Chương 60: Chapter 57: Somnus' Reverie

With the Praetorian office only a few blocks away, Ashlyn wasted no time heading there to draw up the legal contract. It took a bit of time, considering how busy the offices usually were. Thankfully, she managed to complete it within an hour, having extensive experience with these legalities. The contract was fairly simple. The gist was that Magus Prisca would lend them her relic, and in return, Ashlyn would have to craft her one artifact of the Dreamweaver's choice.

There was a standard term of delivery, as well as the terms being void if the relic was unable to resolve their requirements, meaning they would go through the negotiation once more accordingly if that incandescent bell failed to ward Arilyn's nightmare. The whole time, Arilyn watched her, his face thoughtful, as if something heavy weighed on his mind.

"What is it, pumpkin?" she finally asked, getting the contract approved with the Praetor's seal on it.

"You're going to make her an artifact just for lending me a relic for sixteen seasons?" he questioned, barely holding back his frustration.

"Yes," she said, wondering why that upset him so much. She stole a glance at Jinn, who scratched his cheek with an embarrassed smile.

"What is it?" she asked, cocking her eyebrows. Before Jinn could say anything, Arilyn cried out, "You're going to strip away your own essence threads to create the artifact again, aren't you?"

"You're worried about that?" Ashlyn said, waving a hand dismissively.

"I thought it was something more concerning." She let out a sigh, casting a sidelong glance at Jinn. Even with her caution, it seemed somethings were simply impossible to keep secret.

"It is concerning!" Arilyn snapped.

"Your weave—it looks so imperfect, so asymmetrical, after you sacrificed your essence threads... Are you..." Unable to complete his sentence out of frustration, he held up his palm where the bracelet lay wrapped on his wrist. Ashlyn slumped down before him.

"It's only essence threads, pumpkin," she said, placing a palm over his shoulder.

"They'll grow back in time. No need to worry about that." Arilyn was not convinced. Ashlyn decided to explain it in detail.

"Well, it may look like a terrible sacrifice to you, but to me, every bit of it was worth it. I would have stripped away even more threads if it'd got me a higher chance of evolution."

"How could you do it?" Arilyn sniffed, his eyes almost teary.

"Wasting so many essence threads just for—""It is not a waste," she said, clasping his shoulder reassuringly.

"As long as it keeps you safe, it is not a waste." She paused, deliberating over her next words.

"Well, I may have gone a bit overboard with the faux weave, for a defensive artifact nonetheless, but with the possible projections of its evolution I have seen, I deemed all of it necessary. You just wait and see it evolve, and then even you will think it's worth the sacrifice." Arilyn shook his head heavily. She pulled him into her embrace.

"In case you're still feeling down, you should know that it wouldn't even take me a whole year to recover all these essence threads. Even less with the right elixir."

"Truly?"

"With how accomplished I am now, I could recover an essence thread every other day, and I didn't have to strip off many Aether roots in the process, which helps a lot." Ashlyn thought about hiding the truth, but since most of it had already come to light, she decided there was no point in holding anything back now. Misleading her son would only make him distrust her. She didn't want that.

"The Aetherbound pen took one Aether root," she admitted, "and a couple for the Band of Protection." Arilyn stared at her for a long time and sighed like an adult.

"Why didn't you tell me all this before?" Why didn't she? Perhaps explaining the process outright would have been the right call, but she'd never know.

"I didn't let you know because I feared you might attempt the same," she said.

"You've the perfect blend of genius, curiosity, and recklessness for attempting it, and I have no intention of letting you learn about the process before you at least advance to Prestigious Class. Stripping away essence at the Foundation would only destroy your future potential."

"What about your potential?"

"I've already reached as far as I was ever meant to go," she chuckled, hiding any regret that might creep up in her tone.

"Did you think only your father ascended to Fabled Class?" A trace of surprise and excitement flashed in her son's eyes, but he was still too worried about her to say anything.

"True," Jinn said.

