As the twin nimbus approached, Robert could see the creatures inside. They were indeed deviant puffblooms. One had some dark affinity, probably shadow, and the other had a luminous one, light or holy, flip a coin.

The two puffbloom deviants radiated killing intent toward Robert. He wondered for a moment if they could be the ones he tamed but right now, his survival ranked above that. He readied a void lance but as the spell formed, Amanda moved in front. Robert dismissed it, wasting a bit of essence.

"WAIT!" She screamed.

His spid... danger sense was still blaring. The puffblooms' desire for violence was palpable. He pushed Amanda aside as he jumped the other way. A beam of light cut the street where they stood.

"They're attacking! What do you want!

"That's Cotton and Coal!" Amanda said. "Just tame them again!"

Robert let his jaw slack. Were the puffblooms angry he had brainwashed them? Did the victims of his mental blackout regain the memories he modified? Damn. That was a problem if he ever set any world domination plans into action. He laughed. Taking over the world sounded like a heinous amount of work. No, he was satisfied with his lot in life right now. No need to add some unwanted complexity.

He checked his reserves. Aside from what he lost by the fizzled spell, he was good to go. Was it the right path? Probably.

"Mental Blackout!" Robert shouted. Then again. "Mental Blackout!"

Both deviants stopped. Robert ordered them to approach. Putting a hand on each of the furballs, he cast his Mental-affinity beast bond. He felt he could cast it through his Fairy affinity too but held back on attempting to create a new spell on the spot. It wouldn't be too hard but he had a time limit because he was sustaining two expensive spells.

Crisis averted.

"Are they really Cotton and Coal?" Amanda asked.

Robert sputtered. "Are you telling me you were saying that on a hunch?"

Amanda giggled nervously. "Of course not!" She lied.

Robert scanned the minds of his two new pets. Which were his old pets. Next question. Why were they so angry at him?

Because he'd abandoned them, that's why. The puffblooms executed their last mission and then found out they were left behind. In a rage, they slaughtered the other puffblooms they had assembled under their leadership, further cementing the doom of the Puffbloom Islands, to become an Ether-dead realm. Whether the particular physics of the place would remain so without Ether was a question Robert didn't want to be answered.

The puffblooms weren't sentient or sapient. And they had no murderous instincts. That was dangerous. The best way to approach this was to modify their tiny minds.

"I need some time to work on them. I need to make sure they won't become a liability in the future."

"Sure. We can sit on that bench over there," Amanda said.

They went and sat under the shade of a tree. One advantage a fixed-position sun gave was the fact you could plan your shadows pretty well.

He did as any mind-bender worth of their myelin sheaths would. He removed all traces of their slaughter and anger, erased the memories of their abandonment period, and reset them to the time they were merrily floating to and fro carrying Ether with them. The puffblooms were not sentient and the law recognized no monster rights, except the one in which they were allowed to die for the betterment of humanity. It would be a tough sell that he would wander the Academy grounds with three deviant monsters. Cotton, Coal, and Freddy, since the Taulusians' official status was still that of monsters.

Regardless, the worst they could do was to tell him to keep his creatures contained in his apartment or expel him. Both came with their own political repercussions.

So he slowly restructured the two puffblooms to better fit his intended purpose. Now that they were one-star dual-affinity deviants, On top of their innate Wind affinity, Light for Cotton and Dark for Coal.

As he delved deeper into their psyches, he learned why they were angry. They saw Robert as their leader. No, more than that. A parental figure, someone who would keep them safe and even help gather more friends. When he let them go, they felt abandoned. As if everything they believed Robert would give them, everything they felt through the bond had been a lie. It was his fault for not explaining to them the next realm was literally hell. Or maybe they would've liked to come with him. No, they definitely would've wanted to stay with him.

It was all a lie, though. All the rapport they felt for him was artificial. It was something he placed in their minds with the power of mind blackout. He knew he couldn't do this kind of deep edit on humans or more intelligent creatures. It would take more than ten times his essence pool to scrub every single reference and make new ones so the subject didn't notice the difference.

