Ridon, “We'll make sure to do that. So Alaina what project do you believe we should work on next?”

Alian was actually rather bias towards Ridon's question. She wanted him to work on his own creation to help him advance as a Luvarian. She wanted to see him not as an apprentice that had been allowed in but as a full Luvarian that had been welcomed in. There wasn't much to consider to contradict her desires either. Both of the projects could be considered rather important. Though Ridon hadn't considered it his work might benefit the forest society as much as Dan's current project. There was a bit of a rush of information and she had an answer. “I would delegate Dan's work to those doing less important work then your own and Dan you should refocus on your work with the faelom.”

Now Dan was rather surprised. He had made some progress he was happy with but he didn't expect to be told to hand the project over. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. In this case though you should bring in some of the orcs. We could use more apprentices that have experience dealing with the spirits.”

Joseph, “Alaina are you saying make an orc an apprentice?”

Alaina gave a slight shrug. “It would hardly be the first time such a thing had happened. The Luvarians were hardly all humans.”

Joseph, “Yes but didn't the Luvarians use orcs for sentient research material?”

“They used humans to.” The response came naturally to Alaina. The notion that the Luvarians looked down on orcs because of the work they did on them was entirely false. The Luvarians tended to see orcs, humans, dwarfs and elfs in much the same light. They were sentient beings with high potential that could be brought out. The path that potential took and the means to bring it out differed and this did result in some preferences but there was hardly a bias outside what a project called for.

All three men took a moment to look around. It was Ridon that asked though. “How did all the brothers end up human though?”

“Oh humans tended to be more open to the concept of creating new life and reshaping it then the other races.  If you notice we're also bordered by human nations which are where most of the claimed come from. If we were closer to the dwarven lands or if you didn't have an agreement with the orcs I'm certain that we would have more of both types of claimed. Now may we return to your important work?”

Dan gave a slight laugh whenever he noted Alaina calling their work important. Apparently these old issues were simply of no real consequence to her. “ So bring in orcs to help finish up the redesign. I can run it by the others during the next meeting. Perhaps I should go ahead and speak to Nathan and Mirin about it.”

Alaina, “They've already agreed. Another protector brought the issue up.” Alaina gave a soft giggle and smiled at the three. She just wanted to share something with them. “Mirin is currently being held up by his robes. It was the only way to insure that he was paying attention he's so caught up in his current experiment.”

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“Joseph this taste awful!” As Flora swallowed the potion it was hard to resist her gag reflex. She had been told the potion was safe and would benefit her practice but she hadn't expected such a bitter taste. When she looked to Maria she saw surprised to see her daughter struggling to force the potion down. After a moment she saw when Maria finally succeeded. The expression on Maria's face was almost enough to make her forget the horrible taste in her own mouth. Indeed Flora had to exert great willpower in order to avoid openly laughing. It was fairly clear that Maria was even less fond of the potion then she was. There wasn't time to talk though.

Naidra, “Okay Flora, Maria, Vera those potions are on a limited time table. Vera begin sparring with Flora and Maria you're going to be sparring with me. We're going to be using high speed combat but remember you must stay within the room.” With the limited duration of the potion Naidra had to work quickly. The current plan was to use one potion each day before returning to regular training practices for a week. If things worked properly they would be an increase in their rate of progress. Three sisters had been chosen as the test subjects with Maria being the only one with a mutation. In the event the results were favorable Mina and Mira would be next. For the time being Mina and Mira would continue their lessons as normal.

It surprised Vera whenever Flora attacked her eagerly. Apparently Flora had made some progress on her aggression. Flora had never been passive like Mina by any stretch of the imagination but she was still a good bit softer then Vera herself. Vera's counter was a bit slower then normal as she struggled to adapt what Naidra had been teaching her. She could have used the momentum of Flora's own kick to attack her but she had stopped the attack cold instead.  The sound of Naidra and Maria beginning their match also filled the air. Due to their speeds the two moved around far more then normal as fighting at such speeds was more then just punches and kicking but also involved trying to make the opponent lose traction.

Mirin had come to observe the sisters sparring in an environment they didn't have to worry about damaging. He also wanted to speak to Joseph for a bit. Naturally as it was his project Joseph was observing and had already made a note to find a way to make the potion taste better. Given the potions durability it seemed that simply mixing it with another fluid to mask the flavor would handle that. Currently they were standing behind a protective barrier looking in. For the sisters to move freely and not hold back their strength they couldn't be in the room with them. “It is truly amazing to be standing here. I remember all the time I've looked down a hallway that I couldn't enter and wondered what was down there.”

“It sure surprised me. I just wish there was more I could do right now. I'm pretty much just an observer at this point.” Joseph took a quick glance towards the glyph noting the intensity with which it was glowing. This served as a good indicator of how much energy was being used but he worried how much of that energy was coming from Naidra. She assured him her presence wouldn't influence the results but he still worried. He wanted to conduct at least one test without her. That could be difficult when it came to Maria if she was going to use her full abilities.

“At least you're not standing back trying to direct the sisters as to how they should mix the potions because they're too scared of you being harmed. That was exhausting. It was actually that kind of behavior that prompted some of us to begin working in secret.”

“I can imagine. But didn't you say there was something you wanted to speak to me about?”

“Yes. I've been thinking about the life bloom and different ways that it might be used. Have you ever considered the notion of what affect the life bloom might have on creature's like silk worms?” While Joseph wasn't the only one who understood the life bloom in great detail anymore he was the life bloom's maker. His understanding of the plant and how it might influence other living beings was as good as anyone elses if still not the best. The fact that Joseph had fled his previous employer for fear of what the life bloom might do to the environment suggested he had considered the subject a bit.

It took Joseph a moment to consider what Mirin was asked. Insects had short life spans and many offspring. This made them extremely adaptable. Yet Mirin wasn't the type to be thinking about the worms but rather what the worms produced. “You want to see if feeding on the life bloom has any influence on the silk of the silk worms. I wonder. It might come up with something that's extremely good at resisting the flow of the mystic energies from the life bloom which is something that you want to avoid.”

“Not quite. If it did produce a very good resister we could still make use of it. After all if the protective covering over the energy paths had been better I wouldn't have this problem.” As he spoke Mirin showed Joseph his right hand. It had been healed for the most part but there was still some light scarring he was working on healing. The first heal job had been focused on making sure that his hand would still be usable. It's appearance was something that could come later.

Joseph was a bit surprised. He knew Mirin had been hurt but he'd also been told that he'd been healed. To see his hand decorated with scars wasn't what he expected. “I didn't know the injury was that bad.”

“It hurt. There no doubt about that. So I'd be fine with an insulator as well.” Mirin gave a slight sigh as he lowered his arm. He'd have to spend some time minding his flesh further to remove more of the scars later. Sora didn't make much mention of the injury but he caught her looking at his hand a few times. “So what did your previous studies say? Do you think I'm going to end up with some kind of monster silk worm who's silk burns flesh whenever you touch it?”

“No!” A slight laugh came from Joseph as he imagined such results. “Maybe if somehow silk worms started eating the flesh of the undead you'd get something like that. Well you might get something that's good at resisting energy but I know you're hoping for something that's really good at transferring energy. I don't see why you shouldn't try it. Personally I've been curious what would happen if we started using honey bees to pollinate the life bloom. I suspect that most of the worms and bees will be killed by the mystic energies though.”

To this Mirin gave a nod. “Yeah. We could start them with only a very small amount of the fruit though and everything else would be natural. Hm honey made from the pollen of a mystical plant. I wonder what kind of properties it will hold.”

“Ouch!” Maria's eyes opened wide even as she voiced her pain. It wasn't Naidra's hit that had caused her pain but the fact that she had fallen flat on her rear while running at extremely high speeds. The distance she had slid across the floor had been quite impressive as had been the force of the impact. The pain and its unexpected means of application was more then Maria could keep in as she stood up and took a look at her rear. It was fairly clear that her fur had been thinned a bit and the flesh had been reddened. The fact that everyone stopped what they were doing just to look at her didn't help the situation.

Joseph immediately covered his mouth and took in a deep breath as he tried to keep from laughing. The site of Maria rubbing her apparently very sore rear. Was almost too much for him to take. Apparently he wasn't the only one as he heard Mirin snickering. The only one that seemed to be unaffected by the site was Naidra. Flora was doing a good job of containing her laughter while Vera had a massive grin on her face. Given Vera's typical behavior it was quite clear that smile was her version of an open laugh. Maria for her part seemed to be shooting everyone in the room a rather annoyed look.

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

“Alaina are you okay?” Ridon didn't know what to think. Alaina had suddenly burst out laughing while he'd been reading and taking some notes. Currently she was leaning against the wall while her legs were threatening to fail her. Instead of getting an answer she held up her right hand and indicated for him to wait a moment. It was actually making him a bit self conscious and he found himself reviewing his notes again trying to figure out what he'd done wrong. Could he have made such a huge mistake to make Alaina burst out into open laughter.

“Oh my. By the creators.” Was all Alaina could get out before she burst into laughter again. She wasn't certain exactly what had happened yet but Naidra had just shifted a huge amount of emotion onto the rest of them. She had been quite unprepared for not just the intensity but the type of emotion. She knew that her laughter was distressing Ridon a bit but she had told him about their shared emotional link before. Hopefully he would figure out that she wasn't laughing at him at the moment. The fact that she teased him so often probably wasn't helping the situation.

“Oh come on Alaina? What's so funny?” Ridon was actually grinning now as he looked away from his work and at her.

