“You can hide your identity, but you can’t hide who you are.”

Dina Madini

Once the sermon on balance, diligence and expanding the compass was complete. They moved on to the blessing. Despite our privileged position at the front of the church, the family had decided to let the rest of the population go first. There had been several reasons for the move. First the politics of it. Once the Divers had stood quickly to get there first our holding off gave the impression that we were happy to wait, there was no contest between our two families we had allowed them to go first. Second, it allowed us to watch an Archbishop’s blessing in advance. Third, was a further lesson from Lady Acacia, in that she felt this was the perfect opportunity for Aleera and me to continue to level our Inspect, Observe and Analyse skills on the entirety of Wester Ponente’s population. Fourth and finally if my status block skill did not work or if there were any other complications to the blessing we hopefully would have a far smaller audience for whatever might occur. Hopefully preventing the ramifications from spreading any further than our family and the church.

It was entertaining to watch the Divers’ daughters quickly regret their posturing but what was most interesting was the fact that it seemed the Archbishop carried his own sliver of the Lodestar within his ring. Whenever he blessed an individual it would light up once more as it had during his opening prayer. I was most intrigued as to how he had managed to do that seeing as it was something I too hoped to do myself. Although it would require the help of my uncle's metalworking skills to recreate it in one form or another. I knew what the shard of the Lodestar allowed but what would a sliver let you do? I also wondered at the Archbishop’s mana stats and how he was supplying it with enough mana to keep it alive. One difference I had noticed between the shard we had growing in the Elendil’s heart grotto and the sliver I had sliced off was the amount of mana required to keep it happy. The smaller the seed the less mana it required. Maybe that was how a mortal man presumably without the trait of Source of Mana managed to maintain it in a ring on his finger without the light fading.

Aleera and I focused on watching the people coming forth for their blessing many of whom nodded to us as they passed us to reach the Archbishop, either in thanks for our patience or respectfully acknowledging our presence as the new nobles of Wester Ponente. There was a certain pride in the fact that our island had grown its own set of nobles rather than them being imposed upon us from the outside. Our family was slowly making an impact even if it was only in the lower price of the salt, the variety of products that they could now get regularly or the entertainment we had provided through the Silversea games. We were rapidly becoming well known and neither of us quite knew how to respond to it other than to fall back on the lessons that Lady Acacia had taught us, a polite nod back or a quick wave in response to theirs. We continued to watch the people walk on by, inspecting, observing and analysing as we could.

Name: Carl

Level: 30

Metier: Cooper

. . .

Name: Alana

Level: 5

Metier: Child

. . .

Name: Bambi

Level: 3

Metier: Child

. . .

Name: Baran

Level: 34

Metier: Butcher

. . .

Name: Darren

Level: 28

Metier: Baker

. . .

Name: Lumier

Level: 17

Metier: Candlestick Maker

. . .

I learned more of their names and levels in a single morning than I had in my preceding years living on the island. I tried to file it all away carefully. Callen working at recreating a dossier of who they were and what they looked like within my mind. Taking regular breaks to allow the memories to come flooding back as well as extend the length of time I would be able to keep him manifested. It also supported my learning as I observed their names, and then repeated them to myself afterwards.

As we neared the end of the very long line, and my extended family began to make their way up to the Archbishop I allowed myself some more time to focus on what he was saying and the impact it was having on the individuals.

. . .

Archbishop Grigori POV

“I bless thee in the light of the Lodestar,” I spoke while laying my hand on the head of the woman in front of me. My hand shone with the divine blue light of the Lodestar which was the very symbol of my office. Before moving on to the next person in what seemed to be an endless line of townspeople. For such a small pioneer island the number of people was surprisingly large. After discussing the history of the island with the priest the original settlers had to fight both sea monsters to get to the island, then slowly eradicate the ones that had lived in the lake alongside dealing with the occasional goblin attack on their town. It had been a long hard road of improvement fighting back the wilderness every step of the way until it was finally as tame as it was today. It was impressive but a little dubious their belief that they had removed all monsters from the island. Monsters always came up from the depths be it the depths of the sea or the depth of the lodestone.

Once more the local Priest had failed to acquire the skill to bless or the power to do so many. There were some serious complaints to be made about whoever funded and assigned the expansion of the compass to the Western Isles. Someone somewhere had either been woefully ignorant of what they needed or maliciously willful in only sending the bare minimum in support of the town. Either way, it was practically criminal in effect. Whether or not Bishop Bailie accepted a posting to the island I would have to leave a member of my retinue behind either way. Simply to leave a member of the clergy with the correct skills. Priest Aravan was a conundrum. He was intelligent enough to assess the situation and move the pieces to the correct space for expansion but his social skills and higher levelled clergy skills were woefully lacking. Despite being stood to the side to provide order to those who arrived he was clearly neither invested in nor interested in the blessings being given. The man needed remedial training but did not seem interested in learning from what was taking place right in front of his nose. I wiped the frown off my face before a member of the church could begin to fret that it was about them. I would have had to remove him regardless of the Silversea's request to do so. His acolyte seemed keen enough and continued to hand out candles as a symbolic representation of the light of the lodestar spreading. Despite the worries over the current priest and whether or not the Bishop would stay as part of his deal with the Silverseas, it was still a beautiful ceremony and he enjoyed meeting and greeting the people.

