The Aftermath

"You mentioned that you trained in martial arts but the power you exerted goes well beyond someone of your age. It was very surprising."

"Being honest, I have never shown that much strength I mean I am only 12! How could I exert that much force with a single punch?"

"Wait you are only 12?" Raphael's voice shouted from below before Noor could say anything more but it looked like she was going to ask the same question.

I had forgotten that my appearance was that of a 20 year old man, "Yes, I have experienced some strange encounters causing me to appear much older than I truly am." It wasn't a lie but it was just not the full truth, I did not think it would be a good idea to mention the Plains to the siblings. They may have saved my life but I was still unsure as to what they wanted with me and thus I did not trust them fully.

Noor looked at me with a suspicious look, I guessed her senses mat be saying that something is off and I prayed that she did not pry any further.

"I understand. Some people do not like to share information especially with strangers, but hopefully we will trust each other enough in the future to learn about our backgrounds."

As I thought, she did see through it. This woman's senses are incredibly worrying, luckily, she cannot read my mind like the empress but it is still enough to put me on edge.

Raphael was ushered away by his sister who had jumped down to the floor, they approached the bodies of the wolves and began cutting away at their limbs. I was left on my little perch in deep thought, I was curious about the siblings but also what the empress had said before she send me back.

I had already figured out my reason for floating in the purity river, it was where I was standing when I was whisked away to the Plains and so when I was sent back I just floated on down the river. But what had happened still stuck in my mind.

I still find it hard to belie that it wasn't just a dream but it is all too real to be a dream, my entire appearance has changed and my strength. My appearance is so similar to hers, does that mean she has chosen me as her disciple? Even this golden rope tied around my forearm is the same kind that was tied around her waist. The golden aura given off by it during my attack was something I had never read about or seen before.

As far as everyone knows the only aura that can be created will be white, there has never been a golden aura before, at least it is not something that has been documented in the Raver Port library.

I tried to move the rope but it wouldn't budge, it wasn't wrapped tightly but it wouldn't move an inch. I thought that maybe infusing it with purity will move it.

I closed my eyes and felt the flow of purity throughout my body and traced it back to the source, a small intangible circle in the abdomen. I concentrated on a small clump of it and slowly tracked it up through my body and down towards my fingertips, as it gathered I hovered my hand over the rope until my fingertips were just half an inch away. A small amount of white gas emerged out of my fingers and surrounded the rope, I concentrated on the gas and tried to move it willingly but it was much harder than I thought.

I was able to move liquid purity without touching it but as a gas it was much harder to control. The concentration was much more rigorous than I thought and I began to perspire, sweat rolled down my cheek but I was able to move some of the gas freely. As I spent more of my concentration I was able to gather more and more gas together and surround the entire rope, something changed within the rope itself, I could feel it changing. I opened my eyes and saw that the rope was untying itself off of arm but it never fell off, I tried to use the gas to move it up my arm and it obeyed.

My surprise almost made me lose concentration but I realised quickly enough and closed my eyes again. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it but I was just happy knowing that I could control it, suddenly the thought of the empress entered my mind and the rope began to move towards my waist but along the way it began to change. It went from a thick piece of rope to a silky satin ribbon that tied itself around my waist.

After I opened my eyes I noticed the change to the rope, I was rather surprised after all I still did not know where it came from but logic would dictate it was a gift from her. My mind was filled with a sweet memory of waking up to her perilously close face and all the perspiration from concentrating so hard disappeared, I was rather indifferent to most feelings and so I was very confused with what I felt towards that woman.

The two siblings had finished sorting the pile of wolf meat and invited me back down. Noor was the first to speak as usual.

"We have been talking, we agree to take you back to your hometown but as compensation you will hunt for our food. We cannot ask for anything else apart from helping us survive in this forest, this will act as a double win for you as you will be able to pick up some skills and experience on the way."

I thought about what she was saying and was rather surprised, I thought they would string me along for much longer but I guess it is just a self-centred dream. What she was saying was reasonable but I had no desire to return home, my father would kill me after fining out my identity and even if he didn't if someone who looks like me turned up he would definitely become suspicious.

"I do not wish to return back but it would be nice to be alongside you until I become proficient in hunting."

Raphael looked at me with a stern look his eyes turned cold very contrasting to the arrogance in them before, with good reason too. I understood already how hard it was to survive in the forest so why would they want to bring along someone who was a liability.

