Vir took his two books and settled down at a table. There were few others in the library at this hour, and Vir quickly lost himself in the tomes, learning far more about the world than he’d ever expected.
He learned that Prana Beasts had nearly nothing in common with their Ash Beast brethren. Not only did they look different, Ash Beast Balar Ranks were also universally higher. A lot higher. Much of what he read horrified him.
Ash Wolves boasted glowing blue eyes and hides as dark as the Ash itself, whose prana was so potent that it manifested as black flames that burned off of their hides. The book said their Balar Scale ranged from 20 to 40… individually. But wolves were pack animals, and in a pack of five, their Balar Rank jumped to 200 to 400. And it got worse. The book said these wolves swarmed in the hundreds of thousands within the Ashen Realm.
As much as the Ash Wolves shocked Vir, the subsequent ones made him reel—to the point where he wondered whether the author had exaggerated the words for comedic effect.
Prana Swarms are beings comprised entirely of living prana. They are incorporeal, having no physical body, which makes them impossible to perceive. They appear to lack a will of any kind, mindlessly consuming anything that contains even the barest modicum of prana, growing ever more powerful with each assimilation.
Prana Swarms are invisible, invincible, and once encountered, utterly impossible to avoid. A great number of powerful mejai perished to bring back this information.
Balar Rank estimated to vary from 3,500 to 20,000. Threat Classification: Cataclysmic. Avoid at all costs.
And then there was the Mahakurma—a four-legged animal resembling a tortoise, also known as the Colossus.
Records of Mahakurma are few, but we do know they compare in size to small islands. These mythical creatures stand hundreds of paces tall and thousands long. Entire forests and mountain ecosystems are said to grow upon their backs.
Balar Rank estimated to vary between 15,000 to 30,000. Threat Classification: Cataclysmic. Avoid at all costs.
Vir found the ‘avoid at all costs’ disclaimer somewhat amusing. It was as if the tome were written for plucky adventurers seeking fame and fortune in the Ashen Realm.
No one in their right mind would set foot in such a place.
When Vir remembered these were only the well-documented beasts—that the more exotic ones were restricted—he shelved all thoughts of venturing into that terrifying place.
The Ashen Realm was a plane of nightmares where neither days nor nights existed. A place of eternal twilight, where ash fell unendingly from the sky, burying all in soot, and where no intelligent life existed.
Even if the animals didn’t kill him, the prana was so dense within the Ashen Realm that it killed most living organisms in a matter of minutes. Including humans. The ones that somehow escaped that cruel fate suffered an even worse demise—their minds slowly broke until they were driven insane, corrupted into mindless animals doomed to rove the realm until a more powerful predator ended their suffering.
Most terrifying was that all the wording had disclaimers: ‘it is believed,’ ‘we presume that.’ Nothing factual. Because precious few who entered that realm ever returned to report their findings. The ones that did had lucked upon an Ash Tear that threw them back into the human realm before they succumbed to the prana poisoning.
Vir closed the tome, classifying that horrifying place as a land of myth rather than anything real. Despite Shardul and Ekanai’s wishes, Vir wasn’t suicidal.
He opened the other book—thankfully full of creatures with the majority having no Balar Rank at all—and flipped through its pages, looking at the black-and-white images of each animal.
Rats, Bandies, Ash’va. Most didn’t even come close to the description of what the Brotherhood riddle asked for… Except for one. His eyes lingered upon a certain creature. A Jatu.
The red-eyed Jatu is a winged creature that lives only in dark places. As nocturnal creatures, they sleep hanging upside down from their perches, feeding on blood at night. Individually harmless, but they often swarm in the hundreds, and their Balar Rank can range between 1 to 10.
Be wary when venturing into sewers, undercrofts, and other dark open spaces. The Jatu are highly territorial creatures and will attack all who enter their domain.
All of this would have led Vir to pass the Jatu over, but it was the last line that stuck out to him:
As they live in dark places, they have developed a means to see even without the use of their eyes. The exact mechanism is unknown and is often a topic of study for researchers.
A being that sees without eyes…
Something moved at the edge of Vir’s vision, prompting him to look up. A scan of the area showed no one. Just him and the books.
Odd… he thought. He felt as if he were being watched, but Prana Vision showed only ambient pranic signatures. Guess it was nothing.
Vir had lingered at the library longer than he’d anticipated, and his eyes were growing weary from scanning the handwritten text.
Packing up his books, he carried them to the receptionist—the same young woman from earlier.
“Where can I find the nearest sewer entrance?” he asked.
The receptionist wrinkled her nose. “Why would someone as, erm, fashionable as yourself want to visit such a place?” she said, looking him up and down, a trace of blush on her cheeks.
Ah right, my current disguise is rather attractive, Vir reflected. Looks like that has some surprising uses…
“Brotherhood business,” Vir said.
“There’s one not far from here… But I recommend you bring a change of clothes. Ideally one you never want to wear again. And salves. Disinfectants too. Are you sure you want to go there?”
“No. No, I really don’t.”
With a deep breath, he left the library, bracing himself for the distasteful experience that was to come.
70INTO THE SEWERS
The sewer entrance wasn’t difficult to find—Vir let his nose guide him to a gate in a small alley, where a black-bearded city guard sat on a stool. He’d never seen anyone look so bored.
But Vir didn’t approach the man just yet. Though the bestiary had said Jatu were mostly harmless, especially for someone of Vir’s skill and power, he wasn’t going to take any chances. Not when there was still low hanging fruit to be picked.
Vir Danced up to a nearby rooftop with clothes hung from a line. Dahans tended to make good use of their flat roofs for drying clothes, though the Vimana that floated overhead likely reduced the efficacy of that tactic.
Hopping over to another, emptier rooftop, Vir launched into his experiment. Empower had so many useful combat applications that they were almost impossible to list.
Yet, as he’d found, it proved difficult to pull prana from his feet all the way up into his hands. Kicks were useful, and his Kalari training allowed him to incorporate prana-empowered kicks into his fighting style, but punches—or katar swipes and thrusts—would be far more deadly.
He was sure there was some way of getting prana into his arms, but until then, perhaps a quick workaround would suffice.
Vir touched a hand to the roof and evacuated blood from his arm. Though he was on a rooftop, the clay construction conducted prana well, and it only took a second before Ash Affinity prana came surging up into his arm.
Then it was just a matter of willing the prana to accelerate his katar slice.