Sophie spent a good part of the early afternoon making some cursory festival plans with Acacia. Afterwards, Acacia helped her make a list of ingredients to spice up her new sandwich-making venture. She picked up some different kinds of cheese and greens and a jar of spicy brown mustard from the market on her way back to the shrine. Of course, she had also purchased two loaves of bread from Acacia’s bakery to go along with the croissants Acacia had gifted her earlier. Hollis had thankfully saved her nearly-forgotten bag of pastries.

Sophie was going to be the veritable queen of sandwich-making!

On the way back to the shrine, she almost immediately spotted the little wyvern hanging out on a thin branch, high above her and just ahead a little ways, peering down at her from the treetops. It watched her curiously as she walked closer, and she paused right underneath its resting spot.

“Aren’t you going to come down?” she called up to it, but it blinked at her a few times and then seemed to settle in on the branch.

“I’m not mad,” she reassured it, wondering if it had enough sense to think such a thing. She readjusted some of her bags from the market and held out one of her arms in what she hoped was a tempting manner. “I don’t have any mana bread for you today, but you’re welcome to hop down and say hello.”

The creature tilted its head at her, but it seemed perfectly content just to watch her from afar today. Drat. She felt bad for scaring the little thing the last time she saw it, but to be fair, it had scared her as well.

After a moment or two longer of waiting with her arm held up like a perch, she eventually shrugged and gave up, starting her journey back to the shrine. As she walked, she spotted it a few times following her in the treetops. But by the time she got back to the shrine, she had finally lost sight of the little creature.

And she also realized, quite belatedly, as she was walking up the short, stone staircase to the courtyard that she had forgotten to return her library books. Oops. At least she didn’t think they were actually due yet, but she had wanted to pick up a few more. She supposed she should probably be reading the books that Ryland had lent her anyway, though.

Sophie found Elowen in the greenhouse, wandering in between the rows of Dawnwood saplings. Sophie had taken to adding some mana to all of the saplings each morning before working on their bond, but she hadn’t yet done that today.

As she watched Elowen happily float between the saplings, she decided to hold off on adding mana to them. Since she had leveled up this morning, she wanted to try working with the bond again while she was still fairly fresh. She hadn’t used any of her mana today, in fact, so she didn’t have to drink any of the awful Magewort tea. It would be a perfect time to test the bond again, and the saplings could probably wait a day for more mana, if needed.

They had, after all, waited nearly a century.

Elowen followed her back into the shrine as Sophie began putting away all of the things she purchased at the market.

“I talked with Acacia about the festival today,” Sophie commented as she finished sliding the loaves of bread into a cabinet. She explained the general festival plans to Elowen. “The historian also gave me some books to look at. On classes and shrines and stuff.”

She pulled all of the books out of her Tailored bag, as well, piling them on the table in a haphazard stack.

Elowen glanced down at the pile in disappointment pointing at the thriller that she had enjoyed so much. “You didn’t go to the library?”

Sophie shook her head. “I forgot,” she admitted. She was just the tiniest bit relieved not to have to read yet another thriller to Elowen again, so she didn’t feel too torn up about it.

“If I were with you, I would make sure you didn’t forget all the time,” Elowen complained, pouting.

Sophie laughed. “I’m sure you would.”

She hadn’t really considered that as soon as Elowen became more mobile, Sophie would have to deal with a very opinionated shrine spirit wherever she went. There were definitely pros and cons to that scenario.

She finished putting the rest of the market goods away, and then picked up the smooth garden stone they had been working with every day from its place on the counter. She glanced down at it thoughtfully. “I suppose we should try again today,” she commented.

Elowen nodded eagerly, seeming to forget all about the library books as she slipped through the wall towards the shrine’s entryway. Sophie followed behind her at a more sedate pace with the garden stone in tow.

So far, she had not quite been able to get the bond to stick to the stone. They hadn’t had any mana-draining incidents since that first day, but still no success, either.

Sophie approached the familiar cabinet at the back of the shrine’s entryway. Elowen floated around the cabinet curiously as Sophie opened it, revealing the large, faintly-glowing shrine stone inside. Each day that Sophie had worked with it, she grew less and less fearful of the strange emptiness detected by her Mana Sense.

Today, she began by focusing her mana on the garden stone she currently held in her palm. It still felt completely full from yesterday, but Sophie tried adding just the tiniest bit more, sure it must’ve lost some. Sure enough, the little stone accepted her mana, but only a drop or two before something within her said, enough.

Sophie had never pushed past that “enough,” and some part of her wondered what would happen if she did, but she felt that was best left for another day.

