A New Star Chapter 2

I spent the next three months up until my first birthday playing and training, taking a little time to sneak out of my crib and practice walking around a bit almost every day. As much as Marianne and the maids thought I was 'so cute,' and just 'loved playing around,' I was spending almost every waking moment in training. Whether I was trying to build up my physical body or continuing to gather and cycle mana throughout said body, I was dedicated to not wasting an atto-second of this new life I had been miraculously given.  

By my first birthday this had borne some fruit, as I was larger and stronger than a one-year-old should have any right to be. In my previous life, those that had cycled qi and mental energy while still young had grown to be larger than those who started late in life. If one was from a family where the average size was small one would still be small, but they would be noticeably larger than most in their family that had started on their training at a later age than the youth in question. This was likely going to see me, for lack of a better term, turn into an absolute colossus by the time I reached adulthood. My parents in this life were both tall and, while my father was more gangly with a wiry build, my mother was built like a real warrior with large muscles, broad shoulders, and wide hips. Not that either of them was weak in any department, somewhat ironically, as my mother could summon flames hotter than a star and ice from the depths of the frozen hells in equal measure, earning her, at some point years ago, the moniker "The Northern Witch." My father, on the other hand, for all his wiriness and great skill at all elemental magic, could turn a steel and iron steam locomotive into a heap of just so much scrap in only a few seconds with nothing but his fists. He was often called the "Iron Lord of the North." Their marriage, I later learned, had been a topic of much discussion, and more than a little fear, throughout the Settled Lands, particularly in our capital of Veridium. 

Considering their heights and sizes, as well as impressive strength in all categories, it was likely I would naturally be tall and rather strong to begin with. Combine that with my early and very frequent use of mana and, if my last life was anything at all to go by, I was likely to be something of a chiseled titan by the time I reached full adulthood.  

Sadly, that would have to wait a good few years yet, as I was only one, and placed in a highchair for my glorious celebration of birth. It seemed like this was going to be an all-day affair, as my maids had prepared me for it early in the morning before my parents themselves came to fetch me to a very large sitting room that was rather lavishly furnished. I would have called all the gold and lacquer layered on the dark wood tacky if it hadn't been so artfully arranged. I also noted that not only were the windows rather large and very clear, speaking to quite some skill with glass, the ceiling seemed to be made of some kind of more advanced composite rather than wood or stone. Neither of these necessarily meant that technology was much developed with everything I had already heard about the magic present in this world, but they were both good indication that we weren't in an absolute technological dark age, either.  

I also had my first real chance to observe the entire immediate family, as well as meet all four grandparents and a few aunts and uncles. Nobody outside of my seven siblings and parents lived at our utterly ginormous estate, apart from my mother's parents, and they were more than a bit of an exception, as the talk almost immediately pointed out. My maternal grandfather had always been and still was something of a great roamer, traveling not just the Settled Lands, but often disappearing for weeks at a time into the Untamed Wilds to get up to who knows what. My maternal grandmother wasn't much better, but in an entirely different way, as she politicked with the absolute best of them. She would often travel the Settled Lands for months at a time, keeping the connections polished and even making deals with this or that lady or lord. Everyone seemed to not just hold her in great respect, but even a little fear, and the cunning gleam I occasionally caught in her eye did nothing to dissuade me of either opinion.  

My paternal grandparents, nobles of titles lower than my parents, had their own lands close to the capital, Veridium, of our country, Adonaria, that they lived on as well as oversaw. Various aunts and uncles and cousins swirled around throughout the day, though even at the age of one I was not particularly impressed by any of them. Perhaps not an entirely fair assessment, but nobody left the kind of impression on me our grandparents, parents, or even my siblings did. 

And speaking of my siblings, all seven were now gathered in one place for the first time likely since my birth. We had quite a range of ages, varying from one all the way up to first brother, who was now twenty-one and helping my parents with managing their responsibilities. He was a moderately handsome man of reddish black hair and brown eyes, taking after our father more in his gangly-ness. Behind Thomas, or first brother, was first sister, whose first name was Tiffany. She was tall and rather pretty, with an oval face framed by beautiful, dark red hair. She also took after father's wiry frame, though Tif, as everyone called her, definitely had some curves inherited from mother. She was now nineteen and a fairly recent academy graduate, not having exactly settled into what she would be doing for the time being. 

Next was second brother, James, a slightly shorter man with black hair and black eyes. He wasn't as wiry as the oldest two, but he certainly didn't have mother's wide, heavily muscled physique. At seventeen he was still attending academy, which was like a combination of high school and college that most children attended between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. There were several different academies throughout the Settled Lands, though all my siblings so far had attended the single massive academy in our capital of Veridium, also called by the city name as Veridium Academy.  

Third brother, just a year behind James in age, was named after father's father, Edmond, and was the closest of all four of my brothers to mother's build. He was around my mother's height at six-and-a-half feet and slightly wider and thicker than she was. His hair was similar to Tif's, a dark red that he kept shoulder-length and wore held back in a loose tail by a leather band. His eyes were a crystalline green, inherited strongly from our paternal grandparents, where one had green and one had light blue eyes. 

Second sister, or Christine, was next in age at fourteen. She had just started to attend the academy, and seemed nervous in that gangly way that many teenagers could be, trying to keep herself out of the attention of the rest of the gathering. She was tall and thin, with bright red hair and bright red eyes, making her stand out a little more than most others, likely to her chagrin. She was often called by Chris, even in polite company, who tended much more to stick to full names for formality's sake than what I was used to. 

