Dutifully tending his post at the storefront once run by Kaden's father, the soldier saluted perfectly as the Karo Shar, his commander, approached in the depths of the night. Although well past sunset, torches lined the Main and flared their light into the darkness.

No words were exchanged, and Kaden entered to the clanging of the doorbell, a sack over his shoulder. It sounded louder and more harsh in the silence of just past midnight.

"You do realize," Sahl griped as he dozed wearily on the counter. "Some of us prefer sleeping at this luck cursed hour?"

"I want to test something," Kaden said. "And it needs to be done away from prying eyes."

"Well, there certainly aren't many about at this time of night. Or is it technically morning? Except those looking to steal something. Even though we're in the Upper Ring, people still fear the threat of Black Rohs coming over the walls."

"And when was the last time that happened?"

"In the Upper Ring? Or the Lower Ring?"

Kaden eyed the testing stones on the shop's floor. "I've come up with a new idea about how to use essence. More correctly, how to deliver it to the body."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Breathing it in is quite effective, but after Touran applied some of his salves to my wounds, I've been thinking." Kaden rubbed at his plate covered chest. "I could feel the strength my body received when he shoved what was obviously a highly diluted dose of Rage into the open wound on my chest. The power I derived was great. On par with what I felt when I inhaled the vapors down in the Abyss before fighting the Night Terror or the Lesser Koronai. Did you bring the Rage I asked you to?"

"Yes." Rather than a wooden tube, Sahl pointed to a frail glass capillary capped with a sliver of cork on the counter. "Right there. In the quantity and pressure you requested. One tenth of a stone."

Kaden approached and considered the minute amount, so minute that could barely be seen. "It's so small," he observed.

"Well, if your theory is correct, it won't matter."

"No, it won't." Kaden removed his chest plate, stripping down to his urk. In so doing, he revealed the increased definition his muscles had in gain in a short time with exercise compounded with the Royal Physician's balms.

"Other than your still boyish face," Sahl said, "you hardly look like the boy I knew not that long ago."

"Outward appearances can change. But what's inside remains constant."

Sahl shook his head at the claim. "So those who change outwardly always profess. Fill me in on your plans."

"Well, I've got this." Kaden produced a small harness he'd fashioned out of leather and other material from his sack. There was a piece of round metal running from the center up to what would have been the left shoulder. The metal stuck through the centerpiece to be placed over the wound in his chest by about an inch. "Going to put it on and do a test. We attach that sample of a Rage to this end here," he pointed to the end of the metal on the shoulder. "And see if we can inject it directly into my heart."

"How?"

"Well, the metal is actually hollow. See?" Kaden brought the rig close enough for Sahl to thoroughly examine. "It's a tube. I had the palace metalsmiths make it. Had to convince them of my idea, but they accomplished the task nicely, if not crudely. When the vial of Rage is broken and the pressure is released, it will allow the essence to come out here." He pointed to the other end. "Which will be inside my chest."

Sahl gave a disturbed look. "That sound dangerous."

"If it works the way I think it will? I'll worry about the safety aspects later."

"If you survive."

"If a Koronai's claws couldn't kill me, I don't think a metal tube will. I'm pretty sure luck is on my side, Sahl."

"Luck has a nasty habit of running out when you need it most." The reminder from Sahl was salty.

"Are you going to help me or not?"

"Sure, I'll help you. I'm not the one who's potentially about to die performing an experiment."

Kaden ended the complaints with silence. He slid his arms into the loops designed for them and turned around to allow Sahl to buckle the back while Kaden adjusted the uncomfortable location of the metal now protruding naked into his chest.

Sahl tugged and sent a shock wave of pain through Kaden as the bit of metal struck an exposed nerve. The way he flinched was obvious.

"You ok, buddy?" Sahl asked. "Is it too tight?"

