Chapter 97—How to see the unseen

Chapter 97: 97—How to see the unseen Clouds crawly slowly past Lucen in carried by the afternoon wind and his own movement. The purple hue of the sky and the Halo’s weak light made him rather tired. Of course, this was partly caused by the fact that he had gotten no sleep last night. Most of the time was spent promising Selene he would be careful for the seventieth time and lying awake staring at the roof, burdened with nightmares. He had the same dreams every night. One was spent watching spectral-blue six-winged butterflies flutter across the sky. Most often, the dream was of a pantheon of gods. There was a huge circular table with demigods seated around it, bickering. At the head of the table was an elderly man with his head cradled in his hands. Lucen abandoned the carriage interior to contemplate his dreams. He considered walking alongside the carriages, but they were too fast. He ended up on top of the carriage, feeling the smooth wind and smell of grass over him. The top of the carriage was covered with a wool canvas for rain, and it was soft and relaxing. Inside the carriage, Liam, Kon, Helie, Elle,and Hither were chatting excitedly—about the ceremony, about the journey ahead of them, and about their new powers. There was so much to talk about, but Lucen was too tired. Their voices were right under him and rather distracting. Lucen stretched over the soft wool, yawning. In those strange dreams, he often recognized demigods from the texts he had read: Thallor the Mirrormaker, Hestara the War Reader, Velkar the Sky Breaker, and even Shanakal. Shanakal was red-haired, and his eyes were a kaleidoscope of colors. He wore an easy smile while his siblings argued. His armor was black and bronze, painted with fresh blood. If Lucen hadn’t learned as a child the persecution Shanakal inflicted on the Kirkian church, he would have found him to be a rather friendly guy. But the blood on his armor wasn’t the first sign that Shanakal was dangerous. Rather, it was the way his smile never reached his eyes. Unlike Chester, who wore a smile to catch people off guard, Shanakal’s smile was a threat of violence, a precursor to carnage. Lucen still shivered whenever he saw that smile. But the other demigods weren’t much better. Thallor was a cold, distant man. His black hair was like the wings of a raven, and his hollow, deep-set eyes were inhuman and unnerving. Velkar was also covered in blood. But his demeanor bordered on overly serious, and veered into insanity. His hair was brown and buzz-cut, and his armor was a bright red that hid blood with a black trim. A titanic sword rested against his seat, jagged and black. Hestara was as beautiful as a bad decision. Her pink lips and alluring orange eyes were painfully calm. She languished in her chair, white hair draped over the headrest, lazily waving off another demigod that was shouting at her. But Lucen was sure she was the best at hiding her utter madness. Lucen returned to the waking world, slamming his foot against the carriage’s roof in an attempt to get them to quiet down. The rolling fields around them grew wilder and wilder as they strayed from civilization. A pair of hunters walked back to Castaway with deer on their backs. They waved at Lucen giddily, and he returned the excitement with a faint smile. Did these dreams mean anything? [i can’t see your dreams. But i think they’re probably meaningless.] The system was speaking again, which was nice. They must have finally gotten far enough away from Castaway for it to relax. [Yes! Finally free from Kedral’s beady eyes. I couldn’t risk it after he appeared in between you and Heimar. I really thought he wasn’t watching. It was... terrifying.] Lucen didn’t want his computer feeling things. He sighed, willing the system to give him some info on his progress towards upgrading [Mana Sense] and [Comprehension]. He had used the elixirs Kedral gave him, Cordvein was rather painful but useful, and Green Lake elixir made him fear getting addicted to the peace it brought him. [You aren’t going to ask how i am?] "I don’t care." The interface was plain for a moment. [Mana sense and Comprehension are growing well. But i believe growth will come once you can find out how to use them in tandem.] [Comprehension] improved his ability to understand and memorize runes. [Mana sense] was like a sixth sense, where he perceived the world in its basic form, as mana just moving. [Maybe predicting the flow of mana based on observations using Comprehension?] Mana was too unpredictable, and the world was made up of a million moving variables. It was like trying to predict the weather. Even with expensive equipment, forecasts weren’t fully reliable. This would be like trying to forecast a storm by looking at the sky and taking a guess. Lucen cupped his chin. But Thomas did have something similar to predictions. The Mid-tier Knight’s mana sense wasn’t quite at the level of second sight, but he could predict Lucen’s attacks even when he couldn’t see them. But predictions didn’t work if your attacker was Veiled. [Maybe it didn’t work for Thomas because he didn’t have second sight. If second sight and this prediction trait were combined, they could probably predict a sneak attack that was veiled.] Souls could follow the flow of mana in the world. That was the basis of his [Stalker’s Edge] skill—disguising your internal mana by blending in with the external mana of the world. So training it could work if he relied on his soul to predict the external mana. Maybe that’s why Thomas had the ability in the first place, because he was a Mid-tier Knight that had tempered his body and soul. [Souls are very tricky. But i’m in yours so i can tell you when you’re on the right track.] Lucen would train this skill when he took the next dose of Green Lake elixir this evening. He heard shuffling at the edge of the carriage. Liam was trying to climb up. "Would you mind helping?" "After fighting against my right to sleep," Lucen scoffed. "You were laughing real hard down there, why don’t you go back?" "Please? I want to ask some questions about channeling," Liam pleaded. "Also, can you help me before I fall off?"