Chapter 19

Dane smiled shakily and summoned the runes.

Flaws: [Alienated Comprehension], [Soul Infliction].

[Alienated Comprehension] Description: [You cannot understand what others say.]

[Soul Infliction] Description: [All injury and ailment your body suffers is also inflicted on your soul.]

He almost cried. 'This isn't fair.'

Two terrible flaws. It would be all too easy to die on the battlefield if he could not understand what others said, especially if he failed to heed warnings from allies. And it would be easier to 'be wiped from existence' according to his Innate Ability if he took too much of a beating. Ah…Dane hated the heart god.

How on earth was he supposed to survive, or even lead a regular life, with flaws like these? 'Optimistic. New lease on life,' he told himself. He could deal with it…he could…

[Wake up, Heart's Bane!]

The starlit void spun and disappeared.

Dane opened his eyes. The glass dome covering him receded, opening for him. He got up, and the doors to the armored room opened shortly after. Two Awakened greeted him with smiles. Their mouths opened, and they said something…but he didn't understand. He heard their voices clearly, and what they said sounded familiar yet garbled and impossible to understand. Dane swallowed, feeling anxious.

Their words went as quickly as they came. It was probably a greeting, he realized. "I'm tired," he sighed, rubbing his head in exaggeration. "Call my uncle. Tell him I have passed the trial and received a True Name."

Surprise lit their faces, and the Awakened exchanged looks. The Awakened on the right opened her mouth. He interrupted her. "I need to take a hot bath and sleep. Whatever it is you want to say, please send it to my communicator. My apologies. My Nightmare was not easy…I am not in the best state of mind."

They nodded silently and stepped aside. Dane walked through the doors and into the corridors. Servants passed through the underground base of the Gray Gust clan in droves and carried on with all manners of work. It was hectic. Was something happening? Some of them noticed him and greeted him. Words fell on deaf ears, and he did not know what to do. He acknowledged them with a smile and walked faster.

He boarded the elevator and ascended to the third floor above the ground. The door to his room slammed shut behind him as he crashed into his swiveling chair. The heater started up, driving the chill of winter away.

He pushed the wooden floor with his leg, and the chair turned. His room was a welcome sight. The scent of wood and books and coffee - he would never forget it. Warm light spilled from the lamps by his bed, helping his mood.

He swirled in the chair and pushed to the desk opposite the bed. He slowed the chair with his legs as he neared the table, picked up a mug from the mug tree, and pushed a button on the coffee machine. A bit of whirring later, steaming coffee poured into the porcelain cup.

He got up, pushed open the French doors at the far end of his room, and leaned against the balcony's railing. It was early, about four in the morning, and snow had gathered in the yard. Awakened sparred against each other. The sound of swords clashing and the laughter of his men cheered him up from the impending doom of his flaws. He knew he would have to reveal his first flaw, Alienated Comprehension, to people. There was no hiding a flaw like that one. Soul Infliction, on the other hand, he would have to guard that secret with everything he could do.

Ah, he was thinking about it again. He shook his head and cleared his thoughts. He sipped his coffee and watched the training regimen quietly. The clan's armorer, Lian, caught him watching. He smiled widely and waved at him. Amidst his distraction, his sparring partner was able to bring a dagger up to his throat. Dane chuckled and returned his wave.

Chime. His phone buzzed.

[Lord Dane. I hope you are resting well. You had asked me to speak to you through the communicator. We are unable to contact Lord Lancel at the moment. Yesterday, he told us that he was on his way to the NQSC and would arrive sometime today. He wanted you to know he would be bringing guests.

Furthermore, he has asked you to brace yourself, as he has news.]

News? Dane scratched his hair and went back in.

He got into the shower and freshened himself. He picked up the towel from the rack and started drying his hair when he paused. 'What the frog…,'

He stared at himself in the mirror. He looked much the same, with his jet-black hair and his tan skin, but his eyes were different. The whites of his eyes were replaced with gray. His irises remained the same vibrant green as before, but his pupils, which were supposed to be black, had become pools of fog. Even at this very moment, they churned and fumed…just like the core in his Soul Sea.

He smiled. He could not wait for Blaise to see this. His friend had been bragging about his Aspect changing the color of his eyes for so long that Dane's ears almost fell off. And now, his eyes had changed too.

He combed his hair the way he liked it, slicked back. The hair had a natural luster now that he had become a Sleeper. He scraped his tongue clean, brushed his teeth, and gargled some mouth freshener. He looked great, he thought, aside from most of his eyes being gray. Though, even that had its charms.

