Chapter 5: 4 – Aether Beast

“They came from the vacuum, ravenous in their appetite and diverse in their power. We had unknowingly upset a balance the Osai long held in place. Look, I knew freedom would come at a cost—it always does—but luckily, now that cost is the price of admission to see your favorite teams face off against the Aether beasts in the arena, baby.”

- The Unabridged Interview of Veldraken Juinper, ARCborn

❄

The beast’s inky black eyes, speckled with white star-like splotches, raised the hair on the back of Mori’s neck. Hulking, muscled, and lean on four legs—the image of an apex predator—the beast's white fur rollicked across its back like waves, each follicle appearing as if to have its own autonomy. It bared its serrated black fangs within its snout and growled.

Mori hadn’t been alone in the cavern after all, and the blast she’d made likely woke it up. She cursed, attempting to shove herself to her feet. It took her two tries without falling over.

The beast encroached, slow and low to the ground, threading between the stalagmites, eyes that seemed to swallow all light focused on her.

Mori tried to bring up her fists. If she could somehow get through the moves and project the flaming ice at it, she could probably do some damage if the exploded stalagmite was anything to go off of, but the burning light-blue in Mori’s veins continued to climb her arms, the mobility in her limbs stiffening and locking up.

“Devour!” The voice that reminded her of the guiding currents screamed. “Devour!”

The voice was ominous, but before when the voice was only a guiding current, did it ever lead her astray? The glimmering ore in the cave pulsed with power. If Mori didn’t need nanite refiners to project, maybe she didn’t need them to absorb Favored treasure, either.

The beast was getting closer and closer, rearing back to pounce.

Mori slapped her palm against a stalagmite and devoured. Her vision went black and returned in white splotches. The sheer rush of the treasure pouring into her veins threatened to overwhelm her. The burning light-blue in her veins vanished, and in its place, the new power stretched them to their limits. Mori felt like she could level the cavern with a scream.

“Yes, yes! Sweet, succulent awareness!” The voice learned new words. “Hmmmmm. Stimulating.”

Mori pried her hand away from the stalagmite with great effort, the light it once held dimmer than before. What in the Aether was going on?

“Great question, Vessel.”

Mori gasped. It could hear her thoughts? And, did it just call her Vessel? Ew.

The beast lunged at her.

Mori threw herself behind a row of mites, tucked and rolled, the Aether beast smashing through glittering ore and skidding on its claws, reorienting on her.

“Give me control.”

Every fiber of Mori’s being told her ‘no.’

“Now is not the time to succumb to idiocy. You are a mere fledgling, an infantile, far too weak for even this oversized rodent.”

She arched her brow. Fledgling? Infantile? First she found out her Dad wasn’t even related to her, that she was an Osai—the most loathed legends of the galaxy—and now she had to put up with a condescending voice inside her head while being chased by an Aether beast? Absolutely not.

The voice pffted inside her mind. “Osai is stretching it, darling.”

Mori grit her teeth, feeling the new power from the Initiate treasure convalesce in her veins. She assumed stance one.

“Oh. Is that?... Oh, no. Tell me you are not about to—”

Mori flowed into the second stance, the spark igniting in her renewed veins, ice particles coalescing above her.

The void beast charged.

Stance three. Icicles hovering.

“You're not even an infantile!”

Stance four through five. Her veins thrummed with heat, the ice shifted across her waist and up and around her neck.

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The beast opened its maw, and inside, the void called Mori’s name, its throat a pitch black vacuum.

“You're a fetus! Neigh! An unfertilized egg in your Mother’s—”

Mori slide stepped and flowed through the moves, too quickly, too sharp, the ice crystallizing around her threatening to come undone. Her veins began to burn. She was almost there, come on—

Stance 8, 9, 10, 11—

The beast closed the gap and raked its claw across Mori’s side faster than she could blink. Her ice sparked and crackled, smashing into the side of the beast's head.

Dispersing into a cloud of frost.

Not even a scratch.

She soared across the cavern, shoulder colliding with a stalagmite, sending her spinning and tumbling across the stone. Agony blared across her torso, her hand coming away bloody after inspecting the wound, the rest of her aching and throbbing.

“I regret returning to sentience.”

Mori angled herself up, wincing. The Aether beast licked her blood off its claws before prowling towards her again.

It was playing with her.

Warm wetness soaked through her clothes. She was bleeding out and fast. She remembered when old Kolf lost control of his drill two summers ago and ended up near gutting himself. Instead, he bled to death slowly while the Enforcers ignored all pings for help.

No one wanted to end his misery quickly. Everyone wanted to hope differently. Mori wasn’t naive about what would happen to her if she didn’t stop the blood loss.

“Give me the Vessel before we both die.”

Mori got a knee under herself, groaning. She didn’t know what submitting to the voice entailed, but there was something wrong about it. “Not a chance.”

“You’ve done it before. You can do it again. Where have I led you astray?”

Scaling the mine shaft walls, following the blizzard wind, she knew it was this voice, like an extension of herself, but back then it didn’t talk, didn’t sound so eager for control.

The beast got closer, its jet black eyes peering into her soul. She could feel that it knew she couldn’t stop it. It was playing with its food. Her forearm began to burn with icy-blue veins again, the sensation climbing up her arm.

“I can surmise from your thoughts that the concept of ‘family’ is a tender spot for you at the moment, but think of him. He needs you.”

Mori clenched her teeth. “Get out of my head!”

But she couldn’t argue with its reasoning. Her Dad, whether he was her flesh and blood or not, needed her. Launi. Jeren. Joma. The whole village. Maybe she’d never be Favored, never be able to fix her community's problems once and for all, but she could still be there for them.

And these caves alone had enough treasure ore to keep them warm and toasty until spring, but—what if giving control turned her into a monster. Evil? What if this was how the Osai became tyrants and held the galaxy beneath their heels for millennia?

“Oh, please—”

The Aether beast's attention wandered away from Mori, towards the entrance, steam billowing from its nostrils.

A figure shrouded in a puffed jacket and face mask tumbled down the entrance of the cave, plopping off the ledge into a pile of fresh snow.

Mori’s gut lurched into her throat.

Her father locked eyes with her through frost encrusted eyelashes, his exposed skin pale as a ghost. “Mm-Mori. T-thank the ARC. You’re alive… but, Mori, y-you’re hurt…” His gaze drifted to the Aether beast.

It snarled.

Mori forced herself upright, her gashed ribs screaming at her every inch of the way.

“Take control.”

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