“The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, lies in its loyalty to each other.”

Mario Puzo

We spent the entire day holding the Lodestar with Aleera attempting to gain the Inspect skill. I continued to practice my skill having already gained it. I also discovered it was not limited to the stones. I could now inspect the tree by touch, the stone under our feet, and all the items that made up my clothing. The mana within the gemstones certainly made it easier to do so but it was not impossible with the other objects. Despite my pleasure at being able to do so, other than the names of the gemstones which I could have guessed, it did not show me anything I did not already know. Still, it was good practice to continue levelling up the skill. The next step would be to do so without touching said objects but I was not there yet.

“How has the day progressed?” Lady Acacia asked as she arrived to escort us back down to dinner.

“We haven’t got the skill yet,” Aleera answered for the two of us. I felt a little off at the deception but if I achieved it tomorrow, I could always say I spend the night practising.

“It takes time, and we are rushing for the arrival of the Archbishop. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself to achieve it. We will try again tomorrow but ultimately it is Kai who needs the skill far more than you. While your attributes are wonderful, they are not as outlandish or eye-catching as his.” She explained.

Aleera nodded her understanding. Not yet disappointed by the fact that I already had it.

“Kai you will need to keep practising. Aleera while don’t you go on ahead while he puts in a little more practice? It is not unheard of for scions to sleep in the light of the Lodestar in their chapels until they have gained the skill. Although admittedly they would be a little older when attempting to do so.”

“If Kai is going to sleep up here through the night, I don’t see why I can’t too. We can keep each other company.” She volunteered.

“Very well, but you will still need to organize some bedding to be brought up either way. Time to be about it.” Lady Acacia capitulated to her suggestion while still requiring her to step away to facilitate it.

I waved at Aleera as I stood there still holding the Lodestar. Resigned to returning Aleera rolled her eyes and departed to pick up something for us to sleep on. I could form some stone beds, but no one could call stone particularly soft. As she left I wondered whether my attempt with my secret sliver of Lodestar had worked or not. It looked like it would be a little longer before I could return and check up on my experiment. Lady Acacia seemed keen to keep me here while sending my sister away.

We watched Aleera depart and stood there in silence for a while longer.

“You have stopped testing the gemstones?” she pointedly questioned the fact that with Aleera gone I had not resumed my checking of the stones.

“Right,” I started and picked up the stones once more. Without Aleera to pass them on to I was putting them back into the box before picking up the next. But my skill was not telling me anything new, only their names and their tiers.

“So you already have the skill then?” Lady Acacia questioned after watching me for a moment. I thought I had kept everything identical to before she had first left but clearly not.

“Um, yes?” I winced. “How can you tell?” I asked intrigued.

“First off, your silence when Aleera answered for the two of you, that was unusual to hear you chime in. Second, you are holding the gemstones for a far shorter period of time than when you first did. Either you already have the skill or you have gotten lazy in attempting to gain it, something that would be distinctly out of character. Thirdly, you just confirmed my suspicion now. If you wished to avoid answering you should have responded with a question or firm denial if your Lie, deceive or mislead skill is not sufficiently high enough to defeat your questioner’s skills. For example, you could have asked, what makes you think that? This would have deflected the question without having to either confirm or deny my suspicions.”

“Oh.” I sighed out loud a little defeated at the defeat of my deception. Not that I had ever planned on holding onto it for too long.

“I am assuming that you did not wish to dispirit your sister.” She sighed.

“Yes, she tried just as hard as me it did not seem fair that I should be rewarded with the skill first when she was trying just as hard.” I knew that she was proud of my successes, but it had to wear on her. But I could not see a solution other than the multitude of areas I was attempting to focus on meant that I could leave areas she was interested in alone, such as merchanting. As long as she was making me money too did it matter?

“Fair? No, I guess not but life is never fair. Circumstance has just as much to do with success as the effort you make. You have a significant advantage over her with your traits and stats it is to be expected that you would gain the skill first and you should not hobble yourself in attempting to keep up her spirits you will do neither of you two any favours in the long run.” She cautioned.

“I know it is just difficult, I thought I would wait till tomorrow to tell her I have it,” I admitted.

“Very well but this should not stop you from attempting to gain the next skill in the tree. Once you have inspect and can do so by touch the next step is to move forward to try and gain observe. It is essentially the same skill but only using the light of the lodestar through sight rather than using the magic of the Lodestar through your sense of touch.

