The Wanderer's Rebirth: Other Paths

She certainly hadn’t had an easy time of it.

After she’d gotten everything out of Kalduin that she could- and learned that Myra had even apologized before running off!-, she’d done her best to soother her daughter’s bruised ego.

Everything from bribing her with food to speaking kindly to her through her door had failed. The only time Myra had left her room over the next day and a half had been to relieve herself. Even then, Myra had had such a haunted look on her face that even Kalduin hadn’t dared to tease her.

But as she was preparing to head out for Joram’s next lesson, Myra had left her room, packed up and ready to go. Given how pristine she was, Celys could only guess that Myra had snuck out on the middle of the night to bathe.

Now, her daughter’s hair practically glistened in the lamplight, tied back into a long tail that fell down her back… right to her tails. Celys eyed her daughter, surprised that she hadn’t hidden her tails with her [Skill] seeing as how she’d always been self-conscious about them and what they meant.

But there she was, in crisp [Miko] attire, looking as though she was ready to preside over the Fall Rites.

“Oh? I thought that you’d decided not to come,” Celys said in a carefully neutral tone, carefully inspecting her daughter for any reaction.

“I cannot abandon my student,” Myra said haughtily as she crosser her arms over her chest, back to her old self it seemed.

“Indeed,” she replied, deciding that it was good that Myra would come along today as well. “Be that as it may, I’ll still be coming for today’s lesson,” she said, then suppressed a smile at the quickly covered look of panic on her daughter’s face. “I’ve already cleared the day, and I still want to get a measure of the young human,” she said, then motioned for everyone to follow her out of the house.

- - -

The walk in the pre-dawn light had been pleasant, if quiet. Myra had sulked the entire way, and with that flammable jar of oil nearby, neither Theril nor Kalduin had thought it wise to chat idly on the way.

Just as well, as it allowed them to keep a better eye out for danger. Their local dungeon was well cared for, but with Theril’s report that the young human had been attacked several times by what appeared to be dungeon goblin, she didn’t want to take any risks.

So, even though she hadn’t been adventuring in years, she’d dusted off her old staff for the trip. It was one designed for both combat as well as casting, given that she was a [Spiritualist] and all. With her levels, she was confident that she could handle any roaming issues in this part of the woods.

But if a new dungeon had popped up like Theril thought, then they’d need to be careful, especially if the dungeon residents were already wandering out of it. Who knew how strong they’d be?

After an hour of walking through the majestic sequoias, relatives of the World Tree, they arrived.

Theril hadn’t exaggerated how unusual the building looked. If anything, he’d downplayed it. She’d travelled in her youth, yet she hadn’t come across anything like that before.

Now even more intrigued than before, Celys also noted the subtle cues in her daughter that told her she was both excited and nervous. Given just how amazing the food they’d brought back had tasted, she couldn’t blame her daughter. Nor could she blame her nerves given what had happened the last time she’d been there.

With the dawn light now shining, she could now see that there was an oddly circular area around his door where the vegetation had been cleared. What could that be used for? Or, why such a perfect circle? She wondered before shaking her head.

If her son wasn’t mistaken, or fooled, then Joram was also Pathless. So, any thoughts about hidden ritual circles didn’t have any grounds to stand on. But the report of a [Cleanse] effect used by Joram still bothered her.

Had he just gained the Skill through fastidious cleanliness? Given how clean both Theril and Kalduin reported his home to be, that could certainly be the case.

Ridding herself of those thoughts, she approached his metal banded door and found an opening to knock on the white-painted wood. Through the corner of her eye, she again noticed her daughter’s nerves and had to wonder: why?

Then she heard the door being unbarred, then another slightly squeaky sound, before the door opened to reveal a young man standing there, a short beard on his face, wearing an odd-looking shirt and pants, though with bare feet.

She was unprepared for the size of him, as both Theril and Kalduin had described him as fit, but not bulky in build. However, her eyes were telling her something else.

He was certainly tall, probably close to a head taller than her and almost twice as wide in the shoulders. His broad chest tapered down to a significantly narrower waist that gave way to some very solid-looking legs.

She looked back up into his large, green hazel eyes that managed to catch the morning light, and was surprised to also see some blue and gold in there as well. His short dark brown hair was neat, though it looked as though it had all been clipped incredibly short before having all grown out at the same time.

“Hello,” he said, surprising her with how normal he sounded, though his voice was also quite smooth.

“Hello,” she replied, ordering her thoughts as quickly as she could. “I am Celys, the village Chief of Kirkwall. I’ve come to oversee today’s lesson,” she said, falling back on her village Chief persona.

“Okay?” Joram replied, looking a bit confused.

“I don’t think he knows those words yet,” Kalduin whispered to her, nearly causing her to blush in embarrassment for having forgotten that he’d only had two lessons so far.

