For the last hour and a half, Val hid behind a boulder, watching its shadow stretch as the sun journeyed across the sky. It was safe to say that aether creatures didn’t come running to you as they had yesterday.

The pursuit of points was one they spent the last couple of days trying to fine-tune. After roughly twenty hours spent, the band of participants finally found the right roles to play to efficiently hunt the aether creatures of Thunderstone in a team of five.

Unfortunately, she scored the boring job: the net.

“Efron, it’s coming your way!”

About time. Unsheathing her sword, Val peeked out of her cover. Little footfalls echoed, the repetitive sound beating in fast succession. She could make out a grey-coated rabbit, its fur a natural camouflage along the rocky expanse. Her eyes narrowed. A bit closer…

It darted past her and she lashed out a hand. The rabbit jolted in her grasp, snapping its neck towards her and opening its maw wide. Val ducked and the whoosh of a wind blade tore through the air above. The next second her sword pierced the rabbit's head, a wet, slink sound filling her ears. The beast ceased to move. Not long after, golden patches decorated its exterior.

Val let out a breath, slumping back to lean against the boulder. She fingered the few strands that escaped her braid, the long hairs cut short, and gritted her teeth. Still too close.

The last time she tried to go straight for the attack, she earned a deep gash across her forearms. The stained bandages wrapped around her arms were souvenirs of the event. The instance before that, she nearly lost her head. A one-starred Windsnap’s defence mechanism was one to be wary of, so much so that she remembered it being noted in the CAU’s guidebook. More offensive than anything, to be honest.

"To think it took five of us for the stubborn little thing to finally meet its end." Val looked up to find the rest of the group behind her, Williams’ grey eyes transfixed on the carcass. She squinted at them, a halo of light rounding her team as the sun settled behind the horizon. "I blame Hayes."

Caro made a face. "If you don't stop talking right now, I'll make you. Teammates or not."

The soft rumble of Williams’ laugh tickled Val’s ear as she cut off an ear from the slain Windsnapper. “I’d like to see you try. Worse comes to worst, the conductor will kick you out which, thinking about it now, is the better option.”

“Son of a—”

“Okay, okay.” Val got up, slipping her sixth point inside her pocket. “It’s too late for you guys to be bickering.”

“Or flirting,” Jerel chirped with a sly smile.

The two gagged simultaneously.

A groan resounded. “We’ve been at it the whole day, just as planned. We’re all at six points now, just as planned. So can we please, for Saint's sake, head back now, just as planned?” It was the female archer, who they now knew as Laura, that asked, a hand on her lined brow.

Val glanced above, the dark blanket of night racing towards the western sky. “It’s now or never. We don’t wanna be cornered by aether creatures, or worse, picked off by one of those hunter teams.”

As predicted at the start by Jerel, teams have already been on the lookout for others. Luckily, most hunter teams were loud and obnoxious, alerting the competitors of their positions minutes before nearing them. It was how Val and her team have been avoiding them for the past day.

“Then,” Jerel snapped his shield back into its buckles, “let’s move.”

Cutting a path through a series of caves scouted out and marked, they arrived at their home base: Blue Cave. When they first came across the opening of Blue Cave, Williams lit a mechanical torch found in their supply bag and led the way in.

Glowing veins thrummed inside the cracks of the stone walls, casting a teal glow throughout the underground chamber. Val had honed in on the mysterious, luminous rends, stumped at the fact no energy had been emanating from them.

"What the hell are these?" Caro squinted as she poked and prodded at the teal lines.

"I don't know and frankly, I don't care," Laura said. "Saves us the trouble of walking through the caves in the dark."

Today, Val hung by the entrance and watched the rest head in. It was her turn to guard their little cave entrance while they relaxed and patched up, Laura being the one who held the helm the night before.

She slid down the outer stone walls, exhaling as the adrenaline cooled off. She’d been on edge ever since the crack of dawn and to be fair, she still was. But the sight of stars glistening as the last brightness of day waned slowed her heartbeat to a soft lullaby. The silence was an unfamiliar but welcome presence and she soaked in what little starlight breached the weather ward, gaze lost to the vast night sky above.

A pebble landed near her and cracked the image.

Val jumped to her feet and turned towards the entrance, a hand on her hilt. She was met with a blinking Caro. She flinched, hands up. “Woah there. Just me.”

Val sighed, sheathing her weapon and rubbing her neck. “Sorry.”

“No, that was all me.” Caro plopped to the ground and patted the space beside her with an expectant look on her face. “Wanted to give you company.”

Val sat and leaned her sword against the wall. “You chose me over sleep? I’m truly touched.”

“You should be.” Caro grinned, her expression straightening as the second stretched. “You alright? I noticed you’ve been a bit… off.”

“Off how?” Val asked, gaze veering upwards at the astral cover above.

“Hmm.” Caro's nose scrunched up. “Six years. I spent six years convincing you, telling you stories of us dominating the University Games and diving into rifts, yet you said no every time. Then, randomly, you pick up some newspaper and run off, deciding to brave the trials the next day. But all that’s fine with me. I’ve got my buddy with me and you’ve finally made a step.”

