PreCursive

  Sylvia and Honoka were already in the dini when Grey and I arrived. Rather thaing though, they were bent over p over some pages of part of their own. They looked up at our entrance, with Honoka rolling the part up aing it to the side. I wasn’t able to see mu it before it ut away, but what I did see didn’t make much seo me. The runic designs had been odd, almost flowing in circur waves pared to the angur rays I was used to. The barest hint I’d been able to make out from the syntax almost looked…ated, in a way.

  Weird, but I was starting to get the impression that Cultivators just went in a different dire than how I was learning things.

  The girls, or rather girl and old hag, didn’t have much to share with us about their ritual. From the way everyone was talking about it, I was starting to get the impression that an Assion Ritual was very personal. Tailor made to the needs and desires of each person, I don’t think the details of one were meant to be shared with more than the person helping them.

  That was fih me. I’m sure I’d figure things out when it came to my turn.

  I retty quiet for the rest of the night, especially after our dinner arrived from the camp kit. I only spoke when spoken to, and even when I did, only in short sentences. I just…had other things on my mind.

  I think the others noticed, a me be. When we were finished, we all broke up and separated to our personal tents. I never did see Azarus again that night. I guess he decided to skip dinner in favor of w oing that Mithril.

  I’d thank him tomorrow. I’m sure he’d pop up then.

  Brushing aside the fp of my tent, I stopped in surprise. Fade stopped what he was doing and looked up at me, just as startled by my abrupt entrance.

  My wolf was gnawing on the bones of what looked to be a rabbit, with blood smeared all across his muzzle. Luckily, it seemed like he had tained his messy eating to a small se of the tent.

  “I was w where you went off to,” I said to Fade, amused despite myself. “Guess you were off to grab a bite to eat.” He chuffed back at me, almost smugly. I approached the small washbasin in my tent, and pressed the ruo fill it with water. When it was full, I grabbed a rag, got it wet, and approached Fade. He didn’t protest when I got to work wiping the blood off of his face.

  When I was done, I threw the blo in the sack I used for dirty clothes. I’d get it ed ter. I put my hands on my hips and raised an eyebrow at Fade. “Is this going to be a thing with you from now on?”

  I’d noticed tely that Fade was growing more indepe. It seemed to have started around the time that his horns had fully e in, and he’d demonstrated his powers for the first time. After that battle in Caer Drarrow, he’d never used that strai-magic pulse again. At least, not in front of me. Hell, he could be using it to hunt for all I knew.

  Still, this was a good thing as far as I was ed. It was encing that he wasn’t pletely depe on me. I cared for him, and enjoyed having him around, but…

  I didn’t think of myself as the most stable of caretakers.

  However.

  “If yoing to be bringing kills back, at least up after yourself,” I said exasperatedly, waving a hand at the remains of his dinner.

  Fade sneezed, but did as I asked. He rapidly ched through the remaining bones, and then kicked his paws to mix the blood into the sand. When he was done, he looked up at me almost smugly. I just rolled my eyes at him and flopped down on my cot. Cushioning my head with my one good hand, I couldn’t help but start brooding about my problems.

  Both about said hand, and my tentious growth. Well, tentious in my mind. I didn’t know if the others would even care about how I was growing so quickly. I was basing my worries about it from one ent that was said in passing months ago. I robably psyg myself up over nothing, but…that was what ay was. W over nothing.

  I sighed.

  I was knocked out of my pity party when the sound of metalliuckles on one of the wooden poles of my doorway. Startled, I sat up and looked over just in time to see Sylvia sweep aside the fp into my tent. She smiled at me, brushing a lock of golden hair behind her Mithril ear. “May I e in?”

  Hastily, I stood up. “Uh, yeah. No problem. What… I help you with?”

  Sylvia stepped into my tent, pausing when she reached Fade’s position. He perked up at the sight of her, panting. She kneeled down to run her hand over his head. “Hello, Fade,” Sylvia murmured. He licked her metallid iing, and then promptly y back down. Standing back up, Sylvia met my eyes.

  I felt a shiver run down my spine.

  Sylvia walked over to me and sat on my bed, folding her legs. “I noticed that you seemed distracted at dinner. Is…everything going well with your arm?”

  Oh.

  I sighed and sat dowo her. “I…guess? I had no problem uanding the arrays that Grey showed me but…” I dragged a hand down my face. Suddenly, I felt exhausted. “But I don’t think it was as helpful as I’d hoped.”

