A Twist of Fate

In a fairly large private room separate to the Council Hall, Speaker Blackfire and a dozen other Senior councillors were discussing the Hearing's findings and giving their final thoughts on the matter.

Compared to the discussions held between the various political groups in the main council hall, these discussions were much more calm and reasonable. Each Senior councillor calmly expressed their opinions and concerns, receiving only measured glances and subtle nods as they spoke.

It was only by virtue of their collective understanding and experience that their discussions were so calm and peaceful in comparison to those in the Council Hall earlier. However even here, there was always a palpable tension in the air that only seemed to effect the guards and assistants who quietly stood to side.

This tension was derived from the stubborn and prideful nature of the various experts here, even as they calmly spoke to one another they were quietly planning various actions to take in response to the outcome of this hearing.

"..but I think we can all agree to a second Grade annulment and a 50 year prison term, no?" One Elemental with a bear like form said, finishing their final discussion on the Truth Religion heretics punishment.

"Hmm.."

"I agree.."

Calls of agreement resounded through the room after the Elemental finished before he looked towards Speaker Blackfire.

"Yes this seems reasonable. Although we might have trouble with their leader Wamu.. apparently an agent of the Truth Religion has just requested to visit him. They might try to buy his freedom away, after all, according to our intelligence Apostle Wamu was valued quite highly by their educators." Speaker Blackfire responded.

Another Senior Councillor nodded hearing this.

"It's possible, but we'll squeeze them for every last crystal if they want us to let him off." He said in his rough croaking voice.

*Knock* *Knock*

Hearing the door knocks, Speaker Blackfire calmly used his Qi energy to scan those interrupting them before Blackfire revealed a rare smile

"Ah, that little Casmir fellow's here. We'll continue in a moment everyone, I just need to award him with a Merit Badge quickly." He said, turning his head towards the door as he called out "Come in!"

The Speaker's voice easily pierced through the door, even though it was specially designed to isolate any sound from leaving the room but not entering it.

Moments later the door was opened as Master Bluefire stepped in followed by Casmir.

As the pair entered the room Bluefire simply stepped to the side, allowing Casmir to walk forward and stand in front of the large semi-circular seating area. Standing here, Casmir was at the focal point of all the Senior Councillors viewpoints.

Casmir calmed his nerves as much as he could before the councillors, he then bowed slightly and called out, "Seniors", in greetings respectfully.

The Senior councillors only glanced at Casmir and nodded back before their eyes began shifting between Bluefire and Speaker Blackfire, an odd light in their eyes.

Speaker Blackfire meanwhile focused his attention on Casmir, giving him a long look before he spoke in a very gentle and kind voice.

"Welcome Casmir Sing, on behalf of the Heldan Republic I have deemed your efforts deserving of a Merit Badge. As a representative of the Republic I present you with the Civilian Grade 5, Wilful Protector Merit Badge, for you actions in defence of your fellow students and assistance in this matter."

Clearly they had questions Casmir's fellow students, learning of the details of his actions to save Zaya's life in a reckless and wilful manner.

Speaker Blackfire then pulled out a small wooden box from the large black robe he was wearing, gently lifting it into the air until suddenly it floated away from his hand under the guidance of his Qi energy and stopped just in front of Casmir.

Casmir quickly received the box before he thanked the Speaker.

"Thank you Senior!" Casmir said sincerely.

"That's quite alright Casmir, you've earned this. There is a Qi chip inside the box to explain the Merit Badge's functions to you."

"Now, if you don't mind I'd like to speak to your Master, Bluefire for a moment. Just wait outside." The Speaker said.

Casmir nodded, glancing at Bluefire for a moment before he turned around and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

The moment the door closed, the calm atmosphere in the room swiftly changed as many of the Senior councillors looked at Speaker Blackfire with sly smiles on their faces.

"Haha! You didn't tell me he was your daughters student! No wonder you fought so much with us to get him just a slightly higher grade Merit badge..." One of the more boisterous old councillors called out loudly.

This boisterous old Elemental could barely hold back his teasing until Casmir left, only holding back so as to not make the clearly unaware Casmir, privy to Blackfire's favour towards him.

Hearing the old Elementals teasing, Bluefire crossed her arms as she directed her gaze towards Speaker Blackfire, her father.

