Path to Transcendence

Chapter 283: Finding the Others

“I see you found him,” Lily said blankly to Marcus.

“Yes, my mission was successful, my lady.”

“We are going to have words later, Marcus,” she promised to the man.

When she finally turned to look at Julius, a smile bloomed on her face. He was glad to see Lily come running over to where Aubrey and he were sitting on the grass.

“I’m sorry, but it was all Marcus’s plan,” he said before she could blame him along with Marcus.

“It’s okay,” she said softly before crouching down and wrapping her arms around him tightly.

There was a probe from Lily’s aura directed at him, and he let down some of his own defenses to allow the girl to connect with his emotions. Once they connected, he sensed that she was similarly offering him access to her emotions.

He closed his eyes and released a sigh of relaxation as he felt Lily open her aura to him. The happiness and relief emanating from her were heartwarming, so he embraced that feeling without hesitation.

As he enjoyed that feeling, he felt someone poke him in the side. He opened his eyes to see Aubrey staring at the two of them with puffed-up cheeks. Lily, being Lily, already knew exactly what the girl was asking and created another connection that let Aubrey in as well.

There was no reason to say anything to each other. Their connection expressed their feelings better than they could express them verbally.

It was only after several minutes of sharing their emotions and aura that they finally released one another.

Lily then turned to face him with a stern face.

“Even if it was Marcus’s plan, you still could have contacted me,” she said while wagging a finger at him.

“I thought it would be a nice thing too,” he said to her.

“That’s the only reason why, huh?” She asked with a knowing look.

He looked away guiltily and shook his head. “To be fair, you did send Marcus after me after I specifically expressed my request that you didn’t do that.”

“You really think I wasn’t going to send someone after you? That sounds like you don’t me at all.”

“Good point.”

She was about to say something else but held herself back. “The only thing that matters is that you are okay,” she said with another smile.

“Now tell me everything,” she said with a much more serious look.

***

He ended up telling Lily and Aubrey a pretty quick summary of what happened, from how the whole teleportation fiasco occurred to where they ended up inside the labyrinth-type rift, and then how they got to Blumand and in contact with House Easten.

He did keep a few details secret, but it was pretty obvious he was, and they both knew it.

“Come on, just tell us,” Aubrey said to him.

“Some stuff, I just can’t tell you guys because it is not my stuff to share. Also, I don’t want to have to explain everything again to the other guys.”

Speaking of the other guys, they were all testing some things at the training facilities after they all had dinner. Kyle had created something and wanted Edgar to try it out with Derek.

“Well, then what are we waiting for? Let’s go see them now,” Aubrey said while tugging on Julius’s arm.

He allowed himself to get pulled away, but Lily stopped her.

“Hold up, Aubrey. We still have company,” she said, looking at where Marcus, Stella, and Reinera were all standing awkwardly.

“Oh yeah. Hey there Grace, it’s good to see you are safe as well,” Aubrey said with a heavy emphasis on her name. Which led him and probably everything else to believe that Aubrey knew exactly who Grace was.

At this point, he didn’t think anyone in his friend group didn’t know.

Reinera gave a shy wave back to Aubrey. “Yes, it is all thanks to Julius. I might have died if not for him getting dragged away with me. I owe him a lot.”

That seemed to make Aubrey happy, as she noticeably brightened up and nodded at the girl before bumping Julius on the shoulder.

He gave her a little harder bump in return knowing exactly what she was implying. Aubrey simply grinned at him knowingly before turning to look at Stella.

“Who the hell is this though?”

Lily was the one to answer her. “Don’t be so rude, Aubrey. This is Stella, she works for Derek’s family and is a part of House Quincy, which makes Kyle her family. She also is the other person who helped find little Mr. Troublemaker here. You should be thanking her instead of being so crass.”

“Little?” Julius muttered with a frown. “I’m taller than you though.”

She barely gave him a second glance, but he felt a soft jab in his head due to her psychic abilities.

He saw Marcus notice this and the one-armed man tried and failed to stifle a smile.

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“Oh, my bad. Then, in that case, you have my deepest thanks, Stella,” Aubrey said much more politely. “This dum-dum over here always seems to be getting in a lot of trouble and who knows what kind of mess he would get into if you hadn’t found him in time.”

To her credit, Stella didn’t take offense to the initial gruff attitude and had a wide smile on her face. “It’s no problem at all. I was just doing my job,” she said as she brushed the gratitude away.

“But it’s funny that you mention it. When Marcus and I came across Julius here, we found him.” She paused midway through his sentence because Julius had sent a powerful pulse of ruinous aura at the woman.

He didn’t concern himself with the fact that it would have likely hurt anyone not Tier 4 or above, he was much more concerned about the woman leaking his secrets.

One thing he definitely wanted to hide was that he had been fighting a Tier 5. He didnʼt need to give the other even more ammunition to use against him.

Thus, he used his newly improved aura powers to great use and halted the woman in her tracks before she could cause irreparable damage.

The actual aura itself didn’t do much of anything. Stella was much too powerful for that to happen, but it did surprise her just enough that she realized that he didn’t want her to share it with them.

Thankfully, she seemed to understand his position and didn’t continue to rat him out. He promised to remember this and pay back this favor in the future.

However, this usage of aura didn’t go past Lily without her notice.