“Okay…” Val's eyebrows pinched together. “I don’t see what’s wrong with that.”

“Know that I’m glad you seem to be putting your all into it. Really glad, seriously. I just can’t shake the feeling that this newfound drive has got nothing to do with becoming a mage and everything to do with your parents. Your mother, especially.” Caro paused, her older brother’s iron edge tinting her voice. “What happened yesterday?”

Val’s eyes narrowed to slits and her friend returned the gesture, a steady battle of will. Caro relented with a sigh, pushing herself up. “Look, between you and I, you’ve got me beat on stubbornness. So if you don’t want to open up, I can’t make you. Just letting you know I’m always here to lend an ear.”

Doc’s warning rang in Val’s mind. Tell no one else of her quest, right? The repercussion of her mother’s condition getting out wasn’t the solely worst—it could possibly be the end. She’d narrowly survived the death of one of her parents. To be quite frank, she wasn’t sure she came out in one piece.

If she lost her mother too…

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

But could I do this by myself?

It was a question she frequently asked herself, an inquiry she often answered with a lie. All that said, as Caro gave her one last look and began the walk inside Blue Cave, she realized it was time to admit the truth. Clenching her fists together, Val sighed and caved in. “Wait.”

Her friend turned around, arms crossed and eyebrow raised, the unsaid question obvious. What is it this time?

“First tell me what happened during the checkup. The one right after the exam. Everything went okay?”

Caro tilted her head. “Yeah?”

“You sure? I heard two people say otherwise.”

Caro hummed in consideration, reclaiming her seat next to Val. “Oh!” She snapped her fingers in the air.

“Oh?” Val echoed.

A wry smile bloomed on Caro’s face and she whispered, “You know how they recorded my ASC as a hundred, right? The guy I met thought there was a mistake since it was ‘too much for someone with three typics as immediate relatives.” She rolled her eyes and added air quotes. “He brought this new tester, even better than the Identifier we used when we were twelve and guess what? I don’t have a hundred aether strands.

“The tech they used back then had a cap at a hundred since, really, no one ever breaches the nineties,” Caro smirked, straightening her white collar. “My ASC is 171.”

Val’s lips curled upwards in a smile. “Saints, Caro. That's—that’s amazing!”

“I know!” Caro squealed, doing a little jiggy where she sat.

Val laughed, punching her arm. “Make sure you remember me when you become an Archon, okay?”

“Could say the same to you, Miss Silver.” Caro winked. “Alright, enough talk about me. Your turn.”

Val cleared her throat and scanned the area. “I never told you what disease my mom suffers from exactly, right?”

“I’ve been pestering you since before we were friends and you never said anything. So no, you haven’t.”

“It’s not exactly info I can hand out,” Val said, eyes on the Blue Cave’s opening. “She has what most would call an Aetherial Vessel abnormality.”

She could visibly see Caro’s heart sink, her almond-brown eyes widening and a hand covering her mouth. “Which of the five? Leaky Syndrome? Split Syndrome?”

“Aether Incontinence Syndrome.”

“Wait wait wait,” Caro muttered. “I heard that one’s one of the better ones to have. I don’t really know what any of them do because of the—”

“Laws of Secrecy. Yeah, I know. It is one of the easier ones and if you keep on top of it, your lifestyle largely remains unhindered.”

Caro’s eyebrows pinched together, obviously understanding the underlying fact. How unhindering could it be if her mom was lying unconscious in the hospital?

“Let me explain.”

“Go on.”

“Aether Incontinence Syndrome represses the Aetherial Vessel’s natural ability to block out excess aether once full. When left unchecked, it takes the better of its victim, completely shutting down their body with the overflow of energy alone. But Aether Incontinence Syndrome is relatively slow to act. Cast a couple of spells per day and you’d have nothing to worry about. ”

“So what happened on the day Anderson was born?” Caro asked. She knew the day when Val’s mother’s condition deteriorated, like everyone else right down to her parent's old guild, Horizon's Silence.

“The birth was long, complicated and completely fumbled. The doctors prioritized the baby and by the time they woke up my mom, it was too late.”

Val rubbed at her face. “The only choice was to put her in a room where they could siphon the permeating aether out, and a room like that was only available in Wyn. The trip from our hometown to Wyn didn’t help either, making her situation unsalvageable. She's been in a vegetative state ever since.”

“Oh my…” Caro trailed off as her long arms stretched across, smothering Val in a deep hug. “If I find those doctors, I’ll give them hell and more, just you wait.” Caro pulled back from the embrace. “What changed from now and then, though? Why participate in the trials of all things?”

“Found evidence of a cure.”

“A cure?” Caro was the one doing the echoing this time. “I thought… I thought there wasn’t any.”

“You have to trust me on this,” Val said. “You think I would chase anything less than a solid lead?”

