Storm had acted as interpreter between Siam and Pluton before they attempted the bonding. The conversation lasted much longer than I’d expected. Pluton had not just Siam because Storm or I had vouched for him. His instincts were to protect his chicks, and he had been hesitant at taking a risk, not willing to even make the attempt until he had some assurances that Siam would be as invested in protecting the chicks as he was.

His concern wasn’t one of trust or indifference but one of fear. He was afraid of what would happen to his chicks if he bonded with Siam and the bonding failed. Siam and Storm spent most of the conversation explaining how Siam would stand in loco parentis, helping to feed, teach, and care for the chicks if the worse happened.

Very rarely the bonding went bad, and the rebound of a connection snapping affected the animal instead of the cultivator. If that happened, it would leave Pluton severely crippled, taking decades to regain his strength and cultivation.

Events like that were so rare as to approach impossible, especially as Beast Tamers had begun cultivating better methods. But it did happen, and Pluton wanted to make sure he and his family would be taken care of in that event.

I wasn’t privy to the conversation Siam and Pluton had, but Storm helped him to understand that his chicks would be finding their own companion soon, someone that would bond with them and would protect them. Someone that would become a brother or sister, strong enough to help them grow. And that they would be protected by House Myche and the Myche Dojo that was even now being constructed.

It was only when he understood that by bonding, his chicks would gain access to a cultivator’s inner world, a place of safety that was inviolable, a connection that would allow them to gain abilities that they could never gain on their own, that he agreed.

The bonding itself was a simple matter, nothing like the ritual I had to go through when I bonded with Storm. Siam used a knife to slice his palm, holding the bleeding hand over his other until a pool of blood had been gathered. Once satisfied he had collected enough, he then offered the collected blood to Pluton. The Roc sniffed the blood a few times before lapping at the offering like a puppy being offered a treat and, in the process, triggering the bonding process.

The influx of stimuli from melding their two personalities seemed to result in vertigo, enough that Siam was forced to sit on the ground. He sat, folding into lotus position instead of collapsing, and began channeling his cultivation method. He had enough presence of mind to continue the bonding process as he began channeling his Qi sharing the essence that he was gathering with Pluton as his spirit root and Pluton’s beast channels merged.

I couldn’t see exactly what he was doing, or what cultivation technique he was using, but I knew that the process of connecting his Silver Spirit Root, and the forty-seven meridian channels that came with that root would have to be delicately woven together.

The Roc had over sixty channels, more than what Siam was able to connect in a one-to-one ratio. He would need to use some of his stronger meridians to connect with more than one beast channel in order to give Pluton access to his inner world. So, he had to be selective on how he incorporated the blending of channels into the framework he was creating, often connecting one of his channels to two of Plutons. It was a delicate procedure that would form a web of shared awareness between them.

How that was done for a Beast Tamer, while at the same time making use of the partitioned mind they had forged and needed to master in order to bond with more than one companion was beyond my understanding. But he seemed to have been successful, at least it seemed that way when I noticed that once the connections were made, they began dual cultivating and exchanging Qi over their newly linked network.

Siam guided that exchange of essence, following the cultivation technique he had mastered. While Siam was used to cycling Qi, refining it, and sharing it with his inner sea, it would be a fundamental shift in thinking for Pluton. A shift in his understanding of who he was and who he could become.

As an observer, I was able to watch each step of the process now that the bond had been formed. The movement of Qi between them. There were even changes to Siam on the cellular level, changes to his genetic structure that my perception was able to monitor. His body remained fundamentally Elf, but his DNA was transforming as he added a part of what made Pluton a Roc to who he was and a part of the DNA that made him Elf to Pluton.

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The change wasn’t drastic, Siam didn’t sprout wings or feathers as the process continued, but there was the tiniest ripple, a change across the reality that made each a part of the other, and each unique. They were a merged composite of both Elf and Roc.

