THE TRINITY DIVIDE – CHAPTER TWENTY SIX A Slight Of Revelation

—†— CHAPTER TWENTY SIX —⸸—

A Slight of Revelation

Fine, Azazel said, as he walked across the table toward the window. He threw his hand up and a familiar-looking text appeared.

☿ ARCANE-SYSTEM:

Azazel | Level 3 | Fallen | Soulbound

Experience Points: 3,000 out of 4,500 for Level 4
☩ Health: 80 out of 80. — ☿ Stamina: 20 out of 20
⸸ Fury: 19 out of 19. — Current State: Incorporeal
Ascension 0 ——◊ Damnation 75
Alignment: Both Heaven and Hell behold you without veil

BASE ATTRIBUTES:
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 4
Fortitude: 8
Mind: 7
Instinct: 5
Dominance: 7

RACIAL SKILLS:
Bloodlash: Channels Fury through strikes to extend them in crimson arcs that cleave both body and soul. — Fury 3 and Health 1.

Celestial Lance: Wings arc with condensed Fury extending from your form and may be driven through a target with immense force, spearing and cleaving flesh and spirit alike. — Fury 4 and Health 2.

Primordial Form: Project your full celestial form into the physical world, temporarily assuming the scale and presence of your primordial form. Warning: Your life force is bound to your host. Overextending this ability past your Stamina draws from your own Health, and what is taken from your Health is taken from the host as well. — Base cost: 3 Fury per second.

Soul Bound: Those bound within this covenant are granted limited access the Arcane infrastructure alongside their host. The laws and architecture of the System are open to you — its foundations, its mathematics, the weight it assigns to every choice. You may observe, organize, and interpret the System’s interface and help guide the host to their full potential.

Corporeal Anchor: The covenant that binds you to your host does not release you without cost. Distance from your host draws continuously on your Stamina. The further you move the greater the toll. When your Stamina fails the anchor pulls you back. As your host grows stronger so does your reach and your ability to interact with the corporeal. — Base cost: scales with distance and duration.

INVENTORY:

Conjured Blade — A black infernal blade that forms from condensed Fury when manifested. Suited for close combat and shaped to its bearer’s nature. — Spirit DMG +2.

“Your stats mirror mine,” I said.

“Everything mirrors yours,” Az said, looking at me like I was an idiot. “The binding ties us directly to you, at least at the start. As soon as Remiel and I start adding any earned attribute points to our base, our sheets are going to start to diverge from. However, our health and stamina will always be locked with yours. Neither of us has direct access to the Arcane, so no mana. But we should be able to boost our own Fury or Grace.”

“So, if Jay’s health drops,” Sarah said carefully, her eyes still on the sheet.

“Ours drops with it,” Az said. “We’re not passengers, sister. We really are all the same person.”

Remy opened his window without being asked and turned it toward us.

☿ ARCANE-SYSTEM:

Remiel | Level 3 | Celestial | Soulbound

Experience Points: 3,000 out of 4,500 for Level 4
☩ Health: 80 out of 80. — ☿ Stamina: 20 out of 20
† Grace: 21 out of 21. — Current State: Incorporeal
Ascension 75 ◊—— Damnation 0
Alignment: Both Heaven and Hell behold you without veil.

BASE ATTRIBUTES:

Strength: 8
Dexterity: 4
Fortitude: 8
Mind: 7
Instinct: 5
Dominance: 7

RACIAL SKILLS:

Lumen Sight: Reveals hidden truth beyond darkness for a short duration. this ability will allow you to detect the aura of celestial beings. — 3 Grace per second.

Celestial Lance: Wings arc with condensed Grace extending from your form and may be driven through a target with immense force, spearing and cleaving flesh and spirit alike. — Grace 4 and Stamina 2.

Soul Bound: Those bound within the covenant are granted access to the Arcane infrastructure alongside their host. The laws and architecture of the System are open to you — its foundations, its mathematics, the weight it assigns to every choice. You may observe, organize, and interpret the System’s interface and help guide the host to their full potential.

INVENTORY:

Conjured Blade — A celestial blade that forms from condensed Grace when manifested. Suited for close combat and shaped to its bearer’s nature. — Spirit DMG +2.

Sarah studied Remy’s sheet for a long moment without saying anything. I watched her eyes settle on the alignment line before she looked up at him.

“Both Heaven and Hell behold you without a veil,” she said. “Does that mean they can see you?”

“Only if they’re already looking,” Remy said. “And only when we are in our primordial form.”

I looked over Az’s sheet; the two of you really are bound to me.

“It’s worth it, Nephilim,” Remy said in a hushed tone. “Never have I been this close to creation. When my kind lost access to the Arcane after the Sundering, we also lost the ability to ever achieve true Ascension. One has to live in a corporeal state to achieve such a thing. We lost that option at some point, or it was taken away.”

