Chapter 48 - Neo-Astra

A few days later, Damian was casually propped up against a signal pole on the edge of a roof. One leg was dangling over the edge, while the other was stretched out on the edge. In his right hand, he casually played with a kind of necklace, shuffling it from finger to finger while his eyes were angled up at the sky, deep in thought. 

Suddenly, Damian exhaled lazily, gaze drifting over the hazy skyline. "A few days in, and I think I've got a decent read on this place," he muttered to himself. 

The building he sat on was dilapidated but also one of the highest apartment towers in the Expanse, the largest district of Neo-Astra, the city where he found himself. 

"Aka, the slums and industrial zone," Damian chuckled to himself. "The technology of this world is clearly still a few hundred years behind the Cooperative, but the divide between rich and poor seems to be a universal constant." 

He raised an eyebrow and corrected himself, "Or should I say… the Aetherborn and Gutterborn, in this case. Man, these humans are pretty pretentious." 

After arriving in Neo-Astra, Damian had spent some time exploring his surroundings and reading through the materials provided by Nadine. He previously had everything the Moroi knew about this world uploaded to Nova, but it couldn't hurt to cross-check. 

Apparently, the city was divided into three classes of people: the Aetherborn, Aethersynth, and Gutterborn. To Damian, these names sounded like pretentious ways of saying: humans, catalyst-wielding humans with Eldkin blood, and those with Eldkin blood but without a catalyst. 

"Well, I guess the pretentious names are at least more convenient," Damian chuckled absentmindedly, still twirling the necklace in his hand. 

Regardless, he wasn't surprised by the existence of humans with Eldkin blood; they were actually relatively common on planets like this. At the beginning of its inception, the Cooperative experienced several periods of chaos and unrest as it freed itself from the Xelthari's control. 

"Of course, most people don't know about that last part, but that's neither here nor there," Damian muttered, before his thoughts continued. 

During those periods of unrest, plenty of Eldkin ended up taking stream-capable ships to set out on their own, or even simply trying random addresses on Astralgates until they found one that worked. 

"Suicidal, but… I guess things must have been pretty bad back then," Damian acknowledged to himself. 

As it turned out, some Eldkin ended up on Earth during those times and mingled with the native humans. Now, almost a thousand years later, Eldkin genetic material has propagated rapidly throughout the human population… making life quite a bit harder for many of them. 

Because, unfortunately, even a tiny bit of Eldkin blood would render a human incapable of wielding myst without a catalyst. So, after the existence of myst became publicly known about a hundred years ago, it didn't take long for society to become divided into the haves and the have-nots. 

At this point, more than half of the human population required a catalyst, but they had already lost the means to make more. 

"Or, maybe they simply never knew," Damian pondered. "According to Mom, the Xelthari dangled that secret over us to keep us under control until we discovered the method… somehow. It's possible the Eldkin who arrived on Earth simply never knew how to create more." 

Whatever the case, because of this situation, and despite their higher numbers, the 'defective' Gutterborn became the oppressed class across many parts of Earth. After all, the pure humans didn't need a catalyst to wield myst and could easily overpower the Gutterborn without one. 

"I suppose it's possible there's still some awakened Eldkin out there, or at least those who know about their origins, but… they clearly aren't making it public knowledge," Damian frowned thoughtfully. While deep in thought, his left leg continued to dangle, and his right hand still played with the necklace. 

"I guess there could be plenty of reasons why they haven't come forward…" he continued softly to himself. "What would be the point? Even if they went around awakening people, that would only provide them a small power boost through inherent abilities and physical prowess, but without enough catalysts, they still wouldn't be able to wield myst." 

In this environment, the only Gutterborn who could make inroads into the upper echelon of society were those who obtained one of the limited catalysts in the world. Even then, they were usually best served by hiding that fact and simply never removing their bonded catalyst from their bodies. 

Suddenly, some distant yelling and gunshots interrupted his thoughts, and Damian smirked lightly. "Of course, gang violence is high, as expected." 

Finally, he glanced over in the direction of the richer districts. "According to Nadine's information, some of the so-called Aetherborn are pretty powerful. Not more powerful than those like my mother, of course. Far from it, in fact, but powerful enough that I probably have to be careful, certainly because I don't actually know my true strength yet." 

"So, for now, I'll see what can be accomplished in this district," Damian grinned ambitiously. "First, I take this city. Then, I take Eryndor. I'll consider it practice." 

With his thoughts finished, he gripped the necklace in his hands and brought it to his chest. It was a locket, and after opening it, two small holograms appeared—one of his mother and the other of his sister. He smiled slightly at them. With the mark of his kinship with Luna on his hand, Lilith and Lavinia had insisted he take this locket to represent them in a similar manner. 

Sighing wistfully, he closed the necklace again and hung it around his neck before shoving it beneath his undershirt. 

That done, he looked out over the city and addressed Nova. "Nova? How are my prospective targets doing?" 

Surprisingly, Nova remained quiet for a moment, which was unusual for her. But before Damian could ask what she was doing, her emotionless voice echoed in his head. "Requirements have been met. One of your targets is ." 

"Ah, perfect timing then." Damian smiled confidently as he elegantly shot to his feet. "Guide me there, Nova, and let's see about establishing myself in this district."