Willow almost didn’t believe it whenever Khiat talked about the times before she met Daniel. Compared to now it must have been so relaxed. Granted the world was ending, but the human spent most of his days now either enchanting or training, as long as there wasn’t anything the team had to do.

  Now that they were back in Pinion’s Point, all that was left was to hunt. Following the attack on the city, Soraso had confirmed there would be no more excursions into the ruin for now. They’d made their return once Tlara had been released from the church of the Hand with as clean a bill of health as someone who’d been dead for a month could expect, and her sister had chosen to come with them. The Beastmaster had blustered about needing to pick up Spinner, but she hadn’t been in a rush to leave since then. Nor would she, Willow knew.

  As far as herself, well, she’s already advanced her wisdom today and knew she couldn’t push for another. She still had potential, both the act of fighting in the city and rescuing the sparrow’s spirit contributing to her gains. Willow liked to think the latter was more important, but she had no way to be sure.

  It was unlikely that she’d get more potential soon, at least from hunting. The monsters had exhausted part of the region’s supply with the attack, which all reports indicated did not possess any of the ‘elites’ that Cloak had warned about. Willow felt she would have known from the sparrow’s spirit if that was the case too.

  Additionally, she’d heard rumors that monster on monster violence was increasing as well. It all led to a calm after the storm. There was also the issue with the team, who would stay in Wingcraft and who’d be sent elsewhere. Willow wasn’t getting evicted from the compound, but she would admit it would be useful to hunt with people her level so she would break the habit of relying on others for protection.

  While she could continue to navigate the social network of Blessed in the city to that end, she chose to take a couple more hours for something important. Bonding with her new spirit. It- no, he was yet unnamed. Pyro was the obvious choice but didn’t fit. Similarly, Willow felt the spirit would reject anything she suggested at this point. The sparrow had been a hostile monster intent on killing people and had only taken her offer due to having little other option.

  The lore of the Octyrrum held that monsters had an ingrained hatred of mortals and all they built, and from her interactions with the sparrow Willow knew that to be true, to a point. Knowing what she did, the Spirit Master wanted to believe it was the influence of hostile gods driving spirited monsters to that end, rather than an innate disposition.

  The progress, limited though it was, emboldened her. Willow walked into the courtyard of the team’s compound, making sure to stand clear of anything flammable. “Ok, sparrow,” she said to the air around her, using the spirit’s former species in lieu of a name. “I want you to help me release some fire mana. I know you can do that.” She waited patiently, but nothing immediately emerged.

  It was more difficult with the sparrow than it had been with Wisp. Her first spirit had been all too eager to share what it could do with her, even if putting that into actual action required encouragement. She thought of that one as a frightened child, though with a measure of maturity that came from surviving hardship. Sparrow was different.

  As if she’d stumbled after pulling on a rope that had unexpectedly lost tension, Willow felt a flare of mana channel through the sparrow’s spirit and exit into the world. It manifested as a gout of flame that didn’t harm her body, but would scorch anything else. Rapidly patting at her sleeve, Willow scowled.

  “You think I haven’t dealt with someone like you before? Tlara once put live beetles in my bed while I was sleeping ‘because didn’t I like eating them so much?’” Sparrow didn't reply in any way she could articulate as neither spirit had language. Getting it to try what it could do had been a struggle on its own with how standoffish it had been, but she got a message now. “It’s not because I can’t control the mana. You need to work with me. Watch.”

  Taking a deep breath, she fed Wisp some of her mana and felt the result collect outside her body, ready to use. That was effortless compared to the hassle the sparrow was putting her through. Unfortunately it seemed she had the opposite problem there, the processed mana Wisp provided was less potent than the sparrow’s.

  Willow had only guesses as to why. She hadn’t known what would happen when she took in a second spirit and had been prepared to shelter Wisp should the sparrow’s turn violent, but they were apart within her. Where exactly she couldn’t say, it wasn’t the Astral or any part of her body she could determine. Her soul, perhaps? It was an oddly comforting theory.

  “My class is Spirit Master, but I will never force you to do anything,” she reminded the sparrow. It was something she expressed regularly. “We’re doing this to heal you. Yes, you help me get stronger in return. Is that so bad? I do need to keep you both safe.”

  With the approximation of a haughty turn of its head, the sparrow’s presence within her diminished. It could never entirely fade, not unless she permanently gave it up into the Astral, but Willow could cajole the sparrow into obeying with her class if she wanted. She would do neither, knowing it would be a betrayal of herself.

  That being said, she did put a lock on her powers when she saw someone walk out of one of the buildings to prevent any more ‘accidents’. Willow smiled and waved at Khare as the gestalt walked by her. “Going out?”

