Ranvir’s consciousness was dragged away from his body, towards Graywing’s enclosure. With a hazy distance he hadn’t felt since he was a fresh first-stage, Ranvir felt his body slump over and fall onto the floor.

The space resolved around him and he found it greatly different from his other. The floor, which actually existed instead of simply resting on the boundaries of the space, was made of those same one by one bricks of gray stone tile. He felt the hint of a firmament as well, nothing near as concrete as the floor, but there nonetheless.

Turning, Ranvir noticed the two other figures. Graywing, feathers fluffed, gazed at the second person. Another Ranvir, though different in many of the details. Feathers sprouted from his hair and neck, spreading across his chest and towards his arms. His arm was transforming into a wing as another was growing out opposite, legs turning into a copy of the vulture’s own.

Frowning, Ranvir sensed the connection between both him and Graywing within the mannequin. So is that how they determine appearance? He wondered, turning to gaze at the rest of the space again.

It was still his enclosure, within which Graywing would live, but something had been knitted into the fabric. Or no… It’s being absorbed into it. There’s just too much of it, he realized. Graywing’s spirit.

Is this how the transformation works? The bonded come to this place and struggle over their final form? Then, perhaps… he furrowed his brow in thought, examining the rate of dissipation. If I’d bonded something weaker, then I would’ve had a lot less time to work out which parts to bond with. Is that why some of the ‘unfortunate’ bonded in Belnavir look like they do? Their animals weren’t strong enough?

Ranvir tried reaching out and halt the progress of the assimilation, however, working with these kinds of spaces from the inside out was more difficult and Ranvir sensed he couldn’t leave. Both his and Graywing’s souls were holding him here.

So he turned back to the mannequin, seeing now that the figure before had changed. It was mostly Graywing now. Only something in the hips and torso told Ranvir that it wasn’t a full conversion.

With a flicker of his will, Ranvir undid the changes. Feathers and claws dissipated like smoke in the wind. Talons vanished and limbs reshaped. From one moment to another, Ranvir was back.

The next, he had a beak and talons were growing out of his feet instead of toes. Ranvir glanced at the vulture from the corner of his eye. The cycle, he realized with a sigh. Whoever took too much became the predator, instantly opening themselves up to becoming the prey.

Sighing as much to himself as to those damned laws, Ranvir set to work. He returned to his feet, but started on the arm. First, he tried creating another human arm, but he appeared to lack the surplus materials.

Instead, Ranvir realized he had allowed the space to become a growth for Graywing, seeing what it would do. Instantly, a wing half again as long as Ranvir was tall. Even fully outstretched, the feathers grazed the ground as it moved.

Shaking his head, Ranvir dismissed it with a slightly greater force of will and tried something different. He sent forth the purpose of an arm, how it bent and moved, how the hand and fingers grabbed and held on. The dexterity in the limbs.

Graywing, with minimal guidance, got something much closer to what Ranvir wanted. Feathers blossomed from his shoulder, sprouting from bare skin in moments as a new limb grew. The core design was clearly leg-like, though it bent correctly. Ranvir stepped closer to examine it fully.

It was in many ways a copy of his left arm, except the fingers were still off. Excluding the thumb—which looked mostly right, ignoring the obvious bird features—there were only three digits, with the middle one far longer than the others.

Ranvir erased it and gave a clearer idea to Graywing. He smiled as the hand reappeared. Four fingers and a thumb, all correctly placed. With a flicker of will, he moved it.

Glowing lights of yellow and blue burst into existence in the far distance. Both Ranvir and Graywing peered into and beyond the sky to see the lights rocketing across the sky. So it is accessible from inside, Ranvir thought. He exchanged a glance with Graywing. Intelligence was far clearer in its eyes this time. Ranvir got the feeling its ability to comprehend and understand on a sapient level was growing by the moment.

Then returned to the mannequin’s arm. He tried a few times to change the bird features to human, but couldn’t make much headway. Every request was met with a slight variation of color.

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Taking a step back, Ranvir admitted his defeat and let the limb fall back to resting position. It had ended up a darker, faded blue-grayish. It was far from perfect. He couldn’t get rid of the talons, but it was functional. How am I going to explain it to Frija? Ranvir wondered.

He glanced up.

Ranvir turned to Graywing with narrowed eyes, then back to the mannequin. He swiftly removed beak, feathers covering his left arm, as well as remaking his own feet. Graywing let out a fluting trill that sounded almost like laughter.

Ranvir held the image of himself as he wanted, just with his arm restored in his mind. The vulture threw back its own strikes, briefly creating changes here and there. One shoulder bunching and bulging with muscles and support structures for wings, before he reset it. A beak growing on his face, before vanishing. Feathers covering his chest.

