A vortex of aether began to build up above the device, which, upon being pointed at the fox, caused the geni to shimmer iridescently. It slowly became transparent, its body seeming almost illusory as it dissolved into aether, which the CARD captured.
CARDs were the most important invention of the 21st century because they could force a geni into its aetherform and absorb it. Of course, geni could resist the absorption process, but this would still buy a human time to escape from even the most powerful of them, as they had to gather themselves together from their aetherform and ‘manifest’ entirely, as magisters commonly called it.
On Dante’s CARD, a detailed image of the fox geni appeared. Information began to show next to it, automatically designating it as a ‘night fox’ due to its dark affinity and fox base form. The rest mainly consisted of biometrics and a tier for the geni’s strength compared to the baseline of the weakest and strongest recorded geni. Dante’s new partner was female and classed as tier 5, the second-to-last tier. Tier 6 geni were mostly considered embryonic or infantile members of the awakened species.
“Try to force a manifestation,” Dante said to the fox’s image, which moved and looked at him before closing its eyes.
A few seconds later, the fox materialised before the young man, shaking its body a little as it gathered its bearings.
“Congrats!” Nova cheered.
“Congratulations on getting your first partner,” Professor Murray-Hussain said.
The Professor took the situation much more calmly, having undoubtedly been in this position many times. Even he looked happy to see Dante with his new partner, however.
“Thanks,” Dante smiled, one step closer to achieving his goals.
Dante crouched down once more and looked at his first partner carefully. The fox looked back, radiating curiosity. Today was Dante’s first real interaction with a geni, so he was still getting used to the empathic connection they could create with other beings to communicate. He could tell that the fox still had some issues physically demonstrating more complex emotions, but unlike regular animals, she was most certainly still capable of them. She just had her way of communicating.
“If we’re going to be partners, I will need a way to refer to you in my language. Do you have any preference for the kind of feeling or vibe you want that name to evoke?” Dante asked.
Showing that she understood, the geni tilted her head in thought. A few moments passed, and then Dante was subjected to another selection of images and emotions. He saw the night sky and a large shadow that looked like her own was growing bigger and covering mountains.
Dante’s grin grew unbidden. “You do want to reach for the top, huh? Okay, something grandiose, something befitting a true future titan. Let me think.”
Dante paused for a moment in thought. “Hmmm, naming you after a goddess would be too easy, and that’s far too common anyway. How about… Moonless? Like a moonless night.”
The night fox yipped loudly, eyes twinkling with pleasure.
Nova chuckled behind him. “You sure know how to pick ’em. She loves it.”
The newly dubbed Moonless growled at Nova, sending Dante a feeling of annoyance. The new magister in question had to suppress a chuckle of his own.
With the goal accomplished, the trio headed back through the forest and into the lab, with a new geni partner in tow.
“Our little adventure comes to a close,” Professor Murray-Hussain said softly.
“That was quite an interesting way to spend”—he checked his CARD—“an hour of my night. While the lab is open 24/7, I usually leave my assistants to do everything. Tonight was different because, as I mentioned earlier, it’s a holiday here in Neo-London. I’m guessing you weren’t aware of that, Dante.”
The Professor glanced at Nova as Dante nodded. “And I’m sure you were very aware of that.”
Nova looked slightly abashed once again, but she didn’t seem apologetic. “I know stealing is wrong, but if we rewound the day, I would do it again. That’s how much becoming a magister means to me.”
Professor Murray-Hussain just shook his head in faux disappointment. “The youth these days. Utterly unredeemable. You’re lucky I’ve known you long enough to let this slide.”
Nova just shrugged.
The trio left the laboratory, Dante recalling Moonless in the process. Although Neo-London was a bastion of magister society and even had a magister arena for the pro circuit, geni were still considered dangerous by many, so they weren’t allowed in public spaces without a permit. Sadly, Dante couldn’t disagree with them either. History painted a clear enough picture.
“Have a good night, you two,” Professor Murray-Hussain said as he left to enter his home.
Nova turned to Dante. “So.”
“So,” Dante echoed.
“What are your plans going forward?” Nova asked.
Dante hesitated for a moment.
Then he sighed. “I’m heading straight into the wilds.”
Nova looked at him in open-mouthed shock. “You’re going straight into the wilds at this time of the night with only a single geni to protect you?”
Dante expected that reaction, so he nodded. “Yeah. As you might have guessed, my family and I don’t get along. As soon as they find out I’ve become a magister, they will send people after me to bring me back.”
“Why would they do that? Do they hate the geni that much?” Nova asked.
Dante looked uncomfortable. “There’s… more to it than that, but honestly, telling you would be... bad. Terrible even. Mostly for you.”
