The First Cultivator

The night was pleasant as the two shadows approached the home. They made no sound. Left no mark, a sign of their training.

"SILENCE," one of the pair whispered as the sound-suppressing magic went into effect. The other attacked the door with his clawed gauntlets, destroying the lock. Such a crude way of entry would usually have Veltras scolding the pair. For this job, it was perfect. While one maintained the spell, the other tore the door apart. It was sloppily done. With extra gouges for all to see. Perfect.

Each assassin moved in tandem toward their assigned target, neither making a sound. In front of the young kin's door, the killer readied himself.

"SILENCE," he whispered as he recast the spell and opened the door. With practice steps, he quickly moved to the bed where the blue cat-kin girl lay. He had to admit that she was rather beautiful. Oh well. He plunged his claw down into her chest. Or tried to. He connected hard, shoving the girl downward from the force of the blow.

Contrary to every expectation, he failed to do more than a tiny scratch. A single small bead of blood formed at the impact site. He was so stunned that he completely missed the kick streaking toward his head. He missed everything from that point forward as the force of the blow completely shattered his skull, decorating the wall with bits of brain and bone in a loud explosion as the magic maintaining the spell vanished along with the owner's head.

***

Coralline sat bolt upright at a loud smack from Azura's room. Her heart pounded, but she could do nothing as an intense tearing sensation rippled outward from her chest. She opened her mouth to scream, but a metallic hand covered her mouth as the pain worsened. A glance down revealed a metallic hand on her chest. She felt the warmth spread out from her impact site as she struggled. Fear seized her as Coralline understood. The hand wasn't just on her. Its fingers were in her. Blood quickly stained her shirt as burning fire tore at her insides.

No… Azura, Coralline thought as she struggled, but she was already feeling weaker. She had to stop this thing before it could hurt her daughter.

"MOM!!!!" Came the cry from her doorway.

NO! RUN! Coralline thought, but couldn't make a sound. Something important had been ruptured.

The assassin's head turned toward the scream and then disappeared. It was so sudden that Coralline wondered if it was a trick. Then, just as suddenly, the body pressing her down was gone.

"Mom! Are you okay?" Came a worried voice. Azura was now over her, eyes fearful. Azura's gaze traveled down to the warmth spreading out from her chest. Azura gasped as she scooped her up. Coralline couldn't protest or tell her daughter to run. It wasn't safe. Azura activated the light stone, which illuminated the main room.

"Gods below…" Azura breathed as she fetched a towel and pressed it to her chest.

Coralline hissed. She instantly knew she wasn't going to make it. The towel and her clothes were quickly soaked in crimson.

"Mom…" Tears were blinding her. Azura furiously blinked them away. This was not the time for it. She needed to do something fast! Her first thought was Fatania. She had training as a healer. That hope quickly left as the towel was saturated with blood. Far too much blood.

"No, mom…" Her voice quivered. If only she could use magic. Then she could heal her. But she didn't have magic. She had something even better, ki.

Desperate, Azura tried to cycle her ki into her mother. If she could control it inside her mother, perhaps she could stop the blood. Nothing. As her ki reached out, she hit an impossible resistance when trying to enter her mother. Maybe the resistance was her mother's dormant magic, the magic all living things had. Her ki wasn't physical. It was energy, just like magic. In its current form, she couldn't help… Wait! She had another form of ki. Reaching deep inside herself, she felt the ever-spinning ki and, at the center, the pieces of her core. The remains of her mana pool. With all her focus, she grabbed one of the minuscule fragments that composed her core. It was tiny, but she could feel the power. It was ki, crystallized into a physical form. Perhaps she could…

A soft hand touched her face, distracting her for a moment.

"I, I love you…" Coralline whispered before going limp.

"NO!!!"

Azura didn't think any longer. She forced the tiny particle to move. She brought it down to her arm in a swirl of her ki. Weirdly, her arm felt noticeably heavier, as if the crystallized ki had massive physical weight. It moved to her fingertip, placing it on her mother's open wound. Using her ki, she cut open her finger. A single drop of blood formed with the crystallized ki shining like a star inside.

It was difficult. The solid ki wanted to return to her core. It took absolute focus to prevent it from doing so. With an exponential increase in difficulty, the farther the ki moved from her, Azura directed the solid ki to her mother's dormant mana pool.

New sensations filled Azura as she made the connection. Her mother's dormant mana pool violently awoke. Azura wasted no time and used the ki inside her mother to control her mother's mana. Azura directed the mana to heal her body. It wasn't much different than when she healed herself years ago with mana. The body knew what was wrong. It just previously lacked the power to do anything. Yet even as the mana stitched flesh together, it became exhausted. It wasn't enough. Her mother's mana pool was too small. She cycled the mana back to the pool, using her crystallized ki to replenish it. Azura repeated this cycle as her mother's life ebbed away. Each time, she worried that her crystallized ki would give out. Yet the power in that speck seemed endless.