It’s not enough, he thought with a shake of his head. Mind racing, he examined his form, trying to find somewhere to hide another feature. With a start, Ranvir thought of something. With a flex of his will, he examined his bones. All of them, each and every single one, had turned hollow.

Horror housed in his eyes, Ranvir turned to Graywing. “You almost fucked me!” he accused. Fixing his skeleton was a minor effort, but showed just how much ground he’d yet to cover. Instantly, growths appeared all over. A wing blew out of his left shoulder, stretching into full length, a beak hardened over his mouth, and feathers stretched over hair, neck, and chest.

Pausing, Ranvir examined the space. He was running out of time. I have to make some sacrifices. He peered intently at the new creation the vulture had set forth. Figuring what to and what not to change. And perhaps more importantly, what had been changed?

Ranvir dismissed the wing, beak, and most of the feathers but kept the dense undercoat in his hair. It wasn’t perfect. Feathers could still be seen in many places and it added a lot more mass to his usually thin hair.

Graywing trilled in agreement, the fluting notes ringing across the space. The mix of feather and hair lend him some of the maned appearance that the vulture’s species had been named after.

Still not enough, Ranvir thought as a half dozen changes rippled across the form. I need something big. Something that can take a lot of the weight and heft of the changes Graywing requires. Glancing up, Ranvir sensed the space coming apart. “Do or don’t,” he muttered to himself.

The last of Graywing’s soul was assimilated, and its enclosure grew suddenly. Ranvir felt it stretching across his soul, pushing the spirit of war’s prison into the center of his soul, trapped between the tether- and Amanaris-space, with Graywing’s enclosure butting against it from the last side.

Straining, Ranvir felt his soul stretch and twist. Power settled and resettled, anima flowed thickly around the spaces. Dull gray numbness prickled across Ranvir, interspersed with scarlet droplets, running rivulets over the insensation.

Coughing twice, Ranvir pursed his lips and pushed to his feet. Gradually, other emotions started appearing. At first they were unpleasant, yellow and orange droplets, lesser pains. Then a tingling blue raced up and down his arms. Both of his arms. With that realization came bright yellows and green, surging around each other, whipping around the dampening pains, and lessening grays, through the surging blues and straight into his smile.

Ranvir’s back crackled and rustled as he put both hands on the floor for the first time in nearly half a year. Though one looked off, a scaly grayish-blue with black claws instead of nails. It still moved and felt right.

“Daddy?” Frija’s voice sounded scared.

Ranvir looked up, stifling his emotions. The world came into sudden clarity. His vision honing in on the little shape, tapping from tiny foot to tiny foot a few meters from him. Perception surged with a new alacrity through his eyes, and Ranvir could see the fibers of Frija’s shirt as she moved, the detect individual hairs.

Internally, Ranvir gave an acknowledging nod to Graywing. Ranvir didn’t know if it was aware within its enclosure, but it deserved as much. He hadn’t even realized it had changed his eyes. “Firehearth,” he said out loud, holding out his normal hand.

“Did… did you eat Graywing?”

“In a way,” Ranvir said, shifting with another rustle. His weight was slightly off, as were the shadows in the room. Right, he thought. Those.

“I want to explain it to you,” he said carefully. “But you and Vasso have to come sit with me at the dinner table, okay?”

Frija’s chin quivered, but she nodded slowly. Ranvir smiled at her, extending his tether-sense to find Vasso. The boy was running towards Eriene. He’d gotten halfway there already. I must’ve been out for longer than I expected.

“Do you want me to carry you?” he asked. She nodded slowly and raised her arms. Ranvir straightened fully for the first time, another realization striking. He was taller. Not a lot. He wasn’t as tall as Sansir or Dovar, but bigger than his father. He knelt and wrapped an arm around Frija before realizing he had two. Smiling to himself, Ranvir cradled her in both arms. Reflexively, his new wings also cradled inwards, wrapping around her as well.

His little girl buried her head in his shoulder and Ranvir hurried through the house, righted the kitchen table with a bit of sand manipulation. He kept a pouch in each room. Graywing’s entrance had spread it all over, not that such slowed him down.

He left her sitting on the table, even though he’d righted the chairs as well. He could see the slight look of wonder on her face. Frija recognized she was somewhere she shouldn’t be. Ranvir grinned at her and stroked her cheek and hair, making sure to use his human arm. “I’m going to grab Vasso, okay?”

She nodded.

“Do you want to come?”

She shook her head.

“Back in a minute,” he kissed her forehead, then created a tunnel-space, reaching for Vasso’s location.