Gifted

Sitting on the kitchen bench, I shovelled scrambled eggs with goat’s cheese and warm fluffy bread dipped in red-stripe honey into my tiny gob. The taste was divine, made all the more enjoyable because I was tired from my morning workout. That is, if you could call a three year old doing pushups and situps a workout.

“When I get bigger, will I be as strong as Griselda?” I asked the room.

I knew the answer of course. But last night, before sleep had claimed me, I had made the decision that it was time to start asking some questions and getting some answers. Not just from my mother, but from Cornelius as well. He just so happened to be conveniently in the room. Between the two of them I hoped to get an idea of what a child could see of their Status, if anything, and what my mother was willing to explain to her clever little boy.

Rather than answer me, my mother glanced at grandpa. Cornelius was sitting there, enjoying the same food as me, except he got to have some bacon as well. My envy was not the reason I was ignoring him. No, that was because I didn’t want to ask him directly lest I instigate the Cornelius Inquisition. The look my mother gave him might as well have been an entire conversation. It said ‘what should we tell a child?’

Everything, I thought. Tell me everything!

“If you keep running around and being so active, you might be even stronger,” commented my mother as her gentle, blue eyes slid back to me.

“Because being active makes you stronger?” I countered, fishing for more information.

Come on, I demanded mentally, Say Paths. Just say Paths. Give me what I need to ask the next question!

“Dad?” asked my mother as she continued to cook, likely working on the stew for lunch based on the smells.

Cornelius gave me a dubious look. No matter how many times he did it, I was always surprised by the brightness of his blue eyes when he stared at me. It was pretty clear where my mother had gotten hers from. But unlike my mother’s, who were always soft when they gazed at me, Cornelius’s regard was one of wariness and uncertainty.

“Dad!” pressed mother.

“Fine!” he grumbled. “He’s too young, but fine!”

I heard him mumble something about ‘odd kids’ before he finished his last mouthful and set his knife and fork down on his plate.

“Bastian, there is…a force that is somewhat like a god. Do you know what a god is?”

“Big, fluffy cloud man that snorts lightning and cries during storms! Lives in sky!” I answered. Total bullshit as far as I was concerned but it was something Henrietta had said so I could blame it on her if they called me on my bald-faced lie. The notification of my Path of Deception going up for once felt amusing rather than like poison in my gut. I hated deceiving my mother, but playing pranks on the old codger hadn’t lost its lustre even after three years.

“No. That’s…that is just not true. Did Henrietta tell you that?” Cornelius asked, his body-language softening as it did every time he was forced to see me as a little kid rather than potential demonspawn.

“Yep! She said there’s other gods too! A big one with trentacles, like the vines on the trees, that lives in the ocean! That’s a big water place that’s deeper than the stream behind our house!”

Cornelius rubbed his forehead, clearly not sure what to make of that or my intentional flubbing of a supposedly new word.

Can’t get one past this baby you crotchety old bastard! I proclaimed in my own mind.

The old man looked to my mother for support, or perhaps permission to give up. Her intentional ignoring of his entreaty made me laugh on the inside. On the outside I was all excited smiles.

“No. Just no. Those are just stories, Bastian. Those are not gods; they’re probably not even real. And if they were, they’d be more like…forces of nature…rather than gods. Even the one I am trying to tell you about isn’t really a god. At least, we don’t think so. There are those who worship it, but to my knowledge it has never once shown them favour or fortune. It just is.”

“Not big cloud or trentacle in water? What is it then?” I asked.

Cornelius groaned like I was a dentist trying to pull information out of him in the form of his teeth. “It is called The Myriad Paths, Bastian. It rewards hard work, effort, and a bit of luck, I suppose. There is a debate about whether it actually provides rewards or if it just recognises what you do and helps guide what you receive.”

“Myriad Paths will make me strong like Griselda?!” I demanded.

“Yes. Once you’re older, you’ll be able to see your Status. It will tell you the Paths you’re currently working on, like Running or Climbing. There are other things it will open up as well.”

I could sense him starting to close up and I needed him to keep going.

Tell me more, old man! I thought as I tried to keep him talking. “What other things? And what is Status?!”

Cornelius, rather than answering me, shifted in his seat and looked at my mother. “Penny, this is a bit above a three year old’s understanding. We should wait.”

“Wait for what, Dad? Either he understands or he doesn’t. You used to say curiosity should be rewarded.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The words were like a slap to Cornelius’s face as he rocked back in his chair. I wasn’t an expert on the grumpy old man’s emotions and whims, even after three years, but I thought he looked a little ashamed. I waited patiently as he took a few deep breaths before he focused on me far more intently, and for once I got the sense he didn’t see answering me as a chore.

“It looks like a bunch of numbers and words on a piece of paper. Only it hovers in the air wherever you’re looking. The age it unlocks varies. There have been lots of…studies into why and when it unlocks but the one I believe in is based on maturity and life experience. I know some Noble Houses have managed to get their children to unlock their Status around the age of four.

Ha! Finally! I cheered mentally.

