AETHER BEASTS

"Aiden?"

I felt something soft and warm pressing against my face and I blearily blinked open my eyes to look up into Misty's crimson eyes, relief washing through them me as they met my own.

"Thank heavens." She sighed and turned her away to address someone. "He's awake."

She turned back to me with a soft smile. "You really need to stop ending up like this."

I snorted and slowly sat up. My mind felt sluggish, but as I turned to watch Zirnai approaching, memories of what had occurred became clear and my eyes widened as I quickly glanced at our surroundings, only to find that we were no longer on the tower or the floor at all. In fact, it seemed like we were outside the tower, at the twin horn camp we'd looted when we'd first arrived. The tower also looked different, smaller, and while it was still grey, it no longer held a multitude of clours, only an azure blue and orange drifted on its surface.

"I'm guessing we won?" I asked, turning to Zirani who nodded with a hesitant smile.

"We did, but…" Her words trailed off and I felt nervous wash through our bond, and worry.

It was then that I noticed it, the new object within me, the second core, a mix of golden and white light, right next to my first which also looked different. Patches of gold marked its shell and it was somewhote larger, deeper. However none of those revelations made me panic, it was the fact that the second core was filled that made me panic, especially when I recognized the presence within.

Almost as if my sensing had awakened it, a loud screeching came through a new bond that I hadn't noticed, and almost instantly I cut it off and subdued the entity that was inside the core.

"You're kidding me," I said as I looked over at Zirani. There was no wat the lost king or queen I guessed was my second core, my second bonded beast. I waited for Zirani to shark her head and assure me it was not, but it never came, instead, she smiled shakily, looking somewhat angry herself.

"I'm afraid so Aiden." She sighed heavily. "I'm not sure how it happened since I was asleep at the time, but the twin's horn great master, or mistress more aptly, is your second bonded beast.'

I just stared in shock, unable and not wanting to comprehend what had happened. I'd been looking forward to getting a second core, but now that was gone, and I was stuck with whatever the hell that thing was. I couldn't even sense an affinity from it, at least not one that I recognized.

"What do we do?" I asked hopefully. Surely Zirani would know of some way to get rid of a core.

"Nothing."

I blinked. "Excuse me."

"Aiden, I think it's best if we go over what happened first before we speak further on your core," Zirani suggested, and though I really wanted to ask what she mean when she said nothing, I nodded.

Sandra had walked over by now, and stood next to Misty, both waiting for Zirnai to explain.

"I had a look at your memories while you were asleep," Zirani began. "And as far as I can tell, the only reason any of us are still alive is your bloodline, your second bloodline. I'm not sure what its power is exactly but it held back the lost queen and fixed your body."

The memory of burning agony and tearing made me shudder, but I continued to listen.

"She was trying to remake your body in her image, but when she broke the seals your bloodline reacted and well, you saw what happened. What you didn't see was what it did to all of us. I'm sure you've noticed the changes to my core, but it's not just my core, but also your body."

She motioned to the others. "And thiers.'

I looked over and gasped as I noticed that their cores also looked similar to Zirani's, and as I checked my bonds, I found that both looked stronger as though a lot of time had passed.

"You gave me a boost to all my vampiric abilities and traits," Misty said.

"And my bloodline is stronger," Sandra added with a smile.

"You increased the power of all your cores, bodies, and anything else." Zirani looked happy and frighten. "Each of you is above your level in power."

"H-how?"

She shrugged. "To be honest, I'm not sure. Your bloodline is dormant now, and I can't even sense it. This is undoudbetedly a good thing, Aiden, a shock to be sure, but a good thing."

I would have been just as happy and excited, except my mind was still partially on the topic of my second core. "And her?"

Zirani knew who I was refreshing to. "Her is a problem, but one that we can't solve right now, and I'm not sure we should."

She raised a hand before I could protest her words. "Aiden you have a core of ki, pure ki, surrounded and kept in check by your bloodline. By all laws that exist in this world, it should be possible, ki is not meant for low-level arcanists because it's too powerful and unwieldy, but you solved that issue, or your bloodline has. Whatever your bloodline is, it's keeping the ki contained, and if we can get you to tap into even a small fraction of that power, then, well, you will be the first arcanist to wield ki at your level."

I pushed down my rising excitement. "But what about her!"

"We'll deal with her together," Zirnai said. "She is at your mercy now and under your control, you don't have to worry about her doing anything, and I'll always be there to make sure of that. It's not what any of us expected to happen, but this is a rare opportunity."

"I think she's right Aiden," Misty added. "Anything that could help us that much is something we need, especially since now we'll be heading over to the border cities."

I turned to Zirnai with a raised eyebrow. "That true?'

"The tower is gone, and we're more powerful than I could have hoped for." She pulled me to my feet. "We'll head back to your town and pay them a visit, then head to the border, but first we need to let the steel hear know of our departure."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sandra asked. "There's going to be a lot of questions."

She laughed. "With this power increase, I'm positive I can disguise our true power. We'll come up with a story, and leave. There is still some training left to be done but we can finish that on our way to the border, in fact, there's a stop in-between there and here that I want us to take if we have enough time."

I was somewhat calmer now, but as Zirani went about drawing a simple array on all of our wrists, I couldn't help but turn my attention to my second core. She had calmed down and I could sense she was no longer screaming, but anger, fury, and sorrow were still clear to me, even though I'd shut off our connection, I could still sense what she was feeling. I really hoped Zirani was right about her being unable to do anything because she was certainly pissed off enough.

"Hold on, what happened to the twin horn?" I asked abruptly, remembering that had been our main reason for going into the tower.

"Gone," Sandra said with a shrug. "None of them showed up with us."

"They're most likely all dead," Zirani said as she began on the last array of Misty's left wrist. "They were all connected to the lost queen and when Aiden captured her, the connection was cut off, and since it was a soul connection and quite deep, well."

Zirani made a scissoring motion with her hand. "I don't think any of them met a peaceful end."

"So it's over then?" I didn't feel as fulfilled as I'd expected, though I certainly felt happy at their demise.

"For the most part yes," Zirani replied, finishing with her work. "The steel hear and Orton have to clean up on their part, but our work is done, now I want you all to feed a bit of aether into the array, and then we should head back to the steel heart, the riding beasts are still here so we can use them."

My aether felt a lot stronger than before, and I had a lot more for it. I fed a minuscule amount into the array and it pulsed with a faint blue light once and then the array faded altogether. "Was it meant to do that?"

Zirani nodded. "Yes, now let's get moving."

Zirani moved back into our core as the three of us approached the riding beasts. It had probably been a few days or less for them, but for us, it had been months since we'd last seen them. It felt refreshing to be back in our world.. The tower had been interesting, to say the least, and definitely helpful, but I was glad we were out of it.