Xu Hao looked at the words until they stopped meaning anything.
Firefly Realm. First Layer.
Sia had crossed into a realm that was still far beyond his own. He, meanwhile, was having difficulty remembering how to breathe.
The dark hall swam around him. He made himself look at the card once more, partly because he wanted to understand what he'd done and partly because he feared that if he looked away, he'd lose consciousness before finding out.
Sia's old abilities remained: Wind Step, Guardian's Instinct and Scent Track. Her strength was now twenty-five, agility thirty, stamina twenty-seven, defence twenty-two, intelligence twenty-six and perception twenty-seven. Wind affinity had risen to thirty-six percent.
He couldn't compare those figures to a normal Firefly beast. He could compare them to her earlier card, and the difference was considerable.
Below the familiar skills was a new one.
Gale Fang: A bite wrapped in cutting wind. Effective against thick hide and light armour. Recovery: three minutes.
Xu Hao thought of the expensive shoes Sia had chewed as a puppy.
"We'll need to have a conversation about furniture."
The card offered no comment. Two other lines were less amusing.
Growth Cap: Firefly Realm. One major realm above owner.
Superimpose: 0/1. Unlocks at owner's next breakthrough. Copies available: 0.
Ninety-six blank cards hung beside the brush. He had spent another, gained a powerful beast and locked the ability again. There would be no correcting mistakes with a second attempt tomorrow.
His thoughts slipped. He tried to hold them together long enough to remember the new skill's name.
Gale Fang.
Then the hall was gone.
* * *
"Little brother."
The voice came from some distance away.
"Xu Hao. Open your eyes."
"I'm listening," he whispered.
"You aren't looking."
"That seems an unreasonable requirement at present."
He heard Da Bao breathe out sharply. A cup touched his lips, and water spilled down his chin before he managed to swallow. He was on his blanket by the fire, with his head supported against something folded beneath it.
Er Bao had one hand around his wrist. Da Bao knelt on the other side, looking as though he would have preferred a beast he could hit to an illness he couldn't understand.
"How bad?" Er Bao asked.
"Not as bad as the first card." Xu Hao waited for the dizziness to settle. "Still not an experience I'd recommend."
Er Bao continued feeling his pulse.
"You said the last time was worse," Da Bao muttered. "You also said you'd be careful."
"I was careful. I sat down."
"Before nearly passing out."
"It was an excellent choice of place to sit."
Da Bao's mouth twitched, but his eyes remained troubled.
Xu Hao remembered Er Bao's careful preparations before the upgrade. Water nearby. Blankets ready. Both brothers watching. It had seemed excessive at the time. Looking at them now, he was glad they hadn't listened to him.
"Did it work?" Da Bao asked at last.
Xu Hao nodded.
"Firefly Realm."
For a moment Da Bao was speechless.
Then something large moved behind him, and the cooking pot fell over.
* * *
Sia stood where three dogs might once have fitted comfortably.
Her shoulder would come almost level with Xu Hao's when he stood. Reddish colour touched the tips of her grey fur, and the thick ruff around her neck made her head look smaller than it was. Her paws belonged on an animal considerably larger than the husky he'd once brought home from a shelter.
The mismatched eyes were the same.
So was the expression she wore when she knew she had done something wrong and hoped nobody had noticed.
The cooking pot rolled towards Da Bao's feet. He caught it before the remaining broth could spill into the ashes.
"Sia," Xu Hao said weakly.
She turned at once. Her tail struck a log with a heavy thump.
"Don't move," he told her.
She took two steps towards him.
"That's the opposite of what I asked."
Da Bao stared at the dog, then at Xu Hao.
"She's bigger than my old horse."
"You never owned a horse," Er Bao said.
"I've seen horses."
"Not helpful ones, apparently."
Sia lowered her enormous head into Xu Hao's lap, nearly folding him in half. He laughed, then stopped laughing because his ribs ached.
"Easy, girl."
She sighed with such relief that his blanket stirred.
He stroked the familiar white patch beneath her chin. The fur felt thicker, but she leaned into the touch exactly as before. He'd wondered whether making her stronger might change something he couldn't get back.
For now, at least, he was still the person she wanted to lean on.
Er Bao helped him lie down again. This time Xu Hao offered no argument.
* * *
The copies had changed as well.
Little One had grown so large that Da Bao could no longer get his arms comfortably around her neck. Grey was broader through the chest, her ears taking on the same faint reddish colour as Sia's. Both looked startlingly powerful even while sitting quietly by their owners.
Er Bao examined Grey's card first.
"Dust Realm. Ninth Layer."
Da Bao checked Little One's and gave a low whistle. The same rank appeared there. Both had gained Gale Fang, though their other attributes remained below Sia's.
"One layer beneath Firefly," Er Bao said.
Da Bao rubbed Little One's shoulders. "And I didn't have to draw anything."
"You'd have struggled with the brush," Xu Hao said from his blanket.
"Why?"
"The writing end is very small."
Da Bao grinned, then grew serious again.
"You made us a gift, and now you've made it stronger. But next time, little brother, you tell me before you do something that hurts this much."
"I did tell you."
"I meant before you decide."
