Arisia closed her notebook and hummed, staring at the empty air in front of her.

  The hall was empty. Quiet, aside from softly whistling wind outside of the little alley. Which told her someone hadn’t checked up on the sounds wards in the last few weeks.

  She clicked her tongue. Whose ears was she going to pull this time? She wasn’t worried about the important wards, as those were checked daily by Deris and his assistants, but whomever was supposed to check on the noise dampening wards would eventually become part of Deris’ team, and that meant Thalis’ security relied on someone who couldn’t even check soundproofing wards on time. Like they were supposed to.

  Well. I’ll tell him and he’ll find out who’s supposed to take care of them.

  She could fix it herself, of course. She knew her way around wards, but that wasn’t the point.

  Arisia sighed and rubbed the back of her shoulder for a few moments. Then she glanced at the seemingly empty patch of air to her right. “How long are you going to keep skulking around, Zer?”

  She stared for a beat. Winds continued to rustle. Then, finally, the air rippled and parted to reveal a grinning gold-furred ape, sitting cross-legged on thin air.

  “Skulking? Me? Can’t I come say hi to one of my friends?”

  “Of course you can. You don’t need to hide, though. And you never show up unless there’s something you need or want to gloat about. What is it this time?”

  The ape opened his mouth in shock, frowning, and put a hand on his chest. When she didn’t react to his antics, he dropped the act and smiled. “What did you think of them?”

  Arisia gave him a blank stare. “Think of who?”

  Zerathstra flopped his head back. “Come on, Risa. The kraken. And his little companions.”

  Arisia sighed, adjusted her chair so it’d face the ape, then sat back down. “They’re… interesting.”

  “Possible sea-king interesting?” he asked, brows wiggling.

  She was about to refute that, but her voice caught. Zerathstra, annoying as he was, noticed.

  “See? See?”

  “They might. He might. For a C-rank who hasn’t even cracked level 50, he’s both impressive… and concerning. With a fused Aspect, no less.”

  Zerathstra nodded enthusiastically at that. “Yup. Couldn’t believe it myself. Had to get close to make sure.”

  Arisia glanced at the ape, waiting for explanations or clarifications, only to be met with a smug smile and a twirling tail. Her brow twitched. “How did that even happen?” she asked. “Because that’s no kraken. Not a normal one, at least.”

  Zerathstra cackled. “I can tell you. You gotta swear on it, though. Like… swear on it. Oath and all.”

  Arisia raised a brow at that. “That’s new? Since when do I need to swear soul oaths? You know as well as I do my only concern is the safety of Thalis.”

  The sea-king waved a hand away. “Yeah, yeah. He just got me to swear to not use his secret to hurt him or come after him. So you gotta do the same before I tell you.”

  Arisia paused. That was fair.

  She nodded, then recited the oath as the sea king said it. Once it was done, she scribbled the words in her notebook, just so she didn’t forget about them. “Thorough and meticulous. Very much not like a kraken.”

  “I wouldn’t say that.” Zerathstra growled in his throat. “Maybe C and B-ranks are impulsive shits. But have you met A-rank krakens? They’re thorough, alright,” he said, darkly.

  Anybody else might have cowed at the sharp intent wafting of the ape, but Arisia knew him since before they’d come to this stretch of the world, and most importantly, she was curious. Incredibly so, though she tried to not show it. She was considering many theories, each as unlikely as the next, but she didn’t dwell on any. That wasn’t a great use of her time.

  “So,” she asked as she straightened her robe. “What are you thinking? What’s this about? And what’s the story behind this particular kraken?”

  That snapped the ape out of his thoughts, and he grinned for a second then shrugged. “I thought it wouldn’t hurt to have more friends. Especially ones that might become a big deal eventually.”

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  The ape gave her an innocent smile. He knew she wanted to know, and he was just drip feeding answers. But she wouldn’t break and she would not play into his silly games. “Why? What makes you think he might become important?”

  Zerathstra picked up one of the many concept shards lining her walls and examined it for a second. “Because… that’s a human in a Trickster kraken’s body, who got to C-rank in barely a couple of months,” he said, setting the shard back in its spot.

  Arisia stood up, eyes sharp. She eyed the dumb grin the ape was giving her, but she could find no trickery or deceit. Which was shocking. “How sure are you? How did it happen?”

