Chapter 473: Because He Chose To

The letter spent three days inside a drawer.

Damon knew exactly where it was.

That did not mean he needed to look at it.

On the first morning, he trained with Jian Yue for thirty minutes. Ester had already increased the limit, as long as he did not use energy to amplify strength or speed. On the second day, Xue Lian joined the training and turned what should have been a simple session into forty minutes of Damon trying not to get hit by a spear.

On the third, he managed to convince Ester that running was not a suicide attempt.

She allowed it.

With a limit.

Naturally.

When Damon finished his lap around the inner courtyard, Jian Li was sitting near the entrance with a cup in her hands.

"You’re avoiding the letter."

He slowed down.

"I’m running."

"For three days."

"My stamina dropped."

"That’s not what I meant."

Damon picked up the towel left on a bench.

"I know."

Jian Li drank a little.

"Are you going?"

"Probably."

"You’ve been saying that for three days."

"I have weeks."

"Aria is suffering."

"Good."

"She tried asking me if you’d said anything."

"I hope you were strong."

"I said no."

Damon nodded.

"Pride."

"Then I asked if you’d said anything."

He looked at her.

"Betrayal."

Jian Li smiled.

Damon dried his face and sat beside her.

His recovery had advanced enough that physical exertion once again produced a familiar kind of fatigue, rather than that irritating discomfort of a body constantly reminding him it was still repairing something.

The ancestral connections were still there.

The one near his heart appeared during specific moments of exertion or stronger emotion, but without opening any new structure. The abdominal one rarely reacted. The lower one showed itself mainly during moments of imbalance, offering small corrections Damon could accept or ignore.

Nothing else.

No transformation.

No leap in power.

No hidden revelation.

He was beginning to consider it one of the best periods of his life.

Jian Li held the cup between her hands.

"What’s making you hesitate?"

"I’m not hesitating."

"You’re thinking."

"Does that count as hesitation now?"

"For you, yes."

Damon exhaled through his nose.

"If it were an obvious trap, it’d be easier."

"Because you’d go?"

"Because I’d know how to treat it."

"Like a trap."

"Exactly."

"And now?"

Damon looked toward the courtyard.

"Now someone said they respected the fact that I didn’t search. Asked me to respect that again. Chose neutral ground. Said I can simply not show up."

Jian Li thought.

"Then it sounds polite."

"That’s the problem."

She started laughing.

"You’re impossible."

"Experience."

"Not everything is an ambush."

"I know."

"Do you believe that?"

Damon took a moment.

"I’m trying."

Jian Li stood.

"Maybe that’s the reason to go."

He looked at her.

"You’re getting philosophical."

"Living with Aurelia is harmful."

"Finally someone admits it."

She left before Aurelia could appear to defend her own honor.

That afternoon, a message arrived from Neria.

It was not for Damon.

It was for Ester.

He found out because Ester called him to the infirmary.

Neria had remained in the Valley since returning and continued gradually removing the last engraving filaments connected to Serik. The regulators she had chosen to keep were stable, and the small circulatory route that had appeared in Mirath continued to exist even after reconnecting with Eir.

It had not disappeared.

It had not replaced anything either.

The two routes simply worked together.

"So her body kept the alternative," Damon said, observing the projection that had been sent.

"Yes." Ester enlarged the image. "But it isn’t using the secondary path with the same intensity now."

"Because she’s receiving Eir’s energy again."

"Probably."

Damon pointed toward the region.

"That looks more flexible."

"It is."

Aurelia, sitting nearby, agreed.

"It’s exactly the kind of thing the old records describe. Not returning to a previous model. Keeping options when they don’t create conflict."

Damon made a face.

"Don’t start looking at me."

"I wasn’t."

"You were."

Ester closed the projection.

"Neria also asked when you’re coming back."

"To the Valley?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"She didn’t say."

Damon became suspicious.

"That usually means something."

Ester handed him the tablet.

There was a short message from Liora just below.

THERE IS CAKE.

Damon closed his eyes.

"I found out."

Aurelia smiled.

He replied that he would go the next day.

The visit to Eir’s territory ended up being exactly as unurgent as he expected.

Liora really did have cake.

A lot of it.

Neria was sitting beside Eir’s massive central body when Damon arrived. She already looked less fragile, although she was still far from fully recovered. The structures along her skin were less noticeable, and some areas where the filaments had been removed remained covered by small bandages.

"You came," she said.

"I was bribed."

Liora appeared holding a plate.

"It works."

"Unfortunately."

Eir spoke through the great trunk.

"Damon."

"Eir."

"You are whole."

"Finally."

"Good."

Damon sat near Neria.

"How are your hands?"

"Warm."

"Excellent progress."

Neria smiled.

"My body kept the new path."

"I heard."

"I liked it."

"The path?"

"The choice."

Damon understood.

She lightly moved her fingers.

"Before, when something changed, I immediately thought about who had done it. The Order. My mother. Machines. Now something changed because my body decided it needed to."

"That happens often."

"I didn’t have enough experience."

Eir replied:

"Neither did I."

Damon looked at the great trunk.

"Are you still keeping that notebook?"

There was a small pause.

"Yes."

"Did you write anything?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"Mine."

Damon smiled.

"Fair."

Liora sat near him and pushed a plate in his direction.

"Eat."

"Are you ordering me?"

"Yes."

"Ester’s influence."

"No."

Neria laughed.

For a while, they spoke only about small things.

Mirath.

Food.

The stone drake Eir insisted on calling only "warm animal."

Neria wanted to return to the city once Ester allowed a longer stay. Liora wanted to return to the market because she had discovered that money provided structured access to food.

Damon tried to explain that this was not the best economic definition.

No one cared.

It was only when Liora left in search of more fruit that Eir asked:

"Letter."

