As more days passed, the wolfstag pups and hatchlings grew more competent and comfortable with each other. Initially, both sides had snapped at each other, but now, as the keelish continued to mature much more quickly than the pups, Joral and his appointed assistants began to teach them how to communicate with their scaled companions. The keelish quickly grew, and now had passed at least their third or fourth growth spurt. They had nearly reached the halfway point to “adulthood”, though I was now seeing that even after the arbitrary 60 days had passed, we continued to grow. I couldn’t know how long we would continue to do so, but I didn’t mind it, as every additional pound was something that was to our benefit.

I didn’t allow myself to spend too long watching the hatchlings and pups practice and grow, though. Instead, I spent time with Treel’s eggs while practicing with my sonilphon, visiting every member of my pack, or packs as they were becoming, and the occasional practice with Wisterl.

My practice with my magic had shown results, though only through unfortunate circumstances. Where there had initially been six eggs, only two remained. Though Vefir had come back multiple times a day and used his magic to try to bolster the fetuses’ chances for survival, the life had slowly drained one by one from each until only two continued to show any sign of viability. Then, eight days after Treel’s death, the two remaining eggs began to lose all signs of life. Desperate, Vefir and Foire had called me, and, in a stroke of inspiration or confusion, or something else entirely, I had begun to use [Innervating Address] to give the little ones a hope of survival.

One had immediately responded, and shaken, before going quiet and cold. Vefir’s ministrations were unable to revive it. Still, the other was dying, and I forced my tone to change from one encouraging action and strength to instead foster patience and life. As I changed the way my magic moved, suddenly it began to heavily draw on my reserves, and for the first time since my sonilphon had evolved to become a [Profound Sonilphon], I was nearly immediately sucked dry of all my magic.

As I faltered and fell into a crouch, my vision began to swim with the unexpectedly accelerated drain on me. Even so, despite feeling, for the first time since my evolution, that I would vomit, I couldn’t help but smile. I could feel a responsive thrum of life from the egg mostly buried before me, an almost joyous emotion, one that communicated a firm determination to survive.

I couldn’t understand why I could understand and perceive these sentiments, but I did know they came from the little one inside the egg. It was determined, though I was sure that there was no more complex emotion than that inside those fragile walls. I’d been able to help it, somehow, and with whatever I’d done, Vefir was able to stabilize and strengthen the little one enough that we were relatively certain that it would be able to hatch. The change, this new exhausting [Skill] finally appeared flashing on the corner of my eye.

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[New Skill acquired. Status updated.]

[New Skill: Nurturing Enunciation; a skill granted to those whose mastery of sonic magic has grown beyond the obvious and immediate, now allowing the resonance of their magic to influence and assist even the most vulnerable and weak. Those whose development is assisted and guided by Nurturing Enunciation gain Stats, Skills, Titles, and other benefits more easily until they have reached adulthood. Note: this Skill can only be used on fetuses, infants, and juveniles. This Skill cannot evolve.]

A new [Skill], and another one that was built for and geared towards the raising of the young. It was almost a companion to [Exceptional Individual], though I suspected that it would be far less impactful than [Exceptional Individual]. Even so, [Nurturing Enunciation] would more easily allow my followers to gain all sorts of [Skills], [Exceptional Individual] among them. In that respect, it would allow me to better continue guiding my followers, my people to victory. Of the sixteen [Skills] I had, fully half of them were directly related to my guiding and nurturing my followers. Realizing as much, I had promised to myself that the next [Skill] I developed in order to evolve beyond [Profound Sonilphon] would be one focused on myself and combat.

In meeting with all of the packs that I had assimilated at this point, I had varying degrees of success in giving “Evolutionary Guidance”. The newest that I had brought, coerced, or forced under my control were the least receptive, with the exception, of course, of the hatchlings, who looked at me as if I were a god. I enjoyed that. Fria had opened up to me since Criit’s death, as all the keelish eventually did, but the newest three packs that I had conquered since were still partially resistant.

Frankly, these new packs were unremarkable, at least by my pack’s standards. If I had to guess, their strongest Alphas had Strength and Agility Stats of around 30, and no magical capabilities whatsoever. Even Etra and Cree could easily best them in individual combat. These new packs I started to refer to as the “main body” of my subordinates, while every one of my original pack, and somewhat by extension the hatchlings, became my “elites”. I didn’t spend nearly as much time with and around the main body of my pack as I did with my elites. Above the elites and hatchlings was my “inner circle”, of Sybil, Took, Foire, Vefir, Shemira, Etra, Cree, Solia, Ytte, and Percral. Most of my inner circle became as much by virtue of their magical capabilities, with only Took not having any.

For quite a while, I’d thought that, except for Took and Treel, it was nearly impossible for a nonmagical or particularly exceptional keelish to become a khatif, but Brutus, Silf, and some others had proven me wrong. They, like with the difference between Sybil and Shemira with the rest, felt to be a different “type” of khatif, something I felt sure would become more obvious upon our eventual evolution to Keel.

I enjoyed spending time around my subordinates, as I could feel the influence of their trust in me reflected within the amount of guidance I could feel from [Evolutionary Guide]. Still, I felt the need to continue moving, to stay active, to continue conquering, and that was how I’d ended up with a current number of subordinates of 186/250. That my evolution to Swarm Alpha still said “disputed” at the end rankled me, and I frequently found myself seeking out Wisterl for a fight.

And fight with Wisterl I did.