Zalbas walked in holding himself with a bit of pride as he looked about the house. "Well it just about looks the same as the rest, didn't know what I was really expecting!" He said and shrugged.
Samuel sighed, "So from the top, how can I help you?" He asked and leaned on a table side. Zalbas looked a bit insulted but he nodded.
"Well like I said! I want to join this mysterious faction of yours and have a nice chat. That about sums it up!" Zalbas seemed to speak with honesty which was further emphasized by Night jumping on the table and looking at him before turning to Samuel.
"Well I can't smell any lies from him, unless he is really good at hiding it. But he seems to be a bit too stupid for that, I am leaning on the more silly side!" Night said with a giggle and Zalbas looked directly at her.
"Hey! That is not very nice!" He said with pretend mock anger, Samuel flinched while Night jumped up in the air before running and hiding behind Samuel. "You can see her/me?" They spoke in unison.
"Well yeah!" His voice was filled with confusion before looking at her again. "I just thought she was your familiar or something? Don't tell me no one else can see her?" He asked and started laughing before realizing that was probably the case.
"Alright, so if I had to guess she is bonded to you in some way connected to your lineage. Hence I will not ask or tell anything about her!" Upon hearing those words they both slightly relaxed.
"We're both children of mana after all, so I promise not to tell anyone as long as you do the same!" He spoke and started snapping his fingers slightly and Samuel could see faint sparks of fire and lightning, "Speaking of children of mana?" Samuel continued. "I do not really know much about our history or anything because it is really hard to find anything, care to share your insights and I will share mine?"
Zalbas looked at him for a few seconds before nodding, "Alright that sounds good to me as long as you go first, I know I am the stranger knocking on the door but you did bring it up first!"
Samuel realized to have dug a small hole and sighed before retelling him what he knew without endangering any of the important secrets. Zalbas had sat down in the meantime and Samuel had made tea for the both of them, he was nodding along to most of what Samuel said as if he already knew it.
Zalbas seemed slightly surprised at the mention of the children of mana being the original inhabitants. "I knew we had been around for a long long time, but those who taught me speculated only that we had been around for as long as the other mortal races."
Samuel then told him that there might be a few gods that were looking out for them because of their prior mistake so many years ago, which made Zalbas laugh out loud. Samuel was happy that neither Erica or Sonya was home at that moment, of course he wouldn't have had this conversation so openly if they were.
He trusted them, but knowing about children of mana would hardly make a difference. After a short while Zalbas seemed to process all the information and relaxed. "Alright, well I guess I can tell you the little I know, which to be frank is not a lot more info outside what you told me!"
"Don't be mistaken though, what you told me has filled in some blanks in between the lines for the bigger picture. So to tell you what little I know!" Zalbas gave him a wide grin.
"Many nations have their leaders and many people have their leaders as well, like the dwarven clan leaders of old noble households for example."
"Well the same can apparently be said for children of mana. You see there exists 13 ancient noble bloodlines of our people, and then another 26 minor bloodlines. These are said to be the pillars of the first of our kin, and of course there exists hundreds of other bloodlines as well."
"Most of the bloodlines have been lost to history, they are said to have gone under long ago, but with our kin so spread out accross the world who can really tell?" Zalbas shook his head.
"What my master also told me, is that there is a kingly lineage. The first ancient bloodline, the first child of mana and his sons and daughters, the lineage of the king. Its supposed to be only a myth or legend among our kind, but my master told me it was all true."
Zalbas looked at him with anticipation, "My master also told me there is a way to test if someone belongs to this ancient lineage, he even taught it to me cause I kept pestering him; what if I was the king... you know! Kids can always dream!"
Samuel looked at him and nodded, "Yeah kids can never dream and I suppose you were not a royal." He spoke it as a statement and Zalbas confirmed it by nodding. "My master has a ton of books about our kin, but he never allowed me to read most of them. But he did tell me that my blood belonged to one of the 26 ancient minor bloodlines." He took on a smug look as if he was super special.
"Do you always look like a prick?" Night pinched in from the corner as she was peeking around the side of the couch. She had never have anyone be able to see her except Samuel before so it was freaking her out.
