Through the swinging doors, Nil followed the professor into winding corridors with walls lined with photos of various Thaeons alongside Trainers he had never seen before.

“Who are they?” Nil asked.

“Trainers through the years. All who got their start here in Fan Town.” He stopped in front of a large frame that showed five Trainers all smiling at the camera with an array of Thaeons behind and around them. “This was–wow–eleven years ago now. A small group left town, like you six will tomorrow, and every single one rose to the top of the league within a year. It was unprecedented. Still is, honestly.” There was a twinkle in his eye as he looked over the photo. “Never before had the company seen Trainers rise so fast. It’s part of the reason Demiurge is so involved in this program: we want to understand the limit to Thaeons and their growth potential.”

Nil took in a sharp breath. He thought he had recognized those faces. Though young in the photo, they resembled the poster in his room of these very same Trainers. These five were legendary in the Trainer circle and had a massive inspiration to his own desire to become the strongest out of Fan Town in the past decade. The Fan Town Five, they were popularly called years later.

“Where are they now?”

“Now? Good question. After they all blazed through the league, they scattered around the region. Rumor has it some left to seek higher adventure across the sea in other yet-unexplored regions, while others disappeared into the dangerous areas of the Wilds in search of some of the region’s mysteries. Come on,” he waved Nil into his office,” we can talk all about this later.”

Nil nodded, still feeling his own Thaeon clinging to his shoulder. They kept walking until Raven dipped inside his office where he asked Nil to shut the door behind him.

“I’ll make this quick; you have a busy day ahead of you,” Raven said, staring at the dark figure on Nil’s shoulder. “I’d like to run a couple tests on your new Thaeon there to confirm a hypothesis.”

“And that would be?”

Raven smiled. He knew what it was like to come between a freshly bonded human and their partner. Through a large window, he watched as his own, Dagger, entered into a large, empty room where he typically stayed while in the lab.

“It’s a fact that humans and starter Thaeons are of a [Null] aspect.”

“What do you mean we’re [Null]?”

Raven stared at him and squinted. “This was covered in basic biology multiple times in school. I taught you one semester.”

“Exciting day, you know? I’m feeling forgetful.”

With a sigh Raven responded, “[Null] is not an aspect but the absence of one. It’s our moniker for aspect-less creatures. When’s the last time you shot lightning from the clouds or water from your mouth? Exactly; humans don’t have these abilities. Somewhere in our natural evolution we developed bigger brains instead of aspects.”

“What if we hadn’t?” Nil blurted

Raven pursed his lips and leaned back in his chair.

“It’s not like we had a choice. Evolution happened to us in a process we still don’t fully understand. The point is”–he sat straight up and reached down into a drawer where he pulled out a small device–”every baby Thaeon is [Null], too. Which again means they lack an aspect. That fact also aids new Trainers to be able to guide their growth from scratch. It’s the entire reason we vet our candidates so hard over a six year period. It’s nearly impossible to find [Null] Thaeons in the wild unless you know where to look, and even then it’s no easy feat. Actually, these starter Thaeons don’t take on an aspect until Evo1. Are you following?”

Kind of. He didn’t know what this discussion had to do with him. Everyone knew Demiurge gave out [Null] aspects. The entire day thus far was just one big recap of everything they’ve told him over the last six years, even if he forgot some of it from his days in school.

“Yeah, I’m following. But–”

“What’s this have to do with you? Send your Thaeon onto the desk and allow me to inspect it.” Seeing Nil’s confused face he continued, “Your Bond is new, I know, but I want you to make the thought known that you want it to move to the desk. It’ll be something we cover later during our preliminary battles. For now keep it simple and do as I say.”

With a nod, Nil reached down into his chest where he felt the tight string of his bond vibrating. He visualized it as a cord connecting him to his Thaeon where both their desires, thoughts, intentions were known on an intimate level he had never known with anyone. In an internal whisper he said, Jump on the desk and stand in front of Raven. His Thaeon glanced over then back to the desk onto which he leapt and stood as a foot tall statue.

“Great. Now. I’m going to do a scan with this device to test its aspect. Whatever you trust, it’ll trust as well and vice versa. Listen to that bond and over time you will learn to make intuitive decisions as one mind. Now hold still.”

