I made my way back up to the platform to check on my family. My little brothers were getting very restless soon after Dad lifted his shadows. We talked it over for a moment and he decided to take them back to the nest after they had their fill. The meat I had cut up was half gone by that point and the little rascals scarfed down the rest within minutes.

When Dad pushed them to fly off into the night, he gave me an appreciative nod. Soon, they were on their way back home. I was confident they would get used to humans without too much effort. Especially once the tower was done.

The human children had eaten their fill very quickly and were already on their way back up to our platform. Gus got there first with Mini trailing behind a little, held up by who I assumed was her mother.

“That was so cool!”, Gus near-shouted as he sat down.

“Very cool”, Yuuna nodded.

“It was scary”, Pete said.

“Oh, come on! It wasn’t that bad.”

The other boy slapped his friend's back.

Finally, Mini reached us as well.

“Hey, wanna play?”, she asked.

My sister met her stare.

“Play what?”

“How about this?”, she said and spread out a chequered cloth.

“Oh, yes! Let’s play!”, Pete said.

I tilted my head. The board was too wide for chess. It had twelve by fourteen black and white squares. That also threw out any other board games I knew.

“Here, your rocks!”, Gus said.

He handed over a small leather bag each to Yuuna and me. I quickly opened it with my shadows and found a pile of smooth ochre rocks. Yuuna’s bag held similar stones in black. Gus had soft grey tones, Pete had white and Mini’s rocks were patterned with dark grey and white lines. I was still stumped what the game was about but the children simply started and it quickly became obvious.

“Black!”, Gus said and threw a rock. It landed on a white square.

“Noo!”, he wailed.

“That’s one out”, Mini said, “My turn!”

She chose white and landed her rock on the colour. Next was Pete and then Yuuna and I had our turns. Round and round we went, always calling out where our rocks would land and trying to hit the squares. The children were no real match if I used my shadows. I simply had too many Attributes to mess up my aim. So I started throwing with my beak messing up my vision. Yuuna copied me after the first round and the playing field was suddenly much fairer.

Every time all our rocks were thrown, we picked up the ones that had landed on the correct squares and started anew. After three rounds, our piles of a dozen rocks each had shrunk to four or five for the kids and six for me and Yuuna. Though both of us owls had not lost a single one in the first round. It turned out my sister was able to use her shadows without having them burn and was quite dexterous in their application.

Two rounds later, Gus was the first to be out. Pete followed right after him in the same round, missing both of his last stones by only millimetres. Yuuna had one rock left and landed it. I had two but missed one. Mini was the only one going into the last round with two rocks.

“Black!”, the girl called out and threw her stone. It thumped on top of the cloth and slid half a centimetre just barely off her target colour.

“No!”, she cried.

Yuuna was next and just barely landed on her white square. I missed. Somehow my rock landed perfectly centred on white when I called out the opposite. Mini had one last throw and took her time. She aimed carefully, pulled her hand back and said: “Black!”

The stone flew a wonderful arc. The parabolic trajectory was textbook perfect. And then it plonked on the wood right next to the cloth. She had overshot.

“NOOOO!”, she wailed. Her hands flew up in mock despair, beckoning to the skies.

“My win!”, Yuuna hooted.

“Oooh!”, “Superb!”, the boys congratulated her.

“Well played”, I nodded, “To both of you.”

My sister clicked her tongue.

“Well played”, she answered.

Mini had calmed down and was smirking at her.

“Well played.”

“Oh no. You made her angry”, Gus said.

“Let’s go again?”, Mini suggested.

Everyone nodded but me. I had spotted Mum down in the crowd sitting next to the woman that had held back Mini earlier.

“I’m gonna mingle a bit”, I said.

The kids tried to make me play another round but I would not have it. I packed my rocks and returned them to Gus.

“Maybe another time”, I said, “Have fun.”

With that, I jumped off and glided down to where Mum sat. I silently landed behind her and just listened in for a bit.

“I see”, the woman said, “It’s hard for you as well, isn’t it?”

Her face was soft and sympathetic. Mum nodded in answer.

“But enough of that. We have company! Hello, there.”

Mum turned her head and preened a slightly ruffled feather on my wing.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Hello”, I said, “I’m Fio.”

“Nice to meet you, Fio. I’m Cassandra. I see you were playing with Minerva.”

I blinked.

“Mini? Yes.”

“Did she finally lose a round?”

“She did, in fact. Yuuna beat her.”

“Oh? Is that the other owl?”

“My daughters”, Mum said.

“Right. I’m sorry. I can’t really tell the difference all that well.”

“It’s fine.”

“Your mother was just telling me you are very smart. You made these speaker things, right?”

“I did”, I said, “Very smart is relative. I’m sure there are many people out there smarter than me.”

“And humble on top of that. Not many would be able to do magic like that.”

“Magic is not about being smart. It’s about having the right ideas.”

“You are smart”, Mum said.

“Thanks, Mum.”

“Have you been enjoying the festival?”, Cassandra asked.

“Yes, I have. The ritual was very interesting.”

“Oh, truly. I was a little scared at first but then I started to feel very… fulfilled? I don’t know how to say it.”