Damon looked at the trunk.

"You heard."

"Neria told me."

Neria showed no guilt.

"It was interesting."

"Aria is contaminating everyone."

Eir continued:

"Will you go?"

"Maybe."

"Do you want to?"

Damon fell silent.

The question seemed very simple.

Maybe that was why it was useful.

"I want to know who they are."

"Then you want to go."

"Wanting to know doesn’t mean I should."

"Yes."

Eir had learned that far too well.

Damon rested his arms on his knees.

"They asked me to go alone."

"Are you afraid?"

"A little."

"Good."

He looked at her.

"Good?"

"You said fear doesn’t stop choice."

Damon began to smile.

"I’m starting to regret teaching things."

"You said that too."

Neria laughed.

Eir continued:

"They don’t want you to search for their home."

"No."

"You respect that."

"Yes."

"You want to talk."

"Yes."

"Then go talk."

Damon looked at Neria.

"Did you ask her to simplify it?"

"No. She does that on her own."

"Dangerous."

Eir took a few seconds.

"If it’s bad, you come back."

"Excellent plan."

"Yes."

Damon did not decide there.

But when he returned to Mirath that night, he opened the drawer.

Took out the letter.

Read it again.

Nothing had changed.

It still said he could refuse.

It still said there would be no second invitation.

It still offered no location other than the inn in Veyra.

Damon folded it and placed it in his pocket.

The next morning, he found Jian Yue training.

"I’m going."

She did not stop moving.

"Veyra."

"Yes."

"When?"

"New moon."

Jian Yue finished the sequence and sheathed her sword.

"I’m going with you."

"No."

"Until the city."

"Also no."

She became serious.

"They asked you to go alone."

"I know."

"And you intend to obey literally."

"Yes."

"That’s stupid."

"Could be."

"Damon."

He crossed his arms.

"If they wanted to kill me, sending someone with me wouldn’t change much. It would only add another person to the problem."

"That’s not the point."

"I know."

"Then?"

"I want to respect the terms."

Jian Yue closed her eyes.

"You’re really taking this whole boundaries thing too far."

"Annoying when it’s applied against you?"

"Yes."

"Thought so."

She opened her eyes.

"You’re at least going to accept Transfer to a nearby region."

"Yes."

"Aria prepares an escape route."

"Yes."

"If anything seems wrong, you come back."

"Yes."

Jian Yue became suspicious.

"You agreed too quickly."

"Those are reasonable conditions."

"Who are you?"

Damon smiled.

"Recovery changed my life."

"I don’t like it."

"You’ll survive."

He took a few steps.

"Damon."

He stopped.

"Take the tablet."

"It doesn’t work well at that distance."

"Take it anyway."

He thought.

"All right."

Jian Yue nodded.

That seemed sufficient.

The following days continued.

That might have been the strangest part.

The invitation did not change Mirath.

Damon still trained.

Ester gradually increased the limits.

Xue Mei continued appearing where she had not been invited.

Aria kept trying to extract any detail Damon might have forgotten to mention.

Aurelia reviewed the old records without trying to reconstruct the route to Arvell.

Maelor-Serik continued cooperating with the audit.

Varos was still formally removed from command, although the investigation was already recommending his partial reinstatement once it was demonstrated that he truly had not known about the hidden functions of the marks before Vermillion.

None of those matters required Damon every day.

He discovered that he liked that.

One week before the new moon, Ester finally removed every special training limitation.

"What exactly does that mean?" Damon asked.

"That your injury is no longer relevant."

"I can fight normally."

"You can."

"Use energy."

"You can."

"Train as much as I want."

Ester stared at him.

"Don’t be an idiot."

"So there’s still a restriction."

"That one applies to everyone."

"You apply it more to me."

"Because you provide more opportunities."

Damon accepted it.

During his first completely unrestricted training session, he used vampiric energy only once.

His body responded normally.

The incubus structure did too.

The three ancestral connections remained integrated, but quiet.

None competed with the others.

None tried to assume priority.

After training, Damon remained alone in the courtyard for a few minutes.

The moon was not new yet.

But it was already waning.

There was little time left.

He took the letter from his pocket.

He had started carrying it during the past few days without realizing it.

Not because he was afraid of losing it.

Maybe simply because the decision had already been made.

Arvell did not define those people.

Neither did Maerin.

That had been one of the first things they made a point of saying.

Damon liked that.

He himself had spent far too long being described by words that were supposed to explain what he was.

Vampire.

Incubus.

Mixture.

Ancestral structure.

Compatibility.

Each definition explained something.

None explained everything.

Maybe that was what he truly wanted to discover in Veyra.

Not where he came from.

Nor what he was supposed to become.

Only how other people had learned to live without turning their own origin into destiny.

Damon put the letter away again.

In the corridor, Aria appeared.

"You’re looking at it."

"I was."

"You’re nervous."

"A little."

She smiled.

"Good."

Damon narrowed his eyes.

"Eir?"

"I spent too much time with her."

"This is becoming a disease."

Aria leaned against the entrance.

"Are you going to change your mind?"

"No."

"Then it’s decided."

"Yes."

"Finally."

Damon looked at her.

"I had weeks."

"And you used almost all of them."

"That was the point."

Aria seemed to consider that.

Then nodded.

"Fair."

Damon began walking back inside.

The new moon would come in six days.

He would go to Veyra.

Alone.

He would speak with people who might descend from Maerin, might carry the ancient architecture in other ways, might know things Eir and the Order had never recorded.

Or maybe it would only be a disappointing conversation in an old inn.

Damon realized he preferred that possibility.

Not every next step needed to justify everything that came before.

Sometimes, a door could simply open.

And this time, he would walk through because he had chosen to.