The Weight of Legacy

The strangeness come next breakfast-time was palpable. Well, more than usual. Even Malwine’s initial annoyance at how, no, she couldn’t just stay locked up in her room had faded thanks to the circus-worthy interactions she was getting to witness. If anything, she only grew more and more curious as to just what the hell the adults had been up to after she and the rest of the kids were taken to their rooms.

Kristian was playing a boardgame with three other men—strangers to her—and for Malwine, the only thing more surprising than that was how he hadn’t chosen violence yet, despite repeatedly mentioning how the waves should take each and every one of them. The second most interesting sight was how several guests had somehow managed to get lost inside the manor and were currently being offered drinks within suspiciously potion-like containers, courtesy of Bernie.

Malwine still wasn’t sure what the limitations for [Identify] were, but—much to her curiosity’s chagrin—distance clearly played enough of a factor, at least when it came to objects. She’d realized, mere minutes earlier, that she didn’t recall ever trying to go out of her way to use the Trait on random objects before. The only peculiar items she frequently interacted with were the books that interested her, and while [Remote Reading]’s distance constraints might as well have been non-existent, that did mean she'd never really been in contact with all of those books.

Yet another thing she’d have to test later. Mostly because it had really only occurred to her when she wasn't exactly in a position to freely experiment.

As she ate her watery oatmeal, Malwine checked on her latest ‘draft’ panels. She'd been running [Write Anywhere] via [Multitasking] in the background for what had to be at least an hour, ever since concluding she'd have to leave the actual Skill training she wanted to do for later.

She debated whether she should have tried to pull an all-nighter, but it hadn't felt right. If she seemed tired when she should’ve been waking up, that might lead to concerns from Bernie, and the last thing Malwine needed was for her guardian to remember three-year-olds did indeed require frequent adult supervision.

Malwine figured she probably owed Adelheid one—her little half-aunt had clearly ruined the entire family's perception of childcare.

Speaking of the walking disappearing act, Malwine hadn't seen her since the girl revealed one of her Affinities to her, and as such, she hadn't managed to try copying it for herself.

Strangely enough, she was both disappointed and thankful. The way Adelheid had spoken of her Presence, vague as that had been, frankly had Malwine worried. Even if she ran [Enforced Longevity] for her 10 seconds of power, would that be enough for that Perception against Presence check to work?

Malwine struggled to justify her concern, but the fact that she'd kind of been underestimating Adelheid stood. Her little aunt might as well have been stepping in and out of reality for all she knew, and that Affinity being called {Missing} did it no favors. If it could somehow directly help with disappearing—or at least hiding—like how {Legacy} interacted with the abilities that bore any relation to its name, that would certainly explain a lot.

And it would most definitely be worth the effort to get, even if that meant having to wait for Adelheid to show up. Beyond that, the next step would probably be to familiarize herself enough with it, so as to use it without making the fact that she copied it obvious. It was one thing to copy Affinities from the dead, as it was undoubtedly easier to get away with it, but Malwine didn't even want to think of opening that can of worms, of what people might think if there were suddenly two very obviously disappearing toddlers in the family.

But for now, Malwine worked on what she could. Regardless of whether the bottleneck on [Write Anywhere] was purely because of the imbalance, she refused to believe its growth would be halted completely. She'd grind away if she had to.

Unless effort matters more than I think. But still, even if the progress from using it idly is low, it can't possibly be zero.