Chapter 565 - Family friends and sacred cures.

Eric blinked, surprised to find himself momentarily dazed with sleep before fully coming to in a bedroom filled with a sense of homey comfort and warmth that meant more to him than he was comfortable putting into words. He winced for his momentary befuddlement, yet dared to think that maybe he shouldn't be too hard on himself. He had survived multiple perilous encounters on top of class and a modeling shoot just the day before, with less than five hours sleep under his belt.

Of course his Vitality was over 4000. And in System space, he only needed one hour of rest every few days, tops.

Even if he had been just a little bit insane, by the end of his Earth run.

He chuckled softly in the comfort of a warmly decorated room he had actually been given permission to call his own, still surprised to find on Titan Prime, of all places, a place to call home.

He sighed, remembering so clearly when he had struggled just to lock in a 10 Vitality, so he didn’t feel like an awful wreck. A time when eventually achieving 13 Vitality had filled him with a fierce sense of relief and potential, and 20 had given him a taste of the wonders of endless running and the ability to slowly regenerate from any injury.

An incredible boon for anyone, even an Olympian.

And now his Vitality, not to mention his Strength, were each over 4000. A number so absurd that he couldn’t quite suppress the chuckle escaping his lips.

“Eric, are you up? Come downstairs. Mom wants you to say hi to someone.”

Eric’s warm mood instantly deflated with the spike of anxiety he now felt.

“What’s up?” Eric carefully said as Louise cracked open the door and glared his way.

“I’m still tired. So you’re on dish duty.”

Eric shrugged, seeing no need to fight over something he could do in seconds. “What’s this about something important?”

Louise’s glare softened into a tired pout. “Why the hell do you look so fresh and bright-eyed? Are you taking spirit grass or some fancy herbal concoction, and where can I get some?”

Eric grinned. “Best advice I can give you there, sis, is to clean another peripheral with me and Mom. That, and coffee. Which, contrary to popular belief before my world ended, is actually good for you. But best unsweetened, and only in the morning. Coffee and cultivation means you’ll be feeling so energized afterwards that your whole day will be fantastic, and you’ll always have a bit more pep in your step than you otherwise would.”

“I know,” Louise said with a wry smile of her own. “Especially the cultivation part, if I can actually manage to claim another channel. But as far as morning beverages go, I’d rather green tea. That’s even better, and mom’s making us a fresh kettle. And you’re going to want to come downstairs and say hi.”

Eric blinked at this.

Louise lowered her voice. “A family friend stopped by on her way to the city today. We’ve known her for years. She’s like an aunty to me. Only now… I think mom’s friend is one of her ‘friends,’ if you know what I mean.”

Eric blinked at this. “Wait… she’s your mom’s girlfriend?”

Louise looked at him like he was an idiot. “Seriously?”

Eric flushed. “Um… I have no idea?”

Louise crossed her arms. “She’s a cultivator!”

Eric stiffened at those words. “Seriously?”

Louise nodded. “I’m almost certain of it. She’s always been a friendly face in our lives, stopping by to see us when she can. But now, after the morning sessions with you and Mom… it’s like I can feel a gentle glow about her, just like with Mom! When Mom’s feeling refreshed, I mean.”

Eric smirked. “Seeing glows around people, are we? There’s a name for that condition.”

“Ha ha! Anyway, since you’re part of the family now…” She smiled a bit shyly. “You should go say hi. Even if she’s mostly fascinated by Ella and Maja.”

Eric nodded solemnly. “Our beautiful, green-tinted little sisters with a grasp of Mana-based arts that have nothing to do with Spiritual Energy, a knack for making gardens and groves flourish, and dryad blood in their veins. Outrageous that she should find them worthy of notice. What could possibly make them more interesting than you and I?”

Louise scowled. “Okay, fine. But to me, they’re just my sisters. I’m totally not jealous of them.”

“Good!” Eric said brightly. “I’ll be down in just a few minutes.”

And Eric was as good as his word, doing his best to ignore his pounding heart as he ran a brush through his hair, refusing to look too closely at the snapped bristles when he knew damn well only he could separate the tangles in his otherwise silky soft golden locks.

He then glared at the tiny bit of stubble forming on his cheeks, willed the stubble to fall off, and it promptly did. Then he straightened his shirt collar, very carefully, and proceeded down the stairs, realizing that he should probably have asked their guest’s name.

