Once a week without fail, a boy commenced another battle in a seemingly endless war against a slab of indifferent wood. It was a nice slab of wood that hung from the wall of his tiny room, taking pride of place, the first thing he saw whenever he entered, as a reminder of his failings, his shame. Concentric rings were carved across the surface, filled in with copper. The center, though, was a divot that would fit only one tool perfectly.

  Kaedius held the mallet in his hands. A familiar weight, the handle the same dark wood as the slab, the head wrapped in copper that was slowly fading green. He raised it. Drew a breath in the ways the temple taught. And then struck with all the fury in heart.

  A dull thud. The slab endured Kae’s blow the same as it had for years. It did not ring as the manuals promised. The stories said anyone who could wield the essence of the world could make slabs like this sing. He was not a mystic. No legendary potential yet infused his body. He set the mallet down in the holder he had carved for it and paced the tiny length of his room. His bed was little more than some blankets on a wooden slab. He had a chest he had pilfered from a storeroom that now kept his few possessions. The knives he habitually stole, the manuals and scrolls he filched, and a few knick-knacks that might awaken him to mysticism if he did right. Each had failed so far.

  He rose and left his room, letting his anger bank down to low embers. This was just a test to see if something had changed overnight. It was fine if it hadn’t. He had a new plan today. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be mauled by a ghost because of it.

  Today was the day he would become a mystic. Of that, he was quite certain. If it came at the cost of the village drunk going missing, then that was a price Kaedius of Telemud was glad to pay. He would pay it every day without a shred of hesitation. Everyone grew up on stories of mystics flinging spells to annihilate armies and change the fate of nations. Not everyone had the willpower or the luck to become one of those legends. Kae was certain he did.

  Which was why when Old Selim went missing, and the local temple was tasked with finding him, Kae had volunteered immediately. It would be one of the few opportunities he’d have to escape his duties with the temple. The wooden halls and stone courtyards of the temple were his current home, though he would only ever admit that under duress.

  He took what equipment he needed. A knife in case of danger, his rosary, and all his eagerness. Brother Angin did not seem to buy his eagerness as any excitement to find Old Selim.

  “You hate him more than you hate me,” Brother Angin said, “and I didn’t know that was possible.”

  The temple’s senior disciple was staring down at the map of the town. Large crosses marked the pillars that made up the boundary wards that kept monsters at bay. Kae knew them well. Everyone with any interest in living did. Old Selim was an idiot who couldn’t tell which part of the river was in the ward and which flowed past it. The rest of the map had been split into quadrants marked with names from fellow monks in the temple to the burly woman who ran the bakery.

  “If he’s dead, then you’ll be at the top of my list. That’s the only gift I’ll ever give you.”

  “You’re an insolent, morbid child.”

  Brother Angin reached out and flicked Kae’s forehead. The sharp pain had him cursing. A thrown stone hurt less. Kae knew that pain well.

  “I’ll be going as well,” his sister said like a ghost.

  Kae yelped, jumping up and away. “Will you stop sneaking up on me already? I swear this time I’ll put a bell on you.”

  She did not smile or laugh. Hers was an expression of disdain mixed with exasperation. Which was how she always watched the world with her umber dark eyes. Elkaera was dressed in the same grey robes as him, though hers were notably in better condition; the hem had even been embroidered by one of the ladies in the village as a reward for the talismans she made. Maybe on a different day, he might have been jealous. But, well, it was hard being jealous of someone who was always there for you. Like now.

  “Try to keep him from doing something stupid. I’ll give you two in this section inside the boundary. Most likely, you won’t find anything, but don’t go past them.”

  “We won’t.”

  Brother Angin looked like he didn’t believe them for a moment. But another disciple of the temple showed up for their assignment, and like that, Kae and his sister were free to go. The temple was quiet despite its size, a compound fit for hundreds that barely reached fifty these days. It meant a lot of quiet spots to stash things, which is where they went.

  The shed was only used around festival time and the next wouldn’t be for three months. The only reason someone had to go there was if they had cleaning duties. Kae was often insolent. Kae often had cleaning duties. Behind the big animal-hide drum and underneath a colourful banner, he found it.

