Chapter 107: The Years That Were Missing

The records from Blackwood arrived two days after Green Hollow's reply. They were thicker, which was hardly surprising. Green Hollow had recorded Joe primarily as a child passing through the local Talent Hall. Blackwood had accumulated years of employment records, guard registration, workshop income, tax filings, martial assessments, and ordinary administrative documents.

None created a problem. The Montclair verification clerk confirmed Joe's identity, age, residence history, registered employment, and lack of any unresolved service agreement or sponsorship claim. Green Hollow reported no active Talent Hall obligation, while Blackwood showed no contract giving the guard, the Black family, or any other organization rights over Joe's future cultivation.

His public martial record lagged behind the Bone Completion already verified in Ashbourne, but that was neither unusual nor suspicious. Independent martial practitioners did not update official records every time their cultivation changed, particularly when doing so offered no immediate advantage.

The clerk attached both responses to the East District household's recommendation and marked the verification complete. What happened next had little to do with Joe's childhood. His file had reached Montclair during an unusual recruitment cycle, and the current facts were enough to keep it moving.

The verified profile was straightforward: Five-Attribute Spiritual Root, eighteen years old, Bone Completion, and a second tempering of Skin, Muscle, and Bone independently confirmed by an affiliated household examiner. No binding sponsor, inheritance contract, or existing claim existed on his future service.

That combination was not extraordinary by Montclair standards, but it was useful. The recruitment officer responsible for the next review group read the household assessment twice before setting it beside several other candidate files. The first recommendation from the same household was stronger on paper: Four-Attribute Root, already within Internal Organs, with years of organized training behind her. Joe's profile was less polished.

He also had three years before the next Decennial, enough time for further development to matter in the recruitment calculation.

The officer tapped the line confirming the repeated lower foundation. "He's prepared for the Acquired route."

The senior clerk beside the desk nodded. "At least structurally. He still needs Internal Organs and the third refinement."

"Of course."

The officer turned to the Root classification. A Five-Attribute Root limited how much Montclair would commit at this stage. The state had no shortage of rooted practitioners, and resources spent on one candidate could not be spent on another. But the purpose of the expanded search was not to decide final investment from a piece of paper.

It was to identify young practitioners worth examining before their potential became obvious enough that everyone else noticed it.

"Why was he submitted now?" the officer asked.

"Affiliated household found him after he arrived in Ashbourne. Their examiner verified the foundation. He's purchasing cultivation support through them."

"Independent before that?"

"As far as the records show."

The officer nodded and moved on. He did not need a detailed history of Joe's instructors, childhood medicines, or the exact date of every breakthrough. If the candidate reached a more serious stage of consideration, those questions could be asked later.

For now, the issue was simpler: was an eighteen-year-old Bone Completion practitioner with a repeated lower foundation worth evaluating directly? The answer was yes.

The officer pulled a blank authorization sheet toward him. "Move him to the annex assessment group."

The senior clerk glanced at the existing classification. "Acquired-track?"

"Keep it there."

There was no reason to invent a higher ceiling before Joe had even entered Internal Organs.

"Standard provisional support until the assessment," the officer continued. "Food and physician access can increase to annex level. No rare medicines, no private instructor allocation, and no long-term stipend."

That was still a meaningful change. The affiliated household could supply Joe well enough for ordinary cultivation, but the Montclair annex had better testing equipment, physicians accustomed to elite martial development, and standardized records that allowed candidates from different families to be compared under the same conditions.

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The senior clerk looked at the Decennial notation attached to Joe's file. "Send this to development as well?"

"Copy only. He's not being selected for anything yet."

The distinction mattered. Montclair was not declaring Joe exceptional. They were deciding that waiting until he reached Internal Organs before looking at him again would defeat the purpose of searching early.

The officer signed the authorization. "Have the notice sent to his Ashbourne address."

The file moved on. No senior member of the Montclair family saw it. No one discussed hidden genius, rare constitutions, or impossible cultivation speed. Joe Vale had simply become interesting enough to examine in person. That morning, Joe's attention was on something much smaller.

He sat in Edwin's guest room with the Montclair inheritance open on the desk beside him. For several days, he had practiced the circulation routes leading toward the first Internal Organ refinement without actually beginning it. He could now guide Blood Energy through the approach pathways without hesitation, distinguish each branch described in the manual, and withdraw the circulation cleanly before it entered the organs.