I had an answer. A real answer. More importantly, I had enough of an answer that I now had a decision to make. Four was a year older than me. But with my life experience, could I argue that I had enough reasons to already have access? Admitting it meant getting more answers. It also meant more suspicion. A lot more. My paranoia went to war with my curiosity. My childlike curiosity won. Perhaps I had been safe for too long. Perhaps I just thought the risk was worth it. Perhaps it was neither of those things and I was just a dumb little kid. Either way, I wanted more! So, I outed myself.

“Oh! That’s a Status? So other things you said would be like Advanced Atteebutes?”

Two heads snapped towards me as I became the centre of attention. Usually, that was something I loved. Right now? Well, my mother looked surprised, but my grandfather looked shocked and suspicious. It was the latter that had me worried.

“You can see your Status, sweetheart?” asked my mother, her stew forgotten as it continued to simmer on the stove.

“I can see words and numbers that hover in the air,” I admitted. “The word Path is on it a lot like the My-reed Paths that grandpa said!”

Cornelius looked at me curiously, but my mother rushed over and hugged me.

“Oh my special boy! You mustn’t tell anyone else, alright? Keep it a secret and don’t tell anyone except for me or grandpa, okay?”

I nodded my head vigorously.

Hells, I didn’t even want to tell either of you! I thought, Sometimes you have to give a little to receive a little!

“Can I ask him some questions?” asked my grandpa, unsurprisingly serious at my admission of…exceptionalism.

My mother acquiesced but kept her arms around me.

“Can you tell me what the numbers are next to the words ‘Advanced Attribute’?” he asked.

I had a decision to make now. A chance to tell the truth, and admit to my Talented Attribute. Or I could lie and say I had two available slots, keeping from them the truth that I had already filled one. I was torn. Cornelius had always been suspicious of me and my origins. How could he not be? He was one of the few people in the world that knew I had been found within a demonic cult. I knew admitting to my Talented Attribute would spur his musings on, but at the same time, this was my family. If I couldn’t trust them, then I was never going to be able to trust anyone in this world. That thought was just too damn depressing.

So, I smiled, and took the plunge.

“It says one, then a picture of a falling wood log in the middle, and then a two!”

“Two,” repeated my mother. “Two is a good start to have.”

“It starts with a one? You’ve already got an Advanced Attribute? What one?” asked my grandfather quickly, riding over my mother’s musing. I felt her cheeks heat against the top of my head and guessed she must’ve been embarrassed for missing that little piece of information that I had doled out.

“It says…Tal-ent-ed.”

I said the word like I was sounding it out, the same as I did in the reading and writing lessons provided by my mother.

I knew I had fucked up the moment my big reveal was finally completed. My mother squeezed me harder but I could tell it was from worry rather than surprise. Cornelius looked like he had seen a ghost. In some small way, I suppose he kind of had.

Surprise! Weird reincarnated baby is now explainable! He’s just extra ‘Talented!’ I reassured myself.

Cornelius stood quickly and bade us wait before rushing to his office. When he returned he had a small sheet of brown paper on which he’d scribbled a word quickly, the ink still drying as it ran down the parchment.

“Can you see this word on your Status, Bastian?”

The word was in Helenian but I could read it just fine after a second. Exceptionalism. I played it off like I was taking the time to compare the scribble to my Status and not because it was taking me a second to read the word in Helenian when my Status was in English.

“Yep! That is on there!”

“That’s an Elite Path,” whispered my mother, her grip tightening. “What does it do?”

I schooled my face to passivity, trying to keep the appearance of ignorance. This time when my Path of Deception progressed it did feel like poison roiling in my tummy.

“It is…incredibly challenging to unlock,” Cornelius admitted. “There have been rumours of individuals born with the Advanced Attributes from this Path, but I have never heard of a child as young as Bastian unlocking the Path. Supposedly the nobility of Helenica have ways to try and force it, though I never witnessed them. They don’t even circulate what the criteria is. I just know that it’s supposed to get harder and harder with age.”

Cornelius paused and glanced out the window. “As for what the Path does? It grants Advanced Attributes that increase the rate at which their user progresses on their Paths.”

He paused as though for dramatic effect, though I already knew what was coming.

“All Paths. Even Class Paths.”

My mother gasped. I looked up at her with what I hoped was a child’s worry.

“Is it bad?” I asked. “Did I do something wrong, Mum?”

“No, honey. No. You didn’t do anything. You’re just very special. Good special. But you mustn’t tell anyone what you have told your grandpa or me, okay? No one. Not Henrietta or anyone else. Promise Mummy?”

“I promise,” I agreed readily and was rewarded with another tight hug.

Her words were a balm but like any child, I could sense her worry and discomfort. She wasn’t mad at me. She was afraid for me. Having my paranoia validated filled me with dread rather than self-righteousness.

With the remnants of ink on his black-feathered quill, my grandpa scratched at a semi-legible word onto the parchment between us before spinning it to face me.

“Can you find this word on your Status?”

“Men-tal,” I read out loud. “Yep!”

“What number is next to it?” he asked.

“Umm, one… five… two…” I replied slowly, stating each number separately.

The look on the old codger’s face was priceless. If he’d seemed shocked at my earlier reveal, this last one looked like I took a shovel to his face and broke his jaw. That’s how wide his mouth was before he closed it.

“Well… that explains a lot,” he grumbled.