Edan fell onto the bed in the attic of Harvey’s store with a joyous sigh. The sigh cut off as he got a mouth full of linen. Rolling over, Edan looked up at the wooden beams just above his head and frowned.

  The bed wasn’t as comfortable as he expected. Or rather, it wasn’t much more comfortable than the sleeping bag he had used while camping in the woods. It took Edan a second to work it out. Just like being wet had changed, so too had his comfort.

  Not sure how to feel about that new progression, Edan swung his foot over the side of the bed and sat up. The small crescent window next to the headboard let in a thin beam of moonlight and through it, Edan could see the stars in the sky.

  There was the sound of tearing cardboard and Edan looked over lazily to the pile of boxes that teetered dangerously before falling over. Books, likely children's books from the artwork, spilled out as well as clothes. There was a growl and the female cub stuck its head out of the pile, a white vest hanging from one ear.

  Tali had peeled off once they entered town. She’d mentioned something about resupplying and laying low at the Traders Guild while he visited family. It would be a short trip. She planned on leaving the following night.

  The cubs had been too scared to go with her, and Edan had been too scared to release them, so they had tagged along with him.

  Harvey had been pleasantly surprised when he turned up. A quick question let Edan know Cassie had turned in for the night. Apparently, she and Lorien were still having difficulties. Sanik and Reema had been gone as well.

  Sanik had been off collecting information. The hunt for them was still ongoing, which was a bit unusual, and the feeling that there was more going on had only increased. Reema, worried about the unwavering manhunt, had been digging deeper and deeper into the seedy underbelly of the city to find smugglers willing to take them out of the city.

  Edan watched the male bear appear from behind a stack of books, a sock in his mouth. Shaking his head viciously, the cub did little more than slap his own face with the soft fabric.

  “I really should give you both names,” he muttered, then wondered if he had the right to.

  The female cup had managed to untangle herself from the mess she'd made and had wandered over to play tug of war with the sock her brother had.

  Edan was still wondering about that when the door to the attic swung open and Saniks head popped up.

  “Ha! I knew I smelt something.” He said cheerily, a large smile plastered across his face. More of his body emerged from the hole in the floor as he ascended the ladder.

  “Close the door!” Edan said quickly as the two bears noticed the light spilling across the room and the new voice. “I don’t want those two getting out.”

  The two in question had huddled together, their eyes cautious as they regarded Sanik. The male let out an adorable growl and tried to make himself look bigger than he was.

  “Uhhh, son…why are there two bear cubs in the room with you? And where's the mother? Haven’t you heard about mama bears?”

  Edan got up and stopping only to give the two cubs a reassuring pat on the head, gave his father a hug. The familiar scent of leather and metal was comforting.

  “You move differently,” Sanik observed. “Better balance and more sure of yourself.”

  Edan didn’t know what to say to that so settled for a lopsided shrug. “Tali has me dan-uhhh, training and she’s always talking about not limiting myself to what I think I’m capable of.”

  Sanik nodded. “Sure. Sure. Now, the cubs?”

  “Oh, right.” Edan gestured towards the bed and Sanik joined him, sitting beside Edan he held his hand out to the cubs but they just looked at him cautiously.

  Edan took a while to explain everything that had been going on with him over the last couple of weeks. Sanik listened, laughing and smiling at the right parts and grimacing appropriately when Edan told him about the monkey attack.

  “Might be useful to grab a set of graded weapons, the pair we gave you was never meant to be anything but a temporary solution,” Sanik advised at the end. “This might help.”

  Edan looked down and gave a small cheer. Sanik held a small leather pouch out.

  “My savings! You went home?”

  Sanik gave a cocky grin. “Course. I may not be Reema's level of stealthy, but I’ve worked with her on enough jobs that I’ve got the hang of sneaking. I needed to pick up some stuff from there and remembered you were bummed out you forgot it.”

  Edan opened the pouch. His life savings looked back at him.

  “Nice! Do you think I could get a graded weapon with this?” He asked excitedly.

  Sanik laughed out loud and shook his head. “Not even close. But I’ll throw in the rest. Think of it as a proper present since the last one I got you didn’t last a week.”

  Edan was more than willing to set aside his pride for a properly graded weapon.

  “Where’s mum?” He asked suddenly.

  “Down by the docks,” Sanik said, falling backward on the bed. He almost cracked his head on the wall. “She got hold of an old smuggling friend of hers a few nights ago but she was black-out drunk at the time so Reema wanted to wait. Silly idiot got locked up by the Watch for starting a brawl with a couple of free cultivators.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Damn.”

  “Mmmm, she’s lucky they weren’t affiliated with any of the Sects. Could have ended up much worse. They released her earlier today and Reema figures she’ll be eager to set sail so she wanted to try reaching out to her one more time before she left.”

  “And you let her go alone?”

  “That’s your mother's old life, son, she knows how to handle it better than I. Cute little things, aren’t they?”

