“Yes I did. That doesn't mean I know what you need to know. If I was to pick what I believe you should know I would have to make assumptions as to what you already know. I could accidentally leave out something vital and you may not realize it until it was too late. I may also not realize they're other bits of information you could use that perhaps do not relate to your immediate question but could still benefit you. I may also end up trying to teach you something that is completely useless to you.” Naidra continued to smile. From the expression Dan was giving her she believed he understood.

“That makes sense. Couldn't you examine my past work and use that to get an idea of what I'm capable of? I believe that would let you figure out or make a good estimate as to what I know and don't and thus what I need to know.” Dan grinned a bit whenever he heard Naidra chuckling.

“My you're determined.  Unfortunately no. It's not as if we've never tried to function as teachers. We can in truth do so if the knowledge you wish to acquire is already somewhat familiar to you. The further down the path of knowledge you seek to travel though the more difficulty we have teaching it. If you for example wanted to know how to make an alchemical potion that grants remarkable regenerative abilities while within close enough proximity to a proper energy source I could teach you that quite easily. The more steps you wish to take though the more likely we are to make a mistake and lead you down the wrong path. What you want to know now is just too many steps for us to consider it worth the risk.”

“Then what was the sister's original energy source?”

“A trip up a rocky mountain path.”

For a moment Dan went silent though he found himself grinning more. “Are you serious about teaching me to make such a potion?”

“I take it that means you wish to know how.”

“I just might. What's the advantages.”

“Typically a much longer functional life span and even better healing abilities. Unfortunately as it draws its energy from an external power source the area in which such potions will work is rather limited.”

“We're going to have to talk about that later. For now I should get to examining these books and find out what I'm really looking for. Thank you Naidra.”

***********************************************************************************

It actually felt a little strange looking down at Vera. Maria could still remember all the bruises she'd taken from the sister during training. She always seemed the knowledgeable one. She was the one with experience and everyone else was working to catch up. Now Maria was suppose to be guiding her through learning from the glyph and she felt utterly out of place. Especially as she watched Vera working. “So Vera how are you feeling?”

“I feel as if something is pushing against my skin and even trying to get underneath it. It is very unpleasant. Like standing among several decaying corpse and you just know that the stink is going to sink into your fur.” Even as she spoke Vera continued with her exercises. The protective layer of stone between her and the glyph gave her some freedom to move. The relatively small area limited what she could do so she found herself mostly working on strength training. Her right thumb currently pressed against the stone supporting her body as if she was laying on her side on an inclined surface. She had to be careful not to toss herself into the air as she rapidly lowered and raised herself. “You know it would be nice if we could place one of these beneath a pool of water.”

The site of Vera's arm working despite her odd position reminded Maria of how well conditioned her body was. Sisters were far stronger then human's naturally but Vera seemed determined to leverage her body in the worse possible position to get the most out of her exercise. Despite her efforts Maria didn't get the feeling that they were really working. A sister's body tended to be very strong compared to their weight and Vera's body was well trained. It made it hard for Maria to imagine how much water training Kersara had to do in order to reach her current level. “I'll ask Joseph about that. So do you need a hand?  Remember to imagine you're pushing that stink out of your body.”

Vera gave Maria a large smile. Her mental conditioning had left her well prepared for such training and she didn't think the advice was necessary. She still welcomed Maria's intent. “I imagine myself as preparing for a match against Mina and how much I'd need to strengthen my body to hope to defeat her. Especially given that she has a head start on me. I just feel so restrained while trying to train in here. I'm glad that you realized putting a stone slab over the glyph would make it so that we could be somewhat active while in here.”

“Thanks but I'm pretty sure that was Nathan's idea.”

“Well just the same I'm grateful for it.” Before continuing Vera quickly switched arms and sides. “I'm just having such a hard time getting my heart rate up staying still like this. I'm more used to strapping additional mass to my body and then forcing myself to run and move at top speeds in order to train my muscles. If I put too much weight on the stone it'll break and destroy the glyph so I can't do that now. I'm a little curious. Maria do you need to be entirely within the glyph for it to take affect on you?”

Maria was suppose to help sisters learn how to use the glyph. Unfortunately Vera was asking her a lot of questions that she didn't know.

“Ridon could you handle this one?”

Currently Ridon was helping to make sure the glyphs stay awoke. It was quite an easy task and he found himself more focused on his reading then observing them. Maria's words easily snapped him back to the world though. “Help with what one?”

“Vera wants to know if the glyph has to contain her entire body to be effective.”

“I'm afraid so. Why?”

Vera, “Oh I was just thinking. It would be nice if the glyph could be made into a form of clothing that we could wear. That way we wouldn't be so limited in our movements once it was awoken.”

Ridon, “That could be tough Vera. The ink would respond to the thread and that could throw the magic completely off. That could end up being a serious redesign even if the entire person didn't have to be contained within the glyph.”

“That is understandable. I was just thinking it would be nice if the glyph could come with us rather then us going to glyph. Now Maria I was told that you were working on training without the use of the glyph but clearly you returned to it. Exactly what happened to change your mind?”  The weight of a sister's body just wasn't enough to provide the type of resistance they needed to train past a certain point. Vera tried to compensate for this by working extremely rapidly and it did have some influence on her. Yet the difficulty in maintaining a stable position and working at such speeds was troublesome as well. She needed to be able to move if she was going to truly have her heart moving or she needed something that could provide some resistance.

“The glyph is a tool that starts you down the right path but once you begin going down that path you don't need it. That said. It really helps to have the tool along. The rate at which I progressed improved greatly once I began working with the glyph once again. So as far as testing goes. Continuing ones training without the glyph is an option after you know what you're doing but it really helps if you continue to use it.” As Maria watched Vera she felt tempted to try to tackle her. She had some extra height on her now and thanks to her training with Naidra her combat skills had improved a lot. It was possible she wouldn't even need her speed to beat Vera now. At least that is what Maria hoped but no part of her actually believed.

“Is there something you want to say Maria? You have other students you may wish to tend to.”

“Ah well there is but it can wait until later.”

***********************************************************************************

“So you're not lieing just to make me feel better?” Zarena kept a close eye on Nathan and listened to his heart carefully as she waited for a response.

“No. There has been a three percent reduction in the amount of energy that you're pulling from the system since you began your training. Isn't that amazing? Now I don't know if you'll ever be completely independent but still. I know that Mirin and the others were quite surprised to see such results so soon.” As Nathan spoke he couldn't hide his excitement and he didn't want to. The less of a drain Zarena put on the system the easier it was to justify keeping her awake. Even if no one thought much of the subject anymore he knew that she did. Now that she was showing progress there would be no reason for her not to stay awake.

“That is.” Zarena went silent for a moment. She could feel her heart rate speeding up. She wondered if Nathan could hear it pounding in her chest as she considered the implications. Her face nearly split in half as she smiled. “That is amazing! Oh!” Zarena couldn't help but clap her hands together before reaching down for Nathan. Her had blocked her view of him for a moment but she could feel his presence as she took him within her grip and lifted him to her face. Her hand turned so that her palm faced upwards and her fingers opened up while she continued to lift him towards her face.

It was rare that Zarena so lost her composure that it translated into physical action. Even now Nathan could feel how careful Zarena was being by how gently her fingers had pressed him into her palm and the acceleration of her hand upwards. It was still rather disorienting and there was no way for him to stand and meet her lips so instead he found himself pressed against her palm and the softness of her lips. Reflexively he took in a deep breath and pressed his entire face against her lips as he felt some light suction on his body.

It was only a few percent but it was enough to make Zarena feel a rush. The news had stirred powerful emotions within her and she just wanted to thank Nathan. As she felt his body pressing against her lips other emotions were excited as well and she held him against her lips feeling his body pressed against them a bit longer then a thank you required. Her smile hadn't diminished in the least as she pulled Nathan away and looked down at him smiling up at her. “That really is amazing. So have you made any plans for what you're going to do with all that extra energy?”

“We're currently directing the energy into the new dining hall. You haven't been by to see it have you?”

“No. I've been a bit too nervous to return to the village now that so many of the repairs have been finished. Plus my home has been keeping me rather busy. A bit of the northern section broke of under the stress of me walking around and I had to repair it. I can't say I was surprised but the further I get out to sea while working on my little island the harder it is to keep together and build it up.” As she spoke Zarena glanced out over the water.

Nathan visited Zarena quite often so he had noticed the missing chunk of land. There had been no real reason to ask her what happened. With every step Zarena either compacted or destroyed the stone she walked upon. Apparently one of the corners had reached its limit. He was rather frustrated that there wasn't much he could do to help her. The amount of stone Zarena had been forced to gather from the ocean bottom was far beyond his ability to truly enchant. “I wonder if I could make something to help hold your home together. Not like a net mind you but perhaps a mystic focus point that would imbue the stone with additional strength.”

“Nathan the goal is to direct this energy away from me not to find a way to direct it back to me.”

“Well it may need to happen eventually. We're still looking into ways to make better use of the life bloom and several sisters have began learning to direct more mystic energy into their body like you. What are we going to do with all that mystic energy whenever there is no one to make use of it? “

“You really believe that day is going to come?”

“Well maybe.” Nathan gave a slight shrug and stood up on Zarena's palm. Even whenever she moved her hand she kept the motion so gentle that it was typically easy for him to walk on. “It is amusing. Those of us who moved into the citadel don't plan on returning to the village even though it's been repaired. Yet it still feels like we're retaking the citadel on some levels. The spirit hunters are returning. We have a wonderful new energy source and now you're becoming less dependent on external energy systems. It feels like we're returning to the old times. We even have the energy to dedicate to bringing the distrusted back into the community.” Nathan felt Zarena's hand shiver slightly at the mention of the distrusted. “I take it you're not entirely for that still.”

