An involuntary shiver ran over Ril.

He was lying flat on his back near the outskirts of the training hall where he had collapsed after Saddie had finally decided that the lesson was over. She had continued long after Ril would have thought was possible, forcing him to push himself to the absolute limits of both mana and stamina.

In fact, he had gone beyond his limits. The first time he had said that he couldn’t spar anymore Saddie had just smiled sweetly and handed him a blue and green vial filled with a viscous concoction that had energized him. After drinking the potion he had felt ready to run all the way to Anduin and back in one sitting. An electric buzz tingling through his extremities.

Naturally he had jumped up to his feet, excited to burn off the extra energy that had been gifted to him, only for Saddie to insist on continuing their sparring at an even higher intensity.

The energy didn’t last long. Barely half an hour after he had swallowed the potion, fatigue weighed down on his limbs, causing him to collapse once more, and beg for a break.

The second potion Saddie provided had similar effects, immediately rejuvenating Ril back to fighting condition. This time, however, he couldn’t fight as well as before. For all the energy, his muscles were still sore, and so his movements were stiff and the number of lethal injuries that he received from Saddie grew. In addition, a strange tingling arose in his extremities. The same feeling he would get when he slept on his arm all night.

By the third potion, the tingling had extended all the way to his chest and had become so intense that it bordered on pain. Sharp spikes of both fire and ice seeped unpleasantly into his lungs and core making it hard to breath.

Ril tried, and failed to suppress another shiver that overcame him. When the adrenaline had faded away, the tingling had receded only to be replaced by a sense of being very, very cold.

“She’s insane.” Ril murmured as another shiver racked his body.

“She scares the bejesus out of me.” Zed said, as he dumped an armful of towels on Ril and proceeded to wrap him up like a sausage. He did so roughly, rubbing at Ril’s blue tinged arms to try to get the circulation going.

By the end Ril was feeling very comfortable, and a bit warmer.

“What was that potion she gave me?” Ril asked, awkwardly grabbing at the cup of water that Zed brought him. He spilled half of it on the towels but the rest made its way into him, much to his relief.

“Bonechill Draught, combined with Archon’s Delight.” Zed said, as he sat beside Ril on the floor. “At least, I think. It would explain the cold and why you are turning blue, as well as how you managed to sustain such a high mana expenditure for so long.”

“How long does the...tingling continue for.” Ril said, gritting his teeth through another body wide shiver.

“Maybe a couple of hours?” Zed said, hesitantly. “At worst you could probably sleep it off.”

“Did she do this to you.” Ril asked.

Zed hesitated. “Sort of. She was pretty excited for the first week and I had to drink several Troll Bloods everyday just to stay alive. After that she calmed down, and we focused more on technique. By now I am mostly independent. I think she got bored and just lets me train alone.

“She is utterly insane.” Ril said conclusively. To which Zed nodded in complete agreement.

“More towels?” Zed asked after a moment.

“Please.” Ril said thankfully.

Zed got up and returned with another bundle of the warm towels. He had to navigate around a large pool of silver blood which had been the grave of three unfortunate Ril clones. They had bled out next to each other in a particularly brutal demonstration of the benefits of drawing cuts.

Saddie hadn’t gone easy at all, changing her entire fighting style in moments to facilitate the different style. Had had completely failed to adapt to the change as Saddie had danced around him like a phantom of blood and pain. At his demise, she had demonstrated the elegant style in slow motion as well as describing strategies to avoid this style of combat.

Then they had continued to fight. He had fallen again of course, but he had survived longer than last time, as he forced his overtaxed mind to forcefully absorb her teachings and apply them within moments of learning.

This had continued until the sand refused to drain the blood, and they had moved to another area to avoid the ankle deep pool.

Zed returned and carefully wrapped Ril in another layer of towels. Ril grunted thankfully as settled into the warming folds of cloth. His clone was wrapped with him, sharing the meager body heat it produced. It was also fast asleep, a strange feeling to be sure but one that Ril was fully willing to capitalize on if it meant that he could stay awake a little longer.

“So,” Zed said, gesturing towards the carnage of the room. “Do you know what makes your blood silver? Is it a special ability or...what?”

“I have the same ability as you,” Ril murmured, his eyes closing as warmth suffused the triple wrapped towels. He let loose a large yawn. “The Blood of the Chromagnum. Got it when I bonded with a divine sphere. When did you get it?”

“How do you know I have it?” Zed asked, surprised.

“The hair,” Ril attempted to gesture, but was confined by the towels. “I also have silver hair. Or had. Cut it off since then to try and fit in better. Only worked partially but it is growing back and I’m going to need to do it again or find another solution.”

“How did you cut it. Nothing I’ve tried works...easily.” Zed said with a grimace.