Given how well he’d spoken, and how natural he’d sounded, that fact had completely sipped her mind.

“Sorry,” she apologized, dipping her head slightly. “I am here to watch,” she said, speaking a bit slower as she motioned to her twins.

Joram nodded at that, then looked between her and her children before nodding to himself, seemingly coming to a conclusion of some sort.

“Come in,” he said, then stepped back to allow them entry.

She was, once again, taken aback with how… strange everything looked. Though, given how steady the lights were on the walls, she could only guess that magic had been involved in their making.

“Come, sit,” Joram said once he’d closed and re-barred the door, causing her eyebrows to raise a bit before she remembered the account of the attack while Theril and Reldan had last visited.

Joram then paused, obviously noting that there were only four chairs at the table before shrugging and heading off down the hallway.

Celys exchanged looks with Theril, who just shrugged, not looking at all concerned. Still not convinced that Joram was as harmless as they’d made him out to be, she used one of her class Skills, [Detect Intent].

The Skill didn’t quite work how the name made it out to be, instead it gave her a more… empathic set of results from those around her. For instance, Theril felt relaxed, but still alert for any possible threat. Kalduin was excited and hopeful, while he also seemed to be suppressing some mirth.

Myra, though, came back with a myriad of emotions. From embarrassment to confidence to reluctance to keen interest bordering on-

“Here, use this,” Joram said from her side, shocking her into dropping her Skill and nearly falling over.

Joram reached out and steadied her by holding her shoulder as he held another chair out for her. She looked at the unusual looking chair and its design before clearing her throat and thanking him.

He just nodded then made his way over to the chair closest to the odd-looking kitchen area and sitting. From there, he pulled over the stack of books she recognized as the ones her children had left for Joram the last time they’d visited.

“So, how much did you read?” Myra asked, taking the chair closest to Joram as well as taking the lead in the lesson.

“Did not have time,” he said, shaking his head as he motioned to his respectably muscled arm. “Much work.”

Celys noted how the three of them stared at his arm, shocked by what they saw.

“How?” Kalduin asked, the shock evident in his voice.

“Work hard,” Joram replied with a shrug, not seeming to understand his astonishment.

“Show us?” Theril asked, which got him a nod before Joram stood up and motioned for them to follow him down the short hallways.

Celys was impressed with not only the lighting, but also the material used to make Joram’s house, noting how smooth everything looked. Then noticed Myra surreptitiously sniffing the air, and frowned. They then passed the room that had been described to her, then it clicked. Perhaps Myra was searching for any signs of her… incident?

Just how traumatizing was it for her? She silently wondered as Joram opened another door and showed them another decently sized room stacked with things ranging from lumber to odd box-like contraptions similar to what had been found in his kitchen.

Then he pointed at what looked like large discs of stone with a bar through them, and frowned. That was when she noticed many other discs of stone stacked about, varying in their diameter from just a hand across to several hands across.

“Like this,” he said, then proceeded to lift what had to weigh more than she did like it was nothing.

Instantly, Theril’s interest was piqued, and nothing would do except he give it a try as well. Joram gave him a dubious look, but allowed him to give it a go.

Which proved unwise when they heard Theril’s shoulder pop after he strained for several seconds to lift it like Joram had.

Pale faced and clutching his shoulder, Theril tried to smile it off, but Celys wouldn’t have any of that man pride put them in danger. So, she stepped forward and cast a spell.

“[Minor Healing],” she spoke the spell out loud, then watched a faint green light blossom on Theril’s shoulder briefly before fading away.

Joram looked surprised by the spell, and leaned forward to inspect Theril’s arm, much to the man’s embarrassment. She was quite interested as she watched, though, as Joram seemed to know a bit about the body. He lifted Theril’s arm just above the elbow while using his other hand to steady the shoulder joint, then proceeded to move it through a wide range of motions before he seemed to be satisfied.

With that done, Joram ushered them back into the living room-like space and had them once again sit.

Then the lesson started.

She was sure to keep a keen eye on both Joram and her daughter, who’d yet to hide her tails away again this whole time. But as the lesson progressed, she was astounded at Joram’s progress. He only seemed to need to practice a word a couple of times before he got the pronunciation down, then it seemed as though he made a point of using the word as much as he could while conversing with Myra and Kalduin.

As vigilant as she was, hours of language lessons could wear away the most diligent of watchers. She found herself using [Detect Intent] again, and found that Joram really seemed to wear his thoughts on his sleeve, as it were. Except for when Myra snapped at him one time, she could only feel interest, curiosity, and perseverance from Joram. And even then, he hadn’t felt mad, just annoyed. Curiously similar to one being annoyed by a persistent insect.