“Brother, come downstairs!” We made a new friend,” Maja trilled happily, her sister giving the tense whistle of a girl on her best behavior with someone strange and unexpected, and Ella did not do strange and unexpected well.

Eric put on his warmest smile, and paused at the top of the hardwood steps long enough to take a steadying breath, remembering the snarky comments of a deep sea rig’s wild cultivators.

“Boy doesn’t hide his aura nearly as well as he thinks he does!”

Eric suppressed an internal wince, taking the moments needed to make sure absolutely nothing leaked, save for the genial smile of a friendly young foster kid happy to make a new acquaintance.

“Be right down, Maja!” Eric happily trilled, flowing down the stairs and striding into the kitchen with all the bright-eyed energy of an aspiring A-student all about early starts, completed assignments, and great first impressions.

Maja chirped happily and rushed to give his legs a heartfelt hug. Ella flashed him a relieved smile, and Hanna’s eyes crinkled with warmth.

“My, aren’t you looking chipper and bright this morning.”

“How could I not, after that delicious dinner? I’m lucky I got up at all.”

This earned a snort from John. “You’re trying too hard, Eric,” he said in hyperspeak between bights of his sausage, eggs, and sushi, now pointedly looking at the coolly smiling woman grinning at Eric like a cat before the cream.

Eric froze, caught by features hauntingly familiar. Dusky tan features, dark almond eyes, a petite frame filled with a fierce, coiled power that sure as fuck was stronger than what he had sensed in the trio of rice-gathering cultivators the night before. Greater even than the wild potency radiating from both Cultivator Liang and his formation master.

Eric’s cheeks blazed, heart pounding, absolutely stunned by what he saw as he bowed low, desperate to cover the sheer disbelief that had frozen him to momentary stillness, even with Battletime in full effect.

Because he recognized at least the echo of those features.

Those piercing dark eyes and a body tempered in ways no orthodox cultivator could possibly understand.

“Eric, right? Sophia Kahn. Please, call me Sophie. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Eric ignored the roaring in his ears, forcing himself to meet the gentle gaze that haunted him.

“The pleasure is all mine, Lady Kahn,” Eric whispered, voice so painfully ragged. Giving so much away when he should be giving NOTHING away. Even if he was looking at features so hauntingly familiar… and eyes that could have been his mentor’s own.

When she showed her hand, he didn’t hesitate to gently claim it and press her knuckles to his forehead, falling to one knee as he did so.

Earning gasps from his foster parents and curious looks from his foster sisters and he didn’t care.

Because even if they had no clue, not one… and John should know better… Eric did.

He could offer no less respect for the direct descendant of his master.

Empress Exalt, Evelyn Kahn… Lady Death herself.

Ella gasped. Maja gave an anxious trill. Even Louise froze at the sight of Eric showing obeisance to what should have been a complete stranger.

The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.

Before it abruptly broke before Sophia’s surprised laughter. “Oh, you darling boy. You flatter me! Is this a custom of your people? Please, stand straight and tall, dear boy. There you are. Not quite six feet, but close enough that your future wife will give you full credit, I’m sure.” She flashed a teasing smile. “If only more impetuous boys were as courteous as you are. Now, let’s get a closer look at you.

The cultivator radiating a strength Eric’s instincts screamed were far greater than anyone else’s he had met in NanDushi, pinned him with a gentle, sisterly gaze.

Eric’s cheeks flushed, even as Sophia’s gentle smile grew pained.

“You poor boy. You’ve been through quite the ordeal, haven’t you?”

“Yes, but it’s okay,” he said breathlessly. “I had the most magnificent of teachers.”

The woman’s features hardened in a scowl, a brilliant aura that could crush the entire house, flaring for just the blink of an eye before receding fully.

Eric’s instincts screamed warning even as Sophia’s features were that of the sweetest of nurses treating a shell-shocked soldier.

But Eric wasn’t fooled. Not for a second.

“You poor dear. Forgive my candor, but your mentors have a lot to answer for.”

Eric quickly shook his head with odd insistence, not caring at the frown Hanna sent his way.

“Forgiveness, honored cultivator Kahn. But my instructor was exactly what I needed. The only one who could help me ascend past countless roadblocks and walk at least an echo of a cultivator’s path. Even if the path I needed to stride was so embedded in blood and death along the most twisted of trails that there was no moving forward without accepting the most bitter of consequences… or accepting the extermination of my people.”

He flashed a bitter smile. “Those were my options. I made my choice, and now I must live with the consequences.”

