Chương 1: Prologue

To say she was surprised to open her eyes would've been an understatement of massive proportions. By all rights, and by all she remembered of what had happened before she lost consciousness, she should be dead, her soul torn to pieces. And she would've been satisfied, considering she'd saved her entire race. Her people. Her family, or what little remained of it. Her loved ones. It was a trade she'd make again in a heartbeat.

Yet here she was opening her eyes again, even if the ceiling she was looking at was unfamiliar and strange. She was not surprised to be feeling weak. Powerless. Fragile. That she was alive at all was a miracle. Although... she wasn't in pain. That did surprise her. She'd not been unharmed before her death. Had she been in a healing coma so long that all those injuries had gone away? She didn't even feel the pain from the cursed wound she'd taken on her inner thigh a long time ago.

The pain from that wound was something she'd long since grown used to. Even that pain was gone now. Something wasn't right. She tried to get up, her body feeling much, much weaker than she'd expected, but she managed. As she did and looked down at herself, she realized immediately why the pain was gone. This wasn't her body. This was the body of a child. Practically a baby. That thought sent her mind spinning for a moment.

She didn't know how long that moment lasted, but eventually, she decided to take a look around. If for no other reason than to distract herself from her current dilemma. She was currently in what she assumed to be a crib of some sort. The bright brown wood was intricately carved, and despite the immaculate condition, she could somehow tell that it was old. Very old. Something that had seen the passing of many, many years. A thought that stayed with her as she observed the rest of the room.

The aforementioned ceiling was made of dark brown wood, but the walls were made of pale stone somewhere between light grey and dirty white. The walls had several red and gold hangings made of unknown fabric, most of which seemed entirely decorative, and a pair of ornamental statues could be seen from her admittedly bad vantage point. She could also see a couple of bookshelves, made of the same brown wood as the ceiling. The amount of wood used was odd to her and another hint that she wasn't anywhere near home.

While common on many planets, wood was a rather scarce resource on the Craftworlds. The space needed to grow something as large as trees could be better spent on other things. Besides, you could use Wraithbone for almost anything you'd use wood for, and you could even sing Wraithbone into the correct shape without going through the effort of carving the wood. There was light coming through what she assumed to be a window, though she couldn't see the window from where she was currently. Was that bird singing?

She hadn't heard real birds in... she didn't know how long. Thousands of years. She'd visited Exodite worlds in the distant past, but that was a very long time ago indeed. A quick realization struck her. If this was not her body, whose was it? And more importantly, what was it? A check confirmed two hands, two feet, five fingers per hand (opposable thumbs, yay!), five toes per foot, light skin, one head, and... yep, still a female albeit a very young one.

She ran her hands over her head and face, pulling a lock of hair close enough to see it. Light blonde hair, practically what one might describe as platinum blonde. She had a single nose that seemed the right shape, a single mouth, two eyes, two eyebrows, and two pointed ears. So far, so good. Although... her ears were longer than she was used to, and her eyebrows seemed to be longer as well, not just content to sit on top of her eyes, jutting out slightly like whiskers instead.

So, in summary, not any kind of Aeldari she knew of, but not too far from one either. At least on the surface. Could've been worse. She could've been one of the Mon-keigh. Or Orks. Isha forgive her if she'd been forced into the body of a Mon-keigh. She wasn't sure which would've been worse. The Orks at least seemed to be having fun with their wretched existence, while the Mon-keigh seemed to be in a constant state of misery and self-flagellation. Both were lesser races either way.

She could still feel the presence of the Warp, but it seemed extremely distant and somehow felt calmer. Only the very slightest trickle of power reached her. Not enough to really do anything with, but enough to still qualify her as a psyker. That was good. Even if she'd lost access to almost everything, just being a psyker and having gone through the rigorous training associated with being a Farseer opened certain doors. Something like learning languages or absorbing information would be much easier.

Sometimes her associates had ignored and even looked down on the lesser advantages of their kind, but she'd always kept them close in mind. Never taking them for granted. Wherever this was, those little advantages would be just what she'd need to thrive. Well... assuming she didn't get attacked by something right this moment. If she was attacked, then the ability to fry the attacker's mind with a thought would've been handy. As it was, however, she was fine with what she had.

