The ‘guest rooms’ turned out to be a small side cave inside of the volcano, with a small, placid pool of lava in the center. The walls were smooth, glassy obsidian, much like the rest of the main cave had been, and honestly?

  The air wasn’t even that hot in here. Strange, really. The temperature on the approach to Mt. Umetsuji had been gradually rising, to the extent that I’d sweated quite a lot on the hike, but now that we were here it was nearly balmy. Warm, but not as scorching as you would expect the heart of a volcano to be. Especially not one that was clearly still active, as we could see from the glowing lava in our little cave.

  As Azarus set up a little grill over the glowing pool, entirely unbothered by the skin-scorching heat of the lava that was still hot, I decided to ask Sena about it. The two talking saber-tooths had followed us into the room to act as apparent chaperones, while Kazuma conducted his business with Shurenga. We’d all settled on woven grass mats that were strewn about the obsidian room, while curious felines of all shapes and sizes poked their heads around the doorway to watch us.

  I didn’t mind. I’m sure we were odd to them. Besides, I had both the conversation to occupy my attention, as well as a purring cub in my lap. The matriarch and her charges had followed us as well.

  Predictably, she could speak as well, and had introduced herself stiffly as Mitsuri.

  “I expected it to be hotter in here, you know,” I said to Sena, resting on another mat not far from me. “What with being a volcano.”

  Sena cracked an eye open to look at me, but Gin answered first. The other guardian was watching attentively as Azarus laid the meat from a recent hunt on the now scorching hot rack. As the smell of grilling meat filled the air, drawing even more curious onlookers, Gin somehow found the will to direct his attention my way. “That’s because mom doesn’t want it that way, yeah?”

  I blinked slowly at the words.

  ‘Mom’, huh.

  Sena twitched one of her tails at her apparent sibling's words. “Gin is correct. The might of our Lady Mother prevents the temperature of Mt. Umetsuji from becoming unbearable in these halls. Although we are aligned with the sun, and thus fire, we are still creatures that naturally bear a coat. As you can imagine, it would be quite unpleasant to live in extremely elevated temperatures, when we are so covered in fur.”

  “You can say that again,” Renauld called out, from where he was laying flat. Liora even gave a small nod in agreement from her own grass mat, where she was checking her armor for flaws.

  I accepted a small travel plate of grilled fowl from Azarus with a thankful nod, and dug into it. While I chewed, I considered our hosts thoughtfully. I think I had more insight into the workings of the Great Spirits and their Mystic Beasts than most did, and I was starting to make some connections about the Children of Shurenga.

  Most notably, that they were the Children of Shurenga, and not Tarus himself.

  I finished my meal and set the plate aside, where a nearby cub promptly pounced on it and crunched into the bones. I ignored it. “You guys aren’t normal Mystic Beasts, are you?” I announced.

  That drew some curious looks from my companions, but it was the reactions of the Shurengans that caught my eye. Not one of them denied the allegations.

  Instead, Sena nodded at me. “You are correct, Sir Hart,” She acknowledged. “It is our mother who is the half-Spirit, as the only daughter of Lord Tarus. We…are different, as her children. In truth, not all of us are actually her children. Gin and I are,” She said with an acknowledging nod to the male. “But we have sired our own cubs, and they their own, to form a number of different familial lines. We are…wholly physical. An existence that, to our knowledge, stands alone.”

  “Which is why there are so many of us,” Gin said lazily, not even bothering to raise his head. “We know how regular Mystic Beasts come into being, and there sure as hells isn’t a Great Spirit involved with our births. We’re born as we are, just like you and yours.”

  Bella spoke up from where she had been dozing. The pirate captain had decided to catch a nap while we waited for Kazuma and Shurenga to be done, but the conversation had roused her. She cocked an eyebrow at the two guardians. “Then do ye got a Status?”

  Sena shook her head. “No, we do not. As I said, we…we’re in a halfway state between the mortals and the Spirits, even more so than regular Mystic Beasts. I…sometimes wonder, why we haven’t been acknowledged by the System in such a way. It is my understanding that a new Race was granted Statuses, some time ago. But not us, who have surely existed for much longer than they.”

  Ah. She was talking about the Second Initialization, where the Sculpted had been granted their Statuses and, for those of them still dormant, full sapience. It was curious to me that they’d heard about that when they must have limited contact with the outside world. Maybe Tarus kept them appraised of what was going on outside the shores of Goryuen?