“How do I go about doing that then?” I asked.

“The same way that you have been learning the inspect skill. You keep inspecting the gemstones using the light of the lodestar but this time you need to be attempting to do so before you touch them.”

“I just need to look at things?” I raised my eyebrow

“No, you need to observe them.” She corrected my language. “You need to try to inspect an object without touching it.” She reiterated her earlier point. “It will take time but judging by the fact that it took you less than a day to acquire the inspect skill it is not beyond you to learn it. Congratulations on your progress by the way. You managed to achieve it far faster than expected. At this rate, I truly do have some hope that we will be able to construct either an artificial status or at least hide your current one from any Archbishop that comes calling.”

It was not long before Aleear returned huffing and puffing with two bedding rolls. She was so keen to gain the skill that she had also brought up our supper and informed everyone that we would be eating and sleeping up here for the foreseeable future. Cora and Baldric would bring up better accommodations tomorrow but would not be able to purchase them before then.

We had a quick repast before we continued with our practice. Both of us attempting to gain a skill though the name of it now differed.

. . .

“What do you mean there is no land for sale?” The Archbishop inquired of the tax man on Wester Levante. It had been a passing whim to construct a new pilgrimage shrine to document their passing. But the passing thought was quickly becoming a minor vexation.

“That currently there is no land for sale outside of the individual plots held by the residents of the town.” He repeated what he had already told the Archbishop and stood there clearly uncomfortable at having to tell a member of the Church no.

“What about plots marked for expansion and held by the crown?” he asked confused. The town had only recently become part of the Princedom of Ponente as such he had not thought that much of the land would have been bought as far out as it was from the centre of power.

“They have already been bought as well.” He winced as he continued to repeat what the Archbishop failed to understand through surprise and the novelty of the answer.

“All of them?” he asked curiously confused.

“All of them,” he repeated cautiously

“Very well. Please could you direct me to the individuals who have bought the plots?” He inquired calmly once more. There was no need to let his frustrations colour the man’s impression of him he believed in balance before everyone both the mighty and messengers with ill news.

“That would be the Silversea family.” He responded curtly happy to be able to answer the question.

“The Silverseas? One family owns all of the lands on the western edge of the island. I was unaware of any major landowners on the island otherwise I would have inquired directly with them. Where is their residence?” He stated surprised that a single family on this distant island had sufficient funds to purchase most of it but also please he now had a direction to make his inquiries.

“They do not reside on the island.” The taxman hesitatingly responded now that he was back to disappointing the man from the church.

“They are a central compass family from Ponente? That will make the purchase all but impossible in the time I have allocated for this pilgrimage. Is there no other way to get in contact with a supervisor capable of selling the land? Surely the mayor can manage minor matters on their behalf seeing as they are so distant.”

“They are a lot closer than that and they can be found on Wester Ponente the next island across and the very edge of the Compass. I believe that the Town Mayor is in contact with them although I do not believe he can make decisions on their behalf.” He informed and cautioned.

“What an unusual family, I will certainly visit your Mayor to see if this is possible. Then if not I will meet them in person when I arrive on their island.” He stated.

“But before I go I would like to see the taxes collected for the last decade the amount taken by the crown and the tithes received by the Church of the Lodestar. There should be enough time for a short audit to check your books are balanced while our ship is provisioned and the spare sail mended.”

“Of course,” the taxman replied pulling out his ledgers. A drop of sweat slid down from his temple.

The Archbishop noted his stress and wondered whether it was merely the inspection or if there was something else further out of balance in the books.

. . .

The next morning, we awoke a little stiff, the stone beds had been shaped as comfortably as possible but there was only so much I could do. The bedding Aleera had brought had also helped but what helped the most was the age of my body. A few stretches had the majority of the kinks pulled out.

We had a small breakfast and then started again.

“Aleera,” I quietly asked, it was just the two of us again, I had to tell her as I needed to focus on attempting to gain the next skill. “I’ve gained the skill,” I whispered my success.

“Of course you have.” She replied. “Well done Kai. As she said you need it more than I do.” She calmly congratulated me after her initial exasperation.

“Thank you. I was worried that you would be more upset.” I quietly continued the conversation.

