Morgan sat on the marble floor, looking around the antechamber to Vormendion’s reliquary, and tried to take in everything that had just happened. The wave of Energy that had coursed through him had done more than give him a level—something had happened with the tower, also, like it had woken up and made a connection with him. He couldn’t exactly feel the tower, but he was somehow aware of it. For instance, he simply knew that it had taken on a bronze aspect on its exterior. He also knew he could change it to appear like almost any sort of metal.

“Vormendion had been a grumpy old guy, huh? Making this place look like a cast iron finger of doom.” He shook his head and took a moment to realize he was still alone, several minutes after defeating the guardian. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the doors were still closed, and he realized he knew they were locked. He decided to keep it that way for a minute to take a few breaths all to himself before he had to explain everything that had happened.

Morgan waved the notifications from the System out of his vision and opened his status screen with some anticipation, touching the “Class Refinement” tab and reading over his options, which numbered fewer than he’d ever seen:

***Class refinement option 1: Void Master - Legendary. Pre-requisite: Affinity with void-attuned Energy, certain criteria with mental attributes, and exceptional Energy affinity. You have developed new and powerful means of piercing the Void. Continue down this road and gain further mastery of your rare affinity. Class attributes: Intelligence, Unbound.***

***Class refinement option 2: Anemoi Cloud Warden - Legendary. Prerequisites: Exceptional Energy affinity and the strong presence of the ancient Anemoi Bloodline. You have unlocked a partial connection to an ancient Bloodline. Utilize this connection to develop class abilities and spells that complement the secrets of your ancestry. Class attributes: Intelligence, Agility, Dexterity.***

***Class refinement option 3: No Refinement - You are pleased with the path on which you find yourself and choose to continue until your next refinement option.***

“Guess I should think about this for a minute. Maybe Issa or Tiladia will have some advice,” Morgan said, for some reason talkative in his post-battle, post-Energy-surge state of limp relaxation. With a grunt, he hoisted himself to his feet, unconsciously using his wings to provide momentum. He was growing more and more used to the new appendages, so much so that he hardly thought about them anymore.

He walked to the door, and it unlocked at his approach. When the tumblers clicked, it started to swing open almost immediately, and then Issa rushed through the opening and smashed into him like a guided missile, grabbing him around the waist in a tight hug. “Hey,” Morgan laughed, hugging her back.

“You did it! I knew you would, but I was still worried. Isn’t that dumb?” Issa asked, looking up at him with moist eyes.

“Were you crying? Of course, that’s not dumb! I’m sorry you were worried!” Morgan kissed her upturned brow, gently smoothing the moisture away from her cheeks with his thumbs. A tinkling shift in the light reminded Morgan that Tiladia was there, and he turned to face the dragon spirit, “I have a connection to the tower now. I can sort of sense you, too, Tiladia. I think I can free you if you want. It might take me a minute to figure out, but I feel like it’s possible.”

“Free me? But my body is long gone, Morgan.” She whirled into the shape of her misty dragon, opened her jaws, and roared out a plume of white mist.

“Well, yeah, I guess I’d be freeing you to, I don’t know, do what spirits normally do.”

“I’m not ready for that yet! There are too many things happening that I’m interested in, Morgan! Please let me stay!”

“Oh, God, Tiladia—I wouldn’t force you to, um, move on. You tell me what you want to do when you want to do it, and I’ll help you make it happen.”

“We love having you here, Tiladia!” Issa said, turning to the floating dragon spirit.

“Good!” Tiladia said, voice chiming in a happy tinkle. “I’m glad to help you as I have been, as long as so many good and interesting people are coming and going. The tower is brighter now, Morgan. I’m glad that you’ve inherited it!”

Morgan looked at Issa and said, “It is, like, actually brighter. Wait ‘til you see the outside.”

“What about this?” Issa gestured to the bronze gates closing off the rest of the reliquary.

“Yeah, should we check it out?” Morgan turned and walked over to the gates, stepping over the creepy, wiry skeleton of the guardian, still covered in dried blood and bits of flesh and sinew. “Uh, watch your step.” He gestured to the mess.

“What was the guardian like? Was it difficult to beat, Morgan?” Issa asked, stepping around the unmoving wire feet.

“I can sense the residue of immense Energy in that crystal affixed to the construct’s head,” Tiladia said, floating over the weird, apple-sized skull.

“Yeah, it was covered with flesh and had plenty of muscle when we started fighting, but that tiny head and the wiry bones are weird as hell. Was this thing created somehow by Vormendion, do you think?” Morgan prodded the skull with the toe of his boot, and when it didn’t move or react, he squatted down to pick it up. It was heavy and dense, and though it was inert, Morgan could feel the potential in it, like when he held a powerful natural treasure. He slipped it into his storage ring with a shrug.

“I believe so,” Tiladia was saying. “Vormendion was a talented artificer, and his mastery extended to the capture and forced servitude of spirits, as I’m testament to.”

“There was a spirit in this construct, you think? It’s not still there, is it?”

“There may have been—most of his guardians were enslaved spirits. It will have departed upon the vessel's destruction, though, just like the others you conquered.

