“Heavens… Kite, this is marvelous!” Dove exclaimed as she retracted her hand from one of the roots of the grand tree that now stood proudly dominating the skyline of the astral space. “I haven’t seen or felt anything like it.”

  “But it is a tree right?” Dragonfly asked, poking the bark-like glass covering a bit more sceptically. Seeing the raised eyebrows of the others, she flushed but continued. “Well, I know it certainly looks like a tree. But so do many wood elementals before they go on the offensive. And while I’m as ready to fight monsters as the next girl, I would need a bigger axe to take on something like this.”

  “Oh, good point, dear,” Dove said with a nod. “But yes, this is a tree. A very odd, definitely magical tree. But it’s neither a monster nor one of the native plant creatures. Look. Life’s bounty, heed my guidance.”

  As she chanted, Dove waved her hand over one of the miniscule offshoot roots which emerged from the larger piece. Before their eyes, it grew a little thicker and longer as her spell took hold.

  “Had this been something else, my spell wouldn’t have any effect,” Dove continued, eyes sparkling. “But you know what the best thing is?”

  “What?”

  “That my spell made such a small difference!” Dove cooed, going back to fondly patting the root.

  “Aaaaaand that is a good thing?” Dragonfly asked, bemused.

  “Oh it is. It is indeed,” the alchemist continued. “My spell works on almost all plants, but it will make less changes for more mana the more potently magical the target.”

  “Ooooh… So that means…”

  “That his beauty has so much potential! So much to learn!”

  “Well, I for one aim to climb it and see the view from above,” Kite said, having stood watching the rustling leaves while his friends and family made what observations they could of this unexpected development.

  “Oh, I’m coming with you!” Dragonfly called. “Sprite, stay here with Dove and Crow. We should have cleared out any monsters, but you never know in this place where our aura senses are hampered. The disciple looked both disappointed and relieved at her assignment, seeming to find her vantage from atop a nearby stone to be quite adventurous enough for the moment.

  “We are coming as well, aren’t we, my Lady?” Will asked Laevyeth who sat primly atop another root to his side.

  “Of course, my Lord. I too wish to know more of this grand blooming that took place. It is truly a shame to have missed the event.”

  This meant that the four silvers - or five, if you counted the celestial carp who was currently snoozing away inside her bottle, unbothered by the events - were free to set off at their own top speeds toward the top of the tree. Dragonfly produced her axe and set off, easily balancing atop the animated weapon alongside Kite who simply ascended into the air as if walking a set of stairs.

  In their wake, Will unhurriedly held out a hand to Laevyeth who took, accepting the entirely unneeded help to get down from her perch. The outworlder’s feet had barely touched the ground before she shifted into her spear form, and a moment later wings of her simulacra sprouted form Will’s back as he took flight; like a majestic bird, each pinion a beautiful spear whose tips shone with a soft blue light.

  As they drew closer, Kite once more found himself appreciating just how vast the azure foliage of the tree was as it stretched out above them. While the light of the astral space didn’t seem to come from a particular source, and the tree therefore casting no shade, it still felt a bit like shelter from the world once they were properly beneath it. Soon, the group landed atop one of the parts of its bough, just beneath where the foliage truly began.

  “The view from up here is amazing. But I will admit that it probably would be better if the space didn’t just stop pretty close by,” Dragonfly noted, looking around while easily balancing at the slanted surface.

  “It is indeed impressive,” Kite agreed. “But even so, I am more curious about its nature. Whatever could it be? Has it always rested below, coming into existence along with the astral space?”

  “I would think so, or it would have to have been planted by someone both powerful and discreet. And those people probably wouldn’t just have left it there without some kind of oversight for their project,” Will noted. “This astral space has, as far as we know, only been seen as a bit of a nuisance for the Bastion city rulers, right?”

  “That is true. They wouldn’t have sold me the land otherwise, I assume,” Kite agreed. “Let us look about then. At least it should be a pleasant kind of exploration.”

  As it turned out, his words held true, even though without the safety of silver rank - and all the powers that came with it - running, leaping and climbing along the branches of the great tree would have been a risky prospect for many. But for the group, it became something akin to a game as they sprang between great branches and tested how far up among the leaves they could get.

  Up close, said leaves were even more fascinating; long, blade-like fronds with purple stalks surrounded by blue. Each frond was about as long as a forearm, with plentiful smaller leaves along its length, and Kite was lost in thought as he stood carefully turning one around to inspect it when he heard Dragonfly call from a bit further off.

