Earthchild

Chapter 38: Okay, That Was Easy

Painful tingles swept over Caen's body as he entered the Odaton-plane Plane.

Ancestors, I hate that name.

There were no lanterns or light sources in here, and the low lighting wasn't enough for him to make out anything. The other members of his Attacker team didn't seem too bothered, however. The passive augmentations from a Gleam affinity granted varying degrees of night vision. 

Caen put on his crafting goggles, which had been hanging around his neck. Wearing...

Chapter 37: The So-called Odaton-plane Plane

Guinevere leaned into his personal space to look out the window. “They cleared out most of the buildings? That's too bad.”

“You've been here before?” Caen asked. 

“Once or twice, camping with my sister,” Guinevere said. “Nice place, hot as fuck weather though.” She leaned back into her seat and jutted her chin at his window. “They do that sometimes, whenever there's a Planar break in the middle of an inhabited area. Can't imagine how many people lost their h...

Chapter 36: The Sword Guy

At half past 3 in the morning, Caen made his way to the city airdock. He'd taken his temperature regulation pills, then donned his breastplate—opting to wear the rest of his armor after the trip. He'd worn his utility belt with his holsters and belt bag, his bandolier fitted with various combat items, and then his coat. He carried his sheathed glaive in one hand.

So dark and early in the day, there were hardly any rickshaws or carriages waiting at well-lit street corners. City patroll...

Chapter 35: Last One To Leave

There was a mirror-room on the top level of the Edict Temple. Unlike the one at home, Caen had never seen the inside of it before. Even now, he and his father, Ergen, waited on the ground floor as Sh’leinu and a pair of priestesses tried contacting Sh’kteiro, Caen's uncle. The mirror-room possessed features that allowed for long-distance communication through some complex workings of Scripting and Divination.

Caen had retrieved his parents’ bags as well as Aunt Grena’s. They’...

Chapter 34: Executive Order

Beginning with the two-year-old version of him, every single reflection of his began to conform various parts of their soul structures to some unclear instinct. All around him, infinite replications of various thread clusters shifted and twisted and turned and contorted and reformed. He couldn't keep track of all of them, but each one was Mimicking an affinity.

They inundated him like a memory, like a thousand memories all at once. He experienced the sensations, heard them, deep sonorou...

Chapter 33: A Gift Of Sight

Zeris was seated at the kitchen table, scrawling into her notebook when Caen trudged into the house.

“How did it go?” she asked, glancing up briefly. She seemed really busy… and tired.

“I'll tell you about it tomorrow.” He kicked off his boots. “You?”

“Same old.”

“What’s this I smell? Chey leaves?” he asked.

“Oh. Your folks are smoking on the roof again.”

He snorted. “And gossiping too, I'm sure.” He'd revealed some very heav...

Chapter 32: Specter Nibbles On Local Man's Mind

The Astral Realm was divided into three layers, but right now, the astral projection spell Caen needed pertained to the deepest of these layers. 

It didn't take too long to adapt the spell enough for casting. Caen's spirit and mind responded to him like never before. His familiarity with his own spirit, coupled with its currently boosted affinity for Dream-guarding, smoothened the process.

He called forth a visualization of spindly and twisting branches, each one splitting of...

Interlude III: In Which The Parents Gossip

At midnight, Sh'leinu quietly opened the hatch in her room's ceiling and climbed out onto the roof. She was startled to find her husband, Ergen, already there stargazing under the soft light of the moons.

“I didn't notice when you left,” she said, carefully making her way over to him. “Scoot for me.”

“I was trying not to wake you. I just—” His brow furrowed. “What's that in your hand?”

Lying beside him in the space he'd made, she showed him a lighter and...

Chapter 31: A Duplex At The Heart Of The Commune

Dawn met Caen meditating on the roof.

He'd woken up at 2 in the morning and hadn't been able to go back to sleep. 

Soul-sense worked just fine.

Caen had cried hot tears of relief. He'd unfurled his existence as easily as breathing. That beautiful tapestry of his soul structure, with its myriad sensations and arcane vibrations, was like music to his ears.

Unable to return to sleep, he'd spent the early hours of the morning observing the thread clusters on his s...

Chapter 30: It's Not Working

The only reason Caen could come to the seventh floor at all was because Uncle Vai was here; otherwise, it'd be sealed. 

The doors opened to reveal a vast aquarium tunnel. Caen stepped onto it with both wonder and trepidation. Beyond the glass tunnel, he could see a variety of sea life swimming through a well-lit body of water. Giant orbs of blue and white light pulsed with intensity as they floated in the deep. It was as though Caen had suddenly been teleported beneath the ocean. 2025-08-03 11:59:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 29: A Humble Farmer

The southway market square wasn't as crowded as it usually was. Rows of open stalls and kiosks lined the area, selling all sorts of goods and wares. 