Sophia’s gaze was one of profound pity, gentle fingers stroking his cheek. “I admire your bravery, Eric Carpenter.”

He chuckled softly. “Earning the admiration of a beautiful and powerful cultivator? I can think of no better way to start my day.”

Her nose crinkled with a delightful snort. “Well then, how about we retire with Hanna and Louise in the garden? I’ve always admired your mother’s gift with both plants and feng shui. I’m eager to see how well you two respond to your mother’s techniques… and perhaps help you both take your next steps forward.”

Louise, no fool, gazed at Sophia with wide, hopeful eyes. “You mean I’ll finally be able to—” Her words cut off before her father’s look. As if they dare not even say aloud anything about accessing cultivators and cultivation resources beyond their own clan.

Eric grit his jaw, hating the taste of politics in the air… before focusing on what truly mattered.

The power of friendship and hope.

He smiled his gratitude and approval, taking a sip of the bitter green tea Hanna handed him.

“Honestly, I can think of absolutely no better way to spend the morning,” he conceded, savoring the best drink of his life, tasting of power and promise and fresh new possibilities hopefully opening up before him.

He took a deep breath smelling of sun-ripened corn, tulips, marigolds, honeysuckle, and all the joys and wonders of spring, sensing that today would be the day that he would finally crack out of his bitter shell and begin a new chapter both wondrous and grand.

He couldn’t wait!

*

“I think pursuing peripheral meridian cleansing with your foster mother truly is the best path forward for you.” Sophia said a short time later with a gentle smile as Eric silently howled his frustration. “You are probably the bravest boy I’ve ever met, Eric. To have come so far, enduring such grievous wounds for the sake of your people.” She gave his shoulder a sympathetic squeeze.

Her eyes widened in momentary surprise before she pinned him with a glare… then blanched and stepped back.

“Sophia?” Hanna’s worried whisper pulled the woman out of her too calculating look.

Sophia sighed, shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t… I’ve never seen anything quite that… challenging.” She pinned Eric with her stare. “Yet somehow, I think he still came out ahead. Considerably so.”

Eric carefully thought calm thoughts.

Hanna frowned, even as she absently stroked her daughter’s brow as Louise assumed the lotus position and began, perhaps for the first time in her life, to cycle spiritual energy through Dragon Gates that now savored a trickle of sweet nourishing Qi with an expert to gently guide her spirit through her first full 4-D cycle, saving her perhaps years of struggle that any neophyte born without resources or contacts would be forced to endure. In the best possible scenario.

“I had thought… I was almost positive he had enjoyed a breakthrough, last night. He all but glowed with insights and good health!” Hanna explained.

It was all Eric could do to stand quickly, innocuously, before Sophia’s probing gaze. Her lips curved in a gentle smile.

“I suspect it was the body’s ascension alone that you sensed. For your foster son walks a pure body cultivator’s path. Do you not, Eric?”

Eric sighed. “I was inspired by all I had experienced and savored yesterday, still settling into a brand new world, a brand new life, just filled with exciting possibilities.” He let his eyes wander about the garden filled with richly growing produce swaying in the gentle morning breeze and countless flowers filling the air with their heady scents. “I could feel my body strengthening, my thoughts growing just a tiny bit more crisp, feeling like I had just savored a fresh cup of coffee… but no. I’ve had no revelations as far as cycling Qi goes, and I have absolutely no idea how to send my soul through a 4th dimensional mind map of my meridians.”

Sophia dipped her head, the breeze playing with her silky locks of ebony hair. “I’d be extremely surprised if you possibly could.”

Eric tried not to wince at that declaration. He lowered his gaze, and forced himself to ask the question he had put off for as long as he could.

Dreading what he already knew the answer to be.

“I don’t suppose you could recommend any techniques…”

The air filled with a regretful sigh. “I’m sorry, Eric. The extent of your plaque, so ubiquitous… so thick that I’ve truly never seen the like…”

Hanna bit her lip, truly looking distressed on Eric’s behalf. “Is there really nothing we can do for him?”

“We can continue helping him to master the unorthodox path serving you so well, Hanna. His peripheral meridians will be a source of strength, power, and rejuvenation. And it will give him an edge that very few body cultivators can match, touching an art that only a minority of wujen seek to master, let alone anyone else.”

Hanna sighed. “There must have been elders, the children of prodigies, someone who have had to overcome such obstacles.”