"She even reached Fabled Class years before I did." And you're going to leave me behind soon enough, she thought, smiling at him. Long gone were the days she could fight alongside Jinn and help him carry his burden. Only the existence of their son kept him from diving headfirst into a war he couldn't win. Jinn seemed content with the quiet life they had built in Karmel, teaching his two diligent pupils swordmanship and helping around the house. He found the family he had never known since he took up the sword.

And yet, the man Ashlyn knew was someone who wouldn't hesitate to throw himself into danger for others. It was that very ideal that had drawn her to him in the first place, yet for the past year, she had prayed he would let go of the very nature that made him who he was.

"Mum, I don't need that dream relic," Arilyn said, pulling her out of the reverie, his fists clenched tight.

"Those nightmares aren't even dangerous. They didn't even scratch me."

"They didn't hurt you physically," Ashlyn corrected, shaking her head.

"But it's not just about the physical body you need to worry about. You can't imagine the damage those nightmares could do to your young mind."

"It didn't," he argued, "for all these four times." And she thanked the Aether for that, but Ashlyn wouldn't leave it to chance. A few essence threads were nothing compared to her baby boy's safety.

After the agreement fell into place between her and Magus Prisca, Ashlyn finally inspected the relic for what it was. Even with her extensive experience, she couldn't say she had seen more than a couple. Most of them did come with basic abilities related to dreams, but it was their rarity that made a dream relic far more valuable than a regular one. [Relic: Somnus' Reverie Grade: Fabled (Ascended) He who holds Somnus' Reverie fears not the toll of the bell. Enchantment: Dreamwraith: Allows the wielder to turn into a Dreamwraith and to ever explore the realm of Somnus. Dreamwalking: Allows one to walk the world of dreams. Dreamward: Restricts the call of Ishtar. Psionic Resistance: Resist most psionic attacks.] It had the crucial dream-warding enchantment, the one Arilyn required for now, however, the other two enchantments before that complicated things greatly.

Ignoring the weirdness of Dreamwraith, Dreamwalking was already troublesome for anybody unjaded, much less for her little boy. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The last enchantment was a mental safeguard that protected the mind from all kinds of psionic attacks and manipulations. Band of Protection already did some of that, but it didn't hurt to have extra safety.

Honestly, to a Dreamweaver like Magus Prisca, the whole relic was almost insignificant. What it could do, she could do better on her own, however, it would allow Arilyn to walk through dream realms, and Ashlyn didn't want that, not when her Arilyn had barely taken the first few steps on his path. Like the spiritual realm, the dream realm was full of dangers and mysteries that no one yet fully understood.

So, with the acknowledgement and help of the Dreamweaver, she tinkered with the relic for a good while to seal the Dreamwalking enchantment. Dreamwraith seemed problematic too, but it seemed to only trigger upon the wielder's death. Ashlyn didn't know if Magus Prisca had any intention of turning into a ghost on her death, nor did she have any interest in knowing. To her, the whole wraith thing sounded more like a curse rather than a lifeline.

After a final thorough inspection, she finally handed the incandescent bell to Arilyn for binding. Arilyn chirped, thinking he would have to bind eight of his threads, which would make them obsolete for any other use, unaware it wasn't exactly the case with a relic.

"Don't worry, you won't lose any of your threads," Ashlyn reassured.

"Unlike artifacts, you don't need to use your essence threads to bind a relic. While it is possible to do that, the external binding only allows for a tentative control."

"Then how..." his voice trailed off, as his eyes glowed in a deeper shade of green. His chest heaved, and his thoughts accelerated on the benefit of Hypercognition, understanding where she was getting at.

"This is... genius. It's like the inner weave alive""Indeed," added Master Kaius, "though often wickedly." For binding an artifact, the process was outward, where one needed to use their essence threads to connect with its internal weave, unlike binding a relic, where the process was quite the opposite. You used the relic to bind it to yourself, not the other way around, and in that process, you advance with it.

"How does it go, though?" Arilyn asked. Despite understanding the implication of the relic's inner weave, he couldn't quite understand how it was possible.