Ril grinned, clearly remembering the time he had tried to cut his hair with a steel knife. It had worked but was very painful. Ripping out the strands more often than not and impossible to cut the hairs at the roots. “I have a friend with an enchanted sword. It works like a razor blade. You can come over some time and I can help you cut it.”

“That sounds great.” Zed said. “Although the hair isn’t such a big deal now that we’re part of the White Lily. They don't really care here. In fact I think they actually like it.”

“Why’s that.” Ril murmured.

“Well the fact the powder beasts mostly ignore us is pretty nice. Especially for an organization that spends as much time spying and infiltrating as theirs likely does.”

“Wait. Spy?” Ril asked, frowning. “I thought they were just a rich group that controls the city.”

“They are.” Zed nodded, “but they are so much more. Spy, mercenary, merchant. I think they do it all. They conduct a lot of operations outside of the city. From the little that I’ve figured out in the last year, a lot of that involves scouting out areas, as well as infiltrating noble houses. I think they work in tandem with the royal family to help them cement their rule, but I don’t know for sure. We will probably learn that when we graduate from being acolytes.”

Zed shrugged, having divested the extent of his knowledge to the new recruit.

“Have you tried asking Siorraid or Bahlinar for more details?” Ril asked.

“Of course. Siorraid just kind of stares at me and tells me I will learn in due time, while Bahlinar just gives me a smug smile. I don’t ask Bahlinar much. His teeth freak me out.” Zed said.

“Huh,” Ril said, “makes more sense why they recruited me then. I would make for a poor peacekeeper with my skill set.”

“I heard that you didn’t actually want to join up. Siorraid had to chase you halfway across the city and blow up a bunch of buildings in your face to convince you.” Zed said. “Now that I’ve seen you fight Saddie, I believe you could survive one of Siorraid’s attacks.”

“Siorraid caught me in the middle of pickpocketing so I ran when he found me. He didn’t appreciate that, and he couldn’t get me to slow down enough to explain the situation properly.” Ril chuckled. “There was only one blown up building, and that’s because I managed to push Siorraid into a vat of boiling acid. Almost got him to, but he managed to touch that big cleaver he wears on his back.”

“It must have been some explosion if he burned through a big knife like that.” Zed replied.

“It was, leveled the entire building, and threw rubble all across the street. I only survived because my clone absorbed most of the blow and there was a literal rack of uncured leathers that protected me”

“Wow, what happened after?” Zed asked.

Ril shrugged. “Saddie joined the scene, and they captured me. They brought me to Bahlinar and explained it all to me. Then they gave me a choice. Either leave the city or join up, so here we are.”

“They weren’t nearly as harsh with me. You must have really made an impression. I think they would only give that ultimatum to people they consider dangerous.”

“Why, what happened with you?”

“I was working at a library at the time, and Siorraid just walked in one day. He asked me if I was happy working there, and offered a better job.” Zed said, popping his neck as he stretched. “I was barely making enough to get by, even less than workers at the Garden do, but the lack of physical labor meant that I stayed. I also loved the books, which was a major boon to the job.”

“Siorraid told me about the organization and promised that after the first couple years of training and a few missions I could be relegated to an administrative slash accounting position.” Zed continued. “I accepted immediately of course, and I’ve been here ever since.”

“Why not put you directly into something like that?” Ril asked.

“I don't know. Has something to do with their history. ‘Every member has to hold the line’ or something like that.” Zed said. “What about you though. How did you get to be here.”

So Ril told him. Skimming over much of the personal details of his journey from Elkshire to Anduin and finally to Sela. Zed oohed, and ahhed at all the right places. One thing that surprised Ril was that Zed was mortified that he had killed the panther, all those weeks ago.

“You shouldn’t have killed it.” Zed said firmly, “It was just protecting it’s den.”

“What did you want me to do? Let the princess of the realm get eaten?” Ril retorted.

“Well, no, but maybe you should have given up your ability. That cat didn’t deserve to die.”

“It was a powder beast! It was trying to kill us!” Ril said incredulously.

“Only after you slaughtered its children.” Zed retorted.

Then he sighed. “Maybe I ah-ah-have a skewed view of the powder beasts compared to normal people.”

“Because of the Blood,” he added belatedly. “but I have found them to be pretty intelligent, an-and loving. Ah-at least to me. Better than any human I’ve ever met. Humans are cruel, and self in-interested. They don’t care that you ah-ah--”

Zed swallowed loudly, then he clenched his jaw twice before continuing. “They don’t care that you are struggling, and they certainly won’t help you if it doesn’t help themselves. Monsters every last one of them.” A dangerous glint appeared in his eyes.

Ril contemplated the other man. He was wringing his hands and was focusing intensely at a spot directly in front of his feet. Zed then smiled slightly, and turned to look Ril in the eye.

