Chapter 137: MORE OF ITSELF

Aiden spent the following days training against the dead tree. Once he could land Shadow Step, Acid Weave, and Solar Plexus together reliably, he took the pack deeper into the fen after breakfast.

He wanted to know if he could do it against something that moved.

The waterways widened as they went. Black water ran between banks crowded with reeds, fungus, and exposed roots.

Small six-legged things skimmed across the surface without breaking it, while something broad and flat moved beneath the peat near the bank and vanished when Cinder passed.

Aiden kept Perception down. Today he wasn’t looking for a better training ground.

His beasts already knew how to fight together. He was trying to catch up, or at least learn how to fit himself into their formation.

"When we find a wild beast, fight normally," he said. "Don’t wait for me. I’m going to try to work around you."

Cinder’s ears rose immediately.

Aiden pointed at her. "That doesn’t mean run off and find the biggest thing in the swamp."

Her tail started wagging.

"Wonderful."

Miasma glanced back at him, then continued through the reeds. Nyx’s pale eyes curved before she disappeared beneath the bank.

They found tracks on a rise farther north. Four-toed prints crossed the mud and disappeared into the reeds. Whatever made them was heavy.

Miasma stopped beside one print, studied it, then turned left.

Aiden followed without asking.

A few minutes later, she raised her spines.

The plants shook once, then split apart.

A hound came through.

Aiden recognized it immediately. Long and low, with a heavy body and dark, soaked hide that stank of standing water.

Last time one of you put me in the mud. Let’s see if I’ve learned anything.

The hound paused when it saw Cinder. Fire ran along her shoulders, and she was already staring at it like she’d been waiting all morning to burn something.

The hound showed its fangs toward Aiden instead, deciding whether to run or take a bite out of him first.

"Of course. Pick the human."

Cinder growled.

"I know. It’s already weighing how much meat it’ll get from me."

The hound began to circle him, water curling around its teeth and hardening into spiraling spikes. Miasma moved left through the reeds, keeping her body low. Nyx disappeared completely.

"Give me the first opening," he told Cinder. "If I’m still unbearably bad, do whatever you want."

Cinder looked much happier with the second half of that sentence.

Miasma burst out of the reeds just as the hound charged.

A spine almost sliced through the hound’s cheek, forcing it to turn.

Now.

Aiden used Shadow Step. He came out beside its shoulder and swung a thread of Acid Weave toward its ribs.

The hound twisted away.

The thread missed.

Its jaws snapped at his arm before he could pull back. Aiden jerked aside and felt teeth slam an inch from his face.

Damn it. The tree never dodged.

The hound twisted after him and caught Aiden in the chest with its shoulder.

Aiden staggered through the mud, cursing himself for his joke. Before the beast could attack again, Cinder stepped into its path.

The hound recoiled, ready to run, but stopped when Cinder didn’t attack. Its attention returned to Aiden.

"Thanks."

Cinder struck the ground with one paw, then moved aside.

"Again, properly this time. Sure."

This time Aiden stopped watching for the perfect moment to use his three traits. Miasma wasn’t waiting for one. Neither was Cinder. They were watching the beast and reacting to what it actually did.

So he did the same.

Miasma moved farther left.

The hound turned to keep her in sight.

Nyx burst from the hound’s shadow and jumped straight at its face.

The hound stopped looking at Miasma. It bit Nyx, the water spikes drilling through her body.

Aiden wasn’t afraid for her.

Neither was Miasma. She fired as Nyx slipped through the hound’s jaw like a shadow. The spine struck its front shoulder.

Growling, the hound recoiled toward Aiden.

There.

He Shadow Stepped right beside it.

Acid Weave cut across the wounded shoulder the moment he arrived. Solar Plexus flared through his hand and set the acidic thread ablaze.

The smell of burned hide hit him first. He kept the joke to himself this time and jumped aside as the howling beast threw itself at him.

The hound stumbled past Aiden, caught itself, and tried to turn toward Miasma.

Cinder blocked that path. Nyx waited behind the hound, her pale eyes curved, while Miasma slipped through the reeds into its blind spot.

For the first time, Aiden understood what the three of them had been doing.

They weren’t giving him an opening. They were taking away the hound’s other choices.

He moved before it found another one.

Shadow Step was still on cooldown, so Aiden whipped another burning thread of Acid Weave across the hound’s back.

The hound screamed and crashed into the reeds. It struggled back to its feet, but its injured front leg buckled and it dropped again. It looked at Cinder, then Miasma, then the place where Nyx had vanished again.

Cinder took one step toward it, her fiery mane already dancing.

