Creating the lighting rod turns out to be harder than I was hoping it would be. Happy, Flower and I get going even as the council starts their discussions. Our companions keep us up to date with anything they think might be useful to know, though they defer anything particularly important until we’re done – I make it clear that our task is best accomplished sooner rather than later, even if that means delaying the council business a bit.

  Our main issue is, as Happy said, the fact that we don’t have enough metal to create the lightning rod outright. I don’t want to cheat like I did when I created a rough lightning rod to help protect me during the aftermath of Windy’s ascension – that was only designed to be temporary and barely lasted as long as I needed it to. And that means creating a wholly metallic rod from the top of a three-storey building equivalent down to the ground below.

  The only way we manage to achieve our objective is the fact that Metal-Shaping can allow for a certain amount of metal-creation, though it’s heavily mana intensive. In the end, we need to call on Yells to help us out too. As I discovered when fighting the tentacled fellapodil in the salt-cave, her enhancing abilities aren’t only restricted to blows from an enemy. There, she helped me increase the amount of lava I was able to create.

  She’s been experimenting with her sisters in more recent times and has discovered that as long as the magic is run through her first, she can enhance it. Fortunately, the Bond network offers a means by which magic is easily transferred between beings. Our progress starts becoming faster than glacial.

  When Happy has the idea of temporarily borrowing Yell’s ability to Enhance magic, our progress speed almost doubles. Happy has a lot less experience than Yells does in the Skill, which reduces the speed a little. Fortunately, with my ability to borrow mana from my Bound and channel it to others, Happy’s very small mana pool isn’t in itself a limitation. Of course, the conversion rate isn’t entirely efficient, but with so many Pathwalkers to draw from who aren’t currently using their mana, we’re able to keep going until the rod is finished.

  While we work, Flower partially embeds the strip into the trunk of the tree, surrounding it with a fine-particle clay on my suggestion – I don’t want to risk sparks being emitted which will catch the trunk on fire. Hopefully the clay will act as enough of an insulator that the tree itself won’t become charged. I remind myself to tell samurans to stay away from touching the tree during and immediately after a storm.

  As we get up to the canopy, Flower opens a hole so that we can extend the rod higher than the top of the tree itself. It does mean that there’s a small hole which lets water drip through, but that shouldn’t be a problem as long as it doesn’t wear away the clay – and no one tries to drink from the trickle of water while lightning is in play.

  Finally done, we join the council meeting. It doesn’t take long before I’m bored, though. I remember sitting through far too many interminable meetings at work; it’s disappointing that that aspect has continued into my new life as a mage, tamer, and village leader. The last in that list is the most relevant to the meetings, I note wryly to myself. Maybe I’ll be free of them when I leave the village behind. That thought has both excitement and sadness attached. But I don’t really want to think about right now – I look for a distraction.

  Seeing that Flower doesn’t really appear to be paying attention to the discussion about exactly what quantity of different resources should count for a small Energy fragment, I reach out to the new Enlightened samuran.

  Bored? I ask.

  It’s hard to concentrate on such matters after experiencing the power of an Evolution, she admits. I frown.

  You can leave, if you want. I’m sure no one would begrudge you getting some rest or meditating to consolidate your learning or whatever.

  It’s fine, she dismisses. I will rest after this. She looks up at the canopy of the tree above. I can’t believe I created this, she breathes as if in confession. It’s far, far greater than anything I created before.

  It’s pretty amazing, I agree. But weren’t you really aware you were creating it at the time?

  It’s hard to say. I…it was almost like a dream. Or a flower. A bud I had never known existed suddenly opened to me, releasing a dazzling burst of pollen which left me reeling as I saw a world within its petals. I felt how all of my gifts work and how they could operate together, each enhancing the other. I grew the tree, a plant which encompassed earth directly within it, my ability to meld the two together making a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts – a tree capable of growing, yet sturdy and resistant as a rock face, and as pretty as the gemstones glittering in the depths of the earth. And possessing an aura of fecundity which will increase the ability of all within a certain radius of it to have more and healthier offspring….

  And then the pollen of dreams wore off, and I could still see the flower, but yet some of the magic had gone. The world was merely the interior of a bloom, beautiful…but no more. That instinctive melding of each of my new gifts that I was capable of so delicately manipulating was reduced to the barest numb fumbling. And I know that if I want to do anything approaching the magnificence of this tree, I will have to work hard to learn the limits of each of my gifts and the way they intertwine.

  It’s interesting. Like there’s some sort of inspiration which happens directly after an Evolution and which wears off over time. Is that why Windy created the cyclone? She felt an inspiration of how to use her new abilities together, and so she moved forward with it. It makes sense how much trouble she had gaining control over a small cyclone between her hands for a while after that – what she had been capable of in the moments after Evolution was merely the taster; it took effort to repeat it.

