Chapter 27

Fulfilling Promises

After nearly three days of walking, Sai and company had moved from Albert’s tribe to Sai’s property. This trip was toughest for Sai who had to use magic to make the earth have no traces of people moving on it. The issue was keeping the few footprints that were there originally so as to not make Albert’s family suspect the path was modified.

The entire experience exhausted Sai and he had made promises that he couldn't put off because of a couple hours of sleep were lost. As soon as he arrived to his house he greeted his parents and told them the situation.

“If Albert’s family is as strong as you say, they will find our home here, even if it is a year later, they will find us,” Lavits said.

“I thought of this as well. I'm not sure how we will handle it either, I may have to swallow their homes up with them in it for a day just to protect them.” Sai claimed. He was truly lost at what to do. He had hoped that Albert’s family would just give up looking when they saw the blood at the campsite that Sai made and assume that he died.

“No matter what, they will find out and they will come searching.” Lavits said, he wished to end the discussion because he knew Sai meant well but he didn't think through the situation well.

Sai still kept his promise despite his father’s reluctance. He immediately began working on a house. The scale of this first house was the same size add his own. While making it, he worried to his grandmother, “Was this a bad choice? I know that protecting then is going to be dangerous, but how can I ignore good people?”

“It is not in your nature. Besides, these people will work while your family gets strong. Also, Albert will likely teach you something important, something that your father doesn't know that will help you to become stronger,” Grandma Black assured. Sai didn't know what she was talking about that Albert could teach besides skill.

In just a single day Silent built the first house. It was the size of his own and had room enough for seven to fit comfortably. Sai did not decorate not add all the amenities that his own house has, he was currently more worried about getting the people out of the weather.

Sai spent most of the next six days making houses for Albert’s people, all seven of the houses he made looked the same except Sai marked the front of them with tallies depicting which house was which. Sai had put all of his time and energy into building these houses.

The houses each had several beds, none of which were as fancy as Sai’s own. None of them even had bedding. But the villagers were happy nonetheless.

During the building of the first house, each villager watched impatiently. Many would whisper about the might of magic and how powerful a child could be. The people were amazed that Silent could manipulate the earth after a single set of movements.

After the first house was completed, the novelty had worn off and a different emotion crept in, desire. Sai first noticed about two hours into building the second house. Albert’s people, particularly the younger ones would follow Sai’s motions.

At first it was children of all ages acting like Sai’s magic began with a dance. They stepped when he stepped, his arm thrusted and theirs followed. He bent and so did they.

It must be said that when adding elements to attacks one must do this add well, but it is more subtle. When attacks combine with elements it takes more time than directly attacking but it is also more powerful. When one becomes more proficient in magic they can generally call in the dao with less of a buildup period. But, if one is using all of their strength, they must follow the steps or the magic will not file their will.

Although these steps were ones that Sai made up to make magic do what he wanted, they did not teach the most basic earth magic well. Despite this, Sai had a large group of young men and women copying his motions and trying their hardest to sense the earth beneath their feet.

Sai always welcomed anyone who wishes to better themselves. By the time Sai reached the sixth house, he had nearly every person copying his motions and he could even feel the earth work differently with him. He could feel in two places around the midst of the group. Sai could feel those two places sluggishly follow his commands, but in those places, they moved slower.

At that moment, Sai stopped. He turned and walked to those two, they were relatively close to each other. They were also relatively young. Sai was surprised to find that neither were more than two hand widths taller than him. “You, what is your name?” Dao asked to one of the two whole waiving for the other to come closer.

“My name is Kayla,” one of the young children said, she looked to be about five or six. Her hair was the color of earth energy and her body was the personification of electricity.

“And you?” Sai asked the child he waved over.

“I'm called Carl.” this boy looked to be six, but he was just four like Sai. He was the rock that stands strong against the beating ocean.

“You two are special. You've both grasped the beginning of the dao of earth from my modified movements, while this is good and I will help you develope your strengths, you have to practice further away. If you don't then building these homes will put more strain on me.” Sai was very honest and polite, Sai had high hopes for these two in the future.

“OK, how far though? We still want to see you,” Kayla answered for herself and Carl.

“Only fifty steps away,” Sai replied he would still feel their power, but it wouldn't affect his own.

“Fifty! But that is so far!” Carl complained.

