“We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.”

Martin Luther King. Jr.

“We accept.”

Two words made a world of difference to our tutors, both present and future.

“In that case, and to alleviate any worries your grandfather may have about my safety around the two scions. I want to pledge my allegiance to House Silversea until you attend court in Ponente.” He took a knee in front of us and our seats of power.

“I, Namir of the Duma tribe whose ancestral lands lie in the Southern Kingdom of Ostro, swear by the guiding light of the Lodestar and growing horizon of the Compass Kingdoms that I will be an honourable and loyal retainer of the noble house Silversea. I will tutor and guard Callen Kai Silversea and Aleera Silversea to the best of my ability in the weapons of war until they reach the age of adulthood and attend the Court of Lords in Ponente.”

His pledge was a sign of his sincerity, but most importantly, it was binding until we came of age. There would be no change exchange of stats; we were not elevating his status. But it was a level of insurance and safety backed by the light of the Lodestar.

“Arise Namir of the Duma Tribe. We thank you for your pledge and look forward to learning all you have to teach.” Surprised but undaunted, we replied. The words for various oaths of allegiances and employment pledges had been drilled into us by Lady Acacia, and we could answer them word for word perfectly in unison. We had a new tutor.

“If I may take my leave, I still have much to catch up on with Lady Acacia and your future training regime to begin planning out.” Then, with our permission, he rose and was escorted out by Lady Acacia. Our home continued to expand, and we had already created rooms or apartments alongside hers to accommodate future guests. It had been an exciting day in more ways than one, but I was happy that everything seemed to have resolved itself peacefully.

. . .

Lady Acacia and Aleera

“It is high time for us to spread the source of our power among our cousins, our magic.” Aleera was insistent that this was the best way to bolster the strength of our supporting Adals. I agreed. However, Lady Acacia was unconvinced about forfeiting personal growth to empower others.

“I cannot stop you. Seeing you limit your growth, no matter how altruistic you are, is disappointing. Are you sure you wish to do this?” she asked again. She had taught us the words, and we could do it with or without her blessing, but she was our tutor and worth convincing if possible or at least politely informing before Aleera allocated her free points to allow her to do this. It would affect her personal growth significantly to place stats into magic but then receive the physical stats from her cousins in return.

“Yes, I am sure. All elves have magic. I am unsure why wouldn’t you encourage this?” Aleera seemed confused about where the downside was to elevating our cousins to the same degree that we had been through the fate of our birth.

“All elves have magic. They have always had magic. Humans though . . .” She paused to consider her words carefully. “For humans to be a mage is to be noble or nearly noble. This is a large change for them compared to Elves, who are all born with it. There is no change to our power levels because they have already stratified. But for humans, those with power are not keen to share or allow others to access it. This would change that. Finally, once commoners have magic, or rather have power, they are less likely to allow nobility to lord over them. It will change the dynamic of the rulership of your court, and you have not even formed it yet.” She expressed her concerns over the fickle nature of humans and the possible potential for complications compared to the more conservative and stable heritage she had been brought up with.

“The Silversea court is formed in all but name. Our cousins listen and learn from us. They accept our leadership. We are already far ahead of their curve in both stats and skills, no matter where we are along it. This will only solidify their gratitude for the gifts we have given them. I will empower the girls. The boys must wait for Kai to grow up to unlock theirs. Besides, it sounds like they will be busy with this new tutor of Kai’s.”

“If this is what you have decided, then so be it. The boys will certainly be busy with Namir if I know anything about his training methods. However, do not think for a second young lady that you too will not benefit from them.” She cautioned.

“But I thought . . .” Aleera started to object before she was overruled.

“Just because men tend to end up stronger before and after the application of stats does not mean that a Lady should not be able to defend herself. While you will be chaperoned in court, you may often end up as your only line of defence against the interests of other Lords and Ladies. You have no elder siblings to protect you. It will be up to you.”

. . .

The following day, Namir found me bright and early. “I have been given your baseline from Lady Acacia, but you have grown since then, so we will start with reassessing first.” He declared.

Excellent, I thought to myself, here we go again. He had found me on the Salt flats working through my morning stretches with Arawn. He had been sticking a little closer than usual since his arrival.

“Although most of your training will be directly with me, we do not have knights or soldiers to train with, particularly not at your size or level. So, we must call on your cousins to build an appropriate gauntlet for your training. So, I will need to assess them as well. Once you can outrun, outsmart and outfight your cousins, we will work with the town guards and the sentinels. Before you head to court, I expect you to be able to duel everyone on the island and win. We will also have to delve to raise your levels and stats. Understood?” He outlined his plan for me.

“Yes, I have been through this before with Lady Acacia,” I answered, having already completed a baseline with her and working through various weapons to gain their skills. “What do you mean by a gauntlet?” I asked.

While Arawn asked as well, “Delve?”

“Yes, you have gained a lot of skills, but you haven’t had the training to use them at the drop of a coin, let alone the drop of a hair. However, by the time we are finished, you will.” He declared. “A gauntlet is a training method of providing the intended recipient with a steadily increasing level of challenge from suitably levelled opponents. To sharpen your skills, you will need a suitable foil. You will level far quicker by beating someone just above your level rather than constantly losing against someone far stronger than yourself. Once you have consistently won against them, we will move on to the next, which is why I must assess and train the house Adals supporting House Silversea, your cousins.” He answered my statement and question in detail before turning to my grandfather.

