“Wake the fuck up!” Remus roars, pounding on the door. “We’re heading out in ten! Get your crap together and meet in the yard!”

Norah, Penelope and I are all startled straight out of our beds, rushing into action. My heart beats fast from the anticipation as much as the rude wake-up call. I was going to be gone for days in the wilderness! This is my last chance to make sure I have everything packed.

I give Rosco a huge squeeze but carefully, fearfully, regretfully put him back in bed. His safety was paramount. For the first time, he cannot join me where I will go. Tomorrow will be the first day I sleep without him in over a year. Yet I had work to do, so I couldn’t linger long. I get dressed and get my spear, my armor, my supplies, making sure they’re all in place. I pack in a utility knife, double-checking that it’s secure, I pack extra clothes and a blanket… useful essentials that don’t weigh too much. I have to be swift and vigilant. Running downstairs, I chomp down as much food as I deem wise and meet up with the team.

I show up right in the middle, third behind Norah and Orville. To my surprise, Bently is actually slower than Penelope, and the team briefly ribs him about it before Remus snaps at us to follow. It’s hard to believe this is happening so fast. Everything in my life has been happening fast, all of a sudden. I guess that’s just how it goes.

The jog to the edge of the city was pretty uneventful, as most people were still getting out of bed. I’ve never been this close to the walls without being in a sewage zone, so I had a chance to appreciate them for what was basically the first time. The structures that surrounded and protected Skyhope were absolutely massive, extending far beyond the tallest buildings. My team made it to the gate in short order, the guards there saluting at Remus as he went by. At first, the outside view wasn’t too impressive; just the rock of the crater wall, which everyone had to trudge up before anything else. At the top, though…

No matter where I went in the city, it was impossible to see past the stone protections. The world outside them was always derided as harsh and cruel, unfit for human life. A place only for desperate travelers, madmen, and yes... hunters. Now, for the first time in my entire life, I finally saw beyond.

“It’s beautiful,” I whisper.

A path from the gate curves out and around the massive crater behind us, surrounded by craggy chunks of stone flung hundreds of years ago by the impact. Beyond that, the world gets greener and greener, eventually blossoming into a massive, untamed jungle that stretches farther away than I’ve ever been able to see before. I saw, for the first time, a horizon: a massive expanse that terminated at nothing less than the infinite yellow sky. I could see the edge from here, the indisputable proof that we, too, stood on one of the flying chunks of rock that dotted the world above. I, who lived in a city I so arrogantly called “big,” were just a tiny, unnoticeable speck on the world that truly was, which lay itself out before me.

I’m not the only one in awe, either. Even Remus pauses to let everyone soak the sight in.

“It is beautiful,” he agrees. “But almost everything you see exists as a danger to us. This is it, boys and girls. No one knows what all is out there. None of your training prepared you for this. Stay sharp, learn fast… or die.”

“Yes sir!” my team chorused back, and we moved out.

The sights didn’t get old, even as the hours passed. I’m always surrounded by tiny bug souls, vermin souls, bird souls… things like that were all over the city. Yet the variety and insane quantity of souls here was almost overwhelming, before even factoring in all the new and exciting soulless stuff! Long grass tickles at my legs as I push through it, directing the team where to go. Only an hour into our journey, I felt something large enough to make my heart skip a beat: a humming green soul with an acrid smell that made me want to stay far, far away. Directing the team around and away from it, we continue on. Yet the further we got from the city, the more such dangerous souls tickled my mind. By the time we got to the jungle, they were everywhere! All sorts of kinds. Eventually, I have no choice but to push my team somewhere dangerous on purpose. There simply wasn’t anywhere else to go.

“I don’t think we can avoid running into something that feels scary at this point,” I tell everyone about five hours into the trip. “If we want to make any more progress, we’re gonna have to fight something.”

“What kind of something are we talking about?” Norah asks.

I’m not sure how to answer that. I’ve been mostly keeping mum on how people feel to my soul-sense, not wanting to inadvertently give out hints that it’s animancy-based. The two safest paths I can suss out go right next to a pack of just under a dozen smallish, pulsing red souls, or get dangerously close to a single sweet-tasting sharp soul that’s much, much larger. I have absolutely no idea which would be safer, or what any of them even are before I get near them.

I take a deep breath. They're my team. I need their advice on what to do. Besides, it wasn't a huge jump from what they knew I was capable of.

"Uh, well, the two safest paths I can feel go by a big guy who feels sharp and a bunch of little dudes that feel pulsey," I say.

"...Pulsey?" Orville asks.

"Yeah, you know, like... they pulse. But maybe not literally? My power is not an exact science."

"We go for the little ones, obviously," Penelope says. "Get me a vantage point and we won't even have to fight them."

