The Lone Wanderer

Archibald contemplated the latest reports as he radiated dense life mana from his palm, focusing it on his son’s stump. Even for a powerful Violet core, regrowing a Blue’s arm would take several hours. And that was taking into account his more sophisticated approach, chiselled to perfection after centuries of healing people. Blindly pouring mana into a wound like a brute would still work, but it would take so much longer.

“How did the other fronts go?” Galahad asked, not even flinching at the excruciating pain as his flesh and bones squirmed.

“About as well as you’d expect.”

When forming the group of four for the escort mission, Archibald had naturally given himself some leeway, in case House Tantalus sent more people than expected. Originally, he’d thought Galahad and Mordred would be plenty to deal with any complications. Still, he’d underestimated how keen their enemies had been to get to the healers.

‘I suppose it makes sense.’

Life users were their family’s greatest strength, as well as a huge thorn in their rivals’ sides. Not to mention the two women in the group of healers those degenerates wanted to place their filthy hands on.

Luckily, House Tantalus had failed in the end. Their Blues did manage to escape with their lives, but their injuries were no better than Galahad’s. Even with Drain, they’d need longer to fix them – not to mention how many lives they’d have to take. As for their Greens, all five were dead.

‘Sending Elaine was the right move.’

While he’d hoped it wouldn’t come to that, Archibald had sent his granddaughter to serve as a final trump card, just in case things went south. He knew the girl could turn the tides in a pinch, though that had come with its own cost. Now Gawain had learned of Circulation too.

It wasn’t the end of the world – Archibald trusted this son of his – but this was how it started. What if two years from now Gawain was forced to reveal it to save somebody else? They could try all they wanted to keep a lid on the secret, but their family had already existed for centuries, and they very much hoped it would continue to do so for many more.

‘Sooner or later, everyone will know it… And then, it can easily leak out…’

But what choice did they have? Should Elaine have allowed everyone to die? What if Galahad had died too? That would have been a catastrophic blow to their House.

‘What’s done is done. The best we can do now is to slow down the leakage until Galahad reaches Violet.’

Very few Houses had two Violet cores, so this should place them in the top twenty about a century from now. Adding Circulation to the mix, and only the Great Houses or the Divine Order would be able to pressure them into handing the technique over. There wasn’t much they could do about that, but they’d be in a better position to negotiate an acceptable deal, to fend the weaker families off until Archibald reached White.

‘In fact, I should probably teach him Circulation too.’ he decided.

His successor’s life was almost as valuable as the secret itself. After all, should he die, or should the secret leak before his promotion, their entire House would face annihilation…

“How many casualties on their side?” Galahad asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“A dozen Greens and twenty Yellows.”

House Tantalus had chosen to weaken their position in many other contested locations, to gather enough people to send on the ambitious mission. Other than the five Greens who had died in the Whistling Woods, the rival family had ended up suffering many more losses for their greed. 𐍂

“That ought to douse their aggression for a few months.” Galahad nodded.

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But Archibald clenched his fist, not feeling happy about it at all. Indeed, they’d come out on top this time, but this constant tit-for-tat had taken many lives on their side too. If this continued, they’d lose half their people by the time the lotus bloomed.

‘If only I could just march in there and kill them all!’

Archibald was much stronger than the enemy leader, Broteas. He was confident in killing him in a frontal confrontation, along with many of his men. But could he take the whole family out without leaving a single witness behind? Probably not.

Moreover, Violet cores couldn’t easily leave their homes. After all, they were the last line of defence protecting the children and the non-combatants of the family. The massacre twenty or so years ago had happened precisely when House Tantalus had lured Archibald away from the mansion. Not that he’d had much of a choice at the time, as they could have easily lost two Blues had he not done that.

“It won’t.” Archibald said. “They’ll keep throwing everything they have at us. They know how much stronger you’ll become once you get a petal.”

Galahad was arguably the strongest Blue core in the entire Camelot province. Suffice to say, House Avalon would benefit more from the lotus than their rivals. This was something they were all keenly aware of.

“Speaking of which, we have yet to discuss what to do with the remaining two petals.” Galahad said, changing the topic.

Archibald could already guess what his son wanted. Naturally, he intended for all three petals to end in the hands of Yellow-borns, as they had the highest long-term potential. House Avalon currently possessed seven Blues, but one of them was an Orange-born – Archibald’s younger cousin, Accolon. Of the remaining six, four had the life affinity and one already had water. This only left Galahad as a candidate for a petal. Consequently, the other two would have to go to Greens.

“Your son will naturally get a petal.”

Mordred was just as talented as his father – perhaps even more so. At least, the boy had handled his own opponents even better than his father had dealt with his. He was arguably the strongest Green in the family – on par with Elaine when she used her boosting art. Not that anyone knew about that, but she couldn’t use a petal anyway.

“Of course.” Galahad chuckled. “I was talking about the last one. Maybe Emrys or Morgana? I could make a strong case for either of them.”

But Archibald shook his head, eliciting a frown from his son. He’d allowed this injustice to persist for long enough. Circulation was the pillar their family would be relying on for a long time to come, and the boy who’d brought them this gift had yet to be properly compensated for his contribution.

In fact, Archibald was currently worried about his grandson, as they hadn’t heard from him in months. The more time that passed, the more scared he grew that Percy was indeed involved with the Aurora Dew. Of course, it was possible the chaos in the Guild had simply prevented him from writing back.

Either way, he wasn’t going to let the boy miss out on this opportunity.

“I actually had somebody else in mind…” he grinned.

“Oh?”

“I’ll tell you after I’m done fixing your arm. You might have put on a brave face against the pain, but this… it just might make you pass out.”

***

“Father, you can’t be serious! What madness compels you to continuously give that runt so much?!” Galahad asked in outrage as they walked down the corridor.

Archibald opened the door to the same training room he and his grandkids had used a few years back, leading his son inside. Next, he tossed him some enchanted bands to place on his wrists and ankles, before replying.

“That’s why I brought you here, son. To show you.” he said, taking a deep breath, and then another.

Galahad’s expression was initially one of anger and confusion, though his features soon began to shift into shock as he watched the verdant lines swirl like vines on his father’s skin. Archibald’s sternum thrummed with an intensity no Violet core had any right to.

“I can see you have many questions.” Archibald said with a smile, getting a nod back.

“Naturally, I’ll answer them all, but I’ll need you to do two things for me. First, you’ll bow your head and apologize to your nephew the next time you see him, for the way you’ve treated him.”

Galahad opened his mouth, seemingly about to protest, but Archibald raised a hand to stop him.

“And I’ll apologize alongside you. After all, it’s HIS technique I’m about to teach you without his permission.”

This time, Galahad’s eyes widened in realization.

“Does this have something to do with his bloodline? Is this why you’ve been treating him so generously?”

“Generously?” Archibald chuckled bitterly. “We’ve driven him out of the mansion, sending him to fend for himself in the Alchemists’ Guild. Not a day goes by that I don’t regret it. And for what?! Because we were too stingy to give him a few elixirs?”

“Father… Just what does his bloodline do exactly?”

“You’ll have to ask him yourself. He’ll tell you if he wants to.”

Galahad remained silent for a while. While he was generally a proud man, and not very kind towards those he viewed as his lessers, he was neither ungrateful, nor stupid. He certainly understood Percy’s importance now.

“What’s the second thing?” Galahad asked after a while.

“Hm?”

“You said you wanted me to do two things. The first was to apologize to the kid.”

“Ah right!” Archibald said, only now remembering why he’d brought him here.

“Get down and start doing push-ups.”