Angeline POV
My brother was wearing a creepy smile across his face. The older he gets the more he keeps changing. But that aside, did my little brother just receive four attunements? That was almost unheard of. Having even two is rare and those who have two are praised to be prodigies. The only beings who have 4 or more essence attunements end up becoming a sentinel.
The marks that were covering his body looked crazy. His whole torso and left arm was covered. I've never seen anyone with this many marks in person. Do all of their marks look this gorgeous? My Zephyr Essence Mark stretches from my elbow to the fingertips, its design flowing like wind-carved patterns in sand. Thin, swirling lines interlace, mimicking gusts twisting in an unseen breeze. But compared to him it was embarrassing to think that I thought mine was beautiful and perfect.
Once again my little brother surpasses me. I should be happy for him, proud of him even, but at this moment all i felt was jealousy. I hated that I felt this way but I couldn't help it.
I continued to watch the celestial, Sylara was attempting to get closer to Isaiah. But this beautiful girl stood between them. Her long black hair ran down her back stopping half way down. She had beautiful skin and she had sharp ears. 'An elf?' I thought. There was a beautiful aura that shone around the mysterious girl. It was comforting in a way. At the very least she seemed to be on Isaiah's side.
"Impressive boy. Do you mind if I take a closer look?" Sylara asked. Not even giving Isaiah a chance to respond she was inches away from him and was closely inspecting his torso area. The mysterious girl flinched but he put his hand up to stop her.
"Would you like to come train under me? I'll take you in and personally train you to become efficient in using your attunements." Sylra said done inspecting his body.
Did a celestial just offer my little brother a chance to become her pupil. 'What the fuck' I thought. He doesn't understand how lucky he- "No thanks." Isaiah said, interrupting my train of thought. 'No thanks' did he really just say that.
Sylara showed a surprised look on her face, she definitely did not expect him to say no and he responded so quickly at that. Her surprised face quickly turned to an upset face. She did not try to hide that she was displeased with him turning down the offer.
"I don't think you understand the honor that comes with being offered to become one of the celestial pupils." Sylara said, raising her voice. The rest of the celestials just sat quietly wearing disgusted expressions on their faces but not brave enough to say anything while Sylara was speaking.
"Take a day or two to think it over, don't rush your decision little boy. You may come to regret it." She added. Isaiah responded with "Nah i'm good. Can I go now?". He started to walk away, turning his back to the celestial. I was genuinely scared she would suddenly attack him but she did nothing. The girl that manifested from Isaiah followed him. "You guys coming?" he said directed to myself and our dad, I said nothing walking to follow him not daring to look Sylara in the face. My dad followed right after giving the Celestials a bow.
Isaiah POV
As I walked towards the portal that would take us out of this place I couldn't help but think about her offer. It was tempting indeed but did she really just expect me to say yes.
'What do you think?' I sent a thought to Alice.
'Don't trust her. She definitely wants to use you to benefit herself.' Alice said with a scoff. 'I should've tore her head off the second she got close to you.'
"Uhh.. Could you even? She was pretty strong, that's for sure.'
'I guess you're right master. But that just means we need to get strong enough where she becomes just an insignificant bug to us.'
I laughed 'You're right'.
***
It wasn't till we stepped through the portal that I remembered I was shirtless. And now I had all these marks covering my torso area. 'I'm going to stick out so badly' I thought.
Turning around to speak to my father I noticed the confused and somewhat frightened look on his face as well as my sisters. I understood why they would look frightened. I haven't even fully processed what just happened myself, I know I received 4 attunements and that it has to be very rare. A celestial wouldn't offer to train me otherwise.
They stayed completely silent, their eyes both locked on me.. The sudden silence gave me the chills. I wasn't sure what to say. This was definitely not a normal ceremony.
"That was a bit much wasn't it dad." I finally said, breaking the silence. I continued "I did it dad I got my attunements early! Isn't that great…" No response came from him.
My sister stepped forward asking " Who is the girl?" looking directly at Alice.
"She is-" I was interrupted. "Before that, why did you act so rudely towards the celestial?" My dad asked with a hint of anger in his voice. He looked down at me with a hint of disappointment on his face.
I stayed silent. To be honest I didn't know what to say or how to respond. It upset me when she used that gravity spell on me but it was my fault for not paying attention. I've been careless and stupid. I'm supposed to be a 7 year old in this world that was raised right. But here I am acting like some big shot standing up to people that can easily dispose of me.
I may have the knowledge from my last world but it was irrelevant in this one. I may have been able to understand things a lot sooner than most because of that knowledge but when did I let it go to my head and make me think that I'm untouchable.
