Sylvia and Honoka were already in the dining tent when Grey and I arrived. Rather than eating though, they were bent over pouring over some pages of parchment of their own. They looked up at our entrance, with Honoka rolling the parchment up and setting it to the side. I wasn’t able to see much on it before it was put away, but what I did see didn’t make much sense to me. The runic designs had been odd, almost flowing in circular waves compared to the angular rays I was used to. The barest hint I’d been able to make out from the syntax almost looked…accented, in a way.

Weird, but I was starting to get the impression that Cultivators just went in a different direction 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 Ascension 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 fine with me. I’m sure I’d figure things out when it came to my turn.

I was pretty quiet for the rest of the night, especially after our dinner arrived from the camp kitchen. 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, and left 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 working on smelting that Mithril.

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

Brushing aside the flap 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 contained his messy eating to a small section of the tent.

“I was wondering 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 rune to 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 bloody rag in the sack I used for dirty clothes. I’d get it cleaned later. 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 lately that Fade was growing more independent. It seemed to have started around the time that his horns had fully come in, and he’d demonstrated his powers for the first time. After that battle in Caer Drarrow, he’d never used that strange anti-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 concerned. It was encouraging that he wasn’t completely dependent 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 you’re going to be bringing kills back, at least clean up after yourself,” I said exasperatedly, waving a hand at the remains of his dinner.

Fade sneezed, but did as I asked. He rapidly crunched 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 contentious growth. Well, contentious 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 comment that was said in passing months ago. I was probably psyching myself up over nothing, but…that was what anxiety was. Worrying over nothing.

I sighed.

I was knocked out of my pity party when the sound of metallic knuckles 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 flap into my tent. She smiled at me, brushing a lock of golden hair behind her Mithril ear. “May I come in?”

Hastily, I stood up. “Uh, yeah. No problem. What…can 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 metallic hand in greeting, and then promptly lay 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 down next to her. “I…guess? I had no problem understanding 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 enchant,” I answered tiredly. “Everything that Grey has taught me about enchanting 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 back in Addersfield. I made the Ward Breaker first, and then modified the enchantment to suit a purpose. And that’s the problem.”

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

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

Sylvia laughed slightly and shook her head. “That doesn’t sound like a problem at all, Nathan. The solution here is staring you right 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, inclining her head. “If you need a Sculpted to…feel the enchantment 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 enchantment was completely absorbed by your soul.”

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

Sylvia reached out to lay 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 forgotten how you lost your arm in the first place. By protecting 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 mine to 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 need to 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 in Aether streams all around us. Every so often, they would pulse to the beating of an intangible heart far off in the literal Aether. I breathed in, watching as a small amount of energy followed the air that had entered my lungs. I imagined that I could almost feel the tingle as the ambient Aether flowed through me.

However, out of the corner 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 ambient Aether. 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 flame. As they reached his lupine form, they penetrated 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 tune with Vereden.

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

He was watching 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 changed, gaining an almost taste of scolding.

“Nathan?” I heard from Sylvia, startling me slightly. I had almost forgotten about her, in the unexpected nature of Fade’s Aether. I turned back to face Sylvia, and felt my breath hitch in my chest.

All those months ago, when I had first met Sylvia, she had revealed her face to me under the 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 candlelight and the glow of blue-green Aether, her Mithril skin was painted 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 confusion. “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 imagine it 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 comprehended the Ward Breaker enough to edit it, I had been in a much deeper trance. At the time, I had been flat-out meditating. I needed to go deeper.

Much deeper.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the Aether flowing around and through us. I tried to synch up my breathing to the slow pulse of Vereden. With each delayed 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 planet.

After a time, I felt something else.

I think…it was Sylvia.

Through the Aether that connected us, that connected 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 connection, I felt my consciousness travel 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 unexplainable. Somehow, I was looking at Sylvia’s very soul. I felt a smile cross my 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 flared into being in rolling waves that ebbed and flowed. However, what caught my eye the most was a tether. An almost rope of blue-green Aether 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 an entire world behind. But I found what I needed.

The tether connected to an enchantment, a vast and complicated 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 needed. The very firmament of the Sculpted soul.

I felt a large grin grow on my face.

Now we were 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 connection.

Gradually, I began to draw my consciousness out of Sylvia, passing by her soul as I did so. I gave it one last metaphysical glance before I left.

I wanted to 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 your gaze on me, even if I could tell it was far away.” She paused herself before continuing hesitatingly. “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 uncomfortably, 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 opened the drape. Swiftly, she turned around and advanced on me.

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

I returned the embrace, wrapping 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 scent.

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. Backing 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 writing desk that I had in my tent. I needed to put down the thoughts I’d had about the Sculpted enchantment before I forgot them.

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

It almost sounded like he was laughing at me.