I set up the ward as Aiden started experimenting with enhancements. Ryn started glowing, and Aiden stared in bafflement.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Did it… not work?”

  “No… it did. It’s… eerie. It’s like there’s no difference.”

  I sent him a smile somewhere between wry and rueful. “There isn’t.”

  Aiden watched the lurvine. Ryn ran in circles as Dain scoffed and Sina watched me. He turned to me with a serious expression. “Can you do this to humans?”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  “That’s… charming.”

  “I won’t take gruff from a gangster.”

  “Gangster lite.”

  I chuckled and nudged my head toward Ryn. He turned and rushed through the forest excitedly. I snapped my finger, and his body erupted in flames. It didn’t immediately explode—but his body kept melting and reforming.

  “So… yes,” I said.

  Aiden folded his arms, brooding.

  “What?” I asked.

  “So… yes. You make it sound so easy.”

  I glanced at him. “How pissed is Railain about your beast training skills?”

  His lips curved into a smirk. “Fair point.”

  “Well? You… coax her to your side yet?”

  “Objectively…” He puffed out his lower lip and nodded. “I’d say so. But if you ask her? She’d probably slap you.” He shimmied his shoulders. “Turn red first, but…”

  I laughed. “You’re so different.”

  “And you… well, you’re the same. Less savage, but—”

  I rolled my eyes and sat down.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “What do you think? I’m learning the skill.”

  Aiden looked around. “Here?”

  “Where else?” I asked Lithco what the optimal enhancement skill was, and he gave me a firm answer. I purchased it.

  —

  Congratulations! Skill: Beast Enhancements (Grades 1-4) has been added to your skills.

  —

  A flood of books and spells flooded in behind it. “Lithco,” I said. “Come out in shared augmentation mode. It’ll be awkward otherwise.”

  Lithco walked out from behind a tree and pulled a chair from a portal, putting it right in front of Aiden. He then sat down, crossed his legs, and said, “So you’re Aiden…”

  Aiden grinned. “So this really is your first time meeting me?”

  I cocked an eyebrow at Aiden. “You get a privacy request?”

  “I inherited one,” he said. “The Claustra family is protected by an information suppression request. That’s the reason I needed to join the family to get training. And since…” He motioned to Lithco.

  “Lithco.”

  “—Is an independent Oracle instance, he knows nothing about me that you haven’t seen or concluded—and he can’t make decisions regarding what you tell him because it’s completely unconfirmed.”

  Lithco studied him with a slight smile. “You know, if you keep going down this path, you’re gonna end up like Brexton.”

  Aiden’s eyes sharpened, and his lips curved into a grin. “What type of guide grade do you need to attempt to aid your Scion without a request?”

  Lithco smiled thinly in response. “Bring out your guide, and we’ll know if yours is higher or not.”

  Aiden wagged his finger at him. “I loathe the Claustra until moments like this.”

  I looked between them with a dry expression. “I don’t know what type of high-brow, upper-level bullshit’s going on here, but we’re working. So bring out your guide so we can shake off this awkwardness.”

  Aiden’s eyes widened, and he blushed. “No way.”

  I smelled blood and grinned widely. “So… you have some sexy woman in dominatrix wear or something?”

  “Of course not!”

  “Then what?” I trained my eyes on him with a wider smile. “What type of guide could make a ‘Claustra’ blush?”

  He bobbed his head back and forth and groaned. “Elle.”

  I wasn’t prepared for Aiden’s spirit. First off, she was a Drokai in size and stature. There’s no way that it was a coincidence that Aiden’s interpretation of a fairy was a foot tall instead of Tinker Bell. The Oracle had some guesses about what was happening in forward, and wanted to trick Aiden out of information—I was certain of it. Second—

  “Oh… migod. You’re like eighty thousand million percent cuter than when I met you!” Elle cried, fluttering over to me. She had a pixie cut with cotton candy coloring. As she flew forward, beauty tools appeared in rapid succession, and she threw them. Makeup. Scissors. Spray bottles. Fake eyelashes. They flew all over the place as she pinched my cheeks for Aiden’s augmented viewing pleasure. “I mean, you were an eleven out of eight back then, but now? Gah! Most women would sacrifice their neighbor’s newborn for cheekbones like that.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  My eyes deadened when she sat on my shoulder, and I turned to Aiden. “What the fuck did you ask for?”