I look between the rest of the team, who all nod. Remus doesn’t react at all; he’s probably trying to stay impartial.

"...Yeah, that sounds ideal," Norah agrees. "You're not going to run out of juice for the big job, are you?"

"Please," Penelope answers, rolling her eyes. "I have this and then some. I must admit, I look forward to showing you what I can actually do."

"Okay, well... we're going to go that way, then," I answer, pointing.

A tense twenty minutes later and I halt the team again, carefully climbing up a tree to see if I can spot whatever was setting my senses off. Sure enough, in a clearing ahead, these incredibly bloated pig-like creatures waddle around on four stubby legs. Each was about the size of a morbidly obese housecat, with a long snout and no apparent eyes. They moved slowly, hoovering up plant matter around them. They seem totally harmless. If not for how odd their souls felt, I wouldn't assume they were threatening at all.

We’re not going to take chances this early, though. From my branch I hold a hand down and Norah passes Penelope up to me. Penelope nods when I point out the weird little fat things, holding out a hand in their direction. Her eyes focus, and I feel the tiniest stirring in her soul.

For the next minute, nothing seems to happen. I watch with bated breath, giving Penelope whatever time she seems to need. Then, suddenly, one of the little creatures falls over. Then another, and another, over and over until all eleven of them are motionless. Then they die, something my senses can barely feel breaking within them. The souls float up ever so slightly, resting just above the corpse they were once part of. Even as relatively small as they are, they're far, far larger than rat souls. It's quite a bounty.

I feel out with my senses, making sure even the ones out of sight were dead. They were. Dead souls shone far more easily to me, beautiful bright spots to my mind. I wanted them. How could I get close enough to collect the souls without being suspicious, though…?

Ah. I have an idea.

"...Okay, they're dead," I announce. "Should we recover any materials from these things?"

Remus hopped up the tree, staring down at the bodies.

"Hmm. Not what we're here for, but good instinct, Vita. Follow me, this will be a lesson."

He jumps down and heads towards the bodies, letting me scramble after and help Penelope do the same. Score! They were valuable, which was great in and of itself, but now I have an excuse to get close and nab souls! Wait, wait, calm down. Don’t get too excited, me. I still have to be nonchalant about it.

"How did you do that, Penelope?" I ask, trying to seem as interested as possible while I mentally drooled over my treats.

"I crafted an airborne infection that targeted their nervous centers," she answers frankly.

"Wait, what?” Orville asks. “That sounds really bad. We're not gonna die, are we?"

"Don't worry!" Bently answered happily. "I'm sure Penelope wouldn't do anything to put us in danger!"

"Indeed," she answered. "You should all be fine. And on the off-chance that you do get infected, I'll heal you."

"Wow, reassuring," Norah commented.

"Quit bantering and get over here,” Remus demanded. “One of you grab the bodies and gather them here."

"On it, sir!" I happily volunteer. Scooooore!

"Be careful with them."

I head to the nearest one, yoinking the soul and storing it in my arm. I don't eat it quite yet, moving on to pick up the dead body. Bright red markings streak the back and sides of the little ball of fat, and the thing smelled absolutely wretched, like farts mixed with rotten eggs. Carefully and gently, I grabbed each body, stored the soul, and brought them to Remus.

"You are all damn lucky that you have an offensive biomancer on your team," Remus says flatly, causing Penelope to preen like a peacock. "These are blast hogs. They're aggressive, they can spit acid, and if you puncture them in the wrong place or punt 'em too hard, they blow up."

There's a beat of silence from the team.

"As in... inflate, sir?" Orville asks slowly.

"No. As in explode."

Remus pulls out a knife and stabs into the side of a blast hog causing each of us to wince in anticipation of the promised detonation. It doesn't come, Remus instead carefully cutting the creature open and extracting a bladder-like organ, his gloves slicked with blood.

"This bit right here is the nasty shit. We can sell these for a lot in the walls. It's full of some valuable chemical or another, I don't know how it works. I'll show you lot how to cut one open again, and then you'll each get to try it. Don't fuck up."

I then spent a harrowing half an hour carefully carving up a corpse that could and would kill me if I made the wrong mistake. The team collected the bomb bladders and promptly set out.

"Not bad," Remus said to everyone. "You should be able to collect materials much faster than this, but at least you're all still alive."

"Thank you for the lesson, sir," I say honestly. Eleven souls! Each one nearly as large as a human child's! "Would these bladders be useful as a weapon in an emergency, or are they better to just sell?"

"They're better to sell," he answered simply. "If you've got a strong arm you might be able to throw them at something hard enough to burst, but a skilled craftsman can make you much more reliable bombs from the stuff inside one of these."

"How much does a bomb cost?" I ask. "How much are these worth?"

