I waved to the other students gathered there, and several of them nodded back. A small cluster of Disciples of the Jade Flame eyeballed me. They seemed more curious than hostile, though their eyes were wary. Clearly word of what happened to their clanmate in Professor Song’s class this morning had spread through the ranks of the upperclassmen.
The next exit I chose was narrow and low-ceilinged. Lightstones along the baseboards provided the only illumination, and even that glow was dim. Locked doors pierced the hallway’s walls at regular intervals. When I finally found one that opened, I peered inside to find a tall, rectangular room lined with bookshelves. A small desk occupied the center of the miniature library.
I made a mental note to come back here when I had more time. I was sure the School had purged all mentions of Eclipse Warriors from the books in this chamber, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t find something else of use. I closed the door quietly and returned to the common area.
It was an hour or so before dinner by that point, and I decided it was time to meet Rachel. I headed down the eastern hallway, which soon transformed into a twisting stone corridor with veins of lichen crawling along its walls. The air there was damp, and the stone floor soon gave way to dirt. A few steps after that, I stood on a wide pathway that wound its way through hills capped by flowering trees the likes of which I’d never seen.
The air was alive with buzzing aspect sprites, their prismatic wings throwing out fiery sparks, tiny forks of lightning, miniature blizzards, and even sprays of light and darkness. The creatures seemed to have no interest in me and fluttered away as I approached.
“Rachel?” I called out.
“Over here!” she shouted back. Her voice came from the path ahead of me. I followed the trail and wondered if there’d be another cottage, or something else interesting at its end. At the very least, a nature walk would calm my nerves and help ease my core. My Eclipse nature seemed to be soothed by the great outdoors. I’d have to remember that the next time I was feeling pent up.
By the time I reached the hills, the terrain had already begun to change. The air was cooler and crisper, and the number of aspect sprites had grown considerably. They gathered in thick clouds above my head, chittering in a language I didn’t understand. The dark urge grumbled at their presence, and I felt the familiar ache of its hunger. It wanted to devour the tiny sprites.
“Not now,” I whispered to it.
It retreated into the darkness at the bottom of my thoughts, and I let out a sigh of relief. No one would miss a few sprites out of the dozens I’d already seen, but I wouldn’t know how to live with myself if I let my core eat them.
“This way!” Rachel’s voice came from ahead of me.
Past the hills, the ground grew rocky, and the path angled sharply upward along the flank of a towering mountain. I glanced back, and the hills were right where I’d left them. That was odd, because I certainly hadn’t seen this mountain from the other side of them. I didn’t know how that was possible, considering the great stony face rose thousands of feet above me and should have been easily visible as soon as I’d stepped onto the path.
The school was a weird, weird place.
Rachel’s laughter spurred me on, and I chased it up the mountain path. The world shifted around me as I made my way along the path, the mountain rising and then falling away to be replaced by a rocky beach strewn with pumice stones the size of my head, before that, too, was replaced by a rolling plain haunted by fireflies bigger than my clenched fist.
A forest came next, and I drifted through the trees like a ghost, Rachel’s giggles luring me deeper into the woods. I lost myself in the pursuit, happy to have something, anything, to distract me from all the worries and stress that swirled around me. Rachel didn’t have any expectations from me. She’d given me a great gift bringing me to this place and giving me something pleasant to think about.
The forest path was blissfully, completely peaceful.
Too peaceful. Where had all the aspect sprites gone?
Something hurtled through the trees behind me. I’d been so lost in the beauty of the place even my Eclipse nature was caught by surprise. My attacker collided with me and knocked me off balance. I took a staggering step back, braced myself with a jolt of jinsei through my legs and back, and then turned the tables on my attacker.
I grabbed my attacker by the neck and belt of their robe, yanked them away from my body, and twisted hard at the hips to throw them onto the ground. My Borrowed Core technique lashed out and tore aspects from the creatures of the forest, and my serpents seized them from my aura and burst from my core. The Eclipse nature’s black rage bubbled up from the darkest part of my mind, ready to slaughter whoever had been stupid enough to attack me. There would be no mercy, no second chances for this fool.
My assailant hit the ground with a pained grunt and curled into a fetal position. They wrapped their arms around their head and kept their chin down to their knees to ward off my retaliation. They were slender, dressed in the robes of Thunder’s Children, a skinny black
