Ril blearily opened his eyes. He was lying on his back in a crib, his body wrapped comfortably in a blanket. Above him, the ceiling arched high, heavy wooden rafters shrouded in shadow the only thing that was visible.

Confused, Ril turned his head. The bars of the crib rose ominously on either side of him. Their white painted surface, pristine and carved elegantly with flowers.

Ril reached over to try and touch one of the exquisite flowers but couldn’t. The blanket he was wrapped in was too tight. Its suffocating folds prevented him from even lifting a finger.

Ril squirmed. Shifting around in the crib like a worm, but no matter how he wriggled he couldn’t get out of the restrictive blanket. Not knowing what to do, Ril let loose a cry.

“Help!” he called. His voice echoed strangely through the space bouncing around far more than it should in such a confined area.

“Hush now,” an auburn haired woman said. Her smiling face descended as her hands reached out on either side of him. Around her neck a pendant lay, its riven eye staring blindly at Ril as she grabbed him and gently lifted him up to rest on her hip. With rhythmic motions she rocked side to side, cooing softly as Ril relaxed.

He was still trapped in the blanket, but suddenly it didn’t seem so bad. Still he looked at the red haired woman curiously.

“Hello,” he said, shifting in the woman’s grasp “Do you know where I am, and how did I get here?”

The woman scrunched up her face, and tapped Ril on the nose. “Well aren’t you the cutest”, she said merrily as she continued to rock him back and forth.

Ril frowned. He didn’t exactly disagree with her, but she hadn’t exactly answered his question.

“Excuse me,” he said, squirming valiantly to get the woman’s attention. “Yes, hello. If you don’t know how I got here, could you maybe tell me what I need to do?”

The woman smiled happily and kissed him on the forehead. It felt nice. Maybe he didn’t need to do anything? He could just sit here in her arms. It was incredibly comfortable after all.

Suddenly a booming voice split the silence. “Do? You know what you need to do boy.”

Ril jerked in the woman’s arms, but she calmly turned around so that his gaze focused on Siorraid sitting calmly in a red velvet armchair. He looked the same as he always did. His black shredded cloak draped around his shoulders, partially blocking the knives that he carried on his person. Around his wrists a pair of black manacles encased his wrists, with a short length of chain hanging down from each of them.

“No I don’t,” Ril blinked at his mentor, “tell me please. What do I need to do?”

Siorraid steepled his fingers, the chains clinking softly as he moved his hands off of the armrests. “You need to get stronger,” he said matter of factly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Ok,” Ril nodded. Then he glanced at the woman. She smiled at him before giving him an affectionate shake. “Uhm, for what reason do I need to get stronger?”

“Boy’s asking stupid questions.” Gemma said from the side, her rocking chair squeaked mightily on every stroke.

Once again, the woman turned slightly, which brought Gemma into view.

In her hands was a pair of knitting needles and she was in the process of transforming the ball of yarn at her feet into a magnificent sword. The silver thread spooled through her fingers and melded seamlessly with the growing blade. Her grey hair was held back by a bandana that descended so low that it covered her eyes.

Blindly, she stared at him, coaxing the silver strands into the blade. “For what reason do you need to know?” she said, cackling madly to the clack of her knitting.

“I don’t understand,” Ril said, looking from Siorraid to Gemma in confusion. Her question, all but forgotten under the strange circumstances of their meeting.

“Fool!” Gemma cackled, “your warp is growing too fast. What are you going to do when it surpasses twenty percent? Thirty?”

“Get stronger,” Siorraid intoned, his chains clinking gently as he nodded his head.

“I...” Ril started, panic starting to well in his breast. Suddenly the woman who was holding him started to hum. A peaceful melody that was oh so familiar. The panic began to fade, as Ril turned away from the two seated individuals. The woman smiled freely, her auburn hair fell forwards tickling Ril’s nose.

She turned her body, rocking Ril and making Siorraid and Gemma go away. In a moment they were forgotten as in front of him stood Evelyn. She looked radiant. The sun shining through the window reflecting off of the highlights in her hair. She wore her hunting clothes. The fur around her collar made her look strong.

