Over the passing months Eunice had slowly taught me the Basq language, so that I could follow through with my vile mission. She had given me a few scrolls, with Basq letters for me to study, teaching me their pronunciation.

She seemed certain that I would gladly abduct a human and take their place, because of my desperate situation.

The high-cendai cut off all of my crystalline hair, down to my scalp, giving me a Buddhist monk-style look. She laid my ruby gemstone mane onto a windowsill so that the gems would harden. I was supposed to grind them into fine powder and place it into a polished skull of a creature I killed. It was all part of the long process to make me a spiritual shield.

Eunice taught me several types of base cendai skills. One was meditation to completely still my body. The second - deep focus and concentration, which involved staring at the End-Gate until I could see magical currents flowing from it. The third were Soul-Songs. According to my Master, Stillness meditation, visual concentration and Soul-Songs were sub-types of magic that didn’t utilize the mangled branches of my Soul-Tree.

Her methods weren't very specific or scientific and for a painfully long time I struggled, sometimes falling asleep and getting awakened with a slap.

She simply told me that I was supposed to "achieve a state of absolute stillness" and "witness the currents of magic". I knew that Buddhists could slow down their heartbeat during meditation, but I had never practiced such myself.

I wasn’t just supposed to slow my heart a little - I had to learn how to completely suspend my body, put it on pause entirely. No heartbeat, no breathing, no perspiration.

“A state of absolute stillness must be achieved,” she said. “Once you pass this step, you will learn to move your soul from your body.”

None of it made any sense to my rational mind, so it wasn’t easy. How was I supposed to stop breathing and not pass out?

When I wasn't practicing “Stillness” at the high-cendai's garden, I was at my parents house, helping my mom out with Alessi. My sister had also cut off her hair in solidarity with me, copying everything that I was doing, even though she didn't believe that she could do magic.

I turned half of Alessi’s skull-home into a workshop for making hand-crafted armor and the other half into a trap for monsters. It worked as thus - any monster that crawled into an eyehole, became pulled inside the skull by a rope and then fell into a whole pit of wooden spikes, with a layered beetle shutter closing up the entryway behind it. It worked well and hid the blood and smell of bodies so as to avoid the thunderbird incident.

Our trapped room caught about one small to midsize creature every few weeks, which my sister and I cooked on the hearth and ate. To make sure that we wouldn't become more visible while we climbed around the Chasm, I converted a few of the rune banners into capes. It worked well - monsters didn’t attack us in the open.

To protect ourselves from potential attacks, I made myself, Alessi and Belasi stone-throwing slings. The sling was an ancient weapon known to Neolithic peoples around the Mediterranean. I knew that a well-trained slinger could bring down a mighty foe as the sling used double-pendulum kinetics to cast a stone a lot further than a rock thrown by chimera hands alone. It was a wilderness survival weapon that could be built with the most basic resources, since it was just a small cradle or pouch in the middle of two retention cords. It also didn’t take up much space, so it could be easily hidden away from other chimera eyes unlike a bow.

As we were now on a high-protein diet, every morning Alessi and I exercised regimentally to build up our strength so that someday we could fly. We practiced with the slings as often as we could, using them against makeshift targets and bugs. I wanted to be prepared ahead, and didn't want to be eaten by a giant bee if the cendai-blessed capes failed us.

. . .

The engagement of Acadius and Belassi was a relatively simple affair. My dad had arranged the payment to Eunice for it by harvesting the blood and organs of some obscure creature that Eunice wanted for her magical experiments. It took dad a while to hunt the beast down somewhere deep in the Chasm but when he killed it and brought its body to the high-cendai, the date for the ceremony was set.

The dark and silver chimera stood in front of the black End-gate. The high-cendai painted runes on their bodies. Acadius sang the hymn of unity. Belassi did not make a sound, but Alessi sang the ceremonial words for her as the speaker for her mother, since Belassi’s chorus was inside of her.

My mom and I simply stood at the back along with a few other male and female chimera that my parents were friends with.

It was simple and beautiful.

At the end of the Symphony of Unity, Eunice shot a spell at the sky above her home, igniting it with a brilliant aurora made up from dancing colors. She wasn’t afraid of summoning monsters with it because her home had absurdly powerful wards around it. In a few minutes the magical aurora became dominated by two colors - gray and silver, which united into a spiraling storm and detonated overhead casting falling sparks all around.

. . .

Days flew by, filled with new projects.

