Honestly, Aiden had no idea what to think of their new mentor.
He had no idea what to think of their current situation.
Everything seemed to be derailing at lightning speed.
Just over a month ago, he had been at his cabin, helping Jax with his quest while counting the seconds until the wolf would leave.
Now Aiden would take a killing blow for him.
One of their party members was dead.
His entire understanding of what made up reality was crumbling.
In that regard, Aiden was rather cross with Jax at the moment.
Everything was spinning out of control so fast that he could not even remember whether they had left Sir Oinks-a-Lot with the vehicle or if the pig had somehow ended up with Thalia.
So Aiden needed a goal.
And considering he now had the pieces he needed at his disposal, he had a mission.
Jax did not help by saying things like, "No, you're injured. Sleep. You can build it tomorrow."
Aiden did not need sleep.
He needed a distraction from existential dread.
He had even tried to sneak down to the workshop after Jax was supposed to be asleep, but it seemed Jax had been waiting for him.
The wolf even had a bag that Aiden could only assume contained food and alcohol, just so he could stay up all night and make sure Aiden rested.
So imagine Aiden's surprise when he heard Jax pounding on his door.
"Aiden! Aiden, you up, dude?"
Jax's voice was loud and carried a surprising amount of panic, considering it was around four in the morning.
Aiden grumbled and winced his way out of bed before making his way to the door.
"Jax, the sun's not even up," Aiden muttered. "What are you yelling fo—"
He opened the door, expecting to see Jax checking whether he was actually in bed or something.
Instead, Jax was covered in dirt.
Deep circles sat under his eyes from staying up.
He was panting from effort, like he had been running for miles, and a strange vitality seemed to pulse from him.
What really caught Aiden's attention, however, was the very pale, limp fox tied to Jax's back with a cloth.
The fox was covered in dozens of wounds.
After what Kaelen had said days ago, a small part of Aiden's mind had been forced to think back to when he first froze after Jax was knocked out.
But as he saw the situation in front of him, Aiden did not think.
He turned, grabbed his bag, and pulled out two healing potions and one antidote.
Then he helped Jax release the cloth holding the fox and began to work.
"What in the hells happened?" Aiden asked.
He applied bits of healing potion to a rag and began addressing the wounds while pouring more down the fox's throat.
"Long story," Jax said. "Short version is she was attacked by dire wolves, and I chased them off. But she had already passed out by then."
Aiden paused and stared at him.
"Where the hell did you find dire wolves in the city?"
"I left the city to do something. She was about a mile into the woods." Jax's voice sharpened with surprising force. "Will she live or not?"
Aiden looked him over for a moment, then finished tying a few bandages here and there before nodding.
"Okay. Her breathing is stable, and it looks like most of the wounds weren't deep."
He turned his gaze back to Jax.
"But what were you doing so far beyond the city?"
Jax refused to meet his eyes for a moment.
Silence hung between them.
Then Jax turned to him.
His normal expression was gone, replaced by a level of seriousness that was both startling and chilling.
"Look," Jax said. "The reason I went out was to gain a new ability. But what I'm more concerned with is what comes after this fox fullblood wakes up."
Aiden raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.
"And what exactly is going to be so catastrophic about her waking up?"
Jax took a centering breath.
Then he asked a strange question.
"Have you ever heard of the Naturalists?"
Aiden cocked his head, trying to think if he had ever heard anything by that name before.
Then he shook his head.
Jax sighed, looked him in the eyes, and said, "Can I trust that nothing said in this room leaves this room without going through me first?"
Aiden sat down on the bed.
Jax sat beside him.
"I promise," Aiden said. "So what exactly are these Naturalists?"
Jax let out a breath and began to explain.
"The Naturalists are a faction of beastkin supremacists. They believe the other races are destined to serve them. So they make their own settlements away from people."
"Well, sure, there are supremacists here and there," Aiden said, a bit confused. "But that's not a super common thing, you know?"
"You'd be surprised," Jax said. "Unlike halfbloods or lightbloods, fullbloods receive all the benefits and flaws from their full animalistic inheritance."
He leaned forward.
"So a rhino beastkin can plow through buildings even as a mage. A rabbit beastkin can run four times as fast as anyone else their level. It also doesn't help the divide that most places have services that require thumbs more than people think."
