By morning, the hunger was… well it wasn’t gone. I’d tried all throughout the night and eventually came to the conclusion that the hunger would never truly leave me. Vitae was both my means of growing stronger, and a part of my diet.

  From this, it could be said that I hungered for strength. And while that may have been true, the distant tension in the back of my mind spoke of something different. My Garden strained to grow, and I would be a fool not to oblige.

  Morning, of course, meant that I was to face Mother’s training. Father did not join us for our morning meal, though that was not wholly unusual. Shale as well was absent, and as I speculated what he might be up to, Mother broke the silence.

  “What happened in your conversation with your father?” she asked.

  “Did he not tell you?” I replied, trying not to focus on how little the food was doing for me. It felt needed, but not… substantial.

  “Your father spent the night in his study. I believe he’s still there now.”

  I thought about the mine and that bloodstone sample in my desk. I couldn’t help it. Unfortunately, Mother must have seen something on my face.

  “Poorly, I take it?”

  “Yes,” I replied simply.

  She clicked her tongue. “How unfortunate. I’m disappointed he would reject such talent to favor familiarity. What was his punishment?”

  I looked up from my food at Mother. “I… am still heir. That has not changed. He has required that I return to the sect and continue to grow.” I almost mentioned cutting my hair, but stopped short. It was supposed to happen this morning, but no one had come by my chambers.

  Mother’s eyebrows rose. “That sounds like quite the boon, does it not? But… If he was not upset that you take so much after me, I wonder why he would lock himself away. Perhaps the news he received on his outing was dire indeed.”

  “Where was that outing to?” I asked, deflecting. This may be a clue!

  “He was called back to the Sect.”

  Every muscle in my face froze. Every thought that all of this was merely a coincidence died under the memory of the figure rushing through the skies toward our estate. “Did Father receive a visitor beforehand?”

  Mother stood suddenly. “Have you finished?”

  I looked at my half-empty plate, then past her to the servants in attendance. “I have, Mother. Where shall we go for today’s training?”

  “The hunting grounds. I do not wish to risk damage to our arena.”

  As I followed Mother out, I paid particular attention to the servants. Nothing seemed out of place, and it made me all the more anxious, and I worried more and more about Father’s haggard appearance last night.

  When we passed the arena, I heard the sound of wood on wood.

  Mother answered before I could ask. “Shale has been training since dawn. It seems your achievement has finally lit a spark in that boy.”

  And he’s kept his promise so far. I hated myself for doubting my own brother, but I couldn’t afford to be naive with the secrets I needed to keep.

  We passed the arena and exited the rear of the estate to the very same forest I’d left through for my isolation training. Instead of heading toward Solitude Mountain, we turned away and moved into the forest.

  The past week had seen autumn deepen, and frost rimed the leaves’ edges. Each gust sent flurries of them tumbling about.

  “Winter becomes so much more when you need to worry less about the cold.”

  I nodded, still a bit numb.

  “This should be far enough. Now understand that you will be training today, and I will be testing your limits. But first.” She turned, worry etching her face like I’d never seen. “You know something about your father’s anxiety. Tell me.”

  My new instincts wanted to lie. To hide away and bide my time against someone so dangerous. I almost did, catching myself just ahead of the first syllable. Surely Father’s words of secrecy would not also apply to Mother?

  “Do you know of a mine under Solitude Mountain?”

  Her jaw tightened. “I see.”

  “Tell me, Mother. Why is that mine there?”

  She hissed. Where Father looked tired, Mother looked furious. “I will tell you, Slate. And I will give your father a piece of my mind.” Glinting, deep red crystals formed in the air around her, spinning up. “After your training.”

  I ducked under the first crystal. The second caught my shin, the third my sternum, and the fourth missed as I doubled over in sudden pain.

  Mother batted aside the strand of onyx I sent her way. “Your opponents will not always be so straightforward. Most will try to awe you; they are not particularly dangerous.” Sharp pain shot through my leg and chest. “Those who are dangerous are those whose egos do not need your approval.”

  My next breath came in a gasp; my leg locked. As the pain reached a zenith, it vanished, falling away in trails of glittering red sand.

  “What,” I hissed, “was I supposed to do?” I put a hand over my chest just in case there was a hole in my guise. Whatever she’d done, she couldn’t know, right?

  “Just now? Nothing. You had and have every reason to trust me as your mother, and the difference in our power is too great. I simply aim to make you aware that the realms of combat between cultivators of First Ring and higher are not so clear as the realm of blades and blocks.

  “Now that you are aware, however...” Her eyes began to glow red.

  I shot up into a fighting stance.

  “I expect you to at least try to dodge!”

  Twin blurs of motion, we danced through the trees. Mother was definitely the lead, moving almost languidly compared to my frantic attempts to bend out of the way. In no way was I uncertain this predator was toying with me, but I didn’t get close enough to test my control.

  Once I started mixing my single onyx thread technique into my movements and counters, Mother’s approach changed. Instead, she’d focus on them. Breaking, pulling, disintegrating, and even warping them away from my will.

