Chương 100: Chapter 2.37: Flying High

Favius was staring at the animals below them with unblinking intensity. They were scattering, blissfully unaware of the predators looming above them. Sirrana held something out to them.

"Chew on this," she murmured, herself clearly focused on the animals. Favius mechanically shoved it into his mouth. It felt like a piece of soft leather or chicken jerky, yet was utterly tasteless.

"Find your prey!" His eyes twitched between the dozen goats. In the end, his eyes drifted towards the end of the herd, where four bleating kids were struggling to keep up with their mothers. Those, yes, those are obviously the most vulnerable. But maybe... He looked at one that was more isolated by the side. It would be wiser to not provoke the mothers by going after the kids. After all, they're easier to kill. But once you provoke the mothers...

His mouth suddenly tasted dry as he swallowed the last pieces of whatever chewy thing Sirrana had given him. She nodded.

"Good. You're getting into the spirit of this now," she whispered.

"Tell me. Which ought an eagle owl to strike?"

"The kids," replied Urania without hesitation. Favius clicked his tongue, not taking his eyes away from his chosen victim. The goat that had remained further up the far side of the rubbly, sloping canyon floor than the rest of the herd.

"The isolated one furthest away." Sirrana nodded.

"Both valid choices worthy of a predator. Remember that we are hunting, not debating truth." She paused, and Favius noted in the periphery that she picked up a stone.

"And a hunter strikes at any weakness." Her arm blurred in a sharp motion, and the fist-sized stone whistled through the air. The leading goat stopped, its ears twitching. The rock shattered like a fragmentation grenade less than five meters from the poor animal. Favius winced at the sharp sound. That goat would have been fucked if Sirrana hadn't thrown the rock between those boulders. The herd exploded and scattered in bleating panic back towards the depths of the canyon.

Sirrana smirked, and Favius felt his heartbeat slowly intensifying, his world narrowing on the task. He accepted the stone his tutor handed him. Shouldn't I feel bad? He shook his head. No. I'm a predator. Sirrana threw two stones in quick succession, spooking the goats towards the exit of the canyon again.

"Decide upon your targets," Sirrana whispered sharply, and Favius's eyes settled on a goat that had been lost and separated from the herd. He pulled his arm back and threw the rock. It shattered more than ten meters from the goat. Again the herd scattered, this time towards the far side of the canyon. Urania's throw was more precise as she went after one of the kids. Sirrana's voice became distant, like a meditative chant.

"We do not merely hunt. We hunt in the darkness." Favius threw another rock, and this time it was quite close, scattering off a boulder a meter from a goat. Urania let out a hiss as her stone missed another goat.

"We are always there, watching." Another stone went too far, and Sirrana spooked the herd, or rather most of the herd, back into the canyon before she handed the children more stones.

"We terrorize and probe to gain certainty. Not out of malicious intent, but because the claw and the wing are what define us." Urania hoisted a stone back and threw, hitting a goat squarely in the back. The animal collapsed after twitching a few times.

"The blood of our prey is what makes us predators." The world had narrowed to his prey and his tutor's voice and weapon. Favius too threw a stone. It shattered close to a goat, and the animal flinched, then stumbled. Favius narrowed his eyes, but his owl sight allowed him to see the red sprinkles on the ground. Fuck, I— Sirrana's arm moved quickly, and this goat too collapsed, the fur at the base of its skull reddening where Sirrana's stone had struck.

Urania threw three times in quick succession, and the last stone hit a goat in the hind legs. It collapsed, and again Sirrana executed it with a single swift blow.

"Well done," she whispered, touching both of them on their backs.

"Tonight you'll know the feeling of eating prey you helped kill. Let it be but a taste of what is to come." Favius almost instinctively flexed his fists, feeling the sharp bite of his talon fingernails into his palms.

"I'm a hunter," he whispered.

"Yes," Sirrana replied sharply, and gestured to the goat path.

"And now let us hunt for other prey." She tapped the bag of lodestones and looked at both of them before producing a silver quarter. She turned it between her taloned fingers, her smile made all the more vicious by the scar and her bad eye as she turned her head towards the two siblings.

"Whoever finds more splinters gets the coin." Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. It disappeared in a blurring motion of her hand, and the Infiltrator sprinted across the plateau and disappeared into the forest. Favius met Urania's eyes and, curiously, her facial features weren't important, only her glowing orange eyes. He knew without having to consider it that his expression too was rich with the same predatory intent.

They set off sprinting into the forest, but the moment they reached the goat path in their race, something whistled sharply and hit a tree behind them like a gunshot. Favius flinched into cover, and Urania's eyes met his. Yet there were no thoughts, just his beating heart, the loose stony soil under his feet, and the bark under his fingers.

"What?" he murmured and shook his head. Sirrana's voice cracked through the silent forest like a whip.

"Move correctly," she ordered before almost whispering the next word.

"Hunt." Favius looked at Urania, then shook his head. Lodestone fragments. That means… He closed his eyes and focused down the mountain path, exuding pneuma. He tried to feel it, the forest. It was almost inert. He could vaguely make out the trees, as Brutus had taught him. Then— There! The lodestone's intense resistance bloomed in his mind, and he sprinted forwards, Urania hot on his heels. Something, he couldn't say what, made him jump into the cover behind a dead pine.

Urania kept moving forward, at least until another stone carved the bark off a tree with a sharp bang.

"Perch and cover!" Sirrana's voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Favius let the world narrow to the distant, fuzzy perception of the lodestone, took in the air of the forest, and ran. No, pounced on his prey. Somehow the game continued on. Favius and Urania ran through the forest that defined the boundary between fields and the hills. They perched, they moved, they pounced. Favius laughed as he felt the air rushing through his hair.

