Kaelen had been in this body for almost two weeks, and he had learned to hate its limitations with a hate that bordered on psychosis.
Kaelen rose before dawn, when the estate was still dark and the servants had not yet begun to stir.
He sat in the darkness of his room, the house silent around him, and reached inward. The pathways were there still twisted, atrophied. He pushed a thread of will into the channels, gentle this time, patient.
The response was immediate. A spark of something that might have been power, followed by a flare of pain that made his vision white out. He held his ground, breathing through it, refusing to break the connection. He was about to continue when he felt the hum increase and the link gone.
He opened his eyes in frustration his hands were trembling.
What was that? he asked in anger.
The hum ignored him but he could feel anger in it. He sighed and was about to explain when he felt vibration on his fingers and looked at them and he saw them glowing. His frustration disappeared, replaced by genuine happiness. It was the first time he felt hope since being in this body. He had felt the spark before but could not move mana in and out of his body now for the fist time he could move the mana out he tried forming the hand seals he had used a thousand times before. He focused the spark, shaped it, directed it toward the wall.
Nothing happened.
He tried again still nothing.
The mana was there he could feel it now, a thin trickle where there had once been a river but it would not obey. It was like trying to pour water through a cracked vessel; the pathways could not contain it, could not direct it, could not transform it into anything useful.
He sat back, letting his hands drop. The hum beneath his skin pulsed once, a note of comfort. He sent back a message that he was fine it was less than two weeks this much was good.
He rose and began the kata.
He stood in the center of his chamber, chest heaving, sweat dripping from his jaw onto the wooden floor. The morning light was thin and pale but the cold did not touch him. His blood ran hot from exertion, his muscles screaming in protest from the morning's training.
He had completed the kata three times before his legs gave out. It was acceptable at this point, he had learned to lower his expectations. It was the best this body could do he could not push it further or the losses would outweigh the gains
Rin was more open now and the fear was slowly dissipating.
She brought rumors from the kitchens, whispers from the stables, fragments of conversation she had overheard while serving the upper household. She brought news of the master's return delayed by a week, something about political maneuvering in the capital and of Lord Aldric's growing reputation in the knight corps. She brought information about the northern nobles who had pushed Caelus from the tower, their houses, their alliances, their known associates.
And today, she brought something new.
"The young lady is returning," Rin said, setting down his evening meal. "Lady Seraphine. She's been summoned from the north for the assessment."
Kaelen sorted through Caelus's memories. Seraphine, his cousin. Child of the Aunt who died from the same accident that killed Caelus's mother. Her father had died when she was young and she was raised as a sister. When she came of age she was married off to a northern house that was ten years ago. Caelus had been fond of her, she was ten years older and the closest thing to a mother he had had. She was the one who taught him to read and write.
"Why now?" he asked.
Rin hesitated. "She will be attending with her husband, Her children will be participating in the assesment."
Seraphine had three children her oldest being nine years old and very gifted.
"I also heard she is here to help with preparations."
"What kind of preparations?"
Rin shook her head. "I don't know, young master. It was just hear say from the servants. But the master has been meeting with allies. I heard that there's talk of a betrothal…"
"A betrothal? Isn't Sera already married."
"For you."
He chocked on his food. The words landed like a blade. A betrothal meant a political alliance. A political alliance meant someone had found a use for the useless youngest son. And that meant…
"He is going to find me a wife," he said slowly.
"Young master…"Rin started cautiously.
"From what I heard the houses chosen have no female members of marriage age, only men."
His face changed, from relief cause he was worried due the issue of him being sexually attracted to men, to anger cause it meant the original owner's father was planning to marry off his son. If It was an equal alliance both men keep their names and original titles but in such an alliance the one being married off changes his title and becomes the man's consort and he would be know by the fact that he was married of not his future achievements.
Wait…wasn't that what he wanted, a life of relaxation.
The more he thought about it the more it was to his liking. Knowing the original owner's father he would find a powerful family to hang on, And the family must be willing to make a man the main…wife. Meaning they have no issue with having no descendants or they already have an heir and do not need the other to get children and fight over the family power. From his memory only two families near them fit the description.
Rin nodded, her face pale. "The northern houses are circling, house Verant needs allies. And you are…"
"Disposable." He finished the thought for her. "We have no women in the inner family circle so they thought of the next thing. The useless child of the lord."
"Do you know when the marriage talks began?"
She looked at him oddly.
"What?"
"It's like sometimes you remember everything then suddenly you don't remember important things."
"I am still healing," still receiving memories.
"A year ago you were very angry when you found out causing a seen and were beaten by the lord,"
The memories came when a Rin spoke. He overheard his father talking to a man about marring him off he was so angry he caused a scene making the man leave causing the talk to stall his father beat him so badly he almost died he was stopped by his brother. He healed but developed a heart condition because a rib punctured his heart when it broke. If it was not for a healer he would have died and even so since his body lacked mana he was not healed completely.
After that his father had left till now.
He at least got a clue as of why someone could want him dead. If their family fell others would benefit but if the marriage alliance works the benefit they were waiting for would disappear.
He finished eating then stood, moving to the window. The estate grounds were quiet below, the gardens dusted with the first frost of winter. This winter was so bad it caused a beast chained under the city to awaken killing a lot of people.
"Did you manage to sell them." Rin who was cleaning the utensils paused.
"Yes but it was hard to do it secretly so the money gotten was not as much as planned."
"As long us you managed it means it is possible."
He had given Rin some things from his room to sell for money. He realized that his funds were little his father had cut off his money supply after the marriage incident and the original owner was a drunkard so he used most of his saved money to buy alcohol.
He had her deposit the money into a newly opened account under a fake name that Rin had made. He also learnt that the young girl was very resourceful.
Since he knew he would survive past the assessment he also needed to survive the beast or it would be all for nothing.
"Do you know the betrothal partners he is planning."
"I don't know yet. But the master has been corresponding with House Ashworth. And House Duvall. And…" She hesitated. "There are rumors he's been in contact with the Duke of Valtor's household."
Kaelen's blood went cold. The Duke of Valtor. In the novel, that name had been significant a power player in the capital, a man whose ambitions went past the throne
He looked at Rin. "You've done well, come later and pick more items for sell."
Rin swallowed. "Yes young master."
He remembered the assessment. A series of trials designed to test the noble houses, to rank them, to allocate resources and influence for the coming year. In the novel, it had been a bloodbath both literally and politically. Houses rose and fell, Alliances were forged and broken. The protagonist had used it as a springboard, exposing corruption, challenging the powerful, rising from obscurity to become something the world had never seen.
The hum beneath his skin pulsed, stronger now, as if it had heard his thoughts. He closed his eyes and reached for it, it reached back and a feeling of calm washed over him.
He did not know if it was good or bad but he was getting used to the feeling of a companion by his side.
He did not know if it was a gift or a curse, a tool or a trap. But he knew it had the ability to hurt him but had not.
He lay down on the bed, his muscles aching, his breath steady, and closed his eyes.
The hum pulsed once more, soft and distant, and in the darkness behind his eyes, he saw something a flicker of light, a shape that might have been a throne, a presence that might have been watching.
He smiled.
Somewhere in the capital, in a manor he had never seen, a man with eyes cold like winter ice looked up from his paper and felt something shift in the air.
He felt the tug in his soul, he set down his pen and stared out the window, toward the district where the lesser houses made their homes. If someone knowledgeable followed his gaze they would realize it was toward the estate of House Verant.
"Interesting," he murmured as he looked at the odd thread on his soul. He was calm.
His soul pulsed once, across the city, across the darkness, across the thread that connected them.