Practising our new combo Skills was something we decided to keep to a minimum. We were mostly travelling with our friends after all and even with two of us, our body needed to rest. That turned out to be a very good decision seeing as Jane calmed down a lot when we stayed close to the group for most of the day. Revealing our Skills had taken a toll on her, it seemed. I could not quite understand why but that was the feeling I got.

We did end up switching up who was in control every once in a while. Not much, I was still more of an owl than Catori, but she enjoyed the flying so when I spread my wings, I let her have some fun as well. When we were on the cart or otherwise near the others, she shied away from fronting, though. She wanted to find her own body and introduce herself to everyone properly. I was not sure how they would take it. I trusted Circe would be happy to meet her but the others were more questionable. Alex was probably progressive enough to accept her but finding an understanding that we were the same but also different might be difficult.

There was no reason to get worked up about it, though. Not until we found a body Catori wanted to keep. We had thrown some ideas around and, for now, she was primarily interested in some kind of raptor. She had clearly stated she did not want an owl body since “that was my thing”. That left eagles, falcons or hawks, mostly. I had suggested a feathered wyvern which she was intrigued by but not sure about. Then, I realized the Skill said nothing about how many bodies we could have. There was probably a limit to how many connections our soul could support or how many bodies our Wisdom could control but we had the freedom to try and keep some other beings.

I felt Catori intentionally did not touch on getting a human body again. She probably wanted one. She simply did not want to kill for it and then take over their life only to run away with me. It was not even possible to just find someone that recently died or was close to their end. We had to strike the killing blow and would take over without fixing any damage. Unless adding some particular aspects would change that? I was definitely thinking of sano, the aspect of healing. If we could get our talons on a large enough node to absorb some of it, we might be able to…

No. I snuffed the thought. If there was a chance, like a complete asshole that we could take over without worries, I would ask her. If not, the topic would be avoided. Forever. We had enough fun options. Cats, boars, wolves, deer, horses, all kinds of fish, and other birds like swans or geese. It was paralysing. Which was exactly why she had decided on a raptor. It was a body we would both be somewhat familiar with. Good eyesight, hunting instincts, wings and a taste for raw and bloody meat.

The only experiment we did during the last two nights of our journey was to see if we really could have more than two bodies and how that interacted. I found us another songbird sleeping soundly and unsuspecting and took it out. I had to slip inside the body once when making the connection and Catori once again took over to make sure I would not crash. Then I returned to myself and simply let the little robin body sleep. Next, I found a starling. And for good measure, I decided to aim for a ground-dweller as well. A simple field mouse would do.

It turned out to be no problem at all to be connected to all three bodies. Catori could only control one at a time, the same as me. As long as we made sure every other body was sleeping, it would be fine. The issues started to appear the next night when we tried to connect to the robin again but failed to do so. I took the starling over and found the songbird dead in its nest. We had not eaten enough. Or drunk enough. Or whatever.

It could not have been the aspects I threaded into my [Winged Dream]. I only used aer and ordo, terra and ordo for the mouse. None of the others had shown any signs of deterioration. In fact, the mouse body felt extremely comfortable when underground and could move more dirt than its little paws should be able to. The starling too only received positive effects, being able to fly a little faster by creating tiny gusts under its wings. We simply had not used the body of the robin for more than a few minutes and it had entered eternal sleep.

“I’m not going to micromanage a ton of bodies for us”, Catori remarked.

“Me neither”, I agreed, “Let’s keep these two and learn a little more.”

“Yup. I’ll fly the starling out and see if there’s a limit on distance. Maybe I can reach Nymph with it. Or Vivi and Safrah.”

“Ooh, that would be nice!”

Somehow, having a purpose for the bird let us use it without much trouble of switching back and forth randomly. I mostly piloted the mouse body at night when we were sleeping. It turned out that was the actual intention of the Skill. When I was asleep I would be able to control one of my extra bodies without getting into trouble. I just made sure to get some food for it before slipping back into the burrow. It turned out that having sapience made the hunt for food much easier. Who would have thought?

