Subtle Growth

As we entered the double doors leading into the restaurant, it was as if all eyes snapped towards our direction. The dozen or so tables scattered haphazardly around the room were mostly occupied, and the occupants now seemed petrified, seeing their very rulers come to eat at the same place they frequented.
Well, you really couldn’t blame them.
In just a matter of seconds after we entered, the owner was already out, leading us through the crowded space to a relatively secluded spot at the back, his figure almost trembling in expectation. He was an old, gaunt man who had been running this place along with his wife and daughter, and it had now become quite the popular spot, earning its name for its delicacies, due to which Lyra had been keen to try it out.
“What will you have, brother?” she asked, looking at me expectantly.
“Whatever you get, I guess,” I mumbled, looking around the place. It seemed modest, yet weirdly more comfortable and welcoming than any restaurant I had ever been to. The conversations that had seemed to completely pause when we entered now resumed, as hushed whispers filled the air, accompanied by the scent of rosemary and subtle garlic.
“Well, then let’s order Honey Cakes. I want to have something sweet,” Lyra muttered excitedly as she gave our order to the owner, who seemed determined to serve us the best he could.
“So, brother, how was your trial? We never really got to talk about it, did we?” Lyra questioned, as she drank the water that had been served to us in large wooden glasses.
“It was fine, quite straightforward,” I replied, reaching for my own mug.
“You know, I can tell when you try to hide things,” she said, meeting my questioning gaze. “Your eyes, they tend to look down when you do.”
Hearing her, I noticed what she meant by that; indeed, it had been a characteristic of the previous Yun, and I had almost instinctively done it just now. I had no idea why.
“Tell me, brother, what really happened…” she asked, leaning forward, her voice almost pleading.
“It’s like you have changed recently, like you are a completely different person,” she added, her voice barely above a whisper, as her eyes darted away.
Hearing her, I felt a sudden pang in my heart, the same feeling as when you betray someone close to you. The fact that she thought I was her brother, the way I lied, trying to fit into the family I had taken over, just the fact that I didn’t belong here pained my heart, the words catching in my throat.
Lyra continued to look at me expectantly, waiting for my reply, as her silver eyelashes almost seemed to quiver under the pale light.
“I-I… It was just, I had to accept my death to pass it…” I barely mustered the words, the raw emotion in her expression catching me off guard.
Hearing my words, her face twisted in disbelief. “You died in the trial!” she almost yelled, her hands crashing onto the thick wooden table as she leaned forward, before finally realizing where we were and awkwardly retracting back.
“Y-yes…”
Her knowing eyes continued to scan me, knowing that I hadn’t even told her all there was to it, yet for now she stopped, as finally the owner arrived with our order, carrying two plates stacked with a yellowish, spongy cake, the top of which seemed to shine under the drizzled honey.
Lyra’s expression seemed to almost glimmer, her happiness palpable at the sight of it, as the owner gave us a bow before leaving. Without even saying anything, Lyra reached for her fork, digging into the cake, taking a large bite out of it and almost moaning in delight.
Chipping it slightly from the side, I too tasted the cake, as the bread almost melted on my tongue, the honey spreading and leaving a lingering aftertaste. The warm bread made a wonderful contrast with the icy honey that covered it.
“Well, your trial seemed to have been very weird. My first trial was quite straightforward,” Lyra mumbled, her mouth stuffed with cake.
Hearing her, I couldn’t hold back my curiosity, and I asked, “What was your trial about?”
“I had to survive in a frozen tundra for three days,” she mumbled between chewing.
“Anyway, you will be taking part in the trial this year, won’t you?” she asked, after finally finishing her cake.
“Yes, father already talked me through it.”
“Let me guess, he wants you to win to affirm his authority,”
Seeing me nod, she gave a helpless sigh. “He never changes, does he.”
“I’m sure, though, that you will win. You might need to look out for a few of them, but if you can manage getting a good handle on your abilities, you should pull it off,” she added encouragingly.
“What are the trials about, though?” I asked, hoping to know more about them.
“It’s like a tournament of sorts, focusing on survival and killing entities. It may look like something they do to polish our skills before we leave for the academy, but really it’s just a way for them to identify who seems the perfect candidate to rival the main family and possibly become the next heir,”
“Without a doubt, the others will try to gang up on you, especially the second family,” she added.
The second family had been the ruling family before we took over, and for the last few decades, they had been trying their hardest to claim their position back. However, every attempt was thwarted by Eden due to the fact that there was no Tier 4 in their ranks. Due to this, they had been shifting their tactics, rather than fighting Eden, they tried fighting against the next generation, and for them, I was the weak link, the heir not born with frost.
“Why can’t you be the heir?” I asked, the words leaving my mouth before I could stop them, regretting them. Lyra too seemed to be pulled aside by my question, her eyes widening slightly before she regained her composure.
