My head was a mess as I made my way to the tower. However, as I arrived, I found I couldn’t find the presence that had once dominated this place. I walked up the steps to the door, and when I reached the door, I found it cracked open. Just to be sure, I knocked on the door and made my way inside.

  The interior was much the same as my earlier visits, with several shelves scattered around the edges of the room and a table placed centrally. Light was easily entering into the room despite how overgrown it appeared from outside. This was the first time I couldn’t find Nightshade within her home.

  “Nightshade?” I called out, hoping she would reveal herself, and while I heard nothing, I felt a response from our bond. ‘An early ray of sunshine warming up a new day after a night of delicious dew.’ My best interpretation of her symbolism is "good morning"? I’m still not quite sure, but that was my best guess. It seems she was present, but I couldn’t tell where.

  Then some moss on the wall shifted, revealing the doorway to a staircase leading upstairs. The path would’ve been something out of some horror story if the light from a glowing vine above me hadn’t made the path so clear. Instead, it just seemed like an ancient ruin. Eventually I reach the top of the staircase; once more vines shifted aside, giving me access to the trapdoor leading up.

  At the top I find myself in what appears to be some kind of rooftop garden. Rows of beautiful flowers arranged and carefully maintained. In the center with no other plants is a familiar plant. Even if it was only a single flowering Nightshade, I could tell this was Nightshade's true body. I feel over our bond a feeling of ‘a gentle wind shaking but not hurting on a quiet day.’ Which I think was trying to convey a greeting, like waving at someone you know.

  I pace back and forth for some time trying to figure out how to get meaningful conversation. I’m so caught up in my thoughts I almost miss Nightshade shaping mana to talk just as we did originally. I snap myself back into focus even if today has been rough. I need to keep focus on the here and now if I want this conversation to have meaning. I sit down right before the grass growing around Nightshade and give her my full attention.

  I wait . . .

  And wait . . .

  Frustration continues to mount as I continue to wait for something.

  I try to focus on our bond, and all I get in return is the feeling of peacefully sunbathing. I’m starting to get the feeling that our bond might have had some level of impact on her ability to communicate. Though I think that way, I get the feeling of ‘an uncomfortably strong wind’ and then ‘a patient burrowing into the ground waiting for the passage of time.’ My interpretation is indignant to my idea that she had regressed in some way and encouraged me to have greater patience. In other words, shut up and wait.

  I feel a bit indignant about being told this by a plant but get over that quickly, remembering she is 180-ish levels higher and who knows how much older. Instead of being a brat, I calm down and wait. My mind wanders from topic to topic until I decide to pass time in meditation. Time passes, and eventually I can feel myself relax, the troubles melting away as I imitate a plant enjoying the afternoon light.

  “Took you long enough to get into the right headspace.” I hear these words over my bond, and it almost shakes me out of my meditation, but after a momentary reset, I manage to restore my meditation.

  “Good, remember meditation is the foundation of communion and the heart of enchanting.” The light of the sun begins to fade. “You have a solid foundation, but you will struggle far more in enchanting than any other discipline.”

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  The light patter of rain sprinkles down but slides down an invisible dome, which collects the water into pools around the tower's edges.

  “Might is of the body, magic of the mind, and enchanting is of the spirit. You hold magic in abundance, and your equal has taken up might. Your spirit was not shaped by our world. You are limited in some ways and unlimited in others. Neither you nor your equal will ever hold talent communing with the beings of this world, but to grow without will destroy you.”

  An unsettling chill passes through Callen.

  “Even if your soul was designed without limit, that doesn’t mean it can bear any burden without limit. As you are, you and your pair would have perished upon gaining stats. You have already nearly met collapse but were spared by divinity.”

  A memory I had nearly forgotten from before my birth flashes back.

  “Return here regularly with your pair. You may yet avoid imbalance, but you will both need to master your spirit.”

  The rain outside began to fade, and peace washed over me again as I continued the meditation. Nightshade shares the feeling of peace with the passage of time, and eventually I feel the light of the sun begin to set, and I know it's time to leave, but before I go, I have one last question to ask Nightshade.

  “Nightshade, what does it mean to share a familiar bond?”

  Instead of words, I get the same impressions as before. This time it's the presence of someone familiar, someone caring whom I’ve never met. In fast forward I experience the life of a flower raised from seedling and raised not as a plant but as a precious family. Gradually even understanding and emotion are nurtured and raised so that even after the caregiver has left for a thousand years, I still cherish that presence. Then I returned to the moment in the field after I had been poisoned. The peaceful feelings I had shared rekindled an ancient connection. Like the return of a beloved family member, but now it was the welcoming of a new family member after a long loneliness.

  While I still didn’t fully understand what a familiar meant, I now understood it as Nightshade did. It was a bond of familial affection shared between those who needed no words, only each other's presence. It was a promise of support and care to help each other grow and to protect what was cherished. Above all it was sincerity; even if neither realized it, a promise and connection were formed.

  Honestly, it had me feeling warm butterflies as I got up. The sun was setting, but before I left, I had one more thing to do. I went to the edge of the garden and retrieved the watering can and took care of my companion. A soft smile touched my face as I felt Nightshade wobble slightly in happiness.

  Digging in

  Callia endured her mom’s brutal revenge for her convoluted series of traps. In addition to disciplinary actions, a childhood sentence of cleaning the outside of our house once a month. Despite that, Callen still hadn’t suffered. Revenge was still mandatory, but instead of a convoluted series of traps, it seemed a large number of more focused traps was more suitable going forward.

  This time Callia spent a week digging a massive hole and covering it with a thin layer of sod. In addition, Callia rigged a number of swinging logs to force him into the trap when he inevitably catches on to her plan. Nixie is on trap trigger duty, and Reesia was called in to distract him at a critical moment and give him a push if necessary.

  It was time. Callia, with her sharp eyes, spotted the approaching Callen and signaled Reesia to begin the operation. Reesia approaches Callen and, with all the stealth of a rock to the face, begins to distract him. It's a complete failure, but that doesn’t matter when she grabs Callen and tosses him right into the field of traps.

  Callen tries to get tricky, jumping on a swinging log to ride it to freedom, but Reesia is on the job again, and he bails from the log as Callen's escape is cut off. He lands onto the wrong spot. The ground breaks out from under him, and with a short yelp, he falls.

  Nixie is on point, and before Callen’s cry of surprise is over, a hidden bag filled with trash rains ick onto the helpless Callen.

  Mission success!

  With practiced coordination the team clears the area, leaving Callen to stew in his trash while the girls move to point B with the next set of traps. He will never expect that 13 different setups have been prepped for him on the various routes home. With Callia keeping watch, the girls had plenty of time to redeploy to each of their setups for the subsequent ambushes.