The best part about my… our new Skill turned out to be the fact that the new body was identified the same as before its death. That meant when Alex had properly woken up and looked around in the room, finding the little songbird sitting on the windowsill inside of the closed shutters, she froze. Her face turned into the funniest expression of disbelief I had seen until then. The mouth stood half open with her tongue poking into her right cheek. Her eyes were blinking rapidly and I felt the [Identify] fire off only for the living fortress to bring her hands to her face. The groan immediately woke up Hera who was sleeping in the same bed and Circe and Jane on the other side of the room.

“What the fuck?”, came from the speakers of the smartphone in my hands. It sounded distorted and lacked volume but it was clear Alex had said those words. Catori was still half an hour away but I was fine just waiting for a bit to see what they did. It turned out they ignored the songbird and simply went about their morning. The girls washed up and I could hear them talk about the trip for the day but the songbird in the room was avoided elegantly. The only one paying it any attention was Circe who tried to pet it but was stopped by Alex.

The group went downstairs for breakfast taking their belongings with them. Hera left the window open and tried to spook the songbird to fly away but gave up after a few tries. She looked a little freaked out.

Sadly, songbirds had less useful ears than owls. Sure, they were decent but I could not make out the conversation my friends had one floor below through the hubbub that was an inn in the morning. Apparently, this little collection of houses that could only barely be called a village was a very important stop for all kinds of travel and trade coming and going to and from the Cathedral.

A glance at the TV revealed we were almost back.

“I’m just going to wait on the cart…”, Catori said.

“Sure.”

There was a moment of silence as I watched her land. This might have been her first ‘real’ flight but the body was still the same that knew how to fly and land easily so there was no issue for her. It simply appeared there was not enough space for both of us to be present in reality at the same time. Someone would have to put up a front while the other rested back here in the mindscape. I was honestly quite fine with that as it got me some more time with Truth. The old… thing… could use the company and I had a few questions of practical use. Sadly, he had dodged my inquiries about hungry nodes, potion recipes and other things I wanted to know. Like Stormbringer. He very clearly wanted me to learn on my own. Or, together with Catori.

“So…”, Catori said, “You wanna go back outside?”

“Not yet. I’ll do the thing.”

“Oh! Yes, that sounds great!”

I could hear the happiness in her voice not just at our little game but also that she would be fronting a little longer.

Soon after, the group was all ready and got to the wagon. There were greetings all around but nobody noticed anything different about us. Which was not surprising. We still looked the same. I could tell she enjoyed interacting with everyone on her own even if it felt almost like I was doing it. The TV was drawing my full attention, especially when Circe was talking.

“Is it always like this for you?”, I asked.

“Like… I’m almost doing the things? Yeah.”

“Wow. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I had Truth to talk to when you didn’t.”

“Huh. I never noticed. That’s why you stuck so close?”

The giant eyeball floating outside blinked.

“I’m not close, nor am I far. I Am.”

“Right”, I nodded, “I’ll go into the songbird, now. Let’s do this.”

I lay down on the couch, resting my head on a large pillow. It was me-shaped. Then I closed my eyes and willed my soul into the little bird. With a start, my pulse returned. Once again it was much faster than I was used to. My tiny wings spread out and with a tweet, I was off.

The cart was already down the street and had left behind the buildings. I could see everyone relax as the horses pulled them along. Catori jumped to the front and started to talk to Jane, asking questions about the Cathedral. With the distraction, it was easy to land right next to Circe’s hand on the back of the wagon.

“So, the two halves of the building don’t have any greater meaning?”, I asked. Or Catori did with my voice. It felt a little strange to hear myself talking and having no control over it. But I had a mission.

“I mean, they serve to separate aspects that would interfere with each other. Or interact negatively. Like the dark ones. Vinculum, exterminis, mortuus, tenebrae. You know, all the stuff that makes undead.”

I tweeted.

Circe’s hand jerked as she turned around. Then, her face lit up.

“Ohh, you’re back! Hey, little one, do you like me? Do you want to be my familiar?”

I scoffed and looked away.

“Is that the same one from earlier?”, Cerberos asked.

I felt an [Identify] wash over me.

“Yup”, Alex said, “Unless they have an identical status page. Which I wouldn’t rule out.”

“It feels a little off, don’t you think?”, Jane mused.

“They talked about you when we got the wagon set up”, Catori sent.

“Yes. Something’s wrong with that bird”, Alex agreed.

“Try this”, Catori said.

“What? You know something?”

