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What Will Be | Chapter 63
🕑 Added 2024-09-19 17:30:03 +0000 UTCAuthor's Notes: Thank you all for your continued support! It means the world to me. With this, we enter the beginning of the end of the first book. I am excited to bring it home!
“The allure of longevity is one of the primary motivating factors for Advancement chasers. Every Tier brings with it an increased lifespan, but so too does it bring increasingly high demands to reach the next one. Many argue that a long life spent Advancing is not necessarily more valuable than a shorter life spent living. I do not necessarily agree, but it is certainly an argument.”
~Unknown
As was often the case, the world refused to cease functioning to accommodate my ongoing identity crisis. It had been almost a decade since I was reborn as Will - Will Duscall, if one were so inclined to add my seldom needed surname. The myriad tethers to a life once lived had grown frayed and faded beneath the weight of time. Of those that remained, one was a steel cable I refused to leave unattended, and I often wondered how it would handle the ever increasing strain.
“Will. Listen. Did you know that sometimes I get annoyed with my papa?” Bella had been describing a particularly hairy caterpillar she’d seen yesterday mere moments before the sudden shift in topic. In her mind, conversations need not follow a logical throughpoint.
“Is that so?” I humored her ramblings. Everyone had their problems, a collection of worries or grievances that distracted them from the day. Little girls were no exception, and I knew that in her mind Bella’s troubles would seem just as serious as my own.
“Yes!” She dramatically outstretched her arms to punctuate the point and flailed backwards onto the grass. After the regularly scheduled, child-friendly training session, Tulos and Figuello always gave us some free time to talk or play or do whatever we wanted, really. “Remember the secret I told you?”
Probably.
“I might, but I cannot say.” I leaned back, but unlike Bella, I caught my weight on my palms instead of letting myself sink entirely into the grass and invitingly cool soil it sat upon. I flexed my fingers a few times to luxuriate in the feel of it. Existentialism aside, I tried to enjoy the little things when I could. As much as I complained about Tina’s mandated ‘kid time’ I could rationalize the wisdom in taking a break.
Bella shot back upright and leveled a suspicious squint in my direction.
“How come?”
She’s using her Skill, I realized. It was hard to explain exactly how I knew, but there was a slight change to Bella’s demeanor when she was consciously drawing from her variation of Perception. Ineffable? No, too extreme. Ephemeral? Not quite, but close enough. It was the kind of subtle tell I’d never notice without the borderline familial familiarity developed after practically growing up alongside someone.
With a flourish, I adopted a smug expression and stared off into the middle distance.
“Because it is a secret.”
A snort, a titter, and finally full blown giggles erupted out of Bella’s mouth as her scrutiny shattered before my absurdity.
“That. Is. So. Silly!” She sputtered between bouts of laughter, the kind that often came so easily to children.
Nearby, Fudge grumbled as if in agreement, though I mostly attributed that to my tendency to add human meaning to his actions. He’d been taking a nap and Bella’s outburst had evidently been enough to rouse him from whatever strange dreams occupied a quantum canine’s resting mind.
“Yeah, yeah, I am a silly sheep,” I sarcastically agreed, though my tone was good-natured.
“Really, though, do you remember?” She almost sounded concerned. It occurred to me that confiding in me was probably a big deal for her. It was a display of trust, and not taking it seriously could be hurtful; just because she was a child didn’t change that fact. If anything, I had a responsibility to not taint the gesture.
“Of course I remember,” I said, pulling to mind the most overt secret she’d shared with me in recent months. “You said you were ready to Advance.” I’d been wondering what became of that. I assumed when it happened Bella would tell me about her new Skills, but she’d been uncharacteristically quiet on the subject.
A wide smile spread across Bella’s face, squishing her cheeks up against her eyes.
“Correct,” she chirped while nodding in confirmation. “Papa said I have to wait for permission before I Advance because it might not be safe if I rush. He said that he and Mama would help me with it ‘soon’ but every time I ask they keep just saying ‘soon’ no matter how much I wait.” Her smile gradually morphed into a frustrated pout the more she spoke. “It is not fair, and I can tell that Papa is not being entirely truthful with me.”
I felt my mouth form a thin line as Bella spoke, since I could deduce what was happening. Figuello and Lianda had, perhaps sensibly, decided to try and convince Bella to wait until she was older before Advancing into the first Tier. I could understand the logic. Based on Marco’s Core Skill, I suspected he’d be well into his teen years before he Advanced and most children were probably in similar positions.
The question now is what to say so I don’t accidentally incite conflict between Bella and her parents. Considering Bella’s Core Skill, I thought her parents had been a bit clumsy in their approach to the issue, but I also lacked context into their personal lives so decided not to pass judgment.
“Why are you in such a rush to Advance?” What I had hoped would be a useful question only won me a skeptical tilt of Bella’s head.
“Because I want to…” Bella trailed off and scrunched up her face in momentary thought. “That is not a good answer. That is an answer like ‘soon’ - I did not really tell you anything.” She grimaced at the realization. “Can I have some time to think about it?”
“Definitely,” I said with a chuckle. To give credit where credit was due, Bella had a capacity for self-reflection beyond her years. While I suspected her Core Skill was largely responsible, it felt odd- no, it felt wrong to reduce a little girl’s personality to that level. Skill or not, Bella was Bella.
Still, when I was her age, my concerns typically revolved around what dinosaur could beat another dinosaur in a fight, I thought wryly.
“What do you think it is like?”
“Hmm?” Bella’s question caught me off guard. For a moment, I thought she might have said something else while my mind was distracted by thoughts of velociraptors and the childhood disappointment I felt when I learned they resembled turkeys more than their cinematic representations would lead someone to believe.