  “Everyone! Come! Look!”

  As there was no sense of urgency in her tone, Kite made his way over at a more measured pace, and thus he was the last to arrive to where Dragonfly, Will and Laevyeth stood inspecting a break in the otherwise monotonous arboreal environment. They were now close to the center of the tree’s massive canopy, at the edge of where the central bough started splitting off into smaller branches. And there, standing out among the mass of azure and purple, three pale, pink fruits hung from a small branch of their own. Each resembled a pink peach, but was covered in a network of blue webbing which matched the twin leaves at its top. The bough around the fruit-bearing branch crooked in upon itself, creating a kind of simple sanctuary for the fruits, which were incredibly small compared to the huge tree itself.

  “Huh. I didn’t figure this for a fruit tree,” Dragonfly mused, leaning this way and that to inspect the fruits more closely. “If so, it is a pretty bad one. Three fruits among all of these branches?”

  Kite joined her, kneeling down to look close atop the wide bough which easily had space for all of them along its length.

  “Hmm, it was a long time ago since I learned of it, but I do remember auntie Dove telling me of magical flora and their peculiarities. One is that some apparently concentrate a lot of their magic into fewer, more potent offshoots rather than spreading said potential out among many. This might be just that. And given its size- ,” he said, looking meaningfully at the huge tree around them, “- this could indicate that these are quite potent, whatever they are-”

  Kite’s words were cut off as he suddenly felt a pang of hunger and desire wash across his senses, potent enough to almost make him think them his own. But as it turned out, they were not, but rather belonged to the hitherto sleeping celestial carp in the bottle at Kite’s waist.

  Since her transformation and integration into the more conventional society, the sensations Kite had gotten from Glint through their bond had also started to become more refined as she expanded her world. Not this particular one, though. The feeling was raw and gluttonous, a primal kind of need which he had so far not felt from his familiar, even if Glint being offered one of the shimmering scales had been slightly similar.

  And along with the feeling also came intent. Kite barely had the time to register his familiar’s plan of action before Glint shot out of her bottle in a burst of pressurized water which caused Dragonfly to yelp in discomfort as she was hit by the spray.

  Glint, however, had eyes for nothing else but the fruits ahead of her. With one big gulp, the little carp swallowed one of the fruits whole. Through their bond, Kite could feel a deep satisfaction and hints of a most marvelous taste as the familiar devoured her caught morsel, floating happily atop a cushion of conjured water.

  “Well… I suppose that we might soon become wiser as to the effects,” Kite eventually said, throwing Glint a disbelieving look. “Little beauty, are you sure that was wise?”

  “My bond, while my actions might have seemed a bit impulsive and not proper for a young mistress like myself, the scent was simply so divine that I would have been an even bigger fool not to partake,” Glint replied after she had finished a rather lengthy savoring session.

  “Then you must find some quality here unknown to the rest of us,” Will said, having also approached to inspect the two remaining fruits. “Even with my senses, I smell nothing but a slight freshness.”

  “That might just be you lacking the proper and refined scent palette,” the carp replied haughtily. “But now, if you will all excuse me, I will once more retire as this marvelous experience has me feeling most-”

  Glint’s words cut off mid-sentence as the water beneath her suddenly dispersed and fell along with the carp. Fortunately, it was a simple matter for Kite to reach out and scoop her out of the air. A cursory glance at Glint’s aura revealed her to be merely asleep, and most contentedly at that. But as Kite let his spirit mingle alongside hers for a while longer, he also felt something else; an odd shifting, of sorts. It was subtle and hard to pin down, but something outside the ordinary was going on.

  “Does anyone else feel that?” he asked, the others performing similar examinations at his prompting.

  “Hmm, I think I do. It’s a little bit off,” Dragonfly eventually said, being the one most familiar with Glint’s aura as of late. “Do you think it’s anything dangerous?

  “Nothing in her aura or bond seems to indicate distress at least,” Kite said, regarding the now placid shimmering carp before gently sliding her back into her dimensional bottle. “I suppose that we’ll just let her sleep it off, if that’s what she needs. Hopefully it’s nothing like the century-long torpors one hears about in stories and legends.”

  “Oh just imagine the look on her face if she woke up and realized that she’d missed a century of fashion,” Dragonfly said, giggling.

  “Well, let’s just avoid impulsively ingesting any more of these fruits for the time being,” Kite said with a laugh. “But I’m sure that auntie Dove would love to take a look at least. Come, let us go back below again and tell them of our findings.”

