[Mana: 25/56]

[Predator Time Limit: 1.2 hours.]

“Okay,” I tell Zyneth when we get back to the inn. “This should be enough to Attune some of the void.”

Evening sunlight is trickling in through the window of our room, casting a long shadow across the predator’s bottle. Within, the predator is completely still: I’ve slipped up every now and then, and it managed to leech a few points of mana away from me each time, but for the most part I’m able to keep its mind suppressed.

“How long will it take?” Zyneth asks.

I ask Echo the same thing.

[Instantaneous,] she says.

Why is that? It matches what I experienced before, when I carved out my original tiny sliver of Attuned void, but I still don’t understand why. Attuning glass takes several hours.

[Attuning physical objects requires time to fully analyze and ‘resonate’ with the designated material,] Echo says. [Attuning arcana is instantaneous due to the inherent nature of magic. The quantity that can be Attuned for both raw arcana and physical objects are limited by mana consumption.]

That’s fair I suppose. But this void isn’t just arcana, it’s some mix of arcana and… whatever creature the predator was that got mixed into it. What happens to the predator when I Attune the void it’s attached to?

[Should the void that the predator has imprinted on be Attuned, an equivalent portion of the predator’s mind will be returned Between.]

Gone, but not destroyed, then. Is it even possible to slay this beast?

“Kanin?” Zyneth prompts.

“Sorry” I say, pulled from my thoughts. “It should be instantaneous. So that is good. At least you will not have to worry about it trying to do something while I am unconscious.”

“That is a relief,” Zyneth agrees.

I sit down on the floor in front of the bottle, unclasping my core from around my neck.

If this Attunement goes smoothly, I’ll be back to zero mana. After that it’ll take another five hours to replenish my tanks—maybe more with the predator leeching off me—which will put us into tomorrow morning. I could do another Attunement then, which would again empty my tanks, and I still won’t have finished Attuning it all. Altogether, it will take the next couple of days to gradually Attune it all away—assuming I can’t starve it out before then. In the meantime, I can scope out the Athenaeum to see if the intel Gillow gave us is accurate. Once the predator is gone, I can regenerate my mana tanks without any more leeching, and then we can break in the following night.

Easy as pie.

But first, I need to deal with the predator.

“You are being suspiciously cooperative,” I say to Zyneth as I open the pouch and roll my core into my hands. I quickly turn off my secondary vision before the double sight becomes overwhelming. “I thought for sure the second we left Gillow’s shop you would tell me what a terrible plan this was.”

“It is a terrible plan,” Zyneth says. “I just know that saying as much won’t actually change your mind. I don’t suppose you spared a moment to consider why we, specifically, are the ones being asked to perform this job?”

I tip my head. “Because they did not have anyone else to help?”

“Because they couldn’t get anyone else to agree,” Zyneth says. “We’re the only ones desperate enough—or naive enough—to say yes. In fact, the only reason I’m still going along with this whole production is that I am counting on you to see how hopeless the endeavor is once we revisit the library tomorrow.”

In my free hand I pick up the bottle, using my Attuned glass to screw off the cork. Echo, get ready to target the void for Attunement. I hate that I have to be touching the void for it to work, but at least it will be over quick.

[Target selected,] she says.

“Do you not want to be rid of Gillow’s influence?” I ask.

Zyneth’s face softens. “Of course I do. Not more than anything, but… more than quite a bit.”

That’s enough for me. “Then what is the harm in at least scoping it out?”

Zyneth doesn’t object this time, but he doesn’t agree either. He just frowns slightly, watching the still surface of black inside the bottle.

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“Here I go,” I say when Zyneth says nothing more. I mentally coax the predator out of the bottle. I try not to recoil with revulsion as it spills over my core like tar.

I activate the Attunement.

Defiance rushes in a sudden surge from the predator—a metaphorical kick to my gut.

[Mana extinguished,] Echo says. [No mana available for Attunement.]

“What?” I cry.

I Check my mana: sure enough, it’s 0/56.

“What is it?” Zyneth cries, stepping forward. “Are you alright?”

“Expletive, expletive, expletive!” I angrily shove the predator back into the bottle and slam the cork back on. “Fuck!” I sign, about ready to smash my translator. Composing myself, I switch back to speech. “It just absorbed all my mana. I cannot Attune it.”

Time Limit? I ask.

[Predator Time Limit: 7 hours.]

Double fuck! “And now it has a better grip on reality. It will be even harder to starve it out.”

“Blast,” Zyneth says, sitting on the bed across from me as I simmer in my anger.

The predator had managed to slip my grasp at the last second, and it’s still hovering outside of my reach now. Instead of the smugness I had expected, though, it feels more nervous and flighty.

“Do you think you can try again later?” he asks.

“I am not sure,” I admit. “I thought I had a good grasp on it. I might have been focusing too much on controlling it physically, and let some of my mental hold lax.”

