Far to the east, suspended within a steel cage that allowed no sunlight to penetrate its depth, a humanoid let out a soft chuckle.

The sound was strange, rasping instead of deep. Full of the harsh screeches that result from scraping steel over a chalkboard. It was as if the very steel was tortured as the being moved.

No emotion could be gleaned from the alien sound. Especially since its progenitor was as expressionless as the steel cage that contained it.

The sound resonated unpleasantly, forced to echo for minutes in the perfectly enclosed space.

“Interesting,” the being hissed.

Glacially, several of the hairlike strands that supported the suspended being retracted from the steel walls. Hey melted into his form. Disappearing as if they had never existed in the first place.

Nothing moved other than those strands. The being did not breath, nor did he shift into a more comfortable position. The books lying on the table were just as motionless, their pages forgotten.

Complete stillness descending upon the space. The wind having long lost the will to invade the private sanctum.

Time passed, having lost all meaning in the face of infinity.

“Yes,” the being hissed some indeterminate amount of time later, “Let’s accelerate the timetable. If one survived by now, perhaps the rest will also rise to the challenge.”

Several more of the uncountable strands that supported the creature retracted from the walls of the asteroid with the sound of tortured metal.

“Oh, yes. Rise my children.”

* * *

“How did it do that?” Zed whispered to Ril.

They had resuscitated from their near death experience, and were now facing the deep pond full of leeches, considering all manner of ways to get across without having to resubmerge themselves. Ril partial to the idea of conjuring snow into the pond until it froze.

Or maybe boiling all the water away with Flame.

Too bad his mana wouldn’t hold up to that level of abuse.

Ril glanced up from the depths, his mind still stuck on how to kill...ahem, get across the pond. It took him a moment to reorient and understand Zed’s question.

“Who did what? And why are we whispering?” Ril whispered back, leaning towards Zed in a conspiratorial manner.

“The cat,” Zed said, tossing a fearful glance towards the lounging feline. It had returned to its perch and was licking its paws serenely while completely ignoring them. “How did it control us like that?”

Zed shuddered, “I mean, if there is such a monster down here it's no wonder no one ever goes this deep into the Warrens.”

“Quiet, what if it hears you,” Ril shushed, “and I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with its telepathy?”

“Maybe,” Zed said slowly, clearly not convinced.

“It looked a lot like our ability. The whole blue veins thing.”

“So you are saying that it has the Blood? I didn’t think that powder beasts could get abilities like us.”

“Neither did I,” Ril said, then grinned, trying to diffuse the tension. “Who knows, maybe Sin is actually a human who transformed into a powder beast and retained his powers but lost all his memories and now he hungers for humans to kill because he doesn’t know any better.”

Zed slapped him, “that is even scarier than a generic powder beast with abilities.”

Ril chuckled, but then sobered up, a brooding look passing over his features. “Either way, it's worrying.”

“Not to mention dangerous,” Zed grimaced, “do you think any powder beast can just walk up to us and command us, or is it just this cat?”

“Probably not any powder beast,” Ril said after a moment thinking back to the first time he controlled the beasts, “but maybe if we come across another intelligent powder beast it could do the same thing. You know how the humanoid beasts to the east are said to be able to talk, right? We should probably avoid them until we figure out how and why it was able to control us like that.”

“And how you escaped it,” Zed said, a haunted look crossing his face as he remembered succumbing to Sin’s command. “We should figure out how to escape it.”

“I just thought of my...a good friend when I was under his command. I remembered what I was doing here. In Sela I mean. And all of the people who are waiting for me to come back. Somehow that pulled me out long enough so that I could fight the compulsion.” Ril said quietly, sympathizing with Zed’s situation. He has also felt the utter exhaustion suffusing every pore of his body when Sin had spoken.

“But enough of that,” Ril continued, “let’s figure how to cross this cesspool, and then we can ask Siorraid about the command. He will know what to do. Or at least set us off on the right track.”

“Alright,” Zed said, “how about we use darkness handholds to climb along the side of the tunnel?”

Ril blinked, “Huh. Yeah, that sounds good, you can go first. I’ll fish you out if you fall.”

Zed paled slightly, but mustered his courage, before shuffling up to the tunnel wall and conjuring up several raised shadows that clung tenaciously to the wall. After testing that they could indeed support his weight, Zed slowly and carefully bouldered across the intervening space.