  I’d almost pieced together how she’d locked my limbs when I slipped up. Something hit me from behind. Sky, trees, sky, trees, and sky flashed in front of me until the ground stopped me with a thud I felt in my bones. Up above, gray clouds hung low through orange leaves falling toward me, and my next breath rattled as it struggled inward.

  Every muscle in my body burned. To labor a metaphor, I wanted desperately to drink from that pond of sequestered vitae I’d built in my Garden. Instead, I let Mother pull me to my feet.

  She was beaming, not a strand of hair out of place. Though I could feel her quick heartbeat through the handshake, I doubted it was from strain.

  “Brilliant.” Her eyes shone like gems. “Your form is abysmal considering your capabilities. Your external skill is pathetic, and your use of it is so limited as to be laughable. But your foundation…” When she smiled, more than my demonic instincts felt like a prey animal. “You’re far more refined than most First Rings. If you can learn to adapt your movement to your new speed and flexibility you will be most formidable.

  “Perhaps Schist will admit then, that it is not raw strength which need define the temerity of Graystone.”

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  “Mother?” I hissed.

  “Yes, Slate?” She looked down and let go of my wrist.

  “May I rest now?”

  She laughed. “Oh no, dear. Do you not want to prove your methods to your father?”

  I took a deep breath and tried to prepare my aching body. “I do.”

  “Good.” Glittering red dust swarmed around her, coalescing into a brilliantly shining set of armored robes and a thin, wicked-looking rapier. Behind her, spinning blades rose like vipers waiting to strike. “I’ll let you make the first move.”

  I moved, she countered effortlessly, and I quickly found myself staring up at the sky again. She was waiting when I pulled myself back up to my feet.

  “Again.”

  This time, she moved a little slower. Three more times and she explained one flaw. Then again, and again, and again. By the time she’d finished with me, the sun had set and chill winter air had sapped the warmth from my bones. My guise held by a thread, and hunger had returned in full force.

  We returned to the estate in silence.

  “I will not apologize for pushing you,” mother stated. “But I will meet with your father and inform him of your dedication.”

  Rather than risking something as simple as opening my mouth when my hidden fangs ached, I simply nodded.

  The last person I wanted to see was Shale, but my brother was waiting in the small seating box above our training arena. To an uneducated observer, it would look like he was meditating, but he jumped up as soon as we came near.

  “Mother! Train me too!” he said with the sort of firm eagerness that I wondered for a moment if he really was still six and not sixteen.

  Mother looked him up and down and clicked her tongue. “So eager. If you were trying to meditate, your form was not relaxed. I must see your Father tonight; we may discuss your training later.”

  Shale’s shoulders slumped. I thought back to stories Azalea had told me, of her own parents’ favoritism. Had I really never noticed?

  “You should train him, Mother,” I croaked.

  I stopped shy of complimenting him, but that didn’t stop Shale from giving me a look of pure disbelief. It hurt a little, somehow noticeable over the pain and through my fugue-like thoughts.

  Shale’s bright smile fell, however, in the face of Mother’s vicious grin. “Very well then. Since your brother performed with such endurance today, I will expect the same of you tomorrow. We begin at dawn.”

  She turned and strutted away, and I moved to follow. Shale caught my shoulder.

  “Thank you, Brother,” he said, and the earnestness in his voice hurt my heart.

  “Will you keep this up?” I pulled away.

  He frowned. “Keep what up?”

  “The training. Will you properly hone your techniques?”

  His eyes hardened. “You think I haven’t been serious?”

  “I know… you’ve… I’ve been a bad comparison I suppose.” It was like a gate slammed down on the accusations I was about to throw. Right now, I couldn’t take my brother. Right now he could expose me when Mother was still within earshot.

  “Just because you spend twelve hours doing one motion doesn’t mean I can’t get it in one, brother,” Shale hit me on the back and I stumbled. “You’re a mess, Slate.”

  “Oh, you’ll be in for it tomorrow.”

  “Mother? Really?”

  I blinked. Did he not know? Then again… she’d only ever trained with me, hadn’t she. Had Mother been ignoring Shale his whole life?

  I wasn’t ready for this kind of crisis. Not right now, and the cogs in my mind agreed, jamming shut so completely that all I could manage was a nod before stumbling away.

  “And you’d better not look down on me for taking shortcuts when I do better,” Shale taunted. “Not after what I know you did!”

  I stumbled, falling to one knee. Ahead of me, Mother was just closing the door back inside. She heard, there was no way she didn’t hear my brother’s big mouth. Cold sweat started down my spine and I tried to keep my racing heart calm as I half-stumbled toward my chambers. With each step, I could feel the guise tearing little by little, spalling under my robes.

  She heard. I can’t go to the vault. I need vitae.

  Before I could figure out a plan, I was in my room, door shut tight behind me and no servants inside. From the nightstand by my bed, I could smell it. A wisp, just like the night I’d been transformed, coming from a tiny little bottle.

  I threw the curtains closed, ripped open the door, and had dumped the bloodstone down my throat before I could even think to fight it. It tasted like iron and my head throbbed as a small burst of vitae flooded into me.

  Rrrriiiip!

