It had been three days since Katachi set off from the Sage Raufid Magus Academy. He arrived at his first destination after walking for a couple of hours on foot.
Bellpot, the City of Hardauten, was a marketplace famous for commerce. As it was located near a sea rich with Nemhea and moss, it was famous for its wide variety of exotic salts. Salt from Oceandrift moss that preserved food, salts from Jjtungi fruits that enhanced flavor, aromatic salts believed to be good for the body, salts that mended injuries when applied on wounds.
Many varieties of salts could be found here – And that was no wonder why many traders and merchants hailed from far and wide to exchange resources like lumber, ores, food and information. They were primarily meant to be combined with different foods, others with medicine; then there were magi who use the salts themselves as a medium for magic, usually to create aroma effigies or divine a person's fate using Axia spells.
Regardless of what they do, it wasn't hard for one to earn a sum in a place as lucrative as Bellpot. Commerce was bountiful, but so were the gambles; it should surprise none to see a once-magus beggar on the streets, offering to enchant salts for a small fee to get by for a living after trading away everything they had. It was also not alarming to find those very magi curse the salts of rude customers, so there was rarely if any disarray where one might think otherwise.
Katachi did not wish for his brand new leather shoes to be dirtied or worn out just yet so he continued to use the sabots. He recalled being tipped by Bertund to search out 'strange' areas around the vicinity. Those 'strange' or 'unnatural' places that affected the world were often a clear indication of a force like the Words of Power at work so with any amount of luck he would find one.
Bertund's hint was a crucial one. The Sealed Rooms once belonged to citadels, castles and forts decades past which were forcibly robbed by 292 mighty, great sorcerors – The very ones who created the Words of Power. The Words were ripped and placed into an unnamed dimension, yet strange in that the spaces did not exist in the same region.
Each entrance led to a separate space and each 'zone' was unique. The rooms were made prisons, both to contain the Words of Power and to keep people out for the sake of Mankind. But though a measly few decades elapsed since their confinement, the influence proved too much even for the grand plan that was meant to suspend the problem to the generations beyond. It was not possible to seal the magic completely.
The magic leaked out and seeped through the dimensions, sometimes into Cosmatral Naturale, sometimes into other dimensions; and that alone was enough to induce a magical change. The space and general vicinity of these affected areas often held a certain characteristic to it usually relating back to the Word of Power itself.
Katachi remembered one of the worst tragedies the residual power caused, overheard from the rumors whispered among adults in Mielfeud. It was the most severe amongst them all, where one of the Words of Power turned rampant on an entire village. That uncontrolled power turned residents and visitors alike faceless.
The very thought worried just about anyone from deep within – The entire incident was finally resolved when one faceless little boy, after climbing past countless bodies of the dead that were unfortunate enough to fall victim to the Sealed Room's traps, arrived at the Sealed Room itself and used the Word of Power within to undo the faceless phenomena.
The official who visited the village quickly rescued the poor child and there were burial expeditions conducted across Findel for the victims. Though the villagers regained their faces, the dead did not regain their lives. That was an event most gruesome which sparked an immediate need for Words of Power hunters.
*** ***
Katachi walked towards the fountain in the town square of Bellpot. He set his backpack down to a side and fished out the wooden dagger he received- Or, more appropriately, took without permission from the Sage Raufid Young Magus Tournament. On the waster dagger's fuller were signs of carvings that anyone could tell vaguely resembled the character 定.
There were a few known methods for raising the precedence level of one's Word of Power. The first was the most direct method – To understand and know more about the character itself. To know the Word of Power meant to understand the sigil before oneself, thus to master the Word meant to understand everything about the word. The applications, its different forms and meanings, each of them reflected a different aspect of the sigil.
Yet there can only be so many possible combinations for some of them, thus the sigils had varying grades. How many terms and meanings the word could ultimately possess decided how valuable the sigil was. Katachi didn't know where 定 stood in that aspect but it was likely one from a lower tier. Still, this was a problem of concern in the future and mulling over it now was pointless.
The second was to reduce the number of cloud words used – If a word created a phrase of a specific meaning, then most likely it was possible to rephrase it such that the number of cloud words could be reduced while retaining the same meaning. Such was the marvel of language, to shorten a moisturizing herb oil mix into a salve.
Another method of increasing the precedence levels was to create a place for the Word of Power to reside within – A chamber, a carving or some housing for the Word of Power to fit snugly. By believing that the Word of Power itself was not an extension of an object but rather a part that made an object complete, the precedence level can be increased through the owner's subconscious belief and image power.
There were likely other methods he was unaware of, but Katachi wanted to focus on just one for now. With the free pick gifted by one of the students, he continued to scrape out a slot for the Word of Power. He quietly carved and scratched the wood out while listening to the conversations around the marketplace for twenty minutes...
... By the poorest strokes of luck, a little boy chased by an older couple came from around the corner rapidly. The boy ran forward with his head facing back at the couple and he tackled Katachi into the fountain without paying attention to where he ran. They both formed a large splash in the fountain that thoroughly soaked Katachi, his pick and dagger, the child and everything around the fountain's rim.