She leaned heavily against her warstaff, looking Ril directly in the eye. Bruises covered her face, and a trickle of blood fell from her nose.

“You should leave,” Evelyn said, nodding firmly. A drop of red blood dripped from her upper lip onto the ground at her feet.

“Leave?” Ril asked, the panic from before welling up again. “Where would I go?”

Evelyn shrugged her shoulders, “doesn’t matter, our relationship is officially over.”

Ril gasped, a pain in his chest flaring, and tears rose to his eyes. Hopelessly, he glanced at the woman holding him, squirming desperately in her grasp. Her eyes were calm, a glint of mischievousness visible.

“Ahh, don’t cry my darling. Everything is going to be alright,” she said, continuing to hum her melody. Then she shifted Ril from her hip onto her shoulder. Resting him so that his chin rested on her shoulder and her auburn hair formed a welcoming pillow under his cheek.

Her humming grew louder, the sound resonating strongly through her chest and into Ril as if it was the only sound in the world. Once more Ril felt himself calm. The gentle rocking coupled with the warm blanket and the beautiful music lulling him to sleep.

Before he surrendered to the bliss that is sleep, he opened his eyes one more time. He didn’t know what prompted him to do so, only that a faint thread of unease lay beneath the surface of the calm that the humming woman had induced in him.

In front of him was an unfamiliar knight. His armor was pristine, polished to a mirror finish. On his chest was a tabard with a simple eye stitched into it. The eye had a line splitting it from the top to the bottom.

“Who are you?” Ril asked, hesitantly. Almost scared to know the answer.

“Monsters, every last one of them.” Zed’s voice came seriously from underneath the silver helmet.

Ril pushed back the lethargy, and attempted to straighten himself on the woman’s shoulder. He was partially successful, as she patted his back gently.

“What? Who are?” Ril said, his voice rising. A horrible premonition coming over him.

Zed lifted his armored hands and lifted his helmet off of his head. Zed revealed his face, but there was something wrong. Instead of pale beige skin, Ril saw black skin stretched taut over a rotting skull. Black dust fell from eyelids that barely concealed milky white orbs. The monster opened its mouth, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth and a too long tongue.

“Monsters...” the monster said, leaning forward in its pristine silver armor.

Ril jerked back, falling backwards off of the woman’s shoulders. For a brief moment he felt like he was falling and then strong arms caught him. The woman held him close to her chest softly murmuring to him.

Ril’s eyes were opened wide. Fear coursed through him as he wriggled and squirmed. In front of him he saw Siorraid, Gemma and Evelyn. They sat and stood where they had been before, yet there was something different.

Their skin had darkened, gaining a powdery texture, while their eyes had clouded. Glowing orange veins pulsed ominously across their skin as they stared accusingly at Ril.

The monsters opened their mouths, sticky threads of saliva clinging to their needle sharp teeth, and expelled fetid breath out into the room.

“Hush, my dear. You’re safe,” the woman cooed, rocking him gently in her arms.

* * *

Ril’s eyes snapped open and he let loose a convulsive shudder to push away the dream. His body was covered in a patina of cold sweat. It soaked unpleasantly into the bedsheets. Shaking off the dream, Ril rolled out of bed, in the process stealing the blanket from Hauke who moaned piteously before curling up into a fetal position. With a modicum of effort, Ril pushed Hauke out of bed and they both joined Eren in the kitchen with grumpy expressions.

The three ate breakfast together, and after a brief conversation, went their separate ways, with Ril accompanying Hauke to school. After he had dropped off the boy, he dived into the Warrens and made his way over to the training hall. There, he faced a grueling couple hours under Saddie’s particular brand of tutelage.

After Saddie left, Ril collapsed, exhausted in both mind and body. He allowed Zed to help him up to a cafeteria of sorts where he ate the food that Zed placed in front of him. The food was good, but after such a grueling experience that had left him ravenous, Ril had a tough time remembering what it actually tasted, preferring to swallow as fast as possible.

