“Unfortunately, your mother and I don’t know what it really means to be an antimage, so we’ll have to contact our old friends within the Alirian military, and see what comes back. Okay?” Duncan told his two sons.

“So what can big brother do?” Gen asked.

“Well, from what your mother and I have experienced on the field, an antimage can dispel the magic of another mage, rendering them incapable of condensing an Aspect. The two of you should try it.” Duncan suggested off-handedly.

Looking at each other with renewed vigor, Gen started to condense the Aspect of Light within his body. The soft glow enveloped the room and Gaius sat there with a concentrated look. Realizing that nothing was happening, Duncan offered advice from what little knowledge he had pertaining to antimages, “Try to . . .” was all of the advice he was able to give before Gen suddenly dropped to his knees panting, while Gaius was once again knocked unconscious.

Surprised and panicked, Duncan rushed over to both of his sons. Checking on Gen first as he was still awake and then moving onto Gaius. “Mm, he’s just sleeping like he did before,” Duncan thought to himself. “Gen, how do you feel? What happened?”

“It felt terrible. I don’t know what happened. All of a sudden I felt exhausted. My aura just ripped from my body, I feel so tired,” Gen eventually succumbed and fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Tulia, Chief Hemuk, and Rubio were touring the village’s facilities. Even though Fort Winter was only 500 km northeast of this village—a single day journey, he had never been to the village personally. Only a few select messenger riders that were suited for the hard journey had ever been to these remote villages, and even then to only deliver a message and move on.

“And here, we have our village’s pride and joy, our shieldsmith Sumi Loti and her daughter Kumi,” the chief beamed with pride.

“Ah, yes. I have heard of the famous Golden Bark shields that you manufacture for the cities of Calet. One of my good friends, an old squad-mate in fact, is a logistics officer stationed at Southern Calet, and even he wasn’t eligible for one. Tell me, what makes your shields so sought after?” Rubio inquired.

With a slight smirk on her face, Tulia answered, “It’s a lot easier to demonstrate than it is to speak of its merits. Here.” Tulia threw her own personal Golden Bark shield at the captain. Gracefully catching it, Rubio was barely able to admire the design and its surprising lightness before Tulia charged at him with a full over-head swing of her sword.

Rubio raised the shield to block her incoming swing while silently cursing the mad barbarian woman. To his surprise, he only felt a slight reverberation before he realized that the feet under the shield’s view had retreated. He lowered the shield and was shocked to see her sword deeply lodged into the shield, showing the kind of force she exerted. Tulia gripped the pommel and with a smile dislodged her sword from the shield. “Condense your Aspect into the shield, and watch,” she suddenly told him.

Looking at the huge gash within the shield, Rubio does as he was told and was stunned. Right before his eyes, the shield began to knit over the gash, and in a few breaths the shield was as good as new.

“These shields are lightweight, sturdy, flexible, and absorbent. But the most important thing however, is that the shield is able to regenerate itself from any damage. Even if the shield was sundered,” she informed.

“Remarkable. No wonder your shields are sought after so highly,” Rubio softly spoke.

“The unfortunate caveat though, is that the creation of each shield requires an immense amount of Golden Bark from our forest and other materials. We are only able to produce a dozen a year,” Sumi chimed in.

Finally realizing what had been bothering him since Tulia struck at the shield he asked, “Tulia, what Aspect do you practice?”

“Ah,” Tulia was a bit reluctant to tell these outsiders because it may bring unwarranted attention, but complied anyways because it wasn’t an easy secret to keep, “I practice the Aspect of Light.”

“A Heavenly Aspect!” Rubio exclaimed.

The village chief besides the two was a bit confused, “Heavenly Aspect?” he asked aloud.

Rubio looked at the chief in surprise as well. “Uh, yes. I did not know there was a practitioner of a Heavenly Aspect out here in the countryside. That’s mind-boggling.”

“Er, at the risk of sounding ignorant. May I ask what a Heavenly Aspect is?” the chief stammered.

Tulia gave a caring smile and explained, “It is nothing worthy of distinction, Chief. There are 8 Heavenly Aspects and an infinite amount of Earthly Aspects. Heaven transcends earth, so it is said that the 8 Heavenly Aspects govern the laws of the heaven and earth, while the Earthly Aspects only govern the laws of this planet. The Aspect of Light which I practice just falls under the realm of Heavenly Aspects, nothing to fret over.”

“Nothing to fret over?! A practitioner of a Heavenly Aspect is so rare, that so long as they serve the king they can be instantly elevated to the status of noble! And even if the king made all practitioners of a Heavenly Aspects nobles, there would still be less than a 100!” Rubio shouted.

Chief Hemuk, upon hearing this news, reevaluated the captain of his guard with a more discerning eye. “Why are they so rare?” the chief asked, seemingly to no one in particular.

“Although the amount of people with Heavenly Aspects do not exceed 100 within our kingdom, the limiting factor is that Heavenly Aspects tend to follow strict bloodlines. That is it say that there are only perhaps 8 or 9 families within our kingdom that make up all of our Heavenly Aspect practitioners,” Rubio explained further. Rubio eyed the captain of the guard more closely, trying to figure out which family heritage she belonged to. “There is no way some country bumpkin family would give birth to a random Heavenly Aspect practitioner, she must be a descendent of a family,” Rubio thought to himself, and made a mental note to ask his commander up returning to the fort.

“Alright, enough of this useless talk. Again, Captain Son, we are extremely thankful for your assistance today. I’d like to retire and rest before tonight’s banquet,” Tulia said as she excused herself.

