Phoenix pulled out the Crystal Caster Party Pack from her collection that she had received for helping fight against the Renseres. As she sat in the middle of the open space of the [Fortress of Solitude], she began pulling out the various pieces to it and the small parchment pamphlet expining how things worked.

  Dazien and Uriel were leaning against Rex’s golden side, the rge lion-like avatar watching patiently and seeming to enjoy the atmosphere. The pair chatted beside her about their next trip to the Temple of the Parent when they returned to Tulimeir. Apparently, Rex was a popur visitor there as a jungle gym for the tiny children to py on.

  In the smaller space of the now over-crowded room, the Familiar seemed even more massive than usual with the wings positioned upwards like a sunshade for the men and the antlers threatening to gouge the ceiling with the glittering dragon-scaled tail wrapping around the whole group but it also gave them all a cozy and protected feeling, like when she tried turning her hospital bed into a tent as a child.

  The non-recovering party members had agreed to her suggestion of digging into this particur item while Saiya continued sleeping. None of them were keen on the idea of leaving their Healer alone while they went off to fight monsters after the ascension gone-wrong that they had witnessed.

  They had vaguely put the pieces together of what had happened the evening before and assumed the influx of senses and emotions had simply overwhelmed Saiya unexpectedly. They weren’t positive which item might have triggered the reaction since, once Dazien had left, Saiya had proceeded to remove everything from her body from within the protection of the old quilt without expining exactly why.

  Rayna and Phoenix had spent most of the afternoon pulling out items to hand to Saiya one at a time before finally finding some casual clothes and shoes that didn’t cause her discomfort from the emotional imprint of the crafter that produced them.

  Phoenix suspected that, once they returned to Tulimeir, they would be spending a long time going through various stores to fix Saiya’s wardrobe. They could only specute at the moment if altering items to accommodate her tails would create an additional imprint or not.

  “Remember everyone: happy thoughts while we put these together,” she told the group as Rayna walked over to join them after closing the door to their room behind her.

  “She’s asleep again. The ascension fatigue is no joke,” Rayna said while sitting down beside her and copying her lotus position, “So, we’re crafting something?”

  “Not really, at least not in the usual sense,” Phoenix replied as she put the various pieces on the floor. There were cords of various colored leather along with a plethora of beads in dozens of colors and opacities from pure translucent gss to a smokey tinted magenta to solid silver. She made sure to keep Ta merged within her, afraid the Familiar would try to swim in the pile of shinies and could feel the Familiar’s indignant compints about her decision.

  Once set up, she expined, “Everything is already processed and enchanted. We’re just putting together the final design and then putting each finished piece through an activation ritual that attunes them to each participant, then putting them all together in another ritual that syncs them together. So, pick your bead color.”

  “Saiya gets blue,” Rayna called out first, “It’s her favorite.”

  Phoenix held up two different blue beads, one like a stormy sea and the other like a clear sky, “Darker or lighter?”

  “The lighter one.”

  She moved that little pile off to the side for working on ter then gnced at the others as she held up an amethyst and ruby version, “A little too presumptuous?”

  Dazien and Uriel both chuckled slightly, “Are they supposed to be what we like or what represents us?” the amethyst gemite asked.

  “The tter,” she answered, “We’re basically making friendship bracelets. Each color will be synced to one of us then we weave one of each into a bracelet so they’re all matching. Then if, let’s say, Uriel decides to give a little rub to the purple bead, Dazien will feel the nudge on his wrist and the red bead will glow softly. It’s basically a long-distance hug or high-five,” Phoenix said with a wide grin.

  Rayna ughed, “That’s so silly, I love it.”

  “I know, right?” she replied enthusiastically, “On a more practical note, they also serve as an extra directional sense since you’ll be able to know which direction everyone who’s wearing one is in.”

  “I admit that will be a comfort,” Dazien said then asked with a pointed look, “Let’s not test if it works through your [Waypoint] Talent, though, alright?”

  “I mean… it might be good to know before some kind of accident…” she trailed off at the ft look, “Right, no dying for science. It’ll probably be fine.”

  “Oooh, I’ll take the amber ones,” Rayna said, distracting them and bringing their focus back to the task at hand. As she held up a gssy orange-tinted bead, she added, “It’ll match my eyes.”

  Then Rayna held up what looked like a solid gold one, “Think Paul would want one? He seems to like keeping track of us.”

  “That’s probably for the best,” she agreed, already imagining his own brand of begrudging gratefulness, then pointed out, “But that means I’ll have to finish them up with him when we get back.”

  “That’s fine. I think we’ll finish up this st mission fairly quickly once Lady Saiya is recovered,” Dazien informed them.

  Phoenix gnced back down at the pile of colored beads that remained and grinned as she picked up a semi-translucent emerald one, “Green for me then, which works out nicely. Do either of you two want something else or good with the purple and red?” she asked.

  “I’m good with purple. Easy to remember for me,” Dazien confirmed and actually flicked his shiny hair over a shoulder in exaggeration causing her to snort in an attempt to keep from ughing.

  Uriel leaned forward slightly looking at the other options then gently picked up one of the onyx ones, “I think I’d prefer this one. I don’t really like red; I see enough of it on the battlefield.”