“I bless thee in the light of the Lodestar.” I intoned once more the light shining forth again. This was worth the time to bring balance to those without it. People would leave today knowing they walked in the light of the lodestar. And if everything went as I hoped I would soon be in a significantly stronger position to apply for Cardinal on the completion of my circumnavigation. It was easy to focus on the positives of the situation when it would hopefully be a win-win situation for all involved.

Another adult walked forward, “I bless thee in the light of the Lodestar.” The light shone forth once more but this time I noted something unbalanced. I held my hand down holding him still while I re-read his status using his skills to inspect, observe and analyse to look deeper.

Name: Lumier

Level: Lv 17

Race: Human

Metier: Candlemaker

Affliction: Burned

Vitality: 41

Strength: 36

Endurance: 45

Dexterity: 75

Senses: 69

Mind: 32

A common status for a commoner but he had not been healed properly whenever it had occurred if it was still listed as an affliction. Burns were always challenging to heal after the fact. On a closer look, you could see that there was stretched skin over his right hand but for it to appear as an affliction it must be significantly more than simply what he could see and probably covered a significant portion of his arm.

“Do you seek balance in the light? I asked the ritual question.

“I do, your honour.” He answered without expectation.

“Would you let the light balance what has become unbalanced?” I continued digging a little deeper into the conversation than I had with the preceding people. This would require some work.

“I would, your honour.” He answered cautiously optimistic

“Do you trust me?” I asked equally careful of raising a false hope it would depend on the extent of the burns.

“Yes.” He answered

“Then show me your burns,” I commanded

“Here and now?” he asked alarmed.

“Provided they do not uncover your modesty then yes.” I shrugged modifying my command.

Lumier slipped his top off above his head revealing his right side where burn-scarred skin stretched from his right wrist to his shoulder.

“What happened?” I asked as I turned over the arm to inspect the skin.

“The oil caught alight, and I could either keep my arm safe and sound or my house and family. I choose to keep my house and family my arm got a little toasted in the process.” He answered precisely possibly having answered or prepared those words before. The penitent often pleaded their cases when they went by unnoticed.

“Bishop Bailie I am going to need your assistance,” I asked. This would take the two of us to heal. He had already cured and healed a couple of individuals of various minor problems, and he would be able to support me.

“Of course, your excellency.” Bishop Bailie was back to being formal in the presence of others.

“If you can cover the pain and the removal, I will empower the regeneration.” I laid out the plan to the bishop. “Hold out your arm,” I added to Lumier.

Lumier held out his arm, the Bishop held his wrist, “Ready, deaden pain.” he said before starting to remove the skin it was a little grisly to watch initially but his efforts were soon followed up afterwards by myself holding my hand over the flesh and bathing it in the light of the lodestar from my ring. “Regenerate.” The skin formed once more whole and healthy and we worked our way steadily up the arm until Lumier stood once more unmarked by fire.

It was a pleasure to make a difference in his daily life. He would never forget this day.

. . .

Kai's POV

That was an impressive use of magic and something I hoped to learn if not from Lady Acaia then from the Church if they consented to our trade, in favours. I wondered what its limits were. In a world, without modern medicine, magical healing could be the difference between life and death one day. There was no reason I could not try to replicate both in time.

Finally, the entirety of our town had received their blessings and healings before leaving the church with a symbolic light of their own. They would light them when the darkness fell thanks to the church’s work today. But first, it was our turn for our family to get our blessings. We joined the end of the line of our extended family and awaited our turn.

“You have your skill up,” Aleera asked a little anxiously.

“Of course.” I nodded in response. Not that I wasn’t anxious myself.

The blessing for my Grandfather mother and father went fine although there were a few raised eyebrows. As they received them. Even Aleera seemed to get through the blessing just fine without anything going wrong.

Eventually, it was my turn.

. . .

Archbishop Grigori's POV

It had been a long ceremony by now. The sermon had gone well, it felt well received by everyone and the blessings too and gone well. Between the two of us, we had managed to restore a man’s arm as well as clear up a few fungal infections alongside eliminating a parasite or two. Fleas and Lice were ridiculously easy to remove but particularly cathartic to do so. I liked to expunge them on sight just to stop my skin from crawling. We just now had the Silversea family and its many branches left to bless. They were surprisingly well-levelled for an island so distant from civilization. Their environmental trials must be making up for the lack of challenges from society.

When I got to the last five individuals of the central Silversea family, they too were interesting the father Kaius had a Seafarer Sailor as his current metier at level 44 representing his third or fourth metier. That or there had been some sea monster fighting in his past.

