Robert took a deep breath. Amanda leaned closer, brimming with excitement. Noah just sat there.

"Vestige, what is your power?" He asked.

"Woof! Woof yip bow, woof yip ruff, woof growl arf woof. Woof growl bow, woof bow yip woof, chuff woof."

Robert stared at the ball. Then he broke down laughing. What the hell did he expect?

"That's a detailed talent explanation if I ever heard one," Noah said.

"Wait, can you understand Taulusian?" Robert asked, hopeful.

"No. But it had a lot of words and nuance. The second, third, and fourth woof didn't have the same intonation as the first. I believe Taulusian is a tonal language, like some here on Earth. The pitch and intonation matter a lot. We can try to decipher what it does. Or we can get Freddy, let him hear what the vestige says, and infer it from his reaction."

"Freddy is deadly scared of the Prime Vestige. But I have a spell that may help."

"Okay, then use it," Noah said.

Robert triggered his talent and went into the liminal void. There, he asked the Prime about its talent, talked to it, and also about its affinities. It only had one. He stayed there for five days, learning Taulusian from the Vestige among other things. Then he returned. "Got it."

"Did you just use your talent?" Noah asked. "There's a slight air disturbance around you, it is so faint that I wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't paying attention, but there's a tell."

Robert smiled. "Did you notice my position shift?"

"Not really," Noah said and then became surprised. "You move around in that liminal void of yours. Of course! Does that mean you can teleport as a side effect of your talent? That's amazing!"

"He can also—" Amanda started but shut down when Robert glared at her.

"Hey, runebound geas, remember?" Noah pointed at himself. "You can tell me everything."

"I can take people with me to the liminal void."

"That's even more amazing. Can they survive in there?"

"If they remain in physical contact all the time, yes."

"And what if they don't?" Noah asked. Robert frowned. "Oh. I see. I assume you can take objects too, right? So that's what happened to the cafeteria furniture. People were asking why it disappeared. Wait, can you carry things in the void? Like, make this table vanish here and reappear elsewhere?"

"Yes, but I have to carry the table from here to there. The liminal void is a reflection of this world. Solid objects and even water in here are solid there. They don't just follow me like an infinite storage ring."

"Yeah, that would be broken. Anyway, what does the Prime Vestige grant?"

Robert cleared his throat. "Nondetection. Hide from their eyes. Hide from their ears. Hide from their nose. Whenever you want! Hide from all their senses, mundane or magical. Hide from their detection spells. Soft paws that leave no track and disturb no leaves."

Noah whistled. Amanda gasped.

"Robert, that is worth hundreds of millions even before we know the affinities," Amanda said.

"The perfect assassin talent," Noah added.

"It also only works for Taulusians," Robert explained. "The Vestige said it won't enter the soul of a two-legged. It means humans."

"That's odd," Noah pondered. "I believe captured vestiges worked for anyone. What about the ones you take from the slug-people?" He asked Amanda.

"You are well-informed, Professor."

"It's not a huge secret those Mollusks of yours are sentient. Anyone who can rub two brain cells together would notice that."

"Yes, the Prime Vestiges we collect in the Mollusk Realm work for humans just as well. They also speak our language."

"It's a first, I believe. But anyway. There are useless talents, and others so broken they have to be banished," Noah said and then turned back to Robert. What about the affinities?"

"Wind and Illusion."

"Forget hundreds of millions," Noah said. "This is powerful enough to trigger wars."

"We should go and see if Freddy wants to bind with it. I am pretty sure the talent can mask the fact he now has powers too." Robert said.

The three stood up and left the meeting room. They went to the male dorm.

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Noah and Amanda stopped near the door. The professor gave Robert a thumbs up.

"You go inside, see what you can do. Introducing strangers now will only frighten him."

"Sure. I'll be back shortly to tell you how it went." Robert said as he unlocked the door.

The apartment was in the same way as he left except for one detail. The duvet was on the floor, halfway out of the bedroom.

"Freddy, come here!" He called.

The Taulusian refugee came out of the kitchen. Freddy walked with his head lowered, like a death row convict. Robert knelt and hugged Freddy.

"Hey, boy. Feeling better?" Robert asked. Freddy nodded. "Good. Good. Sit here with me," he said.

The two sat on the living room rug. Robert kept petting Freddy, monitoring his vitals with diagnosis.

"We had quite the scare, you know. I'm happy you are better," Robert said.

Freddy whined and grumbled. "What will happen to me now?"

Robert laughed and hugged the hound's neck. "Nothing bad, I promise you! We are family, Freddy. I won't let anything bad happen to you."

He whimpered, grumbled, and yipped. "But now that you got the power-orb, you don't need me anymore!"

"What? No! I don't care about the power-orb, not a single bit. And why would I do that to you? I believe there are horrible people out there who would get a Taulusian and then throw them away once they manifested a power-orb. These people are monsters on two legs. No, Freddy. You changed nothing in my eyes. If anything, it made me realize how important you are to me. We are lick-buddies. Family. I won't betray you, ever."

He played with the Taulusian's ears, then lifted Freddy's head to stare at his eyes. "Family," Robert barked.

Freddy's eyes were downcast. He barked, "I wish I could believe it."