Nova blinked for a few moments. “Oh. Hm. Well… you seem smart, so I’ll trust you to know what you’re doing. Stick to the roads and beaten paths and try not to get lost, okay? How about we exchange CARD numbers so we can call each other? I want to check up on my sponsor every once in a while.”
Dante nodded. “Sure, that’d be nice. And don’t worry, I planned to stick to the roads anyway.”
Nova smiled as they exchanged numbers. V2 had long since improved CARDs, so they had the same functionality as mobile phones while offering extra features useful to magisters.
“Okay, I need to go as soon as possible,” Dante said.
Nova appeared slightly worried, but Dante couldn’t assuage her fears. She was entirely right to be concerned about an unranked magister traipsing off into the dark midnight wildlands with only one partner.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? To show that I’m fine.”
“Please,” Nova nodded.
With that, the two parted ways.
After walking for some minutes, Dante couldn’t help but glance back. He then pulled out his CARD, on which Nova D’Angelo was registered as a contact.
My first friend, huh? And my first geni partner. Not bad for a day’s work. Now, to ensure my parents and those behind them don’t come after me.
Dante had trained a lot and worked hard to become a magister. As a result, walking for a couple of hours from one side of the city to the other wasn’t particularly strenuous for him.
He soon found himself on the city’s outskirts, where he let Moonless out of his CARD again.
The night fox stretched a little, glanced around, then glanced up at Dante, who smiled.
“We’re heading out into the wilderness, like I told you,” he said, his golden eyes bright. “You and I, we’re going to see a lot of different places and meet a lot of people, and maybe even beat some of them up or their geni. Our first destination is Nottingham, which isn’t too far away.”
Moonless yipped, and the pair began to walk slowly but surely into the wilderness. It wasn’t long before the plains gave way to hills, and Dante approached New Sherwood Forest at their bottom. Sherwood Forest had overgrown in the past 60 years since aether’s arrival. It now covered a massive area ranging from Neo-London’s far outskirts to those of Nottingham. The distance between those two cities was around 200 kilometres, and New Sherwood Forest covered most of it.
Dante looked at the thicket not too far away and crouched, softly stroking Moonless’ head.
“We could try to camp out here or brave the forest at night…”
Dante took a moment to think. “If Nova were here, she would call me suicidal, but I think I’m going to have to do it if I want to ensure that my parents don’t find me.”
Moonless yipped and sent him feelings of reassurance, courage, and other good vibes. Dante couldn’t help but smile at that.
“Well, before we do that, I should evaluate your kit. What exactly can you do?” he asked.
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Several minutes later, muddy skidmarks and small impact craters littered the area. A couple of trees had claw marks.
Moonless preened as she took in Dante’s impressed expression.
“Speed enhancement, physical power enhancement and basic energy projectiles,” Dante summarised. “That’s great for a tier V5 geni. I can work with that.”
He stretched a little, drank deeply from a bottle of water he pulled from his backpack and cracked his neck once.
“Let’s do this.”
The pair, human and geni, walked swiftly into the forest’s darkness. The thicket quickly surrounded them, absorbing all light from the moon and starlit sky. Dante still refused to turn on the flashlight function of his card.
The reason for that was simple—his bright golden eyes weren’t just for show. Unlike most people, Dante could see quite well in the dark. It was a trait he didn’t usually advertise, but it was just him and Moonless here.
Dante gave the geni in question a grin when she looked at him in surprise at seeing him navigate the forest so well.
The night fox took it in stride and sped up a little. It seemed she had been taking it slowly to make things easier for Dante, but he proved that unnecessary, so she took the lead in looking for dangers.
Dante followed his partner with swift steps, the grass parting underneath him. From time to time, he could hear the cold wind rustle trees and feel it on his skin, but for the most part, the forest was quiet so far, which wasn’t strange. Although it was full of nocturnal predators, both regular animals and bestial geni, the more dangerous ones tended to keep to the central parts of the forest.
Despite that, it wasn’t long before Dante stumbled upon his first wild geni. It was a sleeping group of abnormally large squirrels. Some had burrowed into trees, while others laid underneath bushes, small trees, or fallen tree trunks. Dante thought they were pretty picturesque and couldn’t resist the urge to take a photo with his CARD’s night camera mode, first turning off the flash function and sound. Then he quickly moved on, not wanting to be beset by them. Certain bestial geni may look cute, but their metaphysical directives were still to consume and grow, unlike Moonless, who had her viciousness and bloodthirst reduced by constant contact with humans—particularly by getting fed by humans—feral geni like and feeding by humans, these feral geni would swarm him in a heartbeat and try to render the flesh from his bones.
The forest grew denser as Dante and Moonless continued to trek through it. When they passed a large clearing, Dante began looking back every once in a while. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but Dante thought he could hear rustling movements from the trees above. That wasn’t particularly strange, but the noises seemed never entirely to stop, repeating themselves. Every couple of minutes.,
Dammit, he thought.
