Aodhán’s eyes widened as he took in the seven-foot monster of ice standing in his brother's bedroom, and his instincts took over. In a blink, a crackling spear of red electricity shot out of his palms and would have shattered the arachnid to pieces if not for the thick wall of ice that sprang up to block the attack at the last second.

The spear smashed into the ice wall and exploded, causing it to shudder violently from the force of the attack. It shattered a moment later to reveal Daruk standing beside the creature with a look of astonishment. “By all the dead stars, Aodhán! How many strands of willpower did you imbue into that skill?”

Aodhán frowned in confusion, his gaze darting from Daruk to the monstrosity standing beside him. “What the fuck is going on here?”

Daruk grinned and patted the arachnid affectionately. “Meet the physical manifestation of my newest skill. His name is Sentinel.”

Aodhán blinked, still trying to understand what he had walked into. It seemed he had misjudged the situation. Daruk wasn’t in any danger, and the house hadn’t been invaded by a horde of beasts. Rather, the ice arachnid was Daruk’s new skill?

“I see that you’ll be needing some explanation.” Daruk grinned and patted the arachnid once more. “This is a construct, albeit a very complex one.”

Aodhán glanced at the Ice Arachnid again and asked. “This is a construct?”

“That’s what I said. Yes.” Daruk replied smugly and shrugged. “This is an animated construct. It’s almost no different from a familiar.”

Aodhán relaxed slightly and moved closer to inspect the construct. The arachnid stood about 7’5 feet in height, with its circular head nearly scraping the roof. The construct had a circular body, which was held up by eight blade-like appendages, four on each side.

Asides the blade-like limbs, half a dozen more appendages protruded from its back, whirring and moving in a sort of mechanical manner. The construct had no eyes, yet its head followed Aodhán’s movement, and when Aodhán moved to touch one of its limbs, one of the bladed protrusions on its back shot forward threateningly.

Daruk chuckled and shook his head. “Sentinel doesn’t like being touched by strangers.”

Aodhán opened his mouth to speak but shook his head instead, choosing to keep his comments to himself for now. The arachnid’s body was transparent, and Aodhán realized that its insides were empty. It was also much larger than the arachnid protector they’d encountered in the inheritors trial, and despite how similar it looked to the protector, it was vastly different. After close observation, it became obvious that the arachnid wasn’t a living creature; however, Aodhán could only imagine just how complex it was to create. It must have taken Daruk hours to create as well as a large portion of his willpower.

Daruk confirmed his thoughts a moment later when he leaned against the wall and sighed. “Creating this masterpiece was definitely not easy.”

“I can imagine.” Aodhán replied as he took a few steps back from the construct and asked. “I take it this is the skill you’ve been working on.”

“Actually, no.” Daruk leaned away from the wall and moved closer. “For the past three weeks, I’ve been refining my control over {Forge}; this is the result of that. My new skill is {Animate construct}, and it simply grants my constructs a very basic sort of sentience.”

“How basic?”

“Very basic.” Daruk grimaced and squeezed a fist, reducing the seven-foot construct to a size only slightly larger than his palms. “The construct has no intelligence of its own and requires constant input just to move a couple feet. Watch this.” Daruk placed the palm-sized arachnid on the floor and closed his eyes. The next instant, the construct began to move.

At first, it’s movements were erratic and mechanical, but it soon smoothed out into a sort of cat-like walk, fluid and graceful. The arachnid climbed up the wall, leaving behind a small trail of snow in its wake.

When Daruk opened his eyes, though, the arachnid’s movement regressed until it came to a sudden stop.

“Well, that’s how basic it is.” Daruk commented with a frown before picking up the construct and placing it on his reading table. “Perhaps, with a little more luck and control, I can get it to function without my direct input.”

“It’s still a great skill regardless of it’s restrictions.” Aodhán replied as he thought of several ways he could utilize the skill.

“Oh definitely.” Daruk agreed. “I had to use my crude enhancement technique to create it, so I probably won’t be able to see it hear right for the next few hours, but it’s definitely worth it.”

Aodhán nodded, fascinated by the construct. “What other restrictions does the skill have?”