They both let out a pent up breath as Zed successfully reached the other side.

“Your turn,” Zed said.

Ril nodded, summoning his own shadow grips, when suddenly a weight fell upon his back.

[If you fall, I will make you regret it,] Sin’s voice pierced into Ril’s mind.

Ril froze, swapping perspectives such that he was staring at the midnight cat on his clone’s shoulders. Sin was wrapped around Ril’s neck like some vicious telepathic scarf. With claws. And teeth.

Elegantly, Sin’s tail wrapped around the clone’s neck, completing the image.

“Uhm,” Ril laughed nervously, “What? What are you...Are you coming with us? Why?”

“Please don't,” Zed murmured softly from the other side of the pool. Sin must have projected his voice to Zed as well.

[You will make for a fine palanquin as I explore your world. I wish to also meet with the Displacer Beast that deigned to show you its secrets. You shall take me to it.]

“Well,” Ril started, drawing the word out, “I don’t think it is a good idea for you to come with us.”

Sin narrowed his eyes, flicking his tail in annoyance.

[Worry not, Ril. The sheep you call kin are safe from me. You on the other hand may not be so fortunate if you deny me. Would you like to restart our bout? I am feeling mighty refreshed after that little game we played earlier.]

Sin unsheathed his claws, digging them painfully into Ril’s shoulders. Agony Attunement helped contain the pain, but he still felt it. He winced, a trickle of silver blood soaking into his shirt.

Ril shot Zed a pleading look. He did not want to fight the cat again. He had barely won last time, and he had the suspicion that Sin hadn’t been really trying. He was also tired. Like post-Saddie fight tired, with his muscles trembling and cold. His mind was not much more better.

Zed gave him a helpless shrug, also unsure what to do.

Ril sighed, “Well, your argument is very convincing. You promise not to hurt any people on the surface?”

Sin dug in his claws deeper for a moment before retracting them, relaxing as if nothing had happened.

[Of course. Unless something challenges me and mine, I shall stay my claws.]

Ril gave Zed another helpless glance, it seemed that he didn’t have much of a choice. It didn’t seem like they would be able to get a better promise out of the cat. At least on the surface Siorraid would be able to help them deal with Sin.

With another sigh, Ril approached the wall and crossed the pond in the same manner that Zed had done. They continued back the way they came and before long popped out of the Warrens to the sound of humanity.

Surprisingly, they had not come across any more of the bugs even though they were injured, but that may have been because they didn’t loiter. Sprinting through the intervening space hardly allowed the bugs the time to collect like they had before. They didn’t burn any of the bugs either which surely helped.

Nervously the two of them made their way through the city, after casting Vanish on themselves and leaping onto the rooftops. One look at their bloodstained garb and the veritable powder beast that was napping on Ril’s shoulder was more than enough to convince them that travelling through the streets was likely a bad idea.

They made it safely back home and after a brief, but intense interrogation with Siorraid, they had found their beds and collapsed.

Siorraid hadn’t made nearly as big of a fuss upon seeing Sin as they had expected. He was wary of the small creature, especially after they had told him about the things telepathy, but when Sin had spoken with utter confidence about his intentions, Siorraid had relented.

Apparently, sentient powder beasts didn’t really lie.

Ril had asked discreetly, if Siorraid couldn’t just get rid of the cat, but Siorraid had shut him down.

“Sentient powder beasts are almost always dangerous. They tend to have unpredictable abilities, and considering the story that you just told me, he could be very dangerous if angered. Right now, he is just relaxing quietly and not getting in the way. Considering that you have the Blood, it is unlikely that he means you harm.” Siorraid had explained.

At this, Ril resigned himself to carrying around the freeloader for the foreseeable future.

Ril got used to carrying his unwanted companion on his shoulders. No matter how he asked, Sin refused to find another perch unless Ril was actively sparring. When that happened, Sin would jump to the clone if it was available or land nearby and wait until Ril was available again. Doing pushups with the cat on his back was unpleasant.

After several fruitless attempts at convincing the obstinate feline, Ril gave up. He invested in a heavy leather mantle with a deep cowl that protected him from Sin’s claws. The cat had a nasty habit of extending his claws at seemingly random intervals.

