Tala felt really foolish.

She’d made this massive deal about taking a break, getting away from her duties as a Defender and considering things. It had taken weeks to spin up to a reasonable time for departure, and now—less than three days into the trip—she was ready to go back.

Sure, she’d like to take a day or two to study the ruins of old Manaven if she got the chance, but it honestly shouldn’t require more than a few hours.

It’s only been two days since we left. She grimaced, feeling the—likely exaggerated—shame of the reality being so much less than she’d implied.

-You’re efficient?- Alat tried to redirect the feeling. It didn’t work very well.

Tala shook her head.

Rane glanced her way as they walked through the sparse trees. “What is it? I know I’m feeling… mixed after the burial, but it doesn’t seem like that’s what’s bothering you.”

She hesitated, not liking the feeling of exposure that the topic brought up within her. But that didn’t make any sense. She wanted to be honest with Rane and he with her.

What was the point of courting if they weren’t honest and open?

She didn’t want to love a lie, nor for the ‘her’ that was loved to be a lie. If she couldn’t be honest, there was no point in continuing. None at all.

That made the choice simple. Better yet, Rane had given her a perfect secondary topic with which to segue into what was really bothering her. “The burial…” She reached up and scratched Terry’s head. “That was wonderful to be a part of. I am glad that we were able to lay them to rest, but you’re right, that isn’t what is bothering me.”

Terry chirped with subdued encouragement, and Rane left the conversational space for her to speak when she was ready. She groaned before answering nonetheless, “I feel the fool.”

“Oh?” He shifted his walking to orient her way just a bit more. “What’s going on?”

She grimaced then let out a long breath. “I… We made such a big deal about this trip, and now… Now, it’s over? It’s only been two days since we left.”

He shrugged, a small smile pulling at his lips. “The trip’s not over quite yet. If you want to, we can stay out longer, explore more, do more.”

She shook her head. “I would just be doing that to not look like as much of a fool as I feel. We didn’t prep for exploring the moving settlements, and while I could do the research for an encounter with the Anatalins, I don’t feel like it’s the right time for that yet either. We could explore other cities, or the construction sites, but that is also something that we didn’t prep for, and something that I feel it would be unkind to spring on Irondale.”

He hmmed in understanding. “I can definitely see some of the merchants being in a panic if they suddenly found Irondale opened to a city under construction. They’d feel like they were missing all sorts of goods that they would have wished to have brought.”

Tala nodded, sighing. “That wouldn’t stop us if we had a solid reason for going, but, once again, it would just feel like something we’re doing so that I feel less foolish. That’s not a great way to make choices.”

“So, what you really need is a reason to have come back sooner than we thought?”

“That would be ideal, but I also don’t want to just hunt for a reason. That seems petty in the extreme.”

“That is a conundrum to be sure.” He nodded sagely. He then looked to Terry. “Terry? You’ve conveyed that you had things to lay to rest before you Bonded with Tala. It is hardly my place, but I wonder, was your mate, your hatchlings among that?”

Terry regarded Rane for a long moment before bobbing.

Rane gave a sad smile. “I am glad to have been able to be a part of your finding closure.”

Terry squawked, letting them both understand. Rane smiled gratefully, as did Tala.

She then turned to Terry. “Is Rane right? This was one of the things that you needed to do?”

He only hesitated for but a moment before squawking again, a bit more emphatically. When she didn’t respond immediately, he bobbed and trilled.

Her eyes widened. “You mean…?”

He chirped his agreement.

“You’re ready for us to be a flock. This was the only thing you needed to lay to rest?”

He hesitated before giving his agreement.

“Not the only thing, but all has been accomplished, now?”

He met her gaze, surety obvious on his every feature as he nodded, the gesture almost human when compared to his usual avian bob.

Tala laughed with barely contained—slightly nervous—excitement. “Well, alright, then. Let’s take a quick look at this ruin and get back to Alefast. I’ve a flockmate to bond.”

Terry threw back his head and trumpeted triumphantly at the sky above.

