The Incarnate within Daniel jolted out of its sleep. Wait, what? It'd heard that thought right, hadn't it? No, no no no, what had it done? The walls of its existence had gotten patchy with the damage to its mortal vessel, but part of it was still trying to self-destruct so that shouldn't matter! Hunter wasn't Special, none of his archetypes supported access to enchanting, so it shouldn't have granted him-

Ok, relax. There was no breathing to calm the Incarnate, but it metaphysically looked back to where it had saved its spot in pi while trying to identify every prime that appeared in its sequence. A nice comforting task with no end, one of its favorites. It always got a pleasant buzz whenever it found one that went all the way back to the top.

Good, good, now to figure out what had happened before Balance had another reason to start drilling holes in reality. The Incarnate assessed the Octyrrum Records for Hunter and frowned. It checked again, and then a third time. Huh?

Nothing had changed. Oh, he'd been granted three advancement potential to Daniel's one for the battle, benefitting both from a lower effective combat rating and a higher lingering fractional advancement value since the last time he'd earned a full point, but no new powers had been awakened. So then the bond…

No, nothing there either. Not that it would've been the Incarnate's problem if Karma had done anything since Balance would let it slide. Still, that vexed the fragment of the world system. Returning to its idle number games now would be like trying to go to sleep with a fly buzzing around the room. It could confirm Hunter's mana flow had been used to interact with the enchanted clouds, though nothing in the bond explicitly allowed that to occur. He hadn't even used Arcane Creator back when the friendship bond did allow for that.

Which meant the answer was probably in the Empathic Link. The problem was that the Incarnate didn't really get those. It was one of the rare things outside of the Octyrrum's auspice, or influence since some people thought it used that word too much. You only got one of those from a bond, which was firmly in Karma's wheelhouse. The Incarnate couldn't pry into the mechanics of it because it came from a source above the system.

If it didn't work that way, the Octyrrum could just break any fundamental law it liked to do whatever it wanted. Seeing as how that was the reason they were in this mess to begin with, well, one of the reasons, it decided against any action in that direction.

It still annoyed the Incarnate because it shouldn't have been that difficult to figure out. But that was the issue with its nature. It had intelligence, certainly, but it was constrained by what it knew and didn't know. Which made the knowledge related to Hourglass' plan it was forced to hide from itself such a big deal.

If the Incarnate had imagination, true creativity beyond anything other than itself, it could probably figure it out. The answer would definitely be obvious in hindsight, and as fortune would have it, the Incarnate didn't have to wait long for Daniel to go to one of the few people best suited to figure this out.

…

Picture a perfect day. It wasn't hard in Threst, even in winter it would have to be precipitating to make the sky dreary. There was a chill in the air from it being the middle of winter, but he'd long grown accustomed to that. A fire pit installed during the renovations provided warmth if needed anyway, and he'd spent the last two hours alternating between his notes and the piece of mimic quartz floating above its receptacle.

Lograve tried not to think of this as retirement. Desperately so. There was a comfort to his life as of late and many an Arcanist did settle down in libraries or learning institutions when they stopped hearing the call of hunting. Crest, he'd done both when almost all of his former hunting team had been wiped out by a dragon in Aughal, only for disaster to shake off the rust.

Murdon certainly wasn't slowing down. He had Tounaki to compete with now that she was level 4, and more importantly, he had Tounaki. As evidenced by her class evolution she was a vibrant person capturing the spirit of fire. A good pairing for the stern walls of Murdon's sometimes impossible dourness. She could soar above them.

He wasn't jealous of either of them. Gods no. Maybe at one point with Murdon… but the friendship bond had solidified his feelings there. But there was still a melancholy about him that only the keenest would recognize. It'd slipped past both Daniel and Alex, the other two he considered himself the closest to in the compound.

In every way but physically Lograve would say he was nearing a mid life crisis. Yes, he was almost a century old, but he could live longer than two if the world didn't decide to prematurely end him with its nonsense. He was slowing down, reluctant to turn from his studies to hunt. It was important work, but work the Octyrrum didn't favor, especially now. And then there was the biggest sticking point.