  "Soon,” Khare nodded, acorn eyes glancing at the sun before settling in one of the unshaded spots. The gestalt was in better spirits these days. They’d connected with the other earth gestalt in the region, and due to the concentration of mortals in the region, had the chance to visit them unlike in Aughal.

  It had come out that Khare had been in the sanctuary within Aurus during the attack, which had been hit hard unbeknownst to many. Flying monsters had raided the tunnels within the mountain and, contrary to what they’d done elsewhere, targeted Blessed and regular gestalt alike. Willow tried not to wonder if the sparrow had been searching for a similar access point before being intercepted.

  Willow would have returned to the sparrow save for a large presence ambling over to her. It was, of course, Spinner. The slightly unsettling to look at monster had become a fixture of their compound by now. It’d just been her and Janice at times, and while leaving the monster otherwise unattended might have been risky, people remembered her defending them during the initial attack wave.

  Some were starting to believe her when Willow told them Spinner was quite friendly. Having an actual spirited monster to point to was making convincing people far easier than it had been in Aughal, though Willow was careful to differentiate herself from her former movement. Her class acted like a shield too, for how could something related to a class gifted by the Octyrrum be unholy?

  “I don’t know how long it’s been since someone’s told you, but you’re doing a great job Spinner,” Willow remarked brightly, placing a hand on the side of the spider’s head as she lowered it. “They fed you ok while we were gone?”

  Spinner nodded vigorously, able to comprehend her language. Willow could have sworn she’d seen the monster attempt to write things in her web at times, but Daniel had given her a strange look when she’d mentioned it so she wasn’t sure. The characters of Greater Forlothan, of all language on the Octyrrum as far as she was aware, incorporated spirals and circles that could easily be lost in webbing.

  “Why don’t we say hi to Spinner?” Willow asked rhetorically, holding out both of her hands with the palms up. She didn’t need to do this to manifest a visual appearance of her spirits, but Wisp had always felt more comfortable with her holding them. The sparrow, on the other hand, quickly departed the palm. She was surprised the sparrow had manifested so readily, until it flew aggressively in Spinner’s face.

  The mandibles clicked as the spider regarded the spirit, not jerking away to his apparent annoyance. The sparrow couldn’t harm or be harmed by anything in this state as it was still safely stored within her. It could be out and about at all times. In fact, it was only its haughtiness and Wisp’s reticence that kept them inside most of the time.

  Willow felt it would have been appropriate to put the sparrow back inside but hesitated, unsure of where the line she wouldn’t cross fell. She did not want to dominate spirits like her sister did beasts, but kind encouragement wasn’t the best approach for the annoying soul remnant. As she pondered the issue, Willow had a very odd urge to pawn the spirit off on Tounaki for an hour or two to get a break. She was sure the Arcanist of all people could handle the sparrow, but that hadn’t been reason enough to stay in Aurus.

  She caught what might have been amusement from Spinner as the sparrow’s spirit grew disinterested in trying to provoke her, fading away on the spot rather than fly back into Willow’s body. “Sorry about him. We’re still figuring things out. At least Wisp likes it around you.”

  Spinner cupped the end of one of her almost, but not quite, humanoid hands as if she had been waiting for permission. Bringing it next to the hand holding Wisp, they both watched as the ball of light carefully crossed over, as if they would fall to their death if there wasn’t a surface under them.

  When they were in Spinner’s grasp the spider brought Wisp up to her many eyes, blinking at the spirit who varied their brightness several times in reply. A smile grew across Spinner’s face, the spider kind at least, before it changed into what Willow could only describe as a kind of distant pensiveness.

  If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Following that, Willow felt a response from the Astral. Not something in the Astral, but a resonance between it and the Octyrrum. It was ‘thinner’ in this area compared to others, something Willow and others with classes touching on the Asteal were beginning to conceptualize as it continued to change. All that meant was she had an easier time sensing oddities like this or Hunter’s soul, which was still missing. “Spinner, are you ok?”

  Before she could approximate an answer, someone poked her head out a window. “Hey, what the fuck are you doing to Spinner!?” Tlara’s peeved shout alarmed Wisp, who dove back for Willow’s hand and melted through like it was the surface of a pool. “This doesn’t feel like that bond you forced on me.”

  Willow could only roll her eyes at her sister’s poor attempts to keep up the appearance of enmity between them. She was still… well, Tlara to most people, but their relationship had undergone a shift that the Octyrrum had recognized, deepening their bond. What new developments had come from that Willow wasn’t exactly sure, except that she agreed with her sister here. Whatever was happening to Spinner wasn’t them.

  “I’m not doing anything either. What are you feeling?” Willow asked, wanting to be less public with the conversation but aware her sister was still working through what had happened to her and wouldn’t leave her room for something like-

  Tlara hopped out of the window with a displeased downturn on her face, arms briefly shifting to wings to break her fall. A hand went to the long shirt she wore to keep it in place once she landed, even though it wouldn’t have been blown high enough to reveal the scar. Seeing that, and Tlara out in the open, put Willow on edge.

