Chapter 262: Ink Affinity

Kalon stood in the bathroom with ink still running off his skin and checked the system thoroughly.

[Signed With Ink]

The ink affinity was there, awakened in all of it’s glory. It had entered his body the same way the others had, though the name was abit more unique.

What was missing however, was a skill. No just like with other affinities awakened through natural means, no skill came with it at first.

This wasn’t a problem.

The system usually worked in his favour when he pushed in a clear direction.

When affinities entered his body, the system acknowledged this carefully. Every major step in his climb had followed that pattern, from first fire displays to the harder rewards earned off-world.

If he put himself in the right situations, an ink skill would surface as a quest reward.

Standing around the apartment dripping ink about the place would not make that happen. Neither would another quiet visit to Coralia’s water house.

He needed to give the system a reason to hand him a technique like it had with all his other affinities.

He washed enough to look presentable, dressed, and travelled.

...

Delphinium at night was all cold wind and scattered island lights.

Kalon arrived near Seraphina’s home shelf and found the Sky-Queen already awake.

She stood at the edge of the platform with her white wings half-folded, silver hair moving in the high air, storm-grey eyes fixed on a distant dark shape in the skyline.

When she noticed him, relief and strain hit her face at the same time. Her G-cup chest rose with a tight breath under the light wrap she wore for night air, but there was no room for ordinary greeting in her expression.

"You come at a troubling time, island saviour" she said with worry in her voice.

"What has happened?" Kalon replied.

Seraphina pointed toward the largest island on the horizon.

Even at night Caelum Spire was obvious, a city-island of stacked stone, bridges, and dense housing that dwarfed the smaller islands around it. It was the prize she had once offered him if he stabilised it, the largest settled island on the visible routes.

Parts of it should have been glowing with stable light by now. Instead whole districts sat dim, and thin trails of smoke marked places that had taken damage. Broken anchor lines hung from one lower edge like snapped tendons.

"A man named Vorren Shadewing is raiding it," Seraphina began to explain. "He has been taking sections of Caelum Spire over the last two days. His people move with black wings and hit supply lines, watch posts, and the lower stabilising anchors. The island was supposed to be yours to finish. He is trying to break it before that can happen... He has heard of you."

Kalon watched the dark outline of the city-island and felt the old work-plan shift under him. Stabilising Caelum Spire had been a long-term plan. Someone else was trying to kill that plan early.

"Why is he doing this, exactly?"

"Because a stable Caelum Spire under your name changes the balance of the upper islands," Seraphina said. "Vorren has been building influence through fear in the upper Islands. He burns stores, takes hostages, and leaves the survivors dependent on his protection. His main goal has always been Caelum Spire, and since it’s began collapsing, he has made plans to take it over. With news spreading that I was to hand the island over to you, he has decided to speed up that process."

The system opened against Kalon’s sight as she spoke.

「New Quest」

Defeat Vorren Shadewing

Reward: SSS+ Rank Active Skill

He read it once and felt the shape of the opening he had wanted. An SSS+ skill on the back of a named enemy. If the system was feeding him this now, with ink newly awake and no technique attached yet, the reward would almost certainly be an ink skill.

The timing was too perfect to be coincidence. This would lead to him being able to earn Coralia’s attention.

"Is he there now?" Kalon asked, already preparing himself.

Seraphina nodded. Her wings tightened against her back.

"Most likely. His group seized a block of upper residential territory on the east rise. Reports say he sleeps there between raids rather than returning to the outer islands. He believes the city is already his to carve. His sentries watch the outskirts."

"Good."

Seraphina’s eyes searched his face.

"You are going now?"

"I’m going to him."

Kalon did not waste time on a full flight approach across open sky. He had a better route. One he had discovered recently.

Sleep was a doorway he could use, and a man resting between raids was already halfway open.

He focused, activated the skill Dreamwalk, and entered the unseen world.

...

The dream took shape around him as a broken version of Caelum Spire.

Stone streets hung at wrong angles. Bridges ended in open sky. Black-winged shapes moved in the distance without sound. Torn banners from local houses had been forced into new colours that did not belong to the city.

At the centre of a seized courtyard, on a makeshift throne of looted benches and stolen crest-cloth, Vorren Shadewing sat half-reclined with his eyes closed, dreaming himself larger than the island he was trying to kill.

He was broad, dark-feathered, and armoured in scavenged plate. His wings were pure black, the kind of black that swallowed the dream-light around them. Even in the dream world, his presence pushed outward powerfully. He was far taller than the average man, most likely standing at 6’7 feet tall.

Kalon walked into the courtyard without hiding his steps.

Vorren’s eyes opened.

For a moment the raider only stared, confusion cutting through the dream-logic that had told him he was safe in his own dream.

Then the shock landed properly. A wingless foreigner was standing in his sleep, in his stolen courtyard, inside the city he had decided to break.

Vorren Shadewing jerked forward on the looted throne, black wings flaring wide, and stared at Kalon like a man who had just found an enemy inside his own head.