Chapter 75: Life’s gifts

“Life is a gift and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming something more.”

Tony Robbins

After Mercurio and Cadmus had left it was time to look at some of the gifts that they had brought us. Despite the fact, that we had paid for them in one form or another they still felt quite special as we opened them up. Especially in a pre-industrial world where commercialism had yet to run rampant and our possessions were few and far between. For the most part they were essential rather than frivolous, although as we developed into a noble family, we were beginning to build up some of the trappings required to enter that part of society. Personally, I found it quite pleasant not to be surrounded by the detritus of an entire life’s worth of collecting various bits and bobs but being unable to throw it all out. If there was one thing, I could recommend about being reborn it was not having to clear out my garage, cupboards, bedrooms and attic. That and magic, and the system and just general wonder at getting a second chance at life . . . Admittedly, there was a lot to be grateful for beyond a clean garage but focusing on the more recent physical gifts.

First, the patents of nobility were worth their weight in gold figuratively and nearly literally as well, the amount of gold leaf they were embossed with, nearly outweighed the parchment they had been written on. Even though they had been handwritten, the formation of letters was so exact and precise, it was almost as if they had been printed. They officially welcomed the Silversea Family to the Noble Families of Ponente recognised by the Crown. Cadmus had added our names to the individual patents before he had left, as well as added his own signature as an alderman to confirm their authenticity. It was not necessary to produce them on most occasions, but they could be asked for, in order to clarify our positions, by various institutions of the Kingdom, should we need to prove our status. They were carefully packed away and hidden within the mountain. We had been warned by Cadmus that while they were supposedly unforgeable documents, they were still important documents and therefore profitable items to be stolen.

The deeds to the lands that Aleera had purchased were divided equally between the two of us. Almost as if we were playing a game of monopoly, land was still cheap this far out from the continent. That might change if we could make our own little paradise on earth here in the Wester Isles, although maybe not real estate prices rose and fell with politics and war, I was not going to bet on either of them. We also made payments to Des and Sinis by giving them a small plot of land from our holdings, for their support and work in collecting, packaging and then selling the salt. This world was, as many countries in my own been, biased towards men. While technically as the first male heir I would inherit, own, or oversee all assets of the Silversea family, Aleera was obviously not a fan of this idea. So, I was happy for her to have the titles to the land on the other islands, but I was trying to consolidate the ownership of Wester Ponente under my own title. Not saying that we argued over the matter but there was a fair amount of sibling squabbling settled by our mother.

Indeed, looking at the map detailing plots of land it was an interesting read. It seemed that most of the people who lived in the town had bought their plots of land outright but after that had invested more in their homes over buying more land, they had no need for. That didn’t mean there were not the occasional family that had bought plots outside the bounds of the town. But the vast majority had not bothered. This meant that despite the general lack of an individual’s wealth in our pioneer town most people and families lived far beyond what their wealth would have been able to have afford them back on the mainland. Living on plots of land and homes that were bigger than they would have been able to have afford on the Compass Continent. A town of domus, not quite villas in their own right, rather than being packed with insulae and single room apartments. That was not to say that the younger families such as our own did not live in smaller oikos than their parents’ families had lived in. But while the town had left a significant amount of space internally when the outside walls went up it had not expanded externally despite the expansion of the population internally. Which meant, that while the original families had blocked out larger plots for their shops and family homes, their children if they moved out had to build on smaller plots of land. Doubly so for any new additions to the town from further afield, not that their seemed to have been another wave of immigration from the time that the island was initially settled.

I guessed that mother and father could have always moved out to the island to build their home considering that everyone had always given grandfather a wide berth but had chosen to live in the town and so despite their comparatively wealthy status from my mothers weaving and my fathers fishing had had to settle for a smaller house within the town unless they wanted to live with my father’s parents and honestly who would want to do that. That is why our home had been a rather spartan affair consisting of my parent’s room, Aleera’s room and main room where the cooking, eating and weaving had taken place. We had never had our own shop front, like some of the larger homes, but Father had delivered his catch directly to those who bought it at the end of his days fishing and mother had either invited people into our home or visited theirs for the most basic of fittings. I had not been too naïve to notice that while women had visited our home unaccompanied for their fittings, any men had always been accompanied by either their wives, sisters or mothers. We had lived in a small town and while everyone knew one another one way or the other there were still some forms of propriety over gender differences and no man had visited unaccompanied, or if they had they had been politely turned away due to being busy or asked to return with a female relative.

