Sett felt many conflicting feelings erupting within him watching the scene of the infant three-tailed white fox being rescued by the stranger. A small smile emerged on his face, but it was not filled with happiness as one would imagine.

Sett related far too much with this scene. He too had been like the little fox, without friends or family to prop him up. The only difference was that his saviour never arrived.

For his entire life, Sett had lived within the confines of an orphanage. According to the matron, he had been placed on their doorstep, without even a knock to announce his presence, when he was less than a year old.

He had never known the sight of his parents. He did not know what they looked like. He did not know their hair colour, nor did he know the colour of their eyes. They could have been the poorest peasants or the richest celebrities and he would never have known. Hell, there was even the chance that they could have been ascendants.

He had never known the love of a parent nor the knowledge that they always had his back.

In the end, they were merely a black void in his heart.

Perhaps, it had been better like this. Unlike the fox, he had never been given false hope from his real parents. He had never been given the promise of a warm home nor the comfort of a familial hug. He could hate them all he wanted because he did not have the misfortune of knowing them.

The fox, on the other hand, did not have such luxories. Unlike the babe Sett, it was readily aware that it was being abandoned. It knew that those that should have loved it the most, had abandoned it to die in the cold wilderness.

The comparison was abstract and rather absurd, but it was there, nonetheless.

What was worse? Having known the familial love and being abandoned despite it or never having known it at all. Sett truly could not say.

Still, in the end, the fox got what he so desperately had wanted throughout his entire childhood. It had lost everything but gained something much greater. It had, in rough terms, been adopted by a loving parent.

Throughout his long stint at the orphanage, Sett had been interviewed many times by many pairs of prospective parents. They had come from many different facets of society, but they had one thing in common. They had all rejected Sett for unknown reasons.

In the beginning, Sett had hated them for their rejection. He had hated those that were chosen in his stead. It was only when he entered puberty and the interviews became far fewer, that his mindset changed. He could not hate those that wished to adopt nor his fellow orphans. After all, they were merely playing the same game, wanting to get the best outcome possible. There simply were not enough foster parents for the countless orphans that existed all over Gliese Prime.

Still, the many saddened years

Having left the orphanage for the world of ascendants, Sett thought that he had left those thoughts behind. He had thought that he would no longer be dragged down by them. That he could shake off those shackles that had bound him so ceaselessly before.

Only now, did Sett realise that those thoughts and feelings were not meant to be suppressed.

With heightened attention, Sett looked at the scene of the fox and the man. The fox sat in the man’s lap, biting down happily on some meat scraps while having its head petted. It was a simple, but harmonious scene.

The happiness that the scene brought was only slightly diminished because of the corruption that swept over the scene, leaving some of the details hazy and indistinct.

For a while, Sett lived vicariously through the life of the fox.

For a long while, the man and fox simply sat. The youngster did not utter a single complaint during the many hours that he sat on the cold hard ground. He simply sat there, keeping an almost unnatural focus on the fox that had almost passed on to the afterlife only a couple of hours earlier.

From the youngster’s eyes, Sett could only see deep concern and worry. There was not a speck of greed nor the exploitive nature that almost all of humanity shared nowadays. These days, it was truly rare to find someone that cared about a stranger to this degree, let alone a beast that they randomly found in wild.

The memory continued on. The more time that passed, the hazier the memory became. Soon, the only that the fox remembered were that of the man that had saved it and that which it had felt in that moment. Everything else had faded from its memory, becoming completely insignificant in comparison.

Sett could feel the happiness that the fox felt in those moments. It was happiness and contentment to a degree that he had never felt.

After the slight backdrop that remained of the memory turned dark, the youngster finally stood up. With a stretched-out hand, he offered his palm to the small fox.

“Will you join me?”

The youngster’s words were sweet and inviting.

After curiously twisting its head for a few seconds, it finally understood the meaning of the youngster and jumped on top of the palm, letting itself be embraced within the warm overcoat.

The man brought the fox away from the place where it had felt its most horrific betrayal, but it was not aware of that itself. Feeling sleepiness overtake it, the little white fox slowly slipped into dreamland.

From there, the memory faded from view and Sett returned to the inside of the fox’s mind with the many glowing orbs.

He felt a great loss. Sett naturally knew that what he had seen had only been a figment of the fox’s past. A distant memory that he had absolutely no connection to. He knew that the feelings that had welled up within him had been those of the fox. He wanted those emotions back. He wanted to feel the safety. But he could not.

That said, Sett wanted more. The insight that he had gained from reliving the few fleeting moments of the fox’s early life had brought great perspective to his own. He did not feel envy, but he wanted to know what he had missed out on.

Without hesitation, Sett reached out for the orb that was positioned close to the first one.

‘Mine kindred.’ Selt's voice was greatly worried. ‘What you are doing is dangerous beyond all doubt. I know that your emotions plague you greatly, but is this truly worth it?’

Selt warned Sett about the dangers of losing himself to another’s memory.