“It's hard Nathan. Now don't get me wrong. It's wonderful that you're showing the distrusted this mercy and giving them another chance. Mercy is a beautiful thing whenever it is guarded by reason and sound judgment. Which considering that you seem to be making progress on the reform of the distrusted you're using reason and good judgment. It's still hard for me to know about such sisters and do nothing about it.”

“You did though! You scared them so badly that they while some of them are being difficult none of them have resorted to openly complaining about their situation.”

A slight chuckle escaped Zarena after a moment as she considered what Nathan said. “I suppose that is true. It isn't the type of thing I'd actually want to do but for now it'll be sufficient. I'm glad that you believe the project is making progress but I still expect something to go wrong. I also worry about how you're going to handle such sisters in the future. I hope if nothing  else this project sends a message that such ways of thinking are not acceptable and not welcome.”

“So do I especially if the average sister continues to become even larger and more powerful.”

There was a moment of silence in which Zarena found herself looking back towards the village. Talk of modern times brought up memories of the past and she had to wonder. “How much energy do you believe you'll need to begin waking up other sleepers?”

“I'm not sure. It depends in part on what the sisters want to do. The life blooms are still growing though and the amount of energy they're producing is still increasing. If you can free up enough energy we could wake up another one. So you really need to have this island of yours large enough to handle a room mate. If that's what you want to do. Another option is you could begin working on another island that would be large enough for a sleeper to live on.” As Nathan spoke about Zarena's home he actually felt a bit awkward. In truth Zarena's island wasn't much of a home. There was no shelter on it. Zarena simply stated that the heaviest rain was little more then a fine mist to her and such a structure would be difficult to build.  She didn't have a place to cook or anywhere other then the ground to set. The only thing he noted was a little storage area she'd made by hollowing out a large stone to hold her few belongings.

“I'll have to work extra hard to cut back on my energy needs. Now have you put any work into developing a spell that could help detect a sunken ship? As I've been looking for a few days now and there is a whole lot of ocean out there. I kind of doubt my chances of finding any sunken ships without some help.”

“It is not going as well as we'd like. I suppose that's why mages aren't constantly locating such ships though and recovering them. As far as short distances magic behaves pretty much the same in water as it does in air in most cases. The deeper the water goes the more difficult it becomes though. Hey Zarena you've mentioned how big the ocean is a few times. Do you ever fear that there might be something out there even larger then you that might try to make a snack of you?” Nathan actually felt himself shiver a bit as he imagined a monster large enough to turn Zarena into a snack. Such a creature would truly be worth fearing.

“Heck no! With claws like mine?” As she spoke Zarena extended her claws so that Nathan could see them better. “These little death dealers don't just cut flesh. They shreds ones spiritual being within the body. I'm a lot stronger then I look as well. We all are you know.”

“Ah well you have me there but you know the Luvarians created other masterworks.”

“That's true but I like to imagine if I ever happen upon another Luvarian construct they'll recognize me as a sibling and we can begin on friendly terms.”

“Ah ha! So you admit there could be some monster out there more fearsome then you are.”

“Well yes. I'd be foolish if I thought I was the most powerful being in existence especially whenever they're several other sleepers so near by.”

After a moment Nathan gave a nod. He could understand where Zarena was coming from. The Amalgam had tested her but he couldn't truly imagine the creature defeating her. At times he had to remind himself that Zarena and sleepers in general weren't beings that could stand on their own. She was dependent on a very large amount of energy being provided to her. Even the Amalgam had to sacrifice its followers in order to challenge her even for a short while. “Do you believe there could be something more dangerous then you that doesn't have some kind of support system?”

“Sure. Just think of some of the other things the Luvarian's made in their time. That said I doubt I'm ever going to meet such a being. Nathan you're sounding a bit worried.”

After a moment of silence Nathan nodded his head and moved closer to Zarena's wrist so that he was closer to her face. “I suppose I am. The entire Amalgam event has me a bit concerned now that things seem to be calming down. We really do need to find some more metals anyway. I'll go check on those working on a spell to help you look for any sunken ships and see if there is anyway I can help.”

“That sounds good but what have you been working on?”

A sigh escaped Nathan as his mind turned back to his work. After the incident with Mirin losing some of the flesh from his hand they'd had to rework the energy system a bit. That had taken even more of their depleted supplies. “I'm still working on the life bloom. You see we never really considered what would happen if you suddenly stopped using as much energy as you were. The system had to be redone to handle sudden changes. Before that I was helping with the study of the dead sisters. Joseph's new glyph has heavily influenced that work as well. I haven't had any time for my own project.”

“Oh?  You have something of your own that you're working on and you haven't told me about it? Well that isn't right.” Now Zarena lifted Nathan closer to her face once again making sure that each words washed over him. She liked the way her breath tended to ruffle his clothing and the way he leaned into it.

“Yes. Well there is only a few of us working on this as I'm still a little unsure about the entire thing. Joseph experiment with the life bloom got me to thinking. We know what happens when a sister uses a normal magical item but what about a magical item that was grown? I've been trying to find a way to weave other spells into plants and a few of us are even looking for a dryad that would be willing to attempt a joining with one of the life bloom's.  We're not certain what the final outcome will be so we're keeping it a bit on the quiet. We'd also like to have some spirit hunters on hand in the event things don't go quite as planned.”

Dryads power tended to be shown by their tree. Often this meant the larger the tree the more powerful the dryad yet it could also be represented by the strength of the tree and how durable it was. There was also some dryads powerful enough to cause their trees to take on mystic properties. The fruit of these trees might augment or weaken the person who ate them for a time. Weapons made from such trees could be remarkably powerful. Now Nathan was thinking about attuning a dryad to a tree that was already mystically attuned and hoping to craft magic items from it. The thought made Zarena grin. “Okay that sounds like it could be dangerous.”

“Yes. That is why we'd like to have some actual spirit hunters at the time. I don't think we'll be able to wait if we find a willing dryad though.”

***********************************************************************************

It was hard for Zarena to be certain how she should feel. Maria had found her shortly after she'd began going out to sea. They still hadn't found  means to help her with ship hunting but Maria had something to tell her. Now she'd been told that the protectors were speaking again but only to certain people and they needed to keep it quiet. Currently Maria was setting upon her shoulder while delivering the news. Part of her actually wasn't surprised by what she'd been told but she was curious. “Does that mean you're going to be introducing Nathan to them soon?”

“He and Mirin should be soon to come. After all they could likely benefit from the extra knowledge.” Maria had told Zarena that Joseph had been introduced to the protectors but she made it sound as if someone had came before him. Which according to Naidra they had. Ridon wasn't recognized as a Luvarian but they had spoken to him first. For now Joseph wanted to keep the fact that he was considered a Luvarian a secret. “They seem to believe that we won't make the same mistake that made them decide to go quiet in the past now.”

“I believe having made significant progress to solving our problem ourselves has had a lot to do with their decision as well. This this is wonderful news Maria. Oh how I wish I could go speak to them but I'd be a little too obvious to keep this quiet. Hm Maria have you asked them if they had any means of locating or detecting sunken ships? The entire time I was hunting the ocean floor for good stone I didn't come across any ships that caught my attention. Even one large treasure ship could help us out a lot. Each time Nathan visits me I hear a little bit about how low we are on precious metals.”

“Huh. I hadn't heard much about that. I can sure ask them about any means of locating ships. Actually I haven't asked them a lot about what resources they may have.” It was strange to Maria how calm Zarena was. Then again she seemed to have a higher opinion of the protectors and what they could do then most. She had heard stories about them that likely hadn't been heard for hundreds of years. “Hey Zarena you're taking this very well.”

“Well to be honest Maria the life bloom was a bigger surprise to me then this. I always expected that they could do more. Now don't miss understand me. This is wonderful news and it speaks very well of our progress. That or perhaps they believe we're going in the wrong direction and have become desperate to direct us back down the proper path.”

“No. No. I've seen what happens and felt what happens whenever they decide you've began to go down the wrong path and decide to intervene.” Maria wasn't too surprised whenever she felt Zarena shaking lightly as she began to chuckle. Given how Zarena had handled the social issues of the society she supposed that Zarena would tend to empathize with them whenever she considered the situation.

“They had better be gentler with the apprentices then they are with us at least! I might have to say something if they get rough with Nathan.”

“They are. Besides the types of thing they're helping me and the other sisters do are a bit different then the way they're helping the brothers. They bring them tools that they can use or books they'd find useful and at times they tell them when something wouldn't work but that's the limit of it. They're not teaching  them how to use magic exactly. On the other hand they're helping us to really train our bodies while they can.”

“So they expect you to surpass them?”

“No!” Maria couldn't help but laugh a bit at the notion. Nothing Naidra had done indicated that she expected to be surpassed. Maria didn't know if she would mind being surpassed but it was clear she didn't expect it to happen. “I might grow too large to fit within the citadel.”

“Okay that does sound more realistic.” As Zarena considered the protectors speaking again she couldn't help but smile. She hoped that Nathan would be introduced to them soon. There was pain despite that news. Part of her wanted to speak to them. The protectors had been there since the beginning if what her mother had told her was true. She had some questions of her own that she would have loved answered. “Now you make sure you tell me whenever you're finally ready to let everyone now. I intend to be there.”

“I'll make sure of it.”

***********************************************************************************

Mina couldn't help but smile as she carried Dan. Currently Dremera was holding onto her and looking down at her father. Her tail lay across his chest. “Daddy has been working very hard hasn't he Dremera?” The young girl didn't make a sound but looked at her mother and continued to smile before looking back towards her sleeping father. Mina watched as her daughter's tail tip flicked lightly and she suspected that the young girl was resisting the urge to tease her father. Given all the time Mina spent teasing Dan with her tail and Dremera used hers as something to play with it was often how they showed affectation. Dan had apparently lay down to wrest his eyes for a while and ended up falling asleep instead. The table he was working at was covered with paper, books and notes.

