(X’s point of view)

“Sam’el!” I called out desperately as I watched my mentor's body fall from the wretched human’s arm.

Anger and rage built in my core and I wished we had never made these accursed beings, but I knew they were a necessary evil.

Without the humans he would eventually grow too strong. He had to be stopped.

But how did they surpass the limits we gave them? Is this his doing as well?

“Little Xander, how many more of your kind have to die?” Grey asked as he stepped toward me.

This wasn’t our first encounter, but it was the first time I felt fear at his approach. Before today, I’d never seen him slay one of my kind, a feat only he had managed before.

I was no stranger to death, I’d seen many of my own creations meet their end. Death was a necessary cycle of life—I knew that, and yet I shuddered with each step Grey took. My kind was supposed to be immortal so I’d never had to consider that my own life might end one day. We took pains to ensure things stayed that way.

My injuries should’ve healed by now, but somehow this human had interfered with my ability. I was no better than a weak nabler before him. Cut off entirely from alta, I was unable to even defend myself. To make matters worse the entire network was failing. I heard despairing cries from my kin.

If at least one of us made it back to the legacy, then there was hope; otherwise, all that awaited me in death was a lonely darkness.

Some unknown infection overwhelmed the network and the only thing I knew for sure was that we had lost this war.

If the legacy survived, then we could all be remade. When the humans were gone, we could start over.

I had no clue how Grey learned of its existence, but I would sooner die than lead him to it.

“I won’t open it,” I spat. “You have no business there.”

“Why are you all so stubborn?” he asked as he knelt beside me.

He moved his face so close to mine that his minty breath warmed my cold cheeks. Foolishly I lurched backward into a wall of jagged ice. The motion itself caused my body to cry with such pain that the scraping of my back felt insignificant.

“Calm down, Xander. I need you to live. If you die, then I’ll have to hunt even more of your kind. I’m sure you don’t want that.” He frowned, then stood up and paced in front of me. “Come to think of it, I can't afford that risk. You see, if the plan is proceeding smoothly, then you might just be the last one.”

All indications said he was probably right, but I refused to believe it. If he was right then everything was doomed. He will eventually break free of his prison and destroy everything.

Why would the humans help him? Why wouldn’t they listen when we warned them? We created everything, so why did the creation not obey its master?

Grey knelt beside me again, this time placing a hand on the wound in my abdomen. I felt a jolt of relief as he began healing the most serious of my injuries. My body relaxed and my muscles rejoiced as they drank up as much alta as they could. “How?” I asked. Humans shouldn't have been aware of alta, and yet Grey was clearly manipulating it at will.

“Nothing stays a secret forever.” He smiled.

My thoughts swirled so wildly that I couldn’t make sense of them. Nothing about this situation made sense. The only thing I knew was that I would rather have frozen than accept any warmth or healing offered by this traitor.

My body had recovered enough. I still couldn’t use alta myself, but that didn’t matter as long as I could get away from Grey. Pushing him away as hard as I could, I hoped to send him flying, but with my core malfunctioning, I couldn’t send enough energy to my arms. Grey only fell backward and slid a yard or so, but that was enough.

I got to my feet and broke into a full sprint. There was a cliff not far from me. If I could just reach it then I might be able to escape Grey and get to the legacy.

“Pyro only wants to fix the mess you made; isn’t that why you created us?” he shouted after me. “Share your knowledge with us, then we can be of more help.”

He was right about the purpose, but clearly misunderstood the plan. What they were doing now, it wasn’t going to stop him. They were playing right into his hands.

Unfortunately, Pyro had made himself an even worse problem. He’d become a miscalculation we may no longer be able to fix, as by all appearances, the two had become closely aligned.

“One day you’ll learn the truth about the ones you serve, but by then it may be too late for you,” I yelled as I leapt over the edge.

Rushing wind blocked out his reply. It was a two thousand foot drop to the base of the mountain.

If my core didn’t start working soon, I wasn’t going to survive, but death would be better than letting Grey use me to gain access to the legacy.

I relaxed and closed my eyes, listening to the wind as I fell.

After meeting with the ice pack below, my consciousness faded in and out while my body attempted to repair itself, but to no avail. Grey, one of Pyro’s most talented “enforcers” slowly came towards me. The crunch of snow beneath his boots was the last thing I heard.

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Somehow I woke up again. I wasn’t in any pain and my body seemed to be fully restored, but my core still wasn’t working properly.

