As Orison turned to go, Ivan said, "Wait. Come with me f- No, sorry. Due to family and occupation, common courtesy isn't a thing I get to exercise much. If it's not too much trouble, could I have a little of your time?"

Orison struggled to find a way to deny the guard captain but lacking a reasonable excuse when he was obviously pleasure strolling, he decided it was better to get whatever unpleasantness this would be, over with.

Exercising his rusty ability with politeness, Ivan lead the young mage to a nearby private area.

After motioning the young mage to sit at one of the two granite game benches, the guard captain sat across from him and began talking. "I've been dealing with some personal issues after the challenge this year." Seeing that Orison was about to get up and leave, he quickly added, "I only bring that up because I mistakenly thought other things that were happening to me were just extensions of that. It's those things I want to talk with you about."

"Just so we're clear, Ivan, I have no desire to hear anything about what happened at the challenge. If anything you have to say is about that, I can't help you because I remember nothing and I'm pretty sure I want it to stay that way," Orison said tersely.

A bitter grimace drifted across his face as Ivan said, "Believe me when I say I envy your ignorance. No, I won't bring up the challenge but I have questions I hope you can answer. If not for me, I hope that you'll answer them for Vivian's sake."

With a stab of genuine concern that was strong enough to surprise him, Orison asked, "Is she alright? If anything's wrong, I-"

Ivan made a shooing motion with his hand. "Nothing's wrong. Things have just been... different. I was hoping you might be able to help us understand."

Orison wanted to ask why Vivian didn't come to him with any concerns herself but that would likely lead the conversation into awkward areas as well.

Seeing that the young mage still looked reluctant but didn't show any intentions of bolting off, Ivan explained. "Four days ago, for about ten minutes, our connection with Osomo's heart was severed. When it came back, we still felt a sense of no longer belonging to her. We also don't have some of the royal privileges we once did but certain restrictions have been removed. For about a day after that we shared inventory s.p.a.ce but now it's separate again and we can feel it, like it's a part of us.

"Our bloodline is stronger and so are our fey gifts. Everyone except for grandma doesn't even really feel like family anymore. I won't bother talking about all the small physical changes directly but it would be a comfort if you have some insights into that."

Orison mulled over what and how much was safe for him to tell Ivan, then said. "Can I examine you with spirit sight without you freaking out on me?"

Wordlessly, Ivan put his armor away in his inventory and took his s.h.i.+rt off. As Orison stood up and walked around the table, Ivan stored the rest of his clothes into his inventory and laid on the granite table before Orison could stop him. Being that it would take more time to explain why that wasn't necessary and cause needless embarra.s.sment than it would to just to get it over with, the young mage didn't bother.

Sighing at Ivan's overly dramatic 'casting couch scam victim' expression, Orison touched the guard captain's heart chakra point and let a trickle of spiritual essence flow through Ivan's spiritual barrier as gently as he could. The first thing the young mage noticed was the chaotic imitation of his own s.p.a.ce trying to stabilize as a mix of other influences tried to express themselves. A touch of sympathy wormed it's way into Orison's thoughts as he realized that Ivan was not too different in this moment as the young mage had been in the beginning of his own 'key' awakening. What was worse, Ivan didn't have the benefit of choosing for himself and was likely to dangerously stumble around in the dark until he figured it out or died.

The young mage said in a dire tone, "I can explain what's happening fairly easy but there's consequences for doing so if I can't trust you. Before I say a word, I need you to make what will be one of the most important decisions of your life. I can break the cause of the changes and what you have will give you an additional small strengthening to your bloodline. I won't explain anything but things will go back to much the way that they were before after some time goes by.

"The alternative is that I can help stabilize what's happening and you'll become a person who has the ability to rise beyond this world. Once you step on that path, it's difficult to leave it and you'll have to cut ties with all that you know and are familiar with. If you change your mind afterwards, the only way that you'll be right with Osomo again is to permanently die and be stripped of what you have. If you die at all, a resp.a.w.n will greatly diminish your chances at ascending."

Less than three breaths later, Ivan said, "The second one."

Orison sighed. "Either you're taking this too lightly or you're an incredibly decisive person."

Flas.h.i.+ng a confident smile up at the young mage, Ivan repeated himself. "The second one."

Since the s.p.a.ce inside Ivan was an imitation of his own and made with essence that was originally his, Orison had no trouble guiding it into a stable cycle. Once it all had a place to be and some direction to follow, Orison held back some of the essence tide to keep it from breaking Ivan's first tendrils of latticework. Watching all the parts click into a cohesive whole, Orison noted that Ivan's s.p.a.ce wasn't completely like his own.