“I see… Did you feel the same, Mum?”

She bobbed her head.

“I wanted to be part of it.”

“Yes, exactly!”, Cassandra exclaimed, “It was like I had to make a decision and say Thomas’ name. Or not, I guess, but that never came to my mind in the situation.”

“So the ritual bound you to make a choice? As a part of this village?”

“Yes”, both of them nodded.

I looked between them for a moment.

“That means you’re equally villagers of Greypeak.”

“We are”, Mum said.

Cassandra scrunched her face for a moment but then shrugged and smiled.

“I think so?”

“Then… ah, never mind.”

“What?”, Cassandra asked.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Doesn’t”, Mum said.

“There you are, Fio!”, a voice called from behind, “I was looking for you.”

I turned to face Thomas. The newly-elected [Village Head] was looking spry and eager with a huge smile on his face.

“You were?”, I asked.

“Yes! I wanted to thank you. Well, Circe and Mira as well, but I already did that. Thank you for helping with the ritual and for looking after my father. I was a little worried about him when he stumbled off the stage.”

“Oh. You’re welcome, I guess? I didn’t do much…”

“Still, you helped. May I sit?”

Cassandra gestured at the bench.

“Go ahead, Chief.”

“Thank you, Cass. And you as well, Aeria”, he nodded at my mum, “I think we’re going to get along very well.”

“We will?”

Mum tilted her head.

“You see, during the ritual I received the wishes of the villagers. And there were some that I had difficulty understanding properly. Something about being more involved with the mountain Greypeak. Which is where you live right now, is it not?”

She nodded.

“I think the details of how that will work would best be handled by you and your family. You know the mountain much better than I do, after all.”

“True.”

“There’s just one thing I’m concerned about. You see, normally I would have to message the Lord about any nodes within his lands. So when one of your wishes is to keep that one of yours, I am conflicted.”

Mum’s eyes widened.

“Not that I would betray your trust”, he raised a hand, palm facing us, “I would lose a lot more in the long run if I ignore the wishes of my charges than breaking a small rule.”

“… Thank you”, Mum said.

“I just want you to know the situation. There will very likely be an investigation of our new citizens. Lord Ekos will send a squad of guards and maybe the Crimson Church will send their paladins as well. If they come here, I can not not tell them about the node you use. Which means, it has to be part of the wilderness.”

Mum blinked.

“That is fine”, she said, “It’s for sapience.”

This time it was Thomas’ turn to look confused. I jumped in to explain.

“My parents and sister only reached sapience thanks to the node. My little brothers have not reached sapience yet but they started working on it. I think what Mum is trying to say is that she doesn’t need that node specifically but a source of vis to have an option for our family to reach sapience when there is more offspring. Or when my siblings find a partner.”

“What about you?”, Cassandra asked.

“I am not looking to reproduce. If I ever did, I would need a source of vis for my offspring as well but I’m really not interested.”

“Not even the slightest bit?”

I bobbed my head.

“Alright”, Thomas said, “That’s all I wanted to talk about, for now. I’ll tell you if anything changes, Aeria.”

Mum nodded a goodbye as the young man stood up and found someone else to talk to about their wishes. His job seemed to be rather complicated, combining everyone’s interests. At least he already had the hard part done. If he had to ask the people what they wanted it would be much more work.

“So you have a node?”, Cassandra asked.

“Yes”, Mum said.

“I suppose it would be a little much to ask if I could see it?”

Mum blinked at her. Cassandra sighed.

“I always wondered what it would be like to do magic like in the stories. Even just a single Skill empowered by vis would be so much fun to use… Like keeping the strings from tangling when I sew. Or not having to flip around what I’m working on to make a perfect stitch.”

“Magic is cool”, I nodded sagely.

“Right?”

“You can come”, Mum said.

Cassandra blinked. Her mouth froze in the process of forming words. For nearly half a minute she simply sat there.

“What?”, she eventually said.

“I don’t mind showing you”, Mum said, “But it’s far for legs.”

“Oh, wow. No, I’m sorry. I don’t think I can do that. If I get vis enrichment, the paladins are going to take me to their Cathedral. Or the lord will make me serve him. I don’t think I can do that.”

I huffed.

“Well, I don’t know the exact laws but a minor enrichment might be possible…”

“Don’t make me hope!”, Cassandra complained.

“Mira has it, though”, I said.

“Yes, but she is a [Witch]. That’s different.”

“Is it, though?”

Cassandra sighed and dropped the topic. Maybe it would come up again another time.

The rest of the evening was spent with small talk. Villagers moved between the tables and almost everyone managed to get to us at some point. After a few hours, someone brought out a simple lute and drum and started to play music. The people started to dance in the middle of the square and the mood stayed happy and energetic until even the last ones could not stand anymore. At least it was a warm summer night and the drunks sleeping on dirt and tables would not have any problems besides a sore back and hangover the next morning.

As for us owls, we took to roost on the mayor’s house, not even bothering to enter. The moon shone silver light on the dying embers in the firepits and the soft breathing and snoring people provided relaxing background noise. This village was a wonderful place. I was happy my family was getting along with the people so well.