It was te in the evening when the family returned home. Gregor had insisted on taking his daughter to the circus, then to the art exhibition, and had even dragged the whole family to a nearby ke to go fishing. The catastrophe that had occurred several centuries ago had left the world in ruins. But the Recmation Army, through constant struggle, had forced nature to obey the will of the state. Where once there was nothing but sand and death, there were now fields teeming with life. Where once there was drought and the wind rolled bleached bones, today rivers flowed. The Dynast’s will and ancient technology contributed to reshaping the desote pnet and bringing it back to life.

  Kaisa and her husband lived on the middle level of the fortress, in an enormous dome stretching for tens of kilometers. Situated several dozen meters above ground level, it was a collection of districts rolling in all directions from the main spire connecting the upper part of the dome with the lower.

  Many representatives of noble families dwelled here, and private residences, erected to suit their tastes, lined every street. An artificial sun, one of many marvels crafted by the Twins, provided the natural light, while the holographic projectors in the walls created the illusion of a blue sky with clouds passing overhead. At night, the orb traveled along the wide rails, changing color to a ghostly pale, while the projectors simuted the night firmament, dotted with cheerfully shining stars.

  Kaisa had saved enough tokens to buy a small, two-story house; otherwise, they would have been forced to live in the Wintersong’s main keep. In the military section of the fortress, pced above the civilian segment, stood twenty keeps, one for each noble household. As Wolfkins came of age, they were eventually adopted into one of the royal families, if they weren’t already a member of one.

  Aranea had fond memories of Wintersong Keep. Several knights had been giving her piggyback rides, but Mom insisted that having so many soldiers around and listening to their constant war tales had been a bad influence on the girl.

  Dad told Aranea to go to her room, and the girl stormed up to the second floor, stomping loudly. Usually when Dad ordered her to go to her room, it meant that she had committed a fault, but today she was good! She hadn’t miscalcuted, hadn’t forgotten to take the change, and had even carried that stupid cactus to the car. So what the Abyss? She knelt, pressing an ear to the floor. Her hearing was sharper than any of her parents had imagined, and occasionally she used it for a little spying.

  “You think she is angry at me for my decision?” Kaisa asked, and Aranea wanted to run downstairs and yell that Mom was wrong and that she loved her. But that meant revealing her secret. No biggie; she’ll make it up to her by cleaning her room. Someday. Maybe.

  “Of course not, but she is going through a phase. When I was younger, I argued with my parents all the time,” Dad replied, chuckling, and Aranea picked up on the sound of a knife cutting through meat. “Remember yourself at her age.”

  “At her age, I was busy bullying and dominating others,” Mom whispered so quietly that Aranea barely understood it. “It’s not something I want to remember. It’s not a thing I can ever hope to atone for.”

  Aranea detected a noise and understood that her parents were sitting at the table. The chair legs scraped on the tiles. That probably meant that Dad moved closer to Mom. Recognizing and visualizing situations based on sounds was a crucial skill for becoming a proper knight. Or so Keyl cimed, and the girl anxiously tried to master this unusual art.

  If she could picture what was going on behind her back based on sounds and smells alone, then it would be a piece of cake to react to a sudden strike or unexpected appearance of a bad guy.

  Okay, what did she hear? The rhythmic tapping of the knife against the wood meant that Dad kept cutting. Then came a single clink and a hiss. Yep, he was frying something in a pan. Not something, but dinner, stupid! But Dad didn’t get up, else she’d heard it… The girl imagined a picture of their kitchen, estimating the distance from the table to the stove. Yeah, his arm was easily long enough to reach it. There was a rustle of fabric, and she thought of Dad’s hand on Mom’s shoulder. It was a hazy image. He was making sandwiches. Why would he get distracted from the delicious food?

  “You can’t simply take a piece of your life, cut it off, and throw it into the Abyss. All your choices have shaped you into the person you are today,” Gregor said softly. No, he definitely held a paw on her shoulder, the girl decided. “The nightmare is over, Kaisa. The dawn has come. You must accept you for who you are, completely, and move on. For our sakes and hers. She has the right to make her own choices, unfettered by our fears. Aranea is not you. And not me.”

  “I am still against her going to training. What if… what if she ends up like me?”

  “A wonderful person who cares for her fellows? A wonderful wife and loving mother? Truly, a horror,” Dad joked.

  “No!” Kaisa raised her voice. “You know what I mean. What if that filth hides inside her?”

  “That too will be her choice, and if the worst happens one day, we will get through it. As a family. But we have no right to lock her away from the future just because we are afraid. This will only lead to resentment, bitterness, and…”

  “Eventually to anger,” Kaisa finished for him. Some unidentified noise reached Aranea’s ears, and Mom continued. “The mere thought of losing her… No point in thinking about it. You are right. It’s time to accept things and move on. I’ll call Ygrite tonight and apologize for what I did… before. Sis told me she became a warlord again after I left,” Kaisa sighed, sounding worried. “Do you really think he’s involved in all of this?”