  The Beastmaster stalked up to Spinner, speaking with an aggrieved voice. “What, all this isn’t good enough? Pretty sure I can’t bottle you anymore, not like I’m going to order you around or hijack you either. Or is it me?” She glared up at Spinner who retreated, and Willow sensed the astral resonance dwindle.

  “What is it?” she asked again.

  Still frowning, Tlara shook her head. “I don’t know exactly, it’s just this feeling I get sometimes. Like Spinner’s thinking about ditching me. Weird ass thing I’m sure no other Beastmaster has to worry about. Just my luck,” Tlara grumbled. “I die one time and temporarily borrow her body and all of a sudden Spinner wants nothing to do with me.”

  Willow stared for a moment as she parsed what Tlara had said from a more reasonable person’s perspective and combined it with what her class was telling her. “Tlara, how long has this been going on for?”

  “Dunno, since we brought Spinner out here maybe?” Her sister grew more serious as she read Willow’s tone and did something the old Tlara would have never done. Asked for her advice. “The Crest do you think is wrong with her?” In her way, of course.

  Willow looked between the two of them, then asked, “Tlara, when you were with Spinner, did she at any point dislike you being there?”

  “When I was… oh, fuck.” Tlara shuddered at what could only be horrible, freshened memories. In a not-as-loud voice Willow couldn’t describe as quiet, Tlara said, “I don’t remember that time too well. I mean, fuck sis, I’d just died. Keeping me, me was hard enough. I didn’t,” Tlara looked up again at Spinner. “No, I don’t think she did. No idea why the fucker put up with me considering what I did to her.”

  There was an obvious answer, though Daniel’s assurance that Identify Creature no longer showed Spinner under the domination effect relieved those fears. The answer was probably simpler, and one Tlara wouldn’t have thought of easily. “Tlara, I think she can do something to become independent, but she’s worried about what you would think.”

  Tlara scrunched her eyebrows at that. “The fuck you talking about? I told you to run the second I started dying,” she spun, addressing the large spider monster. “Can you understand me or what? If you want to go, fucking go.”

  Willow, looking closely, saw it, and sighed. Oh, Tlara. With all your wisdom, you never would have figured it out. “She can break the connection, I think,” Willow qualified, “but she doesn’t want to go. Spinner’s afraid if she does you’ll tell her to leave.”

  “I am telling her to leave!” Tlara shouted, exasperated, as if her voice hadn’t been working before.

  Willow saw it again. The astral resonance around Spinner extinguished, and in the body itself, she saw worry. Willow put a careful hand on her sister’s shoulder to make sure she had her full attention. “Tlara, she doesn’t want to leave you.”

  “The fuck kind of head game is that?” Tlara asked the audience at large. “Look, Spinner, I don’t care. You stay, you leave, fine by me. You jump off a cliff and fall forever it’s no feathers off my ass. If you can break the connection on your own, do it. Better than me fucking around and making you lose everything by accident.”

  It was astonishing how Tlara continually missed the point no matter how bluntly Willow put it. She supposed the same could be said for Spinner. In short, Willow was pretty sure Tlara couldn’t conceive that someone would want her approval. Or acceptance, admiration, other a words, she hadn’t exactly nailed down what Spinner wanted but it was along those lines. Tlara was a loner, by circumstance and personality. Sure, Willow was there, but you could rationalize it as something she was doing out of obligation for her sister. Tlara had made that point several times in the past.

  As far as Spinner was concerned? There was a whole lot to unpack and Willow didn’t understand half of it in a way she could describe. Instead of breaking it down into ever smaller pieces until Tlara stopped choking on the point, Willow skipped the middle woman.

  “Spinner, it’s ok. You trust me, right?” The spider monster reluctantly turned her gaze to Willow and nodded, in clear fear of how Tlara would react to everything that happened. “Good. I don’t know what you want to do, but I think I sense the shape of it. If you think this is a good idea, if it will make your life better, you should do it. I promise you Tlara won’t think any less of you for it. Right, Tlara?”

  Tlara folded her arms and kept her beak clamped shut until Willow poked her in the side. “Fine, gods, yes! How many times do I have to say it?”

  “See?” Willow touched one of Spinner’s lower arachnoid legs comfortingly and was touched that Wisp manifested on their own, deforming their orb slightly to mimic the rub. The sparrow kept its wings metaphorically crossed in solidarity with Tlara, exhibiting at most strong disinterest. He didn’t have her insight into what was happening, for if he did, he’d be paying more attention.

