Veyne waits on his knee as Monk Kiastu lights various incense candles around his hut. On the large carpet he's kneeling on, a magic circle is woven into the fabric.
"So young man, what is it that brings you to this humble village?"
"Well, actually you are the one I came here to see. I seek your wisdom, and hope that you can perform the aptitude ritual on me."
"I see, so yet another traveler is here for me and my abilities. Very well I will grant you your wish and tell you of your affinity."
Kiastu kneels across the carpet in front of Veyne and takes a deep breath in. This is Veyne's first time seeing the old man's face under the hood. The monk is heavily burnt all over and is even missing an eye.
"What happened to you?"
"Ah, just something from my youth. Wrong place at the wrong time. I was a part of an experimental expedition to a dead dungeon in the eastern wetlands. Our goal was to artificially reawaken the dungeon, making it a new breeding ground of monsters. My job was to assess any new monsters who may possess magical abilities. One did and shortly after posting our findings, a high ranking Realmforger burnt the place to the ground with his three headed dragon and took the monster for his own experiments."
Veyne looks at the old man, surprised that they had technically met once before. However he doesn't feel any guilt about what happened whatsoever. Furthermore, he does not even remember that monster or which experiment he used it for.
"Wrong place at the wrong time indeed."
Kiastu raises his brow at Veynes' indifference to his story but shrugs it off as just a young man's impatience.
"Well whatever it was, there is no use in staying mad about past transgressions, I doubt I could even do anything about it if faced with the opportunity to get revenge... Anyway, I'm sure you didn't come here to listen to my old tales. I will start the ritual now. Please bow your head and clear your mind."
Veyne follows the monk's instructions and bows his head. Kiastu struggles back up onto his feet and reaches forward. His hand hovering over Veyne's head. He closes his eye and starts to quietly chant.
The magic circle on the ground lights up the room with a green glow. Kiastu's hand making contact with Veynes' head as it does so.
"Show me your power!"
Veyne finds himself in the same shadowy plain as in his knightmares. He hears behind him the confused voice of the monk.
"Where are we? The ritual usually takes me to your inner mind. This had never happened to me before."
Not wishing for the monk to discover his secret, Veyne calls out to him.
"Kiastu we need to leave now!"
The same echoing voice that haunts Veyne' nightmares speaks out from the shadows.
"Fool! Having to seek out help from weaklings is just embarrassing. If you just embrace your true nature you'll be far better off."
Veyne's old self shows himself to both of them. He clicks his fingers at the monk and eight jagged black blades appear and stab into him. Effortlessly ripping his limbs off and tearing up his insides. Falling to the ground and coughing up blood, Kiastu looked up before fading away, with utter horror in his eye.
"Be gone ant! I wish to talk to my spineless self."
As he says that, Kiastu is bisected down the middle by a boney shark fin moving underground.
"What do you want with me? Why did you hijack the ritual?!"
"Hijack you say? I think you fail to realise that I am you. Wherever your mind is transported, I will be there. Whenever you dream, I will be there. If you look inside, I will be there."
Veyne doesn't say anything. Instead, he just stares down his old self.
"What nothing to say this time?"
"I-I already know."
"Then why don't you give in to me more often and I'll stop making things difficult for you. I'll even tell you about your affinity."
Veyne's sighs.
"Fine, we can come up with some sort of deal but only if you promise not to harm Nifily."
"Your new pet… Fine, I'll let her live if only to make you suffer more when she dies."
The old Veyne disappears into a foggy mist after they discuss the private terms of a deal, and once they agree Veyne wakes back up in the monk's hut. Behind him, already awake and panting, Kiastu stands with his hands and back against the wall.
"W-what was he doing there?! Who are you really?"
Veyne slowly rises to his feet and lifts his head. Kiastu immediately feels the difference within Veyne and can see the change physically manifest into a permanent black streak of hair hanging from the right side of his head.
"So you really are him… Your Veyne Moregrove. Why are you he- No the details don't matter, just leave now and never return!"
The air in the room starts to swell around as the monk readies himself for battle.
"I'll never help the likes of you! Evil men have no place here!"
He claps his frail hands together and causes a large gust of wind that blows away Veyne as well as a large chunk of his own wall out and into the mud beneath them.
Monk Kiastu runs to the edge and looks down while reading a ball on wind in his hand. He looks around for any signs of Veyne emerging from the bog. With his other hand he clasps two of his fingers together and casts detect.
Mere seconds pass and Kiastu can see no magic emanating from below. His eye opens in realisation but it's too late.
From above, Veyne leaps down piercing the monk's neck from behind with his skeletal arm. Blood flowing down his bones as it slips further and further in.
"It is done. Now tell me my magic affinity."
Kiastu's head painfully shakes as he forces his body to turn and look his killer in the eyes. Gurgling blood as he tries to respond.
"Grr-I'll gever tell you gshit…"
Veyne lowers his head so it's next to the monk's ear and announces.
"I wasn't talking to you!"
And as he says that, he rips out his arm from the old man and lets him fall face first into the mud below.
When he does, a smiling visage of his old self appears behind him, and whispers.
"Looks like your magic aptitude is… 'Beast Wake.' Have fun learning."
He fades away again, leaving Veyne alone… Once again.