Vernisha just realized something. She had asked the monster to use 50%, then 65% ether.

  What she had actually meant was for the skills to consume a percentage of their usual cost.

  She liked that it understood what she meant. Still, to be safe, she figured she should start being more technical.

  She reflected on what she’d done so far, wondering if she’d made a mistake in her theories. If she had, she could end up in a bad spot during a fight.

  She began tapping her chin. Honestly, she wished she had a notebook to jot down stuff like this.

  She wodnered, could that be a feature of the System?

  “System. Can you take notes for me?”

  That’s a locked feature/life buff.

  What a pain in the ass. Imagine there being a second-life life buff, but she had to accept death because it was locked.

  Vernisha sighed. She wondered if this was like having to die because you couldn’t afford surgery.

  Something for future her to worry about.

  She gave Forwing the go-ahead. “Use [Sonic Screech] at 60% power. By ‘power,’ I mean the amount of ether required to activate the skill.”

  It circled, then snapped its beak open. She braced herself for the screech.

  …There was a small sound, but nothing else.

  Sigh. She absorbed Forwing back to give her mind a rest.

  It could only use that skill at full power twice. She assumed that their ether capacity grew as they leveled up.

  Hm… As they acquired more powerful skills, the ether required to use them would also increase.

  Damn it.

  However, that also meant weaker skills would become more usable, and potentially more powerful, since she could demand more ether be put into them.

  She smiled at that.

  She began marching up and down, thinking about what she knew of monsters. She had to memorize this stuff.

  Monsters are four times stronger than a vlandos of the same level. Maybe she should add an average to that.

  On average, they’re four times stronger. If humans could be born stronger or weaker than others, the same could be applied to monsters.

  Next. Ferzan must’ve made a mistake saying Crusbull is an Earth and Body monster.

  So far, it had only displayed Earth and Null skills. The new skill seemed like a Body skill… but only having one Body skill at level 20?

  That didn’t make sense.

  It was similar with Forwing, who only possessed a single Wind skill, whereas Aquaren had multiple Water skills.

  So, she believed monsters might obtain skills similar to the ones used by monsters they resemble—even if they didn’t share the same attribute.

  That would explain Forwing’s case. It could also be that the monster’s parent was of another attribute.

  [Wind Blade] just didn’t seem like a skill specific to birds, so she didn’t consider it a racial skill.

  So her theory about monster parents made some sense.

  What else… Monsters could obtain greater forms. How? She wasn’t sure yet.

  Oh, right. She had Crusbull use [Earth Armor] before she made it use [Muscle Massceleration]. So the muscle skill didn’t demand 49% ether.

  She needed to find out how much ether [Earth Armor] used. But the muscle skill seemed to consume a lot. She’d bet its limit was still only twice.

  She mumbled the rest about ether and skills. Once she was done, she turned towards the waterfall.

  Since she couldn’t see squat, she was relying on her ears.

  Whatever. She thought about the cave and securing it. She was no longer worried about weekly flooding since it seemed the guy she killed actually lived here.

  She assumed he had cleared it out.

  Her next worry was being discovered. She almost grunted—then she remembered her new monster had a tunneling skill.

  Ha…

  She touched her head and healed it, which cost 40% of her energy. Again, these percentages were just rough estimates.

  She couldn’t actually measure it.

  Her black seal glowed, and the metallic scorpion took form.

  She stared at the creature.

  Why weren’t small monsters as creepy-looking as bigger ones?

  Maybe that was a good thing for her. It would probably put her under more strain. Or not, a bigger body didn’t mean a complex brain.

  Then she had another thought. Perhaps the mental strain wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

  If physical strain made her stronger, mental strain should make her brain stronger.

  Or it could make it go splat.

  She thought about the Life buff that gave her greater mental focus.

  She wondered… why did they have access to features like Communication Line and mod points, but had to purchase Life buffs—extra System features?