Lograve had failed the last four attempts at advancement. He'd been meeting with extreme difficulty all the way back in Aughal, and it was true he'd leveled to 4 earlier than was optimal. Murdon hadn't made it until a month later, waiting until there was limited disparity to correct. Neither he nor his flame were having the difficulties he was, the Knight having pushed his endurance to 43 already.

This was how people met their advancement wall, the point at which they stopped progressing magically. Lograve was farther along than the average, true. Two levels ahead, though that didn't account for the Collapse undoing several restrictions that had previously hampered people. No one knew exactly why it happened, not entirely, and as Lograve hadn't had an easier time of it since coming back from Earth it hadn't been the Octyrrum holding him back.

While Lograve was at times a petty prankster, a vain vagabond, and imperious ice mage, he held no malice in his heart for his friend's success. In fact, it was to be expected. Draconoids never met with an advancement wall across the entire species and its sub races. They were special in that way, and others. For one, they were the only Grafted species whose precursor still existed. Children were also difficult to conceive, and they were entirely unable to do so with other races regardless of the magic used. It was a fact Tounaki had to know by now.

The odds had been nonexistent that he'd keep up with his friend, should both survive every encounter thrown their way. It just hurt to finally reach that point. Lograve knew it would be same the same for Murdon, who would find himself rising above someone that had kept level with him for so long.

Perhaps one or two more successful advancements. One power, if I'm lucky. Then I'll have to content myself to a life as an interdimensional taxi. A grin formed on Lograve's face as he chided himself on his dark thoughts. It was, after all, a perfect day. The warmth of the sun and the fire was pleasant in the cold, and though he may be reaching his limit, his life was not one to bemoan.

Then he sensed the minds of those young upstarts returning from their suicide mission. It was an odd quirk that was now cemented into the Arcanist. Telepathy's most basic function was to detect nearby thinking individuals, and he used that more than anything to know who was around him.

How this hadn't led to the discovery of spirits before… well, there were the Spiritualists to consider. They'd yet to find a spirited monster in the wild for him to test, and neither of Willow's discorporated spirits showed up on his power.

Some of the words filtering through the open front door put him on edge. He'd heard about the attack yesterday as well as the prisoner, but that individual had been directly collected by Zolyra. No, it was just Wingcraft and Khiat's parents.

Lograve continued to smile at the duskers' amazement and profound gratitude. It was hard to miss their voices, what with lungs so large, but he barely caught another conversation amidst the auditory cover. Not that he was snooping or anything.

"Did you want to go off now?" Shuni's voice, carrying clearer than Daniel's.

"N-no. Let's let everything settle. Besides, I want to check with Lograve about Hunter's thing and that could spiral into a whole thing. Better to do it when neither he or Zolyra would interrupt us."

"Sounds good. Gives me time for stuff too. Let's meet at the spot at sunset?"

"Looking forward to it."

Oh ho. Palace intrigue was astir. Murdon was hardly the only one finding companionship. Not to name names but Tak has found himself well received in Pinion's Point, though the gossip as he understood was similar to when he'd been involved with Evalyn. Short-lived, one person at a time, and no involvement with Hunter. The two did go out on other occasions but the Totem Warrior was wise enough to keep that part of his life private.

Janice was also two weeks into a fling and Lograve was certain Daniel didn't know, cooped up in his room as he was most of the time. He himself, well, Lograve had been busy solving multiversal quandaries and convincing himself he wasn't mildly depressed.

This would be good though. The Arcanist effected his best blank look, as if he'd been studiously counting the number of rings in the timber of the walls. No, he hadn't been listening, he was perfectly at peace and in no way prepared for whatever truth bomb Daniel was about to drop. Then he'd give his best shocked expression, maybe clapping his hands to the side of his face, before-

"Lograve, I'm not bothering you, am I?" Daniel asked, catching the daydreaming Arcanist off guard. "It's just, well, Hunter can enchant now. Kind of."

