SILENT VEINS: THE BLOODBORN ASCENSION

Chapter 8: The first lesson

The sanctuary transformed as night bled into dawn.

Silver leaves caught the first light and reflected it in prismatic patterns. Thousands of tiny rainbows dancing across the moss-covered ground. Beautiful. Mesmerizing.

Kaelen didn't see any of it.

He'd been awake for twenty-three hours straight. Every muscle in his body screamed for rest. His vision blurred at the edges. His hands wouldn't stop shaking.

Shen stood in the center of the training pavilion, which had somehow changed overnight. The smooth wooden floor was now marked with concentric circles of carved script that glowed faintly red. Activated by Kaelen's blood, Shen had explained. Each circle represented a different stage of training.

Kaelen hadn't even cleared the first one yet.

Joren watched from the sidelines. Wrapped in a blanket one of the Sentinels provided. He looked as exhausted as Kaelen felt. Dark circles under his eyes. But he refused to sleep. Not until he saw Kaelen make it through at least one session alive.

"Again." Shen's voice held no sympathy.

Kaelen's hands were shaking. Not from fear. From exhaustion. His palms were covered in fresh bite marks, layered over the scars from yesterday. He'd bitten himself open seventeen times in the last four hours, learning to summon his blood-armor on command.

The problem was control.

Or lack thereof.

Kaelen bit down. His teeth had actual divots in them now from repeated biting. Blood welled up. He focused, trying to feel the blood, to connect with it the way he did instinctively during the Sentinel attack.

The blood rose from his palm. Floating upward like it was suspended in invisible water.

Good. That was progress.

But when he tried to form it into a blade like Shen instructed, it just wobbled. The shape held for maybe three seconds before collapsing back into liquid and splashing across his hand.

"You are thinking too much." Shen circled him like a predatory bird. "Blood cultivation is not an intellectual exercise. Your blood responds to intent, not thought. You must feel what you want it to become."

"I'm trying..."

"You are trying to control it. That is your first mistake."

Shen stopped in front of him. In one fluid motion, he pricked his own finger with a needle. A single drop of blood emerged.

"Watch."

The drop didn't fall. Instead, it hovered above Shen's fingertip. Perfectly spherical. Then, impossibly, it unfolded. Flattening into a paper-thin disc that spun like a shuriken. Shen flicked his finger. The blood-disc flew across the pavilion, embedding itself in a tree trunk thirty feet away with a solid *thunk*.

"Blood is life. Life is will. Your blood already wants to protect you." Shen's finger had already healed. "You simply must trust it to do so. Again. And this time, do not think. Command."

Kaelen tried again.

And again.

And again.

By the nineteenth attempt, his vision was blurring. He'd lost too much blood. Even with his accelerated healing, there was a limit. His body was cannibalizing itself to keep up with the demand. He could feel his energy reserves hitting empty.

The blood rose from his palm.

This time, instead of trying to shape it, Kaelen just wanted it to be a blade. Needed it to be a blade. Because if he failed again, if he couldn't even master this basic technique, how was he supposed to stop an invasion? How was he supposed to save anyone?

The blood crystallized.

Not gradually. Instantly. One moment it was liquid. The next it was a solid crimson blade extending from his fist. Edges sharp enough that the air itself seemed to slice around it. The blade was beautiful and terrible. Translucent like red glass, but with veins of black running through it like cracks in ice. Pulsing with his heartbeat.

Kaelen stared at it. Not believing it was real.

Then his knees buckled.

Shen caught him before he hit the ground. "Enough. You have made the breakthrough. Your body must recover now, or you will die from blood loss before any enemy touches you."

~~~

While Kaelen slept, unconscious more than sleeping really, Joren approached Shen in the training pavilion.

"Teach me." No preamble. Direct.

Shen didn't look up from the tea he was preparing. "You lack the sensitivity to sense Ley Veins. You cannot cultivate in the traditional sense."

"Then teach me the untraditional sense." Joren's jaw was set. Stubborn. "I watched him almost die twenty times today. I stood there useless, holding a gun that doesn't work on half the things we're fighting. I can't keep being dead weight."

Shen finally looked at him. Really looked at him. Something like respect flickered in his ancient eyes. "You do not seek power for yourself. You seek it to stand beside your friend."

"Is that a problem?"

"On the contrary." Shen gestured to the training circle. "It is the only motivation that matters. Sit."

Joren sat cross-legged in the outer training circle. Shen moved behind him, pressing two fingers to the base of Joren's skull.

Joren gasped.

He could suddenly feel something. A warmth spreading through his body. Like drinking hot tea but from the inside out.

"I am temporarily opening your meridians." Shen's voice was calm. Instructive. "You will feel the Ley Vein's energy. This is what cultivators sense naturally. For you, it will fade in an hour. But in that hour, I will teach you the Mortal Foundation technique. A cultivation method designed for those without natural sensitivity. It will not make you equal to a born cultivator. But it will make you more than human."