Something was following him.
Hoping to shake it off his tail, he stopped looking over his shoulder and pretended he hadn’t noticed whoever or whatever was stalking him.
He would hear it again. Feeling sure something was following them, he stopped looking back and pretended he didn’t notice it.
After a while, Dante stopped at another clearing, indicating Moonless to follow suit. He had heard the rustling again, and it was closer than ever.
It seemed their pursuer knew the jig was up as the rustling got louder, prompting Dante and Moonless to turn in its direction.
“Oh crap,” Dante breathed.
Through his night vision, he saw not just one but half a dozen giant arachnids hanging from a nearby tree. They must have been using their webs to travel across the treetops, making most of their movements silent. Luckily, insects and arachnids had a longer path to power than most other types of bestial geni, making up for it with the speed of growth. Compared to ordinary spiders, the geni were monstrous, but among their kind, they were near the small end, about as large as a housecat.
Dante could tell they wouldn’t let him flee, so he reached into his backpack and retrieved a pair of tactical knives. He holstered one on the side of his leg and grabbed a throwing knife from a holstered pouch on his other leg. Then, he entered a stance.
“Get ready, Moonless,” he said lowly, “This will be our first fight together, but I have faith in you. We’re not going to die here.”
The night fox growled deeply, a vicious expression on its vulpine face and a glint of bloodlust in its golden eyes. Moonless sent feelings of aggression and a flash of images that he interpreted as ‘sure victory’.
Dante smiled grimly. “That’s what I like to see.”
He retreated into the large clearing to eliminate some of the spiders’ movement advantage, commanding Moonless to follow him. Then, the giant spiders were upon them.
The first spider within reach got a throwing knife in the face. It screeched and slumped down in seconds. At that time, Moonless took off the head of another spider with her fangs. Cyan blood splashed on the grass.
Dante continued throwing knives while Moonless acted as his shield. Whenever anything came close, he would savage it with his tactical knife. Thus, the pair entered a deadly dance with four arachnids, a second specimen having gone down within the first couple of seconds due to Dante piercing its aetheric core with his knife.
Dante bounced on the toes of his feet, staying mobile and looking out for any threats. Despite that, he was slashed by their clawed feet a couple of times. Luckily, he managed to avoid bites but had some close calls.
Dante lost himself in the fight, his golden eyes constantly flitting around, surveying the battle, his mind pushing all other matters aside. So far, Moonless had only used physical attacks to conserve her aether. One spider turned and launched a sinisterly glowing aether-laced web at him, forcing him to duck low to dodge.
In the next moment, he heard a screech above him. Adrenaline and a healthy dose of fear washed through his body. He changed his position swiftly enough to raise his tactical knife to hold off the spider’s upper mandibles. Dante’s eyes constricted as the spider put its entire gravity-boosted weight behind its attack, forcing him to the ground.
They wrestled for a second or two, the spider’s paralysing venom dripping on his arms and causing his hands to feel numb. Then Moonless flickered in Dante’s view, opening her jaws wide. Dante quickly leaned back as a concentrated dark aether shot away the spider’s head. Dante swiftly threw off the rest of the carcass before it could drench him in blood, then got up.
At this point, there were still two more spiders circling the pair. Dante grabbed a vial of universal antidote and stabbed its needle into his arm to clear out the paralysing venom. Within seconds, he could feel his hands again. The spiders, however, decided to retreat instead, scurrying up into the trees and fleeing.
Dante let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t trust his aim while still recovering from paralysis. Turning to Moonless, he quickly spotted her munching on the spiders’ aetheric cores. These cores were the primary containers of a geni’s stores of aether and provided them with their near sapience. It was a strange concept that caused some researchers to believe that they housed the metaphysical object known as the soul for geni.
“Good work,” Dante said, smiling at Moonless. “You saved my ass back there.”
The night fox perked up at his praise, sending him the feeling of triumph.
“Yeah,” Dante nodded. “We won. Hopefully, we’ll be winning a lot more in the future.”
Anticipation gleamed in Moonless’ eyes.
“Alright, let’s take some time to rest soon,” Dante said. “We can camp in the next clearing we find.”
Dante used fallen leaves and grass to wipe as much blood as he could off himself. Once they found another clearing, he set up camp in the shadow of a fallen tree.
The pair woke up the next day feeling refreshed and raring to go, in Moonless’ case, and somewhat achy in Dante’s case. He changed his clothes, drank his fill of water from his backpack, and stretched until he felt more limber.