  My guise disintegrated as shredded training robes fell around me. Glass shards from the crushed bottle fell to the floor and I stared at black-nailed hands, shivering in the sudden cold.

  A chuckle turned into a giggle turned into laughter that wracked my body. Soft sheets enveloped me, my chest pressing into the bed as black chitin legs twitched above.

  “I’m doomed. I’m completely doomed,” I hissed between laughs. On unsteady arms, I flipped over, watching as my spider legs formed a cage between me and the lovely freedom painted on the bed’s canopy.

  How could I possibly think I’d last at the sect? How could I possibly think I could stay heir? Shale’s training now; they’ll see he’s stronger than me. Father’s in charge, not Mother, and I take after Mother. Long hair, slim physique, brains over brawn.

  Look, Father, I even have breasts!

  I palmed them and squeezed until it hurt.

  “Young Master?”

  The voice outside my door made me freeze. I coughed, working my jaws to try to get the right voice to come out.

  “I’m alright,” I croaked back, sounding not at all okay.

  “Your mother has requested I draw you a bath with rose oil and products for your hair.”

  I took one lock of long black hair in a shaky, clawed hand. “I…”

  With eight eyes, I could see the door to my room, the door to the bath room, and the mess I’d made on the floor all at once. Still tired to the point this whole kaleidoscopic view was spinning, I shoved the robe’s remains under the bed with two legs and pulled the curtains around my bed shut with the others.

  “J-just prepare the bath,” I replied hoping my voice came out the right pitch. “I’ll bathe myself… as usual. And send Mother my thanks.”

  The door opened. I pulled the blankets up past my chest and my legs tight around me as footsteps moved past the bed and its closed curtains. The door to the bath room opened. For several agonizing minutes, I heard the sound of running water.

  Then the footsteps returned, stopping away from the bed.

  “Your bath is ready, Young Master.”

  “T-thank you,” I replied.

  For Shale, or Father, thanking the servants was a rare event for exceptional service. Mother did so slightly more often, perhaps to compensate for her often meticulous and demanding tasks. I’d been to several of their homes before, thanking them for me wasn’t unusual.

  Which made the warmth, the relief even I could hear in my voice all that more unusual from the detached professionalism I’d strived to maintain. The servant definitely noticed.

  “You’re welcome, Young Master,” she replied with a bit more warmth as well before the door closed.

  I waited a long minute for her footsteps to disappear, then I peered through a crack in the curtains like I was a child again before climbing out of the bed like a spider out of her den.

  Her?

  I didn’t dwell on it, especially when I realized I’d left glass shards on the floor. They weren’t obvious, so perhaps they hadn’t been noticed?

  Either way, the warm, flower-scented bath drew me to it like a moth to a flame. I sunk down into the water and hissed contentedly. Later, I would figure out how to survive.

  Right now, I would detach and just enjoy this moment. I took the hair oils I’d been given and worked them through my damp hair, one stage after the next. My clawed nails slid the tough strands apart where they’d tangled, and my four top legs subconsciously held the locks apart to dry behind me.

  As the water cooled from a cloying heat to a gentle warmth, I thought about what I needed to do. Right now, I could resume my guise, but I couldn’t fight with it. The first step would be gaining more vitae.

  There were some wells of stronger vitae near our estate I could visit for “training.” And actual training. Beyond that, though… Mother had acted the same way as Father had. And the Sects were involved.

  A child would not miss the implication: this mine in its current form is an arrangement with the sects, one that I doubt either of my parents approved of. Obviously we were in no position to disobey. But that begged the question: why?

  Bloodstone contained vitae, but it also corrupted. Cassytha had been turning into a demon while we fought, and drinking the ancient monster’s blood had transformed me directly. What I’d had moments ago felt little different. Why would the Shimmering Shadows sect risk it?

  And were other sects involved?

  Kobel and Cassytha had both been Shimmering Shadows, but I hadn’t gotten a look at the higher-ring cultivator who’d flown presumably to our estate. Moreover, I could swear I was missing someone or something else connected to the mine.

  Something critically important. Enic? No, I remembered him—though I would need to look into his history as well before I left our estate. Perhaps he would be in the archive, under the same alias if I were lucky.

  It must just be how exhausted I am.

  Two goals sat before me: figure out who is responsible for the mine so we can work toward shutting it down, and find out more about the people sent to it, Enic included. Azalea in town might have a lead on the latter, but for the former…

  Only Father knew the answer. Slate would obey; he would forget this and return to his cultivation. He would file it away as just one more thing to change later. But Silk didn’t see things that way. If Father is unable or unwilling to investigate and end this twisted business, then it is my duty to find a way.

  To do that, I would need access to my Father’s personal files. The ones he kept in the secret safe in his office. All the other files I had free access to. And in those I hadn’t even seen a pattern of accounting errors that would hint at its existence.

  Nothing.

  The problem, of course, would be getting access to the safe. The water was cold by the time I realized I had no good ideas of exactly how I could do that. If not the safe, something in his personal chambers or office was bound to give a clue. It scared me just how easily thoughts of such incredible disobedience came to me as Silk.

  Both Silk and Slate could agree on one aspect: to do any of this, I would need vitae and perhaps just a little help.