Alaina couldn't resist looking towards Dremera for a moment before looking back to Dan's work. So far he was well on his way to developing a suitable system. His ultimate goal being to create a mystic cauldron that would constantly be resupplied by ingredients from the forest naturally and produce new plants and animal life in doing so. He was currently working on a design that would maintain such a flow and would regulate the type of developments that it yielded. It would be naturally occurring random experimentation with a purpose. Alaina had no way of knowing how often it would produce results or how good they'd be but it seemed to be a worth while experiment. “When he wakes up you can tell Dan that I see no danger in his plan thus far. They're still some issues to work out but he is well aware of them.”

“How do you know?”

“He has it written right here. On these notes he marked as things that could go horribly wrong.” Alaina couldn't help but grin as she pointed at the three sheets of paper in which Dan had detailed his concerns and in some cases noted them as being resolved. “If only every Luvarian had been so strait forward with their documentation.”

“Some were?”

“Some.”

“Hm.” Before speaking Mina took a moment to look down at Dan again. “Well what about the list of things that might go a little wrong.”

Alaina allowed herself to laugh as she picked up one of Dan's notes. “He covered that in his rules of magic. When dealing with magic of this magnitude and over this time period there is no such thing as a little wrong. It's his third rule down from the top.” The fact that Dan had felt the need to write himself such a note was exceptionally amusing to Alaina. It was a thought that probably would have saved quite a few Luvarians in the past. It might delay one project but the issues that such a thought would have avoided would have likely saved time and led to better developments in the long run. This seemed extremely likely whenever she considered the Luvarian's collapse.

Mina found herself walking over to Alaina and looking at Dan's work. It had been a while since she'd seen him really working like this. He had become comfortable in the alchemy shop even though he tinkered from time to time and wrote theories. Part of her was glad to see him working like this again. It may have been that he had grown too comfortable. “So Alaina tell me. How close is my Dan to becoming a true Luvarian?”

“I'm not sure if he's learned to truly love the act of creation or enhancement at this point. We need to be certain that if all the problems were solved. If your hunger was removed and your safety insure we need to know that he would still seek to create and augment. Before he allowed himself to grow too comfortable and honesty that hurts his chances of recognition. The fact that he can settle and be happy where he is like that just isn't in the nature of a Luvarian.”

It was strange. Alaina was being friendly and just answering her question but Mina still felt herself becoming angry. She didn't like it whenever others spoke poorly of Dan and the suggestion that he had lost some of his initiative didn't set well with her even if she couldn't disagree with it. “So no Luvarian was ever truly content with what they'd made?”

“Some became content with their progress down one path but soon they would find another. The only ones that truly became content were the ones watching their project develop or the ones that died.”

The notion made Mina shiver a bit. She wanted Dan to be recognized as a true Luvarian and have all the rights that went with it. Did she want to share him with his work though? Did she have to share him with his work though? As Mina looked at Dan she found herself wondering what would happen if she became his project. Joseph had his work with the glyph and trying to end their hunger. What if Dan could figure out what caused their mutations and how to trigger them without them going to sleep? Perhaps he could figure out a way to reduce their size without them having to go to sleep. Both goals were quite massive and surely would deserve some recognition. “Thank you Alaina. I'm going to take Dan back to our room where he can rest more comfortably. Ah one thing. Alaina do you know of any techniques to extend the life span of a human?”

“I know of over a dozen with different levels of effectiveness. I assume that you want to stay away from undeath.”

“Yes that would be strongly preferred. Would you be willing to share that information with us? I don't speak to Dan about it but.”

“The faelom tendency to outlive the apprentices is a source of much pain for you. Give us a little time. The preservation of the lives of the apprentices is in part our responsibility and thus protecting them from time is one of our goals. I'm debating your question with the others now.”

***********************************************************************************

Dan wasn't certain what to think of Mina's question. Could a sister be allowed to change without having to be put to sleep? It hadn't been done before but a lot of things were being done now. Unfortunately he couldn't seriously look into it until he finished his design for the new section of the forest. Well his proposal. He wasn't the only one working on the projects but the others didn't have access to the same tools or information he had yet. Dan gave his head a quick shake and reminded himself that they actually did. Naidra had told him that the books he was using were in the apprentice library. He did have a few tools they didn't have though which included Naidra herself. Currently she was working on putting together a model of the section of forest he was working on.

Naidra had a large smile on her face. Even if Dan was just an apprentice it was great to be helping with a project again. She had helped Joseph and still was but Joseph couldn't keep her or the others busy all the time. They still had far more free time then they ever did while the citadel was still busy. She easily molded the clay using her claws and fingers while infusing it with magic to simulate the area Dan was working on. He wanted to test his theory in small scale before trying it on the large scale. He had asked her if there was any tools that could simulate this and seemed quite surprised whenever she told him that she could easily make him a model of the area. There was actually a model of the entire forest but that was reserved for other uses.

“So Naidra how good is this model you're working on?”

“It isn't perfect. This one won't be perfect at least. It won't simulate the interaction with every rock or every tree but it will be fine for theory testing.”

“Like cutting yourself and drinking a healing potion to insure that it works.”

“Perhaps if you tested the healing potion some other way first to insure that it wasn't actually a toxin. Is that one of the methods you learned to test your potion?”

“It was whenever you're in a hurry and working with something you're not quite sure of. My mentor always said to make sure you have a healing potion you can put your confidence in and a potion to remove toxins from the body in the event things didn't work quite as you planned. I never actually used that method. Well I never used it right away as I prefer to avoid poisoning. There were a few times I came very close though.”

“Oh? I only started learning of you whenever you came to the forest. There is of course the stories you told Mina as well.”

“Really? How many of those did you hear?”

“We're only aware of a few. We can watch you from the citadel but listening to you can be a bit trickier. The further away from the citadel you are the more difficult the task becomes. Our awareness is such that well. I'm sure you remember the now distrusted brother.”

“Yeah. Did you know about him?”

“There was too much going on at the time. We knew that he was an undesirable of course. If he had come to the citadel before I'm not certain we would have tolerated his presence. We weren't aware of his actual treachery though until your own investigation began.”

“What would you have done if we hadn't figured out who it was?”

“Well we were debating if we should kill him ourselves. In the end we resolved that should your investigation fail we would place a few hints to lead you back on the correct path. That said the odds of you figuring out what had happened was actually quite high. We had little fear that you would fail. Our biggest issue of debate is what might be done with the offender.” Naidra stopped for a moment and looked at her work. She had reshaped the large chunk of clay so that it followed the same layout as the now cleansed region and infused certain sections of the clay with different types of energy. This energy would simulate the influence of large numbers of trees or a large body of water whenever it came to the energy that was directed into it. “Dan I am nearly finished with the model. Once I'm done you need to tell me what changes to make to it then I can simulate the natural flow of the forest's energies.”

“Thanks Naidra. Having a model to experiment with should speed up my work a great deal.”

***********************************************************************************

“Allen?” Pera felt more then a little strange as she looked down at her friend. With everything that had been happening and her new responsibilities she'd had less time to spend with him. It didn't help that Allen was much busier with his studies now as well. What surprised her the most though was that had drawn a glyph on the ground and currently there was a small orb of light floating around him. He had a massive smile on his face as the orb of light flicked about. “What's going on?”

“Pera! Isn't it neat!” It was hard for Allen to contain himself as he dashed over to his friend. The fact that sister's tended to disrupt sustained magic affects had completely left his mind. He didn't need the bit of light to last very long anyway.

“Yeah but what is it?”

“It's called dancing lights. Normally a mage cast it but you can do the same thing with the right glyph. It's really easy to make.” As he spoke Allen pointed towards the roughly drawn glyph on the ground. The magic was fairly low level which meant even an apprentice spell caster could do much of the work of casting the spell in their own mind. He didn't feel confident casting it that way but he knew he could handle it with just a rough glyph to help guide the energies.

Allen could cast spells. Her Allen could cast spells. The thought actually made Pera's smile grow all the larger and her heart rate speed up. She only realized what she was doing whenever she'd taken hold of Allen and lifted him so that they were eye level. The feeling of her lips pressing against his cheek sent an even bigger surge of energy through. “So you're a real glyph user now?”

“Yeah! Well sort of. I can do simple ones at the moment. Mom is making me learn defensive glyphs and support glyphs before I learn any of the good stuff. I see where she's coming from though. If I can put up a resist heat shield that can hold off a torch then learning to create a candle light should be no trouble. Oh you wanted to know what dancing lights does? Well it sort of does what it is doing now.”

“So floats around providing light?”

“Yeah I know it's not much but.”

“It's still neat!” As Pera watched the dancing light she could see that it was growing dimmer. “So have you timed how long your light last whenever you're not around a sister?”

“Yeah. I tend to average between twelve and fifteen minutes at the moment.” Allen gave the light a quick look and knew that it hadn't reached the twelve minute mark. Learning to sustain a magic spell in the presence of a sister was going to be difficult. “Julia still helps me out every once in a while and my mom seems to have finally relaxed. I think she even likes the fact that I'm learning protective spells. I just worry how she's going to respond whenever I have to test them in a more serious environment.”

“Oh she won't like that one bit!” As she spoke Pera glanced down at the glyph Allen had created. She didn't bother to set him down but bent at her knees so they were both closer to it. “So have you had to make any glyphs of your own yet?”

