People started filling into the inn rather quickly. The smell of sweat, metal, and damp leather mixed with the faint sweetness of burning oil from the lanterns. A pair of larger men carried steel shutters through the front door, the metal clanging as they hammered them over the windows. Someone dragged benches across the floor to make room for the overflow of bodies. It was orderly chaos.

  They’ve practiced this before.

  There weren’t enough rooms for everyone, so the common room was turned into a sea of makeshift bedding, bedrolls, cloaks, and bundled blankets stretched from wall to wall. The rooms were doubled, or even tripled, up. The air grew thick with breath and quiet murmurs. A couple of monsters volunteered for sentry duty: a harpy and a winged-worm. They took to the roof without being asked, perching near the chimneys where they could keep watch for movement.

  No one said it aloud, but everyone knew why they were fortifying, but not what from. Still, we dared not use the name lang ren. The Association had made it clear that we were never to speak of them.

  I didn’t like the secrecy. Not telling the sentries what they were looking for was a mistake waiting to happen. So when the harpy landed near me for instructions, I gave her just enough to be useful: height, shape, they were covered in fur, and mostly quadrupedal.

  Her feathers ruffled, but she nodded and took off without a word.

  Keagan and I were given the smallest room near the common area. It was barely larger than a broom closet. One bed, a cracked mirror, and a single window already boarded from the outside. I took up most of the floor space, my tail brushing against the door when I stretched. The proximity wasn’t ideal, but it was practical. If something got through the defenses, I could be in the hall within seconds.

  After the day I’d had, sleep was non-negotiable.

  I don’t remember lying down, but I remember waking.

  The room was dark, the only light coming from the faint ember-glow under the door. Keagan was awake, his breath shaky. I lifted my head. He sat hunched on the edge of the bed, his shoulders trembling, hands over his face.

  “She’s dead,” he whispered into his palms. “She’s really dead.” The words were soaked in grief.

  It looks like he's finally letting the situation finally sink in. The boy had been distracting himself this entire time.

  I pushed myself up and rested my head against him. He was startled at first, then turned and grabbed hold of me like I was the only solid thing in the world. His tears soaked into the fur behind my ear. I didn’t move. I didn’t need to say anything. There’s no version of this where words help. He did well holding himself together for as long as he did. But the pain comes. It always comes. This is always an ugly lesson to learn.

  Eventually, the shaking slowed. His breathing steadied. Exhaustion took him back under.

  I stayed beside the bed, close enough that he could reach me if he needed. I watched his chest rise and fall, listened to the faint hum of insects outside, and felt the slow, unwelcome stirring of wrath deep in my blood. I started wishing that the inn got attacked by a wild monster.

  No. No more lives need to be lost tonight.

  I could push the urge down, but I couldn't extinguish it.

  Thankfully, sleep came. It left just as suddenly.

  The next time I opened my eyes, gray daylight leaked through the gaps in the boards. Keagan was still asleep, curled awkwardly in the blankets, his arm draped off the bed like he’d tried to reach for something in his sleep. But I woke up before the boy and checked my status.

  Wrath Demon Ancestry increases Arcane stat gains. Training summary: Agility +2, Arcane +5, Speed +3.

  — — —

  Name: Lucia Silverbreeze

  Species: Fenris (Dire Wolf/???) [Ice Subtype]

  Level 5 [0%]

  Power: 301

  Agility: 196

  Speed: 222

  Arcane: 159

  Toughness: 121

  Resilience: 118

  — — —

  Traits:

  Clawed

  Fanged

  Wrath Demon Ancestry

  Ice-born

  Gorging

  {Select New Trait}

  — — —

  Special Attacks:

  Ice Shard

  Ice Block

  {Select New Special Attack}

  — — —

  Seeing that I leveled up twice was still surreal. It had been so long since I had leveled up to three, at least it felt like it had.