  Then a random thought struck her. Could the System not afford to give such powers to everyone? So it forced them to meet requirements?

  Okay, that was a dumb thought. If anything, it was probably to motivate vlandos to grow stronger.

  Like rewarding children if they excel at schoolwork.

  I mean, it was working on her.

  She put those thoughts away.

  She began to test this monster’s powers. “Melorpion, show me your [Metal Venom].”

  The tip of its tail swayed and began secreting a silver, metallic liquid.

  Launch it. Try to send it forward.

  It just stabbed the air, sending droplets of venom only inches forward.

  No range…

  She summoned Forwing and had Melorpion create venom again.

  This time, she ordered Forwing to hit the metal venom with [Wind Blade].

  The [Wind Blade] caught the venom and sent it flying to the wall.

  She smiled to herself. She didn’t make a bad investment, indeed.

  Wait—she suddenly had a horrible thought, thinking the entire cave was going to turn into metal.

  The metal venom on the rocks began to slowly spread. She put an end to it by having Forwing break off the infected rocks.

  She magined using [Snakes of Water] with [Metal Venom!]

  No, no, not just that.

  Vernisha had another genius idea and made Melorpion and Forwing return to her seal. Then she sat down and waited an hour for Crusbull to recover enough ether for what she had in mind.

  For that hour, she only lay on the ground. When she felt an hour had passed, she waited another half hour.

  Anyway, she got up and summoned Crusbull.

  Back when she fought the slave, she had commanded [Earth Armor] as Crusbull was materializing, which led her to believe most of the black flash was hidden.

  Her forcing it to materialize in the palm of her hand was probably what made the skill usage possible.

  She quickly got [Earth Armor], then she summoned Melorpion.

  [Metal Venom] was to be gently applied to the armor.

  The venom hit her chest piece and began to spread over the rocks.

  Because it didn’t pierce the armor, it should have only affected the armor.

  If she felt anything weird, she would get the armor off her, cut off the affected area, and heal it.

  When the venom had finished turning her into iron man, she tried to move.

  She couldn’t. Fuck.

  But at least it only affected the armor.

  Crusbull. Hit her till this was cracked.

  And so it did. And so it hurt. After it was done, she absorbed it, to spare her brain. She didn’t need to become Broken.

  She tried again, but this time… she experimented with the ether percentage, since she doubted it knew how much venom it needed to only metalize a small part of her.

  She summoned Crusbull and commanded another [Earth Armor]… but Crusbull didn’t have the ether for it.

  It went back into her seal.

  So she decided to wait another hour. At least she learned something—she had to be super careful with her monster's expenditure.

  That, and she probably had to wait four hours for it to fully recover its ether.

  So while its ether capacity had most likely grown, the rate at which it absorbed ether from the air had not. Or maybe it grew at a slower rate. Or maybe skills scaled with levels to an extent.

  No, skills did scale. Like Aquaren’s [Water Pulse] that one-shotted the level 24 guy.

  Anyway, she changed her mind and waited about twenty minutes instead, then ordered a 50% powered [Earth Armor].

  She was afraid a 10% Earth Armor would be so thin, the metal venom would get through.

  The 50% armor was noticeably much thinner, so her guess wasn’t off.

  She summoned Melorpion and said, “Only use… 20% ether in the metal venom. Then lightly tap my chest.”

  This time, the venom covered half her upper chest.

  So she added another 10%, which did the trick.

  However, she couldn’t use this in a fight. If she wanted a full armor of metal, excluding the joints, she would need Mon so it could breathe fire on the venom approaching her joints and harden them.

  What a pain in the ass.

  Also, her mind was truly near its limit. She was beginning to hear the monsters’ thoughts.

  She pulled Crusbull back into her seal, then spent about five minutes healing her head.

  She wasn’t going to do any more healing for the day. Her focus was too weak to concentrate enough to make the healing usable.

  She decided to test out Melorpion’s other skills.