“Sort of. I had to figure out how to make a glyph to draw heat out of something but I really can't say that it was my own design. I mean it was already in some of the books I'm studying as a basic glyph. Now here is something I thought was neat. They're these glyphs known as general purpose glyphs. One example given was one that can be used to create nearly any elemental attack spell you can think of. What many people don't understand is that these glyphs put a lot of stress on the caster as the user of the glyph has to handle processing a lot of the magic.”

“So it's like?”

Allen found himself biting down on his lower lip as he tried to think of a none magical comparison. “It's like saying some bore and vegetables is a meal. With most glyphs all the ingredients are already in a pot and the mage just applies the heat or the magic. In the case of these general purpose glyphs though  you have to know what to select and how to combine it in the glyph or what we might call the pot before applying the heat. A general purpose glyph is a big mess of ingredients setting on the table as well as the pot and the energy the glyph user provides is the fire. Now you can't make something that calls for an ingredient you don't have but there is a lot you can make.”

“Did you really have to make that a food comparison?”

Allen actually felt a little awkward as he noted a change in the tone of Pera's voice. She suddenly sounded colder and less excited then she did a moment ago. “Huh?”

“You made me hungry!” A delighted giggle escaped Pera as she held Allen more tightly against her body for a moment. “Would it be alright if I took you to the dining hall to eat some? Your mother isn't going to come back and find you missing then track me down to yank my tail off is she?”

A slight groan escaped Allen as he considered what Pera was asking. Stella would be coming back to check on him before long. It had been quite some time since he'd been to the market though. “My mom should be home pretty soon and then we could tell her where we're going.”

“I swear. Most sisters would just assume another sister had come by and picked you up especially when she didn't smell anything strange and with all the distrusted locked up. I mean don't you think you're getting a little old for her to be watching over you like this.”

A sigh escaped Allen as he shook his head. “Yeah. It has become a little bothersome. I believe she knows but well just look at the way you're holding me.”

Rather then put Allen down Pera glanced towards his home. “How about we just leave your mother a note? That should be fine right?”

“I believe so. I admit I'm curious to see the dining hall. How has the food been lately anyway?”

A low groan escaped Pera despite her best efforts. With so few hunting the food hadn't been what they were used to. With so many brothers leaving in the citadel there had been other problems as well. “Well I'm not going to have you eating kobold. It's been awful! We had some sisters hunting but mostly we've been trying to eat the kobolds before they went bad. Of course, those kobolds left out in the open began to decay months ago but blast it we had some in storage. It was the easiest meat to gather after the conflict after all. We didn't want to add anymore burdens to the forest either.  We finally have some fish from the new shore village coming in though and I'm eager to try some.”

“That sounds great. I believe when we went to the waterfront was the first time I've ever tried salt water fish before. Pera how are the others doing though?I haven't seen you with Terima in a long while.”

“We're all doing fine. There has been a lot of talk about the new techniques Joseph developed with that glyph. We're all pretty nervous about it especially after hearing them talk about how it feels. I mean I heard that even Vera complained about the sensations she experienced while using the glyph for the first few times and she hardly complains about anything.” Pera didn't bother setting Allen down as she carried him into his home. Given that Allen was practicing using glyphs there was paper already readily available. “Okay Allen are any of these glyphs a flop you wouldn't mind me writing on?”

“That one about half a meter away from your foot. I made some big mistakes with the lines.”

“Really? It looks fine to me.” As she spoke Pera picked up the paper. The glyph looked perfectly drawn to her. The lines were nice and clean and clear.

“Some of the lines are way too thick and many are too thin as well. You see that blob near the edge?”

“Uh. No.” Instead of waiting for Allen to point it out Pera lifted it so he could reach the peace of paper. The blob he was speaking on was just a smudge on the outer edge near the center of the glyph where the pin was likely held down too long. “That's it?”

“That can make the difference between a glyph catching on fire and the magic actually working.”

“Catching fire?”

“Well yeah. You're directing energy into the glyph after all. If it isn't shaped correctly it still has to go somewhere. Typically this results in the glyph and the material it was placed on being destroyed. Then my teacher starts telling me how the ink can make a huge difference as well as does the material the glyph is written upon. Typically the more powerful the glyph the more sensitive it is as the magic has to flow just perfectly.”

“But I've seen other brothers just draw them in an instant. They've even drawn them in the dirt!”

“Yeah but they know how to compensate for the glyph's imperfections.”

“I thought you were only working with very robust glyphs at the moment though.” Pera actually found herself feeling a little alarmed though she tried to hide it. She didn't like the idea of Allen working with something that could end up taking his hand off or worse. The idea of him being burned didn't actually make her comfortable. She tried to keep this concern out of her voice. She didn't want to sound like Stella especially with the way the sisters were trying to let the brothers develop their magic more and be more independent. Her protective instincts were still telling her to push the issue if he didn't answer her.

“I am. I was under the influence of a really good protective glyph whenever I was working on that one. Even if something had gone wrong I would have been fine. My mom was pretty much looking in on me every five minutes to make sure I was alright.”

“I see. She can't stand to have you out of her site can she?” Despite her best efforts Pera felt herself grinning. She didn't want to let on to Allen how relieved she was and she didn't want to sound like Stella but she felt better knowing she was watching over him and he was protecting himself. “So what would that glyph have done if it had worked?”

“It's suppose to boost the users physical traits. It'd let them heal a little faster, make them a little stronger and that sort of thing. In any given area the increase would have been pretty small but the overall affect should have been quite nice.” By now Pera had found a pin and began to write on the back of the paper. Allen for his part found it a little strange to place his arm around Pera the same way he had done his mother a few months back. She'd grown a lot since then. She wasn't on par with the current guardians but she was on par with the protectors of only a year ago. When it came to Stella it felt like he had reverted several years in age rather then her growing. At least whenever he compared his size to her. Despite her increase in stature Stella was trying hard to give him more space.

“I guess that minor increase is for protection as well.”

“Yeah. If you boost one aspect of the body it can end up killing the person. Take for example if you strengthen the muscles but not the bones. Someone could easily end up shattering their own bones. The strength increase this glyph would have provided would have been on par with an adrenaline rush and that's pretty much it. A pulled muscle is pretty much the only serious risk even if something goes wrong.”

“Well clearly we need to find something safer for. Hay!” Pera gave her head a light jerk to the side though there was little she could do as Allen flicked her ear. She wasn't willing to set him down and instead began to lightly jerk her head around trying to avoid his fingers. Unfortunately with the way she was holding him there was little chance of that. “Stop that!”

“What where you about to say? Huh?” Allen had a big grin on his face. He knew this wasn't hurting Pera. However, due to how sensitive a sister's ear was they tended to hate it whenever they were flicked. He wasn't sure how it sounded but apparently such actions generated a noise they found rather annoying.

“Okay. I take it back. I take it back!” Pera couldn't help but chuckle whenever Allen stopped flicking her ear. Rather then be content with that though she quickly turned him to the side and lifted him higher extending her tongue and pushing the tip of it strait against his ear. His entire body locked up for a moment and then he gave an annoyed shout before trying to push away from her.

“Hey! Ah quit it!” Allen didn't hold back as he tried to push away from Pera. Unfortunately at the moment there was little that he could do. That didn't mean he considered the contest over with. He'd just have to wait for the right opportunity. Perhaps he could acquire some spices that Pera simply couldn't stand the smell of. At times he thought about carrying such spices around with him but he never got around to it. This was mostly because Pera never annoyed him quite that much. “Don't make me plot my revenge!”

Pera gave a slight giggle as she finally pulled her tongue back inside of her mouth. “I was just cleaning your ear.” As she spoke Pera made a detour into the washroom and retrieved a bit of cloth to clean out Allen's ear. “You have to keep those ears of yours good and clean you know. Besides you taste good. You know if I get any bigger I might end up sucking on you like the sweetness you are.”

“I swear I will cover myself with the most unpleasant oils I can.”

“Ah! But don't you want to be my little sweet heart?” Pera made certain to make herself sound more hurt then she was. She wasn't certain if there was an oil bitter enough to keep herself from licking Allen though especially if she was that large.

“Let's just go eat.”

***********************************************************************************

Dan, Joseph and Ridon found themselves all rather busy reading through various books, writing down notes and waiting for a few experiments to finish. Each one of them was currently in charge of a part of the project. Dan had to make sure the potion could survive within a sister's body. Making sure the various components could hold together despite the harsh conditions of a sister's body was proving quite difficult. Joseph was working on insuring that the potion itself would respond to the amount of mystic energy contained within a sister's body and Ridon was trying to make sure the potion could transfer this information to the sister. Ridon's training in necromancy under Julia actually gave him a slight advantage in designing a system that would let a living being detect changes in energy.

Alaina was keeping an eye on the three of them. She was rather proud of Ridon at the moment as it had been him that suggested working together. Joseph had mentioned his idea to them and the simple truth was that they could finish all three projects quicker by working together rather then separately. He did seem to be having some trouble though as she noticed him rubbing his forehead. He didn't even notice it whenever she came to stand behind him and looked over at his work. Unfortunately Dan's plans to make the potion durable enough to last within a sister's body was hindering certain means of sending information to the drinker. Currently Ridon seemed to be trying to come up with a way to augment a sister's natural awareness of the energies flowing through her body. “What are you looking for?”

“I'm looking for a spell that makes a necromancer more aware of their undead servants and their condition for about a day and a half. Julia showed it to me a while back as something many necromancers cast first thing when they wake up in the morning.”

“Most necromancers? How would she know what most necromancers do?”

For a moment Ridon stopped working and smiled up at Alaina. “Okay well perhaps we don't know what most necromancers do. Still it seems like a good practice if a necromancer actually had undead servants.”