Grey must’ve healed and carried me to what I could only describe as a lab. There were multiple creatures suspended in liquid, both beast and human. A host of scientists and researchers gathered around me.

None of them had a clue what I was and rather than explain, Grey only told them, “He said his name was Xander.”

A scholarly man took charge and spoke over various murmuring voices. “We'll call this subject X. Someone bring me a scalpel. I want to dissect the specimen before it degrades.”

“Is that even possible? The flesh is hard as steel. It may be flexible, but how will you cut it?”

“A CAD should suffice. Mana cuts through everything.”

That was going to hurt. With my core not functioning, my body wasn’t nearly as strong as they thought.

Soon, another scientist wheeled over a table covered with various instruments. The eager researcher hastily picked up a CAD, but Grey caught his arm. “Don’t damage anything. I need you to see if you can bring him back.”

“I don’t even know what I’m looking at, how am I supposed to revive it?”

Grey released the man’s arm. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

Then I fell unconscious again.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The next time I developed a measure of consciousness, Grey was gone and there was an ear piercing scream that I thought might’ve been what brought me back. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but I guessed it had been a few years based on the age of a few faces I remembered from last time.

My body was suspended in liquid, but this didn’t hamper my senses at all. Still, my core wasn’t fully functional and I was unable to move or speak.

Then the woman lying on a table screamed again; she sounded as if she was being ripped apart, but only for a moment. A still silence followed her scream as the doctors gathered around to look at something between her legs.

Moments later there was cheering and celebration.

“It’s a boy, Zeri!”

“He’s so beautiful.”

“Wh… where is he?” the woman asked with labored breaths.

The compliments kept coming, but they didn’t realize he wasn’t breathing. His eyes darted about anxiously when they cut the cord supplying him with oxygen.

Within a few moments he turned blue and the room flew into a panic.

Again I slipped away and came back sometime later while someone was removing my core and a few other components. This was going to be my last time waking up. The core contained all of the data that made up my mind. I had hoped that eventually my core might recover, but perhaps this was for the best. At least now I knew that Grey would never be able to open the legacy.

I was at peace and ready to pass on. I regretted failing my mission. I’d done my best, but I couldn’t stop Grey. Sam’el died because of my failure, but at least I wasn’t going to be Grey’s key into the legacy.

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My eyes opened again, but this time they weren’t my eyes. I couldn’t control where I was looking. My limbs flailed around randomly, and I let out a phlegmy cry.

What is this? They took my core, so how am I back… and why can’t I control my body?

I was lying on my back looking into a bright light that made my eyes burn. The table beneath me was uncomfortably cold and hard, but I couldn’t get off of it. My body felt a lot smaller than I was used to and control was also lacking.

“It… it worked!” Stammered the man who’d just taken my core. “Zeri, it worked. He’s alive!”

“Please, let me see my boy,” a woman asked from somewhere out of view.

“Just one moment, I need to close the incisi—” the man’s eyes widened. He froze in place, staring at my cold naked body. I had no idea what he was gaping at, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to be warm, and I was hungry.

I screamed.

“What’s wrong, Jean?” a woman asked in a hushed voice. “We need to keep Zeri calm so please try not to—” she glanced at me a few times while talking, but now she was staring just as wide eyed as Jean.

“What is going on? Someone bring me my baby, I need to see him.”

“Right, just a moment.” Jean said. He scrambled to grab a blanket and wrap me up.

My thoughts were becoming clearer and I realized that function was returning to my core. In this new body, my core was finally unaffected by whatever poison Grey had injected me with. That was probably the reason for the doctor's astonishment. My core would not only have restored this baby's body, but also it would slowly improve it over time. I had a new body and now all I needed to do was lay low until this body was strong enough.

However only moments later the baby's consciousness sprang back and the boy, having been traumatized by his death, let out a terrible cry. He wanted his mother for comfort and assurance. With him present I would never be fully in control of this body.

Taking over completely risked permanently destroying this new vessel. I couldn’t take that risk.

Deciding it was best for self preservation and the longevity of this vessel, I hid my presence by reducing my core function to only those necessary to maintain my survival and monitor for threats.

The first threat came sooner than I expected, and I was totally unprepared for it.

Several hours after the resurrection, Zeri cradled us in her arms. “You don’t know what a miracle you are,” she began. Zeri had yet to name us, but I didn’t care. I already had a name, after all. “But that’s why you can’t stay with me. If I don’t do something soon, then you’ll be taken somewhere very, very bad.”