“I don't know if I should tell you. Naidra just shared some emotions with us and now I know what caused them.” Alaina's smile seemed ready to cut her face in half as she tried to contain herself.

“It's not polite to tease someone like that.”

“All I'll say is Maria had a little accident and you'd best not mention it to her.”

“Oh? What kind of accident?” Ridon actually found himself starting to laugh a bit despite not knowing what had happened. His imagination was already filling in the gaps. His laughter actually seemed to make it even harder for Alaina to keep from laughing who actually burst into another fit of laughter before she could respond to him.

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

“So what do you think of my work?”

Alaina didn't reply immediately but took a moment to look at Julia. She'd only just been told about their ability to talk and yet she seemed unsurprised. The protectors had suspected that Julia at least suspected them especially after she noted Ridon's progress. At the very least she suspected something. It also seemed like she suspected what she was about to say. “Your progress as a spirit hunter has been very ambitious and more then a little bold. If it wasn't for your ability I would even say what you've done is exceptionally reckless bordering on foolishness.”

It didn't surprise Julia whenever Alaina noted her studies as a bit reckless. “I see. So where you keeping an eye on me to insure that I didn't kill myself?”

“We tried but you may have already killed yourself. You've began down a path that we're not entirely knowledgeable of. It's entirely possible that you've began a slow dieing process long ago. From what we do know you should be fine and should be able to acquire a fair bit of power as a spirit hunter. I just want to make it clear that we are very aware that you applied alchemical potions to yourself far more quickly and far more aggressively then the original spirit hunters would have.”

“You mean until they began imbuing their bodies with mythril.”

Now it was Alaina's turn to smile. “Yes until then. If it wasn't for your skill as a necromancer you would have killed yourself. I'm sure you're aware of what reducing your body's ability to vent heat could have done.”

After a moment Julia gave a nod. “I could have ended up cooking my own brain.”

“Yes. Now I need to remind you once again that we have yet to accept you as a Luvarian but rather you are here at the request of the one we have accepted as such.”

“Who's name you won't give me.”

“That is also at their request. If you'd like I can tell you who all has been invited but I must ask you to not talk about this outside of the citadel. Even a friendly conversation could end up giving away more information then we desire.”

Should she just ask who had been given access to the citadel? Julia was curious who had been let in before her but there was something more pressing on her mind. “Why was I only allowed in recently?”

Alaina freely chuckled at Julia's question. She couldn't hear any jealousy in her voice but the implication was there. “You're upset that you weren't invited in after the first one was accepted as a Luvarian.”

“Well yes.”

“Your studies won't benefit as much as the others have. That isn't to say that yours won't benefit. If you'd like we'd be glad to begin training you in the combat styles of the spirit hunters. We can also give you access to some of their training equipment but once again you've began down a path that is just a bit different then theirs. If I had to describe it you're walking beside them on the same path but for some reason you keep stepping into the grass trying to pass them up.”

“So I haven't passed them up?”

“By walking through the grass you have obtained greater strength then they would have for your level of progression. Indeed for your current position on the path you're very strong as even the stumbles and bruises you've earned have given you a different type of strength.”

Julia's smile didn't go away even though she understood the implications. “So have I been managing to keep pace with what you'd expect from a student spirit hunter?”

“For someone that doesn't have a mentor to guide them you're moving very fast.” Aliana didn't expect that Julia was going to drop the issue despite her attempts to be nice. It actually made her smile as she looked at the woman.

“I don't want to know that. How is my progress when compared to a spirit hunter with a mentor?”

“For a mage of your ability your progress has been very lacking. Most mentors would have cut you from the program at this point unless you outranked them and were having them teach you on the side. Even with your decision to walk through the grass rather on the road you would have progressed far more quickly with a mentor. This is nothing to be embarrassed about. You lack a mentor of course you're going to progress more slowly then someone who has one.”

For a moment Julia went silent and looked up at Alaina. “Okay that hurt my ego how am I doing for someone that didn't have access to the spirit hunter's equipment until now and who wasn't already an accomplished mage.” Julia was grinning whenever Alaina began to laugh.

“You're doing very well in those terms! Now I don't believe you would have been trained as a spirit hunter I'm afraid to say. Still, if you had come to us as an apprentice I'm sure those Luvarians dealing with unbound spirits and containing life energy would have been fighting over you. They might have even used actual spells if no one held rank and wouldn't back down.”

“Seriously?”

“You put a bunch of powerful mages together, each one very dedicated to his work and each one believing his work is the most important there is and someone is going to have a lightning bolt thrown at them, a fire ball or a curse.”

“Hey I've never seen the brothers do that.”

“That's because they don't talk about it.”

Once again Julia came to a halt. “Are you telling the truth? Have the brothers actually went to fighting one another in the last twenty years?”

“Yes. They have come to blows. They just don't tell the production grade faelom about such events or they would have had to worry about further intrusions.”

“Oh my. I can't believe it. Who hit who!”

This was a highly disciplined necromancer? Alaina almost felt like someone was playing a trick on her. Perhaps all the other protectors had gotten together and tinkered with her memory a bit. That or they were currently modifying her thought processes. Then again. Perhaps Julia liked gossip as much as the next person. “I must say Julia you're surprising me. I'm not used to someone being so open with me after my initial revelation.”

“Well I suspected that you all could communicate for quite some time. Whenever you dropped a book right in front of Allen and pointed out the pages to him I was certain that you understood what we were talking about. The only thing I didn't understand was why you didn't speak or communicate more often. At first I suspected that you had some kind of restriction that only allowed you to work with those with very high potential.”

“We expected as much. If you want to know what apprentices came to blows I'm afraid you're going to have to ask them. Now let me show you to the training area.”

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

“So you believe that you're ready?”

It had been five weeks since she had began training with the protectors using the equipment of the spirit hunters. Julia had finally finished compiling a training guide for the brothers that would follow her. The methods within were a bit less extreme in order to insure they survived and she'd been given some do nots from the protectors. Given that they didn't object whenever she took the book to the brothers she felt confident in the work. Now there was another issue that had to be addressed. “Yes. I believe you can go ahead with your plans to have Kalia joined with the life bloom.”

Nathan gave a slight nod and took in a deep breath. After so much searching they had finally found a dryad to contract. As one might expect she was a dryad who had suffered a reduction in her power. She had been one of the survivors of the Amalgam's actions but she had been worse off for the experience. When faced with the choice of nurturing a new tree for decades if not centuries or trying a new dangerous experiment she had chosen the experiment. The fact that she had chosen to risk such a breaking away from the natural world had been concerning. The orcs and apprentices had worked together to make sure of her intentions as well.”I'm glad to hear it. Honestly I was worried that we would have to go through with the experiment without a spirit hunter.”

“Now Nathan are you that eager to prove yourself just as reckless as the Luvarians?”

For a moment Nathan said nothing but just looked at Julia. She had already been somewhat pale due to how much time she spent studying. Now her skin had turned as white as snow. Her eyes had turned as black as obsidian and just as lustrous while her tongue was now a bright crimson as if she'd just taken a deep drink of fresh blood. “Me reckless?”

A soft chuckle escaped Julia as she looked down at herself. Once again she laughed though this one was far more hardy. “You modify your skin and muscles to resist outside mystic influences and see how you come out looking mister!” After a moment Julia leaned back into her seat and stuck her bright crimson tongue out at Nathan. “I'm actually a little worried about how I'm going to appear whenever my training is finally finished. Apparently my training in necromancy heavily influenced my transformation.”

“Have the protectors said anything about your condition? I must say I never expected you to turn out so well. Clearly modified.”

“They said it'll get better.”

“Oh so you'll look more human?”

“That's what I thought to whenever they first said it!” Julia once again gave a laugh though this one surprised even her.  “No. According to them one of the things limiting my progress is my perception of what it means to be human and how I imagine myself. As that degrades due to my new form or expands the magic will have an easier time shaping my flesh.”

After a moment of silence all Nathan could do was shake his head. “Are you sure you want this Julia?”

A sigh escaped Julia as she leaned her head back and looked away from Nathan for a moment. “No. I wanted to become more powerful so that the sisters would accept me. Once I began working on myself though I couldn't help but wonder how far I could push myself. I still do. I don't want to become some monster that's hard for people to look upon. So what do you think Nathan? Am I hard to look on?” As she spoke Julia turned her gaze back towards Nathan and wrapped her arms around herself squeezing her breasts together and pushing up on them.

“Well you could use some more fur.”

“I never had fur though!”

Nathan couldn't help but laugh and soon Julia joined in. “You're lovely Julia. Well as lovely as a young lady can be to someone of my advanced age and relationship.”

“You mean you're scared to find another woman too attractive as you're worried about what Zarena would do.”

“She does have a jealous side to her.”

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Dremera had become quite good at maneuvering on the smooth floors of the citadel even at high speeds. A fact that Naidra couldn't help but note as she lightly flicked the young girl's nose after a failed pounce. Her responce was to give a sharp hiss and swipe at her tail. She only ended up scratching at air but the young girl was quickly back on her hands and feet preparing herself. “You're quite a determined young lady Dremera. Though I worry at times that you're motivated a little too much by anger and grudges.” Dremera's only response to Naidra was to lunge at her but instead of going for her tail this time she went for Dremera's core.

It would have worried Dan whenever he heard a rather note worthy thump if he hadn't seen Dremera play with Mina. He had learned to accept his daughter was very durable and very persistent. That didn't mean he didn't plan on getting involved. Without standing up he spun around and pointed a tiny flask towards Naidra. The potion within responded immediately sending a powerful and focused gust of wind screaming through the air. Despite the winds power he was able to cap it with his thumb the moment Naidra disappeared from his site  and the wind slammed into the wall. “Come on Dremera let's get her.”

