As it turns out, our enemies timed their attack extremely well. Better, in fact, than they had probably intended. Raven is off on a hunting trip with the hatchlings.

  That’s not unusual; he had actually left on it before I did, but I was expecting him back before now. Normally he doesn’t go away for more than three days, but this time it’s approaching five. Daphne and Ivor are entirely healed physically and their internal matrices are almost there.

  I thought I was going to have to use Raven’s internal matrix as a guide to reforming the mess of golden lines within the alcaoris hatchlings like Lathani and I used following Kalanthia’s ‘blueprint’. However, it turned out to be easier than that. It seems that enough Energy from hunting and absorbing Cores from beasts is actually reforming Daphne and Ivor’s internal matrices into something more natural-looking where absorbing Pure Energy deforms the golden lines even if it does help them to grow. I now see exactly why Kalanthia wanted to be careful of Lathani after we brought her back from the village for the first time, making sure that she didn’t absorb too many of the Energy Hearts.

  Noir, unfortunately, still shows no sign of advancing no matter how many beasts he kills or Energy Hearts he absorbs. He has grown in both size and strength, his agility and ease of flight and killing significantly improved, but it’s not magical, merely the result of all the practice he’s had. I’ve felt a camaraderie with him that I haven’t felt with anyone else in this world so far – Noir knows what it’s like to work hard for hours on end and see minor improvements if any. He’s the one non-magical creature in a world of magic. If it wasn’t that he looked so much like a fantasy dragon, he’d do well back on Earth.

  I’m still trying to find a way of reactivating the internal matrix that he should have, but so far haven’t met with any success. I know it bothers him, though he does his best to dismiss it. But how can it do otherwise when he’s almost always the one to lose the battles with his siblings? Or the last to learn how to do something? The last to achieve something?

  But he’s smart. He’s had to learn to be – when brute force is out of the question, other options have to be pursued. Honestly, I’m rooting for the little fellow. Or rather, not so little. Not anymore.

  I hope that they’ll come back soon – I find myself anxious to see how all three of them are doing, though Noir in particular.

  If Raven’s absence is easily explicable, Kalanthia’s was less so.

  I sensed not one but two other Guardian beasts entering my territory, she explains, lying comfortably on the ground, her head tilted slightly to indicate exactly where I should scratch her. I have a feeling that the petting has done at least as much to smooth away the recent contretemps between us as the Energy Hearts I gave her. It was unexpected, so I decided I should go to investigate to find out why they were here.

  “And were they here to challenge you or to visit?”

  Neither, Kalanthia answers with hints of unease. Both seemed to think that I had been in their territories. Fortunately, Unstoppable was willing to listen to reason when I quickly collapsed his domain on him – he wasn’t expecting the boost that Lathani’s Evolution gave me. She gives off a sense of intense smugness that only a feline can express. The other ran away with his tail straight behind him as soon as he felt the strength of my domain.

  “Well done,” I tell her, privately wondering whether Kalanthia will be able to teach me to have a domain which can stop even that massive Evolved cyran in his tracks. And it just shows how much Kalanthia was being held back by lending a ‘blueprint’ of her internal matrix to Lathani – I remember them meeting on the way to the Festival and seeming pretty evenly matched. “Why did they think you’d been in their territories? Had you?”

  No. I’ve patrolled my own borders to ensure that none can be mistaken about where they start, but I have not sought to expand them. Yet Unstoppable indicated that he’d found my spoor, fresh spoor, in various places in his territory. The other Guardian didn’t wait long enough for me to ask whether the same was true for him.

  Odd. Very odd. A sense of unease grows within me as I realise that I might know why this happened.

  Kalanthia nudges my hand and I realise I’ve stopped moving. I quickly begin scratching again, feeling her faint rumble of contentment under my finger tips.

  You seem very thoughtful. Anything to share?

  “I’m just wondering whether it might have something to do with the invasion,” I say slowly, considering my words carefully, my mind turning over the idea even as I voice it.

  But they cannot produce my spoor, only their own, Kalanthia points out.

  “Sure, but they have hands,” I offer in rebuttal. ”And they’re capable of carrying things on leaves too. What if they collected some of your spoor, and took it deep into the other territories?”

  For what purpose? She seems baffled. I’m not. In fact, I’m more and more convinced of my thoughts as I consider them further.

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  “To lure you away.”

  But why? I would not have contested their attack on their own folk. She sends me a warning look as if to say that any further accusations on that topic wouldn’t be tolerated. I don’t intend to do so – I try not to repeat mistakes these days. Kalanthia isn’t arguing that it isn’t possible, but she is obviously struggling to see the motivation. Which I understand – it’s not the kind of strategy a predator would use. A human, however….