“You know why, brother,” she replied, her eyes looking at me, seemingly searching for something.
“I mean, you deserve it more than anyone, didn’t you win your trial despite everything they threw at you,” I added, making sure she didn’t get the wrong idea.
Hearing my words, her gaze seemed to settle somewhere, her thoughts lingering.
“You want to be the heir, don’t you, sister?” I asked, I had seen her trying to take up tasks, doing whatever she could to satisfy father, and all of it pointed to a single fact.
Exhaling a sharp breath, she replied, “What I want doesn’t change anything; these fools won’t let a woman lead the house,” she mumbled, almost annoyingly.
“No, not just any woman, but dear sister, do you think they can stop you if you were to become a Formed, just like father,” I added with a knowing smile. Hearing me, her face turned into one of surprise, not expecting me to be so direct about it.
“Well, maybe. But what about you, don’t you want to be the head?”
“You already know I don’t, sister,”
Mustering a small smile, she finally got up, pushing back her chair. “Come on, we should go now.”
Paying the owner and seeing the smile on his face as Lyra complimented the food, we left for the mansion, dropping Lyra off at the town hall again, as she insisted she had more work to complete before the carriage left, taking me home.
I already knew what I had to do now. Thankfully, my choice had been the right one, as Lyra had managed to give me the direction I had needed to work with, and I had already decided to implement it as soon as I reached home.
I was back in the training hall, sitting cross-legged. It had almost been evening by the time we rolled back to the mansion, and without even wasting a second, I was already here, eager to try out what Lyra had suggested.
Taking a few deep breaths, I tried controlling my heartbeat, slowing it down as much as possible to reach clarity. Focusing again on the core, I tried putting my mind on the swirling pulse within it, listening to the faint swirling sound it produced, almost like an endless rhythm. I allowed it to pull my mind, to ground me in its control. Finally, when it felt like I had accustomed myself to its feel, rather than forcing it out, I tried focusing on my core instead. The pulse continued to swirl around as I almost tried contracting my core.
At first, no matter what I did, it always felt a hair’s breadth away from my reach, as if I was close to finally budging it, yet far from actually touching it. But then, I finally felt it, the weird suction-like force that it generated, and instinctively I already knew what it was. It was trying to suck in the pulse around me.
I let the suction continue, controlling my breathing as finally I felt it. The weird energy that I had started sensing slightly after the trial seemed much more tangible now as it continued to converge in a vortex around me, moving towards my abdomen.
It was an ethereal feeling, as the energy finally began entering my core, joining the swirling mass inside it, increasing the intensity of the churning as my core seemed to finally brim with life.
I kept continuing it, letting more and more flux enter my body, when I finally felt it, the feeling of my core reaching its limit. The feeling was almost like drinking too much water and realizing your body just doesn’t need it anymore. However, when I tried to stop the inflow, my mind blanked.
Fuck, how the hell am I supposed to stop it?
The vortex continued pooling more and more flux into my core as the core strained to now contain it, yet when I tried focusing on letting the pulse around me dissipate, it refused to go, as my core greedily continued to suck away at it. I knew it; if I didn’t stop it soon, it would be catastrophic.
My abdomen was now almost burning in pain, the core burdening under the pulse, almost like it would shatter any moment. Right then it finally struck me; I had again made the mistake of focusing on the pulse rather than the core.
Shifting my focus to the core, I tried establishing a feeling around it, yearning for it to stop before I finally felt the suction dry away as the vortex of flux around me dissipated, leaving me stumbling through the concrete floor, gasping for breaths.
Fuck, that was close.
Unknowingly, I had almost broken my core before I even used my abilities, yet I was finally able to understand how to replenish my core. It was one of the most important aspects of being an ascendant. Whenever one would use their abilities, their core would utilize the pulse within it; therefore, it was necessary to supply the core with pulse whenever required. To ascendants of the higher stage, it was almost an instinctive sixth sense that automatically refueled their core, pulling in the pulse around them. But for now, for me, it was something that I had to focus on, to ensure that I didn’t mess it up.
But there was also a limitation to pulling in pulse from the environment, and that was that it could only fill your empty reserves, but not grow the core in itself. For that, ascendants needed a purer source of pulse, and till date, humanity had only found a single way to do that, and that was by killing entities and absorbing the pulse their bodies released after they died, the pulse in its purest form which could literally enhance your core’s reserves, moulding it to become stronger and more efficient.
I had already figured out part one. Now I needed to convert the pulse within me into nexus, that is into darkness. That was the hard part, as I simply couldn’t understand how to do it.
At that moment, an idea struck me. Maybe I should ask Nathan for help. Knowing him, he might be able to help me out with that.

Chapter end