‘Who am I?’ Ascenturi wondered. Ever since his meeting with the Guardian, it had plagued him, chipping away at his confidence. He’d spent hours sitting around in Sanctuary, doing nothing but thinking, and yet… he still had no answer to the question.

His essence was attuned to knowledge not because it was who he was, but because it was who his ancestors had been- but who was he? Turi could not answer the question on his own, and so here he was, sitting on the edge of a man-made tower with Jeremiah.

“Who are you? I can’t answer that perfectly, as you very well know.” Jeremiah said, “But, I can tell you what you are in my mind.”

“Do tell,” Turi encouraged.

“You’re a good person.” Jeremiah answered simply. A few seconds passed before the man elaborated, “You brought a bit of peace and safety to animals by creating Sanctuary, and you’ve broken the dam of knowledge on the third Realm. It is a common philosophy amongst humans that knowledge is power, and you have granted many people and animals power.”

That wasn’t exactly what Turi was looking for, but it did tip his thinking in another direction. The Guardian had said that he needed to form a powerful resolve- a Path- in order to ascend to the third Realm. He kept getting caught up in the fact that his attunement to knowledge was not his own, and that, aside from that, his essence was pretty mundane.

He needed to find a purpose to devote himself to, and Jeremiah’s words gave him an idea. Turi could devote himself to developing society. He could empower the world’s beings with knowledge and advice and provide them with the resources necessary to become greater. He could develop Sanctuary into a proper society for animals equal to humanity. The thought of these things made his heart race.

‘But is it me?’ Turi wondered. He’d received help from many, many other creatures throughout his short life.

Before he was even the fledgling he was now, Ascenturi had fallen from a tree and hurt his frail wing, making it impossible to get back up. A feral housecat had hunted him down, but a tiny human had picked him up and put him back in the tree.

‘Wouldn’t it be nice to pay the concept of society back?’ Turi wondered. He was still uncertain. It would be nice, but it was a drastic departure from his current self. Turi was a-

‘No, it’s not.’ Turi realized. Jeremiah had just pointed out that he’d done exactly what he was thinking of doing by creating Sanctuary and sharing knowledge of the third Realm with the factions he’d gathered together to help in the bargaining.

By dedicating himself to the development of society, he would fundamentally change, shifting away from his attunement for knowledge to pursue his own thing. That was… a scary prospect. Reluctance chained him down, preventing him from making what he felt was the final step in solidifying his resolve.

Jeremiah already knew the most difficult step to reaching the third Realm, and so he didn’t hesitate to share his feelings with the man. With a sigh, Jeremiah leaned back and, after a second, spoke.

“Turi, I’ll be honest- you’ve never struck me as super… what’s the word… I don’t know, you just don’t seem as tied to your knowledge attunement as you think you are.” Jeremiah said, “Sure, you ask tons of questions and like to seek for answers- but that’s just curiosity, which you’ll have regardless of what you choose to do.”

Was that true? When Turi really thought about it, he realized that he hadn’t really leveraged his essence’s attunement to knowledge before- it had always simply been there. After creating his altered species, Turi had always regretted how plain and simple it was, but he’d somehow never thought of the fact that he should’ve incorporated his attunement into it- like gleaning insight into things when he focused on them, maybe?

Stolen story; please report.

Regardless, what it meant was that departing from his knowledge attunement wasn’t very dangerous. The barrier holding him back was weaker, but… Turi still couldn’t take the next step. He’d received more considerable instructions from the Guardian, and he knew that he was on the very verge of solidifying his Path… but he wasn’t there yet. Once more, Turi expressed his feelings to Jeremiah, and for the third time, Jeremiah provided incredible advice.

“I don’t know exactly what’s holding you back, but maybe it’s a simple problem of not having enough resolve to carry out your desires. Maybe… observe the horrid underbelly of the world. Robbery, rape, murder, pillaging… there’s plenty of that to go around now and more. Those things will exist even within a society, but it is most prevalent when there is no law and order.” Jeremiah suggested.

After considering his words for a few seconds, Turi nodded. “That’s a good idea; I’ll try it. Thank you for your help, Jeremiah- it sort of stings to lack the wisdom of you humans.”

Jeremiah frowned at that. “I don’t think I’m wiser than you because I’m human, but because I’m older. You’re only two years old, now, aren’t you? You were barely even an adult crow when all of this started. You’re barely older than an infant in human terms.”

“I am, but does that really make a difference now?” Turi asked curiously.

“It does. I have far, far more life experience than you do- I’ve struggled with the problems you’re struggling with now for ages, although they’re not the exact same.”

He felt a bit better about his lacking wisdom now, but it was still something he wanted to improve on. He was intelligent and clever, but his lacking life experiences made it difficult for him to solve his own problems quickly. That wasn’t really something he could change without becoming older, though.

Shaking his head, Turi pushed those thoughts aside. “Do you have any suggestions of where to go? The city is pretty safe and unified.”

“Hell yeah, I do. Las Vegas is northwest of here. It’s pretty far, though- sixteen miles, I think?” Jeremiah said.

“Las Vegas? What’s wrong with it?” Turi asked curiously, and Jeremiah sighed.

“Really, what’s not wrong with it is the real question. Human trafficking, fraud and scams, money laundering, prostitution, organized crime, gambling- the city’s rich with shady activity. I don’t have a clue what state the place is in now, but I doubt its ways have changed in the slightest- if anything, I can almost guarantee they’re way worse. If you want to observe some fucked-up shit to solidify your will to civilize our planet again, it’s probably the best place on Earth to go.” Jeremiah finally finished.

“I’ll be right back- don’t leave here. I want to give you something,” Turi said, leaping off the tower before the man could respond. With the amount of direction and advice that the man had provided, he had to pay him back- and he had the perfect thing in mind for the man.

***

It had taken longer than expected for Turi to acquire what he’d been looking for, but he had it now. It was yet another reward for monumentous achievements from the Earth, granted only to humans for some reason, and, more specifically, it was a staff made from essence ores attuned to amplification. It meant that anything cast from the staff would be stronger than it otherwise would’ve been.

The staff was very valuable due to its nature, even if it was only above-average. So valuable, in fact, that Turi had kept it in the hopes that he would eventually be large enough to hold it in his talons or to give to a subordinate human wizard, but both of those would take years to come to fruition and, more importantly, Jeremiah deserved it.

Rather than carry it in his talons, which was technically possible but annoying, Turi just manipulated the air to carry it with him. It was a waste of essence, but he didn’t intend to carry it for long. Within a minute, he was back at the tower. When he handed Jeremiah the staff, however, the man shook his head.

“I’ve seen this thing before- it’s extremely valuable, Turi. Don’t-“

“Your advice has been extremely valuable as well. I do not think you understand how monumentally helpful you have been. Take it, because I am not taking it back.” Turi said, taking to the air and leaving the man and his new staff behind.

It had taken a while to get used to the social nature of humans, but most of them liked to pretend to deny things to seem modest, even when they really wanted it. He had done it a couple times before, and Turi really didn’t want to go through the song and dance of making Jeremiah accept the gift.