Chapter 144: MIRA
Cinder lay beside the remains of the burned nets, looking far too pleased with herself for a beast whose fire had dropped to a fraction of what it had been yesterday.
Nyx disagreed with her mood. She sat several paces away in Aiden's shadow. Every time a little more heat rolled off Cinder, Nyx made the same irritated sound.
Cinder answered with a satisfied growl.
Nyx made the sound again.
"She understands you're happy," Aiden said. "She's asking you to stop showing it."
Cinder's tail struck the ground.
Nyx hissed.
"Asking strongly."
Miasma ignored them both and cleaned the last dirt from her body in the channel. She returned spotless and as dignified as ever.
Aiden looked down at the commission.
The fight had done Cinder some good, at least. She'd spent more fire than he wanted, but she'd finally stopped having to sit beside every threat and save herself for a worse one.
Now he had to find out who had sent the threat.
The wax carried House Vane's mark.
Aiden stared at it.
Vane.
That narrowed the problem considerably without actually answering it.
Harken had reason to want him. Percival wanted Cinder too.
But Harken had sent men before. Men with orders, money, and enough confidence to think violence would solve the problem.
This crew had arrived with a commission.
Which Vane solves problems with paperwork?
Of course it's him.
Aiden moved toward the wounded crew leader. The man was awake, sitting against the shelter with his burned arm wrapped across his chest.
Aiden held up the commission.
"Tell me how you got this."
The leader didn't need much convincing.
"A broker in the city had the commission. He told us a House was paying for your beasts alive and gave us the sealed paper. There was another sheet with it. Descriptions of the beasts, what they could do, which ones were easier to take. Things like that."
He shifted against the shelter.
"We never met whoever filed it. We don't usually meet the client. The broker takes the commission, finds a crew willing to do the job, and handles the payment. We bring him the beasts alive, he confirms the capture, and the House pays."
"Where's the description sheet?"
The leader nodded toward his coat.
Aiden found it in an inner pocket. No seal. No formal language. Just instructions for the people doing the capture.
Then he recognized the handwriting.
Small letters. Even spacing.
Percival. Aiden had seen the same hand on the Academy filing.
There you are.
He read.
Cinder occupied the first section.
Solari Blaze Dancer. Tier Three. Reduced recovery in low-Ember terrain. Extreme heat hazard. Capture alive and unburned if the cost can be met.
The last instruction had been crossed out twice.
There were distance recommendations for the nets and catch-poles, the same burned equipment scattered across his camp.
Cinder growled happily.
"Yes. That section needs updating."
Nyx made another annoyed noise from his shadow.
Cinder's growl deepened.
"Both of you have submitted your opinions. Thank you. Now, let me read."
The next section concerned Nyx.
Shadow affinity.
Species unknown. Tier uncertain.
The word beneath those entries had been underlined.
Anomalous.
That section was much shorter.
Percival had lost to Nyx at the Academy. He had clearly kept looking afterward.
He still doesn't understand what she is. Neither do most of us. Good.
Then Aiden reached Miasma. He stopped smiling.
Her section filled most of the remaining page.
Venomspine Stalker.
Former Rotfang Scavenger.
Sewer Row origin.
Her venom, her spines, her speed, the safe distance for handling her.
Percival had written down Miasma's original lineage, then noted that her current lineage was higher than it should have been for a Rotfang Scavenger. Under that, he had added a probable explanation for her first evolution: Corpse Lotus.
The next line named the Ashwood mid-belt. The line after that identified it as Vane-controlled harvest territory.
Why does a catcher need to know where her catalyst came from?
They didn't. The men yesterday needed to know that Miasma could poison them. They did not need her history.
Aiden's eyes returned to the words Corpse Lotus.
For a moment, Aiden saw the Ashwood clearing again.
He remembered new wood in dark soil. A small marker. Three pale flowers growing at the head of a grave.
Mira Vane.
He had known what Corpse Lotus fed on before he cut one. He had sat beside that grave and understood exactly what was beneath the flowers.
A child.
Miasma had been tiny then. Recovering, but still a Rotfang Scavenger. The Live Combat assessment was coming, and she couldn't evolve without a catalyst.
She had recognized the flowers. She had not asked him to take one. Aiden had cut the blossom himself.
He'd thanked Mira because there was nothing else he could give a dead girl whose grave he was taking from.
Then he'd carried the flower home.
Later, inside the sealed chamber, the Corpse Lotus had become part of Miasma's new body. The flower had grown by feeding on Mira. Miasma had evolved by consuming the flower.
Aiden had known both facts from the beginning. He just hadn't liked putting them next to each other.
Now Percival had written it down.
Miasma crossed to him and pressed against his leg.
He lowered the page. She looked at him. For once, he didn't have a joke.
"It's Mira."
Aiden put his hand on her back.
"You remember."
Aiden looked at the page again.
How did Percival trace your evolution back to Mira?
House Vane controlled the Ashwood mid-belt harvest. Their family graves were inside the same territory. Corpse Lotus was valuable enough that the House protected the right to take it.
They would keep records.
A flower disappeared. Later, a Rotfang Scavenger from Sewer Row appeared as a Venomspine Stalker with a lineage she should never have reached.
And Percival knew exactly who owned that Rotfang Scavenger.
That's enough.
Percival didn't need to know what happened inside the evolution chamber. He had enough of a paper trail for someone else to follow.
Aiden looked over the whole sheet again.
This isn't only for the capture crews.
Percival was building a record. He was collecting anything another person could verify later: species, evolutions, Academy reports, witness accounts.
And where are you sending the clean version?
Percival didn't need to come to the fen. He could keep adding evidence until someone with authority opened the file.
Miasma pressed closer against his leg.
Of the three beasts, Percival understood her best. That was the part Aiden hated.
Aiden folded the page once.
Miasma remained against him.
"He's not taking you."
Her eyes stayed on his face.
Aiden swallowed.
"I don't regret our bond."
The hard part was Mira. He had taken something from a dead child because Miasma needed the evolution.
Without the Corpse Lotus, she would have stayed a Rotfang Scavenger, and Aiden's remaining lifespan would have run out. After that, Miasma would have been alone again in the same sewer where he'd found her dying.
Would I do it again?
He still didn't have an answer.
Aiden rubbed his thumb once along her back.
"Still wish there'd been another way."
Miasma settled against his leg.
Behind them, Cinder released another pleased rumble.
Nyx immediately answered with an angry little noise.
Aiden closed his eyes. "Could we have one crisis at a time?"
Cinder rumbled again. Nyx hissed back.
Aiden almost laughed
He stood and crossed to the crew leader.
The man looked at the sheet in Aiden's hand.
"You know who wrote that?"
"I recognized the handwriting."
Aiden untied him.
"Go back to your broker. Tell him to pass a message to Percival Vane."
The leader rubbed his wrists. "What message?"
"His sheet's already out of date."
Aiden glanced at Cinder.
She was still lying beside the wreckage of the crew's equipment, extremely satisfied with herself.
"Tell him the Solari Blaze Dancer got worse."
The leader limped to the crew's abandoned punt and pushed away from the bank.
Aiden watched until it disappeared into the reeds. Then he looked down at Percival's sheet.
Percival's section on Nyx was barely a paragraph.
All right.
Let's make that section useless.