YM778.TV Chapter 98: Oathbound
"Does your fatemarks give you empathic abilities?" Wardon asked. After thinking for a moment, he added, "You don\'t have to answer me if it\'s a touchy subject."
"You know, we should make an oath to each other," June said, remembering. "Through coincidences, I already know about some of your secrets, that anyone would be willing to mention to others. Not to mention anything related to fatemarks is highly confidential to exchange." She added, "And no, my empathetic abilities are something of my path; I was born with them.
"Oaths, huh," Warden sighed. "Fine. Let\'s just not make it complicated, like only exchanging and keeping everything between ourselves. Among the few instincts I have, I seem to take oaths very seriously,
"As you should too," June said. "An oath is a weight on the soul. If you can\'t bear it, it will crush your soul. I just want to reassure you with all the confidence shown in me. Of course, on the occasion, you weren\'t aware those needed to be kept as a secret."
"Weird how I came to trust you so easily," Warden mused. "I guess I\'m pretty good at judging character. I guess most of it comes from reading aura."
"You can see the aura in others?" June said hesitantly. "Of course, you can. Why am I even surprised now, with everything you mentioned today?"
"Why is it so unnatural?"
"It is more than you can believe. No low rankers could, and I barely manage with my eye ability," June said. "Even with that, I cannot judge character through their aura. Only their intention and emotions of relative present. Judging someone\'s character is near impossible. You probably just took a gamble on me."
"Maybe, maybe not," Warden replied. "I have not made a mistake once in judging someone\'s character."
For example, Jason acted like an ass in his first meeting, but he could tell he was not a bad fellow. And he could tell his relationship with Aurel went deeper with their aura mingling more than usual people.
June stopped her studying of the fate marks and opened her eyes to stare at him. There was only a dozen or so inches of distance between them. It appears the topic of aura interested her now more than the fate marks.
They talked more about the colours of auras and what each of them could define. Of course, there was no iron-clad rule on the unspecific colours, but something strong, deep and sinister tended to have brighter colours, like red, but that didn\'t necessarily mean it was bad always.
Also, people who are great at controlling their emotions seem to have better control of their aura as well. One could simply hide their auras to play nice. It isn\'t a perfect system, though it helped Wardon recognize good from the rotten in the lower ranks. It helped him a lot in sorting out the students.
"Of all the people I have seen," Warden said, "I believe Elder Vess has the best control. While her new student Gene was like an open book—a good-hearted and genuine person as he presented himself. I hope the Elder did not obliterate that through her teaching."
"What do you see on my aura?" June asked, sounding curious.
"You are weird," Warden said with a smile. "Sometimes I could not figure out anything. Yet, sometimes there is a halo of silver and gold around you that makes you feel dependable, self-independent, and prideful."
"Why do I feel like you\'re just saying nonsense?" June said.
"It is not."
June stared at him for a moment and noted he wasn\'t just blindly praising her. "And if we talk about weird, you are the weirder one. I cannot see much of your aura, even though you act carefree and wear your emotions on your face most of the time."
"It is probably my cloak. It has strong wards in them that protect from all kinds of things, like curses, divinations, mysticism, arcane, magic, and probably aura reading too," Warden explained with a laugh.
"Is it still in effect when you are not wearing it?"
"I guess it is legendary rank for a reason," Warden said, chuckling. "My roommate called the cloak a soul relic. Do you know what that\'s about? Like, is it related because it is bound to my soul?"
As June knew of his condition, she explained it to him, not showing any bit of annoyance. Warden guessed her job as a professor made her resistant to that.
"Soul relics are something left behind when a transcendent ranker dies," June said, giving him a suspicious look. "It\'s naturally in the legendary rank and related to some of dead transcendent ranker\'s power. It is also seen as an inheritance of that fallen ranker\'s power, as whoever gets that sole relic could cultivate that power to reach the transcendent rank.
"At least that\'s what common rankers believe. The truth is that a soul relic makes it more difficult for one to become a transcendent ranker, as the prior transcendent rankers live on in the relic. However, to those that are close to reaching the rank, it is a gift of heaven."
Warden processed all the information into his memories and couldn\'t help but ask, "My cloak\'s description did not have any mention of a soul relic, though."
June shrugged, unable to offer any reply to that. "I have never inspected the description of a soul relic to have a say in this matter."
"Would you like to?" Warden asked.
"I would like to study them at some time," June said. "But I feel the system inspection won\'t give me any information with it being warded as you said."
Warden thought for a second and nodded.
"Also, it is better if you keep the knowledge of it being a soul relic or legendary-grade equipment to yourself. Don\'t even show their unique powers if you can," she said.