Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

“Good job,” Ben told his official apprentice, patting Delair’s back while she caught her breath from the work he’d just put her through before the two took in the sight of the newest mini-gate they’d made together.

Most of it had been Ben of course, Delair was nowhere near having the skill in enchanting she’d need to make it possible and plenty of the construction itself still stood beyond her grasp, but anything Ben felt confident she could manage he had her cover, ending with a new portal to take advantage of to shrink the distance between Stonewall and the dryad’s village.

“And with that done, you guys come with me, we’ll need to work on the most important part.”

Politely asking Thera to help us fly it out there.

He didn’t think she’d say no but he also doubted this was going to be something she’d want to be surprised with after what was sure to be a long day of work and worst to worst, he was going to make sure Sachel was there to squarely blame for not giving him any more notice as they first lugged one end of the gate to the oracle’s home before bringing the two with him to see his girlfriend, letting them inside and getting a surprise of his own with what he saw.

Sitting with Thera, quietly playing cards, was by all appearances the ghost of a child. A sight that almost instantly made him pull back in surprise before his calmer minds more deeply appraised the situation.

Despite the appearance, it was only a fraction of a second for him to understand he wasn’t looking at a ghost, or if he was it certainly wasn’t a normal one. Despite its ethereal form, it was far denser than any others he’d seen in the world and the way his soul sight presented it was different as well. He didn’t know what he was looking at.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

A sentiment that was shared by Sachel whose eyes were instantly turned to him with questions he couldn’t answer while Delair’s were filled with pure curiosity, looking like she was about to speak up but losing the chance once Thera noticed them.

“Ben! And both of… Hello? What… No, doesn’t matter. Sachel, Delair, this is Mora, do me a favour and talk with him for a bit while I borrow Ben. Mora, I’ll be back in just a moment, alright sweetheart?”

The ghost-like being gave a small nod and Thera shot up, grabbing Ben by the arm while not-so-subtly shoving the other two into the room before pulling him out of the house, looking in his eyes before speaking again.

“We kind of need to have a private conversation here if you don’t mind,” She told him, tapping her head and getting the point across as he created a mindscape within his own and pulled her into it, with her mental construct falling into his arms while she groaned.

“So, it looks like you’ve had an interesting day,” He said, with dozens of questions filling his thoughts that she answered without any further prompting.

“Vividus finally succeeded in having a kid.”

“Wait, what? So is that-”

“A great soul spirit, yeah.”

Ben had gotten to relive the conversation Thera had overheard all the way back when they’d taken on Anailia’s trial and he understood the significance of what that meant, at least to an extent. Not just a new type of spirit had been born into the world, but a new type of great spirit with all the might such a thing implied. To have something that powerful join the world could only be a boon, all the more so for the type of magic it held.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

While roughly equivalent to the ninth level of a second-tier magic, Ben didn’t actually know if a great spirit’s magic would really be less valuable than a third-tier soul mage’s on a purely technical level. The soul mages were those who had elevated their magics to the realm of godhood but from what little he understood of it, a great spirit’s magic was more akin to the culmination of the skills within an affinity tied into the magic it would wield. Add in just how ridiculously high that affinity was along with a mana pool that could potentially reshape the world itself and the potential that came from the birth of such a being couldn’t be understated.

Elvat and Yuzu would apply their spells to handfuls of promising individuals to try and help them grow beyond their limits but with the sort of power a great spirit wielded, potentially an entire city’s worth of people could have been helped to grow, maybe even more. Whatever there was to be said about Vividus’s personality, the outcome she’d managed was incredible, or at least it should have been. Given Thera’s mood though along with the noticeable absence of the one who’d birthed the spirit, it became clear there was significantly more at play.

“Alright, so the world has a great soul spirit right now. Very cool so why does it have you looking like that?”

He could tell Thera was angry and frustrated and feeling completely out of her depths, leaving her to groan again as she closed her eyes and buried her head in his chest.

“Because my stupid fucking aunt is an absolute monster and I’m pretty sure that now I can’t get to live out my dream of murdering her one day without making things even more complicated than it already would have been would have been doing that.”

“Because…?”

“Because apparently, Mora doesn’t want to use his power and due to a quirk of his birth, he seems to be mentally about ten years old. An incredibly withdrawn ten-year-old at that and since my stupid, bitch aunt was very clear that she views him as a failed experiment right in front of him I can’t exactly say I blame him if that’s what he’s been dealing with the entire time since he’d been born and long story short she decided since I managed to make something of myself to leave him with me.”

She panted for a moment, letting all of that spill out before her hands squeezed him tighter and she spoke in a far quieter voice.

“I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for, I knew Vividus sucked but this is a lot more than I was expecting from her.”

To basically be abandoned so soon after coming into the world, it immediately made Ben’s heart go out to the boy but Thera shook her head.

“I’m sorry because I basically just adopted a child without talking with you, but I couldn't just leave him alone and it sounded like Vividus was just going to toss him out if I didn’t take him, and-”

“Thera,” He cut in. “It’s okay, I wouldn’t expect you to throw any kid out to the streets, let alone your family. If things are hard then we’ll work it out, it’s as simple as that.”

“Ugh, I should have spoken to aunty too seeing as how I live with her.”

“Sonya will be fine with it, if she’s home later we can talk with her then and it's not like there isn’t a spare bedroom now that we’re sharing and we can work through things from there. No more sorrys.”

“Okay, thank you. All of this has just stressed me out a bit… A lot. Thinking about it for the last few hours has been driving me crazy,” She sighed, sounding a lot more calm than before as she pulled away to look him properly in the eyes. “So that was the biggest part of my crazy day, how about you? Why’d you bring those two back tonight? Why’s Delair even in Stonewall?”

“A slightly less long story but I brought them back with me to ask for a favour, with absolutely terrible timing from the looks of it.”

“If it’s something I can do without leaving Mora by himself while taking my mind off the rest then I’d love to. I will take literally any distraction right now.”

“Okay, that works. So long story short, I decided to officially start training Delair but seeing as how the world is ending and all I don’t want her to be so far away from home so to fix that I’m just looking to drop off one end of a mini-gate in her village. All that we need to do is actually get there.”