Returning to the trio that comprises my party, I have to laugh at the absurdity of it. An animate bush, a souled-yet-dead woman who has been bored for the majority of the last century, an otter who now appears like a classic fantasy Valkyrie from Earth’s pop culture versions of lore and legend. Only real life would be more absurd than fiction. I mean, where else would you have a tree journeying, and likely fighting alongside a small mammal whose hip structure allows bipedal and quadrupedal motion? Otters, beavers, raccoons, what have you. Absolutely absurd I tell you. Upon return, I find Teuila babying Shrub, treating the plant with all the dignity of a housepet. I hope Shrub doesn’t take offense.

Teuila yells, “Dink! Guess what I just learned!? Shrub can talk!”

I allow my face to contort with one eyebrow raised. Teuila continues, “Well, okay, not talk-talk, or textbox-talk, but, well, watch how he rustles his leaves. Listen close to the rustle. There, you see? He just thanked you for the invitation to come along.”

My jaw hangs low, incredulously. I’m not certain Teuila’s not running a bit on me. Trying to keep my jaw from locking, I stretch it as I admit, “Owf, err, I really don’t see Te. Sorry. Are you running a bit on me? It’s kind of amusing, but I wouldn’t want to hurt Shrub’s, uh, feelings. If you have them Shrub, sorry, I’m not sure how much you have of various, um, things dealing with life.”

Teuila playfully frowns and pouts at me, “I’m not playing. I’m serious. Maybe it’s something to do with my connection to wind magic, or this little doohickey that fit on the jumpy ring. See? If I put it on, it looks like the rings disappear, if I take it off, there they are. I thought it was a paperclip at first. When I was playing with it, Shrub told me what it was. I actually like having it on, hiding the silly rings. They’re so mismatching, and the really powerful one from Maka-Akari’s dungeon is kinda gaudy.”

I glance to Dawn who shrugs. Either Teuila’s incredibly committed, or this isn’t a bit. I try to politely bow to Shrub, “I’m, well, pleased to have you aboard, Shrub. I feel rude. Is there something you’d like us to call you by? I’m not sure if Root would be any better, though it’s kind of fun to say. Root, root. Hello, I am Root. Sorry, heh.”

Shrub rustles, and Teuila translates, “Percy here says that he likes to use the name Percival, but you can call him Percy or Purse for short.”

I blink several times, and once again exchange glances with Dawn, who once again just shrugs. I have the sudden urge to equip Percy with a firearm. Imagine, stiff as a board, perfect aim, unrelenting force of nature pursuing its goals. Hah. Shrugging, I go along with it and bow once again, “Pleasure to have you aboard Percival. So, everyone, I was able to melt down Gae Buidhe downstairs, and I found us a ride. I’m pretty sure that this little token thing will conjure some sort of beast, and that it can pull the carriage. Seems Milbert was almost out of beast token things, and saving this one for emergencies. I assume there are other kinds, ones specifically that summon horses. This feels quite a bit bigger than a horse.”

Teuila looks it over and nods in agreement, stating, “Hey, maybe it’s a feathery bear like good ol’ featherbutt, Luna. One can hope, right?”

I wear a sad half smile as I nod to Teuila. Shrub, err, Percy rustles, and Teuila nods to him, but doesn’t bother translating. I guess maybe he just asked Te if Luna was a friend of ours or something. Dawn looks mildly lost, and I’m worried she’s either lost her senses, or gone comatose again due to her vacant stare, but I realize she’s just a bit overwhelmed as she fidgets. It has been a roller coaster of emotions since arrival in Victo.

We just parted ways with Dippy, a truly wonderful friend, and incredibly capable party member. We witnessed Jarvis’s nephew wailing over Selunie’s corpse. We’d seen almost no living souls in Victo whatsoever. Or rather, no bodies inhabited with souls. Then all this stuff with Milbert. Ugh. Huff. I can certainly sympathize.

I bet the horse tokens are pretty expensive, but still cheaper than purchasing and owning a horse, if it’s a mystical magical construct that doesn’t need to eat, or be taken care of. Since horses themselves are worth a hefty sum, and I see no indication that Milbert has a stash of them anywhere, I’ll assume the tokens are temporary.