“Of course there are,” Sophia freely admitted.

Eric’s gaze jerked upward, meeting her own as hope dared to flare within his breast.

Sophia blinked, momentarily surprised, perhaps, by how fast Eric had moved to meet her measuring gaze, his eyes filled with such yearning.

She sighed, shaking her head. “But such tomes are extremely hard to come by, and would cost an absolute fortune, even if someone was willing to part with them. And most of the benefit comes when one’s exact elemental affinities are known, an attribute most only bother unveiling when one’s meridians are already cleared sufficient that one has already taken their first steps as an energy storage cultivator. Doing such beforehand, save for the most basic tests, is itself an expensive and laborious process normally reserved, again, for truly gifted elites.”

Hanna sighed, looking as crestfallen as Eric had felt, just seconds ago. “I see.” She gently squeezed Eric’s unresisting hand. “It looks like it’s peripheral training for the pair of us, Eric.” She flashed a gentle smile. “Two broken stalks, determined to ascend and grow taller than anyone ever thought we could. Right, son?”

Eric swallowed. “Right, mom.”

He took a steadying breath, hearing imaginary dice rattle in his head as he gazed Sophia’s way.

Daring to put it all on the line.

Even if it meant putting this perfect second chance isekai childhood do-over on the line.

Though he’d do all he could to hold tight and preserve it still…

He still uttered words he couldn’t take back.

“Sophia?”

Foster mother and friend paused in their quiet whispers as they gazed intently at Loiuse’s struggle, eyes scrunched shut, Louise biting her lip just as her mother did as she strove to recognize and follow the trickle of Qi through all her mostly but not completely blocked Dragon Gates.

“Sophia?”

A flicker of annoyance. And Eric understood. His case was hopeless, and she was well on her way to helping Hanna’s child by birth slip through the roadblocks that had hindered her for so long. To present her with a path she could follow, even the most basic path, with the limited time she had to visit.

Sophia could give no greater gift than to make sure Louise had the most basic of meridian cleansing techniques mastered before duty called and her visit came to an end.

So he forced his screaming impatience to heel.

He kept respectfully silent, even smiling and clapping his support and encouragement when Louise opened eyes filled with tears and joyfully hugged her mother, her words coming out in an excited rush, and of course Eric understood completely.

Because his foster sister had just broken through.

She was a Rank 1 Meridian Cleansing cultivator, her body already thrumming with the power of a constant extra cup of coffee as Spiritual Energy began to saturate her now partially cleared meridians and her body as well.

At least ten points worth of growth, with the most basic and resilient of techniques. One that Eric sensed had been around for a very, very long time. It’s spiritual echo permeated the air, even now. No doubt it had guided and carried Louise through so much of what had been, for her, the most remarkable morning of her life.

“I did it, Eric!” Louise sobbed, tears in her eyes as she hugged him close, and Eric was filled with warmth and happiness and didn’t mind the effluvia now leaking from her pours one bit.

“I know, sis,” he gently commended, kissing her brow. “You’re now a cultivator.”

“And you really, really need a bath!” A politely seated Ella commented, wrinkling her nose.

Eric grinned. “It’s true, you do.”

“Sorry?”

“Need a bath.”

Louise’s excitement turned to a scowl. “Who said I needed a—” She blanched. “Oh my, I stink!”

Hanna chuckled warmly, eyes twinkling. “You do indeed, child. Now bathe, and I shall prepare your cultivation robes in time for your next lesson.”

Louise’s eyes widened. “I have cultivation robes? Really?”

Hanna held her daughter close. “I made them for you, years ago. Knowing that this time would come.”

Mother and daughter cried in each other’s arms, even Ella and Maja misting up as Hanna led them all back inside.

Sophia gazed fondly at the back door before turning Eric’s way once more. “You’re a good brother, Eric. All too many would be jealous. I’m glad you’re better than that.”

“Sophia?”

Her approving smile turned to a curious tilt of her head. “Yes, Eric?”

“What if price was no object?”

In an instant, Sophia’s gentle big-sister demeanor transformed and hardened.

She was now carefully regarding him as the stranger, the unknown variable, that he truly was.

And she? A cultivator a hell of a lot more powerful than she was showing off… and had, in fact, showed no powers at all, so was technically clear to reveal none of her creds, now that Eric understood at least a bit of how the cultivation game was played, here.

“Please explain, Eric.”