Well, she could empathize with that. She’d felt the very same feeling when her daughter had hounded her whenever she’d objected to something that she’d tasked her with that she hadn’t wanted to do.

Then came the time when the lesson ended, and Joram got up to start preparing food.

Myra then quickly dug around in her backpack and retrieved the odd containers and passed them back to Joram, looking a bit embarrassed. Well, she couldn’t blame her. They’d tried to wash away the orange stains on the sides of the clear containers, but hadn’t had any luck. Returning dinnerware to someone that hadn’t been properly cleaned was seen as rude, after all.

Joram thanked her, then placed them on the counter before turning back to preparing the meal. What made Celys cover a smile was the fact that Myra stayed in the kitchen to observe Joram as he worked. The subject, however, didn’t seem to care, so Celys didn’t call her daughter back right away.

She watched, fascinated, as Joram retrieved what looked like several root vegetables and began to wash them. Not only did she not recognize the vegetables, but was astonished when water suddenly started pouring out of a narrow tap built into the counter.

Then he reached under a counter and brought up some weird device that looked like steel and something black. He then pushed a cord into the wall, and a light came to life on the front of the strange device that proved to be some sort of pot when he removed its lid by first twisting it.

She then watched as he took out a very shiny steel pot from inside of it, filled it with some water, then added frozen chunks of red meat to it. From there, he added what looked like various herbs from strange containers whose make reminded her of those containers that the food had been in.

Seemingly done with that, Joram replaced the lid, then touched the front of the odd pot-thing and made it make strange sounds before turning back to the vegetables. They were all soon peeled with a strange device, then chopped and added to another large pot, this time one that was waiting on what she assumed to be a stove of some sort.

She’d seen expensive stoves in her travels that ran on mana, but hadn’t been able to afford one after she’d returned home with her husband.

She watched intently as Joram worked, then frowned when a sudden stinging scent hit her nose, then sneezed. Kalduin patted her on the shoulder, looking as though he was an old hand at this, earning him an indignant look in return.

Who wouldn’t sneeze smelling something like that? She thought, annoyed with her son until she started hearing a hissing sound that raised her hackles. She looked to the kitchen where she saw the same reaction from Myra, but nothing from Joram.

She frowned, knowing that even a human could hear that, then frowned further as the pitch continued to rise before suddenly cutting off.

Joram looked over at Myra’s scrunched face, her hands over her ears and pointed at the strange pot. “Only that,” he said, then got back to preparing the food as though nothing had happened.

Celys was impressed with her daughter’s perseverance. She’d never been one to be taught how to cook, instead preferring to observe from a distance so that she could claim that she’d coincidentally been doing something else nearby.

She also noted that her daughter’s tails had calmed after being in the kitchen with Joram for a while. Not only that, but she also noticed how they now swayed slightly back and forth, how her ears were angled slightly forward, her posture seemingly relaxed, but eager.

She took another look at Joram and took note of his strong jaw and wide brow, but also how he had a slight widow’s peak. His cheeks were smooth above his short beard, his skin healthy. He was physically fit, amazingly strong even. And he could cook.

What Celys didn’t notice was that her own tails were now slowly swaying to and fro as she watched her daughter.

* * *

Joram felt a slight chill run down his spine as he finished the preparations for the stew he was making.

‘What was that?’ he asked Avi, a bit concerned that he’d missed something.

‘Nothing a healthy young man should worry about,’ Avi replied with a shrug from his chair.

Which, of course, got him worried. He started watching Myra from the corner of his eye, but she didn’t seem too different from their last visit, though oddly helpful in the kitchen.

With the preparations complete, he just needed to wait for the stewing beef to finish in the pressure cooker before adding it to the rest of the stew before letting them simmer together for a while. So, he filled the veggie pot then set it to simmer before turning back to the living room.

Kalduin and Theril both seemed eager to try the new food, while Myra’s mother was staring at him like a cat who’d found a mouse. Her tails were even waving back and forth!

“It will take time,” he said, looking away from Celys. “Let’s wait outside in the fresh air,” he finished, then grabbed his chair before heading to the door and unlocking it.

He opened the door to step out, then grunted as a spear hit him in the chest, causing him to stagger back.

Theril was there in a blink, sliding past where he was on the floor, then slamming the door shut and barring it as fast as he could. The next moment, several impacts sounded, indicating how wise his choice had been.

On the floor, Joram struggled to breath properly. He was certain that the crude spear had pierced his right lung, but he was having too hard a time to concentrate through the pain. He shuddered at the thought of how bad it would have felt if he hadn’t already unlocked [Pain Resistance].

He heard Myra crying out and Celys chanting something, but it was a bit distant, as though through a long tunnel, or in another room.

He reached up to pull the spear out, but couldn’t find it because his hand wasn’t working properly.

Then everything went black.