Amusingly enough, because Aveline had exactly zero context for how odd this situation was, she had an entirely different reaction to the sight of Fade.

  “Puppy!” She exclaimed, her face lighting up in a way I had never seen before. Before any of us gathered could react, she scurried over towards the startled adolescent Spirit Wolf and…

  Began to pet him.

  He tried to resist, I could tell, the not-so-little anymore trooper. But for as much as he seemed to have grown while I was away, he couldn’t deny his inherently canine nature.

  Fade relaxed under Aveline’s childish ministrations, helped along by how gentle she was being with him, and leaned into her. She laughed in delight and returned the gesture, completely uncaring about the wolf fur now getting all over her formerly clean dress.

  I took in the sight and couldn’t help but smile.

  Yeah.

  This was a good idea. I was glad I’d come out here before I ventured south towards Blutstein. Presumably, I was going to put down roots there, and even though I now had a ship of my own to go wherever I pleased, my life wasn’t that simple. I’d been very lucky so far in how I’d been able to dodge any actual combat, considering how Renauld, as my Healer, had effectively benched me. All of the repeated knocks to the head I’d suffered in my time in Vereden had given me verifiable brain damage, and I needed time to heal from that. I needed to get behind some nice high walls and focus on building a life beyond battle, adventure, and war.

  It would be hard for me to come up here while I was doing that, so I could visit Fade while he apprenticed under Taran.

  Speaking of…

  I flicked my eyes over toward the elder Spirit Wolf, still in the guise of the human ‘Talfrid’. He had a small, almost melancholy smile on his craggy, illusioned features as we all watched the antics of the two youngest among us. Taran must have felt my eyes on him because his own startlingly blue eyes met mine. The strange melancholy faded from his face, and now he smirked at me. “Forgive us the slight deception, young Precursor. It was Fade’s wish to play such a trick on you, partly, I believe to show off his progress on the Path.”

  I waved him off. “It’s…fine. Honestly, I should have realized something was up sooner,” I said, a little chagrined. In…retrospect, it was kind of suspicious how one older person and one younger one just so happened to run into us on the way to meet their true selves.

  I just…hadn’t expected a Mystic Beast to be capable of assuming Human form.

  Actually…

  I turned my head over to Sena, who had been sitting on her enormous haunches and watching the entire scene patiently. “Is that something you can do too?” I asked the crimson saber-tooth, drawing her attention. “Turn into a human.”

  Come to think of it…

  Could Shurenga?

  A terrifying thought. Away with it.

  To my slight relief, Sena shook her head. “No, that is not one of our abilities. That Working is something unique to the Spirit Wolves. All species of the People have a unique ability, related in some way to our progenitor. For the Children of Shurenga, that is the ability to change our size at will. For the Children of Elys…they can cloak their form with that of a mortal, if they so choose. Fitting, for those that choose to sneak about in the dark.” She finished with a sniff, sounding almost offended.

  Taran chuckled, shaking his head lightly. “Greetings to you too, Sena, eldest granddaughter of Tarus. It’s been some time since last we spoke. I…see you have not changed over much.”

  “Greetings, namesake,” Sena returned pointedly, raising her nose in the air almost proudly.

  Namesake, huh.

  Tarus…Taran…yeah. I could kinda see how there was a bit of similarity there. Especially considering the history between Elys and Tarus, and how that relationship had apparently withered and died.

  It was probably weird to encounter the much older son of your grandfather’s ex-lover, seemingly named for said grandfather.

  As Taran rolled his eyes, I exchanged another glance with Azarus. I don’t think either of us had been expecting the…apparently one-sided enmity. Even more so because I distinctly remember Shurenga herself speaking of Taran with a degree of mild fondness for the old wolf. Luckily, Taran didn’t seem to be taking it all too seriously.

  I broke up the mildly awkward atmosphere by coughing into my fist, relieved that Aveline and Fade looked to be in their own little world. In fact, Aveline seemed to have found a stick somewhere and was busy playing fetch with the younger Spirit Wolf.

  No matter how much older he was, and no matter how much he’d matured…

  I guess some things were just hard-coded in the DNA.

  Spiritual or otherwise.

  “So, you two have met, huh?” I asked loudly, drawing the two demi-Spirits’ attention. “I thought you’d never left the island, Sena. Or…have you ever been to Goryuen, Lord Taran?”