“Thinking of creating the skill?” Daruk chided, and Aodhán shrugged. “Actually yes. I can already think of a dozen ways to utilize this.”

Daruk chuckled but shook his head. “As great as the skill sounds, it has quite a number of limitations. The most annoying being the fact that I can’t animate more than one construct at a time.”

“Do you think there’s room for growth?” Aodhán asked and grimaced when Daruk shook his head.

“I doubt it. Of course the skill gets stronger with each advancement, but it’s growth is more linear, leaning more towards increasing the power of a single construct rather than creating an army of constructs.”

“Bummer.” Aodhán shook his head in disappointment, and Daruk laughed. “I also can’t animate any construct that isn’t in the form of an animal or human. For instance, he created an ice chair and snapped his fingers—I can’t animate a chair or table or anything that isn’t actually living-like.”

“Now that’s just terrible.” Aodhán scowled as he cancelled out another potential utilization of the skill from his mental list. “Please tell me there’s an upside to this skill.”

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“Actually, there is.” Daruk grinned. “At the advanced class, it’s possible to divide the mind into two and allocate each one to a separate task. This means it’s possible to allocate one part of your mind to controlling the construct; that way, you don’t have to close your eyes every time you use the skill...

“Thus gaining a pseudo-familiar.” Aodhán finished in amazement, and he turned to stare at the construct with new eyes. “Did you come up with this yourself?”

“Hardly.” Daruk snorted. “There are several variations of the skill out there. I only borrowed their ideas and tried to make it better.”

“No one has been able to get over the restrictions.”

“Not that I know of.” Daruk shrugged. “I doubt it's possible, though. I mean, if you simply animate a construct, what's the use of a familiar? Besides, the skill isn’t exactly easy to create, and I doubt I could have done it without my enhancement technique and the buffs of my architect title.”

“Still…” Aodhán muttered as his mind raced with possibilities. If he could create the skill for himself, then it was only a matter of time before he had two familiars, or more appropriately, one familiar and a facsimile. He could already imagine it—two Furies, spewing lightning from the sky while he watched smugly from above. Haq! He needed to get this skill as soon as possible.

He turned back to Daruk and said, “When we return to the academy, you’ve got to teach me that enhancement technique of yours.”

“You will hate it.” Daruk grinned. “But I would love to teach you.”

After that, Daruk created another construct, this time a bird, and Aodhán soon forgot the reason he’d come into Daruk’s room in the first place. Before long, Aodhán soon found himself surrounded by a ton of dormant constructs. Birds, hamsters, ifrits, rizzels, and even fish. Daruk could only animate each construct one at a time, but it was still fun playing with the constructs.

As Daruk refined his control over the skill, with Aodhán watching intently, they soon noticed that sometimes more than one construct would respond to Daruk's commands simultaneously. It seemed like a glitch, but Aodhán speculated that at the Mythic tier, it might be possible to animate and control a dozen constructs at once. The idea that, if such a feat were possible, they surely would have heard of it before never crossed his mind.

With childlike determination, Aodhán began practicing {Create construct}, trying to create something as complex as a bird or an arachnid, but it turned out it was much more complex than Daruk made it seem, more so because his affinity didn’t really lend itself to stability or solidity. Lightning was erratic, and the storm was, well, cloudy. Ice, on the other hand, was stable, solid, and eager to take on a shape. Aodhán didn’t let that dissuade him though; instead, he focused more of his attention on the skill.

After an hour of trying, he realized he probably wouldn’t be getting the skill anytime soon. Even Daruk, with all his buffs, advantages, and titles, had spent almost a month before getting the skill. That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t continue trying, but he lowered his expectations.

Synové and Unrid soon returned with dinner, and while Daruk went to receive them, Aodhán rushed to begin drawing the runes in Daruk’s room. He was only about half way through the first window rune when Synové suddenly screamed in excitement and Aodhán grinned. “Now, that’s how you say thank you, Aldric.”

“Fuck you!” Aldric replied from the living room, and Aodhán chuckled. He then dropped his inscriber and moved to his parents room to find Synové and Unrid staring at the room in awe.

“I hope you like it?” he asked, trying not to grimace from the explosion of colors, and Synové turned to him with wide eyes. “Like it? I love it! It adds so much color to the entire room that I’m now thinking of painting the walls green or brown to make the shimmer pop more.”

