The last month of recovery before I could use my magic passed quietly but contentedly, Last-Breath turning to Final-Ice without any fanfare.

I wound up splurging and spending some of my money – which was starting to stack up, given how I was working at the sanctuary six days a week – a few times for food and fun in the city with Kene, but the biggest purchase I made was in a communication mirror.

It didn’t work inside of Dusk unless we opened a portal to the outside world right next to it, but the ability to make calls to Ed and my dad whenever I wanted was quite nice. I missed them, and wanted to see them, but it still helped a lot to be able to call them when I needed to hear their voices and see their faces.

Ed and Liz had finally moved in together, and Ed carried the mirror through the apartment they’d gotten. That brought a sense of melancholy to me, though I only allowed Ed to see how excited I was for them.

Still, I felt like I should have been there, helping him move his things in. I resolved to get him a good housewarming present. It wouldn’t make up for my absence, but it would be something to help apologize.

For all that the period of working at the sanctuary was nice and relaxing, I could also feel my feet starting to itch, being stuck in Delitone for so long. That wouldn’t have been so bad on its own, but since I was unable to practice magic, it was made so much worse.

Which meant it was a relief when Kene and Meadow agreed that my spirit was healed enough to start practicing again.

“Now I want you to listen to me,” Kene said, giving me a serious look. “You’re healed enough to handle normal magic use. You can train lightly, use spells, that sort of thing. But you are NOT healed enough to go running off and injuring your spirit again.”

“I understand,” I said.

“I’m serious,” Kene warned. “No heroic shenanigans. Your spirit has only just knitted itself back together. If you damage it again so soon, you’re likely to tear it apart to the point of killing you.”

I paled slightly, but nodded.

“I promise that I won’t do anything that will strain my spirit,” I said. “I won’t even advance my space and time gates, or upgrade my growth item.”

“You should advanceme,” Kene said, “There’s pressure created by imbalanced gate levels. It might hurt you some to break through, but the balancing in the spirit will help more than hurt. But don’t upgrade the growth item for a few days at least.”

I brightened at the news I’d be able to break through.

“Excellent!” I said. “Now let’s go find Meadow, just in case?”

We found her at the edge of the wards, sitting and watching them, turning to us as we approached.

“Ah, Malachi, Kene, Dusk,” she said, smiling. “I assume today is the day?”

“It is,” Kene said with faint reluctance.

“Excellent!” she said, pulling a water bottle filled with inky black potion from her robes. I recognized it a moment later – it was a larger amount of the potions she used to let us all look into my mana-garden.

She took a long sip, then tossed it to Kene, who drank, then Dusk, before I finally took a sip and sat on the bench before diving inside of me.

I seemed to sink though nothingness for several long seconds before I materialized in my mana-garden.

And immediately spotted something wrong.

Perhaps wrong was the wrong word. Different would be more accurate.

In the center of my ungated mana, there was an archway of crystal. Carved at the top of the arch was the same symbol that Edgar had tattooed onto my arm, glowing with a colorless gray smoke.

Through the arch was what I could only describe as a mana-garden.

It wasn't… normal. It had a hexagonal shape, and it was made up of hexagonal tiles, rather than rich earth, but in the center of the garden, three of the tiles were missing, and instead there was a mound of soil, normal and natural looking.

I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to pry up the tiles, but I had a sense that was a generally bad idea, though I thought that it might be possible if I was willing to pry up everything for a single full-gate spell.

I paused for a moment to get a better sense of what my spirit was telling me.

No, I felt certain. I could use this… quasi-artificial mana-garden for three normal spells, or a single full-gate spell. That was a fair trade off, I felt.

I took a breath and felt the power of the mana-garden. First gate, with a density that reminded me of highly potent second gate mana.

The type of mana it was… That was harder to place.

Meadow and Kene, who had been experimenting with the two sides of the arch, trying to see if they led to the same artificial mana-garden – they did – stepped next to me. After a moment, Kene spoke.

“It feels almost like Edgar’s mana?”

“It… does,” I said. “But also a little bit like ungated mana, and a little like life and death mana, and forest mana? I’m not sure. But it’s definitely almost Edgar’s.”

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I was almost entirely certain that it wasn’t entirely mana, but rather, mana and energy, like the magic of a beast.

“I expect the rules will work similarly to the Beastmark itself,” Meadow said. “It will slowly change and adapt its mana to try to match the spells you store in it, but it will work best the more aspects it has.”

“That would make sense, given that’s what created it,” I said, nodding before continuing to examine the garden.

On the far end of the hexagon was another archway with the Beastmark symbol carved into it as well. It was open, leading into a second gate, which also contained three mounds of soil.

Its flavor was distinctly second gate, and again, the same general type as Edgar’s, but with subtle differences.

It had its own archway to third gate, but there was shimmering light filling it, blocking us from going further. The light was a shimmering mix of amber and royal blue – the same colors as my space and time mana, both of which weren’t third gate yet.

“Do you think it goes all the way to nine?” I asked.

“Well, spellbinder bonds are supposed to grow with you,” Kene said. “It seems likely.”

Meadow made a sound of agreement, and I sucked in a deep breath, trying to stop myself from getting too absurdly excited.

It was hard, and I couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across my face. Then an idea popped into my head.

“Do you think I’ll get another spellbinder bond because of this?” I asked excitedly. I could always use another bond slot…

“I doubt it,” Meadow said. “If it does, though, I expect that it would work more like a beast’s than a human’s, allowing you to alter your form.”