The sun barely lit up Sherwood Forest even during the day, thanks to the thick canopy of trees blocking much of its rays. Still, the beams of light that made it through the leafy cover gave Dante some much-needed warmth. He could feel his mood lift. After finishing his stretches, he partook in a packaged sandwich and canned fruit for his breakfast. Perhaps it was the natural location that he was in, but Dante felt the food tasted a million times better than it would have at home. Here in the forest, with the wind caressing his skin, the sun warming him up, the picturesque sight of small animals prancing about and the feeling of the hard earth beneath him, he felt truly alive. His senses were opening up in ways they wouldn’t in a city.
Moonless waited impatiently for Dante to prepare, so he surprised her by pulling a small resealable container full of aether-enriched snacks out of his backpack. While he hadn’t obtained any from the lab, he’d packed some before he left in preparation for having a geni partner or needing to capture one in the wild. The snacks consisted of fruits and vegetables grown in artificial aether-rich environments. Buying foods grown in natural environments was possible, but those were a little more expensive.
He grabbed a small plastic plate from his backpack and placed Moonless’ share of the goodies on it, keeping a smaller amount for himself.
Dante smiled as he watched Moonless happily tear into the fruits and vegetables. He reached for a small carrot and crunched down on it, savouring its full, earthy, sweet flavour.
Delicious.
Even to a regular human, enriched foods tasted much better. An entire aspect of the post-aether food industry dedicated itself to enriched meals. They were niche and wasteful, but the rich would have what the rich wanted.
A few minutes later, Dante got up. “Alright, let’s go.”
The pair finally left the small clearing. Moonless retook the lead, looking out for any threats, while Dante kept pace. Their travels were uneventful for the most part. They came across some singular aggressive geni, which were easy to pacify or take out. That was how the new world operated. Geni killed geni; people killed geni, geni killed people, people killed people. It was horrific to think that both species were fully sapient but had inherent differences to their sapience that seemed to make peaceful coexistence impossible. Only the fact that geni weren’t social creatures allowed humanity to survive and absorb some geni into their society.
When the afternoon came around, and Dante started feeling hunger pangs again, the trees had started thinning out. The end of the forest was approaching. With renewed motivation, Dante and Moonless sped up. More and more beams of sunlight broke through the canopy, illuminating the forest around them. Soon, they passed the end of the forest territory and entered the plains again. Thankfully, there weren’t many hills to speak of in this area, so the journey to the outskirts of Nottingham was smooth.
Traipsing through the outer areas, which were sparsely populated with homes, left Moonless looking around in wonder. She had spent her entire life in the biomes of the lab and, as a result, hadn’t seen much of the actual cities. Dante felt guilty about keeping her in the CARD while in Neo-London, so he resolved to let her see more of Nottingham.
It wasn’t long before that became a problem, however.
A guardsman jogged toward Dante and Moonless and approached them warily. Dante could see him almost reaching for his CARD. “Excuse me, sir, please return your geni.”
The guardsman wasn’t too impressive, but Dante wouldn’t mess with him for no reason and end up in prison.
“Sure,” he said. “Sorry, I was just showing her the city outskirts.”
“Mhmm,” the guardsman nodded but was only interested in seeing Moonless back in Dante’s CARD.
Dante wanted to roll his eyes, but to maintain at least the appearance of being polite, he didn’t. No doubt this guy was just another scrub that dropped out of the magister circuit. Dante was looking forward to entering the circuit once he reached Nottingham’s city centre.
Just like Neo-London, Nottingham had grown far beyond its size from 60 years ago. As Dante walked through the streets, he was constantly taking in his surroundings, and from what he could see, they were almost as glamorous as those of Neo-London, but in a more reserved manner. Where Neo-London was all flash and pomp, eager to proclaim that it was humanity’s territory, Nottingham retained some of its natural feel. Amidst the skyscrapers and electronic billboards, the flashing signs and so on, trees lined the streets, and rows of green bushes decorated the fronts of important buildings. The city was no less defiant in the face of disaster but much more accepting and welcoming towards nature.
Dante booked himself a hostel room for the night, not to sleep there, but so that he could take a shower. He wanted to get out of Nottingham as quickly as possible.
Since Dante had become an official magister, his parents couldn’t use legal means to contain him anymore, especially with his profile in the military system. Unfortunately, Dante’s parents and their collaborators weren’t the type to let little things like ‘legality’ and ‘the law’ stop them from doing what they wanted. His only option was to go dark, to live in the wilds, and to resurface when his parents least expected it.
After his shower, Dante felt much more refreshed, calm and especially clean, having also changed his clothes. He left his room, heading to the reception area to check out again, only to see two men in black combat clothing talking to a nervous and frightened receptionist.
They saw him as he halted in front of the door to the hallway and smiled.
“Mr. Sinclair!” One of them, a man with African features, called out to him in a deep, suave voice. “We’ve been looking for you.”