Bonded Summoner

Tanda finished up a few tasks for her preparations, sending messages and calling clan heads. Tomorrow she would be leaving back to Kenwodi, a long flight with her flock. She anticipated some danger on the way back, but thought that the large number of them would keep her safe.

Now that she was a champion in truth, she had to be worried that an enemy champion would come after her. She was weak still, and thus this should be her last trip alone. Luckily, a majority of the territory between here and Kenwodi was the Alliance’s.

She sent Ophelia a message, her supposedly waiting to pick her up. She was holding her Champion’s Crescent Moon Spear, expecting to use it in her song and dance. Tanda was wearing her black tribal clothes, having a short top that showed her midriff, with a skirt. It had beads and feathers throughout, and made with wolf hides.

Ophelia exited a portal that appeared near the Node, wearing some cute tribal-wear. Ophelia had a red skirt with feathers and beads on it, along with a cute sleeveless top that fit her well. Her platinum hair and blue eyes shone, and her smile was beaming.

Tanda couldn’t help but smile back, and she was sure her tail was wagging behind her.

“Hey Tanda! You ready to see our place? I can’t wait to hear your song!”

“Yeah! I can’t wait, too! Um…” Tanda pointed at the portal. “That’s not dangerous, is it?”

“Nope! Let’s go.” Ophelia sidled up to her, and put an arm around her hip on the opposite side, tugging her forward.

She went through the portal, experiencing an odd shifting feeling, her stomach feeling like it dropped. She hadn’t done any incursions yet, but her ravenwolf tribe mates had told her about it.

Tanda arrived in what appeared to be some sort of receiving area. There were armor racks, and various racks for jewelry and other things. She saw numerous of the same bracelets that the Hart Clan wore, and there were tables that looked like there were for disassembling creatures.

Ophelia looked thoughtful. “Now that I think of it, we probably should redesign this, huh? This is where we come out of the dungeon, out of that portal there.”

There was another archway with no portal there currently that she pointed at.

“So we’d come out all covered with monster guts, and sometimes with monster carcasses, though that part isn’t really required any more thanks to the bracelets and the [looting] skill. I guess we should have one room for the incursion portal, keeping it separate.”

Tanda thought she understood. “I don’t smell anything in here, though?”

“We use a sort of cleaning magic that really removes most of the particles, and the ventilation in here is separate. Just watch.”

She opened the door, and Tanda saw a large living area. A fireplace burned in the back, and the air was filled with life and vitality. She felt welcomed, like she was stepping back into the cave she grew up in, and a number of smells.

“C’mon in! Welcome to our Refuge!” Ophelia tugged on Tanda’s hand. Tanda walked in and took a breath, and a sniff, and was amazed.

“Jake’s a little busy, but he’ll come out and greet you in a bit. Let me give you a tour!”

While it wasn’t the forest or jungle, it had a similar feeling to her. There were some houseplants in vases along the walls, and the ceiling was high, probably for Berri’s sake. The room was bright, filled with an odd light solution she had never seen before.

Her people often used fireflies, which worked well, as most of her brethren could see with little light. A couch was facing a strange slate that was against the wall, the fireplace near.

Tanda smelled the cooking of meat, and her mouth nearly watered. The kitchen was in view, and Jake and Bloodberri were clearly working hard together there. There were…knives floating around, too?

There were over a dozen spits filled with auril beast meat over a massive flame rotating like a wheel on the back wall, next to some advanced oven, sinks, and other food preparation areas. She saw enough food being prepared to feed an army!

Paintings were on the walls, that Tanda hardly understood. She saw one where Ophelia had…a mustache? And Jake too. They were competing in some sort of challenge? It was so lifelike!

Ophelia noticed what Tanda was looking at, and laughed. “That was our first date. We couldn’t really leave here except for the dungeon, so Jake did his best to give me a special day. We like to play a lot of games, that one was tennis! He beat me in the smaller version on the table.”

Tanda’s tail started to wag, as she imagined such a challenge for a date. That was one type of date her people really enjoyed!

Ophelia grinned. “We’ll have to play together sometime. Think you can keep up with us?”

Tanda was excited. “I’d like to try it!” Tanda looked over the other paintings. “These are so lifelike. What is this, it looks like people are having fun?”