"What are you fools doing? Let's leave. You can…" Azura turned to see a blacked, garbed man staring at her in shock.

***

Veltras was momentarily flabbergasted. He saw the light turned on and figured his apprentices were looting to complete the illusion of a theft gone deadly.

He hadn't immediately headed down there to scold them for their delay. A slow, sloppy kill fit the narrative they were building, but they should have kept the noise down. A kin had started to rush over, alerted by the sound. A quick sleep spell had taken care of that issue. They would have to return him to bed before they left. He would have those two clean null shit for a week for their poor performance.

Now, all thoughts of punishments for his apprentice's shortcomings were banished from his mind. The half-kin girl was still alive, crouched over the body of the older kin. That shouldn't be. A glance around showed the body of one of his assassins. The other was probably out of sight. Veltras did not rise high in the ranks of mage assassins by being hesitant. He didn't know how, but knew the job had been botched. All previous narratives were abandoned immediately.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"GREATER POISON BOLT!"

A burst of sickly green magic headed toward the girl. Then, it stopped as it seemed to hit an invisible wall, where it shattered harmlessly. The girl glared at him, never taking her hand from the fallen kin before her.

Fear jolted through Veltras. The girl hadn't muttered an incantation. Nor did he feel any mana. Yet he could now see the edges of a transparent barrier as his magic rippled across its surface before harmlessly being shaken off.

"FORCE BOLT!" No effect.

"DEATH LANCE!" Still no effect.

It was terrifying. The girl just glared at him, unmoving and silent. She was a predator waiting to pounce, but for some reason, she didn't. She wanted to tear him apart, but didn't dare leave her companion. In that case, he had options.

Veltras focused on his mana pool, attempting to draw more mana from the room. That was when he received another shock. The entire area was devoid of mana. How was this possible? It was like a grand artifact had drained it all. He discarded the worry. It wasn't important now. He had enough power for this.

"SUPERIOR FIREBALL!"

A ball of fire larger than his head shot toward the girl, where it splattered against that mysterious barrier. However, this time, there was an effect. Fire splashed around the room, igniting everything. Everything except the girl, her companion, and a sphere around them.

Enough! He had no idea what was going on. This was unacceptable! He withdrew his dragon-bone bow. The artifact-grade weapon was a thing of beauty. Sleek and powerful as the creature it was created from, it was his most prized possession.

He took a single step forward and leveled the weapon. He reached for an arrow imbued with the essence of a phoenix, confident in his victory. That was his critical mistake. An invisible force seized his forearm, yanking him forward.

Veltras was a killer without mercy. He had survived in his trade for over twenty years. He had good instincts. That saved him here. An overpowering knowledge told him that if he got any closer, he would die. The instant he started being pulled forward, he used his dwindling mana for one last spell.

"REPEL!"

He meant to fling himself away from whatever force held him. He did succeed, sort of. He didn't understand that the force that held him was far more potent than his magic. Stronger than he could possibly understand. Stronger than his limb's internal structure.

Veltras, to his credit, didn't scream. Nor did he panic at the stump of his arm that gushed blood. The limb was absent from the elbow down. Low on magic, he did the only thing he could do. He fled.

As he fled, he swallowed a mana pellet and casted a healing spell on his ruined stump. He didn't mind the pain. It had become an old friend by this time in his life. One you didn't want to visit often. What wasn't familiar was that girl. That kin… she was no null. She had magic. Some type of magic he had never heard of. How had she used it?! There was no mana signature he could detect. That girl's magic was utterly invisible to him. And that glare… Veltras was not a fearful man. He felt he could kill any target with enough time. That certainty left him. He wasn't sure he could kill this time. That terrified him.

***

Azura watched the man flee. It was so frustrating that he was just outside the reach of her ki. When he had stepped forward, she thought she had him. She would pull him in and squish him like the wretched insect he was. Yet he'd evaded her. That wasn't important now. The fire was spreading, and her mother appeared to be stabilized, although terribly weak. Azura couldn't do much more. The tiny piece of her ki was beginning to slip from her control. It wanted to return. Quickly, she had it flow upward, gently exiting her mother. Once out, she released her control. The crystallized ki instantly joined the flow of her liquid ki, cycling back to the center, where it nested next to the others. It would have torn its way out if she had left it in her mother.

Concerns over this strange aspect of ki would have to wait. Azura scooped up her mother and gently moved through the burning building. The flames pushed away from her ki barrier.

