The crate thudded once more, causing goosebumps to rise on Kristens neck. It seemed like the thing inside was testing the durability of its cage.
'That is definitely NOT a normal sound'.
Olivia stepped closer to the imperial seal, examining the locking mechanism. It wasn't just nailed shut, there were thin lines of script were carved into the metal bands, faintly glowing even after the main formation had been destroyed by the three of them.
"A secondary containment array," she murmured. "Separate from the silencing formation, and it looks like its damaged without its counterpart."
Lucia circled to the other side of the crate, eyes narrowed. "Whatever is inside is definitely a problem for the humans, why else go to such measures.."
Another thud.
This time the entire carriage trembled slightly.
Kristen got a foreboding feeling from it. "Okay. So. Possibilities. One: treasure. Two: angry treasure. Three: extremely angry treasure."
Lucia ignored her nonsense.
She pressed her senses outward, sliding her awareness through the cracks in the wood. For a second she felt nothing but then she a faint pulse appeared.
Jumping back from the scene she voiced her fear.
"It's alive!"
The others also became more vigilant from the rare outburst. Lucia had basically been appointed their leader because of her strength and calm demeanour so when something like this occurs they know to be scared.
The thing inside the crate shifted again and then knocked three times on the thick wood.
Kristen held her breath. "It just knocked."
"Yes, it did." Olivia said quietly.
Lucia stepped back from the crate.
Imperial transport, heavy containment seals and a silencing formation strong enough to isolate cultivators.
This wasn't some kind of regular cargo shipment, it was a prison for whatever was in this room.
As if in agreement, a thin crack split along the side of the crate.
A bright light leaked through.
The imperial script along the metal bands flared violently, trying to reinforce itself and the crate bulged outward in response.
Kristen did the only logical thing.
She hopped backward behind Lucia.
'Okay I officially vote we leave, this is not what I signed up for.'
The others didn't move an inch for some reason, peaking from behind Lucia back she saw that a..feather? It was hovering in the air in front them, some mysterious force allowing it to stay airborne.
It looked like a quill that she had seen in pictures back on earth until a small, light blue eye opened on the sharp end.
'Hehe uhhhh can someone tell me what the FUCK IS THAT!?!?'
The supernatural sight left Kristen trembling, unable to look away even though she wanted to. Lucia and Olivia were no different, instantly mesmerised.
A calm voice suddenly whispered into their mind.
"It seems you beasts have helped me escape my cage."
They listened intently to the words.
"Which means you are either my enemy...or my ally."
The light-feathered creature drifted lower, not quite touching the ruined floor.
Up close, it was smaller than what she had thought before, barely larger than Kristens arm back when she was a human. The feather was basically completely white with only a few dark patches at the top, a small white light coming off of it.
Kristen swallowed nervously.
'…I swear to god if it tries anything weird I'm biting it.'
The being's gaze remained fixed on Lucia.
"You shattered one of the formations," it said inside their minds, voice smooth and echoing. "That condemns you as their enemy."
Lucia tilted her head slightly. "They were trying to kill us."
"That is… consistent with their methods."
The white eye narrowed faintly, studying her more intently.
"You are unfinished."
Lucia's feathers bristled slightly.
"…Excuse me?"
'HOLYSHIT!'
Kristen choked back a laugh.
"Your core strains against limitation. You delayed your second awakening." Olivia's head snapped toward Lucia but was cut off by a shake of her head.
The creature's light flickered faintly, almost amused.
"They sensed it before you even realised, that is why they prepared this transportation along your route. Imperial diviners are not blind."
That made the air go colder than the silencing dust ever had.
"They were targeting us," Olivia shot back.
Lucia didn't answer.
Of course they were targeting them
A beast on the verge of forming a second core was not something the empire would ever tolerate outside its control.
Despite the beings power, there was something else beneath it. Weakness.
It seemed that this mysterious entity was actually dying at a rather fast pace, ever since it left the crate its light had been dimming at a visible rate.
"You're injured", Olivia observed.
The creature didn't even bother to deny it.
"I was contained for too long, studied upon and drained of my strength."
Lucia stepped forward and asked bluntly. "What even are you?"
"I am one of the last remains of the Skybound Sovereign." Silence fell over the cabin.
'What the fuck is that??'
Olivia's voice was careful. "The empire captured… that?"