  Taran snorted, waving my words away with one wrinkled human hand. “Enough with the Lord, Precursor. I told you before it is unnecessary. But no, I’ve never been to the Garden of the Wyrm. Or rather, former Garden of the Wyrm. Mother has kept me apprised, in the same way I’ve met the young tiger before. The Concord allows communication across vast distances, with the right mindset. You’ve certainly been a busy little mortal, though,” He said, very abruptly changing the subject. “That’s two Calamities you’ve helped to slay, since last we met.”

  Aveline and Fade apparently finished with their playing, and just in time for Taran to say his piece. In response, Fade fixed me with a lupine stare of disappointment, and to my surprise, chuffed something instead of speaking. Taran fixed the younger wolf with a narrow-eyed glare. “I wouldn’t have let you participate in those battles anyway, you young fool. You’ve made excellent progress so far, but you’re nowhere near ready for battle on scales such as that. I suspect,” Here, Taran turned his irritated gaze away from Fade, and pinned me with it. I straightened up under that intense gaze. “This one wasn’t ready for it, either.”

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  I coughed into my fist in response, while Azarus outright laughed at me. “Maybe the first time,” I allowed. “But I had everything under control with Tatsugan.”

  Mostly.

  ….a little.

  “Anyway, I….thought Fade could talk now?” I asked both of the wolves, disguised or otherwise. I was a bit disappointed to hear only the familiar sounds of the younger one’s sounds, instead of the voice I’d both heard in the Concord, and in his apparent human form.

  At my question, Fade looked away, seeming a bit embarrassed, while Taran merely shook his head. “Not yet, no. Not in in his true form. The ability to speak as a human will come in time, but he has yet to reach that point. That is tied to an evolution of our ability to shift into a mortal form. As the first of our kind, I named it the ‘Seeming’, and young Fade has only recently reached the point of being able to fully assume it. And only just, as well. He can only hold it for a scant few minutes, and only once a day at best. As it is, it shall take many more years of mastery before he’s able to hybridize his vocal cords in that manner.”

  I furrowed my brow at the explanation. “But…Shurenga and her children can talk as well? At least, the other ones can. How are they doing it without ‘hybridizing their vocal cords’?”

  Sena answered for me, speaking up once more. “It’s different for every separate species of the People.” She said dismissively. “We’re not a monolith.”

  “As she says, that’s simply how the Spirit Wolves developed. However,” Taran smirked at me once more. “That doesn’t mean you can’t understand him in your own way. There is a reason that Lord Tarus asked his newest Envoy and his granddaughter both, to accompany you in meeting me.”

  I turned to Azarus and raised an eyebrow. That was news to me. I’d just thought the two of them had tagged along because they were tangled up in all this Spirit business too. At my look, Azarus shrugged and nodded. “Yeah? Why?” He asked the disguised wolf. “The hothead wouldn’t say, just that ya could help us with somethin’.”

  “That something is the Familiar ritual,” Taran answered, to my surprise. “Both of you need to be bound to your partners if you’re going to be successful. For Nathan and Fade, it’s because they have outright chosen each other, and I believe they have been looking forward to the increased closeness of the bond. The last time we met, they were unable to undertake it, as Nathan had yet to access his own Mana. No longer, though.”

  I exchanged a suddenly excited look with Fade, who had begun to dance in place on his lupine paws. Unable to stop himself, he suddenly darted forward to brush himself against my side. I gladly reached down to run my hand through his silky fur, as Aveline doggedly followed him to do the same. I don’t think she cared a whit about what was going on around us. She was just interested in petting the ‘doggy’.

  I couldn’t blame her.

  I didn't stop the wide smile stealing across my face from forming, as I lay one hand on top of Fades antlered head. He eagerly leaned into it. "It's great to see you again, bud," I said quietly, for his ears only.

  In response, Fade leaned up and licked my stubbled cheek, causing my smile to widen even more.

  Yeah.

  Nothing had changed where it counted.

  Taran smiled at the sight before turning to face Azarus and Sena. “As for you two, your bond has been requested by your grandfather and benefactor. It is a duty that shall bind you two together for a very long time. I have seen worse reasons for a Familiar joining, but perhaps in time you two shall come to care for each other in a way similar to my charge and his chosen. As it is, though, Tarus has decreed that such a bond will be needed for his newest Envoy to triumph against the foes of his House.”

