Episode 32: A Broken System

The next few days made Arson think differently about his entire situation. With the help of his new information broker, Seneschal, Arson’s actions carried more weight.

The normal lack of information, or the misinformation given by local media, no longer had a deep impact on his business choices.

He hadn’t gained any real concrete information about his siblings, as the members of his family were untouchable as stated in Seneschal’s contract. The man wasn’t allowed to trade in any information he’d gained before the beginning of their own contract, which Arson didn’t mind.

He’d learned so much about his family that he felt the weight of the crown that floated above his head that much more. His mother was suggested to be the next in line for the mantle of Mother Nature, and his father, was potentially the next Father Time. These two mantles weren’t, given, they were ascended into, another reason why he feared the crown.

The thought that his mother could be his mother, didn’t take him long to believe after Seneschal explained what occurred just before and after his birth from his own perspective.

Jade was his father’s only rival. The two were separated from time itself in a realm of chaos for decades and forced to fight an endless battle.

A battle that both eventually gave up on. His mother had lost her only love just before being ripped from time, and his father believed they would never escape the realm they’d been pulled into.

None were surprised that the two managed to escape in the end. What surprised them was the pregnant Jade who stayed pregnant for a few centuries.

Apparently once they returned to the realm, Jade excused his father from their relationship, under the assumption that he’d only loved her for the period of their separation from society. While the king missed Jade more and more with every day that passed.

Arson understood why the two didn’t push for a relationship after Seneschal explained Cultivators, and their families. Nor did he think he minded his parents not being together. What he minded was why everyone thought he’d done some magical feat by finding Jade.

He began to think the action was predetermined long before he’d made it. For years he’d bothered Almarine about jobs, and where he could go, and she’d shut down practically every suggestion he’d had. Until he’d started his core and asked about the dump, nearly as a joke, and Almarine had been okay with it.

In the moment he hadn’t realized how strange her acceptance of his choice had been. Now under further study, everything about that encounter had been strange. Only he’d been too distressed about no longer being able to attend the public college for potential Cultivators.

He’d thought his adoption had been a result of his actions, but now felt he played in the dirt as his mother had plotted on his return.

Time was nothing to the woman. She’d chosen permanence over the battle lands of the gods, and so had his father.

He’d thought he’d been given away because of laws that mandated that families couldn’t exceed 6 children, but truly it had been another exception entirely.

Immortals weren’t allowed to raise their own children. The friendship of immortals was already frowned upon, as the imbalance of power that led to their offspring often ended worlds.

Arson believed his mother, father, or someone else had a hand in his return to her. As the odds were highly unlikely otherwise.

Arson had big plans at the orphanage, but had only ever dreamed in the perspective of things that were good for the orphanage.

Did you push me home, Almarine, but why, wouldn’t you have the most to lose?

He talked big, but he knew himself. He didn’t plan on becoming a prized fighter back then, nor did he now. He probably would have stayed in school until it only made sense to pay him as much as it would take to comfortably pay off whatever grad school he attended. All in order to give back to the orphanage.

What was it about me that made you do it?

Arson didn’t believe for a second that Almarine would have given up the chance on being tied to Arson, as she loved the orphanage, and so did he. She tied herself to all the children that aspired to live for more than themselves, but something about Arson pushed her to send him back to his own mother.

The system demanded that Arson be cast away at birth, and only allowed to experience the life of his birth family, if his path crossed back into their own folds by chance or external force.

Arson looked at himself in the mirror and tilted his head as his eyes caught his crown above his head. He smiled, then frowned. Both because he realized he now rather enjoyed his crown, but also that Almarine’s reason was obvious.

The weight of raising children was already grand, but the weight of raising a potential ruler, was far from simple. Arson would understand not wanting to be tied to tasks so lofty, as he himself felt far from what he thought a ruler to be.

Especially after learning about some of his parents’ feats at his age. Both had been taken to a dead realm known as Earth to train. One in a Chinese prison, and the other as a corporate spy in Japan. Arson had no idea what some of the aspects of the story involved, but regardless the intensity of both claims was overwhelming.

His father had no abilities in a land where internal power was only just being realized, only to be imprisoned in a place where all the strongest of Cultivators had been imprisoned. The art of Cultivation still illegal at that time.

His mother escaped to Japan at the same age after she’d committed her first act of public terrorism, and blown up something called the Birge Khalifa, a small building the planet called a wonder for some reason.

Lots of what his mother had done was either too masked in mystery for Seneschal to truly know the details about, or literally realm secrets that no one alive knew. Or would ever dare to speak about.

“With how powerful you are, Mom, I bet he knows a lot more and is… just too scared to tell me,” said Arson with a sigh as he left the bathroom and entered the kitchen to begin his first cooking lesson with his mother.

“Welcome,” said Jade as Arson entered. He smiled and bowed slightly to her before he quickly got in line for the lesson with the new recruits for The Crew.

The lesson went smoothly. They took time to learn kitchen safety, and spent a large amount of time on cleanliness and operating procedures while in the kitchen.

Arson enjoyed the time spent on knife skills and learned how to dice various fruits and vegetables over the majority of his first lesson. The samples were his favorite part, and he ignored the looks the new recruits gave him as he quickly picked up the skills involved.

Apparently both of his parents were chefs, a fact he learned by talking with his mother as he chopped away, barely giving the food in front of him his full attention.

He’d given one section of his three-part mind to cooking, another to his conversation, and the final to his plans later that day.

So when he asked about his father’s skills in the kitchen. It was easy to assume the fact that both his parents had cooked together after she stated how surprised she was by his abilities, it was actually him who started her on her path in the culinary arts.

“Wow,” said the members of the class as Arson nodded dropped jawed at the statement. In his mind, there was no better chef in the world than his mother, and he even stated as much.

