An oath to never father a child? Never becoming a lord of anything.
Faust finally had some clue what had the Duke so scared. Fear of what he might do after growing up. Fear that his children would inherit the same strange ability he had, becoming a house so powerful it could not just stand before the Duke but could change the whole power structure of the kingdom.
’He has received some kind of dark future predictions from someone.’
The source was so credible that the Duke didn’t doubt it at all, which would mean it could indeed come to be, or at least had the possibility.
Faust held his head high, facing his father.
Well, truth be told, he was not planning on becoming a lord of anything. And fucked up as he was in the head, bringing innocent lives to this backward world was not on his wishlist either.
"I swear it." He said.
"No.." Augustine called out.
"Henric.." Helena pleaded, "He is a boy of twelve! He doesn’t know what he is doing! You can’t demand this of him."
"Everything has a cost in life, Helena. You wished to protect the boy; this is how you protect him."
Faust ignored the chatter and continued, "I swear before the gods and men I will never become a lord. Never disobey the lords of Cindros as long as the rightful heir of house Dawnfire rules it. And I will never father a child."
A heavy silence filled the hall. A pause in the intense flow of events that let each person evaluate what had just transpired. But it lasted only for a few seconds before Zisel suddenly swayed and was about to fall, but was held protectively in time by the Duke.
"I feel... weird.." She murmured.
The glowing purple tattoo on her forehead lost its color and became black. Helena and Augustine saw it for the first time. Augustine was just confused, but his mother gasped, her eyes wide.
"Mark of Purity..." He heard her whisper.
A while later, they all entered the Duke and his wife’s personal chambers, this time sitting on the comfortable couch and padded chairs instead of standing around. A healer checked Zisel; she was fine and just needed rest. She still had to wake up, but Helena said it was normal after awakening.
She conveniently left out what exactly Zisel had awakened.
But Augustine and Faust were right on her heels for the whole time. The Duke and his wife gave them looks but knew better than to ask they drop the matter. There was a strange tattoo, for heaven’s sake, on their sister’s forehead.
Jonos and Albert were sent away. Koren had some maids place Faust’s packed stuff back in his room. So only the four of them were present in the massive room.
"How could it? You said it would never happen." The Duke said to his wife.
"A branch family has never been able to. This is unheard of."
"What exactly is going on?" Augustine asked.
Helena stared at him, then at Faust, eventually falling back on the medieval padded couch supporting her back.
"Zisel is awakening her bloodline."
Faust blinked twice. Did he hear that correctly? Bloodline ability?
All great and old houses in all of Eldraxis had received a favor of a unique, powerful spirit at some time in history. That’s how most of these houses were even established, actually. Some of these spirits chose a host in the same family tree for centuries, going from father to son and on.
Usually, the spirit’s chosen host eventually became the head of the household regardless of their birth order. But that was for spirits that remained in the family.
Some of the Old and Elder spirits were so powerful that the boons they granted to their host remained long after the host was dead. Passed down through the generations via his or her direct descendants. These were called bloodline abilities. It was a watered-down version of what the real host could do, but it was still a powerful advantage.
The most famous example of this was the current Emperor and the royal family of the Aurelius Baaz Empire. Their bloodline ability, The Apostle, gave them superhuman strength and long life. Most members of the royal family were at least a hundred years old and still in their prime. The Emperor himself was 156 years old as of this year.
Bloodline abilities were not a secret. That wasn’t what surprised Faust and Augustine; it was that House Dawnfire’s ancestral spirit, Dawnfire, granted no bloodline abilities. Dawnfires had a history of having blue hair and produced great Infusers in the past, but no substantial specialty.
Which meant... Faust and Augustine stared at Helena in sync.
"Mother, Didn’t you say you were a descendant of a small noble house from Calystria?" Augustine asked.
"I am," She replied. "House Rosemary. On the border of Calystria, there was a vast flower valley. It was beautiful."
Her gaze grew distant as she recalled the past.
"We had no noteworthy significance to our name other than the uncanny reactions of certain flower plants in our presence. We were a vessel to House Ilmestys. My grandma was a bastard daughter of one of the Ilmestys sons."
"And they had a bloodline ability?" Augustine asked.
Helena nodded. "Only the main family had it. And even among them, only a few managed to awaken it. Mark of Purity, they called it."
Faust tilted his head; he had read that name before. Channelers usually needed to purify the natural essence within their bodies to channel a desired, controlled pure essence. That was the main reason behind their bodies slowly crumbling from within. Though it was a slow process.
But Mark of Purity helped a channeler absorb less diluted essence from the environment, which in turn put less strain on their bodies to purify. The difference was significant, like two to three decades’ worth of extra lifespan.
But the main benefit of having it was the ability to gather more essence safely and much faster; some texts even claimed better control over the essence. That made a huge difference in active combat.
It was a great ability, but Faust didn’t know how to feel about this. As with everything, bloodline abilities also came with limitations.
The person marked with the Mark of Purity can only ever have one partner in life.