“If I may be so bold, Captain Wyn. May I have a private word with you for a moment?”

Tulia eyed the captain while trying to repress this surging headache she felt coming, “Certainly, I’ll show you to my home.” Upon opening the door to her house, Tulia did not expect to see her two sons on the ground with her husband checking over one of them.

Gen sleeping on the floor as his mother entered the door. Duncan was still determining whether or not Gaius was safe or if he suffered from some sort of backlash when Tulia entered the home. Tulia immediately rushed over to her husband to check up on her sons, while Rubio was standing in a daze at the doorway. Rubio shouted something incoherent to the two parents as they were busy monitoring their kids. Tulia breathed a sigh of relief when Gen showed symptoms of exhaustion, but Gaius seems to be unconscious and leaking an aura. She glared at her husband waiting for an explanation. “I told him about his abilities,” Duncan whispered to his wife, “and I wanted him to practice dispelling with Gen, and then they just both collapsed,” he recounted with a tinge of defeat in his voice.

Suddenly a commotion was heard from the door and the two parents turned to see Rubio accompanied by another mage. Rubio said to the both of them, “I called one of my healers over to examine the two boys, I hope I did not overstep my bounds.”

“Oh no. Please, examine them,” Tulia got out of the healer’s way while pulling her husband beside her. The healer quickly bent over to Gen, who appears to be sleeping fitfully. The healer emitted a cool refreshing blue aura over Gen and quietly nodded his head, and after a few breaths Gen’s breathing becomes stable and calm as his face was more relaxed. The healer then turned his attention towards Gaius.

Just like Gen, a cool refreshing blue aura wrapped around Gaius as it probed and prodded the sleeping boy. To the healer’s surprise however, his aura didn’t penetrate Gaius but was actually repelled away. “Oh?” the puzzled healer tried again, only to find his aura being rebuffed. “How odd,” the healer spoke aloud.

“What is it? Is my son okay?” Tulia asked nervously.

“Hmm? Ah, yes. Actually he’s more than ‘okay’. He seems to be so full of energy that he’s leaking aura. It seems that his body couldn’t handle the shock and he just fainted. If I may inquire, how did the boy gorge himself on so much aura?” the healer asked.

The husband and wife pair looked at each other first with relief in their faces, but at the healer’s question became a bit concerned. Duncan smiled and completely avoided the question, “Ah. Well we thank you for looking after him.”

At the man’s obvious avoidance to the topic, the healer couldn’t help but become more suspicious, but before the man could do anything, “Alright. Thanks for your help Conrad. Let’s leave them to rest a while, huh?” Rubio said. He glanced at Tulia and gave a nod before he said, “perhaps we’ll have that talk another time.”

“What was that about?” Duncan asked his wife.

“He made a big deal earlier about my Heavenly Aspect,” Tulia responded.

“Ah,” after a bit of time Duncan gained the courage to speak his mind, “speaking of it,” was all he could say before he was interrupted by his wife.

“No. I won’t ask them for help. I don’t want their help,” Tulia said through clenched teeth.

“Perhaps, and that’s okay. I don’t mean for you to make up with your parents, but Gaius needs their help. If not your parents’, then definitely your brother’s,” Duncan replied.

Thinking about her younger brother filled her with regret, “Perhaps I could have been more careful with my words when I left,” Tulia thought to herself. Sigh. “Okay. I’ll contact my brother, but only him! I will not have them butt into my affairs.”

Duncan gave a curt nod.

Gen woke up in time to quietly listen to his parents’ conversation, “I wonder what grandpa and grandma are like,” he thought to himself. “Mom, dad. What’s grandpa and grandma like?” Gen and Gaius have asked about their grandparents before but they were always met with the same response, a scowl and a grunt from their mother. Gen hoped to strike while the iron was hot and get as much information from them as possible this time.

Without even asking about her son was feeling, she went off saying “The only thing your grandmother cares about in this world, is how other people think of her. She’s would rather. . .” Tulia was interrupted by her husband. “Ah, ah. They’re not so bad though, right honey?” With that, Tulia gave her normal grunt and scowl as she stormed off into their bedroom. Shortly after she came out with a small wooden box in her hands. The box seemed ordinary enough, perhaps a bit too glossy. But the most discerning factor about the box was that there was no seam. At first glance, Gen thought that the box was actually a block of wood, but when he was younger and played with it, their mother would admonish him to be careful with the ‘box’, so he and his brother always viewed it as such since.

Tulia injected a bit of her aura into the box, and all of a sudden a seam formed and with a click the box lid flew open. Inside it laid a ring with a black smooth gemstone. The gemstone was so black that it seems that the light within the room was being absorbed by it. Tulia grabbed the ring and placed it upon her finger, then she closed her eyes while injecting her aura within it as well. Tulia’s face was first calm, then she smiled. After a while she opened her eyes and looked at her family before her, then closed them again and let out a sigh of relief. She placed the ring back within the box and resealed it—looking like an ordinary glossy block of wood. With the box sealed once more, the light within the room seemed to have gone back to its usual level.

“Go get some rest, dear. And look after your brother. Your father and I have something to discuss,” Tulia said with a tired voice.

At the same time 3,000 km southeast of Golden Bark village an identical ring hummed with power. Its wearer was surprised and told those around him to give him a moment. After closing his eyes and concentrating on the ring, a look of delight and surprise was seen on his face. Afterwards, those around him couldn’t help but notice a perpetual smile that lasted for days.