I hold my breath as Noir makes contact with the stone.

  Only to let it out a moment later as nothing happens.

  I think back to when I absorbed my Class stone. It was over a year ago now, but I can access the memories as long as I concentrate.

  “I had to break mine,” I murmur thoughtfully. “Maybe…maybe you should crunch this between your teeth?” Noir doesn’t have a hand, after all, and his paw is rather less agile than my own. If he tries to crush it in that, fragments might escape and that’s probably a bad thing.

  Noir eyes me uncertainly, then delicately takes the stone from my hand. Crushing it takes barely any pressure and I see the fragments of the dark green stone fall apart in his mouth.

  “Maybe don’t swallow? Keep it in your mouth for a bit?” I suggest, remembering how the fragments had glowed before they were absorbed by my body.

  The alcaoris follows my instructions, not daring to shift his jaws at all. I’m vaguely aware that our companions have gathered around us – everyone seems to be curious about what might happen.

  “Give him some space,” I instruct when they press too closely, and they obediently shift away a little.

  Noir makes a surprised, slightly pained noise and I peer into his mouth to see that the fragments have indeed melted away and are being absorbed. Is it working? I wonder, touching the Bond between us. I feel the ghost of a familiar prickling sort of pain and excitement makes my breath come quicker. Full of hope, I close my eyes and follow the mental route to Noir’s Core space.

  Every time I’ve been here before, it’s been a blank void. But now….

  What used to be the black of space’s vacuum is now full of bright green stardust. It dances and twists in complicated patterns that at first appear random. Almost half of the dust starts whirling in tighter and tighter spirals until it condenses – it’s Noir’s Core!

  As if that’s the signal, the rest of the dust increases its own movements, whirling and darting around like sparks from an alchemical fire – or like watching a star system be born in seconds rather than billions of years. Little by little, the dust begins to gather, forming filaments that wrap around the Core like an emerald net.

  In less time than it takes me to level up, the Class stone has created a Core and an internal matrix for my alcaoris companion.

  I can easily see the differences between my own Core space and Noir’s. His Core is significantly smaller and duller for one thing, and it’s green rather than gold, though I don’t know whether that makes any difference. The colour seems rather less relevant than the fact that it looks more like a bright lamp than a star – is that because of his level, because this is a Common Class rather than an Epic, or because something has gone wrong? Hopefully not the last.

  His internal matrix is far less complex too, and there’s none of the complicated interconnected weaving of my own mandala-like matrix. This is pedestrian in comparison. Instead of a weave that makes it hard to see where a filament starts and ends, there are five main strands that reach out with thinner strands leading away from them, looking rather like tree branches. Or, I think, grasping hands.

  Now I’ve seen it, I can’t unsee it – each main strand has five ‘fingers’ that trail off out of Noir’s Core space and a number of other filaments along the ‘arm’ that either extend further into his Core space or return back to his Core.

  There are also only two areas of denser weaving that look to my eyes like Skills, in stark comparison to my own multiple zones. The Skills are situated in the ‘palms’ of two of the hands – does that mean he can only earn three more Skills at this point? Or perhaps it’s only Class Skills that sit in the ‘palms’ and non-Class Skills end up elsewhere?

  Still, the internal matrix looks healthy and complete, for all its lack of complexity. The strands are robust even if they’re thin, and the light in the Core is shifting gently as I’ve come to expect of a healthy Core. The blackness of the Core space is now the luminous blackness of my own space, rather than the lightless vacuum it used to be.

  I pull out of Noir’s Core space.

  “How does it feel?” I ask the young alcaoris.

  Amazing! he chirps.

  I stare at him for a moment, blinking.

  “Noir…you’re talking!”

  Indeed, the voice is lighter than I expected, and very young, but its source is unmistakable. It reminds me of when Bastet first reached Tier 2 – the emotional bleed-off makes the words slightly fuzzy, but that doesn’t detract from the wonder of this.

  Yes! he agrees with a little wriggle and flick of his tail.

  I smile widely – though I manage to communicate well enough with my companions even when they can’t use words, it’s always easier when they can. And in this particular moment, it means Noir will be able to describe what he’s feeling.

  “Tell me everything,” I urge him. “What happened from your perspective? What did you feel? How different does it feel now – or doesn’t it?”

  His head sways from side to side – I recognise the gesture indicates he’s thinking so I keep quiet.

  Feels different, he tells me finally. Feels…stronger. More alive. More…me. And not, at the same time.

  Yeah, OK, that doesn’t make much sense.

  “Go on,” I urge – maybe it will make more sense when he’s finished explaining.

  Was painful – like brother’s claws but all over. Prickles inside – made me want to roll and scratch my scales off. Then…felt good. Felt like…slept on a wing until it went numb and then it wake up and could feel with it.

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  That, I understand better – I’ve fallen asleep on my arm often enough to know how it feels when the blood is finally released back into the limb. Interesting.

  “You said that it felt like you, but also not. Can you explain that?”

  Not really, he replies, a hint of sadness entering his voice. Feels…like always meant to be…but not this.

  I frown, trying to parse that. He shoves a complicated feeling at me and I understand a little better. The best way I can describe it is like I’m naked and cold and finally put on some clothes – a relief and something that feels right to do – but that the clothes are slightly the wrong size. Except instead of being clothes on my outside, this feels like something inside.

