Chapter 84 - Age Of Maturity
'The more I talk, the more I have to lie.' Re'Kha mentally sighed, left with no other option but to do so. Leaking her identity at present was problematic, so she could only weave more lies. Still, as a prideful woman, she didn't like lying. It was a conflicting feeling.
Re'Kha observed the three girls, watching them sit on the sofa in silence, their expressions downcast. Their eyes darted to her dirty bad from time to time, an expression of curiosity plastered on their faces each time. 'So, they like stories of adventures.'
Re'Kha looked at Ki'Nha, "Are they your children?"
"The one on the right is my daughter, Ki'Nua." Burfuna Ki'Nha replied, "The one in the middle is Ki'Tla, and the one on the left is Ki'Sul, daughters of Ki'Tse and Ki'Sha respectively."
She then whispered, "They will reach maturity within the next three months. This is the only time they could relax and enjoy life. So, they had sneaked out to play and roam the market. Danger lurks even within the city, so we secretly tailed them. If not for the Sha, we didn't wish to make our presence known."
"They look younger than their age," Re'Kha muttered. She had assumed they were 13 years old. But seeing that they were close to maturity, it meant they were almost 15 years old.
Maturity is when the Pranic Heart and the meridians finish growing within the person. When they were born, they didn't possess them. The Pranic Heart was just a sliver, a membrane on a small portion of the heart.
Over the years, it slowly grew, also creating the meridians that spread throughout the body like roots within the ground. It took a total of 15 years on average to finish forming. The differences between people usually varied between 2-3 months, but everyone in their race finished developing their Pranic Hearts and meridians by the age of 15 or before they were 16.
Only after that could they become a Harmoniser. To become one, they had to initiate themselves using a cultivation technique. If they didn't undergo the initiation, they remained a normal person throughout their lives. This was the case for most commoners.
Some of the soldiers or guards that had contributed a lot to their respective force would be initiated into a Harmoniser as a reward for their service. But, becoming a Harmoniser meant one had to contend against the supernatural. It was their duty, dictated by the imperial law.
The capital relayed the commands to their branch Clans in each city that then commanded the four Elemental Clans governing the respective city. The only way to grow as a Harmoniser was through performing quests on Earth, the entrance to which were controlled by the Elemental Clans in each city with limited entries per year.
Therefore, Harmonisers were bound by the rules and the missions. That was how they could grow and it was also the chains that bound them for the rest of their lives. So, the final months before they became Harmonisers was when they could be free of worries.
As they were at the age where they had completed their basic training and sought entertainment, they had sneaked out to play. Since they were from the Royal Clan, they had enough pocket money to splurge.
Truth be told, all Clans were strict in monitoring their Clansmen, preventing their bloodline from leaking into the populace. After all, nurtured within their bloodline was their Clan's respective Pranic Avatar, their symbol, and glory. If one of their Clansmen was kidnapped and made to bear the child of a commoner or plant the seeds in a commoner, it was a leak of their secrets.
Moreover, if another Clan caught notice of this, they would steal the baby and secretly nurture them within their Clan. In the future, they would use them against the source Clan and cause all sorts of problems. Moreover, having the source Clan's Pranic Avatar in their hands meant they could stop all their attacks.
To prevent such complications from arising, they had to guarantee their Clansmen were safe and monitored from external harm. That was why, even though the three girls thought they had sneaked out from their Clan, their actions were monitored all along.
To protect their safety, their mothers had moved out as a team. Unless it was a large group armed to the teeth, none could match against a team of three Harmonisers, that too from the Royal Clan.
A Harmoniser from an Elemental Clan could only use their respective element.
Some Clans cultivated two elements. But the Royal Clan cultivated all four elements. So they were capable of adapting and retaliating against any situation without any difficulties. Moreover, if they wished, they could remain in their excited states for an indefinite period, unlike Re'Kha.historical
The prime reason Re'Kha was unable to remain in the excited state of the wood element or the wind element was because they weren't elements of her race. If she remained in the state for more than ten breaths in time, her body would start to morph into a Bisheen, the race that wielded the respective elements of wind and wood.
Re'Kha hadn't yet seen the transformation, for she was unsure if she would be able to hide all traces. Based on what her master had warned, as long as she returned to her base state within 300 breaths in time, the transformation wouldn't be permanent and she would return to her original appearance.
'As to how drastic it would be, I cannot tell.' She hadn't seen a Bisheen even once. All she had seen was their paintings, but as they were standalone paintings, she couldn't get an inkling of their actual sizes.
"It's genetic that runs in our family. We age slower than the rest." Ki'Nha said, her tone containing a bit of pride. Only now did Re'Kha take a detailed glance at her, noticing that she seemed to be in her twenties.
"That's enviable," Re'Kha laughed, hearing the door get knocked a couple of times.