“While siding with your daughter is natural that was sneaky.” Naidra had a large grin on her face as Dan tried to face her. It was easy to move so that she was standing behind him once again. At the same time though she could hear Dremera quickly sprinting across the floor. Naidra would need to be careful to insure that Dremera didn't accidentally tackle her father.

Flora, “Well aren't you going to help your husband and daughter out?”

Mina didn't respond immediately but turned her attention towards Dan, Dremera and Naidra. As she tried to raise herself up her body didn't want to truly cooperate. She had undergone her training in the glyph and played with Dremera before Naidra had taken over and Flora arrived. While it was easy for a sister to recover from exertion that would have drained a human this was an entirely different situation. “Flora I don't think I can move.” As she finished speak Mina allowed herself to lean back once again and took in a deep breath. “Dan are you sure you should be doing that in here? What if you damage something? Like your project.”

“Don't worry Mina. This room is just for quick and rough experiments to get an idea of what's happening.”

Mina, “Naidra how does that work anyway?”

Naidra was more dancing around Dremera and Dan's attacks now. Rather then relying on her speed she was carefully observing their movements and making it a point to move before they could truly target her. “One of the Luvarians has an idea for an experiment he or she would like to test just to get some proof of concept. They need a work area with a light stockpile of common items, strong walls and some protective spells and equipment. You end up getting a room like this. It's also nice to have such rooms for simple test. A vendor comes by with some dried mandrake roots or so they say but you're not entirely certain perhaps the smell is a bit off. You don't need an entire lab.”

“So the Luvarians just bring the roots back here and conduct a quick test?”

“Yes. Naturally at times the test don't go as expected. Dan you're.” Naidra went silent for a moment as she leaped into the air to avoid Dan and Dremera. She actually had to twist in the air to avoid being thrown against the wall by the wind. “You're combining radiance born from hope and fire aren't you?”

“Yes. I needed to make sure it wouldn't actually burst into an actual fire in the presence of the other mystic elements.” Dan was quite surprised by how easily Naidra was avoiding both of them. He wasn't actually worried about hitting her himself but he wanted to make sure Dremera at least got a good smack in on Naidra.

For a moment Mina said nothing but took a moment to look around. The walls, floor and ceiling was covered with so many glyphs that she couldn't be certain of what was happening in the room. “So this room protect you from fire?”

“Any living animal within this room is given a significant boost to all forms of mystic resistance. If they're capable of being influenced by such forms of magic.” This time Naidra allowed Dremera to get a bit of a smack on her tail. This brought a happy yelp from the young girl who upon coming to a stop gave her rear an excited wiggle as she tried to dig her feet into the ground to gain better traction. Naidra had to immediately push her smile off on several of the other protectors in order to keep up the appearance that she was taking the match seriously. In truth she desperately wanted to pick Dremera up and hug her.

Dan, “Of course radiance born from fire mixed with the right reagents can also produce a very powerful wind.”

Naidra, “A storm in a bottle. I remember whenever young apprentices would give one another such bottles as gag gifts. They weren't quite as potent as the one you're using though.”

Mina, “You're kidding.”

“I am not. So Dan did the results come out as you expected?” The feeling of Dremera latching onto her stomach sent a massive wave of happiness through Naidra but she quickly pushed the emotion off on the other protectors. She didn't want to burst out laughing but instead gave a surprised scream and intentionally stepped backwards. Dremera's arms had already latched quite tightly upon her and she began to kick her legs rapidly. Naidra instantly felt a rush of voices in her head as the other protectors began to complain about teaching her to be too aggressive. This rush was met with others though saying to let the young girl have her fun and she already knew better. The fact that some of these counter arguments were coming from the same voices only made the situation more amusing. “Oh now you've got me.”

Dremera felt a great wave of victory as she took hold of Naidra. She could still remember seeing her smack her mommy and responded by rapidly kicking her in the stomach. Striking Naidra felt exactly like kicking Mina to the young girl and she actually found herself becoming a bit annoyed whenever her feet didn't sink in deeper. There was no way that this person could truly be strong as her mommy though. The feeling of Naidra taking a step backwards confirmed to the young sister that her kicks were having an affect and she began to increase the rate at which she kicked to the point her feet began to sting slightly and she was having trouble holding on.

Dan, “Yay you got her Dremera!” After a moment of watching Dan was a bit surprised by his daughter's persistence. “Naidra I believe she's really trying to take you down.”

“So do I. Well it's good exercise for her if nothing else and I won't fault a young faelom for being protective of her parents. At least I won't so long as she focuses the abuse on me and the other protectors.” As she spoke Naidra began to lightly run her fingers along Dremera's side tickling her in the process. The fact that the young girl didn't break into a fit of laughter but continued her attack only showed her determination. “Now about your results?”

“There is some loss in the conversion process but most of it went fine. So whenever Ridon finds a fire spirit to contract we should be able to transform it into a spirit of hope and fire without converting it into a spirit of hope or having it just consumed all the energy. The bigger issue is combine the essence of life. It's pretty clear that combining fire and life energies directly will not yield the results we want at the rate we want. By mixing life with essence born of fire that has already been mixed with essence born of hope though we improved how well they mixed a great deal.” Dan was actually fighting laughing the entire time as he continued to watch his daughter. She had stopped kicking Naidra and was instead rapidly running her feet against her stomach claws out. “Please tell me she's playing.”

Naidra. “I have no doubt she is. Her emotions are slightly hostile but mostly playful at this point. I believe she knows she can't harm me but she's trying to express her dislike about something. Likely she's remembering the time Mina and I spent sparing and that has upset her.”

Mina, “Ah are you protecting your poor old mom Dremera? You're such a good girl.”  Mina had to fight to keep from laughing as Dremera began to kick at Naidra with a renewed passion.

While Mina was struggling to keep from laughing Flora was in an all out war. Her right hand had clamped down on her mouth and she dared not remove it as she watched the young sister. It was only after she'd taken several deep breaths that she was able to steady herself. “I hope she never does that to me.”

Mina, “Of course not. She likes you.”

Naidra had a wide smile on her face despite all the emotions she'd shifted as Dremera finally halted her attack. Apparently now Mina had her attention as she quickly sprinted over towards her mother. Naidra took this time to walk over to Dan and look directly at his work station. The set up was rough but the test had only meant to be for some rough experimentation to begin with. She had other things on her mind. “Dan what do you plan to do once you're done helping Ridon?”

“I was thinking about studying the sister's mutations and trying to tackle the next big problem before it becomes one. We can't have a bunch of sisters Zarena's size walking around after all. Mina can you imagine what it'd be like if you were as tall as Zarena? You're already extremely heavy for your height.”

Mina didn't respond right away but waited until Dremera had leaped upon her. She wasted no time grabbing her daughter's tail and giving it a little pull. It didn't even come close to hurting the young faelom but it showed her that mommy was ready to play some more. “Dan I believe your daughter gets her energy from you at times. Now as for me being as tall as Zarena. I don't believe I'd be welcomed in the forest at all. I'd probably end up compressing Zarena's road even more if I tried to walk on it at that size.” Mina's increased size had also increased her speed as had her training. She found it far easier to pull back her hand in order to keep Dremera from taking hold of it like she used to.

Her mother wasn't suppose to move her hand that quickly. Dremera's immediate response was to pull her legs and hands underneath her body. If she leaped into the air with all her strength there would be no way Mina could move her hand quickly enough. Before she could do that though Dremera quickly glanced around to make sure she knew where her father was. She didn't want to risk leaping onto him at full force. Seeing that he was speaking to Naidra about something she refocused on her mother's hand.

Naidra, “I see. Have you brought this up to the others?”

“We've spoken about it a bit. Now we don't want to tamper with the Luvarian's designs. I'm not even sure if we could change how the sister's function anyway. We don't have the same knowledge as them. Naidra perhaps you can answer this. Why do the sister's bodies suffer from such hunger and reduce whenever they increase in size?”

“The bodies of the faelom seeks to achieve a certain point. This point isn't by design but rather a reflection the faelom's mystic self. As you know our bodies are in part a spell. You could say that the bodies of the faelom look towards their spiritual strength and say this is what I should be and seek to achieve it. The problem is that while the body knows what it should be able to achieve it doesn't know how to achieve it. Eating is in truth a substitute.”

Flora, “So our bodies should be able to sustain themselves without hunger?”

“Well more or less. The problem is that your spiritual strength isn't a constant but your body is no where near as malleable. A sudden dip in your spiritual strength could easily cause you to fall into a regressive slumber which I must say is far better then dieing.”

Dan, “You said their bodies seek to reach a point. You didn't say anything about their size though.”

Naidra, “Correct! Mutations actually are movement towards that point. So let's take Zarena for example. It's quite possible that she could be freed of her hunger yet only two meters tall. That said the mutations she would have to develop in order to achieve that point would be staggering. Why. She'd be like one of us minus the link to the citadel and connected awareness.”

Flora, “Does that mean Zarena would have been even larger if she hadn't developed such mutations? How does that work for Mina as well? We're the same height but she's so much stronger then the wrest of us. Shouldn't she need to eat more to maintain that strength?”

“In Zarena's case yes she would be even larger now then she is if she hadn't developed her mutations. It happened quietly but Zarena is actually smaller now then when she first grew to sleeper status they all are. However, as the changes happened in all of them and over such a long period of time while being seen so rarely it was largely unnoticed. Mina is actually using more energy then you Flora. Her spirit just learned how to better direct energy into her body whenever it reshaped her flesh.”