When did I become so arrogant?
I want to get stronger, I want to be able to save people, I want to be someone that can be relied on and have people feel safe when in my presence. I had a long way to go if I ever wanted that to come true.
I got lost in thought and it wasn't till Alice said something in my head that I was brought back. Never giving my dad an answer, I said "I'm sorry dad. I didn't mean to be rude, I just got upset." I looked towards the ground, I wasn't able to look him in the eyes.
"If she wanted to, she could have locked you up or even worse killed you. How would I explain that to your mother?! I know you're only seven years old son but you're a smart kid you always have been. You have to think before you act, there are people who care about you and would be devastated if something happened to you." He said his voice sounded a little shaky.
I looked up. My father was acting strong in front of me trying to discipline me for doing something so reckless. I could tell he was holding back the tears.
A tear ran down my face and I once again apologized. My father walked up to me and gave me a comforting hug. "I'm just glad you're okay." he said, squeezing me tight.
I noticed my sister who was just standing there silently, waiting for her chance to speak. She didn't seem upset in the same way my father was. It looked like she wanted to have a long talk about everything that just happened.
I started, " This girl here is Alice. She's been with me since I was born. We have a uh.. Master servant relationship?" I said not even sure that's what it really was. 'Go ahead and say hi.' I sent to Alice.
"Hello Miss Angeline. I'm happy I finally got the chance to introduce myself to you." Alice said with a genuine smile on her face. My sister wore a confused look on her face. "Hi," my sister responded. "What do you mean she's been with you since you were born?" She added moving her eyes to me.
"Ever since I could remember she has been there connected to me. I've always felt her presence." I didn't know how to explain it to my sister without saying that I died in another world and when i was reborn she came with me.
"What is she? Some type of spirit or goddess? No way right?" My sister said, taking a step closer to Alice. That's when it hit me, I remember Alice saying something like that, she called herself a goddess. 'Was it okay to say that she was one?' I thought. 'It should be fine. You shouldn't lie to the ones you love.' Alice said, reading my thoughts.
"Uhh… actually she is a goddess." I said hoping I wouldn't regret it. Angelines eyes went wide and she backed away from Alice. My father joined "A GODDESS?? Son, are you saying you received a blessing from a goddess? To be blessed by a goddess so young.. It's unheard of. Why… Why my son?" he finished.
"Is that a bad thing?" I asked.
"Son it would seem that you're destined for an interesting life. There may not be many who have a blessing but those who do never live ordinary lives." "We can't let this information get out. It will bring problems, I'm sure of it. There are powerful families and beings who would do anything to get their hands on someone with the potential you have. A kid with 4 attunements and a blessing from a goddess, it doesn't get better than that." he finished.
"I understand father, I won't tell anyone else." I said, now worried what could happen if this got out.
My sister opened her mouth to speak once again but my father interrupted saying "We need to head home immediately, no more talk about this until we are home. I'm worried you may have said too much and others may have eavesdropped."
I said nothing, I headed straight to the carriage. My dad handed me an all black long sleeve. "Put this on," he said. It would be a few hours until we would arrive home and this time Alice was sitting in the carriage as well.
"So… Is this really okay? For her to be out like this?" Angeline asked. It was a good question. I wasn't sure what to do about Alice being out for everyone to see. "There's not much to do about it so she's just going to have to try and blend in for now."
The ride home was nothing special, it was very quiet no one said anything. Although me and Alice had a few conversations through our connection. She kept pressing me about the information I gained once getting my attunements. When you receive your attunement you gain insight into the type of abilities that comes with it. But because I received 4 the information flooded my brain and I wasn't able to fully understand it. I needed time to myself to really focus and gain a better understanding of what I could now do.
Of course attunements can grow in strength the more familiar you become with them and the stronger your reservoir becomes. You can be really limited based on the amount of essence you can contain and control.
For example my sister can't control that much essence so her options for spells are very limited. She can conjure wind around herself and a weapon to strengthen it and herself. As for range type spells she can let out blasts of wind that are shaped like swords. That's about it, but she makes up for it with her sword skills.
We were finally close enough that I could see our estate in the distance. I was excited to see my mom and show her the essence types I received. But i also was scared that she may be more worried than happy that i received four of them.
As we got closer I noticed something didn't look right. Our usually popular manor that had people going in and out seemed dead. There wasn't a single person in sight and I also didn't even see any other passing carriages on a popular trail.
I was getting a bad vibe about this… I hope my mother is okay.