“I got Acting from that,” Kazuma said numbly, his hands still shaking even hours after the confrontation with the Kawamaran delegation. I don’t think he even noticed how the trembling was causing his drink to slosh and spill in his cup. “I can’t believe I got a General Talent from that. How did I get a Talent from…that?”

  I hid a smirk behind the rim of my drink as I hung out with most of my companions after the Kawamaran delegates had left. It was Azarus, Kazuma, Renauld, and Liora in our chamber deep in the heart of Mt. Umetsuji, all of us celebrating what looked to be the end of our Goryuen campaign. It was past dark by now, and I’d already put Aveline to bed in a separate chamber overseen by Mitsuri and her army of Shurengan cubs. I wasn’t finding it hard to convince a little girl to bed down in a chamber surrounded by over a dozen different intelligent kittens. They were just as interested in her as she was delighted by them.

  I was honestly pretty thankful that Mitsuri had allowed Aveline time with her charges. I had…noticed that my new charge was, in her own way, haunted by the events that had occurred since her awakening in the bunker, and I didn’t blame her. Aveline had woken up to an alien world where not only was her mother long since dead, but her entire people were as well. In the last few days, she’d needed help to fall asleep in the first place, either through my presence or through some quick sleeping potions I’d whipped up for her through some supplies in the Order encampment. I didn’t intend to keep her on them forever, though, so I hoped that a little animal companionship might take her mind off of what she’d lost. Thankfully, she’d seemed to have the easiest time falling asleep there among the cubs that she’d had since coming up from the bunker.

  Bella wasn’t with us tonight because apparently the Thorny Reef and her crew had been co-opted into being part of the fleet that sailed with us to the island. A sheepish Masayuki had told an irritated Bella that they’d been press-ganged into accompaniment because it was known she was here with me, and if it had turned out my companions and I had betrayed his trust…

  Well.

  At least that wasn’t a factor anymore. It had seemed like the Kawamarans were tentatively willing to believe us before they’d left on their own expedition into the heart of the island. General Hisakane and his forces wanted to confirm with their own eyes the destruction of Mt. Gorenzan, since that seemed the easiest way to see if we were telling the truth about the final death of Tatsugan. A token force led by his adjutant, Captain Tanigawa, much more respectful of us after the talks, had been left behind to supervise us. However, he hadn’t been welcomed into the volcano like we had, so he and his forces were pitching tents not far from the Solstice Flame encampment while they waited for their leaders to come back. Masayuki had gone with the General as well, telling me that he was dying to see what exactly I’d done to the historic mountain.

  I hoped he liked it. Even with as dangerous as the glowing crater was now, I had to admit it was a striking sight.

  Aside from Bella, oddly enough, Venix wasn’t with us as well. After the talks, the strangely contemplative Antium man had caught Shacklock’s attention and dragged the ancient madman away for a conversation of his own. That just left us law-abiding youngsters behind to have a drink celebrating our accomplishments, here in a lava-lit obsidian cave.

  Azarus didn’t bother hiding his smirk after quaffing his mug of ale from the cask we’d…acquired from the Order camp. However, his own smirk was directed at me. “If I’m right, Nate here got the same Talent pullin’ a stunt not that different from yer own.”

  At the interested stares from the rest of the room, I shrugged. “Ah…sort of similar, but with much lower stakes.”

  Renauld leaned forward from his reclining posture to fix me with an interested stare. “Well, go on. I don’t think I’ve heard this story before.”

  “Nor I,” Liora said quietly, cupping her own mug of ale.

  I nodded easily and launched into the story of mine and Azarus’s courtly escapades in Rhoscara last year. The ridiculousness of what we’d pulled there before the Raven Throne seemed to distract Kazuma from the enormity of what he’d accomplished, drawing his attention as Renauld outright laughed at me.

  Meanwhile, my Core was doing something entirely different as I waxed poetically, reenacting my grand gestures from back then.

  It was scolding me, in fact.

  You see, even days after surviving the bunker and slaying Tatsugan’s true form, I’d been avoiding something.

  Checking and updating my Status.