Aodhán couldn’t help but grimace at the mental image and quickly suggested. “Perhaps you should leave it like this. It’s already so…colorful.”

Rather than support him as he'd expected, Unrid shook his head and hugged Synové from behind. “Extra color couldn’t hurt. In fact, I was thinking a deep purple or bright pink would contrast well with the curtains. What do you think, Aodhán?”

Aodhán heaved. “I…I mean, it’s great. While you’re at it, why don’t you add algae green to really bring the whole thing together?”

Rather than get offended by his words, Synové frowned, seeming to really contemplate the idea. Seeing that there was no more hope for his parents, Aodhán gave up and returned to Daruk’s room to continue his work.

Time flew, and surprisingly, Aodhán managed to finish Daruk’s room in only a few hours. He had not only gotten better at drawing the runes; he’d gotten faster too. After testing the runes, he made his way to the dining room to join his family for dinner.

Dinner was a happy affair, with Unrid and Synové narrating funny stories from their workplace that had them all roaring with laughter. There was an undercurrent of sadness, though, that none of them could hide. He, Aldric, and Daruk would be leaving the next day to their respective academies, or in Aldric’s case, back to his pirate crew, and from the way Synové clung tightly to Daruk, it was obvious she didn’t want them to go. Aodhán would miss them too, but he couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

Daruk had bought a chip for Unrid as Synové couldn’t use one, but Synové wasn’t sad at all. According to her, it was even better that way, as she didn’t have to worry about sharing the paper space with Unrid anymore.

The dinner lasted until late evening before they all returned to their rooms. Aodhán let Varéc out for his nightly hunts and spent the rest of the night reading the textbook on Awakened Advancement Theory. As usual, it was as enlightening as it was confusing, yet Aodhán didn’t put it down in favor of the text on runic theory. Awakened Advancement Theory was one of the hardest courses he was taking, if not the hardest, and if the mock test they’d taken had taught him anything, it was that he would most likely fail the course if he didn’t devote more time to it.

Aldric came into his room about an hour before midnight, and after a few minutes of light conversation, Aodhán asked. “So, you’re going back to being a full-time pirate then?”

Aldric snorted. “I’m always a full-time pirate; I’m just not always at sea.” He grinned and ruffled Aodhán’s hair. “You don’t have to worry about me; I know I don’t have all your advantages, but I can take care of myself, trust me.”

“I do trust you.” Aodhán smiled sadly. “And I know you can take care of yourself; I just... I can’t help but worry.”

“I understand.”

“You do?”

Aldric scoffed. “Of course, I understand your emotions even better than you do.”

“Ah, right. I don’t know why I keep forgetting that.” Aodhán chuckled and gestured to Aldric’s chip. “Just let me know in case you’re in any trouble.”

“Ha, are you going to use your influence to save my ass?”

Aodhán grinned. “I might as well use it for something.”

“Well, in that case, how about I give you some advice?" Aldric leaned forward and grinned. “You love Lupin—

Aodhán bolted immediately, but he couldn’t escape the rest of Aldric’s words.

—But you crave Meredith.”

Aodhán loosened his grip on the door handle and sighed. “I did not... I didn’t want to know that.”

“But you needed to.” Aldric smiled at him. “Take it as a gift. At least now you know exactly how you feel, so you can start working on a solution to solve this sordid mess.”

Aodhán scoffed and shook his head. “We just fooled around for a few minutes, and now I can’t get her out of my head. Meredith’s a witch.”

“No, she’s not.” Aldric laughed and patted his shoulders. “Emotions are just complex things. Even the old and wise have trouble discerning it.”

Aodhán smiled and shook his head. “Now you’re being sappy and philosophical.”

“Sappy is the new chic.” Aldric grinned. “Also, you still haven’t told me what happened between you and Mered—

Aodhán threw Aldric out before he could complete the statement and quickly shut the door, vowing to learn the noise cancellation rune the moment he got the chance to.

Aldric huffed and pushed himself up to his feet before shouting. “This is not how to say thank you either, Aodhán! I literally just gave you a gift!”