  Hell, it’s probably why they had known we were coming, now that I thought about it.

  Here Sena hesitated before speaking again. “In truth…” She said slowly. “In truth, I have always been curious. It is said that Awakened have an ability called Observe. With it, they can quantify the existence of all things in this world. We…I…do not know what this ability would say we are.”

  I sat up at that. Hell, that caught the attention of most of my group. Venix even cracked an eye, from where he sat cross-legged meditating against a wall. I exchanged a glance with him before speaking. “I…could try, if you’d like?”

  Sena was quiet for a moment, before nodding wordlessly. In fact, I noticed that most of the chatter and play in the ‘guest room’ had come to a halt. I was fixed with more than a few pairs of quiet, curious feline eyes.

  I took the hint and cast Observe directly at Sena. As the crimson-furred saber-tooth shivered at the sensation, I took in the results.

  What? I had never seen something like that. Even when I had observed other Mystic Beasts, such as Fade or even the Foliathoptera back in Sancthaven, they had still displayed a Species name. Not whatever ‘Unaligned’ meant.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Sena was right. There was something odd going on with the System when it came to them.

  I reported my findings to our curious patrons.

  “Strange,” Sena whispered thoughtfully, echoing my own conclusions.

  Meanwhile, Gin sat up from where he’d been reclining. For once, he had a serious cast to his feline features. “I don’t consider myself ‘Unaligned’,” He said bluntly. “I know exactly where my loyalties lie.”

  There were a number of answering, agreeing nods from various other cats strewn about the room. The cubs were too young to understand the question, but even they could feel the shift in mood. Some of them, even the one in my lap, mewed in distress. I did my best to comfort them, while Mitsuri did the same.

  Strangely, Sena wasn’t one of the Shurengans to agree with the others. Instead, she stared out into space thoughtfully, seemingly unaware of the room.

  I think all of us were surprised when a familiar voice echoed from out of the room, sending the curious window-peekers there scurrying away.

  “Because, my children, you all very much not Unaligned,” the voice of Shurenga sounded. I turned in place, expecting to see her huge muzzle poking through the doorway and staring at us.

  Instead, I found a miniature version of the previously titanic feline waltzing into the room into the room as if she owned it. Instead of being several stories tall, the daughter of Tarus was instead smaller even than Sena and Gin, coming up to barely face height with my sitting form. She winked at my surprised expression.

  I…guess she could change her size, huh? Made me wonder if Taran could do the same thing.

  Following behind her the flame-maned tiger was a white-faced Kazuma. The normally stolid samurai was swaying on his feet, looking to be beyond exhausted and soaked in sweat. Actually, taking another look, I swear there wasn’t enough blood in his cheeks. He frankly looked a bit anemic.

  But he also seemed fiercely triumphant, because he had something carried in his arms.

  A long, cloth-wrapped bundle, about the length, width, and shape of katana. Nothing was visible on the obscured form of the weapon, but its presence filled the room just as Shurenga did.

  Even several feet away, I could tell that this weapon outshone even Grey’s own Stellarum or even Honoka’s Kasai. Maybe only Grey’s staff Elarux could compete in sheer Aetherial density, to the empty-tasting power that surrounded that ancient blade. My own Terractus, as well as the staff that Tlazo had lent me, paled in comparison to any of them.

  As much as I had grown, it was a sobering reminder of just how high the ceiling was.

  While I and most of my companions were distracted by the sight of the sword, Venix even rising to his feet, the Shurengans were fixing their attention on their matriarch. “I expect our guests have never used their ‘Observe’ ability on a true Spirit in the past, am I correct?”

  I dragged my gaze away from Kazuma as he walked into the room and slumped onto a grass mat before the lava pit. “Ah.” I tilted my head in thought. “I…haven’t, no.”

  Honestly, it just hadn’t occurred to me to try, back in the Concord. I’d had bigger problems at the time.

  Venix ignored the question altogether to crouch before Kazuma and begin whispering to him. For once, the other samurai didn’t look at the like Antium detritus to be scraped from the bottom of his sandal and answered him. I couldn’t hear them, though.

  “I thought so,” Shurenga said, nodding wisely. “If you had, you would know that it is the term any Spirit would be deemed as by the System.”