“I’ve always known you were a little bit of a monster. There is no reason for me to be surprised about it now. In fact, if there is a day where you have not done something ridiculous that is the more surprising event.” She answered. “Besides, I’m only human, not a little monster.” Her comment cut.

“An Arithmos.” I corrected a little hurt. Whenever she had called me a little monster it had always felt like a joke rather than a name she called me. This time I wasn’t so sure.

“Yes but not exactly human anymore. I wouldn’t attempt to compare my vitality with an elf, my strength with a giant, my endurance with a dwarf. Why should I compare my skill gain with you when you are no longer human?” she declared. “No one has ever heard of an Arithmos how do we even know they are a noble race, not a base race?” she asked.

I stood there stunned. I had tried to soften the blow by waiting a day but it had made no difference, in the end. It had been a straw too many that had broken the camel's back. I looked at my sister shocked by the turn in the conversation.

“I like to think it means a man of numbers,” I replied. “A man of civilization.” Numenorean and Superman were already taken. “I’ll give you some space,” I said before departing the heart grotto. Her upset was understandable as much as it was hurtful to hear. She would hopefully get the skill soon and be a little less jealous of the speed at which I had acquired it. We all have our good days and our bad. Just needed a little time apart. I returned home the spiral staircase had never felt so long that I was tempted to add a slide as I went to speed things up next time.

I returned to my room and dug through my chest to see if my experiment was still alight. Relief shone through me as its light filled the room. It had not died. I placed the amulet around my next once more the light hidden by my chest and clothing and headed for our store room where the pearls were kept. There was no reason to stop practising. The pearls were the perfect product to see if I could gain the observe skill on. They looked the same or similar most of the time despite their differing tiers. Mercurio was in for a shock if he attempted to purchase in bulk at the same price again.

I opened a small chest of pearls we had cultivated and started to line them up for separating gathering several other boxes to place them into once I was done. First I was going to separate them. Then I was going to test my observations with the skill inspect. Rinse and repeat till I gained the skill. I was still standing in the Light of the Lodestar with it pressed against my chest.

I spent all morning separating the pearls and attempting to judge their tiers but had no success. I saw no one all morning but I had not hidden in my secret passages because I was sulking. Just focused on getting the next skill. It was not until lunchtime that I emerged and made my way to the dining room for food.

A rather contrite Aleera had returned for food too. But we said nothing to one another as we sat in awkward silence while Cora and Baldric set out the meal. Our mother and Lady Acaia looked on in confusion and suspicion.

“What happened?” Mother asked me.

“Nothing,” I replied. Still unsure about what the right thing would be to say to Aleera or how to mention it to the adults without causing the whole problem to worsen.

“Nothing?” she inquired of Aleera.

“Um, . . . frustration at how long the skill was taking to acquire led to some thoughtless and unkind words.” Aleera eventually answered. Coming close to apologizing for her earlier outburst. She gave me a sad smile of shame.

“Kai?” mother checked with me that I was alright.

“Like I said it was nothing. We’re family first and foremost no matter how different we are.” I extended an olive branch to Aleera. Yes her words had hurt but I could only imagine how difficult it was to watch me gradually overtaking her in everything I did.

“Well said,” Mother added, “We all threads in the tapestry that makes up this family and love are the ties that bind us.” She reminded Aleera and me.

We did not pray before our meals but the shift from awkward stilted silence to forgiving acceptant quiet inspired the rest of the table to add their pearls of wisdom.

“Family is an anchor during rough waters. Hold tight to it.” Father nodded his support of my forgiveness to both of us.

“Family are like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions and sometimes at different speeds but our roots remain as one.” Lady Acacia chimed in with her tree-inspired words.

“Blood is thicker than water.” Grandfather's gruff response once more demonstrated his point graphically.

. . .

When the meal finished we left the parents at the table and Aleera went back with me to my room.

“I’m sorry.” She told me in the privacy of my room.

“It’s okay. I get it.” I smiled. “Want to pay me back?” I asked.

“Sure. What do you want now?” she asked unsure if she wanted to offer what I would be asking for.

“Just the use of your legs,” I answered.

. . .

“Des, Sinis, Baldric or Cora could have done this.” She grumbled a while later.

“Yes, but you did offer.” I cheekily replied just a few steps higher than her.

She continued to haul the boxes of pearls up the steps in the sack I had found for her. We were back on the same bearing.

. . .