“Delve indeed. There is no reason why, with the two of us to ensure their safety, the two scions could not accompany us in explorative dives into the depths. It will be essential to level them to a suitable level to attend court.” He added, nonplussed by our grandfather’s response.

“They are not yet ready. The boy has only just left infancy. They are hardly the effective killers which they would need to be before we can even consider that.” He argued for once being the more responsible of the two adults when considering child endangerment.

“I am not expecting them to lead the way. At least, the young lord would be carried figuratively and literally in more ways than one. But the experience and, more importantly, the experience gained is vital to give them a stronger start at court.”

“Why is it so vital?” he asked, unconvinced.

“Every child of nobility is power levelled in whatever manner or method their house can afford. Children may not be able to see their status until they are five, but commoners are taught that they cannot gain skills before they gain their status and that there is no point in gaining skills and levels before the age of 10 if they cannot assign the stats. This is not true, as your grandson proves, and the other nobles know it.” He outlined the status quo while throwing in a little bit of flattery.

"He is hardly an average child." he agreed, somewhat mollified.

“No, but the other young lords and ladies will have had access to an entire capital’s worth of wisdom and training from as early as they can understand it. They will have been levelled through the power of their parents, social shenanigans of balls and dinners to level social skills, academic skills from their tutors in the languages and arts, weapons training with their retainers, magic spellcraft and skills, and whatever else their money, power and privilege can purchase them.” He paused for breath, but he was not finished. “That will have included hunts both in the light of the lodestar and possibly into the depths of the lodestone. This far from the centre of civilisation, we will have to take advantage of every opportunity, which means taking them into the depths even if we have to carry them ourselves.” He finished his justification to both Arawn and me.

Nothing was new in what he was arguing, but it seemed strange to have Arawn as the voice of caution in any conversation. It was also a little intimidating, considering he suggested we crawl down into the tunnels the Mosau eels crawled out of.

“That is enough explanation for now. Let’s start reassessing your baseline. I have Lady Acacia’s notes, but I expect you to have improved on them.” He waved a sheaf of papers he pulled out from a pouch. Back to basics, how disappointing. Not that this wasn’t important, but when would I learn something new? Childishly, I wanted to be able to run on the water too!

“Then will you teach me how to run on water?” I quizzed. I was still frustrated that I never knew my grandfather could do that.

“First come the base assessments, but then, after that, why not? I can certainly understand the preference to run over it rather than swim through it. Who knows, perhaps you already can but haven’t tried. We will add it to the list of things to assess; with your weight, you would certainly not need to go as fast as us to succeed.” He replied before pondering my request.

My mind blossomed at the thought. Had I not tried simply because my modern mind thought it was impossible, I would need some skill to do so rather than merely using pure stats. How fast would I need to move to run over the water?

“Let’s do this.” So I threw myself into my assessments, surprising the adults with my enthusiasm. It was not long before I regretted my eagerness, but I had something to look forward to, and I was keen to get the rest of the tasks completed to get to it.

. . .

Meanwhile, in Wester Town, the merchant was waking . . .

Waking up, he was disappointed to find that the floor wasn’t moving with the passage of a ship. He was on land. He supposed the room was nice enough. But he lived with the motto that he was losing money if he was standing still. This was particularly poignant as any time he was standing still for an entire night; he was paying for the pleasure in a tavern, inn, dock or brothel. It was never cheap wherever he stayed, especially if you had any standards, and as a captain of his ship, he had a status to maintain. Once he had arrived, he sent his slaves back to the boat, unwilling to pay for their accommodation. Hopefully, the small town he had sailed to the end of the world to find had enough to make his visit worth the while and recap some of the losses he had made on transporting Namir.

The fare to break his fast was fine enough, and he soon strolled through the town toward the market. His tired slaves were carrying his wares behind him. The town was an odd mix of wealth in terms of the size of the dwellings, the cleanliness of the streets, and poverty considering the relative lack of permanent shops and services.

It did not take him long to reach the market square and for his slaves to set up his stall. They were to watch over his wares and engage the customers in conversation but were not allowed to sell; there was no reason to waste experience on levelling a slave when it could go toward levelling himself.

He had a quick peruse of the market, looking for those diamonds in the rough that he could turn a tidy profit on from transporting. However, each time he found one delicate fruit, salt, pearls, cloth, or even wine, he received the same answer on asking whether he could purchase in bulk. He would have to talk to House Silversea if he wished to make a more significant purchase than the odd item they were reselling. It was disappointing but not wholly unexpected that a noble family would monopolise the higher-value trade goods or luxury items. It was regretful, but he would have to talk to the family directly if he hoped to move the required quantities. It was frustrating that he would have to request an audience with the Silversea family; they only took petitions on the weekend. Resigned to waiting a little longer to make significant purchases, he passed the day selling a few of his samples, enough to cover his day-to-day costs but needed more to justify the trip's expense. Still, House Silversea was supposedly a new noble house, so he hoped to make a significant profit when he finally met them. He hoped it would not take too long.