The mantle also had a deep cowl. It covered Ril’s bald pate, but more importantly it shrouded Sin from sight, which allowed Ril to walk the streets without raising an abominable fuss.

Only the most observant people questioned why there was an additional pair of glowing orange eyes peering out from the shadows of the hood.

When Ril came home after the first day he ran into a problem.

Eren didn’t like Sin. She outright refused to let the cat enter the house and made sure to keep Hauke as far away from what she believed to be a bloodthirsty predator. While this happened, Hauke tried to rush around his older sister, and challenge the supposed predator to a duel. It didn’t work so well, with Eren working so hard to keep him back, but that didn’t stop him from trying.

Eventually they had all calmed down enough for Ril to explain the situation, and how he didn’t really have a choice since Sin wouldn’t get off his back.

Just as he said that, Sin jumped off his back and strolled into the house as if he owned the place. Mildly peeved, they followed the cat into the house, and found him sprawled onto the couch without a care in the world.

“He’s harmless,” Ril laughed uneasily.

Eren narrowed her eyes, “Hauke is sleeping with me while that thing is in the house.”

“Aww, come on!” Hauke complained, but Eren was adamant.

Despite these words, it wasn’t long before Sin was accepted into the household. He didn’t do much of anything dangerous, and only spoke sparingly with Ril. After several days of this, their little group just ignored the cat, continuing on as if he didn’t exist.

Sin didn’t seem bothered by this, and even seemed thankful that humans had stopped pestering him. Ril didn’t know what to say to that, especially since he was still slightly scared of the cat.

Eventually, Ril and Zed mustered up their courage and with both Saddie and Siorraid in the background they asked Sin what magic he used to control them in the Deep Warrens.

[Magic? I used no such thing,] Sin had scoffed, [I need no such petty tricks to have lesser creatures obey me.]

“But you did control us. In the Deep Warrens you spoke just like we do to powder beasts and we collapsed. Don’t you remember?” Ril asked.

[Be careful when insulting my intelligence, and what happened in the Warrens was not ‘control’ as you put it. None of us wield The Great Ones Stomach. When you meet such a being you will learn what true control looks like.]

[No, what we had was simply an argument. A clash of wills if you will. I told you that you were weak, and because you are weak, you believed me, and became weak. That just shows how truly weak of mind you two really are. As expected of creatures such as yourself, if slightly impressive.]

They had listened to this with no small amount of consternation, but further prodding had not yielded a more satisfactory answer.

Eventually they dropped the issue, vowing among themselves to strengthen their minds. Whatever that meant.

* * *

The days blurred together. The constant training, while painful at times, was enjoyable. Ril steadily improved against Saddie, and along with his resistance training managed to hold his own every couple of bouts.

Periodically Ril also got to spar against Zed. These battles were more interesting and far less one sided. These bouts made Ril realize that he wasn’t as terrible as Saddie had made him seem. She was just a ruthless monster.

During these bouts, Ril and Zed got closer. Taunting and jeering each other whenever the other made a mistake, and so together they improved by leaps and bounds, mastering every weapon that their instructors threw at them. Or at least becoming mildly competent with them.

Ril still preferred to use a sword over any of the other weapons offered to him. Something about its majesty appealed to him, though he couldn’t deny the effectiveness of the spear.

The training with Siorraid also progressed. After exhausting many topics of conversation, Ril asked if Siorraid could teach him all the things it would take for him to become a noble. Initially, Siorraid had been confused. To him it seemed like a rather random request, especially considering the philosophy that they had previously discussed.

To Ril however it was anything but random. While Evelyn had banished him from Anduin, he had not forgotten her or her city. Everytime something brought up the memories of their time together in Anduin he would wince, and think of a thousand different ways that he could have acted to lead to a different outcome. To Ril, his mistakes stemmed from not understanding and seeing the stress that Evelyn had been under. It was as if she had been from a whole different world, that he was utterly blind to. If he could learn even some of the responsibilities that she spent her entire day on, maybe he could fix what had happened the next time the met.

No matter what, Ril was determined to return.

Siorraid acquiesced easily to Ril’s request, switching up the curriculum with fluidity and grace. It was a subject that would be useful for Ril to know if he was to become a White Lily operative.