She held the garden stone in one hand and placed the other on the shrine stone, just as she had for the past few days. She reached out with her mana to connect with the stone. Each time she did this, it got a little bit easier to find the bond that connected Elowen to stone.

Perhaps it was her new level, or perhaps something else, but today when she found the bond she felt her Understanding of it deepen. It was a new, strange sensation. Perhaps it was similar to when she first figured out how to do distance channeling. She felt she could understand the nature of the bond a little bit better now.

Sophie found the end of the bond more easily than she had any other time before and untangled it from the shrine stone, wrapping it around herself in preparation of moving it to the garden stone. Elowen was on her best behavior today. Sophie couldn’t feel even the slightest pull on her own mana from the bond, even though she was sure it must be tempting.

This was the tricky part – the part she had already failed many times before. Often losing her grip on the bond or having the bond slide off the garden stone to no effect when she tried to move it over. But today, Sophie felt confidence surge within her, and she began carefully transferring the bond to the garden stone. As soon as she felt the bond touch the garden stone, a brand new Understanding washed over her and the connection snapped into place.

Elowen’s eyes widened, and she flickered a bit, almost like static on an old television screen, before she settled back into her usual translucent state. Sophie removed her hand from the shrine stone and focused all of her attention on the garden stone in her palm.

She could feel Elowen pulling mana from the stone, but again it was only a trickle. The same trickle had barely been noticeable pulling from the shrine stone, but it was much more so from the small garden stone. Sophie could tell that Elowen would not be able to remain on the garden stone for very long, although she had no way of estimating the time. Perhaps a day or two, she guessed, although they would have to monitor the stone’s mana carefully to get a better estimate.

“I –” Elowen began, but she paused, blinking rapidly. She seemed to be at a loss for words.

“How does it feel?” Sophie asked.

“Strange,” Elowen settled on. “Very, very strange.”

She lifted up her arms, glancing at them as if she expected them to look different somehow, but as far as Sophie could tell, she was just as translucent as she had been previously.

“I feel as if –” Elowen shook her head. “As if perhaps I could pull more mana from this stone than the shrine stone… But it would be far too risky.”

Sophie nodded, understanding completely. “It would,” she agreed. “We should test it out a bit,” she suggested. “It’s not quite dark yet. We could try a short walk onto the path.”

Elowen nodded excitedly at this idea. “We could!”

Sophie still held the stone in her palm, and she carefully stuck it in her pocket. She had been slightly concerned that the clothing might cause an issue, but she needn’t have worried – after all, Elowen’s bond could pass through wood and stone. There was no reason why Sophie’s Tailored clothes should pose a problem.

Sophie walked out to the courtyard, Elowen trailing alongside her. She stopped once she got to the middle of the large space and turned to Elowen. “Can you tell?” she asked. “I mean, –”

“Yes, of course,” Elowen cut in. “It’s as if the center of my existence has completely shifted to you. It feels… Well, I’m not sure exactly.”

The center of her existence… Sophie suddenly felt the weight of the responsibility settle over her. All of Elowen’s existence relied on a stone that sat in her pocket. It felt heavier than it had before. She patted her pocket as if to check that it was still there.

“Um, well, do you want to test the range?” she asked, trying not to think about the other thing so much. “It seemed your distance was very limited on the shrine stone. You could try walking out on the path…”

“Yes, that’s a wonderful idea!” Elowen replied. She floated on ahead, seeming to pause when she reached the edge of the courtyard. But then she continued forward, down the stone staircase and onto the path. Sophie found herself stepping forward, almost without realizing it.

She willed herself to stand still. It wasn’t as if Elowen was pulling on the stone or anything like that. It wasn’t a physical sensation at all – it was more just strange seeing Elowen disappear onto the path without her. After a moment or two, though, she came back.

“The forest!” Elowen exclaimed. “I haven’t been in the forest in – oh, I don’t know how many seasons!”

Sophie laughed. “And your range?”

“I think it’s about the same,” Elowen declared, but she was still grinning ear to ear, effervescent with happiness.

Sophie made a thoughtful noise at the news. She would’ve imagined Elowen‘s range might be slightly shorter on the smaller stone, but the bond itself seemed to be pulling the same amount of mana – barely a trickle. So perhaps the bond was limiting Elowen’s movement range.

They had time to explore those questions later, however. For now… Sophie stepped forward to meet Elowen at the edge of the courtyard and looked out onto the path.

“Do you want to explore further?”

Elowen nodded happily. “I’d love that.”