  Wooden blocks inscribed with runes; each block attached to the next by a copper chain. Kae could not read the runes, though he had copied them down and searched the temple archives for any copies. The central rune he had found in the archives. The rest were real as well. Hopefully. Maybe he had jumped to conclusions when he heard that it could pacify the ghosts of a worldly realm beast. Under most circumstances, he’d think it was a scam as there was no reason to worry about mystical beasts or the vengeful ghosts that often emerged from their deaths. Not within the boundary wards.

  Besides, it was a process that would only matter if he knew where a mystical beast was dying. Kae knew where one could be found. More importantly, he knew a way to make a treasure from its corpse. He was careful when it came to any rumours or stories about treasures. He explained it to his sister.

  She was not at all impressed. “Blood-soaked Beast Fruit isn’t real. It’s just a lie they sell to idiot children.”

  “You’re younger than me.”

  “To my eternal shame, my elder brother makes me look like a wizened crone. The heavens were cruel when they cursed me with you. What did you trade for it?”

  Kae grinned at her. “A stack of bad talismans.”

  “So, the average talisman you make.”

  He lost his grin. One of these days, she’d let him win an argument. One day.

  They had been assigned an area west of the village, near the old reservoir, not that there was a new one being built—it was simply older than anyone could remember. Same with the buildings that sometimes got dug up. Useless things. No one liked working around them. They made the most cursory of explorations through the sparse trees, checking the thick roots of old trees for Old Selim, though Kae assumed they’d be able to track the smell of cheap whiskey.

  Deeper into the forest they went. They came across a pillar dark as night. It stood two heads taller than him and was perfectly circular. He reached out with both hands and grasped it. A buzz shot through his hands and down his spine.

  “Don’t know why you enjoy that feeling so much. Can’t stomach it.”

  “Just do. Feels right, feels real. Like our god is just with us.”

  The village boundary was made up of these stones, relics from an older age. Runes marked their surface. He knew the meaning of a few, but most were complex arrangements that ran from one to the next. But he’d stared at them so long he knew what they were meant to look like. This one was good. Solid. Wouldn’t need fixing for a while.

  “Are we really going past the boundary, Kay-Kay?”

  That nickname was one from when she couldn’t say his name. She only used it when she didn’t want him to do something.

  “Yeah. I want to be a mystic, Elly. Need it. If I can do that, then maybe they’ll take us to the capital. We could become Imperial Scholars.”

  Leave this place, this tiny village with its too-big temple that did its best to grind Kae down. It had been years since his hatred for it burned down to embers, but sometimes he took a breath, and all the hot fury came roaring back. He wasn’t good at forgiving. But if they could leave, maybe he could let it go forever.

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  “Here, then.”

  She handed him two strips of heavy paper. The patterns drawn upon them were identical as though a tireless machine had inked both talismans with exacting precision. There was no machine, only his sister.

  “Make good use of them. I’m not letting you die stupidly. I’ll need someone to carry all my books when we’re at the college.”

  With that, she stepped past the boundary line. Beyond the wards monsters roamed. Towards danger she went for his sake. He smiled at her, and with the rising wind at his back, he followed her.

  ***

  His sister was not quite as sure in the woods as Kae, but he let her lead the way to massage her ego—her tantrums were terrifying things. He paused occasionally to point out a few of the more poisonous berries, the misleadingly vibrant blue ones, and picked out a green fruit that was the sort of mouth-drying that put lemons to shame but was entirely edible and, if boiled with honey, made for an excellent jam on bread. She rolled her eyes but let him ramble. He thought he saw a hint of fondness in her glare.

  The day was hot already. They headed northwest towards a smaller lake, skirting along Telemud’s banks. Sometimes, a breeze would carry the cooling warmth of that great river. It should have been soothing. The sweat wicking down his back disagreed. Nervous energy hummed through him. His words ran over as they walked.

  The river split into a smaller waterway. This one had the feel of artifice to it and had not been on the original maps the temple kept. It fed into a lake ringed by barren apple trees; harvest had passed a few weeks ago.

  They walked quietly, searching out any beasts that might give them trouble. The boundary wards didn’t protect from everything. Animals walked as easily through it as Kae and his sister did, and if they proved a nuisance, anyone in the militia could handle it. If that failed, well, there was always the town nearby. The mayor had guards, though Kae would eat poisonous berries before he did that. The barriers were for demons, animals infected by demons, and spirit beasts. He’d seen the latter raging against the glowing barrier that sprung up, but never the former.