  A human with the starting advantages of monsters? That only affected the early ranks and levels, sure, but those were still the foundational steps. The kraken wouldn’t have had to nurture a class and slowly, painstakingly create his own Aspects. He would have just gotten them. It didn’t mean they’d be better or worse than class-created Aspects, of course. It only meant he would have a lot more time to attune to them and grow them. That, coupled with the flexibility and adaptability of that species…

  Arisia reeled at the implications. She resisted the urge to go and find the kraken right that second. Both to watch him and make sure he wouldn’t become a threat to her home, and to make sure not an ounce of potential was wasted. But before she could do anything, the ape hit her with another revelation.

  “Reincarnated from another world through a traveler turtle. Smack-dab in the middle of a sanctuary. Could have been worse, of course. But imagine a human getting dropped in the middle of a Pillar. By themselves.”

  That sounded like a nightmare. But Arisia was still stuck on the reincarnated part. And on the traveler turtle. Why did that sound familiar?

  “World-hoppers. It managed to get through, I guess. Maybe I mentioned it once or twice, but it was never something we talked about in depth.”

  Arisia shot the ape a glare, and he raised both arms. “I didn’t look in your head! I just felt the confusion. And the turtles! It’s just a clarification.”

  She pressed her lips tight, but moved on. “The hermit crab’s shell? I felt some dimensional aspects from it.”

  “Yup. That’s how the crab awakened.”

  Arisia hadn’t been this intrigued in years. She wanted to put this all in writing, but she couldn’t do so without risking a broken oath. “Fascinating… You think he’ll have what it takes?””

  Zerathstra shrugged. “For A-rank, sure.”

  She gave him another blank stare. The ape sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t know, Risa. Maybe? He seems to have the drive for it. Even though it’s a bit unfocused still. And he’s got a dimensional Aspect as well. It’s still weak and clearly new, but it could become more. Eventually.”

  Arisia stared down at the notebook in her hands for a few seconds, then she looked up. “Then we should help him stay focused, shouldn’t we?”

  Zerathstra met her gaze and nodded. “I guess we should.”

  ***

  A couple of giant tree trunks away from the hall in which Henry had met Arisia, the kraken shuddered and glanced around. For a second, he felt watched. And not just by the curious kids and teenagers peering at him from the surrounding platforms, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t see anybody else other than the children.

  Maybe I’m imagining things.

  He didn’t mind the kids. In fact, he found it oddly comforting to be around people once more. Crowds had always been intimidating to him in his past life, but after having spent months underwater with nobody but his own thoughts and Maurice’s countless opinions and questions, he didn’t mind having people around.

  Stormsong, even though she seemed like an awkward, rebellious teenager, was surprisingly quiet most of the time and often kept to herself. Glancing at her, he found her still asleep. And so was Maurice.

  Henry turned his attention back inside.

  “Alright number one, where were we?”

  A little glasses-wearing octopus pointed at the blackboard behind it, which, after an hour or so of brainstorming, was crawling with questions and problems he wanted answers to. Stuff like “What are skills”, and “how to make them” and “Aspect fusions 101”.

  “Add sourcing the skill that woman had. The one that lets her see my Aspects.”

  The Octominds added a second blackboard and wrote down the note as asked.

  Henry hummed. “Also, see if there’s a way to study my own skills without removing them? Or see how they work in detail?”

  The Octomind wrote the task down while Henry looked everything over once more. It was a good start. He didn’t expect to get answers for everything, but maybe he could negotiate a thing or two. He believed he had a few valuable things in storage, and he could always produce a few concept shards of his own to sell.

  Well. That’s good enough progress for today. For now… let’s see about clothes.

  Henry closed his eyes, and with the help of the couple of unnamed Octominds he’d set on Mimicry-duty, he began altering the shell he was wearing. As he merged his thoughts to theirs, he saw how they’d experimented with the artificial body. Mostly playing around with his hair and his pants. Altering small things here and there, slowly getting better, and now, as he made himself a t-shirt, he found it significantly easier than it’d been earlier.

  It was still challenging, though, but a handful of minutes later, a blue t-shirt ruffled in the night breeze while water lapped at his feet.

  “Good job, Octominds. Now, work on Control Water while I take a nap. Try to do it through the artificial body. It’d be funny if we managed to beat Stormsong to her idea.”

  Henry laid down on his back at the edge of the pool and added a second small blood clone to watch over them.

  Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

  and got sick. I see the edits suggestions... but I'm so damn swamped. Will eventually find some time for them, once I'm fully back on schedule with a few chapters of backlog.

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