Mina, “So if Dan actually found a way for us to alter our bodies without sleeping we wouldn't grow anymore?”

Naidra, “That may not be the case. Your body would be reshaped into a better reflection of your nature. The more certain your nature the more certain changes. Flora if you were to sleep I'm quite certain that within ten years you would develop a mutation of your own. Your spiritual presence is very note worthy just like Mina's or Maria's. I can't say for certain what change you would undergo though.”

Flora was actually rather surprised and took a moment to consider what Naidra said. “So you can be certain I would develop a mutation? Could you determine what sisters would and wouldn't develop one?”

“Within certain parameters yes.”

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

Seventeen brothers currently set within the Luvarians' library. This wasn't the one open to the apprentice however but rather one restricted to those full Luvarians and those they had invited. A few protectors were in the room with them. It was Joseph who spoke. “That is amazing. I didn't really put much thought into what would happen once the sisters grew too large for the forest or if they would even grow too large. I was mostly focused on helping them to end their hunger. So Dan I know Mina had you looking into this a bit. Have you come up with any ideas?”

Dan, “I've began looking into the Luvarians works on how dragons change their forms and shape shifting in general. Just as we're helping the sisters to learn to channel energy into their bodies naturally I wonder if the secret to allowing their spirit to adapt their flesh at will could be found there. Perhaps if we could teach them how to transform their bodies they could then allow their nature to reshape their bodies. I've also reading through the studies the Luvarians conducted on such transformations especially the ones that involve flesh and blood samples before the alterations were made, during their slumber and after their awakening.”

“What have you managed to find out?”

“It turns out growth was one of the easiest methods to implement improvements in an individual faelom but it wasn't the only one that was desired. The mutations was a feature that was abandoned you see as attempts to build such features into them weren't working out. The Luvarians were quite surprised whenever after slumbering some of the faelom woke up changed. The protectors told us themselves that the likelihood of a faelom developing a mutation depended on three main factors. It depends on how strong of a spirit the faelom has or in other words their natural magic ability, it depends on how large they were before slumbering and it depends on how long they sleep. The larger and the longer they sleep the more like they are to change.

One goal was to ease the transformation process. The problem was that between the faelom's already very advanced design, the complexity of the magics involved and the amount of energies that it required information was very limited. A simple spell or potion wasn't going to do the job. Now I've been reading a few books that talk about the notion of using a dynamic spell or sort of living magic that could adapt to the sister and help guide the process so perhaps instead of having to slumber for years or decades a faelom might slumber for only weeks or months and not only reduce her size but insure some form of development.”

For a moment the room became full of private conversations as the various brothers looked at one another. Naidra had a large smile on her face as she noted that Dan was talking about Azon's work. It was a shame that he hadn't been alive when he would have had the full resources of the guild at hand. It likely would have made a serious difference. With the original energy source their problems might have even been solved before they came about. Mirin spoke up a short while later. “That sounds like a very powerful type of magic. How far did the project actually get?”

“I'm still studying the theories. One thing they examined is the issue that comes about with such magic resistance beings. Simply put the better built something is the harder it is to make change to it. This unfortunately extends to improvements as well unless the structure was designed to be improved within a certain line. Now the sisters were designed to be improved but only along a certain path. Yet whenever a sister's body grows it still becomes far easier to change then what it normally is.”

Alaina turned her attention to Naidra and gave her a large smile. Dan had made some progress into Azon's studies and seemed to be on his way to understanding it. Currently he was leading into the dangers of uncontrolled mystic alterations and how a change that's beneficial while in the presence of a massive amount of mystic energy might lead to your death whenever that energy was removed. There was a bit of a blip in their combined thought processes as the protector playing with Dremera got a little bit of a surprise. Even though Dremera had been in the citadel for several months now it was hard not to change their thoughts to observe the young faelom. It simply felt so wonderful to have such a young and energetic faelom in the citadel again.

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

“What are you doing?” Maria felt rather strange as Alaina focused on her stomach and then very gently touched it with her finger. There was a slight tingling and then she pulled her hand back only to do it again. The fact that the only answer to her question was another poke made Maria feel all the stranger.

“Okay Maria you're not going to be sparring today.” As she spoke Alaina opened her hand and pressed all the fingers of her right hand into her stomach covering a larger area and giving her a better feel of what was going on within her. Her stomach felt hopeful as if her body was filling with life but at this point even Alaina couldn't be certain.

“What are you talking about? Why can't I train?”

“You might be pregnant.” Alaina chose to give Maria a very large smile now. Rather then waiting for Maria to respond she quickly placed her free hand over Maria's mouth. “I said that you might be pregnant. Due to the changes in your body from a standard faelom it's somewhat more difficult to be certain at this early age. Your body seems to be undergoing the changes brought upon by housing an additional spirit within it.”

Maria could hardly feel it whenever she felt something coming to wrest upon her shoulder. Exactly how long her mother's hands had been wresting her hand upon her shoulder and if they were just wresting on her or holding her up she didn't know. She did know she had a massive smile on her face whenever she turned to look at her. “The odds are good right? I mean Alaina you wouldn't say that if the odds weren't good right?”

“They are well enough within favor of you being pregnant for me to make some changes to your training and what experimentation you may participate in. As the training serum hasn't even been fully tested with healthy faelom that aren't pregnant you won't be take that any longer. You won't be sparring either but we'll be focusing on an exercise program. At your current size you should be fine for regular exercises.” Alaina went quiet for a moment more and once again focused on Maria's stomach. The spiritual energies flowing into Maria's body had been changing due to her training and the use of the glyph. This made it more difficult for Alaina to be certain she was pregnant but it seemed very likely to her. “I estimate we'll know for certain in five days.”

“Did you hear that Mommy we'll know in five days?”

Flora gave her daughter a large smile and went from helping to hold her up to hugging her. “This is wonderful Maria.” As she spoke Flora could hardly believe what was happening. She knew that Maria and Joseph were actively working on having a child but even with two daughters of her own Flora didn't expect to be a grandmother for quite some time. Having had two daughters of her own already Flora was doing a better job of composing herself but she could feel Maria practically vibrating with excitement. “Alaina what is this going to mean for Maria's speed?”

“Oh the running around absolutely has to stop! Keep in mind that while your body is able to endure the sudden accelerations the child's won't be especially in the early stages of development. There is to be absolutely no enhanced speed use until we know if you're with child. Then if you are with child which you most likely are Maria you are not to use your augmented speed until you give birth.” After a few months of pregnancy an unborn sister would have been safe within Maria's womb even at her speeds. On the chance she was with a son though the human child would still be killed by it quite easily.

Normally being told not to use her speed especially over an extended time period would have felt like a thump on the head to Maria. This time it brought up a great wave of fear. She used her speed so freely that often she did so without thinking about it. “Oh no! What am I going to do? I. I don't think about it whenever I use my speed half the time it's just a part of me. I can't kill my child because I forgot not to run. I can't!”

Flora, “Maria calm down. You're going to be alright and so will your child.”

“How can you be sure though? I mean what if I make a mistake?”

“You haven't harmed Joseph with all that running around you do. I've seen how careful you are around and I know you'll be just as careful if not more so with your child. Of course. We may just have to have one of the protectors walk you around until it's time for you to give birth.” Flora gave a slight chuckle whenever her daughter smiled back at her. “Now Alaina how certain are you seriously? I know you said you were certain enough to change Maria's training habits but even a slight chance seems like that would involve such temporary changes.”

After a moment Alaina gave a slight nod. “My estimation is ninety three percent accurate based on the data I was able to gather. There is a very small chance that the shift I feel in Maria's body is due to her increased spiritual awareness and the training she has been undergoing. It is very unlikely though. If I ignore certain variables I would say I'm certain that she is with a child now. I am simply factoring in standard uncertainty variables due to the testing she's been undergoing.”

“I have to tell Joseph.” Immediately Maria focused on Alaina. “Don't you dare or any of the other protectors dare tell him before I can.”

Alaina gave Maria a massive grin and removed her hand. “Let me walk you to Joseph. I hope you don't mind if I want to see his reaction.”

“You're welcome to come but I get to tell him. The same goes for you mom.”

“Don't worry Maria I wouldn't take such a wonderful moment from you.”

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

“Joseph come on over here.” As she spoke Maria settled down in the floor. While the ceiling of the citadel was large enough for a sister even of her size to walk around the furniture hadn't been made for them. It didn't matter much as she continued to give Joseph a large smile. He had been working on some calculations with Dan and Ridon but didn't seem to mind the distraction. She knew that he wouldn't mind once she told him the good news. She waited until he was within arms reach to begin speaking. “Joseph I got some wonderful news from Alaina just a little while ago and we came right over to tell you.”

“What's that? Has your training progressed to a new level?”

“Not quite.” Maria felt like her smile was growing even larger as she looked into Joseph eye's. “According to Alaina there is a ninety three percent chance that I'm pregnant if we factor in all the strange testing rules you people use. If we ignore the uncertainty rules though she is certain that I am pregnant.” At first Joseph said nothing but Maria could see the news sinking into his head. Rather then worrying about him falling backwards though she found herself scooping him up as he moved forward to embrace her. There wasn't time to speak as his lips pressed against hers and for a moment she just held him there.

“Maria that is amazing! Alaina how did you notice?”

“There has been a shift in her body chemistry and the flow of mystic energies through her body. The shift in her energy indicates that there is another spiritual presence within her body but it's unlikely that it's within her flesh. This is of course one of the reasons that it's so difficult for production model faelom to become pregnant. The intense energies running through their body tend to wash away other spiritual presences that aren't strong enough to hold onto their forming body.”