After a few moments of silence Dan placed his book down and looked away from his notes. “Okay I need to rest my head for a little bit. Hey Ridon, Alaina there is something I've been wondering for a while now. Do you two ever go out into the forest? I mean I know it's easy for you to sneak around in the citadel and all but perhaps you'd like to get out every once in a while.” Dan had actually been very surprised whenever he learned that not only was Ridon in on the secret before Julia but he was in a relationship with one of the protectors. He hadn't seen enough of their behavior together to be certain but it seemed clear Alaina gave Ridon more attention then she did anyone else. Dan also found himself thinking about the stories of Ridon receiving unusually nice meals.

“Ridon and I have been outside of the citadel a few times. He was rather insistent that that we go visit some of my favorite locations so he could see them for himself.”

Ridon smiled at Alaina as he set his own notes down. “Unfortunately some of the locations weren't like whenever she painted them. Some of them were clearly different due to the season but others had been changed in more dramatic ways. There was this one tree that had three different types of flowers growing up around it. The way they weaved around the tree in the painting was just beautiful but when we found the spot the tree had fallen over.”

“Likely the flowers had choked off enough of its nutrients and stolen enough light over the years that the tree died.” Alaina gave a slight chuckle whenever Ridon shot her a rather annoyed glance. He didn't like it whenever she talked about the beautiful flowers as if they were the killers of the tree. Yet they both knew that this happened quite often in the forest. Beautiful in such an environment could easily mean deadly.

“It was just as likely the doing of animals roaming throughout the area or a storm miss negative.”

“Even if it was the tree would have been weakened by the flowers making it more vulnerable to those storms or animals. Thus they are still at fault. You are aware that those flowers are parasitic in nature after all.”

“I wasn't until you told me.” Despite his words Ridon was smiling. Ridon had seen the way Alaina and Naidra burst people's bubbles and the way she burst his was just different. She was more light hearted whenever shattering his dreams and beliefs. At times she even built up his beliefs rather then destroying them. As he had come to know her she'd done a lot to build up his belief that he loved her and she loved him. “Come on Joseph put the book down. I've seen you staring at the same symbol for five minutes now.”

A groan escaped Joseph as he did as Ridon said and rubbed his head. “This is such a head ache. Dan I have some ideas as to how we could make the potion more responsive to smaller amount of energies within the sister's body but it's going to require some reworking of its durability aspects.”

“Okay but keep in mind that if you try to change the structure of the water elements or the resistance to chemical solvents the entire chain holding the solution together within the sister's body will have to be redone resulting in more changes.”

“I know and these should avoid doing that but other things will have to change.” Joseph took a moment to look away from his notes and take in a deep breath. Despite the difficulties they were having it was amazing how much progress they were making working together. “So Dan how are things going with Mina now that she's began training with Naidra? I imagine this is the first time in a long time she's been fighting with someone that she could actually hit back and not worry about killing.”

“She's loving it. I think she even enjoys the pain but I believe that's going to wear thin before long. She's determined to spend as much time training with Naidra as she can to sharpen her skills. The big issue is that she's already taller then Naidra. She's worried about how much longer she's going to be able to fit in the citadel given the results your glyph has been showing.” All three of the men went silent as they heard Alaina chuckling. When they looked towards her she gave them a large smile.

“You do not need to fear that. If need be we can continue your lessons outside of the forest along the waterfront perhaps.”

Dan, “You mean you're not worried about Mina becoming too strong?” Dan actually felt a bit silly whenever he noticed Alaina's smile.

“Allow me to explain. Much like the sisters we aren't capable of sustaining our own bodies with our current abilities. Though we hope to fix that by making use of the techniques you've developed Joseph. Unlike the sisters we have our original power source. Now our power source was always weaker then the one provided to the sisters. However, there has always been many more sisters then us. While the production type faelom numbered in the hundreds and stood dozens of meters tall we only numbered in the dozens and stand barely over four meters tall.” As she spoke Alaina pushed her body to use more energy. Her cells were made to call upon more energy, her muscles tightened and swelled and her senses sharpened.

A ripple affect seemed to flow through the room. It was as if they were standing near one of the primary paths from which energy in the life bloom chamber flowered. It was the result of the citadel directing energy into Alaina. They could feel it. Ridon couldn't help but ask. “So how powerful are you Alaina?”

“You could compare anyone of us to a sleeper whenever we are fighting at peak potential which we do not stay at.” As she spoke Alaina stopped drawing on so much energy and allowed her body to relax.  “The difference being that I'm a much smaller package and I have other protectors to spar with to develop my abilities. You can let Mina know she doesn't have to worry about losing her sparring partner anytime soon even if the location has to change. Though I admit there is no way we'd spar with her in the forest even now. The damage to the vegetation and terrain would not be acceptable.”

Joseph, “Alaina just what are your limits then? How far can you travel?”

“We suffer a signal degradation the further we move from the citadel. In general once we're eight kilometers past the forest edge you can consider us cut off from our source and going on what we can store in our bodies which is not much. If we conserve our energy I would say we have roughly forty five minutes of active time beyond the effective range of our energy source before we'd collapse and well die. Not that our bodies would be destroyed they could easily be recovered and taken back to the citadel but the being within this shell would be gone.”

Joseph, “Hm. So you can visit the waterfront then. Have any of you gone to take a look at Zarena's home? Actually I wonder if you could lend her a hand if you have so much energy to spare.”

“One of us might be able to. I understand she has had some issue with the ocean trying to reclaim the land she's building up. Such a hand made island will always require maintenance but we should be able to make it easier on her.”

***********************************************************************************

Maria had a large grin on her face as she leaned against the back of her chair. Joseph was currently laying on top of her legs which his head pressed against her stomach just above her crotch looking up towards her face. At least he would be looking up towards her face if his eyes weren't closed. She didn't mind as she placed her hand on his stomach. “So your potion to help us better learn to channel mystic energies is coming along nicely then?”

“I don't know if I would call it nicely.” For a moment Joseph went silent and shifted to his side so he could lightly rub his head against Maria's stomach. After the day he'd had his head was positively throbbing and he had no desire to open his eyes. The feeling of his cheek running against her stomach helped him to relax and stimulated him a bit especially when he considered where he was. His head hurt a little bit less as he settled back down against her thighs. “Alaina was nice enough to let us know when something wouldn't work most of the time. That would last for fifteen seconds or that would last for thirty seven seconds. I heard quite a bit of that.”

“Hey if you're making it that far it means you're doing better. What is your target goal anyway?” Reaching down Maria rolled up Joseph's shirt slightly and slipped her hand underneath it. She gave him a light squeeze whenever he opened up his eyes and looked around the curve of her breasts to see her smiling face.

“We need it to last at least fifteen minutes to be worth anything. Dan came up with a good idea. He thinks we might be able to trick your bodies into not immediately processing the potion or not processing it as aggressively as it would normally.”

“Did Alaina have anything to say about that?”

“No. Then again she tends to let us try for a bit before she tells us the path we're on isn't going to work. I believe the best thing we can do is attack the problem from both sides. So how about you Maria? Has anything happened to you today?”

“I saw Pera with Allen in the dining hall.”

“I thought you were taking your dinners in the citadel.”

“I tend to alternate. There are still a lot of sisters that eat at the dining hall and we like to talk every once in a while. Though the main topic we talk about is how much we dislike so many of the brothers now eating in the citadel rather then eating with us.” Maria gave a slight chuckle and Joseph a pat on the stomach. “I'm glad that I already have you or it would have been a problem for me as well. There was some talk about going to eat with the brothers but then again the Luvarian dining area really wasn't made for us.”

“Yeah but if they want the brothers to come back they just need to let them know. I'm sure every brother who doesn't currently have a mate would be glad to unless they're too busy.”

“You're probably right. I believe the reason most brothers are eating in the citadel still is they're so busy. Hey have you heard anything about finding a way for Zarena to better hunt for sunken ships? Every time I've gone to speak with her she's brought it up.”

“I know they're tinkering with it.” Before continuing Joseph opened his eyes and began to set up though still leaning against Maria's body. Once he'd raised himself up enough he reached up and pressed on the underside of Maria's breasts. He was immediately surprised by their weight and gave a slight groan as he continued to press up against their mass. He felt it whenever Maria giggled.

“What are you doing!”

“Well I was just thinking. As your size has gone up so has the mass of your breasts but the mass has increased quicker then the cross sectional area. So they should be becoming less and less perky. I haven't seen your breast sagging in the least and was wondering how much they weighed. Now you remember how you used to wrest your breast on my head before?”

“Of course!”

“Yeah I don't think you should do that now. At least you shouldn't wrest their full mass.”

“Why you! Are you saying that my breast are fat?”

Instead of responding right away Joseph once again pressed up against the underside of Maria's breast. The feeling had changed. Her breasts still felt soft and very pleasing to the touch but there wasn't as much natural give as their had been as he increased the force with which he pressed. The more he pressed against them the less give there was. “I wouldn't call them fat they feel quite fit to me. There still is a lot more mass there.”

“Well that sure didn't stop you from snuggling your head against them earlier.”

“Of course not! If anything this just means there is more to enjoy.”  As he spoke Joseph slipped his hands between Maria's breasts intending to part them a bit. He wasn't too surprised whenever they suddenly pushed in together trapping his hands instead. Rather then focus on her breast though Joseph quickly glanced to the side where he noted Maria's hands were wresting. She wasn't using her arms to squeeze her breast together.

“Aren't you worried that they might be more then you can handle?” As Maria spoke she once again placed her right hand against Joseph's stomach while looking down at her breasts. Compared to her they hadn't grown at all but whenever she compared them to other things especially Joseph it became clear how much they had increased in size. At this point she was wondering if she would ever be large enough to carry Joseph nestled between them.