Rane chuckled. “I can’t think of a better reason to move quickly. Let’s get to it.”

* * *

The trip back to Alefast, Waning, took until noon the following day, which still gave them plenty of time to enact the bond that day.

Tala, Rane, and Terry made only one stop—to drop off Irondale’s entrance at the appointed place—on their way to the isolated chambers under the Archon Compound in the center of the city.

Alat had taken the trip back to coordinate with the Irondale residents to make them aware that they’d be returning to Alefast sooner than expected, due to a complication that arose on the trip.

Bless you, Alat.

-I aim to please.-

Apparently, Artia grumbled to Alat a bit, but no one seemed to think much of it beyond that. That proved that Tala’s fear of being viewed as foolish was a bit overblown.

But that wasn’t Tala’s concern any longer.

As the iron door sealed them inside the chamber with a Constructionist Archon, Tala really realized that it was happening.

She and Terry were going to bond.

They could have simply had Terry eat an Archon star in old Manaven, but doing it in a proper chamber would give them both more control of the bonding process. The connection wouldn’t just end up however they happened to mesh in the moment; they would have a say in some of the specifics.

Rane had stepped in and handled the Constructionist—much to Tala’s relief—getting everything worked out with him, while Tala and Terry sat in the center of the room, barely apart from one another, gazes locked.

Tala had given Alat full control over all their other perceptions, narrowing her focus entirely onto the terror bird before her, and the Archon star she was building within her finger.

With her current throughput, she was essentially done making the star, even though she’d only started to create it after they entered Alefast.

Because of the hyperfocus, she was almost surprised when it was time.

“We’re ready, Tala.” Rane’s voice was soothing as it reached her.

She looked around and saw the precious metal spun into spellwork laid out in the floor around her. She smiled toward Rane and the other Archon before nodding.

Rane smiled in return. “Whenever you’re ready, then.”

Tala turned to Terry. “Are you ready?”

Terry regarded her for a long moment, then bobbed a nod.

“Alright.” She used her aura and will to pull the Archon star stoneward—out of her finger—then back to the superficial now outside of her body.

“Is that blood?” The Archon whispered to Rane, but Tala still easily heard.

Rane shushed him in return, and Tala simply put the interaction from her mind. “Here, Terry. Freely offered.”

Terry moved forward even as the magics throughout the room blossomed with power, giving structure to the implicit contract they were entering into, the bond that they were forming.

The terror bird snapped forward, purposely—and with full knowledge and intent—eating the bloodstar.

With a roar of power, the world went white.

* * *

Tala flickered around the battlefield, Flow lashing out to kill with impunity. Portals opened to Kit, scooping up the bodies even as Tala stripped all the nutrients and calories from the fallen, adding them to her stores, hidden away from the superficial.

She was the perfect predator, and everyone was her prey.

Her reach and authority was unmatched and still growing.

Everything was hers.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

By her side, Terry moved—an extension of her will even if he chose how he enacted it—a perfect counterpoint to her attacks, drawing attention to give her openings, appearing in the blind spots, and striking forth.

His claws and beak were wreathed in void-magics, his feathers were woven through with white steel and iron, his bones were inviolable.

The whole continent trembled in fear of their attention.

All of Zeme prayed that their focus would stay elsewhere.

They hunted where they wished, and none could oppose them.

-Well… this is clearly a power-tripping delusional fantasy.-

Unfortunately, yeah. Anatalis would put a stop to us right quick, even if no one else cared to. She sighed internally, even as the manifestation of this bonding continued to glut herself on carnage and prey. Nope!

* * *

Tala floated in the white void after rejecting the first option. She was considering what she’d seen and what she wanted.

“Well, if nothing else, I want Terry to be able to talk with me.” That was a good place to start.

* * *

Tala and Terry stood on a hilltop, side by side, looking out over the plains around them.

Terry lifted his head and looked straight at Tala, meeting her gaze. After a long moment, he spoke in an earth-shakingly-deep voice, “No.”

The manifestation shattered, returning them to the white void.