“I’m still more than happy with that,” I said honestly. “And if I don’t get anything… Oh well. I’ve still got a bunch of new beast spells. But… how is this even possible? This seems a lot more extreme than Kene being able to channel Siobhan’s defensive aura for free.”

“It does seem a little unfair,” Kene agreed, gently elbowing me in the ribs.

“I suspect it was the confluence of several factors,” Meadow said. “First and foremost, your twin full-gate spells allow you to build up reserves of energy within your body, like a beast. Then you bonded with power that was too much for your spirit to handle, and were brought into the fold of a worldspirit’s dominion.”

Dusk peeped out a question, pointing to herself.

“Yes, you,” Meadow said. “Worldspirits are unique, strange, and difficult to explain. Even among complex spirits like will-o-wisps, klagmuhme, or peacepyres, worldspirits are different. They can shape and change things on a deeper level. To say nothing of the fact that her mana is also a blend of all fourteen, providing the mana bond to match the energy of your body.”

“It did almost kill you to get it,” Kene said. “It makes sense that the results are pretty extreme.”

“That too,” Meadow agreed. “That’s the way of the world, at times, though the mechanisms elude me.”

I nodded slowly, then raised my hand. Mana began to swirl and spin around it, so I looked at them.

“I can manipulate it just fine. It feels… thicker… than normal mana. Not denser, but more viscous? I’m not sure how to describe it, but it’s definitely still controllable.”

I pushed it out the archway and into my ungated mana, and felt it convert down, then I pulled it back in, not wanting to waste the mana needlessly.

“And I can convert it just fine,” I said.

“I must say, while it’s not my path, you’ve certainly made the most out of this bond,” Meadow said proudly. “Well done.”

“It’s pretty neat,” Kene said, then adopted a teasing tone. “You know. For something that almost killed you, at least.”

Dusk chimed in that it was cheating and not allowed, because now I was going to be even slower to advance.

I paused. I hadn’t considered that, but it was true. With four mana types, I was already pushing my limits. This beastgarden was going to take up more time, effort, and resources to grow.

But at the same time… I was quite happy with it.

I nodded and patted Dusk’s head.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let you get too far ahead,” I assured her.

“Shall we look over the rest of the garden?” Meadow asked after a moment.

The four of us left the beastgarden and stepped back into my ungated mana, then out into my life gate.

The spells were in rough shape. With the beating that my spirit had taken, even the well-ingrained spells of Enhance Plant Life had hairline fractures running through the trees, and limbs missing – not excess that had been trimmed off, but healthy limbs, parts of the spell that I would need to regrow.

My full-gate spell seemed to have held up the best, with only hairline cracks running through the bark.

“Nothing to do but use the spells and give it time,” Meadow said. “It’s unfortunate that you’ve lost out on some growth and power, but it’s not the end of the world.”

“Everything’s a trade-off,” I agreed. “But… Hold on, look.”

I pointed to the tree’s roots, which extended deep into the soil of my mana garden. There, woven around the tree, was a circle of pencil-thin black roots, like those of a flower.

“The lesser roots of resolve,” Meadow said quietly. “They’re lying dormant, and don’t seem to be interacting with your spell at all, but they’re there. I suspect activating them will be part of your challenge.”

I nodded my agreement.

Beyond the full-gate spell was the tiny circle of open power I had in my third gate life mana, followed by a thick wall of mists. Irrationally, I was relieved to see it – a part of me was convinced that I’d destroyed all future advancement.

We headed through the death gate then, and it was much the same – the spells were all in rough shape, sometimes missing parts of useful growth and power, but none of them had been destroyed. Once again, I spotted the lesser roots of resolve threading their way through the mycelium of the full-gate spell, left inactive.

We passed through my space gate next. The spells here had suffered much less damage than the ones that had been in my life or death gates, but there were still chunks missing from multiple spells.

Taking in the damage was disappointing, but there was also some degree of relief. A part of me had been convinced that I’d have completely wrecked my spellcraft, and would have to start over from scratch. I couldn't even imagine how painfully frustrating that would have been.

We looked around my garden a little longer, checking time mana and going over everything again to look for the strong roots of resolve, but we were unable to see it moving through any spell. Meadow even closed her eyes and tried to call on her winds of resolve, but just circled around my ungated mana for several minutes before we found it.

It was almost hidden under the portal to my beastgarden, but it was there, twining in the intersection point of my full-gate spells. It was thick and gnarled, like the roots of an oak compared to the lesser root.

One major root where they intersected, and one minor on either side.

And one missing, hiding even from Meadow’s senses.

“Well then,” Meadow said. “Well done. You’ve found yourself with quite the new powers.”

“I have,” I said, the grin spreading over my face again.

“Would you like to start looking at some spellcraft?” Meadow asked.

“Not yet,” I responded. I leapt to my feet and sent my mana senses out.

They always existed around me, even when I wasn’t using them, but with my spirit healed, I was able to really let them stretch and expand. It felt like having been in a cast for months, and finally having it cut off.

My senses stretched out, expanding for over a hundred feet in every direction…

And kept stretching.

Under the power of my new advancement, I blanketed the city around me for just over six acres before I was forced to pull back into myself.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“I’m ready to try out some spellcraft now,” I said. “Then? I’m ready to advance.”