  [Tunneling] did what it said. It drilled through the ground at incredible speeds.

  [Shedding] made it shed its exoskeleton, leaving a perfect body double. Too bad it wasn’t a clone.

  [Sharp Tail] made its entire tail sharper. Disappointing. Then came [Iron Will].

  It didn’t have the ether for that. [Sharp Tail] probably used very little ether, judging by how simple it was.

  Anyway, she waited a long while, then resummoned it and asked for [Iron Will] to be done to her.

  Melorpion tapped her leg with its pincer, and suddenly she glinted a shade of silver and felt… extremely confident.

  That wasn't all, she just felt better on a whole.

  …

  She could see the point of it. But she wanted something better. Sigh, this monster wasn’t so great.

  She could see why it only used [Metal Venom] when she fought it.

  But… she wanted to experiment with [Iron Will] and see if it could block out monster influences, so she could control monsters for longer.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  That would be for another day. She couldn’t be out for too long without giving a reason.

  She was planning to mark a set of trees leading to the cave with letters from Earth instead of using the Terra language, which was similar to Chinese mixed with cursive.

  But since she had Melorpion, that was unnecessary.

  She sent out Melorpion and commanded, “[Tunnel] to a flat piece of land. About two miles away from any houses.”

  Its leg-drills began spinning rapidly and pierced through the rock, forming a Tunnel big enough for her to fit.

  She wondered how it would detect anything while traveling, then she found out how.

  It couldn’t see through the rock, but it could feel through the vibrations. And so could she.

  It moved quickly, like a raindrop slipping through the air. The skills of the monsters often mirrored their species, which made her rethink how she categorized skill types.

  Racial skills were common, but they could be specialized into the groups she had already considered:

  Offensive, defensive, evasive, and status/support skills.

  For skills like [Tunneling] and [Sight Adjustment], which didn't easily fit into those categories, perhaps they were utility skills.

  Skills for non combat reasons.

  That aside, she could feel the vibration echoes of steady water flow. Rocks. Loose soil.

  Anyway, after a short while, the tunnel was complete.

  Through its eyes she saw the surrounding. It was nothing but trees, grass and rocks and a small steam of water.

  She got on the ground and was about to crawl into the tunnel when the leather bag caught her eye.

  She had to be concerned about this guy having vlandos friends, and those vlandos friends having tracking monsters.

  Tch.

  It was also possible they already knew about this area. She tried to think of a strategy.

  Then she got one.

  First, Vernisha partially summoned Crusbull’s head and called for a very weak [Earth Armor] on her right hand.

  The rocks that formed around her hand made a gauntlet as thin as a medical glove.

  Then she went to the leather bag and checked the contents. There were a couple of notebooks and a cotton pouch filled with bronze and silver pints.

  She stared at the money, then quickly shoved it into her back pocket.

  She picked up the final object with her protected hand and stared at it.

  The golden cup. There was an eerie coldness to it that made her uncomfortable.

  Did this thing attract monsters? Was it made out of a monster?

  Whatever it was, she didn’t like not knowing what it could do.

  It could also be cursed. She wondered where he got it.

  But here was the issue: if she took his stuff, it would be obvious he was killed by a person.

  Then she had a sudden idea. Thankfully, when she had first touched the bag, she had Earth Armor on.

  She summoned Forwing and immediately felt the strain start to build.

  She thought about it for a while. She wanted to shift the blame to HOV, the terror and anti-Vlandos organization.

  But she didn’t know any unique saying or symbol of theirs, so she decided against it.

  She thought hard, then made a decision based on what she remembered of his appearance, his messy hair and beard.

  He probably slept anywhere, so it wouldn’t be unrealistic for a regular human to kill him in his sleep.

  She made Forwing take the bag and fly far away, then drop it in a strong river.

  If he was killed in a body of water, it would be believable that the blood and corpse were swept away by the currents.

  She was certain there was a saying in Terrafall to never take an invite to a river, because you’d most likely Lay In Water. Forever.

