Explanations on some changes

Chapter 166 is down below.

Some of you might have gone and read the revised version that's up on RR. You likely noticed he changes I've done there, but let me make some short notes for those who haven't read it.

First, in the revised version, Prime'era and Helfira remained with Tercius and Kalina.

Second, in the chapters on RR I've gone and made Mana into magia and Energy into energia, solely because of that —gia suffix. This way, both seem somehow connected in my mind and ears. In those RR chapters, Skills are called Innate Skills. One old reader has left a review that the change in names is jarring, so let me know if that is true for you too. Honestly, for me it sound smooth and the transition was seamless, but I'm told that I sometimes accept change with far too much ease.

Third, Prime'era told a story to Tercius that explains one of the reasons why the Society of the Magi is the way it is. That was the chapter I've told you about in the update. When I first got around to publishing it here for you, I thought it a bit dreary and dark, but I've changed my mind since.  Not about the dark and dreary part, that still stands but about the upload part. I'm sorry about that.

Fourth. I've added a scene right as Tercius was leaving the Temple of Balance.

Here it is:

[*** *** ***

As the years passed and the conditions of her temple and her congregation continued to stagnate and even decline in the case of the latter, Calidia had reached out to her Divine and asked for a way out of the grasp of the Empire.

The time is not right, was the answer she received. Wait for the sign.

Her skin aged and weathered, her bones started to hurt from moving, and yet no sign came. Even though she believed with her whole heart in the words of her Divine, she came to accept that the sign would not come in her lifetime.

Until it did.

The morning had started alike to so many others. She woke before the sun and waited for her bones to grow warm enough to move. The herbs helped, but only a little. She ate the watery porridge that one of the early rising brothers made for her and a sister helped her to reach the Chamber of the Divine, where her fellow servants slept in the warm presence of their Divine. She stood in the spot where she had stood for every day of every year behind her and her voice filled the Chamber with songs of adoration.

Then Lady Dawn and Lord Dusk stirred from their months-long sleep, their eyes opening and gazing at the ceiling just as she heard a Voice that had been absent for decades.

The change you sought has arrived at your doorstep. Thread with Balance, child of my heart.

Shivering from head to toe, the Speaker to Divine Balance fell to the floor and wept herself to sleep like a child. The hours where her brothers and sisters tried to wake her were a blur, but when she did wake finally she had an enormous toothless smile.

“—so what if the Holy Ones find the boy interesting?” someone whispered at her bedside.

“Go outside, sister, and see it for yourself. They are in a frenzy.”

“Well, what are they doing to him?”

“Just… rubbing themselves against him.”

“What— sister, you’re awake.”

“Of whom are you two whispering there?” she croaked.

Menesthios shook his head. “Of no one, sister. You need your rest, I will just have the boy come another day.”

“Tell me.”

There was a silence where the two of them conferred with their eyes only, then Menesthios explained. “— and so he came to our doorstep, searching for answers. I told him that only you could—”

Calidia was propping herself before he was finished speaking, her back groaning in pain. There was work to be done. The change was at her doorstep and she had to greet him. “Take me to the chamber and bring the boy there. What are you waiting for? Now!”

*** *** ***

“—he’s gone.” Brother Menesthios said.

Calidia sighed and nodded. “Good, good,”

“Sister, if the boy is so important as you say, then why are we letting him just walk away?” Sister Antia paced with hurried steps, her nerves seeping into her words. “He must stay here, and fulfill his holy purpose with our help,”

Calidia shook her head. “We must thread with Balance, sister. Nothing is set in stone. Wisdom, temperance, and caution are advised with each step of the way. If I force that child to do something he does not want, then what would happen?”

Sister Antia’s eyes shone. “He will do as our Divine bids him to and be honored that he is chosen.”

“A change, sister, is not always for the better,” Brother Menesthios said. “Calm yourself. Our sister has spoken wisely and I support her decision.”

“The boy will come back again,” Calidia said. “I know it. Tomorrow, in a month, or a year, but he will come. We must build our relationship with him slowly and with care. Only then can the change that rides behind him be in our favor.”

Sister Antia stood silent. Abruptly, her eyes shone with white light, the mark between her brows igniting with the same light a moment later. Before Calidia's glowing eyes, a sleek cat of long limbs weaved itself into existence from the light of sister Antia's body.

Sister Antia’s skin paled with each passing moment. “Follow that boy. Do not let him out of your sight, but do not approach,”

The cat bowed its head low, its body turning invisible.

*** *** ***]

Fifht. There will likely be a few more changes before I'm done, but as I make them I will go chapter by chapter here on Patreon and sync everything up.

At the point of story where Tercius is, nothing will change story-wise. Term-wise ( mana> magia and Skills > Innate Skills) some of those changes will be implemented soon. The numbering of the system will change as well.

But I will give the notification when all my edits are done for those who might want to reread the earlier chapters even so.

I'm truly sorry for springing so many changes. All I can say is that this is a work in progress and I want to improve it as much as I can and know how. 

Some changes between what is first published here on Patreon and what gets to RR weeks later will happen from time to time, even entire scenes like the one above. Some of those changes might even affect the way I write the story going forward.

For some of you that may break a sense of consistency, but I can only hope for your understanding.

Be well my Patrons,

Humas.