"Writers are the weavers of destiny," She pointed to the image holding the rune, "and humans 'lives' their craft." She pointed to the image kneeling down.
Derek looked at her with more questions on his mind.
She noticed and decided to further explain, "Writers have the power to control runes. Runes are the rules that make up and govern the world."
"No, that's not it. I get that part, what I don't understand is the 'craft human lives' part,"
She sighed and waved her hand and the images dissipated and formed new ones. It was of a mother holding her baby and strings connecting to the child were attached to each finger of a large palm over their heads.
"When a mortal is born, eventually maybe overtime or probably immediately for most, it is given a name. When that name has been attached to the soul, the soul automatically sends a record of its naming to a random writer across the plains. The writer is responsible for how the soul turns out in the future. Whether successful or not, happiness or sadness, anger or even loneliness." She stopped and looked at him closely, "Do you understand that much?"
He nodded again.
"Let's continue then. Writers, on the other hand, harvest from mortals the necessities to further their cultivation and abilities by manipulating mortal decisions and their emotions to their whim. Intelligent Mortals produce what is could ANIMA. It is produced when they switch from one emotion to another. Anima is..."
"Wait!"
"Yes, master Derek!"
"You said something about cultivation. Is it like those manga and web novel books?"
She looked at him in surprise, but the surprise was more in her understanding of the question, "Yes master Derek it's like Manga and web novel books."
"Seriously!!! You mean cultivation to stand on the peak of the cosmos actually exists?" He stood with one foot on his sit, waving his fist in the air.
Derek had unintentionally entered fanboy mode.
"Master DEREK! if you will please take your seat."
Derek noticed his unusual behaviour and sat back down. "Sorry... please continue."
She noticed his enthusiasm and thought to herself, it must be good to be ignorant about the world.
"Let's go on. Since you like cultivation so much, you'll like this next part." She waved her hand again and the images changed to three people. The first one cupped its mouth like it was trying to whisper. The second had a quill pen in its hand and the third one just stood there but it had a different colour of eyes, feet and hands and even a glow in its chest than the rest.
"This is a Whisperer. " She pointed to the first image cupping its mouth. "Master Derek, I take you to love movies a lot right?"
Derek nodded
"Have you ever watched a movie where a person wanted to make a decision and on either of his shoulders stood a small demon and an angel, both competing on giving him advice?"
Derek nodded.
"Well, the truth is a bit similar yet far from what actually happens. You see Whispers are the lowest grade of writers. A whisperer can share a mortals name with as many as ten other Writers, with all of them trying to influence the individual will for Anima. Over time, as a writer gets stronger, they can just block the other writers out of the mortal. And that's the true reason for indecisions." She touched the image of the whisperer and it turned into a small pyramid of numbers climbing up to five.
"This state of Whisperers is divided into five and the higher you go, the harder it is to climb. An example of a Whisperer would be your Aunt Maria."
Derek raised an eyebrow, "You mean 'Mrs Carla'. And did you say, aunt?"
"Yes, her. You should get used to it you know, her name is Maria. Carla was just an alias. She is your aunt, from your fathers side of the course."
Derek did not know what to say or ask. She was his aunt? And she never mentioned it? That means she knew about his parents but never said a word. He suddenly felt angry. But he did not know who to direct his anger at. It was true she was nice to him. But all those years, why didn't she say anything. A part of him felt betrayed. He thought back to that innocent-looking woman and her harmless smile and then the image of her standing in front of those men in gold overalls, shooting out kicks like her legs were made of flying bullets. he really felt conflicted.
Bastet noticed his state of mind, "Don't worry too much about her she can handle herself. You see the top of this pyramid," She pointed to the image. She occupies it firmly. She is not weak
Derek suddenly remembered When that man in gold overalls suddenly let him go and took some steps back. He remembered Ellen calling Maria and Mr Walter a whisperer and a Norminer. Another question popped in his head, "So, what's a Norminer."
"We are getting to that Master Derek." She waved her hand and the image of a person with a quill pen was magnified. "This is a Norminer. These guys are considered in the true sense of the word, practically 'Writers'. You see that pen?" She pointed to the quill pen in the Norminers hand, "That is a soul pen. It is considered one of the most important artefacts in the writer world. It is so because every soul pen is unique to an individual. It is like how unique fingerprints are to each human, except that the substantial value is incredible. There is a lot to that, and I really can't explain that now." She held her head and massaged her brows a little.
"Let's continue, shall we? At the level of being a Norminer, the writer is upgraded from just making suggestions to actually writing the life of the mortal. Their personalities, likes and dislikes and as well as the general flow of their lives are all at the mercy of the Norminers pen. But that is just for their cultivations. Norminers also have another ability. It's the capability to be able to tap into the runes that control nature. Every norminer can basically tap into one element. Some two, but those ones are just plainly incredible."
"Why!?"
"Because controlling one element is already a headache. Norminers are also classified into different stages. Five to be exact." The image of the norminer multiplied into five different images with each holding a quill pen but it was connected to feather coats that wrapped around their bodies.
"A Norminers strength can be classified by the rate at which the feathers from his quill pen cover his body. It first starts from his hands to his neck, and then..."
"He should not know that yet!" A male voice interrupted her from her lecture. Derek looked behind him and was surprised to see who the guest was.
"Mr Walter!!!"
"Wow, two writers on the run in one week! my luck must be bad this time of the year." Although she complained, Bastet still went up to Walter and gave him a hug.
"I am sorry I am a bit late, I got held up bad and had to take another route here."
"Mr Walter! What of Aunt Maria?" Derek asked. Walter was attacked together with her. Derek was worried because Walter was here and she was not.
Walter noticed Derek called her Maria and not Carla. It seems Bast must have told him a few things. "Don't worry, she is okay and will be here soon. We took different routes," he walked up to the images floating in the air and waved his hand and the images changed and formed the pictures of eleven castles. "I heard from the cats that you just came here a few days ago. And worse, you just woke up."
Derek nodded.
"Bastet if I may, I would like to continue his lecture."
She looked at him and smiled. "Of course, Why not." She left the podium and took a seat on a chair that materialised as she bent in a squat.
"Master Derek, all Bastet has taught you is very important but right now what you need to know is about your family and the houses that serve the Jade throne. Because as the only heir to your father, your duties are far-reaching than you would possibly believe."