When the duke asked if there was something he could do to basically start over, my heart wanted to scream "kill yourself and I'll forget everything." That would be the ultimate joke on life, one of the strongest individuals in the world, killing himself to appease a mere Walker, but of course that wasn't really possible.
I stayed silent for sometime, actually thinking if there really was something I wanted that could somehow balance out what I have been suffering.
The problem was, I'd need to reveal some of my secrets as well and of course, that wasn't really acceptable.
There were multiple things, but…
"I will only talk to the duke."
Those were my first words after minutes of silence and of course they were met with disdain from the elders, but duke Morvane was quick on the uptake.
"Leave. Now."
Two words, just enough to scare them shitless. His authority was absolute after all.
"Now let's talk."
"Not yet. I want nothing of what we're about to discuss to be divulged to anyone else. Never."
"We can make another contract, but you'll need to give me something back for it to be valid."
I shook my head. Contracts were cool and all, but if even I was just a few months of research away from breaking one without consequences, what could a Duke do?
"I want an oath on your mana."
The duke was silent for a moment, an oath on one's mana was… primordial.
"Then you too will take oath. I can't just shoulder the risks without getting anything from it."
"Yes, you will make an oath of secrecy, what do you need from me?"
He looked at me with clear regret in his eyes. It was clear that whatever happened after our altercation had made him have a change of heart.
I mean, for what that shadow wanted me to think it seems that at least at some level he cares about me, what I don't know is why.
So I somewhat anticipated what he was going to ask of me.
"I want you to… forget your grudges and think of us as real family."
Families kill each other sometime right? I've heard plenty of stories where brothers die for inheritance money.
"I… will try."
"That's enough."
We stood in front of each other, one hand on our chest and the other holding the others. It felt very touching, despite what it meant.
"I, Dionen Morvane, swear upon my mana to be keeper of absolute secrecy for the conversation about to begin."
"I, Crow Morvane, swear upon my mana to forget, forgive and try with all my heart to think of the Morvane household as real family."
As soon as the promises were made, our mana entangled with flashes of purple and green. That was the signal, it was now time to make some compromises.
"There are somethings I need, but I don't know what price I'm willing to pay."
"Isn't the promise to forgive the payment itself?"
"Don't be foolish du- dad, my forgiveness pays your silence."
He smiled, clearly satisfied that I was really putting the effort I promised immediately and I only felt more irritated.
Why do I feel that whatever happens, I'm on the losing end of this deal?
"Well, let's start with the easiest thing… I need to boost my bloodline purity, it's currently 11% but I need it to be at least 17%"
"That can be arranged, we have Disorder boosters…"
"Yeah, that is not going to work, I don't have the bloodline of Disorder."
Silence befell again until the Duke tentatively asked his doubts out.
"Do you have the bloodline of the Family?"
The hell? Is there a fourteenth path now?
I did nothing to mask my confusion and the duke sighed in relief.
"It will take some time, but we can arrange for a general blood ritual, of course you'll need to check if it can work for you."
I nodded and went on with the most crucial part of this conversation.
"This is… hard to say, because I really don't know how I know this… what do you know about the name Thylarion?"
"I would need to check with the archives, is this family bothering you?"
I shook my head with a bitter smile.
"I don't think they exist anymore d-dad, but I know they existed. Now for the last thing, and probably the most complicated one."
I didn't give him time to react, nor ask questions.
"I need the mana breathing techniques all the other heirs are using. The manual I'm trying to make is lacking."
At that piece of information, the duke smiled wildly, to my confusion, he even started nodding and laughing aloud.
"Hahahaha! Sorry son, it just, everything is just clicking into its rightful place. Your subtlety is really impressive, but maybe don't go challenge people outside your league."
The hell?
"I'll tell you something that only the Patriarchs and Matriarchs know, do with it what you'd like: long before the Path of Disorder opened to us humans, it was the path of Family; we don't know why, nor how, but a change in fate happened and there were only records about that path closing to humanity."
I took note of everything.
"Now, the particularities of this path were multiple, but the most noticeable was: they didn't have a mana cultivation, they would be able to use the cultivation of whoever they thought as family, even their mana changed aspects sometimes."
That was oddly similar and completely different at the same time, but I didn't interrupt.
"Here's what I think Crow. In my eyes there are only three possibilities: you have a mutation of the path of Disorder, still in the main path, but with some caveats; you belong to a resurgence of the path of the Family and coincidentally meeting Yom unlocked Disorder for you; and last but not least, you actually have blood from the Beyond."
Well those were some wild assumptions, but it was interesting nonetheless, it helped me understand that I wasn't subtle enough and that the delusions some people created for themselves were beautiful.
"I don't know much about the blood from Beyond, but I can assure those other things are wrong. So, is it possible to receive those breathing techniques?"
"You already have Auriel's and Yom's right?"
I just nodded.
"Fine, I'll arrange for the heirs to give you their breathing techniques personally when you head back to the academy, but I can only give you the walkers step."
"I just want hints, I'll make my own thing anyway."
He nodded thoughtfully and I stayed silent thinking if there was something else I needed and could extract from… my dad, but nothing came to mind, so I just waited for him to dismiss the meeting.
"Now that we were able to clear some air between us, will you please change your schedule and remove those useless physical subjects for general combat and swordsmanship?"
"Fuck no. I'm sick and tired of being made fun of from everyone that sees me fighting without magic."
"People will get used to it, you have much to gain from it in comparison to escavating sites in search of dead myths and learning how to survive the wilderness without mana."
I thought about it seriously, but at the same time I needed those subjects as alibis for my pranks, I also still preferred magic to swords.
"I… I really don't want to."
"What if I gave you an incentive? Let's see…"
"Can't I just come here on Wednesdays and train with the instructor?"
"That is good and all, but if you really want to put effort in the family, you will need to interact with the other heirs and I would prefer if you went with your real body… is this your real body?"
Not that I could do physical training with doppelgängers either way…
But just as the man mentioned real body, I remembered something important I wanted to know of and switched my attention to my pockets.
"I completely forgot! What is the eternal curse of Disorder?"
Duke, my dad immediately paled at the mention and took a step forward.
"You didn't try to open your shadow's inventory nor did you put it in your own, right?"
"Do you think I'm stupid?"
I took out a piece of folded paper enchanted with the runes [contain], [preserve] and [hide], gave it to the duke and just waited for him to open it. When he did, his colors returned to normalcy and he even patted my shoulders.
"Good job with the enchantments son."
Something in me was breaking and I didn't even know what that feeling was.