Kaden shrugged the discomfort off. "Never better," he replied with a suppressed grunt. He turned around to face his friend, who handed him the prepared vial with gentle care. The Karo Shar accepted it. "What I really need from you is to just watch out for me. If anything goes wrong? Like I fall to the floor and start convulsing or stop breathing, I'll need you to go get Touran."

"Yeah, you dying would be a bad thing for me as your slave."

"Don't worry. I already had an officially sealed pact made with the prince's arbiters. Says that if I die, in any way other than by your hand, you're free and you get full ownership of the shop. You'll find it stashed in the drawer by my bedside. I'd only caution you to get there quickly in the event of my demise. I wouldn't trust Hernah, the princess, or anyone else not to come across it and destroy it."

"Well, personally I'm hoping you don't die."

"That makes two of us." Unwilling to waste any more time, Kaden walked to, and stood above the testing stones. "Wish me luck."

"You've either got the luck, or don't," Sahl said. "Me wishing you any isn't going to help, my friend."

"All right. Let's do this." Kaden popped the thin vial from Sahl into the equally narrow end of the tube which had been designed to receive it. Then he pressed down on the end, allowing it to snap apart inside and the fine pieces of glass to fall away. The small amount of fluid inside was drank greedily through the tiny orifice.

"Anything?" Sahl's inquiry came a split second after the delicate procedure.

"Give it a—" Before Kaden could finish, his chest lurched. As though he were hit by the charging horns of a Greater Koronai.

As the miniscule amount of Rage he'd allowed his body to consume dripped directly onto the throbbing muscles of his heart, an invisible hand knocked Kaden to the ground. His head felt like it wanted to explode, even as his body absorbed and embraced the condensed energy contained within the distilled essence.

Sahl rushed towards him, but Kaden waved him back as he fought to stand. He could only make it up to one knee. "Stay back," he warned.

It wasn't that Kaden was weak. On the contrary, he'd never felt so strong. Not even after breathing in a full dose. And that strength made his body feel unwieldy.

Every one of his muscles felt as though they were tearing and then stitching themselves back together, harder and stronger. A cursory look at his left arm revealed to Kaden that they were definitely much bigger than just moments before. His body trembled, looking for a way to release the energy now contained within it.

As Sahl stood and watched, his mouth agape, Kaden made it to his feet. In silence, he continued eyeing the testing stones as though they were an enemy and took up position behind them. Hands on the metal bar spanning them, Kaden took no pause in lifting them over his head as though they weighed nothing than his Rohs Fang.

He stood there, basking in the feat.

"You've got to be kidding me," Sahl exclaimed. The performance was so impressive and without effort, that it required further comment. "Not even Prince Relastin could have made that look so effortless. Not even with a full dose of Rage."

Kaden was equally impressed by himself. But, at the same time, he could tell something wasn't right. "I think the dose was too high." His muscles felt like a runaway chain reaction was consuming them. He lowered the stones as effortlessly as he'd hefted them. Sweat now poured from his body, and he felt hotter than in the high suns of midday. His breaths labored. "Did you bring the Sorrow like I asked?"

"Here." Sahl came forward with another vial prepared the same way as the first.

Kaden snatched it away, thrusting the Sorrow next into the end of the tube at his shoulder. Quickly, the Karo Shar felt the second dose sliding into him as he broke it. As soon as it hit his heart, everything he felt, every ounce of rage and strength within him, began to dissipate like a mirage.

He crumpled to the floor.

"Do you need me to fetch Touran?" Sahl asked, his voice hinted with panic.

"No," Kaden said wearily. "I'll be fine," he said, heaving breath after breath after breath. "I'll be fine," he repeated. "I'd call that a successful test. But I think we need a much smaller dose. And a more refined way to deliver it. Think you can help me come up with one in the next couple hours?"

"You really do just keep heaping the work on me, don't you?"

"Well, if you weren't so good at what you do? Consider it a compliment."

Sahl raised an eyebrow. "Know what I'd consider a compliment? You letting me sleep through the night."