When Casmir made his way home, he opted to enter through the back garden, so as to avoid attention, he then silently made his way to his room.
Casmir laid down on his bed, he wanted to just fall asleep but he needed to understand what was happening in his mind.
He closed his eyes as he remembered the Crystal Orb he saw and suddenly his mind felt twisted, he lost himself to the feeling and to the outside world he simply appeared to be asleep.
When Casmir regained control of his mind he was floating in a white space similar to his dream and in front of him was a giant Orb.
"Beautiful...." Casmir said involuntarily as he laid his eyes on the Orb.
The Orb was truly breathtaking, he had not had a chance to notice before but it sparkled with a rainbow of colours. The Orb was not smooth but seemed to be made up of thousands of small triangles, it looked like a crystal mosaic, each triangle glistening with a different colour yet the orb was still translucent.
In the Orb one could see half a dozen shapes floating about quietly, they seemed like fish in water as they moved about.
Casmir approached the sphere and reached out to touch it, only to realise he had no hands.
"What the..." he cried
He tried looking down at his body but all he saw were white walls and floors, after a few moments of searching for his body he realised that it didn't exist in this place.
Casmir was but a floating face as he moved around this place.
'Amazing... I'm flying.... this must be a dream...' he thought but soon realised the problem.
"No this isn't a dream... I'm aware of everything around me... is this my mind?" he mumbled.
Casmir had discovered an inkling of the truth but he soon refocused his attention on the Crystal Orb. As the only object in this space it must be here for a reason.
When Casmir focused on the Orb his mind flashed with information.
'Life Giver Orb - Advancement 1
Choose;
Martial Skill – Minor Enhanced dexterity - Expend Qi to enhance the sensitivity of nerve endings for a short time.
Martial Skill – Natural Fire Endowment – Your Qi becomes naturally endowed with fire energy, all your Qi techniques are enhanced by fire energy. Can conflict with skills of an opposite nature. Does not conflict with other Naturally Endowed energies.
Fertility Skill – Vital Energy Healing - Vital Energy can be expended to create a healing energy.
Fertility Skill – Pheromone Sensing – Increased sensitivity to pheromones, grants knowledge of various pheromones.
Body Skill – Minor Body Cleanse – Improves muscle growth and the body's efficiency at processing energy in the form of foods and medicine by 30%.
The Chosen skill will be generated, choose wisely.'
Casmir was shocked, the Orb was called the Life Giver Orb and it wanted him to choose some kind of skill?
"Fertility Skill?" Casmir suddenly Remember how the Old man from his dream told him to 'Sire lots of Children'.
"This Orb wants me to 'give' life.... what the hell.... That Old man just wants me to whore myself out and have loads of kids, what kind of people are they?"
Casmir started to seriously think about it and after realising the 'crisis' facing his world, he started to understand what the Old man wanted him to do.
Casmir focused his attention on the shapes swimming about inside the Orb hoping they would give him some more information.
As he looked at the small familiar horseshoe shaped crystal, Information flooded into him once again.
'Fetus – 10 hours – Healthy
Carrier – Rose'
As the information sank in, he came to truly believe that he had a child, it was but a foetus inside of Rose but it still represented his child.
Casmir started to lose himself thinking of what to do about it when he noticed 3 other horseshoe shaped crystal's, he watched them as they, along with his child's crystal, floated about following a much larger circular crystal.
The Large crystal looked like an orb with many long thin crystal points trailing behind it, they almost looked like hair as they waved about following the crystals movement.
It looked like a jellyfish made of crystal.
When Casmir focused on this jellyfish crystal, just like the others, it gave him information.
'Martial Skill - Life Qi Cycle – 4 Connections
Draws unused Qi energy from those with life bonds into the Life Giver.
Connection Status
Rose – Active(Grade 1)
Unknown – Inert
Unknown – Inert
Foetus(Rose) - Active(None)'
If Casmir understood this information correctly then he would passively gain Qi energy over time from those with 'life bonds', as for what Life bonds were, he assumed it simply represented the blood connection between family members such as children but also included his mates.
"Unknown person? Maybe one of them is my mother but I don't any have siblings... maybe my father...." he said attempting to understand it.
Casmir didn't know his father and his mother never talked about him, he believed his father was a one time partner of his mother's. It was a common thing in this day and age because people used contraceptives less and less as they wanted to increase the likelihood of having children, perhaps his father didn't know he even existed.
Casmir focused on the other three Horseshoe shaped crystal's expecting to find some information to reinforce his belief that these two people were his parents, instead he found some strange information.
'Female – 22 years – Major Injury'
'Female – 15 years – Healthy'
'Female, Rose – 28 years – Healthy'
"Who the hell are you...." Casmir said in confusion.
His mother was much older than 22 year's of age, obviously they were not his children.
"They must be my siblings.... perhaps my unknown father has another family but... mother..."
This was beyond Casmir's understanding, he started to believe he had some unknown siblings somewhere but he had no idea how to find them or whether he should.
"This place doesn't make any sense! ...Why do I suddenly have two sister's... Why did that old man give me the responsibility to fix the world..." he said growing more and more confused.
Casmir started to get angry, he wanted someone to explain everything to him, but was their anyone who could?
Casmir suddenly realised "..Mother... maybe she knows something... maybe she could tell me about my father..."
Just as Casmir was about to try and leave the orb, he became interested in the other Crystal symbols floating about inside of it, he needed to understand everything about this Life Giver Orb.
All together their were 7 Objects inside the orb, 4 horseshoe crystals following the larger Life Qi crystal, a small orb that unlike the other crystals gave off it's own pure white light and another small orb which was tinted a gold colour.
Casmir Examined the light orb.
'Life Essence Cycle – 0/2
Generates Vital energy from the body and Qi and stores it here, can be released upon command.
All descendants are immune to the effects of the Lifeless Plague.
Current Generation Rate - 1 per 3 months'
"Immune?! ...this... this..." Casmir said in shock.
For Casmir's descendants to be immune to the lifeless plague was a massive deal, this could completely change the current climate. Unfortunately the fact that he could only have one child every 3 months, meant it would have little effect on the overall situation.
"I should tell my mother... maybe this could allow people to understand the Lifeless Plague better.." he said naively.
Casmir felt he had to... it was simply too important.
Soon, Casmir focused on the final golden crystal.
'Life Body Cycle
Completion – 0%
Temper's the body over time. Upon completion enhances Qi absorption rate by 20%.
Can be used on other people.'
Casmir was somewhat relieved at finding out about this Life Body crystal, if it brought him another piece of earth shattering news, he didn't think he would have been able handle it.
Casmir was very unfamiliar with Qi energy and body tempering, the information was also vague so he wasn't sure exactly how beneficial this ability was.
For now he chose to forget about it opting to quickly find his mother in order to question her about his father.
For a moment Casmir started to move about trying to find the exit to this place before realising, other than the Life Giver Orb, there was nothing else in this space.
As Casmir tried to think about how to leave, he felt his mind being stretched again. Suddenly, feeling started to come back to him and he realised he was staring at the ceiling in his room.
As Casmir moved his hands about, he couldn't help but wonder exactly what the Life Giver Orb is.
Eventually he sat up, he needed to go talk to Gloria about his family but he also wanted to check his fertility, specifically he wanted Gloria to check whether his immunity to the Lifeless plague could be studied.
In order to do so he needed a sample.
Casmir walked over to his desk collecting a small vial before locking his door and retreating to his bed, his thoughts slowly began to be engulfed by his memories of Rose....