"Whu-" Lograve's mind blanked as he turned in half-shock. "What do you mean kind of?"

…

Daniel finished explaining what had happened at the end of the ambush to an audience of more than just the Arcanist. His sister and Willow for one, and Spinner listened while leaning over where the rooftop opened above the interior courtyard of the house. That was a bit creepy but Project Spinner called for encouragement.

It ended with a demonstration by Hunter, holding a sliver of the evolved wyvern's bone. Following a few seconds of concentration, it promptly turned to dust and Hunter scowled. It was the third time he'd done it and he'd been extremely reluctant to because of the drawbacks, but he was still willing because Daniel had asked.

"We tested this on the way back," Daniel continued, knowing Hunter wouldn't be in the mood to talk after that. "It's like when I was borrowing his senses without the power to help me tolerate them. I think I accidentally showed him how to do it with the Empathic Link. Has that ever happened before? People teaching each other powers, I mean."

Lograve was still rubbing one of his temples, sharing a sympathetic headache with Hunter. "Why even ask? You know the answer already."

Daniel knew the exasperation was at worst exaggerated and pressed on. "It's just, it's all mana. If you could show someone the exact pattern of an ability and they replicate it, it should work for the other person, right?"

The Arcanist waved a hand to the crystal he'd somehow managed to get floating above a coffee table. "Daniel, I am hardly a novice when it comes to magic theory. The topics you put so simply are extraordinarily advanced, even for me."

"Huh. I guess I'll ask Zolyra then and see if she knows."

Lograve's face turned alarmed as his status as the old, well, not old but experience wise man was challenged. "Now hold on there. I didn't say I was completely out of my depth. Just give me a moment to consult my vast knowledge." The hand moved over his eyes as he leaned back and thought. Hunter took a seat, and in the silence Alex spoke up.

"That scared the shit out of me, Daniel. You were attacked right after I got off the phone with you. What if it'd been a minute earlier?"

"If we go by the tropes, the guy getting in the middle of a call hangs up and it picks back up after they handle the baddies. Which, we did," he added helpfully. Alex threw a pillow at him.

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"That only works if you're the protagonist!" She sighed and brushed at some hair that had gotten in her face. "I'm glad you're ok, but I hate having to be glad you're ok so often." Daniel blinked as he noticed the sparrow manifest over Willow's shoulder, the spirit watching Alex. She didn't notice and the Spirit Master covertly shook her head, so he didn't say anything. "I mean, they said you had to regrow part of your hand!"

"Only part of it," Daniel replied weakly. "One time it was an entire arm."

"How does that make it better!?" Alex was at what was for her a half-shout, but Daniel didn't see it building up to anything. This was her being passionate, rather than explosive. The difference was she didn't keep up the crescendo. "You know what one of my many nightmares is? It's that I'll have to explain to Mom that you died the next time I see her."

Lograve coughed under his hand as Alex went for the jugular. Hunter frowned, but he was still dealing with the after effects of enchanting to do anything. Rather than the sensory overload Daniel had enjoyed in the early days, Hunter got an incredible headache the moment he pushed his mana into enchanting material.

That, in addition to the fact that he couldn't access any of Daniel's formulae, was the main limit on the ringcat serving as a second bullet factor to Daniel's great displeasure. He was hoping Lograve would have an easy fix, but all the Arcanist was doing was dragging out his pondering so Daniel would have to face his sister's concern.

"I worry about that too. For you, I mean." That took some of the air out of her fire. "The world's dangerous. We can try to make it as safe as we can, but if we don't take risks the people like Soraso are going to destroy everything."

"It's just, one moment I'm getting used to the fact you regularly fight things people would call in the army for, and the next you're getting hit squads sent after you." There was an apologetic note to her voice as she sat back down, the sparrow still watching behind her. "Sorry. I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but while you're out all I can do is worry and that shit eats at me."

"I get it. If I was in your shoes I'd be the same way." Daniel mentally compromised that he'd probably have hidden his emotions for a bit rather than immediately confront Alex with them, but that wasn't in the spirit of what he was trying to say.

