Chapter 332: What He Can Actually Find

Chapter 332: What He Can Actually Find

The Mistwing Kestrel egg was the best thing in the shop, and Jin knew that before he had finished reading it.

[Mistwing Kestrel — Egg]

[Quality: Silver (High)]

[Affinity: Wind]

[Condition: Healthy]

He checked for the unusual Core structure that might indicate hidden potential.

There wasn’t one. It was a healthy Silver (High) kestrel egg, fairly priced, correctly labeled, from a breeder whose license hung on the wall behind the counter.

"Beautiful clutch, that," the shopkeeper said. "You looking for yourself?"

"For my sister."

"Wind?" The man brightened. "Then that’s your bird. Can’t do better at the price."

He was right. Jin thanked him and left.

He had told Elsa last night that he wouldn’t mind her choosing another academy. He’d miss her, of course, but they still had months together before she enrolled. She had leaned against his shoulder until Elena called them for dinner.

This morning, he had told his family he was going shopping, without mentioning eggs. Elsa had already walked away from an egg she liked because he’d asked her to. He wasn’t going to drag her round the commercial district again on the strength of a feeling. If he found something, she could come and see it. If he didn’t, she never needed to know he’d looked.

He’d set himself rules, too, because Dr. Alcott wasn’t the only one who could write a shortlist. Three suppliers and the Friday market. A bench between each. Home by two.

The second supplier had a Gold (Low) Duskpaw Lynx egg marked down by a third, and for about ten seconds Jin’s pulse picked up.

[Duskpaw Lynx — Egg]

[Quality: Gold (Low)]

[Condition: Viable — late clutch, reduced vigor]

The seller had written it on the card in her own hand: Laid late in season. Hatch rate lower than usual. Priced accordingly. She was honest. The appraisal agreed with her in every detail.

The third supplier had nothing with a wind affinity at all. The market had two dozen cases of eggs and a man selling "rare storm beasts" out of a crate that Jin’s appraisal identified, one after another, as common Bronze rock finches with dye on their shells. He walked past that one quickly.

By one-thirty, he was sitting on a bench outside a noodle stall with his legs aching in the deep, stupid way they did now, and he let himself admit it.

There was nothing here.

His appraisal had read every egg clearly. What he had found with Glitch — and later with Flicker — was rare enough that most people never saw it. Finding overlooked potential took more than being able to recognize it. The right beast had to be there in the first place.

I wanted to find hers, he thought. That’s all it was.

He’d imagined bringing Elsa back to a shop, pointing out an egg, and watching her face when he explained what it could become. He’d been looking forward to that part far too much.

But Elsa didn’t need him to uncover a hidden bloodline. It was a Gold (Peak) fox bred for wind, with a hall full of wind instructors behind it. Elsa could raise it, train it, and grow into it without ever needing a secret talent she didn’t know her brother had.

She already had a better start available than the one he’d hoped to find for her. He ought to be pleased about it.

He finished the noodles and went home by two.

His own results had come back on Friday.

[Hemoglobin: low-normal]

[Transfusion: no longer indicated]

[Follow-up: 2 weeks]

His doctor had looked pleased, and then careful. "This is good. I’m stopping the transfusions. But you’re still going to tire quickly, and I still can’t tell you why this happened." She had tapped the file. "If it drops again, I want to know the same day."

Jin had promised. He’d meant it.

He still logged into the Engine that evening, because banking progress on a safe route was the kind of thing he could do lying down. The quarry rim. Worker patrols so far beneath the avatars that the fighting was barely a formality. He kept both avatars on the familiar route for twenty minutes, withdrawing before the harder patrols. The growth could stay banked; he had no intention of attempting a Sync while either of them was still recovering.

[Session complete.]

[Coins banked.]

[Accumulated development: banked]

He closed it with most of the evening left. It was becoming a habit, and he didn’t entirely hate it.

Glitch walked fifty-three meters on Saturday morning without stopping.

He did it in the covered exercise lane behind the medical annex, with Dr. Alcott at the far end holding a tablet and a veterinary technician walking alongside with one hand hovering near his shoulder. His gait was even. His breathing stayed steady. At the end of the lane he turned around carefully and looked at Jin with an expression that plainly said he could do it again, and further, and would like to be allowed to.

"No," Jin told him.

Glitch’s tail swept the floor in disapproval. After weeks of restricted movement, he clearly objected to being made to stop just when he was enjoying himself.

The assessment took the rest of the morning. Core imaging, which involved Glitch lying very still inside a ring of sensor plates while the technician fed him dried beetles to make it worth his while. Load response, which meant watching how his channels behaved after a short uphill walk. Blood panels. A long quiet stretch in which Dr. Alcott simply looked at the images and made notes.

When she was done, she turned the screen toward Jin.

"This is what he looked like when I first saw the file." She pointed to an image washed with angry color along the energy channels branching from his Core. "And this is today."

The color was still there. It was fainter and patchier, and whole stretches had faded back to normal.

"Better," Jin said.

"Much better. Regeneration’s done real work, and so have you, keeping him quiet." She zoomed in on a region near the shoulders, where the color lingered. "But this is residual strain. It’s where he’s carrying the extra load. Rest has helped, but the remaining weakness needs support before we consider anything strenuous."

Alcott opened the material shortlist and selected the second entry.

"The channel-conditioning resource. It’s called Stillwater Tonic. A course of small doses over six weeks, mixed into his feed, supervised." She tapped the shortlist from two weeks ago. "It supports recovery in the channels, and over time it helps them tolerate more load without damage. Nothing dramatic. It’s slow by design."

"It won’t take the strain away."

"This course won’t remove the extra skill’s burden. It should help him carry the load more safely." She looked at him steadily. "And I want to be very clear about one thing. If he tolerates the first doses, that means his body accepts the tonic. It doesn’t mean he’s ready for training. That semifinal enhancement remains out of the question during recovery. Later decisions need later assessments, not guesses about how strong he might become."

"Understood."

Alcott studied him. "You say that quickly."

"I watched him do it," Jin said. "I understand."

Alcott nodded. "Do you want to use your reward entitlement for the course?"

Jin glanced toward Glitch, who was nudging the technician’s empty beetle pouch. He had pictured choosing a breakthrough resource when the reward was first announced. That could wait.

"Yes. The full course, please."

She submitted the selection with her recommendation. Jin saved the treatment schedule and checked which visits he needed to attend. He wanted to be there for the first dose.

On Sunday, Flicker decided Glitch needed company in the exercise lane.

She rode his horn ridge until the technician called the prescribed rest, then hopped down to investigate his resting mat. Once he was cleared for the short walk back, she flew to its far end and faced him with her wings half-spread, waiting.

Glitch walked toward her with enormous dignity. When he reached her, he lowered his head until his nose was level with her, and she pecked him once, precisely, on the snout.

The technician laughed out loud.

Jin’s phone buzzed while he was still grinning.

[Harlow & Pike Licensed Hatchery — on behalf of Elemental Academy]

[The Galecrest Fox egg matched to Elsa Astor has arrived and cleared our intake checks. Inspection may be arranged at your convenience.]

Jin read it and felt his grin settle into something quieter.

He sent the message to Elsa and booked Monday morning. A moment later, her reply arrived.

Can we go early? I don’t want them waiting for us.

Jin smiled at the screen. Tomorrow, they would finally see whether the egg was as good as Elemental claimed.