As Maria listened to Alaina she remembered her studies. One question came up that she had once asked her mother before. “Does that mean we kill our own children just by being what we are?”

It didn't surprise Alaina when Maria asked her such a dangerous question. She knew the wrong answer would end up hurting her but she wanted to be honest as well. “Kill isn't the right word. It as if you are part of a river and the potential body within you a stone. You happen to be a very intense part of the river due to your own strength so only strong spirits can hold onto that rock. Dragons and even very powerful mages face this problem. It's why children of truly powerful beings tend to be very rare.”

“So would my training be hurting my child?”

“No. I can say that with certainty.” Alaina was glad to see Maria smile and seem to relax. What she'd told her wasn't the complete truth though. The more powerful a sister became the more difficult it would be for them to become pregnant. The only way this could be changed is if they found a way to shield their womb from the harsh energies running throughout their bodies or managed to convert those energies into a more nurturing type. Typically the larger a sister grew the more difficult it would be for her to become pregnant. Alaina would have even been stunned if Zarena became pregnant. There were mitigating circumstances fortunately.

Maria did feel relieved about Alaina's response. Her thoughts were running as fast as ever though and one thing came to mind quickly. “What about my growing?”

“It is a tough balancing act you're in Maria. If your body isn't large enough it can't sustain the child. If your body has too much energy running through it the spirit has trouble making the connection to the body. Normally growing larger would make it more difficult for you to become pregnant which makes you Flora even stranger. This isn't like your normal growth though. Your natural energies are far gentler then the energy you obtain from eating.”

After a moment of consideration Maria glanced down at Joseph. “She's not just fibbing to keep me training is she?”

Now Alaina perked up a bit actually feeling somewhat insulted or was it teased? She didn't feel angry at Maria but she was surprised. It had been quite some time since someone other then another protector or Ridon had spoken to her that way. Rather then speak up she let Joseph take it. “What she's saying makes sense. I know how artificial mystic energies can damage the body and at times the mind of mages that use them extensively. You're better built then that but even then the natural magic that is part of your body would function better with your own spiritual energy then energy taken from eating.”

“Does that mean eating more would be bad for our child?”

Joseph turned to Alaina who spoke up this time. “Yes. It isn't that simple in truth but in general the more your body uses chemical energy to meet the demands of the mystic part of your body the more difficult it is for you to become pregnant and the more difficult it is for the child to survive within your womb.”

What could she do to make sure her baby survived? Maria glanced down at her stomach for a moment while shifting Joseph slight to the side. “Alaina do you know of anything that would help my child survive? You said for me to continue training but will that help my child's odds or hurt?”

“Nothing that would make any difference at this point. The Luvarians did try to find ways to tweak your birth rate but the methods that would have normally worked would have been detrimental to you. If you were to reduce the amount of mystic energy inside of your body then you could easily end up killing yourself. Not that such a thing is an easy task. I wouldn't be surprised if Joseph's technique did improve the birth rate in the production grade faelom but I don't mean a drastic increase.”

Joseph, “Alaina how did that work with the original energy source?”

“The original energy system was designed to be used for the faelom so compared to the energy they obtain from eating it was very easy for them to process and thus much easier on their children. It wasn't as easy as their own natural energies as those are truly suited for a faelom's body but it was much better then eating. I should also mention Joseph eating the life bloom actually improves a sister's chances of becoming pregnant. The fact that more of the energy provided from a bloom is already of a mystic nature and those that tend to promote healing makes it even better.”

Maria, “So I should only eat the life bloom while I'm pregnant.” Maria felt a little awkward whenever Alaina looked at her. The look seemed to say now what did I just tell you. “Sorry. I forgot. How is nothing I'm doing now able to make a difference though?”

“Maria it takes time to change the flow of mystic energy through a body. Especially whenever the body is as well made as yours. The only ways we could alter the flow soon enough to influence your chances of becoming pregnant would be violent and more likely to abort the child then to help it to form a connection to the body. I hate to use this comparison but the best thing I can compare it to is like creating a sentient undead. Doing anything to increase or diminish the flow of energy to the necromancer while they're raising the undead would be more likely to result in failure then help as balance and control is very important at that point.”

Maria, “Wouldn't returning someone to life be a better comparison?”

“No. It surprises many but the first moments of a natural life really has more to do with the understanding of death then the understanding of healing. If you were to say that life and death are two sides of the coin then right now your child is on the edge as far as I can tell. Don't worry this is the edge we all stand at whenever gaining our natural body.”

Joseph, “I haven't noticed an increase in the birth rate since the sister's began eating the life bloom.”

Alaina, “That's because you haven't even been here ten years. Believe me Joseph if one more sister becomes pregnant this year between Maria and Mina it's going to be considered two good years. I'm not sure if you realize this but if it wasn't for the claimed system and using alchemy to extend the lives of the brothers they would have died out a long time ago. The fact that the production grade faelom are so long lived is the only reason they continue as well. Whenever I said the use of the life bloom would increase the birth rate I only meant an increase of roughly seven percent. The life bloom will have to be refined a great deal more if you want to achieve a twenty percent mark.”

For a moment Joseph and Maria just looked at one another. It was Joseph who found his voice first. “Hold on. You said the life bloom would have to be improved a great deal more to increase the birth rate twenty percent. That's an extremely precise calculation. Alaina do the protectors know how to improve the life bloom?”

Alaina felt a slight rush of thoughts in her mind. The majority of them wanted to say yes so that was no contest. Others were wondering how much they should say. Joseph's life bloom was a wonderful creation and they hadn't seen anything precisely like it. However they had seen similar projects in the past and the techniques used with them could be used to better the life bloom. “Yes.”

Joseph, “Then could you show me the books that could be used to better the life bloom or have those books already been given to Mirin?” As Joseph spoke he realized that handing the books over to Mirin would lead to Mirin understanding more about the life bloom then him. However, at the moment Joseph's interest in his own creation was rather limited. He was more interested in working with Dan on the sister's mutations and finding ways to better his glyph design and training practices. He was happy with his work with the life bloom and felt ready to let others take it further.

“No. Mirin has been more interested in ways to improve the energy gathering and distribution system. If you want we could provide Mirin and Nathan with copies of the books in question. Well some of the books others we can't provide too apprentices.”

“What about with the permission of a Luvarian?”

“No. Your rank is sufficient that you may read these books but you may not grant access to them. Well you can read some of the books they're a few involved in this area that you aren't even allowed to read. The magic contained within the books is tricky.”

“You mean dangerous?”

“No. I mean tricky. It is truly deceptive. The books I'm talking about are well. Joseph could you truly understand the forest as you do now if you had only read about it rather then seen it with your own eyes?” Alaina hoped Joseph would understand what she was talking about. Some mystic knowledge couldn't be conveyed with the limitations of words. Reading about it wouldn't work. To truly perceive and understand certain levels of magic required one to experience and touch it. Unfortunately if the mind wasn't prepared for such an experience the mind could end up being twisted.

“Are you talking about adaptive life magic?”

“You could say that. I'm talking about healing spells that if someone was cursed so they couldn't be healed the magic would naturally seek to find a way through the curse and would heal them anyway. I'm talking about curses that if not fully cured will regain their strength and adapt becoming resistant to removal like a virus. I'm talking about techniques that if applied to the life bloom would allow the trees to respond to the nature of the faelom and adapt fruit that's meant to be easily processed by them. I'm talking about spells that can shift and change on the page in order to make themselves more desirable to the reader.”

Joseph, “I understand. Without that kind of knowledge what kind of increase in the birthrate are we looking at?” Joseph was rather surprised whenever Alaina didn't respond right away. The expression on her face seem to indicate she was focusing. Was she simply deciding on if she wanted to answer him or not or did she have do some kind of calculation?

“With the knowledge that they could be given access to you could expect an increased birth rate of twelve or thirteen percent.”

“Make sure you tell Mirin and Nathan that whenever you tell them what books they're going to need to study. Now would we be looking at a general improvement to the food supply and how long will this take to implement?”

A slight chuckle escaped Alaina as she nodded her head. “Okay. Well how long it's going to take depends on how many resources you're willing to devote to the effort. It is unlikely that the current crop of life blooms can be altered sufficiently and if you attempted to do so it'd end up killing them. I'm afraid that the benefits of this knowledge will only be seen several years from now in a new crop. That is of course dependent on how well Nathan's efforts pay off as well. We're hopeful that his dealings with the dryad will yield worth while results.”

“A living spell that can adapt the trees to meet the needs of others. That would be a dryad.” For a moment Joseph felt like his head and been engulfed in a fog. “Are those higher level spells you mentioned actual spirits!”

“Not quite but they're close. Imagine them as half or three fourths of a spirit. Once you learn the magic and take it within yourself it uses part of your being to become something of a whole spirit that is now tied to you. Unfortunately one person can only play host to so many incomplete spirits and once you reach capacity you have two choices to learn more. Either you must go beyond your old limits or you must forget one of the spells you've already learned. There was much debate of whether forgetting such spells counts as killing a spirit or not back in the old days. For that reason some of the Luvarians refused to learn such spells and all who did were extremely picky about what ones they learned. Not to say that such high level forms of magic require learning such spells.”

“Except if you don't then all the burden of casting the spell falls directly on the caster.”

“Well yes.”

