Chapter 692: Natural Path

Sabrina remained caught in her thoughts long enough that she almost missed Grey’s hand beginning to slide lower around her waist. She caught him before he made it very far, pinching the inside of his arm hard enough to make his fingers twitch before she slapped his hand away and stood.

Grey grinned as though he’d gotten exactly what he wanted anyway, but Sabrina ignored him and walked toward the dining table where the three Dominion Class Legacies were waiting. The conversation had left her with more questions than answers, though there was one thing she couldn’t really argue with no matter how much she wanted to.

Grey was carrying them.

He was the strongest fighter Earth had, the best source of wealth they had access to, the smartest person in the room when he actually decided to use his brain, and somehow he’d become their best Mech Tech on top of everything else. Even the leadership position that should have looked ridiculous on him fit more naturally than Sabrina wanted to admit. Everyone always ended up looking toward Grey whenever something actually went wrong.

Amunet had told her about Ma Famille as well, and that only made the disparity harder to ignore. Some of the people closest to Grey had managed to keep pace with him in certain areas largely through a treasure that allowed them to borrow from Grey’s talent and understanding, which meant even their progress had become tied back to him.

Sabrina stared down at The Last Measure, then shifted toward Choirpiercer and the Thousand Door Bulwark.

Whether she agreed with Grey’s choices didn’t really matter right now. What right did she have to tell him how to carry a burden she couldn’t help him carry?

If she wanted her opinion to mean something, then she needed enough strength to stand beside him when the consequences arrived instead of waiting somewhere safe and criticizing the decisions afterward. The thought irritated her, but not nearly as much as realizing that even relying on Ma Famille immediately would undermine the point.

She wanted something that was hers first.

Grey didn’t need to teach her what kind of Candidate she was supposed to become, not before she had even tried to figure it out for herself. If one of these Legacies could acknowledge her without Grey’s talent carrying her over the gap, then at least she’d have a direction that hadn’t started with his fingerprints all over it.

After that, maybe she could decide whether he was actually right.

If he was, she’d stand beside him. If he wasn’t, she’d get strong enough to grab him by the ear and drag him toward whatever common sense he’d managed to sprint past.

Sabrina’s expression softened slightly as another thought surfaced.

She had no idea where her parents were.

At this point, pretending there was a good chance they were alive felt childish. Sabrina had seen enough of the Genesis Games to understand what sort of meat grinder Earth had been thrown into, and if more than ten percent of the people taken at the beginning were still alive, she would honestly consider that a miracle.

Lilac didn’t know where her parents were either. Neither did James or Duke.

Most of them had spent Arc I sitting at home watching whatever scraps of Earth the broadcasts bothered showing them, and even that had only continued as long as it did due to Grey constantly forcing their Cracked World back into relevance.

Without him, Earth would have disappeared from the broadcasts long before the end of the First Arc, leaving them without even the illusion that they might eventually see someone they recognized.

Sabrina slowly exhaled. She needed to do something. She had been doing nothing for too long.

Her gaze moved across the three Legacies again, and almost immediately the certainty she’d been hoping for failed to appear. The sword felt wrong, its severe simplicity carrying nothing that resonated with her, while the spear was little better, and even the shield left her with no instinct that told her to reach forward.

Sabrina shook her head slightly.

"None of these."

She had barely looked away when metal shifted behind her.

The Thousand Door Bulwark trembled on the table.

Lilac turned toward the sound from several seats away, confusion appearing on her face just as the shield launched upward with enough force to send several plates rattling. It crossed the room before anyone had time to react, then stopped directly above Lilac’s head as its overlapping sections unfolded into a broad protective canopy.

Lilac stared upward. "I didn’t do anything."

The shield rotated once over her, then lowered slightly as though inspecting her in return.

Grey leaned forward from the couch, the lazy amusement draining from his face as he watched the Legacy move completely on its own. Brad had been chosen by his hammer before, but even that had required a process, a test that forced him to prove he had the grit to continue carrying what the weapon represented.

This was different.

A familiar voice filled Grey’s mind, soft enough that for a moment it almost blended into his thoughts. "What a rare occurrence..."

Grey’s brows furrowed. ’Rare how?’

The angelic woman remained silent for a moment, seemingly studying the shield through him.

"A Dominion Class Legacy can be forced into compatibility, as you just demonstrated, though I would hesitate to call what you do true compatibility. It may also establish a trial and allow perseverance, conviction or some other quality to influence its final judgment, much like what occurred with Brad."

Grey watched the Bulwark lower until it hovered just behind Lilac’s shoulders, its plates shifting whenever anyone nearby moved too quickly.

"But an active choice is different," she continued. "The Legacy did not wait for the girl to touch it, nor did it merely sense that she possessed qualities its former master admired. It reached for her first."

Grey’s eyes narrowed. ’And that means what?’

"It means this shield is likely much closer to Ascendant Class than its current strength suggests." The angelic woman continued before Grey could interrupt. "In fact, I would not be surprised if it was once an Ascendant Class treasure that suffered enough damage for its strength to fall into the Dominus range. A Legacy at mere the Dominus level normally lacks the depth required to recognize a compatible existence from a distance and establish the connection by its own will."

Grey looked toward Lilac again, who still hadn’t moved and seemed increasingly unsure whether she was supposed to touch the thing hovering over her.

’You said there was another difference.’

"There is." The woman’s voice softened. "For the Bulwark to choose her like this, it needed to establish a Soul Link."

Grey went still.

His own experience with Soul Link immediately made the words heavier than they otherwise would have been. He had only recently unlocked the ability himself, far earlier than he was supposed to, and everything he’d learned since then had made it increasingly obvious that the metaphysical side of a Neural Frame wasn’t something Dominion Class existences should casually be reaching into.

’The shield Soul Linked with Lilac?’

"Not in the same complete manner that you understand Soul Link, but enough for the distinction to matter. It reached beneath the obvious structure of her Frame and recognized something in the path she can become, rather than merely judging what she is now."

Grey slowly sat back.

The Bulwark finally descended, settling against Lilac’s back without her ever reaching for it. The overlapping plates tightened around one another before several sections extended toward her shoulders, fitting themselves into place with a familiarity that made it look as though the shield had belonged there for years.

"What does that mean for her?" Grey asked aloud without thinking.

Several people looked toward him, but the angelic woman answered inside his head.

"It means her path will be long." There was something almost pleased in her voice. "But it should also be extraordinarily smooth. Even without you, even without Ma Famille, she has already been acknowledged by something capable of seeing far beyond her current Class."

Grey’s gaze settled on Lilac.

The quietest person in the room stood completely frozen with a Dominion Class shield hugging her back like it had spent its entire existence waiting to find her.

The angelic woman spoke one final time. "That girl has a natural path to the Ascendant Class."