“Everyone has limits. You just have to learn what your own limits are and deal with them accordingly.”

Nolan Ryan

“Take everything in moderation.” Lady Acacia stepped forward stopping the cousins from pledging. “Let Aleera have some time to adjust to her new stats before adding any more.”

Aleera seemed a little unsteady on her feet. I wondered which stats she had lost through the process. Losing 17 stats wasn’t a huge deal for me when I had over 140 it was just a little over 10 per cent of my total vitality. If Aleera only had 50 or 60 it would be closer to 30 or 40 per cent of hers. Yes, we regained a lot of the vitality but losing nearly half of a stat and then regaining it had to feel uncomfortable. If she was balanced beforehand, she might not be now.

Still, she shouldn’t be too far from getting a perk of her own at this rate. I supposed this meant that most nobles would have perks for the more common attributes, from servants, peasants or slaves pledging allegiance. However, at least they would not have the extra attributes I had gained from achieving 100 before age 5 when everybody’s system became viewable. They also wouldn’t have access to the racial traits you could achieve by having over 100 in them before age 1. Unless you could receive stats even before your system was visible. Was that possible?

“So, what now?” Uncle Aaron asked.

“Well, if the children would like to follow me, there is no time like the present to get started. I’m sure you would like to see a return on your investment as soon as possible.” Lady Acacia sidestepped the larger question by focusing on the immediate actions.

“A level’s worth of stats is worth it if it helps my child’s progress. I will soon get it back, all it will take is a little time.” Brielle added.

A level's worth? I only got 5 attributes, half a level's worth. Perhaps it had been divided between the two of us. Would that mean that the cost also got divided between the two of us? Or that the attributes received by the noble family were divided among all family members. The larger the noble family, the fewer stats they would get after sharing it between them. In fact with a noble family of five receiving an oath would only work out even. I wondered how many Adals the system would allow you to create. If I raised the entirety of the island, I could soon get my stats up into the hundreds maybe even the thousands! My line of thinking was mirrored among the adults as they verbalised my question for me.

“How strong can Aleera get? Is there a limit to the number of oaths she can receive?” Cephas asked before Lady Acacia was able to lead all the children out. I say children but the ages ranged from my own, seeing as I was being carried by Aleera, to Aaron’s sons and daughters, Farhoni, Fabrianna and Fabrienne who looked like they were already over twenty.

She paused before leading us out.“Like all things there are limits. A Royal family member can receive up to 100 oaths. This was the main reason I might add that up till this year the number of Lords in Ponente was limited to 100. There was simply no perceived benefit to allowing extra lords to arise by the Royal family. A Duke or Duchess can receive 90, a Marquee or Marchioness 80, an Earl or countess 70, a viscount or viscountess 60, a baron or baroness 50, a lord and lady up to 40 oaths.”

“So Aleera could gain another 23 oaths.” Cephas continued to mine for further information.

“Yes.” She calmly replied. Neither concerned nor worried about giving out what was presumably propriety information. Although what our cousins would be able to do with it was not a lot without some way to raise themselves to lords and ladies themselves. Could I raise them or would I need a royal prerogative? Could I make our island a Kingdom? Probably not without going to war with Ponente, I doubted they would support a new Kingdom being established within their sphere of influence. Even if it was on the very edge of it.

“ . . . “ he was multiplying in his head. “So up to another 230 points worth of stats.” It seemed that much like everyone else he was assuming that Aleera would have received the totality of the stats. Whoops, y daisy. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut instead of silently mumbling along.

“Yes, that should be the case. That is also why it is important to reassess how she is currently balanced to ensure that she receives as many perks as possible from the initial oaths. Most noble children hold at least one perk, bought by gold, owed by oaths, through gold, skills or kills." She answered.

Cephas looked at his youngest Ferris. “Is there any way an Adhal can gain a similar boost through oaths?” Intrigued at what might be achieved for him and his progeny. Any boost that could be achieved before the age of 10 would be worth its weight in gold through the advantage it would give him. The parents with the youngest children looked at them intrigued while they waited to listen intently for the important answer.

“The oaths system is limited to the nobility. However, I am sure you have heard of other authority-based systems. The Cardinals and Ordinals of the Lodestar Church can do something similar with the faith of their followers. In the army, a general likewise can claim the loyalty of his officers his majors, captains and lieutenants. At sea a captain can claim up to 30 pledges of allegiance from his crew, even the lowly knight can claim the pledge of their squires although they are limited to only two.” she added.