For a moment Joseph said nothing then he looked up at Maria and gave her a quick kiss. “We're going to need to make a crib for our child. Well I guess it's a little early for that as we don't know if we're having a son or a daughter. So Maria what do you have in mind for names?” While speaking with Alaina was interesting Joseph knew he had gotten off track. There was something far more important to  him then learning about high level forms of magic right now.

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

Maria felt like her heart might leap out of her chest. It wasn't that she had been running but she had been using her speed much to her surprise. She'd simply been running in place. She had been running in place very quickly, on an incline for longer then she had expected. “What. What are you trying to do to me! I'm pregnant you know.” Maria had to go quiet for a moment as she glanced back at Naidra who was giving her a rather large grin.

“Yes you are! And it's wonderful.” It had been five days since they had realized Maria may be pregnant and now the protectors were certain of it. She still needed to exercise but they couldn't risk causing the unborn child to shift about. Making her a surface to run upon had been rather easy once they'd taken a little time to think about the situation and making it so she had to counter act gravity helped improved the quality of her exercise. “Come now Maria you're not using Joseph training potion any longer so we have to work to make up for that. This is the only time that you can get some real exercise as well given that you can't run around at the moment.”

“Yeah but. But you made me do all that lifting first!” Maria had to take in a deep breath to keep herself moving. Her legs were positively screaming that she shouldn't be wasting energy talking. Though part of her was saying that she should give Naidra a slap as Naidra couldn't risk hitting her back at the moment.

“You just need to keep going a little while longer. So have you and Joseph picked out some names yet?”

“Please don't make me talk!” Maria had to take in a few deep breaths to replace the air she'd used even as she tried to regain her focus. Despite all the effort she was putting into running she was barely able to counter act the force of gravity trying to drag her down as the surface she was running on offered very little resistance even with her claws. It had been Maria's intention not to use her claws but Naidra had pointed out that if the surface was built with the assumption she wouldn't use her claws there was the chance of a mistake. By building it with the expectation that she would use her claws that danger had been removed.

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

Flora, “Naidra I thought you were suppose to be taking it easier on Maria?” As she spoke Flora was rather surprised by how hard Maria was breathing. Given her condition she would have probably be right in Naidra's face if she hadn't come to trust the protectors judgment.

“We are. Instead of trying to improve her combat skills or toughen her body up we're simply trying to make her body stronger and improve upon her stamina. This doesn't involve any sharp accelerations or well any accelerations at all actually. At Maria's size her developing child is more then safe enough from such stresses. Even if the child was male he would be more then well enough protected.”

Mina, “Are you sure? I know that I was rather active with Dremera but she was a sister and we don't know if Maria's child is a girl or not.”

Naidra, “I am positive. Plus I was supervising Maria the entire time to insure her child was safe.”

By now Maria had spent enough time breathing that she could speak a bit. “How was my baby doing during that run?”

“Well the child's mystic presence remained strong throughout your training and responded well to your increased activities.”

After a moment Maria gave a slight nod. “That's good. Now does this mean that I'm going to have a protector with me every time I do any training?”

“Yes. There is no reason for you to train without supervision with so little going on right now.”

Flora, “So little? I don't believe we've been this busy in quite some time. I thought we could relax whenever the village was rebuilt but it seems like one project keeps coming up after the other.”

Maria, “Well that's what happens whenever we let our society deteriorate without even realizing it.”

Flora gave a slight sigh and leaned back. Currently the women had gathered in one of the citadel's recreation rooms. It was fairly clear from looking around that the room had been meant for quiet conversation and relaxation. Likely it was a place for Luvarians who had reached their mental limit for the day to gather but Flora wondered. “Naidra would we have been allowed to relax in the room whenever the Luvarians were around?”

“There would have been nothing unusual about it. At times activity simply slowed down. All the needed materials had been gathered, customers were few and the Luvarians were currently occupied with other activities then experimentation. Why do you feel out of place.”

“I was just thinking. How close would we have been to the Luvarians if they were still around.”

Alaina, “Very close. We protectors weren't the only ones consulted for information or even ideas. A Luvarian who was uncertain as to what they should be doing would often consult other Luvarians or constructs. Well some Luvarians preferred to consult constructs.”

Mina, “How come?”

Naidra, “Other natural life forms tended to get on their nerves. They had become frustrated with the world views of what one might call natural life forms.”

Flora, “What about sexual relationships? Did the Luvarians after command a sister to mate with them?”

Naidra, “No. Well no they never commanded a sister to mate with them. It did happen and at times even we would end up sleeping with a Luvarian we were particularly fond of or at times a client.” A sharp snicker escaped Naidra as a memory flashed through her mind. “Oh I just remembered this one time. There was a visiting client and we thought he was attractive so one of us ended up having sex with him. No. It was not me or Alaina. Anyway, the next day he realizes we're not just simple constructs. It turns out he committed an act of infidelity and it could cost him his position. Then he learned that he couldn't buy the protectors who slept with him and not only that but that we have a hive mind. You should have seen how panicked he was trying to pay hush money.”

Maria, “How did the protector take it?”

Alaina, “She was embarrassed of course. He had actually thought she was some simple construct meant to provide sexual pleasure. We actually wanted to use the information against him.”

Mina, “How does that connected mind whenever it comes to sex anyway? I mean we all know when we've been having sex we can smell it. We even have a good idea what brother the sister in question had sex with. You go so far beyond that though. What happens whenever you don't find the same person attractive? That or what happens whenever you want to be particularly kinky?” As she said kinky Mina actually glanced over at Maria.

Maria, “Hey now. Why did you look at me whenever you said kinky?”

Mina gave Maria a large grin before speaking. “I remember a young lady having to wear some clothing to cover up the fact that she'd shaved off her fur a while back. Plus something about wanting to make sure you mate with Joseph at each size at least once so that you'll know what it was like.” As Mina spoke Maria wasn't even trying to act surprised. A large grin had formed on her face instead.

“So says the faelom who has her guy ramp up his endurance for special rough nights. I think it's more then wanting to mate with Dan without worrying about hurting him. I believe you want him to feel how strong you are.”

“Well maybe I do. How does that work for you though Alaina? I mean every protectors knows everything about Ridon that you do right?”

Alaina didn't hesitate to nod. “I don't know if I would have ever called the experience awkward. This was the reality we were born into after all. Well except for the original protectors and we aren't them. We do have memories and feelings we own which gives us a more powerful connection to them but as for keeping them private that has never been part of our being. It has worked out quite well overall I suppose. Due to our memories and our connected mind all of us have thousands of experiences to draw upon during sex. We know how to really bring out the pleasure for our lover and what to do for yourself as well.”

Flora, “Oh really! Well tell me are those methods of drawing out the pleasure protector only or could any of us learn them?”

Both Naidra and Alaina gave a slight chuckle before Naidra responded to Flora. “Well some of them are protector only. After all we currently have greater magic abilities then you do. The fact that our bodies are a standard size also helps with certain techniques. As you all grow they're some positions that just won't be possible for you.”

Flora, “Well then you'd better share some of these techniques with us before we grow too large!” By now Flora had a huge grin on her face. Part of her was actually wondering if Naidra would end up giving them a book to read. When she considered how the protectors tended to answer most questions that seemed very possible.

After a moment of silence Alaina gave a quick nod. “Very well. We'll share some of the things we've learned over the centuries.”

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Dremera currently set a short distance away from her father. He was working on some of the strange smelling liquids as usual. She wasn't certain what they are but she had seen enough to know that every once in a while he did something really neat with them. One of the protectors was a short distance away watching the both of them. Dremera hadn't seen her but she also knew every once in a while the protector would tease the top of her head. So far the young girl's attempts to catch her had proven futile though. It didn't help that she was focused on other tasks. As Dan worked Dremera opened her mouth and forced air out of her throat. A slight squeal came out but that wasn't the sound she wanted to make. Her mouth snapped shut before her father noticed and then she tried again. She was keeping it quiet at the moment. She had learned how bad her father's hearing was. Indeed all the males seemed to have issues with their ears.

Dan couldn't help but glance over his shoulder at Dremera from time to time. She had been setting so quietly just watching him that he wondered what was going through her mind. “Do you want me to stop working for a while so we can play Dremera?” Typically while he was working Dremera would be wondering the room finding things to amuse herself. That or she would be practically climbing onto his work table to see what was happening. The fact that she didn't get up immediately and come over to him struck Dan as a little strange and he stood up pushing his work to the back of his mind for a moment. “Okay young lady are you feeling well? You're normally not this still.”

It had been Dremera's intention to quietly work on making the sound that referred to her father. It seemed she had his attention now though or he had decided to give her his attention and that made her smile. Dremera gave a slight purr as her father walked over to her. The hope that he was going to pick her up popped into her mind but she pushed it away quickly. She had realized long ago that he couldn't carry her like he used to. She was still quite happy whenever he placed his hand on her head and she pressed up against his hand. Perhaps he just wanted to play with her some. She could work on making sounds later.

“Okay I believe I could use a break. Let's see what could we play with?” As he spoke Dan began to rub his daughter's head until he reached behind her ears. She gave a sharp yelp and recoiled from him almost immediately. They both know she could be put down by tickling her behind the ear. Dan gave her a big grin whenever Dremera got down on all fours and prepared to chase him. He didn't need anymore prompting and quickly sprinted away from his daughter while he heard her claws scratching against the hard stone floor. She was better at keeping her traction these days but if she got too excited she would fall back into old habits. This let him get a head start.