Orison's own s.p.a.ce was deeply flavored with the concepts of trans.m.u.tation and dimension. Ivan had a bit of the second but very little of the first. Instead, the wild fey descendant had a great deal of life and death aspects. For a brief moment, the young mage had to hold back his own s.p.a.ce from blindly reaching out to devour Ivan's. As a mutually beneficial compromise, while Orison steadily released his hold on the essence tide within Ivan, he studied the infant s.p.a.ce. To reciprocate, he allowed some crystal dust that was saturated with his concepts to flow into Ivan.

At some point, Orison had lost focus in what he had originally set out to do as his sub-mind made deeper a.n.a.lysis. Distantly, the young mage was aware that Ivan had begun doing the same using a different method but neither saw the harm in the helpful exchange. Goodwill and trust established, while logic and higher reasoning functions were busy making the most of the exchange, subconscious and instinct were facilitating better connections.

There was a certain addictive euphoria to what they were doing that kept the exchange going past the small b.u.mps and sc.r.a.pes of conflicting thought and major conflicts were simply not present. Ivan's deep desire for power was satisfied with gains through Orison's more profound and ability rich spiritual existence. Similarly, Orison's deep desire to unravel mystery for greater understanding was sated by the root of Ivan's ancestral power. If not for outside interruption, they would have continued long past what would have been healthy for either of them.

Day had broken for nearly an hour and Gan had woken up to find his 'Little Boss' missing. Elsewhere, one of Ivan's subordinates went searching for him to report that the captain's grandmother had requested his presence. When that subordinate had arrived, Gan had stopped him by stating that the captain was in a meeting of a personal nature. Being that nothing good ever came from a subordinate b.u.t.ting into a Nunos family member's private affairs, especially one that took place in a secluded area of the park, the man had struck up an awkward and subdued conversation with Gan as they waited. When the guy had cracked a small joke, Gan acted like it was the funniest thing he had heard in his life and started braying loudly, slapping the tree next to him with dislodging force.

The sudden loud noises disturbed Orison and Ivan's trace-like state enough to realize the implications of what they had done and what they might have ended up doing if they had continued. Both of them were mature enough not to overreact or do something that would embarra.s.s the other but it was obvious what had happened wasn't something either of them would have consciously chosen to do. While Orison helped them both clean off some impurities that had been expelled, he expressed that a little unintentional skins.h.i.+p wasn't anything to get knotted up about and Ivan returned that the gains were worth a lot more than slightly bruised dignity.

Changing topics, Orison explained a bit about 'climbing the tower' and 'keys'. After pa.s.sing on the message that Lily had repeated about sharing too much being a bad thing, Orison said that he'd be in touch after Ivan had some time to adjust and explore all the newness. Right before they parted ways, the young mage ask Ivan to pa.s.s on the choice to Vivian and that if she was interested in 'the second one' then Orison would do what he could to help.

On their way back to the inn, Gan broke the silence with a little ambiguous support. "That Ivan's a strong and dependable looking fellow."

Orison looked at Gan dully and said, "A fact his future girlfriends or wife will appreciate, I'm sure."

Gan nodded in sad understanding, "It went that bad, huh?"

Ignoring Gan's meaning, Orison replied as if he'd misunderstood, "Not really. The spirit sight examination lead to us accidentally discovering how to, for lack of better term, dual cultivate. It's definitely something neither of us will be attempting with each other again. That's for d.a.m.n sure."

Looking puzzled, Gan said, "But he was hug-"

"I know what it looked like, Gan!... Sorry. Normally I'd be able to laugh something like that off but it's a little too soon for me at the moment," Orison said, feeling a bit guilty for snapping.

A bit sheepishly, Gan said, "Is it safe to ask what dual cultivation is?"

Orison sighed and said, "Yes, but let's wait til we're in our room and I'll explain what I figured out to everyone so I don't have to repeat it."

Once everyone had a chance to do their morning rituals and finished breakfast, Orison lead everyone back upstairs to explain what he had discovered before Rithus and Duran returned to finish up their instruction.

Girding up his mental fort.i.tude, Orison said, "Through a bizarre twist, I think I figured out something that probably isn't that appropriate for tower climbers to do but might be important to one of you in the future. If you find someone with a 'key' that's highly compatible with yours and you're, uh, close with them..."

Before he continued, Orison already realized what kind of misunderstanding the way he was trying to explain dual cultivation might happen with Duran or Rithus, either one. "By close, I mean in a 'don't want to live without them because of love' kind of way...In the rare, not very likely, chance that you fall in love with someone who has a complimentary climbing method to you... Then it's possible to synchronize your key with them." the young mage described as best he could how to do so.

He finished with, "Most of what I've said is based off of an accidentally initiated attempt that wasn't finished. In spite of the benefits, if it's completed, you would have essentially married someone you can't simply part ways with if things don't work out because part of the two of you will exist in the other."

As he looked around at his three companions, Orison noticed that a faint spiritual wave was coming off of Duran and the boy was smiling while holding a hand to his chest.

