Teaching Elis (2/2)

"First off," Haalfrin starts explaining, "you remember how I said that the Rehkin have special blood?"

Eli nods.

"Good. Now, are you aware of why necromancers like to sacrifice people?"

"Don't they like to have an army of ghosts for servants?" Eli answers. "I also heard that they leech the life force from their victims to keep themselves looking young."

"That's half right," Haalfrin says. "You see, there's a phenomenon that a person with a powerful spirit will affect those they become VERY close with. These immensely spiritual people will make their husbands or wives more healthy, and they'll keep them looking young for longer."

Haalfrin puts his hand on his chest. "I've experienced this for myself. I was married to a magicless woman a while ago, and up until she passed away of old age, she looked like she was a 20-year-old maiden. My spirit was much stronger than hers, and it had a drastic effect on her body. She never got sick in her life after she married me, and she could work hard and think clearly off of very little rest."

Haalfrin then goes on to explain that necromancers essentially kill their victims in the same, brutal manner. Then, these black sorcerers stitch all these spirits together using their shared suffering and hatred. The necromancers then use these Spirit Threads of hatred to bind themselves to a spiritual entity much larger than themselves – thus, keeping themselves young for longer.

When Eli hears the rest of this explanation, she looks visibly sick to her stomach, though she tries not to ask more questions. She doesn't want her teacher to get any more distracted in answering her original question.

Still… she can see why Haalfrin brought the necromancers up.

"So you're saying," she guesses, "that a Rehkin's blood can act as a potion of youth, given that their blood is spiritual?"

Her mind is already conjuring up scenarios of what this truth implies.

Seeing his student looking so thoughtful, Haalfrin asks, "What are you thinking?"

"Well, Sir Haalfrin, I was imagining scenes of the Rehkin being rounded up in droves by slave traders and drained of blood. This would certainly spark a few wars."

"Eh… That's not quite what happened," Haalfrin says. "You see, Rehkin blood is only compatible for other blood relatives. Humans like us would only kill ourselves if we took any random Rehkin's blood and drank it. No, there's a few special loopholes we'd have to take first."

"What kind of loopholes?" she asks.

Haalfrin looks down and goes silent. The truth is quite stomach-churning, and he's suddenly not sure if he wants to be talking about this.

Still, he's a teacher, and he has to remember that this young woman is nearly a century old; she's not a child.

So, he steels his heart and starts explaining in a soft voice, "All it took was one time for the Rehkin to notice. It took only one human to do it."

"To do what?" Even Eli can sense that the next topic is pretty heavy.

"Well… There was a certain human – one of the imperial princes of Brancotte – who adopted an orphaned young Rehkin girl. Brancottes relations with the tribes were pretty close at the time, so nobody found an issue with this."

Haalfrin takes a deep breath. His own master was pretty graphic in describing this next part, but Haalfrin can't bring himself to do the same.

"Well… What basically happened was the prince groomed the girl and started doing prohibited things with her behind closed doors as soon as she started menstruating. As soon as the first child was born, the prince killed the baby and drank its blood."

As soon as Haalfrin says this, he can see Eli's fists visibly shaking.

"Did I say anything I shouldn't have?" Haalfrin suddenly asks with a nervous voice. Perhaps this girl has gone through something similar?

Through some strange ability of her own, Eli seems to know what Haalfrin was thinking. She gives a light smile and says, "No. I've never gone through anything like that. However, just thinking of what that poor girl went through… It makes my blood boil."

Haalfrin nods. 'Master always said that empathetic people have naturally stronger spirits.'

"What happened after that?" Eli asks with renewed interest in his story.

"Well, the prince made a fatal mistake," he says. "Sure, he waited for the poor girl to physically mature, but Rehkin also awaken their bloodlines when they reach puberty as well."

Haalfrin leans back against the tree he was standing next to. "Well, the second the young Rehkin girl realized what had happened to her baby. All the feelings of violation came flooding in at once as fresh memories, and she went mad with rage. The prince had planned on using her for more 'youth elixirs', but he ended up having to kill her when she attacked him in a blood frenzy."

"The moment she attacked the prince, not only her entire tribe. However, because the Rehkin have such strong Spiritual bonds with each other, they all felt her rage and grief as if it were their own. In many ways, they became even more angry than the girl herself."

"Bonds like that can cross worlds quite easily since physical difference means nothing to a Spiritual Bond. The very hour she went crazy, all the humans who'd previously lived peacefully among the clans were brutally tortured to death, and their bodies were hung in the streets for the crows to peck at."

"Things only got worse when the girl died a minute later. Her entire tribe immediately launched an attack and killed millions, and when they invaded through the World Gate, they uprooted every village they came across. They didn't even bother taking any wealth or spoils with them. They just killed everyone they could find."

Haalfrin puts his hand over his mouth and fidgets a little. Even he feels that this is something uncomfortable to talk about. However, he thinks that it's a wise thing to warn his student of the dangers that come with having a powerful spirit.

"That's not all," Haalfrin continues explaining. "When the Rehkin invaded each city in turn, they'd rip children away from their mothers and bleed them to death, while the parents could only watch. They'd take the infants and drown them."

"In every way, these Rehkin didn't invade for any material benefits. Their only reason for invading Brancotte was so that they could inflict as much pain as possible. I could go on all day about their cruelty, but I'm sure you've heard of some of the stories."

Eli looks down in thought. Obviously, this story has disturbed her quite a bit.

"So, Miss Eli," Haalfrin asks, "how does this story answer your original question? Does this explain what having a powerful spirit is like?"

Eli gulps and looks down nervously.

"Well, say something!" he goads her on.

"Well, there's a reason why a sin like that only happened once," Eli says. "The Rehkin are not to be trifled with."

Now it makes sense that slavery of any kind is legal in the empire… except for the buying and selling of Rehkin.

She looks up at Haalfrin, and she senses that he's not going to judge her if she says something unpleasant about Brancotte. So, she speaks up more confidently, "I'm not going to say that the Rehkin were justified in their genocidal atrocities, but when you were telling the story, my blood was boiling so much that… I don't know. The idea of torturing these humans felt satisfying."

"And there lies the danger of having a strong spirit," Haalfrin says sternly. "You can very easily get carried away in other people's problems and lose your rationality. For the Rehkin, being overly emotional like that is a racial trait, but there's no excuse for a human to act based solely on hatred. I'd hate to see a student of mine fall into this trap."

"Remember," he warns, "I'm teaching you to widen your Spirit Thread network to grow stronger, but you have to be the one in control. You have to be the one influencing others. Don't let other's rage consume you. You can end up hurting a lot of unrelated people if you can't control yourself."

Eli nods. "I'll remember this, Master Haalfrin."

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In the end, most of Haalfrin's training techniques involve Eli being pushed to socializing with others and making others love her. When others give their feelings to her, they're essentially donating some of their own Spiritual strength to her.

Of course, Haalfrin himself is a pretty antisocial person, so he's not in a position to teach these traditional Spiritual techniques to anyone. Luckily, Eli already had a strong Spirit due to her natural ability to make friends.

Plus, she's an avid charity worker, so she has a huge plethora of people who support and admire her.

Next, she's taught how to see the Spirit Threads between herself and her friends. After that, she's also taught how to touch these Threads and strengthen their knots.

Of course, strengthening spirit threads is something that Haalfrin himself is unpracticed in, so he feels a little inadequate teaching Eli.

With the Spirit Threads between herself and her friends strengthened, she's able to use her large network of Spirit Threads and their Connected Spirits to support her future Spiritual spells.