Tala woke from her short sleep, a field of stars overhead, bracketed by winter-bare trees.

She truly loved how little she had to sleep in recent days, even with the time doubled to allow Alat to remain cognizant at all times, Tala still required only about half the sleep she used to as a simple Mage.

It was somewhere in the middle of the night, and she didn’t much care exactly when. She was just content to enjoy the view.

There was a steady breeze from the east that caused the trees to sway pleasantly and the snow to swirl lazily around her.

She was splayed out on the snow, her magic-filled body not the least bit uncomfortable on the remnants of the powder.

Rane had gone inside a couple of hours after dinner, taking one of the guest rooms within Kit for the night.

In contrast, Terry had come out and was currently asleep, curled up on her sternum and lightly snoring.

She felt a smile pulling at her lips as the little avian vibrated her ribs.

It was an impressive feat, really, given how dense she was these days.

I wonder if some of his true mass is coming through via resonance? Or… wait. Does my being denser make vibration easier?

-Could be. Regardless, he seems really comfortable.-

Tala absently shifted one hand to rest on the little fluff ball, and Terry initially seemed to stiffen. Then, he relaxed further, almost seeming to flow to press more fully against her hand, causing Tala’s smile to grow.

“I’m glad you’re here, Terry.”

He let out a sleepy, low chirp without otherwise reacting.

Overhead, the stars were as clear as she’d ever seen them.

Part of that was the cool, clear crispness of the air overhead.

It being a cloudless night certainly helped as well, as did the lack of any nearby city lights.

She had always loved looking at the stars, though she didn’t do it very often of late. Even now, her mind was filled with more existential questions than the beauty of what she was looking at.

I do wonder if there are other humans out there.

-All things considered, it’s likely.-

Yeah, but I don’t just mean one, two, or even a handful of advanced Mages, wandering the empty eternity of the void.

-You wonder if there are humans out there, civilizations, peoples like us, but utterly unlike us. Those who look as we do, but with motivations, lives, and hopes that would be entirely alien?-

Yeah… She sighed, her eyes gliding across the constellations.

Now that she was fully awake—and not planning on moving about anytime soon—she focused inward.

She directed her attention to the swirling eddies within her magic around her gate, the power tumbling and roiling as it came through from the world beyond.

With practiced control, she laced her will through that which was already hers.

Her magic was easily filled with her impetus, and she slowed the rate of flow, extending her authority into each new bit of power that came out.

She had never been able to extend any sort of control back through the gate. Any power she controlled—and even her authority and will, itself—eroded as it tried to cross that threshold, and those she’d talked with had told her that such was to be expected.

Even Paragons could not reach into the next world, and she was even more misaligned with existence, there, than a Paragon would be.

Still, that wasn’t her goal this night. She flexed her control to slow her inflow of power to a full stop.

It had taken her a while to get the hang of doing so, but it hadn’t been a very exciting process.

Now, she effectively cut off her body from new magics.

She still had plenty of power within herself. With the iron that wrapped her inscriptions and most of her body, she wasn’t in danger of having her power fully dispersed any time soon.

With the inner stillness, where usually there was a torrent, she was able to feel her gate like at no other time.

There was a resonance to it, as if it was constantly emitting a long, pure tone.

That note was something that Tala felt drawn to intrinsically, and she had to smile at that as much as the sound itself.

Yes, I am drawn to the note of my soul.

-It is beautiful, but incomplete.-

Yeah, like the first chord of a song on an eternal scale.

While that note was both calming and pleasing, Tala also felt an almost giddy anticipation for the next part of the song, and there was no doubt within her that the song would continue.

Master Selek had encouraged her to feel the resonance of her gate—of her soul—and to allow it to grow in power within her.

As she slowly stroked Terry’s small, sleeping form, Tala felt her soul resonating powerfully toward the little avian.

She’d quickly learned that the resonance was incredibly strong when she was focused on Flow, or her elk leathers, or any of her bloodstars. That made sense to her because she was soulbound to each of those things.

The strong reaction with Terry was also mirrored by what she could see in her voidsight; she and Terry were heavily connected by threads of reality.

They were a flock, partners, friends.

I wonder if we’ll actually bond soon. She thought it would be soon in the scale of her life as it was now laid out before her, but she didn’t think it would be soon in the scale of weeks, or even months.

That was alright. She wasn’t in a rush.

She and Terry had decades before they had to make a choice, and she suspected that it would only be a few years before they would bond.

A part of her felt some terror at the idea of letting such a connection form.

Terry was an almost unbelievably powerful predator even without being a truly magical creature. A bond with Tala, a connection to her soul, would force him to advance through almost four stages.

Truthfully, it probably wouldn’t be too much of a change in ability, but it would grant him the magical weight to overcome even the few beings who had been able to stop his teleportation in the past.