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On the third day after levelling up, we finally reached the Cathedral proper. Circe was staring with wide eyes at the building and even Alex looked impressed. Hera’s expression was calmer but she did make herself a little smaller behind Alex. It was kind of funny, especially when Catori broke out into laughter in my head.

Jane and Cerberos shared a knowing smirk at everyone’s expressions as we passed through the gatehouse. There was a walled-in area around the two huge buildings with smaller houses and a few open plots. I could see vis move all over the place, even though most of it came from the Cathedral. The flux produced all around us also floated to the building or the walls. I assumed they had something like flux scrubbers, otherwise, this area would have long been lost to taint.

Passing the gate proved as simple as having Jane wave at one of the guards. There were three Crimson Knights standing ready but they only gave us a nod. The area outside the walls had been settled already so it was not much of a change to get into what was considered the city. The houses looked a little nicer, for the most part, but that was it.

“Okay, everyone!”, Jane started, “I’m going to have to talk to some people before I can get Fio where she needs to go. I suggest we get a place in one of the guest residences right next to the Corpus Saxi. You guys can explore the place a little in the next few days while I do my job. What do you say?”

“Guest residence?”, Circe asked.

“A place for people considered important. I won’t be able to get you into one of the big mansions until I cleared everything up but it should be fine for a few days, right?”

“Yes”, Alex said, “We’ll be fine. Anywhere we shouldn’t go?”

“I mean… use common sense? The places that are unavailable to you will be guarded. Or other houses without invitation…?”

“Good. Thanks.”

Cerberos shifted in his seat.

“I… want to see an old friend. And take Fio with me.”

“Sure, why not? Best tell me where that is so I can find you if the Clerics want to meet her immediately.”

The [Hunter] nodded and Jane turned back to get the horses moving again.

“Where are you going with Fio, Cerberos?”, Circe asked.

“To see my old master. I… it’s a bit of a long story.”

Alex swooned a bit and Hera had to support her shoulder.

“Are you okay, Lady Alexandra?”

“Yes. Just a bit… woozy. Must be all the magic.”

“Is it that bad?”

“It’s quite a lot”, I said, “There’s magic everywhere. Though it’s mostly vis. Hey, maybe you can upgrade your sensory Skill?”

The living fortress gave me a pained smile.

“Sure. I’ll just… randomly Breakthrough.”

“Not randomly, dummy. Use your Wisdom and Intelligence to guide the Skill into new territory. You have problems sensing vis, right? So try to see it.”

“It’s not that easy, Fio. There’s like… a ton of gaps in my vision. Things are just… wrong.”

I blinked.

“Where are those gaps?”

“Like… over there. And there. And there. Nearly everywhere.”

She had pointed exactly at some of the main streams of vis going to the walls and the Cathedral.

“You already have it. Just focus on seeing only those gaps. That’s where the vis is. It’s incredibly concentrated so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

She pulled a face, then focused and scrunched up. After a few minutes, she let out a deep breath and sat back.

“Did you do it?”, Circe asked.

Alex laughed.

“Hell, no. Or is it taint, no? Whatever. I just disabled the Skill, for now.”

“Maybe the guest residence will be better”, I said.

“If not, I’ll have a word with these Clerics”, Hera frowned, “They shall learn my wrath!”

That made Alex smile genuinely.

“Not much one for authority anymore, huh?”

“Only for you, my Lady”, the [Fortress Maid] smirked.

Alex poked her forehead.

“Don’t go too far, now.”

“Of course. I would never endanger you.”

The mirth playing on her face made everyone laugh. It was a good time.

I was interested what the Cathedral deemed mediocre guest residences. But I was also interested in helping Alex out with her Skill. It would be helpful to have her fully able to see vis on demand. Especially if it reduced her headache.