  I wasn’t afraid of the levels that I’d surely gotten from killing the ancient monster of Lucretia’s design. With the Aetherial weight of the leech, I might have gained more than ten levels and gotten a new class ability. I wouldn’t be surprised by such a thing at all.

  However, I hadn’t forgotten how I’d stolen something from the pathetic, wriggling form of Tatsugan as I slew it. I had no way of knowing if it had been a Skill or a Talent or whatever, but at the time I’d noted that what it was, it seemed…slight. As if the ‘acquired’ ability wasn’t whole, somehow. In the past, when I’d stolen something, I could almost taste the Aether and its abundance when I’d done so.

  And with this, it had seemed minuscule.

  That wasn’t why I was avoiding checking my Status, though. It was because the last time I’d updated my Status after killing a Calamity, it had almost ruined my life. Vis Maledicta Exactoris was a powerful Skill, I had no reason to deny that fact. Not only did it grant me a larger, more powerful body to work with, but it opened up the skies to me.

  But that didn’t change the fact that it had rendered me something other than human.

  Well, human seeming. The jury was still out on whatever Precursor’s actually were.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  I hadn’t forgotten Aveline’s words in the bunker about how the Netherim had needed to be ‘adjusted’ to the Aether of Vereden, to survive its density. Nor could I ignore how the exact shade of emerald green graced our irises.

  But I digress. The point was that I had refrained from updating my Status for fear of what I’d gained from Tatsugan changing me more. Whatever it was had the chance of changing me even further.

  And I was terrified of that.

  My Core ring, though, had a different perspective on things. Out of respect for the Outer ring, it had refrained from updating our Status itself. As much as I…essentially ribbed myself from time to time, one ring to another, we still worked mostly in concert, even though we had our own trains of thought. Not to say that we were different people, but it’s just…

  God, how to describe this?

  My separate rings were all one person, just with different, wholly separate existences. I really couldn’t explain it better than that to someone who just couldn’t understand.

  We both missed the Middle Ring, though. It had always been more analytical than the Core and I.

  Speaking of it, though, the argument of the Core was essentially that we had to do it sometime. We couldn’t go the rest of our lives without ever updating our Status again. Not only was that just antithetical to life on Vereden, but we had responsibilities now. Last I’d checked, someone in their mid-level one-hundreds was just average for someone my age. Even with all of my advantages as Precursor-

  (Which I had to admit were significant.)

  It wasn’t enough to ensure I could protect Aveline from all the dangers of Vereden.

  I had to grow stronger than I was. For the first time, I felt I had a true, personal drive for progress other than the joy of it alone.

  That wasn’t even counting the fact that I still had questions about what was going on with Vereden, its history, and Precursor’s themselves. Travers had let slip a number of different things to me, which had provided at least a little bit of information. Some of which I’m sure Grey would even be very interested in.

  The mere existence of the Netherim, the false nature of the Veredenese ‘gods’ themselves, the ‘Administrator’, and…

  How Precursors, were in a way, patterned off the Netherim.

  I was a ‘pretender’, after all. But a pretender to what? Questions remained, and I would find the answers.

  Eventually.

  For now, though, it was time to put all of that on hold.

  My Core had put forth a convincing argument. Later, though. I’d update my Status later.

  I had a party to get back to.

  ……………………………………………

  Hours after everyone else had gone to sleep, I had left the cave to stand on the same vantage point Kazuma and I had watched the Kawamaran forces advance across earlier in the day. Below me, I could see hundreds of tents in one of two styles dotted across the stony plains that lay before Mt. Umetsuji. This late at night, only a few campfires still shone through the blackness. I leaned across the sheer cut wall near to the door and pondered the crescent form of Elys hanging full on the horizon, mentally preparing myself for what I was about to do. I found it oddly…comforting to know that out on the mainland, Fade was likely looking up at the same moon. Probably howling at it, too.

  I smiled slightly at the mental image of Taran teaching the younger wolf how to properly howl at the moon.

  Before I was startled by a voice coming from above me.

