I Can Copy And Evolve Talents

Chapter 1304: Be Sixteen

Northern leaned back, hands folded across his chest. The room had gone quiet in the way rooms do when too much has been said—a silence that pressed against the walls and made the air feel thick. No one quite knew where to look. The drama from moments ago still hung over them like smoke that refused to dissipate.

He exhaled slowly, letting the breath carry some of the tension from his shoulders, though not nearly enough. When he spoke, his voice cut through with cold precision.

”Although it’s not my place to thank you, I think I should nonetheless.” He let his gaze move across their faces—these people who had stood where they had no business standing, who had fought when running would have been the smarter choice. ”It was our home. Despite being powerless, you defended it. That’s a courage I wouldn’t want to have if I was in your position.”

The words came out sharper than he intended. Or perhaps exactly as intended—he wasn’t sure anymore where the mask ended and the face began.

Northern paused, studying them. The pink-haired girl. Nyssira with her unreadable expression. Ellis, who kept glancing at him like he was trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces.

”But I think this is as far as you can come.” He straightened slightly, his tone hardening. ”Going forward, there will be terrible things. Things I do not want you to be a part of.”

He watched their reactions—the small shifts in posture, the tightening of jaws, the way hope and fear warred behind their eyes. None of them spoke. Perhaps they already knew what was coming.

”If you insist on staying...” Northern held each of their gazes in turn, making certain they understood this was not theater. ”You will all die. Without exception.”

The words fell like stones dropped into still water. The weight of them spread outward, pressing down on the room until the silence that followed felt almost physical.

He stood finally, taking his time to straighten his suit—a small ritual that gave his hands something to do while his mind catalogued their expressions. Fear, yes. But also something else. Something that looked uncomfortably like devotion.

’They don’t understand,’ he thought. ’They think this is heroism. They think standing beside me makes them brave.’

It didn’t. It made them targets.

”I’ll make arrangements for you all to be taken home.” His gaze settled on Nyssira. ”Including you.”

Nyssira looked at him with that flat, unreadable expression she seemed to wear like armor. ”My home is in the Northern continent.”

Northern smiled—a small thing, more a suggestion of warmth than actual warmth. ”I’m well aware. It’s why I want to personally escort you back.”

Something flickered across her face. Surprise, perhaps, quickly suppressed. ”It’s dangerous.”

”I’ve been curious about the Northern continent for a long time.” He clasped his hands behind his back, considering. ”And there’s nothing stopping me right now. How long would the journey take?”

”We can only reach the Northern continent by sea.” Nyssira paused, and Northern could see her calculating—distances, weather patterns, the dozen variables that separated a simple voyage from a death sentence. ”Sixteen weeks at most. Possibly faster, depending on the ship.”

Northern drifted into thought, his mind already mapping possibilities.

’Storm Bastion can remain here while Abyssal Citadel rides north. With its speed, the journey could be cut to four or five weeks.’ He turned the plan over, examining it for flaws. ’The only problem is navigation. I have no idea how to actually reach the Northern Continent.’

He looked at Nyssira. ”Do you know how to get to your continent?”

Nyssira nodded and demonstrated with her hand, a gesture so simple it bordered on mockery. ”You get on a ship. You sail across the sea.”

Northern waited for elaboration. It never came. Nyssira just blinked at him, her expression utterly placid.

He shifted his attention to the pink-haired girl, who seemed to shrink slightly under his gaze.

”The sea looks the same to us in every direction,” she offered quietly. ”But the sailors in the Empire will know the way. They’ve made the crossing before.”

Northern shook his head slowly. The details would sort themselves out. They always did, one way or another.

”We’ll figure it out.” He glanced back at Nyssira and the pink-haired girl one last time, weighing what he was about to say. ”It’s not a problem, is it? You do want to go home?”

The pink-haired girl was the one who responded, her voice careful: ”Yes. Just not... with you.”

Something about her honesty was almost refreshing. Northern shrugged, letting the rejection slide off him.

”Given that I’m curious about why you’re here—and given that I want to see for myself who brought you—you’re stuck with me.” His tone was matter-of-fact, neither cruel nor kind. ”Feel free to roam around. Do anything you want.” A frown crossed his features. ”Except dying, of course. I’d prefer to avoid that complication.”

