Chapter 10: The Predator's Ledger
Power. He needed more.
The realization settled in Kairo's mind with the cold, hard weight of inescapable truth. He sat in the darkness of his room, the first hints of dawn painting the window in shades of grey. He had survived the breakfast ambush, navigated the library, and begun the slow, arduous process of forging a new sense from the ashes of his old one. But it was not enough.
His night of cultivation had been a miracle, a feat that would be impossible for any other initiate. Yet his Aether pool remained a pitifully shallow well. His Aether-Sense was a flickering flame that threatened to extinguish itself every few minutes. He was a strategist without an army, a swordsman with a body that could barely lift the blade.
Tiberius's hunt for him in the library, Ren's knowing smirk, Isolde's probing questions—they were all warnings. His camouflage as the frail, forgotten son was already beginning to fray. Sooner or later, someone's suspicion would boil over into action, and he was in no condition to face a direct confrontation.
He needed a breakthrough. Not the slow, steady progress of a normal Conduit, but a leap. He needed to force his growth, to shatter the limits of his frail body.
His mind, a library of a dead scholar, offered the answer. It was a dangerous, high-risk gambit from a forbidden alchemical text, a formula he had dismissed in his first life as being too reckless, too volatile for his already fragile constitution.
The Elixir of the Aether Core.
Unlike the Phoenix's Rebirth, which was designed to heal and purge, this elixir was a weapon turned inward. It was designed to violently expand a Conduit's Aether channels, to stretch the soul and create more space for power to gather. For a developed Conduit, it was risky. For an unawakened child, it was suicide. But Kairo was neither. He was an anomaly.
He accessed the memory of the formula, the intricate script clear in his mind.
Sun-Kissed Mandrake Root: A common enough ingredient, found in the ducal solarium. A simple matter of theft. Aether-Charged Crystal Dust: Finely ground, low-grade Aetherium shards. The currency of the world was also a potent alchemical component. He could acquire this with the pittance of an allowance afforded to a lesser son. The Beating Heart of a Crest-Tailed Ridgeback.
There it was. The true price. Not a simple reagent to be gathered, but a trophy to be earned in blood.
The Crest-Tailed Ridgeback was a high C-Class beast, bordering on B-Class territory. It was a vicious pack hunter that roamed the lower slopes of the Spine-Mountains. Where the Shell-Backed Viper was a slow, ponderous brute, the Ridgeback was a creature of terrifying speed and aggression. Its bone-plated crest could deflect a steel sword, and its claws could shred leather armor like parchment.
Hunting one was a task for a full, well-equipped team of official Conduits. For him, it was madness. It was impossible.
And therefore, it was necessary.
The cold, calculating part of his mind took over, the sheer impossibility of the task a whetstone for his strategic intellect. A plan began to form, not a single plan, but a web of branching possibilities, of actions and reactions.
First, he needed an alibi. A reason to be near the mountains. Second, he needed a way to isolate a Ridgeback from its pack. Third, he needed a way to kill a creature that outclassed him in every single physical metric.
As his will solidified around this new, singular purpose, the Founder's Codex responded.
[New Founder's Quest Generated]
[Quest Title: The Alchemist's Gamble]
[Objective: Successfully synthesize the Elixir of the Aether Core. This requires acquiring all necessary ingredients: Sun-Kissed Mandrake Root, Aether-Charged Crystal Dust, and the heart of a Crest-Tailed Ridgeback.]
[Reward: 50 Stat Points, Unlock New Alchemical Insight: [Beast-Blood Tempering].]
The rewards were substantial. Another infusion of stat points would be critical. But the insight, Beast-Blood Tempering, sent a flicker of excitement through him. It was a concept he'd only read about in the most ancient texts, a lost art of using beast blood to fortify one's own body. The Codex wasn't just a system. It was a teacher, guiding him down the forgotten paths of power.
He stood up. The first step was the alibi. And for that, he knew exactly which key he needed to turn.
He found Liana in the grand solarium, just as he had before. She was humming a quiet tune as she watered a pot of crimson fire-lilies, her forest-green Jukai eyes bright with life. The sight caused a familiar, uncomfortable twist of guilt in his gut. He was about to use her kindness as a tool again.
It is to protect her, and Mother, he told himself, the justification a cold, familiar mantra. Power protects. Weakness endangers.
He approached, his steps slow, deliberately shuffling. He didn't have to feign his exhaustion this time; the strain of his nightly training was a heavy cloak on his shoulders.
"Sister Liana?" he asked, his voice small.
She turned, and her face lit up with a genuine, brilliant smile. The morning's tense breakfast was forgotten. "Kairo! I was just thinking of you." She knelt, her green eyes scanning his face with concern. "You look tired. Did you rest well?"
"I rested," he said, which wasn't a lie. "But my room... it feels so stuffy. Head Maid Elise says I need more fresh air." He looked down at his feet. "Mother worries that I stay inside too much."