"The process is simpler than you think." It was Magus Prisca who answered.

"A relic allows you to channel its essence threads into your core and form an Aether Root with it. I Arilyn was stunned, eyes widening.

"Doesn't that mean I will advance twice in the same day?"

"Yes," Ashlyn nodded, watching the childish glee blossom on his face. But soon, he paused, realising there must be a catch.

"Will there be no complications with it?"

"None," the Dreamweaver answered with a crackle. To her, perhaps there was no catch, but Ashlyn knew exactly what interested her son.

"There is a slight caveat, that is, the essence threads you gain from binding the relic can only be utilised through the enchantments in the relic." That quelled his enthusiasm by a lot.

"But that isn't an issue at all, pumpkin. Your essence threads will only grow from now on." Arilyn nodded, and then it finally seemed to occur to him.

"Wait, this weave has sixty-four essence threads. Doesn't that mean I can advance to Noble Class right away if I use them to form Aether Roots one by one?" He faltered and shook his head.

"No, it can't be that easy."

"It is that easy, boy," said the grey-haired woman, leaning back on her seat. Her son turned to her for confirmation.

"Now you understand why relics are so valuable?" she answered.

"I promise you," sighed Master Kaius, "at least half of the wars of our recorded history was waged due to a relic or another. Thousands upon thousands of lives were lost because some warlords and kings thought a relic was their only way of advancement." And there was truth in that. For someone who had no chance of advancing to a higher class, a relic could give them hope.

Somnus' Reverie was at the lowest grade for a relic, and yet it allowed one to advance to Noble Class, and there were relics with an inner weave of hundreds and thousands of essence threads. A mortifying expression crossed Arilyn's face as he gazed upon the incandescent relic in a new light. Then his gaze turned to the bracelet. Although that one was not a relic yet, Ashlyn could bet her soul that it would be one in the decades to come.

She hadn't stripped off two hundred and fifty-six essence threads just for a defensive artifact.

"But with all that said," Ashlyn quickly returned to the topic, "you shouldn't bind more essence threads just to advance quickly. Eight is enough for us to utilize it perfectly.

"For one thing, that's a borrowed relic, and the process to strip it from your Aether Root once it has taken hold is more damning than it's worth. The more roots you form with it, the worse the scar it leaves. Even unrooting one Aether Root is too much at your rank. Then, there was also the restriction for binding a relic. You already know that, right?" Arilyn nodded. Even the Prestigious Class Awakened could only bind with one relic. Only after advancing to the Fabled Class could they bind another relic.

While these objects were sometimes holy and held an ungodly amount of potential for an Awakened, they took a heavy toll on the soul as well. Each relic weighed on one's soul. More than one at the Prestigious Class could tear one's soul beyond what any healer could mend.

"What about the other binding process?" Arilyn asked.

"It's soul bonding, but we're not entertaining that, nor will Magus Prisca let us." As if on cue, the old woman snorted a laugh, making her stance clear.

"As the name suggests, soulbound is irreversible." With the explanations out of the way, she finally began to show him the method of binding a relic. She would have liked for him to bind it at a later date, but Magus Prisca was tight on her schedule and would leave tonight. Ashlyn wanted to make sure her relic worked in warding those nightmares before she left. So, here they were. Arilyn positioned himself in the middle of the room once more, with the four of them watching over him.

Jinn remained silent for the most part, though ready to get involved if anything went awry. Master Kaius also didn't seem to have the same spice in his tone as he usually did. How much of that was due to another manifestation of Soul Gift, she didn't know. The Dreamweaver was more laid back. For now, Ashlyn ignored them and only paid attention to guiding Arilyn.

He could have worked with eight threads simultaneously without much trouble, but just to be safe, she only let him push one thread at a time until all eight had been connected to his Essence Seed. The process took an hour longer than expected but caused no additional complications.

"The next step will be painful," she said.

