A year passed.
For Kaelen, it was a year of profound weakness, frustration, and meticulous data collection. His
body was a prison. He learned to crawl, and with that mobility, he became the shack's silent,
all-seeing shadow.
His days were spent in a state of hyper-aware analysis. While Elara was out—scavenging for
scraps of food or mending rags for a fraction of a copper—Kaelen was working.
He lay on the damp earth floor, his yellow, cat-like eyes tracking a fat, black-furred rat.
[TARGET: SLUM RAT (MALE)] [PHYSIQUE: 3 (HEALTHY)] [STATUS: WARY, CARRYING
(BONE-ROT PLAGUE)] [EDIBILITY: 1/10 (DESPERATION ONLY)] [THREAT LEVEL: 2 (TO
HOST)]
He dismissed the rat. He had analyzed hundreds. They were liabilities. Filthy, disease-carrying
resource drains.
He had also spent the year analyzing his primary asset: Elara.
His sociopathic mind had quickly deduced the simple input-output logic of "infant-mother."
Crying was a debit. It cost her energy, raised her stress, and lowered her [LOYALTY]. Silence
was a neutral transaction.
But a smile—a calculated, perfectly-timed coo when she returned with a half-stale loaf of
bread—was a credit.
[ASSET: ELARA] [LOYALTY: 74 (STABLE)] [STATUS: FATIGUED (88%), MALNOURISHED
(SEVERE - 12%)] [EMOTIONAL STATE: DEPRESSIVE, HIGHLY FOCUSED ON 'KAELEN']
He had become the perfect, quiet, "angelic" child. He never cried. He smiled when she was sad.
He slept on command. In return, his [LOYALTY] score was stable, and she was literally starving
herself to keep him fed.
His analysis of her was chilling. She was a simple, broken creature who craved one thing:
purpose. He had provided it. By being a "good" son, he had transformed her from a simple
biological protector into a willing servant.
But his System's analysis showed a critical flaw in his plan. Her [MALNOURISHED (SEVERE -
12%)] status was flashing a dull, insistent red. His primary asset was on the verge of
catastrophic failure. She would die. And if she died, he would follow.
This was an unacceptable outcome. He needed more resources.
His infant prison limited his options. He could not hunt, steal, or work. He could only observe.
And he had observed something his mother, in her weary desperation, had missed.
Most rats in the shack were the diseased, bony things he'd just analyzed. But there was one. A
sleeker, healthier specimen. This one didn't scurry from the main entrance; it emerged from a
loose pile of rubble and dirt in the darkest corner of their one-room hovel.
Kaelen had analyzed this rat. [PHYSIQUE: 5 (ROBUST)]. It wasn't eating the same refuse. It
had found a different food source.
He had spent a week crawling to that corner, his tiny, grey-skinned fingers probing the loose
earth. He'd found it: a single, flat stone wedged against the rotted foundation.
Now, he simply needed to transfer this information to his asset.
Elara returned, her shoulders slumped. Her scavenging had yielded nothing but a few scraps of
damp cloth. She slumped against the wall, her [STATUS: FATIGUED] spiking to [95%].
Kaelen began his operation.
He crawled, his movements deliberately clumsy, toward the dark corner. He reached the loose stone and sat back.
"Daa," he said. It was a meaningless sound, but it was sound. In the year he had been alive, he
had barely made a noise.
Elara's head lifted, her luminous yellow eyes widening. "Kaelen? What is it? Stay away from that
corner, love. It's... it's just dirt."
Kaelen tapped the stone. "Daa!" he repeated, louder this time.
She sighed, a puff of exhausted air. "Not now, Kaelen. Mama is tired."
He was losing her attention. His [LOYALTY] score was high, but her [FATIGUE] was a more
powerful immediate driver. He needed a stronger incentive.
He placed his tiny hand on the stone and focused.
[INTENT DETECTED. AFFINITY: SHADOW] [TARGET: INANIMATE (STONE)] [ACTIVATING
[SHADOW'S WHISPER] (LEVEL 1)...] [MANA: 18/18 -> 17]
He didn't project dread this time. His control over the year had improved. He projected a pulse
of cold, unnatural... wrongness. A feeling that something was hidden.
Elara, who had closed her eyes, snapped them open. She felt it. A cold shiver that had nothing
to do with the damp air. It was centered on... the corner? On Kaelen?
"Kaelen?" she whispered, her voice sharp with a sudden, protective fear.
She scrambled to her feet and rushed over, scooping him up. "What's wrong? Is it a rat?"
Kaelen, now in her arms, pointed directly at the stone. "Daa."
Shaking, Elara put him aside. She grabbed a rusted piece of scrap metal she used as a
makeshift knife. She knelt by the corner and pried at the flat stone. It was wedged tight, but her
sudden, adrenaline-fueled fear gave her strength.
The stone scraped free, revealing a small, dark hollow beneath.
It wasn't a rat's nest.
Inside was a rotting oilcloth bundle. Elara's hands trembled as she pulled it out and unwrapped
it.
Kaelen's System flashed.
[RESOURCE DETECTED: 7x 'SILVER LION' (COMMON CURRENCY)] [RESOURCE
DETECTED: 1x 'COPPER FANG' (COMMON CURRENCY)] [ITEM DETECTED: 1x 'SHARD OF
NIGHT']
Elara gasped. It was more money than she had seen in her entire life. It was enough to buy real
food. Enough for bread, and cheese, and perhaps even medicine. Tears of relief streamed down
her face.
She hugged Kaelen, burying her face in his thin black hair. "My son, my clever son... you saved
us. You saved us!"
[ASSET: ELARA] [LOYALTY: 74... 78... 82 (RISING)] [EMOTIONAL STATE: EUPHORIC (75%),
DEVOTED (80%)]
Kaelen ignored her. His entire, cold focus was on the small, black rock in the bundle. It was the
size of his thumb, impossibly dark, and felt cold to the touch.
[TARGET: SHARD OF NIGHT (RARE)] [TYPE: MANA CONDUCTOR (SHADOW)]
[DESCRIPTION: A fragment of crystallized, inert shadow-mana. Highly valuable to those with a
Shadow Affinity.] [CURRENT USE: CAN BE ABSORBED TO RAPIDLY EXPAND MANA POOL
AND STABILIZE AFFINITY.] [RECOMMENDATION: ABSORB IMMEDIATELY.]
Elara was clutching the coins, laughing and crying. She was a successful asset, her operational
lifespan just dramatically extended.
Kaelen, held in her embrace, reached out his tiny, grey hand. His fingers closed around the
Shard of Night.
He had just made his first acquisition.