“Well, what now?” Zyneth asks.

I sit, thinking. “Lend me some of your magic. I want to try again.” Honestly, I should have thought of this approach hours ago.

“Can you control it this time?” Zyneth asks, getting up to sit across from me.

“One way to know.”

I redouble my mental hold on the predator, focusing on keeping it completely subdued, entirely compliant. I snuff out every hint of defiance I catch. I focus every atom of my being on maintaining my control. After a minute, I nod to Zyneth. “Okay. Go.”

He holds a hand over my vial, his palm filling with yellow light.

[Mana replenished,] Echo reports. [7/56.] It continues to tick upward.

Once more, I use my glass to unstop the lid and mentally guide the void out. Then—

[Mana depleted.]

[Predator Time Limit: 10.5 hours.]

Shit!

“Stop,” I angrily tell Zyneth as I force the predator back in the bottle. “It did not work. You would just be feeding it more.”

His light goes out. “No luck then?”

I shake my head. “I do not know why. Maybe it is too much to think about at once. Agh, I hate this!” I slam the bottle back down, then wince. Maybe I should be a little more careful to not break the predator’s prison. I clench my hands, then force myself to relax. It’s not the end of the world. There’s still Emrox. “At least it can still be contained in this bottle,” I say with a sigh. “But starving it or Attuning it might be harder than we thought. If I relax for even the briefest moment, any amount of saved mana can be undone.”

Zyneth frowns. “You realize, with the library coming up…”

“I know,” I say shortly. Our planned heist is dead before we can even make the attempt if I can’t use any magic. Which, I’m sure, Zyneth would just love.

But this is a death trap for me.

Before, the predator had fallen back Between quickly because there had been so much of it and only a tiny trickle of mana to sustain it. Now, it’s the opposite: I have more mana than before, and the predator is much smaller, so my magic is going a lot further toward keeping it rooted in reality. Does that mean that the more it stays here, the more it feeds on my magic, the stronger it’s going to get?

I can’t just sit around and let it gradually overwhelm me.

Echo, is there any way I can more actively keep tabs on the predator’s power? I ask. Like, how much autonomy it has.

[Conceivably,] Echo says. [Depending on the desired use case, the Influence of the predator’s mind relative to the user’s can be quantified.]

Uh, yeah, I think that sounds good, I say. What does that look like?

[Predator Influence: 5%]

Okay. Good. I have some metric I can keep an eye on now. And, honestly, this is a little reassuring. 5% is not bad. That means I’m ninety-five times more powerful than it—or, er, however percentages work. At any rate, it explains why it’s so easy to squash its impulses, even if I can’t, apparently, keep them squashed 100% of the time.

Then again, the numbers had probably been reversed back in Peakshadow, and it had really not felt great to be on the receiving end of the squashing.

“Our plans stay the same,” I tell Zyneth. “Tomorrow we still scope out the library—I do not need magic for that. I will figure out what to do about the predator in the meantime. But we cannot spin our wheels now.” With the predator’s return looming, we don’t have time.

Zyneth sighs. “I thought you might say that. Alright then. We’ll move forward with this absurd plan of yours. But while you’re off playing into Gillow’s hands, I still intend to look for other solutions.”

“That is fine by me,” I say. I still have that interdimensional spell circle, after all. If I can complete the diagram, maybe we won’t even have to go to Emrox. But until that avenue opens, I have to pursue the only lead I have; and with the threat of the predator growing larger by the hour, I don’t have time to waste on research.

We don’t talk about Gillow or the predator the rest of the evening, dancing around the subjects as Zyneth retrieves dinner and begins winding down for the night. When he retreats to his bed, I settle into the chair at the desk on the other side of the room. I set all my belongings out on the table: my signing glass, the spell books, the slate with my partially-drawn circle from the library, some chalk, and of course, my monster in a bottle. Since I can’t use my Glow spell without any mana, I instead light a small candle and try to keep it tucked out of the way so as not to disturb Zyneth. Finally, I take off my ragged cloak as well, draping it over the back of the chair, and set my translator aside. I certainly won’t be needing that in the middle of the night, and in fact for what I have planned it might be a bit of a liability; can’t have it accidentally say something aloud from a conversation I intend to keep private.

I wait for Zyneth to turn out the lights and head to bed as I idly play with signing glass and stare at the incomplete spell circle, trying to figure out what shapes must fill in the gaps. It isn’t until I hear Zyneth’s breathing grow long and heavy that I give him a Check.

[Status: Asleep,] Echo says.

I check my mana next.

[Mana: 1/56]

About what I expected. Despite the fact it’s been over a half an hour since I finished attempting the Attunement, my mana has only recovered one of the six points it should have. Meaning a certain parasite is quietly taking more than its fair due.

I grab the bottle with a soft tink of glass on glass, and I feel the predator’s mind stir at the movement, warily watching to see what I do next.

I think it’s past time you and I had a little talk.