Ding! Ding! Ding!
The bell tower rang out close enough that Clyde felt it in his chest before he heard it properly. That sound meant only one thing. The mechanical day had started. Out on the streets, the lanterns were already lit, and the large cobalt mirrors mounted along the rooftops had shifted to their daytime angles, bending the moonlight downward into the city below.
Clang! Clang! The sound of pots and pans from somewhere nearby, then the voices started.
"Fresh currant cake, just out of the kitchen range! Two pence for one slice, four pence for three! Come and get it while it's warm!"
"Rice milk! Still warm, come and buy!"
The noise of the street poured through the window and dragged Clyde out of whatever was left of his sleep. He sat up slowly, blinking, pressing the heel of his palm against one eye.
"It's already daytime?!" he muttered. "I barely even slept."
He rubbed his face, feeling the bags under his eyes with his fingertips, definitely not enough sleep. He stood up anyway, bones creaking, and opened his bedroom door.
Luchian was already in the kitchen with his white apron on, standing over the stove with a spatula in hand.
Hiss! The sound of bacon hitting the pan, oil spitting and sizzling, the smell of it reaching Clyde before he'd even fully stepped out of the doorway, eggs too. Both smells combined into something embarrassingly effective at making a person feel suddenly very awake and very hungry.
"Clyde, breakfast is ready," Luchian called, not turning around.
"Coming." Clyde dropped into a chair at the kitchen table and pulled the plate toward him as soon as it was set down.
He took a bite. Chewed. Thought about it for a second.
"It's not bad," he said.
Luchian stared at him.
Just for a moment, completely speechless.
"Not bad," he repeated.
"Yeah."
"I got up early to make this."
"I can tell, it's good, it's genuinely good." Clyde took another bite. "Not bad means good, that's just how I talk."
Luchian shook his head and pulled off his apron. "I'm going out. I need to buy some more eggs, and I'm going to try selling some carrots from the garden today."
"Alright."
Click. The front door shut behind him.
Clyde kept eating, slower now, the house quiet around him except for the muffled sounds from the street outside. He rested his elbow on the table and thought.
There haven't been many missions lately. And ascension, when does that even happen? Soren mentioned something about it before. Something about mastering all the abilities in the current phase.
He put his hand flat against his chest, just over his heart, and closed his eyes.
The inner world opened.
His Astral Card floated there in the dark, the horizontal infinity symbol turning slow, the four-pointed star at its center, the constellation points orbiting quietly around the whole shape. And wrapped around it, tight and deliberate, were the chains.
Two of them now.
Two. He looked at them carefully. Before the centipede fight there were three. One broke during that, so two left.
He turned it over in his head.
Are these the abilities I haven't found yet? If the Hollow Eyes were the first thing that unlocked, then what are the other two? What are these chains even guarding?
He opened his eyes. The inner world folded away.
He finished his breakfast, set the plate by the sink, and headed out to find Soren.
Back across the city, in a smaller house in a quieter lane, a letter dropped through Aurelian's mail slot with a soft thwap against the floor.
He picked it up on his way back from the front step, already knowing from the handwriting who it was from. Eira. He went inside, sat down, and opened it.
Aurelian. Here is what I found on Clyde Nox Pvolae. He is twenty-three years old. He has one brother, Luchian Nox Pvolae. Locals say the brother sells vegetables and paintings. No information on their parents or bloodline. He graduated from Cristae Academy with commendations in historical analysis. No ties to any dangerous organizations or cults. My hypothesis: his Divine Ichor has mutated and formed a new branch. If that's true, his risk of turning into a Howling is elevated.
Aurelian set the letter down on his knee and looked at the ceiling for a moment.
A mutated ichor. He tapped his fingers once against the paper. So that's what it is, that's why he's moving like he's already past his phase.
He folded the letter carefully and slipped it into his coat pocket.
Clyde spotted Soren before he'd even reached the Lunar Sentinel hideout.
He was just on the street, walking at a normal pace, looking like a man running an ordinary errand. No coat over his usual white one, glasses slightly fogged from the cold.
Why is he out here? Clyde thought.
He jogged to catch up and tapped Soren on the shoulder.
Pat pat.
Soren turned around slowly. His expression shifted when he saw who it was.
"Oh, Clyde. What are you doing out here?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing. I had some questions about my ichor, actually."
Soren's hand came up fast and covered Clyde's mouth before he could finish the sentence.
"Did Aldric not warn you?" he said, very quietly.
Clyde peeled his hand away. "Warn me about what?"
"To not talk about this in public." Soren glanced left and right, then grabbed Clyde by the sleeve and pulled him sideways into a narrow gap between two houses, out of the flow of foot traffic. "Listen to me. You never mention ichors, mysticism, any of it, in front of ordinary people. Ever."
"Why not?"
"Because Cristae has one of the highest poverty rates in Miton." Soren straightened his coat, keeping his voice low. "When people are desperate and they find out there's a power they could potentially access, they don't think carefully about the risks. They just go after it. People have gone rogue before. It causes problems we spend months cleaning up."
"Alright, I understand." Clyde leaned against the wall. "So what were you out here for?"
"Snacks. I'm buying snacks." Soren said it with complete seriousness. "Now what did you want to ask?"
"Ascension and baptism. I can't find any clear information on either of them."
Soren adjusted his glasses. "Right, so Ascension happens when all the chains binding your Astral Card are broken. Each chain represents an ability in your current phase that you haven't discovered yet. Master all of them and the chains break on their own. When the last one goes, your card is ready."
"And then?"
"Then you need a Holy Spring."
Clyde blinked. "A what?"
"Every Divine Ichor has one. A Holy Spring is a natural site where that ichor's frequency is strongest, where the energy has been accumulating for a very long time. You have to find the one that corresponds to your ichor, the Hollow Star's spring specifically." Soren folded his hands together. "The baptism happens there. You submerge yourself in the spring water. Once you're inside, your soul gets sealed inside a transparent barrier, and the spring fills that barrier from the inside."
"Sealed inside a barrier that fills with water," Clyde repeated slowly.
"Yes."
"And then what."
"You break the barrier from the inside."
"How?"
"By stabilizing your wave and pushing outward. If your wave is harmonized when you do it, the barrier shatters and you ascend." Soren smiled, and it was not a particularly comforting smile, and it was more to the creepy side. "If your wave has even one point of disharmony when you push, the whole thing collapses inward. Your Lunar Sigil fractures. And you become a Howling." He tilted his head. "That answers your question?"
Clyde stood there for a second.
"Yeah," he said. "It does."
"Wonderful." Soren started walking. "I'm going to go buy my snacks now."
"Wait, I didn't even get to say thank—"
But Soren was already around the corner.
Clyde stood in the gap between the two houses, alone, listening to the street noise outside.
He just left, just like that. He exhaled slowly. What an interesting man.
He stepped back out onto the street, hands in his coat pockets, and started walking.