We all retreated almost immediately to the secret room in the Temple of Wanting. There, Weni and Anya paced while they waited and practically flew at me after I climbed up the ladder.

“Thank the gods,” Weni said, hand on her heart. “We worried when Mumu told us of the hierophant’s treachery.”

“You’re silvered now and a leap of five levels,” Anya said. “Who would believe it? Five!”

“But where’s Ikfael?” Weni asked. “Mumu told us she’s silvered too.”

“And you have to tell us what happened,” Anya added. “Is it safe to go inside the pyramid? What magics did you find? How was the dasekua structured? Were there traps? Please tell me it’s safe to enter. Please.”

Weni pulled her sister away. “Calm yourself.”

Anya’s spirit steadied as she took a breath. Weni, on the other hand, was plainly worried. Yes, about Ikfei’s wellbeing but also the political repercussions of the hierophant’s death. The resulting power vacuum at the top of Albei’s pyramid was likely to trigger bloody strife within its walls.

Although, a word from Ikfei might settle the matter before things got out of hand. I sent this observation to my beloved, which she acknowledged.

An otter sculpture materialized out of her figurine. The exterior was a mixture of powdered and solid stone delicately shaped to show off the fur and features. The eyes were made of slate engraved with irises, so that people could know where she was looking. The interior was water, which Ikfei used to control the sculpture’s movements.

I smiled at seeing the quality of my beloved’s handiwork having improved once again. This Stone Ikfael would represent her, much like Knight Otter had and would continue to, essentially creating layers of personas to hide her true avatar.

For those who knew her not at all, they’d see the humanoid Knight Otter; for friends and family, there would be the Stone Otter; and as her beloved, I would enjoy her true form. Ironically, she would also use her true avatar when we eventually went wandering. That way, we’d be simply a couple without observers knowing any better.

The disguises wouldn’t be perfect, not with the various divination magics available, but we’d at least have the semblance of privacy most of the time.

The others looked to me for an explanation, so I told them, “Our Honored Ikfael’s powers have grown, and this is how she wishes to express them.”

###

The expedition sat and listened as I told a modified story of what had happened. I chose not to include any mention of the death crystal, the Deer God, or becoming Ikfei’s beloved, nor did I talk about the choices offered to me by the World Spirit.

The change in my path confused the sisters, but such things were deeply personal, and they didn’t pry. Plus, they were distracted by the cursed necklace I brought out for them to examine, as well as the news of a spy within the Sugrusan ranks. Anya fixated on the former, while Weni was preoccupied with the latter.

The older sister, the Responsible One, had understood the dilemma immediately. “We need to make sure we don’t lose track of the spy, and we have to notify Knight Ithia too. You have a calling stone, yes? You’ll make a report to Albei?”

Mumu pulled out her necklace. Three calling stones dangled next to a small otter figurine. “One of these is paired to our lodge in Albei, but—”

Haol sighed. “We don’t know who we to trust, do we.”

“No,” Tegen said, scowling. “Not with how the Maltrans have been able to fool us.”

“As soon as we find a way to safely share the information,” Mumu said, “we will do so.”

“Then you have to follow the spy,” Weni said. “Anything else risks losing her trail.”

“We can’t leave you without protection,” Mumu said.

Haol snorted. “Your aunt would kill us.”

“She would, but she’d also understand the predicament we’re in.” Weni gestured to a box sitting to the side. “There’s enough light in there to bring Anya and me to dawn. At Level 5, the two of us should be able to get back to Bashruuta on our own, and from there we’ll hire mercenaries to escort us the rest of the way home.”

The necklace lay on a folded towel between us. Tegen poked at it with the sheath of his knife like it was alive. “I’m not sure it will be. There may be monsters who attempt to use the chaos after the storm to their benefit. A pair of fighters might not be enough.”

“It will if they’re silvered,” I said.

That got the rest of them to look at Stone Otter and me, sitting side by side. The sculpture leaned against me, not at all cuddly—the complete opposite of Snow, whose head rested in my lap.

“What?” I asked. “You know it’s true. If it’s Ikfael and me who follow after the spy, we’ll be fine.”

“Knowing a truth and being happy about it are two different things,” Mumu said.

“There’s supposed to be a party,” Teila spoke plaintively. “Not just in Voorhei—all of Albei would celebrate you becoming silvered.”

“And then we’d host another to bid you farewell,” Mumu said, sighing afterward.