  “Because they didn’t know that.” She looks at me with her head slightly tilted to one side, a gesture which her daughter has picked up on and uses when she’s confused. “Look at it this way. We went down to the Festival. A samuran village saw you even if you didn’t come into the Festival itself. I’m sure that the news that I had been friendly with a ‘Great beast’ made the rounds even if I didn’t hear any whispers of it. But maybe Flying-blade or one of the other samurans in her village did.

  “And so when it came to formulating the plan to attack us, they had to first check out whether the rumours were true. I know that they watched the village for days; I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they investigated this area too. It’s possible that they weren't able to make it close to the den since there are the vine-stranglers and your own senses, but you go out hunting regularly so they probably saw you at some point. Heck, they might even have got close to the den – we have Warriors coming and going all the time. Could you say for sure if it was an intruder or a newly-Evolved member of the village?

  I could probably tell if I was paying attention, Kalanthia offered thoughtfully. They would mostly likely be more fearful than those who know of my presence, and a newly-Evolved is relatively easy to spot. Not to mention that their exterior thoughts would probably give them away. But if I wasn’t here or was asleep….

  “Then it’s possible they scouted even this area,” I concluded, feeling suddenly tired at the thought.

  “So, maybe they saw that there was a Great beast around – living not far from the village. Maybe they thought that you would come to defend the village, or maybe they just didn’t want to take the chances of encountering you when you would definitely know they were invaders – I don’t blame them for that, honestly.” Kalanthia gives an amused huff, unselfconsciously proud of her own prowess. “And so they thought of a way to lure you out of your territory.”

  My satisfaction at perhaps seeing through another ploy of my enemies cools as I realise something. “If they knew how powerful Unstoppable is, maybe they were hoping that you’d fight and at least one of you would die.” Then the corner of my mouth quirks up slightly. “But they didn't take into account that you were already familiar with each other. Still, they succeeded in keeping you away from the battle so if it was indeed their plan, it worked.”

  And if my theory is correct and the enemy samurans orchestrated this situation where not only I was out of range until almost too late but that my allies were all absent too, they are significantly more strategically-competent than I thought they were. After all, the only failures in their strategy were that I dealt with the other Tier three beast faster than they thought, and that we were able to get back to the village unexpectedly quickly. And that was only because Windy and I were able to create a means of transport to get most of us back to the village far faster than we could have made it on foot.

  I’m suddenly hit by a fear that Raven might have been caught in their web somehow. Is that the reason for why he’s taken almost two days longer on this hunting trip than he usually does? I resolve to question my captives in the morning. Perhaps one of them will know something about this.

  For now, while I’m here, I decide to get Kalanthia’s advice on something else. Pulling the spider-silk wrapped package from where it is tied onto my belt, half-hidden by my armour, I carefully unwrap it.

  I didn’t want to put it in my Inventory in case the Energy-sapping qualities of the extra-dimensional space caused a problem, but at the same time there was no way I was leaving it anywhere other people could touch it. So I just made sure to wrap it up thoroughly and tie it securely to my person.

  “Kalanthia,” I say, unfolding the last of the spider-silk layers. “Do you have any idea what this is? And what it does?”

  The nunda eyes the black Core that seems to glint even in the low light level of the underground cavern. She sniffs at it and then pulls back sharply, her domain reappearing briefly with a sense of a predator disturbed in the hunt by something that might just become the new prey.

  This is what you took from the enemy leader? she asks – I’ve already told her my story of exactly what happened while she was away.

  “It is. It seemed to be central to her intentions of destroying my village and capturing any Pathwalkers she could. So do you know anything about it?”

  It is a thing which should not exist, Kalanthia says darkly. I strongly recommend that you destroy it.

  My eyebrows rise practically into my browline at her blunt statement and advice.

  “It’s really that bad?”

  I sense that it links one soul to another. And there is a…hunger to it. Something which will never be satisfied. It will prefer to sup at the souls of those Bound to it, but if there are none, it will drink from its wielder instead.

  I shiver, abruptly glad that I didn’t let those connections touch me earlier.

  “You can sense all of that? Impressive,” I say to Kalanthia, keeping my hands well-away from the object in question.

  The medium is familiar to me – the Core of an Enlightened beast. Feeling the additions to it is simple enough. You should be capable of doing so with your domain too.

  I look up at Kalanthia, but she just gazes steadily back at me. She’s not joking. I hesitate, but then decide that I might as well. Despite how horrifying the object actually is, it’s still the first time I’ve come across anything like this. Before I destroy it – because I agree with Kalanthia on that – I would like to at least find out as much about it as I can. Because a beast Core that’s able to be used by anyone to mimic an ability? That’s a pretty powerful tool. As long as I can change it so that it doesn’t require people’s souls to be the fuel, of course.

  Holding out my hand, I’m careful not to touch the Core even as I once again do my best to extend my soul beyond my skin.

  here!

  here!

  here