The message arrived three days later.
I was working a rat-catching job in the warehouse district; good pay, simple work, and my lightning-beast made short work of vermin. Raikiri enjoyed it. The predator in him liked having something to hunt that couldn't fight back.
A runner found me between kills. A boy, maybe seven, with a skinny cat Anima winding between his ankles.
"You Cassandra?"
"Who's asking?"
"Got a message." He held out a folded paper. "Man paid me to bring it. Said it was urgent."
I took the paper. The boy vanished back into the warehouse shadows before I could question him further.
The note was in my mother's handwriting. Shaky. Rushed.
Come home. Something's wrong. Please.
My blood went cold.
"Raikiri."
I know. His voice crackled through the bond. We're going. Now.
The outskirts of the Azure capital weren't really part of the city. They were the places the city had grown around and then forgotten; ramshackle houses built by people who couldn't afford rent closer to the markets, surrounded by scrubland and the occasional struggling farm.
My parents' house was one of the nicer ones. Two rooms, a garden in back, a proper roof that only leaked when the rain came from the east. Father had built it with his own hands twenty years ago, back when he thought hard work would be enough to give his family a good life.
He still thought that. I didn't have the heart to tell him otherwise.
I smelled smoke before I saw the house.
Not wood smoke. Not cooking fire. Something sharper. Wrong.
Cas. Raikiri's voice was tight. I smell blood.
I broke into a run.
The garden was trampled. The door hung open, one hinge broken. And standing in the street outside, flanked by two men in servant's livery, was a noble.
I knew he was a noble before I saw his Anima. The clothes told me; fine wool, silver buttons, boots that had never touched mud. The posture told me; straight-backed, chin lifted, looking at the world like it owed him something. The expression told me; bored, annoyed, like the commotion around him was an inconvenience rather than a tragedy.
His Anima was an Enfield. Fox-headed, eagle-clawed, wolf-bodied, and radiating the kind of predatory intensity that made Raikiri snarl on instinct. A mythical beast. Not the most powerful, but far above anything a commoner household could match.
My parents stood between him and the house.
Mother's Anima, Regulus; a grizzled wolfdog with one torn ear; stood at her side, hackles raised. Father's Anima, Quickfoot; a lean weasel that usually rode on his shoulder; had grown to combat size, its small body crackling with the desperate energy of prey that had decided to fight.
"I've told you already." The noble's voice was smooth. Patient. The patience of someone who knew they'd already won. "The matter is decided. Your wife will accompany me to settle the debt your husband owes. Or I'll take what you owe in other ways."
"There is no debt!" Father's voice cracked. "The ledger was altered; you know it was altered; we paid you everything!"
"The courts disagree." The noble examined his fingernails. "Really, this is tiresome. I'm being generous. A few weeks of your wife's... service... and the slate is clean. Unless you'd prefer I simply seize the property?"
Mother stepped forward. Her face was pale but her jaw was set.
"I know what you want." Her voice was steady. Steadier than Father's. "I've seen how you look at me when you collect 'rent' from our neighbors. This isn't about money."
"Clever." The noble smiled. It didn't reach his eyes. "Does it matter? The law is on my side. The courts are on my side. Your little wolfdog isn't going to change that."
"Mama!"
All of them turned.
I stood at the edge of the property, Raikiri at my side, lightning already crackling between his fur. The noble's eyes widened slightly; surprise at the Raiju, followed immediately by something colder.
"Cassandra." Mother's voice broke. "No. Go. Run."
"I'm not leaving you."
"This is touching." The noble's gaze moved from Raikiri to me, appraising. "A Raiju. Fascinating. I didn't know there were any in the capital." His smile sharpened. "Perhaps we can renegotiate. The debt could be considered paid if the girl comes with me instead. A Raiju-bonded commoner would fetch quite a price to the right buyer."
"You're not touching my daughter." Father stepped forward. His weasel Anima hissed, tiny but fierce. "I don't care who you are..."
"You should care." The noble's voice went cold. "I'm Lord Aldric Veyne of House Veyne, and you're dust beneath my boots. Your Anima are common trash. Your daughter's lightning-beast is a curiosity, nothing more. And if you continue to waste my time, I'll stop being patient."
He snapped his fingers.
The Enfield moved.
It was fast; faster than anything I'd seen, faster than the street rats who'd grabbed me months ago, faster than the guards who'd killed them. One moment it stood beside its master. The next it had Father's weasel pinned under one eagle claw, the small Anima squealing in pain.
"Stop!" Mother screamed. Regulus lunged, trying to reach Quickfoot.
The Enfield's fox head snapped around and caught Regulus by the throat. The wolfdog yelped, blood spraying, and I felt something tear inside me.
"Now then." Lord Veyne hadn't moved from his spot. Hadn't changed expression. "Are we going to be reasonable?"
Father's legs buckled. The bond-pain from Quickfoot's injury was hitting him; I could see it in the way his face went gray, the way his hands shook. But he was trying to rise, trying to reach his Anima, trying to...
