Chapter 145: THE POCKET
Percival's section on Nyx was barely a paragraph. Aiden intended to make it even less useful.
That afternoon, he took Nyx back to the Voidglass Crystal.
He'd kept her away since her first feeding woke the Church's stone and brought Seraphine to his fence.
Aiden still didn't know whether another feeding would alert the Church again, so Nyx had been living on the Void Fragments scattered through the fen instead.
That option had stopped being safer.
Nyx kept searching east for denser Void, toward channels where something had nearly dragged Aiden underwater and a bog-thing had fled at full speed. She still wanted to go deeper.
The crystal was watched, but Aiden knew what waited around it. He could stay beside Nyx while she fed and keep her out of the deep water.
Between Seraphine's stone and whatever lived beneath those channels, he chose the stone.
That's a depressing choice.
Cinder came with them until they reached the place where the fen had stopped her before.
She tested the barrier once. Her paw stopped in empty air.
Cinder growled.
"I know. Stay here. Don't waste any fire fighting something you couldn't move last time. And hey, you're not being left behind. You're guarding the entrance in case Seraphine comes."
She gave him a long look, then lay down across the path. Her fire was still low after the fight with the capture crew. Even lying down, she kept herself facing the upper passage, ready for anyone who came after them.
Nyx led them down the same route. No sheep waited in the passage this time.
At the fissure, Nyx slipped through first. Aiden Shadow Stepped through the wall, and Miasma squeezed through after him.
They stopped in front of the Voidglass Crystal.
Miasma's green light bent toward the crystal, curving around it into the same thin green crown before disappearing against the black surface.
Nyx walked forward.
Last time, she had pushed herself so far into the crystal that only her pale eyes remained visible.
This time, she didn't stop there.
Her head disappeared into the black surface, and her pale eyes followed. She vanished completely inside the Voidglass.
Aiden hated watching it, but he didn't call her back.
"If you come out with fewer legs, Cinder will blame me."
Miasma stared at him.
"You're blaming me too. Understood."
While he waited, Aiden activated Perception.
The crystal remained blank.
That hadn't changed since their first visit. Perception could show him the Void Fragments Nyx absorbed throughout the fen, but the largest concentration of Void he'd ever found gave him nothing.
More importantly, he couldn't see Nyx inside it.
There was no reading he could use to judge how much she was absorbing or when she had taken enough. Until she came back out, all he could do was wait.
Excellent. My safest option is the one I can't measure. Why am I even surprised? I can't even measure my own camp in this fen.
A long moment later, a pale eye appeared against the black.
Then Nyx stepped out.
Aiden held out his hand. She pressed her forehead into his palm and stayed there while he checked her.
No weakness. No hesitation. Whatever she'd taken from the crystal hadn't hurt her. If anything, she seemed steadier than when she'd gone in.
The darkness no longer blurred the edges of her body. Miasma's green light showed each paw clearly against the stone, along with the shape of her legs, ears, and tail. Even the shadow beneath her stayed tight to her body instead of spreading into the darkness around her.
No system notification appeared.
She hadn't evolved, but something had changed.
Aiden crouched beside her.
For weeks, the scattered Void Fragments had fed Nyx, but they were never enough. She always finished feeding and eventually went looking for somewhere darker.
After the Voidglass, she wasn't looking toward the waterways. She was looking back at the crystal.
That was the difference Aiden needed. The Void Fragments could sustain her progress.
The Voidglass could take her further.
"We already had the good stuff."
Nyx's pale eyes curved.
"Don't tell Miasma I called it that. She'll want naming rights."
Miasma stared at him.
"Too late."
Nyx approached the crystal again.
Aiden stopped her.
"Not again."
She made an unhappy sound.
"One experiment with a crystal that can call the Church is enough for today."
Aiden had learned something else. Nyx could still leave the crystal on her own after feeding. She wasn't trapped, and no evolution had started.
What he didn't know was whether that would remain true once she was ready to evolve. The next feeding might end exactly like this one, or it might begin the evolution before he was ready.
If that happened inside the Voidglass, he didn't know whether pulling her out would interrupt the evolution or whether the crystal itself would affect the process.
A short feeding is a risk. An evolution is a commitment.
"We're done."
Nyx made an unhappy sound, but this time she followed when Miasma headed for the fissure.
Miasma squeezed through first. Nyx followed her, and Aiden used Shadow Step to cross the wall.
They climbed back toward the surface.
Cinder still lay across the path where he'd left her. Her fire glowed through the fog as she watched the passage.
She got up as soon as Nyx emerged and went straight to her.
Nyx barely had time to step aside before Cinder lowered her muzzle and sniffed her from head to tail. Then she did it again, slower.
Nyx flattened her ears.
"She's fine."
Cinder checked her again.
"Cinder."
She ignored him.
Nyx hissed.
"All right. Sort it out yourselves."
Cinder finally stopped checking her. Her fire stayed low, but she kept staring at Nyx.
Aiden understood the question.
"No evolution."
Cinder's ears shifted down.
"Something changed, though."
That earned Nyx another inspection.
Nyx made an irritated sound and moved behind Aiden.
"You're on your own."
Cinder huffed.
Miasma had already started toward camp.