The girl froze, her eyes going wide. He watched her gulp in an exaggerated heave and then lick her lips. It seems she at least behaved like a regular human when it comes to bloodcraft. He wanted to laugh aloud, but it was important to make her understand the severity of being linked to him even if only for instruction.

“Are you a vampire or something?”

“Or something.” He grinned, ignoring the fact that she compared him, him, to a lowly pest like a vampire and attempting to use the truncated way of her speech. Was this how humans of this era spoke? “Are you getting scared again?”

Mora huffed before relaxing back down. “Nope. If you’re going to be my master, you’re gonna have to keep me alive. It’s probably a rule or something. So. Not scared.”

“You should be.” If only she knew what he was. “And this lord will not hide what he is from you for too long, but that is a discussion for another time.”

“Boo—you tell me you’re not human and then chop that discussion down before it even began. Seriously. You’re all kinds of annoying.”

“Pay attention. The blood bond. This one needed it if this lord were to reach you outside of this prison.”

“How?”

“This one would be able to reach your mind and speak with you for as long as you are in this material plane.” He decided that she deserved a little more since he was going to make the bond regardless. “And it would allow me to observe what you encounter with my spirit’s sense.”

She nodded and giggled. “You should just say that you wanted to see the world outside.”

He ignored the disrespect.

“It would benefit you too. Carrying my blood in your body would let me assist you in times of danger.” Then he narrowed his eyes at her. “But, unless it is a threat to your life, this lord would not make a move. This one would rather rot here than clean up after your recklessness.”

In response to the insult, the girl only nodded with a wry grin and rubbed her nose.

“Do you agree to all three?”

“They’re all fair enough...so, yes, of course.”

He straightened as much as he could with his pant legs still pinned beneath the girls knees adopting a lofty expression.

“Then greet this Master.”

He struggled not to smile when the girl hauled herself to kneel in proper—if strange—obeisance, both legs tucked neatly and hands laid flat atop her knees. It’s more similar to the kowtow of the peoples native to that ancient continent beyond the Oriental Ocean.

“Disciple greets Master. Thanking Master for accepting this little one.”

She spoke in a solemn tone different from her usual irreverence. She was twitching a bit, though she did maintain the tension. The girl was probably unused to such actions and formality.

But instead of taking his right hand to touch to her brow—as the usual ritual of accepting a master—she bowed her head, her upper body stiff and leaning low with the movement. It was almost graceful, though strange and new to his eyes.

Before he could compliment her in her posture, the girl’s head popped back up and she had on such a foolish grin that he could only laugh in response.

He smiled wider as the girl watched closely when he raised hands to show her his palm. With the sharp nail of one finger, he cut his upturned palm until blood welled in a slow surge that formed into liquid beads of red that appeared black in the dark cave interior.

Slade could hear her sharp gasp as the blood beads coalesced into an orb smaller than the light pearl. It was gem-like and almost solid once it settled and looking closely at her reaction, he offered it to her.

“Do you dare, my pupil Mora?”

She winced before reaching for the blood orb. Humans rarely ingested the blood of animals, what more of other humanoids? So her caution was understandable, but then children are naturally brave in their lack of knowledge and experience.

He waited until he could feel its presence spreading through her body after she swallowed it down. The blood dispersed into wisps of his spirit entrenching itself in her blood and marrows.

“The bond is completed.” He nodded, pleased. “Rest a bit more and when the path has become manageable, you need to get to safety.”

He smiled when she nodded in compliance.

Slade reached into his robes and grabbed a bauble that hung upon a chain around his neck. With a mental command, the thin chain broke off and hung on his hand, links quivering as it caressed him in a greeting. Palming the round pendant, he took her hand and placed it there.

“Do you know what an arcane focus is?”

She nodded, though her brows furrowed for a moment as if in confusion.

“Yes, it’s used to direct mana outside a person’s body in a certain manner, allowing the user to form and aim the formula needed to cast spells?”

“You sound unsure.”

“It’s...unclear from what I know. It’s not like I can ask people right? I’m not even allowed to spend too much time with the books from what I remember. They fear I might ruin those expensive things. So...I just sort of worded that from a game I played before.”

Games based on magic theory? Interesting method for teaching.

“A game? Of magic?”

“No. Adventure.” She shook her head and then jolted as if she just realized what she had said. Mora waved her hand around as if embarrassed. “Don’t mind that. It was just storytelling in game form. Don’t mind it, don’t mind it.”

The child was probably used to being reprimanded for playing make-believe at her age. But it had proven useful, so Slade couldn’t say he disapproved.

“Once you return you’ll be able to practice magic properly then? Surely, your family would get tutors for you when you mention that your seal has broken?”

Mora shook her head frantically.

”Impossible, no can do. Until I can truly do magic, it’s better to just go here...” she paused as if contemplating how she’d be able to return to a place she only accidentally entered.

Slade was aware that the forest surrounding the mountain he’d been buried in has expanded over time. Though from what little he could sense, there were people periodically passing through what he could only assume was a thoroughfare.

“...it’s better I return here one way or another, than try to make them listen to me. You should know Sla—Master, that I very rarely speak with my parents outside of the breakfasts and supper meals. And even then, all our conversations were perfunctory and not...whatever.”

She blushed before finally sighing, her words strained by a bitterness that seemed to display a hidden maturity, “They won’t care about helping me find ways to learn.”

Meaning, she would always return to him here in his prison. Not that their blood bond was useless, but it would sooth his monotonous days locked in if the girl visited.

And he’d be able to monitor her physically as she learned the Arcane. He still hadn’t figured out what had caused the backlash when he accidentally broke her seal.

A ten-year old’s power base should have been nothing to his level, no matter the latent potential. If he was right and it was caused by her Attributes, then it would require more observation. And guidance.

He didn’t like the feeling that he had caused unhappy thoughts to surface on his strange pupil’s mind, so he engaged her in conversation. Starting on a few facets of arcane fields, then gauging what specialization she could be suitable for.

He grinned when her excitement returned and she nattered about spells she wanted to try out. He did think that she had some...interesting names for the formulas she wanted to learn. But if it is the game she mentioned that was the source for the formula ideas, it may make some sense.

He asked Mora a few more questions regarding what she knew while his spirit sense—thin enough to pass through the array—trawled about, verifying the state of the paths outside.

“What do you plan to say about your stay here. There would be questions, correct?”

“Nothing,” she shrugged as if she didn’t care. Did she?

“I’ll try to keep them away from looking too deep. For now, I only know I wandered about and found shelter in a tree hollow or something then made my way back. If I act pathetic enough, there shouldn’t be too many weak points to the responses, what do you think?”

Slade found her more agreeable when she’s serious like this. There is a sense that the girl hid herself deeply. But the sincerity and the relaxation of her aura when she’s being silly also meant that it was not an act. What could have made a child so strange?

He caught himself at the thought and shook his head bitterly. Slade himself didn’t have a proper childhood. But then that was expected in the environment of his youth.

There wasn’t much detail about it that he could remember except a few ones he could not let go of, but the suffering was clear and stayed with him over the centuries.

Looking at his newly accepted disciple, responding to her words with sounds of assent, he wondered at how had her life been. Her quiet words from before stirring... pity? He could not say that it wasn’t one of the reason he wished to have portion his spirit come with her outside.

[[Chapter End]]