“Unless you bind yourself to the land soldiers,” Tegen offered. “If you’re dedicated to the city’s defense, they’ll risk you staying. Or the world speakers, I suppose.”

That pulled a chuckle out of Haol, and the others laughed at the idea too.

After a moment’s silence, Teila spoke up. “You’re bound to leave, aren’t you?”

“I’ll be back,” I said. “I’ll always be back.”

“But not for long,” Teila said, “or else the monsters will come.”

“That’s right,” I replied.

Mumu placed a hand on Teila’s shoulder. “For this is a world of striving.”

Sadness clung to Teila’s heart, and I saw it hardening too. She was only seventeen, but that meant seventeen Long Darks survived. The young hunter was no stranger to violence and death. None of these people were. It was why their spirits burned so fiercely, each and every one.

In the background, I heard Yuki whispering, and a moment later the tension around Teila’s eyes eased. Her face softened. Whatever they’d said, it’d mattered to her.

I didn’t look forward to having this conversation with Bihei and the kids. That was going to be even harder, for everyone involved. For now, though, all I could do was focus on the expedition’s immediate needs.

I signed to get the group’s attention and said, “We’ll stay in Old Baxteiyel until the storm passes, then we’ll split up. The other expeditions won’t stick around now that the hierophant’s prize is no more, and with them leaving, the city will become more dangerous. The flooding will have swept away the weaker undead, but the stronger ones might still be around. You’ll need to escape while you can.”

“No,” Anya whined. “This is the opportunity of a millennia.”

“Is there a chance Asiik will be back?” Haol asked.

I shook my head. “No, not at all.”

“Even after the storm moves on,” Tegen said, “it will be days before the water recedes. We can continue to investigate until then.”

“So can the other expeditions,” Mumu said.

Tegen pointed at me. “Will they challenge our Eight?”

“Not if they have a brain in their heads,” Haol muttered.

“Which is not guaranteed, is it?” Mumu asked.

That won a round of sighs from around the circle.

“There are paths leading to the other temples in the Arc of Knowledge,” I said, “plus the pyramid’s dasekua is within easy reach. Those things alone are more than worthy of exploration. Let’s focus there.”

Mumu followed with, “And our Eight will track the Maltran spy, as well as monitor the situation within the pyramid. He’ll determine when we must depart, at which point we won’t look back. We’ve already won enough from Old Baxteiyel.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Tegen cleared his throat. “All that’s left is to discuss the distribution of spoils.”

I already had an answer for that and said, “Honored Ikfael claims Amleila’s light and the talon that bound her to the pyramid.”

“And the rest?” Tegen asked.

The Stone Otter brought out the loot like she was creating a showroom floor—all the furniture was put on display except the big bed and the self-warming pot. She and I would pay for those out of our shares. Even so, the quality of the pieces was dazzling.

Ostensibly, I was owed a five-fold share—surreptitiously split between Yuki and me. Ikfael’s exchange also meant she was supposed to get five shares, so between us we’d have enough to also pay for the obsidian knife and still have some antaak left over.

As for Amleila’s corpse, the jaguar mask, and the coded books, they all stayed hidden in the Hoarder’s Pocket. The knowledge they contained was much too dangerous to let loose.

Ikfael’s exchange precluded her holding anything back, so she’d “officially” turned them over to me, and I was the one who didn’t mention them to the others. My standing in the expedition let it happen, even though it was essentially theft—the worst kind, since it was from family.

Still, I felt strongly that it was the right thing to do.

###

Once everyone had their fill of admiring the loot, Mumu invoked field rules, which allowed us to hold an abbreviated ceremony for absorbing the gathered light.

Haol, Tegen, Teila, Weni, and Anya all leveled, with none gaining new talents. Technically, the sisters had enough light to become dawn, but they held off, not wanting to go through the process while away from their family’s support and guidance. I also saw within Anya a desire not to squander the time remaining in Old Baxteiyel.

Mumu had enough light to hit Level 8, but she also forwent leveling up. If she did so, she’d be forced to leave Voorhei, since seven was the legal limit for a village.

After a small, abbreviated celebration, the expedition went back to work almost immediately.

I led them first to the dasekua, which now lay fallen and broken on the ground. Anya squawked and grew more and more excited at every discovery.