Caen braced himself and headed deeper into the portion of the market where farm produce and fresh meat were sold. The smells of fruits and vegetables were greatly overpowered by butchered animal parts. It was a hot day, and flies buzzed about, making the ordeal a little unpleasant. 

Caen purchased slabs of raw meat and a va...

Chapter 28: Surfeitism vs Esotericism

With Uncle Vai's Astral locus occupying one half of his mind, Caen held complex visualizations in the other half.

He could feel the dream around him breaking apart, but there was no reciprocation from Uncle Vai's domain. He cut off the working quickly. 

Usually, Vai maintained enough presence to handle the bulk of Caen's transportation to his domain. But at times, he was completely unavailable due to work. Which made accessing his domain all but impossible.

Caen glanced...

Chapter 27: Touching Upon Surfaces

Caen recalibrated his pocket watch at the archway as soon as they stepped through the Aperture. It was well past midnight.

His eyes were blindfolded, but he had no problem seeing, all thanks to his speculon—it was proving quite handy. The lampposts of placid reshent surrounding the archway were so bright that they would have undoubtedly worsened his migraine if he'd been keeping his physical eyes open. There weren't any Valiants out here at this time.

The Valiants' lodge by the ...

Chapter 26: Soul Of A Shadeling

Caen conjured a small orb of flame over his palm. Its orange hue shifted to a startling mix of purple, pink, and red.

Aunt Vensha swept her hand in front of them. “Tahal,” she swore. “It really is as hot as Zeris said. And you're using a… memory to do this?”

“Not really. I feel like it's getting easier somehow. I'm just thinking about how much I want to conjure Passionfire, and that seems to be enough.”

Zeris grumbled something under her breath. Caen patted her...

Chapter 25: General Testing in Redshadow

At dusk, Caen went down to the southway market square to grab some ridiculously oversized fruits, but the eccentric farmer who sold them hadn't opened shop that day, so he settled for normal-sized fruits.

He and Zeris recovered their equipment from the temple and geared up. Vensha had made a series of tiny perforations into the brow section of his helmet. The holes were arranged in the base-Ortrillian glyph for protection, but more importantly, they were so closely packed together that ...

Chapter 24: Passionfire

Caen overslept again. It was a little worrying, but he’d started to note that his Mimicking ability strained body, mind, and spirit. So this felt to him like a given. Also, doing physical training with a boosted affinity yesterday had taken a lot out of him.

With bright sunlight pouring in from his window, Caen sat at the center of his room and began cleansing his spirit. It was so much harder than it had been any of the times he had Mimicked Zeris's Spirit-healing affinity. Whenever ...

Chapter 23: A Day For Spirit And Blood

They walked towards the workout area as Caen explained an idea he'd been nursing since his spar with Malo last night. He’d talked it over with Uncle Vai in the Astral—once the man had calmed down—and felt fairly confident about it. A few resources in Vai’s library confirmed that the soul was essentially the body, mind, and spirit taken together as one unit. And since Mimicry allowed him to directly interact with his soul, Caen had been pondering how best to strengthen himself in this ...

Chapter 22: To See

When Caen woke up, his room was brighter than it should have been. He immediately sat up in bed, swearing under his breath. 

I woke up late again, he thought, reaching for the pocket watch by his bedside table.

Then he opened his eyes, and the room went dark. Wait, what?

Caen could make out just a hint of light coming through his window. It was the early hours of the morning. Then what had just happened a moment ago?

He felt around for his pocket...

Chapter 21: Sea Serpent Chases Local Man's Nephew

Moments after gaining lucidity in his dream, the world around Caen broke away all at once, revealing a deep purple void. 

Caen fell through that void with the force of a hypnic jerk, and the next moment, found himself standing on a perfectly grown, square patch of purple winter berries. It was snowing lightly all around him. Before him loomed the giant double doors of Vai’s mansion. Caen was not yet proficient enough to project into the mansion without Uncle Vai’s direct interv...

Chapter 20: A Good Dream

After determining which thread clusters on Zeris's soul structure correlated with her potential for Fire magic, Caen spent some time trying to cast Fire spells while observing his own soul structure. The endeavor was incredibly complex and strained his attention to no end, but a long while later, he managed it.

He was then able to properly isolate the thread cluster in Zeris's soul structure and then conform his own thread cluster to it.  

By connecting with her and fund...

