TBATE: Let The Truth Be Known {Completed}

Chapter 19: Departure

ARTHUR LEYWIN

"Get up, dummy!" I hear as I'm jostled from my first night's sleep in over a week. 

"What? What? I'm up..." I mumble while wiping the crust from my eyes. 

"We need to go, Arthur. Today's the last day we'll be here in the Relictombs, and you refused to pack yesterday because of how tired you were. GET UP!" Ellie continues to shout. 

"I get it, yeah, alright, El. Give me a few minutes to wake up fully," I mutter while doing a bit of a morning stretch to pop my joints. 

"Just hurry. I want to spar a bit before we leave. You've been just doing theoretical stuff since you beat up on Cecilia a week ago. Come and meet me by Domon's house," Ellie finishes before exiting my room. 

As she leaves, I'm reminded of just how hard she's been working. Her body has become much more lean and muscular. She hardly resembles the little girl I brought out to The Wall on that fateful day. Her hair is long now, draping down past her mid-back. She keeps it braided into a tight weave down her spine to keep it out of her hair, but sometimes I pull some hairs from it to frame her face. She looks cuter that way. 

Beyond all of her hard work, she finally crested into White core yesterday. Not only is she finally able to fly due to her stage, but now she can have Domon manifest her blood. I guess he'll be leaving her training in aether manipulation to me. I still don't know exactly what it is that she'll be able to do with her manifested blood. I could already use aether before I manifested, so my knowledge of its effects is kind of limited. 

After finishing up my morning stretches, I start to put all of my personal belongings back in my dimension rune. I grab my waterskin, bedroll, and my extra set of clothes before heading out onto the street. Domon is outside of his house, talking with Ellie. My best guess is that they're likely talking about helping her manifest. 

"What are you two up to?" I ask while making my way down the sandy street.  

"I'm asking him if I'll be okay after my blood manifests. Well, that's if my blood is pure enough to manifest like yours," Ellie answers.

"That is the question. You two may be kin, but it's still unknown whether young Eleanor has the same concentration of Djinn blood as you. From what I can tell, it's a recessive trait," Domon explains.

"So she could still be unable to manifest her blood even after all of the time she's spent working toward White core?" I ask again.

"Technically, yes. However, I'm extremely hopeful for her chances considering how much the environment of the Relictombs has been facilitating her growth. When my people built this place, it was meant to be a place that we Djinn could enter and cultivate our young to perhaps someday be able to emerge again and live on the continents. As you can guess, we never had enough people make it to bother trying to start again. Our family lines began to die, and I fear you two may be the last to have their Djinn blood manifest," Domon finishes.

It's not hard to understand why these places were built. They not only safeguard the Djinn's secrets but also were meant to help the Djinn come back better than ever. If only they would have gotten the chance. Maybe this whole three-sided war would have never happened. Though, the same goes for if Kezess and Agrona weren't megalomaniacs.

"I see. In that case, we should start as soon as possible. I want to be able to spar with Ellie in this zone before we have to leave later today," I say, hoping for us to begin the process.

"Indeed. Let us enter my home. It will be more pleasant for Eleanor if she can lie down on a comfortable surface," Domon says while motioning for us to follow him into his home.