“Those blind to ties cannot see, those who see the ties are blind.” Speculation on an inference of messages from attempted ascension to become a Divine Envoy.
A groan escaped Hugh’s lips as he awakened. There was a throbbing sensation as he finally registered it as pain. With each pulse came a splitting headache that forced Hugh to wince.
Hugh opened his eyes to find himself in a dimly lit room as he barely made out a male voice whispering, “The new guy’s finally awake eh.”
Another man spoke at the same level, “Looks like it. Hey. Kid. I don’t recognize you from here, and with an outfit like that, I’d think you were one of the street orphans.”
Hugh pushed himself up to a seated position as he took in the barred wall on one side of the room and a couple of benches aligned on the other walls. It was there he saw three others.
The voice that spoke first added, “Hey Krom, just because you knew some of the street orphans doesn’t mean you know all of them, now do you?”
Krom huffed, raising his voice a little, “And what’s that supposed to mean? At least I tried to help them out. Nobody else was doing anything.”
The third man spoke, “Knock it off before they hear you guys. We’re all in the same hole now, so there’s no point.”
The other two men grumbled a little, recognized the statement of fact, and went back to a barely audible whisper.
Hugh shivered a little from the cold of the cell and felt his head where he had a throbbing pain from. Krom saw this and said, “Well kid, since you have that wound on your head, I take it you didn’t come willingly eh?”
Not knowing what was fully meant by that Hugh finally spoke, “I came to Belford willingly, but the people that helped me get here said they had a job they could help me get.”
The third man let out a snort and the first said, “Hate to break it to ya, but Belfords a ten-day carriage ride from here. And whoever those people were probably sold you off.”
Hugh was in a daze for a moment as he couldn’t help but have a heavy frown, “Then what town is this you guys don’t sound like slaves.”
Krom chuckled and said, “This is the general jail. All unblessed are kept here whether they’ve done something wrong or not since the punishment for most unblessed is to become a slave.”
The gruff voice of the third man spoke, “Since you don’t even know that, then he was definitely sold. There’s no point in trying to figure out who he is since all he did was get tricked and captured. That’s probably why it’s taking so long for them to process this time. Just my luck.”
Krom spoke in a slightly cheery tone, “Comon’ Heron, It’s not like you won’t be done with your sentence in a week anyways.”
Heron replied, “Yeah, but who knows what they’ll do now that an appraiser will come.”
Hugh asked, “What’s an appraiser?”
Krom said, “It’s somebody who comes when there is a new permanent slave so that they can properly give you a value.”
Heron grumbled, “And since we’re in here with you, instead of just working as slaves of the city for a week, now we have a chance of being appraised and taken too.”
Hugh had to admit that he was pretty lost on the details of what exactly was and would be happening, but he was all too keen not to end up a slave, to be carted around until sold again. The last time that happened, he ended up eventually just being killed.
He didn’t want a repeat of that and didn’t exactly have anything that could help him out except the three that were in the cell with him. So he asked, “Is there any way not to become a slave? I’m willing to work a normal job and learn if needed.”
The man who he heard first spoke again, “Nope. You’re already screwed, kid.”
Krom said, “Yup. It’s as Joff said. You’re screwed… Unless…”
The teetering statement left Hugh waiting in suspense. As the pause dragged on, Hugh couldn’t take it and said in a slightly raised voice, “Unless what!?”
Heron snapped with a loud whisper, “Quiet kid! Just because they’re letting us talk quietly, doesn't mean that if you disturb anybody, they won’t come give you a beating.”
Hugh quickly apologized in a whisper and said, “Sorry! Unless what?”
Joff let out a chuckle, “Unless you have some strong ability or are secretly talented. In which case, you wouldn't be here in the first place, so don’t get your hopes up.”
Hugh was still lost at what that meant, and said almost in a pleading whine, “I don’t know what that means. I’m not from here. How would I know if I have an ability or talent?”
Heron said, “And there it is. The chance. If you’ve been tested, you would know already. That’s why the appraiser is coming…” As if in afterthought, with a wink he added, “And kid, if you do happen to be talented, put in a good word for me, alright?”
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Hugh didn’t know what to think of it all as he tried to fully understand what everything meant. In the end, Hugh just scrambled to lean against a wall and do the only thing he could do. Wait.
-
Forince left the overly grand walls of the palace in the capitol a week ago. He had been traveling around the Cowr Kingdom, visiting all the major cities and towns out of sheer boredom. He was proud of all he accomplished so far, but sitting in a palace and helping the prince navigate his karmic ties, or guiding the King on who he should and shouldn’t deal with by avoiding those with a little too much negative karma was not what helped him grow.
Forince was born with a very particular affinity, and while his overall talent wasn’t that high, he was able to improve his cultivation quickly into the realm of Restructure just as fast as somebody with a high talent. That was all due to abusing his affinity with karmic ties and feeding off the energy released when they are formed or resolved. At 87 years old, he was just past half of the expected lifespan of somebody who reached the realm of Restructure. Even though he knew he still had at least 63 years left, he also knew that the rate he was currently improving was not fast enough.