She exited her home as smoke began filling the structure. The flames licked the sky and the nearby hovels as Azura watched her home burn. Other kin exited their homes, pointing and shouting at the blazing structure. She ignored them and turned her back on the fire. Several kin were fetching buckets of water as she left them behind. Another was dragging an unconscious kin away from the blaze as Azura moved. Azura ignored them all as she accelerated at speeds that made her a blur to the panicking kin.

How had it gone so wrong?

Why did this happen?

It made no sense. Why would anyone send mages to kill them? As she thought this, a terrible suspicion formed.

Did they discover my secret? Azura thought aghast.

Did that mage Brianna tell the others despite the oath on her mana pool? Or was she seen? She hadn't noticed anyone, but she could have missed it. Blaming herself, Azura fled to the only place she could think of.

***

Coralline was too weak to do anything but rest in her daughter's arms as she turned away from their home. It had been so confusing. She thought she was going to die. She came very close as the world began to fade. Then, a speck of the sun itself had entered her. She knew that wasn't what it was. But that was what it felt like. An overwhelming existence that had cradled her dying life as gently as she cradled her daughter when she was born. Then it flared inside her, and her magic awoke. Yet, as glorious as that moment was, it paled before the foreign speck. She knew what it had to be. Her daughter went on and on about it, growing frustrated that no one understood. Now, she did. Mana was to ki as a drop of water was to a glacier. There was no comparison. She felt her daughter's frantic fear and concern through that connection as she controlled Coralline's mana with the skill of a master.

It was funny. Coralline had always wondered what magic was like. Now that her mana pool was somehow forcibly awakened, she felt… disappointed. The mana itself was incredible. But how could someone be satisfied with a match when they had held the sun?

She blinked slowly, realizing they were moving far faster than what should have been possible. Kin were indistinct blurs as Azura sped past them. She doubted they were even aware of her presence before she was gone. All they felt was an unexpected gale of wind that knocked a few down on their asses.

What was around a forty-minute walk was over in less than one as Azura appeared before Fatania's home. She reached for the door, tearing it off its hinges. The bars holding it in place broke apart as if it were a flimsy twig.

"What's going on?!" Came a shout from inside. Several armed kin sprang out of their rooms, staring at Azura and the remains of the door.

"My mom's been hurt!" Azura shouted, stepping inside.

"Everyone, stand down!" Fatania shouted, coming out of her bedroom. "Quickly bring her here!"

The rat-kin relaxed. All but one, who glowered at Azura before going to work on repairing the door. Azura followed Fatania as a rat-kin lit the home with a light stone. Fatania grimaced as she saw her bloody clothes.

"What happened!?" Hamal gasped as he came up to Azura's side.

Azura set Coralline down on the bed, as Fatania indicated. She began inspecting the wound. Coralline hissed as Fatania parted the fur around the area. A frown creased her face as Azura rambled on.

"Mages attacked us. We were sleeping when one of them stabbed me. Then they got Mom. I tried to heal her. Is she going to be okay?" The words flew out in a long, swift stream. Azura couldn't seem to hold still as she peered at her mother.

"I can see the wound, but it looks like it has been healing for a week or more," Fatania said.

Azura seemed to relax and slumped backward at her words. Barely able to hold on to consciousness, Coralline finally let herself go now that she knew her daughter was safe.

***

Lord Tarwin was aghast as Veltras finished his report. The man knelt before him, one arm less than the last time he saw him.

"You're dismissed," Tarwin muttered. Veltras turned and left, leaving Tarwin alone to consider this unexpected turn of events. The girl… his granddaughter… had killed two assassins. Perhaps lousy luck could explain those deaths, but Veltras's report... From the information he had received, the girl had barely enough magical capacity to cast a light spell. Yet she handled Veltras attacks like they were nothing. Most disturbing was the lack of any magical presence. Veltras, while a competent assassin, didn't specialize in magic detection like an elven mage. Still, if she used a barrier and other magic, there should have been a magical signature.

Tarwin slammed his fist down on his desk. This had to happen at the worst time! He arranged for the killings to take place the night before the subjugation was to occur. He planned to have Loric go claim his kin family in the morning to find them slaughtered by other kin. Tarwin was sure that he would have his son's cooperation after that. Now… He could work with this. It was not ideal, but he could blame some of his rivals if the attacks were traced back to him. Now, he had to continue the act. He will still send Loric to fetch them before the big event.

The mystery of Azura would have to wait. Tomorrow evening, everything will change. He left his chamber to oversee the runic gateway that they had spent the last two weeks setting up. When the sun rose, the troops would come. In the evening, they will take what is theirs.