“I think you’d chase down the faintest of clues if it could lead to the possibility of your mom waking up.” She gave her a sad smile. “That being said, you’re one of the sharpest people I know. If you think this is it, it’s probably it.”

Val’s lip quivered. “It has to be.”

“It will be,” Caro assured, planting a hand on Val's shoulder. “Why couldn’t I have known about this like, years ago? Could've helped you out or at least been there for support.”

“Aether Incontinence Syndrome unintentionally makes her… let’s say people would think she’s more valuable because of her condition.”

“Hold on, she’s a healer. She’s literally begged to be everywhere by everyone,” Caro said.

“It’s a whole other round of explanations I don’t think I’m ready to give.” Val glanced around. “Not here at least.”

Caro stifled a yawn and stretched. “Alright, I won’t push.” She tapped Val’s shoulder. “Want me to stay?”

Val shook her head silently. “We can’t forget that it’s the Tripartite Trial. You need your rest.”

“You need yours too,” she said. “From all of it.”

Val sighed. “Little steps, right?”

She gave her a hug and headed in, footfalls softening as she meandered deeper into the caves. Left alone in her own presence, Val was on the verge of closing her eyes before something glowing caught her gaze—and it wasn’t the shining cracks of the cave. It looked like teardrops of translucent, pink water. It was shimmering stars on the stone ground, twinkling in the dark.

It dimmed.

Crap. Val got onto her feet to watch the last of it fade away… only for it to reappear in a different spot. As she neared the glowing tear drops’ new location, the same thing happened. It was as if it was leading her somewhere.

Her eyes slid back to their cave entrance. If she tried to warn them of her leaving, the trail might be gone by the time she came back. Val hated surprises for this very reason. No chance to think about what to do. For once, she followed her gut and went along with the disappearing teardrops.

She marked the path she took with her sword as best as she could, rounding stone pillar after pillar. As the trek neared ten minutes, her confidence dwindled. Val held tight to her hilt.

She knew she arrived when she spotted a near oasis-like pond, the liquid the same colour as the teardrops sprinkled throughout the stone forest. It was situated beside an opening within a large stone hill. Another cave. She squinted, catching sight of a supply bag inside of it. Who knew if there were extra rations, medical supplies, or even points?

That’s stupid thinking, Val's voice of reason blared in her mind. Yet, it didn’t matter. It felt as if she needed to check this bag, that she had to.

Y̵̙͒̽̽͐̂̎͗̏͆ỡ̸̖͕̺̲̖̝͐̿͋̽ü̴͉̞̻̫̳̽̅̾̋̎͂̚̕ͅ ̸̧̢̢͚͙͂̄͋̉̎͠m̷̤̼̃̓͜͝ͅu̵̡͚̩̥̜̤̝̣̖̳͑̐͑s̵̯̼̣̩͛̊̎̄̇̅͝ţ̶͈͙̟̈́̃̎

I shouldn’t… she thought faintly, fighting against something but not sure what exactly.

Y̵͚͊̽̒̅̍̑̋̒͜͝ơ̴̭͍̯͕͉͖̲̗͍̇̾͗u̶̯̮̝̰̿̿͑͐̇̾̈́̾̕ ̵̛̗͙͐͐s̶͉̰̳̗̅̍̚ḩ̸̧̱͚̪̪̼͇̻́̇̆̅̊͑̾́ö̶̧͙̭̟̞̯͇͙̬̬̚ù̵̱̗̤͍͍͒͆̒͋̈́͝l̸̋͆̓́́ͅḍ̶̗̙͈͕͈̈́͂͒̀͊̊

A crazed look twinkled in her eyes. Tripping over imaginary stones, Val stumbled into the dark cave.

Well, she tried to, at least.

Something slithered out of the depths of the cave and a weight pressed on her shoulders, an anvil of visceral fear. A snake the size of an age-old tree hissed, its golden eyes glimmering at this new meal.

“A two-starred Lushgreen?” Val muttered, her shock yielding lucidity. Right as she thought she was food, a bird’s cry echoed throughout the stone forest, raising goosebumps. A gust of mighty air whirled as the bird flapped its wings. She raised her arms, wincing as a thousand little knives cut into her. Engaged in a fight with no regard for her, the aether creatures tumbled into the glowing pond. A wave of rose-coloured water rose at the action, froth materializing near the edge.

That was when Val realized it.

She was no more than an ant to these beasts—a mere speck. They couldn't care less if she died or lived during their scuffle. She needed to find a place to hide and she needed it quickly. Her gaze slid towards the cave, where the bag of supplies laid. Two birds, one spell.

Val sprinted across the stone area, taking a large circle around the pond and sliding to a stop when she reached the pack. Mere moments before she could lift it and run deeper into the cave, a loud boom rocked her world. She fell forward, a rain of pebbles pelting her. Her arms formed a huddle around her head as she turned to see what exactly was going on.

Eyes widening, her breath hitched.

The ceiling collapsed, locking her in and the rest of the world out.