sleepless night one

The building tension was palpable however, her face darkened from murder to something more sorrowful, as she looked over me recognising my age, she sighed, forcing an apologetic smile, it looked fake however, it wasn't the apology, but the very act of smiling that looks faked.

She looked wry her pale skin flushing with a light tinge of embarrassed scarlet matching her thin vermilion lips. "Apologies, I just...Uhm. well- neverminded, Imm Irys Paulson. You." she looked at me expectantly like she wasn't about to make an attempt on my life, well at least she confirmed my suspicion her surname made her a noble or related to one.

"Alexander- just Alexander." I deadpanned, involving myself with her seems dangerous. Ignoring my attempts to evade she outstretched her hand ruffling my hair violently, I narrowed my eyes, and she retracted her arm apologetically "sorry, you share a resemblance to my kid brother" she said downtrodden "don't treat me like a kid." I pleaded.

After waiting there for another, twenty-odd minutes in a vail of awkward silence the carriage left, the sound of horses' hooves on stone faded as we left the plaza into the muddy woodland, the carriage travelled through the forest until twilight, along with odd breaks for food, rest and other essential's, conversations where sparse as most sat in silence, sleeping or trying to, the odd conversations that did break out where all menial and mundane, none onboard wanted any connection with these strangers, me included.

We stopped in an open glade delegating tasks among ourselves, I was assigned to collecting dry wood for the fire, the lush forest was damp with due from the recent rainfall, making it hard to find any dry wood however, my raw strength made it easy to snap branches and carry them, bungled in twine back.

It was now later into the night and the seven of us huddled around the fire, our faces lit by the flickering light, we were seeking its transient warmth.

The flame sputtered as the others cooked mushrooms and other foraged foodstuffs, while I ripped at my ebbing supply of dried jerky.

After eating and drinking from my flask, we hailed to sleep, three of the others lying under the shade of the canvas hood, the owner, Paulson and one of the other occupants, who sat in the opposing corner on my side of the carriage on the way here, he was a young man with an ordinary disposition dressed in commoner garbs, the three of them lay there Paulson and the owner on the opposing benches the young man on the floor, with old blankets draping over them.

The rest of us were split into two tents, both properties of the carriage's owner, one held me and the gruff man who sat beside me, along the way I learnt thar his name was Gavon, that was all I learnt, the other tent held two others, who yet remain nameless, a husband and wife.

...

The night was sleepless, the damp tent echoed the bellowing snores of Gavon, and the glacial breeze that seeped into the tent kept me up, I was alone with my thoughts. So rather than sleep I snuck out, borrowing a cloak Gavon left rolled up against the loose canvas wall, I draped the long cloak over my shoulders, it smelt of death, the ends of it dragged against the wet grass and mudded forest floor.

The night sky was a blanket of colour, hundreds of stars framing the two moons, the faint light lit the foggy forest in a dim aroura. I walked under the canopy of the forest bathing in the remanet moonlight that peaked through the leaves.

Now deep into the forest, I stopped, asking the chip to scan the surrounding forest, it reported nothing but brambles, foliage and trees, I then asked it to scan my body again and report any methods for improvement, using knowledge from both the worlds I've experienced life in.

The scan came back with a litany of responses, most of them if not all were the same with only minor tweaks, based on differing potential results, and repercussions.

The first thing I did was to remove all with damaging effects beyond a minor injury, the list eminently shortened, then I removed any with a less than 80% success rate, this left it sufficiently shortened, finally I divided it into two groups based on time, one's that would take less than a month, and ones that would take more.

On the side that would take less than a month, there were eight methods, most of which were through the consumption of different herbs, the herbs were all familiar to me, ones I learnt from my tutor, father said that to know what grows in your territory is vital, that a lord must be ready to sell anything, including herbs.

Other than that, there was one long-term method of improvement that would prove useful, the basic swordsmanship of my house, it was created by one of the closer relations of our eminent ancestor, said to be almighty, once.

The swordsmanship technique was made to work in tandem with the method held in the book, stowed away by my side, the one I was incapable of understanding, well none in the past thousand years of my family could comprehend, but I heard this swordsmanship can act as a crutch, to ease me into its profundities.

The technique was almost miraculous, being a mixture of swordsmanship focused on strengthening what my instructor called, 'the most vital breath of your body' and 'the fabled receptacle of the soul', my instructor was always known as a great swordsman, if only a little deranged his teaching ability was outstanding, at the ripe old age of eighty-six, his students count in the hundreds including my father.

That aside my instructor always sighed when teaching me, he would always prattle on despite his age with things like 'you know young lord, this technique has seen better days, the original scroll was lost after a great war, the one, our once mighty household fell to this empire, becoming their vassal, well after we lost the scroll, the ancestors who learnt it inscribed a new one.

Alas, it was muddled with their personal comprehension, going from a clean slate to a full parchment, it lost its foundation of emptiness. Young lord, promise me that after I die, you'll work hard to find this ethereal emptiness, and help this house's name spread its wings and fly back to its former glory. When we had the academy.'