Unholy Player

"I never heard the term Genesis before," Liora said slowly, her voice trembling with an uncharacteristic mix of awe and anticipation. Liora Virell was a Rank-4 practitioner who had lived at least one and a half centuries—someone who rarely showed surprise at anything. Yet here she was, eyes shining.

"Sister," Mirela asked, voice shaky not from fear but from that same thrill of discovery, "how can this be possible?"

Their reactions made Adyr’s interest sharpen. "What exactly is this Bloodline you’re talking about?"

Liora took a long breath to steady herself before she spoke. "There are countless races in the world—thousands of them—but only a very few are called elder races." Her gaze was intent. "And among those elder races, even fewer trace their lineage directly back to the gods themselves."

She paused for a heartbeat, then went on, her excitement now impossible to hide. "Bloodline talents, as we call them, only manifest in those true godborn races. They’re a mark that someone is a direct descendant of the divine—someone carrying their ancestor’s power in their blood."

That revelation left everyone visibly shaken. Even Lucen’s stony face showed a rare, fleeting surprise.

And as Adyr listened, the pieces began to fall into place.

Mirela swallowed before she spoke again. "Sister... you mean our Velari race is one of the elder races too?" Even she could hardly believe it as she asked.

The Velari were one of the many races that followed Astra Path. By all they knew, they weren’t an especially ancient people—their recorded history went back only thirty or forty thousand years, which made them relatively young compared to the true elder races.