The other surprise gift that was unexpected were the musical instruments which Grandfather had apparently asked to be dropped off when they returned. They were nothing like the musical instruments that I was used to in my previous life, but I could see the precursors to the modern violin, trumpet, and flute. As well as a harp, which were similar no matter what culture or age you hailed from. The problem was that I was somewhat limited by my size. All the instruments were made for an adult or at least a child capable to holding them. However, I felt that I would have the most success with the Rebec, the name of the early model violin, which I would be able to be treat like a cello. The only problem was that the bow was far to big from me to hold and attempt to use on it. But if they could make me a smaller one, I could probably sit down and have a go at playing it. It only had 3 strings rather than the usual 4 but I was looking forward to attempting it. I hadn’t played in along time now and was looking forward to making the attempt even if the instrument was different to the ones I had grown up with. I was also hoping that being able to physically play the musical instruments would support me in gaining those dexterity stats I so desperately needed. It was one thing to regain the skill, I had once had, in my mind. But that did not appear to be adding to my dexterity stats, it merely seemed to be the system recognising a skill I had already possessed in my former life and quantifying it as part of my status.

The Cornu would one day end up looking like a trumpet, if the technological progress of this world was anything like my own, but this early version of it was made without valves, went round in a circle and depended entirely on one’s embouchure to change its pitch. I was still looking forward to learning to play it but doubted that learning this instrument would be helping me improve my dexterity as much as the rebec. Particularly seeing as it solely relied on my lips rather than a combination of speed and dexterity with my fingers and arms that the rebec would require.

The Aulos, on the other hand was another possibility for improving my dexterity. It was an early version of the flute. It was not particularly large but I could only attempt to play half of it with my tiny hands as short and stumpy as they were. I wondered if this would affect my attempt at gaining and levelling the skill. Did one have to play the entire range of instrument to be considered able to play it? While most days I merely thought of myself as a height challenged adult, it was days like this, when I attempted to play the instruments, that drove home that I was still an infant no matter how differently I might have imagined myself in my head or how grown up I was treated by my family. Internally, my mental image of myself had continued to regress I hadn’t quite reached the toddler I was in reality, but I was now a small child wondering through rooms, in my mental fortress, that felt larger to my smaller mental avatar than the adult they had originally been created for.

The gift my mother received was twofold. The dyes that she had asked for were interesting enough and had come accompanied with instructions on how to use them for the best effect. There were reds, blues and yellows to add to our very own purple. Mercurio had gone above and beyond in his efforts to develop good relationships with each, and every member of our family so he had also provided the plants the dyes could be derived from. He had packaged each plant carefully and managed to keep them alive throughout their sea journey. They would not be enough to replenish the dyes that were far easier to buy than grow but in time they one day might be. We would be plant them up at the top our mountain and in time would support a small amount of dyes. I was not sure how quickly we would be able to make them grown or quite how many plants would be required to create our own dyes but it was a kind gesture that had not gone unnoticed.

Now that we had our patents of nobility.

Now that Mercurio and Cadmus had finally left.

Now that I was officially recognised as Callen, Kai Silversea.

It was also time to reintroduce me to the town once more. While my former ‘death’ explained why our family had removed themselves to the island for several months, to mourn, grieve and ‘have another child’ in safety it was time to reintroduce me to both my wider family and then the town at large. On that note it seemed silly, but the town was actually named after the island and was simply known as Wester. Maybe our old home could be renamed as Westward, then our address would have been Westward, West Street, Wester, Wester Ponente! Not that there was a postal system here and our road despite being called West Street actually ran towards the north! There was probably some convoluted reason why or rather how that had happened but none of our family knew the reason why.

Regardless of what the town was called it was decided that we would introduce ourselves as the Silversea Family to our wider family first and see how that changed the dynamics before we attempted returning to Wester and reintegrating with town life on a more permanent basis. It might not even be possible to return to town. As we were now nobles, we were expected to have the finest house or rather mansion around. This would have cost a lot more to achieve building up from the ground in the town rather than what we were currently doing which was carving down out of the mountain. So, while I would be reintroduced to the world at large we would still end up staying here on the island not only for the safety it provided being one step removed from the town but also to begin to project an image of the new bourgeoisie. The first part of this plan would be to start inviting our wider family, our cousins, aunts and uncles out to see our new home and me for the first time known as Callen. If I was being honest I still preferred the name Kai and while I was now nearly 2 years old in this world I would be pretending to be 12 months old. So in reality I was a 40 year old (old world years) pretending to be a 2 year old (new world years which was 32 months) pretending to be a 12 month old (both world months). It was a little complicated if you thought about it that way.

The final gift were the dexterity elixirs that Mercurio had provided. While he had clearly been interested in the reason behind the request he had not asked merely sold the elixirs. We had all winced at the price Aleera questioning why exactly and how exactly Gradnfather had a) had so many and b) afforded them all in the first place. I thought she was just a little sore that I might have well have been drinking liquid gold for what it was costing us. However she couldn’t argue with their purpose and the slowly rationed elixirs had helped me regain my mobility and with it I continued to be able to practice my skills and increase my dexterity stats.

