Danny came out of his room with Phantom and looked down at his clothing that now barely fit on his larger frame. He had managed not to screw things up with the aging spell, but forgot that this was the age range where some people hit another growth spurt. He went from around 166 centimeters to 180 centimeters.

He was extremely happy with his fourteen extra centimeters, except that it made his pants look like long shorts. He found a shirt that was styled a little long, so besides the uncomfortably short sleeves, he wasn't showing off his stomach. Well, all he had to do was raise his hands and that would change.

He had been able to get in the equivalent of six full workouts that night. Knowing that he could start healing himself the moment he took on the sacred tree aspect, Danny had pushed himself harder than ever before. There was a noticeable change to his body now besides the aging. Where he was just scrawny looking before, he now was scrawny with noticeable muscle definition. Danny decided he would take it.

*Awwwwwwww, my wittle man is growing so big a stwong!*

Danny walked into the dining area of the guest wing to find the girls eating at the dining table. They had been talking animatedly about their training and shopping with the queen, when Ivy looked over when she noticed Danny enter the room.

Ivy's face scrunched up in confusion, "Danny?"

Brook and Jade turned their heads to see what was going on.

Jade's mouth just hung open and froze there.

Brooke jumped up and ran over to him. While she was looking him up and down, Danny was pleased to find he was taller than her now. Well, only slightly.

Brooke smiled while tugging at the bottom of his shirt, “First your hair, now this. I have heard of growth spurts but this is insane, Danny. What did you eat?”

Danny explained to them about the spell and how he tested it carefully before cranking it up to growing by years.

“Yeah, going a year at a time must not have as much change as it does for a human. I've had growing pains before but that was almost torture.” Danny chuckled, but quickly stopped when he saw the girl’s reactions.

Ivy looked at him incredulously, “Danny, why would you want to age yourself? You will just die that much quicker…”

Brooke, looked over at him, “I don't mind the change as long as you promise not to get any more older than us.”

Jade blurted out, “Change me too Danny!”

Ivy and Brooke looked worriedly towards her, while Danny asked, “What? Why?”

Jade stood up and stomped over to him, “Because I wasn’t the youngest, and now that I am I don't like it. Make me older too!”

Danny shook his head as he was forced to look up at the taller girl, “Jade, sometimes I forget you’re the youngest because you are so tall. You don't want to do that.”

Jade didn't look pacified.

Danny screamed in his head, *She is like three centimeters taller than me! She is fourteen for crying out loud!*

*Danny, you can't win them all... So we will just have to find more ways to cheat.*

Arya spoke up from the entryway into the guest wing, “I would like to know why you would shorten your life as well.” The rest of the Basalts stood behind her.

Danny had sensed them, but hoped that they would give the girls and him some privacy.

Danny didn't turn to recognize Arya’s presence, “Jade, I am not going to age for a very long time. You know I am different now. One of the things I gained was a long life, like the elves. I see now I shouldn't have done this. I would take it back if I could but I can only make myself older, not younger.”

Arya walked over and stood next to them, “What else has changed about you Danny? I was hoping you would eventually open up and tell us but I feel there are things you have been hiding from us.”

Danny collected his thoughts and opened his mouth to speak.

“Excuse me ascendant the queen awaits you and your familiar in the throne room.”

They all turned to see a livered servant waiting in the entryway to the guest wing.

Arya turned back to Danny, "Also, what is this ‘ascendant’ title they keep calling you?"

The servant cleared his throat, "The queen is requesting that you do not delay."

"Arya, I will explain it all when I get back."

While she didn't say anything else, Arya did not look pleased.

Looking over at the servant, Danny asked, "Do you have anything I could change into? My familiar ate my last duster?"

The servant bowed, "Clothing and a room near the throne room has been set aside for your use."

Danny turned around, "Phantom! Where are you!"

The ghost leopard jumped through one of the large windows and dropped what Danny thought was half a dead deer at his feet. It was only the back half so he took a guess. The cat licked the last of the blood from her nose and sat there proudly.

Danny couldn't help but stand there agape, "Phantom, you do not have to go hunt for every meal. They bring us all the meat we want. Now look at the mess you made!"

Danny was sure the cat could sense the tone of his voice but she just looked bored instead of chastised. She lifted a paw to start using it to clean her head.

Frustrated, Danny flung his hands in the air, before turning to the servant again, "We are ready. Could you have someone put that away for her to eat later?"

The servant nodded and turned, "If you will follow me this way."

Danny waved to everyone as he and Phantom followed quickly after.

Once again, Danny was impressed and confused by the logic behind the palaces layout. Though, if it was attacked, the invaders would have difficulty moving around and coordinating.

The servant stopped and opened a random door, "This is the room prepared for you and here are the clothes that were just delivered this morning. The queen personally asks that you wear this robe."

Danny nodded, "Ask not tell. I get it."

The room was just another sitting room, like the one the queen, Elder Breeze, and he sat in the night they first arrived. The clothes provided for him were laid out over a long table to one side of the room.

Phantom moved over to a corner and curled up to take a nap.

The servant went behind Danny and started to lift Danny's shirt.

