“When the puzzling problems of life perplex,

And dangers threaten and failures vex,

May the Angels form in a magic ring

And shelter your life from everything.”

Anon

“We are truly grateful for everything that you have done for us.” The mayor bowed low as Archbishop Grigori walked down the dock to board his ship, True Bearing.

“I was only doing my duty.” He replied calmly. Their visit here had taken far more time than he had planned for it. But balancing the town before moving on had been the right thing to do. It had not been the only infection found as he had blessed the town which had led them to the granary and bakery before he felt confident in leaving.

“Yes, but we weren’t even aware of the Ergot infection. That could have decimated our food supplies if you had not been here to purify them. We would have had to throw the whole lot out.” The mayor continued in his effusive praise.

“I’m glad I was able to help. I hope you will be able to support the building of the Western point Pilgrimage marker when you receive permission for it.” He confidently stated. He was convinced the Silversea family would see no harm in selling such a small plot of land or allowing one to be erected in the correct place if they were unwilling to sell the land.

“Of course, it would be my pleasure to.” He bowed low once more.

“Then it is \ time to be going.” He ended their conversation and stepped onto the gangplank and walked up the to ship’s deck. He turned one last time to address the crowd that had gathered on the dock, “Farewell Wester Levante. May you keep your bearings and ever walk straight in the guiding light of the lodestar.”

The small crowd bowed their heads in acceptance before raising them to see him off. It was a calm and restrained farewell for the man who had helped so many in such a short time but quiet respect for the Archbishop was much preferred over the loud adulation the nobility sometimes demanded of their subjects.

“Archbishop we are ready to set sail.” The captain arrived at his elbow.

“Then let us leave in the Light of the Lodestar.” He said raising his hand in a final wave to the townspeople of Wester Levante the blue light of the Lodestar shone forth from the signet ring on his right hand.

. . .

“A kind man the Bishop helped with an Ergot infection and purified our food stores. He left this morning and hopes to build Pilgrimage points on the Western point of our islands.”

It was a short message but the Mayor attached it to the last bird he had for Wester Ponente before setting it free to fly west. He had not lied when he said that he could not communicate with the Silverseas or proceed without their permission although it was only half the truth. To communicate was to exchange conversation. He could only send messages not receive them. He looked at the half a dozen birds he was raising in the hastily built messenger pigeon coop. They had grown quickly but he had not yet had an opportunity to send them to their new homes.

He had not had time to work out how the rise of the new noble family would affect life here on Wester Levante. For the most part, they had been ignored by the nobility and the crown. The church and the faith had more to do with their founding believing in expanding the compass and pushing back the horizon of civilization but other than the odd product or two there had not been a significant amount of interest for many in settling so far away from the capital or trading at such a distance. That might be about to change.

Talman, the tax man had come to him sweating buckets after the Archbishop’s impromptu balancing of the books. Luckily everything had been close enough to correct that Archbishop had been understanding of the occasional imbalance that crept in through human error. Talman had after an entire day of accounting even levelled up and gained a skill or two under the pressure of such an impromptu and accurate audit or so he had said once his hands had stopped shaking from the experience after knocking back an ale or two.

It also raised an issue or two that they had not thought of before. The Archbishop had been happy to see a tenth of the profit tithed to the church had been calculated accurately and paid for the entirety of the time since the island’s founding. He had checked over the tenth that had been paid to the crown since the hundred years of tax-free status afforded all pioneer islands had ended was also correctly accounted for. What he had also politely pointed out was that if Wester Levante was to fall within the domain of the new noble house the Silverseas then they too were entitled to a further tenth of the town’s profits. Something that Talman had not considered and or calculated for when assigning the very few public salaries his own included and the reserve the town was required to build to pay for public works.

Talman was currently writing to the crown for confirmation but with the crafty way in which Smit seemed to have bought the island out from under them, it seemed likely that the crown would confirm that Wester Levante was within the barony of the Silverseas. Even if they did not technically own the town they did own all the surrounding land and the fishing rights that went along with them. He privately wondered how far they had managed to purchase but he was only aware of the deeds bought on Wester Levante, not any others and those had only been delivered to him recently by Smit’s son. They had to have cost a pretty penny but were bought directly from the crown so he had been completely unaware of the change in ownership.