Alex looked a bit comforted by that and crossed one of her legs, yielding the conversation. Daniel waited for Lograve to miraculously finish formulating his answer, but a glance showed he really was straining his memory to come to a conclusion. Something else weighed on his mind and he took a quick assessment of who was in the room. More than he would've liked, but he trusted everyone there.

Using Telekinetic Reach to activate the big button on the central table enchanted with muffle sound, Daniel took in a deep breath. "I'm going to ask Shuni about dating for real later tonight. Assuming we aren't going straight to war when Ashier finds out about the Origin Beast."

Of all the reactions, he noted the sparrow's most. The spirit still manifested as a red blob in the shape of a bird, but he could have sworn he rolled his eyes before disappearing. Did he understand the nuance, or did he just not see whatever he was looking for?

A voice called out from someone not in the room, though close enough that they should have been there. "Oh! Congratulations! I hope your pairing is as successful as Murdon's."

"Spinner?" Daniel looked up and saw the drider happily waving at him. Guiltily he realized he'd forgotten about her. The enchanted item on the table should have shut her out of the conversation, and for a brief moment he had a heart attack thinking it was actually off, but he could faintly feel the magic coming from it. "Uh, thanks. How did you hear that?"

In response, a thin line glowed purple on the floor. Spinner's voice came through it, and now that Daniel concentrated he could make out a faint distortion in it as if it were coming through a bad speaker. "My web! I'm able to keep everyone safe this way. No one will ever sneak up on Mistress again."

"New power?" Daniel asked, looking at Willow significantly. This startled the younger avianoid who was still digesting his confession.

"No, she's yet to advance. It's my fault," Lograve said through his hand. He still had it clutched to his face like an oxygen mask. "Both I and Tounaki know a thing or two about elemental manipulation. What with you absconding with most of the people here for so long we lost our cheap entertainment and had to find another diversion. It turns out Spinner's biology affords her something closer to pure Electrokinesis than one would first expect, only limited to her webbing. I'd like to compare her to an original spin shocker to see if her evolution has affected anything, but alas, her original stomping grounds are in rough shape."

Daniel eyed the string of spider silk on the floor and remembered they could easily kill anyone under level 2. She had them running throughout the entire house now? It was a good thing Tlara wasn't a control freak when it came to sapient monsters. Alex's cough brought them back on track. "You're not changing the subject that easily."

"I still can't believe the two of you are involved," Willow added distantly. "I wouldn't have seen it when we first met Shuni. But you were only thinking about getting Hunter back, and I…" the young woman who'd held her sister's soul for a time trailed off. She summoned Wisp above her hand and the spirit ball rolled around it in what was probably meant to be a comforting manner. Daniel narrowed his eyes as he realized the spirit looked more defined, though he couldn't tell exactly how. The edges were less hazy, maybe. "All of you are getting so serious all of a sudden. It's making me consider things, but my spirits would always come first."

"You've got plenty of time," Daniel assured, before something Willow had said caught up to him. "Wait, what do you mean 'all of you'?" His gaze flicked between Lograve and Alex, waiting with trepidation for either to make a confession.

"Well, Murdon obviously. Janice has her girlfriend, and-"

"Janice has a girlfriend!?" Lograve's nearly hidden smile turned smug for some reason, but Daniel was ignoring that. "I, huh. How long?"

"Not too long, but she said they started talking after she got here," Alex answered. That she knew and he didn't settled it. No amount of charisma in the world would turn him into a social butterfly. It'd helped, but he could miss the obvious sometimes. Like the fact that the Martialist he sparred with every other day was in a relationship. "I still wouldn't say 'everyone', unless you know something I don't."

"I don't think so?" Willow counted with the talons of her unoccupied hand, accounting for all who belonged to the compound. "That's about it, unless you count Lograve's marriage to that crystal."

