Nakulian Year 6237, Ascending Sun
Apology Vote:
1d29 21 - D wins, no apology!
You decide against making an apology - you dad hadn't asked you to, and your Uncle never even mentioned the possibility of needing to. Besides, while you felt bad about what happened during the Duel, Aarav had still provoked you by intentionally trying to make Jute cry. You weren't exactly proud of what you had nearly done to him, but maybe he deserved a few broken ribs and a couple months of being out of training. You couldn't imagine working alongside someone like that, who would intentionally be cruel to their future allies. No, he owed you an apology still, and you'd wait for it, even if it took all the way until he was recovered to give it.
Nakulian Year 6237, Ascending Sun-Apex Sun
Teaching Talent Vote:
1d31 23 - G wins, Adaptive Teacher
Your greatest talent when working with the students isn't in teaching them what you know, nor is it learning from them, it's not putting lessons into place for yourself that you think would help them - it's being able to work with all of them, in all manner of lessons. The children of Gardeners, set on the path of being Gardeners themselves, live much different lives than the children with Compatibility who will become Guardians, who live much different lives than those from Warrior families, and such is how it is across all of them. You don't know a lot of what you're helping your uncle give lessons about - you'd never heard of subjects like soil density or health - that was for Gardeners, you'd never read up on the nutritional details of why your meals were made certain ways - that was for Cook-laborers.
You somehow still manage to teach these children topics you honestly know nothing about, by nature of your talent with identifying their own strengths and weaknesses in learning. You quickly know who relies on visual learning, who has to be taken out of the classroom to observe, who learns best when read to and then made to read back. You're still probably not as good as what their parents would provide - but between yourself and your Uncle, you help these children with the pathway that would define their lives, putting as much effort into that as into teaching them the common skills all Nakulian children learned.
It didn't particularly help you with Jute, as you were very knowledgeable in the topic you covered with her - the human body and how to strengthen it was second nature to you, with both your Uncle and the Signet having guided you through your early life to maximize your talent at it. Your lessons with her still improved as you did at identifying her limits, and you quickly adapted to creating new plans that left her both more able to finish them without failing, and better focused on the areas she needed work on most.
Surprised this one was so popular! It was the second most voted for option of the group. Unfortunately, provides no benefits for what you're doing right now re: Jute, but it might come in handy later!
Question Vote 1:
1d30 15 - N wins
Question Vote 2:
1d26 7 - L wins
Question Vote 3:
1d20 5 - M wins
You think for a long hard moment, and then finally ask the Signet's Steward, "Where do you come from?"
She looks at you like you're an idiot, and then points to the ring that you're wearing, "Did I miss a head injury when replaying the last year?"
"No! Not like that, like... the Stewards. The Armaments. Where did they all come from? How were you born?" The myth story told you that Nakul created the Armaments with his own two hands, and that the Stewards were his great angels who blessed the Armaments with a fragment of their power. But you had access to a source of knowledge beyond your Uncle's books! You wanted to deal with the curiosity you had. Sourced from one of the beings who knew Nakul himself!
There's a pause. And then for a brief moment everything turns red inside the dream-ring that you stood in, face to face with the Steward. Even her skin turns red very briefly. And then in another moment everything's back to normal. "I can't tell you that. What a waste of a question. If we could just
tell you that, wouldn't we already have done so? Think, kid, think!" She has her hands on her hips. "Don't try to pry too much into that kind of thing. You wont like what you find. And I'd rather have my nicely prepared vessel survive, thank you very much."
"What do you-"
"A-ah, two more questions. If you use one on that question, you'll only have one more. And I might just tell you that I can't say more. Soooo?" The Steward leans waaay in close, face to face with you, red eyes to your reflective ones.
"R-right. Uh. A few months ago I found a weird flooded room and hallway. There was this weird setup with fi-" Before you can even finish, the Steward is already reversing your memories back to when you were talking about, and you watch yourself climbing through the darkness into the broken stained glass. "Yeah, what
is that orb?"