1st month

Life went on as usual, salt, snails, pearls and purple. I was restricted from doing the majority of the work by the rationing of the elixir but I was present for most of it. Mana made the mage and I had plenty of it to help with.

Grandpa Smit and Grandma also came to visit. While Grandpa had been before it was the first time Grandma had visited us. Despite clearly having been warned she was suitably shocked by the progress we had made on our palace. They discussed the best way to reintroduce our family to the town as well as how to broach the idea that our family was now a new noble family. It was felt that while on the one hand, it would be good practice to set such expectations it might create more problems than it was worth. Smit’s family’s history of buying up all the island was hardly hidden but the extent of their success in buying it all up was also hardly realised either. The question was whether it would create more problems than it was worth in the short term or the long term. And the answer was that it probably would create more than it was worth to be so explicit about it. Grandma pointed out that we could simply return as the new bourgeoise a family that had come into new wealth a hidden inheritance from the mainland if you will. One that might explain the death of Kai, an event they were still speculating about. If there had been money involved, then while the crime would still be terrible there would be some understanding of a possible motive even if they didn’t suspect the actual truth. She didn’t frame it exactly like this, but in reference to our finer clothing as well as the palace we were building on the island, it would not be difficult to infer through purchases, requests and other jobs that we could slowly, and slightly more subtly than simply announcing it, become the dominant family through soft power rather than hard. In the end this was a pioneer town and island. A fair few families had come here, risked reaching, specifically in order to get away from the nobility. This was why and how Smit’s family had already come to be more or less in charge without ever having to define themselves as such. It was also clear that Grandma had exerted just as much influence in the families smooth progression forward towards becoming nobles as Grandpa Smit and his desire to push each son into a different profession.

2nd Month

The cousins came to visit. I was kept wrapped up the entire time and carried everywhere but they have been reintroduced to my face. I had even been placed in my fake cot to try to reinforce how small we were pretending I was. My hair had even been shaved the month prior to their visit to reinforce my new born status. The family were kind enough not to mention how I looked like Kai although Aleera was mentioned many a time in how similar we looked as babies. They were all suitably impressed by the slowly growing palace we were carving. The other cousins even going as far as to mention that the Siren on Ash island finally had a palace to match her voice. It turned out that when Grandfather and Aliyah had first turned up here he had retreated to the isle with her barely letting her out of his sight or off the island as a child. The mists and the songs that could faintly be heard by those out fishing painted a mysterious picture of the island and its inhabitants at the time. This history had been dredged up by our families return to the isle.

3rd Month

By now Mercurio and Cadmus would be back at Solstice City once more and at Grandfather’s request opening bank accounts in our names. No one would be able to withdraw from them until we presented out patents of nobility but Mercurio had promised to deposit our 5 percent share of his profits there until we were able to collect it ourselves or requested it was spent on something else. We had all had little requests before he left but they were minor things that would hardly account for all the profit from the salt as well as our 5 percent share. I had a lot of ideas but until I was bigger I would be limited by what I was able to achieve. So, I had requested fruit, olive, and date saplings along with grape vines. Things that, just like me, would take time to grow before being immediately useful. I had plans in place for where to plant them. Des and Sinis both resigned to carrying more soil up the mountain to the caldera where I planned to recreate a veritable eden.

4th Month

By now I had been playing my musical instruments for 3 months quickly gaining the skills and levels for them similar to their modern counterparts. They had also been helping significantly with my dexterity stat improvements. Where once before I had only been able to gain 1 or 2 points in dexterity per month now I was able to gain at least 3 occasionally 4. I was still working as little as possible on my mental stats be them magic, clarity or mind. But despite that the sheer number or skills I had in them helped them to keep ticking upwards. The huge success was not in my dexterity though but my charisma. I had once again impressed my wider family with my cuteness but my inner nuclear family had been amazed at my ability to play both the Aulos and the Rebec. They had always known that I was musical, my mother most proud of that fact. But they had never heard me on an instrument until now. I had requested Grandfather to help me practice in private until I had a good enough grasp of the Rebec to perform a short piece and when I did my Charisma had shot up. Unfortunately, it appeared Charismas was most efficiently earned for first impressions, practice and repeat performances while helping me improve my dexterity did little to continue the growth of the stat. However, the key here was scalability. If I had been able to gain such an amount from my families first impressions, how much could I achieve from performing to the entire town? My sister while still suitably impressed by my performance quietly resented my quick progress. If not for my performance on the Cornu or relationship might have grown a little strained. You see I simply did not have have enough stamina or lung capacity to make much progress with the Cornu at all. It sounded more like high pitched flatulence than actual music much to Aleera’s delight. She took great joy in commandeering the instrument and playing it with the proper strength and lung capacity it required. Not that I didn’t get to laugh in return when she first attempted it creating more flatulence albeit significantly louder before she got the hang of powering through to create a proper note.

