It was…probably the booze that contributed to my foul mood, frankly.

  But that didn’t change the fact that I was getting damn tired of all the slaving that seemed to both happen in Veredens past, as well as its present. It felt like every time I turned around, there was another atrocity looming in my view, evidence of the inherent hierarchies born from raw strength.

  I had noticed this about Veredenese societies. Though it was in the nature of mortals, as Taran called us, to stratify into classes and ranks, it almost seemed…more so here in magical fantasy land. The added layer of tangible magical power and inherent granted ability from the System had created a deepening of the social divide. Here, not only were people judged based on the typical bullshit back home like wealth, bloodline, and appearance, but might as well.

  I think…there was something inherently toxic about it, for mortals like us. Even though a Status granted us an enhanced lifespan, there was still an ending to it. We weren’t truly immortal, even though we could live for centuries. Possibly millennia, even, if we Awakened strove for that near-impossible peak of Paragonhood. The result of that was a desire to prove yourself beyond the norm. This wasn’t inherently bad, I think. It led to those heights that saw you engraved in the fabric of history itself.

  But it also seemed to either instill a need to subjugate others or give the deranged the ability to do so. To place yourself over a people and drive them into the dirt. To deprive them of any avenue through which they could improve their lives. An almost pathological desire to keep the masses down, while simultaneously benefiting yourself, through one of the most dehumanizing, evil institutions mortals had ever devised.

  Slavery.

  Veredenese history seemed rife with it, and I was sick of that. Every time…

  Every time I thought I was moving past what I’d suffered through back in Addersfield, it felt like something came along and poked at that wound once more. It drove me mad. It made me want to lash out at the world. To take a blade to the throat of every slaver that had ever lived, throwing myself at them with a fury that only seemed to have grown with time. Sometimes I felt like I would gladly tear out their throat with my teeth if I needed to, uncaring of what might happen to me in the process.

  I longed to join Bleddyn. I dreamed of what my old friend might be doing with his Unshackled, in the heart of the Principality.

  But those were just…animal instincts, really. I was cognizant enough to realize that fact. I had responsibilities now. Important ones, where people relied on me.

  One particularly helpless person in particular.

  If…I hadn’t found Aveline down there in the bunker…I wondered. What would I have done when I learned just how much Bleddyn’s rebellion had progressed? Would I have been able to restrain myself from changing my long-set plans of joining Grey’s Academy? Would I have changed course right then and there, and sailed to join the fight against the slavers? Would my friends and companions have joined me, in my mad quest to throw myself against the chain and shackle? What…would have happened? How far would their loyalty to me go in the face of my selfishness?

  I…think I knew the answer, and I didn’t like it.

  It didn’t bear dwelling on. It hadn’t happened.

  All these thoughts and more swam through my mind as I sat on the brow of my ship, brooding away the hours and absently petting Fade. After essentially storming away from the small celebration in my galley, if only to spare the others my temper, I’d retrieved my first aid kit and bandaged my hand up after picking out the glass. I didn’t want to waste a potion on such a small series of wounds that would probably be healed by my Status overnight anyway. The dull ache was a good reminder to me about watching my temper, anyway.

  Besides.

  Spending some alone time with Fade was a good idea, anyway. We hadn’t yet had the chance to really catch up, one-on-one. It only took me…a few hours until I’d calmed myself enough that we could do so. In that time, I’d noticed the rest of my companions had returned to the ship. Renauld and Liora had noticed me near the prow but had seemed to sense I wanted privacy, if only from the air around me and Fade. They had thankfully left us alone to wander back to their bunks. Meanwhile, I’m not sure Venix had even noticed us when he returned. Something I had noticed about him was that the Antium man was often caught up in his own head these days. He seemed to waffle between resolve and contemplation very easily on the trip down here. I got the sense he was wrestling with a decision.

  About something, I could take a good guess about, frankly. But if he didn’t want to talk about it, yet, that was his business.

  As I talked with Fade, he was both jealous and a tad worried about the sheer number of adventures and mishaps I’d gotten into, ever since I’d dropped him off with Taran. I didn’t say it, but I was glad I’d done so. With as underpowered as he had been, I’m genuinely unsure if Fade would have survived any of the battles against Rhazal or Tatsugan.

  Now, though, I’m not so sure. Fade had grown in the time we’d been separated. While I wouldn’t call him full-grown, he was more than large enough to be a threat. Under his thin summer coat, I could feel the powerful, corded muscles he seemed to have put on under Taran’s tutelage. Not only that, but I had verifiable evidence that the Spirit Wolf was growing in power at a rapid pace. I only had to pull up my Status to see that, now.

  It made me wonder just how he’d fare one-on-one, in a fight against a monster these days.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Probably better than my own first solo fight.

  I reached up to trace the diagonal scar across my left cheek, now patterned with black scales. A memento from that Blade-Rack Hart that I’d never been able to bring myself to get healed. Fade noticed the movement, but didn’t stop his own mental explanation of his time with the elder Spirit Wolf.

  “I spend most of my days either Chanting or learning Chants,” He told me, shrugging his furry shoulders. “It’s not just how we store abilities we can use. It’s how we grow in strength, you know?”

  A small smile stole across my face. “I don’t, actually,” I said, mildly teasing the young wolf. “Tell me about it.”

  “Oh, uh…well. We take in the Aether and refine it, and then shape it in a specific Chant form,” Fade started slowly. “Only, we don’t store that one. We kind of…push it down? The old fang tells me we absorb the effect, but not the Aether. It kinda builds up into something similar to your Virtues. We don’t have numbers we can check, but we can feel the effects.”

  “Is that what you were complaining about earlier?” I asked him curiously. “Something about a Chant taking an hour to do?”