"You don't have nearly enough experience to keep up with us."

"Raphael don't, he is only a child." She looked back over at me, "If you are able to learn quickly and pull your weight in the next month then you can stay with us, during this time I will agree to train you but whether Raphael will teach you as well is up to him." She leered back at her brother who was in deep thought.

I did not break the silence from fear of making him angry, so I just stood there as silent as possible awaiting for his response.

After a few minutes of complete silence Raphael took a deep breath.

"I agree to teach you as well, the strength you showed during that fight was incredible and I am curious about what it will be like when you have honed that power. My only concern was that you are a human and we do not like humans, but you are able to survive in the forest so there is obviously something different about you."

Noor looked at her little brother with a smile, I guess she was happy to see him growing up. I was taken back, I had only known him to be arrogant and pompous so to see him acting to mature was very unsettling.

"Thank you, I promise that I will my hardest in order to learn from you both." I bowed gently to show my thanks, even a smile crossed my face as I realised that I had a chance of living in the new environment.

"Firstly, as I am an assassin class and Raph is a warrior class and so we will only be able to teach you techniques from these classes, we cannot teach you anything from the mage class. Also because you have not chosen a class yet we will only be able to teach you our techniques to an above-average proficiency. If you think about a scale from 1-10, with 1 being the lowest, you will only reach a level 3 proficiency in each technique. If you end up choosing one of our classes, you will be able to learn all the way up to level 10."

I nodded my head, I was more than excited to learn just one technique let alone those from 2 different classes. I was curious about the mage class but my excitement overshadowed my curiosity.

"I will first teach you a technique that can hide your presence, this will make your footsteps, breathing and general movement quieter while being able to go unnoticed by some animals. Ralph will teach you in the way of the sword.

"I will teach you my technique first as we can practice as we move."

Noor began listing the meaning of the method which essentially was just a simple concealment ability but I still listened to every word intently. She began to tell me the steps, a lot of which were a simple breathing method using the control of purity inside the body, but the later steps were much more confusing.

In order to hide your presence you need to cover your body in an incredibly thin layer of gaseous purity, it must be so thin that the naked eye could not sense it this would mean that animals would disregard you as nothing more than a piece of nature. As the purity is in such a thin state it will hide your body warmth, breathing and even the sounds of your clothes.

The first part is being able to release purity out of the body at will, I was able to do it earlier when I moved the golden rope but it took minutes to even move the purity out of my fingertips. Noor reassured me that it was normal to struggle so much in the beginning but over time I should become more comfortable with the process.

I practiced moving purity around my body as we leapt through trees, I was too engrossed in training to wonder where we were going I just followed Noor's lead subconsciously. At one point while resting I noticed that Raphael had his eyes closed as well and that his movement were much quieter than my own, Noor noticed me looking at him and whispered.

"He enjoys any kind of training and even though he will never reach a level 4 proficiency he will train it whenever we are moving. The only benefits of it is a higher control over his purity but as a warrior class he relies on outbursts of energy rather than over long controlled time periods."

I was realising how much experience and knowledge I was going to accumulate over this month and if I worked hard enough I wondered how much I could gain over a year. It unearthed a strange desire for power and knowledge, I had never felt it before but I was feeling it quite strongly as I trained.

Before I realised it night had fallen and it became almost pitch black, I could only hear Noor's footsteps ahead but I couldn't see her anymore, Raphael was right next to me so I could just about see him. The sound of footsteps slowed down, I was way too tired to carry on. My training during the day had allowed me to release small amount of gas from my fingers but it wasn't thin, I was happy with my progress though and I figured it would come in handy in moving the golden rope if all else fails.

"We are home."

Noor opened a small circular door that was neatly sat on the outside of a tree. It opened up revealing a steep staircase that spiralled downwards, torches lit the way down but I couldn't see the bottom.

"Follow me." She seemed quite tired and it showed in her short sentences, I was quiet due to fatigue as well and Raphael hadn't said anything since we started moving away from the wolf pack.

I followed them both down the stairs, nothing seemed to change, the interior walls of the tree were a dark ebony colour and as the stairs were carved from the same tree it was hard to differentiate between stair and wall. Luckily, the torches helped light the way.

Eventually we reached the bottom, another door was shut at the bottom of the stairs, this one was different from the first. Engravings and etchings ran all around its surface, there was no discernible pattern but it was intricate and beautiful. That was all I cared to notice as I was slowly falling asleep.