The Grand Weave

It felt like electricity. A rush of energy flowed through my finger, up my arm, and all the way into my chest. I didn't have to check my soulspace to know that something was happening to my soul. Despite the heat and pressure, none of what was going on felt malicious or harmful.

I continued to stare at the ghostly thread as it slowly started to solidify. The more real it became, the stronger the pressure. The mark on both of our wrists now gave off a near-blinding light. As the pressure ramped to the point the world felt like it was sinking, suddenly everything stopped. The onslaught of energy disappeared, and I felt something inside my soulspace shift.

Teddy released his grip, and my hand fell away. When I flickered my vision to look at his face, text appeared and expanded in front of me.

STATUS

Name: Theodore Lightcrest

Race: Human

Age: 24

Tier: 2

Active Skills:

(T:2 R:4) Inner Light

(T:2 R:4) Aura of Growing Strength

(T:2 R:4) Aura of Restful Sanctuary

(T:2 R:4) Aura of Revealing Light

(T:2 R:4) Aura of the Radiant Defender

(T:2 R:4) Aura of Furious Aggression

(T:2 R:4) Crushing Radiance

(T:2 R:4) Blinding Flare

(T:2 R:4) Guardian Seal: Sacrifice

(T:2 R:4) Guardian Seal: Retribution

(T:2 R:4) Beastbond: Runic Charge

Passive Skills:

(T:2 R:4) Empowered Light

(T:2 R:4) Calming Presence

(T:2 R:4) Radiant Core

(T:2 R:4) Hardlight Channels

(T:2 R:4) Guardian's Resiliency

(T:2 R:4) Beastbond: Runic Skin

(T:2 R:4) Beastbond: Enhanced Senses

Perks:

Legacy of the Guiding Lantern

Shadesbane

As I Stand, So Do They

Soul Bonded Beast: Arturous

Legacy of the Guiding Lantern:

A guiding hand, you do not waver. The dark recedes, and with it, banished are the nightmares that seek to destroy. You are the light in the darkness. For those who seek your inner flame shall be soothed by blazing hope, and those who dare to harm your flock shall be banished by blinding radiance.

All skills will evolve to complement the radiant guardian.

I sat there, slowly engulfed by the cloud chair. Teddy did more than show me info about his Legacy. Instead, he showed me the whole damn status sheet. And holy shit! There are a lot of skills to read.

A big thing to note was that he had more than the maximum skills in his active and passive slots. Arturous and Teddy shared a massive benefit in being bonded together.

His age didn't surprise me. He looked young, and even though he had a sense of maturity, it didn't match that of someone like Brelten or Bera.

I was very interested in his Calming Presence passive skill. The idea of being mentally influenced made me feel conflicted. On the one hand, it didn't seem like a bad influence; in many ways, it could easily be seen as a positive thing. On the other, being influenced at all meant I was being subjected to a sort of compulsion, which I was told in no uncertain terms was a bad thing.

As I finished inspecting his status, I turned to Teddy. He sat there calmly with his hands on his lap. When he saw my eyes focus on him, he smiled and waved.

"Before you ask your questions, let me ask you a favor. The deal we made was judged and approved by the Grand Weave itself. I didn't include any stipulation that any information we shared would be kept private. But, if you could, please try not to tell others about my full status. Outside of my parents, Uncle Brelten, and the others, nobody knows what's on there. I know you agreed to only share the information about your Legacy, but I wanted to show my full status as a sign of trust," Teddy said seriously.

I nodded in agreement and extended my hand. As he shook it, he seemed to calm down and sit more comfortably. "I won't share this with anyone. Thank you for confiding in me," I assured him. I even gave a small bow with my hand over my heart to show my sincerity.

"Thank you." He sat silently as I squirmed in my seat. When I opened my mouth to speak, he held up a hand and stopped me. "I'll answer a single question about my skills. The rest, you can find out later. I got to keep some secrets, after all."

Before I could change my mind, I blurted out the question that bothered me the most. "Doesn't your passive skill, Calming Presence, count as mental manipulation? I was under the impression that skills like that were outlawed. Are you influencing me right now?"

Teddy shook his head. "It's not an illegal skill. The passive is a minor effect that slowly calms people down. It doesn't force you to be calm, nor does it actively intrude on your thoughts. If you wanted to resist the effect, you could, and I wouldn't be able to force it. Imagine a person with social anxiety being forced to speak publicly to a large crowd. If they noticed me nearby, the stress would slowly lower, and their thoughts would clear. I wouldn't completely erase the fear or anxiety, but I could serve as a comforting presence to help anchor their thoughts. Plus, I can somewhat deactivate the passive if I really want to. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes"

I felt relieved to discover that I wasn't being manipulated. The skill intrigued me, particularly the idea that certain types of mental influence might be deemed appropriate. I'm happy I'm not responsible for creating laws for the kingdom, as the process would be long and complex.