  I don't know much about traits, so I'll wait to talk to the kid before picking one. We did talk about special attacks. For right now, I'll stick to progressing towards ice armor.

  My focus narrowed on the Ice Block in my status. I willed it to change and become Frost Shield.

  Frost Shield: Size-E, Defense-D, Range-F

  The range and defense went up, but the size stayed the same.

  Keagan stirred awake. He rubbed at his face, eyes swollen from crying. “Morning?”

  “Barely,” I said. “You okay?”

  He gave a humorless laugh. “I think I ran out of tears.” His gaze drifted towards the foot of the bed where his bag was sitting. He crawled over to it and pulled out the stone to look at my status. “You leveled up.”

  Deflection? As you wish, kid.

  “Two times,” I said. “Still deciding on a trait.”

  He blinked, thinking. “What do you want to know for your options?”

  I shrugged. “Mostly anything defensive or involving mana efficiency boosts. Nothing fancy.”

  “I see you picked Frost Shield.” Keagan rubbed his chin. “Well, if you’re going to focus on ice armor later, maybe Mana Mediation. That’ll give you a way to recover more mana. It’s not good for combat, but it will let you not worry so much between fights.”

  I hummed. The kid has a point. His ability to think mechanically about my status is impressive. He probably needs to keep coping. He can focus on the system, not the loss of Noma.

  I smirked faintly. “You’re still thinking about tournaments.”

  His face flushed. “I just… don’t want to see you hurt again. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, like…” He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to.

  Something twisted behind my ribs. “That makes two of us.” I let him hug my neck again.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  The boy found more tears. I selected Mana Meditation. A cold ripple spread through my chest, like breathing in frost.

  Mana Meditation: By concentrating on absorbing ambient mana, you can restore your mana reserves at a slow rate and minorly increase maximum mana capacity temporarily. Minimum charge time: 10 minutes.

  Cautious and tired voices filled the street. As much as the boy could've stayed in the room the entire day, I couldn't. I needed to get out and stretch.

  Breakfast was free; the Association was paying for everyone. It's nice to see that the taxes we pay go to something good.

  It was nothing special. Warm porridge and toast did wonders for calming the boy's mind. He ate less than his usual, but at least he ate, and that was a good start. He gave me his strips of thinly cut meat that did its best bacon impression. What he didn't eat, I also ate.

  We left the inn, but didn't go far. I stretched my legs by doing a quick few laps around the inn. Afterwards I showed Keagan my frost shield.

  Like my ice block before it, it couldn't be larger than five feet wide, but now it wasn't any more than two feet thick. I could exert some control on its appearance, but it was all cosmetic. Unlike my ice block, I could use mana to manipulate its position. I could move it anywhere I wanted, so long as it stayed within twenty feet of me.

  For the sake of my own curiosity, I attempted to dig a hole with it. I tapered one side and gave the shield a convex curve. While it did a passable job digging into the ground, I couldn't transport much weight. I confirmed it by having Keagan standing in it while I tried to move it.

  Oh well. It's not a big loss. But I can at least use it as an improvised weapon.

  Another weakness I found was that it couldn't keep up with me if I ran. It would keep up for a short duration, but it would always fall behind and I would lose control of it. Once I lost control of it, I had to summon another, I couldn't regain control of one I summoned previously.

  By midday, the tension had thinned but not vanished. The shutters stayed closed. Keagan and I ate lunch with the others. We had more bread and stew that contained more broth than meat. A heavy silence refused to leave the room.

  Then the front door opened. Marrin and Kaimoer stepped inside.

  Everyone turned instantly. Marrin’s coat was torn halfway down the sleeve, and his pipe hung loosely in his hand. Kaimoer’s mane was dusted with gray from ash or dried earth. There was also a lot of blood in his claws and maw. Both looked like they’d been through one of the longest nights of their lives.

  “It’s done,” Marrin said, voice hoarse but steady. “We got the last of them.”

