As the weeks passed, the cat and I established a tense agreement. I fed and housed it, and in return, I received clear annoyance and hostility intermixed with guarded neutrality.

Unfortunately, the little terror also cost a good sum to feed. I could not afford to keep using up my supplies of Aether-infused water, but the creature required the same energy as I did.

I had hoped I could begin to save gold now that I had squared my debt with Master Julian, but man plans and growing animals laugh, as the saying should go. Most of my spare funds went into mana-rich meats, and the only saving grace was its small size, which meant relatively small physical demands.

With another mouth to feed, I decided to try and numb the financial pain. I began digging through the Archives to uncover more about my mysterious new friend. Maybe I could find something about its species and future abilities for a hypothetical familiar bond.

Instead, I left the Archives with fear, excitement, frustration, and disappointment.

Magical felines were uncommon enough, and Aether beasts far more so, but I had expected to find something. Some distant rumor or unverified report, at least. But there was nothing. No stories. No legends. Nothing even close to the cat that now sat in my quarters.

It was a blow, and my only options were to wait and see what it grew into or reach out to another, more knowledgeable mage. I had no doubt Master Kendell would jump at the chance, but she would ask questions. Where did I find it? How did it behave? And most worryingly, could she keep it?

No self-respecting mage would let a strange, unfamiliar, possibly unique magical creature walk away in the arms of a first-year apprentice. At least, I would never.

If I went to the master, I might be able to leverage giving her the cat in exchange for a reward, but two things stopped me. First, Simon's father reminded me that even superficially kind people could be selfish, cruel, and manipulative. Ferris was not a country that rewarded kindness and altruism, and that by itself would be enough to stop me.

But almost as prevalent were the strange feelings of attachment toward the beast. I had gained something almost like respect for the cat and its stubborn, prideful, defensive nature. Maybe I saw something of my own personality in him, but it made me reticent to just hand him over.

If the cat noticed my feelings, he did not see to care. While he no longer tended to hiss or claw at me, he still made it clear it was his bed and his room, not mine.

Rather than dwell on one failure, I turned my attention to another task. The secrets of the Aresford monster continued to loom over me, tantalizing me with their possibilities, and I resolved to uncover what I could before the end of the month.

First, I took a second look at the monster's corpse. Amelia's ring had slowed the decay to a near-halt, but it was a losing battle against time. Unfortunately, I was not an expert in human physiology and did not have the months or years required to master that field. I learned little new, beyond confirming my previous examinations.

It took me three days to dispose of the body, requiring multiple trips miles outside of Volaris to burn it and bury what was left. Even after that, I still had the various organ and tissue samples, and I chose the monster's blood as the best place to continue.

Since taking the samples, the monster's blood had clotted into a thick, gelatinous black mass. While I could have purchased alchemic treatments to return it to a liquid state, that posed the risk of altering its internal structure.

So, I would do both, studying the mana within before examining its physical properties.

Much like the body itself, the Aether within the blood was bonded to it on a deep, intrinsic level. It was not as dense as I expected and had a superficial similarity to the Aether waters in structure, save one difference.

The water felt like "pure" Aether, the sort I could sense and absorb from the world around me. It was potent but ordinary. The blood, however, had that strangely warped mana within, close to Aether but not quite right.

Maybe that personalization was the key? Every attempt at permanent physical enhancement was performed on someone else. Sometimes, they were willing and sometimes unwilling, but no mage had ever been reckless enough to put their personal well-being at risk.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

And maybe that was the failure of all those attempts. It could be that each person's body needed their mana for their process to work, and even the subtlest differences ruined the effort.

If I was right, that would also explain how a regular human became a monster. Maybe they had fallen into the Aether pool and taken in too much raw, uncontrolled mana. It had seared their flesh, shifting their bodies even as it strengthened them. But they had survived long enough for the Aether to change into a more stable form, sparing their lives but leaving them forever warped.

Then again, I could be jumping to conclusions. I had precious little to go on and was ultimately taking guesses. So, the best thing to do was test that guess.

I retrieved a clean knife and held my right forearm above a bowl before dragging the edge across my skin in a thin, shallow cut. It bled enough to form a shallow pool, and I pressed a cloth against the wound. When it slowed enough that I no longer cared to worry, I placed one finger into my blood and closed my eyes.

Slowly, as I had hundreds of times over, I pushed Aether past my skin and into another material. The structure of the blood felt wildly different from iron, thinner and more flexible. I did not sense those noticeable spots of strength and weakness that marked faults and impurities.

When I had a good handle on the material, I pushed. Aether flowed, sinking into the blood in tiny, almost invisible motes. I worked as carefully as possible, relying on prior practice and sheer stubborn focus.