  That aside, she would avoid coming to this cave for a week.

  Anyway, she threw her broken armor pieces down the tunnel.

  Then she tried to lift a massive boulder, about her size, but she failed. So she gave up.

  With Forwing back in her seal, she made Crusbull cover her body with a thin layer of Earth Armor. She was surprised it still had the ether for that.

  But this time, something felt off. Her heartbeat was irregular, and it was getting harder to breathe.

  It was a feeling that felt oddly familiar. After about half an hour, the feeling vanished. It was like she approached the edge but didn’t tip over.

  Whatever that was… she didn’t think she should be using skills when monsters were partially summoned and she was already low on energy.

  Maybe using skills also put a strain on the monster’s body, and she was taking the brunt of it through the partial summon.

  She wasn’t sure—and honestly, she didn’t want to experiment. She had felt something like this before, but it wasn’t exact. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

  She decided not to think about it, for now.

  She went into the tunnel, which was nicely dug. She passed through soft stone, then into harder stone.

  Eventually, after a damn long time of crawling in absolute darkness, she reached the end.

  She saw Melorpion waiting as instructed.

  Before exiting, she made it barely use [Tunneling] so the vibration feedback would alert her if anyone was nearby.

  It was clear. She exited and ordered it to run back and block the tunnel with the massive stone she couldn’t move.

  She also told it to place the books and cup inside the tunnel. She would come back for them later, especially after she learned more about the cup or anything like it.

  She could set traps in the tunnel, but she didn’t want to kill anyone unless she felt threatened.

  Still, she didn’t want anyone finding her damn tunnels.

  She could make fake ones, but she would have to wait for Melorpion to recover ether. She was mentally exhausted and wanted nothing to do with monsters for the rest of the day.

  She debated with herself, then decided it was better to be safe than sorry.

  She sighed and put a hand to her head. Fuck, it hurt. At least [Tunneling] was its first skill, so she only needed to reduce its ether cost.

  She waited about ten minutes and started to hear its thoughts grow louder.

  She wanted to heal her head, but she oddly lacked the energy for it. She should’ve had enough… just a little.

  How peculiar.

  Kill! Rip their bodies to shreds!

  Be strongest. Make them feel fear!

  Devour the corpses till nothing’s left!

  Have a million descendants. Make them all bear my offspring!

  Kill and devour their children!

  Take. Take everything they have!

  Vernisha was scared shitless to let this continue. So she got a rock, ready to give herself brain damage at any moment.

  While that was happening, she made it create six fake tunnels, but at a much slower pace.

  It was also resisting her control, which made her head hurt even more. Its thoughts were getting louder and more vile.

  Watch them suffer. Rest as their corpses lay around.

  Her hands tensed. She subconsciously grabbed her knee and dug her fingers into her skin.

  If it had enough ether, she would’ve made it use [Iron Will] on her. But distance was another issue.

  She groaned in pain and commanded it to return to the main tunnel. It resisted, but followed.

  Thankfully, it could travel fast. As soon as it reached her, she made it vanish into her left hand.

  The massive weight lifted off her—it felt unreal. She dropped to her knees and began dry heaving.

  Goodness. If that had been Crusbull, her strongest summon, she really would’ve smashed that rock into her head.

  She coughed, each time harsher. Saliva flew from her mouth and dribbled down her chin.

  Shit, her head still hurt.

  She collapsed and rested on the grass for a while. She had planned to walk to the mansion today.

  No more monsters for the day.

  After a long rest, Vernisha forced herself up and covered the tunnel with dirt, then laid some grass over it.

  Then she made her way toward the mansion. She felt the pouch in her pocket.

  Her thoughts drifted to the golden cup.

  When she learned more about such things, she would determine whether it was safe or cursed.

  Not today, though. No more reading for her.

  The trip took about an hour and a half. When she reached the massive metal gates that circled the mansion, the guard who let her in looked at her with pity.