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  Can you tell me more about the process of Evolution itself? And how did you even get there? I didn’t think that you were that close to Evolution. I mentally cue Tarra in to pay attention, inviting her to join our previously-private chat. Flower wordlessly sends her sister greetings as the herbalist responds, her sense of impatient annoyance at being interrupted quickly fading to gratitude as she realises what we’re talking about.

  It was working on the shelters that got me there, Flower explains. Seeing the way roots merged with earth, strengthening and holding the soil fragments together even as the earth gave structure to the roots and allowed them to reach higher than they would have been capable of alone…. I suddenly realised that I’d been missing something vital in my approach. That the earth nurtures plants just as much as water or sunlight does.

  Spending time in your den afterwards was exactly what I needed. I felt the Energy flow around my body more fluidly than ever before, my Core getting close to bursting. As we returned to the village, I was certain that I was close enough to Evolution to touch it; I only needed a little more to push through the final barrier.

  Speaking to Earth-shaper helped me understand more about the earth, about its steady presence, its rock-solidity which can nonetheless give way to the press of roots, offering a tree its stability in a storm, as well as the food and water it needs to grow – just like any living creature.

  And when I returned to the village, I went back to look at the new huts we created together. Suddenly, I could see how the work with my sisters was just like the roots which hold the huts together – each separate, yet connected, and working together to create something far greater than a single root could ever achieve.

  That was it. The final barrier to my Evolution melted away like it had never existed. I felt the Energy I had accumulated in my Core flow from it and press at my scales, seeming to attempt to escape my very body. And that intense pressure inside…. She shivers, an echo of the desperation she had felt at the time drifting across the Bond. It was too much. I felt that I had to keep the pressure inside, let it build to a certain level before releasing it, and yet I felt that I was too weak.

  I feared that I had pushed my Evolution too soon, that instead of following the edge of insights, I should have left them to settle a little first before attempting Evolution. I was sure that if my weakening grasp failed, it wouldn’t just be the end of my Evolution – it would be the end of me too.

  And then you were there. I felt you in the Bond between us. You offered aid, and I eagerly accepted it, your presence entering me in a way I have never experienced before…. Like you were inside some immensely private place of mine, far more intimate than mating could ever be. And it was only the fact that you and I have had a Bond through which we have shared thoughts and mana that having you there did not force an explosion far too soon.

  Then it was you holding me together while I held the pressure inside me. It built, and built, and built. Even when it was shredding my insides, eagerly burrowing through me to escape my confines, you would not let go. Your grip was like iron, forcing me to hold on….

  Sorry about that, I apologise with a grimace. I didn’t realise that it was hurting you.

  Do not apologise, she tells me, surprisingly sternly. I know now that the longer that pressure built, the more power there was to explode and reform my Energy Heart; the more powerful I became at the end of the Evolution.

  Well, I’m glad it was for a good purpose then, I tell her with a hint of relief. Actually, about that exploding your Core, Energy Heart, thing…how come you have three of them?

  Flower twitches her tail in a shrug.

  It felt right. When my Energy Heart shattered under the force of the pressure that we released, I just felt that it was right to have three new centres.

  Is three better than one, I wonder? I ask, thinking about Windy’s single Core. Again Flower seems uncertain. Well, I guess it depends on whether having three Cores means that it takes extra time to reach the next Evolution, or whether it gives you three times the mana storage potential or something, I comment.

  We continue speaking a little longer but have to cut off our conversation when the council meeting ends. It’s still pouring outside, but it will be practice for me to use my Water-Shaping to try to keep the rain off me while I dodge for my hut, or at least dry myself when I arrive. The rest of the samurans now streaming out of the clearing don’t have the same advantage.

  Before I leave completely, though, Tarra stops me with a clawed hand delicately placed on my shoulder. I turn to look at her gazing at me seriously.

  You did not have to allow me to listen into a conversation which my sister would never have shared with me had you not invited me.

  I smile at her, though respond as privately as she sent her message. To be completely honest with you, I’m hoping that you will Evolve before I leave. Windy is too selfish for me to want her to be the main influence on this village without me present to keep her in check and Flower won’t stand up to her on her own. I trust that you and Flower together will force her to act according to the best interest of the village. And I hope that now you won’t even consider any sacrificial plays, not of your own village, and not of anyone else. Tarra has the grace to look away from me, shame coming through the Bond.

  I will not, she vows. I have seen a better way. I hope it can endure even without your particular abilities, but I will do my best to see it done.

  Good, I answer with satisfaction. Let me know if you need any help Evolving. That, along with teaching at least two apprentices the basics of your art, is now your priority.

  She tilts her chin in silent acknowledgement and then heads off into the rain, the water easily running off her scales.

  Time for me to find my own bed, though this time I won’t be lying down to rest. I desperately need some more Willpower to be able to Bind more of the Evolved samurans calling our village their home, temporary or not.

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