Seeing that he had been silent for too long, Ethan coughed in embarrassment. Elizabeth had been watching him the entire time, her gentle smile never wavering as he wrestled with his thoughts.
"Uhhh... Soul energy," he finally blurted out. "Is there anything you can tell me about it?"
The moment the question left his lips, he watched the smile vanish from her face, replaced by pure surprise. She was silent for several seconds, the shock still clear in her eyes as she processed his query. She opened her mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by the entrance of another ascendant.
They both watched as the newcomer offered Elizabeth a deep, respectful bow before turning to enter the library. She acknowledged him with a single, regal nod, but her smile tightened. A wave of malice, thinly veiled and sharp as a blade, had radiated from the man. It wasn't directed at her—as a Rank 4 ascendant finely attuned to the flow of Will, she was a proximity sensor for such intense emotions. This malice was a blaring signal, and its target was unmistakably the young man sitting beside her.
She turned her gaze back to Ethan, her expression now a complex mix of amusement and concern.
"Ethan," she said, her voice deceptively light. "It seems you've already made some... friends... in our little Outer Order. Congratulations."
Ethan hadn't even registered the ascendant who had entered, but the dripping sarcasm in Elizabeth's voice made him instantly commit the young man's face to memory. He was certain he'd never seen him before. "Friends? I've never seen that face before. Is there something I should know?" he asked, turning his full attention back to Elizabeth, who had regained her easy-going expression.
Elizabeth shook her head. Even feeling comfortable with her, Ethan's fundamentally cautious nature hadn't changed. "You just need to be careful. If you have no business being alone anywhere, I suggest you don't. With the amount of malice I felt from his will just now, I don't think he would show you mercy with a blade to your neck." She said it as casually as discussing the weather before closing her book with a definitive *clasp*.
"Alright, you can think about that next time," she continued, steering the conversation back. "The matters of the Soul... I never thought the energy that scarred me would be your question. But an answer is what I promised, and I guess I stabbed myself in the foot when I didn't set a limitation."
Ethan was confused. "Scarred you? Soul energy?" He had only wanted to understand the nature of the energy that was his secret ace. Against a fast, long-range enemy, his enhanced perception and sword skills would be useless; he'd be a sitting duck.
Flipping her hand, she retrieved a small, brown leather notebook from her storage ring. "Here. It's yours. I exchanged this note for a small fortune of elemental stones, so you might want to be careful with the knowledge inside." She held it out with a gentle smile.
Ethan was stunned. He had expected a few sentences of explanation, not a physical artifact that cost a fortune—especially in elemental stones, the true currency of the ascendant world outside the Order's point system.
"Ummnn.. you know, I can just write the contents down and return the note," he offered.
Elizabeth smiled, glad she didn't have to force him. "Don't worry, Ethan. When you get to my level, it becomes increasingly hard to forget. Having it or not makes little difference to me, honestly."
With trembling hands, Ethan took the notebook with both arms. This was what truly thrilled him: new knowledge that promised power. "Thank you very much," he said, his voice thick with genuine gratitude. He was incredibly lucky; a Rank 2 ascendant shouldn't have asked about the soul, considering that this energy was not something low-ranked Ascendants could wield. She had only learned due to her own desperate research into healing a soul injury.
"Okay, okay, off you go," she waved him off playfully. "Don't sit here poking my wounds. Go look up history or whatever you came for."
Ethan stored the precious notebook in his ring with a thought and stood up.
Elizabeth smiled, deciding to offer one last nugget of wisdom. "You're confused about Will, but you use it unconsciously. What did you use to put the note in your ring? Willpower is the basic manifestation of your intent. That should be enough to know what you're looking for."
Ethan immediately bowed, now deciding against the library. "Thank you very much, Miss Elizabeth. I have to leave now. I'll visit to study history another time."
"Be careful of your 'friends,'" she reminded him. "Try exploring, too. I need new stories, Ethan; it's really boring here in the library."
Was she confused—hadn't she just advised him against taking risks?—but kept the thought to himself. Bowing once more, he took his leave.
Stepping out of the library, he shifted into full paranoia mode. His route from the secure, surveilled 5th District to his apartment in the less-regulated 7th District now felt like a gauntlet. He was almost to a corner when he panicked. The very ascendant Elizabeth, whom he had warned about, just ran out of the library, scanning the area with an intense expression and looking for him, apparently.