  Ah, right. She still had little patches of Earth Armor that had expired and broken off on their own.

  She would have to experiment to find out how long they lasted—and how that changed with different ether percentages.

  Once she was allowed in, she went to the bedroom.

  Daylight shone through the single window on the left side of the room.

  The curtains were tied, so there was nothing stopping the light from pouring onto the blue carpet and the lower half of her bed.

  It also caught the dresser, and the silver handles reflected some of the light around the room.

  She slid her knife, dagger, and motherfucking axe under the bed. A literal axe. Unbelievable.

  She was about to throw herself on the bed, but decided to take a bath first.

  The first time she used the shower, she hadn’t really paid attention to many of the details.

  The knobs, for instance, were the same color as the face basin counter—a swirling black and white haze.

  They were smaller than Earth’s. In fact, they were so small she could turn one with just two fingers—three would be too much.

  There was no showerhead. Just a wide granite trough extending half a meter from the wall, spilling water on her like a miniature waterfall.

  That made her think about the ice issue—and the Melcab bacteria, named after the first mountain it was discovered on. That mountain’s name had since been changed to Calibrut. Katie’s blabbering hadn’t been for nothing.

  If the water came from rivers, and rivers came from mountains where water often froze, why wasn’t all their water infected?

  She sat on the rough, grey tiled floor and thought about it. The texture was probably for friction.

  It didn’t take long for a working theory to form. The bacterial strain likely couldn’t survive non-freezing temperatures. Clearly evolved differently from Earth ones. So their water supply was free of Melcab.

  If that was true, Coldstone only needed to collect river water, send teams up the mountains with tight metallic cases, leave the cases to freeze, then bring them back down.

  Maybe they had tried that. Maybe it hadn’t worked for some reason.

  Hmmmmm… well, all she could do was theorize.

  Anyway, she soaped herself up and washed off the foam.

  She placed her hands on the wall and stared at the foam and water swirling around the drain, slipping past the metal grate.

  When she was done, she put on some clothes. Nothing special—just plain, bland blue pajamas. Then she threw herself onto the bed.

  The mattress jounced multiple times, and she briefly wondered if she had been too rough.

  It didn’t break.

  So no.

  Her gaze shifted to the tied red curtains, and she found herself wondering when they had been changed. Her thoughts drifted toward her mines.

  She wished she had mod points.

  But… no. She wasn’t thinking about that tonight.

  She was tired and wanted to sleep, though a familiar unease stirred at the edge of her thoughts.

  She cut that line of thinking off immediately.

  Back in the dream, she had told them to disappear. She had made herself clear.

  If she feared dreaming, she would fear them.

  And that was unacceptable.

  She had to back up her words with courage.

  So she let herself drift off.

  It took a while, but eventually her consciousness sank into that familiar world of dark fog.

  She was floating.

  Her eyes remained closed—not out of fear, but out of habit.

  Then… she felt the eavesdropping eyes.

  Still, she chose to ignore them.

  Eventually, they faded into the background, like the distant chirping of crickets.

  She let her thoughts wander, replaying the day… the day before… and the one before that.

  POV: Rael

  “Why are you so paranoid, &&&&&? Lying this much… is unhealthy.”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  Before Rael could leave the filthy, sex-addicted site, someone dashed out of the club and called for him to wait.

  He turned.

  Velun.

  The man was panting. “I remembered something that might help you… but you have to tell me if my brother is there.”

  Rael raised an eyebrow. “Where’s that?”

  “Vaera. A small, poor village. He used to live there. I just remembered—he’d always go on about how hot some woman named Natasha was. You said the girl’s name was Verni—Vernisha? That’s her. That’s her mother’s name.”

  So this trip hadn’t been a complete waste of time.

  Rael smiled and tapped him on the shoulder. “You’re a good fellow. Buy your brother a communicator when he comes back.”