Zed ate with him, mildly amused in a morbid sort of way at Ril’s single minded inhalation of the meal. They sat together in the cafeteria where a couple other members of the guild also ate their lunches. The other members let the two trainees be, keeping mostly to themselves and their hushed conversations. Ril didn’t mind, mostly because the moment that he finished his meal, he had to get up and convene with Siorraid in the Shadow Hall to continue his training.

The training in the Shadow Hall with Siorraid was much more pleasant, but at the same time much less visceral than Saddie’s teachings. Siorraid made Ril sit down in the same position as he had done on the previous day, and urged him to master Shadow.

Since he had already acquired the ability, Ril had no trouble sending his mana forth to bend the shadows around him. As such, Siorraid didn’t stay quiet like he had previously, engaging Ril in lengthy conversations ranging from possible uses of Shadow to more nuanced topics such as the capabilities of various noble families of the realm.

The conversation was engaging, straying away from bland topics and digging deep into secrets and puzzles that Ril adored. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to dedicate his full attention to the task, since Siorraid encouraged Ril to continue his shadow manipulation whenever Ril got too enamored in the subject matter.

Ril began by roughly changing the shape of his shadow, pulling it and twisting it such that it looked like there was the ever changing light of a torch behind him rather than the smooth glow from the lamp.

It was a worthy beginning, but Ril quickly got bored of such basic manipulation, and switched to a more interesting form of shadow manipulation.

For this, and with the advice of Siorraid, he tried lifting a piece of shadow off of the floor. It behaved remarkably like a thin piece of silk, two dimensional, semi transparent and utterly devoid of any structural integrity, but through an effort of will, Ril managed to hold it upright.

With further manipulation, Ril morphed the globular shadow so that it formed the silhouette of a small person or doll. Then with exacting care he made it move around.

At first the motions were sharp and jerky, sending the barely recognizably humanoid shadow careening out of Ril’s silhouette and into the light of the magnetite lamp, where it promptly disintegrated within moments. This forced Ril to reform the small humanoid again and restart.

This did not deter him, and as time passed, and his mastery of the element improved. Ril found himself better able to reconstruct the shadows after their untimely demise to the light. The shadows also responded to Ril more readily, no longer jumping across the room at the slightest touch. By the end of the day, the little person was dancing around the small space provided by Ril’s silhouette and periodically - but silently - scolding Siorraid whenever he said something that Ril disagreed with.

All too soon, Ril found himself stumbling home through the crowds as massive yawns interrupted him every couple of steps. When morning came, he did it again.

Several weeks passed in this manner.

The mornings were always the most difficult, mostly because of Saddie’s training.

They continued the same routine they had started on the first day, with a straight up spar. Rarely would Saddie deviate from this, but when she did it was always a relief because she would spend the time teaching Ril advanced moves rather than stabbing his clone repeatedly.

Despite the difficulty, the training worked. Every day Ril was able to last a little longer against her before he was overwhelmed. He learned ways to move his blade around to parry her lightning quick attacks, as well as the proper footwork needed for a tactical retreat under her onslaught.

They began with swords, but quickly shifted to other weapons seemingly at random. Staves, maces, daggers. Saddie had him fight with them all. Oftentimes she would choose a random weapon for herself which made some of the bouts very interesting. Whenever Ril got a spear and Saddie picked up a short dagger he rejoiced. He tended to die less when that happened.

Quickly though, they learned that Ril was unable to get physically stronger during the bouts since he was constantly swapping places with his un-exerted body that was just sitting on a bench. To remedy this, Saddie had him practice sword forms, and lift weights in the corner while his clone got slaughtered.

This added a whole new layer of hell to the training. The split attention required was not the primary issue, rather it was the fact that as the day grew longer, he got physically exhausted, and his muscles burned. By the time lunch had arrived, he was barely able to lift his limbs.

Saddie kept up a constant stream of complements but Ril found it difficult to discern whether she was excited that he was improving or whether she just enjoyed the one sided matches. He was leaning towards the latter, but every once in a while Saddie would study him quietly after a particularly impressive move, before she would nod firmly and push him to fight even harder.

Eventually, Ril received a message from the system that made him fall to his knees with tears of joy in his eyes.

