Path to Transcendence

"Okay. I want to tell you, but I have to make sure I can trust you." Julius told Declan. "There are some things that will cause things to get ugly if they get out. I want to trust you, but—"

"But you don\'t know me." Declan finished Julius\'s sentence, running a hand through his short hair.

"Yeah."

They both didn\'t say anything for a minute or so until Declan spoke up "If you are worried about trusting me, I might have a solution to that."

"Solution? What kind of solution?" Julius asked Declan.

"At the gate earlier, I noticed that you were able to feel my aura probing right?"

Julius nodded his head in confirmation.

"It might be possible for you to feel my aura to see if I am being truthful," Declan explained. "You wouldn\'t have to be able to use it like me, but being able to sense aura means you have some sort of aura skill already, which is the hardest part of this technique."

"And it will allow me to sense if you\'re being truthful?"

"It would depend on how good you are at sensing aura. But basically, I will open up my aura and allow you to get a more in-depth feel for it."

Julius was sort of able to follow what Declan was trying to get at. Instead of probing Declan\'s aura with his own, Declan would open his up and allow Julius unfettered access, which would let him determine his intentions.

"Okay, we could at least try, right?" Julius responded.

Declan sat both of them down on the wooden planks of the floor, facing each other. Declan gave him a quick walkthrough of what he should be looking for in his aura. It was confusing and Julius didn\'t quite grasp the concepts. Julius told that to Declan but he continued explaining regardless, and once he believed Julius understood enough, he started.

Julius felt Declan\'s aura surround him like a blanket. He could sense how gentle Declan was being with his aura, Julius instinctually understood that if Declan wanted to, he could crush Julius within his aura with little resistance. Julius shook those thoughts away and concentrated on Declan\'s aura, attempting to feel his "intent".

Julius and Declan sat there for close to half an hour, not making any progress. However, something began to click. It was similar to sensing mana and different affinities. There were flavors and textures associated with aura. He couldn\'t determine it yet, but he had a feeling that each person would have different aspects based on their personalities. In Declan\'s case, Julius was able to feel a hardness that surrounded it but also a softness and warmth on the inside just underneath it.

Julius focused on digging deeper. It was made much easier because Declan was purposefully opening his metaphorical doors for Julius to explore. However, as he progressed, Julius began to realize how vulnerable it was to open up one\'s aura to another. It was like getting naked in front of someone but on a spiritual level.

Julius couldn\'t even begin to understand why Declan was going through this much just to help him. Getting him a room, a shower and a change of clothes was already generous enough, but for some reason, Declan felt the need to go beyond that. Now he was literally baring his soul to Julius, just so Julius would be able to trust him.

Why is he doing this? I don\'t understand.

Julius was able to feel the "intent" that Declan was talking about. He could feel Declan\'s emotions and knew why Declan was confident that Julius would be able to trust him after this. At the moment the predominant emotions were empathy, justice, and sorrow interestingly enough. Was this what Declan felt every time he inspected someone with his aura?

Julius opened his eyes to look at Declan now that he had established contact.

"Why are you helping me so much?" Julius asked the question he had thinking about.

He could immediately feel Declan\'s aura tense at the question although his face hadn\'t moved a muscle. Declan didn\'t respond right away but Julius was patient and gave him time to answer. However, he had to know why Declan was doing this for him, it was important.

Finally, he could feel Declan\'s aura relax and a sad feeling of acceptance came through their connection.

"I used to have a son right around your age, Isaac. Looked just like you too. Black hair, dark brown eyes, and similar facial features." Declan paused. "Several years ago, we took a camping trip with my wife and her family, just outside of Heston. It was a trip we had taken many times before and nothing ever went wrong. The location didn\'t have any rifts or monsters around so it was safe for the kids. Then one day, my older son and I went off and did some hunting like usual, but when we were gone, a pack of monsters came out of nowhere and attacked the camp. My wife and her family were all raised as hunters so they were able to handle the monsters, but my son was off exploring on his own. He always enjoyed a good adventure."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Declan eyes were misting up at this point but continued anyway. "I found his body torn apart several miles away from the camp. There was nothing I could do to save him. And when I saw you at the gate and then heard your story, I couldn\'t help but compare you to Isaac."

Julius was lost for words. He didn\'t expect to hear something like that. Losing your child was tough. Julius remembered hearing his gramps cry every night on his mother\'s birthday. Gramps had always told Julius that the worst thing a parent could go through was losing their child before they died themselves.

Julius didn\'t know what to say that might comfort Declan. He wasn\'t good at comforting others in pain. The only thing he could think of was trying to send sympathy and support over their connection, letting Declan know that he understood his pain.