  A murmur rippled through the inn; it was full of relief. Some exhaled audibly, while a few others whispered prayers.

  Keagan froze beside me, his eyes went wide. “All of them?”

  Marrin nodded. “Every nest we found. Kaimoer tracked the last one to the riverbed north of town. It’s gone.”

  The direlion’s massive tail flicked once. “The bodies have been buried.”

  Lily hurried to stand next to the man. “Thank you everyone for staying calm. The danger has been dealt with, and you may now return to your lives.”

  I felt the weight in my chest loosen. Just a little.

  But something in the way Marrin looked at me—the faint hesitation—told me the story wasn’t quite finished. And in the pit of my stomach, I already knew: the lang ren he killed weren't the last of them.

  Lily ushered Marrin out of the inn. I nodded to the boy, motioning that we should follow them. Nana wasn't in the common room. I hadn't seen her all day.

  She's probably still grieving Noma.

  Marrin patted his partner's mane before going in the guild hall. The direlion moved off to the side of the entrance. He then curled up and made himself as comfortable as he could trying to take a nap. When we walked by, he cracked an eye open for a brief second before letting it slide shut again.

  Inside, the air smelled of burnt tobacco and leather. Marrin had his pipe lit. Smoke curled toward the ceiling as he leaned back in his chair. Lily sat opposite him, her posture straight as a sword.

  “They tried to start another three nests,” he said between drags. “But yeah, this sudden upsurge of wild monsters lately is concerning.”

  Lily nodded. “It's a cyclical process. Every half dozen years or so, it spikes, followed by a peaceful lull.”

  “What does that mean?” Keagan asked, stepping into the room but not sitting.

  “It means things will get worse before they get better,” I said.

  Marrin’s eyes flicked toward me, and he gave a slow nod. “That's the sad truth. Though, nothing should be a problem for the next few weeks.” He lowered his pipe. “And, uh, we circled back to your place. We took care of all the bodies.”

  Keagan's head dropped.

  I stepped closer to him, brushing him gently with my side. “Thank you.”

  “Hey, kid, catch.” Marrin reached into his coat and pulled something small and wooden from his pocket. He tossed it lightly across the room.

  It hit my shoulder and bounced off my fur, clattering to the floor. Seeing it was safe, I stepped aside. Keagan bent down and picked it up.

  It was a small carved locket, the kind that could be worn around the neck with a thin cord. When he opened it, the hinges creaked softly. Inside was an engraving of a drake’s head on one side and a fragment of red scale on the other.

  “Who is this?” he asked quietly.

  “That’s the locket of my first monster, Nuz’arra,” Marrin said. A small, tired smile creased his face. “She was a fire drake. Smart as they come. Saved my life more times than I care to count.”

  He tapped the pipe against his knee, eyes distant for a moment. “Lost her when I only had her for about a year and a half, actually. We were escorting a caravan through the Steelwood Pass. The terrain was bad; the weather was worse. Got ambushed by a pack of mist wolves. She covered our retreat. I thought I could save her if I went back.”

  He drew in a breath through his teeth. “I didn’t. In fact, there was nothing I could’ve done even if I had been there.”

  Keagan’s fingers tightened around the locket. “I… didn’t know.”

  “Wasn’t something worth bringing up before,” Marrin said, tone softening. “But you looked like you needed a story that didn’t end with blame.”

  Keagan didn’t answer. His eyes shimmered faintly, reflecting the weak firelight from the hearth.

  Marrin leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Kid, listen. What happened to Noma wasn’t your fault. Monsters, real monsters, die for us more often than most folks ever see. It doesn’t mean you failed her. Sometimes the situation is the worst case senario. This is a bloody business.”

  Keagan’s voice cracked. “But if I’d just…”

  “There’s no, ‘if I’d just,’” Marrin interrupted gently but firmly. “You think I haven’t gone over it a thousand times in my head? Every order, every turn I didn’t make fast enough? You don’t get answers that way. All it does is eat you alive.”