  That snapped Sena out of her contemplation. She tilted her head in confusion. “But, Mother, we are not Spirits. Nor are we destined to become them.”

  “You are not, but the System does not care,” Shurenga said. “It is a peculiarity that Mystic Beasts can be quantified, but not Spirits. And not whatever you have become, my beloved children. A mystery, in truth.”

  Another dead end when it came to the System. They popped up all the time.

  Just another day on Vereden.

  “But enough of this,” The progenitor of the Shurengans announced. “As you can see, the blade has been rebound to Clan Higanashi, and their Lord has it once more.” She said, inclining her head towards the nearly delirious Kazuma. In fact, the samurai was so concerning to look at that Renauld had sat up and gone to tend him.

  Venix stood up from his crouch as the Gnoll’s hands glowed the green of a diagnostic spell, hovering over Kazuma’s head. Strangely, there was a small smile on his lips as he gazed down at the miniaturized Shurenga. “Temporarily, it seems.”

  I cocked an eyebrow her way. Shurenga, however, shook her head. “Not so, Sir Venix. It is merely…a weak bond. It could grow, to be certain. However, it will take time to settle upon the bloodline and Kazuma’s soul both. Why, if a great deal of Aether were to be absorbed by the blade all at once, say…from a Core Collapse, perhaps. Both it and the blade itself may well shatter into a thousand thousand pieces.”

  There was a sly, sly smile on those furred lips.

  Oh, Tarus was definitely keeping an eye on us and talking to his daughter.

  The matching smile on Venix’s lips grew, and he bowed deeply at the waist to Shurenga. There was respect and gratitude both visible in his posture. She merely inclined her head in queenly acknowledgment while I absorbed that.

  Well, it looked like Kazuma wasn’t going to be killing himself anytime soon. Wonder if he knew anything about that.

  I doubted it, with the way he was nodding off into Renauld’s claws.

  “In any case…,” Shurenga trailed off, looking over at me. I straightened at her regard. “Sir Hart, if you will accompany me? We have some business as well.”

  I blinked, but nodded and got to my feet. I’d been expecting something like this, from the near wink the feline had shot me earlier. “Please, lead the way, Lady Shurenga. I’ll be back later, guys.”

  My companions bid me farewell as I followed the daughter of Tarus out of the guest room and into the main thoroughfare. I saw a number of different Shurengans scamper out of the path of their matriarch, said Mystic Beast nearly purring in amusement at their antics. Once upon the path, she led me back into the heart of the mountain. Back to where I suspect she had bound the blade to Kazuma.

  When we reached the end of the obsidian path, it opened up into a chamber. A truly massive one, that seemed to reside in the very center of the volcano itself. A long shaft stretched far up above me to where an opening to the sky revealed Tarus himself to be visible directly overhead of the mouth of Mt. Umetsuji, high into the blue yonder.

  I found the timing required for that to be…a tad suspect, but didn’t comment on it.

  Meanwhile, we stood on a simple circular platform of stone that was suspended in the middle of the shaft. Four struts of obsidian held it aloft, and upon it were simple woven grass mats covering the surface of the platform. The surface of the terrace itself was nearly glasslike in appearance, from how smooth the blackened surface was. I swear, it didn't look like this platform had been carved, so much as melted into place.

  I walked to the edge, and looked down.

  Below, the shaft stretched downwards into darkness. Something glowed below us in that abyss, visible from a great distance. I suspect I knew what that was, and had no desire to test the inferno by falling towards it. As I watched, the light at the bottom of the shaft pulsed ever so slowly, just the once.

  “The heart of Mt. Umetsuji,” I heard Shurenga say, as she joined me in looking over the edge. “We keep it placated, and the mountain allows us to reside within its bosom.”

  I looked at her askance at that.

  ‘Placated'?

  “Not…with sacrifice, right?”

  Shurenga smirked at me with furry lips. “Not mortal, at least.”

  I blinked and decided I didn’t want to know. Instead, I changed the subject. “So, what did you want to talk to me about, Lady Shurenga?”

  Said feline shrugged one shoulder at me. “Oh, I have nothing for you personally, Sir Hart. Rather…it is my Father that I speak on behalf of.”

  “He wishes to make a deal with you, Precursor.”