Talman after a night of drinking to calm his nerves was currently attempting to calculate the new tithes and trying to calculate what could arguably be offset against them. It was going to be difficult for him to do that serving three masters but the Archbishop had left satisfied with his honesty and the crown had yet to complain. Talman’s true worry was whether the Silverseas would upset his books and the problems that might arise if they were to demand the tithe they were entitled to immediately.

Life looked to be changing but that was the nature of life the trick was to keep your balance. Hence he hoped to keep Smit and his Sons happy with the current situation by informing them of current events in Wester Levante. While Talman balanced the books he hoped that Smit would be sensible as the patriarch of the family in its expansion, one could only hope.

. . .

“He is on his way. You need to hurry up and get the next tier of the skill.” Aleera declared. A pigeon had just flown in to settle on its roost grown out of the Elendil tree. We had been taking a break from the frustration of failing to get the next skill. For me, it was my failure to gain analyse, for Aleera it was her failure to gain observe. The higher tier skills meant that the hurdle to gaining them was just that little bit higher. Lady Acacia had praised us on our ability to gain the skills and the speed at which we had but we had not quite managed to get there. He was going to be here soon.

“Well, Aravan is going to be surprised,” I replied. “There is no reason for us to know he is coming we still have some time before he arrives and once he has there is no reason for us to meet him immediately. Aravan as the local leader of the church and Smit the town leader are the ones who are going to have to deal with him first. That gives us another day or two.” I argued back not appreciating the pressure Aleera was applying. She would be fine. She was still human. I technically was not anymore.

“Do you even need to get Analyse? Why don’t you go straight for one of the others?” she asked me.

Hmm, why didn’t I? “Aleera would Inspect me?” I asked excited by the idea that had suddenly run through my head.

“It would be my pleasure,” Aleera answered with a curtsy before escorting me back into the heart grotto with her hand holding mine. With an Archbishop arriving Lady Acacia had insisted we take every opportunity to practice our etiquette and manners. As the first male heir to the Silversea family, I was the head of it even though my sister was older, or the fact that I had parents and grandparents who were higher levelled and more skilled than me. It was the nature of founding a new noble house without them having noble status only the benefit of being Adhals. It did not honestly matter within the family but if we were going to have guests Lady Acacia felt that it would be better to practice rather than forget embarrassingly in front of someone aware of the etiquette required. Leaving the pigeon to find its food, would be a pain to catch later, but for now, we were focused on more immediate problems, we descended into the Grotto.

She placed our hands on the shard of the Lodestar growing on the heart root of the Elendil tree and said, “Inspect.” She did not need to but was merely politely informing me of the skill’s use. “It says,

Name: Lord Callen Kai Silversea

Level: Lv 16

Race: Arithmos

Metier: Singer

As we continued to practice even if we had not yet managed to gain the next skill our skill levels for the ones we had already achieved continued to rapidly rise. Helped perhaps by the wide array of items Lady Acacia had loaned us to practice on after we had got the skills and spent a significant amount of time circling through the gemstones. The added challenge of attempting to inspect or observe items without mana made them harder to read but when we were able to do so continued to level up our skills. Aleera could only do it by touching both the shard of the lodestar and me but she was effective at what she could do. She was looking forward to being able to do so by sight and without the light as that was what would enable her to outwit Mercurio once more when he visited. That, and already inspecting all the goods she planned to trade to him so that she gained an accurate understanding of their value before attempting to haggle with him.

“Still says Arithmos. What are you attempting to do?”

“Just wait a moment and keep trying to inspect the other items in an attempt to get observe. This might take me a while to work out.” I answered before closing my eyes.

I delved down into whom I was, entering the skill that was my mind fortress. What had started as a single room had expanded and expanded until it was the fortress that it become. But the core room had remained the same. A representation of who I had been and who I was becoming. The tabula rasa that I had once played around with worried that I would be observed and seen for the freak of nature that I feared I would be seen as was up in the observatory where I went next. It was from here that I could see the minds surrounding me. Their very existence, once hidden from my mind by the same fortress that protected my own. The stone slab that I used to represent my false self had not been updated in so long that the numbers it held were positively anaemic in comparison to reality. They were also set in stone on a slab hidden within my observatory.