  He pointed his pipe at the locket. “You keep that as a reminder. Nuz’arra was stubborn, proud, and she hated backing down. Much like Lucia over your shoulder right now. But she taught me something I’ve never forgotten. We don’t honor the dead by falling apart. We honor them by not wasting what they gave us.”

  Keagan swallowed hard, nodding slowly.

  “She saved me because she believed I’d keep doing something with my life worth saving,” Marrin continued. “Was Noma’s death a tragidy, of course. The world isn’t fair, and all we can do is make the best of things. Nana understands that.”

  The boy’s lip trembled. His hand clenched the locket until his knuckles went white.

  “Every trainer has at least one Noma or Nuz’arra in their career,” Marrin said after a moment. “The best you can do is take everything you can from the situation, learn from it, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

  Keagan blinked back tears, shoulders shaking once before he forced a breath through his nose. “I’ll… I’ll try.”

  “That’s all anyone can do,” Marrin said simply.

  Lily leaned back slightly, her sharp expression softening around the edges. “He’s right. You’ve already done more than most apprentices your age could have managed. You kept your head. You did your duty.”

  I nudged the kid to the door. “Kid, why don’t you sit down outside for now. Go sit with Kiamoer. I’ll be out in a minute.”

  Kiamoer can be trusted. Marrin is a guardian, and the direlion will act in the best interest of defending the people of this town. The boy will be safe with him for a short while.

  Keagan closed the locket. “What about you?”

  I glared at Lily then gave the boy another gentle nudge. “It’s not a conversation you’re ready for right now.”

  He took a step towards the door. “What is it?”

  I sat down. “When you’re ready, I will tell you. I promise.”

  The last two words had him nodding and walking out the door.

  Marrin gave me a sideways look once the door shut. “What could you possibly say that Keagan isn’t ready to hear.”

  I huffed. A low rumble grew in my throat. “You’re quite rude, you know that?”

  “Keagan needed to hear that,” he said.

  I nodded slowly. “Which is why I let you say it. But none of that was why Noma died. She died because someone held secrets.”

  The man laughed. “Pot calling the kettle black? When did you plan on telling anyone about your little bloodline? Have you never kept a secret from others to keep others from panicking?”

  Grabbing for the low hanging fruit? He knows that I’m a fenris. “Careful,” I growled low. “This is different, and you know that. The only reason you found out was because we were attacked. Now, tell me honestly, did you get the all of them?”

  “No,” Marrin answered flatly.

  He then returned to his pipe for another long drag. “They fled too far away and in too many directions. It would take a year to hunt them all down and by then they would start repopulating.”

  Lily bit her lip. “That is a problem for later. For now, I suggest you don’t go looking for them and concentrate on helping Keagan reach higher ranks. There’s a tournament you can join in Galepass four days from now. Shall I sign you up?”

  I nodded. “Yes, but know, that this isn’t over.”

  Marrin stood, stretched his back with a grunt. “Nothing is truly over. But for now, people can sleep soundly at night. For now, that has to be enough.”

  Lily stood up too, but she headed for her desk. “Just, please, for Keagan’s sake, don’t go looking for trouble. He’s a dreamer, don’t crush his dreams.”

  I glared at her and turned to leave. “It won’t be me who crushes them.”

  Marrin opened the door for me and gave Kaimoer a small nod through the open doorway. The direlion stirred, yawning wide enough to show his mouth full of fangs.

  As Marrin and I stepped out, Keagan turned the locket over once more, his thumb tracing the scale.

  “Kid, let’s go,” I said. “We’ve got a tournament to get to. You just have to tell me where this Galepass is.”

  The boy clutched his fist around the locket. “Then we have to get ready to leave tomorrow.” There was a spark in his eye, one I remembered from when I first met him, where he told me he was going to be a master trainer.

  One day kid, this will hurt less. Trust me.

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