Scars, visible or not, are a reminder and a promise. Do not be ashamed of your ability to live. Rather pity those with unblemished flesh and souls because they live a lie and their lives lack substance.

~Belenus the Sun God

Mara was a surprise Crow hadn’t expected. Things were already complicated, and he didn’t want to be the one that held her back if he failed. With nothing else to do, he headed down to the False Dawn workshop early. He had tried to find Gavin, but he and his grandpa Niall snuck off earlier, probably heading back to the aptitude testing. The previous Ovate Circles were still there. Either way, Crow didn’t think about it too much because Song Lin was right; he needed to carve.

The Librarian looked over when he appeared but didn’t move otherwise. Crow was in the habit of ignoring it, but he wondered when Arawn would awaken again. Namely, he wanted to ask if there was anything in the Triskelion Archives that was worth grabbing. His group took third in the Hunt because the Duncan boys remained in the pocket world. It meant they did not disqualify their group.

Reaching the back corner of the workshop, Crow grabbed a wood block and put it on the table in front of him. Staring at the block, he decided not to focus on anything. It was a trick described in the vestige for allowing his hands to find the wood’s soul within. He’d already placed his tools on the table around him and grabbed a carving blade to shave off pieces of wood. In time, his soul, hands, and wood connected.

The next few hours went by as if he had cultivated. The only pause in his movements was when he swapped tools. Sometimes he wanted to gouge and not cut. Entranced, the only measure of time came from the black fire incubating inside him. A deep part of his mind knew that Soul Carving defied nature but never gave himself enough focus to understand why. It felt insignificant compared to his hands’ movement and sensing the shape within the wood. Crow worked until exhaustion set in, and his movements slowed. Once he stopped, the object sucked in ambient mana until it hardened. The hardening was the irrevocable step that ensured that his soul left the carving. Anyone that tried to carve the object in the future would end destroying the imbuement.

“Huh?” Crow snapped out of his trance, only to find he had finished. On the workbench in front of him was a man standing amongst flames. A hood pulled up over his head, and his face nondescript. At first, Crow thought the man was him, but while the fire felt similar, he wasn’t so sure it was him. The odd part was that the flames on the carving were black. He’d used oak, which was a light-colored wood.

“You manifested your Soul Burn and slowly roasted the wood as you carved,” Gavin said, uncrossing his legs and sitting up in the nearby chair. He put his book down and looked at the creation Crow had made and felt an aura of torment coming from it.

“So my Night Fire has some uses,” Crow grimaced.

“May I?” Gavin asked, pointing toward the carving, and Crow nodded weakly. Gavin picked the figurine up and sensed the menacing fire, but it didn’t burn when he touched it. It definitely gave off heat, but the torment and fiery menace within were illusory. Gavin could feel the effects of Soul Burn without having it ravage his body and knew cultivating with it would provide significant benefits.

Gavin didn’t like that he could sense Crow’s essence in it, and for the first time, could feel the complicated nature of Soul Burn. There was also the undercurrent of ancient power in those flames, which made him think back on Mugna’s words when the boy awakened his first chakra. This carving worried him because the amount of pain packaged into this thing made him second guess the method he wanted to use on the boy.

“It really is impressive you can create something of this level. The detail is getting better, and the lines look cleaner. What do you want to do with it?”

“Sell it in the clan store?”

“We can do that. It would be a good idea for you to build up your wealth anyway.”

“In case I fail?”

“No, in case you succeed. You are going to need a lot of resources,” Gavin smiled.

Crow laughed. “You planned to say something different if I asked about succeeding, right?”

“Yes, sir,” Gavin chuckled. “Let’s go, time for you to see what I’ve thought up.” Gavin led the way to the Scarification work area. There was a table with a pad on it, and the old man pointed towards it. “Do you know what a Celtic Knot is?”

“I do. Elder Quinn showed me them a few days ago and helped me get through a bottleneck. My affinity towards them as formations is strong.”

“That’s great to hear because they are difficult to learn normally. You see, a knot isn’t a two-dimensional creation. Tiers are based on the number of layers you manage to stack, with nine being the highest. If you can do a Nine-layered Celtic Knot, you are considered a grandmaster in that talent.”

“And this is a three-layered knot?” Crow asked, after seeing how the lines crawled over and under each other.

“Yes, and no. It is hard to describe because it’s something new. We create normal knotwork patterns with one continuous line. This is something I designed by layering multiple patterns together. Each pattern is one continuous line, but there are eight patterns in this one design. See how each of these lines weave in between each other?”

Gavin walked Crow through the multiple layers of the drawing. It was created on numerous thin, see-through paper sheets that allowed the patterns to overlap. Stacked together, the completed design was visible. It was actually a three-layered eight-knot pattern with the bottom sheet the outline of a person.

Crow’s eyes hurt just trying to follow the patterns because it felt as if it was constantly shifting. Even with his untrained eyes, he could tell this thing was beyond extraordinary. It might even be one of the most profound things he’d ever seen.

“What does it do?” Crow asked, not lifting his eyes from the sheets of paper before him.

“I’m calling it Elemental Subversion.”

“That sounds domineering. So this will help me resist the fire inside me?”

“It is much more than that. If this works, it’ll tame the five prime elements,” Gavin said and pointed at five locations on the diagram. Shoulders, hips, and neck. Each of these locations is an elemental knot. Still, we can rotate the design to put any element in the primary spot on the neck. For you, we are placing fire there since it’s most critical. This isn’t something that I can complete in one sitting. Each layer must be created in the order I’ve arranged those sheets. You’ll need a few days to heal before we start the next layer. If all goes well, the top layer will harmonize and link each knot, so the lines have no beginning or end.”