  “Back again, dear? How have today’s studies fared?” Crow asked as her wife joined them at the garden patio for dinner. The eating space was still in the same, verdant state as it had been when Will and Laevyeth first met, albeit with a few more wooden chairs added to leave room for everyone.

  The question was unneeded however, as one needed only to cast a glance at Dove’s bright smile and the spring in her step to confirm that the plant-cultivating alchemist had become as one with the heavens.

  “Oh love, it’s so exciting! I’ve been spending most of today trying to understand the surface of the tree. As we suspected, it's less of an ordinary bark and more of a glass-like resin which it seems to make by assimilating materials in the environment as it grows. I’ve taken some careful samples and-”

  Dove continued in a lengthy explanation that became a bit too technical for the rest of those gathered, with Crow being the one nodding along most attentively.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “-and so I decided to try and see what I can do with the samples in my laboratory for a few days. Get a break from all this sand,” Dove finished, making another futile attempt to brush the rest of the purple dust from the hem of her robes before sitting down and finally seeming to actually take in those gathered and noticing that some were absent. “Oh? Where are Will and Laevyeth?”

  “Off to seek out some contracts,” Kite explained, handing his auntie a steamed meat bun. “He and Laevyeth felt that they still have a lot of work to do in order to really harmonize their paths with one another.”

  “Oh Dove, you should have been here. Laevyeth said she would - and I quote - ‘strive to embrace his Heavenly Shaft’,” Dragonfly added, failing to keep a straight face while making her best Laevyeth impression.

  “Oh… Oh my,” Dove said, actually blushing a bit. “I mean, I know how the young master is, but to think Laevyeth would be cut from the same cloth…”

  “In Laevyeth’s case, I suppose it is more like she knows logically but doesn’t have the experience and context for innuendo to actually make sense to her,” Kite said. “We’ll see if it changes in the years to come, but for now they do indeed make for quite the pair.”

  “Well, I suppose that you are right. It just reminds me a bit of how my dear wife here used to tease me all the time in our early days,” Dove continued, trying to ignore her slight fluster.

  “Like what dear?” Crow asked sweetly. “You mean like when we were talking about the anatomy of flowers and I started likening them to-”

  “Anyway, where is Glint? Still asleep?” Dove interrupted, blushing yet again as she forcefully changed the subject.

  “She is,” Kite confirmed, patting the bottle at his hip. “She’s the reason why we wouldn’t go out with the others. I don’t know what will happen when she wakes up and how she will be feeling, so remaining at home felt like the most prudent course of action rather than her needing help while we’re neck-deep in monsters.”

  “Such a considerate young man we’ve raised,” Dove praised, before continuing. “And speaking of other things to consider, have you thought of whom to bring in to consult about the state of the astral space and the tree? I will gladly continue to help you with the botanical and alchemical side of things, of course, but we will need more help than that if we are to truly have a chance at understanding what that tree is and how it might affect the rest of the dimensional pocket.”

  “We have been discussing it, and decided to hold off on it for a bit and consult Jarvan and Dobrazza. They are more knowledgeable than us in regards to how to approach such a thing and, more importantly, who we might call upon to help us look into the matter. As you can imagine, I’m not too keen on inviting just anyone to see this as it feels like the kind of thing which could lead to trouble, should the wrong people find out about it. Say… like an unscrupulous gold-ranker in the magic society looking to claim potential groundbreaking research. It might prove entirely unimportant or insignificant, but I’d rather have that confirmed by a secure source than risk a repeat of Laevyeth’s kidnapping.”

  “That sounds wise, little Kite,” Crow agreed, gently moving a few leaves aside to put her bowl down on the still overgrown table. “At least there doesn’t seem to be any signs of the space itself having changed so far, but I wouldn’t have expected it either. My knowledge of astral magic is rudimentary at best, but I’d imagine that it would take something a lot more spectacular than this to make short-term changes on that level. We-”

  She fell silent as they all felt the aura sleeping inside the bottle at Kite’s belt stir, expanding as Glint seemed to be waking up and then contracting as the familiar brought her spirit under a modicum of control. Kite unhooked the bottle from his belt and put it atop the table to better allow for Glint to emerge, as he felt was her intention through their bond. But that swiftly changed to befuddlement as the bottle merely shook once with a soft ‘clonk’ before falling still again.

  “Uhm… Little beauty? Is everything well?” Kite asked in the silence that followed. He could sense more confusion and a bit of emotional turmoil from the carp within. Nothing dire, but Glint was definitely upset.