Ethan ducked into an alley quickly, weaving through several side streets before finally slipping into a temporary inn in the safe confines of the 5th District. He didn't want to wait and see if his 'stalker' only wanted a nice, peaceful conversation. Paying a steep 200 points for a single day, he secured a room and finally breathed easy. *Who did I offend now?* He wouldn't imagine it was over his minor confrontation with Frey; To him, the confrontation earlier wasn't worth remembering.
Falling on the bed immediately after he stepped, he stared at the ceiling quietly. Suddenly, a strange pull came from his spatial ring. Puzzled, he mentally scanned his ring contents and immediately understood: it was the card his master, Leo, had given him.
He took it out. The card floated from his palm, dissolving into a shimmering portal woven from stable space element. Ethan was shocked. Activating his Elemental Eyes, he confirmed the portal was secure and, crucially, hadn't triggered the district's surveillance circles. His master had said their next meeting would be at his front door, so this urgent summons meant something significant had happened.
Just as he was about to step through, a voice, impatient and familiar, echoed from the portal. "I'm not gonna wait all day for you. Step in. Quickly."
Hearing his master's voice, Ethan stepped through the portal with a tinge of embarrassment.
Ethan stepped out of the portal, his senses on high alert. To his left, he saw Alan, looking just as confused. Before them stood their master, Kaelen, his eyes glowing with the faint residue of space energy.
"Hmnnnn... Good. Both of you are no longer as clueless as you were once," Kaelen remarked, a note of approval in his voice. "At least you had the sense to use your Elemental Eyes to check an unknown portal before stepping in. I'd have punished you if you hadn't." Ethan understood; his master could see the lingering traces of elemental energy in his eyes.
"Come here, both of you," Kaelen directed. "Meet Gwain, my first student."
He gestured to a man standing quietly behind him. The moment Ethan met Gwain's gaze, it felt like a physical shock—it wasn't lethal, but it was enough to shatter his concentration.
Acting purely on instinct, Ethan pulled on his soul energy without restraint, the sudden surge breaking the mental pressure. He stumbled back a step, his sword already half-drawn as he fell into a defensive stance.
Before he could fully unsheathe it, he saw a smile break across Gwain's lips, though the man hadn't moved a muscle.
"Wow... they're really something, just like you said, Master," Gwain commented, his voice laced with amusement.
"Stop teasing your juniors. Suppress your will," Kaelen chided, though a smile played on his own face.
Ethan was stunned. *All that pressure was just from his Will?* What rank would he need to reach to command such power? He glanced at Alan and saw his friend also had his sword in hand, having resisted in his own way.
"Hi, I'm Gwain Russ. You can call me Gwain," the man said, the overwhelming pressure vanishing as if it had never been. "Sorry about that; I was just curious." He offered a genuine smile to his flustered juniors.
Shocked by his own reaction, Ethan sheathed his sword and bowed. "I'm Ethan Alerion, sir. It's nice to meet you. I'm sorry I drew my sword."
Alan followed suit. "Uh... Alan Umbra, sir. It's nice to meet you."
Gwain nodded, his curious gaze settling back on Ethan. "Tell me, I'm incredibly curious. For Alan, I can understand that he used his lightning-element bloodline to counter the influence of my will, allowing him to move. But you, Ethan... I couldn't sense anything. How did you do it?"
The question struck at one of his most guarded secrets. Ethan's eyes flickered toward his master, but Kaelen seemed deep in his own thoughts. Turning back to Gwain's expectant but patient smile, Ethan hesitated.
"You don't need to tell me everything," Gwain said smoothly. "Just a hint. Here I'll give you something in return." He produced five illusion elemental stones, each one glowing with a dreamy, purple mist that swirled with potent energy.
Ethan's eyes widened. The reward was too great to pass up for a two words. "Soul energy," he stated clearly.
Gwain's smile widened as he nodded. "Thank you." He tossed the stones to Ethan. "They're yours."
Ethan caught them, his mind racing. *What was today's date again?*
It felt like his lucky day, a sudden break where the world decided to shower him with treasures. "Thank you, Sir Gwain," he said, storing the precious stones with a sense of disbelief.