Despite it possibly being wise to save what could be a temporary, strong ally on demand, I think it’s best if we make all-haste once destroying the tower. I also sorta don’t want to be around if that creepy doll thing survives the tower’s collapse. Plus, we need someone to pull the cart. I’m not about to strap a bit and bridle to Teuila. That’s. Ew, just yuck, no.

Hm, the box not labeled keep or melt must be the unsorted that Milbert hadn’t tested yet. There’s a figurine in there of a gryphon rampant. That one really catches my eye, because it’s laced with powerful transmutation magic according to my aura sense. Something that transforms, and doesn’t lose that power of transformation. I glance over at Teuila. Like my beloved Wings. Or my best buddy Lil. Or, heck, even myself. Despite it hurting like heck, I can still transform.

In the melt box, there’s a curious thing. Something I got a long time ago on Can’Z’aas. It’s a glowing cylinder inside of a rectangular prism, with no obvious stopper or way to check inside the cylinder. It seems to be some sort of cartridge for something. Well, now I have two. One of which is in my inventory. Hm, also in this box is what looks to be a toy glaive, but its verdant emerald hue calls out to me.

Hah. Milbert was going to melt this, because it wouldn’t respond to him. It, it’s something fae, something ancient. My soul being a creamy green, from the aid of the Can’Z’aasian fae is why I can understand it at all. I’d normally hand any spear right over to Teuila, but this one can literally only be used by me. I strap it at toy size to the rear of my belt. The glaive even being with us makes the nearby terrain just imperceptibly smoother, and plants ever so slightly less likely to snag on us. Most specifically, it somehow allows an individual to navigate forested terrains slightly better. It was willing to teach me everything within its power as soon as I came into contact with it. Something about fae ancestry. I guess I really was some kind of pixie hybrid at the start.

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Hm, in the melt pile is an adorable plushy of a meerkat. There’s some bark residue on it. Did Percy claim it at some point? There’s also a gorgeous, stylish dress. I can see the simple enchantment on it, it has pockets, but it hides the pockets, and anything in them from view, while keeping the dress sitting properly by its fit. Also, being magical, it likely resizes.

I draw the dress out, fairly certain it’s going to Teuila, but I casually sneak a glance at Dawn to see her reaction. The grimace is confirmation enough. She has no desire to wear a dress. I toss the dress to Teuila who gloms onto it with glee. If it works like Luni’s dress, it could be worn over her armor, hiding the fact that she’s even wearing any armor. Yep, there it goes, and now she’s twirling while gazing down at the dress’s fit. I can’t help smiling and sighing contentedly. Just seeing Teuila enjoy anything is such a wonderful sight.

Still, I think this plushy meerkat belongs to Percy, so I offer it to him, and he politely yet quickly snatches it up, setting it to rest somewhere deep within his branches. I’m glad we could get it back to him before it got melted. What an odd thing to throw away.

A translucent meerkat appears from nowhere yelling, “And I oughta give you a fat lip ya wise guy, why don’t ya pick on someone your own size while you’re at it! Wait. Maestro Percy? How long was I gone? What do you mean you can’t tell time in here. Well what about the jerk who- He’s dead? Really? Maestro Percy that’s great news! Hello adventurers, I’d love to introduce Maestro Percival-. But Maestro, you know I have to refer to you as such, wait, Maestro, P-“

The meerkat disappears, apparently in response to some rustling by Percival. Teuila busts out laughing, and I barely keep my chuckle to a minimum. Even Dawn snorts after a laugh or two. Well, if Percival ever really needs to communicate to me or Dawn, he can call out his meerkat familiar I guess. How odd. Hah. I suppose I can see why Milbert was going to melt him though, hahah. Poor familiar.

I mumble, “I wonder what his name is. His voice sounded like someone from Fakeworld, Earth. Someone who was always in the right lane or something like that.”

After Percival rustles, Teuila informs me, “Apparently his name is Tinpu of the Mambo celestial meerkats.”

I worriedly raise an eyebrow as I gulp at the word celestial. Teuila shakes her hands as Percival rustles further. She translates, “Percival says he isn’t a follower of the Celestial Emperor or anything, neither is Tinpu. Being celestial just means not existing on this plane naturally, only having their consciousness brought here into a radiant avatar like that one. What’s up Percy? Oh, okay, sure. Apparently familiars are bound to something, like an object, until their owner dies. The doll fell into Percy’s pot when Milbert was greedily hauling back a bunch of stuff he probably stole. Ol’ Mildew hadn’t activated the doll yet. So Tinpu is Percy’s familiar, until Percival dies.”