There was a faint hiss, and I felt bubbles break out against my skin. A metallic scent in the air grew stronger as I pushed, and my reserves began to drain, not fast, but noticeable regardless. I focused on the intent to "strengthen" my blood, following my lessons from forging to guide the process.

But as my core drained, I felt the puddle grow thinner and smaller. It faded with every mote pushed into it, and when it stopped entirely, I opened my eyes and found that nearly all of it was gone. A few scant drops clung to the sides of the bowl, having escaped my focus, but the rest was burned away under my Aether.

"Hmm..." I murmured, pulling my finger from the bowl and rubbing my chin.

I leaned back in my chair, trying to decide what had gone wrong. Was it my execution? The concept itself? My mana again? It was another failing of Ferren knowledge, a pattern becoming too familiar to ignore.

No easy solution came, and I moved on to testing the physical properties of the monster's blood. This was sadly less interesting than I hoped. It was thicker and less viscous than mine, with a near-black coloration marked by a faint green hint. But it displayed no strange, magical properties, such as an abnormal resistance to heat or cold, though it did resist my Aether more than I expected.

I leaned back in my chair, reviewing my notes on the Aether water for anything I might have missed when a black form jumped on my desk. The cat stared at me from only a few feet away, green eyes seeming to shine faintly in the dying sunlight. I stared at him, raising one eyebrow, and received a meow in response.

"I do not suppose you know what went wrong?" I asked, and the cat meowed again before licking one paw. His growth had continued, and he was already becoming closer to a tiny cat than a starving kitten.

I sighed, continuing, "I figured not. No easy solutions with magic, I suppose. Would it be too much to ask for one?"

The cat yawned, then decided the best place to curl up was on top of a small pile of notes for my improved Mana Edge enchantment. I stared at him, but rather than annoyance, I felt almost...content? Maybe I was becoming more fond of the cat than I had realized.

I glanced at the window, realizing I was late for dinner with my friends, and stood.

"When I get back, I want you off my desk, understand? Those are important, and the bed is more comfortable anyway."

The cat ignored me, and I rolled my eyes before heading for the dining halls.

Amelia and the others already looked halfway through dinner when I arrived. She raised a hand and half-shouted a greeting, which I tried to return, only for the words to turn into a yawn partway through.

"Sorry, long night," I apologized as I sat in the last empty chair, wiping a tear from my eye.

"Um...the sun hasn't set yet?" Simon said, sounding confused.

"Right, I meant long morning," I lied, shrugging one shoulder. Apparently, four days without sleep was one too many, even with alchemic assistance.

Simon frowned and looked uncertain, but Leon seemed not to notice as he leaned over the table, "How are your preparations going, Vayne?"

"Preparations? What do you mean?"

"The final exams?" Leon replied, then smiled, "You've brought a book along every time you've come to dinner this month. I assumed you were studying for them."

"Ah, no," I said, "Those are unrelated. Besides, the final exams are not for several months."

"And?" Amelia asked with a laugh, "That's never stopped you, has it?

"...I suppose that is fair. But no, I have not started studying for the finals. Two months is too early even for me."

Truthfully, they had a point. All students had to pass an exam for each class, and only by passing every one could they advance to the following year. If they failed, their journey at the Academy would end.

Fifth years had the added pressure of testing to become adepts, which was a far higher bar to clear. While they could try again the following year and still become an adept, it was an embarrassment.

Even for the rest of us, it was a hectic time filled with pressure, and even my friends showed the signs. Simon had prominent bags under his eyes at all times. Amelia looked pale and pushed herself harder than ever in class. Sophia skipped almost as many dinners as I did, and Leon was quieter than usual.

Despite the chaos, I felt...bored? I was advanced enough that as long as I did not wait too long, I would pass. That was not the problem, though.

I had read into possible classes for my second year and even made a hypothetical schedule, but it felt mundane. Wasteful. Most of the courses would do little to advance my skills in the areas I cared about, and only a few seemed worth a damn. They seemed like ways to whittle away my time, not improve as a mage.

Beyond that, it all felt so small. I had fought monsters that could kill me with a single, solid attack. My duel against Flynn had done more for my magic than a month at the Academy. And increasingly, I realized that uncovering the secrets of my element was not a task I could accomplish while stuck inside a library or a classroom.

Was this it? Would I limp along for the next five years, doing my best to carve out middling progress in that time?

I looked up to see Amelia staring at me with a frown, and I smiled. It was my best attempt to reassure her as I saw the unspoken question in her eyes. If she believed me, that made one of us.