Earthchild

Chapter 10: Soul Structures

Caen opened his mouth to say something to Zeris, but Ellu snapped her fingers, drawing their attention. 

“Gatherers,” she said without looking at them. “Harvest these fentils over here.” She pointed to a patch of vines with deep purple flowers.

“We told her our names,” Zeris grumbled in Olden Vishic as she undid the ribbon holding the sacks in place.

Caen put on a pair of thick gloves and took out his paring knife. Its curved blade was thoroughly sharpened ...

Chapter 9: Fundamental Change

As soon as he stepped through the Aperture, Caen felt slightly painful pinpricks all over his skin. This was common enough and happened every time he entered a Plane. 

What never happened, though, was this pull, something tugging at his being—and his spirit, even suppressed as it was, churned like a troubled sea.

If the urgent need he'd felt at the temple was severe, this was downright unbearable. All his limbs trembled, and it was all Caen could do to stand upright.

...

Chapter 8: Extra Work

Once they were close enough, they put on their armor, and Caen took some more time to gear up properly.

There was one main problem with just waltzing into a Plane: its danger level. 

As F-rank Valiants, Caen and Zeris were simply Gatherers. The danger level of some Planes meant that low-ranked Valiants like them were often discouraged from going in solo. Here in the nation of Rialgar, Gatherer-only parties often needed to constitute no less than three persons.

Redshadow...

Interlude I: Collaboration

When he was a naive and starry-eyed six-year-old boy, Caen sat down with the children of his great-grandmother's clutch and listened attentively as she told them a story about collaboration. It went like this:

A great and noble farmer who had mastered all the nuances of Nurturing magic could tame the wildest of beasts. She could make any plant grow in whatever terrain or environment. By her mere presence, the flora and fauna in any ecosystem flourished and bloomed. Awakened beasts and p...

Chapter 7: It Whispers His Name

“What?” Zeris asked.

“I...” he began, the words catching in his throat. His spirit roiled chaotically within him. A tendril came loose, flailing about. The last time his spirit had moved this violently was when he was still a child learning to control its movements. “I think I might have four bloodlines.”

“That doesn't… are you sure?” She stood up, apparently concerned. Her spirit grazed his. “You don't look well, Caen.”

“I don't feel well either,” ...

Chapter 6: Lying Triangle

He and Zeris took a shared carriage back to the temple. It was a wonky hunk of wood with incredibly terrible suspension and no ceiling. Caen had taken some numb root from one of the pouches at his belt, and it helped dull the pain in his arm and side.

A Valiant with inscriptions on his forearm was regaling the other passengers with tales of his most recent expedition into the Planes.

Caen tuned the man out and sank his focus into his own spirit. The hooting passengers were annoyin...

Chapter 5: Strings Of Fate

A rickshaw brought Caen and Zeris to the plaza in the city where the dance rehearsals took place. 

The Dalat festival wasn't for another ten days, but decorations were already underway, and this segment of the city was abuzz. Some people had begun painting the front of buildings around the plaza in tones of red and deep yellow. Large Inshol motifs and designs marked the cobblestone pathways. Felfe leaves, broad and crimson, hung in splotchy clusters from door lintels or in flower p...

Chapter 4: Curious Arrival

Caen's limbs were shaking from mana exhaustion as he stepped into the helpers’ lounge, coat in hand. He'd long since grown accustomed to the very unpleasant sensation of depleting his reserves. When he was younger, he couldn't even move under the effects of mana exhaustion. The tri-clinic was quite cold, but nowhere as cold as his house was, and even though he would have preferred to put on his coat, it helped keep some troublemakers in line when they remembered just how big he was compared...

Chapter 3: Affairs Of The Spirit

The train pulled up at the station in Drenlin city. He disembarked with a small throng of people. Many passengers still on the train were going on to other towns and cities farther ahead.

Sellers loitered between the crowds, hawking their goods and shouting prices above the hubbub.

The air in the city was not as clean as the thin and hilly air of Beslin. The mixing smells of baked goods and trash bins were always jarring.

The roads were divided into paved lanes for rickshaws...

Chapter 2: Repetition Number 22,314

Caen got back to the commune, sore from his sparring session with Vensha and the weightlifting that had followed. Even though the weather was still only slightly warm, he was sweating profusely.

Most buildings in the commune were wide and cylindrical, each one housing several families. Some teenagers went about their morning chores, wiping down windows, raking leaves, and sweeping the cobblestone pathways. He waved back at an elderly couple drinking tea on their porch. A group of laughi...

Chapter 1.5: A Plane Called Redshadow

Caen sat atop the sloping roof of his family home, drawing ambient mana into his spirit.

Most nights, Caen drained a small fraction of his mana reserves, letting them refill passively in order to strengthen his spirit.

While he attuned the ambient mana to his spirit, he occupied his attention with a visualization technique. Two pinpricks of light unfolded in his mind's eye, forming the base of a phantom triangle. These represented his two bloodlines. The third point of the triangl...

Chapter 1: It Happens Today

Clarity sees; he sees.

Spirits stir in young children between the ages of eight and twelve. Talented children from the Ereshta'al line have spirits that sometimes stir as early as six years of age. 

Caen Ereshta’al was only two years old when his spirit first stirred.

It happened late one night on Ser-gwu Island, during the biennial celebrations held by the Ereshta'al head-family.

That night, Caen lay cuddled beside his father, Ergen, who read h...