“I've done a fine job so far. Besides with these ladies I've learned it's not the size but how they're treated.” Rather then relying on his legs to raise himself up Joseph found himself relying on his arms. It took more effort then he expected but as he lifted himself close enough his head tilted backwards and he gave the underside of Maria's breast each a kiss. The feeling of their softness against his lips seemed to recharge him. “You know I believe this could be worked into an exercise routine. It might be a bit rough on my arms though.”

After a moment of consideration Maria relaxed the hold her breast had on Joseph's arms and let him set back down. She could see where squeezing a brother's arms hard enough to hold him up could be a bit painful. If nothing else she ran the chance of rubbing his arms raw. “We might have to try that later or perhaps some variation on it at least. Maybe after you've had one of those potions of yours to toughen you up.”  Joseph didn't answer but gave a slight sigh as he once again settled down atop her legs. Despite his playful tone it was fairly clear he was still tired.

***********************************************************************************

Zarena felt like her face might split in half as she made it back to the shoreline. It had been a very difficult trip as she had to avoid ripping her treasure apart. She didn't particularly care about the ship itself but it was the best way to move all the goods back to the main land. As she saw the village she couldn't help but call out. “Kersara, Kelah everyone I believe I finally had some good luck out there.” With the water now only up to her shoulder Zarena lifted the ship so that it was slightly above eye level. The task required both hands as well as Zarena's tail to keep it from falling apart and back into the ocean. Even from this distance she could see Kersara looking in her direction and noted Kelah a ways away in a much smaller ship.

Kelah had been spending time with Zarena. She and the other shaman had been helping to negotiate with the spirits of the earth to make Zarena's island stronger. The spirits of the water were by no means willing to negotiate the issue after all. She also spent enough time around the beast girls that she knew they were in search of certain metals. These were metals the orcs didn't have much of themselves so there was little they could do to help. The two groups had been getting along together quite well though and Kelah currently saw little difference between a beast girl and one of her orcs in the sea side village. It didn't seem they saw much of a difference either. There was of course some problems.

Willow, “Hey Kelah how about we go back and see what all Zarena brought in.”

“No. Keep paddling we have more fishing to do.” As she spoke Kelah looked over her shoulder at the beast girl. Willow had been assigned by Kersara to push her little boat around. It wasn't that Kelah and the other orcs in it couldn't paddle but apparently Willow hadn't been training as much as Kersara would have liked so she had been assigned to serve as propulsion for the boats. It seemed a little easy to Kelah given that she could just use the boat to support her weight and kick to propel it forward  but Kelah wasn't going to argue with Kersara's training methods. They tended to work quite well.

“Oh come on!”

“If you wish to swim back to the shore and speak to Kersara about it that is your voice. We still have fish to bring in.”

Kersara had already made her way to the shore. She was tempted to leap into the water to go meet Zarena but swimming around Zarena when she actually wanted to move could be a bit dangerous. “What kind of ship is it?”

“I have no idea!” A slight chuckle escaped Zarena as she came closer. She'd been careful to gather the ship up but that meant she couldn't look inside of it. As she neared the shore she was tempted to simply drop it on the ground and let it shatter to see what was inside. However, while her main goal was the recovery of metals she knew there might be other items of value inside of it.

Kersara gave her head a slight nod and began to wave those close sisters over. It seemed the orcs were watching as well but knew to keep their distance. It wasn't that Zarena meant them harm. They felt safe around her at this point. She could smell that much and see it in the way they walked. They just knew whenever she came onto land carrying something there was always some risk involved for those who got too close. Not every orc was capable of handling those risk while the faelom were. “Well hurry up. We all want to see what you're carrying.”

“I'm trying don't rush me. This old boat is just about to fall apart.” A lot of the wood on the boat had been stripped away by various types of sea life and the currents. With each step Zarena felt like one of her hands might press through the ship and shatter it. This close to land they would likely be able to collect some of the materials but it would still be a lot easier if this happened on land. The sound of creaking and yielding wood had been threatening the ship's break up any moment from nearly the moment she picked it up and began moving. With the water only up to her knees now Zarena was seriously considering tossing the ship onto the land rather then risk a break up. When the water was only half way up to her knee she felt a good bit better.

By now several sisters had joined Kersara and began to talk amongst themselves. They typically didn't have much use for such things but the brothers did. A few commented on actually wanting to wear a golden necklace or ring if there was enough. Kersara had little hope for that given that they didn't even know what was inside of the ship. Plus that seemed to be the type of thing an abandoning crew would have taken with them if they were capable of doing so. “Okay now that you have it out of the water do you have any idea of what kind of ship it is? I mean are we dealing with a merchant, military or or treasure ship?”

“Hey! You're the one that spends most of her time on the waterfront. Shouldn't you be able to tell me what kind of ship it is?”

“I only go so far out to sea and I haven't seen that make before. It's a bit longer and thinner then what I've seen before.” As she spoke Kersara took in a deep breath of air. She had learned to recognize some ships by their smell due to the type of trees used in their marking. Even the decaying wood should have given her some idea of the ships nature but she couldn't recognize it. Whether this was due to the influence of years under the ocean or if the ship had come from a region she'd never smelt before she couldn't be certain. Even among ships she tended to only be able to associate certain scents with certain flags. The only other source of information was sailors she found along the shore.

Despite being closer to her goal Zarena froze up as a particularly loud snap hit her ears. The ship seemed to shiver in her hands and she bit down on her lower lip. She felt more then a little silly but she actually found herself bending at the knees and walking in a crouched position. The fact that she was eager to set the ship down was plainly obvious. “Please hold together. Please hold.” The feeling of the water only at ankle depth helped to relax Zarena but there was no way she was going to stand back up. A sigh of relief actually escaped her whenever she felt the sand of the beach against her knuckles and began to settle the ship down.

“Yay you made it!” Kersara couldn't help but giggle as Zarena shot her a rather annoyed look. Apparently she was feeling rather stressed out at the moment. “So are you going to need any help examining the ship?”

“Not yet. I want to be careful while I'm peeling it.”

Kersara wasn't entirely certain what Zarena meant as she settled the ship down. The sound of the wood groaning as Zarena moved her tail and hands to allow it to redistribute its weight filled the air for a moment and she fully expected the ship to simply fall to bits. The sound of wood being cleanly cut through actually surprised her and Kersara looked up to see Zarena had cut the ships mast away and was now carefully placing it on the ground a short distance away. The sound of Zarena's massive claws cutting into the wooden structure was surprisingly quiet leaving no doubt in Kersara's mind about how sharp they were. “Are you going to break it down completely?”

“Yes. There is no way this ship can stand any of you climbing throughout it. So instead of having it fall to bits and damage what is inside I'm just going to cut it into sections.” Zarena didn't stop working as she spoke. Given the ship's condition and the sounds it was making it could fall apart at any moment. She needed to remove as much of the structure as she could without damaging its supports just so it could hold itself together. Removing the top mast was a good move but there was still much to be done. Her hand easily glided along the edges as she removed the railing and took off the captains will.

The way Zarena worked the ship actually surprised Kersara. It reminded her of another sister breaking down a kill. In some ways she supposed the ship was a kill. Zarena had put enough time and energy into hunting for it that it could most assuredly count as a kill. Now they would have to wait to see what was inside of it. She was a bit surprised whenever Zarena placed an old rusted iron ax on the sand in front of her. “Hey Zarena should we clean those up or do you think the brothers could use the rust.”

“I know they're some spells and alchemical potions that require different types of rust. Just leave it on the weapon.” It was fortunate that they didn't want these items for anything more then their raw materials. Considering their condition if the brothers had intended to use them they would have needed a lot of repair work and some of them might not have been salvageable at all.

***********************************************************************************

“Good evening.”

Zarena felt her heart rate speeding up as she looked at the tiny figure before her. The being was far larger then a brother though smaller then a matron. Yet she gave off an aura of power that far surpassed anything Zarena had seen in a very long time. Unfortunately Zarena wasn't certain how to address the figure though she imagined this was meant to be a discrete meeting. She tried to keep her voice low. “Good evening to you as well. By chance could I get your name?”

“What? She didn't even name us? Well that's just being sloppy. My name is Naidra. Maria informed you of us.”

Zarena gave her head a slight nod as she raised up a bit. It was a moonless night so the fires from the sea front village could be seen easily. “I see. What brings you here?”

“A few things. Nathan asked that I come and speak with you after being introduced to me. Plus we have so far had a one on one talk with every faelom that had been told about us except you. It seemed like a good time. I also thought I would like to come out to see this new site. It is quite lovely tonight and I thought I might take some time to paint it while we spoke.”

It actually surprised Zarena to see that Naidra was holding a canvas. Rather then commenting right away she looked towards the village. “It is a nice site. It feels kind of awkward that we never thought to take food from the sea before. Then again we're not exactly very well equipped for swimming.” The statement felt kind of odd. This was a protector and she was visiting her. Shouldn't she be asking something more important? Yet Zarena couldn't help but remember seeing the protectors in the citadel. She had always felt oddly comfortable around them especially considering how they treated her brother. Part of her wondered how Naidra truly preferred to be treated and if asking about such things would make her uncomfortable.

“To be fair. You were designed so that the forest would be your world. I personally am surprised that you've never tried to expand the reaches of the forest without the Luvarians to guide you. That probably is due to our built in protective nature and our relative difficulty with reproduction. Do you know that our population was planned for several centuries by the Luvarians? Due to the low birth rate everything pretty much depended on how many sisters were made in the beginning. It was that number that helped determine how powerful each sister would need to be in theory.”

“So you're saying they could have made us more powerful.”

“Well yes they could have but that would have lowered your birth rate and number even more. A construct body like yours requires a certain spirit to handle it after all.” By now Naidra had set down and placed her canvas on its stand. Rather then using paint though she began to alter the chemical structure of the canvas using a bit of her magic. The feeling of the thinned connection with the citadel was a bit off putting but it was strong enough to comfortably sustain her or allow for mid level combat without dipping into her energy reserves.