  “Fair enough,” she said, ignoring the imagery and not bming him in the slightest for wanting to avoid the color after that comparison.

  Phoenix picked out six of each of the selected colors before passing them to their respective person, along with the enchanted leather straps they would be tying it all together with, and reminded one st time before beginning the quick attunement rituals to sync those beads to them, “Now, I’m not sure if the rituals count as part of the crafting, so just to be safe, think happy thoughts!”

  Phoenix smiled at the sight of Paul not at his desk but in a nearby armchair, drinking some kind of tea, and writing in a leatherbound book. He didn’t look up as he said, “Almost done. Why don’t you pour yourself a cup?”

  She gnced over at the magical kettle near the cabinet, which she was pretty sure contained mostly alcohol that was strong enough to kill her, and replied, “I’m good. I think I prefer my coffee to tea. I like things a bit sweeter.”

  The corner of his mouth tugged upwards as he commented, “You know coffee is normally bitter, right? I’m not sure what you usually drink can be considered coffee after you’ve practically transfigured it.”

  She rolled her eyes and leaned against the arm of his chair as she pulled the handful of golden beads and the unfinished bracelets awaiting them out of her collection and held them out to show him. He flicked his gaze upwards only a moment before finishing the sentence he was writing, then set the pen and book on a small table next to his cup as he asked, “So, you finally consider them all friends, now?”

  “I guess I did tell you I was uncertain about that at one point, didn’t I?” she admitted with a flush of embarrassment, setting the items on the desk between them and dropping her hands back into her p.

  “We all lie to ourselves from time to time,” he said with a smirk, then nodded towards the bracelets, “Are you comfortable with letting them know where you’re at all the time?”

  “You too,” she said, happy that he seemed to recognize the item without her needing to expin, then hesitated as she registered that his concern might extend to himself, “Unless you don’t want one. I think everyone will understand if you want your privacy. We just thought you might like knowing where we are and I think it’s more of a comfort for us after everything we’ve been through so far.”

  Paul seemed to reexamine the bracelet, and that amused glint she liked seeing in his eyes returned as he asked, “I’m the golden one?”

  “Of course,” she said with a grin, “Even after the deity upgrade, you still have a bit of gold coloring. Plus, Uriel cimed the bck ones, so no brooding murder-crow color for you.”

  He chuckled, then the humor diminished slightly as he asked, “Speaking of brooding, how is that Mage?”

  “His name is Uriel,” she reminded him with a roll of her eyes, wondering why he seemed to refuse to call the pair of childhood friends by name. Though, now that she thought about it, he hadn’t called her by name for quite a while either.

  “And he seemed like he normally does. We had some fun cooking together before going on the string of missions,” she informed, then added fondly, “He helped me feel better.”

  Her mentor raised a brow and she realized she probably shouldn’t have admitted that as he asked, “Feel better about what?”

  “Just… I was worried about all of them hating me for my secrets. Feeling like they couldn’t trust me anymore since I didn’t trust them,” she said with a shrug to make it seem like not that big of a deal.

  “Let me guess,” he surprised her by saying, “He told you that he has secrets too?”

  She stared at him for a long moment, processing the implications of his words, and recalled him mentioning that he had previously looked into the pair. He had known about Uriel’s chains and earrings, about the fact his aura was transfigured, and she hesitantly guessed, “You know what those other secrets are?”

  He nodded and looked like he was about to say something before halting suddenly. His face looked slightly conflicted and he got that look that her friends sometimes got when telepathically talking to someone else through Dazien’s mental communication ability. Then he seemed to refocus on her as he continued the conversation, “Yes, but it’s not my pce to divulge them unless they become a direct danger to you.”

  Phoenix’s eyes went wide and she asked, “Can they?”

  Paul shook his head, “Likely not, but nobody knows the future.” He picked up one of the golden beads to examine closer and overtly changed the subject, “You’re right that I wouldn’t mind keeping track of all of you. Should we go finish up the enchantments downstairs?”

  She thought about prying, then realized that, if anyone was going to tell her Uriel’s secrets, she wanted it to be Uriel himself—once she had finally proven that he could trust her with it.

  “Yeah, I already made yours match, and did everyone else’s attunement ritual. So, we just need to do your set, add the final bead to each cord, and then sync them together,” Phoenix informed as she pushed herself away from the armchair to signal her intention to go.

  “Sounds good. Are they all pnning to come by for training ter?”

  “Yup,” she confirmed, “We can hand them out then. Oh, by the way, Rayna and Saiya both hit Sapphire while we were out. We pn to do some of their Spirit Gem bonding rituals ter. They said that they both had a handful already they had been saving over the years.”

  Paul grinned at her, “Excellent. I could sense they were close.” Then he surprised her by opening a drawer in his desk and pulling out a pair of small blue boxes wrapped in orange bows.

  “Presents?” she guessed.

  “Yes,” he confirmed, “A congratutions for ascending.”

  “Well, whatever it is, I know Rayna will love it,” she chuckled, remembering her friend’s enthusiasm for loot, as they headed down towards the ritual rooms.