Victor waited until his room was empty and the academy halls had gone quiet before he pulled the core from his inventory.
It sat in his palm exactly as he remembered it, a deep crimson orb radiating heat that had nothing to do with the temperature of the room. Even now, hours after Ricky had first tossed it to him in that underground fight club, it still felt like holding a small, contained fire.
'Last chance to talk me out of this,' Victor thought.
'Wouldn't dream of it,' Borack replied. 'You've made up your mind. I'm just here to watch.'
'Comforting.'
'I try.'
Victor turned the core over in his hand one more time, studying the faint pulse of light beneath its surface. He didn't know exactly what absorbing an unrefined core would do to a human body, and neither, apparently, did Borack. That should have bothered him more than it did.
He closed his fist around it.