After a moment of consideration Zarena gave a slight nod. They all knew that the reason they had such issue with magic was because their body devoured the energy so quickly. Joseph's training had proven that much. “Naidra I hope you don't mind me asking but did you know my mother?”

“Elly.” A slight chuckle escaped Naidra as she glanced back at Zarena who looked a bit surprised. “Yes I knew her better then you might imagine. You see for a time I was Elly.”

“Huh?”

“Zarena among the production faelom there is this notion that we protectors are immortal. It isn't true. Firstly with enough power our bodies can be destroyed. We were made after all we can be unmade. Going beyond that though we aren't the same spirit each time. When one of our spirits become too fatigued to continue living it leaves the body or it dies you might say. The body goes still and we have to wait until a new spirit takes it over. After you became a sleeper your mother was so concerned about you she couldn't just move on so when her body died she took this body. She watched over your brother until the day of his death and a little while after and you for several centuries. This body only came to me in the last three hundred years.”

Zarena froze up for a moment. Her mother had been watching over her? The notion actually made her more then a little dizzy. “So. So mom was there watching over me?”

“In a sense. You see we don't retain the memories from the previous lives of the spirit. Rather she had all the memories of the Naidra's that came before her. She also had a very powerful spiritual connection to you and it didn't take much to figure out what spirit she was. She also knew much of your mother's life and much of yours.”

It actually felt like Zarena had became a bit lighter as she felt her heart rate speed up. Mother watched over me. Flashed through Zarena's mind and made her smile. “So Naidra does that mean you were sneaking around watching me while I slept?”

For a moment warmth seemed to radiate out from Naidra's chest, into her limbs and to fill her head. She gave a slight chuckle before turning to look at Zarena. “Constantly! While I was watching you I developed some strong emotional attachments that were only strengthened during the brief times you were awake. By the time your mother was done using this body I had developed so many fond memories of you that even now I still have fond feelings towards you. It didn't hurt that you held such strong feelings towards us.”

Zarena continued to smile as she nodded her head. “Naidra you mentioned that you watched my brother. What about this book he left me?”

“What do you want to know about it?”

“Is he hiding anything from me?”

“Your brother! No! Your brother had way too much honesty in him to lie to you. Especially whenever he was certain you'd be reading his writing decades or hundreds of years later. Your brothers concern for what others thought of him after his death was so utterly insignificant that it might as well be laughable. He did worry about how well you would sleep and wanted to insure that you never felt alone though. In many ways that book was the best he believed that he could do.”

After a moment of silence Zarena gave a slight nod. Yet at the same time curiosity was building within her. “Naidra my brother was a very gifted and devoted magic user. I haven't mentioned it to anyone but some of the things they contribute to the Luvarians I recognize as his work. However, every now and then I'll happen across something in his book that leaves me to think he had some secret project he was working on.”

“Your brother was allowed entry into the citadel.”

For a moment Zarena froze up as she let those words sink in. “You mean like Joseph?”

“No. Your brother made it further then Joseph has so far.”

Happiness joined the other emotions surging through Zarena's mind and body as she smiled at Naidra. “So he was working on some special project. Was he able to finish it? Why didn't he tell the other brothers? Did he know you had the spirit of our mother?”

“Your brother had his own goals Zarena. They were things that he believed were for the best and if he told the others they would hinder him from his efforts. I truly believe he was right and no. I didn't tell him that his mother and I had the same spirit for the time being. Your brother didn't believe that saving you from your hunger could be found in developing new energy systems you see. He believed that it lay in your own ability to adapt and change yourselves. He wanted to expand upon your body's ability to adapt so that you could change into something with the same potential as you currently have if not greater but free from such hunger.”

For a moment Zarena's mind seemed to stop working. She took in a deep breath and put a hand against her forehead as if trying to hold herself up. Her brother had intended to make it so their ability to adapt could respond without the need for sleep. There was one question she had to ask though. “How close did he get?”

“If your brother would have just extended his life span. If he would have bought himself an additional one hundred or two hundred years he would have completed the work I'm certain of it. You see your brother was well on his way to solving the problem but he found an additional problem. In order for his method to function you would have to have an overwhelming amount of energy. He concluded and quite accurately that for his method to work even if it was completed the original system would have to be repaired.” Naidra felt a little pain in her throat and couldn't help it leaking into her voice. “He couldn't keep going though he was tired on so many levels. In the event that this power source is ever found though he asked us to make his research known openly.”

“Then the life bloom?”

“Even if you weren't making use of the system it isn't enough. For this to work sating your hunger wouldn't be enough. You must not only have enough energy to fulfill all your needs but you must also have enough energy to sustain the change. The only time that this is possible is whenever you're sleeping so that your body is shrinking in size. In that moment the amount of energy contained within your body is great enough to maintain the process. It doesn't hurt that at that moment your body is far more malleable then any other time. Unfortunately your brother's solution can't work while your body is in a state of degradation.”

“So he didn't come up with a cure. He just came up with a way to make us stronger whenever a cure was found. That is what killed him.”

After a moment of silence Naidra gave a nod. She didn't have the feelings of a mother for Azon but she did have an intense feeling of caring for him. It was something she would have compared to an older sister's feelings for a younger brother. “It is possible. Now Dan is trying to solve the problem that Azon once worked on.”

“Have you told Dan this?”

“No. He hasn't really had time to work on it of course. I'm hopeful that he'll recognize Azon's name whenever he starts searching for the right book.”

“He wrote a book?”

“He wrote books.” Naidra gave an amused laugh as she looked at the shocked look on Zarena's face. “Your brother was a full Luvarian Zarena he would have outranked Joseph even now if he was still alive.”

“So the only thing that makes Joseph's work special is he sought to give us tools to fix our own problems on an individual level while all the others sought to fix them for us?”

“That's right. So many have tried to feed but he is the first that has had both the ability, timing and direction to teach you to feed yourselves.” Naidra didn't consider Joseph a unique genius or some exceptional anomaly. Rather he was a very rare occurrence that had come along at the right time to combine with several other rare occurrences in order to produce an anomaly.

After a moment of silence Zarena gave her head a slight nod. Her smile hadn't gone away though as she considered what she'd been told. Her brother had written books. The books were in the citadel and accepted as Luvarian tombs. He had nearly found a way to heal the sisters of their hunger. Even if the method couldn't be used right now or fully understood. “So are you going to show Dan Azon's work whenever he can focus on it?”

“After he's learned a bit. Your brother's final work is tricky to introduce to people.”

There was a slight change in Naidra's tone. It felt to Zarena that she had to really think about that last statement. “Naidra is my brother's final work a spell?”

“You could call his final work a spell but his final work is more then that. Azon's final work was more related to alchemy as the type of magic he used is very hard to contain without some kind of physical form. Plus giving his final work physical form makes understanding the work easier.” Naidra had to close her eyes for a moment and think about what she was saying. She didn't want to give too much information about Azon's final work. “If I was to show your brother's final work to Dan now he wouldn't understand the work. He would want to associate thoughts and beliefs that just don't hold true.”

For a moment Zarena went silent and then gave a slight giggle. “Naidra you're making it sound like my brother broke some kind of magical law or violated the laws of nature or.” For a moment Zarena felt her head grow heavy though her smile didn't vanish. She couldn't help but lower it a bit though. “He did.”

“No more then other high ranking Luvarians.”

“Did he do more to ignore the natural order then the Luvarians did when they made us?”

“A little bit I suppose. I was quite proud of him.”

A sigh escaped Zarena as she shook her head. “May I see my brother's final work then?”

“Well that depends partly on the work.”

***********************************************************************************

Naidra, “Very good Maria. You've improved your flow a great deal and your ability to maintain your composure while within the glyph has progressed nicely. Vera you're relying on your strength too much in order to fight Maria.”

Vera felt like she'd had her tailed yanked whenever Naidra criticized her. It was true she was taking advantage of the fact that she was stronger then Maria to gain the upper hand but it wasn't the only thing she was using. If she used strength alone she would be losing badly. “What should I do then Naidra?”

“You must learn to better use your superior control and flow with Maria's attacks to create an opening. The proper skills will allow you to overcome an opponent that is both faster and stronger then you. Would you like me to demonstrate?”

It was kind of painful for Vera to hear this. Even among those sisters trained in combat she was one of if not the best. Now Naidra was saying that her skill was lacking. The fact that she needed a calming breath made her feel even more like a student again. How prideful had she become that simple correction or instruction required her to calm herself?  “I believe that would be good for me.”

“I do not like this. I do not like this. I do not like this!” Flashed through Mina's mind as she looked at Flora. Currently she was suppose to be sparring with Flora. She had to land twelve hits on her friend or render her unable to fight while Flora was simply working on her aggression. She had to attack Mina as if she intended to kill her. This meant several cheap shots more then a few of witch had been for her eyes. Mina hadn't been harmed by any of them but she was having trouble hitting her friend. Naidra had also been teaching her control and today it was time she practiced it a bit. The feeling of Flora's feather light hits wasn't helping Mina's situation though as every fiber of her being said to just wait and let Flora punch until she became tired then restrain her without anyone being harmed.

Flora, “Come now Mina. You've hit me twice. If you don't fight back then we're going to be here all day.” Flora didn't even have to stop speaking as she evaded Mina's fist. Between the slow speed and the obvious move it was easy to do. It was clear even whenever Mina attacked her she was fighting it on some level. Despite Naidra promising them both that she wouldn't be killed Mina was having trouble. Naidra had even offered to heal any serious injuries in the event the worse came to worse. Flora wasn't so certain if Naidra was confident she'd survive due to Mina and her training or if it was due to her ability to heal them should she be critically injured.