  “Penny for your thoughts, Nathaniel?” I heard a familiar female voice ask in a languid tone. Turning and flicking my eyes up, I was unsurprised to find the mistress of the mountain having crept up on me. Laying on a flat section of rock, illuminated by the light of Elys, was Shurenga in her mid-size form, watching me with patient eyes as her flaming mane twirled behind her in the midnight air. "Why are you out here, instead of carousing with your fellows?"

  “Ah…” I said, finding my voice. “I was just about to check my Status, actually. I…haven’t done that since I…got out.”

  One crimson eyebrow on the saber-tooth rose at my words. “Truly? How very odd,” She mused. “I’m given to understand that those with a Status are typically eager to update it. Whyever have you refrained in the days since your escapade?”

  I looked away from her wise amber eyes, not answering for a second. I…felt like I could trust Shurenga, honestly. If I was being honest, she struck me as more trustworthy than even Taran. The elder Spirit Wolf was very much associated with a faction of humanity I had only secondary ties to myself, and was inclined to place their needs over my own. While I felt like I could trust him to instruct his newest younger ‘brother’, I wasn’t sure I could trust him with all of my secrets.

  But Shurenga…her only loyalty was to her children and her Father.

  And she’d already told me about the legendary trustworthiness of Taran when it came to secrets.

  “I…” I started slowly. “As part of my…Precursor abilities I can sometimes…‘steal’ Skills and Talents from people and…” I frowned. “Things I kill. It doesn’t always work, but I got something from Tatsugan when I killed his true form. And I’m wary of seeing what it is. Last time I stole a Skill like this, it was from Rhazal…and it turned me into this.” I finished, flicking one of my pointed, scaled ears.

  Strangely, I saw Shurenga’s lips curl down as she focused on something I hadn’t expected. “It occurs sporadically, you say?” She said with a frown. “How odd. It is my understanding that the System, though fragmented, operates on generally clear rules. There is no hint given as to the activation requirements of this…‘ability theft’?”

  I blinked at her, startled. “Ah, no. It just seems to pop up whenever it wants to, honestly.”

  Shurenga stood up then and leaped down to join me on her own balcony. She shook her head. “I do not believe that is the case, Nathaniel. Please, let me help you. Tell me about each instance this has occurred.”

  I…

  Well, alright.

  Slowly, I told Shurenga about each and every time I’d stolen a Skill or Talent since my Status had been awoken. First, it had been Magnus.

  May he burn in whatever Hell he believed in for all eternity.

  The next time had been with that Herztalian Captain on the roads between Hollow Hill and Marrowmist. I…honestly couldn’t remember his name, to my slight shame. After that, it had activated when I killed that full armor-clad knight during the fight in Caer Drarrow. Then I think there had been a lull? The next time I’d stolen a Skill, it had been with the death of Rhazal.

  And finally, when I killed the true form of Tatsugan.

  “…what’s more,” I continued. “Is that I can sometimes combine some skills and abilities with another ability, Synergy. Only, I’ve figured out that I can only do it with something that I’ve stolen, and with something that I’ve learned the normal way, together. I’ve talked with my mentor a lot about this, and neither of us really have a clue as to what’s going on.”

  I expected Shurenga to say something when I was done with my explanation, only to hear nothing. Turning to face her, I felt a chill run down my back at what I found.

  Shurenga was devoting the whole of her attention to me, in a way I’d never seen from the daughter of Tarus. There was an unnerving intensity in her amber gaze, leaving me feeling almost pinned in place. After a moment, she turned away from me to stare up at the silver form of Elys on the horizon. “Father, Lady Elys…” I heard her murmur. “Do you suspect the same thing I do? Is that why you support this mortal so?”

  I shivered when I swear, I thought I saw a slight sheen travel across the curved form of Elys. As if in response, Shurenga nodded to herself before turning to face me. “I believe I understand the activation requirement of your…abilities, Nathaniel,” She said in a grave tone. “There is a single, underlying component that I believe your Status is reacting to when it reaches out to ‘steal’ an ability. Only…the correct term should be reclaim.”

  “It is divinity you are truly stealing from your victims.”