Most of the engravings were the same as you’d expect in any other city core—health, protection, fertility, and growth—but there was a section that looked like a hub for collecting and channeling other energies. Lines from the Arc of Knowledge fed into it.

We’d broken the magic for collecting silverlight. Did the other temples have fountains that were part of the same mechanism, or did they do something else? Anya, of course, had to immediately find out. She dragged the expedition along to begin exploring.

Yuki would keep me apprised of their progress.

I didn’t go with them because it made more sense for me to guard the stairs leading down to the dasekua room. If another fight came this way, it’d likely be too dangerous for anyone but me.

My Owl’s Ears picked up on the sound of people carefully moving through the rest of the pyramid. They carried the rain on them, so I had a decent sense for their numbers: thirty-two.

I admired the design of the flower-shaped room while I waited. A pair of scouts from Ganas Hakei tentatively probed the area nearby, but they withdrew as soon as they spotted me, their spirits shaking in alarm. The land hid my authority, so I assume they must’ve heard about the fight with Xefwen.

An hour slipped past, then two. The people exploring the pyramid dried themselves off, and I lost my sense for their locations. I thought I should still be able to know where they were based on how much water was contained in the human body, but magic was weird. Blood was conceptually different than water, and that apparently mattered.

To distract me from my concerns about my family in Voorhei, Yuki talked to me about the rate at which they could produce extensions. Previously, it’d taken them about a year to grow a new one. Now, while on the Path of the Hidden Mind, they’d gotten two free extensions and could use body power to fuel the process and create even more.

How much? I asked.

‘We’ve been comparing the rates of growth. Our best estimate is approximately a thousand points of body power per extension.’

That sounds like a lot, I thought, but it isn’t really.

‘We don’t have anything else to spend our body power on,’ Yuki replied, their qi nodding. ‘That’s a new extension every thirteen days. Twenty-eight in a year.’

It’s a shame we don’t know that many people we can trust with your secret.

‘What about Aslishtei?’ Yuki asked. ‘Or her nieces? She knows about us, and they strongly suspect our presence, or something like us.’

You like them, do you?

Yuki burbled happily. ‘Yes, they’re fun. And they can keep a secret.’

There are others who are more appropriate—the family, each of them can get one. It’ll be even easier to stay in touch. Then there’s Aluk, and… yeah… the Deer God too.

‘Silly, Ollie/Eight, they’re already on the list for the rollout of the expanded network.’

The farther you spread, I thought, the harder it will be to disguise your presence.

‘We are a Hidden Mind,’ Yuki replied. ‘It will only become more and more difficult to detect us as we grow in power.’

I shifted positions to go from leaning against one side of the door to the other. A truth of your path, I know that. I just worry.

Yuki laughed. ‘You wouldn’t be Ollie/Eight if you didn’t.’

Ikfei sent a tendril of thought to mingle into our conversation and draw our attention to her.

There you are, I sent. That was some deep, deep contemplation you were in.

‘I’ve been meditating on Amleila’s fate,’ she replied.

Stepping away from the door, I paced around the stone flower. I’ve been thinking about it too.

‘Us as well,’ Yuki said. ‘We don’t ever want what happened to Amleila to happen to you.’

‘Hiding my true form is a step in the right direction,’ Ikfei replied, ‘and—’

You don’t want to tell anyone about us becoming beloved to each other, I thought.

‘You are disappointed,’ she sent.

A sigh blew out of me. Yes, but also no. I want to share the joy with the rest of the family, though not if it means someone might one day kidnap me to bring you under their control.

‘Or kidnap me to control you,’ Ikfei sent.

Maybe. I shrugged and kept pacing. But you can’t hide in that figurine forever.

No, I won’t, Ikfei sent. Our lives are our own, and our secrets must always serve that principle—not the other way around.

So you’ll still travel with me in your human avatar? I’d already daydreamed about the two of going around like a pair of tourists.

‘You’re not the only one who would like to see the world beyond the Glen,’ Ikfei shared.

Yuki nodded in the background.

Ikfei continued, ‘You’ll need to call me by another name when we’re together. Anything related to Ikfael will give us away.’

Of course. I should’ve thought of that.

She smiled within her figurine. ‘A lot has happened.’

So are you changing your name? Or…

‘I am Ikfael—that I know—but you can call me Fala.’

The name’s pretty, but why that?

‘Because it is pretty, and I knew a Fala once. She was… a good friend.’