  Fade glowered off into the distance, his gaze looking beyond the surface of the enormous river on which the Astray floated. “Yeah,” He grumbled. “It’s such a pain. But whatever. I’m getting pretty strong from doing it, you’ll see. You won’t have to worry about me in a fight, Nate.” The young wolf swore.

  I sighed, leaning one hand on the railing of my ship. “Whenever that may be. I’m…not staying for long, bud. We’re on the way down to the Academy, where Grey, Honoka, and…Sylvia are waiting,” I said slowly, the reminder of my first doomed relationship on Vereden giving me…complicated feelings, to say the least. I smiled down at Fade sadly. “I’m gonna miss you, Fade.”

  To my surprise, the young Spirit Wolf angled his head up to stare at me in confusion. A moment later, I saw a look of canine embarrassment steal across his snout. I think the only reason I didn’t see the red of a blush was because of all the fur in the way. Actually…wait a second…

  I think I did see a faint reddening on the interior of his upright ears. At my stare, he flattened them.

  “Um.” Fade’s mental voice nearly stuttered. “I…think we forgot to mention something. Sorry. I can come with you, Nate. I’ve gotten far enough on the Path that Taran doesn’t need to be there physically to teach me. I can kinda…shift over into the Concord now for brief periods of time, and uh…he can just teach me there. I'll need to come back every so often for important stuff, but for the most part, my growth is kinda…up to…me…” He trailed off as I knelt down…

  And drew the young wolf into a hug, my arms dodging his antlers and threading around his lupine shoulders. “That’s great news,” I breathed, feeling a sense of peace roll over me. My earlier fury at the fucked up history and practices of Vereden nearly disappeared, as Fade leaned into the hug. After a moment, we drew back, but I still kept my hands on his shoulders. “You and me again, against the world, bud. Nearly the whole band will be back together again, this time in much more peaceful circumstances. Except now there’s going to be a new person. You even met her earlier.” To my surprise, Fade shuffled in place and ducked his head. I had to dodge out of the way not to get an eyeful of antler from his gesture of embarrassment. I blinked at him in confusion. “Fade?”

  Said wolf was quiet for a moment. “Her name is Aveline, right?” Fade eventually replied, his mental voice low. “You said you saved her and she’s…going to be part of the pack?”

  I studied him for a moment. “Yes, she is. I made a…promise to someone that I would take care of her. More than that…,” I said slowly. “I…want to care for her. She’s just like me, Fade. I’m going to raise her as best as I can, with the help of, well, everyone. Is there…something wrong?”

  Fade hurriedly looked back up at me. “No! No, it’s fine, I swear. She seems nice, and she’s really just a kid. Even more than I am. It’s just…when I saw her for the first time, I…wondered if you had…,” His mental voice nearly cut out, almost as if he was muttering.

  “Fade?”

  I heard him sigh. “I said I thought you’d replaced me, alright?” He said in frustrated embarrassment. “We hadn’t seen each other in so long, and I was in my human form, and it’s not much older than she is, and I just…just…” He shook his head from side to side rapidly, the movement of his antlers quick enough to cause a whistling noise. “I was being stupid, and I realized that pretty quickly. Probably those stupid human hormones…” I heard him nearly mutter.

  I chuckled softly to myself, reaching over to lay one arm over his back in a half-hug. “I could never replace you, Fade. Honestly, I’ve…felt kinda…lost without you around, these last few months. I’m glad we can be together again.”

  I felt more than saw Fade’s answering nod. “Yeah,” He said softly. “Me too.”

  We sat there quietly on the deck until it was time for dinner, simply enjoying each other’s presence.

  Once it was time to meet back up with the others, I enjoyed both re-introducing him to the group, as well as introducing him to the two members of it who had yet to be introduced in the first place. Aveline, of course, was still enamored with Fade, while Liora was merely curious. The two of them had never interacted back when I was still in training as a Nocturne Agent. Back then, Liora had been incredibly reserved and frankly a bit odd. The Gnollish woman had really come out of her shell in the months since the close of the Construct War. Strangely enough, I caught her giving the young wolf a look of almost assessment, something that caused Fade to bristle slightly. He was startled, though, when she nodded at him in acknowledgment, one warrior to another.

  A bit embarrassed, though.

  I hid my smile and joined the others for dinner.

  ……………………………………………

  The next day, I was somehow unsurprised to find that Taran had vanished in the middle of the night. I’d offered the disguised elder wolf the use of a free bunk, but he had declined in favor of sleeping up on deck. Only, when everyone awoke in the morning he was nowhere to be found.

  According to an unfazed Fade, this was typical behavior for his teacher.

  What I did find, though, was a letter meant for me penned in an oddly elegant hand, resting on my desk.

  In the same room I had slept in with Fade and Aveline overnight.

  None of us had noticed a thing.

  Still, I brushed it off, and once I opened it, I found a short, brusque list of things I could do to help Fade advance along his Path. It wasn’t signed by anyone, but I knew who it had to be from. While I appreciated the advice, I was a bit irritated by something.

  That old bastard had used my most expensive calligraphy ink to pen his message. I’d paid a pretty penny for a dark blue, magically active ink back in Kawamara, and that nosy wolf had broken the seal on the glass before I could.

  I had half a mind to march back to his glade and make him pay for more. Surely he had some gold squirreled away, right?

  Had to pay for his booze somehow.

  I shook off the impulse and got to work with the others on preparing the Astray for the journey down to Blutstein. We bought and stored some supplies from town, we adjusted the rigging, and having no real goodbyes to give, I paid the port duties for departure.

  And off we went.

  This time, as I sailed away from T?r Gronn, I had both Aveline and Fade by my side.

  That felt…right.