Eric’s took a shuddering breath. “What if the price of any cultivation manual, no matter how exotic or exclusive or unorthodox, so long as they were willing to sell… what if price was no object?”

Sophia’s serpentine stare suddenly warmed in a bemused smile. “I’m sorry, Eric. But cultivation manuals cost far more than your parents could possibly give you as an allowance… or even mortgage their beautiful house and cultivating garden for.”

Eric’s desperate smile didn’t waver. “And what if I already knew my affinities… and my seasons?” The last was said with a whisper, as Eric revealed a slip of paper upon which priceless secrets had been written, knowing he was putting so much on the line, yet saying only: “I trust you will hold this secret close, and I pray you will show no one else, in a world filled with so many predators and so few friends.”

Sophia’s eyes widened.

For just a second, Eric felt the pressure of momentarily unguarded potency.

Felt it wash over him like waves crashing upon the shore.

Vast and incomprehensibly mighty.

She had walked at least a few careful steps along the Core Cultivator’s path.

He was now certain of it.

Sophia stared at the tiny note with just a handful of precious, perilous words, before turning back to Eric, saying only. “Are you sure?”

Eric flashed a bitter smile. “I cleaned my meridians once before, believe it or not.”

“Truly? I find that extremely hard to believe.”

Eric sighed. “It was System assisted, where my Dragon Gates, or Major Meridians, were flattened to a 3-D diagram mirroring my lymphatic system so closely that, for the longest time, I treated them as one and the same.”

Sophia’s eyes widened. “So that’s why I sense the flow of Qi through you. Considerable Qi, despite the tragedy of your meridians. Your lymphatic system is how you cycle Qi! How very remarkable. I’ve never seen a body cultivation path that ever managed to incorporate Spiritual Energy like you have.”

Eric’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “A great way to evolve one’s gifts, no?”

Sophia’s smile froze. Her eyes pinned his own. “What are you saying, Eric?”

“I’m saying that if you can get me any cultivation tome that plays to my affinities… I’ll find a way to break through. I fucking know I will. Because no matter how awesome it is to have a lymphatic system that can channel my Fire Fist almost as well as working meridians, we both know that will never compare to the sheer wondrous power of maximized energy storage, and one day, a compressed core.”

Sophia sighed. “Eric…” She shook her head. “Seasonal cultivators are rare, but not unheard of. Though they’re rare enough prodigies that the very few sects possessing or rumored to possess cultivators who walk a path even somewhat similar to yours… they would jealously guard their secrets. Very few things could entice them to part ways with such a tome.”

“How about ten million credits?”

Sophia stiffened.

No breeze rustled their hair. No flower waved at their feet, no leaves rustled overhead.

The entire garden seemed to freeze, Sophia’s piercing gaze filling Eric’s entire world.

Qi Resistance skill-check: Critical Success!

“Do you truly hold such resources, Eric? Ten million in gold bank notes is more than your father earned, after decades as a Bronze-Tier mercenary.”

Eric flashed a bleak smile. “How about twenty million? Will those secretive clans who value the season-aspected cultivators among their people willingly surrender their most precious secrets for twenty million credits, do you think?”

“Careful, Eric. I’m beginning to think you’re serious.”

Eric held the woman’s gaze for long seconds. “You better believe I am.”

It caught Eric completely off guard, how surprised she looked, when she slowly nodded her head. “I… yes, Eric. I… I can make no promises, but I will see what I can do.” She gave him a pointed look. “You’d best be ready to pay up, however. This really is something you should do with your parents consent.”

“Do your contacts have a Jade Consortium account?”

Sophia blinked, before filling the air with a disbelieving chuckle. “Those are considered clan treasures and elite privileges. Most lowlanders have to go through the NanDushi Savings and Loan, or lesser banks where you can’t even be sure your credits will be safe. Don’t tell me you actually have a—”

The air flashed with a dark green slip of pristine jade.

“By all the ascended… how?”

Eric flashed a cheeky grin. “Now that would be telling.”

“Eric, my own sect posses a single Jade Emporium talisman. Only our headmaster has claimed his own! How on earth did you manage to claim such a prize?”

“Sophia?”

“Please, Eric. This is important! If you found a lost talisman—”

“Do they take imperial bank accounts?”

Sophia froze, measuring gaze once more seeming to dissect Eric where he stood.

“Yes, Eric. Seeing as Imperial accounts will be honored in gold at the account-holder’s pleasure… even the NanDushi chapter of Jade Consortium will honor imperial underworld accounts.”

