Amelia woke with a pounding headache and a deep sense of loss. She looked around frantically and realized that she was in Healer’s Den wrapped up in a blanket with a medic on standby.

She tried to rise, but someone rushed over and laid her back down. She looked back at the medic with a glare, confused by what had happened after the Contracting Ritual. “What’s going on?”

“The Heavenly Oath took more out of you than we anticipated, Amelia. Your gryphon is in the holding dome while you rest. He passed The Tests. An astonishing success, they said. He’s a strange one. The Tribunal is worried that you won’t be able to handle his growth and are currently in council, planning out the next couple of weeks. You’re to remain here until then,” the medic, a red-headed man in his late thirties, said while returning her glare with equal ferocity.

“I’ve never heard of something like this, though. Nothing went wrong, right?” Amelia asked.

“Everything went fine, but variants are always tricky. That’s why the Tribunal usually has them exported to other countries, but this one… Time’s are rough Amelia. You of all should know that, so what you’re doing with this one- well, it’s commendable. Rest here until a decision is made.”

The medic stood and walked out of the room. Amelia stared up at the wooden roof and sighed. She had been here too many times. She couldn’t stand just waiting around for a decision to be made and threw the covers off her and stood from the bed. Her gear had been placed in a drawer next to her.

She quickly grabbed it and strapped her belt with both swords around her waist, pulled the hood over her head, strapped the quiver on her back, and grabbed her trusty bow before sneaking out of Healer’s Den.

Within moments, she stood before the dome and looked on in awe at her Contracted beast. “Can you hear me?”

It stirred when she spoke and she kept trying.

“Wake up, you,” she said a little louder, trying not to garner any attention from the others in the area. She saw its eyes flash open and it looked around, though she knew firsthand that it couldn’t see out of the dome.

“Relax, you can’t see me right now, but I’m here. Just listen to me,” she spoke softly, like a mother would with a child. “My name is Amelia. I know you can’t understand me, but you and I… We’re soulbound now. I feel what’s inside of you. We can’t wait here for the Tribunal to finish bickering and politicking, otherwise, it’ll be too late to help you.”

It stared at the glass of the dome exactly where she was and she flinched back at the intensity in its gaze. It even nodded at her.

“You…” she took a step back. “You understand me?”

It nodded again and she had to sit down and process what that meant for a minute, though, she didn’t get far before the urgency of their situation kicked in.

“That parasite will kill us both if we don’t hurry, so I need to get you out of there and we need to leave, now.” She knew the area, as well as anybody else that visited the bestiary, did, which wasn’t saying much.

She stood and looked it in the eyes once more, “I’ll get you out soon, but when we do, they’ll be after us.”

She caught herself from stumbling as the cold sensation numbed her body again. She grit her teeth and left the spectating area. The sun outside began to sink beyond the horizon, casting shadows about the large city. She picked up her pace when she could finally feel her body again, deftly traveling through alleyways to get to the other side of the enormous bestiary.

There were two entrances and one exit. The exit required appropriate paperwork that she didn’t have and wouldn’t have until the Tribunal finally finished with their frolicking. She knew the city like the back of her had.

Her life before adventuring had led her down roads she wished to not think about too deeply, though the skills she’d acquired saved her on more than one occasion and helped her do her job as an adventurer.

She saw the entrance that she would need to use and the guards around it, her breathing heavy as the weight of what she was about to do settled on her shoulder.

It would be time to leave and never come back. Her memories of Ghulda were a mixed bag, but it had still been her home. She would be hunted after this, but that was a risk she would have to take.

When the sun finally set and the darkness of night descended, she made her move. She channeled Essence and shrouded herself in a cape of absolute darkness before she slowly crept her way past the guards. The entrance had a large door for monsters and beasts and another door for human traffic. She carefully opened the door and slunk through without making a sound.

She had to focus her gaze as exhaustion threatened to overcome her. She dropped the cape of darkness and breathed a sigh of relief. She was in, though her job was far from done.

She reached out to sense the monsters nearby and found her Contracted not too far, skulking about warily. “I’m here.”

It turned to look at her and rushed over, nearly running her over. She smiled as the feeling of loss abated. It leaned its head against hers and she blinked in surprise. It was strange to have it express emotions so… humanly, but she blamed it on it being a variant.

“Okay, now we have to get out. This is the hard part and we’ll have to be fast about it.” She nimbly hopped onto his back and flattened herself against it with her hood pulled over her to cover her as much as possible. Her bow still showed, but they would hopefully move fast enough for it not to matter. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.”

It kept watching their surroundings vigilantly, and she felt like the coupling couldn’t have been a better fit for her. There wasn’t anything to worry about in here, yet it still looked for a threat at any turn.

“They know I’m gone by now and more than likely know I’ve come here, so I’m going to show you the exit. I’m going to break it and cause all hell to break loose, and then it’s up to you to get us out of there safely. Whatever is inside of you is making it hard for me to use my Essence, but it’s the only choice we have,” she whispered quietly.

She started accumulating her Essence into her fingertips and pointed at several of the Yolin, the large bull-like creatures, and a dark bolt slammed into their hides doing no damage. It had the intended effect as all three of them roared and focused on her gryphon.

It squeaked in surprise and started running as fast as it could as the angry Yolin bore down on them, demanding retribution. She led her gryphon until she saw the outline of the door. “I need a shot.”

A purple, writhing ball of Essence accumulated in her hand. She held it until she gave it every last bit of Essence she had left. She fired it off and watched with grim determination as the ball slammed into the large doorway. Nothing happened immediately and her gryphon started to veer away from colliding with a wall.

“Keep going!”

It turned to face the wall and ran as fast as it could with the ground rumbling behind them. The Yolin were hot on their tail and they’d get trampled underfoot in seconds if this didn’t work.

But she didn’t worry.

She stared on as the doorway began to erode with a hole big enough for them to escape through. She thought she heard the gryphon sigh in relief as they jumped through.

The Yolin slammed through the damaged doorway and continued to pursue them. She saw the city’s opened gates not too far, though her vision began to blur as the pervasive coldness wrenched at her soul. She had no Essence left to stop it from knocking her out cold.