~~~

Kaelen woke to find Shen sitting beside his bed. The communication crystal in hand. Glowing softly.

"She has sent three more messages while you slept." Shen's voice was quiet. "Each more desperate than the last. The situation is deteriorating faster than anyone predicted."

Kaelen sat up. Wincing. His body was covered in new scars. Thin black lines across his palms, up his forearms. Even one across his collarbone where he tested blood-armor expansion. He looked like a map of suffering.

Shen activated the latest message.

Lira's hologram appeared. But the background had changed. She was no longer in a building. She was outside. Night sky behind her. And in the distance, Kaelen could see fires burning.

"Kaelen." Her voice was hoarse. Like she'd been screaming. "The second outbreak has already started. We were wrong about the timeline. It's happening now. Veilhaven's northern district is gone. Completely overrun. The Council is pulling back their forces. Abandoning entire neighborhoods to save their precious Vein Sanctuaries."

She wiped blood from her face with a shaking hand.

"The Ashen Hand is trying to evacuate civilians, but we're outnumbered fifty to one. We need..." An explosion. Closer this time. She flinched, looking off-camera. When she turned back, there were tears cutting tracks through the grime on her face. "We need a miracle. We need you. The coordinates are attached. If you don't come... I understand. But I needed you to know that I..."

A Hollow Being crashed into frame behind her. Lira spun. Water blades forming in her hands. The transmission cut to static.

The silence after was deafening.

"I have to go." Kaelen's voice was firm.

"You are not ready." Shen replied. But there was no force behind it. He knew it didn't matter.

"Will I ever be ready? Really?" Kaelen stood, testing his legs. Shaky but functional. "You said your training would take months. We don't have months. We don't even have days."

"If you go now, you will likely die. Your blood cultivation is nascent. You have learned to form a blade, yes. But you cannot sustain it in extended combat. You do not know how to fight multiple opponents. You have not learned to..."

"Then teach me on the way." Kaelen found his shirt. Torn and bloodstained but serviceable. "We're going. I'm going. With or without you."

Joren appeared in the doorway.

Kaelen noticed immediately. His friend stood differently. Straighter. More solid. There was something in his eyes that hadn't been there before.

"What did you do to him?" Kaelen asked Shen.

"I gave him a choice." Shen's expression was unreadable. "He chose to stop being helpless. The Mortal Foundation technique will allow him to cultivate slowly, over years. But I also taught him something more immediate. How to perceive killing intent. How to move qi through his body for brief bursts of enhanced strength and speed. He will never be a powerful cultivator. But he will no longer be merely human."

Joren cracked his knuckles. There was a faint blue glow around his fists for a moment before fading. "I can work with this."

As they prepared to leave the sanctuary, the mercury Sentinels gathered. Forming a semi-circle around them. The one that seemed to be their leader stepped forward. Its form rippling.

"The Inheritor goes to war." Its wind-chime voice echoed across the clearing. "We cannot leave the grove. But we can offer gifts."

It extended its hands. Its mercury form flowed, reshaping, separating. From its mass, it created three objects.

For Kaelen, a bracer made of hardened mercury. Inscribed with flowing script. When Kaelen touched it, the metal bonded to his left forearm. Becoming a second skin.

"Blood Focus." The Sentinel's explanation was simple. "It will help stabilize your blood techniques and reduce the energy cost. May not prevent Hollow Sickness, but will slow its progression."

For Joren, a pair of fingerless gloves. Also mercury, but these remained flexible.

"Vein Conductors. For one without natural cultivation. These will channel ambient Vein energy into your strikes. Your blows will harm constructs and Hollows as if you were a cultivator."

For Shen, a small vial of liquid mercury that seemed to contain a tiny flame.

"Essence of the Grove. One use. When consumed, it will restore your qi completely and temporarily multiply your power tenfold. For ten minutes, you will be as you were in your prime, Elder Shen."

Shen accepted it with trembling hands. For a moment, Kaelen saw raw emotion on the old man's face. Grief. Longing. Regret. Then it was gone, replaced by his usual stoic mask.

~~~

As they stepped through a new portal, this one created by Shen, leading directly to Lira's coordinates, the grove began to sing.

The silver leaves chimed in harmony. A sound like bells and breaking glass. The Ley Vein at the sanctuary's heart pulsed brighter.

"Return when you can, Inheritor." The lead Sentinel's voice was solemn. "This place will remember you. And when the final darkness comes, the grove will stand with you."

The last thing Kaelen saw before the portal closed behind them was the Sentinels raising their mercury hands in salute. A gesture of respect he hadn't earned but was determined to deserve.

They emerged into hell.