Personal Storage said not much of anything at all, more taciturn than any of the Shards I’d encountered so far.

Unsurprisingly, it was drawn to Fang, who looked longingly back and forth between the saved Shard and myself, treating me to wide, teary eyes not unlike a puppy desperate for a new toy. All the while, my Soulbound Weapon reminded me that I’d deprived it of not one, but two glorious battles recently.

But Fang’s hope wasn’t likely to come true unless I figured out what my final Minor Shard was actually supposed to do.

Even upon closer inspection, Personal Storage’s purpose remained muddled and unclear. Its tune was so faint and subdued that I could barely make it out at all. But when I drew close to the Shard, hoping I might glean at least some vague idea of its nature, my body began to react.

I gasped as my heart started beating powerfully within my chest, thrumming aggressively, almost furiously as I approached the Minor Shard, stronger with each passing inch. It was pulling at the Blessing magnetically, drawn to it through some esoteric means.

It was beginning to hurt…

Enough. I wasn’t willing to risk injury for this, not with the Agoge so soon. I pulled back, and the drumming beneath my ribs dissipated as swiftly as it had arrived.

Frowning deeply, I considered the Shard.

Fang seemed convinced it could be merged with him soon, very soon, that they were already almost one being. I wanted to keep at least one active slot open, if possible, in case I desperately needed a particular power, or in case I found an especially potent Shard.

And at the moment, I had two openings.

Personal Storage didn’t seem exceptionally strong, but then, I already possessed plenty of powerful Shards. Draconic Blood and Soulbound Weapon were both currently below 9 Attunement, and every new Shard I slotted would mean less time and practice with my current ones.

After all, I only had so much Entropy, and spreading myself too thin at this stage would be a quick way to become a master of none.

Furthermore, I was still planning on disguising myself as a Brute primary for the Agoge, so was it truly prudent to slot a bunch of Shards I wouldn’t be able to use for months without giving myself away? And if Personal Storage functioned in the way I suspected it did, I wouldn’t have to hide its usage–as with Fang, I could simply pretend that it was an Entropic item. A bag of holding, for example.

In the worst case scenario, I’d still have one opening left.

Mind made up, I activated the Shard, watched it disappear from in front of me, and felt it slide into place in my sea.

A great tectonic tremor shuddered through the ocean floor, and rumbled through my volcano, causing mammoth shards of obsidian to dislodge from the magmic mountain and fall tumbling into the briny deep below. The tenor of my song shifted slightly, a new voice joining the chorus in a quiet bass, a foundation to the ensemble.

Outwardly, though, nothing changed.

Post-quake, my soul was the same as it ever had been. Except for Fang. My Soulbound Weapon howled in savage joy, and disappeared. Shocked, I located him in the song, wrapped my spectral fingers around his coordinates, and yanked.

Immediately, I felt my astral perception race towards the base of the volcano. I hit the ground and passed right through it, tunneling ethereally past miles of sulfuric rock at breakneck speed until I found myself inside a room.

A giant cube, a hollow in the mountain.

It wasn’t particularly pretty, but it was large. It formed a perfect square in the depths of the volcano that was Draconic Blood, surely more than three times my height in every dimension. Personal Storage had molded itself from the obsidian rock, edges polished and gleaming like ebony marble.

Racing about its breadth, I saw my Soulbound Weapon.

Fang cavorted euphorically in the cavern, dancing upon the floors and dashing up and off the walls, from side to side, in a rare display of acrobatics. I wasn’t sure why he was so delighted by this place, when he enjoyed far more freedom in the sea itself.

Perhaps he was just happy to have a home of his own.

Noticing my presence, the massive, bone-white beast bolted towards me with incredible speed. Bracing myself, I was surprised when he passed right through me as well, naught but a soft breeze. I was just as intangible to him as I’d been to everything else that occupied my sea.

Fang bounced around me once or twice, hopping joyfully, before plopping himself down at my feet. His pleasure was an unusual melange of the piety a knight feels for his liege lord, and the overwhelming exultation of a dog whose master just arrived at the front door.

My Blessing stared at me, silver tongue lolling enthusiastically, and I took the time to examine him properly, as well.

Fang was a majestic creature.

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He towered over me, nearly fifteen feet tall. Seeing him properly now, I realized he was almost entirely lupine, two canine forelimbs and the neck and head of a noble wolf. Yet, after the waist, his body devolved from steely silver fur into a system of interlocking shards that all floated together. They swirled and flickered around one another, more liquid crystalline metal than solid flesh, forming a comet’s tail from the latter half of his midsection. He was breathtaking, awe-inspiring, a work of eldritch art given beastly form.

From above, two ruby eyes flickering with Red Lightning peered down towards me.

All of a sudden, Fang tilted his head quizzically at me, before prostrating, lying flat on the ground. He whimpered at me plaintively, inching closer on his belly, but I’d no idea at all what he wanted.