  “My father already did. Just can’t get ahold of him. Though… it’s possible he owes Pyramids.”

  If that was the case, he’d be getting a message from a Pyramids employee instead, informing him Bahmos had been cut off due to debt.

  Rael supposed the man’s father was rich enough to afford it. Still, he’d seen barely upper-middle-class men earning about 32.5 silver pints biweekly walking around with communicators, so affording one wasn’t exactly rare.

  He thanked Velun.

  After taking the contact ID, Rael pulled a Terrafall map from his Pocket Space. Hopefully “Vaera” was the official name and not just local slang.

  It was official.

  Good.

  He smiled and made his way out of the city.

  Partway down the road, his Pyramids communicator vibrated. He pulled it out—

  The Sergeant.

  Damn it.

  Rael ignored the call. The man probably wanted an update, and Rael had no interest in explaining that he was conducting his own personal investigation.

  With a quiet sigh, he pulled the Vanquisher badge from his pocket and slipped the silver necklace over his head, letting the cracked red sphere rest against his collarbone.

  As he walked down the sidewalk, ignoring the passing carriages, a group of Brightmore students in blue shirts, white pants, and white headscarves slowly shifted their attention from a graphic novel… to the silver resting against his chest.

  One of the boys asked, “You’re a Vanquisher?”

  Rael touched the back of the sphere, causing it to slide open and reveal a photo of him, along with his name, ID number, and rank: Senior Field Agent.

  Unlike Adventurers and Knights, they didn’t have flashy rank names or levels denoting their power. Just roles.

  When he had held the simple title of Field Agent, he had done almost no investigations—just clean, quiet fake suicides and similar assignments. Things had been smoother then. Easier.

  But he couldn’t be angry. The training had made him capable of this. It had given him the ability to wait. To play it safe and sure.

  Like what he was doing now.

  The boy nodded and mouthed, “Cool.”

  One of his friends quickly dragged him away, while the others avoided eye contact like he might pounce on them.

  Then Rael heard the whispers.

  “Your mom never told you not to talk to vlandos?”

  “Fuck off,” the boy snapped. “You do know Knights are vlandos too?”

  “They're different.”

  Rael walked away.

  And for some reason, he heard that doctor’s voice echo in his mind, asking about his past.

  Saying, Your squadmates saw it. You can’t lie your way out of this &&&&&. You went against orders.

  And he would keep telling the truth, and nothing but the truth.

  He had the patience for this. And because of that, he was going to be rewarded.

  Patience. Playing it smart. That was the key. Indeed.

  After a long walk, he finally reached a dirt-poor village—just a couple dozen wooden houses scattered along uneven ground and dirt paths.

  Pilzar, his lizard monster roughly the size of a Green Lizard, sat beside him.

  Its enormous paws left deep impressions in the wet ground. Rain soaked everything.

  Its long, faceless head tilted upward at the sound of a Sharkcrow above.

  How could it hear without ears or earholes?

  Through the narrow hole in the center of its snout.

  Rael tapped its side, and the black tentacles on its back coiled inward before it vanished into his seal.

  He approached one of the villagers with blue flames burning in the center of a metal plate.

  “Hello,” he greeted a woman.

  She pinched the top of her worn dress in discomfort and responded, “Yes…?”

  “I’m from Sundawn. I was told an absolutely stunning woman named Natasha lives here. She said if I painted her house and made it look nice, she’d go on a date with me. Would you happen to know where she lives?”

  The woman suddenly smiled and gave a small shake of her head, like she was remembering an old joke. “Just go uphill. It’s the smallest one. Shaky-looking. Has wooden stairs. You’ll know it when you see it.”

  Rael thanked her and followed the path until he found the smallest house. He pushed the locked door open.

  He summoned Pilzar again. Its massive claws scraped against the wooden floor as it gained traction.

  [Multi-bodies] Search for anything. Try to find a little girl’s scent, and remember it.

  God, that made him sound like a creep.