"Ha. Ha ha." The Arcanist laughed humorlessly as he sat up, unshielding his eyes. "In seriousness, that is a major development on both accounts." Lograve considered which topic to tackle first and frowned slightly as he saw Hunter was still in pain. "On Shuni," he began, sparing the ringcat until he was feeling better, "My only advice is to stay the course. It's certainly a choice to partner with one that can-" Lograve reconsidered his words and cut himself off. Either he knew about Shuni's insecurities or had sensed that one of his jokes was about to cause offense. Instead he chose to intentionally needle someone that was in the room. "Ah, what I mean is I am surprised you would pursue an avianoid. Though from what I have gathered from your culture there are parts of your population that find themselves enamored with fictional species, for whatever reason."

Rather than answer the rise Daniel furrowed his eyebrows. "Wait, which sites did the other me give you access to? I thought it was just the encyclopedia."

"As if I would allow myself to be limited to what others give me," Lograve scoffed, waving a hand. "On several occasions we took the boat outside of Eido's cloaking field. It had some form of 'satellite internet' and I had free rein of Earth's collective consciousness." Daniel paled. Surely, an outsider would only have a small chance at finding- "For it being so prevalent, I'm surprised that rule is only the 34th."

"Alright Tounaki, calm down," Alex cut in, drawing a slightly hurt look from Lograve. For the interruption or the comparison Daniel wasn't sure. She didn't notice either as her gaze was fixed unerringly at Daniel. "Why do you like her?" The question wasn't asked as from a lawyer to a hostile witness, but there was an intensity that told Daniel his sister expected an answer. Those details were a bit private, but then again he'd brought this up as a roundabout way of asking for advice. It wasn't like it was Thomas asking either.

He still grabbed a proper drink from the new bar before starting, Lograve manipulating ice to mix himself something once the seal was broken. Daniel offered some ice to Hunter who grumbled as he declined. It wouldn't help the headache which had only improved by half over the past ten minutes. Sipping on some kind of fruit-based rum prevalent in the avianoid region, he began.

"For one, she's a badass ninja? I mean, some of you haven't seen her," he said, nodding to Lograve and Alex. "Not really. She can be this weird mix of confident and shy normally, but in a fight she's a monster. In, uh, a good way." His mind returned to one of the moments he thought of often when he considered his feelings for Shuni. "When we fought Bekali the first time, she was completely wrecking us. I had to fight blind in a smoke cloud while the rest of the team cleared out everything else, and I was losing. Then Shuni comes out from nowhere, tanks a bad hit with some kind of damage absorbing power, and we were able to hold her off long enough to win."

He'd been simplifying the story to highlight what he'd wanted, and yet he still felt like he'd rambled. "Honestly, and no offense Willow, or Spinner I guess, but I probably would have done this sooner if she wasn't an avianoid. I…" He grimaced before making his next point, pressing forward only because he'd brought all this up to get advice from someone who had more relationship experience than Hunter. Blushing, Daniel continued. "I do think she's hot. Maybe it just grew on me. It's not like I'm going to wake up a year from now and realize there's no physical attraction, so if there's nothing in the way of this I should go forward. Right?"

One hand still rubbing at his forehead in a fruitless attempt to make the pain go away, Hunter used another hand to rub Daniel's back supportively. "Nothing wrong with attractive prey. I told him it was fine, but he still worries."

"It's normal to," Alex affirmed. "Daniel, this is the only advice I'm going to give you. Tell her what you just told me and you'll be fine."

"Except for the last part?"

Alex raised an eyebrow. "You think girls don't like compliments?"

"That's… fair." He'd been worried Shuni would think his interest was only shallow, which would've been ironic. Then again this had all started because she'd fumbled while propositioning him.

"Do you want my perspective? As an avianoid, I mean." Everyone turned to Willow, who was by now the only non-feline in the room not drinking. It wasn't that she was below drinking age as that wasn't really a thing here, not legally at least. No, she just had the small task of coaxing morality into a fiery murder bird and had to stay sharp all the time.

Daniel didn't envy that. "What do you mean?"