Then, a thought occurred to me.

Could it be…?

I strode over to the prone creature that was the quasi-physical manifestation of my Soulbound Weapon, stretched out a hand and…patted him gently on the head.

It was a fairly awkward maneuver, considering my form here was more spectral than real, and thereby phased somewhat through his steely shard-like fur. But Fang crooned in pleasure all the same, rolling over and exposing his belly shamelessly to the air, encouraging me to treat it to my ministrations, as well.

Which, of course, I did.

Smiling as a second idea popped into my mind, I took a half-step out of my song and back to the room I’d rented in the Mare. I looked around quickly, searching for…there.

Rustling around the pack that held my belongings, I retrieved a simple, ordinary metal rod that had cost me less than fifty chits. It was the enchanted torch I’d purchased earlier today. I tossed it in the air, experimentally, testing its balance.

Oh, yes. This would do splendidly.

Calling upon my newly-slotted Blessing, Personal Storage responded immediately, without a moment’s delay. With little more than a slight rush of air, and a faint popping sound, I brought the item back with me, pulling it Entropically from the outside dimension into my own. Fang was still there, regarding me curiously.

Grinning, I held high the metal rod, and reared back.

Then I tossed it across the room.

It wasn’t so much a physical act as it was an arcane one, a manipulation of the ubiquitous energy that saturated my soulsea to move the tangible object telekinetically.

But it seemed to suit Fang just fine.

He dashed after it instantly, in a flurry of lightning and steel, little crimson sparks emitting from his coat as he did so. He fell upon the very real and not the slightest bit insubstantial rod with all the brutality of a hunter laying into their kill and, after gnawing on it sufficiently with wickedly sharp teeth, picked up the item in his maw and carried it over to me.

In a clattering clang, Fang lay the now considerably damaged magic torch proudly at my feet.

Fifty chits down the drain.

I chuckled. What did it matter? I could just buy another.

Still smiling broadly, I grasped hold of it Entropically once more, Fang eagerly joining in, clamping down on the savaged rod, fighting me fiercely for it. My Blessing snarled and growled joyfully as I managed to steal it from him and toss it across the room again.

As we played back and forth like this for a while, my eyes began to feel wet.

I blinked furiously, but the tears didn’t exist in this place. They were rolling down my cheeks in the real world, and I was simply feeling their effects from within. I wasn’t sad, exactly. But I wasn’t happy, either. I felt some…mixture of the two.

I hadn’t realized how much I’d needed this.

I’d spent most of life in a village, surrounded by those I knew well. Even despite my mother’s death and my own introversion, it’d still always felt like I’d had family near me. But for over a month now, for the first time in my life, I’d really been alone.

With how powerful my Blessing might one day become, I’d had to consider the possibility that I might never truly be able to make friends again, that it might prove impossible to put my trust in others and be honest with them, for the sake of both their safety and my own.

I’d lost everything. Everyone I knew and cared about had died. Of course, I’d gained everything, too. I’d gotten the Blessing that I’d always wanted.

I just hadn’t realized how lonely it would feel.

For over a month now, I’d had to survive on my own.

I’d had to make my way in a society that was entirely new to me, one I’d never been a part of, one I’d never been taught about. I’d had to navigate situations that, at any moment, could have turned sour, resulting in my imprisonment, or execution, or both.

I had wanted this life–but I’d wanted it vaguely, romantically, in the way a virgin fantasizes about sex, or the destitute dream of riches. I’d fallen in love with the stories Mom had told, but I hadn’t considered that that was just what they were; stories.

This was reality.

I’d been smart, but mostly I’d been lucky. I’d met the right people, said the right things. In my old life, everything was simple. In the village, everything I did, every part of my day, had been entirely under my control. In my new life, though, nothing was under my control. Just this morning I’d encountered an Immortal, a Blessed so powerful he could have torn me apart with a gesture, or a whisper. No clever words would’ve gotten me out of that one.

I wanted this life, I did, even now. But I didn’t understand it. So, I feared it.

Yet as I roughoused with Fang and felt his glee, companionship, and support communicated to me through the song, I realized that I wasn’t alone. Not entirely. I never would be, again. My Blessings would always be with me. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to find others that could help me, for a while. Maybe even forever.

But, for now…maybe that was ok.

Tomorrow my ordeal would return. Tomorrow I’d be thrust back into a world of danger, of those who’d probe me for a pedigree that didn’t exist, who’d enslave me for my Blessing if they ever found out about it, who’d kill me if…well, just because. Tomorrow I’d thrust back into a world I’d always wanted to be part of, but one that I didn’t understand, that I wasn’t really used to or prepared for.

But, for now…for now, this was enough.

My respite wouldn’t and couldn’t last forever, but for the time being, this was enough.

I played with Fang until the sun dipped well below the horizon, and when I slept that night I did so dreamlessly, free of nightmares, the happiest I’d been in months.