Hajlmar's POV

Hajlmar looked down on his wife and newborn child. He had arrived in time to see the girl's strange behavior. It was concerning. The child, now asleep, still refused to make a sound. She was small and skinnier than his other children. A thin covering of hair already grew upon her scalp. It's black, as black as the darkest cave. Her skin the color of pure snow. But it was the child's eyes that shocked him the most. They were blue, crystalline. His wife thought they looked like his, but he knew better. They were the eyes of the far North where men were said to be made more of Ice and Cold than flesh.

Sighing, Hajlmar walked out of the room. His wife was sound asleep at this point. The memory of their marriage sparked through his head. She was ten years his senior and a widow as well. It was a scandal in the south when he first courted her. The young lord of the northern reaches, a mere 20 years of age, going after the childless widow of a southern duke. Some thought that he was trying to obtain the Duchy that her late husband owned, but that was not the case. He was one of the rare few who got to marry because he truly wanted to. Not for politics or trade.

Thoughts of his oldest three daughters ran through his head. The youngest was still 8 years olders than his newest. Agreements were already being made to marry his oldest three off to other duchies in order to secure trade and assistance. It grated against his heart to do these things, but he had to. For the North. His people were already having a hard time with the recent frosts. Their crops failed and fishing streams would freeze through completely. He knew that this was unnatural. The very spirits were upset, but he knew not how to fix this.

His southern contemporaries advised him to merely hire mages of Fire and Heat. They said that the issues would be solved if he had the spirits hunted down and slaughtered. Hajlmar sighed.

This was the North. They followed the Old Ways here. The Emperor may have established the pantheon to the south ages ago, but the North was slow to change. Hajlmar couldn't help but to glance at his Titles.

Titles: Marquess of Norland, Knight Commander of Norland, Knight of the Scidian Empire, King of Heim

His throat tightened. Yes, the North is slow to change. Heim's throne has sat empty for more than a century, and yet the people still believed that they had a king. Hajlmar knew that this title was the cause of his people's hardships with the south. The Emperor himslef saw Hajlmar as a rival, despite his repeated vows of loyalty. Never once had he made a move to reclaim his ancestors' throne, but the Emperor didn't care. The fact that Hajlmar merely had the title was enough for him.

The man, thick of shoulder and adorned with long, flaxen hair, felt lost. Unbeknown to him wisps danced all around. A pair of ears, far away, heard all upon the winds. Even words left unsaid.

Hilja is her name. That took her far longer to learn than she would like to admit. She still had no idea what her name used to be. It was nothing more than a blank space in her mind. At least the child had plenty of time to run through the other memories in her head. It was all information, ranging from common math all the way to bits and pieces about nuclear fission. Not how to do it, just the process in which it functioned. The two largest groups of information were 'Magic Systems' and medieval warfare. It would seem that these two things were her main sources of enjoyment in her past life.

Sadly, due to the limitations of being merely a month old, she was unable to use any of her warfare knowledge except to cycle through it. The Magic Systems though, that she could do something with. She had two main sources, Mana and Conviction. Of the two her Conviction was quite sizable, though compared to any other newborn it was like the sun to the moon. She assumed that in other infants the points would have been placed naturally, influenced by the child's subconscious and actions, but because she happened to be able of full cognitive thought she could put the points as she pleased. And that wasn't including her two Cold related traits who each gave her 4 Attribute Points. As a result her Con and Will were absolutely monstrous compared to other infants.

And so, she decided to experiment. From what she was able to glean both Will and Int were interlocked with each other. Intelligence helped determine how much Mana and Mana Regen she had, but Willpower helped her to actually use the resource. Willpower and Conviction were both strange. Abilities powered by Conviction could be powered by either your own or something else's belief, but both drained your resource pool. You also had to have sufficient Willpower to benefir from beneficail Conviction powered abilities. Mana on the other hand didn't care. It was powered by you and you alone.

Her experiments were rather rudimentary. In almost all of these 'Systems' meditation was key. Which was perfect for her, being an infant incapable of actually moving her own body. Despite having a Strength of 2 it seemed that it was her muscles themselves that weren't developed enough to allow actual controlled movement. Thus she was physically stuck. There was little difficulty in pretending to be asleep around everyone as she attempted to meditate. Her previous knowledge didn't help her much. There was precious little about any actual meditation methods, all of which referred to eastern progression systems. From what she could see it was unlikely that she would be able to use their systems, though maybe it was a hidden tree. It would fit the trait system.

It took her another month before she finally got the hang of it. Being unable to correctly control her breathing and physical body made it difficult. Too many times her body would either cry out in hunger or defecate right before she achieved her goal. The good thing to come from those failures was that she was forced to take a break every now and then. Whenever that happened she listened and paid attention.

The wisp still danced around her. Its voice, for that was what she thought the twinkling sound was, still hadn't changed. Though she was convinced it was singing. Instead she focused on the voices of those around her. They spoke in a deep language reminiscent of Old Norse. Once she realized that her rudimentary past knowledge of the language helped her to decode what it actually meant. It also gave her two surprises:

Old Heimál (Lv 1) -- You are familiar with the language of ancient Heim. You are a descendant of ancient Heim. Your understanding of Old Heimál is more complete than others. Will be able to automatically understand different dialects of Heimál at higher levels.

Ahead of the Curve I -- You have developed a skill type far before your peers. Continue to develop more for increased bonuses. Requirements are doubled for each new tier. Grants +1 Free Attribute Point. Grants +1 Free Feat Point.

Hilja's tiny infant lungs almost caught as she read what Ahead of the Curve gave her. It also went into a new subsection of her Character Sheet called Earned Feats. They seemed to be much like Traits but didn't change her physical self as much. This discovery was what drove her to finally push for meditation.

It was several days later that she finally earned it.