  “It seems that this young mistress has found herself in need of some… assistance,” Glint eventually said, voice echoing up from the mouth of the bottle. “If you would be so kind as to handle the matter, my bond?”

  Curious, Kite leaned in and looked into the bottle, eyes going wide as he realized Glint’s most unexpected predicament.

  “Oh. Oh! Just hold on, Little beauty. I shall see what I can do.”

  Breaking an artifact with dimensional storage could be a complicated or risky affair, depending on its size and what was in it. One did not very much wish to accidentally have some hoarder’s whole collections of household furniture - kitchen sink included - to be suddenly emptied out into a potentially enclosed space smaller than recommended. But for a single bottle with a diminutive carp familiar and part of her little hoard of shiny things? The process was pretty straightforward.

  “Careful, my bond! This young mistress would be most distressed to lose part of my wealth in this most embarrassing endeavor!”

  “If you would prefer to remain inside for the rest of your days, Little beauty, I can promise to drop some food down into the flask every once in a while,” Kite teased in response as he laid the bottle on its side in the middle of one of the empty yards of the compound.

  “Such disrespect… Very well, if the heavens are fickle enough, then I will have to suffer the indignity of loss, should that prove to be the case,” came the grumbling reply.

  “Ready yourself, then. Auntie Crow, is the formation ready?”

  “Quite so, little Kite,” came the reply as Crow checked the last of the formation plates, part of a mobile one which was designed to contain forces from within. Better safe than sorry, after all.

  “Then may Fortune see that all goes well,” Kite said. Then, without further ado, he conjured his staff and swung downwards in a controlled, measured strike that struck the bottle with a resounding chiming. While the container was enchanted to withstand the occasional impact, the directed attack proved enough. Glint’s bottle cracked down the middle, and then there was a flash and a burst of force as the expanded dimension within spilled out into reality.

  The defensive formations flashed as coins and gems impacted their previously translucent barriers, and Kite felt them sting across the arm he raised to shield his face. Not enough to hurt a silver-ranker, but a reminder of the forces involved.

  Glint herself had been launched almost straight up into the air, but soon came floating down in a more controlled manner atop a cushion of water. And thus were the changes to her made apparent to all, because the small carp now sprouted a set of surprisingly sleek antlers from her head. In some ways they were similar to those of a deer, but more angled toward Glint’s back. But perhaps the most stark difference was that they looked to be made of crystal, slightly faceted and clear enough to split the afternoon sunlight into the whole spectrum of color.

  “Well, my bond, give me the truth. How bad is it?” Glint asked where she floated in front of Kite, somehow managing to convey the sense that she was blushing.

  The others around seemed stunned by this development, but Kite - who had already glimpsed the changes - managed to find his tongue a bit faster, even though he too had to stare in awe at the unexpectedly colorful display.

  “Honestly?” He asked.

  “Yes, my bond, honestly. Horns? Horns?! The indignity! I couldn’t even exit my bottle without them getting caught…”

  “Well, you sure look different, Little beauty. It definitely was not what I expected. But honestly? I would say that you look even prettier than before.”

  “Hmph! Surely you jest, my bond,” the carp grumbled in return. “Perhaps I can escape them if I-”

  Glint shifted to her draconian form, but alas, the antlers remained, growing in scale to fit her new size. She looked as if she was almost about to tear up when Dragonfly broke in.

  “Glint, it’s true!” she said, stepping up to stand next to Kite. “They fit you. They really do.”

  “R-really?”

  “I will concur,” Crow added from the sidelines, adjusting her enchanted glasses as she further inspected the additions. “They are both regal and exotic. Nobody will overlook your passing now.”

  “And the way they catch the light? Just imagine how you can adorn them to further enhance it. Gold and some other gemstones to contrast would look marvelous,” Dove finished, the verbal coup de grace towards the wavering familiar.

  “Fine… Fine… This young mistress should at least give herself a proper inspection before passing judgment,” she eventually relented, standing a bit taller in face of the praise. “A mirror, someone?”

  One was soon produced, and Glint spent a long while looking at her reflection, looking this way and that as she gave herself a thorough scrutiny.

  “To think that eating a fruit could cause such changes…” Dove noted while they waited. “I’ve heard of all manner of exotic plants with spectacular potential, but this? Why horns? What does it do? Would we undergo similar changes, should we try some?”

  “All questions to add to our long list for the future, dear,” Crow said, patting her wife’s arm as Glint finally straightened, seeming to have come to some kind of conclusion.