This was the perfect bait, crafted from the words of Elise and his mother's own fears. He was presenting her with a problem she was uniquely suited to solve.
Her expression softened with empathy, just as he knew it would. "She is right," Liana said gently. "We all worry. The Spire can feel like a cage sometimes, can't it?"
"I was thinking," Kairo said, looking up with a carefully constructed expression of shy hopefulness. "I heard the Sky-Sail flowers are blooming on the Veridian Plains, near the foot of the Spine-Mountains. I've never seen them." He paused, letting the hook settle. "Perhaps… perhaps we could go? Just for a walk. To get some air. To show Mother I am trying."
Her face brightened. He had perfectly packaged his request in her own desires: helping him, pleasing their mother, and fostering a bond between siblings. It was an irresistible offer.
"That," Liana said, her voice filled with a sudden, pure excitement, "is a wonderful idea, Kairo! A brilliant idea! We can have the kitchens pack a lunch! It will be an adventure!"
Her innocent enthusiasm was a stark, painful contrast to the cold, bloody purpose of his plan. She saw a picnic. He saw a hunting ground.
"We would need guards, of course," she added, her practical side taking over. "The plains are safe, but Father would never allow us to go alone."
"Of course," Kairo agreed meekly. Guards were a complication, but a predictable one. He had already factored them in.
"I will speak to Father's steward this afternoon!" she declared, her decision made. She beamed at him, her heart filled with the joy of a problem she could solve, a bridge she could build. "Oh, Kairo, this will be wonderful!"
He simply nodded, letting her joy wash over him. His face was a mask of childish anticipation. His mind was already on the mountain, dissecting the anatomy of his prey, and planning how to carve out its heart.
Two days later, Kairo stood at the foot of the Ducal Spire, the crisp morning air a cool balm on his face. The "adventure," as Liana had breathlessly called it, was about to begin. She stood beside him, her green eyes sparkling with excitement, her practical traveling cloak a stark contrast to her usual silken dresses.
Before them stood their escort. It was not a grand company of the Archduke's personal guard. Instead, it was a standard five-man squad of household sentries. They were solid, disciplined warriors, their armor polished and their spears held at a perfect, uniform angle. Their leader, a grim-faced veteran with a jaw like a block of granite, bowed stiffly.
"Lady Liana, Lord Kairo. I am Sergeant Korin. We are tasked with your protection today." His eyes lingered on Kairo for a moment, his professional gaze noting the boy's small stature and the way he stayed close to his sister. The assessment was clear: one ward to protect, and one piece of fragile baggage to carry.
This was exactly what Kairo had anticipated. A full contingent of elite Umbral Guard would have been too observant, their senses too keen. But a standard patrol squad was different. They were professional, but their duty was rote. They were here to guard against the common dangers of the plains—a stray Graze-Wolf, perhaps, or a territorial Quill-Boar. They were not expecting a threat from within their own party. Their guard was, quite literally, facing outward.
"Thank you, Sergeant," Liana said cheerfully, oblivious to the subtle dismissiveness. "We are ready when you are."
As the party set out from the capital city of Balor, Kairo kept his Aether-Sense use to a minimum, pulsing it only for a brief second every minute to refresh his mental map. The open plains were a vastly different environment from the contained corridors of the Spire. The sheer scale of it was difficult for his budding sense to process. The echoes returned from miles away, faint and distorted.
He focused on what was close. He mapped the shifting positions of the guards as they formed a protective diamond around him and Liana. He felt the soft, yielding echo of the silvery-blue grass under his feet and the distant, solid wall of the Spine-Mountains on the horizon.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Liana sighed, a contented smile on her face. "You can feel the whole world breathing out here."
Kairo simply nodded, his senses focused on a different kind of breathing. The breathing of the hunt.
They walked for over an hour, moving deeper into the rolling plains. The Spine-Mountains loomed larger, their jagged peaks scraping the underbelly of the clouds. Kairo's inner clock was ticking. He needed to make his move soon. He needed a distraction. A catalyst to break the rigid formation of the guards.
He found it in a patch of what looked like unremarkable, thorny bushes. He knew from his studies that this was the preferred nesting ground of Thorn-Rattlers, small, ill-tempered lizards with a non-lethal but incredibly painful bite.
"Sister," Kairo said, his voice quiet. He pointed vaguely in the direction of the bushes. "What are those purple flowers?"
Liana followed his gesture. "Oh, those are... I'm not sure. I've never seen them up close." Her Jukai curiosity was piqued.
"Let's go look!" she said, tugging his hand.
"Lady Liana, I would advise against it," Sergeant Korin said, his voice a low rumble. "We should stick to the clear path."
"Oh, don't be such a worry, Sergeant," Liana chided playfully. "It's just over there. We'll be quick."
Before Korin could protest further, she was already leading Kairo off the path towards the thorny patch. The guards exchanged exasperated looks but followed, their formation loosening as they navigated the uneven ground. This was the moment of chaos Kairo had been waiting for.