“These are pictures, taken with a device called a camera. It’s mostly true to life, capturing a moment in time. That’s us riding a rollercoaster. It moves really fast, and even though you can dive through the air faster, it’s still exciting. Oh, I hope you can try it sometime! We’ll have to travel far, though, unless we can have one built.”

Tanda had never seen a contraption like that before, but she had never seen Jake’s gondola before either. In some ways, it looked somewhat similar to another image there. “What’s that? It looks a little like the gondola?”

“That’s a Ferris Wheel, and it kind of is. Just you don’t go anywhere, going in a circle. It’s just for sightseeing. For a flyer like us, it’s not too big a deal. Still, it was kinda fun.”

Tanda saw all sorts of other pictures that were interesting, but she heard Jake’s voice.

“Tanda! Welcome to our home.”

Jake was wiping his hands with a cloth, while Bloodberri appeared to be monitoring some meats on a spit over a flame, and several other pots and pans over an oven. He stood near the edge of the kitchen, not far away from the entrance. It was a large open room, where everyone was in the same room, even if they were doing other things.

“Thanks, Jake! Are more people coming? That’s an awful lot of food!”

Jake laughed. “We like to cook extra, as they can go in our bracelets for meals on the go. But I got a few extra spits going for the tribe, and Bloodberri wants to make something for the kids at Rookard’s village. She plans on making a quick visit tomorrow.”

“Welcome, Tanda! Oh, I do hope you enjoy the movie later, too! It’ll be a while yet, before we’re done cooking.” Tanda could tell it was Berri speaking.

“That sounds like fun! The food smells amazing.”

A flash went through Bloodberri’s eyes, and Tanda could tell it was now Blood speaking, “Welcome, Tanda. I’m so glad you might be joining us. We do a lot of activities together, with a wide variety of things to choose from. I’m a big fan of Chess, Go, Catan, and Risk. I’m ready to crush you anytime, even when Berri is busy.”

Her words had a challenging edge to them, but Tanda felt like they were welcoming her to play, based on the tune and the notes of her song.

“Thanks, Blood!”

Ophelia said, “C’mon, Tanda. I’ll show you my room.” Jake and Berri went back to cooking, as Ophelia and Tanda went past a large table with strange contraptions on it. “That’s our gaming table. A lot of the games we play have lots of little pieces, and it’s just easier to keep track of them all and clean up.”

She led her through an adjacent hallway.

“We had to expand this and moved all but Jake’s room into an adjacent hallway instead of heading off to the living room. Well, we’ll have to play with it a bit, moving rooms is easy with the refuge! But there’s just too many doors and areas now.”

She opened one of the first doors in the hallway, and Tanda saw Ophelia’s room. She was sure it was hers, as she saw some of her feathers on the bed, and the color scheme of the room matched her blue eyes and white wings. There was a vase filled with white and blue roses, and she thought they looked quite nice.

Ophelia blushed. “Jake got those for me recently, to make something up to me. That vase was from our first date, too! He often gets me flowers, making sure I usually have something.”

Tanda saw there were some other plants growing in the room, mostly flowers. There was a bookshelf next to the bed, and despite not having any windows, it was like the paintings were letting sunlight into the room. The paintings changed periodically.

“Outside our refuge is the void, and it’s kind of creepy, to be honest. But there are tools that make it almost feel like a window is open, I kinda like it. We might rearrange things so that we have a wildlife area with sunlight outside our windows, but we just haven’t gotten around to it. If– When you live here, maybe you can help us?”

Ophelia smiled at her, and Tanda smiled back. She had come into this home sort of thinking that it could eventually be her home, but she very much liked the idea that she would at least partially influence it as a whole. This was in spite of the other girls already making their nest, often, the first mate would have her nest the way she liked it, and those joining would have little influence other than their own room.

Tanda looked at some books in the bookshelf. She found that she could read the spines, despite never having seen the language before, more of the Framework’s influence.

Tanda frowned, as she looked at the titles. “The Forbidden Garden? The Tempestuous Knight? The Shield Maiden’s Triumph?”

Ophelia laughed nervously. “Ahaha, uh, I like romance stories, and, sometimes–well… Let’s go check out Bloodberri’s room!”