  “I know that he has a paw in it,” Gregor responded in a serious tone. “Just not sure how much he is entangled in this mess. I pray my doubts are false, that I am simply being paranoid, but if it is true…” He went silent for a moment, then said, “Perhaps it would be wiser to go to the Investigation Bureau and tell them everything about the situation. But I owe him enough to try to reason with him. Thrice he had saved my life. Now it is my turn. Please be safe. While you are in the fortress, no harm will come to you.”

  “It’s only a month,” Kaisa ughed. “And I am not made of sugar. We’ll be fine. Get to the bottom of this and come back, Champ.”

  “Will do, Tiger.” Aranea heard Dad stand up, push the chair aside, and head to the stairs. She quickly jumped into bed, covered herself with a bnket, and pretended to sleep when he knocked on the door.

  “Open,” the girl imitated a sleepy voice.

  Gregor surveyed the room, clucking his tongue disapprovingly at the sight of toys and books scattered chaotically everywhere. He walked over to the bed and sat next to his daughter.

  “Sorry for leaving you so soon, furball.”

  “It’s only a month.” Aranea smiled. “But… I’m going to miss you. Call, at least sometimes.”

  Dad smiled and kissed her on the forehead.

  “I will. And when I get back, I’ll try to convince Kaisa to let you train.”

  “Really, really?” Aranea jumped, and her father gently made her sit. “No lying?”

  “No cheating, no lying, and no weaseling out. But you’ve got to promise me something as well. Listen to your mother, do not go to the lower city without her, and clean your room finally.”

  “I promise!” Aranea shouted, and Gregor smiled broadly, taking her by the paw.

  “In that case, I have another gift for a sleepless, good girl. A midnight snack. Sandwiches first, then a roast chicken. Of course, if you are so tired…” They ughed together when her stomach rumbled, and Dad led her downstairs to have a te dinner.

  ****

  When Aranea woke up te the next morning, the light of the artificial sun was already visible through the window. Dad had left for that mission of his, and the first thing the young cub did was clean her room. She pced all of her toys back into a box and put the books back on the shelves, arranging them in alphabetical order. The girl pced an ear to the floor and understood that Mom was still asleep. She cautiously went downstairs, filled a bucket with water, grabbed a broom and a mop, and returned to clean the entire room. Mom was usually handling this task, but Aranea felt she owed it to Mom for yesterday. Besides, she had nothing else to do. As she was finishing the cleaning, Mom came in.

  “That… is unexpected.” Kaisa surveyed the cleaned room suspiciously. “What happened? Who bit you? If you broke something, tell me; I won’t be mad.”

  “I wanted to help,” Aranea mumbled stubbornly, annoyed at being caught in the middle of preparing the surprise. “Besides, it’s boring here, with Keyl and the others still at school.”

  “Honey, I am sorry.” Mom lowered and hugged her. “I know it seems unfair, but we truly tried to get you into the school. But they only accept children who are at least nine years old.”

  “I heard about it. Stupid w.” Aranea clenched her fangs. “Keyl told me about it. He keeps teasing me about being the biggest student in the css. It sucks.”

  “I can talk with his parents…” Kaisa started, but Aranea almost jumped in panic and grabbed Mom by the waist.

  “Don’t you dare! It’s bad enough that he always loses to me. If I snitch on him, he’ll stop talking to me altogether.” Aranea looked desperately into the amber eyes. “He is not bad, Mom. Keyl trains without skipping a day, and he was the one who introduced me to the other cubs. We tease each other occasionally; nothing special here.”

  “Loses…” Kaisa said thoughtfully. “I assume you don’t mean in games.” Aranea wanted to lie, but she knew Mom would find out. Instead, she stared stubbornly at the floor. Kaisa took her by the lower jaw, reestablishing eye contact. “So those bruises weren’t from the fall, am I correct?”

  “Mom, we simply pyed!” Aranea protested the implication.

  Bruises and scratches on her always healed almost immediately. But a few weeks ago, when she and Keyl were sparring with wooden swords, she stumbled and smmed her nose straight into the dipidated stone wall. A sharp, protruding rock sliced the skin on her snout. Keyl freaked out and wanted to call a medic, bming himself for the accident, but Aranea convinced him to sew up the wound the way the teacher had shown him in css. The boy knew enough about field medicine to accomplish this, and within a few hours the nasty gash had disappeared, leaving only a few bruises that her mother noticed ter. It took Aranea some effort to convince Keyl to train with her afterwards; the stubborn boy was afraid of hurting her. As if he could!

  “Besides, it was technically a fall damage! So I wasn’t lying! Keyl is too slow to touch me anymore!” she boasted.

  “Too slow.” Something akin to fear showed in Kaisa’s eyes. She led her daughter to the bed and made her sit. Kaisa knelt in front of Aranea, winced at the poorly mopped floor, ran her finger along the underside of the bed, sighed at the sight of dust, and said, “I... we need to have a talk. You know the meaning of the terms ‘New Breed’ and ‘Power,’ right?”

  “You bet!” Aranea eagerly nodded. “We are New Breeds. Humans who look different from other humans. Power is that supernatural ability that lets a person do crazy stuff.”