He instilled in the two puffblooms the same feeling dogs had for humans. Not the Taulusian, who only shared the general shame with hounds as humans did to monkeys. But that deeply ingrained empathy and sense of belonging. He also made them fearful of harming people, especially those in their family group. This particular part was incomplete. He needed to get a real dog and copy the mental patterns over.

But the ease with which he molded and shaped the two puffblooms to his specifications scared him. It was a slippery slope and he had to make sure to not abuse it. In this particular case, it was either this or to kill the two.

"Amanda, can I borrow your ear for a moment?" Robert asked.

"Oh," She pulled her hair behind her ear. "What do you want?"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Robert stared for a moment, then grinned. Would she really let him... nope. Not going there. He then backpedaled mentally as explaining his moral dilemma would reveal more than he liked about his special ability. If Samson knew he could literally code behavior into people's minds, he would be locked up and forever made to brainwash people into perfect corporate drones.

"What do you think of them?" Robert showed his yin-yang pets. The only thing missing were opposite color dots in the middle of each other.

Amanda took the two furballs from him. "They are absolutely adorable! I'm so glad they came back for us."

"They tried to kill me."

"Yeah, no biggie. Our babies were just angry daddy wasn't giving them the attention they deserved. Weren't you not, bay-bees?"

Robert had finished working for now. He was low on essence and would be wise to save some.

"Why don't we leave them to go and play with Freddy like they did before and visit that seamstress shop?" Robert suggested.

"Oh. I forgot about that!" Amanda startled. "Yes, yes. Today will be a won-deer-full day!" She jested.

It seemed that Amanda was stuck in her highest setting. But if Robert was getting free clothes out of that, he didn't mind.

*

*

Inside the abandoned seamstress shop, Amanda spun and grinned. "Ta-da!"

She flourished with her bare hands and a spool of fabric appeared in her hands. It was light beige, the color of raw organic cotton, without any dyes. No, wait. Robert examined it closely. It was raw cotton. But it was such a fine fabric, it looked like silk. Amanda let a short length unspool.

"Feel it. It's my best shot so far." She said as if priming him for a sale.

"You did this?" Robert asked, completely befuddled.

"Surely did. Evolved around two hundred generations of cotton plants to get such fine fibers. Then harvested and wove it."

"Nature magic?"

"Yes, it granted me quite the advancement too. What? Did you really think I spent those two months playing house with the prime vestiges? I'd have gone crazy if I had to spend that much time with those simpletons. Well, not the pink one."

"Blossom. I named her Blossom."

She smirked and raised an eyebrow. "You did? You did. Surely did. Why, you are closer than married spouses now."

He sensed some bitterness in her voice. Deciding to not let the conversation dwell any further dangling before such an abyss, Robert changed the subject back to the original.

"Are you going to make clothes with this?" He ran a hand over the fabric. It not only looked like silk, but it also felt like silk. It was hard to believe it was cotton.

"Surely am. This fabric has a thread count of eight hundred. It should be perfect for your delicate fairy skin."

Oh. There it was. What she really wanted was to... no. He was being rude. He had to believe Amanda had a genuine desire to help.

"Well, thank you. How did you spin and weave thread this fine?"

"Magic. Carefully executed magic," she replied, fishing for a compliment.

"This is awesome. I'm really impressed."

"Te-he!" She grinned. "Well, we need to get your measurements. First things first, I need you to go into that room and use this tape to measure your waist circumference, your crotch depth, and length. Let me show you on that mannequin."

She measured the mannequin's waist, then the distance from the front waist to the small of the back on the other side, and then the distance from the seat to the waist when sitting. When Robert confirmed he understood, she pushed the fine tape into his hands.

"Atta, boy. Go in there and get these measurements on your fairy form. We'll start with some underwear and shorts for you, then when you're decent, we'll make the rest of the clothing."

Robert went to the dressing room, which had mirrors on three sides and just a plastic curtain blocking the view from the outside. Amanda had clearly scouted this location previously. He changed, took the measurements, then changed back and put his clothes on.