‘I know, Selt.’ Sett shook his head with a grave look. ‘But this is something that I must do. Never mind the danger that I might face, I need to see it through.’

‘Good.’ Selt’s words surprised Sett, having never expected him to agree with him so readily. ‘Determination is the greatest aspect of an ascendant. Go and face the demons that might inhabit your heart so that they may never inhibit your path to greatness.’

Sett did not expect that the god would explain his motives for him, but he was gladdened for the effort.

With a light touch of the pink orb, Sett entered into another memory.

This one was far different from the first one. There was no freezing cold nor any snow-covered fauna. Only the blue of the sky was the same as it had been earlier.

Now, the memory that Sett saw was filled with gigantic structures of steel and concrete. It looked exactly like a perfect copy of the cities from Gliese Prime, with the only difference being that these looked slightly bigger and immaculate.

Countless people walked the streets of the city and many cars passed by with a flurry on the adjacent road. In the sky, many more shuttles were ferrying people to destinations near and far.

In this metropolis, a single youngster stood out greatly. Unlike the average man, who wore a business suit or something similar, the youngster wore a heavy coat lined with white fur and carried a grand backpack on his back. From within his lightly loosened coat, a small fox could sometimes be seen peeking its head outside.

The youngster attracted many curious and odd looks, but no one felt that it was necessary to stop him. After all, although they might not see a sight like him within the cities every day, there were still many strange people walking the earth.

The fox, too, felt great curiosity. Its curiosity was naturally directed at the strange place it had been brought to. The strange buildings and the innumerable people both worked to make it excited but also slightly stressed out.

Traversing the city on foot with seemingly no objective. After travelling the main roads for a time, he suddenly turned onto a side street and followed it. After passing many different stores and places of interest, the youngster finally stopped before a seemingly inconspicuous wall of concrete.

Sett felt confusion, not only from himself but also from the fox. Why had he stopped here? Why had he stopped before this wall that you could find anywhere in the city?

The confusion did not last long. Sett felt the youngster summon a small piece of essence to his hand which he then lifted to the surface of the wall.

Immediately, the wall rippled ever so slightly and that, which Sett had formerly thought to be only cracks, lit up into a rune.

Without any hesitation, the youngster walked straight into the wall and disappeared into nothingness. There was no evidence that he had ever been here.

Sett, too, was abruptly brought along with the youngster and fox pair. Without any more memory of the side street, Sett naturally could not remain there anymore. Such were the rules of memories.

When Sett arrived, he found that the fox was feeling frightened and confused, it had buried itself deep into the coat and its ears laid flat upon its head.

It was no surprise. The place that they arrived at was overwhelming. For one, the essence in this place was beyond anything Sett had ever felt. The density was unbelievable. Countless elements meshed together.

Next was the monsters. Countless monsters and beasts walked the street. Each was bigger than the former. Sett saw beasts that would put the wyvern that he had seen only a day earlier to shame.

If this did not scare the little white fox, what could?

“Shhh… easy there.” The youngster spoke with a calming voice, clearly having expected this reaction. “These beasties will not harm you. This part of the arcane city is under the control of the Tamer’s Guild. They would never allow any harm to come to anyone who enters their domain. Even if they did, City Lord Cain would surely bring us justice.”

The Arcane City? The Tamer’s Guild. Sett’s eyes opened wide. The words had been said lightly, but it meant so much more. It was an entire city filled with ascendants. It felt unbelievable, but it was true.

Having succeeded in calming the small fox, partially through bribing it with scraps of meat, the youngster proceeded onwards.

Their destination soon appeared before them. It was a massive building. Even the grandest corporation's headquarter would be dwarfed by it. More significantly, the material it was made out of was a rock that Sett could not quite place, which made it look like a masterpiece. On every surface of the structure, countless runes, each of which was far more valuable than any single rune in the grandmaster’s residence, were lit up.

“This… is the Tamer’s Guild.”

The youngster said to the squeaking applause of the fox.

Sett wanted to gape at the sight but was almost left behind by the youngster and fox pair.

Passing through the doors, which were more akin to a gate for giants, revealed the costly interior of the guild. Not minding that the spectacle, the youngster went to one of the queues that seemed to number in the hundreds.

Despite all of them being ascendants of great status, none of them dared to step ahead of the queue, fearing the retribution of disrespecting the Hunter’s Guild.

After a dozen minutes, the youngster arrived at the counter and was greeted by a young-looking receptionist.

Sett gaped, even the receptionist was an ascendant. This place was simply too exorbitant and courageous.

“Master Adriel, it has been a while since you last blessed us with your visit.” The receptionist greeted the youngster, Adriel, with a freakishly trained precision. “May I assume you are here to register a new tamed beast?”

“Your eyes and wits are precise as always, miss Elise.” Adriel, too, replied with trained words. “Indeed, I am here to register this little fellow with the guild.”

“Very well.” Elise brought forth a stack of papers. “Have you granted or thought of a name for your new companion?”

“Yes.” Adriel’s eyes twinkled. “Its name shall be Ivis.”