Declan quickly pulled himself together and placed a calm look on his face like the conversation had never happened. "I\'m sorry, I didn\'t mean to go that far. I have been able to move past it little by little over the years. But seeing a child that resembled Isaac walk up to the gate covered in blood after getting separated from your family in the wilderness ripped open some old scars," Declan apologized to Julius.

"No, it\'s my fault I didn\'t mean to bring up any more bad memories, I just wanted to know why a complete stranger was going so far to help me."

Declan gave Julius a tiny grin, "I\'m not going that far out of the way. We do sometimes find children or people in similar positions as you. These rooms were built for situations just like this. You will be able to stay here for as long as you need. I was just worried that someone was targeting your family, that was why I wanted you to feel that you could trust me."

Declan wasn\'t exactly wrong on that front. It was just that it was his family that was targeting him, Lukas, and Edwin. Declan must\'ve felt Julius\'s aura that was still attached to his own because he nodded his head as if Julius had confirmed his suspicions.

"So someone is targeting your family."

Julius nodded, he didn\'t bother hiding it. At this point, he was in too deep, and if he couldn\'t trust Declan then who else could he trust? He would need to take a leap of faith.

He took a deep breath and told him the truth. "My full name is Julius Von Hyperius," he told Declan, and he saw Declan\'s eyes raise in surprise, recognizing the name. Julius then went on to give an abridged version of what happened at the manor and how a teleportation mishap landed him in the middle of the wilderness. However, he didn\'t mention the rift or that he had been transported again, closer to Heston.

Julius knew Declan felt him hiding some details, but he didn\'t press him on it.

"So you want to know what happened to your uncle and Edwin but are afraid that if you went looking for answers, someone would find out it was you."

"Pretty much," Julius said.

Declan nodded at Julius, "I haven\'t heard anything about House Hyperius. But it has only been a few weeks so it will take some time before any news reaches Heston. But I will keep an eye of anything regarding House Hyperius and will reach out to some of my old contacts and see if they might have heard anything. If that\'s alright with you."

"That\'s fine, as long as you believe you can trust them, just be careful. Duke Greyson and Clan Genshen were involved as well." Julius reminded Declan.

"Don\'t worry, they are people who I would trust my family with," Declan reassured him.

After that whole situation, Julius could feel that he and Declan formed a connection. They had shared their intent over aura and told each other personal secrets. They had only known each other for a couple of hours, but it felt like they had already become friends.

It was nice. Julius hadn\'t really made many friends during his time in this world, Lukas and Edwin were basically his only friends. Even in his old world, his gramps was his best friend and only had a handful of close friends.

Declan took Julius back downstairs, but instead of heading to the common room, Declan navigated him toward the kitchens. Many people were bustling around getting food prepared. However, Declan directed Julius by the shoulder and led him to a stool where he sat him down.

Then he called out to a worker, "Hey Rae, could you get this young boy something to eat?"

The lady turned around, "Oh Vice-Captain, I thought you were doing gate duty this morning."

"Yeah, I was but I found this young boy earlier with Orus, he was separated from his parents while they were traveling outside of Heston. Could you get him something to eat, he probably hasn\'t had a real meal in a few weeks." Declan told the woman.

"Of course sir!" She turned to Julius, "Weeks?! Poor thing, you must be starving," The lady had light brown shoulder-length hair and was slightly overweight but had a radiant smile that lit up the room. "Let\'s get you some soup. If you haven\'t eaten in a while, then something light would be best."

Julius watched as the lady went off to get Julius a bowl of soup. He hadn\'t eaten anything in weeks, because [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was able to satiate his appetite with mana. However, a warm bowl of soup sounded divine. Just because he didn\'t need to eat anymore, didn\'t mean he couldn\'t appreciate food anymore.

Food was a huge part of his life, he loved it and one of the things he was looking forward to was trying out the many restaurants around Heston in his spare time. The lady was back immediately, holding a piping hot bowl of soup in one hand and a large glass of water in the other. She set it down in front of him, "If you need anything else darling, just call for me, my name is Rae."

Julius just nodded as he was already grabbing the bowl with both hands and sipping the broth, not even picking up a spoon. She laughed at his actions and went off.

Julius felt like he just died and went to heaven, the broth was delicious. It was savory, herbaceous, and had subtle warmth from the spices. He didn\'t know what kind of broth it was, but he loved it. After he put the bowl down, he finally picked up the spoon next to him. There was a medley of vegetables and some sort of sausage floating on the surface of the soup.

Julius devoured the soup and Declan had to put a hand on his shoulder making him slow down. Still, in mere minutes the soup was gone and Julius had a satisfied smile on his face as he had his first meal in weeks.