"I guess I'll reciprocate in turn. Anything you want to ask?"

"No, not really. I assume your Legacy is pretty simple to understand in terms of evolving skills. While mine is geared toward making me some kind of aura-based defender, yours is more in line with becoming a summoner. Unless I'm mistaken?"

"No, you hit the nail on the head."

He cocked his head slightly, and I realized why. I mentally cursed myself for using a saying from Earth. I'm sure my words translated perfectly, but the phrase may have been odd to hear.

"Well then, let's get you your promised reward. These skills are some of the ones we kept for one reason or another. With all of us having our skill slots maxed, we don't have a pressing need to keep any of them. We were considering sponsoring a Brave at some point, but it never worked out. So, a couple of the skills were kept with them in mind. You can pick any skillstone except the first one on the bottom row and the third in the top row. The first is the first skillstone we ever looted, so it holds sentimental value, and the other is promised to someone else."

I shuffled over to where Teddy sat and gingerly picked up the metal cube. I counted five tier-two skillstones, three tier-threes, and one tier-four. I sat down on a cloud and pointed at the first skillstone. "So what was this one? If you guys didn't use it, I assume it wasn't a good skill," I asked while examining the mud-coloured crystal.

"It's not a terrible skill; rather, it isn't compatible with our affinities. The skillstone holds the skill: Sinking Mud. According to the guild appraiser, it's a decent control skill that creates a small pit of sticky mud underneath the target. Igas might have been able to use it if he had some affinity for earth, but he doesn't."

I stopped examining the crystal and placed it back into its slot. I had Teddy give me a rundown on the rest of the skillstones and quickly eliminated three of the tier-twos and one of the tier-threes. Three skillstones were fire- and nature-based, so I removed them from consideration. There was something to be gained by having a powerset aligned in a cohesive element, but I wanted to maximize my advantage of having access to all affinities.

That left me with the rest of the skillstones, and I organized a list in my head. Going through the options a final time.

Skillstones:

Tier Two:

Burning Wisp: Sends out three small projectiles that leave trails of ghostly fire. Added minor taunting effect from the middle wisp.

Splintering Needles: Shoot out a dense wave of sharp needles. The needles break on impact, making them extremely difficult to remove and causing further damage inside the body.

Deeper Stamina: Passive skill that grants the user an increased stamina pool. Added effect of increasing stamina efficiency.

Earthen Shelter: Creates a temporary shelter made of hardened stone. Semi-adjustable, with a base size of 10x sq ft or 0.9m².

Tier Three:

Regenerating Roots: Summons green roots from the ground that wrap themselves around the target. The target experiences increased regeneration. Added cleansing effect that removes poison and other toxics from the target's body.

Lunar Revelry: Creates a massive, complex illusion filled with dancing shadows in the form of people dressed for a ball. The longer the music plays, the louder and more chaotic it gets till it reaches of point of causing minor damage. Shadow dancers become solid and start to spin and swipe at the target —noted minor fear effect caused by the music. Despite the illusions being made of shadows, the damage they inflict is physical in nature.

Tier Four:

Spoils of the Fallen: Looting ability. Allows the user to coat their hands in shadow and pierce into corpses. The ability generates items or materials related to the corpse. Added effect of being able to extract and separate materials such as blood and cores. Note: Only one other instance of this skill being used. Last known user: Ottogrul the Devourer.

"I've narrowed it down to these three. I do have a question, though."

"Sure, but can I ask why you eliminated the other stones?" he asked inquisitively.

I nodded my head and pointed at a red skillstone the colour of burnt orange. "I already have Zharia, so I don't need another fire-based skill. The healing skill is useless to me since I already have Áine. And I'm not certain, but her skillstone was probably tier-four. So even though the healing skill is tier-three and valuable, it isn't needed. And using the logic I denied the fire-aspected stone with, I don't want to get another nature spirit, even if it's meant for attack rather than support. And the passive skill doesn't sound that appealing. Deeper Stamina would increase my stamina and stamina regeneration, but I already have Áine. She can sort of indirectly restore my stamina," I explained.

Teddy nodded in approval. "Good, you're thinking about this logically. What's your question?"