  I saw Azarus and Sena exchange a mildly uncomfortable look, but they didn’t protest. My understanding was that the relationship between the two of them was very… business-like. Sometimes they acted like teacher and student, and sometimes like nothing more than acquaintances. Very rarely had I ever seen them seek each other out like Fade and I often had, when he had dogged my heels as a pup.

  Heh.

  But maybe Taran was right. Azarus and Sena had barely known each other for a month or so at this point. Give them time, and maybe they would come to care for each other in the way Fade and I did.

  “I’ve constructed two separate Familiar ritual sites, back in my home,” Taran continued. “One born out of mingled Ki, and one for Mana. The journey is not far. A…question, though,” The disguised wolf turned an inquisitive eye on me, for some reason. “May I assume my true form for the journey? I would not wish to distress the child.”

  Somehow sensing that we were talking about her, Aveline looked up from her own petting of Fade with curious eyes. Meanwhile, I just shook my head. “I doubt she’ll be scared,” I said with a wry, teasing smile. “She wasn’t even afraid of Shurenga when she was in her battle form. You know. The one that’s bigger than you are.”

  It might not be the brightest thing ever to tease an ancient and powerful demi-Spirit.

  But somehow, I don’t think he minded.

  In response, Taran snorted. “Not that much bigger,” I heard him mutter to himself. “Very well then.” The disguised human took a deep breath, then, and to my surprise, something other than air escaped him when he let it out. A dense, thick fog crept from his lips in a continuous stream, almost smoke-like in appearance. In seconds, it had completely enshrouded not just Taran, but the entire area around him from view. Suddenly, a shadow became visible in that murk, rapidly growing in size as, presumably, the old Spirit Wolf assumed his natural form.

  I was just thankful I didn’t hear any of the cracking and squelching I’d heard last time I’d seen a man and wolf transformation, here at this very circle.

  The fog dissipated as if blown by a breath, and standing there before us was the familiar, massive form of Taran in all his glory. Taller than the very stone circle we stood beside, his fur was so pitch-black he almost looked like a void in the world, while in contrast, his stark white antlers stretched high above us. Still, evidence of his advanced age was visible. Spots around his muzzle and ears looked to have started to grow grey with time, lending Taran a venerable look. He shook his massive head as if to clear a fog from it, and then fixed us with intensely blue eyes larger than my torso. “Come, follow me,” He rumbled in a voice suddenly deeper, if only from the sheer size of him. Taran turned his back and waited for us to get ready for the sprint to his apparent home.

  I turned my eyes toward the crimson cat not far from me, drawing her attention. “Sena, do you mind…” I asked, glancing at Aveline.

  In response, she scoffed. “You know I don’t, Nathaniel,” She said, sounding almost offended. She stood up and approached Aveline to kneel down next to her. Sena’s voice was audibly softer when next she spoke. “Aveline, my dear, would you mind climbing up on my back? It’s time for another ride. There we go, that’s a good girl,” She said encouragingly, as Aveline did as she was asked with no problem. Honestly, this happened often enough that I think Sena liked it. Sometimes she would just offer rides to Aveline simply to bring joy to the child, even back on the Astray.

  It was kind of funny to me, honestly. With how proud Sena normally was around others, she tended to act as an almost doting aunt with my charge.

  With Aveline settled, I grinned down at Fade. “Ready for a sprint, boy? I bet I can beat you there.”

  Fade returned the smile eagerly, with an almost doggy grin on his face. However, something happened then that surprised me.

  A familiar, almost ghostly green energy suddenly sprang into being around Fade’s paws, growing to cover his legs all the way up to his first joint. It flickered in the hot, muggy air of the Herztalian countryside, almost appearing to waver like flame. My smile grew even more at the sight of it. I’d seen that energy before, when Fade had demonstrated his odd abilities in the past, seemingly at random. However, it had never looked so controlled before. To my eyes, it almost looked like a kind of physical enhancement ability.

  Proof of his advancement.

  Well, I wouldn’t want to look like I was slacking, now would I? I activated Might of the Wyrdwood at fifteen percent, causing ghostly crimson, thorned vines to appear on my body, slowly crawling along my limbs. A competitive glint appeared in Fade’s eyes as he crouched next to me in anticipation of our race.

  Behind me, I heard Azarus sigh and mutter to himself as he prepared as well. “Dwarves aren’t made for cross country, damnit,” He grumbled. “We’re sprinters.”

  And then Taran was off, with the rest of us following close behind.