Congratulations! You have unlocked the ability: Agony Attunement.

Pain is less able to disrupt your concentration.

The new ability was a godsend. It didn’t entirely block out the pain of being eviscerated, but it made it much more bearable. Somehow the pain was actually reduced, rather the ability made the pain less sharp, pushing the debilitating agony to the sidelines and allowing Ril to be coherent during Saddie’s more brutal demonstrations.

Ril asked Saddie why he got Agony Attunement instead of Pain Tolerance to which she told him to ask Siorraid. When he did so, Siorraid told him that Agony Attunement was simply another variant of the same skill. Supposedly, Agony Attunement was more common in people who relied on abilities, while Pain Tolerance appeared in those who were more physical.

The explanation made little sense to Ril considering he was being as physical as can be, but eventually just chocked it up to him relying on Mirror Form during the spars. In any case, Siorraid said that there was no difference between the abilities and so Ril dropped the subject.

After the training with Saddie, Ril joined Zed for a meal in the cafeteria.

Lunchtime with Zed was a short affair. They tended not to see each other outside of this time, and both were usually exhausted from the physical activity that they participated in during the morning. As such, they grew accustomed to the sight of half-masticated food as they spoke at length about their training.

Their time together was short, but Ril treasured every minute of it. Zed was friendly, and whose interests overlapped remarkably with Ril’s own. They optimized lunchtime which often saw Ril scrambling to the Shadow Hall with seconds to spare.

Siorraids training was easier. His primary focus was teaching Ril to master Shadow and so they spent the bulk of their time talking quietly in the Shadow Hall. Ril learned how to maintain his shadows in the light of the lamp, and his finesse with the ability only grew with each passing day.

To pass the time and as an excellent form of training, Siorraid had Ril summon a shadow and use it to spar against Siorraid’s own shadow. The result was slightly comical as the two sat calmly speaking to each other as miniature black figures raged and clashed against each other at their feet.

As Ril’s control grew, he realized that Shadow was actually a lot like Telekinesis. Both abilities allowed for the manipulation of objects from a distance. However, Siorraid insisted the Shadow was a more powerful ability. In dark environments, Shadow was plain stronger than Telekinesis, and its ability to block light made it more versatile.

On the other hand, Telekinesis was invisible, so Ril could see both sides of the argument.

Either way, as the days turned to weeks, Ril’s shadows grew ever more powerful, and their utility was only stymied by his willpower, and ultimately his imagination.

This was not the only activity that they did however. Twice a week, Siorraid would take Ril out of the Shadow Hall to teach him how to properly be an Outrider scout.

Congratulations! You have unlocked the ability: Muffle.

Muffle sound around you.

Congratulations! You have unlocked the ability: Sense.

Increase your perception.

The two abilities that Ril learned were invaluable for sneaking around successfully. Muffle was pretty self explanatory. When he used the ability any small sounds that he made were completely silenced, while louder sounds like shouts were muted slightly.

Sense on the other hand was a strange ability. On the surface it didn’t seem to do anything, but once he got it he suddenly began noticing things that he wouldn’t have otherwise have noticed. On the streets, Ril became even more aware of the number of people in the streets, and during training with Saddie he found himself better able to see her attacks coming.

The ability didn’t even seem to be limited to sight. Smells became subtly stronger, while noises became more piercing. Food suddenly tasted more. Not necessarily better, but the flavors seemed to coalesce on his tongue with more exuberance than they used to.

Ril shook himself from recalling all that had happened over the last couple of weeks.

He stood next to Zed, both of them having managed to finagle some time for themselves, and they planned to make good use of it.

“You ready?” Zed asked, an eager look on his face, as he gripped the hilt of his dagger in anticipation.

Ril looked at his partner, taking a moment to register Zed’s lack of silver hair. They had cut it recently with Eren’s help and Ril was still unused to the sight.

Before them was an entrance to the Warrens, except unlike the many entrances that Ril used to traverse the city, this one had a series of harsh, angular scratches above it signifying that this particular tunnel would lead them down to the depths.

It was time for them to delve into the Deep Warrens.

“Let’s do this,” Ril responded with a grin.