Perhaps it was all the times that Mina had stopped her from chasing after her father. Perhaps it was just knowing that he was thinking of her. Whatever it was Dremera loved playing chase with her father. Typically the games began with her chasing him then at times it moved into him chasing her. This wasn't always the case. At times he couldn't chase her after spending so much time running away from her he just didn't have the energy. The trick wasn't catching up to her father though but rather taking hold of him without knocking him over.

Well this was stupid. As Dan ran around the table he wasn't too surprised whenever Dremera chose to jump over the table. She landed a short distance from him and he did quite an impressive leap of his own to keep her from tacking hold of his leg. As he ran from his daughter he realized that he was playing a very physically active game in a work area. The protector hadn't made any move to stop him from doing so though. Indeed when he risked a glance at her he realized that she was smiling at them. This wasn't the first time he'd shown such poor judgment after all. What he needed to do was make it to the door and make a dash for one of the training rooms or another area suited for some rough housing.

As Dan turned a corner he had to slow down and Dremera made a grab for his legs again. She missed and this cost her some of her speed. If she had wanted to she could have used her tail like a switch as she had done with Joseph. She didn't want to hurt her father though. She didn't want to hurt Joseph anymore either but she liked hissing at him so she still did that. The feeling of a hiss in her mouth whenever she saw him just felt natural. As Dremera managed to catch up to Dan once again she quickly began to pass him. By getting in front of him she had managed to catch him before. What she needed to do was get hold of his hand or some part of his upper body. Taking his legs out could work to if she could anchor him so he didn't fall face first onto the ground.

It was a good thing Mina had done so much to get and keep him in shape. His little girl had grown so much in just a year. As she dashed ahead of him Dan tried to alter his direction but that meant he slowed down. This proved to be a mistake as he felt Dremera catch hold of him. When a sharp Da escaped her though all thoughts of running stopped and he found himself nearly falling over. It wasn't surprised whenever he found himself being held up a moment later and looked down to see that it was Dremera. “Dremera are you trying to say dad?”

“Da, Da.” Dremera frowned a bit. She had figured out how to make part of the sound but getting it just right was proving difficult. When her father gave a slight shout and quickly wrapped his arms around her in a hug she felt very proud of herself and happy. She still wanted to get the sound right.

“Now I just wonder if you're trying to say Dad, Dan or Dad Dan. I swear young lady we're going to have a little talk if the first thing you ever call me is Dan.” Dan gave a slight chuckle and continued to smile at his daughter. “Okay the work can wait we have to go tell your mother.”

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Dremera was moderately annoyed. She liked being praised but she wasn't trying to say DaDa. Even as Mina hugged her the little girl was growing increasingly annoyed. Couldn't they tell that she was trying to say Dad? The word existed in her mind so why was it so hard to force her mouth to make it? Whenever she would say DaDa though the others just wanted to hug on her and that was providing an annoying distraction. She was already beginning to squirm a bit in her mother's grip. She was quite relieved whenever Mina set her down and she quickly retreated to stand next to her father and quietly begin working on her words again.

It had been Mina's first instinct to hug Dan and Dremera whenever he'd given her the news. Whenever she'd said DaDa though it had been hard to contain herself. “This is wonderful isn't it! Her vocal cords are already shifting so she can make simple words.”

Alaina, “I would say they've already shifted.” As she spoke Alaina took a moment to look over at Dremera. She really wanted to examine the young girl's throat but it was clear that she was feeling crowded at the moment. Typically a faelom infant new certain words months before she could speak them. These words were often very important ones. As they indicated who she most wanted to protect or who she considered the greatest threat. For an infant faelom to consider you a threat was typically considered a bad thing. Back when the Luvarians was around this would have meant someone had harmed the faelom repeatedly and an investigation would be required. Those days were gone but it would still carried very heavy social implications.

Flora, “Well she sure is trying isn't she?” Flora had a large smile on her face as she walked over to Dan and Dremera and crouched down bringing herself closer to both their levels. “Are you trying to say Dad or Dan? Which one is it Dremera?”

In response to Flora's question Dremera held up a single finger meaning first. She had been asked these questions several times before and picked up on their meaning. One finger referred to the first item asked for while two fingers referred to the second. She didn't like it whenever someone asked her about three items for a long time. Now she knew to indicate the third item she needed to hold up one finger with one hand and two with the other.

Flora, “Dad! Well then D, D.” Flora gave a slight yelp whenever Dremera gave her a quick smack on the nose and a rather annoyed look. After a moment of silence she couldn't help but chuckle and grin at the young girl. “Okay I understand. You know the word but you're having trouble forming it.”

The annoyance had finally reached Dremera's limit. Not only were they making it hard for her to practice and distracting her but they were making the sound now. She didn't extend her claws but gave Flora a quick smack to convince her to be quiet. Unfortunately she felt this didn't improve her mood any and using her tail took hold of her father's hand lightly pulling on him. She wouldn't make him leave but she wanted to make it clear that she didn't want to be in the room with the other females. If they were going to distract her she much preferred the quiet protector and her father.

Mina, “Dremera you shouldn't hit someone like that!” Before she could move towards her daughter Flora held up a hand for her to stop.

“She didn't use her claws. Besides how else is she going to tell us that we're annoying her?”

Mina, “Well she could have hissed.”

Flora gave her head a slight shake as she stood up. “Now if she hissed at me I might believe she's mad at me. Dremera is just trying to say we're annoying her and she wants left with her father. I should have realized that with the way she retreated to Dan. Now whenever you can talk young lady that hitting is going to have to stop. You don't just hit another sister whenever they're annoying you.” Flora knew that Dremera couldn't understand what she was saying at the moment. Her firm tone seemed to get through to the young girl who took on a somewhat admonished pose though it was clear she still wanted to leave with her father.

Mina, “Fine. Still if she makes a habit of that I'm going to have to do something about it. Even if she can't talk yet that isn't how you're suppose to behave.”

Dan, “Well if she does it again perhaps she'll get a little time out. Flora was just trying to help her after all.” Dan wasn't certain if he should leave with Dremera or not. He had decided to let the event slide as Flora was okay with it but if she looked like she was going to hold a grudge again then something would have to be done. “I'm not sure if I should leave with her or not though. I don't want to reward her for such behavior.”

Mina, “Let's just have a seat together and talk for a bit. We were just talking about the path Zarena had made and how to keep from discouraging animals from using it as well as how we might keep something from spreading along the road that would normally have trouble moving into such regions.”

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 “Shouldn't you be in there? You're a shaman after all.” Kersara was rather surprised to find Kelah setting on the beach looking out over the water. It was one of the first times in quite a while that she'd seen the orc when she wasn't busy.

“The work they're doing isn't one of my strong points truthfully. Nightfang requires a rather strict contract so it's hard to contract with other spirits and wolves don't typically worry about the balance of the natural order.”

“I thought all shaman tended to the needs of nature.”

A sharp chuckle escaped Kelah before she could keep it contained. She didn't mean to offend her friend but the notion that all shaman worried about the balance of nature was immensely amusing to her. “No! Oh by the spirits no! Some shaman are able to tend to the balance of nature like my father. Other shamans only tend to the parts of nature of the spirit they represent. Nightfang doesn't care whether or not I appreciate the purifying and renewing influence fire has on the environment. I would need a contract with a spirit of fire to do that and honestly with the demands Nightfang puts upon me I don't believe I could handle another contract right now.”

“I see. Okay that makes sense. Then how do you grow in power though? That's been really bothering me. I mean Nightfang can only offer you so much power right? What happens whenever it's the best he can give?” As she spoke to Kelah Kersara actually found herself feeling a bit annoyed with Nightfang. She didn't like the idea of the spirit having such influence on her friend especially if it hindered her development. The fact that Kelah continued to smile told her that this wasn't the entire story though.

“For a spirit to intrust you with the full power it can offer would mean one of two things. You either have a very weak spirit that didn't have much power to offer or you and the spirit in question have come to a truly beneficial agreement. Kersara I am no where near the peek of what Nightfang can offer me. I have a long way to go before I reach that point. In general though once a shaman does reach that point they have a few options. First they can help their patron grow more powerful. This is typically considered the best way to go. Secondly they can contract with other spirits that don't compete with their patron. Depending on how powerful the patron is this can be tricky as they could be competing for you. Third you abandon your patron for a more powerful one. This can seriously hurt your ability to deal with other spirits in the future and the loss of power may be greater then you believed. The final option is you develop other abilities.”

After a moment Kersara gave a slight nod. “So what is going to happen as you get closer to that peak?”

“Have you seen any other orcs with teeth or nails like mine?” After speaking Kersara opened her mouth for a moment revealing her teeth. While typically orcs had well made teeth hers were even more predatory then the norm.

“Nightfang is altering your body?”

“That's right. Nightfang is powerful enough to reshape the flesh of those he contracts with. In my case the changes have been gradual and over a long time period.”

“So what would happen if you made a contract with a powerful spirit of water?”

“If it was powerful enough you might eventually learn to take on the form of water yourself.”

“Then your father can become lightning?”

“The old man wishes he could.” A slight chuckle escaped Kelah though this one was far more friendly then the first shocked laughter. “No. My father can't become lightning. My father actually has several contracts unlike me. I suppose your males told you about his use of lightning in the shadow realm. The spirit of lightning my father contracts with doesn't have the type of power to give such a gift to him though it has given him some nice gifts.”

“Now whenever you say gifts are we talking about things that are given free of charge? As whenever I give someone a gift there isn't any expectation of repayment. It's just something that I've given them.”