Not really able to help himself, Orison asked the boy, "Are you dual cultivating with Wick?"

Duran nodded. "I need Wick."

The young mage could tell that there was so much meaning packed into those three words that it had turned something simple into something so terribly complex his insight couldn't actually understand it all.

After Rithus and Duran had left, Gan said, "Do you need to rest or are you good to go?"

Orison said, "Neither. I need about an hour or so to consolidate my understandings and then we should spend some time getting back to the basics. There's a training facility here and I intend to spend a couple of days to keep Morrel's teachings from getting rusty and work on my summoning models some."

Gan hesitated for a moment then said, "If it's alright, I thought I'd take a day or two off from training and maybe try my hand at finding a friend."

The young mage nodded, "Yeah, happy hunting. When we go to Snow Cap, it might be a lot harder to find, er, a friend than it would be here... Oh, before you go, take my share of the junk equipment with you."

Over the next couple of days, Orison untangled insights and worked the imaginary kinks out of his body. Using the Osomo crystal's messaging system, the group appraised each other of their situations and as everyone finished up their official and personal business, all was well. The only thing that bugged Orison was the lack of communication from either Nunos sibling.

On the morning before the group's trip to Snow Cap, Orison swallowed a little pride and reached out to Ivan rather than just remaining in the dark. If there hadn't been a mostly superficial mark of Ivan's left on his soul's outer layer, the young mage would have just thought that he'd been blown off but he could tell that his message hadn't completed. Minor annoyance and curiosity ratcheted up a notch to actual concern when a similar result happened after sending a message to Vivian that he had exercised with a strong push of spirit sight to follow.

Antic.i.p.ating trouble, The young mage brought his team to the hub that connected the 'Heaven Circuit' that Snow Cap was a part of, to the 'Earth Circuit' that contained the five great capitals. As Orison constructed an 'invite transport', he scanned the surrounding circle of mercantile and leisure buildings that surrounded the capital city sized transporter. Other than noting the greatly increased number of non human and elf populations, there wasn't much of interest or anything that stuck out as needing to be wary of.

With a max effort push of spiritual intent, Orison breached through whatever interference was stopping his communication with Ivan using the soul mark as a back door. Moments later, a pleasant but slightly mechanical feminine voice echoed a confirmation of the invite and Ivan came stumbling out of the transporter's light curtain dressed in extremely plain clothes. In just two days, Ivan's demeanor had transformed from nearly arrogant confidence to grim melancholy.

While constructing another invite model, Orison asked, "Is Vivian in danger?"

Ivan shook his head, looking a touch more bitter. "She's fine. She's better than fine. Grandmother has named her heir apparent and was in the process of transferring the 'unneeded' parts of your gift from her to me and trying to strip the wanted parts from me to give to her."

Orison was stunned. "I'd ask how but this isn't the time. Was your sister willingly partic.i.p.ating in this?"

Recovering his equilibrium at an admirable pace, Ivan replied, "The giving part, yes. There was little harm in that after she'd made her decision. The stripping part, she wasn't happy about it but grandmother could always get Vivian to take her side in any argument."

Finished constructing the transport model and seeing no reason to change plans since Vivian wasn't in need of rescuing, Orison moved them to Snow Cap. The group quickly made their way to a lodge that had been paid for in advance. Before moving to get the fireplace going, Rithus s.n.a.t.c.hed a folded quilt off a couch and draped it over the slightly s.h.i.+vering Nunos man's shoulders, earning himself a another bit of easily earned grat.i.tude.

After a message from Emris interrupted Orison's brooding, the young mage turned to Ivan. "Tell me, how much sh*t am I in for yanking you out of there?"

Ivan, lost in his own thoughts, focused on Orison and said, "Short term, none. Grandmother isn't a person who acts quickly unless the need is dire. Long term, I don't honestly know. I think you reaching me through the wards and ruining a few hundred-thousand in ritual supplies will give her a measured amount of caution. Thank you for that. I didn't fancy being turned into a soul faded and powerless man-child."

"Your own grandmother could be that ruthless to you?" Orison asked.

Ivan smiled bitterly. "There's not a lot grandmother wouldn't due to ensure the future of the Nunos family. No less than three days ago, I might have even considered the sacrifice worth it. But once you lit the fire of ambition in me, it was difficult to resign myself so easily."

Orison smiled weakly, "You're welcome... How far did the ritual get?"

Eyes unfocused, Ivan said, "Far enough for Vivian to be reclaimed by Osomo. Not far enough to do more than undo some of the healing on my damaged spiritual intent. Combined with the forced shedding of antlers this year, I probably won't be able to grow a decent set next year. All minor and relatively unimportant things in the broad view."

Before the conversation could proceed further, there was a heavy pounding at the door that put everyone on edge. With weapons drawn and spells at the ready, Rithus moved to open it, tensed for sudden retreat if necessary.