I understood the system better now. Certainly, I did not understand it perfectly but by inspecting and observing the world around me in the light of the lodestar I realised that much like how I had buried my mind in my fortress and been unable to see the minds floating around me the same had been the case for my failed attempt at building my false status. I had buried it too deep within me and while the observatory was certainly closer to where I needed to place my false status it was still with my mind fortress and protected by it. Hidden from sight by those who would use inspect or observe to see who I was. Could I not use my mind fortress to protect my status?

I tried something different. I inspected myself. I was already me so I doubted I needed to do anything but I placed my hand on my hand in the same manner in which I would inspect another. The text floated up.

Name: Lord Callen Kai Silversea

Level: Lv 16

Race: Arithmos

Metier: Singer

Much as it did with anything else I might inspect or observe. But I was once more outside of my mind. I had trouble looking at the two at the same time. I was interrupted by my sister.

“Kai I am happy to hold your hand but if you are not getting anywhere with whatever it is you are trying to do. Then I could also use both hands for inspecting the items.” She jokingly complained

“Fine, I answered frustrated that I was not quite achieving what I hoped I would be able to do. Mind fortress was a Tier 5 skill it allowed me a mental world within which to play. It was a visual manifestation that allowed me to process my senses and build a hud for the world around me. It could do so much I just needed it to let me do one more thing. Hide my status or better yet project a false one to the world around me. I needed more. I needed both hands or rather both minds! I needed to be able to see both the inner world of my own creation and the layer of reality that the light of the lodestar allowed us to see at the same time.

I dashed inside my mind fortress once more. I stopped and absorbed all the parallel processes I had going. I sat in silence but suddenly brimming with energy. The processes had been going on for so long that I had not realised how much mental noise they were creating or the processing power they were taking even if it was in my unconscious thoughts. The world seemed suddenly quieter with my sensory skills muted to only what my body and traits could tell rather than my skills.

I observed myself once more. But this time the detail snapped into focus so much quicker and displayed so much more information.

Name: Lord Callen Kai Silversea

Level: Lv 16

Race: Arithmos

Métier: Singer

Vitality: 100

Endurance: 100

Strength: 100

Dexterity: 100

Senses: 100

Mind: 100

Clarity: 100

Magic: 100

Charisma: 100

Luck: 100

Ding! Analyse (Lv1)

It had not been long since our theft of the lodestar shard and the recalibration of my numbers and race meant that my stats had not changed. However, the sudden success in what I had once been attempting to achieve was appreciated. But I wasn’t trying to achieve that now. I had a new idea. I wanted to use my mind fortress to do what I had failed to do, hide or swallow the displayed status from the light of the lodestar.

I reached for my mind fortress while holding onto the status I could observe and now analyse. I held onto what I could see while I reached for what I had built in my mind. It felt impossibly difficult to do as if I was trying to look both right and left at the same time. My mental muscles were straining to do things in opposite directions as I attempted to look at who I was from both the outside and from the inside. There was tension to what I was attempting to do as I tried to pull the status I could see into the fortress I had created years ago.

It was not easy. The world did not seem to want to let go of knowledge it could see but I was determined. The status wrenched, pulled and finally tore free. I was at last able to push it within my mind fortress. Locked away and unable to be seen by the world my status was completely hidden.

There were a couple of dings as my skill levels updated and wincing through the pain I squinted at the last one.

Ding! Status Block (Lv 1)

Hopeful of my success I tried to inspect, and then observe before finally analyse once more but all that it returned were question marks. I had finally managed to hide my status.

Name: ?

Level: ?

Race: ?

Métier: ?

Vitality: ?

Endurance: ?

Strength: ?

Dexterity: ?

Senses: ?

Mind: ?

Clarity: ?

Magic: ?

Charisma: ?

Luck: ?

It appeared that the mental anguish I had just put myself through was worth it. My new Tier 4 skill Status Block trumped the Tier 1 skill Inspect, the tier 2 skill Observe and the tier 3 skill Analyse despite its low level and their respectively higher skill levels.

I rubbed my head at the migraine that seemed to be splitting my head open.