I stopped pacing and felt my eyebrows climb. You’re not naming yourself after a long-lost girlfriend, are you?

She huffed. ‘No, we didn’t… we weren’t… Fala was the only one who stood up for me. She argued for the others to find a different path besides sacrificing me. I wish to honor her memory by taking her name, even if it’s only as a nickname. It will remind me to look beyond the obvious and hold true to what I believe.’

All right, all right, I was just teasing… Fala, I thought, testing the name. It’d take a little getting used to, but of course I would. To everyone else in the world, you will be Ikfael, but to me, you are Fala.

‘Good,’ she sent. ‘We will need a convincing story for how you and this alluring-yet-dangerous person named Fala meet.’

I chuckled. Somehow, I don’t think that will be a problem.

‘Knowing the two of you,’ Yuki interjected, ‘what you’ll really need is someone to hold back the embellishments.’

Are you volunteering to be our editor? I asked.

‘Gods know you’ll need one,’ they shot back.

###

The first report came in: there’d been no flooding of the Temple of the Sun’s secret room. Unexpectedly, it also seemed like a group of survivors was using the roof as an island. From what Mumu overheard, this group from Albei had tried to join the expeditions at the pyramid but had been rebuffed. They knew of others in the same position, who’d either had to retreat to Fort Olana or escape up the sides of the nearby mountains.

Any attempt to open the doors would flood the temple and the passage below, so there wasn’t anything we could to do to help them. They’d simply have to hang on until the storm fulfilled its purpose.

There was an empty fountain in the secret room, like in the Temple of Wanting, with a similar structure, but the runes were different. Anya’s first read was that they were qi-related. Her hypothesis was that perhaps each of the temples dealt with a different energy type.

As soon as the possibility registered, the Deer God emerged to stamp his hooves in anger. He urged me to get out of the way so that he could destroy these other fountains. The look in his eye told me of his purpose clearly.

But I raised a hand to slow him. “Start at the opposite end of the Arc, yeah? Unless you want the others to know about you?”

He blew his nostrils. A young thing like me teaching an elder? He’d already had that plan in mind, no matter how angry he’d seemed. Being corporeal was unsettling, but it didn’t distract him from wisdom’s path. His point made, he moved past me to clomp down the stairs.

And I shrugged in response. The Deer God would do what he would do. He’d learn soon enough about what it was like inhabiting a new body, with all the associated perks and drawbacks. It might even be fun to watch, especially once rutting season came around.

I pulled out some of the dawn-level cushions in the cushion and arranged them into a cozy nook for myself. Both the Deer God and the expedition were going to be working all night, so I might as well be comfortable while I waited.

Yuki, Fala, and I continued to explore the changes in ourselves.

###

One of the more-interesting experiments took place in the early morning. Yuki and I merged consciousnesses to find out what impact that might have on the soul marks and talents we shared with Fala. The answer? None. Which was logical, since both Ollie/Eight and Yuki maintained their own separate soul marks and talents.

And Fala’s perception of our joined mind? ‘Eerie,’ she’d sent. ‘Not bad, just different and steadier and… also scary.’

Really? I asked, dropping back into myself. Because of the doubled authority and influence?

Fala thought carefully about what she’d experienced through the soul bridge. ‘Partly yes, but there was more—the feeling of being in the presence of a predator, one so beyond me that only its favor kept me safe.’ She paused to compare words to experiences. ‘You felt… ageless.’

‘Oh,’ Yuki said, ‘that was probably us leaking through more than usual. Ollie/Eight saw that we had a nascent talent called Ageless.’

Fala went to the trouble of having the figurine gesture, the motion indicating an acceptance of truth. Then she sent, ‘You hide that aspect of yourself well.’

Yuki’s qi shrugged. ‘We are how we are. We simply choose to be the more interesting and fun aspects.’

All of us are hunters, I thought, our Fala included.

“Another truth,” the figurine signed.

We settled into silence for a while, each of us meditating on our natures—the changed parts as well as the timeless ones.

In the background, Mumu reported about Anya’s complaints: they’d encountered another fountain that was no longer working. The magical structures inside had been smashed. The peltwei also whined about not having brought enough notebooks.

###

At about eight in the morning, someone clapped outside the flower room.

“I am Ukthul Pleitna, a hunter of Ganas Hakei, requesting the intercession of the Storm Caller. There is a situation outside requiring your authority.”