Xu Hao looked at him. There had been a discussion before the upgrade, and they'd all agreed to attempt it. Yet he understood the distinction Da Bao was trying to make. His brothers had been allowed to prepare for the consequences without really being able to judge them.
"I don't know how much it will hurt until it happens," he said.
"Then perhaps that's a reason to wait longer next time," Er Bao replied.
Xu Hao didn't enjoy the answer. He couldn't refute it, either.
Beyond the shelter, Grey rose and turned towards the dark trees. Little One lifted her head a moment later. Three powerful beasts had begun keeping watch where three considerably smaller ones had slept the night before.
Da Bao followed their gaze. "Will people know what they are?"
"Some will," Er Bao said. "And anyone who sees the three together may wonder how we obtained them."
Xu Hao thought of the gates of Hibiscus Town, and of the Su family officials the brothers had warned him about.
"Then we won't show them three," he said.
That was a simple rule. The difficult part would be keeping it when they were frightened or angry.
* * *
By morning he could stand without needing Da Bao to carry him.
He knew this because Da Bao had offered twice.
The first time Xu Hao refused. The second time he asked whether his eldest brother might prefer carrying the trade sacks instead. That settled the matter for nearly an hour.
Sia was discovering the dimensions of her new body. She attempted to pass between two rocks on her usual route to the stream and caught her flank against the narrower one. Nothing was injured except her dignity. She stood between them, looking back at Xu Hao as though the stones had moved overnight.
"In a manner of speaking," he told her, "they have."
He led her around by the wider path. At the stream she bent to drink, then stepped backwards into Grey, who moved aside with the patient expression Er Bao usually wore when Da Bao began explaining something obvious.
Xu Hao remembered the first months after adopting Sia, when she had grown too large to sleep beneath his desk. She had continued trying until he'd moved the chair, the wastebasket and finally the desk itself.
He'd been better at rearranging furniture than telling her no.
They spent a short time practising turns and stops along the wider path. No wind skills, no tricks. Xu Hao simply wanted Sia to judge how much space she occupied before they found themselves on a narrow road with other travellers.
When she came back without knocking into the water jars, he praised her extravagantly.
Da Bao observed the exchange.
"She walked in a circle."
"Yes."
"Little One can do that."
"Then please teach her before she sits on our supper."
Da Bao looked down. Little One had one enormous paw resting inside an empty bowl.
He lifted it out without comment.
* * *
Er Bao found a dead branch as thick as Xu Hao's wrist and carried it to a patch of open ground below the ridge.
"We can test the new skill once," he said. "Away from the packs and the shelter."
Da Bao's face brightened.
"Little One first?"
"Sia," Xu Hao said. "We don't know how the copies compare."
They wedged the branch against a low stone so it could not roll. Xu Hao inspected the ground behind it and sent the brothers well clear of the line of the bite. He didn't particularly want to discover whether Gale Fang threw splinters by asking Da Bao to catch them.
Sia waited beside him, tail moving slowly.
"One bite," he told her. "Then come back."
She went to the branch. Wind gathered around her jaws, lifting the loose grass beneath her chin. For a heartbeat she stood perfectly still.
Then she bit.
The branch split with a sharp crack. Three narrow gashes opened beyond her teeth, cutting through the bark as though something invisible had struck it.
Sia released the wood and returned to him at once.
Xu Hao examined her mouth. No blood. No tenderness that he could find. She looked more interested in the possibility of praise than in the damage she'd caused.
He scratched her ears.
"Good girl."
Da Bao picked up the broken branch and studied the cuts. Then he looked at the row of pines beyond the clearing.
"That would have helped against the tiger."
"Possibly," Xu Hao said. "If she'd been close enough to bite it. And if it hadn't struck first."
"We still have to try Little One."
"Another day."
"Why?"
"Because we've learned what we came to learn, and my legs are beginning to object to standing."
Da Bao opened his mouth. He looked at his little brother's face, and closed it again.
"Fine," he said. "I'll carry the branch."
Er Bao took the wood from him before he could decide it belonged in the cooking fire.
* * *
That evening the brothers were tying the last of their goods into travel bundles when Xu Hao came to sit beside them. He had written down Gale Fang's description and what he'd actually witnessed: one bite, a split branch, three wind cuts. No proof yet of what the ability would do to armour, or whether it worked differently for Little One and Grey.
Er Bao examined the notes.
"Enough for today."
"I was just going to say that."
"You were going to add another question."
"That is also true."
Da Bao lifted a sack and settled it on his shoulder. "Two days. Then we're going to Hibiscus Town. Unless you invent another reason for Er Bao to make us wait."
Xu Hao looked towards Sia, stretched at full length beside the fire. Her new strength was extraordinary, and the way the light caught the reddish tips of her coat would have drawn attention even without the card's secrets.
He had wanted her stronger because he'd been afraid of what might find them in the forest. Now the town lay ahead, full of people who could ask questions and remember faces.
Sia opened one blue eye, then the brown, and pushed her nose into his hand.
"I'm glad it's still you," Xu Hao whispered.
Her tail moved once against the ground.
He sat there with his brothers until the fire burned low, trying not to think about how much he would miss the place when they left.