I almost trip when he gives me the number. That's enough to feed the kids for a week! I let Remus hold them all, not wanting to accidentally set the volatile wads of cash off in a fight.

The rest of the day goes similarly. Engagements with the wildlife happen on our terms, and when they happen it usually involves Penelope slaughtering them before they even understand they're in danger. The girl is genuinely terrifying, always getting this satisfied look on her face after she kills hordes of little monsters. I can't help but wonder if I look like that, sometimes.

More importantly, I’ve managed to gather quite a few more souls, disguising my avarice for blasphemous power as mere avarice for cold, hard cash. Remus seems pleased with my entrepreneurial spirit, and is more than happy to teach my team how to collect the most valuable parts of whatever we come across and kill.

I don't grab every dead soul, however. I don't want to look suspicious, and sometimes Remus declares a given animal as worthless. It’s so tempting to go after them, as delicious and bright as they feel to me. Yet passing some up at least gives me some important information: if I leave a soul alone for too long... it starts to sink. Or perhaps, I suspect, it is grabbed by something I cannot sense, pulled down through the island to whatever lies below. I shudder, willing myself to not relive the memory of that incomprehensible being's touch...

"We should make camp soon," Norah announces. "Giant's Thumb is going to pass over in a couple hours, and Vita needs to rest for the night shift."

I nod in agreement. Thank goodness. What I and likely everyone else will never admit is that we’re all completely exhausted. Simply moving forward in the dense jungle is slow, stressful, and difficult. I’m sore all over, and I’m even more mentally exhausted than I am physically. The rest of the team never gets to feel all the horrifying crap I’m constantly leading them away from.

Camp doesn't take long to set up, at least, and I’m firmly commanded to sleep as soon as I get a basic setup for doing so. Even though it's still light out, I have absolutely no trouble passing out at the earliest opportunity, even lacking Rosco's comforting presence. It feels like I just fell over when Bently shakes me back awake. I try to open my eyes a few times before realizing it's just really damn dark outside. No city lights, I suppose. Just a huge chunk of rock blotting out the sky overhead.

"Already?" I murmur.

"Sorry, Vita!" Bently murmurs back. "I can't see a thing! Everyone else is asleep."

I nod, stretching as quietly as I can and pulling myself out from under my blanket. A crazy amount of souls were nearby, but thankfully not many of them were moving around. It was bedtime for everything, I suppose. Well, except for me.

I feel outward with my senses. Souls are largely static things, not prone to changing much in response to their body's current condition. Yet some tiny part of them is affected, and I’ve been trying for a while to refine my soul sense to detect that part. It's... going slower than I would like, but consciousness was a relatively easy thing to detect, at least by those standards. This was important, because I wanted to make absolutely certain that Remus was asleep before I eat any of the souls I’ve hidden inside my body.

I focus for a long, long time. As best I can tell, the old man is indeed passed out. Finally. I’ve been looking forward to eating these things all day.

I pull one out and slide it down my throat, feeling it unravel and add itself to my power. Fuck, that felt good. Already, a little bit of exhaustion from the long day and my far-too-brief sleep fades away. I wish I could devour my whole stock (I have nearly two dozen souls left! Monster hunting is amazing!) but one thought stays my appetite: if Lyn can feel me get stronger, surely Remus can too. If something strong suddenly appears beside him, wouldn't Remus wake up? If he finds out it's me, wouldn't he question it?

So I limit myself, for now. I’m just guessing, but better to be overcautious than overconfident. If things get bad I can devour my spare souls in a pinch; it doesn't seem like whatever pulls them down below the island is interested in taking them out of my body. Which I am certainly thankful for!

A bit stronger, a bit more awake, I keep watch throughout the night, dropping another sinful snack down my throat when I get close to nodding off. About six and a quarter hours later, light from above peeks past Giant's Thumb and daytime rapidly returns. I’ve only chomped on four of the blast pig souls, but I’m still feeling pretty fresh after the all-nighter. I’m starting to close the power gap between myself and my allies (or widening it, in Orville's case). It feels good, I feel lighter. I make sure to pay careful attention to Remus as he gets up, but if he notices anything off about me it doesn't show.

I’m excited, but I try not to forget Rowan's warning that skill is more important than raw power. But maybe with enough raw power...

"Everything good overnight, Vita?" Norah asks. "Didn't get too bored? I'm surprised you never tagged out."

"No, didn't get bored," I answer. "Plenty to think about."

She chuckles.

"All right, well, we got it from here if you want to rest a bit."

I shake my head, standing up. I felt fine, and there was still a long, long walk before the team reached the last place the burrow hounds were reported.

Things hadn’t gone as bad as I’ve been led to believe. I’ve had plenty of worse days in the slums! I hope it will stay that way for the rest of the trip.

Somehow, of course, I knew it wouldn't.