Fourth brother, or Timothy, was next. He was twelve, just shy of thirteen, which caused a bit of good-natured complaining about my first birthday overshadowing his thirteenth, not that they were that close together. His wouldn't be for nearly a month, plenty of time to forget the big soiree for the...well, big baby. He still hadn't grown fully into his height, though he was looking fairly thin and slightly tall for his age. Perhaps all the boys but Edmond would inherit most strongly from father's height and build; tall and wiry. He had dark black hair and bright blue eyes, quite directly matching our paternal grandfather's ocean-blue eyes to a T.  

This, of course, left third sister, whom I was already rather familiar with, and myself to round out the eight. It seemed that my parents had slowed down their children producing efforts or, at least, had been more careful with their contraceptive use after Tim. Whatever the case, my party acted as an excuse to get everyone gathered up and talking. It was happening on a weekend, allowing the current academy enrollees to return for two days, with a special dispensation, of course. Mostly it was the adults drinking and talking with the children listening in, this including me, though no one was aware I had essentially mastered the language at one year of age. 

I was able to overhear a few interesting tidbits, the only one that truly piqued my interest being talk by maternal grandfather, Aaron, about an expedition being assembled to make a deep push into the Untamed Wilds. This would apparently include one of the near-legendary Z-rankers and a massive cohort of warriors and support personnel from across all five countries. While not happening every day, they were still not unheard of, though one this major hadn't happened for near twenty years. They were more hunts for rare resources and treasures rather than an effort to push back the wilds and claim new land, which was far more a gradual process of claiming little bits and pieces over time. Our family was more deeply involved, in the first mostly from grandfather's involvement, and in the second because our estates, referring to mother and father's territories, were at the northernmost parts of Adonaria. It was our lands that bordered the Untamed Wilds, us that benefited the most from pushing the borders of the Wilds back, and us that suffered worst when a beast wave or some new calamity rushed out of the Wilds to attack us. 

Which led to the discussion of this new large expedition and the family's mostly negative attitude toward it. Grandfather Aaron leaned to the positive, as he was an inveterate wanderer of the Wilds and encouraged more people to dive in, despite all the dangers. The only others who seemed mildly favorable were a few of the middle kids; Thom and Tif would have more work, Marianne and I were too young to care, leaving the middle four to be starry eyed. Of course, that additional work didn't just come from the logistics train of the expedition having to pass through our lands as well as buy up our stocks, but that expeditions like this invariably led to at least a minor beast tide rushing out of the wilds and right into the Margannes' territory. 

Well, it would still be a few years before I could start taking down beasts and the like, so, while it was good to be informed, I filed the information away and listened as the topics drifted into less controversial territory. I didn't really find anything else all that interesting, other than the comments on my good behavior, which I had to greatly resist the urge to roll my eyes at, and an instance where maternal grandmother looked at me for a moment with a particular glint of interest in her gaze. It was there and gone quickly enough that nobody else seemed to notice, but I was well aware and forced myself not to react; I didn't need to give the old bat any more information than she already had. 

Thankfully, my largely uneventful life resumed for the next year. I proceeded to walking more confidently in the presence of others, though that still remained just my maids and youngest sister. My half-elven maid, Zira, and my wholly human maid, Caroline, basically acted as surrogate parents to me, though they seemed rather delighted by my ability to take care of myself by the time my second birthday rolled around. This also led to them being a little bit less present and paying a little less attention to my actions and whereabouts.  

Fortunately, my second birthday was a much smaller affair than my first, and this also helped with exactly what I wanted at this point: to be forgotten. If nobody remembered I was around, other than a few of the staff, I could get into all sorts of places and things that I otherwise might be guarded from. Not that I was up to anything truly dastardly at this point; no, I merely wanted access to the greatest weapon of all: information. 

I made my plan and readied myself a month after my birthday; when the maids came to make sure I was dressed and fed, I would play along until they were assured I was up and ready for the day. Once assured, they would likely leave, as they usually did, and that would be my window.  

It played out exactly as I had predicted, not that that was particularly difficult, given the limited and standardized nature of my daily routine at this point. I waited a few minutes to make sure I was alone and that no one else would be popping in at this point before moving to the door. I was a little tall for my age but still a toddler, meaning doorknobs would be difficult, although not impossible. I reached up and carefully managed to get hold of my bedroom's, easing it down and pulling on the door. I gently eased the door open, willing myself to remain steady and unobtrusive. 

This was perhaps a poor thing to do as I fell to my knees, releasing the partially open door to clutch my chest in agony. It felt as if the qi…sorry, mana, within my body had all ignited at once. I had not felt anything like this in my millennium as a body cultivator in my last life, and I clenched my jaw and tensed my muscles as I willed myself to remain motionless and entirely silent. The pain, fortunately, faded after only a handful of seconds, and with it came a rush of warmth. Warmth and power. It was as I had never felt before, and I remained kneeling, trying to adjust to this concept, to this strength. It was further complicated by a message popping up in my vision. 

First Affinity unlocked. 

Unlocked: The Dark. 

Grade: A 

Compatibility: 125% 

I just stared at the message rather stupidly, my mouth working but, thanks to my iron discipline, no sound emerging. I snapped my jaw closed as I thought, realizing a few key facts. One, I could tell no one about this. Most didn't unlock an affinity until they were eight, my sister Marianne being a slight exception, though she was still four, nearly five, when her first, rather special affinity unlocked. 

Second, I didn't know how I could hide being awakened, so I would have to try to think of something to say about it. This also included keeping my mouth shut about my compatibility. I didn't yet know exactly what a compatibility rating was, but over a hundred percent had to be something spectacular. The less I stood out, the longer I could stay blended into the background, the better off my position would be. After all, the nail that stands out gets hammered down.  

Third, I now really, really needed to get my hands on as much information as I possibly could. I was, at the ripe old age of two, now a player in the game, as it were, and would need to be aware of anything and everything that entailed. I decided to resume my quest for the day, an infiltration of the library, and stood up before moving into the doorway. 

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