  The bear cubs had crept closer during the conversation. The male leading. When they noticed Sanik looking at them they shuffled around, trying to get closer to Edan. He put his feet out and they slunk under it, looking around his shins at Sanik. The male let out another threatening growl and glancing at him sideways the female followed his lead.

  “They seem attached to you.” Sanik gave them a little finger wave.

  “I think it’s just because Tali and you terrify them.”

  “Awww and you’re a big fluffy teddy bear.” Sanik teased.

  Eager to change the topic, Edan asked about Sanik’s movements lately. It didn’t amount to much other than light snooping, a few meetings in dark rooms, and a few five-fingered information retrievals. The last part made Edan frown but Sanik just laughed.

  “Relax. Harvey vets all of it. They're the thieves guild, son, they steal information as easily as they steal treasures.” Sanik rubbed roughly at his face and let out a huff. “That being said, not a single person knows why the Academy is trying so hard to find us. Or if they know, they aren’t talking about it. The other day Damascus Farrows showed up to help look!”

  The obvious confusion on Edan’s face made Sanik laugh and he ruffled his son's hair.

  “Damascus Farrows is a very prominent member of The World Union Sect. Not particularly strong, but he carries a lot of influence since his father was the one that founded the Sect.”

  “And if he’s here it means that the World Union has thrown their support behind the search…” Edan muttered.

  He scratched the back of his neck. His hair was getting long and he’d need to cut it soon. Or tie it up. Sanik often used a bun and made it look manly. Edan wondered if it was the beard. Unable to grow facial hair, Edan figured the long-haired look might not suit him.

  “I actually think I might have the answer to that,” Edan said slowly.

  During his last talk with Kiba, Edan had mentioned telling his parents about the Four Star Heavenly Sect as well as the primordial himself. Edan had expected Kiba to be resistant to revealing his presence but he hadn’t cared. He’d twirled a blade of grass around his finger and said it was up to Edan.

  Edan would just have to tell them, in no uncertain terms, that he wasn’t going to try to get rid of Kiba. And that he wasn’t crazy, even if he did hear another voice in his head.

  Sanik looked at Edan, one eyebrow raised in question.

  “Really?”

  “Yes. But I want to tell Mum and Harvey as well so maybe we do it at the same time?”

  Sanik gave his son a long level look, the usual humor gone from his eyes. Edan wasn’t sure what Sanik saw in his face but he seemed reassured as a couple of seconds later he nodded slowly.

  “Ok. I’ll let Reema and Harvey know to set some time aside tomorrow morning. I’m assuming since you didn’t mention Cassie you’d prefer she doesn't know?”

  Edan thought of Cassie, her life was so far removed from the world of cultivation and levels. He shook his head.

  “Nah, it affects her, but she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Harvey can tell her later.” If he believes me Edan added in his head.

  Sanik left him to get some rest. At first, Edan lay on the bed and figured he’d sleep. But after tossing and turning for a solid thirty minutes he sat back up. Sleep and rest would become more and more rare the higher level he became. Even at the mid-thirties, Edan already found that an hour a day could work in a pinch.

  With nothing better to do, Edan decided to try to focus on what Kiba had said about Paths.

  If stats governed the body and your level controlled your stats, then your Path controlled how you gained power. The concept behind it was rather confusing and abstract and even Kiba had trouble explaining it. The types of Paths didn’t seem to follow any rhyme or reason either.

  Like any path, if Edan wanted to progress down it, he would need to take steps. The easiest way to do this? Tie it to an existing skill and force the skill to advance along that path.

  This train of thought had Edan pulling up his skill list to see what was available.

  Kiba had said to focus on synergy. What skill would work best with which of his Paths?

  Edans eyes landed on the Throw skill before he looked over at Flurry. Both were his most used skills. Slash wasn’t the greatest. Sure his daggers counted as a sharp-edged weapon, but the blades weren’t long enough to add much to the skill. Charge was also an option, but Edan wasn’t sure the idea he had in mind for that skill was possible at the moment.

  For now, Edan settled on Throw as his skill of choice. As for the Path. Edan chose Path of Lightning. He had an idea of what he wanted to do and how both could work together.

  Kiba had not been happy Edan had chosen to walk down the Path of Lightning first, but his grumbles had faded as Edan described his plans.

  Pulling a knife from the sheath on his chest, Edan sat on the edge of his bed. [Throw] activated and the blade went spinning across the attic to slam into a support beam with a thunk.

  The bear cubs stopped their wrestling to look over at the noise. Convinced it was nothing they went back at it.

  Edan pulled another knife from his chest and used [Throw] again. This time he focused on how his body moved and the surge of Vitalis through his limbs as the skill activated.

  They hadn’t been able to find his other weapons before leaving camp. No doubt some monkey was showing it off to a friend at this very moment. Edan hopped they dropped it on their toe.

  What that meant was Edan had to get up and retrieve his blades from across the room.

  “It's going to be a long night.” He muttered.