He turned and stepped toward the door. The conversation was over, whether they were ready for it to end or not.

”I’ll be busy for the next few days. Months, perhaps.” He paused at the threshold, not quite looking back. ”But I’ll send someone to meet you and convey you to your quarters.”

Then he was through the door and into the hallway beyond.

Ellis followed immediately, his footsteps quick and uncertain on the metal floor. Northern heard him hesitate, felt the shift in the air as the boy struggled with something—the same weight the others had felt, perhaps. Now that they were alone, Ellis seemed to finally understand what it meant to stand in Northern’s presence without the buffer of other people.

It was overwhelming. Northern knew it was. He couldn’t help it anymore.

”What’s wrong?” Northern asked, glancing back.

”Oh.” Ellis straightened, forcing a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. ”I wanted to ask about Lady Raven. I wasn’t able to really talk to her last time, you know, and she went with you to the dark continent. Is she...?”

Northern looked at him for a long moment. The question hung in the air between them—simple on the surface, but Ellis wasn’t stupid. He could read between lines when he chose to.

”Raven is fine,” Northern answered, and smiled.

”Oh, that’s great.” Ellis nodded, relief softening his features. Then, quieter: ”And you?”

Northern blinked.

The question caught him off guard in a way it shouldn’t have. Such a simple thing—two words, nothing more. And yet Ellis asked it like he actually expected an honest answer. Like he thought Northern might give one.

Ellis must have sensed the hesitation because he pressed forward, words tumbling out faster than he could organize them.

”There’s nothing more I can do, I know that. But if you ever need to put down the weight for a second—just be sixteen—I’m always here.” He took a breath but didn’t slow down. ”Oh, and I’ve been doing extensive research about true names. There’s a lot I’d like to show you, about how to draw out our biggest potential from the essence of our true names. I think this realization has to be what sets Paragons apart from the rest. It possibly could be what limits them too. This is all just hypothetical, of course—I’ve tried to do the experiment on myself, and it worked to a degree, but there were a lot of interruptions. However, I think my true name, the Blind Song, has more to it than I’m considering. I think that’s true about every true name, actually. They all have a source, a deeper meaning that—”

He stopped abruptly, air rushing out of him as he realized how long he’d been talking.

”Oh my stars.” A lame chuckle escaped him. ”I’m so sorry. I just—I’ll leave you to it now. Be on your way. You must be busy.”

He was already turning to go, embarrassment coloring his cheeks, when Northern spoke.

”Ellis.”

The boy froze mid-step and turned back, eyes wide.

Northern felt something shift in his chest. Something that had been locked away behind walls of necessity and survival and the cold mathematics of power. Ellis stood there looking at him—this boy who had no business caring, who had every reason to run, who instead offered the one thing Northern hadn’t realized he needed.

Permission to be young.

Northern’s smile softened into something genuine.

”Thank you.” The words came easier than he expected. ”I’ll consider that offer. When I do want to be sixteen... I’ll come running. So make sure you don’t lose your own sixteen.”

Ellis’s face lit up with a grin. ”Understood, understood. But you have to hurry up though—I can’t stay young forever. I too have to grow.” He gave Northern a thumbs up and a smile that held no pretense, no calculation. Just warmth. ”Take care, Northern.”

Northern stood in the hallway and watched him disappear back into the room, the door sliding shut behind him with a soft click.

For a moment, he didn’t move. The airship hummed around him, metal and machinery and the distant pulse of engines carrying them through the sky. He was alone now. Truly alone, in the way he’d chosen to be.

’Be sixteen.’

What an absurd thing to say. What an impossibly kind thing to offer.

Northern exhaled slowly, the breath shuddering out of him in a way that surprised even himself. Then he turned away, walking through the hall toward the higher levels of the airship.

He had work to do. Arrangements to make. A continent to reach and answers to find.

But somewhere beneath the weight of it all, something small and fragile had taken root. A reminder that even in the midst of everything—the darkness ahead, the deaths behind, the terrible things yet to come—someone still saw the boy underneath.

And that, perhaps, was worth protecting too.