Cassius closed his eyes and touched the ruby in the middle with his index finger. He began chanting a few words under his breath.
"Guiding light, this charm I'll weave.
Clear the darkness, deep and unknown.
Essence flows, let guidance conceive.
The path is clear, let it be shown."
The necklace began to glow violently, before seemingly calming down. Aiden looked back at Cassius, who lifted his finger off of the necklace, which seemed burnt.
"Ah, damn it! This is why I always make these guiding charms bigger, but no, Clara insists that we must be hidden and secretive!" Cassius was violently shaking his hand up and down, even occasionally blowing air onto the burnt finger, like a small child would when something hurts.
"Sorry to stop your complaining, but, I'm not sure what just happened… And who is Clara, even?" Asked Aiden before Cassius pointed his now injured finger at a few old wooden chairs in the corner. He sat down, and Cassius soon followed.
"What I've done, is made you a guiding charm." He threw the necklace back at Aiden. "These charms always show the way to the place where the charm was forged. Usually, they function off of the Essence of whoever carries it, but you can't do that, so I had to infuse it with a lot of my own." Cassius took his flask out of his pocket, just like he did at the café, and took a sip.
"And they're also usually much bigger, almost like a compass, so I can easily fill it with Essence using my whole hand. Concentrating so much Essence in such a small area tends to hurt, as you can see." He took another sip, before throwing the bottle across the room. "Shit's empty, damn it. As for your second question, Clara is my right hand. She's the second in charge, more or less, even though that position doesn't actually exist." Cassius now stood up from his chair, and began walking back towards the exit.
"That's it for today, you're finished. Return again tomorrow night for your first training session. Now go home, you'll need some good rest." He waved Aiden bye, and left. Aiden found his way out of the forest, and soon headed home.
As tomorrow's dawn broke, the rain that was falling the entire night made everything muddy and dirty. Aiden swung his legs over the side of the bed, and his mind raced as he tried to process everything Cassius had told him last night - the training, channeling Essence, unlocking powers. It all still felt so unreal, yet the weight of the necklace's presence grounded him. It laid on cabinet next to his bed, the silver seeming slightly charred from the events of last night. Aiden touched the ruby in the middle, and sure enough, it glowed, although barely. He got up and got ready for work, before heading to the Commerce. Nothing more than a standard shift, but his thoughts were troubled by the training that was supposed to come tonight.
As he slowly made his way home on foot, the streets were slicked with water. Everyone was seemingly indoors somewhere, whether that'd be a coffee shop, a restaurant, their home. Aiden was walking completely alone, gripping his coat and holding it tighter as the cold wind shook him completely. He found himself drawn by the shielding canopy of the forest path to Midori's house, and soon enough, he was trekking the muddied road. There was something so comforting here. Whether that is just the peace he was given by the the trees who stopped most of the wind, or was it the memories with Midori that warmed up the depths of his soul, he wasn't sure. Alas, he enjoyed this. His mind immediately jumped to going to Midori's house to visit her, but he was worried he'd stay late and miss Cassius' training. Not to mention, he wanted to keep her out of this at all costs.
Aiden kept wondering - was he doing all of this for himself, or is all of this purely fueled by spite towards his mother? Her scathing words always seared Aiden's heart like a red hot blade, but still, after all the years of this torment, his feelings were mixed. He hated her, or, did he? It felt to Aiden as if two versions of him stood atop of his shoulders, arguing with eachother on whether or not Hilda should be forgiven. As he kept walking, his attention was grabbed by the sounds of a nearby stream of water. He steered off course, went to the water source and stooped down, splashing some of the cool liquid over his face. He took his coat off, placed it on the ground, and laid down.
"Damn it, Hilda. Look what you've gotten me into." said Aiden, glancing at his necklace for what felt like the thirtieth time today. He touched the ruby, hoping for a change, yet it was the same as this morning. "Actually, I don't even know who to blame. Myself, or you. Dad gave me a perfect chance to start a new life, everything was going amazingly. Am I going to throw this all away now? Are all the relationships I built up until now for nothing? Say, dad, what would you tell me if you were here right now?" Aiden rolled over onto his side, before closing his eyes and imagining Aldegar standing in front of him.
"Son, do what your heart tells you to do." Aiden began imitating Aldegar's slow and somber voice to the best of his ability, although it was not great. "You shape your own destiny, the threads of your fate are in your hands and no one else's. Remember that."
Just by imagining his dad's fatherly advice, Aiden was already at the brink of tears. He didn't want to admit it, but it wasn't him he was worried about. He worried about what others would say, what others would think if something happened to him. Valarie, Theo, Timo, Runa, Midori, Aldegar, Olek… all the people he held dear to him, their words echoed in his mind as if they stood right atop of him right now. "The last thing I need right now is to be indecisive. That'll only make things worse than they already are." Aiden got up, but his coat back on and got home as fast as possible. When he arrived home, he still had some time before heading to the forest, so he decided to warm up a bit. Pushups, situps, jumping jacks, any exercise he could think of, just to keep himself distracted and away from sitting alone with his thoughts in silence.
He got something to eat, before getting into his truck and driving away towards the forest. The made him less nauseous than yesterday, but it was still very winding and difficult. He arrived, and once he stepped into the forest, he drew out his necklace. The tip of one of the pendant's arms glowed a bright blue, the same blue from when Cassius first made the guiding charm. He tried turning the pendant, but always the arm turned closest to the correct direction was the one that was glowing. He used it to navigate through the forest, constantly thinking about reaching the village in the middle, since Cassius said you need an 'absolute goal in mind'. He finally arrived, and spent a few moment socializing with the village's residents, before heading to Cassius' house. When he knocked on the door, no one opened, so he let himself in. He made his way down into the basement, only to see Cassius sitting in the middle of the room in the dark, seemingly asleep.
Aiden went to flip the light switch, and woke up Cassius when he turned the lights on. "Oh, come on. I wanted to be cool and wait for you here, don't tell me I fell asleep." Angrily grumbled Cassius.
"But whatever, my tricks and jokes aren't what you're here for. Let's get to training, shall we? It won't be easy." Cassius opened a closet full of training weapons and all sorts of things like combat dummies, more necklaces and pendants, and such.
But, Aiden's focus was only his training, and nothing else…