Strange colors and unusually intense smells mixed with a deep enjoyment of the hunt as they pressed on. The sun moved through the sky, burning on his skin, and Favius sniffed as he leaned into an oak. Shafts of light danced gloriously through the canopy. I'm a creature of the night. The light. It is hateful. It doesn't benefit me. He took a deep breath, ignoring a spiraling pattern in his peripheral vision as he charged forwards again.

Time passed in the constant flow of the exercise, and slowly the strange sensations faded. Favius leaned against the tree he was perching against, Urania not far behind him. Sirrana was an unseen presence in the distance, producing lodestone after lodestone, prey after prey, prize after prize. He blinked as he massaged his throbbing calves.

"What?" he murmured and swallowed. His mouth was parched, and he ran his tongue over his cracked lips.

"What the fuck just happened?" He took a deep breath, but Urania was already sprinting. Favius growled and ran after her, but the trance was broken. He claimed three more lodestones and frowned at odd noises coming from the forest below them. What the fuck was this? I've been running through the forest for hours. His eyes narrowed, and his memories retraced the experience, the intensity of the flow, the strangeness of perception. Fucking hell. Did she really just give me and my sister psychedelics?

He ground his teeth, but the moment he reached the next tree, he somehow started giggling. This is so stupid. Fucking hell. A whistling and cracking sound announced Sirrana's displeasure, yet Favius glared in the direction where the stone had come from. Oh, we are so having words about this. He ran forward and cried out, "Sirrana, stop!" The only answer was another stone. He growled and kept chasing for nearly a quarter of an hour. Maybe I should just refuse. But, no. I need to catch her!

The noises in the forest beneath them got louder, and suddenly they sprinted into a clearing. Favius narrowed his eyes as he paused side by side with Urania. There's no lodesto— Something cracked in the trees behind them, and Favius began turning. Only the soft sound of leather on soil and the sharp sensation of talons digging into his neck announced Sirrana's arrival. Favius stood paralyzed as the woman's talons pressed into his tender flesh. His sister was caught in the same way.

"Good," she purred, leaning down to the level of their ears.

"You've done well." Favius growled, "You!" Then he bit his tongue. I promised myself I would get used to this world, that I wouldn't be upset and would make the political move. I have no context for shifter training. Hell, maybe it's normal to give children this kind of stuff. He let pneuma run through his body, pushing away the exhaustion and the spike of animal fear his tutor had stabbed into his spine.

"Nice to see you again, Sirrana," he began in a neutral voice, his voice raspy.

"Indeed." Sirrana's hands finally left their necks, and she patted them on the back.

"The two of you have done well." She fussed about with her own equipment and handed them waterskins. All thoughts of anger or doubt were gone as Favius swallowed down gulp after gulp of water. While his sister imitated his example, Sirrana too took a swig. Favius noted the vinegar taste of the water, yet he didn't care. It's water, and surely she's not going to drug me twice in a row, is she? Sirrana smiled and walked up towards the edge of the clearing.

Favius narrowed his eyes as he heard the rushing of a river, or rather, a creek.

"Well, this is certainly an auspicious endpoint for our lesson," Sirrana began, and Favius followed her, already knowing what he would see. Looking down the hill, the construction site for the workshops lay below them. He again glared at Sirrana. Is she really going to interrogate us after putting us through that kind of training? She noticed his expression and smiled.

"I intend nothing untoward, Young Master. Trust me. I merely thought it opportune to take you to the site of your regular afternoon visits while sparing you the displeasure of riding here." Her smile was perfect, almost entirely genuine, but Favius knew that it was carefully curated. Urania sniffed beside him and pressed her lips together. Well, at least she's leaving this to me. Sirrana began pointing and pacing.

"Certainly an interesting project. Most curious that Senator Ovinius Loran has chosen to invest this much money into constructing workshops at this rather remote location." Favius sniffed.

"You know well it isn't remote. It's about half an hour for an oxcart from the barge piers on the Loran River." Sirrana hummed while Favius considered. Well, she clearly wants information. But based on what she herself told me about counterintelligence, it's only partly about keeping secrets, after all. He looked at the worksite, crawling with nearly four hundred workers. Not everything can be kept perfectly secret. They all studied the current state of the project.

Where there had been a forest but eleven days ago, there were now only piles of drying timbers and tree limbs waiting to be burned. Oxen were dragging timbers while carts were bringing lime and volcanic ash up from the barge pier where Serran stored supplies he claimed he always bought when the prices were good. Urania pointed down at an oxcart coming out of the blind spot where the pass from the hills led into the valley.

"Looks like they finally got the clay pit going." Favius squinted.

"No, no, I think that the one is carrying gravel from the lower parts of the valley." Sirrana smiled and pointed.

"Seems to be a lot of extraction, especially with..." She pointed to the far side of the creek.

"... there even being a quarry."

"Well." Favius made a dismissive gesture and pointed down at the half-dozen construction sites.

"We are digging foundations, so we clearly need something to build the walls." He nodded towards the quarry and the piles of wood.

"Indeed," Sirrana replied.

"And the workshops." She raised her fingers.

"Beehives, soap, and your strange paper." Sirrana raised her good eyebrow at Favius, yet he remained silent and only smiled at her. If she thinks that's going to get information out of me… He snorted. Sirrana cleared her throat.

"Well, I've yet to tell you, but your soap was far from the only reason why your Grandmother decided that you needed not just a personal tutor from the clan, but me specifically."

"Oh?" inquired Favius with a bored inflection. Yet his heartbeat was already speeding up.

"Indeed," affirmed Sirrana, and looked to the side at Urania while speaking.

"Both your books on mathematics and measurement, your Grandmother and other mages found them..." She paused, and both her eyes, one milky white and one burning orange, found Favius with unusual intensity. She said, "... extremely enlightening."