“This is the nicest car I’ve ever been in,” said Luna, running her hands over the leather seats of Sir Ashmore’s limousine for the seventh time.

  “Stop that, you two!” scolded Aurin as Shamtile and Innogon started playfighting on the floor. “Don’t make me regret summoning you, Sham. I’ll replace you for Dolissile in a heartbeat. I know he’ll behave himself.”

  Shamtile and Innogon immediately sat upright on their seats and kept their hands to themselves. Aurin and Luna wondered if they were allowed to bring them along in the first place, but they thought it would be a good opportunity for the two to feast their eyes on a couple of Minakai that they had never seen before. Aurin’s thinking was that the two could size them up for a potential future battle against the unknown species.

  The road beneath the car suddenly stopped feeling mouth and it had a slightly lumpy feel to it. Shortly afterwards, the car began. “We’re here,” said the driver from the front as he stopped the car. He got out and walked around to open the door for the two tamer and their Minakai.

  Aurin climbed out first and held out his hand to help Luna, but was knocked aside by Shamtile and Innogon who leapt outside to freedom.

  “Behave yourselves!” Aurin scolded the pair as Luna took his hand.

  “They’re not used to being in cars,” she said. “We can’t be too hard on them…ooh.”

  Aurin turned around and looked at the manor house before him. It was at least three storeys high and the smaller windows near the raised ground floor suggested it also came with a basement. Leading up to the front door were two sets of stairs that converged in the middle, giving a small balcony to survey the grand garden with. Standing tall on two podiums by the staircases were two statues of Thundarun; both unicorns rearing up and kicking their feet into the air their tails flowed backwards.

  The sides of the manor were covered in deep green vines of ivy so thick that you would have to fight your way through it to reach the walls it concealed. At the top centre of the house sat a particularly large square window with a slightly rounded top. Aurin could see the silhouette of a figure standing there and looking down at him, Luna and their Minakai. A couple of seconds later the figure vanished.

  “Please proceed to the door,” said the driver, closing the limousine door and gesturing towards the stairs.

  “Thank you,” said Luna.

  “Yes, thanks,” said Aurin.

  The two headed towards the steps and Luna whispered to Aurin. “Do I look alright?” She had dressed up for the occasion and was wearing a green summer dress with a bow at the back.

  “Better than me,” muttered Aurin, feeling underdressed. He had opted for a leather jacket because it was the least casual thing he had brought on the trip.

  As the two reached the top of the staircase, the front door opened and Sir Ashmore stepped outside. “Welcome to Ashmore Manor House,” he said impressively. “I trust Reginald made the journey comfortable?”

  “Yes, he did,” said Aurin, feeling much more nervous to be speaking with The Collector now than he did at the tournament.

  “You have a beautiful home,” said Luna, looking around the grounds.

  “I appreciate that,” said Sir Ashmore. “Not to be too arrogant, but you have not seen anything yet, Luna. Please, follow me. There is one special room that I think will fascinate you greatly.”

  Sir Ashmore led the duo and the excitable Minakai through the smoothly varnished oak double doors and into the entrance hall. Straight ahead lay a grand staircase the split into two. Obscured slightly by the overhead chandelier was a huge landscape painting that watched over the hall from the landing where the stairs forked. It was of a wild battle between an Arusom and a Zeera on a mountainside, which sent an image flashing through Aurin’s mind of his own Zeera’s battle with Tobias’s Arusom.

  “I know exactly what you’re thinking,” said The Collector, following Aurin’s eyeline. “It was a spectacular fight to watch.”

  “You were in the stadium?” asked Aurin as Sir Ashmore led the way to the eastern side of the manor.

  “Oh yes, I never miss the National Championships, nor the World Championships. On occasion I will travel to other nations to watch their championship matches, but that’s usually on a whim and I don’t follow their leagues with the same fervour that I follow the Bretonian one.”

  “One day, I’ll be fortunate enough to compete in the World Championships,” said Aurin. “But for now, I’m happy just learning more about Minakai.”

  “Which is exactly why I think you’re someone who will appreciate a few of my artefacts, trinkets, and prototypes.”

  Sir Ashmore stopped by a heavy door that bore wooden carvings of various metal elementals and pulled out a key from his jacket pocket. He turned it in the keyhole, opened the door and then walked inside with Aurin, Luna, Shamtile, and Innogon following behind.

  The room inside had a soft blue floor and large windows with glass so thick that Aurin would have bet it was shatterproof, although it wouldn’t have stopped a strong Minakai from breaking in. The room was filled with tables, desks and display cabinets containing all sorts of strange devices from broken stone tablets to high-tech metal contraptions. Aurin had never seen anything like it; not at the museum in Ludonia and not at Tobias’s cabin in Briarwood.

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  “What’s this?” the young man asked, looking into a cabinet that had a metal ring the size of a thick bracelet inside. On the inside of the ring, there were various sensors and pins pointing inwards.

  “That,” said Sir Ashmore, “is a discarded prototype of a Capture Band. As the name suggests, it’s a device used to take control of a Minakai.”

  “Take control?” asked Luna uneasily.

  “Yes. It sends a signal through the Minakai wearing it to command it to follow the will of the one wearing the Master Capture Ring. Sadly, I don’t have any of those left as they were all destroyed when the project was abandoned.”

  “That’s probably for the best,” said Aurin, looking to Shamtile who was being careful not to touch anything even though Innogon was poking and prodding him. “Controlling a Minakai against its will doesn’t sit right with me.”

  “Is it any different than, say, hatching an egg?”