  “Yes. And…” Kaisa took a deep breath. “Do you know why cubs of the Wolf Tribe grow so much faster than cubs of the Ice Fang Order? It is because we, all of us who come from the Wolf Tribe, have a passive power. The power, known as the Descendant of Ravager.”

  “What does it do?” Aranea fired. Power? She has a power? That’s awesome! Maybe she could summon fire with a snap of her fingers! Or bend reality itself!

  “Each time you dominate… win against another being close to you in strength or stronger than you —you yourself get stronger. Bones thicken. Fangs sharpen. New organs appear. The ‘reward’ changes you. You grow taller; the regeneration peaks. You also begin to think differently as your reflexes and reaction improve, enabling you to catch objects that were previously moving too fast for you. I take it you fought… pyed with many cubs? Not just with Keyl?”

  “How do you… yeah,” Aranea admitted, hanging her head. “Keyl once told the others how he can’t defeat me and asked them to train him. Oh, they agreed to train him. But the other newcomers also showed up to watch our next training. After Keyl lost, they even challenged me.” She beamed. “And I won! Unlike me, they train all day long. Yet I was faster and stronger than them! Who cares what kind of techniques or styles they use if they are too slow or weak to pull them off? Anyway, long story short, they bought me an ice cream as a prize, and we have been pying soccer ever since. Most of the time. But every now and then, some of the older students will come and challenge me to an honorable duel, as they call it,” Aranea giggled. “I lose some, I win some. Nobody gets hurt, honest!”

  “Aranea.” Kaisa took her daughter by the shoulders. “I do not approve of this, but neither am I angry with you. Spirits be my witnesses, I was an ass in my youth. But don’t let the thirst for victory get into your head. And never fight because you think someone is beneath you and you need to put them in their pce.”

  “How am I supposed to spar, then? Keyl is a head shorter than me!”

  “That’s not what I meant, silly. If you ever hear a voice inside you calling for violence, deny it! Don’t listen to it. Be better. Because if you let its lies…” Kaisa paused, searching for words, and continued, “I do not think that you share my personal power. Otherwise, I would have noticed your odd growth sooner. But you clearly carry something. The power within you may be a faint trickle, but it flows through your veins. And if you surrender to the thirst for dominat… winning,” Kaisa corrected. “You may end up in a situation simir to mine.”

  “I do not understand, Mom. What do you mean? Look at you!” Aranea pointed at Mom’s arms, arms that were the size of tree trunks. Her cws pierced the steel with the slightest poke. Despite her enormous size, Kaisa walked as quietly as a cat and as gracefully. Who wouldn’t want to become the same as her?

  “I have won too much and tried too hard, and now the Spirit of Rage stands right behind my shoulder.” Kaisa smiled as she saw her daughter’s puzzled expression. “I will expin it to you one day. Just not today. Anyway, while Gregor is away, you must stay in the fortress for a while. No sneaking outside, not even for a quick gnce. It would be wise for us to steer clear of any issues until Gregor returns.”

  “But all my friends are outside! Keyl and the others are all going…” Aranea tried to reason with her mother, but Kaisa was adamant.

  “I am sure that they will wait for a single month. Let’s invite them over, if you want. It can even be... what’s the word... a sleepover! I’ll prepare a pizza.”

  “NO! Just no!”

  “My cooking is not that bad, Ari. I can be as skilled as Gregor…”

  “Didn’t mean that! If Keyl ever learns that I told an adult about him losing to me… He’ll hate me!” Aranea screamed in panic. Friends don’t rat each other out. That was her rule. “And then I won’t have anyone to py with, and he’ll feel hurt!”

  “If he is truly your friend, he will…” Kaisa started talking, but Aranea howled pleadingly, falling onto her knees, and Kaisa relented. “Fine. But don’t go outside. At least not without me.”

  Aranea promised Mom that she would be good and that she would obey. She even intended to keep this promise. Just not today. Because her pride was on the line. Today was supposed to be a big game, and she promised to be there. In the evening, Aranea put on bck pants and a brown jacket.

  She sneaked out from the window of her room while Mom was sleeping. Her legs touched the ground silently, and the girl straightened up. It was a bit dark outside, except for the mpposts and the false stars above, but Aranea crossed the street undaunted. Who in their right mind would dare cause a ruckus here? The Ice Fangs were heroes, standing ready to assist those in trouble. Their city was deep inside the Core Lands, a pce where free medical care was actually avaible to every citizen. The professionalism of the local doctors and surgeons attracted people from all over the country. And the Sword Saints! The unparalleled kings of any battlefield, only one of the legendary champions was currently stationed in the fortress, but for any vilin daring to skulk in, it was one Sword Saint too many.

  The guards, two regal-looking Wolfkins geared in blue power stylized after a knight’s pte, stopped Aranea. Before letting her go, they jokingly read her the standard safety instructions advising to stay near the main road just in case. Aranea nodded impatiently and darted to the elevators. She had heard this sermon before, and tonight wasn’t anything new. Sometimes she even wondered if these guys knew she was leaving without her parents’ permission.

  As usual, the elevator descended gracefully, and Aranea went about her business, waving to a few familiar knights of the Summerspring House.