He would also most likely become much more resilient, as she knew that all arcanous and magical creatures had at least some power devoted toward that end, and if the bond went the way she hoped, he would become a true familiar to her, able to reform from her power if he were ever to be slain.

Though, that would take a lot of power, even if it does work. She hoped that it wouldn’t ever be necessary for that and so many other reasons besides.

Truthfully, she knew that bit of fear was one of the reasons it wasn’t time yet for them to bond.

Unless they fully trusted each other, bonding could break them.

It wasn’t like the bond gained through marriage. Such a naturally occurring connection could grow and mature with time, drawing the bonded two into greater harmony as they grew in knowledge and understanding of one another.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A magically stimulated and facilitated bond was of a different kind altogether. If and when she bound Terry to herself, it would be her soul that was the power behind the connection.

The bond would be at full strength from the first moment, though they would have to figure out how to utilize all that the bond granted with time, study, and practice.

Terry would have a lot to process through, both with the greater level of sapience he was likely to achieve and the higher level of power.

It would be an experience very much like Refining, but with his memories being torn apart and rebuilt as well, rather than just his body.

She was afraid that the creature that came out the other side of that would not be her Terry.

That was yet another stumbling block to circumnavigate before they could bond.

But all of that was in the future, the near future to be sure but the future nonetheless.

In the now, the stars overhead had moved quite a bit since she woke and began her musings upon her own soul.

As such, it wasn’t surprising when she heard Kit’s door swing open and Rane stepped out, his sandaled feet crunching on the crisp snow.

Tala pet Terry one last time, feeling a growing resonance within her soul even as she released her hold and power cascaded through her gate once more.

“Good morning, Rane.”

“Good morning, Tala. Though, it’s still rather early, isn’t it?”

She sat up, Terry almost unconsciously flickering to her shoulder as she did so. “It is a bit, but we can get going whenever you’re ready. Breakfast won’t be ready until a bit after the sun rises.” Her eyes twinkled a little, “Mistress Petra is making you breakfast fried chicken, I believe.”

Rane grinned. “You still have some of the meat attuned to my magics?”

She nodded.

“My goodness. I’ll savor every bite, then. You can’t have too much more.”

Tala was not going to disabuse him of that notion. “Regardless, did you sleep well?”

He nodded. “I did, thank you. Those rooms are rather convenient.”

“That they are.” She stood and stretched carefully. Terry was probably awake, but she didn’t want to disturb him more than necessary.

The eastern wind tugged at her hair, filling her nostrils with the scents of cold mountaintops.

Rane drew in a deep breath. His eye seemed to twitch at the smell, but he also seemed to enjoy it, regardless, “That is a lovely breeze.”

Tala smiled. “It is. It’s been rather steady from the east. There might be some weather coming in.”

“Could be.” He glanced back toward the short cliff on which Kit was still spread out.

“Right, let me get her.” Tala walked over and grabbed the edge of one window, pulling Kit from the cliff and into the form of a pouch that easily hung from her belt.

Rane was stretching when she turned back toward him. One particular twisting stretch sent a series of cracks racing up his back. “Ahh, that’s the key.”

She laughed. “Feel better?”

“Absolutely, let’s—” He cut off abruptly as the wind briefly—and for the first time in hours—came from the west in one brief gust, carrying with it the unmistakable smell of fresh charcoal and ash.

Terry lifted his head and looked to the west.

There were also what seemed to be the incredibly faint sounds of conflict, mixed with yips and howls. The earlier strong breeze had been carrying the sounds away in such a manner that even Tala’s enhanced hearing hadn’t picked anything up.

More than even that, though, Tala found a surprise. The magic carried on the wind was a mixed, chaotic jumble, easily identifiable as being from arcanous beasts and humans alike.

That shocked Tala as she’d never really been able to sense such a thing before. I still haven’t really flexed all areas of my magic since becoming Refined, have I…

Now was hardly the time for ruminations, however.

She looked to Rane, and he nodded once, “Go. I’ll follow as close behind as I can.”

Without waiting for anything further, Tala took off at her best speed, leaving large circular depressions in the snow and underlying soil as she threw herself toward where she guessed the smell and magic had come from.

Terry flickered through the woods in a parallel track, before squawking at her.

Tala opened Kit. “Get in! If we’re coming into a battle with humans on one side, I don’t want you being mistaken as an enemy.”

Terry squawked again and vanished.

The wind had, unhelpfully, shifted back to blow from the east, once again hiding all signs of a conflict.

-I’m querying the Caravanner’s Guild for the locations and make-up of their caravans in the area, but we don’t have instant access.-

Thank you, Alat.

Tala pulled to a stop, bunching her legs beneath her before enhancing her surface area scripts as well as her physical strength. At the last moment, she reduced her gravity to near zero even as she launched herself upward.

She shot high into the sky, arcing forward in the direction she believed the fire to be.

She had been off a bit to the north, but from her high vantage point she could see the intermittent glow of massive fires.