* * *

It took Tala a long moment to pull her mind back together after the whiplash imparted through that last manifestation of a bonding option. The option hadn’t even fully formed before Terry rejected it outright.

“No? You don’t want to be able to talk?”

She couldn’t see Terry at the moment, but she could feel him, and she could feel his agreement with the sentiment.

He didn’t want to be able to talk, not in the way humans did. He was happy with his ability to communicate as it was, and that seemed like it wasn’t going to change.

Well, that was fine then.

Tala didn’t need Terry to talk, but that left her with an important question: what did she want from this bond?

Thankfully, she already had an answer for that.

She wanted to be united with her friend and to offer him the same longevity and power that she already had and that which she was going to attain.

She honestly didn’t want anything from him but his companionship.

Alat cleared her mental throat. -And the ability to flicker around?-

Tala chuckled. Ahh, yes. That. I would love to be able to do that.

The white void vanished, making way for the next option to manifest.

* * *

Tala and Terry stood face to face, practically beak to nose.

There was an intelligence in his eyes that hadn’t been there before.

She was used to seeing the wisdom and guile of a practiced hunter, tracker, and combatant, but what she saw now was well beyond that.

What he had gained—what he would gain through this choice—was a sapient perspective and mentality, for better or worse.

As for her? She felt the world around her open up in a way that she’d never experienced before.

Everything within her aura felt like it was just a single step away.

She knew that Terry didn’t have that same limitation, after all he hadn’t really had an aura in the same sense that a Mage did.

Still, the ability that she felt was massive.

To be able to, in theory, move to anywhere within her aura in one ‘step’... That would amplify her combat ability a dozenfold.

It would be an even greater change if she hadn’t figured out how to do something similar—if a bit slower and more cumbersome—via her portals into and out of Kit, and it felt like this means of movement just scratched the surface of what might be opened to her.

But that was all beside the core thing at issue.

This was unlike any merging or bonding that she’d ever done, and the reason was obvious.

Terry.

Terry was a truly sentient creature being pulled into full sapience.

Bonding Kit had included some similarities, and even merging some of the magics with Flow had required overcoming a sort of subconscious will. Even so, the only bonding that had been anywhere close to what she was experiencing in that moment was the merging of Flow with the dasgannach.

The dasgannach had been more of a creature of instincts with fully formed—if not fully fleshed out—desires and drives. In that instance, however, Tala had been able to override and then subvert the dasgannach by giving it what it thought it wanted, taking everything in return.

None of her methods there would work here.

More accurately, even if it might have worked, that was the last thing that Tala wanted. Even if she could—and she wasn’t sure that she could—she had no desire to subsume Terry into herself and simply become a slightly terrorized Tala.

She did snort a laugh at that.

-More like we’d be terry-fying Tala.-

That’s bad, Alat.

-The best puns are based in truth.-

She laughed again, causing Terry—wherever he was—to give off the feeling of curiosity. She shook her head at his confusion and assuaged him the best she could. “You’ll be able to hear her soon enough.”

Alat gasped. -He will! I’ll be able to talk with Terry. TERRY! I’m coming!-

Tala winced at the volume of the internal voice. “Maybe you should run, Terry. She can be a lot sometimes.”

Terry let out a poignant chirp.

“Well, yeah. I suppose I can be a lot sometimes too.”

He squawked in a descending series.

“Fine, much of the time.”

Another squawk.

“Yes, you and Rane deserve some kind of medal for putting up with me so much. Is that what you wanted to hear?” She raised an eyebrow, trying to put more humor than irritation in her voice.

Terry laughed.

She blinked at him in surprise as he actually laughed.

It was a series of honking squawks, but it was also unmistakably a laugh.

The sound brought a smile to Tala’s face as soon as she got over the startlement. “Fine. You win this round.”

He got himself under control and shook vigorously.

“Oh? Oh. Right. We won this round.” She huffed a laugh even as he bobbed a firm assent. “So? Is this the one we accept? Assuming this is actually you and not just some spiritual manifestation mimicking you while you go through your own selection process.”

