Chapter 28: The Cost of Insight
In the Azure Province, the name Sterling had become synonymous with alchemy. For centuries, they had been the undisputed masters of potion-making and elixir refinement.
Their Traits were intrinsically linked to this legacy—affinities for Fire to heat the cauldrons, Wood to nurture rare herbs, or Utility Traits that manifested as tools for alchemy.
So, when the patriarch, Anya’s grandfather, announced that the family’s most treasured heirloom—the ’Pathseeker’s’ profession core—would be granted to her, the youngest heir, the province descended into chaos.
The decision was a baffling departure from tradition. It would not have been odd if the older heirs were untalented, but that was not the case.
So, why did the patriarch skip them in her favour?
The patriarch of the Sterling family was a shrewd man who never made a move without calculating every possible outcome.
The whispers began immediately, speculating about the nature of her Trait and the hidden reason for this unprecedented favour.
Her parents remained silent, for they did not know the truth either. Everyone assumed her Trait was simply a more potent version of what had come before.
They were wrong.
Anya’s Trait was the ’Eye of Veridian Insight’.
It was not elemental or material like the traits known to cultivators in the province. It was a body Trait, which had mutated her eyes and allowed her to perceive the world as cause and effect.
She could gaze upon an object or a location and perceive the chaotic, residual energies clinging to it.