Huh, handy, that. I wonder if Percival would lie. He probably likes having a familiar, so, any reasoning he could give us to not take Tinpu away would, well. It’s not like we want to anyway. Percival seems pretty nice, it’d be just wrong to take advantage of him and leave him without anything.

Huh, at the bottom of the melt box is a thin strip of, well, it almost looks like one of Kozzurth’s dragon scales. Only it’s platinum instead of purple. It looks like it could slide into most helmets’ visor slots. Curious, I set it within my own Valkyrie helmet, and I’m left laughing.

Teuila asks, “What’s up Dink? What’s so funny?”

Doubled over with mirth, it takes me a moment to respond, “No wonder he was going to melt this one. It requires you to be able to breathe fire, hahah. It guides your fire around allies, and leaves them both unharmed, and slightly invigorated, like massaging their muscles. Plus, it can do basically what I could do with my breath weapon, it can change the elemental properties of the breath.”

Dawn chimes in, “Wait, since when can you breathe fire Rej? Boss, Rej can’t breathe fire, can she?” Dawn leans towards me to whisper, "She right now, right? 'Cause of the curves?" I chuckle while nodding at Dawn's whispered question.

Teuila answers Dawn's other question for me, “Well not in this form, but I’m sure Dink has told you by now, Dink can take on different forms. One of them is like a dragon, only not quite. A dragonoid? Humanoid dragon? Something like that.”

Dawn nods along, “Oh, right right. I remember something about that. Sorry, was a, a heck of a night when it came up.”

I gulp back a momentary sadness as Dawn and I both recall the night we learned of her curse’s true nature. That night was a roller coaster of emotions. It was also the night our friendship both began to fall apart, and mended stronger than ever. Regardless, I nod in response to Dawn’s comment to Teuila.

Teuila quips, “Heh, Percy says whatever you do, keep that breath away from him, even if some magical doodad tells you it’ll protect your friends.”

I chuckle as I agree, “I’ll try my best Percy, I’ll try my best.”

Sensing a strong abjurative magic from a belt buckle in the uncategorized box, I check Dawn for signs of a belt. Sure enough, she wears one. I flip the buckle towards Dawn as I call out, “Try this on for size Dawn. It has some protective magics in it.”

Dawn frowns as she catches the buckle and turns it over in her hands. She asks, “Rej, Boss, are you sure? Way I hear it Rej, you almost died in that canyon. You’re scary strong, but squishy as anybody else. Shouldn’t you wear it?”

I wear a half smile as I ask in response, “Dawn, what’s your plan if you’re surrounded by hostile animals? If a bunch of Celestial Imperium guardsmen and guardswomen decide you are an enemy of the state? If you’re being chased by a manticore?”

Dawn curses, “Well shid Rej, when you put it that way. But hold on. What are your plans then?”

I grin almost maliciously as I chuckle, “I’ll hit myself with a massive fireball in any of those three situations, and walk out of it. Anything that isn’t intimidated, I’ll hit them with the next fireball, or lightning bolt.”

Dawn’s jaw hangs slightly slack momentarily before she can respond, “Erm, point taken.”

I stifle a momentary chuckle as I catch myself just before offering a comforting hug to Dawn. I worry that I might have hurt her pride or other feelings. I don’t want her to feel lesser in any way because of my stupid bragging. I know that hugs aren’t her form of comfort though, so I just blush with chagrin and rub the back of my skull as I glance around the room.

Any other scraps or odds end ends that might be magical are too hard to discern at the moment, so I take one last tour of the building, we load up the food into the carriage, and any books, papers, letters, or scrolls that I had somehow missed on my first go-around. Nothing else of use as far as any of us can tell. Teuila helps push the cart out of the cellar-garage, and dusts her hands off as we drag it a long enough ways away from the tower.

I help Percival up into the carriage, along with Dawn, then I ask Teuila, “Ready to blow this joint? Literally.”

Teuila grins like a loon, and nods an emphatic affirmative as she leaps towards the top of the tower from the outside. In moments we can hear her efforts as she begins smashing it apart, piece by piece.