I picked up the lone tier-four skillstone. It held within a roiling cloud of black that swirled with speckles of shiny, grey light. "Why haven't you used this? This seems insanely good, so much so that I don't understand why Isaac hasn't crushed and integrated it already. It's death and dark, right?"

"We only acquired that a few months ago. And it was a reward from a rift. And while Isaac would have used it if he could, he's not willing to remove a skill for it. The setback from doing so would be too taxing in the long run. Plus, that's not a skill we want to use. What we had to do, what we watched and survived inside that rift, that stone is a bitter, sour reminder of it all. If it wasn't a tier four, Eodyne or Igas would have chucked it into the void." Teddy's face soured, and his voice dripped with bitter heat. Whatever happened inside that rift must have been terrible.

I didn't reply but nodded my head at his words. Setting the stone down, I went through my options. First was Earthen Shelter. I didn't care too much about the small size of the structure. Instead, I wanted to see what would happen once my power evolved it. A familiar who could create a safe place no matter where I was, was tempting. Alas, it didn't make the cut compared to the other, higher-tiered skills. So I mentally excluded it from the list and moved on.

Lunar Revelry was one hell of a skill. Though, it sounded strangely familiar. And with my brain not giving me any clarification on the subject, I let that thought go. The skill itself was very, very tempting. Despite being an illusion-based skill, from Teddy's description, the skill did damage while serving as a means of control. It was a two-for-one package and I really wanted to see it evolve.

Finally, there was the tier four. An actual looting ability, it was the stuff of fantasy. If this was a videogame and I was given the option to create loot from nothing, I wouldn't have hesitated, for a moment, to pick it. Even with the way Teddy regarded the skill, I didn't have such issues.

Ultimately, I went with my gut and chose the skillstone that would help me the most. As much as Lunar Revelry would have made for an amazing familiar, I still had most of my skillslots to fill. And so far, nearly half of my skills were because of charity disguised as trade. I was under no illusion as to what Teddy was doing for me.

I picked up the skillstone containing Spoils of the Fallen and returned the metal cube to Teddy. "I choose this. I wanted the tier-three skillstone, but I need something like this more. This will help me in the future. And from what Brelten told me, not every skill has to be something that I can attack with. Forcing myself in one specific direction would make me imbalanced. So, unless I find a team of people to join up with within the next few days, I'll be relying on myself for a while. That means I need to be able to survive alone and do everything myself," I tried to sound confident. For some reason, I felt like I wanted Teddy's approval and his understanding of why I chose this specific skill.

Teddy closed the metal cube and made it disappear. He stood up with a serious face that revealed nothing. With two short steps, he came closer and slowly lowered his hand onto my shoulder. A second later, he beamed a bright smile. "You don't have to explain it to me. Your logic was sound, and you made your choice with confidence. I'm glad there will be some use for that thing. Better to use it for something good instead of letting it waste the sacrifice it was made from. Do you need me to watch over you while you use the stone? I may not have a familiar, but I know from my studies that contracting a spirit forces you to go to the spirit plane."

"That would be amazing, thank you," I replied.

Teddy removed his hand and sat down on his chair. I slowly made my way over to the cloud I was using and lay down. Holding up the small crystal in my hand, I watched the sparkling lights fade in and out of existence. With a final deep, cleansing breath, I channeled some mana into the stone and squeezed. As the skillstone turned to black and grey dust, it sunk into my pores and dissolved.

I watched my soulspace and observed the lake of mana with the small wisps of light dance around the above the water. When another wisp started to appear right above the lake's center, the other wisps circled around it in excitement. Soon the wisp expanded and then condensed. A new, unfamiliar weight pressed into my soul, and I finally opened my status sheet.

STATUS

Name: Cyrus

Race: Reborn ( Felkin)

Age: ??

Tier: 0

Active Skills:

(T:0 R:4) Summon Familiar: Verdant Healer: (Áine )

(T:0 R:4) Summon Familiar: Resplendent Inferno: (Zharia)

(T:0 R:4) Racial Skill: Dimensional Storage: (Chomperz)

(T:0 R:3) Spirit Lord's Invocation

(T:0 R:0) Summon Familiar: The Dead Will Provide (Null)

Passive Skills:

(T:0 R:2) Etherious Blood

Perks:

Legacy of the Obsidian Crown

Scion of Calstrax

Demonic Blood

Child of Mana

I quickly opened my eyes and spotted Teddy giving me a worried look. I smiled to ease his worry and then closed my eyes. It was time to contract another familiar.