Nend Ardhon Chronicles - Complete

Chapter 20 – Byia’s Skill List

While Byia and Guyi were with Lodon, Mayor Taldeb Fagoyuth was punching the table at his office. His assistant jolted and the Mayor looked at him with angry eyes:

- “What do you mean, you can’t stop that stupid reporter from appearing on tonight’s National News? What about our supporters in the Capital?”

- “Mayor Taldeb… Miss Triri Ventbend is a well-known reporter at the Capital, even in the entire World, because she appears on the National News every day at dinner time! You… well… I don’t want to sound disrespectful, but you are just a City Mayor from a normal City, equal to many others in this World! Despite the fact you are aiming to become a Region Representant, you are still a City Mayor! Your supporters at the Capital can’t prevent the National News Channel from making their work unless they want to be arrested for political interference with a News Channel!”

Mayor Talbed frowned and squeezed both of the armchairs. He then looked at his assistant with a weird smile:

- “If I can’t stop the reporter, I will make sure to get rid of that annoying Calla family. I am tired of seeing my family compared to them, and now even my niece was hurt by their youngest member. I doubt the news tonight damage my reputation, but I don’t want to take any risk. Call that guy, I want him to find out everything about that family, there must be something I can use to taint their reputation and to make the people realize that I am the only one capable of getting rid of them!”

The assistant turned pale and stuttered:

- “You… mean… him? Is that wise? He doesn’t know how to be inconspicuous, if not under a short leash he might even… kill them…”

- “Yes, but if that happens, their deaths can never be traced back to me! Get to it, and mouth shut, or your life and your family, will come to an end. Understood?”

The assistant nodded and quickly exited the office, going to his desk to make a call. The Mayor seated on is chair and crossed his paws over the desk. He stared at his claws and mumbled:

- “No way I will let this blunder to make me lose my position as the Mayor. I owe money to that group for helping me out with my campaign, and if I stop being a Mayor, they will stop gaining advantages and contracts, and they will seek revenge. Byia, Paullu and Teera Calla must disappear once and for all, and with that, the Calla bloodline will be forgotten. My name will be remembered forever, not theirs…”

At dinner time in Byia’s house, she told her mother what happened at school in the morning, inside the Principal’s office. Teera frowned and waited for Paullu to turn the back wall into a screen and to press the buttons in the console near it so that they could watch the National News. Teera kept on frowning while looking at the start image of the News program. The smiling face of Triri Ventbend appeared and announced:

- “Today, I came to you at home, with a very interesting story. The story of an innocent First-Tide little female wrongly accused in her school, for attacking her bully. The innocent was no other than Byia Calla, the direct descendant of Senpyia Calla, the Healer. I am sure every one of you knows the famous Calla bloodline, from where came many Water-Dragons that forever changed our World over the Tides. The Calla family is thought to be one of the first bloodlines, that granted us many amazing females and Byia Calla is their youngest member. Probably that was the reason that made her a target of a bully, that I found out was no other than the nice of Mayor Taldeb Fagoyuth from the City of Koboll, where Byia Calla lives with her family. I tried many times over these past Big Moons to interview her older brother, Paullu Calla, concerning the disappearance of their father, the famous Explorer and Cartographer, Sergge Calla. He always refused, but this morning I got a call from him and I thought he was going to accept my invitation. This was what happened when he said to me to record the call.”

Then, the events at the Principal’s office were shown, without any cuts or editing, making every watcher realize it was all true and nothing was tampered with. Teera Calla watched all that in silence, and when Triri Ventbend appeared again to interview a few members of the same political party of Mayor Taldeb, Teera was lost in deep thought and failed to realize that every single one of them, including Mayors of other Cities, condemned Mayor Taldeb actions, and they even demanded that he stepped down from his office because he tainted that prestiged position.

Byia was listening to the many interviews and comments and she then felt a hug that smashed her head against Paullu’s chest. Byia heard her mother speaking with a trembling voice:

- “You did well, Paullu, very well. Your father would be so proud. And you Byia, my sweet little daughter, I am so sorry… If your father were here, he would have gone to that school of yours and he would have smashed it completely. Why you didn’t call for me, instead of Paullu? I would help!”

Byia moved her head a little to be able to speak:

- “I didn’t want to worry you, mother. Besides, Paullu said that if I needed, I could call for him and he would come as fast as he could. Well, when I called, he complained, saying that his class was about to start, but he came. He was amazing, mother! No one was expecting that trap, everyone thought he was going to call you, but instead, he called that reporter!”

- “Yes, that was indeed well played. What about your class, Paullu? Did you got in trouble for leaving in the middle of it?”

Paullu shrugged and gently got rid of his mother’s hug.

- “Almost. My Teacher wanted to punish me, but all my classmates were against it. Especially the females! They even dared to threaten him of hurting him every day, or at least, to make it impossible for him to teach at our School. The males were even more vicious. They asked if they had to tell their fathers that a Teacher punished a student from helping his younger sister, making him unable to find another job elsewhere. I didn’t know, but many of my classmates have younger sisters or brothers and they totally understood why I left the School in such a hurry.”