Preparation had reached the point where repeating it further would add little. Joe closed his eyes. Today he would cross the threshold. He began with the same circulation he had practiced dozens of times. Blood Energy moved through familiar channels before entering the deeper route described in the inheritance.

Joe reduced the flow before allowing it any farther. There was no reason to test how much his body could endure; the purpose of the first attempt was to understand how the organs responded.

He guided a thin current into the prescribed path. The sensation differed immediately from tempering Skin, Muscle, or Bone. There was less resistance, but that did not make the process easier. The tissues were softer, more active, and far more sensitive to small changes in pressure.

Joe completed only the first controlled portion of the circulation before withdrawing. Then he waited. His breathing remained steady. Pulse unchanged. No sharp pain followed the route, and the slight internal strain began fading almost immediately under Perfect Health. One Effort Equals a Hundred had responded as well.

The improvement was small compared with what Joe had grown accustomed to during the earlier realms, but there was no mistaking it. The valid portion of the tempering had been magnified just as his talent promised.

That was enough for the first session. Joe resisted the obvious temptation to perform another cycle. His strength was not the limiting factor, and neither was his recovery. The danger lay in assuming that faster progress removed the need to understand what repeated refinement was doing to living organs.

The inheritance was explicit about the distinction. Every later Internal Organ tempering depended upon the quality of the previous one. Damage carried forward here would matter far more than an inefficient repetition of Skin or Muscle.

Joe recorded what he had felt, the amount of Blood Energy used, the route followed, and how quickly the minor strain disappeared. Only after finishing did he close the manual and return it to its hiding place.

The first actual step into Internal Organ cultivation had taken only a few minutes. The preparation behind it had taken days. Joe preferred that balance.

Over the following days, he continued cautiously. He did not perform organ tempering every time he trained. Some sessions remained dedicated to circulation and control, while others ended after a single refinement cycle followed by observation. The household physician had given him access to regular examinations, and Joe intended to use that advantage rather than discover problems only after they became serious.

His nutritional consumption increased almost immediately. The concentrated food he had purchased through the East District household made that manageable. Instead of arranging enormous meals throughout the day, he could combine ordinary food with dense preparations designed specifically for martial recovery.

The products were not miraculous. They were simply efficient. Ashbourne had removed one of the practical limitations that would have made repeated Internal Organ cultivation extremely inconvenient in Blackwood. Joe still paid for the additional supply himself. He preferred it that way. Purchasing ordinary resources created no obligation beyond the price. Several days after his first refinement cycle, a letter arrived at Edwin's house.

Edwin brought the envelope to him shortly after lunch. "This came for you."

Joe recognized the seal immediately.

Montclair.

He wiped his hands and accepted it. Edwin remained nearby while Joe broke the seal and read. The letter was brief. His preliminary referral had been reviewed, and Montclair wanted a direct martial assessment before determining his placement within the current development pool. His provisional support authorization had also been revised. He could use the Montclair training annex in the North District, receive examinations through its medical staff, and obtain the standard nutritional allocation provided to candidates under assessment.

No rare medicines were included, and no formal sponsorship had been offered. The distinction was clear. Montclair was willing to spend enough to evaluate him properly. Nothing more.

Edwin waited until Joe finished. "What do they want?"

"A direct assessment. The household already verified the foundation. Montclair probably wants its own measurements before deciding anything else."

"And the support?"

"Better food allowance, physicians, and access to their training annex."

That drew a more interested reaction. "That's useful."

"Yes."

Useful was exactly the right word. The East District family had already shown Joe what organized martial support looked like. A Montclair facility would let him see what the state considered appropriate for candidates being prepared beyond ordinary local standards.

More importantly, the assessment would tell him how much of his public strength he needed to reveal next. The household had seen twofold Skin, Muscle, and Bone. Montclair would expect at least the same. There was no reason to offer more until Joe understood what additional disclosure would purchase.

He placed the letter beside the training notes he had made that morning. Ashbourne continued to work differently from Blackwood. In Blackwood, hiding strength had usually cost him nothing. Here, carefully revealing the right amount opened doors. The challenge was determining where to stop.

Joe looked once more at the Montclair seal. The answer would begin at the North District annex.