The macaque's scream tore across the yard.It was sharp, loud and ugly, ugly enough that Knox winced before he could stop himself. It was not only noise. It dragged against his mana sense like a nail down stone, and along the edge of the yard the basic wards stuttered, flickering once before they caught themselves."Alright, alright, enough." Bram waved a hand at the macaque, scowling. "Every time. You see this? Can't take him anywhere."He shook his head, then ruined it on the next breath. "Cleared a whole yard with one note, though. You hear the range on that? The wards felt it." He caught himself and put the scowl back. "Which is a problem. Obviously. Very annoying." Knox was at loss when he heard that.He cut his eyes down at Ignis and asked it down the bond.You lied about the lackey thing.Ignis did not answer right away. He only put on that smug drake look, lifted his head, and let a low growl roll out of his chest toward the monkey.GrrrrrrThe macaque stopped screaming.It s

The heat under Knox's palm faded slow.Ignis held on the line a while longer, then let his shoulders down, and the macaque only dropped its staff after Bram hauled it back through the bond. The amber ward dimmed and went clear.Bram had caught something on Knox's face when the warning came up. "What's wrong?"Knox didn't explain it. "We're doing this again. All week."The grin came back like it had never left. "I knew it. Pain brings people together. This is how the great friendships start, you and me, bleeding in a—""Don't make it weird."They came back to the same yard the next day, and the one after, because the assessment was close and Ignis was not ready, and Knox had stopped pretending a few clean exchanges would fix that.The second session, Ignis came in fast and the monkey didn't try to match it.It jabbed the staff at his nose, light, nothing behind it. Ignis flinched back on instinct, and the second he did the monkey slapped both palms on the stone and screeched in his fac

The howl rolled out of the treeline and kept rolling, low and long, and the mist over the camp shivered with it. The ward crystals on the corner poles buzzed, a thin rising hum, then went quiet again.The students stopped unloading. Heads came up all down the line, eyes wide, and even Knox felt something cold walk up the back of his neck before he could tell it not to.Calder laughed, short and dry. "That's Greyfen saying good morning. You'll hear worse before dark. Keep moving."Bram drifted in at Knox's shoulder. "Marsh Stalker. That's what made that. Big one, by the throat on it." He said it casually.Knox gave him a flat look."What? You think I just talk?" Bram looked genuinely wounded. "My brother's a senior. He sat me down and grilled me on every ugly thing in this zone before I left. I'm the only provisional here who actually knows what's trying to eat him." He sniffed. "You're welcome, in advance."Knox blinked. Somewhere under the noise of the last week he'd never once stopp

The marsh went dead quiet after the splash.Nobody wanted to be the first to move. The mist sat low over the black water, the scratched route stone glowed weak behind them, and the rats lay open in the mud where they’d been cut, cores already gone.Then Ignis growled.It came up out of his chest low and locked, smoke slipping between his teeth, his claws spreading wide and pushing furrows into the mud.Knox felt the bond pull tight, and he knew the sound was wrong before he could say why. He’d heard Ignis angry. He’d heard him smug and hungry and insulted and territorial. He had never once heard him sound like this.“We should stop,” Knox said, breaking the silence. “Reassess the route.”Calder sniffed. “We’re barely past the outer line. Stronger beasts don’t wander this close to the forward camp, and whatever’s splashing around out there is well inside Grade-C tolerance.” He let it sit. “The point of a field assessment is to meet beasts, Morales. Not to flinch every time the water m

THWACK.Knox's knife caught nothing but air.He spun toward the sound, braced for Rellan's hammer catching the arm, the shell guard holding the line.Rellan was still standing.That was the first thing Knox saw, and for half a breath he was confused because Rellan was on his feet, upright, facing the Vorul the way he'd been a moment ago. Knox face suddenly changed.The shield guard that should have been between them hung open in two broken halves in the mud. The Gravelshell Tortoise lay sprawled beside it, legs still twitching. And Rellan was standing because the Vorul's arm was holding him up, buried to the wrist in his chest.He stood still swaying slightly."No—no, no, no—" Marcus screamed it and kept screaming it, going backward through the mud on his hands, not even trying to stand, the word breaking apart high and raw until he ran out of air, dragged in another breath, and started over.The Vorul pulled its arm free.SCHLUCK. It came out slick and dark to the elbow, a rope of