Chapter 19: Locate, Isolate, Imitate

“Ow,” Caen mumbled, rubbing his smarting forehead and squinting at the light of day streaming through his window. Vai hadn't flicked his actual forehead, but it hurt all the same.

His pocket watch told him the time. 8 in the morning. It was still four hours later than when he usually woke up, but Caen was resolute on returning to routine. 

“Alright, let's get to it,” he said to himself.

His reserves were still quite low, but a quick simulation of Untor's Boulder...

Chapter 18: Revisitation With Vai

Uncle Vai was dressed in an orange, wide-collared shirt with paisley designs on it. He was a stout man with a bowl cut, and the sides of his hair shaved. He had a magnificent mustache, the same black as his hair. His skin was as pale as Caen’s father’s. He sat in an unacceptably luxurious rocking chair made out of gold. It looked like a throne, except that it rocked back and forth, even when it hovered in the air, which it often did.

Through the two window walls on either side of th...

Chapter 17: Future Plans

Caen and Zeris chatted excitedly on the train ride back to Beslin while he worked on his dexterity. They'd learned so much tonight that it was all they could talk about till they disembarked at the train stop.

“It makes me wonder, though,” Caen said as they made their way up the stone steps leading into the commune. He kicked a pebble aside, hands in his pockets. “How do you think Ardor affects Fire magic? I mean, I think I have a faint grasp of the conceptual elements. Sort of. B...

Chapter 16: What is Ardor?

Two and a half hours later, the number of people in the hall had shrunk to less than a third of their initial size. Magister Fermien had kept calling for breaks every thirty minutes, and those who scrambled out of their seats never actually came back. In Caen's opinion, this was very considerate of him, as they must have been scared to leave while the magister was still speaking.

After the lecture, Fermien greeted some of the remaining members of the audience, and with Preceptor Wijin l...

Chapter 15: A Lecture At The Phrontistery

Zeris bought herself and Caen some roasted meat at the train stop since he'd wasted his money yesterday on crappy bicycles that they'd ended up abandoning somewhere around Redshadow. She also paid for his train fare.

At this time of day, there weren't a lot of people looking to head into Drenlin, so the stop was mostly empty. The train, however, was stuffed full of people. 

The fingers on Caen’s hands were restricted by several elastic bands as he slowly moved through casti...

Chapter 14: The Right Direction

Caen leaned back in his chair. “I was somehow able to improve my affinity for Spirit-healing the first time I used Soul-sense.”

Zeris scrunched up her nose at the word ‘Soul-sense’.

“What? It's a fine name.”

“Meh. Could be better.”

“Well, if you think of something, this esteemed committee will be willing to hear it. Anyway, it felt like something… changed in me back then. I'd like to try replicating that again.”

Caen activated Soul-sense and...

Chapter 13: To Perceive The External

Caen woke up, blissful. The beautiful rays of sunshine caressed his face. It—

Rays of sunshine?

He jerked upright, squinting at the bright light pouring in from his window. He was sitting on the floor of his room, and the events of the previous day flooded his recollection.

That had really happened.

Caen moved aside the damp dishrag and rummaged through his clothes on the floor, wincing in pain from the injuries he'd gotten yesterday. He retrieved his pocket...

Interlude II: Tedious Rigor

The Peilker Scale rated affinities from 0 to 12, and to the fourth decimal of each value. Passive augmentations were a magical phenomenon that only applied to individuals with ratings of 1 and above. The overwhelming majority of children didn't have any ratings below 1 and thus enjoyed a slew of passive augmentations.

Blood-healing, for instance, presented as vigor, faster regeneration from small injuries, and all-around bodily wellness, amongst other things.

Caen's first potency ...

Chapter 12: Desperate Hope

The first shot hit Binam in his shoulder; the second missed him. He staggered away, clutching his shoulder and screaming. 

Caen grabbed the sacks of monster parts and flung them away. He took out his revolver.

Dari conjured a curved barrier of wind and diverted two thick arcs of lightning before the barrier collapsed.

Ellu turned her attention to Affen, slamming him with packed sand. Zeris stood behind Ellu and Dari, emptying the rest of her cylinder into the werewolf.<...

Chapter 11: She Has A Gun

The group walked another mile, Caen and Zeris harvesting kromroots while Affen and Hez fought off the odd one-tail. No packs had assaulted them since they'd slain the first.

Caen wore his backpack behind him and Ellu's basket in front of him while dragging two heavy sacks of shadeling corpses.

Zeris herself was struggling with two sacks of fentils and kromroots. “Regretting this yet?” she muttered.

Caen chuckled. “Not even a little.” Today was shaping up to be the be...