Chapter 35: The Hunt Begins
The transport skiff, a flat-bottomed vessel powered by a chugging, low-grade Aetheric engine, cut a stark line across the silvery-blue grasslands of the Veridian Plains. The endless expanse of the plains gave way to a darker, more foreboding treeline as they approached the Whisperwood, the air growing cooler, smelling of pine and damp earth.
The journey was a study in tense silence. Leo, as the nominal leader, stood at the prow, his hand resting on the railing, his gaze fixed on the approaching forest. His brow was furrowed with the unfamiliar weight of command. Kaede sat near the stern, sharpening a small hunting knife with angry, jerky motions, her glare alternating between the passing scenery and Kairo.
Kairo himself sat cross-legged on the deck, leaning against a supply crate. A thick, leather-bound book, the advanced treatise on Aetheric flow Kasumi had given him, lay open on his lap. To any observer, he was the picture of a diligent, if aloof, scholar. He turned a page every few minutes with quiet, deliberate precision.
In reality, his mind was leagues away, and the book was a prop. The black void of his vision was filled with the dancing, golden wireframe of his Aether-Sense. He was not reading words. He was reading his teammates.
Leo's Aetheric signature was a steady, radiating warmth, but it was frayed at the edges with anxiety. The responsibility of their first mission was a heavy burden, and the presence of his volatile teammates was not helping. Kaede's Aether was a hot, crackling fire, a mixture of barely suppressed anger, nervous energy, and a desperate desire to prove herself.
And then there was his own. He felt it not as a picture, but as a presence. A calm, cold, and dense core of power, coiled and waiting. The months in the Crucible had changed him. Where there had once been a fragile, flickering candle, there was now a deep, still well of obsidian energy. The difference was so profound that it was a constant effort to suppress its weight, to keep from overtly projecting the aura of a predator.
"We are approaching the outpost," Leo announced, his voice tight. "Stay alert."
Kaede slid her knife back into its sheath with a sharp click and stood, her body thrumming with anticipation. Kairo slowly closed his book, the image of what he needed to do clear in his mind.
The outpost, named Skarn on their maps, was less a town and more a scar on the edge of the forest. It was a crude collection of rough-hewn log buildings, surrounded by a high, pointed palisade. Even from a distance, Kairo's Aether-Sense could pick up the signs of distress. The main gate was splintered, its iron hinges bent. The palisade walls were covered in deep, savage claw marks, some as high as a man's head.
As their skiff landed, a handful of miners emerged to meet them. They were gaunt, hollow-eyed men, their faces smudged with grime and fear. Their leader, a broad-shouldered man with a worried face named Jorun, approached Leo, his eyes darting between the three children.
"Thank the Founder you're here," Jorun said, though his voice lacked any real relief. "But... they only sent you three?"
"We are Team Eleven of the Arbiter's Academy, Senior Division," Leo replied, his voice taking on a formal, princely tone. "We are here to assess the threat."
"Assess it?" another miner scoffed, a bitter laugh escaping his lips. "It's been assessing us for the last two weeks! We've lost three men, dragged from the logging camps at night. The alpha is smart. It never attacks the walls directly. It picks off the patrols, the stragglers. It's a ghost."
The miners led them to the outpost's main lodge, a smoky hall that now served as a makeshift war room. A crude map of the surrounding area was spread out on a large table. Jorun pointed a thick, calloused finger at several points west of the outpost.
"The attacks have all been here," he explained. "In our primary logging sectors. That's where it hunts."
Leo nodded, unrolling the official mission scroll beside the crude map. He traced the designated scouting routes with his finger. "Our orders are to conduct a grid search of these sectors, locate the beast's lair, and identify the alpha."
It was a standard, by-the-book plan. Safe, logical, and completely useless. Kairo knew the Lunar Shadowcat, his real target, was miles to the north, in the opposite direction.
"We will set out at once," Leo declared, rolling up the scroll. "The sooner we identify the beast, the sooner the Vanguard can be dispatched to eliminate it."