“How about now?” I asked wincing. Aleera once more placed her hand on mine and the shard of the Lodestar.

Name: ?

Level: ?

Race: ?

Metier: ?

“All I get are question marks.” She answered me shocked. “How did you manage that?”

“With a little mental manipulation,” I answered still rubbing my head. That had been unpleasant.

“Lady Acacia will be pleased.” She continued, “Perhaps it is time for us to go down seeing as the bishop is more than likely to arrive today we should let the family know he is on his way. Grandpa Smit would appreciate the warning.

“Sure,” I answered with my eyes shut. The headache was still reverberating around my head. I had achieved enough for today but I was not looking forward to the walk home. I really needed to finish making that slide down the stairs. Although moving anywhere at speed right now was not appealing.

. . .

Mother was not looking forward to the Archbishops’ visit but Father was still attempting to point out that not every priest was like Aravan. Grandfather’s private tuition of Mother meant that her only experience of the Church was Aravan and his acolyte Cleo. Father though, had been brought up in the town alongside his brothers and attended the Lodestar Luminary regularly to learn his letters and numbers.

“He is on his way.” We informed them once we had gathered them all. It was time for a quick repast anyway so after requesting Baldric grab us some snacks, we waited for everyone to arrive and then asked them to step out for our private discussion.

“Well, then you will need to keep out of sight until then.” Mother declared determinedly averse even to the idea of another member of the clergy visiting the island or meeting her children.

“There are not all like Priest Aravan,” Father interjected.

“That will not be possible. As the highest ranking individual on the island, he will be expected to welcome Archbishop Grigori or at least say hello at some point during his visit.” Lady Acacia also remonstrated.

“I have a new skill.” As enjoyable as it would have been to let them argue over the matter I also enjoyed stopping the argument before it had even begun.

“You have analyse?” Lady Acacia asked delightedly, proud of my progress before she remembered. “That will not be enough.”

“I have analyse, as well as . . .” I paused to heighten the drama, “Status block!” I added grinning.

“Status block?” she questioned confused before activating her skills and laying her hand on my arm to check. I could now sense the extra attention she was paying me with her skill and feel beyond the additional weight on my arm how the pressure of her inspection, observation and analysation bounced off my fortress where I had hidden my status.

“Well, that is certainly one way of hiding your status.” She answered under the questioning gazes of my parents. Aleera had already attempted multiple times to inspect me on our way back home and she had failed to glean anything new or indeed anything at all. “Although I have never heard of that specific skill it would appear it is sufficiently efficient in completely blocking inspect or observe skills.” She answered the questions in my parent’s gazes.

Father sighed contentedly while Mother continued to look less than happy. She did not trust the church.

“Once again you have overachieved. You were to come to me once you had achieved Analyse,” she chided. “We still have work to do if we are going to attempt to create a suitably believable status page for you and blocking will only highlight the fact that you have something to hide here on the island so far from civilisation. Still, it will suffice if we are unable to create such a status by the time he arrives.” She continued.

I ended the skill Block Status in the hopes that would lessen the pain but it did not. “I’m worn out from working at gaining these skills. I’m going to take a nap.” I declared my head still sore from mental gymnastics it had completed to gain the skill.

“Are you okay?” Mother asked concerned.

“Fine just need a little nap.” I waved off her concern and hopped down from my chair.

“You’ve done enough for now. Take a break while we prepare for their arrival.” Lady Acacia commented as I left the room. I paused to bow to my sister, parents and tutor before exiting the room and stumbling my way back to my bedroom.

The pain had yet to abate which did not bode well. I lay down in my bed with my eyes closed and attempted to sleep while I wished I had worked out how to create aspirin or paracetamol. If I recalled correctly I needed to chew willow bark or something similar. It would be worth working that out soon although a different world meant different plants and I doubted I would be finding any willow any time soon. Hopefully, my headache would be gone by the time I woke up. I retreated into my mind fortress where hopefully the pains of my body could be ignored.

I appeared in my fortress and the pain disappeared. I took a mental breath enjoying its absence but I was not left alone for long.

“Congratulations, Kai.” My own voice greeted me from behind. I spun to come face to face with none other than myself.

“Call me Callen.” My mirror image smiled at my confusion.