Dalric sat speechless. The fact that there were four more enlightened amongst the tigers contributed to that, but it was mostly the fact he foolishly let him himself fall asleep. Right in front of their village and on a makeshift throne, he slept. What kind of buffoon did that? He could blame his body for the blunder, it had felt entirely spent, but he was asleep almost as soon as he sat down. His mind should have been sharper than that. Much sharper. The fact that it wasn’t didn’t bode well for the immediate future.

The tigers, for their part, didn’t seem all that concerned Dalric slept in the middle of their gate. They actually seemed quite subdued, drained even. One of them even seemed to to wobble a bit on their paws. Beyond the odd lack of energy, all of their eyes held a great deal of restrained curiosity. Well, all but one. The one that nudged him seemed to have a mix of animosity as well.

“Who are you, traveller?” Their voice had much more steel than the other enlightened’s. It commanded respect, sounding both aged and stern. The voice you’d expect of a leader. Though that could just be a front.

Dalric observed them, taking in all the visual information he’d been lacking in the past...he wasn’t sure how long.

These tigers were much larger than any tigers he’d known. The one that spoke looked down at him while he did so. Dalric was obviously seated, but it had a height cleanly over five feet. He couldn’t quite see their lengths, they all faced him, but his sense guesstimated between thirteen feet and fifteen feet. In short, massive. Their colors were odd too, instead of bright orange fur, theirs was dark blue. He’d seen different colored tigers before, but never blue.

“I’m just as you noted, a traveller. A traveller looking for any human settlement.”

The three other enlightened whispered among themselves.

“Your son spoke true. The human speaks the tongue.”

“He must be a descendant of Aegeus.”

“That makes him the rightful leader, then?”

They tried to whisper, at least. They weren’t aware that the All-tongue traveled on ahjer unlike regular sound. Anyone with the ability to sense ahjer could hear their conversation as clear as if it was right next to them. There were protections against this, but they seemed too advanced for their level.

I might’ve stumbled into an inconvenient situation here.

“Leave us.” The leader, who he may have unknowingly contested, commanded. The crowd of observers, both in front and behind Dalric, quickly dispersed.

The throne may have been a poor decision.

Ahjer burst out of the tiger, momentarily engulfing both of them. Dalric flared his for a moment, but then immediately relaxed. He recognized the makeup of the spell being cast. The tiger’s ahjer expanded around both of them, circling them in a ring. The ring was three meters in diameter, but unseen to the naked eye it was actually a dome. From the moment it finished, it’d feed onlookers an illusion. Though Dalric was certain the tiger used it for its ahjer blocked properties.

He smiled, quietly impressed. While this was one of the most rudimentary ways to stop eavesdropping when speaking in the All-tongue, the fact the tiger had considered it and created a counter showcased a great deal of experience. More than his ahjer would suggest.

Hm. Does that have to do with this Aegeus figure?

“Who are you really?” The tiger’s eyes leaned heavily towards animosity now.

Dalric humored him, “My name is Dalric. Just Dalric, no family name. What’s yours?”

“Alexander the Sixth. Why have you come, Dalric? What are your plans?”

Sixth, huh.

“I believe I’ve said it a number of times now. I’m looking for the closest settlement of humans.”

Alexander squinted, “It’s hard to believe. You. My people tell me you command the sky?”

Dalric chuckled, “Nothing so grand. However, I am more powerful than everyone here.”

Alexander didn’t like that, “A threat?”

“A threat?” He thought for a moment, “Yes. I just want to find a human settlement. If I have to burn down yours to do it, I will.”

He didn’t really want to directly threaten them, but he definitely didn’t want to get involved in whatever leadership tradition thing they followed. If he could just get the information and go, that would be the best outcome for everyone involved. He was insanely curious about what had transpired to form a village of beasts that contained a minimum of five enlightened among them, but he had the sense to realize they wouldn’t be sharing any of that knowledge without a price he was not yet sure he wanted to pay. He could always come back later, anyway.

Alexander’s eyes dripped with animosity. He clearly wanted to meet Dalric’s threat with force, yet something restricted him. Dalric would like to believe it was better judgment, but something about the look in his eyes told him the tiger would never back down because of a spell he never saw.

“There are no human settlements around here.”

“Lie. Your son, if I’m not mistaken, already confirmed there was one.”

“He’s a child. Travellers, like yourself, sometimes get lost in the jungle. We don’t know where they come from or where they go.”

Dalric raised an eyebrow.

The human body is overly expressive.

“Surely you don’t expect me to believe you allow unknown threats to freely scout around your territory. Or am I to believe you’ve stationed checkpoints around the base of this hill just for fun?”

Alexander didn’t respond, probably in an effort to think through his options. It made it painfully obvious he was unaccustomed to this kind of dialogue as such a pause all but confirmed he was lying. His ahjer purity meant he had to be fairly intelligent. So this lack of mental elasticity must have been an experience issue rather than a brain capacity one.

There’s a direct correlation between ahjer purity and a non-sapient’s intelligence. That went for beasts, plants, and even things like weapons or armor. Pure enough ahjer concentrations are what turned mundane items into soul items, supposedly.

Cyan’s scholars used to theorize that sapience itself was a mere byproduct of high ahjer purity.

The fact he remembered that surprised him. He never gave the theory much thought. He had disregarded it almost as soon as he heard it, there were simply too many holes in its supposition. Now, having observed these bizarre blue tigers, Dalric wondered if the old fools were actually on to something.

But the ahjer around here isn’t pure, it’s just plentiful. Exceptionally plentiful.