Zalbas smiled and shrugged. "I can test your blood if you want. I just need a drop!" He noticed how Samuel stared at him suspiciously and nodded. "Yeah uhhh, we will leave the drop of blood on a small piece of glass right here on the table and I will not be interacting with it except for casting detection technique!"
"You can use your magic eye to see that I won't do anything weird to it." Zalbas suddenly seemed to remember something and his entire face lit up.
"Also my master told me that there is some ancient entity that supposedly keeps watch over us, any sort of slave spell or binding our own kind is forbidden unless both agree to it willingly. Although I myself have never seen it, my master refers to it as something that watches from the bottom of our minds."
Zalbas laughed, "Heh, sounds more like superstition, I know, but if it makes you feel safer!" He noticed how grim Samuels face suddenly had become. Because Samuel remembered the presence he always felt near the bottom of the mindscape, that creature that waited in the abyss.
Could that creature truly be some sort of guardian deity of children of mana. He lost himself in his own tracks for a bit before turning his attention back towards Zalbas.
"You can try your technique!" Samuel spoke and took out a small metal plate and pricked his finger enough for a few droplets of blood, he then rubbed the small sting with a bit of wound closing cantrip which made it disappear.
Zalbas gave him a nod before standing up and closing his eyes. He opened them again and his black eyes with the yellow iris had started glowing in red and blue as he held out one hand above the blood droplets.
The blood seemed to react for a few seconds before it started shimmering, switching colors between light blue and yellow black back and forth back and forth, several times before Zalbas exhaled and removed his hands and his demeanor went back to normal as he looked at the results.
He looked slightly dissapointed, "Well I can tell you right away, that you are not of kingly descent. In fact I have not read enough of the books my master owns to know if this is an ancient bloodline or not. I will write my master a letter right away on the color and reaction."
Zalbas was not joking as he took out a small satchel, pen and paper. He quickly wrote a note and put it back in the satchel before tapping the satchel that had a few runes lit up on it.
"Now it is just a matter of when he sees my letter!" Zalbas exclaimed proudly and stood up once more, "Thank you for proving to not be a jerk, you invited me in and gave me an opportunity." Zalbas gave him a small bow.
"There is one more of our kin that goes to this college. With your permission we would both like to join your up and about faction." He gave Samuel a sly smile and Samuel looked at him in surprise. There were two children of mana at this college and they wanted to join him.
So far Zalbas had been nothing but respectable except for a bit of an annoying attitude at times. "Go speak to the Gelger's in charge of starting up the faction, tell them that I personally sent you both. Also I would of course like to meet this other kin of ours!"
Zalbas nodded, "Well I didn't bring her along because I wanted to see what kind of guy you were first. My master made sure to hammer into my head that not all children of mana are good people, at this point in time, we are nothing more than regular people. We come in all shapes and forms!"
Samuel chuckled, "Yeah I have come to realize that! We are just a little bit special, but there are plenty of other special people out there, that are not children of mana." Samuel leaned back and thought about his friends.
Zalbas seemed to like his answer and laughed. "In that case, it will be my honor to stand together with you, my new friend Samuel!" He held out his hand and Samuel was quick to stand on his feet and shake his hand.
Zalbas held two fingers to his forehead and winked at Night, "It was a pleasure to meet you little fierce dragon!" He said and took his leave. The moment he got outside the door Samuel relaxed back into the couch.
"Didn't think we would encounter another child of mana at this school. But I suppose he wasn't in the magic classes, so it makes me wonder if his other friend isn't either. Perhaps I am the only one that is a part of the mage division of the college." He pondered upon it and came to that as the most likely answer.
Samuel just relaxed for quite some time after Zalbas had left, he pondered upon everything he had said, at least Zalbas seemed to have a teacher that knew all kinds of things about children of mana. He once more thought about the bloodlines, and for once thanked his luck. He had no wish to be of some kingly lineage among children of mana.
If anything that would just bring him more troubles. It was then that the door swung open and Erica rushed in a few steps before seeing him. "Samuel come quick!" She half screamed at him and Samuel instantly jumped up expecting some kind of trouble.