The device in question was a rectangle with a screen that had two probes on the top. Raven tapped the screen with a beep and light shot out from the two probes. Fear. Confusion. The Thaeon looked back at him, that string between them quivering with uncertainty that he quickly calmed down with a calming thought.

“I don’t believe it. Observation and these results tell me, but I don’t believe it.”

“Huh?”

“Your Thaeon is not [Null]. What’s more, its aspect is one that we haven’t seen in, well, decades. Where the hell is Marvin…” Raven sat chewing his lip, his eyebrows scrunched. With a thought, Nil called his Thaeon back who responded immediately by dashing to his shoulder.

Raven said, “There are sixteen aspects as you know. Think of them as eight sets of two, with each pair being diametrically opposed. We pair them this way because if your Thaeon has one aspect, it can’t have the other. Why? We have no idea. It’s ingrained in their DNA. The idea before was that each pair is a natural counter to the other but we now know that’s false. Strengths and weaknesses are based solely on experience and your ability to adapt in combat.”

Seeing Nil’s confused and bored face he cleared his throat and continued, ”Your Thaeon’s aspect is [Void] which is, as I said, extremely rare. Its opposite, [Ether], is equally rare and hardly ever found naturally. We’ve been unable to replicate either in the past few decades. Until…now.” Raven continued to stare, awe-struck. “I need to make another call. Go home and spend time with your parents for a while. I will come get you six for our battles later. And don’t make a big fuss about any of this yet, okay? As a matter of fact, don’t say anything at all.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Nil nodded and left.

Back outside it was noon and Fan Town bustled around him. It wasn’t a big town by any means, but it was a port and had a rather important Demiurge lab. Off in the distance he saw the sparkling blue of the ocean with various boats waiting to dock and unload their cargo. Sailors would no doubt be throwing out money to bet on battles along with excited townspeople watching–his dad was notorious for it. Winged Thaeons circled above, crying out to one another. More fear punched through his chest; that new uncertainty of seeing the wide world for the first time. He smiled and looked over at his new partner, washing over that unease with his own spirit that bubbled with tense excitement. His own Thaeon and a rare aspect? Maybe he wasn’t so mediocre after all. No, he definitely still was, there was no denying that; however, now he had a stroke of luck–was it luck if the egg had been chosen for him?–to give him a boost into the future.

He ran through lines of houses off the main street, turning down a narrow alley that fed into a small plaza where he saw his modest home and his mother outside watering flowers. Her own Thaeon, an Evo1 of a [Water] aspect with an elongated body standing on four webbed feet, shot sprays of water from its flat-billed beak onto rows of flowers like a shower.

“Nil!” she gasped, “your very own Thaeon! Honey, come look! Your son has his own Thaeon now.”

Another pang of fear, but his Thaeon was beginning to understand that everything here was safe and relaxed. His mother’s bluish-green Thaeon waddled over and Nil patted it on the head. “Hey, Chuck,” he said. He had always thought that name a bit odd for a Thaeon…then again he had yet to name his own. It’s a problem he had mulled over for the past six years while going through the application process. There was one trial, where the group of kids were tasked with emulating a battle sequence on school computers to test each child’s ability to think under pressure. Each person was given a generic, digital Thaeon with a random aspect they would use to execute techniques against the other through a small tournament setting. Which was great; strategy was something he had always excelled at. For fun, they had to give their own a name and–he thought back to the sour looks all of his classmates gave him while they waited on him to type in a few characters–it took him longer to choose one than it did to win the following bouts.

“Son!” His dad, a tall, skinny man with a trimmed goatee, walked out the house with open arms. “Congratulations. I knew you could do it.” A lie, or at least an overstatement. They had disparaged him since day one from becoming a Trainer. It’s true, though, that no one likes to support you until you’re successful. “Check what I just won.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag of silver coins.

“One day you’re going to cost us more than petty silver,” his mother said, her look of scorn burning a hole into his father.

Changing subjects Nil said, “I don’t have long here. Raven’s going to call us back soon for our first battles before sending us off to the next town.”

“And do you have a name picked?” his dad asked, clearing his throat and pocketing the bag.

“Well…not yet. A work in progress.”

His parents looked at each other as if confirming an earlier statement then his mom said, “We have a present for you. Honey, go grab it.”