Tanda chuckled at her, clearly wanting to change the topic. She was dragged to the next room, and this one was larger, but simpler. It had a crowding of odd pillows and blankets in the center of the room, and Tanda felt like this one more resembled a nest, to her.

There was a large mirror and dresser, along with a divan. She saw some strange dolls, that she thought one looked a bit like Jake in some short pants, with a black and white snake wrapped around him.

Ophelia smiled. “That was from their first date together, like my vase with flowers. Bloodberri kinda sleeps on herself really, but the pillows and blankets keep her warm, I guess? She’s not really cold-blooded like a snake, as she’s a monstrous combination of a Dark Elf and some kind of monster, birthed by the gods and goddesses of chaos.”

“Um, okay? Then there are two girls in there, besides.” Tanda laughed. “Aisling didn’t really believe it when I told her, but she kind of just does her own thing.”

Ophelia laughed. “Yeah, you know, I got the feeling we don’t want Aisling and Fhesiah to meet for some reason. Those two might get along a little too well, I think. I really don’t like the idea that Fhesiah might have the aid of someone that could see the future. Why, one time, she replaced my mirror with some kind of screen, so when I was looking at myself in it, the reflection suddenly changed into a monster! I destroyed it, and she did apologize to me and promise not to do that again, but now I check everything with my magic senses first!”

Tanda didn’t know what to say to that. She would have to be on her guard in her own home, in her own nest? Somehow, it sounded exciting!

“Let’s check out Jake’s room, which is kind of all of our room!”

They left the room, and Tanda looked down the hallway, as they were now heading back. “What about that other door?”

Ophelia laughed nervously. “Um, that’s Fhesiah’s room. It’s…a little advanced? Maybe after you’ve joined us as Jake’s mate!”

Tanda was now very curious about what was inside that room, but followed Ophelia back to the main room. It appeared Jake’s room was off the main living area. They entered the room, and it wasn’t much different than the other rooms. There was a larger bed, some paintings on the wall and on dressers, and a door in the back.

“We kind of take turns, spending the night with Jake. Sometimes we spend it in his room, and sometimes in our own.”

Tanda frowned. “Why do you do it like that? Do your people have something against mating in front of each other?”

Ophelia said, “Um, some of us do? Well, I guess it’s just me? Um, I like my time to be…private. It’s more romantic that way, to me?”

Tanda shrugged. “I suppose it might be easier to sleep if it’s not your night? I think my dad would usually sleep with all his mates together in one room. Well, I guess it’ll be fine. Your family has found harmony with this schedule, so I think I can probably live with that. I can see some positives with this, as now your mate is focused on you and only you, making the nights more special, even if less numerous.”

Ophelia smiled. “Yeah! Here, let me show you our bathroom.”

They walked through the door in the room, and Tanda saw a very large bath. “We don’t much have baths like this. Many of us like using the river, but we usually just use well water and a tub.”

Ophelia grinned. “You’ll love this! These are showers. We each have one with a bath, but this one is family sized. We girls sometimes all come here together. The hot water feels great! We all just use cleaning magic when we’re in a hurry sometimes, too.”

That sounded very convenient to Tanda, and she could tell that whatever the Hart Clan did worked. Despite always fighting, she had not met them smelling of odd things, and her sense of smell was quite strong.

“Let’s go check out the crafting rooms!”

They went down another hall, and Ophelia opened the first door. “Here’s our forge!”

Tanda looked in, and saw a large room filled with cabinets, tables, an anvil, and a furnace.

“It’s not that much to look at when it’s not in use, but Bloodberri and I do a lot of work in here! Most of your armor was made in here, even.”

Tanda looked on in interest.

Ophelia went inside, and she took out some jars filled with an odd fluid. She got an odd feeling when she opened it, like a beast was present in the room. “Berri works with a lot of the monster materials, extracting their essences. It’s weird, but she can kind of shove this into what we’re making with a combination of her magic and her feelings?” She closed the lid, the feeling disappearing.

She took out some auril beast claws. “I’ve been trying to forge these into the metal using a similar technique, but so far, not that much luck. It’s just, I’m not getting better results than just other monster materials, and I know these materials should be superior in some ways. I think I’m getting close, but it’s like I need Fhesiah’s help to add some auril to these claws. Too much was lost when the creature died, I think.”

