Rivers of the Night

"… The other half is more complicated, but they split into three lineages, all three of which have ties to Spirit Mancy. But they call themselves the Harmon Clan, the Bell Clan, and, presumably… the Firewings."

Theron's brows wrinkled. He really didn't understand. He was only now realizing just how much he absolutely hated this feeling.

It wasn't just a matter of not understanding itself, but the amplification of it in realizing that this was about his family, and yet with all the brain power in the world and the upgrades to his Third Eye, it was all still meaningless.

"Whether it is the Harmon Clan or the Bell Clan, both of them are exceptionally powerful Sound Mancy Clans that have taken different routes, the Harmon Clan actually wielding Lightning Mana to a small extent, and the Bell Clan entirely focusing on the power of sound itself."

'Sound…' Theron thought to himself, his mind flickering over to the old man. Was it a coincidence?

Well, it wasn't as though there was a monopoly on this path. Sound Mancers were rare, but they existed. It was also one of the paths that could be tapped into should you be close enough as well.

"It's hard to tell why this split happened, but Mancy has always been hereditary. If a bloodline is complicated enough, and there's enough dilution to it over the course of many, many years, then it's only natural that things end up going this way."

"You're avoiding the main question," Theron suddenly said.

Sadie smiled. "I knew you'd say that eventually."

She had repeated it more than once now. She kept saying that it had nothing to do with Wind Mancy, but everything she said afterward made it sound like it was at least somewhat related.

But more importantly than that… what was she even testing Wind Mana out for? She hadn't mentioned the Nightingales in the list of Clans that descended from the Galethunders, so what good was it for her to try anyway? It wasn't as though she had the bloodline to awaken. That made no sense.

Their gazes met across the air, the very same calmness remaining as Sadie's smile stayed calm and placid.

"If you want to know that, I'm going to need you to use the Luminescent Moon Sect to do your part."

"You want me to find out about the history of the Galethunders?"

"Indeed, I do. Once you do, then I can share the rest of it with you."

"Okay."

After saying this, Theron turned to leave.

"Aren't you going to take any of this wealth with you?" Sadie asked with a blink.

"No," Theron replied.

"And why's that? Don't you need it?"

"Why waste the space in my spatial ring when the Nightingales and the Imperial Academy are about to give me everything I could ever want?"

Streams of blood came from Theron as he looked to an inconspicuous corner with a turn of his head. Then, he flickered and vanished in a bolt of red so fast Sadie's eyes widened.

Sadie took a moment before she calmed. Then, she looked toward the same corner Theron had.

Slowly, a shadow manifested.

"Didn't I say I would come alone?" Sadie spoke in a tone that carried not the slightest hint of pleasure in it.

"His senses are pretty sharp," the shadow replied, as though not hearing Sadie's displeasure.

"Because of you he thinks I'm a liar now."

"Don't raise that tone with me, little girl. He already thinks you're a liar. And you are one. You're talking out of one side of your mouth. None of this has anything to do with whatever nonsense 'Galethunder' bullshit you came up with. That's baseless speculation on your part. There's no connection between this merchant and that boy at all."

Sadie fell into silence.

"Look at you, getting stubborn again. You can't just go around thinking all your deductions are infallible. The last time you did that, you thought that you could just become a Wind Mancer to unlock the secrets of that realm, and how did that work out for you? You almost lost your life at the hands of a little boy a full tier beneath you. Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was for me?"

"He caught me off guard…" Sadie said softly. "And this time, I'm definitely right."

"What nonsense are you talking about now?"

"What are the odds of a genius like Theron appearing with such a peculiar last name that vaguely translates to the same ancient runic texts we've been seeing?"

"I see you just threw in the word 'vaguely' in there as though it's not holding a lot of water. The translations are hardly similar at all. Galethunder isn't reminiscent of those runic texts at all.

"Those texts speak of the balance between calm and rage, of hot and cold, of water and fire. What the fuck does Galethunder have to do with that? Gale and Thunder both, even if you separate them, are both hyper-aggressive. A Gale is a strong gust of wind. Thunder is quite literally the rage of the Heavens. What makes you think these things are related at all?"

"It's misdirection."

"Misdirection for who?! And how could you possibly know that?!"

"Merchant Greycoat's last name isn't Gale anymore, now is it?"

"So why would you think some random family with even less power than him would gleefully keep the word 'Gale' in their name, then? Hm?"

Sadie had no rebuttal, but one could practically feel the shadow rolling their eyes.

"Fine, fine, fine. You wanted to keep your little boyfriend from running away, I get it. But if you get him killed because of your willfulness, don't come crying to me. I'm not saving him. I wouldn't even lift a finger to save you. I don't waste energy on useless people."

After saying this, the shadow flickered and vanished.

Sadie frowned. "He won't die."

There was legitimate anger in her tone this time, but the shadow had long gone too far to hear it.