  A well-trod trail led them to their final destination. There were mounds of upturned soil. Cautiously, he kicked them over to examine them. Within was the rotting corpse of some creature. The smell made him regret his curiosity. His sister had not chosen to stop, proving that she had all the wisdom between them, and he had to run to catch up to her, ignoring the many mounds on the way made by the trail. Something had taken this path often. Been decent enough to bury their kills. That was a kind act as far as he was concerned.

  Trees gave way to stone. Some were a deep crimson colour with striations of yellow and pink. Saltstone. Common enough that there was a quarry nearby. He ignored that and kept going, following the scratches on the stones like guideposts. There, amidst stones, hidden away partly by an outcropping, was a tree.

  A very disgusting tree.

  The trunk was white, segmented, and the branches that emerged from it were a bit too soft to support the large, ribbed leaves shading the beast. The beast was a wolf with golden eyes narrowed in pain, its fur matted, muddied, bloodied. The tree’s roots were embedded in the wolf’s gullet. The roots reminded him of pigs’ guts, filling him with a deep disquiet. Kae did not like murderous trees. The idea always struck him as odd that the things he ate could bite back.

  The wolf lived still. Its lungs expanded with each pained wheeze. He had never seen wolf lungs before but they were visible today. Only its lower half had been converted to a root network for the parasitic plant. Part of its spine was joined to the largest tendril and it had the same bony, segmented texture as the tree’s trunk. It was dying slow and its actions had only prolonged that. Somehow, it had found the strength to dig out a hole for rainwater. He appreciated its tenacity, though he didn’t appreciate the way it snarled at his sister.

  “I cannot believe your luck,” Elkaera muttered, scanning the arrangement of plant and wolf with cold efficiency. “They only grow for a month before dying. You’ve always been too lucky.”

  Her nose scrunched in distaste, lips pursing down. She had never looked more like their mother though he doubted Elkaera remembered her.

  “How is that toy chain of yours meant to work?”

  “Powerful creatures can become vengeful ghosts in death. Sometimes because of the way they die, sometimes because they just have too much strength in them. Spirit beasts are the problematic ones. Most people just become ghosts that can be pacified. This chain should bind any ghost in place. Sap it of any strength so the wolf’s furious ghost doesn’t maul us.”

  “I appreciate that you only refer to both of us when dying is involved.”

  Elkaera walked past the snarling wolf being preyed upon and the predatory tree. She scrambled up the outcropping without a word. Kae set himself to arranging the runic chain around the wolf. Cheap metal, cheap wood, the only things of quality were the runes. He’d spent more time than he should have stealing some of the temple’s sacred charcoal, grinding that into a paste, and filling in the grooves left by the runes on wood. Maybe that would make them stronger. Maybe he was just hoping too much. Either way, he was careful to encircle the wolf’s massive body around the binding. He’d thought it needlessly long but now, as he just barely managed to get it around the upper half of the wolf, he realised it had been nearly too short.

  He barely bit back a yelp when his sister dropped down soundlessly next to him. She carried a thick stick now, one split in a Y-shape. She gave it to him. He rolled his eyes and jabbed it down, trapping the wolf’s head. Only then did his sister approach. She’d grown up in the temple just as him and endured the same training as him. There was strength in her thin arms which she used to keep the wolf’s snapping jaws away from them.

  Kae crouched and took his blade. It was curved subtly, edge sharpened under his efforts. Much as his sister might claim, he did not have an obsession with knives. The wolf squirmed violently as he touched its neck, the fur knotted. He felt for the throbbing pulse on its massive neck. It was bigger than Kae, half of it longer than he was tall. There had been no reports or warnings of wolf attacks. It had never done them any wrong.

  But I want to be a mystic.

  “Rest easy and rejoin the cycle.”

  In the face of that desire, he killed any hints of doubt. He plunged the blade into the wolf’s neck with the same delusional faith that he might soon be a mystic. The knife was a good one and slipped through the wolf’s neck. It whined pitifully at the jolt of his blade. One quick stab, the deed done. He tugged the blade out. Blood squirted across his hands and the hem of his sleeve which had him hissing in irritation. At least there was a river nearby to wash the blood away. But still, animals could be diseased. His father had always warned him of that. One of the few things he remembered clearly about the man.