She had a brief flash of what that might look like and paled. Even though she suppressed the thought, she was left with the lingering image of a Terry, larger than the largest building, devouring whole populations all while countering or avoiding the Archons who were supposed to defend the populace.

“Yeah, let’s hope that’s not the case.”

* * *

Tala was at a bit of a loss as she floated in the white void once again, this time with Terry floating beside her.

They had accepted the option presented, but they were still there, within the void.

This is new… aren’t we done? We came to an understanding, and the bonding can happen now, right?

There was definitely magic swirling around both of them, but there still seemed to be something left to be done.

It was only as the power began to tighten around Terry first that Tala really understood, remembering the warnings that they’d received.

Oh… we were told that he was basically going to have to recontextualize his entire life with a new level of cognition.

The working that had surrounded them meshed into Terry without any resistance before the avian threw back his head in a silent, undulating cry toward the non-existent stars.

Tala was beside him in an instant, still within the white void.

She wrapped her arms around him, not able to go through this with him directly. Even so, she was going to be there for him.

He seemed to be entirely inside his own head as his body twitched and spasmed in her arms.

With her close proximity—and the nature of the Bonding Void—Tala started picking up flashes of what Terry was reliving.

Terry was within his egg, and something made embryo-Terry throw himself against the inside of the shell, jiggling the egg enough to eventually shift it just a few inches.

With that accomplished, he settled down, but in less than a day, a massive THUMP resounded as something struck the ground directly beside his egg, right where he had been before his frantic movement.

His actions had saved his egg from destruction.

As a chick, Terry had stumbled from the nest before he was truly ready, feeling an overpowering urge to get over the nearby hill to the east of his sire’s nest.

When he’d stumbled to the crest and looked down, he’d found a human kneeling and unresponsive.

Following yet another deep, internal urging, he’d overcome fear of the large featherless biped creature, and curled up in the man’s lap even as the Mage’s magics went crazy. The man’s body was subsumed and his gate came to the forefront, becoming a fount around Terry.

The hatchling had been terrified at this development, wanting only to get away, and through that desire, he’d suddenly been a dozen yards away, able to see the dell folding in on itself, twisting and expanding before collapsing yet again, everything inside still perfectly preserved but incredibly dimensionally distorted.

Terry had moved himself. Looking back, he understood that that had been his first flickering.

Standing there, trembling, hatchling-Terry had felt the same deep desire thrumming through his very essence, he needed to go back.

He had not wanted to, but he’d felt like he needed to.

This was a crossroads for him. Looking back, he could finally understand that responding to the first urge while in the egg had been a spark—a beginning—and coming from the nest to the dell had been a solidification of an underlying magic within himself. This last choice would be a confirmation of that power as well as the acquisition of more.

Little Terry hadn’t understood that. He’d only had his baser drives, and the need was stronger than the fear, if only barely so.

He flickered forward, appearing in the center of the fount rather than passing through the raging magics that surrounded it. Immersed once again, he felt himself changing, but it was a change to his outer self.

The core of who he was remained, and that core reveled in the confirmation of its power. His need was being perfected, and he was sure that he would never deny it again.

Looking back he knew better, but little Terry could be forgiven for his naivete.

He had flickered out, and when his need had called him toward the fount for a third and final time, little Terry hadn’t hesitated in the least.

In retrospect, Terry now understood that he had drawn as much power from the fount as was possible. He couldn’t have had a better outcome by any other means.

While he was in the third time, he felt something reaching out to him, seeking to lock him down or bind him in some way. His need told him to flicker away and never return, and so he did.

Mistress Vanga had guessed that the fount was destroyed shortly after Terry passed through, but it seems like he avoided being bound to the fount and the land in a different way, using his own newfound power.

But then, Tala felt her eyes widen as she realized a deeper implication to what she was witnessing in flicks and flashes. It was something that bore up to scrutiny, given the variations they’d seen even among the same arcanous species that passed through the same founts, even those that seemed to have received identical impartments.

Arcanous creatures can have conceptual magic underlying their fount-acquired powers.