on top of the stack, carefully signing her name at the bottom of the page next to Paul’s own.

  They smiled at each other warmly before Paul broke the moment by saying, “Now make sure to read and initialize all the pages with the little marks. It includes everything that you, Pati, and I talked about before, but feel free to take your time reading it over.”

  She rolled her eyes and flipped through to the marked pages to sign each as she tried to reassure him, “If I can trust you to be my dad, I think I can trust you to not try and sneak anything malicious in some tedious paperwork that’s more for formalities than actually determining how we feel about each other.”

  Paul’s smile widened, “I’m truly honored that you feel that way, Phoenix, and agree with the sentiment.”

  As she finished signing the final page and leaned back in her seat, Paul’s smile became oddly sheepish as he asked, “I don’t suppose now would be a good time to inform you about the celebration I couldn’t say ‘no’ to?”

  Her eyes grew wide with panic as she replied, “Celebration? How is a celebration part of noble duty and responsibility?!”

  “Don’t get too angry at him,” a pyful feminine voice came from the door behind her, and when Phoenix turned to look, she found none other than Patricia Waynd standing there smiling cheerfully. “In his defense, he was against the whole thing, knowing that you would likely be uncomfortable.”

  “Extremely uncomfortable,” she emphasized.

  “But, I insisted. Despite both of your distaste for politics, it is customary to hold a celebration when a noble House gains a scion, especially an heir. The other Houses will want to put a face to the name and understand the new potential dynamics. It’s not every day a new noble is born, after all.”

  “So, just to make sure I’m understanding this correctly,” Phoenix began as her gaze narrowed on her now-aunt, “You want to have a party that parades me around so that all the other nobles know exactly who to target for their political shenanigans?”

  Patricia’s smile widened, “Exactly.”

  “Whhyyy?” she whined incredulously.

  “The name won’t protect you much if nobody knows that you’re the one who has it,” Pati pointed out, then feigned a moment of contemption as she said, “You should also make sure to wear something that will proudly show off that Soul Mark.”

  Phoenix’s jaw dropped, then she turned back to look at Paul for backup, but he seemed thoroughly engrossed in reading the book that was suddenly in his hand while sipping at his tea. She realized with horror that this was one battle he was going to make her fight entirely on her own.

  Before she could ask, Patricia expined, “There are many reasons for this, but two specifically that make me want to insist on the issue. First, if the other nobles see that you are Chosen by six deities they will be much less likely to use you as a political tool for their own agendas. None of them want an angry god interfering with their aspirations, after all.

  “Second, if the people under our own banner hear you are Chosen by the Cultivator specifically, they will be much more accepting of your newfound position. While our family hasn’t been exactly strict about who marries or is adopted in, I suspect your particur position as heir apparent—however temporary—will make some feel ill at ease thinking the House will be stolen by someone who is not of the bloodline.”

  “Uhg, I don’t care about any of this heir nonsense. Despite what Dazien says, I’m an Adventurer, not a princess,” Phoenix compined as she sank further into her seat. Then she muttered in a more subdued manner, “If it will shield me from the nastiness of politics, though, I guess I can suffer through one party.”

  The noble priestess cpped her hands together, “Excellent. We’ll hold it in a week. That should give the others plenty of time to prepare and, hopefully, your Noble Reveal will put some of our rivaling Houses back in their pces.”

  Phoenix’s jaw dropped in disbelief as she stared at what she suddenly realized at that moment wasn’t a noble dy or a generous priestess but a venomous politician who was poised to strike.

  As she turned to stare at Paul, he gnced up and gave an apologetic shrug as he muttered, “Probably should have checked the fine print before signing.”