“It seems an evil practice,” Issa said. “I’m sorry Vormendion took you, Tiladia.” She reached out a hand as though to touch Tiladia, but her fingers passed through her misty form. “I wish I could hug you.”

Tiladia, in response, swirled around Issa, starting at her hips and moving up until she spun around her shoulders, still in her misty dragon shape, then she puffed out a cool cloud of air on Issa’s neck, eliciting a giggle.

“Was that a kiss? Thank you, Tiladia!” Issa’s eyes were bright with cheer, and Morgan, watching her, noticed her stomach poking out under her blouse, her pants a bit tight for her. He wanted to grab her into a hug right then but instead held out his hand and, when she took it, pulled her toward the gate to the reliquary.

“Let’s see what’s in here,” he said.

They spent hours exploring through the considerable trove of items that Vormendion had stashed away in the massive space at the top of his tower. Not for the first time, Morgan marveled at how weird it was to know the physical size of the tower’s exterior and yet walk around a chamber inside it that was several times too large to physically fit in its footprint.

They found artwork of all sorts—paintings, sculptures, crystal figurines, vases, woven rugs, carvings, and myriad other intricate, beautiful things that Morgan struggled to classify. There were stacks of books, hundreds and hundreds of them, and Tiladia said they belonged in the nearly empty library. Along one wall, they found huge wooden crates, and when Morgan opened one of them, he saw what looked like laboratory equipment. “These must belong on the sixth floor in the workshops?”

“That’s right, Morgan. Vormendion had equipment that rivaled any of his peers. He was a better artificer than many of my dragon kin.”

“Dragons craft things?” Issa asked, and Tiladia let out a harsh, discordant ring of outrage.

“Of course! Dragons aren’t just fire-breathing brutes, you know! We’re among the oldest of peoples, and with our ability to shift our shapes, we could easily take on a form that could work even the most delicate of instruments.”

“I’m sorry, Tiladia. I just don’t know much about dragons; there aren’t any on Fanwath. At least, I don’t think so!” Issa looked crestfallen at the idea that she’d hurt the spirit’s feelings.

“You shift your shapes?” Morgan asked, trying to take some of the heat off Issa.

“Only with a conscious effort of will, and it’s tiring to do. Fledglings can’t do it—it requires too much Energy. When a dragon begins to mature, we start accumulating enough Energy to maintain a different shape for longer and longer periods of time. Morgan, I could have been a beautiful human for months and months if I’d wanted to!”

“Oh?” Morgan wasn’t really sure where Tiladia was going with that, and he glanced nervously at Issa. She was smiling, looking rather pleased that he was suddenly uncomfortable. “Um, I’d have loved to see that, Tiladia.”

Tiladia didn’t say any more, though. Rather, she continued her swooping perusal of the vault, Issa’s unintended slight apparently forgotten. Morgan looked at Issa and offered her a wink, and her smile broadened, then the two of them continued exploring.

“I’m going to have to hire some people from the town to help me move this stuff around the tower. Now that the labs will be fully equipped, I should invite Boris and some of his friends to work in them. I bet they’ll be better than anything the town can come up with for quite some time.”

“That’s a good idea, Morgan. We should see if anyone wants to work in the tower. We could use a cook, you know.”

“Yeah, I suppose so. I mean, we have a ballroom and that big dining room. We should be having some parties. I’d like you to meet more people, too. I bet you aren’t the only pregnant woman in First Landing! Wouldn’t it be good to have friends to talk to about what’s happening with you?”

“Well, I have you. And Doctor Cho,” Issa said, but she looked pensive. “I would like to meet more people, though. I haven’t told you this yet, but I used the Settlement Stone to make myself a citizen of First Landing.”

“Really? Is it that easy? Should I make myself a citizen of Tarn’s Crossing?”

“No, it doesn’t work like that. The System only allows you to be an official citizen of one settlement with a System Stone. You’d have to give up your citizenship here to join the rolls at Tarn’s.”

“Oh, shit. So you’re not a citizen there anymore? What about your fam . . .” Morgan cut himself off and slapped his forehead. “I’m sorry, Issa. Of course, you should be a citizen here. Your family is here now.”

She smiled and nodded, “That’s right, it is. So you see why I want to meet more people. Our family needs to grow in influence, and I’d like to be a part of that.”

“Influence,” Morgan scratched his chin. “Right. I think I see where you’re going with this. Like how in Tarn’s Crossing, there were certain families that had more influence or power in the town or on the council than others. You don’t want to be at the mercy of a family like Swent’s.”

“It’s not just about not being at someone’s mercy, Morgan. This is the first town, soon to be a city if I’m not wrong, that Humans have founded on Fanwath. It’s going to be the center of a great civilization someday; I’m quite sure of it. I want to be part of that. I want our family to be part of that.” As she spoke, she put a hand to her stomach, and Morgan knew what she meant.

“I hadn’t really thought about that, Issa.” Morgan reached forward and gently placed his hand on her stomach next to hers. “I see your point, though. I’m glad you’re thinking about these things.”

“Morgan!” Tiladia called, swirling over the crates back toward them.

“Yeah?”

“I found the inner vault. I believe Vormendion left his inheritance items within.”

“Inheritance items?” Morgan and Issa asked in unison.