“A spirit never gives anything freely unless it benefits in the process as well. Even if it does benefit it's often going to try to increase how much if benefits. He's had to make some deals with them. This doesn't mean that every gift requires a different deal with the spirit. Most of my abilities are covered in a single long term agreement I have with Nightfang.” As Kelah spoke she was beginning to consider her wording. If Kersara asked too much about Nightfang she would have to end the conversation. Some of the things she'd learned about Nightfang needed to be kept secret. She hadn't learned everything she knew about him from Nightfang after all. Some of it she had learned from her father. 

Those secrets she had learned from her father had an even older history. At one point someone in her line had learned a few things Nightfang didn't want others to know. This had been used to negotiate for certain gifts. Now Nightfang would bestow these gifts upon any person taught those secrets provided the teacher only taught one other person. If they ever taught more then one they would have to deal with Nightfang's wrath which could cost them all their gifts. Kelah knew that the spirit hoped that one day the secrets would go untaught or all those who knew them would die. Nightfang had even offered her some very nice gifts if she would agree never to teach another person. Unfortunately that would mean for the secrets to be past down she would have to die.

“Well what about a good spirit? I know they're spirits of hope and healing after all.”

“Don't confuse receiving help with receiving a gift. A spirit of healing will help you heal because that's in its nature to do so. Such a spirit may not even care if you're a horrible person or not. Unless the spirit happens to know that you're spreading sickness. Even such a spirit is often going to require a price in order to bestow a gift upon you. Now in the case of a spirit of hope. It may bestow a gift upon someone without charge but its purpose will be to inspire hope in others. Thus it gains more then it loses in helping them. That would be a rare occasion. Often such spirits prefer to make a deal with the person in question to move things further in their favor.”

After a moment Kersara gave a slight nod. “I'm not sure if you've heard about this but we have some information on Nightfang. Apparently the original spirit hunters had some kind of deal with him. If you would like I could speak to Julia and see if we could lend you a few books about him. That might let you make a better deal with him.”

“Now that would be appreciated! You have some pretty old books don't you?”

“Yes. I hope you don't mind me asking but can you read our writing though?”

“I. Uh. No.” Kelah could read. However, the language she knew how to read and write was the language of the orcs. In particularly the language of their shamans in which they recorded information about certain spirits so that it would never be forgotten. She had never had reason to learn how to read the beast people's language.

“Well I might be able to have it translated for you. Do you know if we have any records of your writings?”

“I do not. My father can read your language though I'm sure he'd be happy to translate any such books for us.”

“You're lucky. If I wanted to read a book written in another language I'd probably be forced to learn it.”

“Why is that?”

Kersara gave her head a slight shake as she remembered how things used to be. “For a long time brothers would pretty much handle any such situation. They would translate the book for us and give us the translated copy. Lately things have changed though. They're so busy at the moment and so are we. You've seen how I've been working the girls I'm sure. Plus there is the fact that we read and think much faster then our brothers. You sort of have to whenever you run at speeds like ours.”

“I've not heard you talk much about your brothers especially like that.”

Kersara knew that she was implying that the males of their species was different then them. Normally this would have been seen as a huge mistake on her part. She wasn't worried about that with Kelah though. She knew how to keep secrets and walls were coming down. As the brothers became more powerful they would want to step out into the open as well. That is if Zarena didn't push them out in the open. “Kelah do you have any stories about human males being among our numbers?”

“We know that you take them and we've seen them when we've visited. You even mate with them at times. But yeah we have stories about human males going further back then that especially involving earlier negotiations. We even have stories about mistakes that were made in the past. There is Lidah's folly as one of the primary ones.”

“What happened?”

“They were a group of three human males that had come to speak terms with us with one of the beast girls. You see we had exceeded our allowed population and they had come to talk about a plan to reduce the population. The original plan was apparently to restrict how many children we could have even further and allow things to naturally balance out over the next few decades. Well Lidah got it into her head to capture the males and use them as hostages. She had it in her head that the reason our numbers was restricted was because you feared us. Well things didn't go as planned. Our population was reduced to acceptable limits within the day.”

“Wow. I guess we came down on you pretty hard.”

A slight chuckle escaped Kelah as she shook her head. “When you say we I bet you think it was your fellow females that reduced our numbers.”

“You mean it was the males?”

“The story goes that after escaping a dozen males accompanied by three females appeared atop a near by mountain. The females held the orcs off while the males summoned fire from the sky that even reached into the shadow realm not only destroying a large part of the physical village but changing its spiritual representation as well. Several of the guardian spirits of the village were lost in these flames.”

For a moment Kersara said nothing but found herself thinking of Mirin. She had seen him use fairly powerful spells to devastate large regions but she didn't know of any spells like that one. “Wow. That is impressive.”

“Even if we can't beat you in the physical world we always thought we could escape to the shadows if need be. Well that day destroyed such hope completely. From what my father told me about your current mages though such destructive ability has been lost.”

“Yeah. If you would have allied with the spirits against us we might have had to wake up a sleeper these days. After the Amalgam we've had to have a long hard look at ourselves. Plus Zarena scolded us for a lot of things.”

“I'll say. Helping to start a new village and being more open with us. It felt kind of strange whenever I returned home a few weeks ago to speak with my father about our progress here. The difference between how the orcs here see you and the ones at home is quite astounding. I guess whenever you live with others and work with them your view point tends to change a bit. Oh but that meeting was such a head ache! You wouldn't believe how many annoying questions I had to answer about fishing and why we're not sending back more fish after all the resources we took to set this village up. My head was positively pounding and I was petting my axes by the end of it.”

“Seriously! They were that frustrating?”

“Yes! They don't seem to understand that fishing isn't like hunting. You tell them that the water spirits are upset and they think in terms of earth spirits because they've never had to deal with water spirits born from the ocean. Now just whenever we begin to really learn to fish the amount of fish in the area begins to go down. Apparently that changes with the seasons. The colder the weather the harder it is going to be for us to fish. Apparently a lot of the orcs back in the main village didn't think they'd have to spend much time hunting for meat with all the fish they'd be receiving.”

“I know what that's like. Whenever I returned to the village a bunch of sisters started complaining about the meat they've been eating and wanting to try fish. Well we finally managed to send enough to last for a while but the only thing they ate for five days after that was fish for breakfast lunch and dinner. Now they're out of fish again and I might end up just punching the next sister who ask me whenever they're getting more fish.”

“Hm that's different to. Kersara from time to time I've notice you referring to yourself as a faelom. What caused that change?”

“Faelom is apparently our name of origin. Some of the brothers started using it to refer to us and it's slowly been bleeding into our language. A lot of the books they've been studying also use that term to refer to us. It's our production name.”

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Currently Ridon's head rested between Alaina's breast as he looked up towards the ceiling. His heart rate was returning to normal while she gently ran her hands over his body. He would have explored hers more but she'd exhausted him. “So you don't mind the orcs being in the citadel?”

“There is nothing unusual about it. Perhaps some of them will become apprentices and Luvarians in time. They have been exchanging what they know of the spirits of now for what we know of the spirits of the past and helping with the last parts of the forest redesign. It seems a mutually beneficial trade to me and the other protectors.”

Alaina could hold such a cold ruthless view at times. On other subjects though she was warm and open. If nothing else the Luvarians didn't seem to care about what your species was. At least they didn't seem to. “Okay Alaina I have to ask. Is there any species that the Luvarians tended to dislike?”

“That's more of a regional question. In one of the more forested regions the area was controlled by ogres and I mean truly controlled by them. There were a few settlements in the area belonging to dwarfs and humans but they were the exception. If it hadn't been for the dwarfs and their tunnels it would have been easy for the ogres to cut them off. Luvarians from that region tended to have a great dislike for ogres. Then they're the dragons of the spire mountains. The Luvarians of that region weren't fond of dragons as well the dragons weren't fond of them.”

“What about kobolds?”

“There have been a few kobold Luvarians in their history but only a few. Often they were one of the few intelligent ones who sought to use the Luvarian's knowledge to elevate their species above their current and long lasting situation. I have no idea how those projects worked out. We lost contact with them and the ones in the forest were not part of such an attempt. The fact that the Amalgam made those winged kobolds was its own project. Now my turn. What do you think of your own little Amalgam? She's coming along nicely isn't she.”

Ridon gave his head a slow but deliberate nod. “She is. Well she's very energetic don't you think?”

“Fire, life and hope what kind of spirit did you expect?”

After a moment Ridon gave a slight chuckle. “You're right about that one. Thanks to the contract I made with her I can practically feel her developing even now. Is there any reason that you suggested the first gift I ask for is resistance to heat and cold?”

“You needed to start somewhere and those tend to be beneficial aspects to have.” Alaina had been rather impressed with how smoothly Ashas rebirth had gone. The newly reformed spirit was still rather weak but she was progressing nicely under Ridon's guidance with assistance from Joseph, Dan and Julia. Now she had to wonder what he was going to do with the spirit. He had gotten into her creation but would he take it further?

“I'm thinking about making her a body that she can use while in the physical world. She still has trouble slipping between the worlds at this point and I don't believe she's entirely comfortable in ours. I'm kind of curious to see what she'd do on her own. I have no doubt that she'd seek to gain more power of course but what about beyond that?”

It actually made Alaina rather happy to hear that Ridon was thinking about providing Ashas a body. “What kind of body are you thinking about?”

“Well for now perhaps a simple body. She's pretty weak right now but growing more powerful quickly and it might be handy to have something that would restrict her a bit. That is until she can learn the rules of operating in our world. Eventually I'd like to give her a body that could adapt with her. I'm thinking she could serve as an assistant or perhaps as an extra layer of protection. I am really curious to see what she'll want to do as her mind develops more though.”

“So you just want to see where she goes?”