"Beauty standards, stuff like that." Both Alex and Daniel looked askance at her. "I'm not trying to tell you not to like her!" Willow said defensively. "I think the two of you are fine. You just have two big reasons to not know about our culture, unless you dated any avianoids before you met me."

"Not really," Daniel mumbled, seeing her point now. He'd been so fixated on the species gap he hadn't thought about culture. It was better than trying to date some kind of praying mantis humanoid, but he wasn't going to be expected to build some kind of literal nest, was he? Daniel decided to ask that question in a less speciest way. "Is it that different from humans?"

"How would you know anyway?" Alex asked, interested. "I have almost a decade on you."

"My education, of course." Willow said it like it was obvious, and maybe it was. "My father turned our faction into a mix of human and avianoid houses so I was exposed to both growing up. And his second wife…" Wisp appeared again, and it seemed to be on the spirit's initiative as they sensed her discomfort. The Spirit Master chuckled as the ball began orbiting her head. "Not the best example. But he did raise me with noble courtship in mind, and for either species just in case. Whatever his plans for the region were, I doubt they were entirely egalitarian."

"Shuni's not in any noble caste, though."

"Which is why I'm not going to repeat all the lectures I was given." The young woman's head tilted as she gave her offer more thought. "I suppose I don't have much experience with Threst, though. There could be differences there. Very broad points, then." Her voice became more refined, as if hearkening back to the time she was the second and chosen daughter of a region's leader. "Avianoids as a species are more appearance-driven than others. You've probably seen this in Threst. It's more than just presentation. Names, reputation, we put more importance on it. My father 'heavily recommended' Tlara go to the Thormundz after awakening her class, for example."

"I think I got plenty of that from the Talongleams, yeah." And the Hunter's Guild giving them so much grief over Wingcraft. And Tounaki being somewhat of a snob about the region when they first met her. And the general reaction to Spinner. And how they were about- "Wait, what about flying? I got a bunch of dirty looks when I first got the flight suits together."

"There is that," Willow acknowledged. "It's kind of a twofold thing. Blessed generally have a huge advantage. Things are complicated in Aughal, or they were." Willow shook her head. "Sorry, I'm getting off track. As far as you're concerned, I wouldn't worry about Shuni. It's more that you may run into people who look down on you because she's avianoid and you're not. Murdon has it easier because some respect draconoids more than the 'common' avianoid, but humans don't have that advantage. It was a prejudice my father was trying to combat."

"True names," Daniel sighed, seeing her point. Gadriel had apparently had similar problems. "Honestly, if she's not worried about it then I don't give a fuck. I'm saving the world, who has time for racists?"

"That both of you are Blessed helps too," Willow added somewhat unnecessarily. "As far as Shuni herself, if you're thinking about gifts you'll want to trend toward sweeter things. Our palettes include insects as a matter of course but they're more of a staple food than a delicacy."

"Gifts?" Daniel had not been thinking about gifts. Well, it's a good thing avianoids aren't superficial as a culture or anything. Shit. He could enchant something, but then again he'd already kitted out Shuni pretty well. Could that be counted retroactively?

"We also have glosses, dyes, and such for our feathers that correspond to makeup humans would use," Willow continued, sensing Daniel's panic and realizing he'd need options. "A lot of people like adding splashes of color to their plumage. My father's feathers were natural, but people always thought he dyed them because the practice was that common. I haven't seen her use that much but you never know. She could need a reason to dress up."

"There's a few hours left in the day, we could go shopping," Alex suggested, Willow nodding in agreement.

"I was going to stop by the Hand church, but yeah. That might be good. I could come back after." Daniel stood up, about to take off through the ceiling, when Lograve coughed.

"Excuse me. Unless I'm mistaken, you were waiting for me to dispense arcane wisdom?" Lograve tsk'd. "If you're going to be this forgetful perhaps I should start charging."

"Oh, right." Daniel sat back down, embarrassed. "So, what do you think about Hunter being able to enchant?"

Lograve smiled widely. "I have no idea."

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