Chapter 4: Hanging by a Thread

Cafe Lustrous, an extremely popular cafe located in the downtown of Isolde City. It offers both indoor and outdoor seating, which gives customers an opportunity to take in the beautiful city. At a table in the outdoor seating, a boy with a sullen face and athletic tape wrapped around his right hand sits alone.

This is awful...

Two days had passed since Sokar had awakened his powers. Yesterday, he spent his time testing the limitations of greed, and his findings were not toh is pleasing. Sighing in frustration he brings out a small notebook from his pocket and opens it up to the first page, which lists his findings about Greed.

Greed

Lasts for 12 minutes when using all of Ka.

Can lift around 350 Pounds when using all of Ka

Disperses completely if more than 75 feet away

It’s too limited, if that monster tried to attack me, I’d be done for sure. If only the Ka wasn’t as scarce as it is, then even with the range I could stand a fighting chance. I wonder if the First or Second had these same problems.

An idea suddenly pops into Sokars head and his eyes widen, before he’s interrupted by the waitress bringing his drink.

“Heya there Sokar! Here’s the usual, dark roast coffee with two sugars!”

“Thanks, Alice.”

Sokar reaches out for the drink and Alice looks at his hand with concern.

“Sokar! What happened to your hand, did you get hurt?”

“Ah.. yeah, I sprained it saturday. It’s nothing serious.”

Looks like the athletic tape is doing its job. I can't let anybody see the brand for now, it'd just bring way too much attention

“That’s awful! Sokar you’ve gotta be more careful, I don’t know what we’d do without our best customer!”

Alice looks into Sokars eyes with a worried face. Eventually she sighs and begins to continue her work. After she leaves Sokar continues to mull over Greed’s limitations.

I need to find a way to improve Greed. But... I have no idea how, or if it’s even possible to. The Spirit of the jade probably knows, but it hasn’t talked to me since the brands manifested. I don’t know if there’s anyway to contact it. My only hope is the World Essences the Spirit talked about, but I have no idea what a World Essence even is.

Sokar leaves the cafe and heads to his apartment, still thinking about Greed, the jade, and the World Essences.

The Spirit said that I was the third inheritor, and that what I inherited was different from the First and the Second, but we all received abilities in the same category, we all received a Day and a Sin. What about my Ka? The Spirit didn’t say anything about it, all it said was that I would receive the First Day and Greed. For the First Day and Greed, I atleast have at least a faint idea on what they are, but the Ka is completely foreign. I have no clues or leads about it. There’s something else I’ve been confused about too, the brands I recieved. The First Day and Greed originate from the bible, why would the brands on my body be Egyptian? It just doesn’t make sense.

Sokar continues to lose himself in thought as he heads back to his apartment, meanwhile at Cafe Lustrous a man arrives wearing a scarlet suit. His eyes scan the cafe, looking for something. He places an order and takes a seat, his eyes continue to scan the room until his order is brought by Alice.

“Here you go sir, enjoy!”

His eyes go wide for a instant but he quickly composes himself, smiling at Alice he thanks her for his order. She turns away and continues her work, and a deep frown covers his face and he begins to mutter to himself.

“So close. So close… Her essence is almost pure enough, but something has started to pollute her. She must have come into contact with something un-pure, a heretic. Damnit… I don’t have time to search the city for another with this quality. I need to find the source of the pollution, as long as I destroy it her essence will return to its pure, untainted form. Is it possible the source of the pollution is around here?”

The man’s eyes begin to probe around the room, looking deeper into previous people he wrote off. A look of bewilderment fills his face, quickly replaced by anger.

“This is impossible! Over half the people in here are suffering from the same pollution? I need to find the source. Since not all of the customers are suffering from it, it shouldn’t be something in the store. It must have came and went earlier. It looks like I have to resort to using my blessing.”

The man takes a small wooden cross from his pocket, inscribed on it is several small symbols and writings in a foreign language. He mutters a small prayer under his breath and the cross begins to burn away.

“Show me the path, show me the way to the heretic!”

As the cross becomes ash, a small grey thread begins to form, visible only to the man. The thread ties itself around the man’s finger and quickly flies away, looking for the source of the pollution. The thread eventually finds its mark, Sokar. It ties itself around his finger, but he continues to walk without a clue, having no idea the trouble coming for him.

“I’ve found it! I’ll rid the world of this stain, and then god will forgive me.”

The man leaves the Cafe, following the thread towards Sokar. Meanwhile Sokar finally arrives at his apartment, still oblivious to the incoming danger.

This day has been a waste, I still haven’t gotten any idea on how to improve Greed. And when it comes to Ka, I have more questions than I started with.

Sokar sighs and removes the athletic tape from his hand, allowing the eye of Ra to once again become visible to the world.

The First Day... I haven’t put as much thought into it as I have Greed or even my Ka. I just don’t see anyway it can really be useful, but I need to keep testing with these abilities, I need to improve as fast as possible. That monster might still be looking for the jade.

Sokar begins to focus on his Ka inside his body and moves it into his brand. A small ball of light no bigger than a seed forms, floating above his hand and giving off a soft glow and putting off a bit of heat.

It’s the same as before, it’s just a ball of light. It might be useful to light up a dark room, but woul- huh? What... What is that?

Sokar is shocked by the sight on his right hand, as a small grey thread tied to his index finger inexplicably comes into view.

When did that get there?

Sokar tries to grab the thread on his finger, but when he does his hand simply passes through the thread, grasping nothing but air.

What? I’m not just seeing things am I?

He slowly moves more Ka into the Eye of Ra, and the ball slowly grows brighter and brighter revealing more of the thread floating in the air

Just how much of this thread is there? It cuts off at a certain point in the air...

Once again, he moves Ka into the Eye of Ra. The ball grows brighter and brighter, revealing more of the thread. Sokar stares in shock at the ever increasing amount of thread and absent mindedly continues to focus Ka into his brand. Eventually the ball explodes in a flash of light, once again temporarily blinding Sokar.

Damn, again!?

Sokar composes himself after his mistake and looks at his right hand confusedly, seeing no traces of the grey thread that was just there. He looks around him and also notes that the grey thread that was floating in the air is now also gone.

So the First Day really was making it visible, maybe it isn’t as useless as I first thought it was!

Sokar again moves the Ka into his brand, recreating the ball of light. But this time, no grey thread is there to be seen.

It’s gone? Was I just seeing things that whole time? Damn, maybe this stress is getting to me.

*okar looks confusedly at the ball of light, pumping more and more Ka into it, seeing that the grey thread doesn’t appear, he closes his eyes and focus’s the remaining Ka into his brand, making the ball of light once again explode in a flash.

I suppose it really was just my mind playing tricks on me.

Sokar decides to take the rest of the day to rest and heads to sleep. Meanwhile a few blocks away from his apartment, the man in the scarlet suit looks at his hand with extreme shock.

“It’s gone... The blessing granted to me by god was destroyed!? How, how is that possible!?”