"Tonquat! Let go of him this instant!"
He was a rather brash man with hairy muscular arms protruding from a collared check shirt, rough trousers and a gruff face. The lumberjack lookalike barked at the child still atop Katachi in the fountain. The frail lady next to him in a plain brown dress was clutching his left arm and panting.
T: "I don't wanna! You'll just spank me again, and again, and again!"
"Come home with us now, child! If I don't fix you today, I will-"
"Sire, please, spare the child! He has had enough!"
"Not yet, Froile! This child needs it beaten into him before he learns not to steal from our neighbors!"
F: "Sire, no!-"
He held Tonquat by his torso and picked up the young boy.
T: "No! No no no no! Let me go, Papa!"
K: "... Ah. My clothes." (At least they're my old clothes.)
The lady affirmed Tonquat's safety and heaved a sigh of relief. Evidently, she had yet to notice the Ohdean in the fountain since the lumberjack was obstructing her view. He pulled the mischievous Tonquat squirming and struggling away from the fountain rim so he would not hurt himself from hitting his head against the stone.
F: "-?! Oh my! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"
The lady hurriedly walked towards the fountain and bowed with sincerity. She apologized to Katachi in a panicky manner and offered to clean his clothes for him. The child wanted to refuse at first but on his second observation the water splashed past the fountain's rim and dampened his nice, clean groundsheet. Without the time to establish a makeshift clothesline, Katachi was left with little choice and took up the kind offer.
With the man pulling Tonquat's ears throughout the entire walk.
*** ***
K: "Th- Thank you for the hospitality."
F: "Please, don't mention it. It is the least we can do for having him drench your belongings."
"We would also like to thank you for helping us catch that child before he hurt himself."
The two parents sat on the wooden dining table with Katachi on the opposite side quietly chewing on some bread and cheese.
K: "It's a bit much to even provide dinner for me..."
F: "Young man, you don't look too old yourself. Are you, uh..."
The couple looked at each other. The man was staring with fierce eyes while the woman flashed a worried expression.
F: "... Traveling, perhaps?"
The man's eyes drooped a little upon hearing her continuation of the sentence. Katachi could feel the uncertainty and tension from the way they sat and spoke with their unwarranted wary towards sensitive subjects.
K: "Yes ma'am. I am indeed traveling."
The lady relaxed a little and leaned against the chair's backrest comfortably. The man was twiddling his thumbs with impatience.
"What's your name?"
K: "I... I'm Katachi. Kotsuba Katachi."
F: "That name... Oh dear, are you Ohdean? Ohde is far from here, young man. Are you okay?"
K: "Yes, I am perfectly fine, ma'am. Uhm... Would it be okay if I addressed you two by your names as well, uh... ?"
F: "Most certainly."
"Most definitely."
The man sat up from his seat briefly and cracked his neck.
N: "I am the head of this household, Nicholas Demant. You may call me Mister Demant."
F: "And I am his wife, Froile Demant. You may call me Missus Demant."
K: "… I have a question, Mister Demant."
The man was most likely used to a lifestyle of action, which explained his twitchy and fretful compulsion to shake his leg and toy with his fingers.
N: "Speak."
K: (Nicholas feels like the name of a Rugnudi.) "Are you from Rugnud, by any chance?"
The man looked away for a bit as though confirming his suspicions.
N: "... Yes. I am."
K: "Ah. That would explain your name. Nicholas is a common name in Rugnud, is it not?"
N: "Yeah. You're smart for your age."
However, that was detrimental to Katachi's plan. A foreign background also meant that his familiarity with the town was limited.
K: "I see... But, you're from Rugnud so you wouldn't know too much about this town-"
F: "If you need an aide or a guide through Bellpot's markets, you can consult me instead. My sire mostly provides for the family while I supplement him with chores, childcare and information."
K: (Froile... It's an ambiguous name, but definitely of Findeli origin.) "Okay then. I would like to ask the both of you a very serious question."
Katachi glanced toward Tonquat's bedroom door. While it was possible to control the damage of information leaks through observing the connections adults have and blackmailing them, children were free to befriend anyone since they were at the age where establishing relations was crucial for healthy growth. Adults were easy to silence and coerce, but not children. It was imperative that Tonquat remained unaware of Katachi's 定.
K: "Before that, though... Is the boy asleep?"
F: (He's not that much older, is he? Why call him a boy?) "Yes. He should be... A four-year-old shouldn't stay up this late."
K: "... Can we close his door? If possible, I do not wish for him to see or know this."
N: "I do not mind, but what could be so important that requires such privacy?"
Nicholas walked towards Tonquat's door and closed it gently before returning to his seat. Katachi withdrew his wooden dagger, the one with the incomplete carving of an Anikan character. A golden 定 manifested on the dagger.
K: "Do you know what the Words of Power are?"
*** ***
N: "So you're on a pilgrimage for the Words of Power?"