  Cautiously, Spinner’s resonance with the Astral climbed back up, the monster backing into the center of the courtyard to have more space. Tlara sidled up to Willow as this happened and asked, “So, uh, what the fuck is she doing?”

  “I think her spirit is healing,” Willow answered, the sparrow within her picking up his head at that. “The Astral’s reacting to what she’s doing. I wasn’t there when it happened with Hunter, but I heard about it from Daniel.” As it always went, the moment she mentioned the Artificer he appeared. This coincided with a sudden halt in whatever Spinner was doing. From the look of it, the monster hadn’t expected an obstacle to appear.

  Appearing with his back turned to the window, making it clear that he was in the process of enchanting something, Daniel asked over his shoulder, “Uh, guys, everything alright? I just got a weird notification about Spinner. She’s good, right?”

  Willow didn’t cup her hands to project her voice back because avianoids didn’t really need to do that. “It’s her spirit! I think she hit the point Hunter did before he bonded with Tak.” Over in another part of the courtyard, Khare stirred.

  “What!?” Daniel clenched his teeth as he tried not to fully turn toward the courtyard. “Can it wait, or, no. Hang on.” Willow caught the faintest bit of dust drifting out the window, a sign that whatever Daniel was working on had been abandoned. The Artificer Jumped out into the courtyard in the next moment, not needing any other power to break his fall. He observed the courtyard but couldn’t see what she could. “This just happened?”

  “Yes,” Willow answered. It wasn’t the entire truth, but you could say that Spinner hadn’t been fully ready until now. “What should we expect?” Daniel scratched the back of his head before his expression froze for a moment. “What?”

  “Uh, let’s hope this doesn’t go exactly like Hunter’s awakening did.” Willow looked to Tlara in confusion when Daniel didn’t elaborate but she just shrugged in reply. Daniel looked at his Focus, which was currently strapped to one of his wrists like a very small shield. She knew one of the things he’d been enchanting had something to do with that but now wasn’t the time to ask for details. His finger tapped the reflective surface. “Huh. Well, it isn’t like last time. I could choose the variant Hunter became when he Grew. Either Spinner’s dead set on awakened silk shocker or I can’t go that far with a creature I’m not bonded to.”

  “So what the fuck do we need you for?” Tlara asked with a bit more real venom than she used with Willow, bristling at Daniel’s intrusion into the public space. Her eyes also crossed to where Khare was approaching but didn’t object as much to them.

  “My Spoke,” Daniel answered quietly after making sure there was no one else in the immediate area. “There was stuff I couldn’t read last time and it’s probably what’s been unidentified here too. If I have to guess, I need to approve whatever’s happening. That or its connection to the Astral domain is needed to make this work. What do you think?”

  “She hit a barrier right before you noticed, though I can’t tell you if it's one or the other.” Spinner remained at a distance from them, nervously listening to the conversation as her fate was decided. “You’re going to do it, right?”

  “Yeah! I just wanted to make sure everything was alright before I pushed the button.” He held a finger over his wrist where unintelligible red and green words were displayed. Still, he hesitated. “So you know before, uh, we do this. It’s probably fine, but things could get weird.”

  “Get it over with already!” Tlara shouted. “Look at her. How much weirder can you get than that?”

  Willow butted in before the Beastmaster crushed Spinner’s spirit further. “I’m not worried, Daniel. If we don’t do this, Spinner loses her chance. Are you going to take it from her?”

  “Of course not!” Daniel clenched his hand a few times, gave an unsteady glance toward Spinner, and gave whatever permission was needed for matters to progress.

  Willow felt the response in the Astral as, slowly at first, Spinner’s presence there grew. Unconsciously she held up one hand to allow Wisp to manifest and sensed the sparrow do so as well, perching on her shoulder and not causing trouble for once.

  She gasped in amazement as, when it reached its peak, the resonance in the Astral became a soul. The immediate concern that Spinner had become disincorporated faded as the flame returned to her body. She did it. We did it! Willow thought, exuberant. Already there was a tickling in the back of her head that symbolized the receipt of advancement potential. I wasn’t wrong about my class’ purpose. We can save them.

  Her thoughts on that were interrupted as Spinner’s body began to shift before them. It looked like a typical major transmutation power, which was to say it was hard to look in the middle. But oh, did they understand what Daniel had been worried about when the physical shift that accompanied Spinner’s spiritual evolution ended.

  The former monster had shrunken slightly, though she was still the largest person in the courtyard. If Khiat were here it would’ve been a closer contest. That was far from what made the three nearby stare in shock. Noting the reaction she was receiving, Spinner hesitantly opened her new beak and parted the mandibles that crossed sideways into it, bowing her head to Tlara. “Mistress, I, I hope this new form is to your liking. Please, allow me to continue to serve you. I promise I am still useful.”

  Tlara thoughtfully considered those words and then began to scream.