Tanda nodded. “When we tan the hides for our usage, we do use some auril plant extracts in the mixture.”

“I’ll see what I can learn about that! Let’s go take a look at Fhesiah’s alchemy room. I feel like it’s best to leave Jake’s enchanting room to him to give you a tour. She’s still in there, and she should come out for dinner and the movie.”

They exited the room, and they skipped the next room, entering the last. They started down some stairs, and Ophelia asked, “What kind of trade skill do you think you’ll take on?”

Tanda frowned. “Um, I’ve mostly been into the arts, but I don’t know? If I’m staying here, I’m going to miss the jungle and the outdoors?”

“Oh! Why not take up growing plants and herbalism, then? I bet you and Fhesiah could work together!”

Tanda frowned. She was more than a little worried about the dragon woman. She got strange vibes from her, like she was going to be eaten if she let her guard down, in another way. Tanda hadn’t really felt that before from a woman, her people only attracted to a male that can birth them children.

“I… I’ll think about it?”

They opened a door at the bottom of the stairs, and many powerful aromas hit Tanda’s nose at once. The smell of smoke, fire, herbs, flowers, and odd chemicals caused her to immediately plug her nose.

Ophelia chuckled. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that, but she practically lives in here now.”

Tanda looked around, seeing lots of supplies scattered everywhere. They were in a large chamber, and there were many cauldrons boiling, and odd machines nearly everywhere. Fluids flowed through strange clear constructions of various colors, dripping and pooling into various areas and being combined.

From what Tanda could tell, a machine was both monitoring and stirring each cauldron, and various tubes and pipes were extracting something from plants.

“Ah, there you are, Tanda!” Fhesiah laughed, almost evilly. “Welcome to my lair. There are rules in my chambers, the first being that no panties are allowed, why, they just cause all sorts of fluctuations with my equipment–”

Ophelia interrupted, “I didn’t know you had so many machines now, you really expanded this room!”

Tanda was a little confused, as Ophelia changed the topic right away. The Framework had supplied her with a definition of panties, and her people did not wear such garments, often wearing loincloths and skirts, or similar.

Tanda desperately wanted to know why, if she had any, they would cause fluctuations in Fhesiah’s equipment. That piece of knowledge was now lost thanks to Ophelia– possibly forever.

“Yes. I’m making thousands of pills per day now, the only way I could possibly keep up with that is by having more hands, as it were. Dave is working hard in Kenwodi, managing another third of the operation or so. More Hearthtribe are added every day, and they are both helping me prepare cultivator materials and making my time more effective, but also working on their methods. My goal is to have all current members of Hearthtribe awakened within a week.”

Tanda was shocked. “But you have thousands of members now?”

Fhesiah smiled. “Yes, well, when you beastkin eat auril beast meat exclusively and have my supplements, you move rapidly toward awakening. It really doesn’t take too long to have the latent will and life force density in your body to be high enough to awaken, when you’re of age. I have made some awakening serums, but when your people fight in some beginner incursions even after this stage has been met, many do just from their spirit. The few who don’t, they can use the serum.”

Tanda frowned. This all sounded a little too easy, but perhaps the Framework’s reward for kills against Tartarus were helping in ways it was complicated to understand. “What does the serum do?”

“It puts them in a dream-like state. It makes them face their greatest fear, in defense of their dreams. I’d imagine most males would experience protecting a mate in many cases, but it can be almost anything. It could be arguing with a parent over becoming a nomad, or perhaps a woman choosing a mate that isn’t particularly strong. Whatever ignites their spirit to connect them to the world, isn’t it?”

Tanda thought she understood. Many of her people awakened during these times of high trauma or strife, so forcing them to experience it in a near-magical way appeared to be a smart way of doing it.

Ophelia said, “Did you find a way for the beastkin to make their own?”

Fhesiah smiled. “Yeah, it looks like those little horn dogs underground had some means. Dave showed me this pipe he used to get high, and well, it appears the shrooms turned into a powder combined with some things up above helped formulate something close enough to usually produce the desired result. Mine is still better, but I think the remote villages should have some luck reproducing some of this.”

Tanda was intrigued. “You’ve accomplished so much, in such a short time.”