"Hey, now! What are you doing?"

"I am helping you dress, your ascendancy."

"That's alright. You just wait outside. I will come get you if there is something I can't figure out."

"Of course. If you will excuse me."

Danny nodded the man out and closed the door.

Turning back to the clothes, he immediately noticed they had prepared some type of formal robes for him. The robe was different shades of brown and green, and looked to have multiple layers, but there really was just a single layer. Opening at the front, it was held closed with clasps hidden on one side.

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A design had been embroidered on the back. A dark green bird of prey taking to the sky with a floating yellow crown above his head, the merged symbols of the houses of Kestrel and Diadem.

*Soooo, it looks like Arya and the queen have reached a conclusion. You going to wear it, Danny?*

*They want to mark what's theirs...*

*Danny?*

*What? Yeah... I got nothing else to wear and it is only just a piece of cloth. They can try to control me, but those days of being dependent upon them are coming to an end. There is just one more thing here I want before I leave.*

Cranny sounded hopeful, *The Princess?*

*No, she is just a perk, well potentially.*

Danny touched the robes, *Actually, it feels odd, but not in bad way.*

*Wow, it's made from the sacred tree. Danny, the robe's fibers have those crystals embedded in them.*

*Like the guards armor?*

*Yeah, we need to find that camouflage spell they use. It would take too much concentration to keep up along with everything else.*

Danny started putting on the robes. They were surprisingly soft. He wondered what part of the tree they used to make them. There were no pants so he just left his on. The robe hung down right to his ankles.

*Cranny...*

*They knew your size even though you grew... the guards!*

There was knocking at the door to the room.

Danny sighed and went to the door. The servant stood outside along with Elder Cardinal.

The elder smiled upon seeing him, "Sorry Danny, they are running a bit late and sent me out to keep you company."

"What exactly is going on, elder?"

The elder walked over and sat in one of the empty chairs, "Just the meeting with the noble houses. They do not have any official say in political matters, but without their support the queen can't rule. So, she puts on this little show every so often to keep them happy.

With the new reports of goblin attacks, they all but demanded to speak with her. They are taking their normal complaining to new extremes. Frankly, I was glad to get out of there."

Danny sat down in the empty chair across from the elder and gestured at his robes, "So she wants to make it official. I haven't even solved the problem she asked of me. Plus, I spoke with the princess about establishing some rules on what your people can expect from me."

Elder Cardinal looked at him, "I share the others opinion that you will solve this issue for us. It is only a matter of time."

Danny appreciated the vote of confidence, but that was a bit much.

The Elder continued, “As far as the verbal agreement the Queen and Lady Basalt have drafted, I understand it leans greatly in your favor.”

The elder reached into his robes and pulled out a few leafs of paper and handed them to Danny.

Danny took some time to read over the documents. Danny was pleased to see they wrote the document with his wishes in mind.

Cranny grumbled, *About damn time…*

The agreement would make Danny and his wives essentially political immunity. As long as whatever Danny choses to do is considered beneficial to the host country, they will support him in whatever capacity they can. There was also language about how they would handle the event that additional “members” join his group. Of course they reserved the right to “expel” him from a country should he violate major laws.

*Works for me, Danny.”

Elder Cardinal looking closely at Danny, "You aged yourself, I see. Are you sure you wanted to do that?"

Danny nodded, "Will I age on my own?"

The elder shrugged, "We don't really know. Most ascendants were already old. Maybe you will age until you have matured completely, then stop. I would suggest not aging yourself too much or too frequently. Some things should not be rushed, Danny."

Danny bowed in acknowledgement to the elders wise words, "So, what are the nobles complaining about now."

"After the goblin threat it fell back to complaining about the usual. The peasants have been noticing for a long time now they are not living as long as the nobles. They do not know about the mana rationing as we have been doing it slowly over the years. 500 years ago, we easily explained it away as pedigree. With our numbers growing rapidly, we have had to decrease the amount rationed. The difference is getting too extreme."

"How, is the decreased lifespan created more elves?"

Elder Cardinal looked down and sighed, "Danny, you will find this out eventually. Elven women are only fertile twice a year. On the winter and summer solstices. Well, that was true until we started rationing mana. The less mana an elven woman stores, the more frequent she becomes fertile. The winter solstice isn't even upon us and one of the noble women in there just became pregnant. That is another reason this meeting isn't going so well. The nobles are being affected. They don’t even realize we are rationing their mana."

Danny turned on his mana sight and looked towards where he had seen the doors to the throne room. There were a number of lights representing an individual’s connection to the source, but he couldn't tell the pregnant woman's from two people sitting next to each other.

That gave Danny a question, "Elder, when does a... creature gain their connection to the source?"

The elder pondered this for a moment, "There was one druid who specialized in domesticated animals. She noted in one of her journals that a connection formed not long after mating."

"Elder, have you really read all the books in the library?"

The elder smiled and nodded.

“How long would that take to do?”

The elder pondered, “Years.”

Danny smiled to himself, then had a thought, “Elder, can all elves see mana?"