She whipped her head around and looked at Julius.

“What was that?” She asked with a narrowing of her eyes.

“What was what?” He asked in mock ignorance.

“Your aura. What was she about to say that you didn’t want her to tell us?”

He looked completely sincere at her and shook his head. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Of course, she didn’t believe a single word and turned to look at Stella. “What were you about to say?”

Stella suddenly looked away and stared at the library behind Lily. “I wasn’t about to say anything.”

Julius wanted to slap his own forehead. That was the least convincing lie he had ever heard.

“Oh, okay,” Lily said, turning to look at Marcus. Tell me what she was about to say,” she demanded.

“I don’t know what you mean, my lady,” the man also played ignorant.

“You have made an oath of loyalty for House Violet, correct?”

Marcus nodded. “That is correct,” he said, defeatedly.

“Then I command you to tell me what you are hiding,” she said with a smirk.

“Hey! That’s not fair!” Julius argued from the side.

“I agree with Julius on this, my lady. My oath does not require me to tell you everyone’s secrets. I promised Julius that I wouldn’t talk about everything. If you would like to know, then I suggest you ask the boy yourself,” Marcus surprisingly stood firm in the face of Lily.

Lily huffed. “Don’t worry, I will be doing that,” she said to Marcus, dropping the issue without much fuss.

Julius wiped the sweat that had been forming on his brow. He would make sure to repay Marcus as well.

***

While Lily, Aubrey, and he went over to the training facilities, the others didn’t come along. Marcus and Stella offered to take Reinera to Amelia, who still didn’t know of Reinera’s return.

He didn’t want to see what would happen when the guard woman finally found out. After all, he had his own issues to take care of.

While they were walking toward the training area, both girls didn’t stop talking or touching him. It was almost like they couldn’t believe he was actually there.

“So what’s up with your aura now?” Lily questioned him. “It feels very different from before. Almost as if it underwent some significant changes.”

“Yeah, that is a little more difficult to explain, but if I do, it will probably be better if I wait until the rest of them are here as well.”

“You do realize that you will be asked many questions by both the school and possibly the Royal Family, right?”

“Yeah, that is something I am not looking forward to. I have a feeling that the school had already been contacted when I entered. Someone is likely going to come and find me pretty soon,” he said with a sigh.

“I would be more worried about the Royal Family,” Aubrey said with a shake of her head. “They are always so pushy and arrogant.”

“Speaking of that, when did you find out Grace was… you know?”

“Oh, I have known for a while. But the others put it together once the two of you disappeared and we never saw her again,” Lily said to him.

“Oh yeah, I havenʼt really had the time to ask, but how have you guys been?” He asked with a bright smile. There was so much attention on him and what he had been doing that he failed to ask anything about how they had been handling his absence or what they had been doing in the meantime.

“Well, after we got your letter, a lot of stress went away because at least we knew you were alive. But other than that, it has been quite busy for all of us. Derek, Edgar, and Aubrey have been really focused on the upcoming tournament. Aubrey in particular has made some very impressive leaps in these past several months. We believe that she will definitely be at the top and has a really good chance of qualifying for the inter-school tournament,” Lily explained.

“What about you and Kyle then?”

“Kyle has been focusing a lot on enchanting and item creation, which is what they are experimenting with right now. I have been putting a lot of my focus on stuff outside of school. There have been a lot of recent developments that need my attention,” she said in a tired tone.

“What about your own abilities?” He asked curiously.

She shook her head. “I still try to dedicate a certain amount of time, but honestly, it has been hard. Much of my focus has been acquiring a third Concept, but that has been a little more difficult. I want something that diversifies and covers some of my weaknesses, but it has been less than fruitful. It’s frustrating because I know if I tried to get another Mind Concept or something mind-related, I would probably have already acquired it,” she vented to him.

He nodded his head and pouted alongside her. “I know the feeling. I have been trying to get a Space Concept for a while now, but it hasn’t been that fruitful either,” he admitted.

“You want a Space Concept before you get your third Concept? That is quite optimistic,” Aubrey snorted.

“Why’s that?”

“Because everyone knows that Space and Time Concepts are some of the most difficult Concepts to learn. Most who actually are fortunate enough to learn them do so when they are already at Tier 4 or higher. Something about the qualitative difference between the minds of a Tier 3 and a Tier 4,” Lily explained. “Even Stella probably only learned her Concepts at Tier 4, but then again knowing her, it wouldn’t be impossible if she did at Tier 3.”

He nodded his head at that. He already knew the difficulty from what Richard and Rebecca told him, but it was nice to hear another perspective.

They eventually got to the training facilities, and he couldn’t help but notice that there were more people than usual, especially during the weekend. It was probably due to the upcoming tournament that Lily mentioned.

After navigating through the busy crowd, they promptly knocked at the training room.

It took a few moments, but the door finally opened to reveal a sweaty Derek.

“Hey, I got your message. Did you guys want to join? Kyle’s new item is pretty fascinating, it might even be able to block some of your skills, Lily. Actually, on second thought I don’t-” Derek cut himself off because he eventually noticed that it wasn’t just Aubrey and Lily.

Julius gave a similar wave he did to Lily and Aubrey and found himself smothered in a hug once more. Only this time, it was distinctly more sweaty, but still just as pleasant.