I jumped on Circe’s hand. As my body moved the arcane speaker towards me. My friend took it and held it out. I jumped on top.

“Yes, I do”, I said.

“Ah!”, Circe made.

I tweeted. Catori hooted at the same time.

“Oh, no”, Jane said, “What the fuck did you do?”

“Just a new Skill of mine”, I said.

“It’s really fun”, Catori added. She had taken out our second arcane speaker.

Alex laughed. Within moments, everyone joined in.

“You-you're insane!”, Alex managed between wheezes, “How? What? Why? Did Truth give you some secret?”

We shook our heads.

“He might have given a tiny push”, Catori said, “But most of this was… my own thing.”

“Not going to tell?”, I asked her.

“I… no. Not yet.”

“Well, I’ll be damned”, Jane said, “What happened to the actual bird there?”

“It’s sorta dead?”, Catori said, “I mean, the original soul moved on. The body is still alive but it only lives because my soul is still connected.”

I tweeted.

“It’s also kinda annoying”, I said, “Way too tiny and weak.”

“It’s cute!”, Circe said.

I pecked her finger.

“Hey!”

“See? Weak.”

“Cute”, Hera said, completely flat.

“I’ll find something better”, Catori said, “It’ll be great!”

“Like what? You can’t even find a familiar”, Alex teased.

“I… fair point”, I conceded back from my main body, “Anyway, that one is really not… fun.”

Catori blinked with the songbird's eyes.

“Not. At. All”, she said, “I’ll go leave it in a ditch somewhere.

“You could eat it?”, Circe suggested.

“No fucking way”, I said, “That would be wrong on so many levels.”

My friend just tilted her head.

Before Catori could take off, the songbird started to fizzle. A few feathers loosened and moments later it poofed out of existence. I felt Catori back from inside my soul.

“Much better. Hey, next time you’re in here, try to make the popcorn taste like something.”

“What makes you think I’m going to do a better job than you?”, I shot back, “What happened at the end there?”

“I think that was the void aspect we put inside the [Winged Dream].”

“That. Wow. Okay, no more vacuos attack for bodies we want to use. Anyway, why did it take so long for us to flip back?”

“Maybe because it was fun?”

“Ah. Yeah. You wanted to be the songbird to surprise them.”

“Oh, that makes sense. So we’ll have to find a body you like. Or better, both of us like. Then we’ll be able to be out at the same time and even do separate things.”

“Hey, Fio, you there?”

I blinked at Alex hovering in front of my face.

“Yes?”

“I asked if you can use Skills from that other body.”

“Oh. No, not really. I have access to my will Attributes I think but that’s it. That thing at the end was probably caused by the aspects I put into the body. Maybe I can do more with those?”

“That seems like an awfully convoluted Skill”, Jane said, “Is it a new one or an altered one?”

“Both. It’s two Skills working together.”

“Oh, fucking fuckitty fuck!”, the paladin shouted, “You got combo Skills? At that level?”

Everyone stared at her.

“What are combo Skills?”, Circe asked.

“Shit!”, Jane cursed again.

I looked around and noticed that everyone had very confused expressions on their faces.

“Ah, whatever. I already said it. They are incredibly rare. When you evolve a Class there’s a chance two of the new or altered Skills have a special interaction with one basically having no function without the other. They are insanely powerful once you get some levels in them. It usually doesn’t happen until you get to the Double.”

“Second evolution, huh?”, Cerberos said, “Yeah, some of those guys are crazy strong. I always thought that was the Attributes, though.”

“Plays a part, definitely. Combo Skills are a step above, though. Especially once you get them to the higher Breakpoints. Which is much easier since they work off each other and push to improve what the other one does.”

“Neat”, I said.

Jane sighed deeply.

“Will the horses be fine without you guiding them?”, Alex smirked.

The woman turned around and quickly picked up the reins again to keep the horses on the road. There were some juicy patches of grass they looked to be interested in.

“Well, you got something strong”, Alex said, “Again.”

“Of course, I’m awesome.”

“That we are!”, Catori cheered.

“But at least it’s useless without another animal.”

I hesitated for a moment but decided not to mention it would likely work on humans as well.

“No”, Catori said, “We are not taking a human life just so I can live a little more comfortably.”

“What if there’s an asshole with a nice body? Or another target?”

“I mean… No. I don’t want to think about this right now. Let’s try a few things. We can just play around with some non-sapients, right?”

I sent her a mental nod. Soon, we were back into the groove of travelling. On, towards the Cathedral. And the Crimson Heart, whatever that was.