"You can," Robert growled and wowed. "We are family," he barked again.

"The two-legged see us as pets. Nothing more than beasts," Freddy rumbled and chuffed.

"The others? Sure. But haven't you noticed we are talking here? You silly four-legged."

Freddy startled, raised his head, and stared at Robert. "You speak language?" Freddy barked.

"Yes. I learned the language so I could talk to you." Freddy tried to run away. Robert hugged him and didn't let go. "Calm down. Hey, don't just go."

Robert remembered what Noah told him. Freddy was a child. Robert was its tutor. Not a pet, not an owner. He couldn't let Freddy run away. He had to get through the Taulusian's thick skull and win his trust. And that meant not letting Freddy do things that could bring him harm. Like running away in a panic.

"I promise everything will be fine," Robert said as he rocked Freddy, halfway on his lap.

It took several minutes, but Freddy stopped struggling. His heart rate was high but stabilized and then started to lower slowly. His breathing was ragged as if he'd run a marathon. Robert kept stroking Freddy's fur.

"Do you know Amanda? The lady with the nice smell that brought you to me?" Robert barked.

"Yes," Freddy yipped.

"She will try to find your parents."

Freddy chuffed. His sadness increased, judging by his vitals. "Then what?"

"I don't know, Freddy. Maybe we can just live in peace. Do you want to go back to your home realm?"

"There's nothing there for us. We exiled ourselves. My tribe would become extinct if we hadn't followed the two-legged here. And then we entered a covenant. Live life as pets, but live. Instead of not living, dying, I mean."

"A covenant?"

"Yes."

"I read all that was published about you, nowhere did it mention a covenant."

"Maybe it wasn't howled to the wind."

"Maybe." Or maybe the breeders were exploiting the Taulusian's naivety. Robert's money was in the latter. All in.

"It doesn't apply to us. We are family now. Brothers."

Freddy was still reluctant to believe.

"Do you think a selfish greedy monster would have all this trouble after you manifested the power-orb?" Robert asked.

"I don't know."

"No. Trust me. I talked to the power-orb."

"You did?"

"Yes, it was from it that I learned your language. Do you want to know what talent it may grant you?"

"No," Freddy lied. Robert could still read his stress levels.

Robert barked the talent's description. "Was this what you wished for?"

"No," Freddy lied. "I don't know," he was honest now. "Don't remember."

"If you had this power, you could hide that you had it, and nobody would ever know. Talents are like that, you know? They change reality. You could help us find your family. Fight along with us."

"My tribe has no warriors."

"It had one day in the past. Otherwise, you wouldn't survive in Taulusia for long. Do you want to remain a pet? Imprisoned in an apartment, without much contact with anyone?"

"No. It's lonely in here."

"I won't force you to make a choice. I promise, Freddy. I won't abandon you. You are not a pet, you are my brother. You can stay the way you are now, you can take the power and go away —"

"No!" Freddy shook, his trauma flaring. "Don't throw me away!"

Robert hugged him. "I won't. Ever. No matter what."

"We're family, right?" Freddy asked, hopeful.

Robert decided to give the Taulusian some privacy and canceled the spell. "We are brothers. That won't change."

"I can be a warrior?"

"If you want."

"No," Freddy decided. Robert felt tempted to check his vitals but withheld it. "I don't want to be a warrior. I don't want to hurt creatures."

"What about monsters? What about those who come seeking to harm us?" Robert asked, then told him what happened at the cafeteria. Freddy was shocked.

"I think I would fight monsters if they were threatening us."

"Then, what do you say?"

"Aren't you afraid of me going away?"

"Yes, I am. But if that's your choice, so be it." Robert said and pondered. Perhaps Freddy was afraid this was all a ruse to test his loyalty. "We are a family composed of a hound and a monkey. Sometimes family splits apart. Sometimes they depart for good."

"Did your family... depart for good?" Freddy asked.

Robert told him what happened. About his life, then the accident, the insurance taking his home away, and then him trying to save the gift they gave him.

"Is this why you won't tell stories anymore? Because you lost your family?" Freddy asked.

"No," Robert admitted. "It's because I'm a big coward."

"I'm a big coward too," Freddy said to cheer Robert. "What does that make us?"

"I dunno. A coward support group?" Robert laughed ruefully.

"What's a support group? A band that climbs on top of the other?"

The expression didn't translate well.

"A group of people with the same problem that helps each other. Like what we are doing here."

"I smell you," Robert said. Another expression that didn't translate well but in the other direction.

"Great, buddy. You don't have to decide yet."

"No, I decided. Give it to me." Freddy barked.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. If I do nothing then nothing will change. If I do this, then my life will either improve or become more miserable. No offense."

"None taken. Here," Robert removed the Prime Vestige from his ring and put it on the carpet in front of Freddy.

Freddy rubbed its nose against the aquamarine ball with a dog face stretched over it and barked. The ball vanished into motes of light and entered Freddy's body. The Taulusian looked at Robert, then nodded.

Next thing, Freddy vanished. The fluffy carpet strands stood up as if the Hound's weight had vanished. Robert stood up. He looked around, panic settling into him.

"Freddy? Freddy, where are you?"

Only silence answered his calls.