Elane squirmed in her seat for a moment.

Despite building herself up to it, hearing the question actually come out of Rohan’s mouth seemed to have worked up her nerves again.

However, when she considered the fact that Rohan had just told her about his own unbelievable talent, her nervousness died down. ’If he can do it, I can too!’

"My talent..." She began, stopping herself before she could continue.

Rohan waited patiently, as he understood well just how much courage it would take to reveal such a private thing about oneself. One thing for certain was that he wouldn’t have even considered telling Elane about his if it weren’t for the fact that she’d already caught on due to desperate measures being taken in the Spike Beast gate, as well as the the existence of the oaths quite literally sealing the deal between the two of them.

If it weren’t for those two things, he definitely would have waited until much later to talk about it. But as they both understood, it was the only thing he could do in the situation they faced against Liam.

The only options were to partially reveal his talent to Elane so that he could evolve her bow, or die at Liam’s hands.

However, when Rohan noticed that Elane was still hesitating and squirming in her seat, he started to grow concerned. "What’s wrong?" He asked her.

"Well... you see, the thing is... I’m a bit abnormal, like yourself..."

Elane eventually chirped out, mumbling the words out so quietly that Rohan could only understand half of what she said.

But all that he did hear was enough to catch his attention.

"How so?" He asked, brow raised and curiosity piqued by now. For Elane to act like this despite him revealing his Evolution Gene to her, whatever she was struggling to say must be a big deal.

"I... don’t have a talent."

"What? What do you mean? You said earlier that you did." Okay, at this point Rohan was starting to get a bit peeved. Which was it then? Did she have one, or did she not?

’But she swore her oath on it, so surely she does, right? Otherwise it would have been invalidated.’

He held his frustration down while he let her continue.

"... I have two."

"..."

"..."

"Huh!???" Rohan blurted out in shock.

That was not what he was expecting to hear. Not even remotely. Two talents?? Two unique genes that she’d awakened with? Rohan had never heard of anything like it!

Then again, just like himself, this was something that you would definitely want to keep hidden to not bring so much attention to yourself. Elane made a wise choice hiding this fact so well from everyone that not even he suspected it until she had to spell it out for him.

’Once again I’m learning just how unreliable the publicly available information is. The deeper I explore and learn of the Origin Realm and the wider world of Awakened as a whole, the less I trust the government to be truthful with us.’

For one moment, he genuinely thought he’d misheard her. But at this point in his life, where his hearing was boosted due to being an Awakened, there was a low possibility of that.

Especially since Elane’s expression — cheeks red, eyes flicking away in awkwardness, and fingers nervously twiddling and twisting together in her lap — told him that, no, he’d heard her just fine.

She really did just say that she had two talents.

Rohan leaned back in his seat and stared at her.

"...Two?"

How could he not have to reconfirm with her after such a revelation?

Elane gave a tiny nod, looking like she wanted the floor to swallow her whole. Now she understood what Rohan was going through the whole time she suspected him after he returned her bow as an Elite tier.

"Yes."

"That’s... a thing."

"Apparently so..."

His question came out stupider than he’d intended, but he couldn’t help it. Awakened all over the Federation treated talents like singular gifts, and not all Awakened had one. Some were ordinary, while others were extraordinary like his own. But unlike his own, all of the other known ones fell under the ten well documented categories that, supposedly, all talents followed.

’Which I’m living proof that that assumption is wrong.’

Reading Rohan’s face like a book, Elane huffed a little, gaining some courage of her own after seeing his astonishment.

"I told you I was abnormal."

Rohan dragged a hand down his face.

"...Yeah, you don’t say. First a natural Awakening, and now this. Just how much more different can you get?"

Elane looked equal parts flustered and vindicated at finally getting it off her chest.

"Well, now you know."

Rohan was still staring at her as if she’d suddenly sprouted a third hand, which, at this point he wouldn’t be shocked by.

"Okay," he said slowly. "Start from the beginning, because I feel like I’ve just been hit ijn the face with a brick."

Elane laughed, letting out a chuckle.

She straightened her posture, then finally spoke properly.

"My first talent is just called the Enhanced Senses Gene."

Rohan blinked.

"That’s simpler than I expected."

But it did make sense when he thought about it. Her choice to be an archer, her scouting abilities being much better than his own. At first, he just put her better senses down to her being trained from a young age to be an archer or scout, as even from the beginning he could tell that her background was nothing like his own.

Elane gave him a flat look.

"Not everything needs a flashy name like Evolution Gene."

Rohan coughed into his fist.

’Fair enough...’

Still, he gestured for her to continue, now much more focused than before.

"It does what it sounds like," she said. "My sight, hearing, smell, balance, reaction to movement — basically every sense you can think of is sharper than normal. And when I actively push it, those senses become even stronger again."

Rohan nodded. He expected that. Though he did start to notice a reoccurring pattern. ’Do all talent names just give away their effects?’

First his Evolution gene, which was a no brainer, and now Elane’s Enhanced Senses Gene.

What next, the Especially Strong Legs Gene? 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"So that explains why you’re such a good shot." Rohan muttered.

Elane’s brow twitched.

"I worked hard to get to that point — not everything was handed to me by my talent."

Rohan felt a pang in his chest.

’Why does that feel suspiciously directed at me?’

Moving on, he let her continue explaining.

"What about your second talent?"