  Perhaps it’s because it’s a matrix generated by a Core rather than his own naturally-developed one? I wonder to myself. Perhaps they’ll grow to suit each other in time? I hope so, because ill-fitting clothes can chafe and cause blisters, rashes, and crease-marks – I hate to imagine what an ill-fitting internal matrix might cause.

  I’ll have to keep a close eye on how it develops – I might be able to nudge it towards being more appropriate for Noir if I can get an idea of what it should be like. I could use Ivor as a template, but I have no guarantee that all alcaorises have the same sort of internal matrix – Raven would never have let me look at his.

  “Monitor that feeling,” I tell Noir. “If it changes, tell me immediately. Heck, if you have any ideas about how to make it feel like a better fit, let me know.”

  Will, Noir promises.

  “Alright, can you see any boxes in front of your eyes?” I ask, remembering the box that came up and obscured my vision when I first gained my Class.

  No.

  Hm.

  “What if you think ‘status’ very firmly?”

  Status, Noir replies, then lets out a faint noise of surprise.

  “You see something?”

  Yes. He sends me an image. It’s indeed a status panel. The problem is that the writing in the table is complete gibberish – not even letters. Just curly and jagged lines.

  “I can’t read it – can you?”

  No, Noir chirps, a little questioningly, as if wondering why he should have been able to. I’m a little disappointed despite myself. But I know what it says, he chirps next, jerking me out of my disappointment.

  “Wait, what? You can’t read it…but you know what it says?”

  Yes!

  “Alright then – what does it say?”

  My physical abilities are strong! My mental abilities, less. But my soul is strongest! And I can do something new: Quick Grab and Disappear.

  I blink, digesting that. That’s a lot less precise than my own status, but I suppose knowing how the group of stats relate to each other is the most important thing. Though how would he assign points on level up – by focussing on a specific part of his physical stats? Or, unlike humans, does he actually only have three stats – physical, mental, and soul?

  I’m briefly distracted from my thoughts by Nicholas reaching out.

  Markus, I have your slave here. He has three gold coins and says he wishes to use them to pay off his service contract. He does have three of your Bonded with him, but I wanted to check with you that everything is as it seems before I accept the payment.

  It’s all fine, I assure him. I gave him the coins as a reward for his actions during the kidnapping.

  A rather large reward, Nicholas comments with a hint of disapproval.

  Yet, it is the one I feel is deserved, I reply firmly. Do you object? I’m aware that even though Nicholas technically gave Loran to me, he didn’t pass over the service contract at the same time so, according to the law, Loran still belongs to him.

  But as far as I understand it, a master is obliged to accept a slave buying out their service contract if they manage to scrounge up enough money through permissible means. Only if the money is stolen or earned illegally can it be seized. Which does make me wonder how many masters are willing to give their slaves coins here or there for luxuries, but if they tried to buy out their own contract, are then willing to declare the money stolen. I doubt that the slave in question would have any recourse to justice since what the master says, goes.

  You may do as you please with your slaves, Markus, Nicholas answers after a brief pause. I only request you consider what example this might set for others. He’s only been yours for less than a month. To reward him enough in one go to free himself seems a little precipitous.

  Well, since Loran has become enough part of the pack that he wishes to remain part of it with a Companion Bond even after being set free, I’d say he'll be a pretty good one, I comment wryly.

  Truly? Nicholas asks, surprise drifting over from his side of the Bond. Curious. I suppose it will serve as an example of why others should work hard for you – positive motivation.

  Apparently that’s the end of the conversation as I feel his attention shift back onto Loran and away from me. I shrug and turn my attention back to my own conversation partners.

  “Sorry about that. Can you show me Disappear and Quick Grab?”

  Noir sends me a flicker of eager excitement. For a moment, nothing happens. Then my attention is caught by something off to the side and when I look back, Noir is gone. I feel a brief brush of something at my waist and when I touch the area, I realise that my pouch for Aingeal has been pulled away.

  How was that? Noir chirps and I blink as I see him practically back in the place where he was before, the bag hanging from his mouth.

  I take a moment to look around the rest of my Bonded. Bastet and the other raptorcats jumped and snarled at his sudden reappearance, as did Fenrir. Lathani doesn’t seem surprised, though, nor does Kalanthia. Or Sirocco.

  “Did you see him move?” I ask them.

  I did, Sirocco tells me smugly. It takes more than a brief distraction to evade my gaze.

  I lost sight of him briefly with my eyes, but my earth sense kept track of him at all times, Kalanthia contributes. I could see him when I looked again.

  The same for me, but I could also feel him in the shadows. He’s not going to fool me, Lathani agrees.

  “What about the rest of you?” I ask the others.

  I lost track of him, Hunter admits, the other two Pathwalkers agreeing with her, as does Iandee.

  I briefly lost track of him, but I caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye shortly after and was able to follow him by the effect he had on his environment, Catch tells us.

  “Interesting,” I comment, then look at Noir who is being smug at his brother who – since he hasn’t said anything – most likely lost sight of Noir too and doesn’t want to admit it. “Do it again.”

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