8 Ability

A blur of smoke that consisted o blue and black energy traveled a small distance from one spot of the room to the other.

A well-crafted blade was swung through the air and vibrated in a melodious hum. The beautiful blue glow encasing it shone translucently and enhanced its captivity.

Especially the whiteish steel and red runes that glowed on its fuller only told of the value this blade had. It was an enchanted weapon with remarkable magical power.

The person handling that blade on its black leather hilt positioned himself into a normal stance and sheathed it in its scabbard that also had enhancements on it and also looked rather gaudy. Only fitting to the blade.

It was Nero that was currently training and getting used to his old body and new abilities. His prowess with the blade and magic has tremendously increased since his little world jump.

But it was only normal. In one he had years of combat behind himself that pushed his learned martial prowess to the limit and back here he had the opportunity to utilize his magical potential.

Not in the traditional way of Thedas, of course, but still a useful way nonetheless. Especially as a close-combat oriented fighter, it was a blessing having ringwraith abilities that let him blink short distances. And he made good use of that and all the other abilities.

The only problem he slowly ran into was that he noticed the limit of normal training in this world. His physical stats were slowly capping at the mortal level. He found out it was around a stat value of 60 that most people had nearly no gains anymore and a hard time increasing it any further.

To reach higher realms one had to devote oneself to intensive training or risk death by going the unorthodox path as he did himself with the Lyrium enchantments. He was no exception and still mortal.

As long as his bloodline was not unlocked, so will his power be capped to a mortals.

His magical potential of course was another matter entirely and increased further and further coming close to what Nero would call the mortal limit of 99.

It was also the cap in the game so it made some sense. But he also knew he would be able to surpass that as long as he tapped into his supernatural power. His own power, that is...

The wraith abilities, that came with his now spirit companion Celebrimbor, were also beyond that realm and at first, Nero had some trouble keeping up with them normally. That is without actually using the power of the ring to enhance his body.

But since Nero swore he would never use the power of the ring to empower himself again, there was only one way to compensate. And that was hard training to find a way in controlling these abilities.

It was a good thing that his body learned fast and it only took a while to get used to it.

Speaking of Power. The ring was not dangerous anymore. At least those were the words from Celebrimbor. You could understand that Nero had not much trust in those words. Especially after Isildur's ring.

But power was still there and could be used if needed. And as one could see, Nero was using more of Celebrimbor's smithing skills than anything else.

Even his current armor was created by this spirit's hand. It seems after going through the experience of constant war, Nero adopted a different mind for armor and now included more plated components into it.

For Ferelden standard this armor was very unique. Not to mention the power imbued into it. It basically was a fortress of an armor. Capable to resist physical and magical abuse on extreme levels.

It was a nearly exact replica of the Nazgul armor that he wore in Middle-Earth. Also called the Ringwraith set. Only the color schematic was different with royal dark blue and golden rims at the cloth coupled with a lot of white steel plates instead of the black cloth and black steel.

He didn't want to look like a damn dark lord after all...or did he? It was at least much heavier than the chainmail counterpart that he wore when he was younger. But with him being older he was able to wear it easily by now. And there was still freedom in movement, courtesy to elven smithing arts.

And to sum it all up he wore a beautiful dark blue cloak with the Cousland House symbol on the back - two green laurel twigs on the blue background. Those would later be replaced by whatever symbol he would have to wear depending on his allegiance. But currently, it was his family foremost.

When Nero removed his helmet he looked at it.

"Celebrimbor, I think we need to work on the helmet a little bit more. The vision is still limiting...and it does remind me too much of a Nazgul...", stated Nero and Celebrimbor appeared to his side.

"If you find more meteorite material to reforge it, that should not be the problem. Also, someone is coming.", answered Cele and looked at the door.

Nero reacted swiftly and raised his left hand. Suddenly the ring on his hand glowed and the armor he was wearing just a minute disappeared after becoming transparent. It was still there but invisible to others' eyes.

Even Nero had not yet figured out how it worked. If you touched him you could only feel his normal clothing and skin but when being attacked the armor would suddenly resurface.

It was a mystery, but all things considered it was a pleasant mystery. Because of that, he could wear his armor and it would not become a hindrance in other activities. Always stay combat-ready was something he liked to be. Maybe a little trait he gained from the experience.

Though his vision was still impaired when the helm was on his head. Otherwise, he would not ask for it being redone. What made the whole thing even weirder. But not wearing a helm was...Let's say a fool's choice.

Looking at the door when it opened, he saw how Syllia entered the room.

"Nero, your mother wants you to take some time at the dining table and also take care of your little sister.", she said after bowing lightly.

Nero smiled. "That time already? Well, I just finished training. Let's go then."

With his agreement, they went ahead and walked to his little sister's personal quarters. Entering the room he saw her playing near the fireplace with some dolls.

What made Nero surprised was that those dolls had real knives tucked into their hands.

"What the? Syllia, get those weapons away from her immediately!" Nero was actually pissed whoever gave her them. Someone gave a child knives to play.

Not that he actually was a role model in that regard since he wore a sword around his waist at the age of 7. But still, training was one thing and playing with knives another.

And there was still the fact that his sister was actually not fond of training as a warrior. Much to the happiness of Nero's mother.

But that seemed her not to keep away from dangerous sharp things. She was still a daredevil, just like his mother. But if anything happened it would be his ear chewed out, not hers.

Syllia of course obliged his order and went ahead to the girl and tried to take away the knives.

"NO! Don't! You can't take Eric his sword!! He is fighting to protect Lissy!" The little girl of course protested and Syllia could only look at her in dismay but still pull away the knives from her.

The little girl was fighting against it and a knife actually sliced the arm off from the female doll.

"AHH!! You cut of Lissy's arm!! Why did you have to take it away! You damn longear!" The girl shouted out in rage.

But instead of being met with an apology from Syllia, it was a clear sounded slap on her face from Nero that was the result of her outburst.

The girl with short fiery red hair looked at Nero and started to tear up. Slowly she couldn't stop sobbing.

"What did I tell you about behaving so disrespectfully to other races, Aeda?" Nero had a very stern expression on his face, angry even. He had already noticed that his little sister was spoiled a lot and it was his duty as his elder brother to educate her properly.

Aeda started to cry a little and looked to Syllia, even running to the elf and hugging her. Syllia smiled wrily and hugged the little girl back.

"Waah...I am sorry big sister Syllia...I didn't mean to..." Aeda seemed to apologize while crying herself out.

"It's alright. You were just angry and slipped with your words, right?", asked Syllia back and patted the girl's head. Aeda in return nodded.

Seeing that Nero just sighed and slowly started to leave the room.

Seeing that Aeda looked after her brother. "Sorry, big brother..."

Nero stopped and frowned. He felt sick hitting her now. But to be someone she could respect and look upon later in life this was how he had to act. It was also mainly his brother's fault that she was so spoiled.

Since he took the loving brother role, only the stern role was left for Nero. But at the same time, it was alright. She would understand when she became older. Being only 10 years old was still a time where one still had to forgive them.

"Come, mother wants us to eat dinner. Later we can go to the city and get you another doll.", said Nero and left the room.

Aeda looked to Syllia who just smiled in return. A soft hand put on Aeda's little head. "Good for you, right? Maybe he will buy you more or even make it seomethign special?."

Aeda smiled at that and giggled lightly. "Really?"