The mother Aliyah had Spellsong Seamstress as her Metier which was interesting on several levels. She was an accomplished mage, self-taught and unbound she would have represented a catch for any noble house if she had not been protected by her children’s nobility and at level 56 she was either on her 5th or 6th metier or again had experienced a colourful history in more ways than one. She was on par with my Bishop at two-thirds of his age. What had they been eating or fighting out here to support such impressive growth?

My eyebrows which had been climbing with each successive blessing found their limit when I reached the Grandfather, Arawn Silversword. He was Level 87! And out-levelled me significantly. This was the true source of confidence in creating a new noble house. Not only that but his metier honour-bound guardian was designed to level off defending it. Which was not to say that he would not be lethal in attack. It also made me somewhat apprehensive about any future negotiations. I had never worried about anything clandestine happening during our trip through the archipelago Sir Manil and Sir Jacques had skills, stats and metiers designed to defend us. This man though, to have risen so high was clearly on his 8th or 9th metier or had lived a life of carnage either here or on the continent to have achieved such heights. I would need to be careful and it was also clear from his raised eyebrow to my two that he was well aware of how much information I had seen. The silver lining to seeing all of that was that his metier described someone bound by honour to defend rather than describing a man made to kill. It was a thin silver lining but I would take it. Although that was just his current metier and did not cover his history.

I turned to take in Sir Manil and Sir Jacques's stances and realized that they had become more focused with each step closer Arawn Silversword had taken towards me. However, I doubted that they would have been successful with him this close to me. They had been able to sense his level of threat but maybe not actually how high that level of threat was.

I watched carefully as Aleera stepped up. After the surprises in the strength of their family members, I was relieved to see that nothing seemed off about her—a little high levelled for her age but nothing outrageous. The merchant was an interesting choice for a Lady to take as her metier but judging by the depth of their pockets it was probably levelling well.

Last but not least came Callen Kai Silversea. He was under five so I did not expect to see anything when I observed him it was doubtful that he would have a status yet to see. Yet it was more by habit than an actively deciding to observe that I did and received my final shock of the ceremony.

Name:?

Level:?

Race:?

Metier:?

If the grandfather had caused my eyebrows to raise this caused my eyes to widen and nostrils to flair. First off, he had to have a status before the age of 5 which was impossible. If what Aravan had said regarding the family and his age, he should not have had a status at all. Second, for an under 5-year-old he was a remarkably well-developed infant yet if he was over 5 which would explain his status then he was remarkably small he was a paradoxical child. Third, regardless of the irregularities regarding his status and age if he had a skill that could block my inspection and observation then did he hold some dwarven or elvish artefact? Nothing was immediately obvious about his personage but how else could an infant a young child have such a skill? It was unheard of.

He stepped forward after his sister who he had only just let go off for her to receive her blessing. He bowed his head for his. I raised my hand and placed it on his bowed head. Perhaps Analyse would reveal his true status.

“I bless thee in the light of the Lodestar.” When I placed his hand on the heir to the Silversea house, I was prepared to analyse him I was not prepared for the flare of light that flooded the church. The light shone forth from my ring in a manner I had never seen before. This was no simple scion of a new noble house.

This was something else entirely.

The departing family froze in the light that shone forth.

Analyse gave me nothing more than the blocked status that I had already seen. That did not stop my mind from running frantically through the possibilities that could have caused the Lodestar to illuminate him in its light to such an extent. The child was chosen. The child was already blessed. The child was something else . . . a catalyst . . . a source . . . perfectly balanced. The sheer mana he had to be emitting was staggering and unfocused, the seed of the Lodestar I carried in my ring was revelling in it. It was insane. I lifted my hand from his head in shock.

A scion this strong, this young, the political ramifications . . . but we were far from any court’s kingdom. They did not know! Or they would already be here. He could be the next Light of the Lodestar, above even the Cardinals with the proper training, skills and stats. We could help him to grow . . .

My daydreams were cut short by a cough. I looked down at the prodigy in front of me waiting for my last line.

“May you walk straight in the light of the Lodestar.” I mumbled and the child moved forward to stand with his family as they left. They had to know. Right? One look at his Grandfather Arawn confirmed it. The statement that followed doubly so.

“So much for that attempt.” He frowned at Callen Kai Silversea as he joined them who simply shrugged in return a more worldly response than his years belied. "It is what it is old man." He spoke for the first time that I had heard.

“I trust that you will keep what you have learned sealed under the privacy of a confessional.” Arawn Silversword turned to me and leaned forward, his presence suddenly felt overwhelming. Both Sir Manil and Sir Jacques stepped forwards as if to stop him but I doubted they would be able to if he made a move.

“In the light of the lodestar.” I nodded still shaken by what I had seen.

“And the others.” He gestured at my remaining retinue the only people left in the church other than the central Silversea family themselves.

“Of course, sealed under the light,” I repeated and my retinue repeated. “Under the light of the Lodestar.” What had the Light of the Lodestar uncovered and would we leave Wester Ponente alive? It was a sobering fact that I doubted any of us could stop him should he decide to ensure our silence on the matter.