"They captured a fragment, for your information." It corrected her.
Its gaze returned to Lucia.
"You are at a threshold. So am I."
Lucia understood immediately.
"You want something, don't you?"
"I require freedom beyond this train and you require strength beyond your current limit," it replied.
Kristen leaned toward Olivia and whispered, not quietly enough, "I feel like this is the part where she makes a terrible decision."
"And what," Lucia asked calmly, "is the price?"
The light around the being dimmed slightly at this. Kristen blurted out what was on her mind with no warning.
"Temporary possession?"
Olivia stiffened. "Absolutely not."
Lucia didn't even bother to look at the both of them.
"Explain, now."
"I can't maintain this body for very long and you cannot form another core due the intense you put on it, if you do this I will be in you, you will hear my thoughts and I will hear yours. I can also erase your traces so that you won't be followed. We both will get what we want, sound fair?"
Kristen blinked.
"…That sounds very permanent."
"It is not possession", the Sovereign fragment said smoothly, almost too smoothly. "It is....alignment."
Lucia's eyes glowed faintly gold as she weighed it.
A shortcut, basically, but she knew that becoming one with something this ancient was never going to be a simple ordeal. After all, a beast with two cores was already extremely rare in this awful continent, but if it fused with a fragment of the Skybound sovereign?
If anyone caught wind of this there would surely be thousands of bounty hunters searching for her.
Olivia stepped closer, voice low. "Lucia, you don't need to rush your awakening, we can leave and hide like we've done before. Regroup."
"Don't think that they will not stop. Imperial diviners have already marked her and once they get their hands on something, they never let go."
The being's light, ethereal voice had a twinge of desperation in it.
Lucia felt what it had said in her bones.
This wasn't the end of the hunt, it was the beginning. Back when she and Olivia were hatchlings their nest had been found by humans, their parents tried to fight them off but failed. They had 6 siblings and only the two of them had managed to get away.
It was one of saddest times of her life.
The carriage lurched violently.
Somewhere ahead, multiple cultivator presences were approaching fast — alerted by the explosion. The bandits that had been looting outside were all killed in an instant.
Time was gone, it seemed.
Lucia exhaled slowly and turned back to the floating feather, speaking directly toward it. "If you try to control me, I will tear you apart from the inside."
'SINCE WHEN IS THAT A NORMAL THING TO SAY??'
Kristen threw both of her wings up at the conversation going on, completely done with all the threats and tension.
The sovereign fragments almost smiled, if it had a mouth.
Loud sounds came from the outside, causing Olivia's eyes to dart between the feather and Lucia. "Quickly! Decide now."
"Fine, I accept."
The hovering feather disappeared into a torrent of light that surged into Lucia's eyes.
'THE FUCK!'
Kristen and Olivia yelped at the same time.
..
.
.
The silence was like a massive pool, still and unmoving.
Lucia felt herself suspended in a space that was neither sky nor earth — a black expanse stretching endlessly in every direction. It was her sea of conscious.
Beneath her, something pulsed.
Her core.
Small, golden and straining against its limitations.
Opposite her hovered the fragment of the Skybound Sovereign, no longer feather, just a ball of pure light that emanated a white glow.
"Do not resist, it will only make it harder for the both of us." It said calmly.
"I wasn't planning to," Lucia replied.
She attacked anyway.
Her consciousness lunged forward, her qi flaring, claws made not of flesh but will. If this creepy thing thought it could slip into her mind unchecked, it was going to regret it.
For some reason it did not counterattack.
Instead its body unraveled into spiraling bands of light that circled Lucia instead of striking her. They didn't pierce her core, they orbited it, tightening slowly.
"You misunderstand," it murmured. "I do not wish to replace."
The spirals of light constricted around her, causing her core to start to crack. Pain then exploded outward.
.
.
..
In the shattered carriage, Lucia's physical body arched backward midair.
White light burst from beneath her feathers, veins of white racing across her wings. The wooden floor beneath her splinted all over again.
'HOLYSHIT! Thats the second time I've said that today!'
Kristen stared, horrified. "Is she exploding?!"
Olivia didn't answer because she was wondering the same thing.
She stepped in front of Lucia's convulsing form, expertly flaring her qi outward in a defensive ring as multiple imperial cultivators burst through the forward carriage doors.
They stopped short at the sight.
"What is that—" one of them began.