“I never said that I hadn’t surpassed him, I only gave him the credit he was owed originally,” said his mother with a blush.

After a while things went silent and the class practiced individually on what they’d learned, and Arson bothered his mother to continue his lesson as they talked.

“What’s on your mind, kiddo? You were in the middle of a sentence you know?” Arson shook his head slightly, before he looked at Jade and smiled.

“Sorry, trying to push myself, but I am truly stuck at three folds for now, tried to add a fourth to start developing a side project, it will have to wait,” said Arson. His mother returned his smile.

“Good, keep it up, it will come, maybe we can shift the focus of our conversation in the direction of this side project temporarily and come back to the lesson,” asked Jade. Arson nodded in excitement and quickly jumped into what he wanted to work on.

“Ok, so for now I can’t truly use magic until I complete my core, yes, but the degree of my skill control seems far more adaptive than normal, so I am going to start far smaller and create something that I think will be far more useful than just a huge and violent attack, I can’t help but think I could have done something to fare better against the Wretches and the Purities,” said Arson.

“Arson, I occasionally train with the Purities, it is only seen as a tempering area by those with a death wish or who have an immense affinity for magic, and seeing how three different elements chose to poison you at once without your consent, shows a lot.” Arson scrunched up his face in confusion and his mother continued.

“Up until you chose gravity, you had perfectly aligned the elements in a way that perfectly synchronized with your genes, and being. Instead of allowing you to intake the wrong energies in the wrong order, which is necessary for a strong soul refinement, they forced the best fit on your body, they only do those types of things for a rare few. Trust me.”

“What exactly is soul refinement?”

“The simplest way of putting this, is turning your soul’s regular flow, into an immortal structure or engine of sorts.” Arson nodded and was even more excited by the concept. Then wondered if the Purities intended on beating the lessons into him, and shivered slightly.

“Don’t worry, son, I don’t plan on letting you train in that area for a while, I think you need some external training first anyway. As for this skill you are developing, is there any way I can help you?” Arson thought for a moment then nodded.

“Yes,” said Arson as he put down the knife he held and extended his open palm face down above the utensil.

“I want to make my own summon of sorts,” said Arson as a small orb of conductive water begun to form in the air above the knife.

“Something that can help me complete tasks and be useful in combat,” stated Arson while the orb’s shape transformed. The energy orb began to grow child like fingers and its main structure or body thinned until the orb looked like an exact replica of Arson’s own hand.

The hand floated down to the knife, and picked it up. Arson strained to focus, and speak, while the knife held by the energy construct begun to cut fruit once more.

“For the most part, I’ve gotten the creation of the hand down, the only problem I am having now, is giving the construct a life of its own, as far as I can tell, all I’ve gotten close to doing is imbuing the action I want completed, or thoughts of basic activities I hold in my mind during its creation,” said Arson. He dropped his own hand back to the table as he began to sweat from mental exertion.

“To be honest, son, this is rather impressive already, especially at your age,” responded his mother. Arson looked up to Jade, and wasn’t able to stay disgruntled over his assumed shortcomings while his mom smiled down at him.

“Thanks Mom, but I don’t know why this is so hard, the other skill I’d been creating was ten times bigger than this one in scale, but came far more easily to me and I wasn’t even near to completing it as I am this new one,” said Arson with a point at the hand. It still cut fruit and had run out of produce to dismantle, but remained in motion as if it merely needed more to do.

“So what is your full intention for this new skill,” asked Jade. Arson frowned for a moment, only to truly think about what he was being asked. As he thought he’d already answered a question along the same lines as this one. Only to realize his mother meant in a deeper sense than what he wanted the construct to do, but how he intended to make the skill functional.

“I guess I am trying to figure out how to give life to an item or maybe connect the construct to myself and make it so the action or actions I need the hand, or hands to do, to be as changeable and fluid as my own thoughts,” said Arson with a frown that turned into a smile.

“Hmmm, by that smile I believe that you may have thought of something,” asked Jade.

“Yeah, two things actually, I’m beginning to wonder if I can use creation manna as a base for a runic system similar to the recyclers, but I don’t know enough about runes, arrays, and formations to achieve it alone,” said Arson with a sigh.

“You have plenty of people willing to help you, my son, that shouldn’t be a problem.” Arson shook his head at his mother before he spoke up once more.

“I want to do this alone, this is my thing. Troy can fight, Jasmine is fashionable, Xani can build anything, Khalif is sneaky and Rob might need to become an alchemist with how impressive his cooking skill has become, I want to be able to bring something to the table besides being lucky and seen as wealthy,” said Arson.

“Well, regardless of how you feel, I am proud of the things you have achieved in our short time together, I honestly didn’t know what my life was missing until you filled my home with all these youthful minds and presences, I believe you are seen as far more than wealthy and lucky already, but I know what it is to not see one’s self, but don’t frown,” said Jade as she put a hand on Arson’s shoulder and the two made eye contact.

“I believe in you, and so do your friends, as for your skill, I think you are on the right track. Your father and even my own father were grand builders, architects, gadgeteers and more, I wish I had more to offer but have truly never crafted anything beyond portals and dimensional pockets, but I do have one suggestion,” said Jade with a pause that built suspense. So much in fact that the room went silent at her words.

“Don’t overcomplicate things, analyze, think, move, that is all there is to it.” Arson smiled wide and even created a mantra built from his mother’s words mentally that would forever change his life. He hugged his mother quickly and was going to run out of the room embarrassed, but his mother stopped him and spoke once more before he had a chance to make it out the door.

“Hey, Arson?” He turned back around and smiled once more at his mother.

“I’ve been thinking, and you wouldn’t want a bedroom by chance, would you?”