The first thing Kael registered was the smell of pine smoke, sharp and earthy, clinging to the collar of his threadbare coat, tangled with the faint, sweet tang of dried wild blueberries Elara had foraged the evening before after they'd reached the cave. The second was the dull throb in his right ankle, the twisted joint flaring when he shifted his weight on the thin moss sleeping roll spread over cold cave stone. He blinked away the last of the sleep, the faint orange glow of the small campfire painting the curved rock walls of the Wildwalker waystation in warm, flickering streaks—he could see faint charcoal scratch marks left by past visitors: a tiny wolf paw print, a crudely drawn middle finger pointed at a wobbly Lumina Covenant sun emblem, the initials M + L carved deep into the rock near the fire pit, probably left by a pair of resistance fighters hiding out from patrols years before.
Elara sat across from him, cross-legged on a flat boulder, her hunting knife scraping steadily against a whetstone. The sharpening sound was rhythmic, steady, almost calming—until he noticed she was staring right at him, her dark brow slightly furrowed, the edge of her mouth pressed into a thin, unreadable line. A chipped clay mug sat at her elbow, its surface emblazoned with a faded Covenant crest that had been crossed out three times with thick black charcoal, half full of the same berry-infused water she'd mixed the night before.
He propped himself up on one elbow, wincing a little when his ankle twinged again. "You know, most people don't stare at someone while they sleep unless they're planning to rob them or kiss them. Which is it?"
Her knife stilled. The tips of her ears pinked so faintly he almost missed it, gone so fast he thought he might have imagined it, before she huffed, a small, dry sound, and tossed a wrapped chunk of dried boar meat and a hard round of ration bread across the fire to him. The boar was the one they'd hunted two days prior, he remembered, snorting when he'd tripped over a gnarled root mid-sneak and sent the whole herd running, leaving Elara to take the shot from thirty yards out like she hadn't even broken a sweat. "Don't flatter yourself. I was making sure you didn't roll into the fire and burn the only shelter we have for miles. The nearest other waystation is six miles west, and it's crawling with Covenant patrols this week."
He caught the food, the crumbly texture of the bread scraping against his palm when he unwrapped it. The meat was salty, gamey, a far cry from the halal carts he'd eaten from every lunch break back in Brooklyn, slathered in white sauce and hot pepper, but it was the best thing he'd tasted since he woke up in the Wastes. He took a bite, washing it down with a sip of lukewarm berry water from the skin the innkeeper had given them, the faint sweetness cutting through the salt of the meat.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sounds the crackle of the fire, the distant howl of wind through the cave mouth, and the occasional soft scrape of Elara's knife against the whetstone. The quiet was nice, a rare break from the nonstop running and fighting of the last three days. Kael let himself relax for the first time since he'd woken up in this world, the tension seeping out of his shoulders, and he let his eyes drift to the frayed leather bracelet on Elara's left wrist, strung with two small, polished blue beads: one carved with a tiny M, the other with a wolf paw, the same symbol the Wildwalkers used to mark their camps. She'd told him the night before the M was for Mia, her sister, who'd died when Elara was sixteen from a fever that would have been easy to treat if her Regen cap had been higher than 2. The other was a gift from the first group of Wildwalker kids she'd helped save, after their first successful shard raid.
Until Elara spoke again, her voice quieter than before, sharp with a question she'd clearly been holding onto for a while.
"When we first met, in the Wastes, I was bitten by a shadow hound. My Regen stat is capped at 3. I've tried to purge shadow hound venom before, with that cap. It doesn't work. I should have been dead in ten minutes." She tapped the thin, silvery scar snaking up her left forearm, a cut she'd gotten when she'd fallen off a cliff as a twelve-year-old, one that had taken three months to scab over and still ached when the weather turned cold. "I've seen grown men with Regen caps of 4 die from that same venom in eight minutes. A kid in our camp got nicked by a shadow hound pup last spring, we burned two whole blessing shards just to boost his Regen high enough to fight it off. Pine salve wouldn't have done jack shit."
Kael froze mid-bite, the bread turning to ash in his mouth. He'd known this was coming. He'd lied about the adrenaline, about the pine salve, but Elara was too sharp, too familiar with how the world's rules worked, to buy that forever.
He swallowed, trying to keep his face neutral. "The salve the innkeeper gave you—"
"Was pine resin and wild comfrey. Good for scrapes, useless against shadow hound venom. I make the same stuff for the Wildwalker kids." She set her knife and whetstone down on the rock beside her, leaning forward slightly, the firelight glinting off the silver scar that cut across her left cheek. "Then yesterday, in the gully, the war hound bit me. That venom is twice as strong as a regular shadow hound's. I felt it spreading. I could taste the rot in my throat. And then it was gone. The bite healed so fast I didn't even have a scar after ten minutes."