This man, Speaker Blackfire, was the man who made Master Bluefire so infamous, especially amongst the higher level cultivators in Ellaris. Not only was Speaker Blackfire quite literally the representative of Law and Order in Ellaris, he was extremely protective over his family. He himself was not an extremely powerful cultivator but the empire of connections and resources that he had access to made him untouchable, so long as he didn't make any mistakes.

"Father, I specifically told you not to show favour towards me! You knew that would include any students I take in." Bluefire complained in a strangely high-pitched tone, one that Casmir had never and perhaps never will hear from her.

It was a tone consistent with that of an angry young lady, pouting about something unreasonable.

"Ah, be quiet Kaldin!" Blackfire said as he looked towards the boisterous old councillor who wore a cheeky smile.

"Now you look what you've done... Bah, the kid deserved it anyway in my opinion." Blackfire protested in a completely casual manner, destroying the image of the 'representative of law and order' in Ellaris.

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.. we're too busy to go into that now." Blackfire then said, waving his arms about to dismiss the issue.

Bluefire promptly narrowed her gaze as she looked at her father but Blackfire simply turned his head slightly, blatantly ignorer her as he continued.

"I just wanted to let you know the results of our investigation, I can assure you that Casmir was simply coincidentally involved with the Truth Religion. There's no need to worry." Blackfire said in a more serious tone.

As the conversation shifted away from Blackfire's favour towards Casmir and towards Casmir's involvement in this matter, Bluefire's attitude quickly became serious as she questioned her father further, saying "Are you sure?"

Blackfire nodded firmly, "Yes, the information they would have needed to engineer these events would have simply been impossible to gather without any traces. And even then, they would have had many easier opportunities to target Casmir... I'm afraid your disciple just has bad luck."

Bluefire frowned hearing that Casmir's involvement with the Truth Religion was truly coincidental, her intuition going against such a judgement although she couldn't tell whether her judgement had been impaired by her relationship with Casmir.

As Bluefire silently mulled over her fathers judgement, one of the Senior councillors who had stayed silent the whole time, suddenly spoke up.

Wearing a thick dark-purple cloak that covered her whole body, her voice was soft and groaning, slow to an annoying degree, yet it held a strange wisdom to it.

"Ahh... little Bluefire.. do you want me to read him..? I don't mind.. after all.. I forgot to give you a birthday gift... You only turned 100.. a little while ago.."

When the rest of the Senior councillors heard this purple-cloaked lady speak, they were all surprised and their attention towards this otherwise mundane conversation, suddenly peaked.

This cloaked lady was the quietest of them but she was someone they unanimously respected. She was an expert in the strange arts of the Soul and with her level of skill she could perform the mysterious Art of Fate Reading.

Using this art she could attempt to sense the almost imperceptibly weak soul connections people make over their lives. These soul connections being made through a variety of interactions between people and to any common man, they would simply be called strings of fate.

By using this Art, the cloaked lady could discover hidden motives and connections between people that even they themselves might be unaware of. But even more mysteriously, this art could vaguely see and read the connections an individual held to the world itself, outlining their current path and even their future to a certain degree.

In other places such a thing would simply be laughed at as an amusing game, but here, no one dared do so. They had all witnessed personally or heard stories about the times this purple-cloaked lady had used the Art.

Most readings would result in very little, perhaps confirming a connection two people shared or guiding someone away from a dangerous path. But sometimes, by reading a persons fate this lady could predict the rise of an expert or even inform an expert of how to avoid their own doom.

Such a ability would be very valuable, unfortunately its accuracy was limited and to see the lines of fate connecting true experts would cost an enormous price. Thus this lady's abilities were mostly used on the younger generations, to help guide them in reaching their full potential.

The most famous example of her Fate Reading was the one she had performed on Helios Jing-Sheng when he was only a relatively unknown young man.

At the time her prediction saw him bare a strange fate, he was fated to "be the strongest in the world, envied by the world and finally killed by the world".

Such a prediction wasn't treated seriously at first, but decades later after his rise to prominence, breakthrough to the pinnacle of cultivation, Qi Grade 10 and subsequent annihilation by those he had angered and attacked.

No one could question her Art without serious thought before hand.