That ripple, in reality, that change of what they were, also stabilized the companion bond. The change in cellular structure was what made what they were more than just a person and a pet. They were merged. Fused in a manner that was even more real than the ties of family, the shared blood a brother and sister might have.

They were each a part of the other.

I left them to themselves once I was certain the bond had taken, giving them the time needed to process the changes that had been made. For Siam, this was his second bonded animal and while it was a monumental change, he understood what the changes would mean. For Pluton it was life-saving.

A Roc mated for life, and with his mate dead his existence was one of emptiness, if not for his chicks he would have already died. Siam would not replace his mate, but the bond would fill the gaping wound her death had created.

After I left them to their communion, I went to investigate how the construction was coming along on the Dojo. It hadn’t been a full day yet, but I had already noticed construction and the progress seemed well underway when Siam and I had arrived. The Taming Stable and Taming field was much further along and looked as if they would be finished within the next day, but it was harder to tell with the main Dojo.

“Baroness,” Bob greeted me as I approached, “Sect member Cinder has been most helpful in laying out the formations we discussed. She had a few suggestions that connected the outlying buildings into a larger array than we had planned. One that will be more effective.

“The result is a more harmonious balance of the five elements we discussed.”

“What changes did she suggest and what does that mean for the Dojo going forward?” I asked.

“Her method adds lightning as a part of the whole, instead of using the additional element as a barrier to contain the elements,” he answered.

“My original design blended earth, wind, fire, and water and encapsulated that synergy with spatial elemental Qi. We had changed that if you remember. I had created a new synergy replacing the spatial component with lightning. It would have worked, but Cinder offered another suggestion.

“Instead of using lightning as a containment barrier, her design was able to add lightning to the mix, keeping the spatial elemental Qi as the energy barrier. The lightning Qi will become part of the synergy, adding cohesion to the whole. A five-blended harmony instead of four.

“With the spatial element to act as cage will the balance of elements hold and remain in harmony?” I asked.

“It will be even more balanced,” he promised. “The five elements will be braided together, the lightning added to the mix adding stability. A five-banded braid is simply intrinsically stronger. There will be less likelihood for the elements to fray, and over time that weave will become tighter, the elements fusing.

“Before the array worked more like a whirlpool, the disparate elements swirling together, gathering to one focal point. By using a braiding technique, we can not only line the honeycombed chambers throughout the center building with the rope of elements; we can layer the floor, walls, and ceiling. The addition of the woven elements throughout will mean a skein of energy that can be shared, instead of focused and channeled into one point.

“It will be just as effective as Four Element Sect. This will allow the entire main building of the Dojo to use the balanced energy. And if we create a Qi gathering network beneath the building, dig deeply into the substrate of the building, you will have something not available to most Houses.

“If we move the closed-door cultivation rooms to the substrate, and you add a method to selectively gather the type of energy you need to use, you will pool enough energy to rival some of the stronger Sects. They won’t be as effective as closed-door cultivation rooms you might find in the high-tier Sects, but they will certainly be on par with anything you’d find in a mid-tier Sect.”

“If that is the case, why aren’t other Houses or Sects using this technique?” I wondered.

“For the same reason no one would give my architectural designs a chance,” he pointed out in disgust. “It’s cultural, I think. This rigidity and unwillingness to innovate. Which is strange, considering the number of resources spent on research.

“But even there, consider this, any breakthroughs are almost always looked upon with suspicion or indifference. The seedpods that you discovered. They may allow for real changes in Alchemy and pill recipes, but it will take generations for those changes to percolate throughout our society.

“Our long lives give us amazing opportunities for growth and advancement, but we also become hidebound and obstinate. Determined to adhere to practices and techniques that have been proven and known to work.

“Who would dare change the way they advance when they are following in the steps of known Cultivators that have reached the summit of cultivation and ascended the Heavens?

“You would have to be insane to change things when you have examples of success. Methods have proven to have worked,” Bob concluded.