Beastforged Bond

It certainly wasn’t fine. I was so wrong to believe that everything would be fine. Well, it probably would, but I never planned to end up babysitting my instructor.

How was that even possible? I had no idea, and I considered backing out of the deal the moment I saw my instructor, yet there was something about the Mikoniv that made me hesitate.

The day after I struck the deal with the Mikoniv scout, I was told to meet up at a large building. It was in the Mikoniv district, whose people were also the only race that could afford to lease an entire district. That resulted in streets filled with water, houses that looked more like fish tanks, and the like.

Rivers snaked through the air, creating tracks that led throughout the entire district. It was a disaster, and I was soaking wet not even a minute after stepping into the district. Why? Because a group of Mikoniv, juvenile whales, and water elementals resembling dolphins threw bubbles filled with water at me. I could have avoided them, and I probably would have if I hadn’t been so distracted by the entire district and how different it was from the rest of Draccos.

Wet and uncomfortable in my water-drenched clothes, I entered a shop and bought some swimwear near the entrance to the district – coincidence? I highly doubted it. Leaving the shop wearing nothing but trunks, I made my way to the instructor’s home. That turned out to be yet another massive fish tank.

A female Mikoniv greeted me at the door and let me inside, but she was not my instructor. She was not even a Blessed, yet it felt like she was more suited to teaching me than my actual instructor. Her son… a six-year-old child.

“He... is my instructor?” I couldn’t help but ask, staring at the child who leaped out of the flooded section of their home. The Mikoniv was short, barely reaching my thighs, and he looked playful rather than serious. Well... he looked like a child. His eyes were dark as night like most Mikoniv, his fins were short and barely grown, and that was it. There was nothing special about him.

The woman didn’t say much. She patted my back as if I needed comforting for some reason. When she was done, she walked over to her child and gave him a small serum.

“Landbreath,” she said, as if that explained everything, which it did. Somewhat.

She retrieved another serum from a small storage space that radiated ether – it contained etherstones that fed the spatial device – and emptied it. “I will stay here to observe. Bee will instruct you. Please be mindful of your actions. I know you are stronger, probably strong enough to destroy everything, but you do not wish to antagonize us. We belong to the Heilos House, and this is the great-great-grandchild of Tarthos Heilos, as well as the very child who inherited his will and talent. He is a prodigy and will lead our people to greatness one day. Harm him, and the ocean will consume you.” The mother spoke in clean Common, her voice deadly serene, the words she spoke were a promise rather than a threat.

My lips parted but closed after a moment. Had something like that happened before? Who would want to hurt a child after asking for instruction? I... well, I, for one, wasn’t planning to hurt anyone, let alone a child while standing in their living room. No less with the child’s mother standing there, supervising the lesson. The Mikoniv scout may have said something about the instructor needing a beating or two, but that had to have been a mistake.

He was trying to scam you.

Aureus concluded.

Or he wanted to punish you!

Sapsie added in a mixture of anger and confusion.

Punish? Because I didn’t pay the thousand platinum coins? What a weird guy. Whether or not that was true hardly mattered. The Mikoniv scout from the small coliseum connected me to the Heilos House, which appeared to be some sort of big shots. Or, at least, the great-great-grandfather, Tarthos Heilos, was a big shot, and the toddler.

“I don’t want to antagonize anyone. All I wish is to learn more about Nodes and how to integrate them into my weave.” I lowered my head slightly.

“Gate Outflow Syndrome.”

A detached-sounding, high-pitched voice rang out.

The Mikoniv child looked up at me and our eyes met, yet it didn’t feel like he was looking at me. He looked through my skin and flesh, staring straight at my weave and Gates.

“So many,” he gasped, eyes twinkling. “Special Gates.”

“I do have special Gates, yes. And Gate Outflow Syndrome, yes.” I nodded before glancing over at the mother, who motioned me toward the child. So I got closer to him and sat down before him when he did the same.

“Big Gates. Ether wasted.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Inefficient... but strong.”

The Mikoniv child waved his hands simply, calling ambient ether toward himself.

House Heilos’ home trembled. The water flooding the submerged section rippled outward and seeped into the dry living room, yet it was the water-attuned ether that caught my attention. As I pumped ether into my eyes, the scene before me became one of terror, disbelief, and unfathomable grace.

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The Mikoniv child, six years of age, had called upon all the ether residing within the home of House Heilos, gathering every trace around him. Water-attuned ether was gentler than most forms of ether, yet the sheer quantity was mind-boggling. Not even my largest Gate contained as much liquefied ether as the boy compressed before my very eyes.

Liquid ether came into existence as blue droplets poured throughout the living room. And the child... the child didn’t even seem to care. His breathing was perfectly regulated, and he did not show the slightest hint of exhaustion.