She pauses on it for a long moment, as you stare at it in the past she stares at it in the present. "Easy. Water aspected dantian. Looks to be pure water too, but... something damaged it. Not too sure on that part. My expertise is on the physical body, not the spiritual body." The steward herself seems interested in it, "It's probably at least fourth tier? Er. What your people would call Elder Tier."
"What's a dantian?" It sounded important, so you just ask on instinct.
"No no, only one more question! But... that does seem related enough to the last one that I should explain. You know how those things you call Farbeasts can make lightning, or earthquakes, or tornados, how they can control minds, or make the grass itself into blades? That all comes from their Dantian. Most Farbeasts are unstable enough that their dantians destroy themselves when they die, and only the residual essence remains in their body. That's how they made your robes, from the body of that one your father killed. A full one could do much more interesting things. If you had the expertise. Which you don't. The water shouldn't kill you though, I made you pretty resistant to poison already."
That slight tangent made you pick at your glowing robes, and ask, "What
was the thing my father killed?"
"Oh, that was one of Lord Nakul's experiments. Though I thought they were all wiped out? Unless someone found the notes and tried to recreate it..." The steward pointed towards the frozen notes in the room, "You should have tried to read about it, it would have been useful to me. Either way, they were too unstable. Sure, they worked to cull the spirit population, but they didn't stop there. Never could breed out that aggression against everything that wasn't one of them. Would have been really useful if we could, might have prevented a lot of your deaths. Oh well! It's dead now anyways!"
"Experiments?" The word slips out of your mouth.
"Hmm... I guess I can tell you, since you wasted one question - though... how..." She pauses for a long moment, and you don't interrupt her as she figures out what she is going to say, "Lord Nakul created a powerful Light, that could suppress the beings known now as Farbeasts. This is his Light, that fills your sky and pours from your friend's Armament. Hate that guy by the way, so stodgy. Anyways, he wanted to see what would happen if you made a Farbeast
of that Light. They may or may not have gone incredibly mad for awhile, but eventually it was refined to just making them desire to eat other S-Farbeasts. Except that we could
not breed out their desire to eat people. So they were considered a failure, and disposed of, because the magnanimous will of our Lord Nakul could not leave his servant to die. That one definitely wasn't one of the survivors, so one of your people must have
actually been smart enough to recreate one. Without me. Hmph." She seems cross as she figured that out.
She claps her hand, and the surroundings change from that of the blank room with walls to replay your memory, to that of a great jungle, "Anyways, question time is over! Now is when we get to the part where you drop all your other things you're doing, and focus on learning from me, and doing what
I want, like rebuilding you from a weak little mortal into something Better! And we need to work fast - your little body is going to soon stabilize in that horrible way mortals do. If you'd been working hard with your Mother for these last few months, and spending your nights reading up on anatomical texts, I might have insisted you spend the month learning to Heal with me. But you'll never get good enough to replace her before your body sets." She seems disappointed at your decisions, despite never making herself clear on this before.
"Instead, we should take the time to just prepare as much of you as I can. I need you to drop everything, including telling the High Priest that I want you to train, not to teach children. He'll listen to me, whether he likes it or not." She seems very sure of this, "We'll put our effort purely into changing as much as you as I can, so as to not waste your potential. The more time we have, the better I can prepare you... who knows if your body will even last 'til next year..."
Do you listen to the Signet Steward's advice?
[ ] A. Yes, cancel everything, put all slots towards her training this month.
[ ] B. Cancel time with Dad and Jute, but keep my punishments.
[ ] C. Cancel time with Dad and Jute, and clear my nights, but teach during the day still.
[ ] D. Cancel Dad time, keep Jute and day punishments.
[ ] E. Cancel Jute time, keep Dad and day punishments.
[ ] F. Don't change anything or listen to the Steward
You cannot weasel out of your daytime punishments while keeping either your time with your dad or your time with Jute active.
