Gifted

“You what?” Cornelius asked, clearly exasperated as he sat at his desk.

“I completed my Path of Stealth,” I stated again, kicking my legs back and forth with a pleased smile on my face as I sat in the chair across from him.

The old codger rested his head in his hands for a moment. “I feel like I should be more surprised, but this is starting to feel like the new normal. A four-year old with a completed Advanced Path… just… insane.”

“What did it give you?” he asked without lifting his head.

“Five Unallocated Stats, the Stealth Advanced Attribute and one Elite Path, but I have three options to choose from.”

“What are the Elite Paths?”

“Thievery, Infiltration and Shadowing,” I answered quickly.

Gramps sighed. “I suppose we should get your mother involved before we make a decision. Penny!”

“What’s going on?” asked mum a few moments later as she leaned around the office door with a concerned look on her face. She had been on edge ever since the crow attacked me and was constantly worried that something was wrong.

“Bastian has something he would like to tell us,” Cornelius explained with a gentle smile on his somewhat wrinkly lips, most likely to reassure my mum.

“I completed the Path of Stealth, mum,” I said.

“And?” grandpa prompted.

“And…” I replied, dragging it out with a smile on my face. “It offered me a few rewards that I am not sure what to do with.”

“Bastian…” Grandpa grumbled in annoyance so I finally relented.

“It offered me the Advanced Attribute Stealth as well as one of three Elite Paths.”

I sat still with a shy smile on my face while my mother digested the information, entering the office and taking the seat next to mine.

“Well done, sweetheart,” my mum said in congratulations. She seemed to be warming up to the idea of my progress. I wondered how she would feel in a moment when she heard about the Elite Paths. “So, you want our help picking which Path?”

“And…whether I should take the Stealth Advanced Attribute,” I replied while nodding my head vigorously. The action made me feel the scars more than usual as the movements stretched my skin in ways they weren’t normally pulled.

“Why wouldn’t you? It’s a useful Advanced Attribute for scouting isn’t it?”

The latter was addressed to Grandpa who gave a slight nod. “It’s one of the two Advanced Attributes that all Ajinar and Meravian Wardens take. The other is Perception, since I can see Bastian is curious about their second required Attribute. Scout Attributes, as that is the primary purpose of the Wardens.”

“But then I wouldn’t have room for Aethersensing!” I interjected. That was of course the reason for my hesitation. I only had one more Advanced Attribute slot available. Grandpa thought once I finished the Path of the Completionist I might earn a third. Of course, I knew by now that Class Paths could unlock additional Advanced Attribute slots, but my Basic Class Path was still just over eight years away. Path of the Completionist likely wouldn’t be done until I turned ten at the rate I was going. Maybe even longer. Could I go that long without having magic? I certainly didn’t like the idea.

“That’s the reason you’re hesitant?” Cornelius asked. “I thought you were holding out for something like Swordsmanship.”

I hadn’t been. In fact, I didn’t even know that was an Advanced Attribute.

“No,” I grumbled. “I wanted to be able to do magic. Like you.”

My mother got that sad look on her face that said ‘I’m worried that you’re going to have your heart broken.’ I hated that look as much as I loved my mum. Because she was usually right.

“To free cast magic and learn spells you need two Advanced Attributes, Bastian. Not one. Aethersensing to let you sense your own aether so you can recognise the complex shapes you need to weave it into, and Aether Manipulation, to actually control and direct your aether,” grandpa stated in a sad tone to match my mum’s expression.

“So, I won’t ever be able to cast spells like you do?”

“Well, you could… but you’d be doing yourself a disservice. Your Aether Core is quite small, so even if you got Aethersensing and Aether Manipulation, you wouldn’t be able to cast many spells and you would probably be locked out of most higher tier spells without an aether supply to help you cast.”

“But, it’s possible,” I pressed. “You said we might be able to improve my Aether Core!”

I felt my childish emotions bubbling up inside me. They told me I should scream and run from the room, find somewhere to cry and let it all out. My mind prevailed over my body and I swallowed my despair, taking a calming breath or three, and waited.

Grandpa watched the entire process with an eagle eye before he gave his answer. “If… if you’re set on this path, Bastian, I will do everything in my power to make it happen.”

Stolen story; please report.

My mother was beaming beside me, our smiles matching as grandpa sighed and nodded.

“Fine. Fine. I’ll… start asking around. It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll see what we can do. So, no Stealth Advanced Attribute then. So, let’s talk about the Elite Paths on offer. Infiltration, Shadowing, and Thievery.”

“Thievery?!” mother exclaimed, shooting a concerned look at me. I gave her an awkward smile.

What did you think I was doing on my stealth missions, mum?! I thought mentally.

Out loud, I said, “I gave everything back!”

“He’s been ‘borrowing’ things from my office, Penny,” grandpa explained. “And he’s telling the truth. He does always bring them back. Which makes me wonder, what did you take this time?”

I pointed to my little folded up drawing sitting where the crows claw had been. The old codger laughed a little, his belly shaking beneath his dark blue tunic.

“You can keep that one. So, shall we get back to the Path options?”

Mother nodded, giving me a side eye that told me to be on my best behaviour. I sat up a little straighter.