“I don't like this Flora. Can't I fight Vera instead?”

“Ah you mean you want to spend time with Vera more then you want to spend time with me?” Flora made her voice sound far more hurt then she felt. In truth she understood Mina's concern and was grateful for it. Yet Mina had to learn to hit others. There would come a time whenever she would need to end a fight quickly and couldn't wait for another sister to exhaust herself. She could also only hold onto so many sister's at once. Pain shot through Flora's hand as she landed an extremely powerful blow to Mina's stomach. The frighteningly solid muscles didn't even seem to notice the impact but Flora's hand did. “Ouch. Naidra does it count as a hit if I hurt myself on Mina?”

“No. A counter active force does not count as being hit during this lesson.”

“Ouch!” Flora was rather surprised whenever she felt a light jab to her right arm. The impact wasn't particularly powerful but it had caught her off guard. Before she knew what was happening Flora actually found herself giggling as she looked at a rather surprised Mina. “You sucker punched me!”

“It was the only way I could get you to hold still long enough for me to hit you without hurting you! You're very dodgy.” Mina didn't mind that she received a bonk on the nose from Flora the moment she was done speaking. The impact didn't hurt and she hoped that Flora hadn't hurt her hand again. That was three punches. She had nine more to land before Naidra was going to let them stop. A long sigh escaped Mina as she tried to hit Flora again.

Naidra, “If you think this is bad Mina just wait until we start counting Flora's punches as life ending. Okay Vera whenever you're ready feel free to attack. I promise I'll be using both inferior speed and strength to your own.”

Mina, “How is that going to work?”

Naidra couldn't afford to risk looking at Mina now. While restricting so much of her strength she did need to focus on Vera. “I believe that every time you get hit you'll have to eat a special pepper slowly. That should provide.” Naidra went quiet as Vera moved towards her. Vera's right hand reached out however it was clear to Naidra that it was a faint. It wasn't a bad faint but she hadn't refined it enough to fool Naidra. It was easy to avoid and as Vera's leg struck out Naidra caught it and pulled with all the strength she was allowed to use. Between the force of Vera's own kick and the added strength it was easy to take Vera's leg out from under her and send her flying. Yet Naidra didn't stay still as she watched Vera twisting in the air.

Gracefully was how Vera would have described Naidra's throw. It wasn't enough though as due to the strength, agility and speed of the sisters Vera easily twisted in the air. Just as she thought she had regained control of herself she felt a very light pressure on her leg and then a very hard impact to her face. All thoughts of controlling her landing left her mind though muscle memory did insure that she came to a rolling stop on the ground and quickly righted herself. The moment she looked upon Naidra she realized what had happened. Naidra had tapped her leg just slightly to disrupt her motion and then kicked her in the face. If it hadn't been for the split second disturbance she would have been able to move with the kick far more easily. As things were Vera's face was hurting quite a bit.

Maria, “How did you do that! You were moving so slowly.” Maria was at Naidra's side nearly the moment her foot had met with Vera's face. It had been so easy to track Naidra's moves and yet she had been able to see what the end result would be. From Maria's perspective it looked like Naidra was actually controlling Vera's actions. Vera hadn't tried to kick Naidra but rather she had been lending Naidra some of her momentum. Maria knew that wasn't the case but it was hard to believe that it wasn't as she reviewed what she'd just seen .

“I read Vera's movements just the same as she should be able to read your movements. Well for a time. In truth you're going to hold onto your speed advantage far longer then Vera is going to be able to hold onto her combat experience advantage.”

Maria, “Ha! Did you hear that Vera? I bet before long I'm going to be able to kick your tail.”

It was hard for Vera to believe that had just happened. At no point had she seen Naidra using more speed then her but she hadn't seen a lot of what Naidra did either. “That was very impressive Naidra. I believe I'd like to learn how to fight like that. Is that a technique the sisters developed?”

“Sort of but not entirely. I'm sure you know that they're some people who are naturally resistant to magic. That technique actually rest with them. As being resistant to magic wasn't enough some of them developed a style of fighting meant to kill magic users. It's mostly stealth fighting as you might imagine. If you're resistant to magic you're also hard to detect with it so your primary method of killing a magic user is sneaking up on them. However, they also prepared for when they weren't able to sneak up on their target as best they could. The entire fighting style assumed that whatever they were fighting would be stronger, faster and more durable then they were.”

Vera, “So it was built mostly around the notion of using the enemies strength and speed against them.”

“Yes but they're limits of course. If someone can reach out, strike you and pull their arm back before you have time to twitch it's clearly not going to work.”

To this Vera gave a nod. Maria was actually fairly close to that point. If she would truly trained her body for speed she might even reach it. “I can see why that would be taught to beings who can't use magic to really cast spells. Except you can cast spells so why did you learn it?”

“Well when you don't die of old age you tend to plan ahead. What would happen if I had to dedicate all my magic to sustaining a spell while still fighting someone? I don't plan on teaching you the original technique it's far too defensive for my liking. That is just the origin. The Luvarians refined it and found ways to beat it as well. The resistant people were typically the type you hired to kill mages. It was only by capturing them that the Luvarians were able to learn the technique.”

Maria, “How? I mean if they're immune to magic you couldn't exactly force them to talk.”

“Various methods. Money in some cases, blackmail, torture they're a lot of ways to get people to do what you want that don't involve magic.” As she finished speaking Naidra stepped back and caught Vera's wrist. Instead of throwing her though she pulled her forward and into her elbow. The sound of the impact let everyone know that Vera had just had the wind knocked out of her. “Very good Vera!”

***********************************************************************************

Dan had to resist the urge to hold his breath as he watched the solution. They'd just placed their mystic sensitivity potion within a test beaker pull of solvents meant to simulate being within a sister's body. A tiny crystal beneath the beaker was radiating a small amount of mystic energy for it to respond to. He was mostly hoping that the potion wouldn't break down too quickly. It seemed all three of the men were hoping for the same thing as they watched it. Part of him wanted to say that it seemed to be doing well but he didn't dare let those words escape his lips. He didn't want to risk something going horribly wrong the moment he'd spoken. Given that this was their thirty fifth attempt to get the potion right he was quite worried. “So what are we going to work on next?”

Ridon, “I thought we were going to work on redesigning that section of damaged forest?”

Dan, “Huh? I was thinking that we would try making your artificial amalgam. The joining of spiritual elements like that would likely help in the development of the forest design.”

“Yeah but I was thinking the same thing about working on the forest and guiding the flow of natural energies.”

“True. But your project is the one with the deadline. If we take too much time well one of the other brothers will finish their work first.”

“That's fine with me. Perhaps we should share my progress at the next meeting.”

After a moment of silence Ridon gave a slight shrug. He was hoping to help Dan out a bit but had to remind himself that Dan typically didn't mind to share his work as long as he received fair credit. “Do either of you know what Nathan and Mirin have been up to since they were introduced to the protectors?”

Alaina, “Mirin has been quite focused on energy systems and how they might be improved. He wants to finish work on the life blooms system. Well he wants to improve upon it. Nathan for his part is studying the concept of creating living mystic fountains like the life bloom. After we explained to him the failure of the original system he has convinced himself that the failing actually came from using a static focus and a plant could grow into the roll. If nothing else I believe he will find a way to improve upon the life bloom but his goals are.” For a moment Alaina went silent and tapped her forehead. “Very far away.”

All three men turned to look at Alaina. It seemed rather strange how comfortable she appeared as if she had been in the room the entire time. Ridon smiled at her just the same. “Well what do you think of our work? Impressive isn't it?”

“I believe it's going to hold. That said you do realize you've also taken steps to developing a poison that could harm the sisters. Not that no such poison exist.” As she spoke Alaina walked over to the beaker and took a closer look. “We have some very deadly samples of gorgon vemon and dragons venom stored here that would be quite dangerous even to a faelom.”

Joseph, “How easy do you believe it would be to turn into a weapon?”

Now Alaina gave the three a large smile. “It wouldn't be easy at all.” The potion that Joseph, Ridon and Dan had made would do a very good job of surviving within a sister's body. However, it's influence was by design meant to be very minor. To turn it into a toxin it would have to be made stronger but that would reduce its durability. “Whenever I said you've taken steps I meant on a road that was many kilometers long. The fact that you've built it to break down harmlessly within a sister's system insures that. Now did you stop to consider what this would do to a human?”

Dan couldn't help but feel a little concerned as he looked at the potion. “It wouldn't break down in one of our bodies like it would do a sisters. Actually it could cause a lot of damage and it would need to be removed. Not that I'm really worried about that one. It isn't the first potion I've made that's deadly to humans if used improperly.”

Joseph, “True. Is there some concern we're not considering Alaina?”

“Just don't dispose of this in any water source short of the ocean and I don't recommend doing that. I don't believe you appreciate how toxic this would be to less durable forms of life.”

Ridon, “But you knew it would be toxic.”

To this Alaina gave a quick nod. “Yes. Anything that's durable to survive in a sister's body like this is going to be rather rough on more delicate systems. I'm sure you three know this but I just worry that someone who's less competent then you would come along and think. Hey a potion to boost my mystic awareness I bet this would really help in spell casting.”

Ridon couldn't help but grin as he noted the change in Alaina's voice. She didn't sound like a sister in that moment but rather like a young mage. “Okay that has happened before right?”

“More then once. You have a powerful fire mage. He makes a potion to amplify his abilities for short time periods. Well someone without his skill takes the potion and they burn themselves to death because they can't control the magic. I know the three of you are smart but please be careful with labeling this. I have seen so many people injured or killed because a master believed something was common sense that it's just well quite astounding.”