His curiosity burned again, but he simmered it down. He’d made a number of terrible decisions tonight, he wasn’t sure why or how that was but he knew he needed to exercise some self-control. If he could just get to a human city, there’d be answers. Maybe not all the answers, but enough to have a foundation.

“Why are you looking for a human settlement?”

“Is it strange for a human to look for his brethren?”

“You are not speaking honestly.”

Dalric scoffed, “You, who just lied to me, are unqualified to have such complaints. But. Since you’re so desperate for the truth, I’m lost.”

He followed the revelation with a shrug. The frankness of the gesture stunned Alexander for a moment, but he swiftly recovered, “You? With wings. Are lost?”

“I was also blind until recently.”

A half truth.

“Blind… what are you? You can not be human.”

That remark surprised Dalric a bit. Though his soul may not have been human, it may actually be human now he wasn’t quite sure, his body most definitely was human. As far as he could tell there was nothing to differentiate him from other humans.

Is it just the wings?

“I don’t know how to respond to that considering… I am. Look, I just want to get back to human civilization. I have no interest in getting involved in whatever you have going on here.”

Silence again.

…

“You truly want nothing to do with us?”

“No, not particularly. I’m a bit interested in your… society lets say, but I do not dread a future where we never meet again.”

Alexander silently stared at him. Almost as if he believed he could read the truth off of Dalric’s face. Dalric decided to meet his gaze. He vastly undersold his interest, but it was mostly the truth.

“Fine.”

The dome dropped.

“Head that way. You’ll meet a river. Follow it upstream and you’ll find the other humans.”

Finally.

Dalric smirked, “Good.” He rose from his throne and fluttered his wings, “I’ll leave the chair. In case you lied.”

Leaving Alexander with that implied threat, he flew off.

He hadn’t lied, about the river at least. It took less than half a bell for the massive body of flowing water to come into Dalric’s view. He’d seen another river while tailing the tigers, but it couldn’t compare to the sheer volume of water in front of him now. If it wasn’t for the flow of the water it’d be impossible to even tell it was a river. Dalric hovered a fair way off the ground and he could only barely spot the other bank. He had refrained from any sight alteration spells so it was hard to see, but it looked more than twenty kilometers away.

Have the tigers been across this? Surely not.. right?

During the flight over, Alexander and his tribe of tigers dominated his thoughts. He’d glimpsed their full village when he took off and it was worse, or more accurately better, than he originally thought. They had roads, though crude, light fixtures, though also crude, and a two-storey stone building, though exceptionally crude. As crude as all these features were, they were still advanced infrastructure for what would normally be a slightly less unruly gang of beasts. Even with an unprecedented amount of enlighteneds leading them, that wasn’t normal. Hell, calling it abnormal would still be a gross understatement. His curiosity was so great it threatened to suffocate him.

Aegeus. A south Hellgurian name… but there are no jungles in Hellguria. So, a wanderer is it? How far did you wander?

He looked downstream, usually when rivers got this wide the ocean was nearby. Trees, hills, and blackness are all he could spot. If the river did lead to the ocean, it did so outside Dalric’s sightline. He turned the other way, much of the same greeted him. He strained his eyes, trying to spot any faint glints of light, but there was nothing to see. Unless the town hid its presence in some way, it was also a distance away. Frontier towns didn’t normally have the resources for such a defensive measure, but with those blue tigers around it was possible. There was also the possibility it wasn’t a frontier town in the first place. He started heading upstream, he’d only find out if he started moving.

This’ll be a long flight.

Though he had the wings of a bird, they were artificial ahjer constructs. They lacked any of the efficiency or efficacy an actual bird’s wings had. Their top speed was abysmal and sustaining that speed burned through copious amounts of ahjer. Alas, his only other option would be to run along the ground and while that used to be quicker he wasn’t sure that was still the case. Plus, he was weary of his current body’s endurance, both mentally and physically. He still chastized himself for falling asleep right before meeting Alexander.

The only times he didn’t have complete control over his mental facilities were when the Gods did. Losing out to regular fatigue was not something he was accustomed to.

He hoped it was just a side effect of being reborn, but he’d likely never get an actual answer. It wasn’t an experience many went through, he imagined. There weren’t many foolish enough to be the God’s contracted slave.

He diverted his thoughts away from that and back to the Hellgurian.

Maybe a beast tamer? Wandering the world in search of stronger beasts to add to his arsenal? Enlighteneds are impossible to tame through ahjer though... If we assume he founded the village, would that be why? Instead of taming them through ahjer, he’s attempting to tame them through doctrine? That would be laughable if they weren’t actually running said village. But if that's the goal, then why leave?

…

Hmm. They said ‘descendant’ and there have been five Alexanders before the current one. It’s a large assumption to make, but if Aegeus founded the village with the first Alexander, and each subsequent one has been both the leader and an enlightened, then centuries must have passed. Even in this environment, an extremely gifted beast would take at least a few decades to become enlightened.

…

Unless... they were born enlightened? Impossible... right? Could they even be called enlightened if they were born that way? Isn’t that just sapience?

He thought back to the first one he met. He was definitely young. Dalric couldn’t exactly read his age off his face or form, him being a tiger and all, but there was a distinct youthfulness to him. His voice for one. The All-tongue was spoken through one’s ahjer, not their vocal cords, so it could possibly be a fake voice. Dalric doubted it. Nothing about that tiger read as wise or shrewd. Their ahjer purity definitely didn’t read as aged either. No, the only question was how young was he.

If he had been born ‘enlightened’, then this Aegeus figure was more than just a beast tamer. He had discovered a means of purposely inducing sapience.