5th Month

Life went on as usual, salt, snails, pearls and purple. Our merchant will have plenty of salt to sell when he next visits and we plan on collecting another batch of pearls before he arrives. Father continued to collect the oysters he finds for us to seed rather than eat or sell them in Wester. Our Oyster farm continued to grow, and we continued to give them a little extra mana to help them grow that little bit quicker. Purple though and purple coloured cloth would be a slightly more delicate product to shift. Our home spun cloth while fine enough for us was simply not fine enough to counterfeit the clothes normally dyed purple. Much like in Roman times, Purple while not solely reserved for Royalty is reserved for the noble class. As such it is only used on the finest cloth and silk. Also, unfortunately it appears that only one noble family is sole owner of the secret of its production and the only distributer. They own the entire market of the cloth and as a monopoly can ask any price, they wish for it. Any entry into the market will be quickly noticed and only gain us another enemy before we have even entered the royal court. Cadmus, out of earshot of Mercurio, had informed us of some of the currents within the court. He pointed out that on top of whichever family it is that we had deprived them of Mercurio, as well as the families that traded in salt and pearls that it might not be the best idea to create another wealthy and influential enemy. Therefore while we would continue to produce it. We would do so quietly, slowly and stockpile our product rather than let a hint of our knowledge and product become another target on our back.

6th Month

Cadmus and Mercurio visited again. There trip taking them once more around the archipelago and back again. Court had appeared to have settled to some extent although they were heavily quizzed on our whereabouts before they were able to depart. As such they would be keeping their visit short as despite the multiple stops they had made on there trip to a variety of powerful and influential people and places they could not guarantee that someone on their ship would not become aware of our new status and sell the information to the highest bidder or all of the bidders if possible. Other than the trades that Mercurio must have been making a mint on considering the size of his smile they did come with one other question. Which was would Aleera like a tutor? The Prince of Ponente had decided that it might be appropriate for Aleera to have a tutor before being presented to court on her 20thyear. Normally most noble families would hire a variety of tutors to teach their children as many skills as possible. A single tutor would still be a disadvantage compared to our peers on the mainland but better than none was the opinion given and our answer a resounding yes.

They departed before my 2nd birthday and before I was able to move again but I was hopefully very close to obtaining some form of perk for my dexterity.

So very close.

Level: 12
Name: Lord Kai
Experience: 71,050/ 819,200
Age: 1 year 15 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 12 hours, 0 minutes
Health: 1410/1410 Stamina: 860/860 Mana: 1330/1330 Psi: 1330/1330
Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted

Vitality: 141 +6  
Endurance: 69  +14
Strength: 48  +7
Dexterity: 99  +28
Senses: 133  +6
Mind: 133  +6
Clarity: 113  +6
Magic: 133  +6
Charisma: 36  +6
Luck: 5  +1

Free Points: 40

Skills:

Tier 1: Time sense (Lv 40 -> 45)Listening (Lv 30) Meditation (Lv 50) Swimming (Lv 45 -> Lv 50)Humming (Lv 27) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 27) Singing (Lv 27) Drumming (Lv 25) Running (Lv37 -> Lv 42) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 21 -> 25) Breath Control (Lv 30) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Bussola (Lv 7) Draw (Lv 20 -> 25) Climb (Lv 27) Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 12) Knife Skills (Lv 20 -> Lv 22) Trading (Lv 25) Sailing (Lv 6) Appeal (Lv 6) Knots (Lv 20 -> Lv 25) Stitching (Lv 20 ->25) Diving (Lv 15) Throw (Lv 10 –> Lv 12) Insight (Lv 1)

Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 38 -> 40) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 13) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Translation (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 27 -> Lv 30) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 8) Order (Lv3) Knife Arts (Lv 1) Rebec (Lv 1 – Lv 12) Aulos (Lv 1 – Lv 12) Cornu (Lv 1) Harp (Lv 1)

Tier 3: Echolocation (LV 26 -> Lv 28) Expel Mana (Lv 37) Absorb Mana (Lv 31) Mana Manipulation (Lv 29) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 3) Melt (Lv 10) Command (Lv 1)

Tier 4: Material Manipulation (Lv 15) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15 - Lv 16)

Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17)

Skill experience: 11,800
Origin experience: 0
Combat experience: 0
Crafting experience: 15,000
Trading experience: 10,000
Popular experience: 10,000