Kael looked away, staring into the fire, watching the small orange flames lick at the dry pine logs they'd stacked before going to sleep. He didn't want to lie to her. Not after she'd saved his life, not after she'd told him about Mia, about the kids she was fighting for, about the 427-year-old tyrant who'd spent centuries hoarding thousands of blessing shards to extend his own life while people died from minor wounds because their stat caps were so low they couldn't fight off even a mild infection.
"Adrenaline does weird things," he said, but even he could hear how weak the excuse sounded.
Elara laughed, no humor in the sound. "Adrenaline doesn't let you run three miles in twelve minutes carrying a hundred and thirty pounds of dead weight. I checked the map last night. The gully is three miles from this cave. Average Speed cap for a commoner is 5. Even the Covenant's elite knights only have a Speed cap of 8. You ran faster than that, with me slung over your shoulder, while your ankle was twisted. Don't lie to me, Kael. I trusted you enough to tell you about the Wildwalkers, about Theron, about the bounty on my head. You owe me the truth."
Kael looked back at her. Her eyes were hard, but there was no anger there, just frustration, and a flicker of something like fear. She was scared he was a Covenant plant, he realized. Scared the person she'd trusted, the person who'd saved her life twice, was working for the man who'd killed her sister.
He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face, the faint stubble he'd grown in the three days since he'd arrived in Aetheris scraping against his palm. He couldn't lie to her. Not after everything.
"I'm not working for the Covenant," he said first, because that was the thing she was most scared of. "I swear on my sister's life. I'm not from around here. I didn't even know what a shadow hound was, or a stat cap, or Theron, until you told me."
Elara blinked, leaning back slightly, her fingers curling around the edge of the chipped mug on the rock beside her. "What do you mean, not from around here?"
He told her, then. About Brooklyn, about the truck that had hit him when he'd been crossing the street to get lunch, about the halal cart he'd been heading to that smelled like grilled chicken and turmeric, about waking up in the Wastes next to a dead traveler with a rusted dagger in his hand. About the floating blue screen that had popped up unbidden when Elara was dying from the first hound bite, when he'd been sure he was going to watch the only person who'd been kind to him in this weird world die right in front of him. About the Augment Points, about how he'd raised her Regen cap from 3 to 12 to save her life, how he'd been so relieved when the venom started fading he'd almost passed out himself. About how he'd boosted it again when the war hound bit her, and boosted his own Speed from 4 to 9 temporarily to get them out of the gully before the patrol found them. He even admitted the first time the screen popped up he'd thought he was hallucinating from the pain of his twisted ankle, that he'd blinked at it for a full ten seconds before he'd realized it was real.
He held out his hand, and called up the stat screen, letting it float between them, the cool blue light casting a soft glow over both their faces, cutting through the warm orange of the firelight. Elara stared at it, her eyes wide, her mouth slightly open, like she was looking at a ghost. He pulled up her character sheet first, pointing to the Regen line, where the 12 was highlighted in bright green, the old cap of 3 crossed out in faint gray below it. He pulled up his own sheet next, showing her the temporary Speed boost he'd used the day before, already faded back to his base cap of 6 now that the effect had worn off.
"I didn't tell you because I didn't know if I could trust you," he said, his voice quiet. "And because if the Covenant finds out I can do this, they'll hunt me down. They'll lock me up, force me to raise their stats, kill me if I refuse. I didn't want to put you in that position too. If they knew you were working with someone who can break stat caps, they'd torture you to get to me."
Elara reached out, her fingers hovering an inch from the screen, like she was scared it would disappear if she touched it. "You can raise stat caps. Without blessing shards."
It wasn't a question. Kael nodded. "Yeah. Every time I kill a monster, I get Essence. When I have enough Essence, I get more Augment Points. Each point lets me raise a stat cap by 1, or upgrade a weapon, or boost a stat temporarily. The boosts only last a few minutes, but the cap raises are permanent. I've got 9 left right now, after the boosts from the gully."
Elara sat back, staring at him, shock written all over her face. She was quiet for a long time, the fire crackling between them, the wind howling softly outside the cave mouth, before she laughed, a loud, real laugh that echoed off the rock walls, so unexpected it made Kael jump a little. "I spent three months planning a raid on a Covenant outpost last winter just to get 5 blessing shards for three sick kids in the camp. We lost two people on that raid. You could do the same thing with 5 Augment Points. Theron hoards thousands of those shards, locks them up in his vault in the capital, uses them to make his knights stronger, to add decades to his own twisted life. Common people are born with caps so low they can't farm enough food to feed their families, can't heal from a cut that gets infected, can't fight off the monsters that roam the Wastes. We've been stealing shards for years, just to give the kids a fighting chance. We had twelve shards from the last raid, and we thought that was the biggest victory we'd ever had. If you can do this…"
She trailed off, looking at him like he was the answer to a prayer she'd been saying for years. Kael shifted, uncomfortable. He didn't think of himself as a savior. He was just a guy who'd been hit by a truck and ended up in a weird world with a weird power. But if he could use that power to take down Theron, to break the stupid stat cap system that got kids killed for no reason? He was all in.