She snorted. “Short? I’ve nearly spent two hundred hours on this, expanding trials into dozens at once. Combined with the dozens of herbalists and prospective alchemists Blood and Enora have been delegating some work to, this is months and months of labor! I’m practically wasting away here. Why, if Jake doesn’t feed me some of his serum for a few days after we take the Alliance HQ back, I just might refuse to make more of mine!”

Tanda asked, “Jake’s working on a serum too?”

Ophelia interrupted, “Let’s see your pill furnaces!”

Fhesiah smiled. “Sure, but you must first fit the req–,” Tanda felt something odd pass over her, her heart shuddering. “Oh, Tanda already does! Wow, you tribal types sure are free spirits, aren’t you?”

She licked her lips, and Tanda suddenly felt like she was going to be eaten again, how did Fhesiah know she fit the requirements?

Ophelia blushed, for some reason. “A-Anyway, let’s go!”

Ophelia pushed past Fhesiah opening the door, and the herbal aromas increased.

Tanda walked in, and she was in awe. There were many odd contraptions, all sorts of almost pot looking things, made of various materials. There were ceramic looking pots over a flame, as well as metal or even stranger looking urns, that had styling similar to Fhesiah’s robes she was wearing.

“On the left here, we have the earthenware pill furnaces I had made. These are what the beastkin would use, and I have a few trials going on to see what works best here. You can think of them like magical pressure cookers, the end result being a pill. It cooks them to both combine the many substances, and compress the energies into a condensed pill. On the right are some of my magical metal trials, but I’m finding they don’t work so well.”

“How about this one?” Tanda pointed to the large, almost vase-like furnace in the center with many intricate designs. Underneath it, was a flame that reminded her of the Goddess, Hestia. There was also a sort of carpet or prayer mat in front of it.

Fhesiah smiled at it fondly. “I really have to thank Zeke. I feel like this pill furnace was a bigger treasure than it was made out to be. Combined with Hestia’s wonderful, thoughtful reward, I can truly move forward in my cultivation, despite missing out on all the fighting. This is my furnace, and this is used for making my own pills, for my personal progression.”

She turned to Tanda and smiled at her. “It’s also where I made your pills, as well.”

There were some more on the back wall, that Fhesiah turned to.

“These are where I sort of mass-produced the remaining pills, using some really crummy Qi furnaces from the market. Using the results of the cauldrons in the other room, I can make really poor pills here. There isn’t much fundamentally different from your pills and the ones I’m feeding those in the guild, it’s just that there are more impurities and efficacy is lost when I use these. You are getting nearly ten times the amount of life force in yours, but the input is actually quite similar.”

Fhesiah sighed. “So much is wasted with these things, but there’s simply only so many hours in the day. Materials are not a problem, as everywhere you took Nodes to, Tanda, people are putting up herbs for sale to buy food or equipment, no doubt. I just buy all of them up.”

Tanda was amazed by this revelation. That everything in these two rooms represented her people having meals or other equipment across her world of Highlands she loved so much moved her. While there were some smells of burning in the room and many other strange smells, she did enjoy the medicinal, herbal aroma within.

Ophelia said, “You had said something about helping the herbalists with growing before?”

“Yes, for now, I have provided them with a few of the small details I knew about increasing the efficacy of the plants themselves. Your people enjoy returning the energy to the world, burying various components of the creature carcasses and more. What I prescribed they do, is to use the carcasses as fertilizer instead. The Framework has a sort of composter that they can use, but I think Jake would consider it more of a wood chipper than what he might be familiar with, allowing it to take in bones of creatures.”

Tanda found this fascinating. Perhaps, this is something that she could work on, for her people to better their own herbal gardens and more. She wasn’t sure exactly why her people didn’t already do this, but it appeared their traditions of burying their own dead and the creature’s carcasses deep into the earth caused them to miss out on this potential resource. All of her people were excellent diggers, after all.

Ophelia said, “Well, that’s everything for the crafter rooms until Jake gives you a tour of his enchanting room, it looks like. We still have the training rooms to show you, but I think Jake is ready to hear your song now.”

Tanda’s heart hammered in her chest. Finally, she was either going to have a prospective mate, or be able to move on with both her heart and mind.