She hadn't expected to wake up at all, so every little advantage helped. She managed to absorb some of the scant memories that came with the body. Really, someone this young barely remembered anything. Simple fragments here and there. Enough that she recognized someone she thought was this body's mother and a spoken word here and there. The mother reminded her of an Aeldari, though likewise had longer pointy ears and long eyebrows that almost seemed to defy gravity.

Pale skin, golden-blonde hair, cerulean eyes, and beautiful Aeldari-like features. If this new body grew up anything like that, she'd be fine with it. It wasn't all that surprising that it didn't take long for someone to come see her. She was clearly in the body of an infant, barely able to stand in her crib, and such young infants usually weren't left alone for very long periods. Three people entered, all fitting the same description she had associated with herself.

All three seemed like adults, two males and one female. The female and one of the males looked similar enough to likely be related. They all also looked eerily similar to Aeldari, yet subtly different. In some ways, they looked closer to the Mon-keigh, while in others they looked different from both. The eyebrows definitely seemed like a thing. They were all blonde as well, though the non-sibling male had some blue in his hair as well.

The female was arguing with the man with blue in his hair, and they were both using a language she didn't recognize. That wasn't too odd. It would've been more odd if they'd spoken a language she did understand. The argument didn't seem to be too heated. Instead, they both looked worried. The language itself sounded quite beautiful, almost musical, flowing like a river. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

This was where she was happy to still be counted as a psyker, even if one without any actual power. One of the nifty abilities psykers had was to quickly absorb languages when listening to them being spoken. The ability didn't take any effort on her part. It just worked. She couldn't explain how, just that it did. It likely had something to do with their ability to absorb information. At the height of her power, she could've scanned and assimilated an entire library's worth of information in seconds.

Now, with her powers so diminished, it took a fair bit of time before she started understanding a word here and a word there.

"…. hasn't…. word… eyes…" The female stated, worry clear in their tone. She was tentatively designating that person as her mother.

"…. normal…age…she…" The male answered, seeming less concerned. Father perhaps?

"…never…. her cry either…" The female said again. Was this about her? Had this body been an odd child before her mind had woken up just moments ago? That was the impression she was getting at least.

"She's still young…. grant you that…. crying is a bit odd, but…." Yeah, that was definitely the impression she was getting. At this point, the third person, a regal-looking male with the same golden blonde hair stepped closer to the crib and looked her in the eyes. He seemed to freeze for a moment, and she suspected she knew why. Finally, he went down on one knee to study her more closely, drawing her attention away from the discussion.

"Hello there little one. I'm your uncle, Anasterian Sunstrider." Seeing as her lack of talking was making everyone worry, she decided to put in some effort to allay those worries. Not too much at once though.

"Unce…Sun…strida?" She asked, mangling the words a bit on purpose. Also, it was rather obvious that her mouth was not used to talking. Forming words was a bit of a struggle. The man lifted one of his very long blonde eyebrows.

"So, you do talk. Yes, I see." Then he smiled a bit.

"And the first words you say are uncle and our illustrious house name." He turned a bit to glance at the two others who'd gone quiet.

"Hear that sister? There's nothing wrong with your daughter. She was simply saving her first words for someone worthy." The man was clearly joking and making a playful jibe, but the two others were too shocked to respond. Seeing that, the kneeling man turned back to her fully.

"Can you say anything more? Can you understand what I'm saying?" She considered that for a moment, and then decided to just go with it.

"Yes." She responded simply to both.

"Well, imagine that." He looked at her directly in the eyes again.

"What sharp eyes you have. Why not say anything before?" He wasn't necessarily expecting a response to such a complex question from someone so young, yet something in his expression told her he'd be disappointed if she were unable to respond.

"Just learned." She replied simply, impressing him further.

"Is that so? And why not cry before now either?" He asked. These questions were obviously too complicated for someone of her supposed age to understand, but she decided to play along.

"No need." She suspected that she knew exactly why the man had taken such an approach.

"No need, is it? Never been hungry or tired? Needed nappy changed?" The man's smile grew. He was clearly having fun with this little exchange.

"Can deal." She shrugged.

"Someone help eventually anyway." Now the man, her uncle supposedly, laughed out loud.

"No need to cry, because she can deal with it, she says. Well, sister. It seems you've got quite the daughter on your hands. She's clearly someone with potential. Make sure she lives up to it. I'm expecting great things." The woman, apparently her mother, seemed to finally come to her senses.