  “How so?” Sylvia asked quietly.

  “It…has to do with how I ent,” I answered tiredly. “Everything that Grey has taught me about enting is useful, I won’t lie. But with Aetherial Melding, I do most of it by…feel, you know?” I made a frustrated gesture with my hands. “That’s how I made the Bond Breaker ba Addersfield. I made the Ward Breaker first, and then modified the entment to suit a purpose. And that’s the problem.”

  “Ah,” Sylvia said sympathetically. “I believe I uand now.”

  I her. “Yeah. I ’t exactly make a Sculpted just so I feel out their entment. That would be so…profoundly screwed up.”

  Sylvia ughed slightly and shook her head. “That doesn’t sound like a problem at all, Nathan. The solution here is staring yht in the face.”

  “Wait, what?” I said, turning to face her. I found that Sylvia was already looking at me with small, amused smile on her face. I blinked, my face growing red. “Oh. You’re talking about…?”

  “Me, of course,” Sylvia said, ining her head. “If you need a Sculpted to…feel the entment of, you may try on me.”

  “Sylvia…that’s…” I tried to say, at a loss for words. I shook my head. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I don’t think I could hurt you doing this, but I’m not sure If I want to risk it. I don’t even know if a fully sapient Sculpted is what I need. For all I know, your entment was pletely absorbed by your soul.”

  I’m pretty sure she had a soul. I think.

  Sylvia reached out to y one cool hand over my own. She met my eyes again. “You won’t know,” She said softly. “If you don’t try. Please, don’t worry about me Nathan. I’m positive you wouldn’t hurt me. I haven’t fotten how you lost your arm in the first pce. By proteg me.”

  I let my eyes drift down from hers, to rest on her hand. I turned mine over to where I was holding her Mithril fingers. I blinked slowly, allowing mio trace her own for a moment. I took a slow breath and then nodded, raising my gaze once again. “Okay,” I said quietly. “If you’re sure.”

  I scooted further onto the bed to where I could sit cross-legged, never letting go of her hand. Sylvia copied me, sitting in front of me. “What do I o do?” She asked me.

  “Nothing,” I said, smiling slightly. “Just…this might feel a little odd.” Staring into Sylvia’s cool sapphire eyes, I fell into my Melding trance.

  The world exploded into blues and greens once more, swirling iher streams all around us. Every so often, they would pulse to the beating of an intangible heart far off ieral Aether. I breathed in, watg as a small amount of energy followed the air that had entered my lungs. I imagihat I could almost feel the tingle as the ambieher flowed through me.

  However, out of the er of my eye, I thought I saw something. Turning my head slightly and furrowing my brow, I blinked rapidly at what I found.

  It was Fade.

  He was like…a nexus in the ambieher. All around his small form, the Aether streams crawled over him in winding strands. They almost seemed to be drawn to him like moths were to a fme. As they reached his lupine form, they peed his body to a single point over his heart. The effect was almost as if there was a star of a pure Aether at the core of his being, pulsing in tuh Vereden.

  I had never done any signifit crafting in his presence before, so I had never seen this. I had no idea what it meant.

  He was watg me now, though.

  Somehow I could tell he was…amused. It was like the Aether surrounding him was tinted with his mirth. With a flick of his tail, the tone of the Aether ged, gaining an almost taste of scolding.

  “Nathan?” I heard from Sylvia, startling me slightly. I had almost fotten about her, in the ued nature of Fade’s Aether. I turned back to face Sylvia, a my breath hit my chest.

  All those months ago, when I had first met Sylvia, she had revealed her fae uhe light of the full moon. At the time, I had thought she was the most beautiful person I’d ever met.

  Right now, she almost rivaled that moment.

  Lit by both dlelight and the glow of blue-greeher, her Mithril skin ainted in exquisite swirls. It flowed around and through her, almost teasingly flitting through her golden hair.

  Right now though, she was looking at me in fusion. “Have you begun, Nathan?”

  I drew in a shuddering breath. “Ah,” I stuttered. “No, not yet. It’s just…the world through Aether sight is…quite a sight.”

  Sylvia smiled at me. “I imagi must be. I’m almost jealous.”

  I smiled back at her, a little embarrassed.

  Right. Now wasn’t the time to gawk at her.

  You have a job to do, Hart.

  This wasn’t enough though. When I had prehehe Ward Breaker enough to edit it, I had been in a much deeper tra the time, I had been ft-out meditating. I o go deeper.