  The wolf whined, sputtering a bloody cough as it died. The tree seemed to shriek as it realised that its food source was gone. The wolf lost mass before his eyes, shrinking, skin loosening. Kae cursed and quickly turned to the tree itself. He needed to kill that as well.

  It was not a clean job.

  Elkaera watched him intently as he butchered the tree, plunging his knife into the nearest seam he could and leveraging a layer away. Splinters found a way beneath his nails. He ignored that light pain. The branches smacked about, leaving stinging lines where they struck. With the host dead, the tree would siphon all the remaining strength from the host. At the zenith, when the fruit was at its ripest, was the only opportunity he’d have.

  For now, it would violently attack anything nearby. The long stick he’d used to hold the wolf back appeared over his shoulder as his sister pushed back the nearest branches. Without prompting, she’d shown up to help. Fondness surged in him as he plunged through another layer of fleshy tree. His hands were coated in an orange sap, numbing quickly. It made it hard to work his blade as the tree writhed, the stench of rot intensifying.

  There! Gleaming bright, glowing orange. In the centre of a network of taut vines, pulsing like a heart, was a fruit. A core. A treasure. A Blood-soaked Beast Fruit!

  Kae grasped the thudding fruit in one hand. Its beat was arhythmic, pulsing in time with the tree's violent assault. With his knife, he pushed against the vines connecting the heart to the top half of the tree. The tree shrieked, that orange sap gushing forth. It was uncomfortably hot. He needed this done quick. Kae pulled at the heart until the vines below were taut and sawed through them desperately, his heart beating faster than the one in his hand.

  It happened all at once as he cut the last tendril. He lost balance and tripped back. He landed hard beside the shrivelled wolf’s corpse. Before he knew it, his sister was there, tugging at his arm. He muttered his thanks and rose. Together, they booked it out of the outcropping.

  The remaining tendrils emerging from the fruit shrivelled away as they fled. It felt like holding an animal heart shaped in the form of an apple, one warm and thick with a too sweet stench of rotting food. But he had it. He’d done it.

  Kae grinned. Here was his dream partly accomplished. All it would take was converting the raw ingredient into a potion. And then, when he had it, he could awaken his body to mysticism.

  “Thunderers preserve me, that was disgusting. I think it’s fitting that you of all people need such a barbaric method to advance.”

  “My dear sister, if I needed a reminder that you were more advanced then I would ask for it, and yet, there is a startling lack of asking. So shut it with your opinions. Let me have one win.”

  She had made the slab sing six months ago. He did not resent it. He told himself that every day.

  “Enjoy your win until all the other monsters eat you up. I will be returning home now.”

  “You’re just angry that I was right, and you were wrong. That’s what you get for not listening to your big brother.”

  She was right, despite how much he hated it. A death so overt and brutal would be noticed. They followed the path back down to the small lake. Kae was quick to wash the fruit, then his numb hands and as much of the blood of his face as he could. The fruit was drying rapidly, its exterior turning leathery, textured like an orange, taking on the colour as well. He dunked his head in the water and scrubbed away the gunk caught in his curls.

  “I say we follow the river and cross the boundary that way. It’s closer anyway.”

  “Not head back the same way we came?” he asked, rubbing his face with his sleeve. The orange sap had stained it. He’d need to wash it clean tonight.

  “You weren’t paying attention, but Angin put us next to his patrol route. Most likely he’ll find your unsanctioned activities and—"

  Malice swept over the lake a moment before a shrill howl rent the air. A howl so loud that Kae felt it in his bones, and maybe in his very soul.

  “Kae, I thought you said the ghost should have been trapped.”

  “It was. It should have worked!”

  Looking down at them was a ghostly wolf, pale as mist, lit from within. It had grown bigger in death, twice as big as it was tall. From its back rose the tendrils of a tree. Those, Kae recognised, were living matter. The same branches that had smacked him about, the same tendrils sapping the vitality of the wolf, all repurposed, taken over by the snarling wolf.

  “Run!”

  He didn’t need to say it. His sister was already bolting ahead of him.