Eric nodded. “Then twenty million, or more, won’t be a problem.”

Sophia gave him a pointed look. “How much more, Eric? How far are you willing to go, searching for a technique that might actually let you chip away at that plaque and make headway… over decades?”

Eric winced. “Harsh.”

She snorted. “Kind words for my best friend’s foster son in need of gentle support after surviving life as a war refugee I will freely give. But I will honor a Contender who is the farthest thing from a broken child. Someone who is clever, ruthless, and wild enough to make the most of the chaos and uncertainty of a planetary ascension to amass tens of millions of credits inside an actual imperial account with nothing less than the truth. Especially when there are so many other things, arguably better things, that he could invest his resources in.”

Eric chuckled softly. “Fair enough.”

She dipped her head. “Good. I’m glad we understand each other.”

Eric held her gaze, now daring to reveal even more of himself, asking a question that would serve no direct benefit for himself, but would make all the difference for the mother he would so dearly loved to have had in his life even as a favored aunty… years ago.

“Aunty Sophia?”

This earned a snort. “So odd for you to choose familial warmth now, Contender.”

Eric winced, but refused to lose focus. “How much to cure my foster mother?”

Sophia blinked, her wry smile softening to that of an aunty once more. “Just out of curiosity, Eric, how much would you be willing to invest in such a fool’s errand?”

Eric clenched his jaw, but wouldn’t rise to the bait. “However much it costs.”

She snorted. “Even if it cost twenty million? Even if it cost as much as you need to purchase a treasured sect resource?”

Eric refused to back down. “As much as it costs.”

“And if that number was thirty million credits, Eric? Enough to buy most of this town?”

Eric nodded. “Done.”

Sophia gave a sorrowful laugh, her gaze, for some strange reason, that of a doting aunt once more. “You’re a good kid, aren’t you Eric? No matter who or what you had to be to survive the perils of ascension… had you been raised in a warm, loving household the way you should have been, you would have made Hanna a worthy son.”

She smiled as Eric felt his cheeks flush, a hot sting quickly rubbed away.

“No. Let me rephrase that. You are a good son. You do Hanna proud.”

“I’m an arrogant prick of a Contender, just like all my kind is, Sophia,” Eric said roughly. “I’m probably just as bad as you fear I am. But not to my family. Not to my friends. And if I can help…” He gazed at the beautiful manor of a home with its picturesque wood paneling and slate roof tiles. A house where he had been treated with all the warmth and love he had secretly yearned for, since he was a child.

He swallowed the lump in his throat, feeling a bittersweet something that could only be happiness. “Sure, why not?”

Sophia’s smile didn’t waver. “Powerful, idealistic, with so many hidden cards you try to hide, even now. Fairy prince indeed.”

Eric forced a chuckle. “Hanna told you that, huh?”

Sophia tilted her head curiously. “Truth for truth, Eric. Are you truly a faerie prince?”

Eric hated the flush he could feel in his cheeks, the answer given already.

He forced his head to nod. “Yes. I am. But I rule nothing. I was the tip of the spear for my sister’s kingdom. No more. And I didn’t want to be anything more.”

Sophia’s gentle gaze was more than he could bear. “I can only imagine how perilous such a position truly was.”

Eric flashed a bleak smile. “Let’s just say I had a knack for it, but those days are done. All I’m concerned about right now is cracking the secrets to cultivation and freeing my foster mother from the foul bindings sealing her Dragon Gates shut. What I need to know from you is, how do I make that happen?”

Sophia blinked, looking genuinely impressed. “Sadly, Eric, there is absolutely no way to break those bindings. There is no resource or countermeasure, save appealing to the pigheadedness of the spite-filled wujen who cursed her in the first place.”

Eric blanched with those words. “Fuck, that’s bad.”

Sophia snorted. “Yes, it is. Believe me, Eric. If there was any other way… I’ve spent twenty years trying to hunt down solutions when I had a free moment.”

Eric sighed, rubbing his temple. Then he looked up, meeting her gaze. “Just how bad is it?”

Sophia gazed at him for a long, painful moment. And much to his dismay, all she said was, “I’ll do my best to secure you the tomes you’ll need for your own ascension. Even if it will be a journey of decades… at least you’ll have a path forward.” She squeezed his arm with an aunt’s fondness. “The least I can do for a boy willing to give so much of himself to a foster mother lucky to have him for a son.”