"Let it go."

She looked at Aiden.

"We came into its territory looking for a fight. We won. That’s enough."

The hound got the message, and Cinder watched it limp into the fog. Once it was gone, she bumped into Aiden.

"You wanted me to learn how to fight. I didn’t say you were going to enjoy the lesson."

He laughed and wiped mud from his coat.

That’s Synergy.

Different from the Academy’s version, but the start of his own.

Nyx appeared beside him and looked at the muddy pocket where he kept their dried meat.

"Don’t even try."

Her eyes curved.

"You haven’t earned anything."

Cinder made that suspicious laughing sound again.

"I didn’t either. That’s why I’m not eating. Alright, we’re leaving before all three of you become unbearable."

On the way back, Nyx stopped beside one of the darker waterways.

Aiden walked several steps before noticing she was no longer beside him. He turned and found her beneath a bank where thick roots blocked most of the daylight.

Aiden brought up Perception.

Void Fragments filled the space, drifted toward her, and disappeared into her body. She moved deeper beneath the roots and stood there while the Void Fragments continued gathering around her.

I knew you were eating every time you stared at my wall as if it owed you money. I was joking, though.

Eventually, Nyx slipped back out from beneath the roots.

Her shadow spread wider than usual across the mud before slowly drawing back beneath her.

Aiden crouched beside her.

"Found another good spot?"

Nyx pressed her head into his hand.

"I’ll take that as yes."

Her eyes moved toward his pocket.

"I didn’t mean for that. You’re getting paid better than I am..."

Nyx leaned harder into his hand.

Aiden sighed. "Alright, after we’re back."

She Shadow Stepped toward the camp, and he followed her.

After handing a victorious Nyx a piece of dried meat, he left the pack at camp and went to see the keeper.

She was cleaning roots beside her fire when he arrived. Aiden sat across from her and waited until she finished the one in her hand.

"Nyx found a pocket of Void Fragments on her own today. She stayed there absorbing them until her shadow started changing."

The keeper dropped the cleaned root into a bowl.

"And you’re wondering why."

"I’m wondering if she’s just getting better at finding food, or if she’s looking for something specific to evolve."

"Then stop looking like you’ve found a new disease. Tamers know about evolution. Most just don’t bother doing it the hard way. If you have the money, you buy a bloodline that already hatches strong. Raising a beast’s lineage first, then finding what it needs to evolve, can take years.

"Wild beasts don’t get that choice. Most never evolve. Some spend decades finding what they need. Others centuries. They have to raise what they were born with, then find the right conditions to go further."

The keeper picked up another root.

"They get hungry for what they need before an evolution. Sometimes food. Sometimes a place. Sometimes both. If Nyx is looking for deeper dark on her own, let her find it."

"That long?"

He knew why most tamers didn’t bother. Evolutions could fail if the catalyst wasn’t potent enough or the particle density was too low. The beast would then die, and the tamer’s investment would be wasted.

I guess I’m one of the few idiots still doing it the hard way. All because Miasma found that Vesperian heart. Thank you, partner.

The keeper scraped dirt from the next root before continuing.

"What do you think? Evolution builds on what’s already there. A fire beast comes back with more fire. Poison gets worse. A beast built for speed gets faster." She dropped the root into the bowl. "Your shadow beast is feeding on Void. Expect more Void."

"More of herself."

"Exactly."

Aiden nodded. Then he’d help Nyx find deeper dark.

"That’s all I needed."

The keeper pointed the dirty root at him. "Then go help her."

Aiden left.

Miasma was waiting halfway back to camp.

She followed him silently. Aiden told her anyway.

"The keeper thinks Nyx is getting close to an evolution."

No reaction.

"You could at least pretend this is new information."

Miasma glanced at him once.

"Right. Of course you knew."

Nyx was lying beside the dead tree when they reached camp. Cinder had taken the warmer ground near the fire, leaving enough space between them for Aiden to sit.

Miasma crossed directly to Nyx and settled beside her instead. She looked at her for a moment, then closed her eyes.

Nyx looked back, then rested against Miasma’s side.

Aiden sat beside Cinder, and she immediately nudged him.

He played with her until Nyx opened one pale eye and looked at him.

Then at his pocket.

"Absolutely shameless."

He threw her a piece of dried meat.

She caught it before it touched the ground.

Cinder immediately jumped on him, making him fall.

"Fine." Aiden reached into the bag again. "Apparently everyone gets paid now."

Cinder’s tail started wagging.

Across the fire, Miasma opened one eye.

He looked at the last piece in his hand.

"...Fine."