  “This young mistress has found that these changes, while drastic and unexpected, will be workable. A challenge, to be sure, as I will have to take them into account as I redesign parts of my wardrobe. But it is a challenge I will take on with every ounce of dedication I can spare.”

  To punctuate her words, she tossed her head dramatically which once more caused the crystal antlers to catch the light.

  “I’m glad to hear it, Little beauty,” Kite said, relieved that he wouldn’t have a sulking familiar for the foreseeable future. “And…?”

  “And, my bond?”

  “And anything else? Any other changes you’ve noticed?”

  “Beyond the most important one? Well, now that it is out of the way, I suppose I should give the rest some thought,” Glint replied, unabashedly declaring her priorities. But she did close her eyes as the others could feel her aura - which had slightly changed at that - turn inwards in introspection.

  “Hmm… I get a sense of a shift… My instincts guide me further… Widened perspective… The ebb and flow, unseen rivers and currents affecting other things far, far away…” she murmured, before eventually opening her eyes. “You seem to be correct, my bond. Something in my magic has changed as well.”

  “Amazing,” Kite breathed, trying to take in the implications. “What? How?”

  “I will do my best to regale you with what I believe, although I suspect that some practical testing will be prudent to get a proper sense of things. But as always, I will leave such tactical matters for you to work out, my bond, while I focus on what is truly important. Now, I will take my leave. I have some accessorizing to do.”

  As he leaned back into his chair in branch director Carmella Dobrazza’s office, Kite had to mask his slight disappointment as his story of the emergence of the huge tree, the fruit and Glint’s subsequent transformation only elicited a soft humming of consideration from the smolder woman who sat tapping her lower lip as she regarded him with her usual intensity.

  The look of contemplation soon changed to a sly smile as she spoke;

  “Oh I’m sorry, Kite. It really is quite something. But when you’ve spent some years travelling around the world to different magical hotspots, even such a tale loses some of its awe-factor. Perhaps it’s just proof that I’m turning jaded.”

  “Or perhaps proof that I need to work on my aura control some more. My current teacher would be disappointed that you saw through me so easily,” Kite replied, thinking of his practice with Ardent Horizon Seeker.

  “Don’t fret, young man. I have quite a few years on you, and not just in aura practice. It isn’t too uncommon for the younger generation of adventurers to receive a similar reception from us old-timers. Just wait until I reach gold rank someday. Then I’ll probably start going on about how things were ‘back in the day’ a lot more frequently,” the smolder said, bringing out a pair of glasses into which she poured a clear, red drink and offered to Kite, who took it with the customary nod in thanks.

  “That being said,” she continued,” I’m an expert in neither botany, alchemy nor any other field adjacent to what you need. Ask me about how to properly spice a good drink no matter where I am in the world, then I’m your woman. But that is actually how far my theoretical interests go, much to the frustration of a former team member of mine.”

  “And I would not judge, as I cannot boast said acclaim either. But you do have experience and - perhaps most of all - contacts who might know more. Because surely you can see my initial instinct of discretion?”

  “In that, you are correct. On all accounts,” Dobrazza said, sipping her drink while shooting Kite one of her normal, bordering-on-sultry smiles. “You don’t need to be in Hua-Xi to find people who would very much like to take nice and shiny things from others without a second thought if they could get away with it. Best to keep your little tree under wraps while we find out more. And on that note, I do find myself honored by the confidence which you place in me in this regard.”

  “Given that you’ve gone to great personal lengths to save my life and our most efficient collaborations on ‘that’ particular matter, both you and Jarvan were actually the first who came to mind,” Kite answered honestly, causing Dobrazza’s smile to widen.

  “Well, I am flattered nonetheless. Let me speak to Jarvan about it, and we’ll start sending out some feelers with people we trust in how to go about this in a way that will benefit you the most. The tree might be nothing more than a pretty decoration in the end, or it might be quite the opportunity. But being careful will take some time, so I hope that you’ll continue channeling that patience which you have shown so far.”

  “Of course, branch director. I am ever grateful for your assistance.”

  “Excellent!” Dobrazza said, leaning in slightly. “And speaking of you being in a pleasant mood, there is another matter which I would like to mention. Nothing much, of course, just some contracts which I would very much hope that you would find it in your heart to suggest to your local hall master to put at a priority for your local guild branch.”

  His smile rueful, Kite leaned back in his chair. “One should indeed make sure to reciprocate and keep our good karma when one can, director. Please, go on.”