  “Hyrumpha!” Elle harrumphed in three extended syllables. “I’m a treasure, I’ll have you know! I’m the ideal counterbalance for an antisocial person who wants raw truth through positivity. I’m perfect!”

  I smirked at Aiden. He smirked back and looked at Lithco.

  “I bet Lithco’s perfect, too,” he said with a wide grin. “Depressed, edgy, and pointed.”

  Lithco shot up a finger. “First off, I’m bleakly imperfect. That was… quite disturbingly… Mira’s intention in summoning me. So if you asked for someone perfect… well, that’s unsettling. Second…” He looked at me and back. Then, he looked at Elle and Aiden. “If you were to ask me… objectively speaking… we’re winning.”

  Elle’s eyes widened. “Oh, you did not just say that!” She shot off my shoulder and sat on Aiden’s. Then, she cupped her hand by his ears, and spoke loudly enough for me to hear. “Aidie… listen. I know you’re trying to avoid embarrassment, but counter-offer: let’s crush these scrubs and dominate the universe. What do you think?”

  I laughed, crashing onto a log. I cupped my face with my hands and leaned back. “Aiden… we're so fucked up.” I couldn’t believe that someone asked for a guide as twisted as mine. I shook my head, flashed him a smile, and then looked at Lithco. “You got any closing words before we show them how badass our chanting is? You have full authority to disclose anything at your discretion.”

  “Sure.” Lithco moved his chair to me and sat down. He then turned to Aiden. “We’re both god autonomous guides guiding candidates with god-grade magic—so you don’t have any excuse. If you’re behind Mira… well… it’s ‘cause she’s awesome, and your little fairy? Well, better luck next time.”

  Elle put her hands on her hips as Kline materialized and stretched his legs sassily in front of me, making the motion super caszhe. She turned to Aiden. “This uncouth man is trying to manipulate you into trying harder for Mira’s benefit. And while I’m not opposed to doing so, I recommend, with the full authority of a higher power guide, that you overtake Mira just to stick it to that tacky hair-flipper.”

  I smirked and turned away. “Hear that, Lithco? Cute digi pixie thinks she’s got a chance. Well, challenge accepted. If Aiden has the same or better techniques, invite him over. We have work to do.”

  “Accepted,” Elle said.

  Aiden sighed and sat down beside me. “I used to like you, you know?”

  “You thought you did. Now chant.”

  Lithco and Elle disappeared from each other's sight, and we started to chant the same spell. I was rough at the start, and Aiden was practicing because he had already learned the spell. But once I caught my wind and learned the accent and rhythm, it forced Aiden to refine things to keep up.

  Once we finished, we got up, and he and I shot our hands at Dain and Sina, respectively. To no suprise, my overwhelming magic and understanding of living anatomy gave my spell the umph to survive the lurvine’s flames. Aiden couldn’t quite compete. Dain kept flickering as his body burned and then revived. Despite that, Aiden was grinning.

  “What?” I asked nervously.

  “I’m still a first ev, Mira,” he said with a sharp smirk. “I have three processes weighing me down.”

  I flushed red with frustration, and we kept going at it for about three hours before I collapsed on the ground, defeated. Being better for a few months meant nothing in my eyes. Once Aiden evolved, he would crush me. And while he had years of experience in this, and it was his main schtick, I realized that I had an indomitable competitive spirit. So I grinned and declared that I’d surpass him.

  That’s what I needed. I needed to return to Reta with the power and potential to uproot a hundred thousand years of her training and bias. Lithco doubtless knew that and stoked this feud—but I didn’t care. I needed it. I determined that I would crush it.

  I was glad that I had an outlet for my frustration.

  The next morning, I worked with Kai to improve the seeds and failed again to use my circulation magic to improve them, and then lost to Aiden.

