The Three Gifts

Kai's eyelids slowly opened to reveal his tired eyes. He had persevered through the night, not even realising the passage of time. The subtle traces of sunlight was causing the dark blue sky to turn brighter.

'I hope I didn't overdo it… I feel fine though…'

He had maintained a strict check over his limits throughout the process, no matter how immersed he was when cultivating. He observed himself inwardly, by sunrise the suffocating feeling had slowly returned and he eventually reached a limit, if he were to continue even he knew the consequences would be dire.

Kai then diverted his attention to his lower dantian. The very slight sliver of spiritual energy had increased. It still wasn't much, but in retrospect, the overall size had more than doubled, it was a sight to rejoice to if not for the fact that the origin fragment had become completely dull, returning to its rock like properties.

Kai stared at the empty fragment with a dejected look.

'At least I put it to good use, if I can get my hands on some more, I could speed through the process of cultivating the first layer… Let's not be hasty though, everything must remain a secret so obtaining origin fragments without alerting someone will be a difficult task.

As the sun rose higher and higher, the father and son arrived at the city. All through their journey to the city, Kai had managed to practice the mental exercises mentioned in his refiner manual. No one was aware of it, as he pretended to be asleep, although there were a few times he actually fell asleep.

After Damien left for work, Kai made his way up the Keep's left wing stairway, and found Abernathy monitoring the courtyard from the balcony, he seemed to be lost in thought.

Knowing the steward's demeanour, interrupting him made Kai nervous, but he wasn't going to stop here. "Ahem, sir."

Abernathy didn't turn to look at Kai. His vision was still fixated on the courtyard. "I never understood it…" He mumbled to himself.

"Pardon me" Kai spoke like he'd made some mistake, but before he could continue Abernathy turned to him.

"I never understood why the young prince choose to interact with you, I was also worried you were someone who was attempting to take advantage of his position, nothing more than a leech." Abernathy spoke expressionlessly.

Kai's face reddened when he heard the stewards words, he knew better than to lash out his anger against someone of authority, but nothing was stopping him from leaving.

"But, it made him happy, it made him smile…" A soft expression surfaced on the stern steward's face, it was quite unlike him to be caring.

"Many times I observed the two of you, laughing at each other's jokes and sharing issues that plagued one another, it was then that I realised maybe you also wanted the same thing as Theodan."

"It is difficult to find those you trust, I know as much from experience… But these are also desperate times… I can't just stand and watch the prince suffer, and I definitely cannot stand and watch him fail… What happens to him at that time may even be a fate worse than death… The poor innocent boy has many enemies thanks to the legacy of his father." Abernathy appeared calm, but his voice carried a hoarseness that reflected his pain.

"What is it that you're trying to say here sir?" Kai mustered the courage to finally ask.

"I know Theodan shared with you a chant. To help you with your bottleneck in refinement. I also know that you were told the significance of this chant…" Abernathy replied immediately.

Kai's face turned pale, his intention was to keep the secret well hidden from his side, but he misjudged the situation, if someone discovered his secret through Theodan he'd have no control over the matter or the consequences.

Abernathy sighed, "I find it difficult to accept the situation, but I do not plan to go against the prince's wishes, continue on the path you have chosen, but don't forget the kindness that was bestowed upon you, the debt that you owe, even if Theodan refuses to acknowledge it… Please Kai… promise me you won't betray his trust."

"With all due respect sir, to me Theodan is not a debt to be repaid, but a reason to become stronger. I do not need promises or debts to know what I must do." Kai spoke with confidence contrary to his usual demeanour, there was also a subtle hint of anger in his words.

The steward chuckled, "very good, I was under the impression you didn't have a spine, but your little subversions are welcome… Now make your way up this left wing and you'll eventually find the young prince's room. I'm sure you're familiar with it, even though you've never been allowed to visit." Abernathy spoke with a small smile.

Kai's heart was beating with nervousness, he was flustered when he heard he was to visit the prince in his chambers. He'd never imagined being allowed in a royal chamber even though he considered Theodan a good friend.

'At least he sees me differently from a peasant.' Kai smiled as he arrived at the large door.

He knocked on the door twice with a circular handle attached to the front of the door.

"You may enter." A faint voice spoke from inside.

Kai parted the doors and walked in, his face was plastered with amazement, he couldn't believe such a lavish room existed. The curtains were made of velvet and were as long as the walls. The craftsmanship in the stone work was also impeccable, detailed designs had been slowly chipped into the otherwise bland stone wall, giving the whole room a lavish charm.

Even the bed was big, covered in silk sheets, the frame was made of the finest wood and held a comfortable mattress, there were no remnants of straw work, as if the bed were made from a different material entirely.

Theodan sat in the middle of the large bed with his legs crossed, there were dark-circles underneath his eyes, and even his lips were slightly chapped, his skin had turned even more pale, perhaps thats why he'd left open the part of the curtains that allowed the rays of sun to cover only the area he was sitting in.

He slowly opened his eyes, as a smile formed on his face.