Her sad eyes upset the baby whose body I shared. Our limbs flailed as he tried to reach for her face, but still lacked control.

Zeri smiled at us, and it was in that smile that I saw the first threat to my existence. Unfortunately, by the time I noticed, it was already too late.

She stuck a needle into our leg and pumped our tiny body full of something I didn’t recognize. In an instant, our body started locking up. The baby screamed with agony, but soon even that wasn’t possible. Zeri cried as she watched us die.

Whatever she had given us wasn’t quite strong enough to kill me. My core was able to break down the harmful chemical into its basic components. Once that was done, the core set them on a path out of the body.

When the chemical was completely gone from our body, my core began repairing the damage. I wasn’t sure how long all of this took, but the next time I gained consciousness, we were riding inside a velociter.

Zeri sat next to us, but she hardly looked at us the whole way. She seemed different somehow. When she did look at us, she felt cold, but behind the facade I saw tenderness and fear. She was worried about us. Then she looked away again.

Reviving a dead body twice in such a short period took a toll on me. Especially after all the damage done by whatever Zeri had injected us with.

My core wasn’t completely undamaged either. As a result, I suspected there might have been some holes in my memory, but there was nothing I could do about it.

When this body got strong enough, I would go to the Legacy. Only then could I repair the damage and avenge my people.

In the meantime I’d just have to hope Zeri wouldn’t attempt to kill us again.

The sound of rain tapping on the roof then trickling off woke me. I was somehow dry; but when lightning lit up the night, I could see that the storm was more than just a light rain.

“Please…take care of my baby,” she demanded as a few tears rolled down her cheeks and splashed on our face. She wiped her eyes then looked away from us.

“We will, I assure you,” a tall man replied as he walked down three steps to stand just in front of us. “The boy will always be treated as my own blood.”

Zeri began trembling so violently that we were slipping from her grip. Instinctively, we reached out to grab her, but she thrust us into the man’s chest and let go.

For a moment we started to slide down again. Then he wrapped an arm around us while staring after our mother.

I followed his gaze to see her rushing through the downpour.

Without obvious hesitation, she slipped into a hovering machine and sped away.

The baby was about to start screaming, but I calmed him by triggering a serotonin release. Still, he got upset when the man jostled us from one arm to the other, then turned our face into his chest. The baby wanted to watch his mother leave, but it seemed like the man didn’t want him to see.

Wind started to howl, light was fading, and periodically water would spray all over us. Bright flashes kept lighting up the sky and the sound of rolling thunder startled us every time. The cold wind and water bit like winter frost, but the man didn’t move.

“Sir...” a woman shouted from within the mansion.

He finally stopped moving our face, but the velociter had gone beyond sight.

“Sir…” she called again.

He turned and started back up the stairs.

“Lord Titus, where are you?” The same woman shouted, louder than before.

“I’m here, Tonya,” the man sighed as he brought us inside and shut the oversized door. “What is it?”

The baby twisted and squirmed to look through the closing gap, hoping he’d see the velociter return, until the door clicked shut. I, on the other hand, was relieved to know that she likely wouldn’t be back.

There were plenty of light fixtures inside, however only one of them flickered to life when Titus waved his hand. It was enough to light up the entryway, but not well enough to see into the house.

There was a half lit tapestry hung on the wall behind a bust of a younger Titus. A cat-like beast rested at its base. The creature, called a saber maw, looked regal, though I loathed them. Fortunately this one was close to death.

“Th…the baby,” Tonya’s voice trembled as a single tear fell from her eye. “It’s the ba— the bab—” her composure broke and her words were choked off by a river of tears and sobbing.

The man’s cold eyes wandered away from the crying maid as he pulled a device from his pocket. It looked like a comm, but it definitely wasn’t a normal model. While still staring at the screen he asked, “have you told my wife?”

“No lord… She is sleeping now,” Tonya answered with deep heavy breaths between every word.

“Then bring this and lay it beside her,” the man huffed, “Lenora doesn’t need the sorrow of another loss.” With cold eyes, he shoved us into the maid’s arms then disappeared down a long dark hall.

That was when the baby showed his first aptitude for magic.

As Tonya carried us down another hall towards the room where our new mother lay waiting, a wave of his hand turned out the light left on in the foyer.

Tonya didn’t seem to notice, but if he kept it up, then it wouldn’t be long before somebody did.

Not wanting the attention this would bring, and fearful of the damage it might do to my vessel, I took action to sever the baby's connection to spirit energy. As long as he couldn’t draw it in, he’d never be able to cast.