This purple-cloaked cloaked lady's name was Maria, Maria the Fate Reader, she was part of a nearly extinct race of beings from the Energy Races. A Soul Dreamer, the first race to cultivate Soul Energy many millennia ago.

Seeing her offer a reading for Casmir, many of the other Senior councillors were slightly jealous because it would cost them a pretty penny for such a chance. But they knew of Maria's close relationship with Blackfire and her charitable character, so they weren't completely surprised by her offer to quell Bluefire's worries about her student.

Hearing her offer, Bluefire completely ignored the fact that she had turned 100 years old over 4 years ago and such a time frame was only a 'little while' to Maria. She was conflicted about whether to accept Maria's offer, Bluefire knew it was within Maria's abilities to see whether Casmir truly had any connections to the Truth Religion but she was about Maria discovering Casmir's identity.

"Bluefire, you can trust Maria. I suggest you take her offer." Speaker Blackfire suggested to her.

Bluefire nodded sluggishly at her fathers words, then turning to Maria, Bluefire spoke respectfully.

"I will fetch Casmir, thank you for guiding my student."

However Maria the Fate Reader slowly lifted her cloak covered arm, saying "No need, I have already felt his energy, that is enough."

The room soon fell silent as all those within waited for Maria to act,.

It was at this time that the gentlest of energy waves passed over all those within the room, Bluefire herself couldn't even sense the wave. This was because the wave wasn't formed from Qi energy, but Soul Energy. It was so gentle that even the smallest of insects were unaffected by it even though it could snuff their weak consciousness's out of existence with but a thought.

The wave quickly passed through the room and into the next as it passed over Casmir whom simply felt an odd chill pass down his spine.

Everyone quietly waited for Maria to finish using her Art but Maria remained still for over a minute, fairly longer than when she had used her Art before which garnered the mild interest of some of the experts nearby.

"Strange..." Maria suddenly said quietly.

Bluefire was just about to speak up and question her when Blackfire stopped her with a sharp look.

"He's fated.. with those of the Truth Religion.... there are both strings of malice and love... but none of those strings... have been touched yet..."

"He is fated... with those of the Truth Religion... but.. not yet.." She explained.

Blackfire nodded at her, helping to translate her meaning. "So his involvement in these incidents are just coincidental, but he is fated to be involved with the Truth Religion at a later time and for a different reason?"

"Yes.." Maria replied.

Blackfire let out a sigh of relief hearing this, he was truly worried about her reading for a moment because of how long Maria took. Blackfire knew of Casmir's identity and that Maria would likely discover it, but he also knew that Maria would never hold this against Casmir or reveal it to another.

Yet he grew nervous as she took so long to finish her Art, wondering whether his identity drew even her interest.

However now was not the time for such questions, Blackfire turned his attention back to Bluefire with a reassured smile, saying "I hope that puts you at rest for now Bluefire, you know Maria's reputation so you should trust her advice."

Bluefire agreed with her father, nodding to him before she respectfully bowed in thanks to Maria. After which she said her goodbyes to the senior councillors and left.

It wasn't until a few minutes later that Maria herself left the council room early, under the excuse of exhausting her Soul Energy and needing to rest. None of the other councillors were suspicious of her excuse because they all understood the level of skill and concentration needed for such an Art to be used.

Maria quickly made her way through the building, yet her old cloaked body seemed to move with an unsteady vigour as if she was hopefully anxious about something. The guards and other minor figures that she passed by were confused by her appearance and the words she mumbled to her self as she walked.

"..there's still hope.. still another.. must find her.."

Little did anyone know that when Maria had read Casmir's fate, she had found a string of fate connecting him to someone she recognised, someone whose life she had long thought extinguished.

Upon her discovery of this individual whom Casmir was fated to be entangled with, Maria was shocked out of her wits. It was only by luck that her reaction was one of silent disbelief and that she didn't burst out in a frenzy in front of the other councillors.

After she had recovered from her shock, Maria quickly investigated Casmir's fate with this person only to realise it was too faint, signalling that they weren't destined to met until years or perhaps decades later. Because of this, Casmir was of little use to her in finding this person, but knowing they were still alive was enough for Maria, enough to ignite a faint fire of hope inside Maria that she had long since thought lost.

Not long after reading Casmir's fate, Maria would leave Ellaris in search of someone, never to be seen here again.