Jax's ears lowered slightly.
"So a good twenty percent of the fullblood population is part of the Naturalists."
Aiden turned to Jax with a silent question.
Jax took off his jacket and revealed a strange bald patch on the back of his neck.
A symbol stood there.
It looked like a mouth with fangs, like the side profile of a lunging beast.
"Soooooo," Aiden said slowly, "does that mean you plan to make the rest of us serve you, or…?"
He thought back to how many times he had covered Jax's beer tab and felt just a little concerned.
Jax gave him a weird look before shaking his head.
"What? No. I was born to a tribe of Naturalists. That's why I know just how bad the mania of the tribes can get."
He glanced toward the sleeping fox.
"I'm worried she may be a Naturalist, and if she is, we'll have to figure out what to do with her."
Aiden looked at the sleeping fox in the corner, covered in bandages.
Then he turned back to Jax.
"So how did you get out of the Naturalists?"
Jax went quiet for a moment.
He shifted in place.
"It was because of my brother," he said.
His voice softened.
"Growing up, he and my father were these almost unreachable figures. My dad was level sixty with a B-rank soul skill, while my brother had gotten to level twenty by age twelve and had an A-rank soul skill."
Jax gave a small, dry chuckle.
"He was lined up to be the next chief. You should have seen the suitors who showed up from different Naturalist tribes seeking the Stormfront Child, as they'd dubbed him."
The chuckle faded.
"Despite how lofty he was, he refused to let the little runt of the litter fall behind. He taught me how to use skills and even helped me develop my martial arts into what they are now."
Jax looked down at his paws.
"If you can believe it, I was still level one at the age of sixteen, even though I participated in the hunts. I idolized my brother."
He swallowed.
"Honestly, that day I followed him because I wanted to tell him Dad was getting madder and madder that he refused to take a bride."
Jax paused.
His shoulders shook for a moment.
Then he cleared his throat and looked up at the ceiling before continuing.
"As it turned out, he was already seeing someone. A nice dwarven girl named Siri. He knew about the Naturalist stuff, and yet he still fell in love with her."
A faint smile crossed his face.
"Hell, I don't blame him. They looked so happy together it was infectious."
The smile vanished.
"However, my sister was a psionic. She read my mind when I didn't realize she was there."
Aiden went still.
"Dad beat me until I was at the edge of death before healing me and starting over again. He kept demanding I tell him where it happened so he could do something. I don't even know what he planned, but it would have been bad."
Aiden watched Jax.
He thought back to all of Jax's drunken antics.
His laughing.
His normal smile.
All of it had been replaced by such a pained expression that Aiden did not know what to say.
So he waited.
"Orion came running in after hearing what was happening," Jax continued. "He challenged Dad to a duel for the chief's throne right then and there."
Jax's voice tightened.
"But no amount of talent can make up for a forty-level gap."
The room felt colder.
"If you want to know what kind of bastard my dad was, he gave Orion a choice. He could let me die, and Dad would pretend this never happened, or he could die."
Jax looked down.
"The jackass didn't even hesitate."
Aiden's chest tightened.
"I got kicked out of my home that night," Jax said. "When I told Siri the news, she slapped me and cursed me out until I fled town."
He exhaled slowly.
"I think it was that first night, when I fell asleep under a small tree with bits of rain coming through the leaves, that I vowed I would kill my dad."
Jax turned to look at Aiden.
Then he stuck his tongue out, his tone shifting awkwardly.
"Uh, sorry about the touchy-feely rant just there."
Feeling the change in tone, Aiden leaned back and laughed.
"You're good," he said. "But in exchange for subjecting me to this touchy-feeliness, I hold a demand, good sir."
He said the last part in the mock noble accent they had been using to imitate some of the nobles who occasionally visited the duke's estate.
Jax immediately matched the tone.
"Good sir," he said, turning back to Aiden, "what demand would you hold me to?"
Jax did the voice better than Aiden did.
And combined with him using his tail like a fake mustache, Aiden let out a sputtering laugh before answering.
"When you rip your dad's throat out, I want to be holding him down so I can see it happen."
Jax gave him a grin.
Then he held up his paw.
Aiden bumped his fist against it.