"It's nice to see you again, oh Sir Kai" Theodan spoke with an enigmatic, yet mocking smile.

"The pleasures all mine, your highness Theodan." Kai smirked as he bowed, their usual banter had already begun.

The two boys chatted for a while, they preferred catching up rather than discussing matters of growth and concern.

"I never expected I'd loose all control of my body then and there. I was more afraid of my parent's wrath than any hungry wolf that may be lurking about… It took me a few weeks to recover, it was terrible." Kai recounted his recent injury with an awkward smile.

Theodan on the other hand had his face covered by his hand, his fingers slowly messaging his temples. "I don't know whether I should be angry at you or myself… I should have warned you, but then again I expected you'd be smarter than that, idiot."

"Yeah I know, I know, I'd rather take responsibility for the mistake than blame it on you, for the most part I should have predicted what was to happen if I pushed myself… But on the plus side, that limitation has been suppressed possibly permanently." Kai smiled as he mentioned the last part, he was proud of himself for overcoming such a limiting factor of cultivation.

Theodan removed his hand from his face in surprise and looked back at the black haired youth, "What do you mean by that?"

"I believe when I overdid it, the outcome overburdened my meridians causing them to be damaged, but in the process, I also managed to gain a sliver of spiritual energy within my abdomen, you know in that place you mentioned as the dantian… So, now when I perform the chant I can go hours without stopping, it's much more rewarding this way." Kai explained without hesitation only to see Theodan's shock deepen.

"Shit, not only do you know about spiritual energy, which I clearly remember redacting from the parchments, but you also managed to… t-to extend the limit to a f-few h-hours?" Theodan couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Kai smiled sheepishly, he didn't plan on hiding the fact that he figured out the identity of the chant, but he was hoping to disclose the matter in a better fashion than this.

"About that, I figured out the chant is related to the immortals, to be fair, I just happened to be lucky when figuring it out. And even if I can go a few hours without stopping, it's not a big deal right? Right? Right?" Kai kept repeating his question in hopes that Theodan would agree.

"No… I can only manage 12 cycles before I have to stop for a few hours, what is this bullshit? How'd you do it? Please oh please tell me!" Theodan began to plead Kai with watery eyes.

"Ah… ah I'm sorry Theo but I really don't know much about how it happened, all I did was push myself harder until I suffocated and passed out, I wouldn't recommend doing that, absolutely not." Kai spoke with a flustered tone, he had no idea how to help his friend, yet he really wanted to.

"You're right." Theodan stopped pleading as he calmly began pondering again.

"Eh? I'm right, what do you mean I'm right?" Kai asked.

"Well there's no point hiding this from you, especially since Abernathy is involved now… The cultivation manual strictly states that if you were to push beyond your limits when cultivating, you could irreversibly damage your foundation, or worse, your entire chance of cultivating. But I never thought it could have this sort of a reaction. Nonetheless it's too risky."

"That does make sense…" Kai became gloomy realising the seriousness of what had happened to him.

'Fuck, I could have lost my chance to cultivate, no even now I could have damaged my foundation…' The faint soreness he had been feeling in his meridians conveniently became a lot more apparent now.

"Things don't need to change, either way this is a good development." Theodan remarked after thinking about it.

The prince quickly walked to his desk, and carefully removed another set parchments from his desk drawer. Kai noticed the carving of the immortal he'd gifted Theo was neatly positioned at the corner of the desk, it wasn't hidden away but displayed with pride.

After reviewing them, Theodan handed the parchments over to Kai with a warm smile. "Here's the next two layers of the chant, the instructions shall be clearer in these, since I don't have to omit the content. If you can continue to make progress, these can be immensely helpful to your growth… After all we may need all the help we can get."

Before Kai could react to Theodan's kindness, he was interrupted.

"Also, mind you, few are as fortunate as you and me, who posses something called spiritual roots, without which cultivating becomes impossible… Since you have officially managed to prove that you are capable of cultivation, as my future Knight let me but measly sponsor your growth."

Theodan picked a small pouch covered in dark blue velvet from his desk and placed it in Kai's hands. "Although for cultivators the ideal ore is something referred to as spirit stones, origin stones and fragments also help just not as much."

Kai delicately removed a hard round object from within the pouch, his expression strained with surprise when he recognised it. "This…This is a complete origin stone!"

The origin stone was round as a ball, roughly six centimetres (around two and a half inches) in diameter, and held many small bumps and crevasses all over its surface, but what stood out the most was the strong silver glow that radiated from it.

"This is too much Theo. I can't accept this." Kai spoke with a saddened, yet resolute expression, as tempting as it was he wasn't going to accept something so ridiculously expensive.

"I only ask that you use it well… This won't just help you with cultivating but also refining, I'm certain you must have made strides in that department after making progress in your cultivation" Theodan spoke enticing words as he refused to accept the origin stone.

"I-I can't-" But before Kai could continue, Theodan once again interrupted him.

"Oh right I almost forgot… I have one more gift for you."