But let’s skip over to the survivor of Alys’s efficiency.

Khyber was a Gold-Bound from the far north. He had a very tenuous relationship with the rest of his family. On the one hand, he was raised to hold familial bonds above all else, but on the other he was the eldest child and had a significant amount of responsibility thrust on him.

As a young man, he was conscripted into a pseudo-military force – closer to a wandering militia – to keep the civilized areas safe from the beastmen. During the three years of his conscription, he found the love of his life – Farrah – an Amethyst-Bound. His family did not approve the pairing and Khyber had to make a difficult choice, and chose who would become his wife over the family that raised him.

Khyber’s aspect was powerful – he was capable of taking a portion of another’s aspect and incorporating into himself. He could not release this aspect once absorbed, and it increased the energy he needed to consume. So, while he used his aspect a lot in his younger days, he used it less and less as he aged. By that time, though, he had several other tools at his disposal.

Farrah’s aspect was much more niche – she could stabilize the temperature of a nearby area. While this had little bearing on her life in the north, it gave them the idea they could flee to the former Empire to the far south and make a home among the coldest regions.

The pair married and had both a son and, several years later, a daughter. They fled the bigotry – of both Khyber’s family and the general people. The gem-bound were a rarity, as the Gem Titans traveled primarily over the equator and most of those islands were uninhabited, due in large part to the dangerous water between them. The open ocean was much safer. So, few gem-bound were born, and those that were were viewed with suspicion.

The family traveled across several of the islands of the former Empire and generally met the same distaste, until they came to the most southern island. The only thing that seemed to matter was whether someone was bound to the White or not, so they were somewhat accepted – as much as any foreigner might be. They attempted to make friends, but only other foreigners seemed interested.

The closest person they found was a foreign merchant who regularly disguised himself as a White Bound, despite being a Silver of the north, to be able to trade with both the peasantry and – when returning to his Silver skin – the more privileged classes. The family made home in a small town, but on the outskirts as they were not quite welcome in the city proper yet.

They were there when the Enforcers appeared. Khyber’s military training, not quite forgotten, got the family into the wilderness before their house was found and burned. While they found safety in a nearby cave, Khyber left to keep an eye out for any potential danger. His young son – Khyber Junior – followed, unbeknownst to his father.

Khyber ran across the two Enforcers who fled Alys’s execution. One was able to see the flow of energy, which is how he knew Alys was preparing to burn them alive, and the other was a more simplistic enhancer – someone who could draw energy into his muscles to make himself stronger. Khyber absorbed the energy-sight, which allowed him to see how the enhancer drew upon the energy of the world around him. The enhancer was a bit too good at using his aspect, as he only enhanced his body when it would be most effective instead of at all times. Khyber could tell which attacks were serious, and which were feints via the spike of energy – or lack thereof. Khyber defeated the man, absorbed his aspect as he expected more fights to be coming, and killed both of the mercenaries.

While this was going on, Farrah had noticed Junior had fled and took their newborn daughter into the tundra to look for him. She stumbled upon Alys, who used her aspect to burn her alive. Farrah managed to use her aspect to take the brunt of the flames, keeping her daughter safe in her charred arms.

Khyber stumbled upon the two as his wife fell to the ground. Encased in fury, Khyber’s aspect shifted such that he did not merely absorb a portion of Alys’s power, but the entirety of it. He threw a blast at her that rivaled her response to seeing her father taken away in chains, and it only didn’t result in death due to his inexperience in using the aspect and the distance between them. He was prepared to move forward and finish her, but the cry of his daughter stopped him, and refocused his attention.

He calmed himself and used his newly acquired aspect and noticed that his energy was rapidly fading, and Alys’s was returning. It looked like however his aspect had shifted, it was temporary and time was running thin. While he may have been able to win the fight, he would not risk his daughter’s life. He pumped energy into his muscles, rushed to his wife’s corpse, and took their daughter in his hand before fleeing into the wilderness.

Junior, a distance away, had been drawn by the intense blast and witnessed what his curiosity had wrought.