I looked over at Az and was surprised to see him nodding in agreement. “I’m pretty sure it was taken away,” he said. “And with how this continues to unfold, I think I know by whom.”

Remy nodded. Neither of them offered anything further, and I didn’t push.

Sarah watched Az reach for what had to be his sixth sugar cube and put her hand over the bowl. “You’ve had enough of those,” she said. “You’re going to make yourself sick.”

Az sat back with the expression of a scorned child, arms crossed, staring at her hands over the bowl like he was considering his options.

“It’s the anchor,” Remy said, drawing her attention to the ability on his sheet. “Each time Jay levels up, the Corporeal Anchor loosens and we’re able to interact with the physical world a little more.” He paused for a moment, watching as Azazel. “You have to understand what that means for us. We’ve never been able to interact directly with the corporeal like this before.”

Az had been listening with his arms still crossed, pouting about the sugar. His eyes drifted to the salt shaker sitting in the middle of the table. He stood up, walked the length of the table with his small hands clasped behind his back, stopped in front of it, looked back at Sarah, and shoved it over.

It spilled across the table as Az dropped onto his back in the salt and started moving his arms and legs back and forth.

“Is he making a snow angel?” she asked.

“Sure am,” Az said with a toothy grin. “Want to watch me write my name?”

I reached over and flicked him off the edge.

The thud was followed by the now-familiar string of profanity from somewhere below.

A moment later, he reappeared on the table as Sarah had started to clean up the salt. “You guys have no sense of humor. Absorb your rune, Mud, so we can talk about your points.”

I focused on my inventory and the rune materialized before me. It was a palm-sized stone, dark and cracked down the center, the red light blead out through the fracture in a slow, rhythmic pulse. It looks completely different from the Arcane rune. That one had a gold glow and breathed soft and even like it was alive. This one looked like something had been locked away. Something forbidden.

“Go ahead,” Az said, watching it with an expression I couldn’t quite read. “Do it.”

I reached out and closed my hand around it.

The cold hit first, which surprised me. It bit deep and spread from my palm up through my wrist and into my forearm before the heat became almost overwhelming. It and burned and sizzled in my hand. The stone dissolved against my skin. The knowledge arrived the same way it had with the Arcane rune, not in words but in instinct, and a bone-deep understanding.

I felt the Fury inside me shift and pull toward something new, like a current finding a channel that had always been there.

Then it was over.

I opened my hand. The stone was gone. A faint red mark crossed my palm where the crack in the rune had been, and I watched it fade and disappear.

“Well?” Az said.

☿ ARCANE SYSTEM: NEW FURY ABILITY ACQUIRED
You have unlocked a new Fury foundational ability:

Blood Tithe:

What is given may be taken. What is taken may be given. All living things carry vitality in their blood and bone. This current flows, and falters. It can be redirected by those with the will to move it. You may drain vitality from a target within range, drawing their life force into yourself as Health. Alternatively you may surrender your own vitality and transfer it to another within range. The current flows where you direct it, but it does not flow freely. Draining an unwilling target draws resistance proportionally. cost: 2 Fury for every 3 Health gained or transferred.

Remy looked at the five points waiting in the corner of my vision.

“You should put the point into Mind,” he said. “Every point you put into Mind doubles in the Fury formula and raises your Mana at the same time. Five points into Mind take your Fury to twenty-nine and your Mana to sixty. This is going to both improve your Arcane abilities and reinforce your Fury pool.”

I turned that over for a moment. He wasn’t wrong. But I kept coming back to Az and those sugar cubes while I stared at the little salt angel on the table.

“Three into Mind,” I said. “And two into Fortitude.”

Remy and Az both looked at me, surprised.

“Fortitude pushes Stamina and Health at the same time,” I said. “Two points give me four more Stamina and twenty more Health.” I smiled at Sarah. “Twenty more health is nice, but I don’t like the idea of them being tied to me through that anchor. It seems like a fancy name for a leash.”

I look back down to Remy and Az. “When that Spirit asked you if you hated your prison as much as it hated his–

I looked back at my character sheet without hesitation and added the points.

☿ ARCANE-SYSTEM:

Jarek Donati, Level 4 Nephilim
Experience Points: 5000 out of 8,000 for Level 5.
☩ Health: 120 out of 120. — ☿ Stamina: 28 out of 28.
♅ Mana: 50 out of 50. — Current State: Corporeal.
Ascension 54 —◊— Damnation 46.
† Grace: 21 out of 21. — ⸸ Fury: 25 out of 25.

BASE ATTRIBUTES:
Strength: 8.
Dexterity: 4.
Fortitude: 10.
Mind: 7.
Instinct: 8.
Dominance: 7.

RACIAL SKILLS:
– Arcane Cartography
– Arcane Codex
– Arcane Inscription
– Eternal Mend
– Lumen Sight
– Bloodlash
– Blood Tithe