"Papa!"
Everything happened at once.
Raikiri moved. Lightning arced across the space between us and the Enfield, striking the mythical beast's flank. It released Regulus, snarling, and turned toward us with murder in its eyes.
Cas, get back! Raikiri's voice was strained. The Enfield was stronger than him; we both knew it. But he threw himself into the fight anyway because that's what he did, that's what I did, we didn't run, we didn't...
"Interesting." Lord Veyne watched the battle like it was a curiosity. Entertainment. "The Raiju has spirit. It won't be enough."
He was right.
Raikiri fought with everything he had. Lightning crackled and snapped, burning patches of fur from the Enfield's hide. But the mythical beast was Tier 2 at least, battle-trained, and Raikiri was barely ten years old. Every time he landed a strike, the Enfield responded with a blow that sent him tumbling.
"Cassandra!" Mother's voice cut through the chaos. I turned and found her beside me; bleeding from where the Enfield had struck her through the bond with Regulus, but standing. "You have to go."
"I'm not leaving!"
"You're not dying here!" She grabbed my shoulders. Shook me. "Listen to me. Your father and I; we made our choices. We knew the risks of living in this kingdom without power. But you..." Her eyes went to Raikiri. "You have a chance. You have something special. You can't throw that away for us."
"Mama, I can't..."
"Regulus." Mother's voice cracked. "Take her. Now."
The wolfdog was injured. Bleeding. Half her throat torn open. But she heard her human's command and moved; faster than I expected, jaws clamping on my coat, dragging me backward.
"No!" I fought. Kicked. Screamed. "Let me go! Raikiri!"
Go! His voice hit me through the bond like a punch. Your mother's right. I'll hold them. Go!
"I won't leave you!"
You're not leaving me. You're surviving. There's a difference.
Regulus' strength shouldn't have been enough to move me. But Mother was helping; pushing, shoving, her face wet with tears and blood.
"Go," she said. "Live. Remember us."
The last thing I saw was Father rising to his feet, Quickfoot somehow standing beside him despite the injuries, both of them facing Lord Veyne with the pathetic desperate courage of people who knew they were going to die.
Then Regulus had me on her back, running, and the house disappeared behind us.
The wolfdog ran until she couldn't.
I felt the moment it happened. A pulse through the bond-space; not my bond, but close enough that I caught the edge of it. A life ending. A connection severing.
Regulus disintegrated beneath me.
One moment I was riding a bleeding, struggling wolfdog through the scrubland outside the city. The next moment there was nothing; just ash, drifting upward, and my body hitting the ground hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs.
I lay there. Stared at the sky. Felt the absence.
Mama.
The bond between human and Anima was absolute. When the Anima died, the human died. When the human died, the Anima died.
Regulus was ash in the wind.
My mother was dead.
Raikiri.
His voice came through the bond; distant, strained, but alive. I got away. I'm coming. Don't move.
I couldn't have moved if I'd wanted to. My body refused to respond. My mind refused to process. All I could do was lie in the dirt and watch Regulus' ashes drift toward the clouds.
Mama.
Papa.
Dead.
Raikiri found me an hour later. He was hurt; burns, cuts, a gash along his ribs that would scar. But he was alive. He pressed against me, his lightning dimmed to almost nothing, and I finally moved.
I got up.
I walked back to the house.
They'd left the bodies in the street.
Father lay face-down near the garden. Quickfoot's small form had disintegrated beside him; the ash was already blowing away on the evening wind. Mother lay near the door. Her eyes were open. Her face was peaceful.
Lord Veyne was gone. His servants were gone. The Enfield was gone.
They'd taken what they wanted and left. Like my parents were garbage. Like their lives meant nothing.
Raikiri stood beside me. His lightning was building again; not controlled, not directed, just raw energy crackling off his fur as his fury built toward something that needed release.
I let him.
Lightning arced from his body into the sky. A crack of thunder that shook the ground. A scream of electricity that carried for miles.
Let them hear it. Let the whole damn capital hear it.
This is what you did.
I buried my parents that night.
Dug the graves myself. My hands bled. I didn't care. Raikiri helped where he could; lightning-charged claws tearing through soil faster than any shovel.
I didn't cry. There wasn't room for crying anymore. The tears had burned away and left something else behind.
Every noble is that noble.
I lowered my father into the ground.
Every palace is that palace.
I lowered my mother in beside him.
Every prince is the boy who lied to me and left.
I covered them with dirt. Found stones for markers. Carved their names with a knife and lightning.
MARIKA. TOMÁS. BELOVED.
I stood over the fresh earth as the stars came out.
The grief was there. Somewhere. Buried under something harder. Something that felt like purpose.
The system killed them. The boy on the rooftop was part of that system. The lord who murdered them was part of that system. The palace that protects people like that lord is part of that system.
I reached into my pocket. Pulled out the wooden token the recruiter had given me.
An owl over a bear.
Theodora. The rebels. People who thought the way things were wasn't the way things should be.
I turned my back on the graves.
I didn't look back.