As they neared the bushes, Kairo deliberately stumbled, his foot "catching" on a root. He let out a small cry and fell forward, his hands landing directly in the heart of the thorny nest.
A furious chittering erupted from the bush.
"Lord Kairo!" Korin shouted.
Kairo pulled his hand back, and a small, reptilian creature, no bigger than his hand and colored a bright, angry red, came with it, its tiny needle-like teeth sunk deep into the flesh of his palm.
Pain, sharp and hot, flared through his hand. The Thorn-Rattler's venom was a potent irritant, and it felt like fire being injected into his veins. He bit back a genuine cry of pain, forcing a childish whimper instead.
"Ah!" Liana shrieked, her face paling. "Get it off him!"
Two of the guards instantly broke formation and rushed forward. One grabbed Kairo's arm while the other, with the practiced motion of a veteran, slapped the side of the lizard's head with the butt of his spear. Stunned, the Thorn-Rattler released its grip and fell to the ground, scurrying back into the thorns.
In the ensuing panic, no one noticed what Kairo did next. As the guard held his arm, Kairo's other hand, hidden from view, quickly reached into the small satchel at his belt. He pulled out a small, tightly-sealed clay pot, no bigger than his thumb. In the split second of confusion, as Liana cried out and the guards focused on the bite, he broke the pot's thin wax seal with his thumbnail.
The pot contained a thick, pungent paste he had created the night before. It was a foul-smelling concoction made from rendered animal fat and the glandular secretions of a Stink-Weasel, a creature whose scent was notoriously attractive to Ridgeback predators.
With a single, swift motion, he smeared a thick dollop of the nauseating paste onto the back of Sergeant Korin's heavy leather boot. The paste was nearly the same color as the mud-caked leather. It was invisible. But its scent would be a beacon in the wind.
"He's bleeding!" Liana cried.
"It's just a Thorn-Rattler bite, my lady," Korin said, his face a mask of annoyance as he came over to inspect the wound. "Painful, but not dangerous." He was so focused on the bite he didn't notice the faint, foul odor that now clung to him. "We'll clean it and bandage it."
As one guard produced a medical kit, Kairo looked up at the Spine-Mountains, a cold, calculating calm settling over him. The bait was set. The scent was on the wind. Now, he just had to wait for the predators to answer the dinner bell.
They continued their walk, with Kairo now sporting a clean white bandage on his hand, a trophy from his 'accident'. Liana fussed over him, her guilt making her an even more attentive shield. The guards were more alert now, their earlier laxness replaced by a grim professionalism. They scanned the plains, watching for threats.
They were watching in the wrong direction. The real threat wasn't on the plains. It was coming from the mountains. And it wasn't hunting them.
It was hunting their sergeant.
Kairo felt it first. A faint tremor in the ground, a low thrumming that traveled up through the soles of his feet. His Aether-Sense, which he had kept dormant to conserve energy, flared to life on its own, a spike of pure instinct.
He pulsed it deliberately, casting a wide net up the rocky slopes.
The echoes returned, and his blood ran cold. Five of them. Five powerful, fast-moving Aetheric signatures, burning like hot coals in his mental landscape. They were charging down the mountain with impossible speed, their movements a perfect, synchronized pattern of a hunting pack. And their target was a singular point: the glowing, foul-smelling beacon that was Sergeant Korin.
"Ridgebacks!" one of the guards on the flank screamed, his voice cracking with terror. "Ridgebacks, coming down the mountain!"
All heads snapped towards the slopes. For a moment, there was nothing. Then, they saw them. Five sleek, muscular forms, low to the ground, kicking up plumes of dust as they bounded down the rocky terrain. They were the color of slate, their powerful legs eating up the distance with a terrifying, predatory grace.
"Five of them?!" another guard gasped. "What in the Maelstrom's name...?" A pack of five was almost unheard of so close to the plains.
"Formation!" Sergeant Korin bellowed, his annoyance instantly replaced by the iron authority of a commander. "Diamond formation! Protect the wards! Spears out! Hold the line!"
The guards moved with disciplined terror, their training overcoming their fear. They snapped into position, forming a tight ring around Kairo and Liana, their spear-tips a porcupine's hedge of sharp steel. Liana grabbed Kairo's arm, her face white with fear, pulling him towards the center of the formation.
But Kairo resisted. He took one deliberate step back, positioning himself right behind Sergeant Korin, just out of Liana's reach. In the chaos, the move went unnoticed.
The Ridgebacks closed the distance in seconds. They were even bigger up close, each one the size of a large wolf, their muscles coiling and uncoiling under their grey hides. The lead Ridgeback, its bone-crest larger and scarred from a hundred battles, fixed its baleful, intelligent eyes on Sergeant Korin. It ignored the other guards completely. It ignored the two children. It had its target.
With a guttural snarl that ripped through the air, the alpha lunged.