The Elder Lands

Chapter 3

Lucan’s father led him into the study where he saw a map spread over the table, surrounded by some scrolls. His father’s seat behind the table was made of wood and plush leather. Above his seat hung a shield with the colors of House Zesh, blue on the top left, white on the bottom right, and three weapons bundled up and fanned out in the middle, an axe, a mace, and a sword.

Before Lucan could walk towards the table, his father gestured towards a side chamber. Its door was thicker than the study’s and was generously banded with steel. Lucan had been in his father’s study before, but he’d never been shown into that chamber. He knew what it was, of course. Yet, his father hadn’t found it necessary before for him to enter what passed for a treasury in their keep, specially with how ‘irresponsible’ he was.

Lucan watched his father take out a bronze key, which might have been enchanted, and use it to unlock the door with multiple clicks. Then he went inside, and Lucan followed him eagerly. There was nothing more curiosity-inducing than the prohibited.

Lucan knew that they weren’t one of the entrenched noble houses in the kingdom. In fact, the main House Zesh was on the other side of the kingdom, holding the real lands, while this fiefdom was a small reward his father had received for his service and his father’s service before him. Yet it was still disappointing to find the chamber mostly bare, with a few bronze weapons hung on the walls, and two chests on the ground.

His father bent down and opened the larger of the two chests, gesturing for him to approach.

Lucan stepped up and looked into the open chest to see orderly stacks of coins standing beside each other, mostly gold and silver. Beside them were two large dark-gold coins stacked on top of each other, each one as wide as his palm. Goldsteel Royals. Those weren’t meant to be held in a pouch or on your person, but in a chest or to be stacked up in treasuries. Each one was worth fifty gold coins, and justly so. Lucan had always found them the currency most immediately useful, though he hadn’t gotten to use them. You couldn’t eat silver or copper. You could perhaps enchant gold for some of your purposes, but you couldn’t do much with it alone. On the other hand, you could melt goldsteel and forge weapons out of it if you ever needed to do so. Goldsteel coins carried their worth with them. Creating them from gold and steel was where the issue lay. You needed a truly skilled craftsman, a small amount of mythril dust, and, of course, quite a bit of gold.

His father spoke, gesturing at the chest. “This adds up to four hundred gold.”

Lucan looked at his father quizzically. “We still have all this even after the ritual?”

His father glanced at him, and Lucan could almost see some amusement on his face. “This is only part of it. Your grandfather left us a lot. We wouldn’t be here without him, may he rest in peace.”

“What about the fief’s income?” Lucan asked.

“This is more than we make in a year,” his father pointed at the coins. “We get perhaps five hundred gold in taxes every Spring, a lot of which comes in the form of goods or service. We spend what counts for three hundred of it on the estate’s maintenance, including wages and stockpiling foodstuffs.” Done talking, he took out another bronze key which he used to open the smaller chest.

Lucan gaped when he saw what was inside. There were four God’s Orbs. “All this from grandfather’s service?”

His father guffawed and shook his head. “No. Your grandfather was the younger of two brothers in the main line of the family. He didn’t get the land, so my grandfather made sure he was well off before he left to enter the service of the King. He received this.” He tapped the hilt of his goldsteel sword. “And a remarkable amount of coin and Orbs. Of course, he did earn some things himself. Perhaps the most prominent is this here.” His father pulled out one of the four Orbs, showing its three faces.

The gap between Lucan’s lips grew further and he struggled to mouth the words. “Tri-souled?”

“Yes,” his father said proudly. “Your grandfather slew the Herald that coalesced into this himself.” His voice dropped into a whisper as he said the next words. “Dual Casting.”

Lucan’s eyes widened. “This…” He paused, whispering. “This is priceless.”

“Indeed,” his father said. “It could be considered our family treasure, even more so than the sword.”

Lucan nodded. This Orb could be used by a caster to learn Dual Casting which was a very sought-after skill. Or it could be used to significantly raise the level of the skill for someone who already had it, though that would be a wasteful use considering the rarity of the skill. With a Tri-souled Orb, one could learn the skill and surpass the novice and apprentice levels entirely in one step. Dual Casting was considered a gem in the circles of mages, where the basic skills needed to make a mage themselves were rare.

Lucan’s father had briefly talked of a possibility to send him to become a mage, but he hadn’t had enough clout to arrange it. The Royal Academy would have surely accepted him, since his father was a reliable knight and vassal to the king, but finding someone willing to teach the skills needed was another thing entirely. The Masters in the Academy itself only had a limited amount of bestowals to give, and getting those proved too hard, even for someone favored by the King like his father.

Unfortunately, without Spells Galore to contain the spells for him, Dual Casting would have been useless for Lucan. He wondered whether they could’ve traded the Orb for the bestowal needed for him to become a mage, but he banished the thought. It was selfish. His grandfather and his father had kept this Orb preserved for their lifetimes, hoping someone in the family could make the best use of it. Trading it for anything not of equal value would be a massive loss to their family. Perhaps his own son or a grandson could someday make use of this Orb. And it wasn’t like Lucan had been dying to become a mage. The pursuit was infamously restricting and time-consuming. He would’ve been stuck to the Academy and his teachers for a long time, and he wouldn’t have amounted to much before a dozen years in training, if he was fortunate.

His mind returned to the present as his father put the Tri-souled Orb back into the chest and pulled the three other Orbs out in his two hands, gesturing for Lucan to take them. “Use these.”

Lucan almost showed hesitation, but he quickly pushed it down and received the three Orbs. “Feral?”

His father nodded. All of the Orbs used today had to have been Feral, carrying skills unfit for human use. The Heralds that had carried them had been using ‘Feral’ skills, like claw strikes.

“The Two-soul Orb,” Lucan said. “Did grandfather earn that one in combat too?”

His father shook his head. “No, that one was granted to him by the King near the end of his service.” He nodded towards the three orbs in Lucan’s hands. “Go on, use them now. You can ask your questions later.”

Lucan nodded, balancing two of the Orbs in one hand with difficulty and holding the third one in the other hand. He focused on the latter and tried to reach out with his Elder Power. The Orb responded, shining with golden light for a moment, before melting down into a red haze in the shape of an orb. The red Vital Orb floated above his hand for a moment then it sank into his flesh.

You have gained 1 Vital Orb.

Lucan repeated his actions two more times.

You have gained 1 Vital Orb

You have gained 1 Vital Orb

Race: Human

Level: 1

Vital Orbs: 4

Mind and Body

Physique: Basic 0/1

Spirit: Basic 0/1

Skills (2) 0/100

(Passive) Swordsmanship lv19: Apprentice

Lucan eyed his possible progress paths. With four Vital Orbs, he could do a lot. Of course he had to begin with Physique. His father had hammered it into him. In the beginning, it was the most beneficial in relation to its cost. Wasting his orbs on leveling Active Skills early on would be a crime, not that he had any yet.

“Don’t do it here,” his father interrupted his thoughts. “It will be painful the first time. Wait until you’re seated.” He stood up from his crouch. “Come, let’s return to the study.”