My booby-trapped workshop caught another nightwalker. The damn thing refused to die and demolished almost all of the wooden stakes before it finally stopped flailing. This time, I got to keep the body. We took plenty of time to cut the creature apart, made steaks out of its meat and smoked them over a fire. I cleaned out its skull as Eunice had commanded, preparing it for the ritual. The nightcrawler’s bones were as black as its carapace. It took us a while to separate the vantablack segments of its shell to start crafting armor that was as black as night. During the day the nightcrawler bones and carapace appeared very dark purple, glinting a little in the light of the Chasm clouds.

I experimented with the bodies of other creatures that my trap caught, and went out to hunt with my sister and Belassi using our slings. I was trying to find a material that would be light and strong enough to make glider-type wings. It was slow going, but I didn’t give up, believing with all of my heart that eventually I would figure out how to fly.

Autumn came and went, painting the Chasm in orange tones. Winter brought snow and froze some of the waterfalls solid. As it became too cold for me to meditate outside, Eunice let me inside of her home.

I expected the high-cendai’s home to be as complex and alien within as on the outside, but Eunice had completely shattered all of my expectations. When I came inside for the first time my mind simply hung up, refusing to accept what I was seeing.

The bone ceiling and walls of her house were carved in interconnected, maddeningly elaborate spirals covered in gold, tiny rule-script. It was as ornate as the gilded Altar in St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev.

The rest of the interior furnishings weren’t anything like my parents or Alessi’s home. The high-cendai’s home was full of… manufactured things, clearly not made by chimera hands.

Opulent, crystalline stained glass let light in through the circular windows. Beautiful lamps with glowing crystals lit up the dark corners. Wooden chests sat beneath wooden cabinets. Every wall was lined with bookshelves, absolutely bursting with whimsical and pulchritudinous tools, jewelry, paintings, miscellaneous curios and… leather-bound books. Books! I couldn't believe it.

“Everything you see here has been brought to me by my monwai-cendai from human-ruled lands,” Eunice said, leaning on a bookshelf with a smirk. “As you’ve been careful with the reading scrolls and you’re learning quickly…”

She grabbed a thick book from a shelf and handed it to me. “Here. This is a human-designed, leather-bound information storage item called a cogia.”

Right. "Cogia" was the word for "book".

I nodded eagerly, mentally drooling at the prospect of learning everything about local humanity. The book cases, shelves and comfy couches beneath them were quite large. How did her apprentices even move them here all the way across the chasm?

I wasn’t the type of a person who sat on a question.

“Master, how did your monwai get all of these items here?” I asked, pointing at an intricately carved wooden shelf. “Surely these could not be flown here on Bonulich wings all the way across the chasm?”

“An excellent question,” Eunice demurred. “My monwai have integrated themselves well into human society, taking control of several wealthy families who are in possession of large, flying homes.”

Eunice flipped one of the books open and showed me a painting of an airship docking to a tower. “Here is what one looks like. They’re powered by crystals similar to those growing on your head.”

My eyes opened wide. Airships… the local humans had steampunk, crystal-mana powered airships!

The high-cendai pointed to an illustration of ladies in fanciful hats having tea in a cafe. The girls in the painting were wearing Victorian-style elaborate dresses and hats decorated with gemstones and flowers. A maid was in the back, serving the guests. Towers and airships dominated the background.

“Human society is heavily segregated by class. The gulf between each subtype is almost insurmountable. When you go out hunting for a human spawn, I prescribe an acquisition of a young, high-born female. You can tell by how they dress. The misfortunate low-borns wear old, worn things. The servants wear black and white dresses like this. The high-born ones wear new clothes covered in gold and gemstones.”

She tapped the lady and the maid as she spoke and slid the book into my hands. “You may study it after your meditation. The deeper you can immerse yourself in human customs, the better you can blend into their nest.”

I nodded, accepting the book. My chest throbbed, my heart beating quickly. Airships! Fancy dresses! High society! They had to have furnaces… tools to make a workshop. I was close to my dream once again, so close that I could feel it radiate from the watercolor painting. If I was a rich noble, I could buy all of these things and more!

I could have it all, if only I was willing to go against my principles. I knew that Eunice would teach me exactly how to take a human body for myself. She has done this before over the centuries with other Still-Walkers. The ostentatious artifacts, books, diamond eggs and other gem-encrusted jewelry filling her shelves to bursting had confirmed as much.

How many chimera were already out there, masquerading as human nobility, enjoying the high-class life?

The high-cendai vanished in the hallway, seemingly satisfied with my eager expression over the book. The devil knew how to tempt me.

I scowled, my knuckles turning white. I would find a way to get stronger and figure out how to join humanity without eating people's souls.