Later, while he was bandaging Keoran's arm, the old mage apologized again, saying he had been rude to someone so remarkable.
Turan rejected that. He said he was no one special, just a shepherd who did not even know his own father, and asked him to stop treating him that way.
Even so, Keoran insisted on understanding why someone with so much power would choose to live as a shepherd, and Turan explained that it had been his mother's request. She feared the nobles below the mountain. She believed that if they ever discovered his ability, they would only use him.
Keoran agreed that his mother had been wise. Great power inevitably brings conflict, he said, and then he spoke about a war that had happened around twenty years earlier, between the Badal Arabian family, whom he served, and House Zahar.
He recalled that thousands had died in that war, including some nine hundred knights from his own house, nearly a third of their forces. Among them were people close to him. His friend Denver, who dreamed of opening a laundry shop. His teacher Hartman, who was always correcting him. His own wife and his own son. All of them were killed in that conflict, and he was the sole survivor of his squad.
Because of that, he acknowledged that Turan's mother had been right to fear such a fate, since a knight's life could be lost so meaninglessly.
Even so, he pointed out that there was something she had been mistaken about. Turan's talent was not ordinary. It was not merely the talent of a skilled knight, but something far greater. He stated that Turan's potential was, at the very least, at the level of a noble, and possibly among the most talented of them.
Turan commented that his mother had always said his father was a knight, which left him confused. He wondered aloud whether that might have been a lie.
Keoran explained that in rare cases a child can be born with less talent than a knight even when they come from a noble family — or the opposite, that someone can be born with more talent than a noble despite coming from knights.
With that in mind, he said it might be better for Turan to leave that hill and go out into the world, because humanity still needed more knights and more nobles. They had not yet fully mastered this world.
He continued. In the past, he said, the ancient races were driven out, and they are still waiting for a chance to reclaim the power they had at their peak. And yet, instead of seeking evolution, enlightenment or magic, the nobles and the knights keep fighting among themselves, spilling their own blood. That was why, in Keoran's view, this era needed people like Turan.
Then he asked whether the boy was truly satisfied living as a simple shepherd.
Turan asked what he could gain by going down the mountain.
Keoran replied that it depended on what he desired — whether it was wealth, fame, power, or even things like family and friendship. Living isolated in a place like this, he explained, made it difficult to obtain any of them.
He said Turan could imagine himself traveling the world, defeating the beasts that threaten people, becoming an explorer in unknown lands, or even being adopted by a noble family and following the path of power.
As Turan walked him outside the house, he remarked that hearing all of that, it sounded far more interesting than tending sheep. For the first time he was truly curious about the world beyond.
Keoran, for his part, felt somewhat concerned that he might have created too many expectations in the boy. Still, he said he would be rooting for him.
Then he asked what the boy's lineage ability was, saying he should have asked that earlier.
Turan had no idea what that meant, so Keoran apologized and explained. Lineage abilities are traits inherited from ancestors, from the Fraisians, and this is what usually separates nobles from knights. He asked whether the boy had any spell that was unusually easy for him to use, or any surprising ability.
Turan suggested that perhaps he was just physically strong, but Keoran explained that that did not count, since any noble or knight has enhanced strength thanks to mana.
So the boy said that he had a keen sense of smell, and that he was skilled at throwing stones.
Keoran replied that this could indeed be considered a trait, since proficiency with thrown weapons is common among the Badal Arabian, though not particularly rare.
After hearing more details, he began to grow slightly concerned, and remarked that Turan's abilities resembled those of the great house known as the Hunters — House Zahar. Which was precisely the family he had fought against in the war.
That made Turan uncomfortable. He might be connected to the enemy house of a veteran of that war, and he did not know how to react. He even wondered whether he ought to apologize, despite having no relation to it at all.
Keoran told him to stop making that worried expression. He himself had not even taken part in the war, he said, and such matters were for adults. He commented that if people keep trying to repay blood with blood, conflicts will never end.
Even so, Turan asked whether he did not regret suggesting that he go down the hill.
Keoran admitted that yes, there was such a risk, because if Turan sought power, he would likely end up joining House Zahar. Still, he said he trusted the boy's character, recalling that Turan had saved him even while knowing the secret he carried. To Keoran, if someone like this were to reach a high position within House Zahar, he might even prevent a war like the previous one.
In the end, he said there was no need to think too much about it right now.
Even so, Turan stated that his mind was already made up. He wanted to go down the mountain — but only after Keoran's wound had healed.
Keoran found that kind, and recognized that he truly was a good person.