Noah walked alone through the quieting paths of the academy, the evening light stretching long shadows across the courtyards.
He could feel the weight of his satchel against his shoulder, but he was more preoccupied with the weight of his thoughts.
The dissection replayed in his mind like a video.
The exposed organs, the venom glands that were still dangerous even after death, the way Stark had spoken so clinically about what to harvest and what to destroy.
To most of the Gold-tier students, it had been a stomach turning lesson. To Noah, it had been something more. It had been an inspiration.
He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Osiris. Every waking moment since leaving that cell was saturated with the man’s face, his voice, his laughter as he broke Noah apart and stitched him together with pain.
The shadows hissed and seethed every time the thought arose, but now there was a clear line forming in his mind.
Dissection.
He remembered something stark and vivid. The woods. The Rust Vulture.
That day when he and Arlo had gone birdhunting with Theo and Liam, the noble sons of militaristic houses.
That was the day he had seen the effect of the Devour spell with his own eyes. The day he had torn a monster apart and taken something new from it for himself.
From that grotesque bird, he had inherited Rot, a spell that he still held.
That was the beautiful thing about Devour. It didn’t only give him boosts. It gave him tools. New spells. New ways to kill.
If he wanted Osiris to fall, it wouldn’t be with Fireball or Devour. Those were known. Too obvious.
He needed something no one had ever seen him wield. Something no one would suspect belonged to him. Something no one would be able to connect to him when Osiris’ corpse finally cropped up somewhere.
Arlo had already glimpsed his profile once. That alone meant Noah couldn’t afford to use the same weapons twice.
And he didn’t fancy leaving the academy grounds. Not now, when there were people outside who would love to get their hands on him for one reason or the other.
Not to mention the fact that he was still recovering. He was still weaving the mask of the diligent student. Leaving the walls now on a free day would invite questions he didn’t want to answer.
Which left him with only one option. The academy woods.
He knew monsters occasionally slipped in. That was the natural consequence of sitting so close to the outskirts of the capital’s territory.
Creatures sometimes squeezed through the monoliths before the hunters could catch them.
Most were small things, nuisances that students stumbled across during outdoor training. But occasionally, stronger beasts made it in.
Beats like the Rust Vulture. They were rare, dangerous, and perfect for him.
He needed to know if any such beasts had been spotted lately. If there were any compatible with his affinities of Darkness, Fire, Void, Decay, and Hunger. Especially Hunger.
The thought of what Devour might evolve into if he consumed a creature steeped in that affinity made his blood quicken.
But he couldn’t just wander blindly into the forest. That would be stupid.
Noah slowed, standing at a crossroads. The path to his left led toward the first year Gold-tier dorms, which held the promise of his new comfortable bed and the illusion of rest.
To his right, was the path leading to the library.
He turned right.
The library was quiet at this hour. Most students were at dinner or resting in their dorms. Noah walked through confidently, ignoring the curious glance of the librarian as he made for the archives.
His shadows whispered excitedly, crowding at the edge of his mind. ’Yes, yes, knowledge. Maps. Records. Find what hunts in the dark, and make it yours.’
He smirked faintly, adjusting his satchel.
What he needed was simple. A map of the academy grounds and a catalog of sightings.
Someone, somewhere, had to have compiled records of the beasts that had slipped through the defenses over the decades. The academy loved its records too much to leave such knowledge undocumented.
If he could find it, he might strike gold. A new monster. A new spell. And when the time came to tear Osiris apart, he wouldn’t just kill him. He would unmake him, just as Osiris had tried to unmake Noah.
Noah stepped deeper into the aisles, his hand trailing along the spines of heavy tomes. He could almost feel the allure of future power humming at his fingertips.
He gathered the books he hoped he’d find the information he was looking for inside, before finding a place to sit.
With that secured, he hunched over the books, and began poring through them. His satchel lay forgotten at his side, parchment already spread before him as he scribbled notes.
Before long, all that could be heard through the silence was the turning of pages and the faint scratching of his quill.
Most of the volumes he’d found were dry records. Lists of sightings, hunts, and kills dating back decades. But to Noah, every line was a clue.
His shadows clustered behind him like a council, some whispering encouragement, others mocking his obsession, but all watching intently.
It didn’t take too long before a book yielded something promising. The writer described several sightings of fiery birds roosting in the academy woods.
Noah leaned closer, his eyes narrowing. These creatures weren’t rare, they hunted in flocks.
Students had often mistaken their fiery wings for drifting embers at dusk. But when provoked, the birds swooped in as a unit, spitting bursts of flame hot enough to scorch shields.
The reports emphasized their group tactics, warning of how easily they could overwhelm a lone mage. That would not be a problem for him.
Noah’s quill scratched across the parchment.
"Fire Birds. Hunt in flocks, and spew flame bursts. Affinity, Fire. Dangerous, but if isolated... promising."
He imagined the Devour spell tearing into one of them, siphoning flame until something new took root in his soul.
Fire had always been one of his strongest affinities. It felt natural, as if his blood already burned with it.
To evolve it further? To wield a spell not seen before? That was a path worth pursuing.