“So, while we shouldn’t waste this opportunity for young Bastian, it’s not as important as you think,” the old man explained, pulling out his pipe and sticking it in his mouth. When mother turned her narrowed eyes on the old man he held his hands up defensively. “I’m not lighting it, Penny. Just thinking! Now, I don’t think it’s that important because… I don’t think Bastian should do more than reach the first Tier before he puts the Path to the side.”

I blinked at that. Shouldn’t I spend lots of time and effort on an Elite Path? They were supposed to give the best rewards, after all. Except for Class Paths. And maybe Dungeons. Probably some other stuff I didn’t know too. But for what I had access to at the age of three, the best rewards. Definitely!

“Why?” I asked.

“Because you’re going to struggle to gain steps in it. Elite Paths aren’t as easy to progress as Basic and Advanced Paths. They often have very specific requirements. Thievery won’t work, because you’re just going to give the items back to me. Shadowing will work at the start but it will see very little growth after the first few steps because you can only shadow your mum, myself, and maybe Etta or Lucille. Not enough variety. Same problem with Infiltration. Even with your Talented Attribute and Shadow Affinity, you’re going to struggle to progress any of these Paths in the mountains. Best to save them for when we move for your schooling. So, the question is, which one is going to give you the rewards you want.”

“Not Thievery,” my mother answered immediately.

“Why not?” grandpa countered, which I was thankful for because that’s exactly what I wanted to ask.

“I don’t want my son to become a thief!”

“Doesn’t mean he’ll stay a thief. He would need to complete the Path but the rewards don’t actually have to be used for thievery,” the old man replied, puffing as though his pipe were lit.

“What are the rewards?” I demanded, standing up on my chair seat so that I could rest my hands on the table. I was like a mini-mafia boss demanding the goods. The goods being the rewards. The sweet, sweet rewards.

“For Thievery? Some extra Skill slots, some unallocated stat points, a Lesser and Greater Skill Seed for thievery-related Skills, and the Sleight of Hand Attribute which is a tier three Attribute.”

“Tier three? Attributes have tiers? What is Talented?!” The questions just flew out of me. I was going to throttle the old man for withholding information.

“Talented is a tier two I think. I don’t know the name of the tier three or tier four version. But tier alone doesn’t define the strength of an attribute. Talented is far superior to Sleight of Hand and harder to get.”

“What about the others?” asked my mum.

“Shadowing? Not sure. Probably the same but with a different Advanced Attribute. Infiltration though offers Invisible Presence, which is one of the more impressive stealth-related Attributes. Stealth helps you conceal your body. Invisible Presence just makes living things ignore you.”

The room went silent as everyone digested the information. I didn’t need to hear much more myself. Thievery and Infiltration had been the two I was interested in anyway. Shadowing just sounded too stalkery to me. I was a weird kid, not a creepy kid. Plus, I didn’t want to disappoint my mother. Or I suppose, I didn’t want to knowingly disappoint her. Which made the choice easy.

“I think I like Infiltration,” I suggested.

My mother beamed, pulling me into a hug while my grandpa looked at me knowingly and snuck a quick puff of his pipe. My Path of Aethersensing ticked up as I detected the small amount of aether flaring inside the pipe. My envy returned seeing his casual use of magic. One day, I reassured myself. I mentally made my choice.

Elite Path selected. Path of Infiltration unlocked.

As soon as I was done, I moved the Path out of my core list and replaced it with Path of Swordplay. My reasoning was simple. There was no way my mother was going to stop hovering around me like a mother duck until my scars had faded and I grew a bit more. Infiltration made it sound like I needed to break into a location. I had my doubts that grandpa’s office counted. Like he had said, this was an Elite Path and would have stringent requirements to meet to gain progress. Plus, if he was right about the rewards, then while they were good, they wouldn’t help me until I had gained some more Skill Slots and I already had a Lesser Skill Seed upstairs in my nook.

So, I would wait till winter had passed, mother had settled, and the Path of Climbing was done. In the meantime, I would work on my Path of Swordplay with Etta and her dad, gaining some easy physical Stats in the process.

My mother finally let me go, standing up and heading for the door. “I should go get dinner started. It’s going to take a few hours if I am going to turn this roasted lamb into a stew and make some dessert to celebrate my little man completing his first Advanced Path. Maybe some honey drops in warm dough?”

I nodded emphatically. I loved honeydrops, especially the red-stripe. Her smile at my reaction lit up the room, Pops and I grinning back until she was gone. The moment she left the room, our eyes drifted back to each other. I plopped back down in my seat and waited without breaking eye contact. The old codger stared at me for a good minute before he grunted.

“Extra lessons then?”

I nodded with a cheeky smile.

“You know that even with extra lessons and your… talent, that Etta will likely finish this Path before you?”

I nodded again. There was no point ignoring the obvious. I was lacking in the aether department. But, the old man had promised to do everything he could about it. If he was putting in his best effort, how could I do any less?

He grunted and began scribbling on brown paper as I cast my senses out and started searching for aether. With time and effort, I would make up for my shortcomings and become a mage. And a swordsman. And an infiltrator. And whatever else I could get my grubby little hands on.