This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Kain pressed his fingers against his temples, exhaling sharply. The way Serena kept looking at him was starting to wear him down.

She hadn't said a word about their dwindling food supply, nor had she directly asked him how he seemed to always have perfectly fresh fruits and vegetables to eat. But that knowing gaze, expectant yet patient, was practically a silent demand.

He had a secret. She knew it. And he knew that she knew it.

Addressing the very obvious unspoken knowledge between them was honestly adding an unnecessary layer of tension to all of their interactions.

He wasn't sure why he hesitated. Maybe because once he told her, there would be no going back.

Or maybe because, despite everything, despite her, he still had this ridiculous instinct to keep it to himself. Pangea was his secret, one of the few things in this world that truly belonged to him.

Even only a few members of his family, those he completely trusted with his life, only knew that he had the ability to help the affinity-less become beast-tamers—they weren't privy to Pangea's existence.

But it was also a burden. And keeping it to himself any longer felt… exhausting.

Kain clicked his tongue, finally making his decision. "Fine. You win."

Serena blinked, tilting her head ever so slightly, as if to say, I wasn't playing a game.

He ignored that, summoning Bea, figuring it was simply easier to show rather than tell.

The microscopic amoeba immediately made her presence known to Serena, who could not see her, by extending thin mental threads toward her and Kain, connecting them in a way that would allow her to share his vision.

Thankfully, likely already having an idea of what this was about, Serena did not resist.

Serena's mind brushed against his, and for a moment, Kain felt a flicker of unease. Sharing this part of himself, even despite all they've been through together, felt like exposing his heart completely defenselessly to another person.

Her eyes fluttered shut as Kain shared his vision with her as his mind entered his star space.

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A familiar seemingly endless space opened up before her—after all, she had one too.

But her attention was immediately drawn to something that was most definitely not in her own.

Most beast-tamers' star spaces held only the stars that represented their contracted creatures, floating in an otherwise empty space. Kain's was different. Radically different.

The four stars symbolizing his contracts were there as expected, each radiating a distinct hue—a calming blue, vibrant green, sturdy brown, and blazing red.

But unlike her own stars, his were orbiting around something she'd never seen or heard of before…

A planet. A massive, living world, was suspended within the void of his star space.

Serena's breath hitched as her mind processed what she was seeing.

Her voice, when it finally came through their link, was uncharacteristically hesitant. 'Kain… what is this?'

He said nothing, simply willed his consciousness forward, drawing her along as he descended toward the surface with a thought.

On the surface, Serena saw through their shared vision vibrant green plains, towering forests, rivers carving blue veins through the land, reflecting the 4 'celestial bodies' above that housed Kain's contracts.

But along with the beauty, were also the visible scars.

Charred wastelands, their soil cracked and lifeless. Large areas of the lush forest were reduced to withered and dried out husks—vibrant green and sickly brown dividing the forest like some kind of invisible line.

The contrast was jarring. On one side, life thrived—birds soared through the canopy, their songs echoing in the fresh air, while herds of creatures roamed the plains, their movements fluid and harmonious. On the other…a deathly silence. The air was heavy, stagnant, and through the senses shared with Kain she could hear and feel the ground crunching beneath his steps as he wandered over the dried out and dead plants.

Although in the process of recovering, it was obvious that entire ecosystems had recently been wiped away.

A large portion of Pangea's life and energy, drained and broken—all to save her.

Serena inhaled sharply. She had known Kain must have sacrificed something in order to heal the injuries even Balens was helpless against. However, seeing the visual impact of what he'd given up was incredibly jarring.

Kain pulled back, severing the link, and watched her expression shift as she processed what she'd seen. She didn't look at him right away. Her fingers curled slightly against her knee, and her gaze drifted downward, unreadable.

"…This is beyond what I expected," she finally murmured. "I thought it was some kind of relic. Or a subordinate realm you could tap into directly with some kind of skill or device," Her voice remained steady, but there was an undeniable weight behind her words. "Not this."

Kain leaned back against the frozen wall, watching her carefully. "Yeah. Well. Surprise."

Silence stretched between them. The faint glow of the ice around them cast sharp, delicate shadows on Serena's face, but her expression remained sombre. She didn't seem angry at being lied to for months. She also wasn't shocked in the way most people would be.

But she did look… incredibly guilty—which was also not what he wanted.

After a long period of tense silence, she finally opened her mouth: "Does it have a name?"

Kain couldn't resist letting out an amused smile, thinking that this scene was reminiscent of revealing a hidden child on a first date given the extreme awkwardness and tension between them now. But he still answered with feigned calm, "Pangea."

"Pangea…" She muttered softly, letting the unfamiliar name role off her tongue to get a feel for it.

Her fingers soon tightened almost imperceptibly. "It's so beautiful…god knows what impact damage to it will have on you…was it worth damaging Pangea just for me?"

Kain released a breath while looking away. "It wasn't just for you."

It was a half-truth. A part of him had been curious about the prospects of using a planet's core for power and the abilities of the items they'd found. But when it came down to it, he had pushed Pangea beyond its limits for her. And she knew it—they both did.

Serena didn't argue. She simply sat there, her usual detached composure settling back over her like armour, though something in her eyes had softened. After a moment, she let out a quiet breath and shook her head. "You're insane."

Kain huffed out a laugh. "Tell me something I don't know."

Another pause. Then, softer—almost too soft to hear—

"…Thank you."

Kain didn't respond right away. He wasn't sure he even could. Instead, he simply closed his eyes, letting his head rest back against the icy wall.

Before long, he unconsciously drifted off to sleep. Finally having someone to confide in made him feel much lighter somehow.

Unfortunately, after confirming the full extent of the sacrifice he'd made, Serena couldn't share his relaxed demeanour, something in her gaze shifted and became firmer—some kind of resolve confirmed—as she stared at Kain's sleeping face.

She felt as though she owed Kain a huge debt—and she didn't want to leave it unpaid.