  “Very,” said Aurin. “You hatch the egg and your Minakai forms a bond with you. No interfering with their brains necessary…or whatever this does.”

  The Collector gave him a pointed look. “And what about the use of a Roche Fruit to reduce a Minakai to an egg, hmm?”

  Aurin thought about this for a second. “I see where you’re going with this, but it was the only viable way of stopping Zeera before he destroyed the entirety of Hazelton. If I didn’t hatch his egg and get him under control, there was always the risk that someone else would find a way to do it and they wouldn’t share my good intentions.”

  “Well, you have won me over with that argument, Aurin,” said Sir Ashmore with a smile. “And as I said, the project was abandoned and all the investors, including myself, moved our funding elsewhere. When it comes to Minakai and humans, I find myself in favour of the use of magic. That is how it is meant to be, for our connections are magical rather than technological. That said, I believe it is possible to find a harmony between both.”

  As Aurin pondered what The Collector said, he looked around the room. While many of the items in here appeared to be technological, there were obvious signs of others being arcane.

  “How about this?” asked Luna, looking to one of the stone tablets that depicted a sphere, a cube, and a pyramid arranged in a triangle pattern. They all had large eyes carved into them and were looking towards each other and most of the text was so faded and crumbled that it was impossible to read. The few words left didn’t appear to be written script that Luna recognised.

  “Ah,” said The Collector. “These are ancient drawings of three rare Minakai that are said to evolve by fusing together into one mighty beast. The trick is, of course, finding all three of them and getting them to fuse.”

  “Is it a legend or is it true?”

  “The three base Minakai do indeed exists; Orbulus, Pyramulus, and Cubulus—they can be found in towers are close to Bretonia as Eiranth—but I cannot verify their evolution method, even though it has been reported a couple of times in history. In fact, they are three creatures that my son, Alfred, is quite interested in. He is quite the tamer himself, but he is equally fascinated in research.”

  The Collector continued his tour of his artefact room, talking Aurin and Luna through many more of his displays before Aurin broached the subject of his collection of Minakai.

  “Is it true that you have over five hundred species from Bretonia and abroad?” asked Aurin.

  “Ah,” said Sir Ashmore. “Yes, Aurin, it is true. I have five hundred and sixty-two different species, to be exact, but there are a few known creatures that I lack, even from Bretonia.”

  “Which ones?” asked Aurin, realising now that the lord of the manor had an ulterior motive for bringing him here.

  “I am sure you can guess.”

  “Ethruki, Abysarex, Mindadam, Arusom, Zeera, and Breminia,” said Aurin.

  “Not quite,” said The Collector, reaching into his jacket and pulling out both a turquoise and yellow summoning stone. He focused on them and summoned two Minakai to the room.

  In a flash of turquoise light appeared Sir Ashmore’s Abysarex, standing taller than Frederick’s did, and even broader. The large moth that was his Arusom appeared in a burst of yellow light, however, it was smaller than Tobias’s—the only other Arusom that Aurin had seen in person.

  “There are four Minakai that I lack from the Bretonian bestiary. You did name them, yes, but you can see that I have ways of getting rare and powerful monsters like Abysarex and Arusom. Abysarex was added to my collection five years ago, whereas this Arusom is more recent, having joined me almost two years ago.”

  “What do you want from me?” asked Aurin, not liking where this was going.

  “I would like to buy your Zeera and Breminia from you and I am prepared to pay a very high price for them.”

  Aurin shook his head and Shamtile let out a warbling gasp, having understood what The Collector had said. “No, Sir Ashmore. They’re not for sale, no matter what offer—”

  The Collector held up a hand to silence Aurin. “Please do me the courtesy of hearing me out before rejecting my offer. If you do still wish to reject it, I will accept, but it is only polite to let me finish.”

  “Alright…”

  “For your Zeera, I am prepared to offer you fifty thousand ounces of silver; no small sum, I need not say.” Sir Ashmore clasped his hands together. “And for your Breminia, I am prepared to offer a much greater sum. One hundred and fifty thousand ounces of silver.”

  Luna’s eyes widened at the idea of this combined fortune for two Minakai, but she knew what Aurin’s answer would be, and it was an answer she would have also given no matter the Minakai she was asked to part with.

  “I decline,” said Aurin. “My Minakai are not just monsters I fight with, they’re my teammates; they’re my friends. I have a special bond with every single one of them and even tripling your offer wouldn’t convince me to part with them. And tripling them would be much closer to what they’re worth, Sir Ashmore.”

  Sir Ashmore closed his eyes and nodded slowly. “I am disappointed that this is your answer, but I cannot say I expected you to accept. I knew from watching you battle in Ludonia that you were a different breed of tamer, much like Tobias. He also rejected an offer for his Breminia many years ago.”

  Shamtile jumped onto Aurin’s back and climbed onto his shoulders, letting his legs dangle down over Aurin’s front. “My whole team will be with me to the end of my days, or to the end of theirs.”

  “That is an admirable thing to say,” said Sir Ashmore. “And now that business is out of the way, would you like to see a portion of my collection?”

  “I would love to,” said Aurin.

  “Excellent,” said The Collector, clapping his hands together once. “Allow me to escort you out the back. I have terraformed large parts of my land to suit the different species I own. Forests for the nature elementals, tunnels and barren land for the earth elementals, and so on. It took quite a bit of work, I must say.”

  Sir Ashmore led Aurin and Luna from the room, while their two Minakai clung to them. Neither Shamtile or Innogon had ever considered the prospect of being sold and Shamtile in particular was relieved to know that his master would never part with him.

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