“If those are all the elementals, then what are these other three knots?”

“This one around the perimeter of the design is the Shield Knot. You should get familiar with it because it is the most commonly used knot in Celtic formations. Shield is misleading because it is more like a domain.”

“So it’s not always used for blocking, but to create something within its scope?”

“Well, I’m glad you haven’t been shirking your responsibilities,” Gavin laughed. “That is exactly what that pattern does. Notice it’s not really all that complex, but if you expand it, there is a lot of space to weave other patterns into it. This next knot is used a lot with the shield pattern, and it’s called the Mitigation Knot. This one isn’t all that great by itself, but combine it with a Shield Knot and Fire Knot, and you have a great formation. The shield will block the fire, and mitigation will lessen the amount of damage the shield takes.”

“I think I understand your plan, but what does that last knot do then?”

“Any guesses?” Gavin asked with a grin.

“Not really. If this design is supposed to help me resist fire, I don’t know of another formation concept that’d help,” Crow spoke honestly. He felt it wasn’t a problem of comprehension but of missing knowledge.

“That last knot is something new, so don’t beat yourself up over it. It was the reason I left. During that time, I went to the Beastlords because quite a few owe me. We discussed sigils and Blood Runes. You can say the Blood Rune is the Beastlords’ contribution because it is a type of body tempering. Using that as the foundation, I designed this, which I’m calling the Tempering Knot.”

“Are you saying it’ll make my body more resistant to fire?” Crow asked, feeling more and more like he was witnessing some sort of miracle.

Gavin let out a booming laugh while shaking his head. “You don’t get it yet. It’s Elemental Subversion. In the right situation, you can temper your body against all five prime elements—that’s permanent resistance. Not only that, this old man forced them to give me high-tier elemental beast cores that align with the five prime elements. This is one reason we can’t complete this in one sitting. The other is that the Tempering Knot requires your blood essence, so we’ll need to recover that between each session too. You’ll be eating a lot of meat.”

“This is a Masterwork design?” Crow asked incredulously.

“Is it?” Gavin stopped laughing and looked down at what he’d done.

“I’ve reviewed quite a lot of Scholarly Talents and the Masterwork associated with them to get an idea of what they could offer. If this doesn’t qualify, nothing does. Wait, this is Scarification, right? How exactly are you—”

“Hehe, you sad little thing,” Gavin’s eyes twinkled dangerously. “You are just now realizing what I’m about to do to you?”

“Y-y-you are a monster,” Crow whispered, seeing the sharp blades and bowls of ground-up elemental powders that he assumed were the beast cores.

“Well, it is a body modification method. What did you think that meant? You going to get on that table willingly, or do I need to knock you out?”

Crow felt that Gavin’s smile no longer resembled a wise uncle but that of a mad genius about to do something unethical. Crow doubted it could be worse than—

“What!?” Crow nearly shouted, seeing something in the design he hadn’t noticed previously. It wasn’t the knots but the negative space at the center of the design. It had an outline that he’d only saw out of the corner of his eye. He looked up at Gavin, who was startled by Crow’s outburst. “Did you mean to make that pattern in the center?”

“What pattern? That’s about where your Source is, so we don’t want to cover it, or it could interfere with your Shield. You’ll understand when you form one.”

“No, look at it again, look at the outline. That’s a three-headed Sluagh—”

“What did you just say?” Gavin surged forward, and his hand clamped onto Crow’s mouth. “Where did you hear that name? I know for a fact it’s not in any books we have down here. Speak, but do not say that name.”

The old man released Crow’s face.

“It-that-umm,” Crow had never seen his uncle like this and felt himself shake a little from fear. It is no wonder people tiptoed around him. “It’s from my nightmares.”

“You are sure this looks like one?” Gavin asked, scrutinizing the interior part of his design. It was easy to see once pointed out.

“Well, yes. Sort of. The thing was—I don’t have a good word for it, it changed a lot.”

“Amorphous,” Gavin supplied.

“Yes, that. It shaped itself from the black fire and mostly took the shape of a blackbird or crow. Multiples would sometimes combine, but the three-headed one was the most defined. It looked like that.”

“Well,” the old man breathed. Crow waited silently for the next ten minutes, not daring to speak or move. “Sorry, kid. I wasn’t trying to harm you, just stopping you from harming yourself. I’d say you were a fool, but that’d make me one for not understanding your curse. I don’t believe in coincidences, and your insight gives the design credence.”

“I’m not sure what that means,” Crow said slowly.

“That creature we won’t name is heavily linked to karma. Karma and fate connect us all with invisible threads. Pulling on one string and is like fishing in the dark. You never know what is at the other end of the line. I don’t profess to be an expert on karma or fate. In fact, I avoid that stuff. However, I didn’t get to where I am without being sensitive to the threads that connect me. This feels like an affirmation.”

Gavin realized during his pursuit of this knowledge, most of his bottlenecks had ceased existing. His obsessive behavior lately, the drive to help his nephew, had pushed him hard. His research opened his mind to more Truths, and his understanding had increased by a massive amount. The barrier that had held him back previously was gone. If he entered the tower, he knew he could move up another floor or two.

“Teacher? Uncle? You okay? Alas, I have no medicines for senility.” Crow finally interrupted Gavin’s silent contemplation. “Take your time to answer. I got all night.”

“Pfft, you brat. Take off your shirt and lay on the table face down.” Gavin shoved a piece of leather into Crow’s mouth and whispered, “Bite down on that. Let’s see how much you make fun of this old man after I cut your body to pieces.”