- “I bet your classmates and your Teacher will be even more on your side tomorrow if they saw this news.”

Paullu shrugged while speaking, making her mother hug him again.

- “I told them what happened, so I suppose they watched tonight… too much… strength…”

…

After dinner, in her room, Byia was looking at her family heirloom and checking the Skills of her ancestors. She frowned and took a notebook from one drawer and a pencil.

- “This is not working… I need a list and to set a path. There are way too many Skills in my family! Most are very weird, and the way to unlock some of them is surprising, to say the least! Meditation Level 3 to unlock Camouflage? That’s the stupidest thing! Wait a minute… the explanation is here… ‘Meditation allows one to be in sync with the surrounding environment, so Camouflage is the logical evolution of it’. Not very logical, but it also says that by practising Meditation, the level increases over time. I suppose this is also true for other Skills. I must choose very well the Skills that I need as an Explorer and the ones that will help me to achieve that rank fastest. First, I need to make a list of the ones I have, to check which ones I can evolve. So, without any more delays, ‘liosta sgilean’. Let’s see if I have time to write down everything.”

Byia’s left hand started to glow, and above it, runes appeared that she quickly wrote on the notebook. When the last rune disappeared, Byia read her notes and compared them with the book with the Skills of her ancestors:

- “So, I unlocked recently the ‘Embarrassment Control’, which evolves at Level 3 to ‘Calm Heart’ and then to ‘Infinite Courage’. Now, this is useful… Next one, I evolved ‘Acrobatics’, it turned into ‘Sharp Reflexes’, and now I have ‘Gymnastics’ on Level 2… no more evolutions after this. I also have “Disarm-Traps’ that is an evolution of the ‘Detect-Traps’ and next is… ‘Set-Traps’. Self-explanatory, no need to memorize the effect. Oh, I see… ‘Unarmed Combat’ evolved into ‘Grappling’ and now I have ‘Brawling’, also on Level 2. This is taking too much time, I need to do a different list.”

Byia looked again at her notes with the Skills she had:

- “Ok, I have Embarrassment Control, Gymnastics, Disarm-Traps, Brawling, Healing, Interrogation, Language, Throw Voice, Meditation, Animal Training, Tame, Knowledge, Create Screen, Hypnotism, Intimidation, Spell Craft, High-Speed Swimming, and Tracking. Let me check the book again…”

Byia frowned at the book and looked at her list of Skills again. She mumbled, a little annoyed while making a list with her objectives:

- “This is so weird… ‘Embarrassment Control’ can become ‘Infinite Courage’. Next is… ‘Disarm-Traps’ evolves to ‘Set-Traps’… Even weirder this one. Then, the one I have, ‘Meditation’, evolves to ‘Camouflage’, ‘Allows to blend in with the environment’, that turns into ‘Concealment’, ‘The ability to disappear completely by changing appearance to mimic the environment’. This is very, very interesting! So, what’s next… Cool, I already have ‘Tame’ and ‘Animal Training’, which means I have all the Skills needed by a ‘Rodhocetus Trainer’. What else… I have ‘Language’, ‘The ability to read and write other languages’ that evolves to ‘Ancient Language’? There are Ancient Languages in Nend Ardhon? Does this mean I must practice the Surface-Dragons language and the Nayga language, to unlock this Skill? For what purpose? Why Senpyia Calla, the Healer, unlocked this Skill? Why all of my ancestors in this book have that Skill? Too many questions…”

She stared at her list again and widen her eyes:

- “No way… I have ‘Create Screen’ at Level 2, and it evolves to ‘Hologram’, ‘The ability to create images in 3D without the need for a screen’. It means I can use this in case I am in trouble to create a distraction, maybe one fake Byia or a fake Rodhocetus? If I evolve this Skill to ‘Clone’, ‘The ability to create beings able to mimic other beings, including the way of speak, move and fight’ does this means I can create more like me, a perfect image able to fight and help me? I wonder if I can use a clone to go to Scholl in my place… Or to the Guild during the day, to do some Quests!”

Byia closed the book and placed it in its hiding place, together with her lists, right behind her egg. She then seated on the bed and closed her eyes.

- “Now I can’t practice the Language Skill, but Meditation will be way more useful. Camouflage, to use plants and rocks to hide my presence. Evolve that to Concealment, that Igarka Calla, the Dreadful used to hide her presence when she invaded the Nayga home planet and killed the Royal Family to end the war. Maybe it turns me invisible…”

Byia took a few deep breaths and cleared her mind of all thoughts. She concentrated on her breathing, on the temperature of the water on her skin and the flow of the currents. Little by little, she immersed in the sensations around her, instead of her heartbeat and breathing. She didn’t even move when she felt her mother entering to give her a goodnight kiss or the door being closed again, upon Teera’s exit. Byia remained in deep meditation for two more hours, until a new warm sensation formed in her paws. She slowly opened her eyes and stared at the runes that were appearing and made a slight smile:

- “Cool… I reached Level 3 in Meditation and unlocked Camouflage. It seems all the Meditation I have been doing at the end of each training session with my brother, made me level up so fast. What time is it… Oops, I am going to be late!”