"Concentrate all of your will and braid all eight threads into one before pushing it into the epicentre of your essence seed." The process wasn't exactly the reverse form of Essence Unification, though the difference was more than relevant. Instead of circulating essence throughout the body from the essence seed, he needed to drill the foreign essence threads into the very centre of his essence seed, where the connection between him and the spirit realm lay.

Simply having the essence threads embedded in there would grant him an Aether Root. Arilyn groaned, squeezing his eyes shut as the agony tore through his abdomen. This was not instantaneous like the natural formation of Aether Roots. It took more than half an hour, and Ashlyn remained with him the whole time, guiding, encouraging, and even supplying the rejuvenation spell. Then finally, when it reached the precipice, Ashlyn leaned in, her heart in her mouth.

Seconds passed into minutes, but Arilyn remained in that state, causing her to peek at the Dreamweaver. Her lips parted to ask something, when his eyes snapped open with a hitched cry. He blinked and shook his head to cast off the disorientation.

"No nightmare this time." Ashlyn released the breath she had been holding and noted Jinn did the same.

"But it's so draining," Arilyn moaned, falling forward into her arms. She brushed his hair and lamented, having no way to help him recover his overextended Will. Arilyn still tentatively tried to weave with his new essence threads and even attempted to manipulate the weave within the relic. It didn't quite work as he had hoped, evident from the look of surprise on his face.

"This is weird," he muttered.

"It feels like it's part of me, and yet... I can't manipulate it like my other natural essence threads."

"That's only natural," Ashlyn said.

"It's a part of you now, but just like some parts of the body, you can't utilise it independently.

"I get it." He inclined his head ever so slightly, though she could see a tinge of disappointment on his expression.

"The new threads can only be utilised through the pre-set enchantments."

"You can do all kinds of experiments on it later," she said.

"For now, withdraw the relic into your essence seed and rest for a bit." A weak look of excitement flashed on his face, remembering he could do that.

"How do I—" His voice trailed off, as even in its weakened state, his intention was clear enough that the incandescent bell melted into white mist and entered his essence seed. He sniffed.

"That was weird... felt like my stomach is full or something." That also took away the last shred of his Will. With the exhaustion weighing heavily on his bones and muscles, his eyes closed, his breathing slowing down, falling asleep. She helped him onto the bed before finally turning to the others. With that, the urgent problem was out of the way. Not completely resolved, but for now, it would do.

"Well, that settles my job here," said Prisca, rising to her feet.

"Keep me in the loop if there's any new development, and I'll contact you when I need your expertise." Ashlyn nodded. She hadn't yet recovered all the essence threads she had used for Arilyn's Band of Protection. But if Prisca demanded it in the next week, she would have to follow through. Thankfully, the Magus's requirement was only a quarter of what she applied into the silver bracelet. With that, the Dreamweaver left, though not before she shot a snide remark at Master Kaius.

After a bit of conversing, Jinn and Master Kaius retreated into the dining area on the ground floor. With all these things, they had forgotten to have lunch. Ashlyn remained to make sure Arilyn wouldn't wake up prematurely, and if he did, he had a familiar face to greet him. Several minutes later, Jinn returned with an attendant in tow, carrying meals. After leaving them on the side table, the female attendant departed, and Jinn sat next to her. He placed his palm over hers and let her lean on him.

She remained like that for a look time and only straightened when another knock sounded. Master Kaius slid in.

"Hope I'm not disturbing you two," said the older man.

"Tough job parenting, isn't it?"

"Mhm, not really," Ashlyn muttered. She had seen some unruly kids, and that horrified her greatly, but her son had been nothing but a bundle of joy.

"Wish I had the good fortune." He shook his head, not lamenting in the past.

"I reckon you have a few questions for me? But before you ask, I have a proposition of my own." She exchanged a look with Jinn.

"Say, what you think of me taking your little boy as an apprentice for a season or two?" Immediately, a crease appeared between her brows.

"Well, not right away," Master Kaius continued.

"He's a bit too young for what little wisdom I can impart to him. But in a year or two, I may be able to give him some lessons that may help him in the way of life."

End of Part II