Page 41 of Daemon Master

“Most of your foes will be stronger than you,” Seymour said while Adrian practiced stealing a blade from an attacker’s hand for the thousandth time. “Instead of confronting them head-on, learn to redirect their own power against them.”

Adrian was pretty sure Seymour had been talking about daemons, but it was Kali, with her harsh beauty and frozen gray eyes, that he pictured. If he could overcome her superior strength, he might have a chance of walking away from their next meeting in one piece.

After one particularly brutal sparring match that left Adrian bleeding with a gashed lip and Seymour almost winded, his mind returned to thoughts of Kali, as it often did while they trained.

“Why don’t watchers carry aetherforged weapons like Kali’s?” he asked.

Seymour shrugged. “Aetherforging is spirit-cursed expensive. The rare few might be allotted an aetherforged blade, but most have to make do with our armor.”

Despite his bone-deep weariness, Adrian’s eyes widened. “Yourarmorwas aetherforged?”

“Of course. Normal steel wouldn’t offer much protection against a determined daemon.” The watcher gave him a stern look. “You’re lucky you saved my life from Souleater or else I would’ve murdered you myself for leaving it behind. I still feel naked without it.”

Adrian flushed at the provocative image that conjured, his blush deepening still further when Heartrender sent a mental query asking him to explain the direction of his thoughts. “Sorry,” he said quickly. Ignoring Heartrender’s question, he grasped for a change of topic. “You said before that aetherforging is just infusing an object with aether?”

Seymour gave him a curious look. “Yes and no. Simply being touched by aether leaves its mark on an object, buttrueaetherforging requires imbuing aether into it bit by bit so that it doesn’t leak away.”

“And that’s something any daemon master can learn to do?”

Adrian tried to keep his tone casual, but Seymour’s keen gaze narrowed. “In theory. In practice, few ever master the skill. I wouldn’t concern yourself with it—not when we have far more pressing issues.”

Reluctantly, Adrian let the matter drop. At night, however, as he drifted to sleep with aching muscles, he couldn’t shake the dream of one day creating his own aetherforged gear. He’d need to consult Crastley’s notes for any insights…as soon as he had the energy to do so.

While Adrian trained with Seymour, Heartrender engaged in her own form of training with Tremorfist. Adrian had worried at first about her getting hurt, especially given the rather large size disparity between them. But sitting in and watching some of her practice sessions, he’d been relieved to find Tremorfist a surprisingly gentle opponent. Despite the daemon’s brute strength and fearsome combat prowess, he didn’t appear to relish inflicting unnecessary pain and even celebrated Heartrender’s rare victories against him. Their constant duels left her as drained as Adrian by nightfall, her aether stretched thin with fatigue.

Once he deemed them ready, Seymour had Adrian and Heartrender return to practicing together. Even with their bond to bolster communication, he insisted they needed to learn how to respond to the other’s intent in the thick of battle. Much to Seymour’s chagrin, it didn’t take long before they flowed across their makeshift arena, striking at target dummies with practiced ease.

“It’s that aethersense of yours,” Seymour said, scowling at Adrian after he and Heartrender demolished yet another of the watcher’s exercises. Heartrender sent a pulse of smug satisfaction radiating through their bond that had Adrian struggling to suppress a grin for fear of stoking the watcher’s ire. “Gives you an unfair advantage.”

Adrian didn’t know how true that was, but he took comfort in the thought that his heightened spiritual awareness might make up for some of his other shortcomings. While Seymour and Tremorfist had the advantage of hardier aether and years spent training and fighting together in the Watcher Division, their bond remained clumsy. Seymour still struggled to manage a basic Enhancement, let alone the reverse Enhancement that had come so easily to Adrian.

Even with Adrian’s superior bond, however, his attempts to form a reverse Surge with Heartrender went nowhere. The allure of directly casting daemonic techniques called to him, and one time, he could’ve sworn he feltsomething—the faintest trace of power almost close enough to touch. Yet, in the end, the advanced meld eluded him just as it had Crastley.

That one failure aside, Adrian marveled at his advancement. Under Seymour’s tutelage, his body had grown fitter than ever, with new muscles to match his improved aether. When Seymour declared it time for a second bout to test his progress, Adrian brimmed with eager confidence.

Sure enough, their rematch began better than the first. He and Heartrender were ready for Tremorfist’s brutal assault, and Adrian didn’t allow Seymour to catch him off-guard. But right when it felt like they might gain the upper hand, Tremorfist released aStunning Howlthat froze them in their tracks.

With his shroud focused around his mind, it took Adrian only a handful of heartbeats to throw off the effect. But when he and Heartrender tried to retaliate, Tremorfist followed up with a series of shorter, staccato bursts from his technique. Too weak to stun them entirely, eachStunning Howlnevertheless elicited a flinch that made their strikes go wide or their dodges come a second too slow.

“Better,” Seymour said after accepting Adrian’s begrudging surrender. “But you can’t keep relying on the same tricks. A clever foe will see right through the illusions.”

“Mirror Imageis all I’ve got,” Adrian said, bitterness clogging his throat. “Maybe if I had more daemons with battle-oriented techniques like Tremorfist’s, I could—”

“One technique is all you need,” Seymour snapped. “Tremorfist’sStunning Howlis far more limited thanMirror Image, yet you saw how he repurposed it to keep you off balance. You can do the same. I’ll give you a week to consider,” he called over his shoulder as he strode away. Tremorfist gave them a commiserating look before following. “Then, I want you to prove to me you have what it takes to become a real daemon master.”

Adrian clenched his jaw, glaring after Seymour until he vanished from view.A real daemon master, huh?Though Adrian’s understanding of what that meant had changed dramatically since his childhood dream of being a watcher, his ultimate goal remained the same—to forge a stronger bond with his daemons and protect the League…even from its own ignorance.

He scooped up Heartrender and cradled her in his arms. She purred contentedly despite the trouncing she’d taken during the recent melee. The quiet resolve she sent him bolstered his flagging spirit.

“You’re right,” he whispered, scratching her belly. “We’ll make him eat those words, won’t we, girl? Let’s show him what you canreallydo.”

ten

Rematch

Adrian lounged beside theirnightly fire, Heartrender asleep in his lap. Tomorrow was his rematch with Seymour. Another chance to live up to his parents’ legacy and show himself deserving of the gifts Crastley had left him…or to fail, like he already had twice before.

Across from him, Seymour sat propped against Tremorfist. Their bond had clearly strengthened these past couple weeks, even if Tremorfist still sometimes seemed as stubborn as Seymour. It comforted Adrian to know that if he died by Kali’s hand, knowledge of the true bond wouldn’t die with him. That alone felt like a minor victory against Serenity Corp.