“When you get stronger, and you will, you will understand why fifty is necessary,” Sai said, he wanted to make sure they knew he would help with their cultivation.

“Fine,” Kayla was much more amiable, she began to walk in the opposite direction of the house, making sure to take the smallest steps possible. When Carl saw her he also took tiny steps. Silent sighed then began to work on the house again.

After the sixth day Sai finished with the houses, everyone had a bed and a roof. Things began to go along more smoothly. Sai rested for a day, he could feel that his body was nearly ninety-five percent filled with magic, when he reached capacity he would have to compress all of his magic into a tiny ball in his dantian then he would have to restart the process but with tiny balls of magic.

Sai also felt that he was behind in his martial cultivation because of this. He was only a step or two into the sixth level of the elementary realm in martial cultivation. Sai was being impatient, but he was in fact as strong as some of the strongest people on earth at this point.

After resting Sai decided up his time between being tutored in combat by Albert, spending time with his parents, and teaching Albert’s people how to use magic. Silent felt that he could spend all morning with Albert, sparring. Three hours each day teaching magic to Albert’s people, possibly more for people who are more advanced. The rest of the day would be spent with his family.

During his day of rest, Sai found that Albert along with his people were farming the land, planting new pants that came from where they lived and were more rare in this area, one of which resembled wheat. Sai noticed that Albert’s people were attempting to put together a small grindstone for this, but he could make one much easier with magic. Sai copied the design he used for a grindstone from a video game he played before his death, “I’ll make a grindstone for that, I just want to have some of the product,” Sai told Albert.

“That should be fine,” Albert responded. Albert did notice that with moving to Sai’s property, his power had waned however, he brought this concern to Sai at this time. “Silent, I need to speak to you about something very serious.”

Sai made it a habit of not intruding on Albert’s mind, so he waited patiently for Albert to tell him the issue. “I have noticed that upon moving here, you seem to hold power over my people.” Albert trailed off, not sure how to maintain a relationship with Silent and maintain rule over his people.

“You shouldn’t worry Albert, all that I am doing for your people is upholding promises and trading, think of us as two separate entities. My family will one day have a kingdom, but you will maintain power over your people and their kin. I have no plan to alienate the one friend I have in this world.” Sai assured Albert, “but, I do wish that you would give up your power over your people and place that in the hands of one of them you trust. Not because I don’t feel that you should have it, but because you have more potential than chief of a small tribe. I was hoping that we could adventure and get strong together in the future.”

Albert didn’t know how to respond to this, Sai had proposed something that he had always wanted to do, but had too many responsibilities for. On the other hand, Albert cared for each person in his tribe as if they were family, and he felt obligated to never abandon them. “Silent, I don’t know about this. My people should have me as their leader.”

“Of course, I understand this, that is why I feel that when we both get stronger that you should have a kingdom too. I have no aspirations for political power, but I do aspire to have enough power that my family will never be hurt, that is why we should have kingdoms next to each other, that way we can both keep our people safe, and we won’t step on each others feet.” Sai explained.

“If you say so Silent, but this doesn’t solve the problem right now,” Albert said.

“How does it not, after your people get settled in, we can go adventure, if any of your people are strong enough, they can join us too. Your people will remember you and the person that you put in power would only be temporary until you come back or have a son to take over. Either way, your people will be protected, you will be getting stronger so you will be able to have more people, and you will be able to adventure.” Silent was very adamant about this, Silent knew that the strongest team was a large and cohesive one, Albert would be the backbone to this.

“I really don’t know about this Silent, my people need me.” Albert was still hesitant.

“They will be strong enough when I teach them magic to protect themselves, I could tell that the person protecting you would do well by them, and he is even stronger than my dad and your brother.” Sai encouraged Albert to join him as hard as he could.

“If my people agree to it, I will go, but we can’t go far because I might need to be back at a moment's notice.” Albert reluctantly said.

“Good, I am needing an adventure, the only thing that helps someone get stronger is trials. That is what I need in order to fully protect my family,” Sai was very excited. “Tomorrow, your people will see you beating up on me while we are sparring, and they will know who is boss of them.” Sai reassured Albert

“Maybe, we might raise the bar a bit tomorrow,” Albert joked, then left the room. Sai went to bed imagining that he would fight against monsters and dragons in the near future.