  Day after day, I suffered successive loss after loss. Yet with every day, I improved, and soon I was able to have Sina, Ryn, and Dain run around on fire, and had a seed hold a circulation shape without exploding. That’s all I really needed. The time had come.

  “Hey,” Aiden said, exhausted and sweating after practice one day. “You think the Vraxles’ll take Halten back?”

  He was talking about Thorvel and the Vraxles accepting Aiden’s request to let Halten back into the forest. The deal Halten made with Brexton ensured that the Claustra would organize Halten’s release if he made fifty trips between Mira Hill and Theovale. He had forty-nine left.

  Aiden was asking if I thought I could convince the dragons to accept the deal and allow Halten back. I found that point irrelevant.

  “Take him back?” I asked. “Halten’s a wraith. We want him back.”

  Aiden laughed. “Is that actually how you’re going to approach this situation?”

  “Of course. Believe it or not, I believe in you.”

  He smiled wryly. “At least there’s one of us.”

  “And it’s the one that matters,” I said. I knew what Aiden was afraid of—and I refused to let it come to pass. So I kept in the present. “Just focus on your intention. I’ll do the rest.”

  He turned to me. “You think you can?”

  I grinned. “Me? Of course not. But it’s not me talking.”

  The person that I was referring to was Ferna Rin, our diplomat. Two days later, on the day we planned to leave to meet the Vraxle, Ferna showed up with her hair in crown braids and a nice dress.

  “I thought I was supposed to be the princess,” I said with a slight smirk.

  “I thought so too, but…” She looked at my classic, magically fitting, and repairing leather armor and said, “Here we are, and someone’s gotta do it.”

  I laughed. “You’re being serious?”

  “Of course. Did you know that dragons groom their leaders for three days prior to major negotiations?”

  I furrowed my brow. “Uh… no? Not to be rude, but… are we supposed to know the difference?”

  Vraxles had scales. There was probably a special shine or tint to them, but… I wouldn’t know the difference.

  “That’s not the point,” Ferna said. “It’s about showing you really care about the negotiations.”

  I thought about it and said, “Do we have some time?”

  Ferna smiled evilly, and I realized that I was trapped. “As a matter of fact…”

  It turned out that she called me three hours early, hoping I would say just that. Two hours later, I had elegant crown braids, and she was wearing her hair in a ponytail to prevent upshining me. I did not wear a dress. I wore the same armor, but it didn’t matter. She had done my makeup and hair, making me look undeniably regal.

  I looked in the mirror once we finished, trying to process my new look. I never cared much for how I looked, but now it felt almost necessary. I needed every single advantage I could to sell the gods on my alchemy line, negotiate with leaders, and strike fear into my enemies. I was embodying Elana’s ideals—a strict contrast to Brindle. It was unclear what type of person I would be by the time Brexton’s auction came about, but I was determined to make it better than its parts.

  I wasn’t just a person anymore—

  I was a leader.

  A guardian.

  A visionary of my world’s ordeals—and the wonderful mixed cultures it could create in the future.

  My appearance needed to reflect that power, and I had to admit—my elegant appearance matched that boundless void of ambition that Wraithwood represented.

  I turned to Ferna. “I want to make something clear: This meeting has nothing to do with Halten. I want you to tell the Vraxle the extent and power of my silence pacts and sell them on Aiden’s loyalty. If they refuse on the latter—deny Halten. Deny everything.”

  Ferna’s face hardened. “You do know that Brexton is going to exploit every loophole in his agreements at the last moment, right?”

  My eyes flickered with savage sincerity. “Ferna—let me make something clear to you…”

  Once I finished outlining my viewpoint on the subject—she grinned, convinced by my perspective.

  “I won’t take no for an answer,” she confirmed.

  “Good,” I replied.

  It was time to speak to the Vraxle.

  Halten. Dreamscape. Seeds. I had one major obstacle down, and two left to go. To go forward, I had to confront the guardians who loathed me and prove that I wasn’t the same weak, naive girl I was four years ago. It was time to move.