K: "Yes."
Nicholas frowned a bit and tapped his feet impatiently.
N: "I don't get it. Why not just trace the words out themselves if you already know what they look like?"
F: "It's not that simple, dear."
K: "It's not as simple as that, Mister Demant."
N: "It's not?"
K: "No. Think of it as two soil patches. The Word of Power would be a mushroom patch filled full of mushrooms while the other patch that merely looks like the Word of Power has no mushrooms within – It's just barren land. It is useless without the mushrooms within. I need not a simple tracing of the Word of Power, but rather the Word itself."
Froile, on the other hand, was a lot more receptive to the situation.
F: "How can we help, then?"
K: "Are there... Are there any interesting, weird or unique places around here? Is there anywhere in this town that has something funny or unusual, a topic of rumors?"
The couple looked at each other and dived into their memories to answer such a bizarre, uncommon question.
F: "There is indeed one such location."
K: "There is?"
F: "Well, it's not much, but there is supposedly a famous place around here where parents bring their children and serenade them to sleep, both mischievous and otherwise. At the Serene Alcove, the children are mysteriously pacified. I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for, but you can take a gander at it if nothing else."
K: (Sounds like it, but something more conclusive would be nice.) "Does it apply exclusively to children?"
N: "It's not just children who are calmed."
Nicholas gazed into the distance with a longing look in his eyes.
N: "That place was a secret sleeping spot of mine. I came to Bellpot when I was of seventeen years, and it used to be my favorite haunt. The moss... It was nice and comfortable, the place was overflowing with a strange tranquillity. I can't quite explain it but it's not just a rumor."
His gaze wandered from outside the window to a part of the homogeneous ceiling.
K: (Favourite 'haunt'? I've never used that word before. Hmm.)
N: "I could birdwatch openly since there were many forms of wildlife about as well. I would nap there during lunch break alone for months until some couple brought their child there and sung her to sleep. Since then, the spot gained some odd nickname and I haven't found the time to sleep there by myself peacefully."
K: (Even the animals are affected? It could be a Word of Power at work. Bertund may be alluding to this.) "An alcove where everything is serene... It sounds suspicious enough."
F: "I hope that was enough assistance for you, Mister Katachi."
K: "That is indeed something interesting enough to investigate. Thank you, the both of you. I shall set forth tomorrow at daybreak to this Serene Alcove."
N: "Fancy a map to the area?"
K: (了解! Understand information – Location of aforementioned 'Serene Alcove'!... It's northwest of the town following the small pebble trail and to the right of the Sharyu Zuku statue... Okay.) "That won't be necessary – I roughly know where it is. Even if I don't I'll just ask around for the place, and if all else fails I can ask you two again- Er, if... If it's not too much to ask."
Katachi retracted slightly at his own lack of tact. The mere thought of chancing upon another Word of Power made him reckless and assertive, qualities that he knew would spell the end of him.
F: "You're welcome to do that, Mister Katachi. I would aid you to the best of my abilities."
N: "... If you insist that you can do it alone, I trust that you can. No shame in asking for help."
He quietly swore to rectify his impatience should it ever show.
K: "Thank you... It is late now. I ought to sleep for tomorrow."
N: "You can use that wooden rocking chair. It's not much, but that should be plenty."
F: "That rocking chair belonged to my late grandmother. I'm sorry we couldn't provide a proper bed with how small our house is, but if you're fine with that chair-"
K: "-It's okay. I wouldn't want to get too comfortable."
Katachi walked towards the rocking chair in the Demant's living room. He sat on it, laid back, and the creaking of the wooden chair resounded through the house ever so slightly.
N: "Have a good rest."
F: "Good night, Mister Katachi."
K: "Segus bless you."
The couple went to their room after hushing the lights. The slow rocking of the chair and the creaking lulled the child to sleep.
*** ***
Nicholas and Froile crawled on the bed in their nightwear.
F: "... Poor child."
N: "He's so serious he could compete with my foreman. I certainly didn't expect a child like him to exist. It's a miracle he's still alive."
F: "I don't understand, sire. Aren't children supposed to be innocent angels like our beloved Tonquat? I find it hard to believe that a person like him is younger than us."
N: "It might be his heritage. His hair was a signature trait of the Ohdeans but the Findeli he spoke was even more fluent than my own. Maybe he's been bullied in a nearby town."
F: "Do you think his father was Ohdean?"
N: "Most likely. If the two loved each other, then taking up his surname would make sense. If, however, the mother was horribly violated and left to die, she would probably have the child be named after her instead. Either way, that boy- ..."
Froile tugged at his left sleeve slightly.
F: "... Promise me you wouldn't abandon me like that, sire?"
Nicholas locked eyes with Froile.
N: "Of course, my love. I wouldn't want a tragedy like him to occur again."
Froile snuggled her head against Nicholas's chest and felt the warmth of her husband.
F: "I'll take your word for it."
The couple slowly drifted off to slumber in their embrace.