Her mirrored perspective saw Rane below and behind her, looking in her direction.

She gestured overtly toward the fires, hoping he would see her, and by the direction of his next jump he had.

Tala let her gravity return, and she plummeted back into the barren forest.

As soon as her feet touched down, she turned and sprinted straight toward the fire, Alat helping to ensure that she didn’t get turned around, or even nudged off course, by more frequent trees that she had to circumnavigate.

She thought she detected Rane traveling through the woods a bit to her left, but she didn’t take the time to be certain or to meet up with him.

Instead, she put on a burst of even more speed, using every trick she had including feathering her weight and mass and amplifying her various scripts at critical times.

She wanted to ignore her magical resonance, aside from holding her aura in the shape Master Grediv had taught her. Instead, she kept her speed slow enough to keep from making the situation worse for those she was going to help.

Alright. I am probably going into battle, I need to be armored up and ready.

Her two shields flew out of Kit and three defensive discs lifted from their holster on the back of her belt, dodging the trees even more effectively than she did.

Her iron sealed the last opening, encasing Kit as well, and Tala focused her mind onto her mirrored perspectives.

White steel welled up and covered her head to toe overtop of the iron.

She hadn’t had time to repair her scale mail hauberk, so that was out for whatever conflict awaited her.

This will have to do.

-I got a response and authorization. This is likely a caravan bound for Alefast, two hundred passengers, three Mage Protectors and a Dimensional Mage. No Archons, but two magelings are along for the trip with their masters. Sixty guardsmen. Large payload of trade goods. Twenty wagons with drivers.- Alat passed through a few more details, but Tala wasn’t focused on the particulars.

Regardless, she acknowledged the information gratefully even as she burst from the trees into the wide clearing and leapt almost straight up.

Iron spikes shot from her, embedding into the ground even as her aura rolled outward, using each spike as an anchor and multiplier to gain and control more territory.

She cut her own gravity as she reached the apex of her jump and hung there in the sky over the scorched caravan.

She brought one defensive disc to float beneath her feet in case some unknown assailant got close enough to strike. The other two circled above her head, watchful for dangers from above.

Her two repurposed, Leshkin tower-shields hovered, one to each side, ready to close the four-foot gap between them if she felt she needed the added layer of defense.

But her mind wasn’t really on her own preparations; those were all but instinctive. Instead, she was doing her utmost to take in the situation as quickly as she could.

Three wagons were aflame along with more than a dozen trees in the surroundings.

There were more than a hundred dead burn-wolves among the defensive ring of wheeled wood, and she caught hints of more slinking away into the darkness, seeming to already have been retreating when she arrived.

There were more than twenty wounded guards, and several of those on the ground were unmoving.

The three Mage Protectors were equidistant around the circle, each atop a wagon. One had her mageling at her side, but there was no sign of the Dimensional Mage or the other mageling.

Tala was careful to keep her aura away from every human she sensed, but she still blanketed the entire clearing in which the humans sheltered. Her iron spikes swept around the outside of the circle in a wave, carried and positioned by her will and her iron control of her aura. Each one drove into the ground with a puff of snow, spaced as close to three feet apart as she could manage in an arcing, staggered grid.

While many focused on her, it was obvious that at least some of the guards and one of the Mages were watching the iron spikes surround them.

There were no living wolves that she could see within the circle of wagons, so it seemed that the threat had been handled, though not without cost.

Even as she watched, guards and wagon drivers were putting out the three wagons, despite the occasional hasty glance thrown her way.

I wish I had a way of putting those out, but I’d do more harm than good from up here. She would drop down soon enough and help how she could.

For the moment, however, Tala drifted slowly, her forward momentum not fully mitigated by her attempt to jump straight up.

The Mages had all oriented on her, and they were obviously in states of extreme stress.

One was swaying on his feet from overexertion, and the other two seemed to almost be trembling to Tala’s enhanced sight.

The mageling practically squeaked before hiding behind her master.

In that moment, Rane burst from the trees, staggering slightly as he entered her aura unexpectedly.

Tala purposely made allowance for him and the other magic-wielders, should they enter or wish to use their magic within, so it wasn’t a large burden on him. More than anything, it would have been like a blast of hot air when he’d been expecting a cool breeze.

Not damaging, but definitely startling.

Rane took in the scene almost as quickly as Tala had, then he looked up toward her. He had a tension across his features as he called up to her, “Tala. The threat is gone for the moment.”

She nodded, opening a slit for herself to speak. “That is my assessment.”

He hesitated, scratching the back of his head. “Come down, then? I think…” He lowered his voice until only she should be able to hear him. “I think you’re scaring them.”

Tala looked again at those whose eyes were locked onto her: Mage, mageling, and mundane.

The guards were clutching weapons with white knuckles.

Mages held their most potent spells ready to cast. She hadn’t really considered that before because they wouldn’t really be a threat to her, even if she weren’t sheathed in iron.

Oh…