The shadow of a returning beard darkened his neck and jaw, so he grabbed his shaving kit. He trimmed the long hairs off and applied some shaving cream. He started to shave with a razor, keeping his eyes glued to the blade and his neck. The blade scraped against the cream satisfactorily.

Buzz. His communicator buzzed, and his concentration wavered. His hand shook, and pain lanced through his neck. A vertical and thin gash formed on his neck. He cursed as he dropped the razor and covered the cut with his finger. He had cut himself with a razor before, but this was the first time it stung that bad. He felt it in his soul, a cut.

Blood welled up against his finger and flowed over it…and it was clear as glass. Dane stared at it, blinked, and then did a double-take. No way. He brought his finger closer and rubbed it against another. It felt like blood. He looked back up to his wound. It was gone. There was no wound. The crystal clear blood was still there, sliding down his neck, but the cut was gone. He still felt it, however. Could it be?

He pierced the veil and gazed at his soul in the mirror, and there it was. A cut on the shimmering white soul, right where his wound had been. He squinted and saw it covering itself. He could feel the soul mending itself, slowly but surely.

He dove into his Soul Sea and was instantly doused by a wave of crystal-clear water. He willed it to become calm, and it did. He knelt in his soul and ran a finger through the water. He was able to stand on it, somehow. He lifted it on a finger and rubbed it together. It felt the same as the blood that had leaked from inside his body.

The blood in his body and this 'water' were one and the same, he realized. His Innate Ability! He summoned its runes.

Innate Ability: [Phantom Anchor].

Ability Description: [As a Phantom, you lack the means to sustain yourself completely. Thus, your Soul Core is one with your Heart, and it is the link that anchors you to existence. If your Heart is, then you are. If your Heart isn't, then you are not.]

His soul core was one with his heart.

But it wasn't all that simple, it seemed. He wanted to be sure. He retrieved his conscience from the Soul Sea and picked up his razor. He dug it into the skin on his forearm and pulled. He wanted to scream. It hurt his body just like it was supposed to, but it was his soul that hurt the worst. There was no easy way to describe it, and the best he could come up with was that his soul hurt five times worse than his body did, at least.

Transparent blood came out. Then, under his astonished gaze, the muscles and skin he had torn repaired themselves instantly. In a moment, a decently sized gash had healed. His soul still bore the wound, but it was healing. He laughed. So his Innate Ability wasn't useless after all.

It sucked that he suffered soul damage, but he had gained a regenerative ability! That was priceless, literally. He was almost ready to forgive the heart god now. Speaking of abilities, he had yet to see what Phantom Metamorphosis did. He lingered and decided to check his communicator first.

[Lord Lancel has arrived. He is waiting for you in the private dining chamber with the guests.]

He clicked his tongue and went on shaving. He put on an aftershave, a pair of black trousers, and a gray shirt. Embroidered on the shirt was the emblem of the Gray Gust. True to its name, a swirl of gray wind circled a mounted knight wielding a spear.

Dane rode the elevator downstairs and walked through the underground corridors. He took many turns and found himself before a pair of stone doors twice as tall as he was. Dane frowned in confusion. It was not often that these doors were closed.

As if sensing him, they rumbled and trembled, opening wide. The room beyond was carpeted and wallpapered in gray and black, the colors of the Gray Gust. A table of wood lay at the center of the adequately sized dining room, and five cushioned chairs lined either side of it, aside from the two that faced each other from the table's ends.

His uncle, Master Lancel, sat at the host's seat. He was a middle-aged man, born only five years after the Nightmare Spell first ravaged the lands. He was forty-six now, though he looked nothing like it. His fair face was free of wrinkles, and he possessed a head full of neatly combed brown hair. His black eyes were full of age-old wisdom yet as youthful as Dane's. He did not look a day older than twenty-five.

At his side, in the seat of honor, sat a girl. She seemed no older than fifteen, maybe sixteen at most. Next to her was a boy, maybe nine. Siblings, Dane thought as he noticed their shared golden hair and gray eyes.

His uncle stood and smiled at him, beckoning him over with outstretched arms and words Dane did not understand. He walked into the room with a measured gait. Master Lancel met him with a warm hug and said something. Dane broke the hug off, remaining silent.

The man looked at him with expectation. The two children did as well.

"Er…uncle. Could we speak in private for a moment? It is important."

The stone doors behind him groaned, and the doors shut behind him with a heavy thud. Dane blinked, considering. He didn't want to speak about his flaw in front of these guests. But it seemed that his uncle trusted them. 'Can't conceal a flaw like this anyway…'

He turned and took a seat on the other end of the table. When Lancel sat down, he spoke. "I didn't understand a single word you said. It is my flaw."