"Don't go telling anyone else about this, okay?" he said, waving the stat screen away, the blue light fading so the only light left was from the fire. "Not until we know we can trust the Wildwalkers. I don't want anyone getting hurt because of me. The less people know, the safer we all are."
Elara grinned, the first real, unburdened smile he'd seen from her since they met, the scar on her cheek crinkling at the corner. "Oh, don't worry. I'm not going to tell anyone until we figure out exactly how this works. But when we do? Theron's days are numbered. He's spent four centuries stealing birthrights from people. We're going to give them back."
She stood, stretching her arms over her head, the hem of her tunic riding up a little to show the faint scar on her hip from the first shadow hound bite, already faded almost to nothing, and walked over to the cave mouth, peeking out through the thick bramble brush that hid the entrance from view. Kael stood too, grabbing the chipped clay mug from the boulder, filling it with the last of the berry water, and held it out to her when she turned back. She huffed a laugh, clinking the edge of the mug against his canteen before taking a long sip, and then turned back to the opening. The sky was lightening on the horizon, the dark purple of night fading to a soft gray, the tips of the eastern mountains turning pink as the sun prepared to crest over the peaks. It was the kind of sunrise he used to drive upstate to see back in Brooklyn, when he'd needed a break from the noise of the city. "Dawn's in a half hour. We should head out soon. The camp is only a mile north, but the Covenant patrols are out early this time of year. They like to catch Wildwalker supply runners before the sun clears the mountains."
Kael stood too, testing his ankle. It still ached, but it was better than it had been. He could spend an Augment Point to fix it, but he wanted to save the points for when they really needed them. He grabbed his upgraded dagger from where it lay beside his sleeping roll, running his thumb over the sharpened edge, so fine it could cut through leather like butter, before slipping it into the sheath at his belt, then hefted the supplies pack over his shoulder. The pack was light, only holding a few days of rations, the crumpled map to the Wildwalker camp, a jar of pine salve, the fire striker, and a small pouch of the dried blueberries Elara had foraged, but it felt heavier now, like it carried the weight of every person Theron had ever hurt with his stupid, unfair system.
Elara turned back from the cave mouth, her smile gone, her face suddenly pale.
Kael froze, his hand tightening around the hilt of his dagger. "What is it?"
She held a finger to her lips, her eyes wide, and gestured for him to come closer. He stepped quietly across the cave, his boots making no sound on the moss-covered stone, and peered out through the gap in the brush beside her.
A line of Covenant knights was walking up the narrow path leading to the cave, their steel armor glinting in the pre-dawn light, the red sash of Theron's personal hunt squad wrapped around the lead knight's bicep. There were six of them, each carrying a spear and a loaded crossbow, and two shadow hounds on thick leather leashes, their red eyes glowing as they sniffed at the ground, tracking their scent. One of the knights held up a gauntleted hand, and the group stopped ten feet from the cave entrance, the hounds pulling at their leashes, growling low in their throats, their hackles raised.
"They know we're here," Elara whispered, her voice so quiet he could barely hear her over the sound of his own heartbeat. "The hounds caught our scent. We're trapped."
Kael looked around the cave. There was no back exit, just solid, unbroken granite rock. The only way out was through the entrance, right past six armed knights and two shadow hounds. He had 9 Augment Points left, enough to boost his Strength and Speed enough to take them, but if even one of them got away to tell the Covenant about his power, every knight in the Wastes would be hunting them, and Theron would stop at nothing to lock him up and use his ability for himself.
The lead knight stepped forward, his boot crunching on the loose gravel path, and called out, his voice loud and clear, echoing off the rock walls around them. "We know you're in there, heretic. Come out now, and we'll make your death quick. Resist, and we'll feed you to the hounds piece by piece."
The hounds bayed, loud and sharp, and Kael felt the familiar tingle of his stat screen hovering at the edge of his vision, ready to be called up at a thought.
He looked at Elara, and she nodded once, her hand already on the hilt of her own hunting knife, her face set, no fear in her eyes now. They were in this together.
Kael pulled his dagger from its sheath, the sharpened edge glinting in the firelight, and stepped toward the cave entrance.