What a monster. I called out to my Soulkins, the corner of my lips curling upward.

Perfect.

***

No matter how I looked at it, nothing about what

happened made sense. The Mikoniv child wasn’t struggling to control ambient

ether. It obeyed him at will, as if it had already been refined and annexed. Honestly,

even if it had already been annexed, I wouldn’t be able to control ether like

that.

He is blessed.

Aureus commented as if it were the most natural thing in Razarn.

Blessed like... by the Spirits?

Yes, but no. It feels more like he is blessed by ether itself. Like ether loves and adores that kid.

He explained, which did not make me feel any better. On the contrary, it filled me with jealousy, since I’d barely been able to walk at that age. My dream as a six-year-old child had been to be like everyone else and to play with the others. To be normal and maybe become a Blessed at some point in life. That never happened. I was never a normal child and always struggled, though it was not always bad.

My life had turned for the better ever since Aureus came into my life and I awakened.

So you fulfilled your dream~

Sapsie called out. I wanted to deny her, but it was not like the World Tree sproutling was wrong. I did awaken, which had been my biggest dream ever since I could remember.

I guess you’re right.

Don’t be jealous of the kid. Do not compare yourself to others. Or do you want others to compare themselves with you and hate you just because you have such a wonderful World, and even better Soulkins?

Sapsie lectured me, which was completely unlike her. But maybe that was exactly what I needed.

Comparison was the thief of joy. Always was and always would be.

That said, I still frowned when the six-year-old formed more and more ridiculous Nodes in the space between us. Even the most ordinary Node required an absurd amount of ether as well as incredible ether control, and that child created a cluster of Stage-3 Nodes right in front of me. He wasn’t even breaking into a sweat doing so.

He continued to demonstrate some complex Stage-2 Nodes as well, though they appeared even more complicated than the Stage-3 Gathering Node. As for Stage-1 Nodes, the child simply didn’t bother with them.

“Can you show me something easier, please? I want to start with Stage-1 Gathering Nodes and the...” I hesitated for a moment when something about the overlapping Stage-2 Nodes caught my attention. “What are you doing there? Is that a layered Nexus Node connected to a Six-fold Purification Node?”

There was more to the overlapping Nodes, but I couldn’t grasp it.

“Too much?” The Heilos child looked up, his ether structures floating around the living room. “Why too much? This simple. Every strong Mikoniv knows.”

“But I am not a Mikoniv, and my ether control is not as good as yours,” I pointed out, which earned me a scoff.

“Then improve. Important.”

My ether control was not bad. If anything, it was quite profound for my age. Even Daniel’s control was worse than mine at this point, and I’d only gained access to ether a few years ago. I could already liquefy my ether!

Ego bruised?

Nox hissed, though he sounded way too happy.

Do you want me to beat you up?

I snapped before focusing once more on the Nodes floating throughout the room.

“I will improve, but my anatomy is a little different from yours. You see, I tried to form a Stage-1 Gathering Node in my weave, and while that did work, it transformed into a filter of some sort. It gathered ambient ether, although at a much slower rate than it should, and it filtered the ether, guiding it toward my Gate. My Soulkins and I theorized that human weaves affect the creation of Nodes and alter them. I... Are you listening?”

The young member of House Heilos wasn’t even looking at me. Instead, he stared at my chest, his expression tightening slightly.

“Show.” He commanded, pointing at my chest where the strongest of my Blazing Gates was located. It leaked the most, flooding my weave with fire-attuned ether.

“Empty Gate. Node. Constant circulation.”

That was all the young Mikoniv said, his Common being far from perfect. But it did not have to be. I knew what he was getting at, and I complied.

I emptied one of my Wild Gates and used it to create a Stage-1 Gathering Node. Since the ether within the Gate was already compressed, the process was much easier than last time. A vortex of energy formed as fire-attuned ether moved around the highly compressed ether, creating a flattened structure rather than the Node I was supposed to create.

“Fire?” The Mikoniv asked, his voice filled with contempt. “Why?”

I tried to explain how fire-attuned ether was the fastest. That while destructive, it could also be formed into a high-velocity kinetic force that was far more efficient than the ether from the Core, Liferoot Gates, or Earthen Gates. Alas, the child wasn’t having it.

The structures around him froze as he leaped to his feet. Then, as he stepped forward, his hand pressed against my chest. The structures dissolved into water-attuned ether and surged toward him. The liquefied ether flowed into the young Mikoniv and through him, his expression serene yet somehow pain-ridden. It seeped into me with surprising gentleness and entered my weave.

I could have stopped it right there, yet I waited and watched as the child took over the filter forming within me, shaping and shifting it.

“Water is superior.” The child said, chiding me as if I were the child. “Watch.”