“No, really, mom, that’s not–”

“Oh, hush! Out of everyone who applied to Demiurge, you received a Thaeon. And it looks kind of…strange, doesn’t it? There aren’t too many humanoid starter forms, right?”

Before he could respond with a smart remark, his dad came out holding a box wrapped in brown paper. Without a word he handed it to Nil who tore it open and opened the box to see a brand new pair of shoes.

“You’re going to be out in the field for a while. We figured a new pair of running shoes would come in handy. The last thing you need is sore feet while running away from those wild Thaeons.” They both laughed and Nil gave a perfunctory smile, wanting nothing more than to head back and start their battle tutorial–not that he needed one. Or so he thought. He swapped out his shoes, feeling the springy sole that was designed to let him run faster. Not that he planned on running much. It would be a long journey.

All he could think about was getting into the Wilds and begin getting as strong as he could.

* * *

“Marv, Raven’s on the line now. He says it’s an important development in Fan Town with a new Trainer,” said the voice over the intercom. Marvin stood in a circular room, having changed from his loose lab coat to a form-fitting suit used during their Trainer battles.

“It can wait. We have much more important developments here, Rom. Tell him I will return his call later.”

What could Raven want? There were new Trainers every year, all with bright eyes and high expectations that most would never meet. Nothing could be more important than his research right now.

The suit was tight on his body, one he had never worn. Marv had never been interested in being a Trainer. All of his time was spent getting into Demiurge and doing research.

“Rom, open the gate and send in the first Evo1.” His voice echoed in the room.

Rom hesitated. This was a fool’s errand. Even if Marv could somehow use [Mind] attacks, a Thaeon would tear him apart if provoked. Again, there needed to be consequences and if it meant pain, or worse, then so be it.

“Opening gate one now.”

On the far side of the room a series of locks clicked open with a large door rolling up revealing a square of darkness. The first round was an Evo1 with a [Beast] aspect. From the darkness were four glowing red eyes and two snarling grins. Emerging from the door came a two-headed Thaeon that stomped out with its four heavy legs with razor claws and hairs all over its body that bristled like needles.

“This is an Evo1?” he yelled up to Rom. [Beast] Thaeons were typically over-developed physically, but this looked extreme.

“Evo1 [Beast] as requested. This bundle of joy was picked up last week. Ready when you are.” There’s time to back out now, he wanted to say. Humans fighting Thaeons was, in Rom’s mind, an abominable thing. To hell with this research if it meant turning over their entire societal foundation for the sake of–oh, it’s attacking.

Down below, the Thaeon had stood up on its hind legs with each head snapping at the air in frustration, its bristled fur glowing a tinge of orange. Wild Thaeons were unpredictable. Only when they’ve been successfully bonded to a human do they become more tame. Not all were aggressive like this; Rom had chosen this one specifically to teach Marv a lesson. With a powerful lunge, the Thaeon leapt towards Marv who showed no sign of worry. In fact, he stood relaxed with a smile.

He raised his hands and with a force of will, the faint purple in his eyes intensifying, he blasted out a Mind Push like he did with the can before. The Thaeon hurdled backwards back towards the open door. It rose again, shaking its heads then glaring with a clear intent to kill this time as it exploded into movement. This reminded Marv of how dangerous the Wilds could be. His smile widened as the adrenaline coursed through his veins and his hands took on a purple tinge. He raised his hands again as the Thaeon charged with orange foam spilling from its growling jaws.

“Rom,” he said calmly, “go ahead and prepare the next match.”

His perception was heightened, his reactions more fluid: he stepped aside to let his opponent fly past him as he thrust out his hand and continued the hurtling [Beast] towards the back wall.

The slam reverberated through the room and shook the control panel where Rom stood speechless, his glasses askew, the trembling in his arms returning in force. The raging Thaeon shook its heads again and launched another brute-force attack at Marv. To him, it looked slow. He felt tension flooding his veins, a steady pulse behind his eyes. He could feel intuitively that this thing was no match for him. Instead of flying past him, the snapping Thaeon skidded and went for a dual strike. Marv, letting that tension build to a breaking point, raised his hands and sent out a purple strike that knocked the two heads silly. A Mind Spike, if he wasn’t mistaken. A powerful one at that. It collapsed for a moment, rose up, then scampered back to the door, def

eated.

“Rom!” Marv yelled again. “Next!”

“Opening gate two.”