*

*

"Here you go!" Half an hour later, Amanda handed him tiny shorts and underwear, all made from the cotton fabric. He Couldn't see a single seam. "Put that on, and come back here. We'll measure you and make some sets of clothes so you don't go around flying like a pervert!" She giggled and playfully poked her tongue at him.

Robert stared at the tiny pieces of clothing in the palm of his hand. They looked like doll clothes, scaled-down, one to six. He pursed his lips, mixed feelings over the whole situation clouding his judgment.

"Sure. Just a few minutes."

"I'll be here." Amanda kept smiling, brimming with anticipation.

Back in the dressing room, he shifted, and this time he stowed his human clothes away. Hopping on the bench, he took the clothing and checked it. Everything sounded alright. Robert put on the underwear and then the shorts. It was comfortable but at this scale, the fabric felt just a bit rough. Not that he was going to tell it to her.

He jumped on the ground and walked out.

"Robert? Where are you?" Amanda asked.

Oh. Right. He was invisible. He willed to dismiss his invisibility. A shiver ran down his spine as if he was baring himself to the world. Was this how Freddy felt? He had to ask the big hound later.

Amanda immediately squealed. "Goodness, you are so cute! Can I pick you up? Can you fly? Of course, you can fly, you told me that! Where are your wings?"

"I can manifest or dismiss them," Robert said.

She bit her lips to keep another squeal from coming out. "Your voice sounds so... pretty and ethereal!"

"Yeah, a smaller voice box will make a higher pitch voice," Robert shrugged. He was feeling exposed. "I bet my voice is still quite deep for a fairy."

"May I see your wings?" Amanda's eyes were shimmering.

Robert wondered if she was shedding tears of joy or if he was imagining it. But he obliged and manifested his wings. Amanda shrieked out of sheer excitement. Robert fluttered up and went for a few laps around the seamstress workshop. Going with the mood, he even picked up a big sewing needle and held it like a rapier, fencing against an invisible enemy. Amanda's mind had regressed to six years old. She spun and danced, following Robert as they went around the workshop, knocking some loose items on the ground. The awkward feeling Robert felt since canceling his invisibility vanished.

The energy of that rapport grew and intensified. Robert felt it fill his soul and, in a moment of clarity, it clicked in place. This is what Fairy magic was all about. He closed his eyes momentarily and dove into his Ethercosm. A light pink sphere of runic bands formed straight away as he willed his essence to move into it. He named the spell in the next beat.

Euphoria.

Not all affinities had to be for combat, to deal harm to others. Not that causing euphoria on an enemy would bar him from seizing the opportunity caused by the distraction.

They danced until Amanda grew tired. Flying, for Robert, was effortless. In fact, the more tired she became, the more energy he felt. That became his second fairy spell.

Sap Stamina.

The moment his rational mind figured out what was happening, he stopped, landed, and dismissed his wings.

"Sit down, Amanda," he asked.

*

*

Half an hour later, Amanda rose from the seamstress' bed. Robert was back in his Academy uniform, waiting for her in the front shop. When she came out the door, he looked at her with grave expectations.

"I'm okay now. The spell only sapped my stamina, it's fine. I got some weird feedback from my druidic attunement, though," Amanda said.

"What do you mean?" Robert asked.

"I gained maybe half a percent point of advancement just from dancing with you," She admitted. "And I think you can make something like my tempering technique for yourself."

"You what?" Robert balked. "You gained half a percent of advancement for dancing with me?"

"Yeah. More or less half a percent. I can't tell exactly. But dancing with a real fairy is something unique, wouldn't you say it? I doubt I'd get anything even if we repeat it for days at a time. Not to mention you knocked me out pretty bad."

"Sorry about that."

"You weren't doing it on purpose. It's on me for lacking the awareness."

Amanda clapped her hands and grinned like a cat about to chomp on a juicy mouse. "So, let's make you some clothes. I need you to change again, and no dancing this time. We hadn't taken ALL of your measures yet."

Robert flinched as her gaze drifted down.