Ch. 30: Connection

"Adrian, we've been out here for two hours now. I think the time for morning exercise is over." Rosy told him. Adrian felt like he'd been run over by a truck. Other than 'certain areas' that not even Rosy was cruel enough to attack, he was pretty sure that Rosy'd managed to at least bruise every single inch of space on his entire body. It'd gotten better after they'd started the 'no counterattacking' policy, but he was still more than ready to call it quits for the morning. Luckily, Rosy'd said it first.

Re-entering the camp, Rosy and Adrian were immediately told that Chloe wanted them to report to one of the tents near the center of the camp. Once they got there, they found Mana, Reese, and Chloe inside.

"Rosy, Adrian! Good, you're here. We were just talking about you... we've decided to hold a certain ceremony to officiate your acceptance into our resistance." Chloe told us as soon as we arrived.

"After the assassination attempt last night, it's vital that we make it as public as possible that you are a vital, accepted part of the resistance. We need to show that we need you, and that any further attempts at your life will be dealt with using extreme prejudice." The gryphon explained.

"Unfortunately, it's a given that people here will continue to attempt to kill you." Mana told them, "You're a demon from the pits of hell, after all." He muttered. His feelings towards Rosy ran deep, but Adrian knew that if Sydney had been executed by someone, he'd definitely have the same troubles with accepting them. It was actually amazing that Mana was able to see the situation clearly enough to understand how necessary that Rosy was to the resistance's cause, "I'm going to place a few magical security measures around your tent from now on, but honestly all we can hope for is to lower our losses." 

"We'd appreciate it. The best thing to do is definitely to keep the body count down. I'd prefer it if I didn't have to drop bodies every night." Rosy thanked Mana. Every interaction between the two made Adrian uncomfortable, with how weird Mana's forgiving (more or less) attitude toward Rosy was, but no sparks were flying yet. 

"We all would." Mana agreed, "And by the way, those swords on your hips... Are they imbued with blood magic?" He asked, interested. 

It was only natural for a magic expert such as Mana to be interested in Rosy's Darkreina and Adrian's Whiteblood sword. Both of them had impressive Void magic properties. Rosy's Darkreina could be used to enhance magic, though Adrian hadn't really seen it in action, and Adrian's Whiteblood sword was capable of nullifying magic.

"Darkreina is, but I think Adrian's sword is just regular Void magic." Rosy answered for them both, remembering how she was capable of using Adrian's sword to nullify the enchantment that had been keeping Adrian and Sydney in their cells back in the Noctus dungeon when they'd first met. 

If the Whiteblood sword was tied to Adrian via blood magic in the same way that Darkreina was tied to Rosy, then only he and those who closely shared his bloodline would be capable of using it.

"Blood magic is tied to single people, right? That's definitely a good description of my Whiteblood sword. It was forged and enchanted for me when I was a baby. Nobody else can use it, at least the magical aspect." Adrian dropped that bomb, thinking quietly to himself.

He could still remember the time that he lent it to Jasper for research. While he'd been able to use it to block Jasper's magic bolts, Jasper hadn't been capable of using it in any capacity at all. Elder Manachi's magic bolt had knocked the blind boy right off his feet, not weakened at all despite Jasper's higher understanding of the blade's properties.

"But... I used it." Rosy reminded him.

"Yeah... you did. That shouldn't have been possible, though." Adrian told her. According to what he'd been told, the former Elder Mage known as Hat had enchanted the sword especially for Adrian. Nobody else was capable of using it, and Adrian could even sense his proximity to it to some extent (though that function was rather weak all-in-all, only working when he was at the perfect proximity to it).

"Let me see it." Mana asked, his interest in the sword piqued. Knowing how useless a weapon is in a room with Rosy beside him, Adrian didn't hesitate to hand his sword, pommel first, to the expert mage.

Mana analyzed it for a moment, before handing it back to Adrian, "I can't use it. It's definitely blood magic." He realized. After a moment of pondering, he decided to try an experiment, "Adrian, do you know any magic?" He asked.

Adrian's Whiteblood sword nullified magic, including his own, so learning magic had never exactly been high on Adrian's to-do list, but his best friend was an apprentice mage. He'd learned a bit, "Uh-huh. A bit of strengthening, and I can fire a weak magic bolt." He explained. 

"Rosy, mind handing him your sword?" Mana asked. Rosy didn't seem to have any qualms about handing her sword over either. Touching it, Adrian found that it worked for him. When he ran his strengthening magic through the sword, he could feel it enhance in power... by a pretty good amount, too.

"It works." He realized. Rosy knew for a fact that her sword was blood magic, connected only to her. Unlike Adrian's Whiteblood sword, she knew every single property of her sword. It didn't work for anyone else, no exceptions. The fact that he could use the magic-enhancing properties despite that restriction meant that the blood connections powering the swords were essentially considering Adrian and Rosy to be the same person.

"You two aren't related at all?" Mana asked, thinking. 'These two have some sort of blood connection... Is it a bloodline thing, or is it magic...?' He wondered.