Just as Kael fastened the last button a loud buzzing filled the air, like a dragonfly's but almost deafening.
He turned his head up and raised a hand to shield himself. Trees bent and water rippled as a gigantic beetle flew past, its sheer size making it difficult to believe it could actually be airborne.
Then a chorus of snapping trees as Ina shot forward and closed her jaws around it. The beetle's shell resisted for a moment, then a sequence of cracks as her teeth sank through. Wings shattered in multiple places and pieces of shell came down like blades, cutting through trees and rocks alike.
"Ina, stop!" Jian waved his hands toward her. "You'll get to eat it, but not yet. Drop it!"
Kael could have sworn he heard a contemplative huff before she finally dropped it.
The whole island shook when it hit the ground.
"Come. Let's see if we were lucky this time."
The two walked over and started to climb.
"The beetle doesn't specifically seek out Asterite, so there's no guarantee, but it collects shiny material as part of its mating ritual. Their logic is basically that more shiny means more attractive."
Kael didn't doubt it once he reached the top. Clusters of gleaming things covered the surface, ores, plants, even pockets of water held in place by some kind of adhesive seeping from the shell itself.
"Asterite is black, right?" Kael asked, kicking a piece of ruby loose.
Jian was crouched over an ore sample when he answered.
"Mostly. But it shifts toward a dark crimson when the light catches it right."
They didn't find anything until they reached the mandible. Right where the jaw joint met the shell there was a pocket of black with faint hints of gold from the surrounding material and the dark crimson Jian had described.
It wasn't much. But what Kael had in mind didn't need much. Excluding the impurities the clump would have roughly the same mass as a standard iron bar.
He turned it over in his hand when a friendly pat landed on his shoulder.
"Now we should go." Jian said with a grin.
"How so?"
"Well." He scratched the back of his head. "Rare metals are hard to come by on the surface, so someone figured out you could take advantage of a beetle like this one and let its habits do the collecting for you."
Kael's expression shifted.
"What are you saying?"
"This particular beetle tends to develop exactly the kind of habits that interest certain people. The Royal Noble family had one tamed to gather metals like Asterite on their behalf."
Kael stood fully.
"Are you saying we just interfered with Royal affairs?"
His voice had gone cold.
"Ever since you entered the Depths you've been interfering with Royal affairs, Valerian." Jian held up a hand. "But technically it's less Royal affairs and more the affairs of people who received permission from the Royal Noble family to operate down here. I've been meaning to deal with that beetle for a while anyway. When you needed the metal it seemed like a good opportunity to handle both at once."
Kael held the doubtful look for a moment longer before dropping down.
"Fine. Let's go before anyone notices."
It took some time for Ina to swallow the beetle, but they were soon back on her head continuing west.
'Can't be long now until the exit.'
They had been traveling for close to two weeks, and at Ina's speed that was a considerable distance covered.
"Where will we exit?"
Jian was brewing tea against all reasonable odds.
"You are exiting." He corrected. "Island Morae. The most eastern island of the central continent, roughly halfway between the two."
Kael searched his geographical knowledge and found nothing.
"That means there's water to cross. You must have realised by now that I can't fly."
Jian tasted the tea, grimaced slightly, then raised a hand.
"I know. Here."
He flicked a rank two mote toward Kael.
Kael caught it and raised an eyebrow.
A thin flat disc, roughly the size of a coin.
"It's called the Datum mote." Jian held out a cup. "Nothing significant, but it lets you walk on water. Or if you prefer, walk from a fixed elevation. If you stepped off something like a staircase for example with it active you could keep walking as though the air beneath you was solid. With your Thought replenishment being what it is, you could use it indefinitely i reckon."
Kael accepted the cup with an inward scoff. Apparently Jian had also mapped his natural Thought production as abnormal.
"Oh. You can also anchor yourself in place with it. Quite useful in certain situations actually."
Kael cleansed Jian's Will from it and replaced it with his own before dismissing it.
'Generous.'
Or something close to it. At rank five, handing out low ranked motes didn't carry the same weight it would for someone further down. The gesture was real but the cost was negligible.
"So you expect me to walk back to Sole?"
"I'd come with you, but there are things here I haven't finished." Jian said. "Don't be too disappointed. Without noise or light pollution it's a beautiful walk. And the exit I'm about to show you I found myself." He paused. "Don't tell anyone about it."
Kael took a sip and suppressed a reaction. Jian had used water that was too hot again.
"Except there are beasts and Dreadborne in the ocean that could tear me apart."
"Is that so?"
Jian asked, raising an eyebrow.
A translucent ball of crystals appeared beside him and shot forward in a straight line.
With wet tearing sounds, it ground through Kael's entire side down to the bone, taking most of his chin with it. Tea ran freely from where his jaw should have been, down onto his chest.
The crystals dismissed behind him in a burst of white and gold, crimson threading through the cloud.
Tendrils shot from the wounds instantly, reaching into the dispersing cloud and finding the torn flesh, pulling each piece back and pressing it into place. The wounds sealed a moment later.
Kael clenched his jaw and shook the pain off.
"Don't... Do that."
His voice was ice cold.
Jian rested his chin in his palm and studied him.
"Your regenerative abilities are impressive enough to be terrifying. But they have limits, don't they? Otherwise you wouldn't have been so tempted by the arm."
He was exactly right.
The eye couldn't create from nothing. That was why his arm hadn't regenerated when he first claimed it. The same principle applied to any attack that removed flesh entirely. The best the eye could do was close the wound. What was gone was gone.
"Just ask next time."
"Would you have answered?"
"No."
Jian suddenly sighed and turned forward.
"What do you want? I have no business with any of you."
He said it toward the darkness.
Ina stopped as though the air had turned solid.
"Jian."
A voice from somewhere ahead.
A rank five drifted out of the darkness with two rank fours flanking her.
"You didn't. Until today."
Kael rose and started toward Jian, who put a hand out without looking back.
"Stay."
The woman leaned to one side, trying to see past him.
"An apprentice? Your shamelessness truly knows no limits does it?"
Jian crossed his arms. "This is none of your concern. Let's go our separate ways and forget what happened today. Violet."
She laughed. "Forget? The more you speak the more I despise you."
Kael watched the two of them. He didn't recognise the woman but her importance was obvious. A simple black robe matching her black hair. Eyes a striking blue, not unlike his own.
'She must be responsible for the beetle. How did they notice so quickly?'
Jian's face had gone completely still.
"I won't lie to you, Valerian." He said quietly over his shoulder. "We're in some trouble."
Kael looked at him "We?"
A single water droplet formed above Jian's raised hand.
Violet narrowed her eyes.
"Think carefully about your next move."
Jian chuckled.
"There isn't a thing in this world I've ever been more certain of."
The droplet flicked sideways with a screech and began circling them at a speed that made it impossible to track.
Ina released her grip on the root and dropped to the ground. The moment she landed the earth beneath her began to liquefy, molten rock and burning matter exploding outward in a wave as her heat met the ground. She entered it like water, disappearing into the glowing mass she had made of the floor. Kael's eyes closed instinctively and he relied entirely on the primordial eye to see.
"Don't worry. They won't kill us… I think."
The droplet moved so fast around them that none of the molten debris pushed through, creating a scorching but survivable pocket of space.
"Hmm. They shouldn't have been down here to begin with, but what can we do? The exit isn't far. Just relax."
Kael glanced at him.
They were currently being chased by a rank five and two rank fours.
Taking it easy wasn't exactly on the table.