“So, in theory by knighting my son, Aleera would allow him to gain twice what he would give her in attributes,” He inquired further.

“In theory yes, but only if the oaths are given freely without duress and are offered honestly with the intent to fulfil their vows. Anything less than the complete truth will not be acknowledged or rewarded by the system.” She answered.

In my head, I went the other way. What about an emperor? How many would they be able to claim? What would you have to do to qualify as an Emperor? Callen Kai Silver sea Emperor of the Ocean had a nice ring to it. King of Kings would it only be additive 110 oaths or multiplicative 1000 oaths. Either way, I was a long long long way away from accomplishing anything like that in this lifetime or the next. However, I knew that the next step for Aleera and I would be to be acknowledged as Baron and Baroness, rather than mere Lord and Lady. Would that require more pearls being sent to the Prince? I was unsure.

Alternatively was it possible for a Baron to raise his Adals to Lords and Ladies? Could I build my own Pyramid scheme with myself as the Pharoh? Or I postulated I could build a hidden kingdom and a hidden army each of my cousins a general in a standing army that acted more like the reserves hidden unless called for. I was sure there were probably limitations in place but it was nice to dream of not only empowering myself but my whole family.

. . .

The Silversea Clans’ children all gathered around the table, for you guessed it, tea. Our first lesson was to be serving tea to one another. I, still failing to reach the table was excused from attempting to serve the tea. The other children looked less than impressed at their first lesson. But were too polite or careful of Lady Acacia to say anything out loud at least.

“First impressions are important.” Lady Acacia said taking her position at the top of the table. “You can never make the first impression twice. It might seem obvious but a surprising number of people forget this fact. We might modulate our opinions of others up and down from what they first are but they will always be based on our first impressions. Rarely will someone be given the opportunity to shatter the first impression they made. For the most part, all they can do is slowly improve or quickly lower someone’s opinion of yourself. That is why it is imperative that the first one you make is the best it can be. I can tell from your facial expressions that a fair few of you seem less than impressed at the idea. Consider this my first impression of you. Could it be better? Aleera, my dear would you care to demonstrate the benefits of working with me over the last month.”

“Certainly, Lady Acacia,” Aleera answered before she began to set the table and pour the tea.

Having watched her improvements over the last month it did not seem too miraculous to me as she glided around the room to set things up. Especially as we had verbal explanations of all the skills she was using up till now and exclamations each time she had received a new one or managed to level it up.

She was using Glide, Ambidextrous, Poise, Grace, Charm, and Composure, as well as her more recently learned skills Silent step, Deft touch, Posture and Dance to make setting the table and laying out tea an almost magical moment. It just needed some music to become part of a choreographed musical or Disney film. That or we needed some dwarfs and some plates to make it seem more miraculous that no plates were smashed.

The cousins lost a little of their scepticism as they watched my sister achieve everything flawlessly. It was hard to argue with skills and the last time they had seen Aleera she had none of the above. Neither had I for that matter but I wasn’t giving the demonstration here she was. Whatever weakness she had had from the transferral of stats seemed to have left her by now and she was making extra use of the dexterity to go that little bit faster than usual. We had been given a preview of the skills on display here most mealtimes perhaps in practice for today’s events. It was hard to judge how far ahead Lady Acacia was planning or what she viewed as the next steps in Aleera’s journey to become a suitable noble Lady.

I enjoyed watching the performance. She had learned silent step by the expedience of wrapping cloth around her shoes initially before practising without. Deft touch had been achieved using an enchanted toy that zapped you with every misplaced movement much like the fairground challenge where you had to move a hoop along a copper wire. Posture was just another version of poise but had been achieved similarly. Dance was learned through movement to music and was my favourite skill finally helping me overcome my two left feet. In the privacy of my hidden tunnels, I danced to music only I could hear.

I settled down to watch while Lady Acacia started to teach our cousins. She seemed to be determined that each child would have gained a skill by the time they left the island this afternoon. While the younger of us were able to watch without too much being demanded of us. She was still under the allusion that I had yet to be able to view my status. While I watched the fumbling attempts of my cousins to reach the level of perfection required by the strict tutor I wondered what the adults were discussing back in the hall.

. . .

The Silversea clan stood in a smaller circle now that their children had left. "Well, father are you happy now?" Aaron asked Grandpa Smit. "Your descendants are finally ennobled. But will it be worth the cost and can we weather the storm it will bring?"

"It will be worth it." Grandpa Smit replied.

. . .