Forince received the best growth speed when he was struggling to grow up since he ended up using the vague karmic bonds he saw people had to escape a lot of situations. Almost all of them showed up as faintly translucent nearly invisible strings attaching one person to the other. Neutral ties were white, positive ties were gold, and negative ties were black.
Most of the ties he saw were white or gold, the thicker the string, the stronger the tie. Usually, gold ties were between brothers, happy couples, master/disciple, or most commonly parent and child. They usually weren’t obtrusive in his vision and he could easily enough tune them out if needed. Which is exactly what he had done for the past two days.
He was almost done with his trip around the kingdom and had stopped in a town called Kippur. Briefly checking it out, he didn’t see anything too egregious, and yet he didn’t feel like his time out was long enough. Deciding so, Forince asked for a room to seclude himself on as he closed his eyes to meditate on how he could improve his cultivation faster.
That had been troubling him for several years now as he had reached a wall. It seemed that no matter what Karmic ties were formed or broken around him, the extra energy from them was no longer enough.
It was early in the morning a few days later that he finally reopened his eyes and he was shocked.
A darkness so thick it filled his entire room left him seemingly blind. It was like the light was completely swallowed by nothingness. Sweeping out his energy to check on his surroundings, everything appeared absolutely normal in every other way.
Forince was confused as he tried to look around with his eyes to no avail. Eventually, he let out a sigh as he swept his energy out amongst the palace. He didn’t care who got offended since he was the strongest here in this out-of-the-way town. Especially since somebody was obviously playing a trick on him.
With that thought in mind and after not seeing anything specifically wrong, he released just enough pressure to put an unblessed on their knees but added a depth to the pulse that told every single cultivator that he was pissed off.
After the pulse, Forince watched the reaction through his energy sense of all those in the palace and found nothing obvious. He even watched the little play of the city’s top guard respond by immediately running to his room to presumably play innocent.
Forince waited, watching everything with his energy sense, still not able to see anything but the darkest depths of black and nothingness with his eyes as he sat there calmly. As soon as the guards made it to the door in his room, he retracted his aura except for sensing his surroundings and said, “Come in.”
Noting the twelve guards at the door, the main one asked, “Has something happened my lord?”
Forince raised an eyebrow and asked in a mocking tone, “Do you think I would so brazenly release a smidgen of my power if nothing happened?”
The guard didn’t really have anything to say to that and defaulted on a line he used in these kinds of situations. Pounding his hand on his chest and bowing at the waist he stated, “We await your command Lord Forince.”
A silence hung in the air for the next half a minute until the only sound that grew louder was the clacking of hurried footsteps hitting the polished stone floors.
Upon hearing the door swing open again, the guards straightened up and stepped to the side as Kippur’s city lord stepped into the room, “May I ask who has angered you, my lord? Please let me know so that we can find the culprit.”
Forince let the silence stagnate the air. Although he could not see the city lord with his eyes, he still squinted them as if he were studying him. Indeed he was studying everybody in the city lord's mansion right now, but nothing seemed that off.
Eventually, Fornice stated after checking on the unblessed slaves of the city lord's mansion, “It seems I am the only one affected…”
The fear running through the city lord's veins at the moment was a little relieved when the silence was finally broken, as he tentatively said, “Affected by what, my lord?”
Forince frowned and commanded, “Leave me. I will let you know if I need your help. For now, I am checking on it myself.”
The others left as Forince continued to watch everyone in the mansion and then gradually expanded his energy to cover part of the town. Unfortunately, he wasn’t even close the the shattered realm so he was unable to cover the entire town, but a quarter of it was enough. He would simply have to move around a little.
Not being able to see with his eyes wasn’t the biggest issue, but it was still annoying nonetheless, so he left the mansion grounds in the air to hover around the town to look for anything suspicious.
It was at that point that Forince noticed that ever so slightly, the deepest blacks covering his eyes lightened. Noticing this, he raised himself up into the sky further and further, even choosing the direction toward the capitol.
It wasn’t long before he could finally see again, but he was already two mountains away from Kippur as he looked back from where he came. Forince was stunned as he lost control of his technique and fell from the sky. The sight was so shocking that he had no clue such a thing was even possible.
Catching himself to softly land on the ground at a good vantage point, he just stared toward Kippur as he tried to wrap his head around just what he was looking at. Was it really possible to have some many Karmic bonds, let alone, so many negative ones that glowed strong enough to suck the light away from his sight at such a radius?
He had only heard of something described like that in some old texts. The topic was deities who also tread the karmic path, sowing negative Karmic bonds so numerous and strong that they had even destroyed hundreds of worlds.
Only a deity could withstand the natural retaliation from that as the world attempted to reject the entity by killing them any way they could. Circumstances stacked in unison that would always result in that person's death.
Forince didn’t want to believe it but the proof was there, the gigantic mass of threads darker than night were so numerous it looked closer to a ball. All he knew was that there was no way he would even go back toward that, as he was no fool to run toward his own demise.
He only sent a message by crushing an inscription stone and fled the kingdom to get as far away as possible.