"No need for any of that Anasterian. I know better than you how to raise a child." She replied, both playfully and with a bit of bite in her tone.

"Hey, Nallorath seems to have turned out fine. And I have more experience than you." Anasterian shot back playfully before standing back up.

"I'll be back little one. Hopefully, our next conversation will be just as full of surprises." The two other adults watched him walk out of the room before walking up to the crib, her mother picking her up.

"Well done little Selessa. That couldn't have gone better if I had planned the whole thing." She took an evaluating glance at her.

"Well, not that you could understand yet." She turned towards the remaining man.

"Honey, could you subtly spread the word? The servants have been talking. It would be better to nip any rumors before they spread further." Selessa, eh? She somehow managed to retain her old name. Or was she now in this body exactly because of the similarities with her old life? Something worth considering. And by the way Anasterian had reacted earlier, her name was not the only thing she'd inherited from her previous life.

"Of course, dear." The man smiled at the woman in a way only a loving partner would.

"This calls for a celebration anyway. Our little girl said her first words. Although, I would suggest we let it slip that Sunstrider was the first word she said, not the second."

"Perhaps that would be prudent. Makes a great impression, and my brother is unlikely to refute our claim." The woman nodded, sending the man away. Her father obviously? Or at least her mother's lover. There was something odd about the man that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Something her psyker senses were whispering to her. The woman gave her a pat on the head. A slightly clumsy one. The first time? Not good at physical displays of affection?

"I'll send in the wetnurse. Food and a nap are the least you deserve after your little display." Wetnurse? That was a concept they hadn't really had in her old life, although she understood the context the same way she picked up on the language. The woman who was sent in to feed her was clearly a servant of some sort. A bit more mature woman in clothes that were still fine, even if less so than her parents and uncle, came into the room a bit later.

She wasn't wild about the idea of being breastfed, and the less said about that and the subsequent mess in her diaper, the better. She really couldn't wait to grow up a little.

[You've unlocked the Charisma attribute!] [You've unlocked the Politics skill!] The two announcements were waiting for her the next time she woke up. She blinked several times in confusion, but the text still remained in her field of vision even with her eyes closed. She had no idea what that was about, and as if in response to her confusion, she seemed to suddenly gain a burst of knowledge. Something that apparently would be a common thing with this System, or whatever it was.

Apparently, she had several attributes, which denoted her abilities, but most of them were still locked and hidden. It seemed she was still too young. She wasn't even allowed to know what those other attributes were just yet. What she did find out, was that she would gain access to the attributes as she grew older, and her body grew capable of handling said attributes. Even the one attribute she had unlocked, Charisma, was not able to improve further for now.

It would seem that Charisma was the measure of several things mushed together into a single concept. It described her physical appearance, the strength of her personality, her ability to persuade others to her point of view, as well as several related concepts. Her social abilities reduced into a single number. As the attribute went up, so did all of those corresponding abilities.

As in, she'd quite literally grow more attractive as her Charisma improved, which was also one of the reasons it wouldn't grow further until she got older. The concept of attractive babies was not something the System tolerated. Now, Politics was apparently a skill associated with the attribute of Charisma. It seemed skills came with various benefits. In the case of Politics, she suddenly realized that she knew more about how to work several fields associated with the skill than she had before.

She knew the importance of connections and networking, and many other similar things. Not that she hadn't known those things before, which was an interesting feeling. It was like she was now drawing from two sources of information. One was experience from her previous life, while the other was just something she somehow now knew to be true. Some skills would come with such bursts of knowledge, while others could make her more skilled in a particular field, including improving things like muscle memory.

A little odd. Notably, she could gain experience with a skill to level it up, but a skill could never grow higher than the associated attribute. The attributes all had several skills associated with them, and leveling the skills would also help improve the attributes they were associated with, although both could be trained individually. She got the distinct impression that there was a lot more to this System than this, but this was what she was allowed to discover for now.

As she wouldn't be able to do anything with this information for several years, the only reason she'd gained some of it now was because she'd made an impression on someone important. Important enough to qualify her for an increase in both Charisma and Politics. That was likely a reference to her uncle. She really needed to learn more about both her family, as well as this System. As soon as she was out of diapers at least…