This arduous but enjoyable schedule continued for several weeks until, after a particularly tough day, Ril returned home exhausted in both mind and body. As he entered the abode, he found Eren slouched on the couch with a vacant expression in her eyes. That in it of itself was strange, since she was typically cheerful.

In front of her, on the table, lay on an open letter and its ripped open envelope. Giving all of this a cursory glance, Ril joined her on the couch.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked, giving her a sideways hug.

“Oh,” Eren started, “Hi, Ril. I didn’t hear you come in.”

She sniffed, then wiped her eyes with the back of one hand.

“Sorry, about that, I’ll try to make more noise next time,” Ril laughed sheepishly, “but are you okay? You look like you just got some bad news.”

Ril gestured to the open letter.

“Yeah,” Eren said, getting a far away look in her eyes. “Well, no. Not really bad news, the letter is just from my parents.”

“That’s good,” Ril smiled, “isn’t it?”

Eren sighed. “Yeah, good. They ran out of money again, and are asking me to send them some.”

“Oh,” Ril said.

“I don’t know what to do.” Eren mumbled, her voice muffled as she put her face in her hands again.

“How did they lose the money that they had?” Ril asked after a moment.

“Investing,” Eren scoffed, “they borrowed money and used to try and rebuild the hawk hunting business that we had prior to the calamity.”

“It’s not an absolutely terrible idea. Training large birds to hunt powder beasts would be a boon to the army. It's just that large birds are really fragile compared to powder beasts, so there is a high mortality rate for the birds, and considering the time it takes to train a single bird...Ugh, I don't know. It’s not working”

“I mean. Both my parents are experienced trainers which is making this entire stupid thing work at all, but even with all their experience they are not even breaking even.”

Eren sighed, “and they borrowed the money, and not on favourable terms considering their history. The interest will strangle them before the year is out.”

Ril sat next to her, digesting the new information. Money wasn’t really his forte but he understood the basic ideas behind it. Siorraid’s training helped greatly in that regard.

“It’s that bad huh.”

“Yeah,” Eren mumbled, “Well no. It isn’t the end of the world. They could still salvage the situation. What they should do is cut their losses. Sell the assets they bought, and use that to repay the loan. Just...by now it won’t be enough. Not all on its own. They would have to sell something else for that. The house or something.”

“And they are asking you to pay that sum of money? Don’t they know that you don’t have that much money. You just started fresh here.” Ril reasoned.

“Well, that’s the thing. If I asked the guard for next month's wage early, and I did some overtime I would be able to pay it back. At the end of the day it isn’t an astronomical sum, just...my parents have literally zero.”

“Ahh,” Ril said, “but you want to send them money anyway?”

Eren sighed, “Well I mean what am I supposed to do? Just watch them default on the loan and get sent to prison? Not to mention how being forced to sell the house now would be...catastrophic to say the least.”

Ril leaned back on the couch, adjusting his mantle as he did so. This seemed like a complex situation, that was steeped in years of history that he wasn’t familiar with.

Just then the front door opened up and Hauke entered. He had a meat bun in hand, and was munching angrily while seeming to ponder something elusive. His cute features scrunched up as he focused inwards.

“Hey Hauke, how was your day?” Eren said, sitting up straighter.

“Fine, I’m gunna be in my room.” He said. With two smooth kicks, Hauke dislodged his shoes and launched them against the wall where they bounced haphazardly onto the floor. With missing a step he walked past them and closed the door to his room with a thud. Barely a minute had passed since his arrival.

Eren looked after him,mildly hurt and confused.

“Ok?” she asked herself.

Before she could dwell on the subject, Ril pulled her attention back to him.

“You know? We can use my money for this,” Ril said gesturing once more to the letter that lay open on the table.

“Wait, what? No, Ril. I can’t ask that of you.”

“No really, it’s ok. I know you will pay me back, and this is important to you. As far as I’m concerned we are friends and if you weren’t here I wouldn’t be here, so you can just consider it me repaying the favor.”

“Are you serious?” Eren asked, giving Ril an incredulous look.

“I am. It’s not a big deal,” Ril grinned, “I can even help you write them a strongly worded letter telling them all the things they need to do to fix this problem. Maybe we could include some more sensible investment strategies.”

Eren looked at him, her eyes glistening, “Thank you, Ril.”

Ril raised his palms up, “hey, no worries, right? It’ll be fun. I’ll go get some paper.”