'Was I born with the gene forcing me to challenge the established authority whenever possible, or is this a product of my circumstances, I wonder.'
Theo moved past the reception desk, following the secretary past the outer ring of the mansion's corridor and then into the inner ring of rooms located all around the mansion's inner courtyard.
That's where the secretary stopped, lacking the permissions to venture as deep into the patriarch's mansion as Theo could, forcing him to continue his journey by his lonesome.
In all honesty, her company was merely a formality, an echo of a tradition that most likely made a lot of sense back in the past when it was first established. Even though Theo was just a decorated prisoner of this place, he did meet with the patriarch quite often in the past, making the presence of a guide completely redundant.
In the end, Theo found the man he was looking for even past the mansion's inner ring and out in the place's inner courtyard as he relaxed on a simple, stone bench.
By all means, this most inner part of the whole mansion, a place where only the patriarch's most trusted aides and most important guests could ever visit.
A place devoid of the luxuries and mirth ever-present elsewhere in the mansion, with the expensive decorations and artwork replaced with the very element that the sect had in abundance - herbs, trees, and even a small pond hidden in the corner of the open space.
If the building itself was just a way for the marquis slash patriarch to upkeep his status in noble society, this garden hidden within was the only place where he could really relax and cultivate in peace.
"What brings you here, son?" Narmidor didn't even turn his head as he spoke, easily detecting Theo's presence through the fluctuations in the world's mana. "While it's not like I do not welcome you here, but," the patriarch finally turned his head, revealing a face as handsome as a man in his late forties could have. "But a visit at such a late hour is uncommon, even for you."
Narmidor was by no means an evil guy, a piece of shit that only found himself in charge by a giggle of fate or the intervention of some vile divine wishing harm upon those unlucky enough to find themselves under his authority.
By all means, he once was a man of action, driven by passion to restore his inherited domain to its former glory.
Sadly, this passion, this drive, this desire to fulfill his destiny were all a thing of the past, sapped dry by the wall not unlike what shackled Theo for his entire life.
Narmidor's expeditions to the west, against the powerful tribes that still refused to acknowledge the supremacy and authority of the crown, have all either achieved minor results or failed completely, mostly due to the lack of support from the central powers.
A situation a seasoned politician could easily predict, aware how no one wanted to see an upstart grow stronger at the fringes of the kingdom in fear of his rise upsetting the delicate balance between the existing factions.
Unable to expand west, into the lands of the unclaimed frontier, Narmidor attempted to internally reinforce his sect… Only to then face another wall, a wall of lacking the critical resources to do so.
Every attempt Narmidor made would be met either with perfect passiveness where he required help or outright opposition where he could achieve something with what little strength and potential the sect had. And once his energy finally exhausted, he became the current version of the sect's patriarch.
A man that gave up on his dreams, opting to preserve what he had over some lofty dreams of growing it to its former shape.
A kind man that supported his own with every last bit of his strength until said strength failed, only to then retreat to his mansion and just… let the things play out with hardly any involvement on his part.
"I came here to offer you a choice," Theo stated, looking at the man with an honest dose of sympathy in his eyes.
A sympathy that mixed with determination.
'Where he failed, I'm going to succeed.'
"You?" Narmidor raised his right eyebrow as he glanced over at Theo before rolling his eyes and turning his attention back to the bush he attentively studied every last detail of. "What kind of a choice can you even offer?" he laughed it off. "You are even more of a prisoner to this place than I am, son."
There was no condescension in Narmidor's voice, only a lethargic disbelief.
While the circumstances that led the two of them to connect were less than pleasant for either of them, with all the time they've spent together, the sect patriarch became Theo's… maybe not a second father, but a quasi-uncle for sure.
"A choice between gold, blood, or a cultivator's plea," Theo stated bluntly while reaching to the pouch where he collected all the pebbles he picked up on his way to the mansion.
A statement that hardly earned Theo any of Narmidor's attention.
"I'm all ears," he laughed off again, more curious about what prank Theo was pulling than alerted by the obvious threat behind his words.
"I know you wouldn't believe my words, so I came prepared to show exactly what I mean," Theo sighed, pushing his hand into the pouch and grabbing his spoils before pulling it out and… sweeping his hand horizontally, casting the stones in his hand in a wide semi-circle.
Propelled by the throw, the pebbles scattered on the wind, almost small enough to be carried away even further by its gust. And with but a sliver of Theo's mana infused into them, they then flew to their precisely arranged spots, scattering in a pattern that even the lousiest of magic students from the mage's tower could recognize.
With just the biggest of his stones left in his hand, Theo then closed in until he stood but a few feet away from Narmidor, staring down at his lowered and disinterested face while throwing one last glance to confirm they were now both in the eye of the formation - its most central part.
"First, take a look at this," Theo requested while raising the stone on an open palm of his right hand directly to the patriarch's eyes. "Do you know what it is?"
Forced out of his lethargic state by such a direct invasion into his personal space, Narmidor raised his tired eyes and gave the stone a look.
"A stone," he replied, only for his lips to twist into a sarcastic grimace. "What, you took to collecting those now?"
Theo merely sighed.
"What you see is but a stone," he stated, directly relating to the man's recent answer. "What I see, though…"
Before finishing his answer, Theo injected but a sliver of his mana into the nearest marked pebble, granting the formation just enough fuel to boot up.
WHOOSH!
The mana gathering formation instantly sucked in all the world's mana from within the garden before, spreading it perfectly evenly throughout its area of effect before switching over to suck on the world's mana from outside of its limits.
At first, nothing much changed. Even before sensing something, Narmidor raised his head, puzzled by the sudden and unnatural silence on Theo's part.
Then, his expression changed as he realized the accumulation of mana in the air was… slightly greater than it should be. His eyebrows moved even further up when he realized that this already unnatural concentration of mana only continued to keep on growing!
"What the hell is…"
"What I see, though," Theo repeated himself, "is gold," he said as he activated the lone, engraved rune on the special stone he took his time to pick, one that boasted a hint of crystalline inner structure.
WHOOSH!
Once again, the mana surged. This time, however, all the mana gathered within the formation rushed to concentrate in its newfound nexus, pouring into the stone like a raging torrent.
At first, the stone lit up as if heated up by some invisible fire. Weirdly enough, though, while already burning red… it failed to leave even the smallest burn mark on Theo's exposed skin upon which it rested.
Then, something strange happened.
The shine of the 'heated' stone grew more and more intense, only to reach the perfect white… and then suddenly collapse into a gentle, soothing blue light, one no cultivator or mage in the world could mistake for anything else.
It was the shine only exhibited by one of the most precious commodities on the world's market - a spirit stone.
"What I see," Theo then spoke again as, with another sliver of his mana, he added two lines to the rune on the spirit stone in his hand. Then, right as his fingers started to squeeze down on it, he added, "is blood."