"No."
Kairo's voice was quiet, but it landed in the silent room with the force of a thrown stone. Leo and Kaede both turned to stare at him. The miners looked on, confused.
"What did you say, Akashi?" Kaede demanded, her hand instinctively going to the hilt of her knife.
"The beast is not there," Kairo stated simply. He walked to the table, his hand trailing along its edge to guide him. He pointed a finger at the area Jorun had indicated. "The tracks here are old. Weeks old. The claw marks on the palisade are faded. You are being hunted, yes, but not by the beast that made these marks. That one is long gone."
Jorun stared at him. "How can you possibly know that? The attacks only started two weeks ago."
"The claw marks are deeper than the recent attacks would suggest," Kairo lied smoothly, inventing a detail he could not see but knew they could not disprove. "This alpha was larger, more powerful. It marked its territory and moved on. The new attacks are from a lesser predator, a scavenger that has moved into the vacuum."
He was weaving a new narrative, a logical path that would lead them exactly where he needed to go.
"And you know where this 'lesser predator' is?" Kaede asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Kairo did not answer her. He closed his eyes, feigning deep concentration. He extended a hand over the map, his fingers twitching slightly. His Aether-Sense pulsed outwards, but it was not searching for a trail. It was creating one.
"The Aetheric residue... it's faint," he murmured, his voice taking on a distant, almost mystical quality. "The alpha that made these marks... its scent still lingers. A predator of its power leaves an echo. The trail leads... north." His finger traced a line on the map, away from the logging camps, away from their mission parameters, directly towards the hidden caverns from his memory. "Deep into the Whisperwood. It is hunting new territory."
Leo looked from Kairo's outstretched hand to the map, his expression a storm of conflict. "North? But that's... that's outside our designated scouting area. All the attacks have been to the west."
"The attacks are a deception," Kairo said, his voice firm. "They are from an opportunistic pack of common Graze-Wolves, feasting on the scraps of a greater predator's territory. They are irrelevant. The real threat, the alpha we were sent to identify, is north. I can feel it."
The lie was audacious, a masterpiece of misdirection built on a foundation of half-truths and manufactured evidence. He was using the reputation for strange, unpredictable power he had earned at the Rite, twisting it into a tool of navigation.
"So we are to abandon our orders?" Kaede challenged, her eyes narrowing. "We are to ignore the place where men are dying, and chase a 'feeling' you have into the uncharted wilderness? Because of some ghost you sense in the air?"
"Our orders are to identify the alpha predator," Kairo countered, his voice cold and logical. He turned his blind gaze towards her. "The alpha is not where your map says it is. It is where I say it is. Following outdated orders into an empty forest is a waste of time and resources. It is an illogical failure of command. The choice is yours, Prince Leo."
He had laid the trap perfectly. He had not given an order. He had presented a choice. He framed it as a conflict between blind obedience and intelligent, adaptive strategy. He had put the entire weight of the mission's success or failure squarely onto Leo's shoulders.
Leo stared at the map, his jaw tight. To his right was Kaede, her face a mask of furious distrust, silently urging him to stick to the plan. To his left was Kairo, a silent, unreadable enigma, offering a path that was both insane and, in its own strange way, utterly logical. He remembered the impossible test in the Crucible. He remembered Kairo seeing a path to victory that he never could have imagined.
The fate of his first command, the lives of the miners, the success of their mission, it all came down to this. Trust the paper in his hand, or trust the prodigy at his side?
"We will make a short reconnaissance north," Leo said finally, his voice heavy with the weight of his decision. "One hour. If we find nothing, we return to the original plan."
Kaede let out a furious, incredulous hiss, but she did not disobey a direct command from her brother.
A slow, cold smile, unseen by anyone, touched Kairo's lips. The bait had been taken. The hunt had begun. He had turned the Team of Prodigies into his own personal hunting party. And his prey, a creature of shadow and legend, was waiting. The first of his great Aether Pacts was within his grasp.