“Powder beasts don’t work that way. They are always happy to greet me whenever I meet one. Eager to just spend time with me. And nothing more.” He suddenly blushed. “Sorry, that’s just...what I think.”

“It’s alright.” Ril said quietly. “Maybe that is just an effect of the Blood. That they are friendly towards us, I mean.”

“Does it matter?” Zed replied, “Most powder beasts are predators. Wouldn’t you expect them to hunt humans? It would be strange if they didn’t, especially with the additional power they obtain from the transformation. We must seem like easy snacks to them. But--”

“But people treat them as if they are evil.” Ril finished his sentence.

“Exactly.”

They settled into comfortable silence. Ril stewing on the strange new view that he had been presented. It was appealing in a way. A way out if things go wrong. He could go live with the powder beasts without guilt should a repeat of what happened in Anduin happen here.

“You think the White Lily found out that you have the Blood? That’s why they scouted you out?” Ril asked after the moment of comfortable silence.

“Probably. I doubt that they would have picked up an orphan librarian with no combat skills otherwise.”

“Have you awakened it?” Ril asked.

“Excuse me?” Zed replied, confused.

“The ability. Have you awakened it?” Ril asked. He tilted his head over and peaked around the folds of the towels and saw that Zed didn't understand what he meant. “Oh well, the Blood is one of the seven Fragments you know? So it can be awakened. I awakened mine a couple of weeks ago, and I was wondering if you did so too.”

“I have not.” Zed said slowly. “What does awakening the Blood give you and what does it cost?”

“As far as I can tell it is just a straight stat improvement. I got plus one to all stats, which is pretty massive if you think about it. The cost seems to be that my veins glow. It’s dim, but you can see it when it’s dark. Here look.” Ril said as he held his arm under the towel to block the light. Each of his veins was very faintly glowing orange. Significantly less than what a powder beast would show, but still recognizable as the same effect that the monsters were under.

“Huh, cool.” Zed said after a moment. “Aren’t you worried, though? It looks like you are becoming a powder beast.”

Ril frowned. “Maybe, but it is really powerful, and it didn’t even increase my warp at all. All of my warp has come from other abilities. Maybe the glow warns me if I am becoming more like a powder beast?”

Zed thought about it for a moment. “Doubt that, but it could be. If that is all that it gives you then I could try it. You don’t feel like your mind has been corrupted or anything like that?”

“No, but,” Ril started, but then hesitated. “There is one other thing. When I got the ability, a new window popped up and congratulated me for getting the ability.”

“Don't all abilities do that?”

“Yes, but this one was different. It was in addition to the normal window, and there was something wrong with it. Like it was falling apart.”

“How?”

“All the letters were jumbled up, and cracked, with pieces missing from them. It was barely legible. The background was also messed up. You know how it is normally just a plain black. Well this time it was black but parts of it were transparent, and the edges of the frame were frayed.”

“What do you suppose it was?” Zed asked, intrigued.

“I don’t know. It disappeared quickly and it hasn’t reappeared since. I am thinking that it might be some strange way for powder beasts to communicate among themselves. If that’s the case, then it can only be a good thing for us.”

“Hmm, you say it didn’t increase your warp?” Zed said, when Ril shook his head he continued, “In that case, what does awakening the Blood entail?”

“I got it when I commanded a powder beast to do my bidding. I can show you later if you want. We will just need to find a powder beast of some kind.”

“We can go to the Deep Warrens to find one.”

“I thought that was dangerous. The kid I learned from was so scared of the place that she refused to even talk loudly when she traversed the tunnels.”

“Sure, for a normal person it is dangerous, but for us it is no more dangerous than walking through a forest at night. Unless some normal monster managed to survive down there none of the powder beasts should cause us any trouble. The most trouble we will have will be actually finding a beast, since they won’t actively hunt us down.”

“Sounds like a date, then.” Ril grinned.

Zed chuckled, and the two descended into a companionable silence. The acrid smell of recently spilled blood filled the air, with Ril’s various corpses giving the room a macabre atmosphere.

“You know I’m surprised that you managed to fight Siorraid the Shadow well enough to impress him. I don’t think many people could claim that achievement.” Zed said after some time had passed.

“I didn’t really fight-- Wait. The Shadow?” Ril started.

“Yeah, you didn’t know?” Zed gave him a perplexed look.

“Uhm, now I do...I guess.” Ril gulped. The Shadow was practically a myth. On par with the members of the King’s own contingent. Now that he thought about it, all the details matched up. The man was practically an embodiment of living shadow that wielded invisible blades like the stories all said.

Ril quietly thanked Old Man Joe for telling him stories about the heroes of the realm. He never imagined that he would meet one of those stories in person.

Just then the door to the practice hall clicked open. A tall dark figure slipping in as silent as a ghost. His black shredded cloak trailing bits of shadow that seemed to drift to the corners of the room where the darkness deepened.

Speak of the devil.