  Much deeper.

  I closed my eyes and trated oher flowing around and through us. I tried to synch up my breathing to the slow pulse of Vereden. With each deyed breath, I fell further and further into my trance. Soon, the only things I could feel were Sylvia’s hand in mine and the embrace of a p.

  After a time, I felt something else.

  I think…it was Sylvia.

  Through the Aether that ected us, that ected all of us in one way or another…

  I felt her.

  I think she felt me too, judging by the faint impression of surprise through the Aether.

  In my hand, I felt Sylvia’s hand tremble slightly. She didn’t pull away, though.

  Slowly, through our e, I felt my sciousravel up her arm and inside.

  I opened my physical eyes, but I didn’t see with them. Rather, I was seeing something else, something nearly unexpinable. Somehow, I was looking at Sylvia’s very soul. I felt a smile y lips.

  It was as beautiful as I had thought it would be.

  To my ethereal sight, Sylvia’s was a star of pure silver light. Across its shining surface, rainbow light occasionally fred into being in rolling waves that ebbed and flowed. However, what caught my eye the most was a tether. An almost rope of blue-greeher grew from the top of the silver soul, to where it stretched off into the distance.

  I followed it, and as I did, it almost felt as if I was leaving aire world behind. But I found what I needed.

  The tether ected to an entment, a vast and plicated array of dense runic scrip, flowing with the light of pure Aether. It almost seemed to stretch across the horizon, here in this soul space.

  This was what I he very firmament of the Sculpted soul.

  I felt a rge grin grow on my face.

  Noere talking.

  I settled in to study it voraciously.

  I don’t think I needed long to get what I needed. I was studying Sylvia’s soul space for what felt like thirty minutes before I decided to cut the e.

  Gradually, I began to draw my sciousness out of Sylvia, passing by her soul as I did so. I gave it o metaphysical gnce before I left.

  I wao remember the sight.

  When I was out, I started drawing myself out of the deeper, meditative Melding trance I had been in. Slowly, I blinked my eyes open.

  The first thing I saw were Sylvia’s own blue gems, gazing back at me in wonderment.

  I blushed and cleared my throat. “How…long was I out of it?”

  Sylvia blinked, looking to almost be knocked out of a trance herself. “Ah? Oh. It’s been perhaps two hours now.”

  My eyes opened wider in surprise. Two hours? It sure hadn’t felt like that.

  “Sorry that took so long,” I paused. “I…didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  Sylvia immediately shook her head. “Not at all. The only thing I felt was almost sense of…awareness, from you. It was as if I could feel yaze on me, even if I could tell it was far away.” She paused herself before tinuiatingly. “However…”

  “Yeah?”

  “While you were…doing whatever it was you were….” Sylvia looked away, almost bashfully. “It was almost as if I could see something inside of you. Through your eyes.”

  Through my eyes? Wait.

  Could it have been…

  My soul? Oh man…

  I cleared my throat unfortably, feeling my face grow hotter. I finally let go of Sylvia’s hand. “Ah. Well…thank you for letting me do that, Sylvia. I think I got what I was looking for.”

  “Oh!” Sylvia said, startled. She scooted off of the bed to stand up. I followed after her, feeling my joints creak from sitting in one position for so long. “It was…no problem at all Nathan. I’m happy to help you.” She turned around to walk towards the exit of my tent. She paused though, before she opehe drape. Swiftly, she turned around and advane.

  I was startled when Sylvia caught me in a hug. Only for a moment, though.

  I returhe embrace, ing my one good arm around my Sculpted friend. I breathed in, my head in her golden hair. You know, I had never noticed this before, but Sylvia didn’t smell like harsh metal.

  It was more of a minty st.

  Sylvia broke away first, looking up at me. Before I could react, she leaned up and brushed her cool lips against my cheek, in a brief kiss. Bag away, and without another word, she fled into the night air.

  I was left standing in the middle of my tent, holding a stunned hand up to cup my cheek. I let out a shuddering breath. “Oh man,” I sighed. “I’m in trouble.”

  I paused for a moment before realization hit me like a brick. “Shit!” I said, scrambling for the small writihat I had in my tent. I o put dowhoughts I’d had about the Sculpted entment before I fot them.

  As I started to scribble runes frantically on part, I heard Fade begin to cough repeatedly, lying on the floor to my right.

  It almost sounded like he was ughing at me.