“Advancement,” Bella clarified. “What do you think it is like?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose as the girl I could not lie to asked me a question I could not, should not, answer truthfully.
Yeah, that checks out.
“What do you think it is like?” I tried flipping the question back at her.
“Nope. I asked you first.” She poked her tongue out at me. “That means you have to answer first.”
“Since when is that the rule?” I raised a dubious eyebrow.
“Since I said so.” Bella nodded with an air of self-satisfaction.
“That does not sound right to me,” I replied seriously. “What if I want to make a rule?”
“Do you want to make a rule?”
“Can my rule be that you are not allowed to make rules?”
“No! That is cheating!” Bella scowled at me and I raised my hands placatingly.
“Okay, fair enough. So we need rules for making rules, then?”
The whole affair lasted several more exchanges, but I was eventually able to lead Bella towards a different subject. Core Skill aside, she was still a child; I’d gotten better at managing her when necessary, even though it was often an exercise in tedium. Right when I was about to ask a clarifying question regarding the type of hat that would best suit a sheep, I felt Fudge begin to stir through the Tamer Bond.
CURIOSITY?
The feeling wasn’t quite curiosity, rather, I recognized it as the emotion Fudge felt when he smelled something interesting. With a huff and scramble, he pushed himself upright and stuck his snout into the air.
“Hold on a second, Bella. Fudge is doing something.” At the mention of one of her favorite dogs, Bella snapped her head around to watch him the same way I was. A low rumble sounded from the center of Fudge’s mass that steadily turned into a growl. When it reached its peak, it transitioned smoothly into a loud bark, and within moments I heard an answering one come from the house.
Fudge seemed to calm down slightly after Vigil’s response, but he still moved to stand closer to Bella and I.
“Come on, Bella, we need to go back to the house. Someone is coming.” It wasn’t one of our usual visitors, at least. Fudge didn’t raise the alarm like that for Bella’s family, at least.
As we scurried back towards the house, we were intercepted by Figuello who’d been supervising us from across the way. We were given space, but gone were the days Bella was left completely unsupervised.
My parents were quick to join us; Marco was on my mother’s hip and Vigil stood in her shadow. Both he and Fudge were looking intently towards the hill that led to the village. As we watched and exchanged quiet reassurances, a figure crested it, moving at a brisk jog that anyone in my old life would have considered a sprint. I had to strain my eyes, but I eventually recognized them thanks to the way the club tied to their belt flailed in the air as they ran.
It was Rual, the not-technically-a-guardsman who watched over Hwan most days. My poor first impression of him aside, he was never overtly aggressive towards Tulos beyond the occasional snub on the rare occasions we crossed paths; he was ultimately harmless. That didn’t mean I’d changed my opinion of the guy, though. He was still a dick.
Having noticed us, Rual began to wave to get our attention and call out across the field. There was an urgency to the actions that spawned a pit in my stomach.
“Should we…” I trailed off when I saw no one was making a move to close the distance.
“No. If Rual has news, best he just says it once to all of us.” It was Figuello who responded, his mustache twitching slightly as he did so. When neither of my parents said anything to the contrary I decided to just let the adults take point, but I could feel the tension in the air. Bella wandered over and grabbed the hem of her father’s shirt, taking visual comfort in the action.
When Rual came to a stop in front of us, the faintest sign of exertion coloured his cheeks.
“Hwan sent me,” he said immediately, wasting no time on pleasantries. It was unclear who he was addressing. “Some folks from The Capital rode in on one of their wagons - asked to look at Elbura’s Skill registry.” At that, his eyes flicked downwards, first towards Bella, then at me. “Guessin’ one of your kids grabbed their attention. That is unfortunate.”
The way he said it made me think he’d come to that conclusion based on context clues as opposed to having prior knowledge of my Skill. That was the least of my concerns though, as Rual’s words fell like a hammer.
“No…” Tina muttered, as if denying reality would make it go away. I could empathize. Figuello reached down to grab Bella’s shoulder protectively, which confused me since he shouldn’t have had anything to worry about.
“It is okay, Uncle Fig,” I said. “They are here for me.” At that, Bella’s father frowned and looked at me, then my parents, then back to me.
“What does he mean by that?”
“What do you mean by that?” It was Tulos who answered, and I could see the gears turning both their heads.
“Wait, so whose kid are they here to get?” Rual chimed in, seemingly not caring about the fragility of the moment.
“Mine.”
“Ours.”
Tulos and Figuello spoke at the same time while Tina stepped forward to grab me with her free arm. At that moment, I got hit by a sudden realization, one that my self-absorbed ass should have made literal years beforehand. I’d never bothered to tell Tina and Tulos about Bella’s Core Skill. It had never come up in conversation and I just assumed they knew through talking to her parents.
Except Bella’s parents are under the impression I have a variation of the Trapping Skill. Fuck, I’m an idiot. If not for the severity of the situation, I might have laughed.
“Bella’s Skill is a desirable one as well,” I said. Of course it was.
Comments
Christopher Silvestro
I don't mention the age much out of the little time-skip summary chapters; while I've been doing chapter releases like this it's totally understandable that it gets missed/forgotten over the weeks. I may up that frequency when I do the full book edit/review, but my thinking is that it'll be enough for when the book is consumed as a finished piece. Thanks for the feedback. Also, your review on RR made my week.
TheShadowSlayer_
Huh. I had the impression Will was closer to six than ten. Must have missed a few context clues.
Kanyau
Ending the chappie there is diabolical.
Earth Grumble
…ok…..and action!
Hammy
TFTC. Hope Lionel gets there in time. To bad about Bella though.