  Pilzar’s tentacles flailed violently, then split into four bodies—each possessing one of the tentacles and a quarter of the original size.

  They scattered, tearing through the place—splintering cabinets, ripping up floorboards.

  Rael moved into the only room he could find. Inside, he saw a blanket on the bed.

  He looked around, hoping to find something interesting. All he found was a notebook filled with children’s songs.

  Damn it to—

  Suddenly, the chaos stopped.

  Silence.

  “Hello. You’ve been working hard. Very hard. I like it.”

  A chill ran through him.

  Rael turned slowly.

  Sitting on a chair that hadn’t been there before was a brown-haired woman.

  She was… inhumanly beautiful.

  If she had worn anything but a white sleeping gown, he might have called her the Queen of Beauty.

  Brown hair… brown eyes. She reminded him of Vernisha.

  But that wasn’t the worst part.

  One of Pilzar’s splits rested calmly in her lap, and she gently stroked it like a pet.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  “I doubt you’d understand my name. It’s in an ancient language.”

  His heart was pounding. “What do you want?”

  “Nothing, really.” She smiled brightly.

  She’s lying.

  “I’m not lying.”

  Rael’s pulse spiked.

  She can read my mind?!

  “No. I can’t read your mind.” She pointed at her face, deliberately pulling his focus back to it. “Now I’m lying.”

  …She was a—

  “I’m not a Darsean cultist,” she said, scratching her hairline. “You’ve clearly never met one.”

  She was lying. Only Darsean cultists had actual powers without being vlandos.

  Was this a ritual? Was he being sacrificed? The whole village?

  Shit.

  Rael tried to command the monsters to attack, but… nothing. He couldn’t connect with them.

  All four had gathered in the room, sitting calmly, watching her like she was their master.

  Right. Not even Darsean cultists could tame monsters. Not even monsters liked each other.

  Was she… something else? If she was some otherworldly entity, wouldn’t the Mortal Gods be on her?

  An evil spirit?

  Where’s a good Knel-hull priest when you need one?

  “I’m a Terrafallen, just like you—technically. And technically, I’m younger,” she said. Then she conjured a bread roll out of thin air and handed one to each of his monsters. “As for why I’m here…”

  Her gaze landed on him.

  “I want to witness certain things.”

  “And… I’m important to that?”

  “Partly. I just want to tell you a secret. Sometimes… patience isn’t a virtue.”

  She said it like someone else in the room needed to hear it. But there was no one else.

  Then she continued, “A true virtue is being your true self. Patience isn’t you. Be like monsters—shameless creatures that follow their hearts.”

  Rael’s mind snagged on the implication. Was she suggesting she wasn’t controlling them?

  She stopped petting the splits and gave a cold stare. Their gentle nature vanished—but they didn’t move. They just watched her.

  They didn’t even think about attacking.

  “What… I. What?” Rael muttered.

  She stood, and as she faded away, she said, “When you’re down and need help, say: Balash wird fallen. Or if you prefer: May your darkness reign forever, Great Father. I’ll give you a secret then.”

  Rael knew that quote. The second one. Darsean. A Darsean cultist prayer.

  So she was lying.

  …but why?

  His heart pounded like it was trying to escape his chest. He had to get out of there. Now.

  Rael bolted, regaining control of his monsters, and ran from the village.

  He and the monsters sped past a black cat by inches, the animal calmly watching them go.

  He could never say those words. Great Father? The Darsean Emperor?

  But she hadn’t looked like a cultist. She wasn’t massive. She didn’t have the dark aura or the purple energy.

  She had been… beautiful.

  None of it made sense.

  And what was that language she spoke before vanishing?

  He didn’t need this. His mission was simple. His goal was simple.

  Patience was a virtue.

  Wait.

  And keep waiting.

  Rael refused to give in.

  He had to report this—but fear coiled tight in his chest.

  Afraid he had been cursed.

  Afraid he would die if he did.