The elder shook his head, "Not all, just the ones that use mana regularly for many years. Most established druids can see or even sense mana usage."

Danny's eyes widened as he came to a sudden realization. Walking quickly over to the corner of the room, he hesitated before removing his pants from beneath his robe and activated his nature aspect.

Cranny whispered, *...closet exhibisionist.*

*Shut up, I think I am on to something.*

As he activated his form, Danny noticed that his new robe hardened and took on the same aspect as him. It didn’t interfere with his aspects initial form.

Putting aside investigating his robe’s new properties for later, Danny created a number of sacred tree flowers and fruits on the wall in the corner he was in. Scanning them with his nature affinity still revealed nothing, as he suspected it would.

Releasing his nature aspect he switched to harmony aspect. Scanning with this revealed nothing as well.

"Elder, the sacred trees are not natural are they? They were created, engineered."

The elder nodded, confused and unsure where Danny was going.

*Cranny! Go look in the mana room real quick.*

*Sure, hang on. Alright, what am I doing in here.*

*Look in the crystal in the middle.*

*Danny, this thing is really bright. I am going to go blind looking into this thing.*

*....*

Cranny sighed dramatically, *I will at least have those bright blobby things blocking my vision and hanging around for hours, annoying the crap out of me.*

*Cranny, just tell me what you see inside.*

*I see nothing but light, brightness, and more light. Wait! Something just moved in there. Let me bang on the crystal a bit.*

Danny could hear a loud banging noise, like someone hitting the side of a bathtub.

*Ahhh!*

*Cranny, what did you see!*

*Danny, that bastard gave me the finger!*

*Alright, that's definitely another of my aspects in there. I know because I always have that reaction when I see you. I think we need to put mana into the crystals in my cells.*

*Danny, I do that every time we change...*

*Just start loading them with mana until something happens.*

Cranny grumbled but started doing as Danny said.

*50... 100... 250... 500... 1,000... how much mana we going to load you up with, I don't want you explode.*

*How much do we have saved up?*

*Well, a little after 110,000 mana it started to slow down. Instead of it feeling like storing it in a metal tank like before, it's more like we are storing mana in a balloon, now. There is increasing resistance, but we have not completely stopped storing mana.*

*Well, then don't stop charging them then, Cranny.*

*Alright, 2,000... 3,000... 5,000... 10,000... Danny, I think we should stop and try something...*

Danny's body exploded. Motes of bright light flew everywhere, swirling and bouncing off of each other.

Danny screamed, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Cranny screamed, *AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!*

Elder Cardinal had started to doze off and woke up screaming, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Phantom looked up sleepily, yawned, then went back to sleep.

Danny stopped screaming to look down at his hands. He was radiating light that seemed to constantly change color and his whole body was translucent. Finally looking up he could still see the motes of light moving and swirling around him. They floated and filled up the entire room. He could see mana flowing all through the tree and the elder, who was now standing up. It wasn’t just the mana lines in the elf’s body he could see, but mana escaping his body to join that in the room.

*Danny. If I had a heart, I would have just gone into cardiac arrest. Let's not do that again.*

Danny could only silently nod his head in agreement, not really paying attention.

Elder Cardinal’s timidly spoke up from across the room, "Danny, are you alright?"

"Yes elder."

Elder Cardinal looked more scared than before, after hearing Danny speak.

Danny dismissed the elder and looked back towards the sacred tree flowers and fruits he had created before. The fruits had mana running through them, but nothing different from the rest of the tree.

The flowers were different. First of all, Danny knew fruits should grow from a flower. So the fact that the fruits of this tree grew separately was very peculiar. The base of the flowers had a strange void of mana in them. In fact, Danny could see mana flowing into it like some sort of arcane black hole. Like a real black whole, he really couldn’t see the void, just the mana flowing into it and seemingly disappearing.

"Elder, can your people grow these flowers?"

"Yes, we can grow the fruits and flowers. We can make small modifications to the sacred trees, but we can't make them grow any further. That happens all in the first year of planting them."

"Wait, do I need to be there to help the tree grow once we plant the seed?"

"No, a group of druids usually handles the shaping. It is easier that way. More scrutiny and less chance of mistakes that can't be fixed later. Well, mistakes that would require an ascendants help."

Danny looked back at the flower and couldn't help thinking about his brother Greg. They sealed off his connection to the source in an attempt to unlock his mana. Does he now have one of the vortexes swirling where is connection used to be? Will enough mana eventually unlock it? He was sure he would have heard of a man formally sealed gaining his connection back. He would probably have to ask Arya later.

Danny reached out and started pushing his mana into the void of one of the flowers. The void greedily sucked up everything he gave it.

After a few seconds, Cranny complained, *Danny, that's a lot of mana already. We just passed 50,000 mana.*

Danny stopped as the flower began to twitch and move. The petals of the flower twisted upwards, closing off the view to the inside. A few minutes later the petals fell off.

Danny didn't notice when Elder Cardinal had moved to stand next to him, "Danny, is that... is that what I think it is?"

Danny smiled to himself, *Finally, it’s me time.*

*Uhhh Danny, right now is not the best time for that.*